V ft 
 
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 ctoA : 
 
THE LIFE 
 
 V 
 
 A 
 
 NOV 5 1918 
 
 OF 
 
 SPENCER H. CONE. 
 
 
 ice. 
 
 N E W Y R K : 
 SHELDON, BLAKEMAN & COMPANY. 
 
 BOSTON: GOULD & LINCOLN. 
 CHICAGO: S. C. GRIGGS & CO. 
 
 1857. 
 
evtbf** according to Act of Conerets, in the yea; \Str lt by 
 EDWARD W. COXE & SPENCER AS\ CONE, 
 lu the '.'],:! k's Office of the District Court of the United Slat;* for the Southern D.'*t;st 3f New Ycrk. ■ 
 
 JOHN J. REED, 
 
 TEREOTVPKll AXD PUINTEtt, 
 
 16 Spruce Street, N. Y. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The life of Spencer Houghton Cone must speak for itself. In 
 attempting some account of it, we expressly recognize that a better, 
 a more complete history, survives in its effect upon the country and 
 times in which he lived, than can be given in the mere verbal record 
 of particular actions. It has been our aim to tell with simplicity 
 and truth the story of his life. It was a life of action, and one full 
 of good purposes, many of which he lived to see brought to a 
 happy issue. To narrate its events, and with such clearness and 
 fidelity as our capacity allowed — present also his views of Christian 
 duty, doctrine, discipline and practice — has been our only thought. 
 "We could bring to the work no skill or cunning of authorship, and 
 could devote to it only such leisure as the brief intervals of business 
 allowed. Many kind aud able hands have been extended to aid us, 
 however, and we please ourselves with the hope that their contri- 
 butions will more than supply our deficiencies. His letters have 
 been submitted to us, with very general kindness and promptitude ; 
 and the extracts made from them, and from his public addresses 
 will be found, we think, to express unmistakably his sentiments and 
 feelings upon every important point. To these, many of his "brethren 
 beloved in the Lord," have added their testimony, and described 
 those events and characteristics, with which they were more par- 
 ticularly acquainted, with a warmth and eloquence it would scarcely 
 have become us to use, had we been able to do so. Their love and 
 goodness will be gratefully remembered whilst memory lasts. 
 
 In some parts of the narrative it has been impossible to observe 
 a strict chronological order. Many of the benevolent enterprises 
 in which he was active were going forward at one time; whilst 
 clearness required that they should be treated of successively. 
 
 Some repetitions may also be observed. These, it will be seen 
 we think, were in most cases also unavoidable. Expressions of the 
 
jy PREFACE. 
 
 same thought, almost inevitably occur in communications, from 
 different quarters, referring to striking qualities of the same indi- 
 vidual. We have made no effort to avoid this, nor could we have 
 done so, without taking a liberty which we did not feel authorized 
 to take. Indeed the desire to do this was wholly wanting. His 
 praises are too grateful to us. 
 
 In the following pages we have been careful to make it plain to 
 whom, and for how much, we are indebted. The reader of the 
 Memoir will readily perceive that it would be impossible, in the 
 limits of this prefatory notice, to name, and properly thank, all 
 those whose affection for the man, and interest in the great objects 
 to which his energies were so long devoted, have prompted them 
 to assist us. 
 
 New Tobk, April . 0l7i, 1856. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 hin, 
 
 Chapter I. Influences, . 
 II. Childhood, . 
 
 III. Boyhood, . 
 
 IV. Youth, 
 V. 1810-11-12, 
 
 VI. 1813-14-15-16, . 
 VII. The War, . 
 VIII. Foes Without and Fears Wi 
 
 IX. Alexandria, 
 
 . X. Catharine and Eliza Cone, 
 
 XI. Leaving Virginia, 
 XII. New York, . 
 
 XIII. 1S23 to 1830, 
 
 XIV. 1830 to 1841, 
 XV. The First Baptist Church in 
 
 XVI. 1841 to 1845, 
 XVII. Foreign Missions, 
 
 XVIII. The Bible and the American Bible Society, 
 
 XIX. The American and Foreign Bible Society, . 
 
 XX. Revised English Version and Events of 1849-50, 
 
 XXI. The American Bible Fnion, .... 
 
 XXII. His Conduct to Young Preachers — Directions — Advice 
 
 — Views of Christian Character, Faith and Practice, 
 
 XXIII. The Last Year, 
 
 XXIV. Love Stronger than Death, 
 
 XXV. The End, 
 
 Appendix, 
 
 the City of Xew Ycrk, 
 
 7 
 
 15 
 
 27 
 
 41 
 
 64 
 
 84 
 
 104 
 
 181 
 
 110 
 
 186 
 
 197 
 
 215 
 
 235 
 
 247 
 
 259 
 
 275 
 
 2o:s 
 
 314 
 348 
 366 
 3S6 
 
 414 
 447 
 461 
 470 
 479 
 
TO 
 
 THE BAPTISTS OF AMERICA 
 
 THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, 
 
 BY THE SONS OF 
 
 SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 EFFLUENCES. 
 
 I have undertaken to write my father's life. Many 
 of his best friends have urged me to do so. They say 
 that although his public life, in all its parts and acts, is 
 known to many thousands, and written everywhere in the 
 History of the Denomination for which he labored near 
 half a century, none living, but his own children, know 
 the home life — his daily walk and conversation, and 
 what in him was every hour good and worthy to be 
 recorded. No one else knows, as we know, the inner 
 life, made up indeed of little things, but yet not trifles, 
 which is the life of the heart. That part of a greatly 
 good man's existence which the holy circle of family 
 intercourse and duty and employment, bound and shut 
 in from the common view of men ; the relaxation and 
 unbending of the mind ; the resting of the soul amongst 
 ordinary things, to which it yet communicates some- 
 thing of its own higher character, and invests with a 
 beauty and significance beyond their nature — who else 
 could know so well ? 
 
 His friends and ours tell us this; and it is true. We 
 knew him altogether ; for his home was a happy one. 
 Gentle and happy there himself; always cheerful, 
 always sympathizing, always even-tempered, his coming 
 in brought pleasure and bright looks, and his brief 
 absences left an empty place, in house and heart, we 
 never knew how to fill. 
 
8 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 And so, to please those to whom he was dear in this 
 world, and who are looking cheerfully forward to a 
 renewal of their intercourse with him in a world where 
 there is no sorrow and no death ; and not with the vain 
 idea of doing justice to the subject, or of adding any- 
 thing to the fame of his virtues, or the appreciation of 
 his services, I will try, with my brother's help, and that 
 of other good friends to his memory, to write down all 
 we know of him. 
 
 It may not be well done, but it will be done faithfully 
 and lovingly ; and if it lack that close analysis of 
 motive, or nice comparison of strength and weakness, 
 faults and virtues, which colder judgments might be 
 capable of, our apology is that we are his children, and 
 lived too near him, and were too proud of him to look 
 for blemishes, or indeed if we had looked to be able to 
 see anything but a daily beauty in his life. We are 
 excused in this, too, by the common testimony of all who 
 knew him, since from his childhood up he produced the 
 same effect even upon his ordinary acquaintance, so that 
 hardly any desired to find fault with him or remembered 
 him unkindly. We must think then, and it is a happy 
 thought, a thought full of inspiration, that we are telling 
 the story of his life to a circle of friends too interested to 
 be critical, too kind to be exacting. He had enemies, 
 and opponents. It was impossible he should escape. 
 All greatness and all goodness stir up against them- 
 selves, by a law of nature, the envy of mean minds — 
 the hate of evil ones. But we do not write for either, 
 and their censure or their praise is alike indifferent. 
 " In the great hand of God he stood :" and with that 
 master who never forsook him living, we leave his 
 memory. 
 
 We Americans have not much faith in blood or ances- 
 try, and that of Spencer H. Cone is important only as 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER nOUGHTON CONE. 9 
 
 showing with what little variation the character which 
 made martyrs in Mary's time, and Republicans in Char- 
 les the First's, was transmitted through several genera- 
 tions. For we find that his paternal ancestor, Roger 
 Conant, came to Massachusetts about the year 1620, and 
 in 1625 (Hubbard, 102, 106-108) removed to Cape Ann, 
 and engaged with one White, a minister of Dorchester, 
 a Puritan, in the attempt to found a settlement. (Prince, 
 224, 229, &c.) Of this Roger Conant Bancroft says 
 (Vol. 1st, p. 339) : •• Having already left New Plymouth 
 for Nantucket, he (Conant) through a brother in Eng- 
 land, who was a friend of White, obtained the agency 
 of the adventure. A year's experience proved to the 
 Company, that their speculation must change its form, 
 or it would produce no results ; the merchants, therefore, 
 paid with honest liberality all the persons whom they had 
 employed, and abandoned the unprofitable scheme. But 
 Conant, a man of extraordinary vigor, "inspired as it 
 were by some superior instinct," and confiding in the 
 active friendship of White, succeeded in breathing a 
 portion of his sublime courage into three of his compa- 
 nions ; and making choice of Salem, as opening a con- 
 venient place of refuge for the exiles for religion, they 
 resolved to remain as the sentinels of Puritanism on the 
 Bay of Massachusetts." 
 
 In course of time, as the little bands of Pilgrims scat- 
 tered around Boston Bay, grew strong, and pushed their 
 pioneer settlements back into the land, the children of 
 Roger Conant came to East Haddam, Connecticut, and 
 there his father was born, and named after the stalwart 
 old " Sentinel of Puritanism," Conant Cone. Three or 
 four generations had lived and died between them, and 
 the three companions in the city of refuge, the new 
 Salem, had grown to well nigh three millions ; but the 
 same stubborn determination, the same lofty and daring 
 
 1* 
 
10 LIFE OF SFENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 principles, robust products of a new world of energy- 
 arid thought, had come down, with unbroken strength, 
 from father to son. The Puritan fugitive of 1620 — the 
 Independent, the despised Baptist hunted from the 
 England of James the First, was the father of the 
 sturdy Republican of 1776 ; the men predestinate, by- 
 God's high purpose, to sever from the England of George 
 the Third her fairest colonies, and shaping the institu- 
 tions of the new Republic after the model of a Baptist 
 Church, indelibly impress upon them the character of 
 its divine Democracy. 
 
 Conant Cone inherited all the principles, and much of 
 the " extraordinary vigor" of the ancestor after whom 
 he was named, Well-formed, athletic, expert in all 
 manly exercises, and a master of his weapon — the first 
 struggle of the Colonies with Great Britain found him 
 in the field. His face was eminently handsome ; and I 
 have often heard my mother say that, although the severe 
 wounds he had received, and especially a bullet lodged 
 above the knee, rendered walking painful and laborious 
 to him, his carriage was the most soldierly, and his man- 
 ners the most polished and delightful of any man she had 
 ever seen. His voice was one of great compass and 
 sweetness, and he had a remarkable natural gift of elo- 
 quence — so much so, that he was constantly called 
 upon, at the funerals in the neighborhood where he 
 lived, to speak at the grave words of honor to the dead 
 and consolation to the living. 
 
 He was born in East Haddam, Connecticut. Why, 
 or when he left there we have never heard. Probably 
 no graver motive impelled him than the time-honored 
 one which pushed many of our hardy ancestors across 
 unknown seas, and still makes the furthest corners of the 
 world pay their daily tribute of admiration to American 
 enterprise. Yankee restlessness, and Yankee craving 
 
LIFE OF BPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 11 
 
 after the new and untried were as strong then, as now. 
 For these reasons, no doubt, he came away to New Jer- 
 sey and, settling in Hunterdon county, married there 
 the daughter of Colonel Joab Houghton. This Joab 
 Houghton was cue of those who first began to take 
 the measures against the royal government which 
 resulted, during the year 1776, in the organization of the 
 Provincial Congress of New Jersey, and the arrest by 
 Colonel Heard of the Royal Governor (Franklin) who 
 was afterwards handed over, by order of the Continental 
 Congress sitting at Philadelphia, to the custody of Gov- 
 ernor Trumbull of Connecticut. (Life of Lord Stirling.) 
 Joab Houghton was also amongst the first appointments 
 of field officers made by New Jersey in the contingent 
 raised for the army of the United Colonies — and when 
 a State Government was erected, by the choice of repre- 
 sentatives to the two houses of " Council " and " Assem- 
 bly," and the election of Livingston as Governor, he was 
 one of the first members of Assembly returned from 
 the County of Hunterdon. It was in old Hopewell 
 Baptist meeting-house where Conant Cone and Alice 
 Houghton alike worshipped, and where they were 
 immersed, that Joab Houghton received the first news 
 of the Battle of Lexington, and the defeat of the Earl 
 of Northumberland, the haughty descendant of the hero 
 of Chevy-Chase, by the half-armed yeomanry of New 
 England. Stilling the breathless messenger, he sat 
 quietly through the services, and when they were ended 
 passed out, and mounting the great stone block in front 
 of the meeting-house, beckoned to the people to stop. 
 Men and women paused to hear, curious to know what 
 so unusual a sequel to the service of the day could mean. 
 At the first words a silence, stern as death, fell over all. 
 The Sabbath quiet of the hour and the place was deep- 
 ened into a terrible solemnity. He told them all the 
 
12 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 story of the eowardly murder at Lexington by the royal 
 troops; the heroic vengeance following hard upon it — ■ 
 the retreat of Percy ; the gathering of the children of 
 the Pilgrims round the beleaguered hills of Boston. Then 
 pausing, and looking over the silent crowd — lie said 
 slowly: "Men of New Jersey, the red coats are murder- 
 ing our brethren of New England ! — Who follows me 
 to Boston ?" And every man of that audience stepped 
 out into line, and answered, " I !" There was not a 
 coward nor a traitor in old Hopewell meeting-house 
 that day. 
 
 On the same spot, Spencer H. Cone lived to preach. 
 "We were children then, and not more impressionable than 
 others of the same age, but we remember that his preach- 
 ing in that place had a peculiar effect upon us, and that 
 he preached if possible with more than his usual fervor. 
 At that time, which must have been somewhere about 
 1825, one of his grandfather's brothers, William Hough- 
 ton, still lived on one of the farms about seven miles 
 from Hopewell meeting-house, and many of the old 
 friends yet lingered around the spot; the majority, how- 
 ever, had long before emigrated to Kentucky and other 
 parts of the great West. Old Major Morford, one of his 
 father's companions in arms, was still postmaster at 
 Princeton : or if not, had but lately been succeeded by his 
 daughter, Fanny Morford, who was appointed, at. his death, 
 Postmaster, by Andrew Jackson, as a mark of respect 
 for her father's services. The old hero never let slip such 
 an opportunity, and was not to be turned aside from 
 caring for the war-worn patriot or his child, by any such 
 little anomaly as making a postmaster of a woman. 
 Nor in that case could he have made a better choice, for 
 Miss Fanny discharged the duties of her office to the 
 satisfaction of all the little world of Princeton, whether 
 students or townsmen, and the post-office was for years 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 13 
 
 one of the pleasantest and best-ordered gossiping places 
 imaginable. 
 
 These things cannot be irrelevant to Spencer H. Cone's 
 life, since they always made a part of his thoughts. 
 Nay, down to the latest period, so long as he could 
 think at all, he loved to dwell upon the scenes of his 
 childhood ; to recall the stirring period of the revolution, 
 the graves of whose martyrs and heroes were yet green 
 and freshly-heaped within his remembrance ; from 
 whose battle-fields his father had come home, a scarred 
 and broken soldier ruined in fortune and crushed in 
 spirit, by the helplessness his wounds and privations had 
 entailed upon him, to sit down amongst them; and 
 many of whose most romantic and striking incidents had 
 occurred to his relatives, or the companions who had 
 accompanied them to the field. For these his lather's 
 and grandfather's houses were chosen gathering-places ; 
 there he listened to their stories of the camp, the march, 
 and the battle-field ; the Tory's treason and the Whig's 
 revenge — all the burning memories of that glorious 
 drama of Freedom, in which many ox them had acted 
 no mean parts — and who can doubt that it was there 
 he drunk into his childish heart that pure American 
 feeling which never left him after, but growing with his 
 growth, and strengthening with his strength, governed 
 with a lofty sentiment of patriotism every act and period 
 of his existence. These accidents of childhood gave a 
 tone and color to his after life. 
 
 The boy is father to the man. 
 
 He learned his first lessons in life from the bronzed 
 veterans of the Continental army, the heroes of Bunker 
 Hill, Saratoga, and Yorktown ; and his first childish 
 aspiration was for a field in which he too might act the 
 hero. God gave him a glorious one. 
 
 He had a thousand anecdotes and tales of those times 
 
14: LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 always fresli upon his tongue, and never wearied of 
 recalling them. A single incident, however, connected 
 with himself must close this introductory chapter. 
 
 His father had been brought, by some of the circum- 
 stances of the war, under the particular and favorable 
 notice of the Commander-in-Chief; he had acted as 
 guide during the retreat into the " Short hills " of New 
 Jersey, and his intimate knowledge of the country was 
 principally instrumental in enabling the General to con- 
 duct it with the necessary celerity. Transferred to the 
 commissariat, and charged especially with the purchase 
 of iron, and material for the smith work, and the super- 
 vision of part of the work itself, he had come more 
 frequently in contact with him than his grade would, 
 under other circumstances, have permitted. Like almost 
 all who were privileged to know the " Father of his 
 Country," he felt for him a sentiment little short of 
 adoration. After the war, therefore, when President 
 Washington was making the progress through the North- 
 ern and Middle States, during which triumphal arches, 
 and almost worship, everywhere saluted him, ConantCone 
 took his baby Spencer in his arms, and went out to meet 
 his General, and when Washington saw him, he stopped 
 his horse, and taking the baby in his arms, he kissed, and 
 blessed him. 
 
 The blessing of George Washington ! It was no mean 
 fortune for an American to enter life with. But God 
 blessed him more abundantly. To the father he gave 
 the high honor of a soldier of freedom in the contest 
 for political Independence: to the son the highest of 
 all honors — to be a soldier of the Cross, a captain of the 
 Lord's host, an unflinching .defender of the indepen- 
 dence of the churches. 
 
LITE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON" CONE. 15 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 CHILDHOOD. 
 
 Spencer Houghton Cone was born in Princeton, New 
 Jersey, April 30th, 1785. 
 
 At that time part of the Tillage of Princeton lay in 
 Somerset County, and part in Middlesex. The line 
 which divided the Counties ran through the middle of 
 the main street, and the house in which he was born 
 stood on the Somerset side of the street. Not far away 
 from the spot rise the walls of Princeton College, dearer 
 to its students and to the ears of Princetonians as 
 " Nassau Hall." The " Campus" or play-ground which 
 surrounds it, stretches its smooth green lawn to the edge 
 of the street, along which a few fine old trees, veterans 
 of the forest which has elsewhere disappeared from 
 their neighborhood, stand like sentinels between the 
 world of students and of townsmen. In the centre, 
 marked by a certain grandeur, for it is a stone building 
 of considerable extent, and although without much 
 architectural pretension, massively and conveniently 
 built, rise the venerable walls of the College. Behind 
 it the " Campus " breaks in some places into miniature 
 valleys, not unpicturesque, and affording every variety 
 of ground for the ordinary sports and recreations of boy- 
 hood and youth. The College and its Campus are of 
 course the great features of the town, and in the latter 
 part of the last century, the former was the beau-ideal 
 of solid magnificence. 
 
 Born within sight of the halls of learning then most 
 
16 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 famous in the land, and indeed never since much under- 
 valued to any other Collegiate Institution of our country, 
 it is not hard to fancy that, with a character so impres- 
 sionable as his, the child's thoughts must have very 
 early connected the ideas of influence and worth with 
 those of study — intelligence — learning. How early 
 those ideas took root he could not probably tell himself; 
 but their effect upon his after life prove that they must 
 have been dropped into the soil, long before the ranker 
 growth of worldly ambition or pleasure had time to 
 possess it. 
 
 In a little old-fashioned frame house — not only old 
 fashioned but after the fashion of plain country houses 
 of that time, which means a very plain house indeed in 
 ours — his childhood's experiences begun. 
 
 The sacrifices of the war had not entirely exhausted 
 his father's means, although they had greatly reduced 
 and straitened them. The pay he received from Gov- 
 ernment aided but little daring the war, its paper 
 money being almost worthless ; and indeed a short time 
 after the close of it became altogether so. As a proof 
 of what it was, Mr. Cone said one of the first things he 
 took notice of and wondered at as a child, and always 
 recollected from that fact, was his father's paying eigh- 
 teen hundred dollars continental money for a saddle 
 horse worth in gold or silver about seventy or eighty at 
 the same period. They had enough however for com- 
 fort, and one elegance they always indulged in to the 
 last limit of their means, and very often a little beyond 
 it — books. Both his parents were great readers. If the 
 meal tub was empty they could take it with great phi- 
 losophy — but they always kept the mind full. He has 
 often related an anecdote of his mother which illustrated 
 her singular thirst for knowledge very pleasantly, and 
 which throws a clear light upon the influences which 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 17 
 
 were at work in his childhood's home, to make the basis 
 of the man's character. 
 
 At one time, when quite a child, they moved away 
 from the town. The house they were to go to was some 
 miles back in the country, and early in the morning his 
 mother went away with the first load of household gear 
 to the new domicil, for the purpose of setting it in order, 
 and making preparation for the rest. Towards evening 
 the remainder of the family arrived. Everything about 
 the new house was quiet. Not a mouse stirring. ISTo 
 mother watching to receive them ; no mother to be seen 
 anywhere. They went into the hall and kitchen, cellar 
 and sitting-room : up stairs and down. Not a glimpse 
 of her. They began to be alarmed — very much alarmed. 
 Could she be lost. ISTo !— The things were there. 
 The horse was in the stable, and the wagon she had 
 come in stood by the door. — Gould she have been mur- 
 dered ? — Hardly : for there were no marks of violence 
 or blood ! — At last, after every other place had been 
 ransacked, they bethought them of the garret. And 
 there, at last, they found her, seated on the floor, her 
 elbows on her knees, and a hook in her lap — reading! 
 She had found an odd volume of Hume's history of Eng- 
 land in the house — picked it up, become interested, then 
 absorbed, and finally forgotten all about house or supper, 
 or moving, or anything in the world but her book ; and 
 had sat there well-nigh the whole day — studying history 
 instead of cooking, or putting chairs and tables in order. 
 
 It must not be supposed, however, that she commonly 
 forgot the real in the imaginary world, or the present in 
 the past. Order and regularity were marked qualities 
 in her character; and a miniature of her when quite old, 
 by Anna Peele, represents a woman still beautiful, and 
 with all the lines of thought and energy so clearly 
 Btamped upon the face of her son. The resemblance 
 
18 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 between their faces is so striking, indeed, that but for 
 the female cap and dress it might be easily supposed a 
 softened portrait of himself. Spencer had four sisters 
 and a brother. The difference in their relative ages 
 was not great. But, although tenderly attached to all 
 her children, Mrs. Alice Cone seems to have felt for her 
 eldest son an affection which nothing but the natural 
 strength of her mind, and the still greater strength of 
 her religious principles, hindered from idolatry. After 
 events have raised the natural promptings of a Chris- 
 tian mother's heart almost to the dignity of prophecy, 
 and yet we know they could be no more than almost 
 every other such mother has felt and hoped. Thus she 
 always persuaded herself that God had some special 
 work in the world for her boy to do. That he had sent 
 him into the world to carry out some not unworthy, and 
 perhaps noble part of his great plan of Providence ; and 
 that, in his own good time and way, he would bring him 
 out and set him in a sure place. She believed too, with 
 a conviction that nothing could ever shake from her, 
 that God had heard her prayers ; and as she was sitting 
 by his cradle when he was yet but a bab} r , and being 
 downcast for some trouble which was upon her, fell 
 into gloomy forebodings, and began to wrestle with 
 God in prayer for her baby's life, only his life ; to spare 
 that to her, no matter what other evil might come upon 
 her — she believed, we say, that God heard and answered 
 her : " Be of good cheer ! — not only shall the child not 
 die, but he shall live to preach Christ and him crucilied !" 
 And thenceforward, through all changes, she carried 
 the promise in her heart, and had no fear for his life. 
 But if the care of his life was taken from her, and her 
 maternal anxiety hushed in the deep faith with which 
 she received into her soul the promise of his Father in 
 heaven, it seemed to her as if a greater duty, a more 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 19 
 
 absorbing anxiety, had been substituted, and tbat God 
 had given for awhile into her keeping a soul intended 
 for himself. Under this conviction she watched her boy 
 daily, to catch the first dawn of intellect, the very open- 
 ing of the mind and, if it might be, endow his earliest 
 purposes with holy thoughts and words. Every occasion 
 was seized, every occurrence improved, with an eye 
 single to that future she believed so firmly to be destined 
 for him, persuaded that in that she had also an eye 
 single to the glory of God. And it was in that elevated 
 feeling that she began to teach him, investing even the 
 common lessons of honesty and truth with the charm of 
 Christian heroism. 
 
 For it happened one day, when he was about five 
 years old, that some drovers, reaching their place about 
 nightfall, were obliged to put up their cattle in the sheds, 
 and tarry with them until next morning. "When the 
 morning came they got their cattle together again, 
 mounted their horses, and went upon their way. That 
 day, as Spencer was playing in the barn, he found a 
 dollar — a real silver dollar ; and silver dollars then were 
 not the common coin they are now. War and a depre- 
 ciated paper currency had raised them to a value which 
 would now-a-days seem fabulous. Spencer thought he 
 was a made man for life ; that he had found a treasure, 
 an inexhaustible mine of wealth. So he ran to his 
 mother to show her his dollar. 
 
 " Tour dollar, Spencer," said she. " Where did you 
 get it ?" 
 
 " Oh ! I found it in the straw, and it's mine." 
 
 " Not so fast, my son. Let us think of that a little : 
 silver dollars do not grow in the straw ?" 
 
 " Xo— mother." 
 
 " Then, my son, somebody must have put it there, or 
 somebody must have lost it there." 
 
20 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 " Y es, mother," said the boy. " I never thought of 
 that." 
 
 " And more than that," said his mother, drawing him 
 to her. " If we do not know who put it there, God 
 knows. If we do not know who lost it, God knows. 
 He sees us altogether. And besides, Spencer, if you 
 had had a dollar, a silver dollar, and had been so care- 
 less or so unfortunate as to lose it, would you not feel 
 very sorry, and would you not hope that whoever found 
 it would try and find out who it belonged to, and if he 
 heard it was yours, bring it back to you ?" 
 
 " Oh, yes indeed !" he cried, earnestly. 
 
 " Well then," said the mother, winding her arms 
 around him. " You and I will ask God to help us to find 
 out who this money belonged to, and to put it into our 
 hearts to always try and do unto others even as we 
 would that they should do unto us." 
 
 And the little boy prayed well-nigh as earnestly as the 
 Christian mother for the guidance and direction of their 
 heavenly Father. And so his mother began to teach him 
 that the fear of God was the beginning of wisdom. It was 
 quite a year after before the drovers came that way 
 again ; but the first thing Spencer did was to run out 
 amongst them, with the silver dollar in his hand, tell 
 them how he had found it in the barn, amongst the 
 straw, after they had gone away, and beg them to try 
 and remember which of them had lost it. So the old 
 fellows laid their heads together, and although they 
 would have liked to smile at the child's earnestness, 
 refrained out of wise respect for the principle of the 
 thing, and pretended to try very hard to discover the 
 loser. But when they could not, after much question 
 ing, fix upon any one of them as the man, they very 
 gravely discussed the question of whose property it 
 should be, and finally resolved unanimously that 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 21 
 
 Spencer should keep it as a reward for his honesty ; or 
 rather because he had kept it so long and well, and 
 taken such pains to discover the true owner — for 
 honesty was not so rare a quality in those days as it has 
 come to be in later times. 
 
 It may not be amiss to notice that his mother, Alice 
 Houghton, was the daughter of Col. Joab Houghton and 
 Catharine Runyon; and that Catharine Runyon was 
 the child of one of the early Huguenot refugees, and 
 that both her parents were very stern old French 
 Calvinists — persons of that earnest faith and resolved 
 temper so common to the churches of our faith 
 amongst the mountains of the Cevennes — a faith tem- 
 pered in the blood of so many holy and glorious 
 martyrs — a temper at once elevated and indurated by 
 persecution, and chastened and purified by suffering to 
 the most steadfast endurance of all earthly trials, the 
 sublimest anticipation of their reward in heaven. From 
 the dragonnades of Louis XIY., and the smoking ruins of 
 La Rochelle, they came out, not fainting, not destroyed, 
 but renewed in the temper and spirit of their minds ; 
 and brought to the Western world that indomitable 
 courage and exalted piety which were ordained, of the 
 Master who had tried them in the fiery furnace of 
 affliction, as the elements of a new world of civil and 
 religious freedom. He taught them, in the school of 
 royal and priestly persecution, man's inalienable rights — 
 above all and most precious of all — his right to worship 
 God according to the dictates of his own conscience. 
 They brought with them a fixed principle of personal in- 
 violability as the basis of their political system ; and for 
 their religious one, undying hostility to hierarchies and 
 state religions, and an immovable fidelity to the Inde- 
 pendence of the Churches. 
 
 These things they taught their children ; and these 
 
22 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 things Alice Cone taught her boy. He learned his 
 principles in childhood. He heard them as soon as he 
 could listen and understand. They were no after- 
 thought. They were not learned from books, nor 
 gathered up in schools and Theological Institutes. 
 They were inherited. They were poured into his mind 
 fresh from hearts which had bled to hear from the lips 
 of those who had suffered in their own persons the loss 
 of goods, and country, and all the endearments of the 
 home of their childhood ; who had suffered imprison- 
 ment and stripes and all but death itself, for Christ's 
 sake — the story of their wrongs — the reason of their 
 bitter persecutions. It is not to be wondered at that 
 their principles took deep root in his mind, nor thai 
 they bore their fruit in due season. Col. Houghton 
 was still living when Spencer and his sister Amelia 
 were between six and eight years old. 
 
 " Grandfather Houghton," says the latter, in a late 
 letter, " was as easily affected to tears as a woman." 
 She is speaking of how his feelings could be wrought 
 upon by reminiscences of the war, or heroic sentiment 
 of any kind : — 
 
 "The last we remember of him was once when mother 
 took all of us children up to his house. He would have 
 us sing for him. We sung ' Hail Columbia ' as well as 
 we could. He was completely overcome, and cried 
 like a child. Our Father Cone was just like him, and 
 wept easily. They both sung finely. Uncle Houghton 
 said they could hear grandfather sing three-quarters of 
 a mile. Both of them used to set the Psalms in church. 
 I remember hearing them. My dear brother's voice 
 was hereditary. It ran in the Houghton and Cone 
 family. Our lather had naturally all the qualities of a 
 public speaker. His language flowed easily and natu- 
 rally. He was a philanthropist, and greatly injured 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 23 
 
 himself and family by his too great generosity. He 
 spoke at Grandfather Houghton's grave." 
 
 What a singular transmission of qualities ! His son 
 inherited the same strange compelling sense of duty. 
 It is evident there was no one there when the old 
 soldier was laid to rest, who could do him justice hut 
 Conan't Cone. He felt it. He had been his fellow- 
 soldier — and fought with him in the same holy cause. 
 He felt it to be a duty. That simple idea, heroic in its 
 simplicity, bore down everything else ; put back the 
 teai's ; conquered the selfish weakness of humanity — 
 conquered all but the high sense of duty to the dead — 
 and he stood up and spoke for him to the living. 
 
 It is not a little singular, too, that three generations of 
 the same stock should not only be controlled by the 
 same all-powerful sentiment of duty, but also that in 
 each of them it should take the same development in 
 love of country, lofty patriotism, perpetual looking to 
 the people, as the source of all power, and the object of 
 all effort politically ; and in religious affairs, to the 
 propagation of Baptist sentiments. Three generations 
 thought, and spoke, and acted as one; all looking from 
 remote and various periods of time to one object, and 
 working for one glorious faith of civil and religious 
 independence. 
 
 Grandfather, father, and mother were all at one time, 
 members together of the old Hopewell Baptist Church. 
 
 The meeting-house is a square, old-fashioned, stone 
 building of some size, and is pleasantly situated in the 
 lower part of Hunterdon county. There are hundreds 
 like it scattered through the land, and few can fail to 
 picture from their own memory such a place — with its 
 plain, high-backed pews, made neither for ornament nor 
 ease ; its square pulpit, perched high up in one end ; its 
 white-washed walls, and general air of rude and simple 
 
24 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 solemnity. One feature is peculiar — before the meet- 
 ing-house still nourish one or two trees, now almost cen 
 tenarians, and beneath whose shade many generations 
 have met in the pleasant hush of the Sabbath, to 
 exchange weekly their kind greetings before entering 
 together the house of prayer. 
 
 Dr. Cone says, in a sermon delivered in 1844, and of 
 which, happily, a phonographic report was made — "My 
 mother was baptized w T hen I was a few months old. " 
 
 He refers, a little after, to the conviction of his future 
 calling, impressed so early upon her mind : — 
 
 " When I was a few months old, and soon after her 
 baptism, as I was sleeping in her lap, she was much 
 drawn out in prayer for her babe, and supposed she re- 
 ceived an answer, with the assurance that her child 
 should live to preach the Gospel of Christ. This assur- 
 ance never left her ; and it induced her to make the 
 most persevering efforts to send me to Princeton (Col- 
 lege) — a course, at first, very much against my father's 
 will. This she told me after my conversion. It had 
 been a comfort to her in the darkest hour of domestic 
 trial ; for she had never doubted but that her hope 
 would be sooner or later fulfilled. " 
 
 When Spencer was but eight years old, and while 
 he was spending a few months with his grandfather 
 Houghton, he accompanied him to an annual Baptist 
 gathering, known as the " Hopewell Great Meeting. " 
 Here he was first awakened to see his lost condition as 
 a sinner. A sermon was preached on that memorable 
 occasion, by Mr. James McLaughlin, from Jer. viii. 22: 
 "Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician 
 there ? " 
 
 "This sermon," he says, " deejjly affected me. It 
 left upon my mind an impression never eradicated — a 
 fystem of theology never forgotten ; viz : — ■ 
 
LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 25 
 
 « 1. Total Depravity ; 
 
 "2. Universal Condemnation; 
 
 " 3. Salvation alone by the balm of Gilead — the blood 
 of the Lamb. 
 
 " I was so affected by this sermon that for months I 
 was afraid to go to sleep without saying the Lord's 
 Prayer, as it is called, or some other little form taught 
 me by my mother. But the impression wore off, and 
 left me thoughtless and playful as it found me. " 
 
 About two years after this, he accompanied his 
 mother to hear a sermon, preached by Dr. Ashbel 
 Green, of Philadelphia. Dr. Green preached very 
 powerfully, from John i. 29 : — 
 
 '"'•Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin 
 of the world. " 
 
 "His mind was again seized with distressing convic- 
 tions of his ruined condition as a sinner, of his base 
 ingratitude, and of the efficiency of the blood and 
 righteousness of Christ alone, to save him. 
 
 " For a time he strove again to do good, but strove in 
 his own strength, and evil, and only evil, was present 
 wirh him ; so that he soon ceased to pray, and gave 
 himself up again to folly. " — Dr. Armitage. 
 
 It is not often that childish convictions are so strong, 
 nor their effects so lasting. "\Ye are compelled to admit 
 their reality and significance too, by the consideration 
 that, they arose in a mind the very reverse of gloomy 
 or mystical, by natural tendencies. His temper was 
 gay and mercurial, his animal spirits inexhaustible. 
 The most prevailing characteristic of his mind, too 
 was always a turn to humor ; and this, added to a 
 physical development of uncommon power, and a 
 nervous activity, amounting almost to constant restless- 
 ness, would seem to offer as many natural antagonisms 
 to religious impressions as could well be combined in 
 
 2 
 
26 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 one man. "When it is considered, tliat these qualities 
 are always more marked and exuberant in childhood, 
 the singularity of his early impressions is largely en- 
 hanced. 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 27 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 BOYHOOD. 
 
 During childhood, Spencer had frequent, and. often 
 severe attacks of sickness ; and was constantly troubled 
 with sick headache. This determined his mother tc 
 send him away from the village to his grandfather's farm. 
 Living there the greater part of the time for several 
 years, running about the farm and taking constant and 
 hardy exercise, he gradually outgrew all tendency to 
 headache ; his periodical attacks became rarer and rarer, 
 and when about eleven years old his health was firmly 
 established. From that time, and during his whole life 
 after, he enjoyed an exemption from even the slightest 
 attacks of sickness, and was confirmed in a strength and 
 vigor of body, which never seemed to fail him under 
 the hardest physical or mental labors. 
 
 On the farm or in the village he was the soul and 
 centre of every boyish scheme of frolic or amusement. 
 
 In the winter the Millstone river, which runs close 
 by the village — we speak of the last century, for we 
 believe it has since risen to the dignity of a city — was 
 the scene of their enjoyment, and in the rough game 
 of "hurley," he had the reputation of the best "bat" 
 on the ice. 
 
 In milder seasons "base" and " cricket," assisted the 
 development of his boyish strength. 
 
 Very early amongst the boys of his own age, he began 
 to play the part of a leader ; and the whole rout of 
 village urchins looked up to Spencer H., as they called 
 
'28 LIFE OF SPENOEK HOTJGHTON CCXSTE. 
 
 him, for direction. His bo} T ish motto seems to Lave 
 been " Caesar or nothing." He undertook all the details, 
 as well as the grand effects of their plays. Very late in 
 life he remembered a struggle for precedency between 
 himself and some of the older boys. They had formed 
 a company of soldiers, and got along very smoothly as 
 far as paper caps, and rag epaulettes ; but the guns 
 were a sticking point. This was his opportunity. An 
 older boy had been chosen captain ; but he had no 
 mechanical ingenuity, or, if he had, was without the 
 means and chances of exercising it. Spencer's father 
 had a forge and workshop on the place. What was to 
 be done ? The gallant company gathered round Spencer, 
 and tried to coax him into gun-making. "Make me 
 captain," said Spencer — "and I'll make your guns." 
 That was his ultimatum. Every boy knew that what 
 Spencer once said, all the pincers and red hot ireu in 
 the blacksmith's shop could not frighten him from, if 
 they should take him apart piece by piece with them. 
 So the first captain was obliged, by the unanimous 
 revolt of his troops, to lay down his wooden sword and 
 truncheon of command, and Spencer as unanimously 
 elected in his place. And Spencer made the guns, and 
 paraded his company to the general delight and amuse- 
 ment of the villagers, amongst whom the story of his 
 " coiip d^'etaf'' had not failed to get abroad. 
 
 His great delight as a boy was English poetry, and at a 
 very early age he had by heart a little repertory of the 
 finest passages in the language. Shakespeare, Milton, 
 and Dryden were familiar to him, and he could recite 
 thousands of their lines, at an age when few boys have 
 any idea or appreciation of such things. It was a nat- 
 ural bent. He studied them of his own motion. During 
 his whole life, indeed, he was passionately fond of tine 
 poetry, and the immense stores of it laid up by his sin- 
 
LITE OF SPENCER IIOTTGHTON CONE. 29 
 
 gularly retentive memory gave a warmth and richness 
 to his diction in public speaking, a romantic form and 
 coloring to his sentences which was not the least 
 among the charms of his oratory. His sister says of 
 him : 
 
 " He was always a good boy — obedient and loving 
 to his parents, and kind to his brother and sisters. 
 Oftentimes I used to ask him to go into the next room 
 and speak for me. He spoke so sweetly that, in my 
 sisterly view, there never was his like. I used to be the 
 audience, and lie the orator. He would speak ' Hannibal 
 to his Soldiers,' — and then I was in raptnres. Some- 
 times he spoke ' My name is aSTorval" — or ' In such a 
 night stood Jessica.' In truth he was no vulgar boy. 
 I never remember him to have been in brawls with 
 other boys. He was truly gifted by nature and by 
 grace. To those who never saw him, nor heard his 
 voice — what pen can describe him ? — Oh ! could we 
 paint in bold relief his grace, his air, his manner, his 
 voice, his reading — the eloquent expression of his coun- 
 tenance ; his beautiful self possession — modest, yet firm 
 and energetic. These were his natural graces ; but 
 better than all, lie was God's Man.'''' 
 
 The judgment of the Christian world has assented to 
 the truth of the portrait drawn by sisterly affection. 
 
 Urged by his mother, whose anxiety to push him for- 
 ward was sleepless, he applied himself to Greek, Latin, 
 and mathematics with an assiduity which nothing but an 
 extraordinary constitution could have supported. A 
 Latin or Greek Grammar was always in his hand and, 
 like Person, his pockets were always plethoric with a 
 small library of classical literature. Under this forcing 
 process, he made a very rapid progress, and his memory 
 became cultivated to a remarkable decree. How thor- 
 
30 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 oughly the Greek and Latin had been ingrained, might 
 be gathered from the fact that on reference to passages in 
 Cicero, Seneca, or Homer, which he had not read for half 
 a century, he would correct, from memory, verbal inac- 
 curacies in the Greek or Latin text, and give readily the 
 passages in the context illustrative of a particular sentence. 
 His boys, whilst at school or in college, often tried, 
 out of curiosity, how much he did recollect, and finally 
 concluded, either that he remembered all he had ever 
 learned at school, by some quality of memory peculiar 
 to himself, or else that schoolmasters in the eighteenth 
 century had a very peculiar knack of making what they 
 taught stay for ever in the heads of their pupils. 
 
 One of his masters had a narrow escape of martyrdom, 
 or rather sacrifice to popular resentment, on his account. 
 He was an Irishman ; a very finished scholar, and a 
 great mathematician, but unfortunately addicted to the 
 wine-cup, and when he had been indulging became 
 savage and cruel towards his scholars. 
 
 In one of his fits of intemperance he accused Spencer 
 of having told a falsehood. No threats however could 
 force him to admit the guilt of an act so foreign to his 
 nature ; an act indeed of which he was never known to 
 be guilty, and the meanness of which he always held 
 in utter contempt. He esteemed lying the vice only of 
 cowards, and being essentially without natural fear, the 
 idea of it was entirely contemptible to him. 
 
 The pedagogue, unable to compel him to confess what 
 he was not guilty of, seized Spencer and beat him 
 unmercifully. The poor little fellow bore it heroically, 
 and when school was out went home without complaint. 
 But when he came to undress for bed, he was so stiff 
 and sore that he could not get his clothes off himself, 
 and had to ask his mother's help. As this was unusual 
 
LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 31 
 
 slie fell to examining him, and when his jacket was 
 taken off, found his shirt saturated with blood, and his 
 whole back gashed and welted with the whip of the 
 cruel drunkard. 
 
 Before an hour was passed the story had got from one 
 end of Princeton to the other. The townspeople took 
 it up as a public matter, and were making their arrange- 
 ments to inflict summary punishment upon the offender. 
 Luckily for him some friend or crony carried the news 
 to him, and helped him to a horse, thus giving him an 
 hour's start of Judge Lynch and his officers. The latter, 
 when his flight was discovered, mounted in hot haste 
 and tracked him for miles. Here they lost the trail ; 
 and returned with vows of future vengeance. But the 
 offender never gave them an opportunity. They learned 
 afterwards that he had got away to Xew York ; and he 
 took good care never to return to Princeton. 
 
 At the early age of twelve, Spencer entered the 
 freshman class of Princeton College. He stood the 
 examination for admission with great credit to himself; 
 and with how much satisfaction to that doting mother, 
 whose heart was wrapped up in him, and who looked 
 forward to ids future career with as much confidence as 
 if she had indeed a " thus saith the Lord," to repose her 
 faith upon, only a mother's heart can appreciate. 
 
 During the freshman and sophomore years he main- 
 tained his standing in his classes, and grew daily in. 
 favor with the Faculty. He was uncommonly large 
 and forward for his age, attaining his full growth as a 
 man, indeed, between the ages of twelve and fourteen ; 
 but his face was very boyish, and the contrast between 
 his extremely youthful appearance, and the grave and 
 thoughtful purpose with which he pursued his studies, 
 recommended him to the notice and favor of his pro- 
 fessors. 
 
32 LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 At the close of the first speech which, as part of the 
 routine of college exercises, it was his duty to deliver, 
 the president (Dr. Smith) laid his hand upon his head, 
 and nodding to him approvingly, said, "Young man, 
 your voice will be your fortune," 
 
 It was a prophetic criticism. 
 
 The Doctor, a man very eminent, and in many 
 respects peculiar, formed a strong friendship for the lad. 
 He was a great chess-player, extravagantly fond of the 
 game, and excelling in it. Discovering that Spencer 
 played chess, he had him up to the presidential quarters 
 for a trial of skill. The trial evidently pleased him, for 
 it was often repeated ; and their contests over the chess- 
 board did the boy-collegian no damage in the eyes of 
 the grave functionary, whose nod, within the charmed 
 circle of the college-walls, was fate. 
 
 It was his fortune to be a student of Princeton at a 
 time when the roll of that institution was filled with 
 names, since illustrious in the literary and political his- 
 tory of our country. Amongst them were James Fenni- 
 more Cooper, the novelist, and John Forsyth, late Secre- 
 tary of the United States Treasury. During his brief 
 collegiate career, there occurred one of the most memo- 
 rable events in the history of Nassau Hall. We refer 
 to the celebrated rebellion and " barring out," in the 
 course of which the students took possession of the build- 
 ing, barricaded and fortified it, placed cannon in the 
 hall, and held it as a besieged fortress against the col- 
 legiate and town authorities for some days. The crown- 
 ing act of the rebellion was the almost entire destruction 
 of the college by fire. We believe Fenimore Cooper 
 was tried upon suspicion as the incendiary, but was 
 acquitted. 
 
 Literary societies, as all know, exist in every college : 
 and during his collegiate course, Spencer belonged to 
 
LIFE OF 6PENCEE nOUGHTCXN CONE. 33 
 
 the " Whig" Society of Princeton. Many young men, 
 who have since filled the highest offices in the State and 
 Church, were fellow-members ; and he has said an hun- 
 dred times, that, although, in riper years, it had been his 
 fortune to listen to some of the most renowned orators, 
 legists, and ecclesiastics, he had never heard, on the 
 floor of Congress, at the bar, or in the pulpit, finer 
 speaking, nor seen debates conducted with more dignity 
 and decorum than within the walls of the Whig Society. 
 He attributed much of his own training to the influence 
 it exercised upon his mind, at the most impressionable 
 period of his life. 
 
 But in the very midst of his career of study, and when 
 his prospects of distinction were fairest, Providence 
 turned the current of his life into a new channel. The 
 halcyon days of study, reflection, and domestic felicity, 
 were to be succeeded by years of struggle and trial, 
 pecuniary embarrassment and apparently hopeless effort. 
 
 Dr. Armitage, in the eloquent and chaste funeral 
 address delivered by him Sept. 16th, 1855, has fallen 
 into an error in stating that " He was pursuing his 
 studies with avidity when his father was unexpectedly 
 taken away by death." It was if possible a sterner trial 
 which summoned him from the seclusion of collegiate 
 study, to a bitter strife — a hand to hand grapple with 
 the world for daily bread. 
 
 A philanthropist by nature and habit; entirely 
 improvident in regard to money, upon which he set no 
 other value than as it would serve a friend, or relieve a 
 suffering fellow-creature, his father suddenly found him- 
 self penniless. The exposure and hardships of the 
 Revolution, and the w T ounds received in it, had unfitted 
 him for active exertion. A high-spirited soldier, he was 
 too proud to beg. A frequent invalid, he was unable to 
 work. He saw starvation and penury, perhaps con- 
 
 2* 
 
34 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 tempt and disgrace, the common fortune of the poor, 
 staring him in the face. His mind gave way under the 
 pressure. He could not meet the crisis. He could not 
 bear the anticipation. He fell into a state of morbid 
 melancholy, soon followed by decided aberrations of 
 mind. He had frecpaent, and sometimes lengthened 
 intervals of entire sanity, but his mind was never 
 wholly restored to a state which could be looked to as 
 permanent, and he was unfitted for the care of his 
 family. 
 
 It was thus at the age of only fourteen that Spencer 
 found himself the sole hope and support of his 
 mother, and left by the mysterious providence of God 
 to support her, his stricken father, four sisters, and a 
 brother ! All of the latter, young children and incapa- 
 ble of assisting themselves or him. 
 
 Did he hesitate; did he despair ? Never less. It was 
 not in his nature. His mind was like a finely-tempered 
 spring ; the greater the pressure, the greater the recoil. 
 He had, unconverted as well as converted, a pure and 
 simple trust in God. His mother had labored night and 
 day to instill it into his mind, and her labor had not been 
 in vain. He never doubted. His only question was — 
 What is duty? — and when conscience and meditation, 
 as he believed, told him what was duty, he did it — 
 " Not having the fear of man before his eyes." And 
 now that they were poor, and the bread for the little 
 ones of the flock began to fail, he said, " Mother, you 
 have worked to feed me whilst I got an education ; and 
 now, with God's blessing, my education shall feed you." 
 
 And it so happened that a Dr. , who kept a 
 
 school at Basking Ridge, had advertised for an assistant 
 in his school, and he resolved to go and ask for the situ- 
 ation. But Basking Ridge was more than thirty miles 
 away from Princeton, and he had no money, nor no coa 
 
LITE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 35 
 
 fit to go amongst strangers, who would undoubtedly 
 scrutinize him closely, and be, perhaps, unfavorably im- 
 pressed towards him if he came amongst them thread- 
 bare and out at elbows. But mother Alice had a gay 
 scarlet cardinal, of very fine cloth, which not long before, 
 in better days, she had worn on Sundays and holy days, 
 to the great envy of many female neighbors. And 
 mother Alice sat down and ripped her gay cardinal 
 apart, for she would wear nothing so fine now, and got 
 dye-stuff and dyed it a sober brown ; and then set to 
 work night and day, to make the lad a new coat ; drop- 
 ping many hot tears all the while, which hindered her 
 sadly, but they would come; and praying — praying, 
 oh ! how fervently, that God — the God who had brought 
 his fathers up out of more straits than this, and had 
 been with them and with their children to that hour — ■ 
 would be with her boy, and save him from the disap- 
 pointment and heart-sinking of his first rude trial — 
 graciously turning the stranger's heart towards him, 
 that he might not fail. 
 
 How often he has said he never had such another 
 coat as that. It fitted him so perfectly. It was so com- 
 fortable and warm. He felt so happy in it. It seemed 
 as if it had his mother's loving tears and blessing in 
 every thread of it. 
 
 So he put it on, and before the day broke started off 
 for Basking Ridge, his only companions a good stout, 
 knotted stick, and a heart full of the happy feeling, that 
 he was* about to be useful. Glorious boy ! — that feeling 
 made him happier than a monarch in all his pride of 
 place. No one need pity him that morning — as they 
 see him stepping out into the cold twilight, and button- 
 ing his coat up, and striking off briskly, half running — 
 to keep him warm. Their pity would be thrown away — 
 utterly wasted. He was rich as Croesus ; and happier 
 
36 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 than ever money made the Lydian king : Rich in youth, 
 and hope, rich in unconquerable determination — above 
 all in love and duty; — in the idea that he was about to 
 live to some good purpose — and be useful to others. That 
 was his happiness always. He was as young, and dar- 
 ing, and happy in it when the snows of seventy winters 
 whitened on his head, as Avhen the morning damp hung 
 on his rich, brown curls the day that he stepped out there 
 first into the wide world to fight for bread amongst its 
 starving millions. He was not to be pitied — he was 
 to be envied. 
 
 He could not afford to ride ; but he was not a whit 
 afraid to walk — nor to say why he walked. And that 
 day he walked the thirty miles, and not very late in the 
 evening came to Basking Ridge, and the house of the 
 doctor who had advertised for an assistant. 
 
 But, as if Providence would have him tried and 
 proved at the very outset — as if it would put his metal 
 to the touch and try if it were pure gold — he was here 
 to meet with a disappointment — perhaps the hardest of 
 all the many which beset his pathway in life — his first 
 disappointment. 
 
 We all know how time, and the repeated failure of 
 favorite plans daily for years, come at last to harden us, 
 to dull the fine edge of our capacity for suffering, to 
 inure us to disappointment, to bring us to that point that 
 disappointment is rather a vague idea than a keen reality. 
 We become schooled to it — indurated and callous. But 
 the first disappointment of a brave, loving, hopeful boy ; 
 the disappointment of his first exalted scheme of labor 
 for those he loved, and whose little hands had been tug- 
 ging at his heart-strings all that lonely walk of thirty 
 weary miles ! Can we not fancy what such a boy as he 
 was had been thinking all the way ? How he had said 
 to himself, " The Doctor must be a good man, a man who 
 
THE LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 37 
 
 feels for trouble. He will see my situation. lie will 
 sympathize with me. I will tell him all my little story 
 of family affliction. God will help me to tell it rightly. 
 I know he will, for it is a true tale, and I am going to 
 work for my mother and father, my brother and my 
 sisters. He will employ me. I shall not receive much 
 salary, perhaps. I am too young to have a right to 
 expect much. But it will be enough to keep them 
 all at home ; and for myself, I shall want nothing. 
 Have I not a new coat — this blessed coat, dear mother 
 sat up all last night to finish for me? Has she not put 
 all my things in order ? No, I shall want nothing. I 
 shall have food and lodging, and books to study for 
 nothing — and all my money I can send home. Oh ! I 
 shall be so happy to be able to do it — so happy, young 
 as I am, to have the privilege of denying myself for 
 their sake, for her sake who has denied herself so much 
 to give me an education !" 
 
 Who can doubt, that ever knew him, that just such 
 thoughts beguiled the tedious journey, and buoyed him 
 up all clay long, and made him forget the weariness 
 of the way. 
 
 But when he came to Basking Ridge, the Doctor had 
 obtained an assistant. Only the day before he had 
 engaged one. Do yon not pity the boy ? Alas ! how 
 his heart must have sunk within him ! 
 
 The Doctor was very kind and hospitable, it is true — 
 but what a bitter disappointment. He made him stay 
 with him all night ; gave him his supper, and a good 
 bed, and talked comfortably and wisely with him. But 
 poor Spencer cried himself to sleep that night ; and the 
 next morning turned with a heavy heart to retrace his 
 steps ; and weary, foot-sore, and sad, reached Princeton 
 late at night. It was harder walking back from Bask- 
 ing Ridge hopeless, than going there full of the first 
 
38 THE LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 unchecked plans and expectations of a heart fresh to 
 the world, and ignorant of its trials. One of the bright 
 prophets of the future — Youth, was with him still, but 
 his twin brother, Hope, lagged wearily behind. Not long 
 after his return to Princeton, however, a little door of 
 hope was opened for him and he obtained a place in the 
 Princeton Academy. 
 
 He thus speaks of it in a letter dated September 5th, 
 1810: 
 
 "The cup of life to me has been a cup of bitterness. 
 I came into the active world at fourteen years of age, 
 overburdened with duties and difficulties. I beheld my 
 mother, and my little sisters left completely destitute — 
 without the means of procuring a comfortable subsis- 
 tence — without a friend or a father to support and pro- 
 tect them. Notwithstanding my extreme youth, when 
 our house and everything belonging to lis was sold, I was 
 so fortunate as to procure the situation of Latin teacher 
 in the Princeton Academy. My salary, however, was 
 so trifling that it barely kept us alive. ****** It 
 would only give a useless pang to your sympathizing 
 heart, to tell you how I struggled, and what I suffered, 
 during those delightful years when nature wears no 
 mask. Those years of happy youth, that by most are 
 merrily spent in study or amusement, to me brought 
 nothing in their train but vexation and disappointment. 
 Though I lived at that period with the strictest economy, 
 I found we were sinking daily more and more into debt 
 • — but I still persisted in keeping my family together." 
 
 Poor boy ! Fourteen was very young to study so 
 hard a lesson. Self-denial; poverty ; debt; disappoint- 
 ment — almost despair — But so — 
 
 ''By all that wrings the heart of sin, 
 His wisdom wins to Heaven." 
 
LITE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 39 
 
 A rough roacl indeed : but it made a rugged and 
 brave traveller of him. 
 
 Speaking of that period and his trials, his only survi- 
 ving sister says. 
 
 " He took a house for mother, and came to Princeton 
 and carried us all to Bordentown, to live. Father was 
 then suffering in one of the most violent fits he ever had. 
 He was entirely out of his mind, and often dangerously 
 violent. The grief and fear we were all in was truly 
 melancholy and pitiable. Mother and brother kept 
 him home with us as long as they dare. It would often 
 take four men to hold him ; but*dear brother was the oiie 
 who had the most power over him. He used to call brother 
 Mr. Seventeen, and seemed strangely puzzled and amazed 
 at his trying to control him. We poor children would 
 run away and hide ourselves, in different places, for fear ; 
 but mother and brother stayed with him, dangerous as 
 he was, unflinchingly. It nearly broke their hearts but 
 they would not leave him to strangers. Whilst we lived 
 at Bordentown, however, these violent fits grew so fre- 
 quent, that brother, who had his school to attend to, and 
 must be away from the house, found that he did not 
 dare any longer to expose mother and her young chil- 
 dren to the danger of being alone with him. At last, 
 therefore, taking some persons with him to assist, he 
 went to Philadelphia, in the packet, to try and get him 
 into the hospital, until the disease was either cured, or 
 grew mild enough for us to dare to have him home with 
 us again. Brother had never been in Philadelphia 
 before, and knew no one there. He had gone there 
 thinking that the hospital was a free institution. They 
 had a great deal of trouble in getting our poor mad 
 father to the hospital, and when they did get him there, 
 the people of the place would not receive him. He was 
 not a citizen of the State of Pennsylvania, but of New Jer- 
 
40 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 sey, where lie lived, or Connecticut, where he was born, 
 and the rules of the institution forbade them receiving cit- 
 izens of another State without having ample security for 
 their maintenance. Poor brother could give no security, 
 for no one knew him there ; so they had to take father 
 back to the boat, and leave him there to the care of the 
 men, whilst he went and hunted for the principal officer 
 of the institution. He described, when he came home, 
 what he had gone through and the scene at the gentle- 
 man's house, and I remember well how bitterly we all 
 wept to hear him. He rang at the door of the chief 
 officer's house, and a beautiful girl, his daughter, came to 
 the door and let him in. It was on a Sunday. She 
 conducted him into a parlor. There was a table in the 
 middle of the room, and a noble, benevolent-looking man 
 sat by it, with a large Bible before him, reading intently. 
 I knew his name once, but it is so long ago now that it 
 is gone from me. Brother went up and stood before 
 him, and told him his sad story, and that he was a boy, 
 and had no one in the world to stand for him, or be his 
 security. The old man heard him through, and then 
 looking benignly in the poor boy's eyes, said, " My son, 
 thy face is thy security : I will stand for thee. Thy 
 father shall go in.' Afterwards father had many 
 intervals of sanity, or quiet — and was out and in the 
 institution for ten years as his health permitted." 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 41 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 YOUTH. 
 
 And so, with poverty for a daily companion, and many 
 months to fill out of the scant pittance which divided it 
 from starvation, he commenced his real experiences 
 of life. Many, perhaps it would not be going too far 
 to say most, minds become either callous or morbid under 
 the pressure of such early trials — they lose their elasti- 
 city ; whatever is generous and delicate, all its brighter 
 tints fade little by little, and the whole mind and char- 
 acter takes the dull, cold hue of a November fortune. 
 Happily for him, God had bestowed on him such a 
 hopeful mind, so much animal spirits, and above all 
 such a capacity for finding consolation in work — the great 
 consoler, that whilst the difficulties which beset him 
 tempered his character with precocious firmness and assu- 
 rance, it left heart and mind as kind, and open, and 
 playful as ever. Like the traveller who toils wearily 
 amongst the mountains, he was often fatigued, worn out, 
 and glad to lie down and sleep in any hut by the way- 
 side, but awoke in the morning healthier for his labor, 
 and better braced by the keen wind, and rough ascents, 
 for renewed effort. 
 
 His engagement in the Princeton Academy afforded 
 the means of a bare subsistence, and that of a very poor 
 and meagre kind. In the intervals of duty he accord- 
 ingly looked anxiously about him for something better, 
 and, happily, many months did not pass before Provi- 
 dence opened the door of hope a little wider. 
 
42 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON' CONE. 
 
 A master was needed for the school at Burlington. 
 Young as he was he had already obtained a reputation 
 for capacity to teach. His steadiness, close application, 
 and scrupulous discharge of duty, added to this qualifi- 
 cation, overweighed his youth, and he was offered the 
 charge of the district school at that place. He accepted 
 it joyfully. It was indeed a great advance for him, both 
 in position and emolument. 
 
 Each of the richer sort in the district, at that time, 
 rook turns in having the " master" at their houses ; and 
 so he was " billeted," first on one and. then upon another, 
 by the week or month as the case might be. The same 
 habit prevails still in remote and thinly populated dis- 
 tricts. This relieved him at once of a great charge. 
 His board cost him nothing; his salary was quite 
 doubled, and he was free to apply the whole of it to the 
 support of his family. The place, too, was perhaps as 
 pleasant a one as could be found for the discharge of 
 his duties. 
 
 Burlington county is one of the most productive and 
 wealthiest in the State. Principally inhabited by Quakers, 
 or the descendants of Quakers, hospitality and good living 
 abound. They live in fact upon the fat of the land, and 
 are a lively, worldly, thrifty race, delighting in fat cat- 
 tle, fine horses, and social merry-makings. Very little 
 of the Quaker sternness remains. Plainness in dress, and 
 some peculiar forms of speech, are about all that is left 
 of the peculiarities Avhich exposed the " people called 
 Quakers " to so much persecution for conscience sake 
 during their earlier history. 
 
 Spencer's lively manners and high spirits, added to 
 an agreeable person, very soon made him an universal 
 favorite. Fortunately, too, for him, he had got his 
 growth, and when not quite sixteen had developed into 
 a precocious manhood ; and although the majority of his 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 43 
 
 pupils wore older than himself., he secured their obe- 
 dience and esteem. It required, however, all the exer- 
 tion of his fortitude to resist the influences with which 
 he was surrounded, and make his duty the first thing 
 always in his thoughts; for he Mas so much in favor 
 with the whole neighborhood that no party of pleasure, 
 tea-drinking, nor dance was perfect without him. Out 
 of this flattery, so seductive to a very young man, he 
 came, however, pretty safely. 
 
 Amongst his scholars was George Wood, long one of 
 our most celebrated counsel in this State, whom he pre- 
 pared for College. 
 
 He always recollected with pleasure that passage in 
 his teacher's life, and was accustomed to say that he had 
 passed as many agreeable hours in the little stone school 
 house at Burlington, as in any other place he could call 
 to mind. 
 
 At that time Dr. Abercrombie was principal of the 
 High School or chief Academy in Philadelphia. An 
 acquaintance had subsisted between them for some time, 
 and such was the doctor's partiality for Spencer, that spite 
 of his youth, he insisted upon his undertaking the second 
 place, or assistant to the principal, in his academy. The 
 offer was too flattering to be refused, and he removed 
 himself and family to Philadelphia. Here he entered 
 upon the discharge of his duties with the same activity 
 aud earnestness as ever, and justified the good doctor's 
 partiality. He very soon found, however, that living in 
 the country and the city were two things, and although 
 his salary as a teacher was much larger, his family 
 expenses were larger still. It was absolutely necessary 
 to make up the deficiency by some other work than 
 teaching. His predilections were in favor of the law, 
 and he resolved to study for the profession. In doing 
 so, however, it w T as indispensable to combine the 
 
44 LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 acquirement of legal knowledge with money-making. 
 He entered therefore the office of Mr. Geib, at that time 
 a prominent lawyer in Philadelphia, as student una 
 copyist. No sooner were the Latin grammar and awful 
 ferule laid aside, and the glad urchins freed from the 
 imprisonment of school, than he hastened to the law 
 office, and plunged into Coke and Blackstone. And 
 when the daylight failed, instead of rest or recreation, he 
 commenced his employment as copyist, taking the draft 
 Lome from the office, and constantly writing until one 
 and two o'clock at night. 
 
 As might readily be expected, no frame however 
 strong, nor health however rugged, could long endure 
 such uninterrupted labor, and the sedentary nature of 
 his various employments began, after a while, to tell 
 threateningly upon his constitution. He lost his fresh, 
 country complexion ; his appetite failed, and frequent 
 pain in the breast threatened him with serious conse- 
 quences. 
 
 Nothing, however, could divert him from the prose- 
 cution of his plan of life, nor from the effort to make 
 both ends meet by added labor ; and he toiled on, and 
 hoped on, in spite of weariness and pain. 
 
 During his school-life, whether as scholar or student, 
 he was remarkable for his proficiency in two branches 
 of English education — geography and mathematics. 
 The latter he never cultivated much in after life, 
 although his capacity for making rapid and accurate 
 mental calculations, and for the disentangling of mathe- 
 matical puzzles, continued to old age, and its exercise 
 always gave him pleasure. But in geography his 
 attainments were remarkable throughout life. The 
 acquirements of youth were not only not lost by lapse 
 of years, but they were yearly — almost, indeed, daily, 
 increased. He often related that, when at school, he 
 
LITE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 45 
 
 could give, on the instant, the boundaries of all the 
 counties in Ireland, the departments of France, and the 
 provinces of India. 
 
 The deep and untiring interest he always took, as a 
 Christian, in every missionary effort throughout the 
 world, led him to complete his studies in this favorite 
 branch. It formed a striking feature in his addresses 
 and sermons on this part of Christan philanthropy ; and 
 his accurate and ready knowledge of the countries 
 which his topic had to do with, their climate, bounda- 
 ries, rivers, productions, and physical and moral charac- 
 teristics, enabled him to interest an audience directly in 
 them. He seemed rather to be talking of places he had 
 seen and lived in, than of countries thousands of miles 
 away, and rarely explored except by adventurous 
 travellers. His graphic descriptions of the rivers on 
 which Judson, or Boardman, or Carey floated beneath 
 the burning sun of India ; of the mountains they crossed, 
 and where the paths led over them ; of the towns and 
 villages, and fields of paddy on their banks — of the zayats, 
 where they preached the glad tidings of salvation for 
 sinners to the heathen — always arrested the attention of 
 his audience, and won their ears, at least, to the cause 
 he pleaded for. 
 
 He took his audience with him to the very place he 
 was describing, and surrounding them with all its 
 peculiar accessories, compelled them to listen, as it were, 
 rather to the missionary himself, and read the record of 
 his mission in the keen eye of the watchful Brahmin — the 
 cunning incredulity of the boatman of the Ganges, or the 
 Irrawaddy ; the gentle hope first lighting up some sin- 
 gle convert's face ; the rapt attention of all — than to 
 himself. It could not be art, although it had the 
 effect of the highest art — it was more than art — it was 
 a pure inspiration of the missionary spirit, the love of 
 
46 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 souls warming every sentence, and throwing a halo 
 around every period. 
 
 His health at last warning him that he could not 
 continue to combine the avocations of a teacher, law- 
 student, and copyist much longer, without peril of his 
 life, he had recourse to the advice of his friends, to con- 
 firm him in what he should do. Many advised, and 
 talked, and sympathized, as men commonly do, to no 
 practical purpose. The majority, indeed, gave then, 
 as they do now, very vise advice, and no help ; being 
 very ready to say, do this, or do that, but making no 
 offer to show how either this or that were to be begun. 
 
 In this conjuncture the more practical advice of an Epis- 
 copal bishop determined his course of action. Waiting 
 upon this gentleman, who had, on many former occa- 
 sions, evinced a lively interest in his success, he besought 
 him to counsel him. The good bishop, after expatiating 
 upon the singular advantages bestowed on him by 
 nature, advised him to take orders in the Episcopal 
 Church ; offering, in the warmest and most generous 
 manner, if he would do so, to provide for him, and 
 see that he was entirely supported whilst studying 
 for the profession. Kor did he fail to lay before him 
 all the advantages which would accrue to himself and 
 family from an acceptance of the offer : position, ease, 
 influence, reputation — ultimately, no doubt, the highest 
 honors in the church. It was a tempting offer for a 
 young and needy man, conscious of ability, and chafing 
 at a world which gave him no chance for its exercise. 
 But the Baptist leaven was too strong in him. He 
 knew too well that the ministry of the Word of life is 
 the gift of God, and not of man. He had, even then, 
 too frank and honest a reverence for holy things to tam- 
 per with them uncalled of God, and he modestly but 
 firmly rejected the proposition. The good bishop then 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOEGHTON COXE. 47 
 
 told him, if lie would not take orders, lie knew of bnt 
 one thing he could do to immediate advantage, and fur 
 which his remarkable voice and other physical advan- 
 tages eminently fitted him — and that was — to go on the 
 stage. He took the well-meant but dangerous advice, 
 and became an actor. 
 
 lie made his first appearance in July 1805, as Acltmet, 
 in the tragedy of Mahomet, and attracted immediate 
 attention. The old Chesnut street Theatre, in Philadel- 
 phia, was then at the zenith of its glory, and the company 
 a strong and talented one. Wood, Wignall, Jefferson, 
 Francis, Blissett ; — Mesdames, Wood, Duff, and many 
 others renowned in theatric story, were upon the 
 boards, and the best evidence of Spencer's talent is to be 
 found in the fact that he took immediate rank, and won 
 immediate popularity, although a mere boy, and with 
 all the odds of experience and established favor against 
 him. 
 
 In answer to any objections that have been, or may 
 be urged against this step, by those who never knew 
 what it was to be poor, but " more proud than poor, and 
 more honest than proud;" who never went through the 
 sharp struggle for the means of a respectable livelihood 
 and the support of a beloved and helpless family — he 
 shall answer for himself. In a letter written during the 
 fall of 1810, he says: — "In a moment of desperation I 
 adopted the profession of an actor. It was inimical to 
 the wishes of my mother: It was in direct opposition to 
 my own feelings and principles ; but it was the only 
 way by which I had a hope of extricating myself from 
 my pecuniary embarrassments, and much as the world 
 has condemned me for the step, I never have repented 
 taking it. It has answered the end proposed. We have 
 lived comfortably. I see my brother and sisters as well 
 educated as their standing in society demands ; and if 
 
48 LITE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 no unforeseen misfortune awaits me, I shall, by next 
 spring, have some little beforehand. ***** 
 
 " You know me as I really am. You have taken the 
 trouble to judge of me, not from circumstances or report, 
 but from my general conduct and principles. You see, 
 no doubt, much to blame, and some little perhaps to 
 praise. Filial duty and brotherly love have formed my 
 rules of action. I have too often swerved from their 
 principles, but I trust they have for the most part 
 directed my course through life, and the sincere affec- 
 tion of my mother and sisters more than repays me for 
 an age of suffering." 
 
 This was written on his return from the theatre in 
 the evening — written whilst exercising the profession 
 to which it refers. It has the merit therefore of pre- 
 senting a true picture of his mind at that period. It 
 shows with what eyes he looked upon his calling ; 
 frankly confessing it was distasteful to him, and as 
 frankly urging the reasons which rose superior to his 
 inclination and constrained his conduct. 
 
 Ambitious of distinction in whatever he undertook, 
 he was a hard student in his profession. He read 
 much, and assiduously ; formed his style upon the best 
 models, and gladly accepted instruction. His tempera- 
 ment, physical quickness and versatility of mind, inclined 
 him to the Garrick school, and he copied the style of that 
 great master as closely as his genius enabled him. The 
 effect of this was always evident in him. In a different 
 and nobler walk in life, he lost all the characteristics of 
 the mere actor in the unfeigned passion and vehement 
 force of the orator. But the grace and majesty of the 
 Garrick school ; its pantomimic adaptation of the "word 
 to the action, the action to the word, with the special 
 observance of never overstepping the modesty of 
 nature ;" its lightning like transitions from touching 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 49 
 
 pathos to fiery invective ; its rapid play of feature, 
 delineating to the eye every changing passion as it 
 moved the speaker's soul ; its infinite variety of delicate 
 and subtle strokes and touches, developing an undis- 
 covered beauty in the plainest and most commonplace 
 expressions — all these remained, and grew year by year 
 — giving a character to his oratory so peculiar and com- 
 manding, that the mere report of his spoken words, as 
 taken down by phonography, affords no better impres- 
 sion of its power and effect, than a description of 
 colors to a man born blind. Off the stage he 
 associated but little with the profession. The house of 
 Mrs. Warren, the Siddons of the American stage, was 
 the only one at which he visited. A woman of high 
 social standing, refined manners, and great ability, her 
 receptions were graced by the best talent, and most 
 distinguished people of the time. Lawyers, poets, 
 soldiers, and artists, formed around her a society 
 celebrated for the purity of its tone, and the wit and 
 agreeability of its character. He always spoke of her as 
 a woman fitted to adorn any station in society. A more 
 instructive and scarcely less brilliant coterie gathered 
 constantly at his mother's house, when fortune began to 
 smile on them, and the efforts of her son placed her in 
 a position to receive and entertain the world of wit and 
 letters. Her son's public position and popularity 
 gathered, as it always does, the crowd of popularity- 
 worshippers around him, and her firm and penetrating 
 mind rapidly culled from amongst it such as were most 
 congenial to its elevated instincts. She possessed 
 besides peculiar powers of amusement and attraction. 
 Her reading was large and varied, and especially on 
 historical subjects she was replete with information. 
 His sister says : — 
 
 " Dear mother was a woman of great gifts and won- 
 
 3 
 
50 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 derful acumen "by nature. When we were children, 
 and, of course, very ignorant, we would be constantly 
 asking her questions. She could always tell us what 
 we wanted to know. It was so still when we grew 
 older, and got more sense, and knew more ourselves. 
 So that at last we concluded she was fairly an Encyclope- 
 dia of useful knowledge. She was cheerful, and always 
 mild, and meek, and patient. Her nature was exqui- 
 sitely tender, and yet she had the fortitude of a soldier. 
 She sang sweetly, and conversed with ease and brilliancy. 
 She was very pious. Her sensibility and sudden sense 
 of right never made her severe, for she possessed melting 
 charity ; she had a clear head, and a sound judgment. 
 She was almost always sick. I scarcely remember to 
 have seen her well. But when suffering the most we 
 would say to her, ' Dear mother, that was hard.' She 
 would reply, ' Oh no ! — others suffer ; why should I be 
 exempt V And in strict truth I never heard her complain. 
 Only just think of it — twelve or fifteen years of constant 
 suffering, and not a peevish word. * * * * We were 
 all brought up to observe the Sabbath as strictly as they 
 do in Puritan New England. When father was well in 
 his mind we always had family worship night and 
 morning. But, you know poor father was often melan- 
 choly and out of his right mind, and then that good 
 mother had to use all the qualities I have told you of. 
 But she was a host in herself. We delighted in her. 
 We all looked up to her. She was our everything. 
 She never shone brighter than in adversity ; and, by the 
 way, that was the school we were brought up in. We 
 did not get the first honors as our mother and brother 
 Spencer did, but we studied hard in it. Brother Spencer 
 was always a good boy — I used to think he was so good ; 
 he was just such a boy as Washington." 
 
 This letter is written by a woman who has reached 
 
LIFE OF SPENCEB HOUGHTON CONE. 51 
 
 the allotted term of human life— three score years and 
 ten — but it has a dash of the family character about it, 
 and shows that Spencer did not by any means monopo- 
 lize all the ability or talent of the stock, although he 
 got the " first honors" in the school where they were 
 educated. The natural partiality of a sister is displayed 
 in a strong comparison ; but it is every way excusable. 
 It is not strange that a sister should speak warmly of 
 one who seldom failed to plant a strong and durable 
 affection in the hearts of all who knew him. 
 
 From 1805 to 1810 he devoted himself assiduously to 
 the study of his profession, playing principally in Phila- 
 delphia, Baltimore, and Alexandria. At that time he 
 was almost the only American on the stage, and this 
 circumstance, added to his own intrinsic merits, drew 
 around him a staunch circle of admirers. It was not 
 the fashion of that day for a man to claim much merit 
 for being an American. The fact of his being so was 
 rather considered as imposing larger duties, than as 
 conferring superior claims upon public favor. It had, 
 however, undoubtedly great weight in the minds of the 
 young and ardent admirers of the drama, and gave him 
 evidently a warm place in their hearts. A writer of thea- 
 trical chronicles glances at a circumstance which occur- 
 red about the middle of his stage life, strongly illustra- 
 tive of his popularity : 
 
 "The theatrical life of Mr. Cone was not altogether 
 free from turmoil ; and on one occasion he was the 
 cause, innocently perhaps, of an emeute, which in ferocity 
 and violence was not much excelled by the scene at 
 Astor Place Opera House, originating in the quarrels 
 between Forrest and Macready." 
 
 He was undoubtedly innocent of any intention or act 
 of violence ; and was at a distance from the theatre, 
 and ignorant of the danger to public tranquillity, when 
 
52 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 summoned by a breathless messenger, and besought to 
 hasten there, as his presence alone could be relied on to 
 calm the popular irritation. He obeyed, the summons, 
 rushed to the theatre, and in five minutes had gained, as 
 lie knew so well how to do, entire control of the crowd. 
 A dozen sentences of his passionate eloquence appealing 
 to them as American citizens to respect the public 
 peace, to respect him, and. to respect themselves too 
 much to sully the name of either by acts of violence — 
 restored comparative order, and checked at once a scene 
 which might have had the most disastrous results both 
 for property and life. 
 
 The reason of this threatening exhibition of popular 
 feeling was that another actor, not a Philadelphia!!, it is 
 believed, had interfered, with Spencer H., and appropria- 
 ted one of his peculiar "parts," and one secured, to him 
 by the articles of his engagement. Spencer H. was an 
 American, admired as an actor, and beloved as an out- 
 spoken patriot and citizen by every Philadelphian. 
 Hence they would not endure for an instant that their 
 fellow-countryman and favorite should even appear to 
 be subordinated to, or imposed upon by a stranger. 
 The public sentiment was so marked, and its determi- 
 nation so unmistakable, that the manager agreed to refer 
 it to two distinguished gentlemen of Philadelphia, who 
 decided that Mr. Cone was entitled to the part. The 
 manager yielded gracefully and at once, and Spencer H. 
 took the position secured to him by the articles of his 
 engagement. 
 
 His very success, however, was repulsive to his feel- 
 ings. He was mortified even by triumph, and felt 
 humiliated at being in a position where his very virtues, 
 and claims upon the love and friendship of his fellow- 
 citizens, might be turned into material to inflame their 
 passions, and produce acts of lawless violence. 
 
LIFE OF SPENCEK HOrGHTON CONE. 53 
 
 It was from that occasion, which on a less just and 
 well-balanced mind, would have produced an entirely 
 opposite effect, and aroused sentiments of vanity and 
 overweening confidence, that his disgust for the stage 
 begun to date. He has oflen said that the train of rea- 
 soning it gave rise to in his mind was this : " If, by the 
 exercise, merely, of the power of simulating the passions 
 of courage, love, virtue, and whatever else it is the pro- 
 vince of tragedy or comedy to exhibit in the most 
 heroic shape? I have obtained such power over the affec- 
 tions of any portion of my fellow-men, as to make them 
 willing to endanger their lives and reputations in my 
 defence — winning them by "a fiction and a dream of 
 passion ;" how much nobler and more worthy of an 
 American it would be to live the reality of heroic vir- 
 tues — to act instead of mimicking the deeds of greatness. 
 I will be a living worker in the world — I will play no 
 more." 
 
 From that moment, although years passed before he 
 could realize his wishes, his most anxious desire and 
 effort was to strike into some path which lay among the 
 realities of life, and where usefulness and honor might 
 be his companions. 
 
 This determination was strengthened, too, by a cir- 
 cumstance which occurred about the same time. He 
 made accidentally the acquaintance of the woman des- 
 tined by Providence to be his wife, and such a wife as 
 few great men have ever had to support, inspirit, sustain, 
 and console them through their struggles — for all great- 
 ness implies a constant struggle against a thousand 
 enemies. In the Christian warfare, it implies it above 
 all — a struggle against foes within and foes without — a 
 tempting devil, and a deceitful human heart — the 
 world, the flesh, and Satan, all combining, to strike the 
 bravest soldier of the Cross down into the mire and filth 
 
54 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 of their own corruption and hatred to God and to his 
 work. God blessed him in nothing more signally than 
 in bestowing upon him a wife brave, earnest, simple- 
 hearted, and clear-headed ; always wrapped np in her 
 husband and his happiness ; seeing, with constant 
 anxiety, but also with constant joy, how he had his 
 Master's work to do, and so devoting herself to make 
 his home a place of rest and strengthening for him in 
 the pauses of the battle. She was like a ministering 
 angel, always beside him to console in disappointment, 
 to animate for renewed effort. How strangely she was 
 brought to this, her history will show. 
 
 In the city of Philadelphia, in the year 1S10, there 
 dwelt a widow, whose name was Mary Morrell, the 
 widow of Robert Morrell, a man of wealth, and one of 
 the earnest spirits of his time. Having served bravely, 
 in several vessels, during the war, and particularly 
 under Commodore Barron and Paul Jones, with the 
 latter of whom he was on board the "Bon Homme 
 Richard," at the celebrated capture of the " Serapis," 
 and burning of Whitehaven — he returned to Philadel- 
 phia, and died shortly after the close of the war, leaving 
 his family a good estate. The bad management of his 
 trustees and executors finally dissipated the greater part 
 of the property, but at the time of Mr. Morrell's death 
 he was esteemed one of the wealthy men of Philadelphia. 
 
 Mrs. Morrell had four daughters, Elizabeth, Hannah, 
 Sally, and Maria, and one son, Robert. The latter died 
 when very young. The widow's only brother, Chandler 
 Price, was an eminent merchant, and a man, not only 
 reputed rich, but really so. Living in the same place 
 with his sister, who was tenderly attached to him, he 
 was much looked up to by her and by her children. He 
 had, indeed, the main control of her property and busi- 
 ness, and his recommendations were always acted upon. 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 55 
 
 In the course of time, as Sally was growing into woman- 
 hood, she, being a great favorite with her uncle, went 
 to live in his house. 
 
 It was a gay house, and always full of company. Its 
 owner, opulent and hospitable, of lively manners and 
 large information, gathered constantly there a numerous 
 and brilliant society. 
 
 In the incessant round of dinner-parties, balls, and 
 fetes, of which her home was now the centre, how little 
 did the young girl dream of the future which Provi- 
 dence had in store for her. The spoiled child of fortune 
 — the flattered beauty of a worldly and pleasure-seeking 
 crowd, could hardly conceive the path her Master had 
 marked out for her. She, the dashing, fashionable girl, 
 educated to look upon the world as a great scene of 
 elegant amusement, and social contest for place and 
 powder, pampered in every taste, and gratified in every 
 wish, to become the wife of a Baptist preacher! The 
 idea would have appeared a monstrous one — almost, 
 indeed, altogether an insult. What ! hear no praise — 
 receive no homage — conquer no rivals? Bound her 
 pleasures by the limits of a parsonage ; restrict her em- 
 ployments to the bare discharge of duties ; forget the 
 world of fashion, in which she had occupied so notable 
 a place, even more entirely than its giddy inhabitants 
 would forget her ? — and all this to be a poor, plain Bap- 
 tist preacher's wife ! She has often smiled over the odd 
 kind of terror she afterwards experienced at the idea. 
 She had never heard the sect named ; never even 
 reviled, although it was then, as now, " a sect every- 
 where spokeu against." She went to church on Sun- 
 day morning. It was rather fashionable than otherwise. 
 Indeed, as one of the women of her family had, in 
 earlier times, endowed schools and churches in Phila- 
 delphia with lands and livings, it was thought necessary 
 
56 LIFE OF SPENCEE HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 and proper that somebody from the family should be 
 seen in the old pew in Christ Church — especially if the 
 weather was fine. But of true religion, of vital godli- 
 ness, she had no idea. 
 
 At their first acquaintance, too, there was still 
 less to shadow out the future. She, a proud woman 
 of fashion ; he, a gay and dashing actor — young, 
 beautiful, admired, both of them. They met at the 
 theatre, in the public ball-room, on the race-course. 
 "Not in society, for their circles were different. Fasci- 
 nated by his beauty and talents, the woman's heart 
 broke through all the barriers of her exclusive life of 
 society, and whilst she was pleasing herself with the 
 idea that she was only admiring genius, and giving it 
 its due by admitting it to closer converse than its line 
 of exhibition could conventionally entitle it to — she 
 was, in sober reality, rapidly coming to love the man. 
 
 Her uncle penetrated the heart of her mystery even 
 "before herself, and indignantly scouted at the idea of 
 such an intimacy. Spencer was to be avoided. She 
 must not see him, speak to him, think of him. It was a 
 terrible blow to his pride — and as to the idea of her 
 ever marrying him — that was preposterous. So her 
 good uncle set very busily to work to prevent the two 
 from ever meeting ; which was, of course, the cause of 
 their meeting twice as often as formerly. He told her 
 all kinds of hard things about poor Spencer H., which 
 made her defend him heroically, and believe in him 
 twice as firmly as before. For we all know how much 
 more we love those for whom we suffer, than those who 
 suffer for us. It is very selfish, but very human. Poor 
 fellow, he could not even speak to her a moment in 
 peace, that uncle watched her so closely. 
 
 In a little note of May 25th, 1810, he says : — 
 
 " My sister Eliza will hand you a copy of D'Israeli's 
 
LIFE OF SPEXCER HOUGHTON CONE. 57 
 
 Romances. I purchased it on purpose to present it to 
 you. But just as I was conning over in my mind some 
 fine speech, that would be suitable to the occasion, your 
 uncle, very ill-naturedly, surprised us at the stone step, 
 in Front street. So I was, of course, compelled to return 
 the book to my pocket, and walk quietly home. The 
 romantic love-tale of ' Mejnoun and Leila' will help 
 you kill a dull hour or two. I am sure you will admire 
 it. It gives a more correct picture of true love than 
 any story I have met with. The passion is carried to 
 excess, 1 admit, but still, the situations are so interesting, 
 and their misfortunes so pathetically described, that 
 none but hearts of stone could help sympathizing with 
 them. I wroto your name on the title-page, but after- 
 wards erased it, fearing it might involve you in some 
 disagreeable question about * Who gave it to you?' It 
 seems almost an age, when I think of the six months to 
 come that I shall be separated from you. But upon 
 reflection, 'tis better so. Were I in Philadelphia, you 
 would often, I fondly hope, honor me with your arm, 
 as we strolled up Chesnut street. Some good-natured 
 friend would certainly convey this useful information to 
 your uncle, and he, in a rage, would probably lock you 
 up, and deny you the light of the sun, though it shines 
 equally upon the just and upon the unjust. 
 
 " ' Alas, I am a nameless -wight ! 
 Trod in the mire and out of sight.' 
 
 This is a strange world, where men creep about for 
 years to find, at last, nothing more, perhaps, than dis- 
 honorable graves." 
 
 "The course of true love never yet ran smooth." 
 That terrible uncle ruffled it greatly ; but God had too 
 much for both Spencer and Sally to do in the world, for 
 human pride to hinder them. 
 3* 
 
58 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 We cannot give a better history of his mind and 
 fortunes at that time, than he himself gives in the few 
 letters we are so fortunate as to have found. It is to be 
 regretted that they are so few ; for he wrote, as he 
 always did, just as he felt, without effort or disguise. 
 Speaking of his Sally, he says : — 
 
 " We, in common with the rest of mankind, are 
 searching after happiness — it is our being's end and aim. 
 As free agents, we have an undoubted right to make use 
 of whatever means are honorable to attain, if possible, 
 this desirable object. Reason and judgment were given 
 us in vain, if we are not to be allowed the privilege of 
 exercising them ; and even our hearts are of no value 
 if they can be disposed of as the whim or caprice of 
 another may direct. 
 
 " But we are young, and can wait. 
 
 " I shall yet, I hope, be possessed of a peaceful home 
 to shelter her in — neat if not splendid — where, though 
 we may be deserted by the votaries of fashion, we shall 
 still enjoy the bliss which flows from perfect esteem and 
 s} T inpathy of soul — 
 
 " ' Thought meeting thought, and will preventing will, 
 With boundless confidence' — 
 
 A bliss, in my opinion, far preferable to midnight revels, 
 or the boisterous merriment of those whose lucky stars, 
 and not their merits, have raised to the gilded couch of 
 affluence and luxury. Happiness does not depend on 
 nches : it is found alike in every sphere. 
 
 " ' Who finds content will find her there ! 
 'Tis to no rank of life confined 
 But dwells in every honest mind.' " 
 
 It is observable that although harshly spoken of, and 
 bitterly attacked by all the malevolence of wounded 
 
LIFE OF Sl'ENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 59 
 
 pride, be never speaks harshly of others. They are 
 endeavoring to disappoint his most cherished hopes ; 
 to break up his dearest plans ; and yet at an age when 
 men are rarely very patient, and when his mind was 
 naturally much embittered by unjust reflections upon 
 his profession and himself — a constant vein of elevated 
 morality and calm reasoning pervades everything he 
 Bays. 
 
 Being rallied for his melancholy and gravity as a 
 lover, he replies : — " True love is I think ever serious — 
 not light and frivolous. It warms the heart with every 
 generous principle of humanity, and kindles in the 
 breast the spirit of universal benevolence. It softens 
 the roughness of the disposition ; ameliorates the 
 unkindly frowns of fortune, and dispels all selfishness 
 from the mind. A passion such as this deserves the 
 cordial embrace of the man of honesty and honor, and 
 could never be intended by the great author of our 
 being to entail misery on its possessor." 
 
 How just the sentiments of the following extract of a 
 letter written July 8th 1810, from Washington, where 
 he was then playing — how clearly it exhibits the 
 character of his mind — a character heightened by the 
 grace of God in after years to an earnest faith, but even 
 amid all the seductions of the society in which he 
 then moved, aided by the weakness of an un rege- 
 nerate heart, strong enough to preserve him, by God's 
 blessing, in a course of rectitude which " won golden 
 opinions from all sorts of people." 
 
 " Reason and reflection convince me that real happi- 
 ness is the offspring of virtue, and the inseparable com- 
 panion of content. How vain then to sigh for the riches 
 of Golconda — the gold mines of Peru or Potosi. TVere 
 they in our actual possession, content might refuse us 
 the honor of her company, and happiness would con- 
 
60 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 sequently desert us — offended at the absence of her 
 inestimable associate. Sufficient for the day are the 
 evils thereof. We should discard therefore all unneces- 
 sary solicitude for the future. With heartfelt pleasure, 
 I exert every faculty with which nature has endowed 
 me to procure comfort and competence for those who 
 are entwined about my heart by the strong ties of con- 
 sanguinity and affection. I trust confidently that the 
 beneficent power which called me into existence will 
 deign to smile upon my endeavors, and crown them 
 ultimately with success. I am confident we were never 
 intended for such wretched desponding creatures as we 
 make ourselves. When our hearts throb in unison with 
 the dictates of love, of honor, and of friendship, it is 
 impious to say that we are not blessed with a very large 
 share of the good things of this life — sufficient indeed, 
 could we but prevail on ourselves to cultivate wisdom 
 and virtue, to ensure us content and peace. But, alas. 
 our good sense is too often blinded, and we suffer our- 
 selves to be led into the vortex of fashionable folly and 
 vice, without consulting our judgments, or reflecting 
 that we are accountable for our actions to Him who 
 made us. When I reflect upon my past life, I am 
 almost tempted to believe implicitly in the doctrine of 
 predestination /" 
 
 How firmly he held it afterwards ; how gloriously he 
 preached it ! The sublime assurance that the children 
 of the covenant are predestined from before the founda- 
 tion of the world, that they should be heirs of God and 
 joint heirs with Jesus Christ, shone, from the hour of 
 his conversion, as a constant light upon his path. The 
 study of the Word of Life fortified it with argument ; but 
 the conviction of its truth was an inspiration of the soul. 
 It was this controlling, and absorbing reliance upon the 
 predestinating love of God which animated him to 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 61 
 
 every effort. How could a man who, in the councils of 
 eternity, was foreordained of God to be a son — a laborer 
 in his vineyard — ever dare to doubt or waver? Once 
 convinced of his calling and election in Christ Jesus, 
 there was but one thing for him to say — "Here am 1, 
 Lord ! What wouldst thou have me to do ?" And if 
 God graciously vouchsafed an answer to prayer, and 
 pointed by His providence to the path of duty, flesh and 
 blood was not to be consulted. The captain of the Lord's 
 host gave the order ; the soldier of the Cross obeyed it- 
 careless of consequences. He left them with Him who 
 knew the end from the beginning. 
 
 "From the time that he heard M'Glaughlin preach 
 on the balm of Gilead, his mind had never been at rest 
 on the subject of his salvation. By day and by night 
 God called him to repentance. At one time a frightful 
 dream would alarm him."— Dr. Armitage. 
 
 In a sermon to the young, in 1844, he thus describes 
 the remarkable dream alluded to : — 
 
 "Blessed with health and a great flow of animal 
 spirits, God was not in all my thoughts; but though I 
 had forgotten Him, He had not forgotten me; and He 
 was pleased to visit me in a dream, which no changes 
 of time or place can erase from memory. 
 
 " I seemed to be falling down a well, backwards, with 
 my face turned towards the top. There I saw one 
 standing, having the appearance of a man. His face 
 was fresh and ruddy ; his eyes, like the blue sky, 
 beamed with benevolence, and I recollect his counte- 
 nance as distinctly as though I had seen it but yesterday. 
 He intimated his willingness to lift me out of the well 
 if I wished ; but I looked to the sides, and looked down, 
 and saw here and there projections of earth and stones, 
 and imagining that I could lay hold upon these and 
 climb up myself, I declined his assistance. I now began 
 
62 LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 to sway my body to the right and left, and to make 
 vigorous efforts to lay hold upon some projection, and 
 thereby arrest my downward course ; conscious, all the 
 while, that the Being at the top of the well, whether 
 man or angel, was able and willing to help — but I was 
 resolved to save myself. In an instant, to my utter 
 amazement, the well immeasurably widened, like the 
 mouth of a bell, and was lost in the bottomless pit. The 
 flames almost touched me ; my arms sank lifeless by my 
 side ; my strength was gone, my heart seemed to be 
 suffocated and ready to burst ; I looked up to the good 
 Being at the top of the well; he stood there still, regard- 
 ing me with the tenderest compassion ; in unspeakable 
 anguish I cried, 'Save me ! save me !' and in a moment 
 I was at the top of the well — I was safe ! and the terrors 
 of my dream all vanished away. I have never regarded 
 dreams as worth remembering, and yet this dream told 
 me the story of nry life in such vivid colors, that I could 
 not drive it from my mind. I was oppressed — terrified 
 — at the prospect of Hell, and began to pray and read 
 the Bible diligently." 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Cox (Presbyterian), paid a beautiful 
 tribute, in the course of the funeral services, to his 
 character as a man, and we introduce it to show that 
 our fidelity as a historian is sustained by the evidence, 
 of a witness as disinterested as distinguished. He said : 
 
 "My Christian friends, being accidentally, by which 
 I mean providentially, in this city, my heart, as if mag- 
 netized, brought me to this spot ; and though I am 
 speaking in the presence of hundreds who probably 
 knew Brother Cone better than I did, I doubt if there 
 are ten who have known him so long. Some ten or 
 twelve years since, Dr. Milner, Dr. Cone and myself, 
 met upon a committee, as we often had done before, in 
 this city. We used to live together in Philadelphia, all 
 
LIFE OF 8PENCEE HCCGHTON CONE. 63 
 
 of ns ignorant of God. I recollect that Dr. Milner, 
 upon that occasion asked, ' Do you know where first we 
 met?' 'Yes,' said Dr. Cone, 'at the theatre; and do 
 you know where we all expect to meet?' We all 
 looked upwards in hope of the mediation of the 
 Lord Jesns Christ, to whom we were all indissolubly 
 and for ever united by faith. I will simply add, that 
 while Dr. Milner was a member of Congress and a dis- 
 tinguished lawyer, he was awakened and began to seek 
 God, in the autumn of 1812. In the same autumn so 
 did I, although the youngest of the three, and I believe 
 it was in the next spring that Brother Cone began to 
 seek and to find Him who first sought and found him. 
 And do you think that it is with any ordinary interest 
 that I contemplate this scene ? If it is a fact that on some 
 points we differed, it is a grander fact that on greater 
 and more points we agreed. I always felt that he was 
 my brother, and I am very glad to hope that in the 
 resurrection of the just, the Universe will know that we 
 were brothers. I say to him, ' Farewell, sleeper in 
 Jesus.' Them that sleep in Jesus, shall God bring unto 
 him. ' Of all that my father hath given me will I lose 
 nothing, but will raise it up again at the last day.' It 
 is almost half a century since I first became acquainted 
 with our deceased brother — since he first impressed me 
 with the brilliancy of his genius, the power of his voice 
 and the strength of his mind. Long before he became 
 a Christian I knew him in the city of Philadelphia and 
 I am happy to attest — as few men can do now, because 
 they are gone — that his character for morality, and for 
 a domestic and holy affection, I had almost said, for his 
 mother and other relatives, had won for him a peculiar 
 lame, even before he knew Christ. But he is gone, and 
 I have no doubt that Heaven is richer, as I am sure 
 Earth is poorer, because he has left us." 
 
64: LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 1810-11-12. 
 
 The summer of 1810 was spent as usual in Baltimore, 
 Washington and Alexandria. On the 6th of August he 
 left Washington, to fulfill an engagement at the latter 
 place. A few days after his arrival, he met with an 
 accident which laid him up for some time. In a letter 
 dated August 17th he alludes briefly to it: 
 
 " I have been confined to my room this week, and 
 shall be I fear for a fortnight to come. In returning 
 home from the Falls of the Potomac, the carriage was 
 overturned; I was tumbled underneath it, and my leg 
 bruised most villainously from the knee to the ankle. 
 So here I am, all alone in this town of Alexandria, with 
 my foot mounted on a chair and pillow, and my gentle 
 disposition in not the sweetest of all possible moods of 
 course. It was a miracle my limbs or my neck did not 
 get broken, for I was on the lower side, and all the 
 people in the carriage came thundering down on my poor 
 harmless shank. But there is a special providence even 
 in the fall of a sparrow, and I hope I am sincerely grate- 
 ful for my escape." 
 
 On the 28th of the same month he says — " My leg is 
 getting better — I act away at night, and sit with it 
 perched upon a chair all day." The extracts of letters 
 showing the character of his mind at this period, must 
 necessarily appear desultory and unconnected, but it 
 will be seen how constant a vein of correct thinking per- 
 vades them. They show that his character was very 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 65 
 
 early formed, and his mind always occupied in the 
 endeavor to arrive at truth. 
 
 Thus he is recommending study to a friend, and says : 
 " I am confident your mind is capable of the utmost 
 refinement, and nothing is requisite to attain this desi- 
 rable end but perseverance and industry. You well 
 know that all the attractions of the fairest form soon 
 lose their magic charm, if not supported by an improved 
 taste and cultivated understanding. Who then that has 
 soul or reason, would not exert their every nerve to ren- 
 der their minds at least as beautiful and engaging as 
 their persons! Their minds that live for ages— their 
 persons, alas ! like a summer flower, so soon cut down. 
 This language is inconsistent with the customs and prin- 
 ciples of the gay world in which you live, but not, I 
 trust, entirely ungrateful to you. How can we better 
 thank the Author of our existence, than by improving 
 the noble faculties He has bestowed upon us ? In what 
 way can we so readily achieve our own earthly comfort, 
 or how pass the hours of a life made dreary by disap- 
 pointment or poverty, with so much enjoyment as in 
 communicating our sentiments to our friends, conversing 
 with them, and if possible instructing them ? You attach 
 more difficulty to the idea of writing than belongs to 
 it. Your leisure hours are some of them undoubtedly 
 employed in reading. Thoughts, conceptions, a variety 
 of ideas and opinions must necessarily follow. You have 
 then only to arrange the reflections, which the perusal of 
 a well-written book occasions, to clothe these reflections 
 in your own words, and a composition must be produced 
 more or less perfect, according to the pains you have 
 dedicated to it! could you not write down^ your 
 thoughts on love, friendship, manners; the duties of 
 wife or husband, parent or child ? You certainly have 
 thoughts on all these subjects, and is it not as easy to 
 
66 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 write them down, as to speak them to a friend ? Believe 
 me, it is a habit soon acquired. A little attention will 
 make it rather an amusement than a labor. Have you 
 read the Scottish chiefs? Are you not moved by heroic 
 actions ? Does not the glow of patriotism kindle in your 
 bosom ? Emotions new, terrific, sublime, crowd upon 
 you at the recital. Does not your soul put up a fervent 
 prayer to heaven for the safety of Wallace, while storm- 
 ing the walls of Dumbarton, or when marshalling his 
 gallant band, against the oppressors of his country, upon 
 the Carse of Sterling ? I have not room to tell you 
 what I think of this admirable novel — a novel did I say? 
 — 'tis a real history. Let me hear what you think of it." 
 
 How delicately the timid correspondent is drawn 
 out! How simple and admirable the rules laid down 
 • — to write without effort at finery or rhetoric — to write 
 just as the emotion of the mind dictates. What a pity 
 this rule were not universally followed. We should 
 come somethiug nearer carrying a window in our 
 breasts, and truth would perhaps forsake her well, to 
 live a little while in upper air. It must be remembered 
 that this was written shortly after the appearance of 
 Miss Porter's celebrated novel, and whilst it was the 
 book of the day. 
 
 In a letter dated October 16th, 1810, occurs the first 
 intimation of his intention to abandon the stage. The 
 reasons he urges are precisely the same he ever after- 
 wards did, and his consistency shows that in this as in 
 all other actions of his life he proceeded upon calm 
 reflection, and was governed by principles, not impulses. 
 
 " My profession," he says, " which I adopted from 
 necessity, is becoming every day more disgusting tome. 
 It destroys all reflection which alone can improve and 
 enlighten the human mind. I pray heaven that I may 
 speedily exchange it for something better in itself, and 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 67 
 
 also more congenial to my feelings. What can be more 
 degrading to the nature of man than to he stuck upon a 
 stage for fools and clowns to gape at, or criticise. Fellows 
 who can hardly write their own name, and yet think 
 themselves qualified to judge — approve — or condemn!" 
 
 From this time lie appears to have made untiring, 
 though often foiled attempts, to secure a position more in 
 accordance with his ideas of moral duty and manly 
 effort. On the 29th of the same month he says : 
 
 " You ascribe to me a greater depression of spirits 
 than is really true. I am indeed rather more thoughtful 
 than formerly, and care for the future frequently indu- 
 ces serious reflection. But this I am far from consider- 
 ing an evil. It is the lot of man to be assailed with 
 adversity's keen shafts in some shape or other. This 
 world is the school of misery, and our first lesson is to 
 learn to suffer. He who knows not that, has lived for 
 nothing. Whilst honor and integrity remain untar- 
 nished, the heart is secure in its own strength. By 
 reflecting upon our moral duties, the troubles incident 
 to humanity, the native energies of the mind, and the 
 great reward that perseverance never fails to receive, 
 we acquire a confidence in ourselves, wdiich, joined to a 
 consciousness of habitual rectitude, can alone enable us 
 not only to meet undismayed, but at last triumphantly 
 to surmount the direst distresses." 
 
 Once become the subject of serious reflection, his reso- 
 lution appears to have acquired daily strength. On the 
 2nd of September, 1811, he writes : 
 
 " Since your absence, I have been revolving in my 
 mind my present situation, and have finally determined, 
 let come what may, to abandon for ever a profession in 
 which I find nothing congenial to my desires or tastes. 
 It holds out to me no longer any allurement. I hope I 
 shall not be deemed either thoughtless or culpable, for 
 
68 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 believing that the good Power above, who guides our 
 actions, ' rough hew 'em how we will,' on poor Spencer 
 H., will bestow some avocation more congenial to the 
 wishes of his friends, and the warm feelings of his own 
 heart. Your persuasion, seconded by my own inclina- 
 tion, has caused this resolution, and I most fervently 
 pray that it may tend to good. I have formed various 
 schemes for future employment, none of which, perhaps, 
 will be carried into effect. A circulating library in 
 Baltimore is much wanted, and some of my friends 
 there have thought an establishment of the kind would 
 prove advantageous. But that and its success depend 
 upon contingencies ; and as my exjDenses are absolute 
 and certain, my receipts must be the same. Then I be- 
 think me of opening an academy ; that requires no 
 capital but a stock of brains and patience; yet even 
 these are rare articles, and having none myself, who of 
 my intimates will have the goodness to supply me?" 
 
 In referring to the absoluteness of his expenses, he 
 means the necessity of providing for his mother's family. 
 Both his parents at this time w r ere ill. 
 
 " My dear mother," he says, " is confined to her bed 
 with a raging fever. She has been ill these three days. 
 Heaven, in its infinite mercy, save and restore her to us. 
 My father's insanity is changed to great debility and 
 listlessness. Much as I have suffered on his account, 
 and terrible as the trial is to see him so, I cannot but 
 dread the probable termination of his present state. 
 Mother's fortitude is indeed great, or she had long since 
 sunk beneath the weight of accumulated griefs. But 
 why should I make you acquainted with my troubles? 
 What a powerful agent is selfishness. We all bow to its 
 influence. But for this I should never have abused the 
 kind solicitude you manifest in whatever concerns me." 
 
 It is not wonderful that his after life should have been 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 69 
 
 marked by a grave and unwavering consistency of pur- 
 pose ; nor that fortitude and calm self-reliance should 
 have taken in him the air almost of stubbornness. The 
 training of his youth prepared him for a course as 
 decided as it was conscientious. It is highly remark- 
 able, too, that whilst actively engaged in a profession, 
 to use his own words, " more calculated, perhaps, than any 
 other to stifle reflection, and banish thought," he should 
 have constantly indulged in the most serious and just 
 reflection. In spite, too, of the ridicule which would 
 naturally attach itself, amongst worldly and wicked 
 men, to such sentiments, so grave, so full of reproof for 
 them and for himself, uttered by one of themselves — by 
 one yet pursuing with ardor the vainest shadows of 
 worldly distinction — encompassed with all the gaiety 
 and dissipation of fashion — the centre of a circle of what 
 we call to-day, " fast young men " — full of animal 
 energy and spirit, and foremost in every racket match 
 and race ball — in spite of all the irony it no doubt drew 
 upon him, it is delightful to see how faithfully and 
 bravely he utters the whole truth. 
 
 His sister Catherine, a woman of lovely mind and 
 disposition, and afterwards a bright ornament of the 
 church, had been brought to the knowledge of the truth, 
 as it is in Christ Jesus, and immersed into the name of 
 the Triune God. A friend has written to him sneeringly 
 about her ; insinuating that she was " too young," that 
 it was " pretence of being better than the rest of her 
 young companions," and all the other common objec- 
 tions of the unconverted, to whom the action of one of 
 their own number, " remembering her Creator in the 
 days of her youth," directs the most pointed and unan- 
 swerable reproof. 
 
 Spencer II., from the very midst of his gay and 
 wicked companions, replies, April 19th, 1812 : — 
 
70 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 " 1 cannot but differ with you in opinion, as it respects 
 my dear sister Catherine. Perhaps when you consider 
 the subject attentively, divested of that prejudice which 
 education is too apt to impose upon us all, you may 
 think differently. 
 
 "You, no doubt, remember, that when some would 
 have driven away the children that pressed near Him, our 
 blessed Saviour made use of those ever-memorable words, 
 ' Suffer the little children to come unto me, for of such 
 is the kingdom of heaven.' Kitty's being ' so young,' 
 therefore, instead of striking me as an objection, forms 
 one of the strongest points in proof of the sincerity of 
 her religious choice. A thousand passages of Scripture 
 might be adduced to prove, conclusively, that — 
 
 " ' Youth is the time to serve the Lord, 
 The time to insure the great reward !' 
 
 " What sacrifice do we make, to manifest our love 
 and gratitude to Him who offered up His life to redeem 
 a fallen race, if we postpone our acknowledgments of 
 His infinite goodness, until the eleventh hour? We try 
 the world — we tread all the giddy mazes of pleasure — 
 we taste of every sweet that promises enjoyment; till at 
 length the overburdened appetite sickens with satiety, 
 and the fascinating allurements that once captivated our 
 senses, charm us no more ! We look back upon our past 
 life, upon the golden years of our youth, and find they 
 have all been thrown away upon trifling objects, whose 
 retrospection does not afford one pleasurable sensation. 
 Consequently, it were absurd and ridiculous for ns to 
 pursue the same course to the end of our days, for we 
 have already found that it cannot make us happy. We 
 have kept company, and fiddled, and danced and sung, 
 till we can do so no longer; and then, making virtue of 
 necessity, we religiously determine to become good, and 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 71 
 
 serve our Creator. But, will he receive us, then ? 
 "When our bodies were vigorous, and our minds ani- 
 mated and elastic, instead of laying up a treasure, where 
 ' rust does not corrupt, and where thieves do not break 
 in and steal,' we devoted them entirely to worldly plea- 
 sures and worldly pursuits. How, then, can we expect 
 that God will bend. His ear unto our prayers, when we 
 have nothing to offer up to Him but the mere wreck of 
 that noble being He created ? Ah, no ! It is a fearful 
 chance to put off Divine impulses. ' Behold, now is the 
 accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.' The 
 present moment is oars — the next is in the womb of futu- 
 rity, and we may never live to realize it. 
 
 " Kitty has become a member of that holy church, 
 whose walls, as Isaiah describes it, ' are called salvation, 
 and whose gates are praise.' Is she not safer there, 
 than if she had waited some years to try how potent are 
 the temptations of the world ? If she has entered it 
 with true sincerity of belief, and humility of heart — and. 
 this we do not doubt — is she not under the especial pro- 
 tection of her Maker ? If we believe the Scriptures, we 
 know she is ; ' for, where two or three are gathered, 
 together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.' 
 Such are the consolatory words of that omniscient Being, 
 the ' light of whose countenance ' does ever shine upon 
 believers. How then can they go astray into the crooked 
 paths of darkness ?" 
 
 Shortly before this he had joined the Baltimore Union 
 Artillery, and devoted himself at every leisure moment 
 to an ardent study of military science. The cloud of 
 war began to gather in the distance. The English orders 
 in council, and the celebrated Berlin and Milan decrees 
 of Napoleon Bonaparte, had disturbed the commerce 
 of the world. Men were attacked in their most sensi- 
 tive point — their pocket — and even merchants and 
 
72 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 traders, proverbially, and in all communities, the most 
 selfish and time-serving class, began to grow patriotic. 
 John Bull, insolent and overbearing, as he has ever 
 been, prior to his Crimean experiences, insulted and 
 outraged the American flag whenever an opportunity 
 offered. Our seamen were impressed, American citizen- 
 ship scouted as a protection from the insolence and 
 violence of British cruisers, and the men themselves 
 taken by force from under the very guns of their own 
 frigates, by English press-gangs. It was felt that war 
 could not long be deferred. The first mention we find 
 him make of his personal connection with the prepara- 
 tions for the impending struggle, occurs in a letter, dated 
 January 7th, 1812 : — - 
 
 "They mustered us all yesterday, in Howard's Park, 
 to stand a draft for the new army. I was so unfortunate 
 as to draw a blank, and of course, shall not be permitted 
 to march to Canada. Several of my friends here have 
 been talking to me about obtaining a captain's commis- 
 sion, as I have some powerful advocates at Court. For 
 the present I have declined the honor. I don't know 
 why exactly. Not through fear, I trust, and not, I am 
 sure, from a disapprobation of the proposed war." 
 
 For the time, therefore, he declined a commission in 
 the army, and addressed himself to the task he had 
 already marked out. His reasons for preferring it, he 
 confesses to be solely his family-ties, and the dread of 
 leaving mother and sister unjarovided for, if a bullet 
 should find its billet in his heart. Thus he says, March 
 29th, 1812 :— 
 
 "I have commenced the business of the ensuing year 
 already, by canvassing for a school. All I have spoken 
 to upon the subject assure me it cannot but succeed 
 and 1 expect to have an academy furnished, and pupils 
 enough engaged to warrant my opening it, by the first 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 73 
 
 of June, at farthest, provided I can obtain the mana- 
 ger's leave to absent myself from morning rehearsal, of 
 which I have very little doubt. I am preparing myself 
 with the utmost assiduity, to encounter any examination 
 that may be made as it respects my capacity to teach 
 grammar, elocution, mathematics, &c, &c, and I think 
 two months' close application will store my memory 
 with all those scholastic rules and usages in which I was 
 once so perfect, but which a more than five years' inter- 
 val has tended to obliterate. It will, indeed, prevent my 
 sleeping so late as I have been accustomed to, or spend- 
 ing so many hours with my friends as usual, but the 
 object I have in view is of power sufficient to inspire 
 an idiot with the persevering industry of a Demos- 
 thenes." 
 
 But he could not obtain the desired permission to 
 absent himself, and organize his academy, and "the 
 necessities of present life" bound him hand and foot. 
 Still his brain was busy with plans, and in May he 
 writes : — u If war is not previously T declared, I expect to 
 be in Philadelphia about the middle of June. Some 
 gentlemen here have offered me a share in a Commer- 
 cial Dictionary, they are publishing, by which 1 think 
 a considerable sum may be made, provided hostilities 
 do not take place. But we are so near the seat, of gov- 
 ernment, that the only cry we hear is war! war! war! 
 Soldiers are constantly marching through the city, and 
 the drum has scarcely ceased to beat for a single day 
 since I arrived here." But his favorite scheme was the 
 academy, and he felt the disappointment keenly. *' I 
 am vexed," he says, " and out of patience with this 
 villainous, deceitful world. My proposed plan for Eng- 
 lish and classical education met with no encouraging 
 warmth — 'twas cold, chilling apathy. I had to ask sup- 
 port and patronage from some whose charitable hearts 
 
 4 
 
74 LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 could scarcely be induced to believe that an actor might 
 be an honest, intelligent being ; and not of necessity, 
 either an idiot or a vagabond ! To have my principles 
 or abilities called in question by fellows, whose under- 
 standings could scarce aspire to the ' composition of a cab- 
 bage-net,' and whose hearts are as impervious to human 
 feeling as their heads to a Greek epigram, is rather too 
 much for an irritable creature, as you know I am, quietly 
 to endure. 'Twas too much for flesh and blood." 
 
 Happily for his desires, an opening presented itself, 
 and at the close of his engagement, he entered the office 
 of the " Baltimore American," as treasurer and book- 
 keeper to the establishment. The paper was in a flour- 
 ishing condition, the accounts numerous, and the duties 
 of his post constant and laborious ; but he pursued them 
 with a light heart, and untiring devotion. He had now 
 been for more than two years engaged to be married to 
 Miss Morrell. His love for her Was passionate and 
 intense ; his whole nature was absorbed by it. She had 
 refused to marry him so long as he should remain upon 
 the stage. His quitting it was a sine qua non with 
 regard to their union. No labor, therefore, appeared 
 hard to him, no effort beyond his strength. His habits 
 underwent an entire change. "I rise regularly at five 
 in the morning," he writes — " ' from necessity, and not 
 choice,' you'll say. No matter — I do it — and wend my 
 way to the office, and post my books." 
 
 To a friend in Philadelphia lie writes, in July, 1S12 : — 
 "While you are enjoying the sweets of retirement, 
 and offering incense to the goddess Flora, we talk of 
 nothing but the 'mailed Mars, up to the ears in blood.' 
 We hear nothing but the martial drum, the shrill fife, 
 the war-blowing clarion. The battle-steed already rears 
 his lofty head, proud of his patrioti-3 rider; and the 
 warrior, snuffing oppression on the gale, with enthusias- 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 75 
 
 tic zeal, buckles on the armor of resistance with all a 
 freeman's wonted alacrity ! Success to our cause ! and 
 may all who have enlisted in its support 
 
 " ' Remember the heroes, our fathers, who stood, 
 In the day of distress, side by side ; 
 When the grass of the vallies grew red with their blood 
 They stirred not, but conquered or died !' 
 
 My heart pants with anxious solicitude for the fate 
 of our gallant little navy. Rogers and Decatur will cer- 
 tainly cover themselves with glory ! They will fight 
 like heroes to the last, and die as brave men ought ! I 
 tremble for their immediate safety, opposed as they are 
 .by overwhelming numbers. But let us confide in the 
 God of battles, who will ultimately crown the cause of 
 virtue with success." 
 
 Every pulse of his heart throbbed with love of coun- 
 try. It was not the product of thought and reason in 
 him — it was a kind of nature. He was altogether 
 American, and clung to everything which belonged to 
 his country or bore her name, not so much w T ith the 
 calm persuasion of reason, as with the warm passion of 
 the lover. America was the mistress of his soul. She 
 was the home of freedom — the land of the brave. The 
 soul of man had here room and verge enough for its 
 expansion. No shackle bound the conscience. !No 
 power interposed between man and his Creator. A 
 glorious equality elevated him to the highest point of 
 humanity, and opened for him all the avenues of distinc- 
 tion. Merit was the true rank ; virtue the only order 
 of nobility. She was a mistress worthy of the idolatry 
 of a soul glowing with a poetic patriotism, a lofty faith 
 in man's capacity for self government, and he loved her 
 always witli the same passionate devotion, the same 
 republican energy of soul. There was no narrowness in 
 
76 LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CCKE. 
 
 liis love. To be an American was, in his mind, to inherit 
 a duty to all mankind. The world had never known 
 before what it was to have a city of refuge. God had 
 opened in the "Western world such a city, an ark of 
 safety for the oppressed of all lands, who had an energy 
 of soul sufficient to enable them to cut away the ties of 
 habit, and nativity, and enter into its blessedness. 
 Thus he considered the sentiment of Americanism 
 to be a sentiment of love and sympathy with all men 
 — an universal philanthropy. To attack America or 
 her institutions, was with him to threaten the new 
 ark of the covenant of liberty. The hostile attitude of 
 Great Britain, therefore, in 1812, aroused whatever was 
 then bitter or vengeful in his nature. The last asylum 
 of free thought, of the expansive energies of humanity, 
 was menaced by a power which had everywhere allied 
 itself with despotism, everywhere formed coalitions, and 
 subsidized venal courts, against the democratic idea as 
 developed in republican France. A sacrilegious blow 
 was to be aimed at the struggling youth of Freedom in 
 the Western world. He could not endure that others 
 should offer their breasts as a shield for his country, 
 thus menaced, and he not share the danger. He must 
 be a soldier. In such a cause it seemed base flattery, 
 to call the man who hesitated a coward. He studied 
 military science, with that power of concentration of 
 thought of which he was always master, and made him- 
 self proficient as an artillery officer — waiting impatiently 
 the summons to the field. 
 
 Baltimore has always been a city of strong patriotic 
 impulses. Her citizens are generally men of warm and 
 earnest feelings, and the war sentiment pervaded her 
 whole population. 
 
 During the summer of 1812, several popular outbreaks 
 threatened to take place against individuals, obnoxious 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. ?7 
 
 on account of their imputed sympathy, or correspon- 
 dence with the English. One riot did actually occur, of 
 an alarming and sanguinary character. Under date of 
 August 4th he describes it. 
 
 "The narrow limits of an epistle preclude the possi- 
 bility of narrating the bloody and horrible circumstan- 
 ces that occurred in Baltimore last week. They beggar 
 all description. The town was in alarm and confusion 
 for two nights, and all occasioned by twenty or thirty 
 desperadoes, who had before braved the citizens, and 
 publicly declared they would oppose the present admin- 
 istration (Madison's) at all hazards. Then, to complete 
 their folly, they fortify a house here, from which their 
 treasonous libels were to be forced upon the public, 
 although they had had one office demolished not a month 
 before. The populace hearing there were a great num- 
 ber of men, who, after uttering bloody threats, had 
 armed for defence, immediately after dark gathered 
 about the house. From irritating threats, on each 
 side, they proceeded to breaking windows. The 
 mob were then fired on by those garrisoned in the 
 house. One man was killed dead upon the spot, 
 Dr. Gale, who has left a wife and six children. Mr. 
 Williams a grocer, one of our subscribers, and a 
 worthy man, died yesterday, and left a wife on the point 
 of confinement, and two little helpless children. He Jived 
 but half a square from the 'Tory Block- House,' as it is 
 called, and hearing a noise, went to see, from the opposite 
 side of the street, what occasioned it. There were about 
 thirry others wounded, some dangerously. The reports 
 of the friends and acquaintances of those who were killed 
 and wounded, together with the constant discharge of 
 musketry, before morning, as you may suppose, had 
 called together an immense crowd. Vengeance was in 
 the mouth of every one. The mayor and some others 
 
78 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 prevented the house from being pulled down that 
 moment, and all within murdered. (Mr. Cone was, we 
 are informed, with the mayor.) About thirty rushed out 
 at the back gate and escaped before daylight. Seven- 
 teen had the temerity to remain till morning, when they 
 were conducted to jail. About 9 o'clock p. m. the next 
 day the jail was surrounded ; the doors, and, indeed, a 
 wall of two feet thickness, were broken down ; the 
 causers of the riot were dragged from their dungeon — 
 one of them killed — eight dreadfully beaten, and eight 
 escaped. The moment the last door was battered down, 
 the prisoners extinguished the candles, mixed with the 
 crowd, and cried out with them, ' Kill the damned 
 Tories !' which alone saved them." 
 
 Baltimore and the Baltimoreans were always dear to 
 him, and when, in reference to this very occasion, a 
 friend wrote to him censuring them severely, and ani- 
 madverting sharply upon their character, he replied 
 promptly : — 
 
 " As I am now a citizen of Baltimore, I cannot but 
 feel chagrined and mortified that its inhabitants should 
 be so basely slandered ; and that every ridiculous story 
 which Federal love for England delights to propagate, 
 should no sooner reach your ears than it gains entire 
 credence. My present occupation has made me ac- 
 quainted with a very large portion of the people of this 
 town, and as I cannot think myself entitled to the name 
 either of knave or fool, my opinions, I presume, are not 
 entirely erroneous. 
 
 "Baltimore has grown with almost unprecedented 
 rapidity. Its mechanics are characterized by industry, 
 and its merchants by enterprise. No city on the con- 
 tinent contains proportionably a greater number of pub- 
 lic institutions: of banks, seminaries, and churches. 
 At least three-fourths of us are devoted to our beloved 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. T9 
 
 country, its happy Constitution and laws ; are ready to 
 risk our lives and all we hold dear on earth in defence 
 of those boasted institutions of liberty and equal 
 rights, for the establishment of which our fathers toiled 
 and bled through a seven years' war. Is it for such 
 feelings, and such principles as these you ' despise the 
 Baltimoreans V or, have you suffered yourself, in con- 
 junction with many others, to be so unjust and so 
 ungenerous as to condemn to lasting infamy a whole 
 community, merely because a hundred lawless wretches 
 have committed a most horrid outrage upon social 
 order? Believe me, the great majority here are as sin- 
 cere lovers of order, and do as solemnly deprecate mobs 
 as any other people in the world. They suppressed 
 them immediately. The ringleaders were arrested, and 
 the grand jury have found them guilty of murder. 
 What more could have been done ? But enough of this 
 subject. 'Tis probable that we shall never think alike 
 upon it. From my soul I believe Alexander Hanson 
 and his associates enemies and traitors to their country ; 
 that they are joined with the Essex Junta, and are 
 devising means to bring about a separation of the Union. 
 Then farewell to American happiness and prosperity ! 
 We shall soon destroy each other by dissensions and 
 civil wars ; or tall an easy prey to that humane and 
 Christian nation, who, by falsehood and bribery, have, 
 at length, succeeded in raising the scalping-knife of the 
 savao-e against the helpless families that are thinly 
 scattered over our extensive frontiers. Neither age nor 
 sex are spared ! Nay, at this very moment, when per- 
 haps some frantic mother is shrieking over her butchered 
 babe, Hanson and his crew, who have the audacity to 
 call themselves Americans, are boldly and publicly 
 advocating the cause of the cruel government with 
 which we^are actually at war. Is this patriotic ? They 
 
80 LIFE OF SPENCEB HOUGHTON COISTE. 
 
 have repeatedly declared that 'Madison was directed 
 by Napoleon' — that the majority in Congress were sold 
 and under French influence — that they would oppose 
 the war and the Administration by every means in their 
 power, &c, &c. Is it to be wondered that the people 
 should be enraged at such paragraphs as these ? I think 
 not." 
 
 In the latter part of 1812, he finally retired from the 
 stage, and devoted himself to the support of Mr. Madi- 
 son's administration, and the advocacy of the war 
 against Great Britain, to the well-remembered battle- 
 cry of, " Free Trade and Sailors' Rights." The injustice 
 of the coarse pursued by the English government, in 
 impressing our seamen, and violating the neutrality of 
 our flag, excited him to a passionate opposition. These 
 events are become historical, and but little interest can 
 attach to the personal expressions of any individual. 
 It is not, however, ungrateful to remember, that his pen 
 exercised a large influence in rallying the democracy 
 of the country to a heartier support of the administra- 
 tion against foes, both foreign and domestic ; and cheered 
 the patriot in defending the cause of his country against 
 an invader, whose entire course, particularly in the 
 neighborhoods of Baltimore and Washington, was 
 marked rather by the rapacious cruelty of the barba- 
 rian, than the boasted chivalry of the English soldier. 
 It is rather an unfortunate circumstance that Americans 
 should always have been so unlucky as to find John 
 Bull, in time of war, in one of his least Christian 
 humors, and be compelled to recollect him as identified 
 with a provost Marshal Cunningham, or an Admiral 
 Cockburn. 
 
 During the summer of 1812, Miss Morrell's uncle, 
 Chandler Price, who had been the most violent oppo- 
 nent of her intimacy with Mr. Cone, died. The opposh 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER nOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 81 
 
 tion of her relatives, however, did not cease. They had 
 set their heart upon a wealthy and fashionable match 
 for her, in her own set; and the idea of her attachment 
 to a man of no position in what they then, and many 
 still, are pleased to call " good society," and one withal 
 dependent upon his daily exertions for his daily bread, 
 was insupportable to them. She had seen into his mind, 
 however, with the inspiration of affection, and all 
 attempts to injure or degrade him in her estimation, 
 tended only to give her a more entire confidence in his 
 goodness. 
 
 To please his betrothed, he yielded his desire to join 
 the Canadian expedition then talked of: — 
 
 " You have made me effeminate," he says, " and in my 
 temper softened valor's steel. Farewell, then, to the 
 subject of Canada. When I urged the impossibility of 
 your condemning in me what you admired in others, I 
 clid not refer immediately to a soldier's cap, but to those 
 principles of patriotism which ever animate freemen, 
 and which I deem the proudest boast of brave and true 
 Americans. I have ever believed it just and commend- 
 able to love one's country, and when I read how our 
 forefathers pledged 'their lives, their fortunes, and 
 their sacred honor' for its defence, I cannot help ask- 
 ing myself how I can be exempt from toil and sacri- 
 fices ? Why should not I, too, march to the tented field ? 
 I have been listening to-day, too, to an address deli- 
 vered by the Rev. John Hargrove to the Baltimore 
 Volunteers, who have received orders to march to- 
 morrow morning. The address was a very animated 
 one, and produced many a burst of indignation, coming 
 from the lips of an old "Revolutionary character, whose 
 only son was pressed on board an English frigate, and in 
 attempting to escape, found refuge only in a watery 
 grave. When I beheld the tears of bitter anguish 
 
 4* 
 
82 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 rolling down the venerable cheeks of a disconsolate, 
 grey-headed old man, -who had lost the prop of his 
 declining years, I must confess my feelings were such 
 as words cannot describe." * 
 
 "Your noble qualities, the genuine offspring of a 
 government, whose vital principles are equal liberty 
 and equal rights, have endeared you to me," he says to 
 a friend ; "I shall for ever abhor the idea of your chang- 
 ing an opinion, merely because it does not happen to 
 coincide with mine. Without boasting, I hope I am 
 honest and just. I think my political tenets are not 
 enshrined in prejudice, and I am quite certain they 
 were not consecrated upon the altar of interest. I know 
 that I love in an especial manner my country, my 
 family, and my friends. My belief in the expediency, 
 propriety, and absolute necessity of the present war 
 with Great Britain, is hearted. Merciful heaven ! are 
 there human beings, or, what is worse, much worse, 
 Americans, who not only defend, but approve the cause 
 and conduct of England % Oh ! my blood curdles in my 
 veins, when I hear reasonable creatures applauding that 
 corrupt and nefarious government; applauding a power 
 which has deprived two-thirds of the inhabitants of Ire- 
 land of their birthright ; that, under the semblance of law, 
 murdered the innocent William Orr, the eloquent Em- 
 met the patriotic and immortal Tone ! — that government, 
 whose fiend-like agents drove many of the miserable 
 citizens of Waterford from their homes, and when the 
 remaining women and children took shelter in a holy 
 temple of the Most High, instantly set it on fire ! — that 
 government, which has entombed eleven thousand Ame- 
 rican seamen on board their floating dungeons, where 
 they have been flogged by English hands, and compelled 
 to fight even against their brethren ; and, to sum all 
 up, that corrupt and inhuman government, which has 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON' CONE. 83 
 
 sent the savage upon our defenceless borders, to stalk in 
 indiscriminate butchery, and do deeds from which 
 humanity shrinks with detestation and horror ! And 
 yet, under all these circumstances, you listen patiently, 
 perhaps belie vingly, to those who denounce democrats, 
 and a democratic administration, and side with those 
 who say everything in favor of England, and against 
 their own country. Can it be so ? I do not express 
 myself thus strongly without careful reflection. These 
 are no times to trifle. Our prosperity is threatened by 
 too many implacable foes from both within and with- 
 out. My beloved country needs all her friends. For 
 this reason, I have cheerfully assumed a soldier's cap. 
 If I be wrong in this, I must be wrong in everything. 
 If my love of country be not of the right kind, then am 
 I willing to yield up all pretensions to correctness upon 
 any subject ; then am I willing to confess that the best 
 passions and affections of my soul, are base and insig- 
 nificant. But you, an American, cannot doubt the 
 righteousness of our cause. Farewell, and, oh remem- 
 ber !— it is sweet to die for our country." 
 
84: LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 CIIAPTEK VI. 
 1813-14-15-16. 
 
 It was in the midst of the war, and whilst most 
 ardently employed in the defence of the Administration, 
 that two events took place, by which all his after life 
 was colored — his happy marriage and his happier con- 
 version. 
 
 Plis account of how he was brought from darkness 
 into God's marvellous light, so plain, so eloquent, needs 
 no addition from us. 
 
 " Having served the proprietors of the ' American ' 
 more than a year, John Norvell, Esq., of Kentucky, who 
 married my youngest sister (long since dead), and who 
 has since been Senator of the United States from Michigan, 
 induced me to unite with him and purchase and conduct 
 the ' Baltimore Whig.' During the last war we sustained 
 the Madison Administration with all our powers ; at the 
 same time I commanded the Baltimore Union Artillery 
 Company, and was carried away with military ardor. 
 For two years I do not recollect attending public wor- 
 ship more than twice. Politics and war completely 
 engrossed my mind. 
 
 " In the month of November, 1813, after breakfast, I 
 took up a newspaper, and saw, among other things, a 
 large sale of books advertised at Wood's auction rooms, 
 and said to myself I will look in as I go to the office, 
 and see what they are. 1 did so, and the first book I 
 took up was a volume of the Works of John Newton. 
 In an instant my whole life passed in review before me. 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 85 
 
 I remembered talcing that book out of the college 
 library, while at Princeton, and reading Newton's Life 
 to my mother. His dream of the lost ring reminded me 
 forcibly of my dream of the well, and I felt an ardent 
 desire to own the book and read the dream again. I 
 left the rooms, having first requested Mr. Wood, who 
 was a particular friend, to put it up for sale as soon as 
 he saw me in the evening, as it was the only work I 
 wanted. He promised to do so, and I immediately went 
 out towards our office, which was nearly opposite ; but 
 I had scarcely reached the middle of the street, when a 
 voice ' like the sound of many waters,' said to me — this 
 is your last warning ! I trembled like an aspen leaf— I 
 feltmyself to be in the grasp of the Almighty, and an 
 earthquake could not have increased my dismay. Ser- 
 mons heard when only eight years old, on the Balm of 
 Giiead, and on the Lamb of God— the dream— all were 
 painfully present, and I thought my hour of doom had 
 come. I went to the office, took clown the day-book to 
 charge the new advertisements, but my hand trembled 
 so that I could not write, and 1 put the book back in its 
 place. I went out into South street— then walked up 
 and down Market street in the crowd till dinner-time, to 
 drown, if it were possible, my thoughts and feelings. 
 But all in vain. The sound still rung, not only in my 
 ears, but through my heart, like the sound of a trumpet 
 — this is your last warning ! I went home to dinner, 
 endeavoring to conceal my feelings as much as possible 
 from my wife. The day wore heavily away ; I was at 
 the auction room at the hour; purchased the book 
 that seemed so strangely connected with my weal or 
 woe ; returned to my house immediately and read New- 
 ton's eventful life entirely through before retiring to 
 rest. There seemed to be some strong points of resem- 
 blance between us ; he had been rescued from the wrath 
 
86 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 to come ! "What would become of me ? I found that 
 lie read the Bible and obtained light. I went to bed 
 with the determination of rising early to imitate his 
 example, and search the Scriptures. My dear young 
 wife thought I was going mad. Oh no ! no ! I was not 
 mad ! He who had compassion on the poor Gadarene, 
 was now bringing me to my right mind in a way that 
 I knew not. 
 
 " I commenced reading the Scriptures with deep 
 interest, to find out how a sinner could be saved ; and 
 in two months, read the Psalms and different portions of 
 the Old Testament, and the New Testament I think more 
 than twenty times through. The Psalms, John's Gospel, 
 and the Epistle to the Romans, were particularly pre- 
 cious. It required great effort to attend to domestic 
 duties, and my business in the office ; for I felt continu- 
 ally that it would profit me nothing ' to gain the whole 
 world, and at last lose my own soul.' I sought out 
 preachers, and heard Mr. Duncan frequently ; but I 
 could not learn from any of them the way of salvation. 
 One evening, after the family had all retired, I went up 
 into a vacant garret, and walked backwards and for- 
 wards in great agony of mind ; I kneeled down ; the 
 instance of Hezekiah occurred to me ; like him I turned 
 my face to the wall and cried for mercy. An answer 
 seemed to be vouchsafed in an impression, that just as 
 many years as I had passed in rebellion against God, so 
 many years I must now endure, before deliverance could 
 be granted. I clasped my hands and cried out, 'Yes, 
 dear Lord, a thousand years of such anguish as I now 
 feel, if I may only be saved at last.' I continued to 
 read, and whenever I could steal away unobserved into 
 the garret, there I walked the floor, when all around 
 was hushed in sleep ; there I prayed and poured out 
 tears of bitter sorrow. While thus engaged one night, 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 87 
 
 the plan of salvation was revealed to me in the figure 
 of Noah's Ark. I saw an ungodly race swept away 
 with the flood, but Noah and his family were saved, for 
 God shut them in the Ark. I felt that as a sinner I was 
 condemned and justly exposed to immediate and everlast- 
 ing destruction. I saw distinctly that in Christ alone I 
 must be saved, if saved at all ; and the view I at that mo- 
 ment had of God's method of saving sinners, I do still most 
 heartily entertain, after thirty years' experience of his 
 love. This was Saturday night, and that night I slept 
 more sweetly than I had done for many weeks. Before 
 daylight on Lord's clay morning I awoke, and went 
 down stairs quietly, made a fire in the front parlor, and 
 threw open the window-shutters, and as soon as I could 
 see, commenced reading the New Testament. I opened 
 to the 13th chapter of John, and came to where Peter 
 said, ' thou shall never wash my feet ;' Jesus answered 
 him, ' If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.' 
 Simon Peter saith to him, ' Lord, not my feet only, but 
 also my hands and my head.' At that moment my 
 heart seemed to melt. I felt as if plunged into a bath 
 of blood divine — I was cleansed from head to foot — 
 guilt and the apprehension of punishment were both 
 put away ; tears of gratitude gushed from my eyes in 
 copious streams ; the fire in the grate shone on the paper 
 upon the wall, and the room was full of light ; I fell 
 upon the hearth-rug, on my face, at the feet of Jesus, 
 and wept and gave thanks ; my sins, which were many, 
 were all forgiven, and a peace of mind succeeded which 
 passeth understanding. Bless the Lord, O my soul ! 
 from that hour to the present, a doubt of my calling 
 and election of God has never crossed my mind. With 
 all my imperfections, shortcomings, and backsliding of 
 heart, I have from that hour steadfastly believed that 
 'neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, 
 
88 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 nor powers, nor tilings present, nor things to come, nor 
 height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able 
 to separate me from the love of God which is in Christ 
 Jesns my Lord !' 
 
 " I wished immediately to be baptized. There was 
 no question as to the right way. I had read the New 
 Testament so thoroughly that the doctrines of the Gospel 
 were perfectly plain, though I had not conferred with 
 flesh and blood, or asked any one what church I ought 
 to join. 
 
 " Next day I went to Brother Lewis Richards, pastor 
 of the First Baptist Church, Baltimore, to inquire when 
 I could be baptized. 
 
 " He said he would converse with me on "Wednesday, 
 being then engaged, and let me know. I called accord- 
 ing to appointment, and he requested me to relate my 
 Christian experience. I told him what God had done 
 for my soul. He said if I would come to their church 
 meeting, next Friday afternoon, at three o'clock, he 
 would be glad to hear me say the same thing again. 
 Accordingly I went. Half a dozen brethren, and forty 
 or fifty sisters were present. The old man called me to 
 him, beside the Communion table, and asked me to tell 
 those present what the Lord had done for me. As there 
 was no other candidate, he wished me to be particular 
 in my relation. I enjoyed great liberty of speech; my 
 soul was lifted up as upon the wings of a dove, and I 
 felt as if I should stay a very short time upon earth. 
 With a melting heart I recounted all the way in which 
 the Lord my God had brought me out of darkness into 
 His marvellous light ; and the narrative was responded 
 to by sobs and tears from many of those who were pre- 
 sent. The pastor asked but one question — when I 
 wished to be baptized ? I replied, to-morrow. He said 
 it was too cold ; the ice was thick, and he was lame with 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 89 
 
 rheumatism. Several members said — ' Oh ! try, Brother 
 Richards; we have not had one baptism for so many 
 months past.' He consented. Many came and took me 
 by the hand, and bid me God-speed. Some said, ' We 
 have not heard such a sermon as your experience in 
 many a year; the Lord will make a preacher of you.' 
 On Saturday morning, February 4th, 1814, I was bap- 
 tized in the Patapsco, by Elder Lewis Richards, the ice 
 having been cut for the purpose. It was more than a 
 foot thick, and the spectators, with many of my old 
 companions among them, stood on the ice within a few 
 yards of where I was buried, and went away saying, 
 ' He is mad ; he'll not stick to that long.' 
 
 " In coming out of the water, I felt a strong desire to 
 tell to all around, what a dear Saviour I had found, but 
 my sense of propriety prevented me from speaking." — 
 Phonographic JReport of Sermon to the Young, Jan., 
 1844. 
 
 Upon the 8th of the same month, he wrote to his 
 sister Amelia : — 
 
 " I gave in my experience to the members of the 
 first Baptist Church on Friday afternoon last. A 
 number of women were present, and my recital, which 
 so clearly demonstrated that salvation is all of grace, 
 and not of works least we should boast, affected 
 them so much that I could see scarcely a dry eye around 
 me. 
 
 " Gratitude and thankfulness to God for what he had 
 done for my soul ; for that blood-bought, free reward, 
 that golden harp, strung and tuned for endless years, to 
 sound in the Father's ears the name of the Lamb that 
 was slain, which he had given to unworthy me, so 
 wrought upon my feelings and overcame my heart, that 
 tears of joy and love continually interrupted my utter- 
 ance. All present were so fully satisfied that the Lord 
 
90 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 had commenced the good work, and that, therefore, 
 according to his gracious promise, he would complete it 
 till the great day, and seal my soul with the atoning 
 blood of the everlasting covenant, that not a question 
 was proposed by a single member, but all received me 
 gladly. On Saturday, between twelve and one o'clock, 
 1 was baptized. The ice was so thick that a number of 
 spectators stood upon it, round about the grave in 
 which, I trust, the ' old man' was buried. The day 
 was cold but clear, and although the water froze upon 
 the clothes of those who cut away the ice, yet I felt a 
 glow of warmth and animation, unwonted and unknown 
 before, even while buried beneath the wave. Oh, 'twas 
 a happy, happy sensation ! — Next in order to that beati- 
 fic moment when I heard my Jesus say — ' Go in 
 peace ! Thy sins which are many, be all forgiven thee !' 
 On Sunday I was received into the church by the 
 imposition of hands, and admitted to commune with 
 saints." 
 
 On the 10th of the previous May he had been married, 
 by the Rev. Mr. Kemper of Philadelphia, to Miss Sally 
 Wallace Morrell, the daughter of Robert Morrell and 
 Mary Price. At the time of their marriage — Miss 
 Morrell was a strict Episcopalian — as far as form went — 
 and like all decided formalists, very intolerant of every 
 other form ; considering dissenters from." High Church," 
 indeed, as little better than dangerous and desperate 
 rebels against all truth and goodness. This explains the 
 expression which he uses — " My dear young wife 
 thought I was going mad." It appeared to her, if not 
 absolute insanity, the very height of unreasonableness 
 and delusion. She could not understand how a man of 
 excessive animal spirits ; the liveliest of companions, full 
 of anecdote, quip, and crank ; the soul of every gay 
 society, should adopt a faith, and ally himself to proles- 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 91 
 
 sors of a form of religious belief considered by the world 
 puritanical and straight-laced, refusing to mix in public 
 amusements, forbidding the theatre, the ball-room, or 
 race course — forbidding everything, in fact, which the 
 high church Episcopalians considered innocent recrea- 
 tion. The idea even that, he was in earnest forced itself 
 very slowly into her mind. 
 
 How often has she told over, with a quiet humor 
 which was natural to her, the secret rage and astonish- 
 ment of her heart. She loved him too well to exhibit 
 anything but the latter, whilst the former was absolutely 
 stifling her. He would go to the place now so dear 
 to him, the place where a little band of despised people 
 called Baptists, assembled themselves together for 
 prayer meeting twice a week. She could not bear to be 
 away from him. She must be where she could see him. 
 So she would follow him, and take her seat away back 
 in some dark corner, and watch and listen, to try and 
 find out what could be the attraction to such a dull and 
 gloomy place. The plain Baptist folk, for the church was 
 very feeble then in Baltimore, and few wealthy people 
 belonged to it, saw with no small wonder a woman gaily 
 dressed, glide in, and hide herself away in the remotest 
 corner of the room. But she took no heed of them. She 
 had eyes only for the one amongst them, whose conduct 
 seemed so wild to her. It was a hard trial. It seemed 
 as if a wall was being built up between them. Why 
 should he love anything but her ? she loved him wholly. 
 What magic was there in religion that it should win 
 away from her even a part of his attention ? What was 
 there in the Bible that he should pore over it all the 
 while at home, and never talk as he used to do. He 
 was kind, kinder, and tenderer, if possible, than ever — 
 but so absorbed, so wrapped up in this new-found faith, 
 that he did not seem to belong any more to her or to the 
 
92 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 world. And so by stealth, for her pride forbade to do it 
 openly, she took the Bible and pored over it to see if 
 she could find out the strange secret of its fascination. 
 
 Thus the beautifiu mystery of woman's love led 
 upwards to the divine mystery of a Saviour. Is He not 
 wonderful in working, and His ways past finding out ? 
 
 But it was the mother who, beside her baby's cradle, 
 had laid hold upon the future with such a lofty and 
 serene faith, as rose almost into the dignity of prophecy ; 
 who had never doubted, and therefore never felt any 
 sacrifice hard, which could fit him for her Master's work, 
 to whom that Master, in the tenderest of His mercies, 
 again committed her darling, new born out of the world, 
 her child and God's. Oh happy child ! from the same 
 lips which taught him honor first, and how to live for 
 man, to learn the holier lesson of a Christian's life, and 
 how to live for God : to clasp her hand in his, and lay 
 his head upon his Saviour's breast — her brother and her 
 son ! 
 
 The news of his struggles, his doubts, his fears, 
 brought her to him on wings of anxious love, and how 
 she sped, being there, his words discover : 
 
 "Mother's company and conversation were always 
 very highly prized, but for some weeks they have indeed 
 been of inestimable value to me ! When grief and 
 despair have almost overwhelmed my sin-sick soul, she, 
 like my guardian angel, has encouraged me to press 
 forward with increased ardor, and make my calling and 
 election sure. She has often wept over her poor boy, 
 but with God's blessing, purchased by the dear Redeem- 
 er's blood, her tears for me shall not henceforth be tears 
 of bitterness and anguish, but of holy joy. I have been 
 enabled to look back upon my past life, and I trust with 
 seeing eyes and an understanding heart ; But oh ! what 
 a gloomy retrospect ! not one single hour well spent ; no, 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 93 
 
 not one solitary moment dedicated to the honor and 
 glory of Him who came into the world and died to save 
 sinners. But did He die to save a wretch like me ? Oh, 
 that dreadful negative which my fears and crimes so 
 irresistibly suggest. Like an unstable traveller, tumb- 
 ling from some icy precipice's awful peak, so have I, for 
 many long years, been falling into the bottomless pit. 
 A Saviour's arm alone can redeem me from destruction 
 In the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity I can only 
 cry aloud for mercy and pardon. Is there no balm in 
 Gileacl. is there no physician there ? Are not you one 
 of the Good Shepherd's flock, and will not your prayers be 
 heard ? Join with me then, thou whom consanguinity has 
 named my brother, and let us pray earnestly and. without 
 ceasing, that I be not a cast- away. Fare thee well! I 
 am ill at ease, and cannot give you even a faint idea of 
 what is passing within me. A greater than Gabriel 
 must protect me or I perish." 
 
 Thus he pours out the anguish of his soul, when first 
 awakened, to his only brother Joseph, who not long 
 before had experienced a change of heart, and united, 
 with the church in Philadelphia. Indisposition the bro- 
 thers were very dissimilar. Spencer was eager and rest- 
 lessly active ; neither mind nor body ever seemed at rest. 
 He rarely sat down, even in the house. When studying, 
 his books would be laid open upon his table, and after 
 bending down and reading with the greatest rapidity, 
 he would pace the room backwards and forwards, from 
 side to side, for hours. He hardly ever made a head, or 
 memorandum of any sort for speech, lecture, or sermon, 
 .but arranged it all mentally. This habit created a 
 second habit of talking aloud to himself when alone, 
 and in his talk, even 7 thought, no matter how opposite 
 from the main subject of his consideration, shaped itself 
 instantly into words. Thus as he walked rapidly up and. 
 
9i LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 down could be heard texts of Scripture ; a line of a 
 hymn; an opinion of some man's character; a word of 
 advice to another ; a sentence of a criticism on the 
 character of a new book ; a snatch of some old-timed 
 song ; a queer anecdote ; a burst of eloquent declama- 
 tion, or passionate appeal — all heterogeneously mingled, 
 and rolling over each other like the waves of a single 
 stream, which carries down with it in its course what- 
 ever, whether precious or worthless, is loosened from 
 the banks and swept onwards by its hurrying waters. 
 He has been heard thus to deliver whole passages, 
 which he has re-delivered in public weeks afterwards 
 verbatim,, although meanwhile he may have preached or 
 spoken on twenty different occasions. His memory 
 was in fact marvellous, and cultivated and trained so 
 perfectly that it had the accuracy of some fine machine, 
 always obeying implicitly the direction given it, and 
 acting according to the degree of power applied. Thus 
 although he commonly read standing, and seemed to do 
 little more than run his eye over the page, like one in 
 search of a particular passage, he would throw by a 
 book on subjects with which he was conversant, and if 
 questioned about it, compress its whole argument into a 
 dozen pithy sentences. Read it yourself, and it seemed 
 an enigma, not only how he had got at all that was in it 
 in such a space, but often why any one should have used 
 so many words to say what could be put in so few. 
 
 Joseph, his younger brother, was on the contrary a 
 mild and retiring man, of elegant reading rather than 
 profound knowledge — an artist by nature and choice. 
 He evinced an extremely early tendency to painting, 
 and would steal away and shut himself up anywhere 
 alone with his little box of water colors and his brush — 
 forgetful of everything else. Spencer was obliged daily 
 to take them away from him in order to make him 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 95 
 
 attend to his ordinary lessons. But nature had sriven 
 him his bent ; education could not warp it, and lie 
 became a painter and engraver. As the latter he 
 ranked amongst the best in the United States twenty- 
 five years ago. He was mild and retiring, as we have 
 said, in manner. It was a moral quietness however, and 
 extended no further than a distrust of his own capacity 
 for public life. He had, what is very common in unas- 
 suming men, an indomitable courage, and a hatred of 
 every kind of oppression, which the least circumstance 
 would arouse into fiery energy. His brother used to 
 say that until he was over twenty-one he never expected 
 to find him alive at the day's close ; since, if walking 
 through the streets, he happened to see any one in trou- 
 ble, he was morally certain to jump into the middle of 
 the fight, without stopping to ask a question, and either 
 hazard a night in the lock-up, by flogging the aggressor, 
 or be brought home himself thoroughly well bruised 
 and disfigured. On several occasions his brother 
 Joseph's absence from home became alarming ; often 
 anxious search found him lying by the wall of the State 
 House yard, or elsewhere, beaten into insensibility. 
 They both, in fact, inherited what we may call the 
 instinct of fight, and Spencer could never hear a tale of 
 battle or of heroism without his eye dancing and his 
 nostril dilating with eager sympathy. All the mastery 
 of a powerful will, and the control of divine grace M T ere 
 necessary to curb the natural fire and impetuous bra- " 
 very of his character. He was naturally fitted for a 
 soldier, equally cool and reckless, for the sentiment 
 of physical fear was unknown to him ; it was not in 
 his nature, and he had in reality no sympathy for 
 man or woman who felt it. With that divine controller 
 of his thoughts and actions, the love of Christ constrain- 
 ing him, he became the patient, quietly determined, but 
 
96 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 daring defender of the truth, to whom "neither heights 
 nor depths, nor principalities, nor powers," were obsta- 
 cles — if he believed he heard the Captain of his salva- 
 tion say, "forward!" 
 
 We present this feature of his character strongly, 
 because it was truly his great characteristic as a man ; 
 and without keeping it in view, it would be impossible 
 rightly to understand his conduct, either as a man or a 
 Christian. It resulted naturally from this quality of 
 mind, that, having thought and reasoned out a principle, 
 he squared his life and actions by it, and never compro- 
 mised it for the sake of expediency either for friend or foe. 
 He said, therefore, constantly — " such an one would have 
 me do this, and such another that, because it is expedient. 
 But is it true? Our God is truth! Can we serve an 
 expedient, when he shows us a truth? I do not know 
 what other men dare do ; but I dare not do it. I dare 
 not disobey a " thus saith the Lord." If I am unfaithful 
 in a little thing, what right have I to expect that his 
 grace will keep me faithful in the weightier matters of 
 the law ? Is baptism immersion ? Then I must preach 
 it, for woe is me if I preach not the Gospel. And if it 
 is right to preach it, is it not right to print it? Let God 
 be true but every man a liar." 
 
 Of his brother Joseph, from whom our subject has 
 necessarily diverted us, we shall speak more largely at 
 a future period. 
 
 Peace and hope no sooner enter and take possession 
 of Spencer's soul, than it is filled with anxiety for his 
 brethren and sisters after the flesh, who are yet out of the 
 ark of safety : 
 
 " Oh !" he exclaims, " how my poor heart bleeds for 
 my sisters. May they be enabled to flee from the wrath 
 to come. May the Lamb of God, who taketh away the 
 sins of the world, melt our obdurate souls, and inspire 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 97 
 
 them with an insatiable thirst for that glory which passeth. 
 
 all understanding, and which fadeth not away. Eliza, 
 Amelia. Martha, my sisters, oh! my sisters! can you 
 contemplate the torments of the damned which are ever- 
 lasting — the felicity of true believers which is eternal — 
 and yet calmly sit down, without an endeavor to avoid the 
 fate of the one, or secure the lot of the other? Are 
 your obdurate hearts insensible to fear? Be it so. Say 
 'tis a base, unmanly emotion, beneath the august dignity 
 of our nature. I agree with you. Have you neither 
 gratitude nor love? You dare not say no, for they are 
 the ennobling features of the human mind. Let me 
 then point out an object worthy their entire, their undi- 
 vided exercise. Emmanuel bleeding upon the cross, and. 
 expiring in agonies for lost sinners; that all who look 
 on him with eyes of faith might be saved from the 
 unutterable woe their crimes deserve. Can }'ou turn 
 away your eyes from this soul-redeeming Saviour, who 
 died, that you might live ; this great Captain of our 
 Salvation, who was made perfect through suffering; 
 who was scourged, and scoffed, and spit upon, for you 
 ■ — even for you — that the stern justice of the immutable 
 God might be satisfied ; that the utmost rigor of the 
 law might be complied with, and a way thereby devised 
 to bring many sons to glory ? Why need I add more? 
 You will not close your eyes till the tears of penitence 
 stream down your cheeks, and your cry shall be — 'Lord, 
 what shall we do to be saved V " 
 
 Nor was it strange he should be so anxious for them. 
 He was so happy himself, and as he had shared all 
 other happiness with them, it was terrible to feel they 
 eonld not partake with him in the greatest of all. " I 
 am so happy," he exclaims, "I can scarcely refrain 
 from prostrating myself upon my face, and crying — ' Oh ! 
 the wonderful grace of God — oh! the matchless love 
 
 5 
 
98 THE LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 of Jehovah Jesns !' To me it has indeed been match- 
 less. He has built me up in the faith. My hope is sure 
 and steadfast. My soul feels as it were indeed sealed 
 with the Holy Spirit unto the day of the Lord. No 
 clouds or doubts have interfered to overshadow its anti- 
 cipated felicity, or eclipse that beam of heavenly light 
 with which the great Captain of our Salvation has 
 deigned to illume my once benighted mind. Oh! 
 Lamb of God ! My Friend, my Guardian, my Guide, 
 my Saviour, my All-in- All — from beginning to end — - 
 grant me grace to love and adore Thee as I ought. And 
 yet the world, pretends to ridicule sensations so delight- 
 ful, so heavenly, and pity our fancied delusions. Poor 
 wretches, we need not their pity. We have an interest 
 in One who is preparing for us mansions of eternal bliss, 
 and crowns of never-fading glory !" 
 
 And therefore he will not let them be. He must be 
 instant in season and out of season with them. He 
 keeps the one thing needful ever before their eyes ; meets 
 all their objections, urges every motive, combats every 
 doubt. . 
 
 " My dear sister " — to one of them — " I know you 
 cannot force an entrance into the sheepfold of Christ, 
 and should you climb over the sides, or enter in any 
 other way than by the door, the Word of God declares 
 you to be a thief and a robber. All who enter the hea- 
 venly Canaan must come in through Christ Jesus, who 
 is the way, the truth, and the life. But remember, God 
 is jirst and merciful, and has proved it even to you. 
 You have a desire, you say, an ardent desire, to love 
 and fear him. Was it not his mercy that implanted 
 that desire in your heart, for I doubt not you can 
 remember a time when you had not even a wish to 
 be made acquainted with spiritual things? 7 Tis not in 
 your own nature, therefore, but entirely of grace, that 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER, HOUGHTON CONE. 99 
 
 you have ever been led to reflect upon the inexpressi- 
 ble value of your immortal soul. God's justice is 
 apparent in this — you cannot be pardoned but by the 
 washing of the blood of the Lamb ; your sins must be 
 atoned for, and righteousness must be imputed to you, 
 ere God can be just in the justification of a sinner. I 
 believe you feel your imperfect nature, and your 
 soul's alienation from its Maker, and desire to be 
 reconciled to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. 
 The bare desire is something good for which your praise 
 is due, nor do I think that ever the earnest and sincere 
 wish of becoming a follower of the Saviour was given 
 to a single human being, without its being blessed, 
 sooner or later, to their effectual calling and conversion. 
 Beware of acting a disingenuous part, thereby only 
 deceiving yourself; saying, 'I wish I were religions,' 
 and yet proving by every action that you love the 
 world and its vanities supremely. You can never find, 
 acceptance with God by saying 'Lord ! Lord !' Do deeds 
 meet for repentance, praying continually for divine 
 instruction and guidance ; for to expect to do anything 
 aright, without imploring God to work in you, is, to my 
 mind, the very acme of infatuated presumption. 
 
 " Endeavor every evening to call to mind the actions 
 of the day : place distinctly before your mind the errors 
 you have committed in thought, word, or deed, and 
 pray for strength to avoid falling again into the same 
 snares. By reading the Scriptures and meditation, 
 deeply impress your soul with the awful truth, that your 
 heart is enmity against God — that you are not subject to 
 his law — that there is a fatal variance between you, which 
 must result in your utter ruin, unless you are reconciled 
 to him through Christ Jesus. Though } t ou cannot of 
 yourself work out your own salvation, yet I would not 
 have you content yourself with saying, ' When Christ 
 
100 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON" CONE. 
 
 bids me coma I shall come. If you really think your 
 eternal welfare of primary importance, you will be found 
 reading and praying, and imploring God to grant you 
 the influences of his Holy Spirit, to guide you in that 
 path which shineth more and more unto the perfect day. 
 But if you are lukewarm, and think you do everything 
 in your power, by entertaining half-formed wishes of 
 dying the death of the righteous, I can recollect no 
 promise in God's blessed Bible adapted to your 
 state." 
 
 For their sake, indeed, he is willing to part from his 
 mother, though he should see her no more on earth. 
 " Buoyed up with the fond hope, that her bright exam- 
 ple and godly conversation may be blessed to you, I 
 shall part from her without a sigh. I know we shall 
 meet in heaven, to part no more for ever. But when 
 death shall have received his commission, what, I pray 
 you, will be your sensations, when you reflect that you 
 are, by a single stroke, made strangers to her for ever? 
 "Where she has gone you can never come. Never 
 again will you be permitted to look on those eyes 
 which have so oft beamed upon you with kindness — ■ 
 never again entwine your arms about the body that 
 bore you, nor hang upon that bosom which so long pal- 
 pitated with affectionate tenderness towards you, nor 
 ever ceased to rise and swell in fervent adorations, in 
 anxious prayer to God — to spare, forgive, and save her 
 darling children. Are you waiting to become holy 
 before you come to the Saviour for help ? Ah ! my 
 loves, 
 
 " ' If you tarry till you're better, 
 You will never come at all.' 
 
 Remember Jesus came to call sinners, not the righteous, 
 to repentance. All you are to bring is a broken heart : — 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 101 
 
 " ' All the fitness he rcquireth 
 Is to feel your need of hi m. 1 
 
 Do yoa not feel the need of a Saviour*? Do y.ou think 
 it strange I can part with mother without grief? Yet 
 such is the tact ; and I think you will not be tempted to 
 ascribe it to my want of affection for one of the best of 
 women. Oh, no ! I have a nobler motive. A brother's 
 prayers and tears— the Gospel's threatening denuncia- 
 tions .against sinners— the hope of everlasting bliss 
 bevond°the grave— are trifles light as air in your esti- 
 mation. 1 am not only willing, but anxious, therefore, 
 for mother to return. Perhaps you will hear her. 
 Peradventure she is the destined instrument by which 
 God means to work. Oh, listen to her accents of love ; 
 be guided by her instructions in that path which leads 
 to joys on high— pray for the influences of the Holy 
 Spirit. For, rest assured that God is a holy God, and 
 without holiness no man shall see the Lord. 
 
 "But what can I say to profit you ? If the bold and 
 polished periods of Dr. Staughton, if the eloquent life 
 of a beloved mother, can neither of them wm your soul 
 for Christ, there is not much to be expected from the 
 hasty reflections and imperfect expressions of your 
 poor brother. But the Lord worketh by whom he will 
 work ; and when all these apparently great means have 
 been found ineffectual, lesser ones may be made instru- 
 mental in opening your eyes. 
 
 "Oh, let me then once more implore you to seek alter 
 Jesus as the hid treasure." m 
 
 And God indeed blessed the lesser means; their 
 minds were influenced graciously, and not many years 
 passed before he experienced the unspeakable satisfac- 
 tion, of seeing two of his sisters make a public profes- 
 sion of their faith in the same Lord and Saviour to whose 
 cause he was dedicated. 
 
102 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 One of them, Catharine, had long been a member of 
 the church. A happy family. 
 
 For some time during the year 1813, he realized his 
 original scheme of teaching. He established an aca- 
 demy which was well attended. It was, however, a 
 calling for which his quick imagination and craving 
 after action very much unfitted him. The restraint and 
 confinement were insupportable to him, and he gladly 
 relinquished it for the more exciting and absorbing 
 occupation of an editorial career. 
 
 A single memorial of his school experiences in Balti- 
 more is furnished by a letter from the Hon. David J. 
 Disney of Ohio, written in 1843, and deserves to be 
 recorded : 
 
 " Accident," says Disney, " called my attention a few 
 days since to an article in one of our city papers from 
 their correspondent in your city, in which he describes 
 you and your church. The simple notice recalled all 
 the recollections of my childhood, and the obligations 
 which I owed you. Again I sat on the little form in the 
 school-room in Baltimore, and with my well-thumbed 
 Caesar before me, glanced around at my school-fellows. 
 Our boyish pranks rose fresh in my recollection, and, 
 instead of the battered politician, I once more became 
 the competitor for tops and marbles. Conjugations and 
 declensions again perplexed my mind. The interesting 
 story of Prince Le Boo, which I was artfully substitu- 
 ting for the commentaries of the warlike Roman, again 
 perished in the flames before my eyes, by your hand. 
 
 " The rigid severity with which, in the proper hours, 
 you exacted of me a devotion to mental culture, again 
 stood before me in all its original authority, and the 
 years which have intervened vanished as with a fairy 
 stroke. 
 
 " Since we have parted, my boyhood has ripened into 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 103 
 
 manhood, and I have played a part among the public 
 men of our State — but the scenes of my infancy, and the 
 recollections of my boyhood have always had a deep 
 abiding place in the storehouse of my memory." 
 
 It is hard to fancy him a teacher of perverse school- 
 boys. The effort to tame down his spirit to the necessary 
 patience and routine, must truly have been one of the 
 most heroic in his life. Of all men in the world, he was 
 the least calculated for it by nature. His mind was 
 purely creative; and his patience, only that with which 
 a great mind waits for- the development of great events, 
 of which its power was in whole or part the agent. He 
 never thought of or noticed the little things which were 
 going on about him ; his power of mental abstraction was 
 complete. What a herculean effort it must have been 
 for him to abstract himself, however, from his own 
 nature, and watch a troop of mischievous urchins — and 
 try to teach them. And what a picture of conscientious 
 sacrifice it brines before us ! 
 
104: LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 1S11. THE WAR. 
 
 To go back a little — early in the year 1813, the clouds 
 of war began to thicken upon the horizon. British 
 aggressions were multiplied: our ships searched, our Hag 
 insulted upon every sea, until the measure of American 
 forbearance overflowed, and the spirit of the nation was 
 aroused to that heroic contest with the " mistress of the 
 seas," the result of which is so finely idealized in the strik- 
 ing figure of Pinckney, where he represents America ris- 
 ing from the struggle, her head " encircled and adorned 
 by the laurels she had torn from the brow of the naval 
 genius of England." 
 
 Pinckney, to whom Benton, in his "Thirty Years' 
 View," accords pre-eminence over all the orators he has 
 known, was a citizen of Baltimore. As minister to 
 Great Britain, he represented the United States at that 
 Court with rare capacity and decision, and returned 
 home on the rupture of amicable relationships between 
 the two governments, to exchange the pen of the diplo- 
 matist for the sword of the soldier. 
 
 His relationship to the administration of Madison, as 
 editor of the government organ, in Baltimore, brought 
 Mr. Cone into frequent contact with Pinckney, and a 
 warm and durable friendship ensued. 
 
 Eor more than a year Baltimore and its vicinity was 
 in a state of constant apprehension, and a descent upon 
 some point in its' neighborhood, from the British fleet, 
 was daily expected. Mr. Cone was, therefore, alter- 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 105 
 
 nately bv.sy in defending the Administration with his 
 pen from the attacks of the Hartford Conventionists 
 and Federal anti-war party, and in drilling his company 
 of artillery. 
 
 With the natural devotion of woman, and her desire 
 to share with the man she distinguished by her unself- 
 ish love, all his trials, Miss Morrell consented that the 
 day of their marriage should be fixed. 
 
 Everything was prepared, and on the 13th of April, 
 1813, he writes to her : — 
 
 " I am endeavoring to procure a house in Pitt street, 
 about two squares from the printing-office, and hope to 
 meet with success, for it is pleasantly situated, very neat 
 and convenient, and as low as I expect to find one. It 
 will be ready to occupy on the 1st of May. 
 
 " I had intended to procure several articles in Phila- 
 delphia, but the British squadron is now within forty 
 miles of us, and the packets have ceased to run. 
 
 " The storm of war will expose us to many incon- 
 veniences, but whilst you smile upon me, I shall never 
 complain or repine. 
 
 " If life be spared me, I shall have the delight of call- 
 ing you mine on Thursday, the 29th instant. And on 
 Saturday or Sunday following we must repair to Balti- 
 more, unless I can persuade some good-natured friend, 
 to write a little for me in my absence." 
 
 And upon the 20th of the same month : — 
 
 " I should have written to John Morrell on Sunday 
 last — a day I had in a measure set apart for the pur- 
 pose — but the enemy's squadron appeared off the mouth 
 of our harbor on Friday, and we have been under arms 
 ever since. 
 
 " I returned from the fort last evening, very much 
 jaded with marching and loss of sleep, but I hope to be 
 well again by to-morrow. 
 
 5* 
 
106 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 " We can raise more than 5,000 volunteers here in 
 half an hour. So I fancy Jacky Bull will not think of 
 setting his foot on shore. 
 
 " I shall be with you at the time proposed." 
 
 Man " proposes," God disposes. 
 
 On the 29th, the w r edding-party was all assembled, 
 except the bridegroom. The feelings of the bride and 
 anxious friends may be imagined. The ordinary chan- 
 nel of communication was interrupted : the packets had 
 ceased to ply between Philadelphia and Baltimore. No 
 railroad annihilated space and time, and the inland 
 route was tedious and uncertain. Nothing had been 
 heard from him since the 20th. There was room and 
 probability for the worst surmises. An attack by the 
 English might have taken place, and Spencer be either 
 killed, or worse, a prisoner, on his way to experience 
 the tender mercies of English hospitality at " Dart- 
 moor." Nothing was too dreadful to surmise. 
 
 Nor was it until several days after the anticipated 
 wedding-night that a letter was received from him, 
 dated the 27th, and written from Fort McIIenry, from 
 which, whilst the gay company were waiting so 
 anxiously for him in Philadelphia, he was as anxiously 
 watching the movements of the English fleet, his heart 
 torn with a thousand contending emotions, and his feel- 
 ings towards the enemy of his country, as may be easily 
 imagined, in no degree softened by their untimely inter- 
 ference in his own private plans and hopes. " I know 
 not how to write this letter," he exclaims. " I can but 
 say our regiment is on duty here (at Fort McIIenry), 
 and I cannot obtain permission to leave the garrison 
 until we are relieved by the 6th Infantry — which will 
 be in a few days — not more than a week. 
 
 " We are under considerable alarm, but I do not think 
 there is any immediate clanger. Several ships of war 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 107 
 
 play about in sight of us — "What their object is we can- 
 not say. Guards are stationed around the camp, and 
 no one can pass without a permit from the Commander. 
 Keep up your spirits this week.'''' 
 
 Their regiment was finally relieved by the 6th and he 
 writes : 
 
 " I have just returned from duty, very much fatigued ; 
 nay, almost worn out. I am distressed to find that, in 
 consequence of the burning of Havre de Grace, the 
 * Pilot ' stage will not reach Philadelphia on Friday 
 evening. I have therefore secured a place in the mail, 
 and will reach Philadelphia on Saturday morning about 
 10 or 11 o'clock. I write from town, having a furlough 
 from camp till six o'clock this evening, when I return. 
 A few more days, I trust, and all will be well. Banish 
 doubt and despondency. What though difficulties should 
 oppress, and dangers threaten, yet — 
 
 " ' The simmer is coming, canld winter's awa' 
 And I'll come and see you, in spite of them a' ' 
 
 I live but in the hope. 
 
 I shoulder my rifle, or gird on my sword, but to 
 drive off the base marauders, who have had possession 
 of the shores of the Chesapeake too long. I love my 
 country sincerely and ardently. I am, from conscience, 
 an advocate of the Administration and the present war, 
 and in it I must embark my life and honor, which con- 
 stitute my all — Then war or no war — bread or no bread, 
 we must set sail — 
 
 " ' On the ocean of wedlock, 
 Our fortunes to try,' 
 
 and heaven I trust will bless us !" 
 
 After their marriage, the young couple returned to 
 
108 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 Baltimore. From their marriage day to the hour of 
 their earthly separation, they lived for each other, and 
 their daily life, from year to year, only served to develop 
 a beautiful and increasing tenderness and devotion. 
 Their thoughts, their interests, their hopes, their pleas- 
 ures, were one ; and it is yet fresh in the minds of all 
 who knew them, how holy an example of fidelity to 
 " the vows they breathed in marriage " was presented 
 for forty years, and how happy an influence was exerted 
 by it upon the social relationships of the church, and. 
 the feelings and principles of the young. Dignifying 
 their union by unvarying consistency of conduct and 
 delicacy of attention towards each other, they came to be 
 universally cited, even by careless and worldly men, as an 
 illustration of the happiness which might exist in mar- 
 ried life, and how practically it exemplified a Christian 
 profession. 
 
 Events now marched with rapidity. 
 
 Early in August, 1814, the English fleet, commanded 
 by Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane, appeared at the 
 mouth of the Patuxent, and their motions threatened a 
 descent. All the available troops in the neighborhood 
 were put in motion to meet him. The land forces of 
 the English, on board their transports, were commanded 
 by Major General Ross. The American troops, princi- 
 pally raw militia, were placed under the orders of Major 
 General Winder, a well-educated, but vacillating and 
 inefficient soldier. The regiment to which Mr. Cone 
 belonged was put "en route" from Baltimore, and 
 reached Bladensburg in time to share the disas- 
 trous fortunes of that day of shame — a day which left so 
 dark a stain upon the annals of American story. 
 
 Mrs. Cone was necessarily left alone in Baltimore 
 with her infant boy, then between five and six months 
 old. - * 
 
LIFE CF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 109 
 
 Mr. Cone's two sisters, Amelia and Kitty (Mrs. lUTor- 
 vell), were in Washington. Mr. Norvell, his brother-in- 
 law, and partner in the " Baltimore Whig," was also 
 an officer in the army, and on duty in a different 
 regiment. 
 
 The English, under Ross, landed at a point on the 
 Patuxent and began to ascend the banks of the river in 
 the direction of Washington. A small number of gun- 
 boats, commanded by Commodore Barney, unable to 
 oppose the overwhelming force of the English fleet, had 
 taken refuge in the Patuxent. On the approach of the 
 British, by the orders of the Secretary of War, to prevent 
 his boats falling into their hands, he set fire to them and 
 abandoned them. Their crews, and a large part of their 
 artillery, were safely withdrawn, a circumstance which 
 indeed saved the irregular force of the Americans, 
 shortly after, from complete annihilation. 
 
 Gen. Winder, with between three and four thousand 
 men, mostly militia, hastily drawn together, took post 
 at Bladensburg, and prepared to dispute the approach 
 to the national capitol. 
 
 The village of Bladensburg lies in Prince George 
 county, Maryland, about six miles northeast from Wash- 
 ington, in the midst of a fertile country. The village 
 is still small, and at that time was composed of a few 
 straggling houses, which afforded a very slight and inef- 
 ficient shelter from the fire of the enemy. 
 
 It contains about four hundred inhabitants. The 
 houses are some of them brick. It lies between two 
 branches of the Potomac. The Anacostic, or eastern 
 branch, is narrow and shallow; nothing more, in fact, 
 than a small creek near the town. The road from Balti- 
 more to Washington crosses it by a wooden bridge. 
 
 The battle was fought along the rising ground be- 
 yond the town. 
 
110 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 Major Pinckney's battalion, to which Mr. Cone was 
 attached, reached Bladensburg the day before the battle 
 by forced marches, and exposed to the scorching of an 
 August sun. Completely jaded, and almost demoralized 
 by want of rest, bad food, and harassing marches, they 
 ' slept where they halted, throwing themselves upon the 
 ground, without food, or fire to cook it. Everything was 
 disorder, confusion, and ^contradiction. The command- 
 ing general, interfered with by the President and Secre- 
 taries, issued orders which never reached those to 
 whom they were directed, and formed plans which no 
 one took the trouble to execute. 
 
 Thus, when the battle took place the next day, the 
 self-selected position, and stubborn bravery of 
 Commodore Barney and his marines, with some pieces 
 of artillery, alone prevented the total annihilation of the 
 heterogeneous force gathered about Washington. 
 
 General Stansbury's brigade, to which Sterrett's Balti- 
 more 5th, and Pinckney's Rifles belonged, came in on the 
 evening of the 22d of August. Sterrett and Pinckney's 
 commands reached the field the next day. 
 
 They were fine troops, well disciplined and reliable, 
 but the position into which they were forced, by a kind 
 of unaccountable madness, reduced them to a level with 
 the rabble of militia, whose wonderful rapidity in retreat 
 gave the battle the name of the Bladensburg Races. 
 
 Broken down by fatigue, without ammunition more 
 than the few rounds in each man's cartridge box, Pinck- 
 ney's men were pushed forward to occupy a high hill, 
 more than a mile beyond the front of Winder's line of 
 battle, and cover the flank of Barney's battery. Thus 
 exposed, and entirely unsupported, they fired away their 
 ammunition and broke. The efforts of their officers to 
 rally them were fruitless. The whole American line 
 were in full night, and the panic had become universal. 
 
LIFE OF SPEXCER HOUGHTON COXE. Ill 
 
 The Baltimoreans followed the general example, and 
 scattered beyond the hope of reorganization. Three 
 times, however, with his handful of men and ship's 
 guns, the gallant Barney drove the English back to 
 cover, and his battery was only silenced when a British 
 detachment had completely turned his position, and he 
 Aimself had received the wound, of which he ultimately 
 died, and was a prisoner in their hands. 
 
 The strangest part of the disgraceful history is, that 
 the American army ran away, before a single man of 
 them was killed ; whilst the English lost five hundred 
 hilled, and an equal proportion of wounded, before Bar- 
 ney's position was forced. 
 
 The intention of the British commander to march 
 on to Washington was evident, and the danger to which 
 its inhabitants were exposed imminent. 
 
 Giving the few companions they could influence, their 
 route for Baltimore, Messrs. Cone and Norvell hastened 
 to Washington, to effect, if possible, the timely escape of 
 Kitty and Amelia Cone. Kitty (Mrs Norvell), was 
 within a few weeks of her confinement with her first 
 child, Spencer, who was in fact born about a month 
 afterwards, and inheriting the family failing, entered the 
 United States army at an early age, and distinguished 
 himself by gallantry and good conduct in the Mexican 
 war. Passing unharmed through the terrible battles in 
 which his regiment, the 3d infantry, were engaged on 
 General Taylor's line of operations, he returned home to 
 die at West Point of dysentery. 
 
 A few hours after the battle at Bladensburg, the 
 stragglers from the field came flying on the wings of 
 fear through Washington. Possessed with a dastardly 
 panic, they rushed through the city, spreading, upon 
 every side, the report that the American army was 
 defeated, and the British marching close upon their 
 
112 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 heels, to burn, plunder, and destroy the capital. A 
 scene of terror and confusion ensued impossible to des- 
 cribe. Men, women, and children, flying through 
 the streets — everything open and abandoned, and ter- 
 ror and uncertainty depicted upon every face. 
 
 Alone and unprotected Kitty, and Amelia could only 
 follow the general example. The marauding expedi- 
 tions of the British fleet upon the southern coast, their 
 frightful cruelties and excesses, left nothing to hope for 
 any one who should fall into their hands. 
 
 Hastily making up a bag of clothes and securing 
 what money they had, the two helpless women prepared 
 to fly. They set out, not knowing whither. In the yard 
 of the President's house they came upon a fugitive soldier 
 sick and unable to go farther. His condition and words 
 heightened their terror. They turned in another direc- 
 tion. Their way was blocked with men and women and 
 cart-loads of household gear. No one could assist them. 
 No one would point out to them their road, and they 
 were strangers in the city. The selfishness of fear pos- 
 sessed, every one, and each thought only of himself. 
 Thus they wandered helplessly to and fro, every 
 moment adding to their apprehension and bewilderment. 
 
 Suddenly Kitty Norvell catches a sight of her brother 
 struggling through the press, and exclaims, " Oh ! 
 there's Spencer." 
 
 Jaded, covered with dust, and grimed with the smoke 
 of the battle ; his feather shot away, and uniform torn 
 with shot and bayonet, and covered with blood and dirt — 
 in spite of all, the eye of the sister recognized, and her 
 cry of mingled agony and hope reached him. 
 
 At that moment a militia-man, one of the heroic band 
 which had deserted the field without firing a shot, offi- 
 ciously proffered his protection to the ladies, and boast- 
 
LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 113 
 
 ingly offered to defend them from any given number of 
 red-coats. 
 
 Thrusting the crowd aside, the young soldier reached 
 his sisters in time to hear the offer of the braggadocio. 
 With a fiery and bitter word of contempt, he drove 
 him back. The man came up again to attack him, but 
 catching him by the body, he exerted a physical power, 
 at all times unusually great, but when nervously excited, 
 herculean, and with a single jerk hurled him headlong 
 amongst the crowd. 
 
 Clasping his sisters to his bosom, he allayed, with a 
 few calm but energetic words, their excited fears. So 
 vivid was the impression produced by the events of that 
 and the succeeding days, that his sister Amelia, who is 
 our informant, recollects nearly every word and look 
 that passed between them. 
 
 " Come, girls," said he, " there is no danger. "We have 
 time plenty. Can't you find me something to eat. I 
 am starving. I have not had a mouthful of food for 
 twenty-four hours, and have been marching or fighting 
 the whole time." 
 
 By this time Mr. Norvell, and Mclvenzie, of Baltimore, 
 who had followed him, joined the group, and begged 
 the women to show them where there was something to 
 eat. They were literally famishing. 
 
 Hastening back to the house together, the women found 
 and set before them all that was left in the larder, which 
 consisted of a bowl of milk, and a cold chicken. 
 
 McKenzie, a dashing Baltimorean, a brave and noble 
 fellow, and a devoted companion in arms of Spencer II., 
 was literally in rags. He had no stockings, and his 
 light boots w T ere worn out with marching ; whilst his 
 gay uniform had been cut into " looped and windowed 
 raggedness," in the desperate stand they had made 
 
114 LIFE OF SPENCER, HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 around Barney's Battery, to cover the American re- 
 treat. 
 
 Swallowing his share of the milk, and wrenching off 
 a leg of chicken, which he thrust into his pocket, he 
 left the ladies to the care of the two others, and rushed 
 away for a moment amongst the crowd, to aid, if possible 
 some unprotected fugitive. That done, he rejoined the 
 little party. Their hasty meal dispatched, they pre- 
 pared to abandon house and household stuff to the tender 
 mercies of the enemy, and walk away. Lieutenant Cone's 
 feet were, however, so blistered with marching, that, 
 after a while, he found it impossible to use them. A 
 pony was luckily grazing in a neighboring field. Nor- 
 vell caught him, and Cone mounted him. Thus they pro- 
 ceed upon their journey, Norvell, Mclvenzie, and the two 
 women walking by his side. 
 
 Stopping at the President's house, now deserted by 
 all but a few servants, Amelia ran in and asked for some 
 wine for the men. One of the servants caught up a bot- 
 tle of wine, put it upon a silver salver, and thrusting 
 both into her hands, took to his heels. The wine gave 
 them new life in their wearied and half-famished condi- 
 tion ; it supplied a strength which fcod would have been 
 incapable of doing, even had it been possible to procure 
 it. 
 
 Thus refreshed, they took up their line of retreat 
 across the Potomac ; crossed the bridge, and proceeded 
 without interruption for three miles. 
 
 Night was now coming on ; the roads were unfamiliar, 
 and straggling parties of the enemy infested the country. 
 The condition of Mrs. Norvell, the exhaustion of the 
 men, demanded rest and repose. They must sleep, if it 
 were on the ground by the way-side. Halting the sad 
 little cavalcade in a sheltered spot, the men by turns 
 played the comforter and the scout. 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 115 
 
 After a little while they discovered, not far away, an 
 old deserted mansion, and hastened to take shelter in it. 
 Family, servants — every living thing had abandoned it. 
 Everything also, either eatable or drinkable, and the 
 greater part of the furniture, appeared to have been 
 removed. They discovered afterwards that the house 
 belonged to Mr. Wise, grandfather of Henry A. Wise 
 of Accomac. 
 
 Desolate and comfortless as it was, it was better 
 than a lodging in the open field, and they congratulated 
 themselves heartily upon being able to house the sick 
 and wearied women for the night. 
 
 After much hunting they were fortunate enough to 
 find a light, and began to explore every possible recep- 
 tacle of food, happy if they should discover anywhere 
 a forgotten crust or two, to appease the demands of an 
 imperious hunger. Finally, and when they had almost 
 given up in despair, and soldier fashion, had begun to 
 draw their belts a hole tighter, to stop the importunate 
 suggestions of the stomach — far away in a dim corner 
 of the garret, they came upon a barrel, in the bottom of 
 which remained a few handfuls of wheaten flour. A 
 fire was soon kindled in the kitchen, and the women 
 busy preparing a frugal, but to the famished party, lux- 
 urious supper of wheaten cakes, made in the most prim- 
 itive fashion, of flour and water. 
 
 The whole party, both men and women, were so com- 
 pletely exhausted that sleep seized them almost before 
 the last mouthful of their meagre supper had been dis- 
 patched. The bundle of clothes, caught up by the 
 women in their hasty preparation fur flight, was 
 spread down in a corner for the weakest of the party, 
 Mrs. Norvell and the men threw themselves upon the 
 floor and slept. Everything gave place to the influence 
 of fatigue, and the reaction of a day of fierce and con- 
 
116 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 tirraous excitement. Too spent and weaned to care or 
 think. Not a man was able to keep watch. Nodding, 
 half asleep, Spencer H. says to Amelia : " Mele, if the 
 British push a column upon Alexandria, ro burn the 
 city, they must pass this house, they can't help it. The 
 house stands so that it must necessarily be seen by 
 them and we shall have the red-coats beating up our quar- 
 ters before morning. If you can keep awake, go to the 
 bottom of the garden occasionally, and keep a look-out 
 for them." 
 
 When they were all asleep Amelia Cone stole quietly 
 out, and took her station by the wall at the low T er end 
 of the garden, and there she kept her watch all night 
 long. In the distance, the burning Capitol and public 
 buildings at Washington, sacrificed to the wanton rage 
 of the British soldiery, and the barbarous policy of 
 their commanders, lighted up the sky with a sinister 
 and lurid flame. The silence of the night, its loneliness 
 and darkness, broken occasionally by the distant noise 
 and rumbling of wheels, which fancy easily suggested 
 as the passage of artillery and baggage-wagons, or the 
 echo of a musket-shot — fired by some drunken English 
 soldier, as he pursued his work of outrage and plunder 
 in Washington or its environs — all conspired to subject 
 the courage of a young and solitary girl to a terrible 
 proof. She kept her post, however, and played the 
 sentinel, till the first grey streak of day stole upon the 
 darkness. 
 
 The party were soon awakened, and prepared to 
 resume their retreat. The close vicinity of Mr. Wise's 
 house to Washington, and the want of provisions, ren- 
 dered it impossible to delay a moment with safety. 
 
 About da}dight one or two of the slaves belonging to 
 the plantation had ventured back to the house. The 
 pony is caught, and Spencer proposes to put him to a 
 
LIFE CF SPENCER HOTJGHTON CONE. 117 
 
 cart which has been left behind in the yard by the 
 fugitives from the mansion where they passed the night. 
 The slaves refuse to allow them to take the cart, and 
 attempt to prevent them. Spencer, however, intimates, 
 in his peculiarly stern manner, that he will have the 
 cart, or whatever else is necessary for the service ; 
 tells them who lie is — that they may report the facts 
 to their master, and say that Spencer H. Cone of the 
 United States Army has taken such and such things for 
 the service of the government ; promising, if practicable, 
 to return them to their owner. Should he be unable to 
 do so, Mr. Wise must charge it to the United States, 
 and Mr. Cone will certiiy his account. It is not known 
 whether the property ever found its way back to the 
 right owner ; but no charge was ever made for it 
 against the- United States. 
 
 Spencer H. immediately set to work and manufac- 
 tured a harness of ropes, and put the pony to the cart. 
 But the pony had evidently never been in harness 
 before, and neither force nor coaxing could budge him 
 an inch. Go he must, however, for Mrs. Norvell's state 
 would not permit her to walk farther. Putting the 
 women into the cart therefore, the men fell to at the 
 refractory pony for the last time, and by dint of whip- 
 ping, pushing, coaxing and leading, got him off. Spen- 
 cer H., spite of the terrible condition of his feet, trudged 
 at his head. Kitty Xorvell, lying faint and sick in the 
 bottom of the cart, raised her head, and pointing in 
 admiration to her brother's steady stride, conscious that 
 every step so firm in appearance was an agony, 
 exclaimed to Amelia, "Look at the Christian soldier!" 
 It was indeed an exhibition of the character. No vain 
 desire of military glory had armed him for the field. 
 Fall of an exalted faith in the God of battles, and feel- 
 ing that the defence of the Republic was the service ^ f 
 
118 LIFE CF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 Him who had graciously made it the grand theatre of 
 His mercy to His people, the peculiar place in which 
 His truth expanded under the benign influences of 
 civil and religions freedom, to draw the sword against 
 its invaders seemed to him as much the duty of the 
 Christian as the honor of the soldier. 
 
 Thus they trudged along for five or six miles. It was 
 in the midst of August, and beneath a southern sun, 
 which already, even at that early hour of the day, 
 began to dart upon them a fiery heat. The atmosphere 
 was suffocating. 
 
 Reaching the edge of a piece of woods, they took 
 Mrs. Norvell out and laid her in the shade upon the 
 grass and strove to revive her. Hunger pursued them. 
 The few wh eaten cakes of the night before had served 
 rather to irritate than appease it. The men exhausted 
 threw themselves down in the shade of the wood, 
 unable to proceed. Kitty recovering from her faintness 
 looked anxiously about, and discovered, through the 
 trees in the distance, something which looked like a 
 house. A strange compound of energy and mildness, a 
 will of iron, and a manner of engaging sweetness, Kitty 
 Norvell appears to have been a woman of uncommon 
 qualities, a Christian of rare humility and consistency 
 of character. 
 
 She insisted upon going to the house. Arrived at it 
 she found only a poor negro girl. Kitty, with her sweet 
 persuasive voice, told her they were literally starving, 
 and asked if she could not help them. 
 
 The black girl, ashamed to offer such poor fare to 
 white gentle folks, said she had nothing but a piece of 
 pork, a bowl of milk, and an apple. Kitty took gladly 
 what the poor girl was equally glad to give, and 
 returned to the wood. Then quite gaily, miserable 
 plight as they were in, they sat upon the grass and fell 
 
LITE OF SPENCER nOTTGUTON CONE. 119 
 
 to, Spencer cutting the pork with Ins jack-knife and 
 serving it around to each, upon the point, with impartial 
 justice. Each took a draught of milk, in turn, from the 
 bowl, and the apple falls to the lot of Mr. NorvelJ. 
 With many heartfelt thanks to the generous negro, who 
 refused peremptorily to receive anything else in pay- 
 ment for her timely succor, they resumed their journey 
 through the wood. Penetrating deeper and deeper, by 
 a road rough and little used, except occasionally in 
 carting wood, they had reached the thickest part of it, 
 when the sky is overcast, the wind begins to sigh 
 mournfully through the trees, and the thunder to mutter 
 audibly in the distance. With the rapidity of the 
 change incident to a southern climate, the sweltering 
 and motionless atmosphere is changed to a keen and 
 hurrying blast; the sky grows black as night, and a 
 tropical storm bursts over them in all its terrors. The 
 deafening peals of thunder, and the glare of the light- 
 ning, bewilder them. The poor pony, shaking with terror, 
 refuses to move. A tornado, the almost inevitable 
 accompaniment of such a storm, and of the terrific 
 violence of which the inhabitants of colder latitudes can 
 form no just idea, crashed through the wood — passing 
 within a stone's throw of them, twisting up gigantic 
 trees by the roots, and hurling them to the ground as if 
 they had been straws. The road is rendered impassable 
 and the horse and wagon become useless. Drenched 
 to the skin, and almost dead with fatigue and excite- 
 ment, men and women are compelled to take to their 
 feet, and wander in search of shelter. Often falling 
 amongst the branches and broken trees, which strewed 
 the ground, and often losing each other in the blinding 
 rain and darkness of the storm, they pass a dreadful 
 hour, in which hope almost deserts them. 
 
 At last, however, they found refuge in a log house. 
 
120 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON" CONE. 
 
 It was the dwelling of a good methodist family. All 
 the men of the family, and all their horses and vehicles 
 of every sort, were away with the American army, but 
 the women were at home. It was enough for them to see 
 the miserable plight of the wanderers ; more than enough 
 to see the torn and battle-stained uniforms of the men. 
 The good souls turned every press and cupboard inside 
 out in their haste, and gave them all dry clothes. Then, 
 kindling a great tire in the old-fashioned fire-place, 
 which was nearly as large as a modern room, they put on 
 an enormous tea-kettle ; broiled some fresh shad, and 
 heaped a table with home-made bread and cakes, and 
 all the house afforded — thanking God that he gave 
 them the privilege of doing anything for those who suf- 
 fered righteously. 
 
 Poor Mrs. Norvell had a narroMr escajDe of it. They 
 laid her in their best bed, and covered her up warmly, 
 and watched her like a sick child. But her strength 
 had almost failed her. For days she lay half insensible, 
 and the little nourishment which could be given her by 
 opening her mouth and putting it in, a spoonful at a 
 time, barely kept her alive. 
 
 Next morning, filled with anxiety for his wife and 
 child, and uncertain in what direction the British forces 
 would make their next destructive foray, Spencer II. 
 left his sisters to the kind care of the Christian family, 
 and started off on foot for Baltimore. 
 
 His wife, whom the accounts of the disastrous affair 
 at Bladensburg had already reached, and whose state of 
 anxiety may be imagined, was watching from her win- 
 dow, and scanning every passer-by, in search of the 
 familiar face of some of her husband's companions 
 in arms, to ask how it was with him At last, after 
 many weary hours, she saw her husband coming — alive 
 — that was all. She flew to open the door and receive 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 121 
 
 him. As he reached it, the factitious energy which had 
 sustained him ceased, and lie fell heavily into the passage. 
 
 When carried to the chamber and put to bed, upon 
 drawing off his stockings the entire skin beneath came 
 off with them. It was in this state, walking as it were 
 with every step upon burning coals, that he had marched 
 for two days. 
 
 A few days' rest, and a constitution of iron, restored 
 him, pud he resumed the active duties of the camp. At 
 the request of Major "William ^Pinckney, and under a 
 brevet commission, he had taken command of one of the 
 companies of the 5th Pifie regiment, before the battle 
 of Bladensburg. Its captain (Aisquith) was absent, 
 oa leave, at a distance, and Pinckney preferred entrusting 
 it to a personal friend rather than a stranger. The 
 arrangement was afterwards sanctioned by the War 
 Department. 
 
 After destroying, in mere wantonness of malice, all the 
 public buildings at the National Capital, blowing up the 
 great bridge over the Potomac, destroying the rope- 
 yards, itc, and rifling private dwellings of whatever 
 portable and valuable things had been left behind by 
 the inhabitants, the gallant and humane enemy re-em- 
 barked, and hovered along the coast. 
 
 On the 27th of August, Captain Gordon, in the Sea- 
 horse, and a large detachment of the fleet, attacked the 
 defenceless city of Alexandria, and levied a large contri- 
 bution as the price of sparing the town the fate of its un- 
 lucky neighbor — Washington. 
 
 The " Bladensburg Pace?," as they were not inaptly 
 called, and the bloodless conquest of Alexandria, inspired 
 the English commanders with the idea of attacking Bal- 
 timore, where they pleased themselves with believing 
 that an equally amusing promenade awaited them. 
 Happily for that city the calculation proved erroneous. 
 
 6 
 
122 LITE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 Early in September 1814, the British fleet sailed np the 
 Chesapeake, and about fifty sail anchored at a respectful 
 distance below the city. 
 
 Mr. Cone, amongst others, was ordered to fort McTIen- 
 ry, and remained in its neighborhood during the whole 
 bombardment, which took place :n the 13th of September. 
 Speaking of the power of fatigue to blunt the feelings, 
 we have heard him. say that the night of the bombard- 
 ment, although it was the first he had ever seen, he 
 slept as soundly in the immediate vicinity of the fort as he 
 ever did in his life. His company had been on active 
 scouting duty all day, and at night lay a little below the 
 fort at Whetstone point, watching the movements of the 
 enemy, and ready to report any attempt at effecting a 
 landing. Wrapping his cloak around him, he sat down 
 at the foot of a tree, and leaning against it, watched the 
 shells as they traversed the air — making a line of light 
 which marked their course through the darkness of the 
 night. Gradually his wearied eyes closed of themselves ; 
 and amid all the noise of the bombardment he fell into 
 a sweet, refreshing sleep. Several shells fell and explo- 
 ded near him during the night, without disturbing him. 
 
 During the bombardment, Mrs. Cone took her eldest 
 child in her arms, and escorted by her brother-in-law, 
 Joseph Cone, left the city on foot, and walked thus 
 many miles, frail and delicate as she was, before any- 
 thing in the shape of a vehicle could be procured. It 
 will be readily understood that her affection for Great 
 Britain was never afterwards of a lively character. 
 Indeed, if any of her race or her husband's succeed in 
 conquering a feeling against that government, it will 
 be under the influence of that precept which teaches us 
 " to love our enemies, and to pray for those who despite- 
 fully use us," Memory and affection pull strongly in 
 an opposite direction, since few of the men of either race 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER IIOUGUTON COKE. 123 
 
 up to the present generation but carried with them to the 
 grave the marks of British bayonet and bullet. Readily 
 as we admit the superiority of England, as a constitu- 
 tional government, over her continental neighbors, and 
 heartily as ye join in love with the free and Christian 
 spirit of her people in peace, the memories of the revol- 
 utionary times, and the later events of 1812 — 14, must die 
 out, before she can hope to find sympathy on this side 
 of the Atlantic in her warlike operations. Americans 
 always separate in their minds the people and the gov- 
 ernment of England. Against the former they have no 
 feelings of hostility ; for the latter little love. An oli- 
 garchy scarcely less debased, effete, and arrogant, than 
 that of Venice before its final suppression by Napoleon 
 the Great, it misrepresents, in peace, the free spirit of the 
 people it oppresses ; and, in war, stains their character 
 by the follies and excesses it commands. Twice it has 
 plunged into war two nations of the same stock, the 
 the same blood, temper — and we are bold to say, the 
 same affection for well-regulated freedom ; nations 
 which should, and if equally governed by the will of the 
 people — would, go hand in hand, in the exalted mission 
 of civilizing and christianizing the world. It may have 
 power to do so again. If it should, the mind recoils with 
 horror from the prospect of a war, which the stubborn 
 temper of the two great divisions of the Anglo-Saxon 
 race, their equality in wealth, and possession of warlike 
 material, would render perhaps the most sanguinary and 
 destructive in the history of the world. 
 
 During the bombardment of Fort Mclienry, the 
 English threw over three thousand shells, without how- 
 ever doing any material injury, the fort being pretty 
 strong and admirably placed, though at that time an 
 open work. The city is built around the basin formed 
 by a branch of the Patapsco river, and which is nearly 
 
124 LIFE OF SPENCKK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 two miles long, by a mile and three-quarters broad. 
 Fort McHeniy stands at the point of the peninsula 
 which forms the month of the harbor, and completely 
 commands the passage. Fell's Point and Whetstone 
 Point form the termini on either side of the outer 
 harbor. 
 
 Finding it, impossible to force the harbor, or destroy 
 its defences, the English commanders determined to 
 land, and attempt to take the town in reverse. 
 
 Captain Aisquith's company, commanded by Mr. 
 Cone, in that gentleman's absence, and the companies 
 of Captains Levering and Howard, were ordered forward 
 to feel the pulse of the enemy. 
 
 It was the 12th day of September, 1814. Between 
 five and six thousand British regulars and marines, 
 under General Ross, and Admirals Cochrane, Cockburn, 
 Malcolm, Codrington and Napier, landed at North 
 Point, and proceeded, without meeting with any resis- 
 tance, about four miles on the road to Baltimore. 
 
 Here the two companies of Sterrett's regiment, 
 Levering's, and Howard's, and Cone's Rifles, had 
 taken post. The detachment was commanded by 
 Major Richard Heath, and burning to retrieve the 
 honor of the corps, which had been compromised by 
 the disastrous retreat of Bladensburg, they contested 
 the ground, inch by inch, against the British advance. 
 
 The uniform of the "Rifles" was a natural green, 
 which toned in with the leaves or grass, and aided 
 materially to conceal them. They wore no ornaments 
 to catch the eye, or betray them, when desirous of con- 
 cealment, by reflecting the sun or light. The only mark 
 of the corps, except the color of their uniform, if we 
 remember accurately Mr. Cone's description, was a 
 silver bugle embroidered on the cap-band. 
 
 As they were moving through a field of tall grass, 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER noUGIITON CONE. 125 
 
 which, by the similarity of its color to that of their dress, 
 completely masked their march, the quick tramp of a 
 troop of horse struck their ear. They had just reached 
 the fence which bounded the field, and the first rank 
 were in the act of climbing it. Their acting Captain, 
 J\Ir. Cone, was far enough in advance to catch the first 
 glimpse of the enemy. His quick eye told him instant- 
 ly what it was. Gaily dressed, and glittering in all the 
 bravery of scarlet and gold, the troop of horse were 
 visible at a great distance. Before his men had cleared 
 the fence and formed in open order for the march, the 
 troop were near enough for him to distinguish their 
 dress, and see, from the glancing of aiguillette and 
 epaulette, that it was a reconnoitering party of general 
 officers, probably the staff of the Commanding General 
 himself. The party rode up to a knoll, and halting upon 
 the top, busied themselves with their glasses. The 
 instant they did so JVIr. Cone ordered his men to fall 
 back along the cover, and give the enemy a dash, for 
 the purpose of preventing their making any discoveries 
 as to the position and force of the American troops. 
 The first platoon levelled their unerring rifles and filed. 
 The volley was delivered with an effect of which they 
 had not dreamed. The squad of English officers were 
 in fact, the Commanding General's staff. That single 
 volley scattered them, and General Ross himself fell 
 mortally wounded, Great as the distance was, the 
 American rifle performed its deadly work with accus- 
 tomed accuracy. 
 
 The brief interval of this episode in the battle had, 
 however, afforded time for the heads of the English 
 columns to come into action. The confusion which 
 followed the loss of their General, and for some 
 moments left them wavering and uncertain, afforded a 
 
126 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 welcome and terrible opportunity for the American 
 Light Troops, and the rapid fire of the rifles, every man 
 of whom picked his man in the opposing ranks, and 
 marked him down as if practising at a target, opened 
 wide gaps in the English ranks. 
 
 The command of the British forces was soon assumed 
 by Colonel Brooke, the line pushed forward at " double- 
 quick," and the American advanced guard driven 
 back upon the main body. They fell back coolly 
 and in order, however, skirmishing, and disputing the 
 English advance, with dogged resolution. For the first 
 time, the veterans of the Peninsular war, who had been 
 promenading the shores of the Chesapeake, had comeface 
 to face with picked and drilled American troops, and 
 the game of war was to be fairly played, upon an open 
 field, between English stubbornness and Yankee hero- 
 ism. Every charge covered the ground with English 
 dead. Their loss was very heavy, far greater than they 
 ever admitted in their official statements. 
 
 The rifles of the 5th, emptying themselves amongst 
 the masses of the English columns, committed terrible 
 havoc. We have heard Mr. Cone detail, with great 
 particularity, this part of the battle. In retiring, he 
 threw his men behind a heavy winding fence, which, 
 for some distance, partially covered them, and enabled 
 them to make repeated and successful stands against the 
 enemy. It was in an angle of this fence that MacComas 
 and Wells fell. Wells fell across Mr. Cone's feet, and 
 uttering the words, " I am a dead man, Captain " — died 
 almost instantly. The names of these brave fellows 
 who sealed their patriotism with their lives, may be read 
 upon the Battle Monument in Calvert street, Baltimore. 
 
 The gallant stand of the three companies, enabled 
 the Baltimore Brigade, under General John Strieker, to 
 
LIFE OF SrEXCER nOUGHTON CONE. 127 
 
 get into position, and when the advancing English came 
 upon the main body of the Americans, numbering about 
 three thousand men, they found it impossible to dis- 
 lodge them. Strieker had posted them with skill, and 
 Hanked by the cavalry of Colonel Biays, and a battery 
 of six-pounders under Captain Montgomery, they with- 
 stood, for over an hour, the combined British force, 
 numbering more than six thousand men. At no time 
 during the battle were a greater number than fifteen 
 hundred of the Americans actually engaged, and 
 amongst these the weight of the contest fell upon 
 Pinckney's Brigade. The 5th and 27th Regiments 
 particularly distinguished themselves, by brilliant and 
 reckless fighting. After an hour's severe conflict, almost 
 hand to hand, the regiment of Col. Amey wavered, 
 and finally broke — leaving the American flank exposed 
 to be turned. General Strieker immediately changed 
 front, and withdrawing the regiments of Sterrett, 
 McDonald, Long and Fowler, and Pinckney's rifles, 
 re-formed his line a short distance in the rear of 
 his first position, and offered battle a second time. 
 Although outnumbering his antagonist four to one, the 
 first position had been so gallantly maintained, and, 
 when yielded, the second assumed with such prompti- 
 tude and spirit by the Americans, that Col. Brooke did 
 not dare to attempt to force it. 
 
 Thus a superior number of veteran British troops 
 were brilliantly defeated by a handful of Americans. 
 It is not a little curious, too, to observe that the weight 
 of the battle was borne, and borne with dogged stub- 
 bornness and resolution, by the very men. who, a few 
 days before, had shared in the panic of Bladensburg, 
 and yielded the possession of the National capitol to 
 the invader, almost without a contest. The barbarous 
 Bcenes enacted there by the English troops, the burning 
 
J.iib LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 of the public buildings, and general destruction of the 
 seat of government, no doubt, exasperated their minds 
 and lent them stern reasons for defending their homes, 
 and firesides in Baltimore from a similar visit of mercy; 
 but the difference in handling had more to do with it. 
 At Bladensburg, regulars and militia, volunteers and 
 amateurs, were inextricably mixed up with Presidents 
 and Secretaries — Generals without a command, and 
 commands with a dozen Generals to each, and no two 
 things agreeing ; they were without food, or ammunition, 
 and one militia regiment without JUnts to their muskets. 
 At Baltimore, or rather North Point, they were 
 volunteer regiments, it is true ; but well-drilled ; pro- 
 perly brigaded — commanded by their own officers — ■ 
 everything, in short, prepared and well-ordered. They 
 demonstrated, therefore, that six weeks' experience in 
 the field makes as good soldiers of Americans as six 
 years does of the men of other countries; and renders 
 them fit to be pitted against the veteran troops of any 
 nation. As a battle — that of Long Point is very remark- 
 able. It was fought entirely by volunteers, in the open 
 field, against veteran troops, flushed with a'late and easy 
 victory. It was a battle of tactics ; and the American 
 combinations were carried out, and the regimental and 
 division movements effected with admirable and almost 
 unvarying precision and success — one regiment only, 
 that of Col. Amey, failing to maintain the post or play 
 the part assigned it. 
 
 Disheartened by the battle of North Point, and the 
 strong state of defence into which the city of Baltimore 
 had been put by General Samuel Smith, a veteran dis- 
 tinguished for his brilliant repulse of the English attack 
 upon Fort Mifflin, during the Revolutionary War, Colo- 
 nel Brooke, and the gallant be\y of admirals who had so 
 long been the terror of all the old women and hen-roosts 
 
LITE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 129 
 
 on the shores of the Chesapeake, commenced their 
 retreat to their shipping. A division of the American 
 army under General Winder, consisting of Douglas's 
 Virginians and Borne regular troops, attempted to get 
 into his rear and cut him off, but favored by the dark- 
 ness of the night and the rapidity of his movements 
 Colonel Brooke effected his escape, and re-embarked, 
 under cover of the fire from the British fleet. On the 
 next day the English fleet formed in a semicircle at a 
 safe distance from Fort Mcllenry, and shelled it during 
 the entire day and night. It was on this occasion that 
 Mr. Cone lay near the fort with his company, as we 
 have already described. 
 
 At midnight several bomb-vessels, rocket-boats, and 
 a large division of barges, carrying twelve hundred men, 
 attempted to turn the fort, by entering the Cove in its 
 rear. In attempting to pass the six-gun water batteiy, 
 however, they were received with such a sustained and 
 terrific fire of red-hot shot, and lost in a few minutes so 
 large a portion of their force, that they were glad to 
 abandon the enterprise, and fall back to their original 
 anchorage beyond the reach of the American artillery. 
 
 Nothing but the exhausted condition of the American 
 troops, and a violent storm of rain which set in, on the 
 night succeeding Brooke's demonstration against the 
 city, saved the English army from capture or annihila- 
 tion. 
 
 With the embarkation of Brooke's force, the cannon- 
 ade against Fort McHenry ceased, and the invaders, 
 completely foiled and beaten, relinquished their designs 
 against the city. 
 
 The battles upon the lakes, and general turn of affairs 
 in America, convinced the English ministry of the 
 hopelessness of further attempts, and peace was soon 
 after concluded between the two countries. That it may 
 
 6* 
 
130 LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 never again be broken, is the earnest hope of every 
 true Christian and philanthropist. In his own language 
 at Baltimore, in 1841. We " deprecate war as one of the 
 greatest of national calamities — especially a war between 
 Great Britain and the United States." 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 131 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 FOES WITHOUT AND FEAES WTTHIN. 
 
 The war which paralyzed so many branches of Amer- 
 ican industry, and spread its influences very far beyond 
 the circle of its actual horrors, produced the most dis- 
 heartening effect upon the fortune of the subject of this 
 memoir. 
 
 It was found impossible to make collections. Thou- 
 sands of dollars stood upon the books of the paper, but 
 scarcely one could be realized. In the mean time, those 
 to whom, in the course of business, the establishment 
 was necessarily indebted, became pressing and clamorous 
 for their money. As every branch of trade and industry 
 had felt the pressure, and suffered from the effect of 
 prolonged hostilities, the relations of business assumed 
 the distressing aspect, which war or commercial panic 
 commonly produce. 
 
 The pleasant little house in Pratt street, which Spen- 
 cer II. had taken and furnished for his young wife, had 
 to be given up. The preparation of it for her reception 
 had been at once a matter of pleasure and sacrifice to 
 him. Many of the articles in it were endeared as 
 mementoes of friendship. His warmest friend in Balti- 
 more was Edward Priestley, a man of his own age, and 
 a wealthy dealer in cabinet ware. Mr. Priestley's house 
 was his home in Baltimore before his marriage. ^ The 
 two young men were so near the same size and figure, 
 that their clothes fitted either indifferently. And 
 if one happened to get a new coat or other article of 
 
132 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 dress, the first who got up in the morning was sure to 
 appropriate it ; Priestley vowing that Spencer H. had 
 more than his share, by an abominable habit of rising 
 early, which he could never acquire. 
 
 The friendship which subsisted between them was 
 extraordinary. Ardent associates in political principle, 
 as well as personal tastes and habits, they differed upon 
 nothing but religion. In the latter, unfortunately, 
 Priestley was a free-thinker, and bitterly opposed to what 
 he styled " Methodism," in which invidious formula he 
 included all profession of religious sentiments. 
 
 Whilst preparing his house in Baltimore, Spencer H. 
 wrote to a friend — " Ned Priestley tells me to take no 
 trouble about the little things, for there shall be nothing 
 wanting. "Was there ever such a friend?" 
 
 Mr. Cone's conversion and strong religious convic- 
 tions, threw the first chill over their friendship. Priestley 
 resented his joining the church, almost as a personal 
 wrong, and they gradually ceased to see or communicate 
 with each other, but Mr. Cone cherished for him always 
 the warmest sentiments of friendship, and never ceased 
 to regret that a mind naturally so fine, and a heart so 
 affectionate and good, should be clouded and hardened 
 by the strange follies of Atheism. 
 
 Recollection of this beloved friend, and solicitude for 
 the state of minds led astray by similar error, and pride 
 of human reason, led him, as a preacher, to devote the 
 most patient study to the subject; and many of his 
 finest and most touching arguments and appeals, were 
 made to combat, and, if possible, search out the cause 
 and cure of infidelity. 
 
 The pleasant little house in Pratt street, as we have 
 said, had to be relinquished. Everything it contained 
 was sold under the hammer, and the money paid to the 
 creditors of the paper. A large deficit, however, still 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 133 
 
 remained, and all the distresses of pecuniary embarrass* 
 me: it accumulated around him. Mrs. Cone returned to 
 Philadelphia with her little boy, for they could not afford 
 to live together in Baltimore ; and her husband remained 
 behind, to struggle through his difficulties and secure, 
 if possible, an honorable release from the creditors of the 
 '• Whig." Mr. and Mrs. Norvell removed to Kentucky, 
 and he was thus left alone to bear the whole shock of 
 the misfortune. 
 
 A thousand circumstances combined to render the 
 situation painful and embarrassing. He had had the 
 unspeakable pleasure, not long before, of believing that 
 his young wife, who had seen with mingled wonder and 
 incredulity his own conversion, was herself the subject 
 of saving grace, and her eyes open to see the loveliness 
 of the path he had chosen. He therefore writes to her : 
 " You are now, my Sally, more exposed to trials and 
 temptations than you have been for months past, and 
 although you have never been baptized and received 
 into the church militant, yet I trust you have been 
 buried with Christ, and risen to newness of life. I 
 beseech you, therefore, my beloved, endeavor to walk 
 worthy of that high and honorable vocation wherewith 
 you are called. We who believe in Jesus, and profess 
 to be followers of the meek and lowly Saviour — Oh! let 
 us never forget, whatever allurements the world may 
 set before us, what manner of men we ought to be in all 
 holy conversation and godliness. Be not ashamed at any 
 time, or in any company, of the Lamb of God, for of all 
 such as are ashamed of Him upon earth, He has declared 
 he will be ashamed in the day of His power. Lay these 
 things to heart, and pray for the influence of the Holy 
 Spirit to guide and direct you in Zion's road." 
 
 And again, a few days after — " My love, how stands 
 the great account between the Friend of sinners and your 
 
134: LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 soul ? Hath the Son made you free from the dominion 
 of sin, or are you still gratified with worldly pursuits, 
 and unwilling yet to enlist under the banner of the 
 great Captain of our salvation ? I know not how nor 
 why it is, but since you left me I have been severely 
 exercised on your behalf. The fear that the arch enemy 
 of souls had lulled you into a false peace has continu- 
 ally haunted me. Oh, examine yourself strictly, and 
 determine whether the placidity you enjoy be the fruit 
 of love to Christ, which love alone can fill the heart 
 with the peace that passeth all human understanding." 
 
 In addition to his solicitude with regard to her reli- 
 gious exercises, his own duties, so often, apparently, 
 conflicting with the circumstances in which the mis- 
 fortunes of business had entangled him, harassed and 
 frequently clouded his mind with dreary thoughts. 
 Through all, however, a strong and daily-increasing 
 faith bore him up, and strengthened him to discharge 
 whatever the inscrutable, but wise, providence of his 
 Master devolved upon him. Needing consolation him- 
 self, he consoles her. " Bear up, my beloved wife," he 
 exclaims — " with all a Christian's fortitude, against 
 impending evils. Look not at the things which are 
 behind, but have your eyes continually fixed upon the 
 mark for the prize of our great high calling in Christ 
 Jesus. Let not trifling cares disturb the peaceful 
 serenity of your mind ; let not even heavy burdens, 
 however grievous to be borne, deter us from obtaining 
 the object for which we contend. Do we suffer priva- 
 tion of comfort ? The Son of God was content to lay in 
 a manger for our sakes : for our sake, He submitted to 
 be buffeted, and spit upon by sinners, and, at last, Oh ! 
 inconceivable wonder ! poured out His precious blood 
 freely upon the cross, that He might reconcile us to 
 God. And when this dear "Saviour calls us to suffer a 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 135 
 
 little for Him, shall we grow restive and rebel. Oh ! 
 never!" 
 
 The desire to serve the Lord, and the daily-increasing 
 urgency of the members of the church in Baltimore for 
 him to take part in public worship, gave additional poig- 
 nancy to his regret for the hindrances interposed by the 
 entanglements of business. " What shall I do ?" he 
 cries. " Shall I make application for a situation at 
 "Washington, with the determination that I will accept? 
 if not, shall I endeavor to make a compromise with 
 our creditors, in the hope of being one day able to pay 
 them ? I cannot take the benefit of the Insolvent Act, 
 while there is the slightest prospect of liquidating the 
 claims against us. I am anxious to devote all my life 
 to come to my dear Lord and Master, but were I to 
 shake off these claims, would it wound His cause or 
 advance it ?" 
 
 And again — " My soul pants to be engaged in the 
 work of the ministry ; but, oh ! how the way is choked 
 
 up ! Our creditors, I fear, will not compromise ; B •, 
 
 to whom we owe $1,000, is obstinate and unfeeling; he 
 will, I think, push us to the last. 'Though I have 
 friends to go my security, yet to lie in a jail a single 
 hour, and then plead the benefit of the insolvent law, 
 seems a very hard task, if, by any honorable means, I 
 can prevent or postpone so melancholy a catastrophe. 
 Father, forgive me ! Shall a living man complain ? Oh, 
 no ! rather let me rejoice that I have been thought 
 worthy to suffer. May our troubles work out patience 
 and godliness, and enable us, by faith, to say — ' This is 
 not our abiding city, we seek one to come.' I dare not 
 promise when I will return. I am not my own property. 
 I cannot do what my soul longs to do. I must prevent 
 if possible, the breath of slander from tainting in the 
 slightest degree my name, or how dare I hope the Lord 
 
136 LIFE OF SPKNCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 Jesus will make me a useful laborer in his vine- 
 yard." 
 
 About this time, and for the purpose of enabling him 
 to relieve himself, he was offered the position of super- 
 cargo, and an interest in a valuable mercantile venture, 
 by a friend in Baltimore ; a proposition he took into 
 serious consideration, as appears from several references 
 to it, such as — " Mention in your next, whether you 
 have consented to let me go to Europe to better my 
 fortune, or whether dry land and hard, knocks have the 
 preference." As may be readily conceived, his wife 
 opposed the plan, lucrative as it promised to be, with 
 all her influence. A fortunate circumstance occurred, 
 almost immediately, to second her remonstrances. 
 Charles James Dallas, then Secretary of the Treasury, at 
 the instance of his son, George M. Dallas, who had been 
 a friend and supporter of Spencer II. during his course 
 in Philadelphia, appointed him in the Treasury Depart- 
 ment, and he removed with his wife and boy to the seat 
 of Government. He experienced, however, the deepest 
 regret at leaving Baltimore, and nothing but the "neces- 
 sity of present life," overcame the desire he felt to 
 remain amongst a people, who, under all circumstances, 
 had displayed towards him a kindness and affection of 
 no ordinary character. " Our friends," he says, " over- 
 whelmed me with kindness," — this was shortly after his 
 removal, and during a business visit to his former home. 
 " Every one pressed me to stay with them, and insisted 
 upon it that Baltimore must be our home, and that 
 something shall be done to make it a desirable one. 
 Oh ! that I were more worthy their Christian regards. 
 They seem bent indeed upon my staying here. They 
 insist that if one business will not support me here, they 
 will keep us with all their hearts till I find something 
 else that will. Such is the brotherly kindness of Balti- 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 137 
 
 moreans. Does it not resemble that which the apostles 
 speak of in times of old.'' 
 
 The same letter gives a glimpse of home-life under 
 difficulties ; and to how strict an economy he condemned 
 himself for the purpose of liquidating the claims against 
 the " Whig." 
 
 Cynthia, their only house-servant, whom, indeed, they 
 could as little afford to keep as bear to part with, and 
 himself, formed the whole household of " retrenchment." 
 
 "Nothing of importance," he says, "has transpired. 
 Cynthia and I rise with the sun here in Baltimore, con- 
 tinually ; which to you wise and philosophical Philadel- 
 phians, I suppose, seems a paradox, but I assure you, 
 nevertheless, it is literally true. To day (May 22d) I 
 have indulged in very nice peas at 37| cents per peck, 
 and if I had anybody to eat with me, no doubt they 
 would relish delightfully. It has been uncommonly 
 warm for two days past. My ancient greens have 
 drawn forth from my poor benders, copious streams of 
 perspiration. I can't stand it much longer. I shall be 
 compelled, I fear, to buy summer pantaloons. How 
 fares the purse by this time ? I have between $20 and 
 $30 owing in Philadelphia, on account of the 'Whig' 
 which will be collected and given to you." 
 
 The above extract is only one of many which 
 might be given as evidence of the manly energy and 
 healthful elasticity of mind, with which he looked 
 trouble and sacrifice in the face. Accustomed, during 
 the latter part of his secular career, to luxurious living, 
 extravagance of dress and equipage, and the company 
 of wealthy and fashionable people, he sacrifices every- 
 thing to the idea of duty, not with a repining or dejected 
 spirit, but with a kind of gaiety. Sometimes, indeed, 
 depressed, when " neither sun nor stars appear for many 
 days," but very soon through all the gloom, seeing by 
 
138 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON" CONE. 
 
 faith the shining face of his heavenly Father, even behind 
 a frowning Providence. Sometimes feeling as if he 
 were sinking in the deep waters, but very shortly hear- 
 ing; the eternal voice calling through the storm — " Be 
 not afraid, it is I." — and walking the troubled sea of 
 human sorrows, and earthly trials, with confidence and 
 hope — secure that " neither death nor life, nor any other 
 creature could separate him from the love of God," or 
 prevent the ultimate accomplishment of His will. 
 
 On his appointment by Mr. Secretary Dallas, he 
 removed his church membership, from the first church 
 m Baltimore, to the Baptist church at "Washington, of 
 which Bev. Obadiah B. Brown was pastor. 
 
 The history of that time, so interesting and so happy 
 in its results, is best told by himself. 
 
 " In the course of three or four weeks (after my remo- 
 val to "Washington, D. C.) the deacon of the little church 
 at the Navy Yard asked me to go with him to their 
 Lord's-day morning prayer-meeting. They had no 
 pastor, and asked me to lead the meeting, and give 
 the little band of twenty or thirty, a word of exhorta- 
 tion. 
 
 " In reading 1 John, ii. 1, I was forcibly impressed 
 with the words, ' If any man sin, we have an advocate 
 with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous;' and I 
 spoke from them without embarrassment for nearly an 
 hour, to my own utter surprise. This was my first 
 attempt to preach Christ crucified to my fellow-men. 
 
 "At their earnest request, I agreed to speak for them 
 again the next Lord's-day morning. It somehow leaked 
 out that Mr. Cone, formerly on the stage, was to preach. 
 
 "When I went to fulfill the appointment, their little 
 meeting-house on the Commons, near the Navy Yard, 
 was surrounded by an immense crowd, while within it 
 was so full that I reached the pulpit steps with difficulty. 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER IIOr/GIITCN CONE. 139 
 
 This was the greatest trial I ever had as a preacher, in 
 view of an audience. When I came in sight of the 
 crowd, I was tempted to turn back, and when 1 rose up 
 to commence public worship, Satan assured me that my 
 mouth should be stopped if I attempted to preach ; that 
 the cause of my precious Saviour would be sadly wound- 
 ed ; that I had better say to the people, I was not pre- 
 pared to address so large an assembly, and then go home. 
 The suggestion was so plausible, I did not think at the 
 moment that it came from the great Deceiver, and I 
 concluded to give out a hymn, read a chapter, pray, and 
 sing again, and then determine how to act. — While sing- 
 ing the second hymn, which closed with these words, 
 
 " ' Be thou my strength and righteousness, 
 My Jesus and my all !' 
 
 the worth of souls was presented to my mind with irre- 
 sistible force ; I never once thought of the want of words 
 to tell the story of the Cross, nor of the crowd of hearers, 
 but directed them to Ephesians, ii. 10, ' For we are his 
 workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, 
 which God hath before ordained that we should walk in 
 them,' and spoke for an hour with fervor and rapidity. 
 Wonderfully did the Lord help me that day ; and I felt it 
 to be so easy to preach Jesus, and I was so ready to spend 
 and be spent in His service, that I consented to an 
 appointment for the next Lord's-day. My third sermon 
 was from Malachi, iii. 16, ' Then they that feared the 
 Lord spake often one to another ; and the Lord heark- 
 ened and heard it,' &c. and He gave me that day a 
 soul for my hire, to encourage my heart, and to 
 strengthen my hands — blessed be His holy name for ever! 
 Oh, what am I, or what my father's house, that to me 
 this grace should be given, ' to preach among the Gen- 
 tiles the unsearchable riches of Christ?'" — Ser. to the 
 Young, 1844. 
 
140 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ALEXANDRIA. 
 
 So general was the interest his preaching excited, that 
 the little church at the Navy Yard was thronged inside 
 and out by all classes, and he became so popular that 
 shortly after being licensed to preach, he was chosen 
 chaplain to the Congress of 1S15-16. He was always 
 of the opinion that the principal agent in procuring his 
 election, by Congress, was Henry Clay, then the. leader 
 of the Democratic party ; an account lately furnished 
 by a gentleman assigns it to humbler influence. A few 
 days after his election, Mr. Cla}- remarked to him that 
 the salary of the chaplain was in his opinion entirely too 
 small, either for the services performed by the incum- 
 bent, or the dignity of the body for whom he officiated, 
 and announced his determination to make it his business 
 to see members, and have it put upon a proper footing. 
 With his customary earnestness in everything he under- 
 took, especially whatever was recommended to him by 
 a sentiment of personal friendship, he pushed the matter 
 through immediately, and the salary of the chaplain was 
 raised to five hundred dollars. 
 
 A member of Dr. Armitage's church has kindly 
 furnished us with some interesting reminiscences, part 
 of which, relating more especially to his chaplaincy, we 
 shall quote here in nearly the words of our informant. 
 
 " In 1842, when he was my pastor, he gave me a letter 
 of introduction to his own old pastor in Washington, 
 D.C., the Rev. Obadiah P. Brown. Brother Brown was 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 141 
 
 formerly assistant Post-master General, under H. J. 
 Meigs, and, being wealthy, preached, without emolu- 
 ment, for the church at Washington. I found brother 
 Brown, then nearly four-score, venerable and polite. 
 He received me very kindly, and, as he had at one 
 time lived in the vicinity of New York, we had many 
 common topics of agreeable conversation. He gave me 
 a sketch of the early history of brother Cone, for whom 
 he retained the warmest affection. He told me about 
 his baptism ; of his union with the church ; of his giving 
 him a letter from the church, and the part he took in his 
 ord ination. I attended worship in the brick church 
 where he was ordained. I went down to the Navy 
 Yard to see brother Abel Davis. Old brother Davis 
 told me how it was he who had invited the young man 
 (Mr. Cone) to lead their prayer-meeting in the little 
 Navy Yard church ; what he said that night, when he 
 spoke for the first time, and what a blessed and com- 
 forting time they had listening to him. The old man 
 recollected it all, as if it had been yesterday. ' Oh 
 yes,' said Mrs. Davis, ' I was down at old Point 
 Comfort, and my husband there wrote to me to come 
 home directly, for there was a wonderful young man 
 come amongst us ; a young man from the Treasury 
 Office, who belonged to brother Brown's church. I 
 came home, and there — there,' she said, pointing from 
 the window, ' there stood the old plank meeting-house, 
 where he first spoke, and I heard him first.' 
 
 " A revival of these early scenes produced an amount 
 of joy in the hearts of the old couple, no words can do 
 justice to. 
 
 "'Yes,' said the old lady, 'in this very room, where 
 we are now sitting, he married the first couple he ever 
 married. The bride was my own daughter, now Mrs. 
 Church. She is living now at Fort Monroe.' 
 
112 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 " Many interesting details were communicated. One 
 or two I particularly remember. 
 
 "In 1S15, lie was chosen chaplain to Congress, and the 
 way it came about was a curious working of Providence. 
 A widow woman, who was a member of the little 
 church, kept a boarding-house principally frequented 
 by members of Congress. She had two sons, about ten 
 and twelve years old, and they were pages in the House 
 of Representatives. One of the members and his wife 
 took lodgings with the widow. The member's wife was 
 also a devout woman. The widow said to this sister, 
 'Won't you ask your husband to nominate brother 
 Cone, as chaplain to the House?' 'Yes, indeed, most 
 gladly ;' was the reply. She did so, and at her urgent 
 request, and the widow's, he nominated Spencer II. 
 Cone. The widow's sons, the two pages, were delighted 
 at the nomination, and preparing ballots with Spencer 
 II. Cone's name on them, flew around the hall, supplying 
 the members with them, and importuning every one to 
 vote for him. The zeal of the boys succeeded, and he 
 was chosen chaplain. 
 
 " Here he was at once introduced, by the providence 
 of God, into a field of great notoriety, and here, as every 
 where, he fearlessly proclaimed the Gospel. During 
 the session a person, high in rank, was laid on a bed of 
 sickness. In his life-time, when strong and healthy, he 
 had been an infidel ; but when the fear of death took 
 hold upon him, he cried out for the minister of Christ. 
 How he died, whether changed or impenitent, I do not 
 know, but the young chaplain, soon after his death, 
 made a striking allusion to those who live without God 
 in the world. When laid upon a death-bed, however, 
 and summoned to their account, they dare not meet the 
 Judge. Then they call aloud for God's people to sup- 
 plicate, in their behalf, the God they had denied. 
 
LIFE OF SPENCEE HOUGUTON CONE. 143 
 
 Then they are willing to renounce and abandon the 
 refuge of lies in which they once trusted. But the 
 hour of mercy has passed, and they die in hopeless, 
 terrible despair. This solemn truth he uttered boldly, 
 and with striking effect, in the Hall of Representatives. 
 Two sons of the deceased great man heard the declara- 
 tion, and became highly incensed against the chaplain. 
 They said he had reflected upon the virtuous life of 
 their father, and they would compel him to apologize 
 as publicly as he had insulted his memory. The mem- 
 bers of the church, hearing of this, for it was a common 
 talk in the city, became very much alarmed, and feared 
 for the safety of their beloved brother. The more timid 
 met together to consult what was best to be done to 
 protect him. Meantime there was a great stir abroad, 
 and it was rumored that, on the next Lord's day, the 
 chaplain was going to make a public apology. The 
 day came, and multitudes thronged the house. The 
 young chaplain rose, calm and undisturbed — his manner 
 as happy and serene as though there had never been 
 such a thing whispered, and as if fear were not a part 
 of his nature. With his mellifluous voice he read a 
 hymn of praise — then, with uplifted hands, poured out 
 his heart in prayer. The Lord heard and answered 
 with strength and grace. He stood up. Every eye 
 was upon him, every ear stretched to hear. He began 
 to preach. His voice rose to a pitch of dignity, his 
 farm dilated, and the stern words of doom, for the 
 finally impenitent, went rolling and thundering through 
 the house. Triumphantly that day he preached the 
 whole plan of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 He spoke for more than an hour, but never made any 
 direct allusion to the circumstance, nor the shadow of 
 an apology. And this was a great day in Washington ; 
 for the Lord magnified His Word, and the faith of the 
 
14i LIFE OF SP'-iNCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 church was strengthened. Two ladies, wives of mem- 
 bers of Congress, were converted by the instrumentality 
 of that sermon. 
 
 " No one ever heard any more of an attempt to compel 
 Spencer II. Cone to apologize for speaking the truth, 
 as God had revealed it in the Bible. On several occa- 
 sions, indeed, his life was threatened, and the brethren 
 in great fear fjr him ; but he could never be brought to 
 entertain any apprehensions, or turn aside from the 
 course of duty, for fear of what man might do unto him. 
 A violent Catholic, whose wife he had baptized, went 
 about, for a long time, carrying arms and making great 
 threats of vengeance, but although he had frequent 
 opportunities of executing them, either his heart failed 
 him, or Providence interposed some other obstacle, and 
 nothing ever came of it." 
 
 At the close of the congressional session, he was 
 invited to preach for the little church in Alexandria, 
 D. C. We are indebted to Mrs. Dagg, wife of Dr. J. 
 L. Dagg, one of his dear children in the Gospel, for the 
 following account of the commencement of his ministry, 
 and several interesting incidents connected with it in 
 that city. 
 
 "In 1816, Mr. Cone was called to take the charge of 
 the Baptist church in Alexandria, under the following 
 circumstances. Soon after his chaplaincy to Congress 
 closed, he made a visit to that place, and was invited to 
 preach in the first Presbyterian church. The pastor of 
 this church was an old Scotch divine, who had, for 
 many years, lulled his people, by a lifeless ministry, 
 into an almost ttstal forgetfulness of their eternal 
 interests. 
 
 "Mr. Cone preached from the text, ' Whereas I was 
 once blind, now I see.' He showed that, by nature, 
 we were totally blind, with no spiritual discernment; 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 145 
 
 but that, by the grace of God, the awakened soul was 
 brought to be sensible of his blindness, and to see some- 
 thing of the holiness and. purity of God's law, and his 
 inability to fulfill its demands. 
 
 " In short it was a searching, practical, and experimen- 
 tal sermon, which pierced the hearts of many sinners. 
 The movement through the congregation, and, indeed, 
 through the whole community, was like electricity. 
 
 "As an effect of this sermon in the Presbyterian 
 church, two or three ladies, members of that church, set 
 about devising a plan by which Mr. Cone might be 
 settled in Alexandria. At that time the Baptist church 
 of the place was very feeble, being composed of twenty 
 or thirty females, and one male member, with no settled, 
 pastor or stated preaching. These ladies set out to find 
 the church. They sought for the male member, but he 
 had removed from the town. They found some of the 
 old sisters; expressed their desire, and promised, on 
 condition that Mr. Cone should be called to the charge 
 of the church, that they would guarantee his salary. 
 
 " A letter of invitation was written. Mr. Cone prayed 
 over it ; and the result was his acceptance of the call, 
 and the removal of his family, which consisted of his 
 wife and infant son, Edward. 
 
 " Here the record of God's dealing with men, by his 
 instrumentality, commenced ; and here commenced a 
 chain of labor, a link of which was not broken until the 
 golden bowl itself was broken at the fountain. 
 
 "He entered on his course, in that city, with deep 
 interest. He saw that a mighty work was to be done, 
 and that the Lord had much people in that city. His 
 arms were not folded in sluggish inactivity and despon- 
 dency, in view of the magnitude of the social and moral 
 evil which surrounded him on every side. But he 
 toiled hopefully, patiently, and ardently, in his work, 
 
146 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 and great success followed. The house was enlarged, 
 and crowds attended his ministry: and crowds were 
 converted by his instrumentality. Many who came to 
 deride and scoff, left crying for mercy. Among the 
 converts were persons in every class and rank of society; 
 the pharisee, the deist, the formal professor, the distin- 
 guished citizen, and the immoral and degraded charac- 
 ter. 
 
 "He labored there about seven years; and almost 
 every month during the whole of this time, he led the 
 willing convert to the Potomac for baptism. Thousands 
 would attend this ordinance; even when, as often hap- 
 pened during a severe winter, the ice had to be broken 
 for the purpose, they would gather around the opening 
 made for baptism, until, by their weight, the whole sheet 
 would be immersed. At first the novelty attracted 
 attention, and the subsequent frequency of the adminis- 
 tration, with his impressive addresses at the water-side, 
 and his graceful performance of the rite, added much to 
 the notoriety of his ministry. But this was not without 
 opposition. He was an object of ridicule and scoff to 
 many ; so much so, indeed, that at times his friends con- 
 sidered him in imminent danger of assault. But his 
 faith undaunted faced his foes, the enemies of God, and 
 the gainsaying world, with an humble reliance on the 
 Saviour who said — 'Lo! I am with you alway, even 
 unto the end of the world.' 
 
 " Mr. Cone's high social qualities, and courteous man- 
 ner, drew around him a large circle of admiring friends 
 and led him to visit the people of his charge with 
 unrestrained freedom. He would enter into their joys 
 and sorrows with that sympathy which made his visits 
 not only welcome, but looked for with strong desire. 
 These visits were not confined to the more intelligent or 
 opulent of his church. The African and the poor widow, 
 
LIFE OF 8PENGEE HOUGHTON CONE. 147 
 
 as she toiled at her daily work, for the support of her 
 fatherless little ones, were comforted and instructed by 
 them. 
 
 " His theme, at such times, was not matters of State, or 
 trade, or agriculture, or the weather ; but he was accus- 
 tomed to introduce such inquiries as these; What have 
 been your daily exercises the past week? Does the 
 love of Christ dwell in you richly ; or are you crying — 
 oil, my leanness, my leanness? 
 
 "Is the road a thorny one, and your progress in sancti- 
 fication difficult ? 
 
 " Cannot you trust that grace which brought you into 
 the way, and began the good work ? 
 
 " By such inquiries as these, he would learn the spiritual 
 state of his members, and would administer such coun- 
 sels and encouragements as their cases required. 
 
 " Often, in these visits, with a countenance beaming 
 with heavenly radiance and. holy joy, he would relate 
 the exercises he had heard from some poor contrite sin- 
 ner, or from the warm gushing of some heart grateful 
 for an assurance of redeeming love. One case is 
 impressed on my memory. It was the tale of an old 
 slave belonging to a Maryland planter. He had never 
 known God or Christ, until one day the inspector came 
 to inspect their tobacco. He examined one hogshead 
 and condemned it ; another, and it was marked as good. 
 Another and another passed his inspection with varying 
 results. While the old African looked on, the judgment 
 day, with all its tremendous realities, passed before his 
 mind — the day when all, both good and bad, shall stand 
 before the Great Inspector. From these first impres- 
 sions, the Holy Spirit led this old African to the foot of 
 the Cross. After he had found peace and joy in 
 believing, he applied to Mr. Cone for baptism, and told 
 the artless tale of his experieuce. 
 
148 THE LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 "While the impression of this simple narrative was still 
 fresh upon his heart, Mr. C. visited our family, and 
 repeated the story with streaming eyes, concluding with 
 the exclamation — Oh, the free grace of God ! May I 
 never want a tongue to proclaim it to sinners, or a heart 
 to feel its influence." 
 
 " Such were the methods which this man of God adopted 
 to render his pastoral visits useful to the people of his 
 charge. Thus was the communion of saints maintained 
 and the fellowship of believers kept up, by the social 
 interchange of pious thought and feeling. Mr. C. felt, 
 that unimproved intercourse among Christians is the 
 bane of the church. He felt, too, the preciousness of 
 the fellowship of saints, and sought every means to keep 
 alive a coal in his own bosom, that he might enkindle it 
 in others. He taught that they who feared the Lord? 
 spake often one to another, and grace, like fire, will beget 
 grace ; so, by the mutual giving and receiving, th e 
 brotherhood were strengthened, united, and advanced 
 in knowledge and holiness. 
 
 l " One instance of conversion through his instru- 
 mentality may be selected out of many. 
 
 " A young member of the Bar from Washington City, 
 came on a visit to Alexandria. He called to spend the 
 evening with two young ladies, with whom he had been 
 previously acquainted. They proposed, as it was Mr. 
 C.'s lecture evening, to attend, inviting their young 
 friend to accompany them. Gallantry, as well as 
 courtesy, demanded a cheerful acquiescence, though 
 he would have preferred his hotel, as he had been 
 indulging in too much wine. But he resolved what 
 to do. As sleep would be grateful, he determined to 
 place himself in some obscure corner, where he might 
 indulge in a nap, unobserved and uninterrupted. He 
 did so. The introductory hymn and prayer passed 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 149 
 
 unheard. The lecture, on that evening, was from the 
 twenty-third Psalm: 'The Lord is my shepherd, I 
 shall not want.' This young lawyer was first arrested 
 by the preacher's voice and manner, and then by the 
 subject. He went, step by step, with the speaker until 
 he felt he was a poor, lost, condemned criminal. He 
 did not return to Washington the next morning, as he 
 had intended. So deep, pungent, and sincere was his 
 repentance for sin, that he presented himself to Mr. C, 
 although an entire stranger, and told his story. He 
 proved to be a trophy of sovereign grace. Mr. C made 
 every domestic claim subordinate to this interest- 
 ing case. He invited him to his home; prayed with 
 him daily; often placed his arm in his, and made his 
 pastoral calls or social visits; recommended the reading 
 of such works as were suited to him, and watched over 
 his spiritual growth, as he that watcheth for souls. 
 Conversion from sin to holiness was the result ; and a 
 consecration of himself to the work of the ministry. 
 His initiation into the sacred office was under the 
 guidance of his Spiritual Father, who rejoiced over him 
 as a son in the Gospel. 
 
 " These two cases of conversion, which have been 
 narrated, are from the extreme ranks of society. Others 
 from intermediate classes might be told. Whole families 
 were brought into the fellowship of the church. One, 
 consisting of ten members, three of whom had passed 
 their three score years, was of the number. Five of 
 them, after having lived a life of faith, holiness and use- 
 fulness, have been translated to the church triumphant, 
 and the remaining live, of whom the writer is one, have 
 survived their Spiritual Father, and are cherishing the 
 hope of meeting him in glory, and uniting with him in 
 singing the song which none but the redeemed can sing!" 
 
 Early in his ministry in Alexandria, he writes to his 
 
150 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 ■mother, " Duties and trials increase with years ; but 
 experience has proved that there is a Friend that sticketh 
 closer than a brother, a Friend whose grace has hitherto 
 been, and I doubt not will ever continue to be, sufficient 
 for me. The Lord has wonderfully upheld me in the 
 work of the ministry, and I may truly say, He hath 
 done for me and by me exceeding abundantly above all 
 that I could ask or think. About ninety souls have 
 been added to the church in Alexandria, since my call 
 to take charge of it, and the glorious work is still 
 carrying on. Three or four, not yet baptized, have 
 been introduced into the liberty of the children of God ; 
 several are anxiously inquiring the way of life and 
 salvation, and the hearts of the brethren appear to be 
 knit together in the bonds of Gospel love. And yet, oh ! 
 is it not astonishing:? and vet, want of eno-afiredness m 
 the cause and service of Christ — backwardness in duty 
 — distracted and wandering thoughts — coldness and 
 deadness in private devotion — want of zealous and 
 animated affection towards God, and his clear children, 
 like leprous spots still cleave to me. Every day's ex- 
 perience convinces me, yet more and more, that, if 
 saved at all, 1 must be a sinner saved by grace. Grace 
 alone, free, sovereign and resistless, as that which 
 rescued the dying thief, can reach my case, and present 
 a good hope of everlasting life to one who deserves to be 
 a firebrand of hell. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth 
 from all sin. Oh, my dear mother, what a precious 
 truth ! Well, may the apostle say, ' It speaketh better 
 things than the blood of Abel.' One calls down 
 vengeance on the murderer's guilty head ; the other 
 cleanses the conscience from dead works, and speaks 
 peace and pardon to the chief of sinners. The blood of 
 Abel cried aloud to God — Condemn ! The blood of 
 Jesus cannot flow in vain. With a yet louder voice it 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON COXE. 151 
 
 cries, in behalf of all his children ? Father forgive them, 
 for I have died. Pray for me. I hope we shall see 
 each other yet once more in the flesh. If not — I trust 
 me shall meet in a much better world, never to part 
 again ? " 
 
 In the same strain he addresses his sister Catharine, 
 the loveliness of whose person was a happy index of the 
 superior graces of her mind. 
 
 " I do think, my dear sister, if of my own wicked and 
 deceitful heart I know anything, that I can sincerely 
 unite with yon in the prayer that 'I may ever be kept 
 at the foot of the Cross.' So much pride, when the Lord 
 is graciously pleased to work by me, in the comforting 
 and conversion of precious souls ; so much self-sufficiency , 
 when a door of utterance is opened for me to preach the 
 unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ ; so much unbelief, 
 when only trifling difficulties present themselves in the 
 path of duty ; so much coldness, formality, and wander- 
 ing of thought — that I am constrained to cry out, oh ! 
 wretched man that I am ! Draw me to Thy feet, dear 
 Saviour! Lay me low, and keep me there !" 
 
 "What an unspeakable joy that where sin abounded, 
 grace did much more abound. God deals not with us 
 according to our desert, but according to the riches of 
 His mercy and goodness treasured up in a dear Imma- 
 nnel. Words are poor, and language vain to tell the 
 debt of gratitude and love we owe to Him — ' Who hath 
 begotten us again, unto a lively hope, by the resurrec- 
 tion of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance, 
 incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, 
 reserved in heaven, for children who are kept by the 
 power of God, through' faith, unto the salvation ready 
 to be revealed in the last time.' 
 
 " Meditate upon these heaven-born words. Have you 
 this hope ? To help you a little, if the Lord will, take 
 
152 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 notice that the children's hope is lively — because it 
 springs from spiritual life — because, though ever so 
 much beclouded it never entirely dies, and because it 
 enlivens and animates the soldier of the Cross in every 
 battle trial! It is the hope of an inheritance — not a 
 reward of merit. That hope is strengthened because 
 the inheritance is ' reserved.'' It cannot be squandered 
 by faithless guardians — and it is made stronger still, 
 because we can't die minors — for we are 'kept 7 by the 
 power of God, and shall be led into the mansions of 
 salvation, which are all 'ready* for them that love 
 God — that are the called according to his purpose. The 
 Lord bless yon. Amen !" 
 
 No doubt every true child of God watches and prays 
 continually against spiritual pride, as the prolific parent 
 of every spiritual vice, and desires to be clothed in the 
 humility of little children, and so possess their souls as 
 ever kneeling at their Master T s feet, confessing all their 
 need, and weeping all their sin. In him of whom we 
 write, this holy temper and spirit of the mind was, all 
 his Christian life, a marked characteristic. It had its 
 effect often very plainly on his oratory. When carried 
 away by his subject, and rising to the loftiest heights, 
 or whirled along by the power of his imagination, and 
 pouring out a stream of impetuous declamation, which 
 burned and glittered like molten gold — something 
 would seem to flash across his mind. His hand would 
 steal to his heart, as if a pain checked him — and tender 
 and humble tones of love, pleading before the throne of 
 grace for sinners — not sinners vile as some great crimi- 
 nals, whose name the historic page blushed and shud- 
 dered to record — but sinners vile as himself, went up 
 to heaven with all the holy fervor of conviction in their 
 utterance. You could not fail to see the thought which 
 checked him, and struck his heart like a sharp agony, 
 
LITE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 153 
 
 translate itself upon Ills face. Every feature spoke it, 
 and said — Have not words carried me away ; and the 
 passion of mere human eloquence led to the verge of 
 pride in the display of human powers. God be merci- 
 ful to me a sinner. " Bring me to the foot of the cross, 
 Oh Saviour. Lay me low and keep me there." 
 
 It was a beautiful trait in his character, and one 
 springing necessarily from the grace of humility, that 
 he was without envy. He was never heard at home, 
 and we think no one remembers him, abroad, indulging 
 in ill-speaking of any living creature. Those who gave 
 him most trouble in his public life, and sowed most 
 thorns for him, were prayed for in private at the family 
 altar, and rarely mentioned at any other time ; but if 
 spoken of — always without passion. Of preachers he 
 never said a hard word. Indeed he could never be got 
 to criticise anything but their doctrine, by any feint or 
 question. If he heard one preach what he did not 
 believe to be the Gospel, then, indeed, he applied the 
 Apostle's words with unrestrained severity, and asserted 
 that, " if an angel from Heaven " preached anything 
 but the Gospel he should be accursed. But for their 
 manner of delivery, or of handling a subject, their style 
 of sermonizing, or any mental or personal defects, he 
 could never be driven to speak disparagingly. Often 
 at home, we, being young and hard to please, as well as 
 careless of what we said, would play the satirist, and 
 be very smart at the expense of some good brother, 
 whom we had lately heard He would never stop to 
 hear us out, but walk away, shaking his head, and say- 
 ing — " Oh boys, boys, I hope you may, either of you, 
 ever do half as well. The dear brother said a great 
 many good things. I wish you had listened to those" 
 
 He seemed in fact, to have but one feeling with 
 regard to his fellow preachers, and that was — that they 
 
 7* 
 
154 LITE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 ■were engaged in one cause, a cause so mighty and mag* 
 nificent as to dwarf out of sight all human vanity. His 
 natural disposition too, and the sentiment of the heroic 
 which pervaded all his nature, made the success and 
 ability of all who fought under the banner of the Cross 
 a subject of enthusiastic delight ; oftentimes his exhibi- 
 tion of the pleasure he experienced, in their well doing, 
 ■was almost childlike in its simplicity. lie would bend 
 forward, and watch them as they spoke, whilst his face, 
 like a glass, reflected every changing expression and 
 feeling of their own. It was the only way in which his 
 extraordinary powers of mimickry were ever displayed, 
 in his Christian life ; and these acted without his will — 
 a happy mimickry in which the mobile face obeyed the 
 prompting of the heart, and translated, in its varying 
 expression, his kindly sympathy with the speaker. 
 "VVe cannot help dwelling for a moment on the charac- 
 teristic, since it had undoubtedly a great deal to do in 
 attaching the younger ministers of the Gospel to him. 
 They felt as if a father were beside them, as anxious as 
 themselves that their public efforts should be worthy 
 of their own talents, and above all, worthy of the cause 
 in which they were exerted. 
 
 In illustration of that part of his history which 
 is connected with his labors in Alexandria, we further 
 quote the reminiscences which have been spoken of as 
 furnished by a member of Dr. Armitage's church. 
 " In June, 1816," he says, "I left the city of New York 
 for a tour in the South, and made a visit to my uncle, 
 "William Carman of Baltimore. On leaving Baltimore, 
 he gave me a letter of introduction to the Rev. John 
 Paradise, pastor of the Baptist church in Alexandria. 
 When I reached Alexandria, however, I learned that 
 Mr. Paradise, having fallen into ill health, had resigned 
 the pastoral charge of the church there, and removed 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 155 
 
 to Maryland, and that Spencer H. Cone had been 
 chosen pastor of the church in his stead. The first 
 Lord's-day I spent in Alexandria the church was closed. 
 I understood that it had been found too small to accom- 
 modate the congregation, and was being enlarged and 
 repaired. I attended public worship, part of that day, 
 with a young Methodist friend, a devout and godly 
 person. Meeting some Baptist friends, however, I 
 learned that Spencer IT. Cone was going to baptize 
 some three or four persons in the Potomac, near the 
 city. I found the place, and there I saw assembled an 
 interesting group, and amongst them the new pastor. 
 After a solemn prayer he descended into the water. 
 He immersed the women first, and then the man. 
 The latter was a man of iniddle age, and was, at that 
 time, cashier of the Bank of Alexandria. 
 
 " The place where the ceremony was performed, 
 bordered on a field, the fence of which ran along, not 
 far from the edge of the water. Among the spectators 
 were some idle young men who had come out of 
 curiosity, to see the pla} T er turned preacher. During 
 the administration of the ordinance, these young fellows 
 behaved in a very offensive and unbecoming manner, 
 so much so as to be observed not only by the specta- 
 tors present, but also by the administrator himself. 
 
 " When the last person, the cashier, had been baptized, 
 one of the deacons took charge of him, and led him up 
 out of the water. Whilst Mr. Cone remained midway 
 in the water, he lifted up his hand, and, standing in 
 exactly the attitude in which he is represented in the 
 full-length portrait, now in the possession of his children, 
 fixed his eyes upon the disturbers, and began to rebuke 
 them in the most solemn manner. I have never heard 
 a more scathing rebuke, or one delivered with such 
 terrific earnestness, and intensity of manner. The devout 
 
156 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 spectators, as they listened, felt as if God, in very truth, 
 was there, manifesting, by the lips of His servant, His 
 hatred of sin, whilst the poor deluded young men slunk 
 away as well as they could, and got off by leaping the 
 fence. Oh, what a solemn sight it was to me. It was 
 mingled with joy and sorrow. Joy for the triumph of 
 truth ; sorrow for those ignorant and wicked men. Time 
 has never effaced the vivid picture. There stood a young 
 man, the fresh bloom upon his cheek, his heart so full 
 of love and holy zeal, with uplifted hand, and voice 
 clear and sonorous as a silver trumpet, rebuking, in 
 the name of the Lord of Hosts,, the despisers who wander 
 and perish ! 
 
 " This was the first time I ever saw Mr. Cone. 
 
 " I was, shortly after, informed, by a member of the 
 church, that the wife of the cashier had some time before 
 been baptized by Mr. Cone, and had united with the 
 church. Her husband had vehemently opposed it, and 
 was greatly incensed at her course. For some time he 
 refused to accompany her to the house of God. The 
 asperity of his feeling, however, gradually softened, and 
 lie yielded to her persuasion, and went with her. The 
 preacher rose, and in his peculiarly clear and searching 
 voice announced his text, ' And Nathan said unto 
 David thou art the man !" His eye was upon the 
 cashier, his finger seemed to find him out, amongst all 
 the audience, and fasten the text, with all its terrible 
 meaning, upon him alone. The words were like an 
 arrow guided by the Spirit. It entered his heart. It 
 slew him. His conscience was pricked. His sins rose 
 up in condemnation against him. He remembered, 
 with keen regret, his opposition to his wife. The word 
 of the Lord had found him out. After service he retired, 
 not to scoff but to pray, and cry, 'Men and brethren, 
 what must I do to be saved ?" Very soon afterwards he 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 157 
 
 came "before the church, and related to them the story 
 of his conversion. 
 
 " In the afternoon of the same day, I was present when 
 the hand of fellowship was given to the new members, 
 and the bread broken. The remarks of Mr. Cone were 
 so striking, that I can see him still as he stood there 
 beside the table of the Lord. 
 
 "As he broke the bread of life he followed, with 
 touching tenderness, the analogy between the bread 
 which perishes, and the bread of eternal life. The 
 plowing of the earth; the seed sown in good ground, 
 and springing up to yield an hundred fold. The blade ; 
 the ear ; the corn fully ripe. Then cut down ; threshed ; 
 winnowed, all the chaff blown away ; ground ; finally 
 prepared for bread, leavened, put into the oven ; broken 
 and eaten. The staff of life. This is the bread of men. 
 For the bread of heaven, go to the Lord Jesus. They 
 plowed His back. With cruel hands, wicked men 
 made deep their furrows. He, the seed of eternal life, 
 was sown in the earth. He grew in stature and in 
 favor ; a plant of God's own right hand's planting. ' For 
 the bread of God is He which cometh down from 
 Heaven, and giveth life unto the world.' Jesus is the 
 bread of life. He that cometh unto him shall never 
 hunger. He was cut down ; He was crucified and slain. 
 He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised 
 for our iniquities ; the chastisement of our peace was 
 upon Him ; and with his stripes we are healed. He was 
 tempted of Satan, and found perfect. He endured the 
 fierceness of the Father's wrath, as the substitute for His 
 people. He was the bread prepared by the Father. 
 'I am the living bread which came down from Heaven. 
 If any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever ; and 
 the bread that I will give is my flesh ; which I will give 
 for the life of the world.' 'Whoso eateth my flesh, 
 
158 LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life ; and I will 
 raise him np at the last day.' And the bread of life 
 was broken. We see Him in the garden of Olivet ' that 
 dear honored spot.' Behold His agony, when Pie sweat 
 as it were great drops of blood ! Behold Him nailed to 
 the accursed tree. His Father hides His face from Him ; 
 and He who was the brightness of the Father's glory, and 
 the express image of His person ; He, the God, Man, 
 Mediator ; cries aloud, ' My God, my God, why hast Thon 
 forsaken me ?' 
 
 " 'Twas on that dark, that doleful-night, 
 "When powers of earth and hell arose 
 Against the Son of God's delight, 
 And friend's betrayed Him to His foes ! 
 
 " Before the mournful scene began, 
 He took the bread, and blest, and brake ; 
 What love thro' all His actions ran ! 
 What wondrous words of grace He spake ! 
 
 " ' This is my body, broke for sin, 
 Receive, and eat the living food ;' 
 Then took the cup and blest the wine, 
 ' 'Tis the new cov'nant in my blood.' 
 
 " And this feast was spread for you. Eat oh, friends ! 
 drink, oh beloved !" 
 
 " Such is a feeble sketch of the tender and glowing elo- 
 quence of love, with which he enforced the glorious sig- 
 nificance of the ordinance of the Lord's Supper, as he 
 broke the bread and filled the cup in obedience to the 
 Saviour's divine commission. In how many hearts will 
 it not awaken the memory of an hundred such holy 
 seasons ; and bring before their mind's eye, that form 
 which realized the exclamation of Isaiah — 'How beau- 
 tiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bring- 
 
LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 159 
 
 eth good tidings, that publisheth peace ; that bringeth 
 good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation ; that 
 saith unto Zion — Thy God reigneth !' 
 
 " It was a solemn, a momentous time. My heart was 
 melted, and I rejoiced that such a privilege was afforded 
 me. We sang a hymn, and went out. 
 
 "The next Lord's-day, with quickened step and joyful 
 heart, I repaired to the house of God, and again listened 
 with profit and delight. For nearly four months I sat 
 under his preaching. I took a place in the choir, and 
 became well acquainted with several of the members of 
 the church. Many colored persons belonged to the 
 church, and the house was always full. It was a plain 
 building, and the audience a very attentive one. His 
 preaching was greatly blessed to the church, and many 
 precious souls were added to it. It was truly evangeli- 
 cal preaching, and at once bold and lucid. He loved 
 particularly to dwell upon the Lord Jesus in his offices 
 and work, as Prophet, Priest, King; the Advocate with 
 the Father, &c. The sovereignty of God, in the gospel 
 plan of salvation by the imputed righteousness of 
 Christ, was also a constant theme, and developed with 
 all the force of a close and powerful reasoning, and the 
 fire of a surprising eloquence. 
 
 " I was informed that whilst he was preaching at the 
 little church, near the Navy Yard in Washington, he 
 occasionally went to Alexandria to preach for the desti- 
 tute little church there, and that as the church was una- 
 ble to offer him a support, the inhabitants of Alexandria 
 generally combined, and secured the payment of a salary 
 sufficient to support hi's family, on condition that the 
 church called him to its charge." 
 
 The manner in which this was done, we have already 
 related. 
 
 " Having finished my business in Alexandria," says 
 
160 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON GONE. 
 
 our informant, " I left some time early in the month of 
 November. Before leaving, however, I determined to 
 make myself known to the pastor. At the close of the 
 service on one of the week evening meetings I did so. 
 I remember that he preached that night from the text — 
 ' Oh God, my heart is fixed.' 
 
 "I took a vessel, to come ronnd by sea, and it was 
 twenty-one days, the winds being contrary, before I 
 reached New York. 
 
 " Late in the month of November, and towards the 
 evening of the day, as I was walking np Pearl street, I 
 spied the young preacher on the opposite side of the 
 way, walking quickly, and carrying his own portmanteau. 
 I ran over, and accosted him. He did not, at first, 
 recognize me. I said to him — ' Do you not recognize 
 the young man who introduced himself to you on the 
 evening yon preached from such a text in Alexandria?' 
 He immediately recollected me, and gave me a warm 
 reception, saying — ' I have just arrived in the city. I 
 have come to visit some of the churches, and ask 
 them to give me a collection for the little church at 
 Alexandria. I have a letter to Deacon Garniss of the 
 Oliver street church. 
 
 " I offered to accompany him, and show him the way 
 to the Deacon's house. We reached the house, which 
 stood at the corner of Roosevelt and Chatham streets, and 
 after introducing them to each other, and spending some 
 time in conversion with them I left him the guest of the 
 Deacon. 
 
 " On the next Lord's-day he preached in the Oliver 
 street meeting-house, and it is impossible for me to 
 describe the sensation he produced. His style, his mat- 
 ter, his manner were so unlike what the people were 
 accustomed to, that after the sermon all were in aston- 
 ishment. I remember in particular that Dr. Mackin- 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 161 
 
 tosh, referring to what I head written of him from Alex- 
 andria, exclaimed, ' Howbeit I believed not the words, 
 until I came, and mine eyes had seen, and mine ear:, 
 heard— yet, behold ! the half was not told me.' 
 
 "This visit to New York, and his preaching, made a 
 profound impression upon hundreds, and many of them 
 are still alive who can testify to it. I do not know the 
 fact, but I venture to say he gained his object, and 
 entirely relieved the little church in Alexandria from its 
 pecuniary embarrassments. 
 
 "From that time until he removed to New York in 
 1823, I think I never heard him preach but on one 
 occasion, and that was for the church in Newark, New 
 Jersey, of which the late Dr. Daniel Sharp of Boston, 
 was, at that time, the pastor." 
 
 A remarkable testimony to the character, and success 
 of his preaching at that time is afforded by the. celebrated 
 Dr. Staughton of Philadelphia, himself one of the most 
 learned, evangelical, and eloquent preachers ever con- 
 nected with the denomination. 
 
 It is contained in an extract from one of his letters 
 published in the Christian Herald, volume 4th, p. 239— 
 a paper printed at Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1817. 
 
 " I will state," says the Doctor, " a circumstance that 
 will give you much pleasure. A young man of the 
 name°of Spencer Cone, has been for some years past on 
 the Philadelphia stage. His talents as an actor were 
 considerable. About eighteen month ago die Lord 
 taught him he was a sinner, and constrained his flight to 
 the* arms of Jesus. He now resides at Washington 
 city, and is connected with the Treasury Department. 
 Two or three months ago he was called, by the Baptist 
 church in Washington, to the exercise of his talents for 
 the ministry. He has been approved, and is now a 
 faithful, eloquent, and persuasive preacher of the Cross. 
 
162 LIFE OF SPENCEE HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 Two weeks ago lie paid Philadelphia a visit. He 
 preached twice in our house of worship, to the largest 
 assemblies I ever saw ; certainly from three to four 
 thousand five hundred were present. He has had a 
 liberal education, his views are highly evangelical, and 
 his ability for holding an assembly in fixed attention 
 astonishing. Hundreds who had seen him in the 
 theatre crowded to see him in the pulpit. His first 
 sermon was on the worth of the soul ; his second on 
 the Character of Christ. I cannot describe my feelings 
 when, on his first rising, he began with the hymn : — 
 
 " ' The wondering world inquires to know, 
 Why I should love my Jesus so V 
 
 " I have heard of several young persons who are 
 exhibiting signs of a hopeful conversion ; among these 
 six young persons were boarding in our family, and 
 one of these a John May. The Lord preserve our 
 young brother a burning light." 
 
 Happy child of prayer, from the cradle to the grave, 
 His angels, who are flames of fire sent to minister to 
 them that shall be heirs of salvation, were ever given 
 charge over him, and the answer to the prayers of the 
 saints was audibly uttered in the daily life of their 
 object. 
 
 About a week after his death, the following interest- 
 ing particulars were given to us, one evening, by the 
 gentleman alluded to by Dr. Staughton — Mr. John May, 
 for many years past a resident of ISTew York. AYe were 
 not then aware of the existence of the letter quoted 
 above. It is a coincidence which lends a valuable 
 addition to the Doctor's testimon} T , that Mr. May imme- 
 diately described to us the same scene, a scene never 
 forgotten, and which the death of Mr. Cone had brought 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 163 
 
 up before him, with all the vividness, of the moment 
 when it transpired. " I was a little late," said he, "and 
 the church in Sansom street, which you know is of 
 great size, was crowded to suffocation. I went up into 
 the gallery. At that time I was a very young man. 
 To obtain a sight of the preacher, I got up upon a bench, 
 and looked over the people's heads. Just as I had 
 secured my position, which was no very easy matter, 
 Mr. Cone rose. Stepping into the middle of the pulpit 
 he uttered the first two lines of the hymn. ' The 
 wondering world inquires to know,' &c. I never 
 heard anything like it. It was not loud. There was 
 no effort at delivery, but every syllable came clear 
 through the house, and seemed, as it were, to strike and 
 rebound from the galleries and wall behind me. In an 
 instant, crowded and uncomfortable as the audience 
 were, a stillness like the hush of death fell upon the 
 house. You might have heard a pin drop. It seemed 
 as if there never had been such a voice heard before. 
 Above all, it struck every one, who heard him, that it 
 was such a happy answer to the ten thousand wonderers 
 in Philadelphia, who had been asking that very ques- 
 tion — Why should he, who led, not long since, such a 
 different life here, and loved the world supremely, all 
 at once pretend to love nothing but religion ? 
 
 " ' "What are his charms, say they, above 
 The objects of a mortal love.' 
 
 The rest of that fine hymn of Watts', and the manner 
 with which it was given, answered every question." 
 
 It would scarcely have been astonishing if a young 
 man to whom was thus offered, without measure, the 
 incense of public admiration ; the applause of breathless 
 crowds; the homage of so many weeping eyes, and 
 
164 LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 throbbing hearts — applause and homage the more 
 subtle and nattering to human pride for its silent 
 intensity — if he had yielded to its insidious charm and 
 become vain and self reliant. The triumphs of the 
 orator expose him almost naked and defenceless to 
 such foes. He reads his own power in the upturned 
 wondering eyes that gaze on him, that catch the flame 
 of every passion from his own, and weep or sparkle at 
 his will- He stands above the crowd, an enchanter 
 whose magic makes a thousand hearts his unresisting 
 captives. The air that clasps him is laden with a fatal 
 incense, which at once excites the natural man to the 
 highest exercise of his powers, and lulls the spiritual 
 into a dangerous slumber. The multitude is before, 
 around, on every side of him — rich and poor, the mighty 
 and the mean, confounded, for the hour, into a common 
 mass by the ascendency of his genius — and he — he 
 binds them spell-bound, helpless in its fetters. The 
 cynosure of every eye — the thought of every heart — 
 the master, touching all to what fine issue he shall 
 please ; the conqueror standing erect, triumphant on 
 the field of thought, and girt with willing captives ! 
 what more dangerous place ; what keener test for 
 youth? What can keep him from pride, or from ambi- 
 tion? The Master who inspires; the message he pro- 
 claims. The} 7 keep him; and ho shall be kept. 
 
 We enter into his private thoughts ; we find him 
 alone after the lights are all out, the crowd all gone ; 
 the excitement done ; and we find that it was a holy 
 excitement, the exaltation of a spirit too full of love to 
 God, to debase itself to pride of human things ; the 
 combat, not of the forensic Gladiator, but the soldier of 
 the Cross. We find him at the very commencement of 
 his successful career, retiring from his public duties, 
 and stealing a moment to pour his heart out to his 
 
LITE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 165 
 
 mother, and exclaim : "I thank my God for such a 
 mother, and have only canse to regret, that your example 
 and precepts have not had their proper influence upon 
 my life. Let me not want your prayers ; but daily 
 remember your poor boy, whose lot it is to be placed 
 on Zion's walls, where the fiery darts of the adversaries 
 fly thick around him, and, like Jacob, wrestle with the 
 angel of the covenant : 
 
 tv 
 
 " ' That David's God, and Gideon's friend, 
 May be bis keeper to tbe end !' 
 
 "Oh! how I rejoice to know, that 'there is another 
 and a bettor world,' a world ' where the wicked cease 
 from troubling, and where the weary are at rest.' Most 
 feelingly can I say with Job, 'I would not live always.' 
 The land in which we now live is a desert; it is a 
 strange land and we are but sojourners and pilgrims, 
 travelling to the Heavenly Canaan where our posses- 
 sions lie. The Lord, I hope, daily cheers your heart, 
 and comforts you with bright prospects of ere long 
 enjoying that inheritance which is incorruptible, un- 
 deliled, and that fadeth not away. 
 
 " Tii is morning I preached from Romans viii. 2, and 
 rejoiced to know that 'The Spirit of life in Christ 
 Jesus, hath made me free from the law of sin and 
 death ' This evening closes the preaching year, and I pro- 
 pose addressing my fellow men, from Jer. viii. 20 : 'The 
 harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not 
 saved.' May my dear unconverted sisters lay it to 
 heart, and obtain comfort from the assurance that 
 'there is balm in Gilead, and a great Physician there.' 
 
 " I am making arrangements to leave home in two or 
 three days, on a preaching tour in the State of Virginia, 
 and, as I do not calculate to return before the middle of 
 next month, it will be the part of filial duty, and affec- 
 
166 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 tion, to one most truly beloved to devote an epistolary 
 hour. 
 
 "It was, no doubt, a source of unspeakable joy to a 
 fond mother's heart, when God made her sou a Christian ; 
 and that joy was perhaps much increased, when the 
 Great Head of the Church called him to labor in His 
 vineyard. Oh ! the depth of the riches both of the 
 wisdom and knowledge of God ! How unsearchable are 
 His judgments, and His ways past finding out! 
 
 "Faithful memoiy oft brings in painful review before 
 me the days that are past; the balls, plays, card parties, 
 &c, with which those days were swallowed up ; and, 
 then, I am lost in astonishment at the patience, the 
 forbearance, the boundless goodness of my God ! And 
 yet to 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. Oh, for strength from 
 above, that I may, to the end, speak the truth in love ; 
 and labor zealously, faithfully, and continually to win 
 precious souls to Jesus. I am ashamed of my backward- 
 ness and slothfulness. Lord quicken thou me according 
 to thy word. 
 
 '_' What pleasure it would afford me to hear from you ; 
 that you are growing in grace, and in the knowledge of 
 a once crucified but now exalted Jesus ! How is it 
 with you, dear mother? Do you enjoy the presence of 
 Him who dwelt in the bush ? Do you walk in the light 
 of His countenance all the day long? Does He lead you 
 beside the still waters of consolation, and make you to 
 lie down in the green pastures of His love ? I hope this 
 is your experience, and that the Lord is indeed making 
 your last days your best and most comfortable ones. 
 But it may be that you are sad to-day. What then ? 
 Lift up the hands that hang down, and the feeble 
 knees. Art thou afflicted % Behold I leave in the 
 
LIFE OF SPEXCEB HOUGHTON CONE. 167 
 
 midst of you a poor, and an afflicted people, and they 
 shall trust in me. Many are the afflictions of the 
 righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. 
 Whom He Joveth Pie chasteneth, andscourgeth every son 
 whom He receiveth. Lest you be wearied and faint in 
 your mind, look to Jesus, and consider Him, who for 
 the joy that was set before Him, endured the Cross, and 
 despised the shame, and is set down at the right hand 
 of the throne of God. Are not sin, Satan, the world 
 and the flesh your enemies ? Then, Jesus and his people 
 are your friends ; their father is your Father, and their 
 home shall be your home. Why art thou cast down, 
 oh my soul ; and why art thou disquieted within me? 
 Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him who is the 
 health of my countenance and my God. Rejoice not 
 against me, oh mine enemy ; though 1 fall yet shall I rise 
 again ; for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel. 
 He hath said, I will be to them a God, and they shall be 
 to me a people ; I will put my laws into their mind, and 
 write them upon their hearts ; I will be merciful to 
 their unrighteousness, and their sins and iniquities will 
 I remember no more ! I will never leave them nor 
 forsake them ! It is enough. Thy testimonies have I 
 taken for an heritage for ever, for they are the rejoicing 
 of my heart. Return unto thy rest then, oh my soul— 
 for we icho believe, do enter into rest — even that rest 
 which remaineth for the dear children of God. May 
 you be enabled to adopt the language of the sweet 
 singer of Israel, and in the strong and unwavering 
 confidence of faith, say with him, 'The Lord is my 
 Shepherd, I shall not want.' 
 
 " Our town has been remarkably healthy this season. 
 I feel as hearty as I have for a year past. I have been 
 strengthened to ride and preach a good deal in the 
 
1G8 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 country during the summer, and expect to be similarly 
 occupied the greater part of the ensuing two months." 
 
 The last sentence affords a glimpse of the life of a 
 Baptist preacher in the South. The inhabitants of the 
 great cities have little idea of the life they lead. It has 
 indeed very little in common with city life. The road 
 from the parsonage to the meeting-house is not quite so 
 short or easy. The preacher, in the South, lives quite 
 as much in the saddle as the study. The churches are 
 widely scattered, and many of them destitute. During 
 the seven years he had the charge of the church in 
 Alexandria, Spencer H. Cone, like all Virginia Baptist 
 preachers, combined the characters of pastor and mis- 
 sionary. It was no doubt from experience of the 
 necessities and destitute condition of large portions 
 of the country, acquired during that time, that he 
 imbibed the spirit of missions ; and, especially, laid the 
 foundation of that strong desire for the support and 
 extension of Home Missions which he always mani- 
 fested. 
 
 Mounted upon his horse, his saddle-bags behind 
 him, containing his little kit, the young preacher often 
 during each year set out from Alexandria, to keep a 
 round of "appointments." Months, perhaps, before he 
 comes to any particular station, in the back country, his 
 coming is noised abroad over all the neighborhood round 
 about, and, with very few exceptions, the inhabitants 
 prepare to meet at the appointed place, and enjoy the 
 privilege of listening to the Word of the Lord, a privilege 
 enhanced and endeared to the serious portion of them by 
 its rarity. 
 
 Our Southern Baptist churches lie widely scattered, 
 and whilst some of the flock are feeding on the slopes 
 of the blue ridge of the Alleghany, others are gathered 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 169 
 
 in the valleys and by the rivers ; and so the under 
 shepherd goes out with his staff and crook to comfort 
 and establish on every side, and unite in the spirit of a 
 common faith, those whom the necessities of life separate 
 and disperse so widely. 
 
 Sometimes, several preachers will agree to meet at 
 one point. Then the news is published, and a "Meeting 
 of Days " is held, usually, in the open air ; and great 
 concourses of people, often as many as four or five 
 thousand, come together, from the surrounding country, 
 to attend them. But the exercises are conducted with 
 the greatest plainness and propriety. There are no 
 extraordinary or unusual means resorted to to excite the 
 imagination, or act upon the feelings. 
 
 Some of the earlier effects of his preaching, when the 
 extraordinary circumstances which attended him drew 
 together audiences of so heterogeneous a character, 
 and the passionate force of his eloquence wrought so 
 powerfully upon the imaginations of his hearers exer- 
 cised a controlling influence upon Mr. Cone's judgment. 
 He never ceased to pray that " the Lord would 
 revive his work in the midst of the years ;" but it 
 was a revival of pure and undefiled religion he prayed 
 for, and he looked to God for its accomplishment. He 
 could never believe that an irreverence approaching to 
 blasphemy, or a levity, in the handling of sacred things, 
 trenching close upon buffoonery, however they might 
 amuse or stimulate a crowd of human beings, could be 
 acceptable in the sight of that God before whom the 
 angels veil their faces, in awful worship. 
 
 With reference to the "falling away" of some whose 
 feelings had deceived their hearts, he writes to his 
 mother in January, 1821: " My prospect of usefulness 
 in the cause of a dear Redeemer is not at present very 
 
 8 
 
170 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 encouraging. It is a cold time with us in the church, 
 and very few are inquiring the way to Zion. Some 
 neglect to assemble themselves together ; and others 
 have gone ont from us, to make it manifest that they 
 were not of us. But these things you know, my 
 dear mother, are not surprising. After an ingathering 
 there must be a sifting time, and however trying 
 it may be, both to pastor and people, God assures 
 us that though ' He will sift the house of Israel, as 
 corn is sifted in a sieve, yet not one grain shall fall 
 to the ground.' So true it is that whom He loveth, He 
 loveth to the end, and He will never leave them nor 
 forsake them." 
 
 At the great meetings, or meetings of days in Virginia 
 the exercises are never varied from the regular Sabbath 
 day order of Baptist worship. In Virginia, indeed, 
 where the Baptist churches comprised a very large por- 
 tion of the Christian population, the strictest sim- 
 plicity of religious manners and exercises always pre- 
 vailed, and the " form of sound words" was adhered to 
 with scrupulous exactness. 
 
 Amongst these churches it was the lot of the subject 
 of this memoir to serve his apprenticeship in the Lord's 
 work, and whatever of opinion, or doctrine, or idea of 
 discipline was unformed in his mind, at the commence- 
 ment of his ministry, very rapidly settled into an un- 
 changeable conviction, in that stern and uncompromising 
 old school of Baptists. 
 
 It was worthy of remark that his opinions and princi- 
 ples in religious matters were made up and established 
 in these early years of his ministry. Change of place, of 
 association, time, variety of circumstance, study — nothing 
 ever altered or varied them a jot! — Converted, he 
 searched the Scriptures diligently, and made up from that 
 
LIFE CF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 171 
 
 one book of b^oks his whole body of divinity. He had one 
 unvarying test, for everything of a religious character ; 
 for every duty, scheme or object — "Is there a 'thus 
 saith the Lord ' for it ?" The natural temper and quality 
 of his mind had no doubt a great deal to do with the 
 stern consistency of his religious principles. As convic- 
 tions, they were rules which nothing could interfere with 
 or modify. The same was equally true of every convic- 
 tion of duty, whether to his country or his God. At the 
 time of the attack on Baltimore, he was a member of the 
 church, and many good people thought that he ought to 
 resign his commission, urging that the shedding of blood 
 was sinful. But it was a conviction of his soul that God 
 called all true men to fight for liberty, that liberty the 
 choicest boon of which was freedom to worship Him, 
 with as audible and commanding a voice as He called 
 any to preach the everlasting Gospel ; and he went 
 into battle singing, or rather humming the air of a hymn. 
 His men smiled at what seemed to them an incongruity, 
 but they followed him all the more confidently. In his 
 speech before the Bible Society at Baltimore, in 1811, he 
 says, " I love my country, and were it necessary, should 
 not hesitate a moment to stand forth in her defence." It is 
 therefore certain, from the peculiar formation of his mind, 
 that what he once believed he believed for ever ; and to 
 believe with him was to act. " Faith without works " 
 he held to be " dead." He examined a subject very 
 carefully and prayerfully ; and never stirred " without 
 great argument ;" but a conclusion arrived at — all the 
 reasons weighed both for and against a matter, and a 
 conviction established in his mind that one side was the 
 right, and the other the wrong — he took the right and 
 went forward in it unrelentingly, no matter who opposed 
 or ridiculed, or combated ; no matter if it led over the 
 breasts of his best friends according to the flesh ; no 
 
172 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 matter who it alienated, or astonished or disgusted. 
 The right was the right ; there could be no two rights 
 in the same matter. One must be truth and the 
 other error. And as God was truth, truth was the rule 
 of God's children. They must not hesitate, or compro- 
 mise, or vacillate, or attempt to combine the incompati- 
 bilities of truth and error. Let come what might, truth 
 was to be spoken, truth was to be acted ; truth was to be 
 lived for, and died for. Therefore he was a Baptist ; 
 and if he had been the only particular Baptist alive in 
 the whole world, and all the world against him, crying 
 shame upon him, deriding, hating, or persecuting — he 
 would have been just the same — Baptist to all extremi- 
 ties. Let us define, however, what his opinion of a true 
 Baptist was. It was very simple, and was, indeed, 
 merely this ; that a true Baptist was he who took the law 
 of every act of his religious life from the Bible, and 
 from nothing else, and in whose eyes nothing which was 
 ordained of God, whether as doctrine, discipline, or ordi- 
 nance, could be non-essential ! Hence, also, naturally 
 arose his intense desire for a"pure translation of the Word 
 of God into all languages, his own not excepted, that 
 men might everywhere read in their own tongue, and 
 for themselves, exactly what God said to them by the 
 mouths of holy men of old. 
 
 The Rev. Cumberland George, of Culpepper Court- 
 house Va., in a note to us dated January, 1858, pays a 
 warm tribute to his talents as a preacher, and to this his 
 firm devotion to the truth. He says, " It is needless for 
 me to say anything about my recollection of his hand- 
 some person, his incomparable voice — his easy diction 
 and splendid enunciation. * * * I heard him often in 
 Fredericksburg. He loved to preach Jesus Christ, and 
 wherever he went, large crowds flocked together to hear 
 from his eloquent tongu<s the message of salvation. 
 
LIFE OF SFENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 173 
 
 " In his attendance on Associational or other religious 
 solemnities, or in the social circle, there was something 
 in his whole hearing that seemed to say, 'I have a 
 great work to do, and for me there is no rest, until it he 
 all accomplished.' Among his traits of character, as 
 they appeared to me, I may mention, his love of truth — 
 his firmness when his position was once taken. It was 
 not the firmness of obstinacy, but it was the develop- 
 ment of an intelligent conviction that he had the truth 
 on his side. His moral courage in avowing and pro- 
 claiming what he felt to be true. Although of kind, 
 affectionate, and obliging disposition, yet where truth 
 was concerned, he had neither concessions nor compro- 
 mise, to make. Such to my mind appeared to be some 
 of the prominent characteristics of Spencer II. Cone, in 
 the earlier years of his ministry. Since his removal to 
 Kew York, I have not been an uninterested spectator 
 of his public course ; and I rejoice to say there has been 
 not) ling in his eventful life, with which I am acquainted, 
 that has not served to confirm in my mind, my idea in 
 early life, concerning his devoted piety — his zeal for 
 God — his love of the truth as it is in Jesus, and his 
 dauntless courage in avowing and maintaining: what he 
 believed to be true. The ability of Dr. Cone as a 
 speaker, and as a president of deliberative assemblies, 
 I need not mention." 
 
 Most of the members of the Alexandria church, who 
 sat under his ministry, are dead or scattered. Some 
 few yet remain, however, and from one of these we 
 have obtained several interesting facts. 
 
 "I think," she says, "it was during the summer 
 either of 1S06 or 7, that Mr. Cone first visited Alexan- 
 dria. It was his first appearance there, upon the stage. 
 The theatre was a small, temporary building, erected in 
 Virginia, outside the district line. On the occasion of 
 
174 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 his first appearance, from a hundred and fifty to two 
 hundred persons were present. One fact connected 
 with the history of that audience is very peculiar, and 
 worthy to be recorded — it is this : that more than 
 twenty of the number afterwards became members of 
 different churches in Alexandria, and that Mr. Cone 
 baptized ten of them, of whom three were chosen dea- 
 cons by the Baptist church, in Alexandria, nine or ten 
 years after. 
 
 " Whilst on the stage, Mr. Cone sustained in Alexan- 
 dria, where w T e knew him, the character of a strictly 
 moral man. His manners were polished, and we met 
 him only in the best society, which he frequented. On 
 the Sabbath-day, during that time, he was rarely if ever 
 missed from his seat in church. He was a gentleman 
 in character and standing. 
 
 " On the night of the 24th of September, 1810, Alex- 
 andria was devastated by a destructive fire. The flames 
 raged all night, and laid waste the entire square on the 
 river side of Union street, extending from Prince to 
 Dnke street. That part of the city was in those days 
 occupied by shippers, commission merchants, board 
 yards, &c. Mr. Cone wa3 the most prominent workman 
 on that night. He exerted every power of body and 
 mind to combat the raoing element. From midnight 
 
 CD CD cD 
 
 until the morning of the 25th he was seen everywhere at 
 work amonst the flames. It is now forty-six years since 
 that night of terror, but if there be a man still living 
 who labored with him he can testify to the facts stated ; 
 and that it was mainly through his instrumentality that 
 the spread of the conflagration was prevented. Thus 
 Mr. Cone was a public character, esteemed and loved in 
 the city of Alexandria, long before he made profession 
 of religion. 
 
 " During the year 1815 he was called to the charge of 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CCflSTE. 175 
 
 the church there. He was called, it is true, by a few 
 poor women — they formed the whole of the little Bap- 
 tist church then existing in the city. A few poor women 
 — hut when our blessed Lord, bending beneath His cross, 
 toiled up the cruel hill, and the women followed him — 
 where was the church? 
 
 " Mr. Cone accepted their call, and he was made the 
 instrument of building up the church till the ' little one 
 became a thousand.' It was the privilege of the church 
 to be well acquainted with their pastor. He was truly 
 a present friend in joy or sorrow, and the poor always 
 hailed him as their help in time of need. He stood 
 high in our society, not only as a minister, but as a man 
 of literary taste and ability ; and we used to think that 
 if his mission had been that of an author, instead of the 
 care of souls, his success would have been equally bril- 
 liant. I recollect he commenced the study of Hebrew 
 whilst in Alexandria. A gentleman, a fine Hebrew 
 scholar, visited the city and was desirous of making up 
 a class. A number of professional men joined it, and 
 Mr. Cone headed the list of scholars. 
 
 " In the missionary cause he made one amongst the 
 very first laborers in this country. He spoke ' trumpet 
 tongued,' its duty to the church, and it can be said to 
 their honor that they responded to the Call to the full 
 extent of their abilities. It was just the same in every- 
 thing ; the church stood ready to hold up his hands in 
 every good word and w T ork. "Whatever he felt it his 
 duty to call them to engage in, they were ready and 
 willing to follow in. 
 
 u Thirty-three years have passed since the ties that 
 bound pastor and church together there were severed, 
 by Mr. Cone's removal to New York; yet as long as he 
 lived, the church in Alexandria was bound to him by 
 the cords of tenderness and affection, and they now 
 
176 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 mourn with their sister churches in New York, a pastor 
 and brother beloved in the Lord, and children yet 
 unborn will be taught by them to love and revere his 
 name. Whom he loved he loved always. The grave — ■ 
 the grave only, interrupted his friendships. 
 
 "During the first year that he was pastor in Alexandria, 
 he visited the Ketocton Association. He had been 
 appointed to preach the introductory sermon. The good 
 brethren were anxiously expecting him, and had formed 
 their own 'beau ideal,' and one as unlike* the reality as 
 possible. When, therefore, a very young man, with a 
 broad-brimmed white hat, a pair of saddle-bags over one 
 arm, a brown holland umbrella under the other, and 
 dressed in a riding-suit of light grey cloth, made his 
 appearance, no one fancied for an instant that the great 
 preacher could be amongst them. Wherever he went 
 in the surrounding country, crowds flocked to hear him, 
 and on this occasion, as usual, since the meeting-house 
 would not hold the hundredth part of the audience 
 gathered together, a stand had been erected on the 
 outside, beneath the trees. The ministering brethren 
 present did not know him, and, of course, imagined he 
 had failed to fill the appointment, although he was 
 quietly seated amongst them on the stand. 
 
 "The hour for commencing the exercises arrived, and 
 the ' alternate ' was prepared to take the desk, when he 
 rose up, and uttered the first two lines of the hymn : 
 
 " ' I'm not ashamed to own my Lord, 
 Or to defend His cause !' 
 
 "Words fail to describe the sensation created among 
 the crowd, or the breathless silence with which the 
 sermon was listened to by the mixed multitude con- 
 gregated together on the occasion. 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HTTJGHTON CONE. 177 
 
 " On that stand commenced friendships that cheered 
 his path for forty years." 
 
 Whilst preaching in Virginia, Dr. John L. Dagg, now 
 of Georgia, was also settled there. They commenced 
 preaching together; held the same views of doctrine, 
 and associated very constantly. "We have been indebted 
 to him, very much, in the course of this work, for valuable 
 information and suggestions. He affords us the follow- 
 ing account of his ministerial intercourse with Mr. Cone 
 in Virginia ; and of the Father in the Gospel, of whom 
 one was the spiritual child, the other an ardent and life- 
 long admirer. 
 
 lie says, speaking of the manner of appointments for 
 preaching at different places, and the character of 
 Virginia "great meetings," ''Our chief religious festival 
 was at our associations, which were usually held about 
 the close of summer, and lasted from three to five days. 
 They were generally attended by large crowds, especially 
 on the Sabbath. A stand was erected in a grove near 
 the meeting-house, where preaching was kept up from 
 day to day ; and sometimes another stand for the colored 
 members of the congregation. 
 
 "The meeting-house was reserved for the transaction 
 of the business of the association, except on the Sabbath ; 
 and on that day was wholly insufficient to accommodate 
 the multitudes assembled. At those great gatherings, 
 Mr. Cone's voice was often heard proclaiming the Gospel 
 of Christ; and he was usually selected as one of the 
 preachers for the Sabbath. No doubt many now living 
 in Virginia, remember the discourses heard from him on 
 such occasions with pleasure. On his journeys to and 
 from the associations, it was his custom to have appoint- 
 ments made at suitable preaching places. Besides these 
 annual occasions, he often took excursions into the neigh- 
 boring counties, and preached the Word. He sent his 
 
178 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 appointments previously, by letter, to some of us, who 
 were always solicitous to obtain them, and glad to make 
 them public. In this manner he scattered much seed, 
 which, I doubt not, will produce fruit in the great 
 harvest, and add to the number of the sheaves over 
 which he will rejoice." 
 
 Speaking of the character of the men with whom Mr. 
 Cone associated, and in the school of whose experience 
 and wisdom his character as a preacher of the Gospel 
 was formed, Dr. Dagg continues : 
 
 ' ; Fristoe was the Gamaliel at whose feet I sat in early 
 life. I was baptized, licensed, and ordained by him ; and 
 under his instruction my views of divine truth were 
 formed. It is altogether probable that your father's 
 association with this able and revered father in the Gos- 
 pel was useful to him. I am aware that he admired the 
 talents of this aged divine, and had great confidence in 
 the soundness of his theological opinions ; and I know, 
 also, that Fristoe esteemed him highly, and used to hear 
 him preach gladly. 
 
 "On one occasion, when greatly pleased w T ith the sing- 
 ing of a young female member of the Alexandria church, 
 he pleasantly remarked to her, ' Why, sister, you sing 
 almost as w T ell as Cone preaches.' 
 
 " The pioneer Baptist minister of Virginia, was David 
 Thomas, who went forth from the Philadelphia Baptist 
 Association, and labored with success in the northeas- 
 tern part of the State. William and Daniel Fristoe were 
 baptized by him at Chappawamsic, eight miles from 
 Dumfries, and became eminent and laborious ministers 
 of Christ. 
 
 " The churches formed under the ministry of Mr. 
 Thomas were at first attached to the Philadelphia Asso- 
 ciation ; but afterwards, when three in number, they 
 formed an association of their own, w T hich was called 
 
LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 179 
 
 Ketocton, from the place of its first meetings. At this 
 first meeting of the first Virginia Association, William 
 Fristoe was present, and he lived and labored during 
 all that period in which the Baptists of Virginia suffered 
 persecution from the civil power. He was therefore a 
 Baptist, tried, and true-hearted. The fear of suffering 
 never turned him away from steadfast adherence to the 
 truth, or silenced his voice. He was one of those who 
 struggled amidst the persecutions, to obtain that religious 
 liberty in which now our whole land rejoices. His 
 firm adherence to sound principles underwent even a 
 severer tost than that which persecution applied. The 
 Philadelphia Baptists maintained the system of faith 
 usually styled Calvin istic, which is set forth in their 
 confession of faith. This doctrine was at first taught by 
 Mr. Thomas, but after a time he was thought to waver 
 in his exhibition of it. In one of his public discourses, 
 he said, " Who was John Calvin? A persecuting bigot. 
 Who was James Arminius? A meek and humble disci- 
 ple of Christ.' In this strain he contrasted the char- 
 acters of the two men, giving preference to the latter; 
 and was understood to give a like preference to the sys- 
 tem of doctrines which he taught. The young disciples 
 were grieved that their father in the Gospel had departed 
 from the truth, as they had first learned it from him ; 
 and they held a private, sorrowful meeting, to determine 
 what ought to be done in the case. At this meeting it 
 was decided to be their duty to labor, as children with 
 a beloved parent, to bring back their spiritual guide to 
 the good old path from which he was wandering. "Wil- 
 liam Fristoe was selected to perform this very delicate 
 and responsible service. Tremblingly, yet firmly, he 
 approached the venerated man. reminded' him of the 
 truth which they had once learned from his lips, and 
 reasoned with him out of the Scriptures. His mission 
 
180 LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 appears to have been successful, for confidence in the 
 orthodoxy of their spiritual leader was afterwards res- 
 tored. 
 
 " Such a man, firm in every emergency, steadfast in 
 the truth, and zealous for its propagation, was William 
 Fristoe ; and that your father's ministry had the appro- 
 bation and confidence of such a man, was no ordinary 
 praise." 
 
 Whenever Mr. Cone spoke of old Father Fristoe, he 
 would shake his head and say emphatically : 
 
 "Ah! he was a powerful preacher. He understood 
 the truth, and knew how to make it understood. lie 
 was the best preacher I ever heard.' 1 
 
 On the subject of his early acquaintance with Mr. 
 Cone; of his labors in Yirginia, and the character of 
 his eloquence, Dr. Dagg says : 
 
 " Brother Cone and I entered the Gospel ministry 
 about the same time ; he in the District of Columbia, I 
 in Loudon County, Virginia, separated from the District 
 only by the County of Fairfax. We soon became 
 acquainted with each other, and a friendship commenced 
 which nothing ever disturbed. I loved him most sin- 
 cerely, and felt honored by the confidence and affection 
 with which he ever regarded me. As one by one the asso- 
 ciates of my early days have been removed to the 
 unseen world, I have rejoiced that he was spared so long 
 as a fellow-laborer in the Lord's cause, and that he was 
 permitted to render so important service to the genera- 
 tion in which our lot was cast. 
 
 " Soon after he began to preach, his fame spread 
 through the neighboring country, and I, in common 
 with many others, felt a strong desire to see and hear 
 one of whom so much was said. This privilege I 
 enjoyed on the morning of March 31st, 1818, when I 
 heard him preach in the Baptist meeting- house in Alex- 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 181 
 
 andria, where he was pastor. His text was Ilosea, 6, 1. 
 His sermon was experimental, and well adapted to affect 
 the heart. After he descended from the pulpit, I was 
 introduced to him by a friend, and received from him a 
 gentle reproof, for not having made myself known before 
 the services commenced. Finding I had an appoint- 
 ment for the next day, to preach for a church a few 
 miles from the town, he arranged to ride out with me. 
 Thus our personal acquaintance commenced. On being 
 invited to visit our neighborhood, lie readily consented 
 to do so ; and frequently afterwards, his voice was heard 
 in our churches, proclaiming the salvation of Jesus. 
 Multitudes thronged to hear, and many received the 
 word with joy. 
 
 "Though his ministry attracted attention, his course 
 was not that of a revivalist. His chief success was at 
 the place where he regularly labored. Here, it may be 
 said, a continual revival existed, from the time he 
 accepted the pastoral charge to the day of his removal. 
 "Without noise, or the extraordinary effort of protracted 
 meetings, the increase of the church was constant, and 
 the interest in spiritual things continued and active. 
 
 "The church at Alexandria, when he became its pastor, 
 belonged to the Baltimore Association. This Associa- 
 tion, at that time, was under the influence of Anti- 
 Mission principles. In decided opposition to these 
 principles, the benevolence of Brother Cone's heart 
 prompted him to labor for the conversion of the world, 
 and to favor every judicious effort to extend the 
 Kingdom of Christ. He found more congeniality of 
 feeling among the brethren south of the Potomac ; and 
 as a proposal to divide the Ketocton Association of 
 Virginia had been for several years under consideration, 
 he favored the plan, and assisted to originate the Colum- 
 bia Association, which was formed out of the Ketocton 
 
182 LITE OF SrENCEE HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 Association, with the addition of the churches at Alex- 
 andria and Washington City. By this change he was 
 brought into more immediate connection with the 
 Virginia Baptists, who regarded him as one of their 
 ablest ministers, and have ever held him in high esteem. 
 Though his forwardness to aid in the benevolent enter- 
 prises of the day was abundantly manifested during his 
 residence in Alexandria, it had a wider field of opera- 
 tion, and was productive of more important results, after 
 his removal to ISTew York. 
 
 " As a public speaker, Brother Cone possessed extraor- 
 dinary endowments. Such was his command of language, 
 that in all the sermons which I ever heard him preach, 
 he never, so far as I remember, hesitated for a word, or 
 recalled one that had dropped from his lips. Yet his 
 words conveyed his thoughts perspicuously and expres- 
 sively. They bore no marks of previous study, and 
 betrayed no ambition for literary reputation ; but they 
 came spontaneously to render the service which he 
 required, and took their places in primer order. His 
 gestures were simple, appropriate, and graceful. I have 
 known orators who could exhibit more of dazzling 
 brilliance, or who could take loftier and bolder flights, 
 or who could put in motion a deeper tide of feeling. His 
 eloquence was more uniform and rendered his discourse 
 throughout interesting and attractive. His voice cor- 
 responded to the style of his eloquence. He did not 
 sometimes thunder, and at other times whisper ; but he 
 proceeded throughout his discourse with an utterance 
 even, distinct, firm and strong, and yet with sweetly 
 varied modulation, and with appropriate and expressive 
 emphasis. On visiting an association in Virginia, where 
 he had never preached, he rose in the progress of the 
 business, to make a few remarks on a subject which 
 was under discussion; and although he made no effort, 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 1S3 
 
 and designed to produce no special effect, the tones of 
 Lis voice not only iixed the attention of all who were 
 within the building, hut caused many who were outside 
 to enter immediately. In the pulpit he was ever solemn, 
 ever earnest ; and addressed his hearers as one who bore 
 to them a message from God. ■ All felt that he believed 
 what he spoke. 
 
 "He was a firm believer in that system of doctrine 
 which ascribes the salvation of men to the free grace of 
 God. He maintained that men are by nature totally 
 depraved and helpless ; that they can be justified only 
 by the righteousness of Christ ; that they can be renewed 
 and sanctified only by the influence of the Holy Spirit; 
 and that salvation throughout is God's work, in which 
 he fulfills his eternal purpose and displays his sovereign 
 love. In presenting these truths, he never lost sight of 
 man's obligation to obey the law of God, and to repent 
 and believe the Gospel. He preached the truth boldly ; 
 not shunning to declare the whole counsel of God. He 
 was a decided Baptist. His maintenance of Baptist 
 principles awakened considerable opposition, in the 
 early part of his ministry in Alexandria; but while he 
 treated with courtesy those who differed from him, he 
 freely discussed, in his own pulpit, the points of difference, 
 and convinced many who came to hear. These discus- 
 sions were not conducted in the spirit of angry con- 
 troversy ; but the love of souls predominated, and 
 opposers were at the same time converted to God, 
 and to the faith which they had despised. 
 
 "His walk as a Christian, and his work as a pastor, 
 were in harmony with his pulpit ministrations. In 
 everything he exhibited the man of God. He taught 
 the road to Heaven and led the way. 
 
 " Brotherly love filled a large place in his heart. In 
 his intercourse with brethren, when present, he was kind 
 
184 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 and courteous ; and when absent, lie scrupulously avoided 
 speaking ill of any one. With his biethrenin the ministry 
 he cultivated the most friendly relations ; and during 
 that part of his life in which I was most intimate with 
 him, there was but one minister with whom I ever 
 knew him to have any difficulty, and he was a man of 
 intolerant spirit, who did not hesitate to denounce from 
 the pulpit those who would not subscribe to his anti- 
 nomian creed. To refute the unfounded allegations of 
 such a man became a Christian duty. 
 
 " But love to his Master's cause was his rulingpassion. 
 This prompted his efforts, and rendered him indefatigable 
 in his toils. As he felt and labored, so he taught his 
 people to feel and labor ; and abundant proof of the 
 tendency and effect of his instructions appears in the 
 amount of the contributions for religious purposes which 
 he always succeeded in obtaining from those to whom 
 he ministered. 
 
 " When such a man falls in Israel, Zion may well 
 mourn. In his death another Jonathan has been taken, 
 and my heart is torn and bleeding. It seeks relief in 
 the thought, that the days of mourning will soon be 
 past. The time of conflict and separation will soon be 
 over, and we shall meet in the grand triumph above. 
 
 " When he fought the enemies of his country at North 
 Point, I, too, was under arms in a different regiment ; 
 and though not in the battle, w T as so near, as to see the 
 smoke of the conflict in which he was engaged, and in 
 which the leader of the invading host received his death 
 wound. When we were afterwards fellow-soldiers in a 
 nobler cause, it was still his to occupy a more prominent 
 position, and to perform more active service ; and it was 
 mine, while laboring to do the humbler duty assigned 
 me, to witness his prowess and achievements, and rejoice 
 in his success. And in the great day, when Upi shall lay 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 185 
 
 his crown at the Saviour's feet, and the multitudes who 
 have been converted by his instrumentality shall be as 
 stars in his diadem ; though I cannot claim equal honor, 
 I hope to share with him, in some humble measure, the 
 joy of our common Lord." 
 
186 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 CATHARINE AND ELIZA CONE. 
 
 Catharine and Eliza were the youngest of his four 
 sisters. Catharine married Mr. John Norvell, his 
 partner in the "Baltimore Whig," and afterwards 
 United States Senator, from Michigan. Eliza became 
 the wife of James Leslie, Esq., of Philadelphia. Both 
 married when very young, and died early. 
 
 Mrs. Nbrvell was a woman of remarkable sweetness 
 of disposition, and singular personal beauty. After her 
 conversion and baptism, she was distinguished by an 
 ardent faith. The grace of God developed and heightened 
 the natural graces of her character, and deepened the 
 tenderness of her heart in an uncommon manner. Such 
 was the gentleness of her spirit, that under the most 
 severe trials and sicknesess, she was never known or 
 heard, by any, to repine, or indulge in a harsh or hasty 
 word. With a highly cultivated mind, and great natural 
 humor and quickness of perception, she had also a meek- 
 ness and forbearance, which prevented her from ever 
 wounding the dullest or most ignorant. She was, from 
 the testimony of all who knew her, a thing framed by 
 nature to be loved. Her brother, indeed, and his wife, 
 loved her with the most absolute and tender affection. 
 Neither of them ever spoke of her except as of some- 
 thing too pure and exquisitely sensitive for the rough 
 uses of the hard world v T e live in. Happily for herself, 
 she w r ent Home very young. 
 
 The thought which lay nearest his heart after his own 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 1S7 
 
 conversion, was those dear sisters. A never-ceasing 
 anxiety urged him on their behalf. Although separated 
 from them by distance, he must preach to them the 
 Gospel ? lie must continually warn and entreat them 
 —no matter whether they would hear or forbear. 
 
 "While I live," he exclaims, "and you remain un- 
 regenerate, you must expect and bear from me the 
 warning voice. How can you escape if you neglect so 
 great salvation? In whose arms can you be eternally 
 secure, should you continue to turn a deaf ear to the 
 voice of the heavenly charmer? Are you unable of 
 yourselves to flee into the strong tower? Your want of 
 strength is a good plea — Christ died for sinners is a 
 better : urge them both at a throne of Grace, again and 
 again, and may God have mercy upon your precious, 
 immortal souls !" 
 
 His warning voice was not raised in vain. His letters, 
 warm with fraternal love, and preaching unceasingly to 
 them the whole Gospel of Christ, were amongst the 
 means blessed to their conversion. Catharine, the 
 gentlest and most teachable of all, was earliest gathered 
 into the fold of the Good Shepherd. Fragile and delicate, 
 the consumptive tendencies of her constitution heightened 
 for a time the bloom of apparent health, and lent to her 
 complexion the dazzling brilliancy and clearness with 
 which the disease flatters its victims as it plants upon 
 their cheeks the roses of the grave. Very soon, however, 
 after the birth of her second child, the sad flowers began 
 to fade, and the melancholy brightness of the varying 
 hectic only remained. 
 
 They took her away to the quiet country, still hoping 
 that change of air and scene, and the influences of a 
 milder climate, the peaceful repose of nature, and the 
 watchful care of those who loved her, might at least 
 retard awhile the advances of the disease. It was a 
 
188 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 vain hope. But if the angel of death watched near her, 
 waiting for her spirit, it was only as the messenger of 
 the mightier Angel of the Covenant, and to bear her 
 home clothed in the white garment of His salvation. 
 
 Amongst her brother's papers there is a little book of 
 hers, containing some scraps of a diary which she 
 appears to have tried to keep whilst absent. A few 
 pages only are filled, and the handwriting shows that 
 the effort to write was a painful one. All the sweetness 
 of her character, and earnest faith may however be read 
 in those few sentences — they open the whole volume of 
 her heart. 
 
 "July 10th. — Through mercy I am spending a month 
 or two in the country for the benetit of my health. Let 
 me never forget, oh! my Father, whose kind hand 
 sustains me, and softens the couch of my suffering. 
 May a repining temper be ever far from me ; but let me 
 at all times say, it is the Lord ! let Him do what seemeth 
 to Him good. I desire to feel and acknowledge the 
 happiness of having a Christian friend in this solitude. 
 May we strengthen each other in the strait path that 
 leads to life, and go on our way rejoicing. 
 
 "July 11th. — Hitherto the Lord hath helped me, and 
 shall I now be afraid ? His afflicting hand is on my 
 dear hoy, and whether it be unto death or no who 
 can tell ; but all that I am, and all that I have are His. 
 The Lord gives and takes away — blessed be His holy 
 name ! 
 
 ''Keep me this day, oh, our Father ! from presumptu- 
 ous sins. Let hot the enemy of souls have occasion for 
 rejoicing ; but strengthen me by Thy grace to fight with 
 true courage ; to put to flight all my cruel adversaries, 
 and enable me to sing glory, and honor, and dominion, 
 and power to the Lamb who makes us~ more than 
 conquerors through His precious blood. Bless the Lord 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 189 
 
 oli, my soul ! and all that is within me bless and 
 magnify His holy name, for He has mercy upon those 
 who have none to help them. 
 
 "July 12th. — Help me to see Thy hand in my present 
 trial, and in every case where Thou seest proper to take 
 my idols from me. Is it a proof that I am a child 
 of God ? Let me then take the cup joyfully, and drink it 
 to the very dregs. Yet, if not inconsistent with Thy holy 
 will, I humbly desire that the physician who will 
 shortly attend my sick lamb, may be sent of Thee, and 
 through Thy mercy save his precious life. But if Thou 
 hast ordered it otherwise, though Thou slay me, yet will 
 I trust in Thee. 
 
 "July 13th. — Let this day also be Thine, oh, my Father, 
 who art in Heaven. Thou hast shown mercy to me in 
 saving my dear child — may he be saved eternally — oh, 
 that his soul may live before Thee. I have desired this 
 one thing for myself — my beloved husband ; my chil- 
 dren ; my dear sisters and friends who are out of Christ 
 — that they — that we all might have an interest in the 
 atoning blood that was shed on Calvary. Oh, deny me 
 not before I die ! Give me to see Thy great salvation. 
 
 "July 16th. — It is the Sabbath ! Rest, oh my soul, from 
 all thy works, and take hold of Christ and His righteous- 
 ness as thy portion and eternal rest. I have been 
 reading the 14th chapter of John. What consoling 
 lano-uao-e does our Elder Brother there use — ' Let not 
 your heart be troubled !' Oh, what height and depth, 
 what length and breadth is there in the love of God to 
 us. 'I am the way, the truth and the 'life.' Lord I 
 feel it. Keep me in the way, for Thou art able to save 
 unto the uttermost. ' I will not leave you comfortless.' 
 Lord, it is too much ! Oh, what grace. Plow does my 
 ingratitude rise in array against me. How hateful is 
 sin, especially my sins, which have grieved the Com- 
 
190 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 forter and caused Him to leave roe in doubt and 
 darkness. Am I not a hell-deserving- sinner? Yes, yes! 
 Magnify Thy goodness Thou Saviour of sinners, by 
 bestowing upon me — even me — a portion of that peace 
 which Thou gavest to Thy disciples on leaving them, 
 that peace which passeth all understanding. 
 
 Aug. 6th, 1820. — The sun is setting and the sober mists 
 of evening are stealing over the face of nature. Alas ! 
 how mournful are the reflections of those who, on look- 
 ing over their past lives, can dwell upon no one solitary 
 action that has been truly Godly ; all springing from a 
 corrupt source ; all the streams and rills poisoned from 
 the fountain. And does not sin and folly mark all my 
 actions ? Lord save me from myself— I loathe myself." 
 
 The summer-time faded ; the winter came. The poor 
 broken flower drooped more and more; but with the open- 
 ing spring the Master took it and planted it in His own 
 garden, where the heat of summer never scorches, nor 
 the winter cold can blight. It was a happy passing from 
 earth to Heaven. Her husband's letter, referred to in 
 the following one of her brother Spencer, gave an 
 affecting detail of her last hours. That letter has 
 unfortunately been lost. It was most probably destroyed 
 in the fire of April 1822, in Alexandria. This fire was, 
 on many accounts, a disastrous event. The house in 
 which he lived at the time, was a large three-story brick 
 building on King street. Tsext door to it was a cabinet- 
 maker's shop. Some boards carelessly left, to dry upon 
 a stove were the cause of the fire. Mr. Cone's house 
 was in flames, for it was midnight when the fire took, 
 before any of the inmates were awakened. He had 
 collected quite a valuable library, which was totally 
 destroyed. The greatest loss however, were the letters 
 and papers relating to his early life. Amongst them 
 was an autobiography which lie had prepared. He 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 191 
 
 constantly promised to re-write it, but in the multiplic- 
 ity of his duties and engagements be never found time 
 to do so. 
 
 The house was entirely consumed. The family, barely 
 escaping with their lives, found refuge in the hospitable 
 mansion of Mrs. Edmonds, a member of the church, and 
 very dear friend, by whom everything that kindness 
 could suggest was done to make them forget their loss 
 and terror. The other friends were equally kind. 
 Sympathy for his loss was not indeed confined to the 
 city of Alexandria, for we find by a letter from Rev. S. 
 W. Lynd that the little church in Bordentown, New 
 Jersey, took up a collection, and with many apologies for 
 its smallness, but with a warm expression of sympathy, 
 worth much more than money, sent it to him. Mr. 
 Lynd had been converted through his instrumentality; 
 by hearing him preach during the autumn of 1818, 
 in Sansom street meeting-house, Philadelphia, from the 
 words "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy 
 youth." " This discourse," Mr. Lynd writes to him, May 
 12th, 1820, " was the means of bringing me to that serious 
 reflection, which I have reason to believe resulted in my 
 conversion to God. On that memorable occasion I 
 went to the house of God to see the crowd, hear 
 the preacher, and gratify a vain curiosity — and I adore 
 the mercy of Jehovah who turned it to my profit." 
 
 On the 9th of April, 1821, Mr. Cone, writing to his 
 mother words of Christian consolation on the subject 
 of his sister Catharine's death, says, " When Abraham 
 had received the child of promise, when the termination 
 of his earthly career was at hand, and when perhaps the 
 good old man thought his work of faith and patience of 
 hope, and labor of love were ended, and he had nothing 
 to do but to die, even then it pleased his Heavenly 
 
192 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 Father to test his obedience, and prove his fidelity, by 
 a trial more severe than any lie had previously known. 
 'Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou 
 lovest, and offer him for a burnt offering.' How many 
 and how powerful the objections, arguments, and 
 entreaties, which nature would instantaneously urge 
 against such a command ; but grace teaches to submit ; 
 grace enables to say ' Father not my will, but Thine be 
 done;' grace strengthens us to trust God where we 
 cannot trace him, under the assured conviction ' That 
 all things work together for good to them that love God, 
 to them who are thus called according to his purpose.' ' : 
 
 " We have bid adieu, for a short season, to our beloved 
 Catharine. 'The Master came and called for her,' and 
 I believe that he who loved Lazarus, Martha, and Mary, 
 loved Catharine too. I suppose Isaac never found 
 a fonder place in the bosom of the Patriarch than she 
 did in yours, my mother. May you tread in the foot- 
 steps of the 'friend of God,' and since, like him, your 
 heaviest trial has come upon you in your old age, may 
 you like him, ' be strong in faith, giving glory to God." 
 Remember, our sister is not dead, she sleepeth — she is 
 not lost, but gone before ; and now we have one tie less 
 to earth, and one silken cord more in heaven. 
 
 " On Saturday I received from Mr. JSTorvell along and 
 most interesting letter, detailing many of the circum- 
 stances connected with the last sickness and death of our 
 dear Catharine. How wonderfully she was supported ; 
 oh, how boundless the mercy and goodness of God ! 
 'Tis He who enables the dying Christian to say, ' Though 
 my heart and my strength fail, yet Pie is the strength 
 of my heart and my portion for ever !" We ought to 
 rejoice at such a death — we ought to rejoice that our 
 loss is hei unspeakable and eternal gain ; and that she 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOYGHTON CONE. 193 
 
 jow knows, ' that it is far better to depart and be with 
 Christ,' than tarry longer in a world of disappointment 
 
 sickness, sorrow, and sin. 
 
 " Poor Sally seems as if she could hardly be reconciled 
 to her death, and her eyes fill with tears every time she 
 is mentioned, but we shall meet where parting is no 
 more ! the Lamb shall lead us to the fountain of living 
 Maters, and God Himself shall wipe away all tears from 
 our eyes." 
 
 Hardly three years passed before the angel of death 
 knocked again at the door of the little family, which had 
 loved so well, and had been so bound up in each other's 
 lives. His next younger sister followed Catharine home 
 to heaven. Gay, and careless as she was beautiful, the 
 influences with which she was surrounded, the admoni- 
 tions of her brother, the daily conversation of her 
 mother, not even the death of her darling sister, whom 
 she had nursed to the last with sleerjless devotion, had 
 appeared ever to affect her, or strike her with a serious 
 thought. She was the sprite of the family, full of fun 
 and mischief. Referring to her characteristics, her 
 brother, writing from Alexandria in 1821, says : 
 
 "Tell Betsey that Wallace is her build to a fraction, 
 and when engaged in mischief, has exactly her left arm 
 crook, and tiptoe mince." 
 
 Suddenly the symptoms of disease developed them- 
 selves in her. The course of the malady was rapid, and 
 the laughing, high-spirited woman was laid weak and 
 helpless on a bed, from which none could afford her a 
 hope of rising. Amongst her brother's letters, there 
 remains but a single one of this dear sister's ; that one 
 has been preserved with a care evidently attributable to 
 the character of its contents. It is dated April 17th, 
 1823, hist about the period when he was making the 
 final arrangements for his removal to New York. His 
 
 9 
 
194 LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 wife and children having already come on northwards 
 as far as Philadelphia. 
 
 "Beloved brother," she says, " as Sally tells me you 
 will have but a few hours to stay with us on your way to 
 New York, I thought I would prepare you by a few 
 lines, for debility prevents my sending many, for a 
 circumstance that will not more surprise, than it will 
 overjoy a Christian brother's heart. Does it seem possi- 
 ble that I — I who have, for so many years, been hard- 
 ening my heart in iniquity, should, on what appears 
 to be a dying bed — have it sweetly whispered in my 
 ear — ' Daughter, be of good cheer, thy sins which are 
 many, are all forgiven thee.' Even so, my dear 
 Spencer. I have experienced such raptures in a 
 sick room ; had such ' songs in the night ; ' have had 
 my wishes, feelings, views, all so changed, as to make 
 me a wonder to myself. I have had a sweet interview 
 with our dear pastor. He gave me the most positive 
 and consoling assurances that I was in the safe path — 
 only persevere, and watch, and pray. I knew this 
 would so joy your heart, that I could not a moment 
 longer keep you ignorant." 
 
 The remainder of her letter is devoted to commending 
 to her brother's care the orphan children of Catharine 
 Norvell. Her own illness, everything in short relating 
 to herself, was forgotten in the unselfish devotion of her 
 heart to all that remained of the sister she had loved so 
 well, and whose last days she had watched and tended 
 so fondly. 
 
 She never saw her brother Spencer again. The news 
 of her death came to him at Washington, from which 
 place he writes, May 23d, 1823— " Dearly-beloved 
 mother and sisters, it has pleased the Great Disposer of 
 human events, to remove from us our dear Eliza ; but 
 though the dispensation was indeed a most trying one, 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER nOUGHTON CONE. 195 
 
 and the ties of nature and strong affection cannot be 
 broken asunder without the sharpest pain, yet the cir- 
 cumstances of her death are calculated to make us 
 rejoice in the midst of our sorrow. From the tenor of her 
 last most precious letter to me, and from the testimony 
 of Dr. Staughton, I feel confident; that she has gone to 
 that heavenly Canaan where the wicked cease from 
 troubling and the weary are at rest ! That blessed coun- 
 try where there is neither sin nor sorrow ; where the 
 Lamb that was slain leads His children to fountains of 
 living waters and where God, I doubt not, hath wiped 
 away all tears from her eyes. Our loss is her unspeakable 
 gain. Why then should we repine or sorrow as those 
 who have no hope ? Hath not the Lord done all things well, 
 and instead of murmuring shall we not bless His holy 
 name, because He has taken her feet out of the miry clay 
 and horrible pit, and then after a few days' bodily suffer- 
 ing, removed her to the church triumphant in glory ? 
 Oh, what a soul-cheering enrapturing thought ! She is 
 now with Jesus. She contemplates His glory and gazes 
 upon the God-man Mediator with intense delight, with- 
 out a veil between ! and, oh, what a meeting between 
 our sainted sisters ! "Who can tell the joy they felt when 
 joining heart and hand around the throne, to sing the 
 praises of Him who loved them, and gave Himself for 
 them. My dear mother, I am sure you must rejoice, 
 especially when realizing the shortness of human life, 
 and looking, forward to that blissful moment when we 
 hope to join the choir above. May this providence have 
 a tendency to wean us from the world, and strengthen 
 us to pursue the path of holiness. My dear sisters, may 
 God Almighty bless the event to you both. Oh, may 
 He enable you both to lay aside every weight, and the 
 sin which doth so easily beset you, that you may run 
 
196 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 with patience the Christian race, and so run as to 
 obtain." 
 
 It was whilst his heart was yet torn and bleeding 
 with domestic sorrows, that Providence calk-d him to 
 occupy a wider stage of action, and exert his talents in 
 a held of Christian effort, the boundaries of which were 
 ever afterward daily extending themselves, taking in 
 ultimately the whole range of denominational effort in 
 the Bible and Mission cause. He felt that he was called 
 of God to preach and labor in the city of New York. 
 
 " When he left Alexandria, the church numbered 170 
 white members, and 150 colored, most of whom were 
 brought to a knowledge of the truth through his instru- 
 mentality." So writes Daniel Cawood, adding, that at 
 the date of his communication, February 17th, 1856, he 
 is the sole surviving male member of that small but 
 united band of Baptists, which, at Mr. Cone's coming 
 amongst them, numbered some twelve or fourteen 
 souls, 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTOH COKE. 197 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 LEAVING VIRGINIA 
 
 The impression produced by his preaching during his 
 brief visits ,0 New York, end the personal" tnowlfdge 
 Possessed by many of his faithfolness and success in the 
 pastoral charge of the cliurch in Alexandria, filled them 
 with a des.re to „d„ce him, if p08s!bIe> ' to e9tab J 
 
 m de a^r na " ent y D the f ° rmer "^ Efforts were 
 made at he same time to draw him to other cities. 
 Dr. Stanghton wished him to be in Philadelphia, and 
 the church in Baltimore anxiously desired him there- 
 indeed, during his whole life, they would never give up" 
 the idea of settling him amongst them in Baltimore, and 
 
 W,r me ? Pe 7 mal P, ' efe, ' ence was «°™™l Mb 
 
 uarv S v "« r t r a,dS * ° n the 8 * of Ca- 
 nary, 1821, he writes, "I have a pressing invitation iust 
 
 now t„ tttt , .„ Balt . more z 1 o not s s 2°:; v : 
 
 feel disposed to accept it. The Lord, I hope will eve 
 direct me where to go, and what to do. I desire to 
 be entirely at His disposal, and say, in all the Z! 
 vicissitudes of life, < Father, Thy will be done. ' » " * 
 After Ins second visit to New York, a number of the 
 members of Oliver street resolved to overcome his dis- 
 inchnar.on to leave the church in Alexandria. They 
 believed that an opening in Providence was made in 
 Hew York for just such a man, and that the cause 
 demanded h, 8 presence there. It appeared to them 
 contrary to the designs of Providence, and the bes" 
 interests of the Master's Kingdom, that a man calculated 
 
198 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 to exert a commandimg influence upon the denomi- 
 nation should be restricted to the narrow bounds of a 
 small provincial city. On every side he was pressed 
 with urgent appeals to come up and help them. From 
 Philadelphia, Dr. Staughton wrote, " This will be hand- 
 ed to y ou by Brethren Garfield and Trimmul of the New 
 Market street church of our city. I will only observe, 
 that I am of opinion a very large and important 
 interest may be raised in that vicinity, and I have no 
 doubt, you would find your labors extensively blessed. 
 The worthy brethren, whose affection and zeal I delight 
 in reciprocating, would feel as happy in vour compli- 
 ance with the request of that church as myself. I pray 
 the Lord may be your guide, and friend, and that the 
 cloud of His presence and grace may direct your way. 
 In early life I felt, and have often realized since, the 
 experimental lines of Newton 
 
 " Our lot in future years, 
 Unable to foresee ; 
 He kindly to prevent our fears 
 Says ' leave it all to Me.' " 
 
 The Rev. James McLaughlin adds his solicitation to 
 that of the Philadelphia Brethren. It is brief, and warm 
 as words can make it. "I shall rejoice to have you 
 near me. Come, beloved of the Lord, and of our hearts ; 
 come, and the Lord come with you !" 
 
 The churches at Wilmington, Delaware ; at Albany, 
 New York; in Baltimore; Philadelphia; the Beriah 
 church in the city of New York, and various others, as 
 appears from the dates of their letters, were all urging 
 him at this time to accept their calls, and pressing upon 
 him his duty to choose a wider field. At the same time 
 various brethren in the city of New York, amongst 
 whom were William Colgate, Eliakitn Raymond, Garret 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 199 
 
 N. Bleecker, Charles Postly, Daniel Hall and others, 
 formed the plan of building a new meeting-house in 
 a central position in the city for him. They entered 
 into correspondence with him as early as 1818, and 
 continued uninterruptedly to importune him until 1823. 
 Ground was secured, and money pledged to carry out 
 the plan, which appears to have been a favorite one 
 with its projectors. Providence overruled it, but their 
 importunities, and'the crowd of reasons they brought to 
 bear upon his mind, had, no doubt, a great influence 
 upon his decision. Indeed, not only Baptists, but mem- 
 bers of other denominations in those cities, joined in the 
 solicitations for his presence amongst them. Thus 
 Charles Postly, and Charles C. Andrews, writing from 
 New York, E"ov. 13th, 1818, say, "Many of different 
 denominations are frequently inquiring of us, as Bap- 
 tists, ' Whether you are not coming here V And when 
 an expression of doubt is given in reply, much disap- 
 pointment is manifested by them. We, with many 
 others, only require your affirmative answer to take our 
 letters and form ourselves into a Gospel church, and 
 then wait your much-desired arrival amongst us. Allow 
 us, dear brother, to repeat, that the propriety of your 
 coming to this city seems to be pointed out by Provi- 
 dence.'' 
 
 The most active and prominent men in the churches 
 of ISTew York wrote continually in the same strain and 
 spirit, until he could not help believing that the finger 
 of the Lord was in it, and that His Providence was 
 pointing out, through their instrumentality, the path of 
 duty. His interest in the Mission cause, and the pros- 
 pect of being enabled to exert a larger influence in its 
 behalf, had great weight with him. Yery early in his 
 ministry Dr. Staughton, at that time corresponding 
 secretary of the board of Missions, had recognized 
 
200 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 a kindred spirit, and invokes his assistance to aid the 
 Foreign Missionary Society. Their expenditures had 
 exceeded their receipts more than five thousand dollars, 
 a great sura in benevolent enterprises, thirty-five years 
 since, and from the tenor of his letter, Spencer H. Cone 
 appears to have been amongst the first pitched upon by 
 the doctor, then the leader in all such efforts, to aid 
 them in their difficulties. " I know the kindness of yonr 
 heart," he says, " and yonr readiness to advance the 
 best interests of the Mission cause. Permit me to 
 request of yon the favor, that yon will immediately call 
 upon the treasurer, and our good Brother Colgate, who 
 in the hour of exigence has always shown himself a man 
 of God. I write unto you, my brother, as believing that 
 like the youth John addressed, '• You are strong and the 
 "Word of God abideth in you.' I affectionately beseech 
 you accomplish all you can." 
 
 Thus every interest of the Master's Kingdom appeared 
 to demand, with an imperious voice, that he should 
 choose the most central and public point for his labors ; 
 a point from which the influences of missions, and every 
 other form of denominational and benevolent effort 
 might radiate to the remotest quarters of the globe. 
 
 In the good providence of God, his mind was ulti- 
 mately led to fix upon Oliver street. He had been 
 unceasingly urged to accept the joint charge of that 
 church, as assistant to the venerable John Williams. 
 The increasing age and infirmities of Dr. "Williams, and 
 his long, acceptable, and faithful services, as an orthodox, 
 evangelical, and fearless preacher of the Gospel among 
 them, inspired his best friends in the church with the 
 desire to relieve him, in a measure, from his pulpit 
 labors, and render the last years of a well-spent life less 
 trying and laborious. Suc?l, at least, was the shape in 
 which it was presented to Mr. Cone. This view and 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 201 
 
 purpose were urged upon Mr. Cone with sc much force 
 that he began to take the matter into serious considera- 
 tion. 
 
 How he felt upon the subject of leaving his church 
 in Alexandria, and the motives which induced the 
 change, appear in some degree from a letter to the 
 Rev. John L. Dagg, then residing at Upperville, 
 Virginia. He never perhaps wrote more freely to any 
 one than to Mr. Dagg. They loved each other with a 
 manly and Christian love — a love which no separation, 
 or time, or circumstance affected. For the opinion of 
 John L. Dagg, a great and good man, with the head of 
 a scholar, and a warm affectionate heart, combined with 
 strong old-fashioned Baptist notions and doctrines, he 
 entertained a profound and unvarying respect. They 
 were every way kindred spirits, and poured their hearts 
 out to each other ever without reserve. We do not 
 believe, indeed, that any two men ever entertained a 
 truer sentiment of friendship for each other, or one more 
 unalloyed by selfishness, than they did. To Mr. Dagg, 
 he writes in the winter of 1823 : " I have some thoughts 
 of leaving the shores of the Potomac, in the course of a 
 few months. It is my intention, before taking up the 
 line of march, to spend two or three days with you — 
 probably in April next. A separation from my present 
 charge will, doubtless, be very painful ; but duty to 
 God, and to my fellow-men, demand it. I have endea- 
 vored to examine the subject, in all its bearings, with 
 an eye single to the Master's glory, and hope that my 
 mind has been brought to its present determination, by 
 the light of His Spirit. In leaving the Alexandria 
 church, the most obtrusive and perplexing question is — 
 ' Who shall succeed to its pastoral care ? ' How would 
 you like a town residence ? Are you in your right 
 place ? The harvest is great — the laborers are few ; the 
 
202 LIFE OF SPENCER HOTGHTON CONE. 
 
 Lord of the harvest lias thrust you into His vineyard ; 
 are you giving yourself wholly to the work V 
 
 He was contemplating a separation from those who 
 were dearest to him ; from his children in the Gospel, 
 and his eyes turned instinctively to the brother of his 
 heart — to one he loved and trusted entirely — to comfort 
 them, and carry on the good work in their midst. He 
 could not bear to leave his little flock to a strange 
 shepherd. 
 
 " My dear brother," he continues, " I feel that the 
 time is short — the night of this life, in which we see 
 things, at best, but darkly, is far spent. Few know 
 how to preach Christ as the way, the truth, and the 
 life ! Souls are perishing for lack of knowledge. The 
 day of judgment, and of glory, are at hand, when 
 every subject shall be seen in its true light; and then, 
 when the false glare which has recommended some 
 objects to our notice here on earth shall be taken away, 
 we shall know better than we now do, that ' he who 
 winneth souls is wise.' May the God of Jacob bless 
 you and yours, and enable you to preach the Gospel of 
 His Grace, faithfully and successfully to the end. May 
 you walk in the light of His countenance all the day 
 long ; for, indeed, this is a poor world to live in, without 
 the soul-cheering presence of our dear Lord Jesus !" 
 
 In this state of mind, his brethren of the Oliver street 
 church continued to ply him with letter upon letter. 
 The correspondence displays, in an interesting and 
 striking manner, the careful delicacy with which he 
 proceeded, and the dread he had of wounding the feel- 
 ings of the aged pastor whom he was called to assist. 
 But the official correspondence betwixt the committee, 
 and their desired pastor will speak for itself. It requires 
 no comment : 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOLGHTON CONE. 203 
 
 " New York Jan. 29th, 1823. 
 "Elder Spencer H. Cone. 
 
 " Dear Brother :— It is with no ordinary sensation of 
 pleasure, that we now address yon in the name, and on 
 behalf, of the Baptist church of Christ, meeting for 
 divine worship in Oliver street in this city, having been 
 appointed a committee for the purpose, and with instruc- 
 tions to communicate to you the result of our delibera- 
 tions on that subject so interesting to you and to us. We 
 refer to the subject which you know was under consider- 
 ation during your visit to New York. After due delib- 
 eration on the part of the deacons, trustees, and some 
 other brethren united with them, it was, with^ the 
 knowledge and consent of our beloved pastor, submitted 
 to the church. Previous to entering upon the discus- 
 sion of the subject, a special meeting for prayer was 
 appointed to be held, to ask wisdom and seek direction 
 from the Great Master of assemblies in an affair so 
 intimately connected with the peace and prosperity of 
 our Zion. On the appointed evening, the church met 
 with special reference to the proposition that had been 
 submitted to them, when, after a free conversation on 
 the subject, the following resolution was made and 
 seconded : 
 
 "Besolved, That elder Spencer H. Cone of Alexandria, 
 be invited to come and assist Brother Williams our 
 pastor, in the discharge of his pastoral duty for one 
 year. 
 
 " The question was taken by ballot, and there appeared 
 one hundred and eleven (111) ayes, and twenty (20) 
 nays. In discussing the subject, there was made the fullest 
 and strongest expression of love and attachment to our 
 present excellent minister, and also an tmanimous expres- 
 sion of esteem and regard for the brother it was proposed 
 
204 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CCNE. 
 
 to unite with him. We believe the sole ground of objec- 
 tion, to be a fear that Brother Williams might in some 
 way be injured. This fear originates, we are persuaded, 
 in personal attachment to him. 
 
 "Thus, clear brother, we have endeavored to give 
 you, in a few words, a history of our proceedings in this 
 business, which we submit for your consideration, ear- 
 nestly praying that the Lord may direct you to such a 
 decision, as shall result in His glory, and the advance- 
 ment of His kingdom in the world. 
 
 Thomas Purser. 
 
 E. Raymond. 
 
 William Colgate." 
 
 "Alexandria, February 4th, 1823. 
 
 "Beloved Brethren in Christ: Tour important and 
 deeply interesting epistle of January 29th was received in 
 due season, and as the subject upon which it treats has 
 been made familiar to my mind by frequent meditation 
 and prayer, I feel prepared to meet it with an imme- 
 diate answer. One feature obtrudes itself primarily into 
 notice — 20 nays! Are they known? are they persevering 
 and obstinate in disposition ? Will they oppose my min- 
 istry, and convert mole-hills into mountains continually ? 
 or are they to be fairly won by kindness and brotherly 
 affection ? Give me, I beg of you, such information upon 
 this point as will lead me fully into its merits ; for 
 whatever my judgment may determine, this point is, of 
 all others, most perplexing to my feelings. The Great 
 Head of the church, I humbly hope and trust, has 
 brought me to that state of feeling, and to that decision 
 of judgment, which dictates the following remarks : 
 
 " Frequent meditation and prayer, and watching of the 
 finger of divine Providence, resulted in the conclusion 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 205 
 
 that it was my duty to leave Alexandria. Not 
 knowing where my dear Master would have me go, 
 I visited two or three neighboring cities hoping that He 
 would open a door, and say to His poor disciple, " This 
 is the way — walk in it !" The door seemed to open in 
 New York, and I felt constrained to cry — ' Here am I, 
 Lord — send me.' God grant that my impressions may 
 never prove to have been the suggestions of the adver- 
 sary. Of all the plans submitted to my consideration, 
 that from the Oliver street church has the decided pre- 
 ference, and your letter contains but one unpleasant 
 feature, and that feature recpuires close inspection — 
 < Twenty JS T ays ! '" 
 
 "New York, February Uth, 1823. 
 
 "Deae Brother Cone : Tour esteemed favor of the 
 4th inst. came to hand by due course of mail, and would 
 have received a much earlier reply, had not two of the 
 committee been absent from town. Your impressions 
 that the 'linger of divine Providence' points to this 
 city as the place of your future residence, are not pecu- 
 liar to yourself; on the contrary may we not say that 
 the Macedonian cry, ' Come ove: and help us' — was 
 heard from almost every individual of our denomination. 
 But as to the precise spot where it would be most desi- 
 rable for you to fix your stand, it was not to be expected 
 there would be so unanimous a voice. 
 
 " We will answer your questions, as far as we are able, 
 with the frankness with which they are submitted. 
 ' Twenty nays. Who are they V they are members of 
 a Baptist church, not all personally known, as the ques- 
 tion was taken by ballot; but we believe all good 
 brethren, on whose heart the Gospel fairly preached 
 will tell, and who we hesitate not to believe, would be 
 1 fairly won by kindness and brotherly affection.' We 
 
206 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 cannot believe for a moment that they would ' oppose 
 your ministry,' nor do we recollect that, while the ques- 
 tion was before the church, there was a single observa- 
 tion made directly in opposition. On this point we 
 think that we have said enough to quiet your apprehen- 
 sions, especially as we have none. Brother William's 
 invariable reply to every inquirer has been — •' If the 
 church thinks proper to call him I have no objection — 
 I see no objection.' May you still enjoy, &c, &c. 
 " On behalf of the church. 
 
 Thomas Purser. 
 
 E. Raymond. 
 
 William Colgate." 
 
 "Alexandria, February 19tk, 1823. 
 
 " Very Dear Brethren : Tour letter of the 14th 
 instant was received yesterday, and has had a tendency 
 to relieve my mind materially from the embarrassments 
 under which it labored. That there should be a diver- 
 sity of sentiment among the Oliver street brethren, 
 upon the subject of my settlement in New York, is not 
 surprising ; it was distinctly anticipated. But before I 
 could give you a decisive and categorical reply to the 
 propositions contained in your favor of January 29th, it 
 was necessary for me to know whether that diversity 
 assumed such an aspect as threatened, seriously, to 
 interfere with my usefulness and comfort. It is con- 
 ceded to be a matter of moment that you should ' have 
 no apprehensions upon this point,' but it will also, per- 
 haps, be admitted, that satisfaction to the preacher's 
 mind is a boon worth seeking after. The 20 nays, how- 
 ever, are disposed of, and the Lord, I trust, will enable 
 us to see ' eye to eye,' should He ultimately call me 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 207 
 
 to labor in your city. You think the question in rela- 
 tion to times of preaching 'premature.' Experience 
 will demonstrate the sobriety of my judgment in this 
 particular. It is a general principle that ingenuous 
 preliminary explanation obviates many difficulties, and 
 prevents many heart-burnings in our intercourse with 
 our fellow-men. But if the whole business be submitted 
 by the church, to brother Williams and myself, and if he 
 be willing to share the responsibility of all pulpit 
 arrangements with me, I am willing to leave it there. I 
 wished to know whether brother "Williams has recently 
 expressed himself decisively and pointedly upon the 
 subject. In the frank and unreserved conversation had 
 with him when last in New York, my opinion was that 
 I had formed a correct estimate of his views and feel- 
 ings upon the subject; but I thought it wise to make a 
 direct appeal to the judgment of the committee, that 
 from their more extensive information, my opinion 
 might either be invalidated or confirmed. That object 
 is obtained." 
 
 The " call" of the church to accept the pastoral charge 
 conjointly with their old pastor was the answer to this 
 letter, and the reply was as follows : — 
 
 "Alexandria, March 3c?, 1823. 
 
 " "Well- beloved Brethren : Your favor of the 2-ith 
 ult. is before me, and that the Lord may crown the 
 step I am about to take is a consummation devoutly to 
 be wished. Enclosed you have my answer to the 
 Oliver street church, which you will present at such 
 time, and in such manner as you may think best. If 
 the Lord will, you may give notice for me to preach in 
 your place the third Lord's day of May. It would, I sup- 
 
208 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 pose, be practicable to come a week earlier, but having 
 acted for years upon two or three of the committees of 
 the Board of Missions, it is expected, and you will per- 
 haps think it right, that I should be present at the meet- 
 ing of the convention." 
 
 "Alexandria, March 3c?, 1823. 
 
 " To the church of Christ, meeting for public worship 
 in Oliver street, New York. Grace, mercy, and peace 
 from God the Father, and from our Dear Lord 
 
 Jesus : 
 
 " Dearly-beloved Brethren : Your call ' To come 
 and assist brother Williams, your pastor, in the dis- 
 charge of his pastoral duties, for one year" was com- 
 municated to me by the committee appointed for that 
 purpose. After mature deliberation, aided by the 
 counsel of Christian friends ; after discussing a number 
 of important preliminary considerations with your com- 
 mittee ; and after having obtained, as I do hope and 
 trust, the mind and will of God touching this matter, I 
 have been brought, at length, to the solemn and determi- 
 nate conclusion that duty demands my compliance with 
 your invitation. I will come, therefore, if the Lord will. 
 
 "In view of our anticipated relationship, it becomes 
 me to specify the leading tenets of that ministry which 
 I profess to have received of the Lord Jesus. It is then, 
 brethren, my aim and prayer, through grace divine, 
 inviolably to maintain, and faithfully and affectionately 
 to preach, the following doctrines — viz. : The unity of 
 God ; the existence of three equal persons in the God- 
 head : the just condemnation and total depravity of all 
 mankind by the fall of our first parents ; eternal, per- 
 sonal, and unconditional election ; the proper and essen- 
 tial deity of the Lord Jesus Christ ; the indispensable 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 209 
 
 necessity of His atonement and its special relationship 
 to the sins of His people; justification by the imputed 
 righteousness of Christ alone ; effectual calling by the 
 irresistible operation of the Holy Spirit; the persever- 
 ance of the saints; believers' baptism by immersion 
 only ; the Lord's Supper a privilege peculiar to baptized 
 believers regularly received into the fellowship of the 
 church ; the resurrection of the body ; the genera] 
 judgment; the everlasting happiness of the saints, and 
 the interminable misery of the finally impenitent ; the 
 obligation of every intelligent creature to love God 
 supremely, to believe what God says, and to practise 
 what God commands; and the divine inspiration of the 
 Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, as the infalli- 
 ble rule of faith and practice. 
 
 " It is my intention, by Divine permission, to take up 
 my abode in your city in the ensuing month of May, 
 and if it shall ultimately please the Great Head of the 
 Church to locate His unworthy servant among you, may 
 He enable us to look to Him and to Him only, for a 
 blessing upon our united efforts to advance His declara- 
 tive glory in the earth. 
 
 "With sentiments of unfeigned regard, and with 
 ardent prayers for your future prosperity, 1 remain 
 your brother in the everlasting bonds of the Gospel. 
 
 " Spencer H. Cone." 
 
 But- it is from the unreserved outpouring of his feel- 
 ings into the ear of that mother, upon whose wisdom 
 and affection he equally relied, that we are let in, as it 
 were, to the most secret places of his soul, and are made 
 witnesses of all the varying emotions of his heart. 
 There is no attempt at care; no studied phrasing; no 
 reserve in his letters to her. Indeed, he always wrote a 
 letter, no matter to whom or upon what subject, with 
 
210 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 marvellous rapidity. Just as the feeling dictated the 
 words flowed on. 
 
 While yet pressed by the New York brethren, and 
 uncertain whether their call was indeed of God, he 
 writes, January 13th, 1823, to his mother : " The recent 
 journey to New York has occasioned much agitation of 
 mind, and seems big with most momentous results with 
 reference to all my future life. It is not that my hope 
 or confidence in the Lord is shaken. No ! blessed be 
 His Holy name, I know in whom I have believed, and 
 am habitually persuaded that He is able to keep all I 
 have committed unto Him, till the day of Jesus Christ. 
 But I am depressed from a view of all the dangers, and 
 privations, and difficulties, which await me in my future 
 ministerial career. To part with the people of my 
 charge, if that should ultimately appear to be the path 
 of duty, cannot be anticipated without the most painful 
 emotions. To bid an earthly adieu to those Christian 
 friends whose fidelity and hearted attachment have been 
 proved in winter as well as in summer, and to shake 
 hands with those who acknowledged me their Father in 
 the Gospel, and leave them too, perhaps, without an 
 under shepherd to feed them with knowledge and 
 understanding. Alas! while contemplating that period, 
 I think I understand the words of Paul — ' What, mean 
 ye to weep and to break mine heart V And I am sure 
 I should faint at the prospect, if Grace had not enabled 
 me to say, ' I am willing not only to be bound, but to 
 die also at Jerusalem for the Lord Jesus.' I look for 
 no heaven on earth, but to preach a crucified Redeemer 
 to poor, perishing sinners. Stand by me and support 
 me, O thou Angel of the Covenant of Grace. Grant 
 me thy presence! restore to my soul the joys of thy 
 great salvation ! Uphold me by thy Free Spirit ; and 
 then can I look forward with cheerfulness and holy for- 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 211 
 
 titudo to a life of labor, and prayer, and trial, and 
 preaching, and daily watching for the recovery of pre- 
 cious souls. 
 
 " We have commenced a new year, and I liave 
 entered the eighth of my ministry. What a dull scholar. 
 I chide my heart for the little progress it has made in 
 the knowledge of its own depravity and deceitfulness ; 
 or of the excellency, sweetness, condescension and 
 preciousness of my dear Lord Jesus ! Oh, my Saviour, 
 work in me both to will and to do of Thine own good 
 pleasure. Fill me with the knowledge of Thyself, and 
 enable me continually and heartily to pray to Thee ! 
 preach for Thee ! and rejoice in Thee ! Amen ! Even so, 
 my sweet Lord Jesus ! I desire this day to be rilled 
 with gratitude to God, for the gift of His Son — the seal- 
 ing of His Spirit, and the consolations of His" Word ; and 
 I desire, moreover, to bless His holy name for such a 
 mother ! May my God bless you with all spiritual 
 blessings in heavenly things in Christ Jesus ! May He 
 reward all your prayers for me by pouring tenfold 
 blessings into your own bosom ! May He recompense 
 you abundantly, even in this life, for the great and 
 persevering affection you have borne to so unworthy a 
 son ! May your years be added unto, like Hezekiah's, 
 for the sake of your children ; and while it pleases God 
 to continue you upon His footstool, may you every day 
 be more and more spiritually minded, which is life and 
 peace, until at last the Master's voice is heard, saying: 
 ' Come up higher.' There, in the presence of our God 
 and of His Christ, may we meet to part no more ! 
 Forget not to pray for your son." 
 
 The decision was made, and the time approached for 
 him to leave Alexandria. To understand how deeply 
 his heart was moved by the necessity, the character of 
 his association with the people of his charge there must 
 
212 LIFE OF. SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 be considered. He had found them a little handful, 
 but the little one, by God's blessing, had become a 
 thousand. They were all his children in the Gospel. 
 He had drawn them in from all classes, and all denomi- 
 nations. The centre of their thoughts, and chief object 
 of their affections, he bore to them a relation more than 
 usually tender. A small place, and a Southern one, 
 the distractions, and dividing influences of a great city 
 did not interfere between the hearts of pastor and 
 people, and the warm, impulsive nature of the people 
 had in it nothing of the reticence of northern habits of 
 mind. They hung breathlessly upon his words when 
 he spoke ; they received him into their houses as one 
 who brings a blessing with him ; they surrounded him 
 like a family of loving children. His comfort, and hap- 
 piness, and his family's, were all the while uppermost in 
 their thoughts. Nothing was omitted, nothing thought 
 troublesome, which could be done for their good. In 
 the strong language of his letter to his mother, their 
 attachment was "hearted ;" and all his intercourse with 
 them was warmed with the sunshine of the heart. How 
 could he leave them? He must go. Not from choice, 
 not from desire. If God would let him, their country 
 would have been his country, and where they lived and 
 died he would have lived and died. But his Master 
 put the necessity upon him. He must break the 
 tenderest ties which had ever bound him to his fellow- 
 men. , He must forsake those who had been true in all 
 seasons. He must leave those who had received him 
 gladly as the messenger of the everlasting Gospel ; who 
 had taken him in their arms, and comforted him, and 
 strengthened him for his work. For seven happy years 
 that work of faith among them had been a labor of love. 
 God had blessed him abundantly amongst them. In 
 his public ministrations every effort was a happy season 
 
LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 213 
 
 of reunion with all his dear children, and in private life 
 every day brought a pleasant meeting with some 
 member of that united and confiding family. There is 
 nothing strained, therefore, h. the idea of sacrifice which 
 pervades his letters. To him the change was the worst 
 of sacrifices, a sacrifice of the heart. Sensitive in the 
 highest degree to affection, and the charms of friend- 
 ship, the habit of a daily interchange of their tokens 
 with a society which might be said to have been created 
 and formed entirely by himself, was one which could 
 not be broken without a rude shock to the tenderest 
 qualities of his nature. Small as the place was, com- 
 parativly speaking, it contained at that time a good deal 
 of wealth, and a society elegant and accomplished. 
 Not a few of those, attracted at first by the fame of his 
 eloquence to Baptist meetings, had been won by his 
 arguments to Baptist principles, had become the firm 
 supporters of the -cause, and exemplary Christians. 
 Everything, therefore, of a social character combined 
 to render a residence in the little city delightful. To 
 go away from it to New York, a far northern city, 
 amongst a people of different habits and feelings, and a 
 people of colder temperament, was to sacrifice tried 
 attachments for an unknown future. But the idea of 
 duty rose above every other consideration. The sign 
 was not to be mistaken. The answer to prayer had 
 been obtained. The finger of Providence pointed 
 northward. God put it upon him as a duty, and he 
 was ready even " to die at Jerusalem." 
 
 And so he told them they must part as pastor and 
 people ; perhaps part as friends who should see each other 
 no more in the flesh. No one attempted to change his 
 decision, or turn him back from the path he had deter- 
 mined to pursue. They knew that he had taken counsel 
 of God, and that flesh and blood might not prevent him 
 
214: LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 from pursuing what lie believed had been revealed as 
 the path of duty. Sorrowfully and with many tears, 
 but with unabated friendship and affection, they assisted 
 him in his preparations for removal. 
 
 When the day of separation came, they gathered 
 around him as the disciples at Cesarea did around Paul, 
 a weeping company. The night before, they came by 
 twos and threes to the house; well-nigh the whole 
 church was there, all indeed who were not hindered by 
 sickness. A sadder company, or a scene harder to be 
 borne by him around whom they gathered for the last 
 time, could hardly be. And early on the morning of 
 the next clay, a number of them, both men and women, 
 gathered around the stage-coach, weeping and bidding 
 farewell ; but mingling with their sorrow earnest aud 
 united prayer for his usefulness, his happiness, and his 
 success, in the new sphere of action whither he was called. 
 
 So, borne upon the prayers of hundreds of faithful 
 and loving hearts, he left the South, and came away to 
 the great city of New York. 
 
LIFE OF SPENCEK nOUGIITON CONE. 215 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 NEW YORK 1823. 
 
 On the 27 th of May, 1823, he announced his safe arri- 
 val in New York to his mother. " TVe arrived in safety 
 in this great city, the day we left Philadelphia, and 
 after ten days' bustle and turmoil, and visiting and Lay- 
 ing, begin to feel a little settled. The friends have been 
 extremely kind, and have spared no exertion to make 
 onr situation as comfortable as the nature of the case 
 would admit. It is not possible to say yet that we feel 
 at home, but there is I think, for myself a fair prospect 
 of usefulness and comfort, and Sally is much better satis- 
 fied than she anticipated. "We live in a very quiet and 
 retired part of the city." 
 
 There is a cheery tone about this announcement, 
 which shows pleasantly enough how he was disposed to 
 find good in everything. All the vexation, fatigue, and 
 turmoil of a change of residence, are absorbed in the 
 one idea of a prospect of usefulness. 
 
 The committee of the church had procured him a 
 house about half the size of the one he had occupied in 
 Alexandria ; but quite comfortable. The location was 
 not desirable on any other account, except as being at 
 no great distance from the meeting-house. The family, 
 on their arrival in ]STew York, consisted of the preacher 
 and his wife, two children, a young woman, an orphan, 
 a member of the church in Alexandria, who being 
 
216 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 homeless had found a shelter with them, and a colored 
 girl named Mary. The latter was the nurse of the 
 youngest child, and refusing to be separated from him, 
 had accompanied them to the North. Two children, 
 Maria Alice, and William Houghton, had been buried 
 by them in Virginia; Maria in 1818 and William in 
 1821. Mrs. Cone exerted herself diligently in her new 
 sphere to make everything go smoothly ; and although 
 placed in an unusual position, and forced to do many 
 things she had never been accustomed to, succeeded so 
 well that her husband never knew how much effort and 
 devotion it cost to prevent the petty annoyances of daily 
 existence coming to his knowledge, and interfering with 
 the grander business of his life. 
 
 And this was the beautiful and controlling trait in 
 her character as a wife. Her husband wrote upon 
 her tomb, the noble epitaph, "She was a brave and 
 decided Baptist." Twinned with her devotion as a 
 wife, was her sentiment of duty. The two were 
 never sundered. Her husband's God was her God. 
 The faith he followed was her faith. It was his to 
 ride forth, clad in the whole armor of God, to do 
 battle for the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. It was hers 
 to smooth his path, and encourage him to the strife. So 
 ■Ok.- kept from him everything that might worry or dis- 
 tract his mind, and had a ready smile and cheery word 
 for him always. Bound up and absorbed in his public 
 work, he had no eyes or thought for mere matters of 
 household life. In fact he was never heard to find fault 
 with anything in the house in his whole life, nor ask 
 why one thing was not done or set before him, instead 
 of another. Simple in his tastes and very easy to please, 
 it was only necessary to make him happy that others 
 should seem to be happy around him. And so that dear 
 wife, knowing him, as woman's love only can know, 
 
LIFE OF SPENCEB flOUGnTOX CONE. 217 
 
 Btndied hourly how she might keep all things at home 
 in subservience to the great business of his life, the 
 preaching of the Gospel and the advancement of the 
 kingdom. !N"o sound of the many-stringed instrument 
 of daily life, whose thousand wires have an echo for 
 every vagrant wind, was suffered to make a discord near 
 him. If it refused a harmony, it was silent — put away 
 out of sight and hearing. Thus, a house, or what was 
 in it beyond books and papers and happy faces, made 
 no part of his thoughts. The routine ran on with the 
 fidelity of a nice machinery. Breakfast was always on 
 the table between seven and half-past seven for him; 
 dinner came, as punctual as the hour, to one o'clock j 
 and tea marked half-past six with equal certainty. ISTo 
 matter what was doing or happening, the routine never 
 varied. At nine o'clock when at home, or as soon as 
 he returned, if engaged in public duties, the bell was 
 rung and all the household came together in the study 
 or parlor for family worship. After breakfast in the 
 morning — the same. The day begun and closed with 
 prayer. Either himself, or some member of the family, 
 read a chapter from the Bible aloud, and then, all 
 kneeling down, he offered up a prayer. And it was 
 there, in the privacy of his own household, that the 
 warmest, and most eloquent supplication or thanksgiving 
 was poured out by him. He always seemed to feel, at 
 those times, if we may say so, nearer to God than at any 
 other, and approaching Him with childlike confidence, 
 he sought direction, support, and comfort in all things, 
 only from Him. 
 
 Then the first thing to be done out doors was to go to 
 market. That achieved, his part of household-life was 
 finished. How the rest came about, or who did it, he 
 had no idea, and indeed no time to inquire of. 
 
 And part of his great success in the business of the 
 
 10 
 
218 LIFE OF SIENOER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 Denomination, as well as the happy uniformity of his 
 mental action in public speaking — a large part in fact — ■ 
 was unmistakably owing to the freedom of his mind 
 from all the petty cares of material life. lie was able 
 to devote his whole time and his whole mind to great 
 things, great thoughts, unfettered by the littleness of 
 domestic politics. " He has the Lord's work to do," was 
 the idea often expressed by the true help-mate God 
 blessed him with : "That is his business in the world; 
 and mine is to see that he is taken care of whilst he does 
 it" — and for more than forty years he was watched and 
 tended, so that he never knew what it was to be inter- 
 rupted, or distracted from his work by the ordinary 
 cares of home life. 
 
 The climate of the North proved too severe for the 
 poor colored girl who had accompanied the family to 
 New York, and during the first year of their residence 
 in their new home, she was attacked with disease of the 
 lungs. The disease refused to yield to medical treat- 
 ment, and hasty consumption set in. In addition to the 
 cares of the house, the sick girl had to be nursed by the 
 two women of the family, and if she had been child or 
 sister she could not have been more tenderly watched 
 over. On the 24th of May, 1824, the pastor writes to 
 his mother, " Mary still lies at the point of death, and 
 Sally and Nancy having employed no help in nursing her, 
 have had for six weeks past a most fatiguing time. The 
 physician entertains no hope of her recovery. She is 
 wasting daily away — no gleam of hope that she can be 
 restored to health again ; and, poor creature, she is 
 entirely ignorant of her awful situation, and will not be 
 convinced, either that death is at hand, or that she is 
 unprepared for the solemn event. She appears to be 
 entirely* destitute of the knowledge of Jesus, whom to 
 know is life eternal. But the will of the Lord must be 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 219 
 
 done. She seems struck with death. The doctor thinks 
 she will not survive another night. Sally is worn out 
 nursing-, and sitting up." 
 
 The fear of the physician was prophetic. She died 
 the next day. But the messenger of death was waiting 
 for a dearer victim. The mother, who had loved him so 
 fondly, and who had been, in return, little short of idol- 
 ized by him, was drawing near the close of a well-spent 
 Iife - The remote cause of her death was the injuries 
 received during a journey to the West. In 1817, Mrs. 
 Alice Cone paid a visit to her relatives in Maysville, 
 Kentucky, and spent the summer with them., Pier 
 mother, and her two brothers, Aaron and Joab Hough- 
 ton, had removed to Kentucky at her father's death, and 
 settled there. A number of the old inhabitants of Hun- 
 terdon County, New Jersey, most of them cousins once 
 or twice removed, or connections by marriage, of each 
 other, had accompanied them ; and whilst old Hopewell 
 and Princeton were still the scenes which recalled the 
 memories of her youth, most that remained of the old 
 familiar faces were to be seen about the newer settle- 
 ments of the West, and chiefly in the neighborhood of 
 Maysville. To the care of one of these relatives, Amos 
 Corwine, her son Spencer's letters are generally 
 directed. 
 
 After spending some time with her mother and broth- 
 ers, Mrs. Alice Cone set out on her return to Philadel- 
 phia. The old-fashioned stage-coach offered, as all 
 know, the only convenience of inland travel at that da v. 
 In crossing the mountains, a day or so's journey from 
 Maysville, the stage, in which she was, overset, and she 
 was seriously injured. Indeed, although she lived seven 
 years after it, she never recovered from the effects of the 
 injuries received, and they proved the remote cause of 
 her death. The slow transmission of news from the 
 
220 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 western tovns to the seaboard, at that time, left her son 
 for a week or two ignorant of the accident. But the 
 instant word came to him that his mother was lying at 
 Maysville ill and crashed, he took his horse and gig, 
 and drove nearly night and day to reach her. So soon 
 as she was able to be moved, he brought her home in 
 the gig, travelling across the mountains by the easiest 
 stages, and very slowly. It was the most comfortable 
 mode of land carriage known then, for the gig was one 
 of the old-fashioned ones, hung upon C springs, and as 
 easy as a carriage could be made. Mrs. Alice Cone's 
 life was saved ; the broken bones were set, and the 
 wounds healed, but her frame and constitution had 
 received a shock ruder than it was able to support. 
 After that, she seldom attempted to take the least exer- 
 cise, and usually laid, supported by pillows, on a settee. 
 Her daughters gathered around her, and nursed her 
 there; and whilst the others sewed, or attended to 
 necessary affairs, one always sat and read aloud to her. 
 Her daughter Amelia kindly furnishes us with the 
 following additional particulars. 
 
 "It was in June or August of 1818, I am not sure 
 which now, that my dear mother was returning from 
 Lexington, Kentucky. She had gone there to see her own 
 mother, and had spent a year with her and sister Cath- 
 arine. Brother Spencer lived then in Alexandria. Mrs. 
 Willard, a lady from the eastern States, was also on a visit 
 to Lexington, where she had accompanied her husband, 
 who was in very ill health, for the sake of a milder cli- 
 mate. Mr. Willard died in Lexington, hewever, and my 
 mother and Mrs. Willard left, in company, to return to 
 their several homes, she to New Haven, Connecticut, and 
 my mother to Philadelphia. They came, in the course 
 of their journey, to a place called Sideling Hill, which I 
 believe lies not more than twenty miles from Bedford 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 221 
 
 Springs. They were in an old-fashioned stage-coach. 
 At a very steep part of the hill, the stage coach was 
 overset, and the passengers tumbled with it down a 
 considerable descent. In the fall, mother's head was 
 dashed against the upright post, at one side of the coach- 
 door, with great violence. The fall, and the dreadful 
 weight which came upon her, nearly crushed her body, 
 which was very slight and weak, for she had already 
 been an invalid for several years. In addition to her 
 bruises, she received a wound quite six inches long upon 
 her forehead and head. She was carried, in a state of 
 insensibility, into the nearest house which could be 
 found. It was a wagoner's hut, a kind of stopping-place 
 and tavern for teamsters. There were but two rooms in 
 it ; one was a bar-room, and the other a room 
 used for sleeping, eating, cooking and all sorts of 
 purposes. Mrs. Willard remained with her, and 
 waited upon her, and nursed her night and day. She lay 
 in that wretched, gloomy place a long while. For nine 
 days her head continued to bleed more or less, so that 
 she was reduced in a pitiable manner. There was no 
 physician within eighteen miles of the place, and neither 
 comfort nor convenience to be had. The people of the 
 house, too, let them stay in it very grudgingly and unwil- 
 lingly — and they had not the consolation of sjmipathy 
 '-'and attention even in the rudest and homeliest way. 
 Mrs. AVillard wrote to brother Spencer as soon as she 
 could get means to do so, and with much difficulty had 
 the letter dispatched to Alexandria. Brother took his 
 horse and gig, and set out immediately in search of them. 
 " Mrs. Willard afterward gave us an account of the 
 meeting between the mother and her son. She said it 
 was the most touching scene she ever witnessed, and 
 that she never could forget the pathos of his simple words. 
 ' My mother ! my mother !' 
 
222 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 " After a while they got mother up, and pnt her in 
 the gig. Mrs. Willard sat beside her, and held her arms 
 around her, to save her a little from the shocks and jolt- 
 ing of a rough road. Brother tied his large silk-hand- 
 kerchief across in front of them, and made it so that she 
 could hold on by it, or lean against it and save herself 
 from falling forwards. And brother walked at the 
 horse's head and led him. The roads were rough and 
 muddy. In some places the mud was so deep as to be 
 almost impassable, and the horse could hardly drag 
 them through it. When they could find a house, for 
 the country was very thinly settled then, and the houses 
 scarce and far apart, they stopped and got what they, 
 could to eat and drink. And so dear brother brought 
 those two precious women to Joseph's house in Balti- 
 more ; walking himself at the horse's head, and many 
 times through mud almost kneed- eep, all the way from 
 near Bedford Springs in Kentucky to the city of Balti- 
 more. 
 
 " My dear mother was attacked awhile after with 
 partial paral} T sis. We watched her slowly sinking with 
 agonized hearts. Sister Catharine came from Lexing- 
 ton to see her before she died ; but poor Kitty died first 
 herself. Although mother was frequently attacked, she 
 would rally again and seem partially to recover. She 
 articulated with difficulty, but she never lost her mind, 
 which was a great joy to us. 
 
 " God in His goodness kept her with us thus until the 
 year 1824. She was always sensible and reasonable. 
 Martha and I were with her all the time night and day. 
 Once 1 remember seeing her look very sad and disheart- 
 ened, and I said ' Dear mother, what is the matter V 
 
 " ' Oh,' she replied, ' I am a great sinnei.' 
 
 "'Why, dear mother,' I said, 'I never see you 
 sin.' 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 223 
 
 " ' Ah,' she said, ' I know — I know what I am.' 
 " Shortly after that she had a dreadfully distressing 
 night, and about ten o'olock in the morning of the third 
 of June, she said, ' Lay me on the Led.' She had been 
 lying on the sofa. 'Lay me on the bed, and take the 
 pillows away. Give me some drink.' We hastened to 
 obey. Sister said, 'She is dying.' 
 
 " She heard lis cry. I was on one side of the bed, 
 and Martha at the other. She heard our sobs; she 
 turned her head, first to one side, and then to the other, 
 and said, smiling sweetly — ' What, crying for me, chil- 
 dren ! ' It was as if she had said, ' What, crying for 
 my happy release!' 
 
 " I remembered how sad she had been, and went to 
 the foot of the bed and looked in her face, and said, 
 ' Mother are you happy ?' 
 
 " She understood me. Her mind was clear even in 
 death. She said, 'Yes! yes !' Then she gazed upwards, 
 and seemed to be looking exultingly away into eternity; 
 gasped three times, but made no struggle, and her 
 blessed spirit was with her God." 
 
 And so, on the 3rd of June, 1824, she passed peace- 
 fully away to the better land, where there are neither 
 wounded bodies, nor wounded spirits. Out of a family 
 of four daughters and two sons, she had lived to see all 
 but one daughter converted men and women, and mem- 
 bers of the visible Church of Christ. She was a 
 preacher, and a daily example of righteousness to her 
 family ; and see how God blessed her preaching and her 
 life. He rewarded her even in this world, for He made 
 her household, a household of faith. And who can 
 
 paint, 
 
 ' Unless to mortal it were given 
 To dip the brush in <lves of Heaven," 
 
 her happiness in that other world, when standing with 
 
221 LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 them, in the presence of her Saviour, she could say, 
 "Behold, Lord, I, aud the children Thou hast given 
 me \" 
 
 On the 5th of June, 1824, her Spencer writes, " Dear 
 Sisters: Amelia's letter was received last evening; so 
 that I could not possibly reach Philadelphia until too 
 late, by a day, to accompany you in the sad procession. 
 The blow so long anticipated has fallen, and in the holy 
 and unerring providence of God, we are deprived of the 
 dearest — the best of mothers. It is true, that years ago 
 we did not expect the Lord would have lent her to us 
 until this period, and yet, even now, when he has taken 
 her to himself, it is hard to say, ' Thy will be done.' 
 But oh, what cause have we to bless the high and lofty 
 One, for His kind dealings towards our beloved mother ! 
 So much comfort of mind, and so little agony of body in 
 her last hours ; and then what consolation is afforded 
 us. We sorrow not as those who have no hope. Our 
 mother is gone to the precious Jesus. She has joined 
 the ransomed throng, to celebrate His praises in the 
 world of glory, and it is not wrong, I hope, to believe 
 that our dear sisters welcomed their mother to that 
 happy world, where sin and sorrow can never come. 
 Should we not then, instead of mourning, or repining, 
 or wishing it otherwise, bless the Lord, that after all the 
 pains, and trials, and sore afflictions, which she had to 
 pass through on earth, 
 
 He sweetly kissed her soul away, 
 And laid her flesh to rest. 
 
 "We have now one tie less to earth, and it has been a 
 mercy, and a great condescension to our weakness, that 
 the Master has been cutting that tie for years. May the 
 orphans' Father be with you and comfort you ! Our 
 mother is a glorified spirit in Heaven — released from 
 
LITE OF SrENCER HOEGHTON CONE. 225 
 
 her prison of clay, and escaped from the body of sin, 
 and of death, under which for man} 7 long years she 
 groaned being burdened. We ought not to weep for 
 her immoderately, or mourn after her, complainii.g of 
 her loss. Had our dear mother, after years of parental 
 tenderness and patience, and undeviating fidelity 
 towards her children, been snatched away without a 
 hope in Christ, oh, how should we have wept ! Our 
 mourning might have been like the grief of David, at 
 the untimely death of Absalom, but since the Lord has 
 given us abundant proof that he has taken her to that 
 happy country, where sin, and pain, and sorrow, never 
 come, oh, let us say, ' The Lord gave, and the Lord 
 hath taken away ! blessed be the name of the Lord !' " 
 
 The privilege of smoothing her pillow in her sickness; 
 of hearing her last words ; of catching the last look of love, 
 that deep, unalterable love, which had filled her heart 
 from the hour she first strained him to her bosom ; even 
 the mournful satisfaction of following her body of clay to 
 its long home, were denied him. The multiplied engage- 
 ments and anxieties of his new charge ; sickness in his 
 family, restricted means, and the difficulties of commun- 
 ication between New York and Philadelphia, kept him 
 from her. No apprehension of immediate danger, either, 
 had been entertained. Her sickness had weakened her so 
 gradually, the fire had burned out so slowly, that those 
 who were with her all the day long, had scarcely per- 
 ceived a change for the worse. An invalid for years, 
 the fear of her death had long given place to the anxi- 
 ety of her children, to console, and amuse the tedious 
 hours of inaction, and confinement to a sick-room. 
 But the Good Physician came at last, silently, and 
 unexpectedly, with the sweet opiate of death, and 
 as she fell asleep, took her away from the sick-room, 
 where Martha and Amelia nursed her, and carried her 
 
 10* 
 
226 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 to the Heavenly gardens, where Catharine and Eliza, 
 her happier children, were waiting to receive her. So 
 died Alice Cone, an enlightened and unwavering Bap- 
 tist; a worthy mother of a worthy son. 
 
 Wonderfully, hut in a simple and natural way, God 
 through her wrought in making him what he was. 
 Sorrows and trials, day by day and year by year, assayed 
 him, until a character originally strong and good was 
 refined in the furnace of affliction, and made as pure as 
 sinful man may be this side the grave. He had been 
 always giving, and so grew to wonder at and pity sordid 
 souls who were strangers to the blessed feeling that 
 touches the soul when generous emotions move it. 
 
 In the midst of all these domestic trials, God consoled 
 him by permitting him to see that his work was prosper- 
 ing in his hands. His preaching had great success. 
 Crowds flocked to Oliver street meeting-house, and from 
 a place known, comparatively speaking, only to its 
 members and co-religionists in the city, it became one 
 of the points of public attraction for citizens and 
 strangers of all denominations. Yet he made no effort ; 
 no display. No public notice was given of the exercises 
 except from his own pulpit. He conceded nothing to 
 the passion or prejudice of the day. His preaching was 
 plain, experimental, evangelical. The more the crowd 
 of strangers flocked to hear him, the plainer he grew, 
 divesting his style of everything like rhetorical ornament 
 and bending all the powers of his mind to tell them in 
 the plainest English, the story of the Cross. And that 
 was the wonderful charm. So when the young pastor, 
 standing, for the first years of his labors, in the great 
 city of New York, in the midst of a changing and 
 frivolous crowd of seekers after pleasure, money, 
 novelty, excitement — anything that promised variety 
 and new sensations — saw them throng around his pulpit 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 227 
 
 — like Paul among the Athenians, he preached, the 
 Saviour of sinners. His zeal and enthusiasm found vent 
 in no ornate diction; in no elaborate sentences; in no 
 nice autopsy of motive; in no magnificence of illustration, 
 display of erudition, or trick of rhetoric ; but it beamed 
 in his eyes; it gushed and quivered in his voice; it 
 echoed in terror the thunderings of Sinai ; it hung on 
 every tender solicitation ; it formed for itself every 
 graceful or majestic gesture; it burned and glittered 
 along every word that dropped like the molten gold — 
 it was true to nature, to man, to God ! It was the 
 glorious Gospel of the blessed God, preached with that 
 simplicity and singleness of heart, which is an inspira- 
 tion of His Spirit, and it had free course and was 
 glorified. 
 
 The glowing pen and warmer heart of Rev. Richard 
 Fuller of Baltimore, one of the most eloquent and 
 evangelical preachers in America, has recorded for us 
 how strongly these characteristics both of his manner 
 and his matter impressed themselves upon the minds 
 and hearts of those who heard him. "Writing to us, 
 January 22d, 1856, he says, "Nothing would be easier 
 than to compose an eulogium on one who was, for so 
 many years, ' a burning and a shining light ;' but all 
 who knew him must feel that studied encomiums, and 
 panegyrics, ought to have no place in a memoir of his 
 character and life. He never sought praise from men. 
 His entire conduct shows that, at the Cross of Jesus, 
 and on the altar of stern duty, he immolated everything 
 like a pas&ion for distinction. Pre-eminence he did 
 have; but I have known few men so pure from the 
 spirit of Diotrephes. 
 
 " When some one spoke of Garrick as a vain man, 
 Dr. Johnson said — ' No, sir, Garrick is not a vain man. 
 If I were as popular as Garrick is, I would, whenever I" 
 
228 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 walk out, hire half a dozen stout fellows to go before 
 me, with long poles, and knock down everybody in the 
 way. No, sir, Garrick is not a vain man.' 
 
 "Few ministers of the Gospel ever enjoyed such 
 popularity as your father's. It has been said that he 
 was ambitious, but who among those who bring this 
 charge could have borne such faculties and such 
 applause so unostentatiously? 
 
 " He was enriched with every gift which can win 
 golden opinions. His eloquence, his fire-souled glowing 
 piety, his commanding presence, caused crowds to hang 
 upon his lips whenever he preached. The world 
 admired him. The denomination delighted to honor 
 him. And yet, in all his course, it was manifest that 
 he sought only the honor which comes from God ; and 
 that, unshrinkingly faithful to his convictions, he was 
 always superior alike to censure and applause. 
 
 " When I became identified with the Baptists, I, of 
 course, heard much of Spencer H. Cone, especially of 
 his oratorical powers and accomplishments. Absorbed 
 with the simple glory of the Atonement, having just 
 come from the arena of forensic displays, into the 
 pulpit, I had then (I need not say I have now in an 
 intense degree), an abhorrence for those flowers, those 
 rhetorical flourishes, that ' excellency of man's speech 
 and wisdom,' which I had witnessed and heard extolled 
 in men called ' pulpit orators,' and which so tarnish and 
 degrade the real glory of the Gospel — the truth as it is 
 in Jesus. I met your father first in Richmond. He 
 was to preach the Convention sermon; and, as I found 
 ministers and people expecting great things, I feared I 
 might have again to endure pompous, and florid, and 
 frothy declamation I need not tell you how delightful 
 was my disappointment. His apj3earance — so simple 
 and earnest, his voice — so sweet and magnificent, his 
 
LIFE OF SrENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 229 
 
 vrhole discourse, in which there was utter self-oblivion, 
 and through every word of which there breathed and 
 burned such adoring love for Jesus — all this I remember 
 as if it had been yesterday, and all this bound my soul 
 to his. He sat with me, two days afterwards, when I 
 preached on Sunday morning ; and we left that Conven- 
 tion, feeling for each other affinities which Christians 
 only can know, and which eternity, I humbly trust, will 
 perfect and perpetuate. 
 
 ; ' I met him but twice again. "We were together at 
 the subsequent conventions in Baltimore and Kew 
 York. The more I knew him, the more did I admire 
 the sincerity, warmth, and purity of his character. 
 Splendid as was his eloquence, it was one of his inferior 
 endowments. Deep-toned piety, a consecration which 
 led him to regard himself as a perpetual sacrifice on the 
 great altar of the Redeemer's Kingdom, indefatigable 
 fidelity to duty, a moral courage which never quailed 
 before opposition or danger, a heart true, tender, and 
 most affectionate, above all, a glorious loyalty to Christ 
 and His cause — these seemed to me the great things in 
 this great and good man. These Christian graces were 
 admired by all who knew your noble father. 
 
 " It will be no easy matter to fill the sphere he has 
 vacated, but God can raise up those who will stand in 
 his place. Of course I do not believe in a transmitted 
 piety, but such men cease not to live on earth, though 
 they die. Though dead they speak, speak with deeper 
 emphasis because dead. The grave does not impair, it 
 consecrates their power ; such examples are not given 
 us to be forgotten. At home his memory must be 
 fragrant of all tender, and generous, and holy influences." 
 
 It is a subject of much regret that scarcely a record 
 of his sermons exists. Delivered wholly extempora- 
 neously, and without even what are called head-notes, 
 
230 LIFE OF SPENCEE HOUGHTON ONE. 
 
 they live only in the memory of those who heard 
 them. 
 
 The great and decisive reason for his leaving Alexandria, 
 and settling in New York, had been to secure the means 
 and opportunity for more strenuous and effectual effort in 
 the canse of missions and the Bible. His first acquaint- 
 ance with New York impressed him with the idea that 
 it was the business centre of the Union, and as such, 
 imperatively demanded to be operated in as the business 
 centre, also, of those benevolent efforts, to carry out 
 which to successful results large pecuniary means are 
 necessary. The Southern brethren were warm-hearted, 
 generous, and zealous for the faith, but too much scattered, 
 few of the churches wealthy, and none of the Southern 
 cities capable of offering the advantages of concentration, 
 and rapid communication with the whole world. And 
 already his mind had adopted the idea he afterwards 
 bore as the motto on his shield. " The field is the 
 world." New York alone, of all the cities of the Western 
 World, combined in it all the capabilities for extensive 
 action in benevolent effort. Endowed by nature with 
 many of the qualities of a general, he recognized the 
 necessity of assuming the best geographical position, and 
 the one commanding the approaches to the object of 
 attack. 
 
 It was his conviction that the system of Baptist doc- 
 trine and church government was the only pure and 
 scriptural form of faith and practice ; that from its fea- 
 tures of independency, the pure and simple democracy 
 developed in its whole plan of religious association — it was 
 peculiarly adapted to the genius of the United States 
 of America, and needed only to go boldly forward, and 
 to rely on God for a success far greater than it had ever 
 yet achieved. To reach this point of moral power and 
 grandeur, unity of effort must be secured — not by sacri- 
 
LITE OF SrEXCER HOUGHTON COM . 231 
 
 ficing a grain of the independence of the churches — but 
 by operating on the heads and hearts of their members, 
 that they might see eye to eye, and comprehending the 
 vast importance of common effort, in the common cause of 
 man's salvation, move forward shoulder to shoulder, like 
 an army with banners — a great host united in aim, 
 and hope, and effort. This was not a work to be accom- 
 plished in a year, or ten years. It was the work of a 
 lifetime; and one to which all the powers of body and 
 mind must be bent without relaxation. The hand that 
 was put to such a plough must never grow weary ; nor 
 the laborer dare ever to look back and sigh over the 
 lengthening furrow. It was also a slow and toilsome 
 work, and had many obstacles to encounter. The spirit 
 of missions was far from universal. Many churches 
 were wholly without it. Many good Baptist preachers 
 were so straight in the faith as to lean backward a little, 
 and doubt even whether it were their duty to preach to 
 sinners. The first association of churches with which he 
 was connected, in Maryland and the District of Columbia, 
 was decidedly anti-mission. 
 
 A system, therefore, was to be devised — prejudices 
 overcome — unity of effort secured — resources created — 
 a plan pursued, by which the force, and moral as 
 well as pecuniary resources of Baptists in the United 
 States, as a denomination brought to bear upon the 
 world, at home and abroad. There was, it is true, much 
 and valuable material to work with ; many churches 
 were engaged warmly in the cause of missions. Many 
 thousand Baptists were filled with the spirit of Christian 
 benevolence, and comprehended the advantages of 
 united effort ; but the denomination, although numbering 
 its millions of adherents in the United States, had not 
 yet begun to exert a force, or command an influence 
 upon public opinion, commensurate with its numbers and 
 
232 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 the intrinsic value of its principles. To bring about a 
 state of affairs in which it should do so, was the consist- 
 ent effort of his religious life. Writing to Dr. Bolles in 
 March, 1828, he says, " The time for more vigorous action 
 and benevolence, than has hitherto characterized our 
 denominational career, has indeed come. * * * When 
 I look over the map of the world, then read the 
 Saviour's command — ' Preach the Gospel to every crea- 
 ture — and then think of the number and wealth of 
 American Baptists, L am constrained to say we have 
 done nothing ! nothing, compared with what we ought 
 to have done. * * * What cannot be accomplished in 
 one day, must be attempted in another. Each little 
 fountain must be induced to send forth its rill, and each 
 rill carefully conducted to the general reservoir, and 
 then with God's gracious aid we can and must do. 'The 
 time is short.' Who dare stand idle all the day?" 
 
 This controlling thought of the shortness of the time 
 and the vastness of the work to be accomplished, forbad 
 him ever to be idle. 
 
 Let the present position of Baptists in the United States, 
 clearly occupying no mean place in the van of the Chris- 
 tian army, in all benevolent effort and successfully prosecu- 
 ting the most extensive enterprises for the evangelization 
 of the world, attest the value of his services, and the wis- 
 dom of his combinations. For more than thirty years 
 second to none in the influence he exercised over the 
 denomination, he labored to perfect all the details of 
 the system, the workings of which have had such honora- 
 ble and beneficial results. 
 
 It is remarkable, that whilst meditating such 
 
 extensive designs, and en^asred in such constant execu- 
 te ' o o 
 
 tive labor, he never neglected, or subordinated to any- 
 thing, however great or far-reaching, his business and 
 duty as the pastor of a church. He not only preached 
 
LITE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 233 
 
 constantly, but often almost daily to his flock, and like a 
 true shepherd, was acquainted with the state and charac- 
 ter of all who composed it. He was their companion, 
 adviser, and friend. It was a part of that true system lie 
 aimed to develop in every quarter of the globe. Every 
 Missionary, Sunday-school, Tract, Education, and Bible 
 Society, was, in his eyes, only a means for founding inde- 
 pendent and happy churches. They were the seed to be 
 sown, and watered with care, looking to God for the 
 increase. The further that seed could be scattered, the 
 wider it could be sown, the better. But as the ultimate 
 object was the founding of happy churches, churches 
 built up in their most holy faith, after the primitive and 
 apostolic model, the corner-stone, the foundation of the 
 great building, must be happy, united, faithful, and 
 and faithfully ministered to churches at home. There- 
 fore, he watched with a jealous and sleepless care, the 
 state and character of his own particular charge, and went 
 in and out before them daily, to minister the Word of 
 
 life. 
 
 The germ of associated effort already existed in 1813. 
 Judson^ Cary, and Bice, had written to Drs. Baldwin, 
 Staughton, and others, urging the formation of a Baptist 
 Missfonary Society, and the result of their urgent solici- 
 tations was the formation of the " Baptist Society for 
 propagating the Gospel in India, and other foreign 
 
 parts." 
 
 On the 18th of May, in the following year, a meeting 
 of pastors of Baptist churches from various parts of the 
 Union, assembled in Philadelphia. Their purpose, as 
 appears by their minutes, was "To organize a plan for 
 eliciting^ combining, and directing the energies of the 
 whole denomination in one sacred effort, for sending the 
 glad-tidino-s of salvation to the heathen, and nations 
 destitute of pure Gospel light." This meeting resulted 
 
234 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 in the organization of the Baptist Triennial Convention 
 in 1814; a body which continued to grow in weight and 
 importance, and the labors of which were singularly 
 blessed for many subsequent years. 
 
 Mr. Cone was not a member of the body at its organ- 
 ization, but in 1817, almost at the very outset of his 
 career as a preacher, he was elected a member of the 
 Board of Managers, and from that day until his death, 
 he held some important office in the institution. 
 
 He seized eagerly upon this opening ; he recognized 
 the power and beauty of the plan which might be car- 
 ried out, and devoted his best energies to its accomplish- 
 ment. 
 
 In less than two years after his coming to Oliver 
 street, by his preaching, and conversation in pastoral 
 visits, he excited the attention and enlisted the sympa- 
 thies of a majority of the church in the cause of missions, 
 as he had previously done in Alexandria. The effect 
 was very soon apparent, and on the 17th of October, 
 1825, the Oliver street Baptist Foreign Mission 
 Society was regularly organized by the adoption of a 
 constitution, and the election of Thomas Garniss, presi- 
 dent, Leonard Bleecker, vice; Spencer II. Cone, secre- 
 tary, and Joshua Gilbert, treasurer. Into what the 
 society grew, and the extent of the contributions of that 
 church, under the influence of his ministry, to the 
 benevolent efforts of the denomination, history has 
 already recorded. It is perfectly fair to say that he 
 raised during his ministry, and by his direct appeals to 
 the hearts and consciences of Baptists, and by his 
 unwearied exertions, more money for the cause of mis- 
 sions, education, Bibles, and every other form of benev- 
 olent effort, than any other pastor in the denomination. 
 
LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 235 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 1823 to 1830. 
 
 In 1824, lie republished " The history of the Christian 
 church, from the birth of Christ to the 18th century, 
 including a very interesting account of the Waldenses 
 and Albigenses, by William Jones of London — author 
 of the Biblical Cyclopedia, etc." The enterprise was an 
 unfortunate one. Rich in historical research as it was, 
 and dear as it must ever be to Baptists from its clear 
 and able vindication of the character of their churches in 
 France and Piedmont, the sale failed to pay the 
 expenses of the publication. Several causes concurred 
 in this unhappy result. The work was issued in two 
 volumes at the price of five dollars. It no sooner 
 threatened to become popular and saleable, than cheap 
 editions were issued, and the market entirely forestalled. 
 Thus the book remained dead upon his hands, and the 
 expenses of publication involved him for many years in 
 pecuniary embarrassments, which straitened his means 
 painfully, and filled his mind with constant and haras- 
 ing anxiety. He was as constantly consoled, however, 
 by the idea that, although he suffered, others reaped 
 good fruit, and the work of the Lord was magnified; 
 since the cheap editions, which destroyed his chances of 
 remuneration as an editor and publisher, disseminated, 
 even more widely than he could have hoped to do, a cor- 
 rect history of the denomination, and spread their story 
 who 
 
236 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 "Kept the faith so pure of old, 
 When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones ; 
 Who were God's sheep, and in their ancient fold 
 Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, that rolled 
 Mother with infant down the rocks." 
 
 Disappointment, however, never long oppressed his 
 elastic spirit. He strove very earnestly to do every- 
 thing with an eye single to the glory of God ; and 
 having done his best manfully and prayerfully, he left 
 all the result with God. All, every part and particle he 
 left there. He was accustomed to say, that all that was 
 given us to keep or work with, was to he used after the 
 best wisdom of this world, and the best light Heaven 
 would give its in answer to humble and hopeful prayer; 
 but the future, God alone knew it, and with Him it was 
 safe. It was a happiness with him, to have a trust in 
 God which never wavered. He could never be pushed, 
 by any circumstance of misfortune or disappointment, to 
 take a gloomy or doubting view of the future. " Chil- 
 dren," he would say, " I know in whom I have believed, 
 and He is able to keep all that I have committed to 
 Him ; and if I have kept anything back from Him, 
 I pray for pardon ; I pray that it may be taken from me. 
 I own nothing ; I am nothing, only as my Lord and 
 Master condescends to use me. He will help me to do 
 all the work He has for me to do in this world, and when 
 that is done, He will take me home. 1 ' Often his own 
 family, with pardonable affection for himself, wished 
 him a little of that worldly wisdom, the principal 
 ingredient of which is selfishness, but he could never 
 learn it. When a great object was to be compassed, he 
 was wonderfully astute, and seemed to "Know all qual- 
 ities of human dealings," and human being-!, " with a 
 learned spirit;" hardly ever failing, almost at a glance, 
 to take in the character or calibre of any man, great or 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 237 
 
 small, with whom he had to do. But in any matter of 
 mere personal concern, he was as innocent and unsus- 
 pecting as a child. He never believed any one meant 
 to wrong, or hurt him, until the conviction was forced 
 upon his mind by some act, or series of acts, not to 
 be explained on any kind or generous hypothesis. And 
 if you could show him that all the world was against 
 him, and eager to do its worst, it never disturbed the 
 serenity* of his confidence in God's protection. To 
 matters of worldly concern he could seldom be aroused. 
 He disliked thinking of them. They interfered with 
 better thoughts. And when driven for a moment to 
 consider them, he always broke away with the exclam- 
 ation, " Ah, well, Providence knows better what we 
 need than we do ourselves. Providence will take care 
 of us all. We'll leave it there." And in a second 
 he would forget all about it, no matter how grave, and 
 go away into his. own region of plans and purposes for 
 sending out missionaries, or making Bibles. 
 
 He was simply the most enviable man of his time, for 
 no man or circumstance could ever keep him long 
 enough thinking of himself to grow a whit discontented. 
 " Heart within, and God o'erhead," was his principle ; 
 and always to be doing something in his Master's work, 
 his habit. There he found an instant refuge and shelter 
 from every storm of fortune. 
 
 Much of this character of mind resulted from his 
 experience in his mother's family. The gracious Provi- 
 dence which had fed them in time of great dearth, and 
 raised up good friends in strange places ; and then had 
 gathered them all, as it were, into a little household 
 church of one faith, where the interchange of fraternal 
 and filial affection was hallowed by the presence among 
 them of their elder Brother and Saviour, put away a 
 
238 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 worldly temper of the mind, and fostered a heavenly 
 one. 
 
 So, writing to his dear sisters after their mother had 
 gone away to the better hind, he says — " Our family 
 has been highly favored of the Lord, and for those who 
 have gone before, we are permitted to say with Paul, 
 ' "We sorrow not as those who have no hope.' We have 
 reason to believe that they have gone to that land of 
 promise, where parting is no more, and where "sin and 
 misery shall never for a moment be permitted to intrude. 
 To enter that land will be happiness enough for men of 
 mortal mould, under any circumstances; but there is 
 unquestionably, while we are here, great comfort in con- 
 templating the religion of Christ as a family concern; 
 in looking upon parents, and brothers, and sisters, in the 
 flesh, ' as heirs together of the grace of life.' When 
 those who are thus bound together by the ties of nature 
 are also lovers of our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and 
 truth, it gives to friendship its holiest feature, its tender- 
 est chord, its most permanent character. If this world. 
 be indeed a wilderness, without friendship — if an 
 infidel philosopher could say, 'Banish me where you 
 please, only let my friend go with me, and I'm content — -' 
 oh, how unspeakably glorious that flame of heavenly 
 love which leads us, like favored John, to recline our 
 heads upon the bosom of that Friend who sticketh closer 
 than a brother— which imparts to us one common salva- 
 tion — directs us to the same altar— animates us with the 
 same prospects, and makes us, even on earth, helpers of 
 each other's faith, and hope, and peace, and joy. 
 
 " ' Oh, for this love, let rocks and hills, 
 Their lasting silence break ; 
 Ami all harmonious human tongues, 
 The Saviour's praises speak 1' 
 
LIFE OF : HOUGHTON CONE. 239 
 
 "There is, perhaps, no point in this world when 
 family religion affords such soul-thrilling consolation, 
 as when death is approaching. The separation of 
 beloved friends will be painful, it is true — tears will 
 flow. At the grave of Lazarus, 'Jesus wept.' But 
 these tears are soon wiped away with the reflection — ■ 
 ' the y are not dead, but gone before! We shall soon 
 meet again, where there is no death, and where not an 
 inhabitant shall ever say, ' I am sick.' 
 
 " ' The Christian's soul death cannot reach, 
 Nor rend from Christ away ; 
 Though o'er the mouldering dust it boasts 
 The triumph of a day!' 
 
 " But are we called to part without a hope in Christ? 
 Oh ! what dying looks ! they seem to say — farewell 
 forever! We must not meet again! From such a 
 family scene, O Lord, preserve us ever. 
 
 "We have entered upon a new year (1827), and it ia 
 the fashion here to say, 'many happy returns of it." 
 Our years whether few or many, if they be only spent 
 in the service of the best of Masters,we may bid them 
 speed their flight. 
 
 "'By day, by night, at home, abroad, 
 Still we are guarded by our God ; 
 The opening year his mercy shows, 
 May mercy crown it till it close.' " 
 
 About this time he also published a small work called 
 the "Backslider." The sale, we believe, very nearly 
 covered the cost of the production. 
 
 After his settlement in Oliver street, Mr. Williams's 
 health and strength continued gradually failing, and on 
 the 22d of May, 1825, he was gathered home. Among 
 
24:0 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 Mr. Cone's papers we find a slip containing the follow- 
 ing memoranda : 
 
 " John Williams born at Plasllecheiddior, a farm 
 which had for many generations been the homestead of 
 lii's family, Carnarvonshire, North Wales. Early exer- 
 cised about divine things. In the 19th year of his age 
 made public profession among the Independents, and 
 joined the church under the pastoral care of Dr. Lewis, of 
 whose ministry he always spoke in terms of the highest 
 commendation. His mind soon troubled concerning 
 Baptism ; 1 Cor. xv. 29 staggered him. Dr. Lewis con- 
 fessed it had some reference to burial and resurrection. 
 All this resulted in his being baptized, in the 21st year 
 of his age, and uniting with the Baptist church of 
 Horeb, Carnarvonshire. This church, consisting of one 
 hundred and forty members, called him to take charge 
 of them. He consented, and travelled and collected 
 enough to build two meeting-houses for the church. 
 July 25th, 1795, landed in New York. Preached in 
 Welch about one year. Afterwards part in Welch and 
 part in English. 
 
 " April, 1797 — visited Pennsylvania. 
 
 " August 28th, 1798. At their unanimous request, 
 became a member, and accepted pastoral care of the 
 church in Fayette street, now Oliver street, having pre- 
 viously preached nine months on trial. 
 
 " Thirty names on church-book. Ten had removed — 
 only twenty living in New York. Meeting-house 
 thirty feet square — benches — no galleries. 
 
 "January, 1799— pews substituted and gallery raised. 
 
 " August 4th. Thomas Hewitt baptized. 
 
 " October 29th. John Cauldwell and wife received. 
 
 " 1800. Meeting-house enlarged to 60 by 43 feet. 
 
 " 1801. June 1st, John Withington and wife received. 
 
 " 1819. Meeting-house rebuilt, 64 by 94 feet. 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. ?AX 
 
 « Proper t number of members (182-) 580. 
 " Baptized near 600." 
 
 The same paper contains also the following heads of 
 the funeral discourse preached by him at Mr. William's 
 death. We copy it, as it appeals to have been the only 
 occasion upon which he deviated from his usual prac- 
 tice of carrying his notes in his head, and put a skeleton 
 upon paper. The paper, we believe, was not carried 
 into the pn'pit. He was evidently impressed with it 
 as being a momentous epoch in his experience as a 
 preacher. 
 
 "' Faithful servant depart in peace. Lord now lettest 
 Thou.'— Luke ii. 29. 
 
 "Occasion of the discourse. — The death of Elder Jno. 
 Williams. Opposed to funeral discourses generally — 
 this a proper exception. Promise to Simeon fulfilled. 
 ' Lettest Thou.' A prayer expressing great desire to 
 be with Christ, or ' Thou lettest.' God is faithful to 
 His Word. My work is done. I have seen Thy salvation. 
 Thou dost release me from earth according to thy Word. 
 
 "Division of discourse. — 1. Character of a servant. 2. 
 Privilege of a servant. 
 
 " All by nature servants of sin : by Grace made serv- 
 ants of Christ. 
 
 "1. Bought with a price. 2. Clothed upon with his 
 righteousness, 3. Reconciled to His service. 4. Fed by 
 His bread. 5. Obedient to His law. 6. Do His work. 
 A faithful servant. An humble servant. An affection- 
 ate servant. A successful servant. 
 
 " Privileges: — 
 
 " 1. To be at peace with God. 2. To preach peace 
 through Christ. 3. To make peace in Zion. 4. To 
 enjoy peace of soul. 5. To depart in peace !" 
 
 From the day of his settlement in New York, he 
 11 
 
24:2 LIFE CF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 entered with increasing zeal upon a scene of varied and 
 multiplied duties, which nothing but a remarkable 
 physical constitution, and the best habits of business 
 regularity and order, could enable a single man to 
 accomplish. Seizing the laboring oar in every benevo- 
 lent society, with which he became connected, and few 
 were absent from his list, he put all his strength to it, 
 and pulled with equal alacrity, in storm and sunshine, 
 whether upon a summer sea, or when the waves ran 
 mountain high. He never seemed to feel fatigued, or 
 desirous of an hour's rest. Idleness was impossible. He 
 rarely sat down, even in the house. He conned over 
 and arranged in his mind, sermon, lecture, or address, 
 as he walked along the street, turning it over and over 
 with himself, sometimes mentally, sometimes half audi- 
 bly, unconscious of where he was, and totally abstracted 
 from all that was going on about him. Thus he was 
 never unprepared, and no emergency could take him at 
 a disadvantage. Knowledge drawn from books, obser- 
 vation, conversation, principles, objects, were all clearly 
 defined and laid down in his mind as in a book, and the 
 moment the occasion demanded it, he simply rose and 
 read, as it were, a chapter long digested and arranged. 
 Circumstances of public excitement merely warmed his 
 mind to a poetic coloring, and added strength of expres- 
 sion. Facts, dates, anecdote, principles were all set in 
 order and ready beforehand. The certainty and useful- 
 ness of this system of mental training will appear, from 
 a little sketch of his advice to young preachers with 
 which we have been favored, and which will form the 
 subject of another chapter. About this time the Lord 
 had in store for him an additional trial. His only 
 brother Joseph fell ill. The malady which had already 
 made such havoc in the family, appeared to have 
 selected, in him, another victim. 
 
LITE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 243 
 
 JVov. roth, 1830—Mr. Cone writes to their sister, 
 | I wrote to Joseph by Brother Gray. An hour a*o I 
 had the comfort o: conversing with Brother Wifson 
 who saw him on Wednesday eyeuin*. He tells me that 
 the physicians entertaiD hut little hope of his recovery 
 but Brother A\ ilson thinks he is by no means so low as 
 he was himself last spring; and is under the impression 
 that ; a trip to the South might he greatly beneficial. 
 brother Wilson expects to leave here about the 10th of 
 December, and wishes Joseph to accompany him 
 
 ^ It is very difficult for me to leave home. Every dav 
 tongs with it a press of business, from which I can only 
 retire when necessity compels. I hope Joseph may b- 
 spared a little longer, if it be the Master's will, and' if a 
 journey to the South be deemed advisable I will 
 endeavor to make a way for the experiment. May the 
 Lord prepare us for what may yet await us in Provi- 
 dence. Our way has already been somewhat rough to 
 our feet, and it is more than probable that additional 
 troubles will be necessary to wean- us from earth. Mav 
 we hnd it good to be afflicted." 
 
 Joseph was his only brother, and much younger than 
 himself. He had given him a sterling education, and 
 had intended to fit him for some one of the learned 
 professions ; but an early passion for art frustrated the 
 design. 
 
 His taste for art turned his mind towards engravine 
 as the readiest means of at once satisfying a passion, and 
 earning a living. It was found useless to oppose him 
 and he became an engraver. He settled in Baltimore 
 after he entered upon his profession, and married there 
 Miss Mary Ann Diffendaffer. Two sons and four 
 daughters were the fruit of their union. 
 
 He was happily converted, and joined the Baptist 
 church in Philadelphia before his brothei Spencer. The 
 
244 LIFE OF SPENCEE HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 brothers possessed a good deal of similarity. His man- 
 ners were mild and pleasing, and his general reading 
 and information large and elegant His gentle disposi- 
 tion, and quiet humor made him a delightful companion, 
 and much sought after in society. Some time after his 
 settlement in Baltimore the church licensed him to 
 preach, and his talents as a public speaker were of a 
 high order. His brother's greatness in that way, how- 
 ever, always acted as a check upon him, and indisposed 
 him to frequent effort. He referred his holding back to 
 a thousand causes, and persuaded himself that they were 
 a sufficient excuse, but it was evident that dissatisfaction 
 with his own efforts was the real reason. Endowed with 
 a mind essentially artistic, he admired his brother's 
 larger capacities enthusiastically, and by comparison cri- 
 ticised his own too closely. He often told a pleasant 
 anecdote of his experience as a preacher in Virginia. 
 Making a tour through that State, for the sake of 
 his health, which had been threatened by serious 
 dyspeptic symptoms, the result of too close application 
 to the graver, he went armed with letters of introduc- 
 tion from his brother to the principal people of the 
 denomination. He announced his name, and was received 
 with open arms. Presented his letters — they were read, 
 and the recipients grasping his hand with more than com- 
 mon warmth of hospitality, as if to make up for their 
 words, usually said — "Mr. Joseph Cone, we're very 
 glad to see you amongst us ; but we wish it had been 
 Spencer !" — Joseph's eyes would twinkle with fun as he 
 told it, and he vowed Spencer should never write him 
 another set of introductory letters. 
 
 Joseph Cone spent the winter of 1S29 in South Caro 
 lina. Writing from Charleston, he says, " Brother 
 Manly urges me strongly to give myself wholly to the 
 ministry, and be in Charleston the second Lord's-day 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 215 
 
 in December, when the State Convention will be held, 
 and when I shall probably be directed at once into some 
 interesting field of labor. Among other destitute 
 churches, he mentions that of Columbia. Weak as I am, 
 the Lord still holds me up to do a hard day's work. As 
 a preacher of the Gospel I do not at present feel it my 
 duty to go to one place more than another. The only 
 question, therefore, that requires an answer is this : Does 
 my health demand a change of climate ? Were my 
 desires to promote the Redeemer's kingdom among men 
 (alas ! how faint and few), much stronger and more fre- 
 quent than they are, I should doubtless, whTe confined 
 to secular affairs, feel more unhappy than I do. But I 
 am yet far from being convinced that I would be justi- 
 fied in entirely abandoning them. I beg you, however, 
 to try and submit the case to your own judgment — apart 
 from what appear to be my convictions of duty. If you 
 say go, I'll go willingly and cheerfully, in the humble 
 hope that the presence of the Lord will go with me, and 
 that I shall find, by happy experience, that 'He giveth 
 power to the faint, and to them that have no might He 
 increaseth strength.' " 
 
 Providence, however, had appointed him an early 
 release from the cares of earth. He never had an oppor- 
 tunity of dedicating himself wholly to the preaching of 
 the Gospel. His health grew very rapidly feebler; and 
 in the latter part of 1830, he sailed from New York to St. 
 Augustine, to try the possible benefit of that mild and 
 salubrious climate. He was accompanied by James 
 Wilson, one of the deacons of Oliver street church, 
 whose kind and constant care consoled him to the last. 
 The disease was not to be stayed ; it had struck home, 
 and he expired on the 4th of January, 1831. His last 
 hours were happy and peaceful. He went home full 
 
246 LITE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 of joy at his release from pain ; and his dust mingles 
 with its kindred dust in the city of St. Augustine. 
 
 His loss was a severe one to his brother ; an irrepa- 
 rable one to his family. In the mysterious providence 
 of God, he was taken away at the very moment when a 
 sense of duty had conquered his natural disinclination 
 to public life, and he had resolved to dedicate his talents 
 wholly to the ministry, for which they so eminently 
 qualified him. 
 
LITE Or BPENCER HOEGIITON CONE. 247 
 
 CHAPTEK XIV. 
 
 1830 to 1841. 
 
 Tiie character and influence of the " Baptist General 
 Convention of the United States " is a matter of history. 
 It was the first General Congress or representative 
 body of the denomination in America, both in point of 
 organization and influence. It gave form and shape to 
 the efforts of the whole denomination at home and 
 abroad, and from the period of its inception in 1814, to 
 its dissolution in 1845, exercised a powerful influence 
 for good, in connection with every benevolent enterprise 
 which appealed to the principles and sympathies of 
 Baptists. 
 
 Mr. Cone was elected a member of its board of 
 managers, at its second session in 1817, and both in its 
 deliberations, and executive action, continued to take a 
 leading and active part as long as it existed. In the 
 interim between the Triennial sessions of the parent 
 body, an executive Board conducted its business. 
 That Board not being located where Mr. Cone resided, 
 he communicated to them his views, principally, by 
 letter. After the separation in 1845, a Missionary Con- 
 vention was formed at the South, and a Missionary 
 Union at the North. Mr. Cone's location in New York, 
 made it in his opinion necessary and wise that he should 
 continue to act with the Northern organization. Through 
 the kindness of Dr. Stow, we have been favored w r ith 
 the file of his letters to the acting Board at Boston, 
 from 1827 to 1849. 
 
24:8 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 In 1832 he was elected president of the Convention, 
 and continued to be re-elected until positively refusing 
 the honor. During the nine years in which he presided 
 over the deliberations of that body, it very generally 
 and satisfactorily represented the Baptist Denomination 
 of the United States. Its deliberations were marked by 
 great dignity of tone, and harmony of design and feel- 
 ing. His ability, as a presiding officer, in the manage- 
 ment of a deliberative body, is conceded to have greatly 
 conduced to this harmonious action, and the Christian 
 union of sentiment which marked its sessions. His 
 labors, however, did not end with the termination of its 
 triennial sessions. In these interims his peculiar force 
 and efficiency as an executive officer, made itself felt 
 wherever the influence of the Convention extended. 
 Whilst discharging, with unintermitting activity, his 
 duties as the pastor of a church, scarcely a day passed 
 without his communicating either with the acting board 
 or some of the numerous missionaries laboring under 
 its patronage in the home and foreign held. Judson, 
 Kincaid, McCoy — nearly all the missionaries, indeed, 
 kept up a constant and intimate correspondence with 
 him. With tbe most of them he was personally 
 acquainted, and they felt that they had in him a dispas- 
 sionate, careful, and consistent friend. But whether 
 personally acquainted or not, all knew him as president 
 of the Convention which sustained them, and deeply 
 interested in everything connected with their efforts 
 and labors to spread the Gospel in foreign lands. The 
 majority of the letters received by him from the 
 missionaries — indeed, almost all which contained any 
 matter of general interest or information, he published 
 during his lifetime, and circulated as widely as possible, 
 for the purpose of fostering everywhere the spirit of 
 Missions, by keeping up a constant and lively interest 
 
LIFE OF SFENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 219 
 
 in the several missionaries and the stations occupied by 
 them. He acted always upon the principle of an out- 
 spoken frankness ; as he says in a letter to Dr. Peck, 
 May 24th, 1848 — after detailing his reasons for desiring 
 the French mission to be vigorously prosecuted, "These 
 are part of the things I have said to Brother Devan, 
 whom I dearly love in the Lord. I tell them to you, 
 because I have no secret opinions, or private ends to 
 answer in the things of the kingdom." 
 
 "Whilst residing in Virginia, he became personally 
 acquainted with Ann Hazel tine Judson, on the occasion 
 of her visit to the United Sates. During all his after 
 life, he spoke of her in terms of the warmest admiration. 
 Words, indeed, seemed to him weak to express his 
 appreciation of her worth as a woman, a wife, and a 
 missionary of the Cross. 
 
 In 1841, the Convention met in Baltimore. At that 
 meeting he stated that, having been honored for nine 
 years past, with the appointment of president of that 
 body, he desired, for weighty and important reasons, to 
 decline a re-election. Many endeavored to persuade 
 him to reconsider his decision, but he persisted in it. 
 
 In a letter to Dr. Bolles, dated April loth, 1841, he 
 says : " As I told Brother Lincoln, it is my ardent desire 
 to decline re-election as president of the Convention, 
 and you will please ascertain whether Brother Sharp 
 and the Acting Board approve such a course ; nothing 
 would induce me to occupy that distinguished position 
 but your sober, preconceived, and settled opinion that 
 the cause of Missions would be benefited thereby. For 
 that cause I am willing to sacrifice feeling and forego 
 my own pleasure. But my private judgment decided 
 three years ago in favor of a president from the South ; 
 and I should then have adopted the course now proposed, 
 
 11* 
 
250 LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 but that you, and Peck, and Babcock, and Bennett, and 
 several others to whom it was mentioned, insisted upon 
 my not saying a word, but leaving the matter in the 
 hands of the Convention." 
 
 He accordingly resigned, and Rev. William B. 
 Johnson, of South Carolina, was elected in his place. 
 
 That Mr. Cone's resignation did not ultimately con- 
 duce to a continuation of their union, events unhappily 
 demonstrated. 
 
 On this point, the evidence of Rev. J. B. Jeter, of 
 Richmond, Ya., incidentally given in a letter to us, dated 
 January, 29th 1856, throws some light. " My acquaint- 
 ance with him," he says, "did not commence until 
 several years after his removal from the State; and 
 I never enjoyed the pleasure of seeing him, except at 
 our larger denominational meetings, where our inter- 
 course w r as mostly official and public. He visited this 
 city several times after my personal knowledge of him 
 began. Once to attend the meeting of the Baptist 
 Triennial Convention, and on other occasions as a rep- 
 resentative of the American and Foreign Bible Society, 
 at our Virginia Baptist Anniversaries. His presence 
 here was always hailed with delight. No preacher could 
 draw a larger congregation in Richmond than he could. 
 The largest house of worship could not, under favorable 
 circumstances, contain the crowds that flocked to hear 
 him. Several causes contributed to increase his popu- 
 larity as a preacher. Independent of the evangelical 
 matter of his sermons, and the sprightly, earnest, and 
 impressive manner of their delivery, a manner well 
 suited to the Virginian taste, the circumstance that he 
 once resided south of the Potomac, that he had uni- 
 formly cherished a fraternal feeling towards the Ba|jtists 
 of the South, and that he occupied a prominent position 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 251 
 
 in tlie churches of the commercial metropolis of the 
 nation, served to heighten the interest with which his 
 ministrations were received. 
 
 "It was, however, in my judgment, as a, platform 
 her that he mostly excelled. He eminently -pos- 
 sessed that self control, quickness of conception, readi- 
 ness of speech, gracefulness of manner, and firmness of 
 purpose which, in extempore debate, made him a power- 
 ful opponent, and gave him a controlling influence in 
 popular assemblies. 
 
 "Some of his speeches I remember as rare specimens 
 of eloquent- and forcible discussion. 
 
 " His qualifications as a presiding officer in deliberative 
 bodies are well known. His acquaintance with parlia- 
 mentary rules ; his promptness, firmness, and urbanity, 
 aided by the clearness of his voice, and the venerable- 
 ness of his appearance, rendered him the most efficient 
 chairman that I have ever known. 
 
 "On the sectional questions that unfortunately agitated 
 the Baptist denomination, he uniformly pursued a pru- 
 dent, and conservative course. He acted upon the prin- 
 ciple, frequently asserted by the venerable Father Ben- 
 net, that, ' Mason and Dixon's line does not run through 
 the Kingdom of Jesus Christ? Had the Baptists gener- 
 ally been actuated by the spirit of Dr. Cone, and pursued 
 his candid and conciliating course, nothing could have 
 occurred to disturb the harmony, or paralyze the labors 
 of the denomination of which he was so distinguished an 
 ornament. It cannot be surprising, in view of these 
 considerations, that he should have acquired and main- 
 tained a strong hold on the confidence and affections of 
 the Baptists in the South. His recommendation gave to 
 any man a ready access to their regards and hospitality. 
 His name carried an influence among them which was 
 accorded to few others. No man, not residing in the 
 
252 LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 South, was better known to them, or more highly 
 appreciated by them ; nor was there one whose opinions 
 commanded more respect. 
 
 " It was my fortune to differ from him on several 
 questions of expediency, but these differences did not 
 diminish the high regard in which I held him. I have 
 often said, and now take pleasure in saying, after all the 
 causes of difference are buried in his tomb, and a calm 
 retrospection of the events of the past thirty years, that 
 no man within that period, has occupied a more promi- 
 nent place, wielded a mightier influence, or established 
 a higher claim to grateful homage, in the Baptist 
 denomination than he. I venerate him for his princi- 
 ples, his talents, his labors, his usefulness." 
 
 On the 11th of February, 1810, his third sister, Martha, 
 died of consumption. She was a woman of very pecu- 
 liar mind. An earnest and devoted Christian, she was 
 possessed of almost masculine energy and spirit. Her 
 understanding was strong, and her ideas of duty parti- 
 cularly clear and energetic. After her brother's removal 
 from Philadelphia, she was the mainstay of the family, 
 and looked up to as guide and counsellor in all the affairs 
 of daily life. As a member of Sansom street church, 
 she w r as one of the "honorable women," in the cause of 
 Christian effort and benevolence. Like her brother, 
 rest or inaction were impossible to her, and it is 
 undoubtedly owing to that energetic quality of her 
 mind, her mental vitality, if we may use the expression, 
 that she was enabled to struggle for years against the 
 disease to which she finally succumbed. 
 
 Martha was very dear, not only to her brother, but to 
 all his family. She was a frequent guest with them in 
 New York ; and being greatly gifted in conversation, 
 and combining much sweetness of disposition with 
 a directness of purpose and force of character, which 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 253 
 
 made itself felt on all around her, her death "was felt as 
 no common bereavement. 
 
 In the year 1841 he also resigned the charge of the 
 church in Oliver street. Many of the members he had 
 found there were from the Old World. They never 
 cordially embraced the strict Baptist doctrines which 
 he preached, nor thoroughly sympathized with his strong 
 and strongly-expressed Americanism. From these and 
 a variety of causes, he became unhappy in his pastoral 
 relations to that church, and on the 21st of April, 1811, 
 sent in his letter of resignation. This letter, which is 
 dated April 21st, 1811, begins as follows: — "To the 
 brethren and sisters composing the Oliver street Baptist 
 church, Kew York. Beloved in the Lord — my heart 
 indites this letter, with emotions of tenderness which a 
 pastor only can feel. Many of you are my joy and my 
 crown ; so stand fast in the Lord my dearly-beloved I 
 that whether, as heretofore, I should see your faces 
 statedly in the sanctuary, or not, I may at least hear of 
 your state, and know that the Gospel of the Grace of 
 God which I have preached to you, has not been in 
 vain in the Lord. 
 
 " After laboring among you for eighteen years, with 
 such mental and physical energies as have been 
 bestowed upon me by the Saviour of sinners, I am con- 
 strained to. resign my pastoral charge : and in doing 
 this ; first of all, I would render unfeigned and heart- 
 felt thanks to the Father of lights, for the souls He has 
 given me for my hire, and for the measure of success 
 vouchsafed in building up the Saints on their most holy 
 faith. * * * * * * * 
 
 " And to those who are attached to me as a Christian ; 
 who have never been ashamed of the Gospel I have 
 preached, but have stood by me in the time of trial, in 
 the midst of all the charms of new men and new 
 
25i LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 measures ; who have ministered to my support with a 
 ready mind, and whose prayers and alms have gone up 
 together before the throne* to such, language has no 
 words adequately to express the depth of my enduring 
 affection. May God Almighty bless you in all your 
 outgoings and incomings, in your basket and store, in 
 your bodies and spirits, for time and for eternity. 
 
 "For those who may wish still to sit under my 
 ministry, an opportunity, I trust, in the all wise Provi- 
 dence of God, will be afforded ; and to point them to 
 the Lamb of God r whose blood cleanseth from all sin, 
 will give me great delight. Such as remain in Oliver 
 street, whether from the ties of blood ; the persuasion 
 of friends ; the size, or wealth, or respectability of the 
 church ; the associations of by-gone years, or from a 
 sense of duty to aid in sustaining our cause in that por- 
 tion of the city ; upon them I do fervently implore the 
 rich blessing of Joseph, until the branches shall run 
 over the wall." * * * 
 
 The letter proceeds to state, at considerable length, 
 the reasons which have brought him to believe that the 
 term of his usefulness amongst them has arrived. It 
 also enters into a consideration of the state of the first 
 Baptist church, the call of which he has accepted, and 
 the reasons which have induced him to' think that duty 
 required him to accept that call. The letter then closes 
 with the following sentence : — " The Gospel I have 
 preached to you, is the Gospel of peace and love ! 
 Farewell ! and through the riches of superabounding 
 grace, may we all at last meet in a better country, 
 where there is no selfishness, but where we shall love our 
 neighbor as we love ourselves ! Even so Lord Jesus." 
 
 In a letter to Dr. Dagg, under date of August 16th, 
 1841 — he refers to his resignation of the pastoral charge 
 of Oliver street church ; his acceptance of the call of 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 255 
 
 the first church ; and also to the results of the meeting 
 of the Convention at Baltimore. 
 
 ''Your kind letter," he says, " was received before 
 the meeting of the General Convention, and I was much 
 disappointed in not seeing you in Baltimore, upon an 
 occasion so vitally connected with the benevolent efforts 
 of our denomination. That you lacked 'influence' 
 either with the South or the North, 1 cannot, for a 
 moment, admit, for I know of no one whose voice would 
 have commanded more respect in our anxious and 
 important session ; but you had, no doubt, many other 
 considerations than the one named to keep you at home. 
 The Lord, I believe, was in our midst, and to Ilitn 
 belongs all the glory of whatever sentiments of kindness, 
 benevolence, and union, it was our happiness to witness, 
 and few of us, I trust, but felt, and will long remember, 
 that He was better to us than our fears, and infinitely 
 better than our deserts. 
 
 " h\ the paper submitted to the Southern brethren, in 
 Baltimore, you have my views of church fellowship, 
 and I was gratified that it was so generally and cordially 
 signed by those present. It contributed somewhat, 1 
 think, to produce in all minds, a determination to attend 
 to the appropriate missionary and Bible business that 
 called us together, and not to suffer any irrelevant matter 
 to be introduced, even in the shape of a commendatory 
 resolution. To a strict adherence to this determination 
 I ascribe, under God, the delightful general results of 
 our Baltimore meetings. 
 
 " Upon the whole, I am decidedly of the opinion that 
 we shall continue to act as a denomination, in Bible 
 and missionary operations, through our present organi- 
 zations, at least till the next Triennial Convention, and 
 I hope a great many years longer ; and for this we must 
 not only hope, but labor, and watch, and pray. 
 
256 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 " I have resigned, as you have seen, the charge of 
 Oliver street church, and become the pastor of the First 
 church, New York. Many causes conspired to induce 
 this change. I was not very happy in Oliver street, 
 and did not find myself as useful as I wished to be, so 
 I had determined in my own mind to change my posi- 
 tion when the First Church gave me an unanimous call, 
 and offered to build in the centre of the city such a 
 house as I pleased, with offices for Bible and Mission 
 societies, rent free, &c. In all which I have recognized 
 the finger of Divine Providence, and have entered upon 
 my new sphere of labor with confidence and comfort, 
 and believe it will result in the advancement of the cause 
 in New York more than anything which has been 
 attempted there by any of the churches, in the way of 
 benevolent enterprise, for many years. Let me not want 
 your prayers, for I feel that 1 have undertaken a great 
 work, which cannot be successfully prosecuted without 
 help from above. ' Help, Lord. ! for vain is the help of 
 man.' 
 
 "J have read your tract upon John iii. 5, with much 
 interest, but still think the allusion is to baptism. ' To 
 be born of water ' is a figure, exhibiting water as the 
 womb out of which the individual is bom ; and teaching 
 " the washing of the believer in the blood of Christ.' I 
 do not see at all the dilemma that ' Baptism, must on this 
 interpretation, be essential to salvation." Baptism is not 
 mentioned here — it is only alluded to as furnishing a 
 a figure of our salvation. To be born of water and spirit 
 are different things; the first I suppose to mean 'washed 
 in the blood of Christ,' the latter ' renewed by the 
 Spirit.' Both are necessary to our salvation. 1 Cor. vi. 
 11. Eph. v. 46. 1 Pet. i. 22. Kev. i. 5." 
 
 In a letter to Reverend J. "W. Sarles he also speaks of 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 257 
 
 the change from Oliver street to the First church, as 
 follows : 
 
 " As you say it was, indeed, strange that after more 
 than eighteen years' pastoral toil and continued mental 
 effort in Oliver street, my connection should be dis- 
 solved, and the charge of another church in the same city 
 be accepted. But matters and things have been mov- 
 ing towards this point for years, and my peace of mind 
 became so seriously invaded as to interfere with my 
 comfort in preaching, and I determined, more than twelve 
 months ago, to change my position, as soon as the Lord 
 should open for me a door in Providence where I might 
 enter and be useful. This He has kindly and most man- 
 ifestly done, and I have never felt so much at ho?ne 
 during my residence in New York as at the present 
 time. The First Church, of which I am now pastor, is 
 comparatively small, but sound in the faith, and united 
 and harmonious in action. One strong inducement to 
 accept the oversight of them you may see in their 
 generous determination to bnild snch a honse in the centre 
 of the city, as would meet my views of the wants of the 
 denomination ; connected with commodious offices for 
 the Bible and Missionary operations in which we are 
 engaged, rent free. This was an object of great import- 
 ance, and I have reason to hope, through the Divine 
 blessing on my feeble instrumentality, will be speedily 
 accomplished. 
 
 The enterprise in which I thus find myself engaged at 
 56 years of age is a bold one, and must be attended with 
 much anxiety, and prayer, and effort, before it can be 
 conducted to a successful termination ; at least so far as 
 paying for the honse and filling it with a congregation 
 of attentive hearers are concerned ; but if God be for 
 us, it will all be well, and His name shall have all the 
 glory ; and for this you will not cease to pray /" 
 
258 
 
 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 »j!S!'-' ; « -■•>"" ■•■ m ..'■ ■ :.< ; ;:,;;;inn (-.1 i, 
 
 . 
 
 
 i 
 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 259 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK. 
 
 "New York, March 29th, 1841. 
 
 "The First Baptist Church in the city of New York, to 
 our well-beloved Brother in the ministry, Elder Spencer 
 H. Cone, sendeth greeting : 
 
 " It is known and read of all men, that the First Bap- 
 tist Church in this city has long and earnestly contended 
 for the faith once delivered to the saints. Under the 
 ministration of our late pastor, we have been indoctrin- 
 ated into the truth as it is in the Gospel of the grace 
 of God, and led by the Holy Spirit, as we trust, to 
 embrace and love it. But after years of great usefulness 
 in our midst, he has in the providence of God been 
 induced to leave us, and consequently we are without 
 an under-shepherd. 
 
 " Since the date of his resignation, earnest, and we 
 may say unceasing, prayer has ascended to our dear 
 Master, that He would kindly regard us in this our time 
 of destitution, and (though with shame and confusion of 
 face we have great reason to mourn over our lukewarm- 
 ness in the cause), we continue to implore Him, that He 
 will not remove our candlestick, but that He will send 
 us one* to minister to us, whose labors He will delight to 
 own and bless. 
 
 " But we have so learned Christ that the fatness 
 of our souls would wax lean were we compelled to feed 
 on the husks of doctrine which are now-a-days held forth 
 to our guilty race. And we are therefore doubly 
 
260 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 anxious that the words of faith and good, doctrine, 
 whereunto we have attained by sovereign grace, shall 
 ever be preached from our de&k in the same purity with 
 which we were led to receive them. This enhances the 
 difficulty of selecting a suitable watchman for this wall 
 of Zion, and serves to make us feel how completely 
 dependent upon the guidance of our Heavenly Father 
 we are in this matter, and yet we are willing, nay even 
 rejoice to submit our difficulties to Him who has graven 
 us on the palms of His hands. 
 
 " While, therefore, we, as a church, have devoted 
 specific seasons of prayer for Divine direction in this 
 weighty matter, a committee of three were appointed to 
 select and recommend a suitable person to undertake 
 the pastoral charge of the First Baptist Church — a man 
 who should have so learned Christ, that from the heart 
 he might teach that form of doctrine which the Holy 
 Spirit has delivered unto us, and which is set forth in 
 the accompanying summary of our faith. This com- 
 mittee, after mature and prayerful deliberations, have 
 unanimously recommended, that the beloved elder 
 Spencer H. Cone be invited to fulfill the duties of 
 that station. This church has unanimously adopted 
 their recommendation, and by a vote of that body the 
 present call was directed to be made, »irh the hope 
 that our Lord will incline your heart to accept our invi- 
 tation, and come over and help us. 
 
 " Our Heavenly Father in His wisdom has seen fit 
 within a few years past, to allow, not only a considerable 
 diminution of our numbers, but also that a heavy load 
 of pecuniary obligation should rest upon us; yet with all 
 these troubles we are a united band, having but one single 
 object in view; viz., the declarative glory of our beloved 
 Master. But the church feels that for the attainment 
 of that object, she greatly needs the regular and. stated 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 261 
 
 labors of one of the imder-shepherds of the Lord to go in 
 and out before her to minister to her in holy tilings. 
 For this end, the eyes of the First Baptist Church are 
 fixed upon you, our beloved brother, and she stands 
 ready to welcome you with open arms to the work. 
 
 "The services she seeks from you, are ministrations in 
 the public sanctuary twice every Lord's day, and on two 
 evenings in every week, as well as the performance 
 of those other pastoral duties which the faithful over- 
 sight of the flock may require at your hands. And as 
 we deem that he who preaches the Gospel should live 
 of the Gospel, the church will endeavor to relieve your 
 mind of all your pecuniary troubles by the payment of 
 twenty-five hundred dollars per annum. We would 
 also have it mutually understood, that unless death or 
 some other severe stroke of Providence intervene, 
 the connection which this church wishes to establish 
 between yourself and her, shall cease only, when either 
 yourself or the church shall have given six months' 
 notice of a desire to dissolve such connection. 
 
 " With a sincere deelre, and earnest prayer that God 
 will direct your mind to a favorable reception of this 
 our Call, we remain, 
 
 " Tours in the patience of the kingdom. 
 " By order and in behalf of the church, 
 
 " Sylvester Pier, Ch. Clerk? 
 
 "New York, April 21st, 1841. 
 
 " Dear Brethren in the Lord : Your communica- 
 tion of March 22d, 1841, was duly received. I have 
 perused it with care, and endeavored to spread it before 
 the throne of «race for Divine direction. 
 
 " You have called me to the exercise of the pastoral 
 office by a unanimous vott T'his is truly gratifying to 
 
262 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 my feelings, and, indeed, without snch an expression of 
 an entire cordiality, I could not have entertained your call. 
 
 " Your printed epitome of Scripture doctrines, the 
 order of a gospel church, together with the duties and 
 privileges of it members, I have been intimately 
 acquainted with for years, and it gives me pleasure here 
 to record my hearty approbation of them. To preach 
 them to the people, faithfully and affectionately, for 
 more than a quarter of a century, has been my untiring 
 effort. 
 
 "The salary you propose, being the same as that paid 
 by the church in Oliver street, is sufficient to sustain my 
 family in a manner becoming the position in society both 
 of Pastor and people, and at the same time allow me to 
 make occasional contributions to the cause of benevolence, 
 as obvious claims may demand. But money forms no part 
 of my motive to action. I hope to live among those who 
 will ever sympathize with me in sorrow or in joy; who 
 will never look upon my trials, whatever they may be, 
 with frigid indifference ; and who will cheerfully co-op- 
 erate with me in promoting the interests of Messiah's 
 Kingdom. 
 
 " Preaching twice on the Lord's-day, and once or 
 twice on week evenings, is as much as I deem profitable 
 to those who wish to mark, learn, and inwardly digest 
 what they hear, and quite as much as my physical and 
 mental energies should statedly encounter, in connection 
 with other indispensable pastoral duties, and such episto- 
 lary, Missionary, and Bible labors, as must of necessity 
 be performed. 
 
 " And now, brethren and sisters in Christ Jesus, the 
 great, the single question has been, " Lord, what wilt 
 thou have me to do?' I have thought upon the church 
 and congregation in Oliver street, to whom I have 
 preached for eighteen years, and have no reason to 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON COXE. 263 
 
 expect ever to minister to a larger. Increase of emolu- 
 ment, diminution of responsibility, or decrease of avo- 
 cation — I do not desire ; they have not weighed a fea- 
 ther in the balance: yet after giving this momentous 
 question all the consideration of which I am capable, the 
 path of duty, which I know to be the only path of true 
 happiness, usefulness, and safety, seems to be made plain, 
 and I am induced unreservedly and heartily to accept 
 your call, and become, if the Lord will, the pastor of the 
 First Baptist Church in the city of New York. 
 
 " It is not necessary to recapitulate the considerations 
 through the combined influence of which my mind has 
 been conducted to this result. They may be summed 
 up in one sentence. I hope by this step, with the bless- 
 ing of Almighty God upon our united efforts, to extend 
 and more permanently establish, in this great and wicked 
 city, the doctrines and ordinances of the Lord: and to 
 do this, Ave must build such a house as the circumstances 
 of the Baptist denomination imperiously require; and 
 give, and labor, and pray, until it shall be tilled with 
 spiritual worshippers. This is the noble enterprise 
 which has secured my unqualified approbation, and the 
 desire and hope of accomplishing it, in the name and in 
 the strength of the Lord, have made me willing to leave 
 those who have had the unabated vigor of my manhood 
 to spend my last days with you. God grant that these 
 last days may be my best days for your sake, and for 
 His dear Son's sake. 
 
 "It will be agreeable to the deacons and trustees of 
 Oliver street church, as I learn from their sub-committee, 
 that my resignation of the pastoral charge of the church 
 should take effect from the last of June. If this arrange- 
 ment meets the approbation of the church, you may 
 expect me to take charge of your pulpit the first 
 LordVday of July next, and in the meantime I shall be 
 
264 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON" CONE. 
 
 ready to aid your committee in procuring occasional 
 supplies. 
 
 " The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. 
 " In Gospel bonds, your affectionate brother, 
 
 "Spencer II. Cone." 
 
 "On the first of July, 1841, By the unanimous vote 
 of the First Baptist Church in the city of New York, he 
 took the oversight of that flock, which, from peculiar 
 circumstances in its history, had been greatly reduced 
 in numbers and influence. It has since been raised to a 
 degree of prosperity and usefulness enjoyed by few 
 churches even in this favored land.'' — New York Chron- 
 icle, 1850. 
 
 A large number of his attached friends in Oliver 
 
 street followed him to his new scene of labor, and the 
 
 large and beautiful meeting-house in Broome street, 
 
 built in the style called the Collegiate Gothic, hardly 
 
 sufficed to hold the crowds which continued to hang 
 
 upon his lips. It was a surprising thing to see such 
 
 numbers of strangers always flocking to where he 
 
 preached; for he indulged in no fine flights of fancy, or 
 
 florid elegances of style. Nor did he mince matters 
 
 witli them. He preached to sinners, and the Cross of 
 
 Christ was never forgotten. He preached the whole 
 
 Gospel to them, with little care how much the fine skin 
 
 of human vanity might be ruffled by it. Anthony, a 
 
 very old colored member of Oliver street church, and 
 
 time out of mind its sexton, used to get very tired of 
 
 bringing the benches up out of the lecture-room to put 
 
 in the aisles in Oliver street for the people to sit 
 
 on when the pews were all packed, and go up and down 
 
 the stairs grumbling: "I wish Brother Cone would 
 
 preach in the Park; then, may-be, the people get 'commo- 
 
LIFE OF BPENCEE HOUGHTON CONE. 265 
 
 dated." It was the same thing to the Inst. His preach- 
 ing never seemed to pall upon the public ear. 
 
 The ensuing sketch of the history of the First Church, 
 New York, was prepared by him for the New York 
 Chronicle, in 1850. It seems proper to preserve it here, 
 as that church was publicly and closely connected with 
 some of the most important events of his life. 
 
 The first Baptist preaching in the city of New York of which we have 
 any account, was by one Wm.Wickenden, of R. I., sometime previous to 
 the year 1(JC9: the results of which are not particularly known, except 
 that Mr. W. was imprisoned several months for presuming to preach 
 ■without a license from an officer of the crown. In 1712, Mr. Valentine 
 Wightman came to the city from Groton, Connecticut, and preached with 
 considerable success. In 17 "24, a church of twelve was organized, and 
 Mr. Eyres became pastor. They purchased lots and built a house of 
 worship in Gold street. But after about eight years' existence, the church, 
 consisting then of twenty-four members, being left without a pastor, 
 under great pecuniary difficulties, was disbanded. Mr. Eyres and his 
 associates are reputed to have been Arminians in doctrine. The church, 
 known as the First Baptist Church in the city of New York, originated in 
 1745, when Jeremiah Dodge, a member of the Fishkill Baptist Church, 
 settled here, and opened his house for public worship. Elder Benjamin 
 Miller, of New Jersey, preached here in that year, and baptized Joseph 
 Meeks, who continued to be a valuable member of the First Church, until 
 the 6th of October, 1782, when he died, aged 73 years. Robert North 
 and a few Others who had belonged to the Arminian Church, having 
 learned the way of the Lord more perfectly, now r united with brethren 
 Dodge and Meeks to sustain the Baptist cause. Mr. John Pine, a licen- 
 tiate of the Fishkill Church, preached for them till 1750, when he died. 
 In 1747, the Scotchplains Church, New Jersey, was organized, and called 
 elder Benjamin Miller to the pastoral office, and as there were but 
 thirteen brethren and sisters in the city who agreed in their views of 
 doctrine, it was deemed advisable to unite with that church in 1753, 
 with the understanding that Brother Miller should preach in New York 
 occasionally, and administer the Lord's Supper to them once in three 
 months. His preaching was so acceptable, that those who wished to hear 
 him could not be accommodated in a private dwelling ; the church, 
 therefore, hired a rigging-loft, in Cart and Horse street, now William 
 street, where they statedly assembled lor public worship for several years. 
 
 As their numbers and resources increased, they purchased ground in 
 Gold street, and erected a small meeting-house which was opened on the 
 
 12 
 
266 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 14th March, 1760. In that year Brother John Gano, formerly pastor of 
 Morristown Church, New Jersey, preached for them several times with 
 great acceptance, and received a unanimous call to settle with them. 
 He replied, that he must finish his engagement with the First Church, 
 Philadelphia, where he was then preaching ; and must spend three months 
 afterwards with the Yadkin Baptist Church, North Carolina, whence he 
 had been driven by the outrages of the Cherokee Indians, in 1759, and 
 then he would be at liberty to accept their call. To this the church 
 agreed, and continued to depend upon visiting brethren, to lead in public 
 worship, until June 19th, 1762, when twenty-seven members from Scotch- 
 plains, having previously received letters of dismission, were publicly 
 recognized as an independent Gospel Church. Brethren Miller and Gano, 
 conducted the religious exercises upon this interesting occasion ; the lat- 
 ter was received into the fellowship of the church the same day, upon the 
 credit of his letter of dismission from the Yadkin Church, and entered 
 immediately upon his pastoral charge. 
 
 Many flocked together to hear him preach Christ crucified ; in two or 
 three years the number of members exceeded two hundred ; the meeting- 
 house was considerably enlarged, so as to measure fifty-two feet by forty- 
 two, and was then too small for the congregation. 
 
 But the peace of the church was occasionally disturbed. Three minis- 
 ters from England, at different times, endeavored to divide the church ; 
 they were Murray, Dawson, and Allen ; the last of whom, especially, caused 
 them sore trouble. Brother Gano wrote to England, "and obtained 
 such an account of the man and his character at home," as destroyed his 
 influence in New York, and he, soon after, removed from the city. The 
 next difficulty, worthy of note, originated in a vote of the church to sing 
 from hymn books, instead of giving out the lines, as had previously been 
 the custom. This change gave so much offence, that fourteen took 
 letters of dismission, and formed the Second Baptist Church, New York. 
 The church, however, continued to increase in numbers and influence 
 until the war of the Revolution, during which period, the members were 
 everywhere scattered abroad. The ordinance of baptism was adminis- 
 tered by the pastor, April 28th, 1776, and not again until September 4th, 
 1784. 
 
 John Gano was a firm patriot and a brave man. In the struggle for 
 national existence and the establishment of civil and religious freedom, 
 he could not but take an active part. He removed his family to Con- 
 necticut, but determined to remain in the city himself, until the enemy 
 entered it. He was invited to become chaplain of the regiment com- 
 manded by Colonel Charles Webb v of Stamford, but declined the appoint- 
 ment. He, nevertheless, so far complied, as to visit the regiment every 
 morning, and preach for them every Lord's day. Brother Gano continued 
 with Colonel Webb's regiment until the period expired for which the 
 
LIKE JF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 267 
 
 men had enlisted, and they returned to their homes. He took this 
 opportunity to visit his family, where he found a letter awaiting him 
 from Colonel Dubosques, then stationed at Fort Montgomery, on the 
 North River, lie immediately set out for the Colonel's quarters, and at 
 the earnest solieitation of General James Clinton, with whom he there 
 met, he accepted an appointment as chaplain, and continued in the 
 service until the close of the war. 
 
 After the British evacuated New York, he returned to the city, and 
 collected together " about thirty-seven members of the church out of 
 above two hundred." The meeting-house, which was much disfigured, 
 having been used as a store-house and stable for horses, was repaired ; 
 public worship was resumed ; " the Lord looked graciously upon His 
 people, the congregation was large and attentive, and many were bro' ght 
 to bow the knee to King Jesus!" In two years the church .<,ain 
 numbered more than two hundred members. 
 
 In 1787 a proposition was made to Brother Gano to remove to 
 Kentucky, with the prospect of increasing his usefulness, and relieving 
 himself from pecuniary embarrassments. He called a church meeting 
 and laid before them the facts in the case ; but he says, " they treated it 
 all as a chimera, and with all possible coolness left him to determine for 
 himself." He immediately determined to go. As soon as his intention 
 was made known, " the Church offered to raise his salary, and very 
 affectionately urged him to tarry." He would gladly have complied with 
 their wishes, but it was too late ; he had entered into engagements widen 
 could not be broken. He continued to preach for the church until the 
 4th of May, 1788; in the afternoon of that day, he administered the 
 Lord's Supper, and in the evening took his final leave of them in a very 
 affecting discourse from Acts xv. 29 : " Fare ye well .'" 
 
 Brother Gano arrived safely at Limestone, Ky., June 17th, 1788 ; he 
 preached in various parts of the State, principally at Frankfort, and for 
 the Town Fork church, and finished his course, August 10th, 1804, in 
 the 78th year of his age. The last sentiment he uttered, in the midst of 
 his weeping family and friends, was his desire to depart and be with 
 Jesus. 
 
 The First Church, New York, has great cause of gratitude to the God 
 of all grace, for giving them John Gano, as their first pastor. His 
 ministry was owned and blessed to the permanent establishment of our 
 cause in tins great commercial emporium ; where, for more than twenty- 
 six years, this John the Baptist was a burning and a shining light. 
 
 After the departure of Brother Gano, the pulpit was supplied by dif- 
 ferent ministers. Among these was Benjamin Foster, D. D. of Newport, 
 Rhode Island, with whose preaching, department and character tha 
 church was so much pleased, that, after due deliberation and prayer, they 
 called him to take the oversight of the flock as pastor. This call ho 
 
2G8 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 accepted, and removed to the city with his family, September 20th, 1*788, 
 .nit having been inoculated with the small pox, he was prevented from 
 entering upon the duties of his oflice until the 2d of December following. 
 His ministry was very soon interrupted by the complaints of several 
 members, who charged him with preaching what was called " New 
 Divinity;" the fundamental error of which was understood to be, an 
 indefinite atonement ; and this led to an unscriptural "exhibition of the 
 doctrine of imputation. The charge, however, was not sustained by 
 the church, and from such of his writings as are extant, as well as from 
 the high estimation in which he was held by the sound divines of his day, 
 it appears not to have been well founded. But the fire of contention 
 burned more and more fiercely, until January 27th, 1789, when eight 
 males and five females were excluded " for their self-sufficiency, their 
 scandalous treatment of the character of their minister, and their turning 
 their backs upon the church in a contemptuous manner." Thesis 
 excluded persons were received into the fellowship of the Second Church ; 
 and this being contrary to our discipline, all intercourse between the 
 two churches was suspended. The Second Church, sent no messenger to 
 the Philadelphia Association that year, but in October, 1780, they 
 attempted to justify their course, in their annual letter to the venerable 
 body then in session in this city, by charging the First Church with 
 having departed from the truth both in faith and discipline." The 
 association appointed a committee of eight, of whom Dr. Samuel Jones, 
 of Pennsylvania, was chairman, and Dr. Manning, President of Brown 
 University, Rhode Island, was a member, for the purpose of reconciling 
 the churches, " and preventing, if possible, all further disputes and 
 animosities." The committee promptly attended to the duty assigned 
 them, and finally submitted the following propositions: 
 
 1. That the Second Church do cordially withdraw its cnarge against 
 the First Church and its pastor. 
 
 2. That the First Church will henceforward consider those members 
 lately received by the Second Church from the First, as in good and 
 regular standing. 
 
 3. That the members in each church in regular standing, shall enjoy 
 occasional communion if required, in either church, and shall have the 
 privilege of reciprocal dismissing, if requested by any. 
 
 4. That both parties do fully, freely, and cordially, promise not to use 
 any expulsions, or other unkind treatment towards each other, and that a 
 failure herein shall be a matter of discipline. 
 
 5. That each church shall enter the above in their church records, and 
 transmit authenticated copies of their doings reciprocally to each other. 
 
 At the regular church meeting, November 2d, 1790, these propositions 
 were agreed to, and Dr. Foster and Deacon John Bedient were appointed 
 
LIFE OF BPENCEE HOUGHTON CONE. 269 
 
 a committee to wait u; on the Second church with a copy of their doings. 
 At this time the First Church numbered 192 members. 
 
 The First Church continued to grow, and having dismissed, at various 
 times, some thirty or forty restless and dissatisfied members, enjoyed a 
 large share of peace and prosperity. Dr. Foster was much respected in 
 the city, as a scholar, a preacher, and an exemplary Christian. In the mys- 
 terious Providence of God he was, however, suddenly cut off by yellow 
 fever on Lord's-day morning, August 26th, 1*798, in the forty-eighth year 
 of his age, having been pastor of the church nearly ten years. 
 
 The pulpit was again occupied by such occasional supplies as could be 
 procured, until the 14th of October, 1800, when Reverend William Col- 
 lier, of Boston, who had previously preached for the church some months, 
 commenced his pastoral labors in accordance with their call. Soon after 
 his settlement, the church and congregation resolved to pull down the 
 old meeting-house, and erect a more commodious and substantial one in 
 its place. The old house was removed in March, 1801, and a stone edifice, 
 65 feet by 80, at a cost of about $25,000, was opened for public worship on 
 Lord's-day, May 2d, 1S02. The sermon on the occasion was preached by 
 Dr. Stephen Gano, of Providence, from Exodus, xx. 24: "In all places 
 where I record my name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee." 
 In two or three years Brother Collier found his strength unequal to the 
 duties of his station, and the church called Brother Jeremiah Chaplin, of 
 Danvers, Massachusetts, as a co-pastor. He arrived in New York, Janu- 
 ary loth, 1804, but Brother Collier had previously received and accepted 
 a call from the Charlestown Baptist church ; he tarried, however, until 
 Lord's-day, April 8th, 1804, when he preached his farewell sermon from 
 Acts sx. 32. " And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the 
 Word of His grace. 
 
 On the 6th of November, 1804, the church, after much prayerful delibe- 
 ration, agreed to send for Rev. William Parkinson, of Fredericktown, Mary- 
 land, to spend a few months with them, with a view to settlement as pas- 
 tor, should it appear to be desirable and proper. As he had preached for 
 them several times in 1802, they were somewhat acquainted wim his 
 ministerial gifts, and were not ignorant of his views of doctrine. He 
 complied with the invitation of the church, and arrived in the city on the 
 20th of De-cember. Having preached six weeks, a call to take the pasto- 
 ral charge of them was presented, February 8th, 1805 ; this call he 
 accepted on the 14th of April following. Brother Parkinson's preaching 
 attracted large congregations, and the Word of truth was owned and 
 blessed of God to the conversion and edificat'on of many precious souls. 
 
 At the meeting of the New York association, in 1805, the church 
 reported 253 members, in 1SO0, they numbered 564. For four or five 
 years, a time of refreshing was experienced from the presence of the 
 Lord, and the baptismal waters were visited almost every month, during 
 
270 LIFE OF SrENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 that most interesting and prosperous period. The enemy, however, had 
 been busily engaged in sowing tares, and cases of discipline, exclusions, 
 frequent church meetings to try delinquents, and strenuous efforts to 
 reconcile differences and heal breaches were the result. 
 
 On the 26th of March, 1811, brethren Greenleaf S. Webb, and Jacob 
 H. Brouner, with twenty-four other brethren and sisters, obtained letters 
 of dismission, and united together as an independent body, under the 
 name of the Zoar Baptist Church. 
 
 The troubles in the church caused many to leave her, and to seek 
 peace and Christian fellowship elsewhere. These troubles arose princi- 
 pally, at this time, from the accusations brought against the pastor. 
 Some future historian may choose to investigate the subject ; it is suffi- 
 cient now to say, that the church insisted upon the right of disciplining 
 her own members, although four sister churches have declared, in their 
 letters to the association, " their non-fellowship with the First Church, on 
 account of their proceedings relative to the pastor." A letter was 
 addressed to the New York association, and is recorded in their minutes of 
 May 21st, 1812, expressing their views of church independence, and their 
 reasons for not submitting the case of discipline in question, to the inves- 
 tigation and decision of that body. The question was decided by a vote 
 of the churches, fifteen sustaining the views of the First Church, and six 
 against them ; " whereupon the following churches, viz., Fayette street, 
 Mulberry street, Poughkeepsie, and Mount Pleasant, being dissatisfied 
 therewith, requested their dismission, which on motion was granted." 
 
 After various seasons of prosperity and adversity, of joy and sorrow, 
 Brother Parkinson resigned his pastoral charge August 11th, 1840, having 
 held it more than thirty-five years. Between seventy and eighty mem. 
 bers took letters of dismission, within a few months after, and most of 
 them united in the constitution of the Bethesda Baptist church, choosing 
 Brother Parkinson for their pastor. 
 
 The First church was now greatly reduced in numbers, having but 
 about two hundred members residing in the city ; their debt had been 
 increasing for years, and the sale of their property would do little more 
 than liquidate it ; their meeting-house was ineligibly situated, and the 
 congregation had moved away from it ; and whether it would be better 
 for them to struggle on and maintain their visibility, or not, became a 
 grave and perplexing question. Occasional supplies were obtained for 
 the pulpit ; for several months Brother Benjamin M. Hill, corresponding 
 Secretary of the American Baptist Home Missionary Society, preached for 
 them statedly ; and the church resorted to prayer — frequent, fervent, and 
 importunate prayer for the Divine guidance and blessing. Those who were 
 present at these special prayer meetings, still speak of them as among 
 the most precious seasons vouchsafed to them on earth. 
 
 The pastor of the Oliver street church at that time, had announced his 
 
LIFE OF SFENCFR HOUGHTON CONE. 271 
 
 intention to resign the charge of that body, at the end of two, four, or 
 Bix months, as the church might prefer; expecting to remove from the 
 city. !!<■ was not aware of what had been passing in the First Church, 
 nor had the thought of becoming their pastor ever crossed his mind. 
 Dr. Thomas T. Devan, an intimate friend, now called and spread before 
 him the situation of the First Church ; their embarrassments, and their 
 determination to make a mighty effort to sustain themselves; he stated, 
 furthermore, that they could not unite in a call to any other minister, as 
 far as he could see. Similar conversations were held with the pulpit 
 committee, and other influential members of the church, and resulted in 
 nsenting to entertain a call to the pastoral charge of the First 
 Church, on condition "that the call should be icnanimous ; that he should 
 lie expected to preach but twice on the Lord's Day — morning and after- 
 noon; and that the church should erect such a building on the Broome 
 street lots as would accommodate our Bible and Missionary societies, at a 
 merely nominal cost ; besides suicide accommodations for the church and 
 congregation." These conditions the church cordially approved, and 
 their call was dated March 29th, 1841. After a month's deliberation and 
 prayer — the hand of the Lord appearing to be evidently in this thing — 
 the call was accepted, and the present pastor assumed the arduous duties 
 and responsibilities of his station July 1st, 1811, having preached for 
 the Oliver street church eighteen years and two months. 
 
 The building we now occupy was opened for public worship, February 
 20th, 1842; Sermon by the pastor from Psalm xx. 5: "In the name of 
 our God we will set up our banners." 
 
 The entire edifice measures 75 feet wide by 110 on the East side, 87 
 on Broome street, and 90 on Elizabeth street; the auditory nearly 75 
 feet square ; the remainder of the building, fronting on Broome street, is 
 occupied by the American and Foreign Bible Society, and the American 
 Home Mission Society, at an annual rent of one dollar per annum. The 
 whole cost of lots and house, including interest, paid before the house 
 was finished, and the expense of a lawsuit since, to defend our title, falls 
 but little short of seventy-five thousand dollars. The lots on Gold street 
 were sold for thirty-three thousand dollars, which has enabled the church 
 to remove the burden of their debt, retaining the burying-ground, con- 
 sisting of seven lots on Houston street, without encumbrance. 
 
 What bath God wrought! did Israel say, 
 When Jordan rolled its tide away. 
 What hath God wrought! the church should say, 
 Since God hath rolled her debt away. 
 
 For seven years past the church has enjoyed uninterrupted prosperity; 
 the attendance upon the ministry of the Word is uniformly large ; the 
 
272 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 number of mcnbers reported to the association, May, 1848, was 602; 
 being the largest number of which she was ever composed, and they are 
 happily united in doctrine, in brotherly kindness, and in benevolent 
 effort — and according to this time, with grateful hearts we would say — 
 What hath God wrought I 
 
 1. For more than a century this body has met all its pecuniary 
 liabilities, without ever sending their pastors to solicit aid from other 
 churches. 
 
 2. The church has never received an excommunicated member from a 
 sister church, and extraordinary circumstances alone can ever justify a 
 departure from this course. 
 
 3. She has uniformly and steadfastly maintained the doctrine of 
 church independence — a doctrine dear to the hearts of American 
 Baptists. 
 
 4. She has " earnestly contended for the faith once delivered to the 
 saints," and to the attachment of her members to the doctrines of 
 sovereign and all-concpiering grace, must be ascribed, under God, her 
 visibility until the present day. To the truth contained in her Confession 
 of Faith she t- till inviolably adheres. 
 
 5. From this church have sprung the Second, or Bethel, Zoar, 
 Abyssinian, Peekskill, North, Stamford and Bethesda churches, besides 
 others principally formed out of members who had belonged to her. 
 Ministers sent out by her are, Thomas Ustic, Ebenezer Ferris, Isaac 
 Skillman, Stephen Gano, Thomas Montayne, Cornelius P. Wyckoff, James 
 Bruce, John Seger, Simeon J. Drake, William Rollinson, Henry C. Fish, 
 Solomon S. Relyea, and Thomas T. Devan, missionary in Fans, France. 
 
 6. A large portion of the heart-rending trials of the church, especially 
 in the former part of her history, arose from evil speaking, backbiting, 
 and the unblushing violation of the Saviour's command : //' thy brother 
 offend, d'c. "Behold how great a matter, a little fire kindleth ; the to t° ue 
 is a fire, a world of iniquity !" 
 
 Finally, in looking back upon the way in which the Lord our God 
 hath led us, we acknowledge heartily that to Him be'ongeth all the 
 grace and all the glory — but to us " confusion of faces as at this day." 
 May the Lord preserve this church from all the evils connected with the 
 history of the past ; enabling her members to cling to the Cross, and to 
 exemplify in their deportment the sanctfying influence of the Doctrixks 
 of Grace; may He greatly increase their zeal in promoting the interests 
 of Messiah's Kingdom throughout the earth ; and may their unchanging 
 motto be — According to this time it shall be said — What hath God 
 Wrought ! Amen and Amen ! 
 
LIFE OF BPENCEE HOUGHTON CONE. 273 
 
 A marked happiness attended the commencement and 
 close of Mr. Cone's ministerial career. Over those 
 periods, the most trying in a preacher's life, God seemed 
 to stretch the hand of His power to support and guide 
 him with peculiar tenderness. He took charge of the 
 church in Alexandria, when youthful inexperience, 
 added to the fascination of his person, and the charm of 
 his eloquence, exposed him to danger of every kind. 
 That church was particularly fitted to encourage, 
 sustain, and guard him. They appreciated his personal 
 qualities; believed as he did ; walked unitedly in all the 
 doctrines and ordinances of the Lord blameless ; and 
 threw around their young pastor a love as careful of 
 his spiritual welfare, as it was anxious to secure his 
 temporal comfort. 
 
 Long-continued pre-eminence raised up against him 
 many foes. The daring, and unqualified assertion of the 
 truth, brought upon him unmerited obloquy and 
 reproach. And then, when a ministry of thirty years 
 had beeu accomplished ; when the fire of youth no 
 longer burned ; when the vigor of manhood was nearly 
 spent ; when the almond tree began to blossom, and the 
 stealing hand of time was slowly taking away all the 
 props and pride of human strength, the same kind Mas- 
 ter brought him to the First Baptist Church in the city 
 of Xew York — a church so like his first charge, that he 
 seemed to have gone back again to the days of his 
 youth, and in the delightful associations with which 
 they surrounded him " renewed his strength like the 
 eagles." 
 
 With this beloved church he continued to labor 
 happily and successfully to the end. Their hearts were 
 one, and the love of pastor and people for each other 
 tender and unvaried. A little knot of evil-minded 
 persons, among whom were some of the trustees, who 
 
 12* 
 
27tt LIFE OF SPENCE3 HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 were not members of the church, opposed him and his 
 principles, but the church put them away from her as 
 troublers of Zion, and folded their pastor to their hearts 
 with a warmer and more determined affection. In 
 truth, pastor and people were fitted to each other by 
 a nicer than human cunning. God touched their hearts 
 together, with the coals from off His altar, and kindled 
 between them an equal flame of ardor in His service, 
 and loving confidence in each other. Their pastor 
 loved them with all the generous warmth and strong 
 passion of his nature ; and they returned his affection an 
 hundred fold into his own bosom. They understood 
 and appreciated him, and he felt and knew it. They 
 were, in his own language, " A lovely church" to him, 
 strong in doctrine, ardent in the Lord's work, and the 
 fear of man was not upon them. Through all his trials 
 in the Revision cause, they held up his hands, and 
 strengthened his heart, by their sympathy, their gener- 
 osity, and their prayers. When he was in trouble, they 
 sought him ; when his enemies raged against him, they 
 defended him, and were as a living wall about him ; and 
 when the dearest earthly tie was broken, and she in 
 whom he had garnered up his heart lay no longer in the 
 bosom, that for more than forty years had pillowed that 
 darling head — they comforted him. May his Master, 
 and theirs, bless them for ever. 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 275 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 1841 to 1815. 
 
 "Writing to Rev. R. E. Pattison, corresponding se c- 
 retaiy of the Missionary Union in 1811, at a time when 
 the excess of expenditures over its receipts filled the 
 minds of all connected with it with anxiety, he says, 
 " As to the state of our treasury, I can only say, I 
 deeply lament it. Such help as I may command, you 
 may always rely upon, for while I have my senses, 
 the work and cause of Missions must he the business of 
 my life." 
 
 They had, indeed, been the great business of his 
 Christian life from the dawn of its first day. ~Nov 
 were his sympathies exhausted upon the foreign field. 
 Ardently as he was attached to the Missions and 
 Missionaries in Europe and Asia, the destitution of his 
 own beloved country, and the desire to spread through- 
 out it, everywhere, the preaching of a pure Gospel, and 
 the circulation of pure versions of the living oracles 
 of God, lay ever upon his heart. He never bent his 
 knee at the family altar without praying for his native 
 land, as a child might pray for a parent tenderly 
 beloved. And she had not only his prayers, but his 
 daily exertions in aid of every effort made in her behalf. 
 
 " I have labored," he says, " in the cause of Baptist 
 Home Missions for more than forty years. Long before 
 the present organization was projected (the American 
 Baptist Home Mission Society), I discharged the duties 
 both of corresponding and recording secretary of the 
 
276 LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON" CONTE, 
 
 New York Baptist Domestic Mission Society, and since 
 the foundation of the American Baptist Home Mission 
 Society, have endeavored to promote its usefulness, with 
 heart and hand, tongue and pen, as God has graciously 
 afforded means and opportunity." 
 
 lie was a constituent member of that society at its 
 formation, April 27th, 1832. 
 
 He was elected one of its directors in 1832, '35, '36, 
 '37, '38, and '39. Elected vice president 1810, '11, '12, 
 and 13. He was also elected a member of the execu- 
 tive Board, May 1st, 1832, and was re-elected annually 
 till 1815, when he resigned. 
 
 In May, 1839, he was chosen chairman of the Board, 
 and held the office annually thereafter, till his resigna- 
 tion in 1815. 
 
 He was re-elected a member of the Board, and by 
 the Board as their chairman, in May, 1819, and 
 remained in both positions till April, 1855, when he 
 again resigned. 
 
 After so many years of harmonious action, and 
 extended influence, the vexed question of slavery intro- 
 duced itself into the society, and led to the same 
 unhappy results, which have attended its discussion in 
 every religious body in the United States. The force 
 of his character, his eloquence, and his fine tact in the 
 management of a deliberative body averted the threaten- 
 ed storm at Baltimore, in 1811 ; but it very soon 
 gathered again in the distance, and assuming propor- 
 tions too vast for human control, burst finally upon the 
 different societies with destructive violence. 
 
 Dr. Dagg, of Georgia, very clearly and succinctly 
 details the principal events preceding, and immediately 
 conducing to the separation between Northern and 
 Southern Baptists in the benevolent societies, which had 
 up to that time been sustained by their united force. 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGIITON CONE. 277 
 
 K Brother Cone exerted his influence," says Dr. Dagg, 
 "to prevent the unhappy division, which separated the 
 Baptists of the Korth and South from eacli other. One 
 of the first decisive steps in effecting this separation, 
 was taken by the American Baptist Home Mission 
 Society, in refusing to appoint the Rev. James E. 
 Beeves of Georgia, as a missionary. The Baptist Con- 
 vention of Georgia, at its session in 1844 (April), 
 instructed its executive committee to recommend Mr. 
 Beeves for an appointment, and at the same time to 
 inform the Board of the Home Mission Society that he 
 was a slaveholder. A suspicion was spreading among 
 the members of the Convention, that the Board would 
 not knowingly appoint a slaveholder to office ; and a 
 call was made to test this matter. In compliance with 
 the instructions of the Convention, the Executive com- 
 mittee, of which I was a member, made the application 
 in the manner prescribed. 
 
 Fearing that it might be rejected, and that disastrous 
 results would follow, I wrote a private letter to Brother 
 Cone, who was a member of the Home Mission Board, 
 urging his attention to the subject. His reply, given in 
 the following letter of October 10th, 1841:, exhibits his 
 position on this question. He says : 
 
 " After five meetings upon the subject, each meeting 
 of at least three hours' continuance, the Board of the 
 American Bible Home Mission Society, adopted, by a 
 vote of 7 to 5, the accompanying preamble and resolu- 
 tions (adverse to appointing Mr. Beeves). One brother 
 was excused from voting, on the ground that the ques- 
 tion was pressed, before he had had time to make up 
 his mind upon its merits. The final question was taken 
 by yeas and nays (the first instance of the kind since 
 the formation of the society), by which you may learn 
 
2(0 LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 that the brethren deemed it of importance ' to define 
 their position.' 
 
 " I regret this result, and did all in my power to pre- 
 vent it ; believing as I do, that the constitution knows 
 nothing of slavery or anti-slavery, I besought the 
 brethren to act as we always had done, until the con- 
 stitution should be altered. I suppose there will be a 
 separation between the North and South next April, in 
 our Home Mission operations ; as many brethren have 
 declared their unwillingness to commission a slave- 
 holder as a missionary, although I have assured them 
 that we must appoint such ministers as the South fellow- 
 ship and recommend, or the society must be dissolved. 
 Some of the members of our Board, who have the same 
 constitutional views with myself, would have voted for 
 the application from Georgia, if nothing had oeen said 
 about Brother Beeves being a slaveholder ; but they 
 construed this mere matter of information into an 
 ungenerous and offensive ' test,' and upon that word 
 ' test 1 — resolutions and amendments were hung — in 
 every possible shape and form, until I was sick at 
 heart. 
 
 " It is my opinion that a Southern Baptist Home Mis- 
 sion Society could do more to supply preachers for the 
 South, than the National Society has ever done ; and I 
 suppose there are brethren in Richmond to form an 
 efficient board. 
 
 " My aim and prayer has been to separate the South 
 and North, if we must separate, kindly, and like good 
 Baptists ; and if we should have a balance in our Trea- 
 sury, belonging to the South, I would have it repaid 
 honestly to the last cent. But my fear is, not only that 
 the Home Mission Society will be dissolved, but that 
 the South will also withdraw from our Foreign Mission 
 
LITE OF SPENCER HCUGHTON CONE. 279 
 
 and Bible Society, and this would be disastrous in 
 many ways ; and this last we must prevent if the Lord 
 will. 
 
 " "Were I in the sunny South, I should see a wide field 
 opened for the spread of the Gospel among Indians and 
 negroes, as well as destitute whites. Baptists have 
 both men and money — but where is the heart to use 
 them? 
 
 "With your views of the independence of the 
 churches, and their right to decide the standing of min- 
 isters and members, I, of course, cordially agree. 
 Indeed, it fills me with surprise that any Baptist of 
 sound mind should think or act differently. But I have 
 lived to see good brethren think one sentiment, and act 
 ovd, another; and then be very much hurt if charged 
 with inconsistency." 
 
 This letter fully demonstrates, that, if his counsels 
 could have prevailed, the unhappy division would not 
 have occurred, which has wrought such mischief in our 
 denomination, and which, taken in connection with like 
 divisions in other religious denominations threatens to 
 dissolve the ties which bind the United States together, 
 and bring our national government to an end." 
 
 The efforts for the amelioration of the condition of the 
 American Indian, and the spread of the Gospel among 
 the different tribes, opens an interesting and varied 
 chapter in the history of Baptist Home Missions. Mr. 
 Cone's early and never-flagging interest in them ; his 
 close and fraternal connection with their chief mission- 
 ary, and the well-known frequency of his appeals in 
 behalf of those to whom the advancement of civiliza- 
 tion on this continent had brought only misery and 
 injustice, ally the subject intimately with the record of 
 his life. Previous, however, to entering upon a more 
 detailed statement of the Indian mission and his connec- 
 
280 LIFE OF SPENCER HOtJGHTON CONE. 
 
 tion with it, we insert here a communication from the 
 .Rev. John Bates of Cascade, Iowa, going to illustrate his 
 general interest in all missionary operations. The He v. 
 Mr. Bates says : " It was in April, 1848, that I landed 
 in New York, a perfect stranger, to beg for the erection 
 of a Baptist meeting-house in Ireland. From the fact 
 that Mr. Dunbar, I think, of McDougal street, had sent 
 a communication to Ireland about the famine, I found 
 him out and called to see him. He said, ' You had better 
 call and see Brother Cone, as all will be pretty much 
 guided by his movement.' I called on him, told him 
 my tale, and he replied in substance as follows (I would 
 not defend the words but the substance is perfectly true). 
 " I am glad to see you, but you can get nothing to build 
 churches. We are flooded with men tor this object 
 from the West. Could you not beg for your Irish 
 Society ? That is doing a noble work, and then I will 
 help you as far as I can. Yet, I fear you may not get 
 much, as we have our Home Mission now, and are in 
 that respect differently circumstanced to what we were 
 when Brother Davis was here in 1832, and collected 
 between $5,000 and $6,000 to aid your society. After a 
 little more conversation about my object, and an in vita- 
 tion to call upon him whenever I wanted advice, in 
 withdrawing, he said, " I shall make a recommendation 
 of your object in your collecting-book, give you a sub- 
 scription myself, and the First Church will take up a col- 
 lection on your behalf. We must do something for poor 
 Ireland, whether it is in building the meeting-house or 
 for the funds of the society. 
 
 " In writing the recommendation in my collecting- 
 book, he urged ' the churches cheerfully and promptly 
 to aid in this work,' setting an example by giving a 
 donation of $10 himself, and his church the largest col- 
 lection I had from any one in America. 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 281 
 
 " I preached for him several times, and frequently 
 called on him for advice, as lie took a lively interest in 
 the object of my visit, and ' deeply felt the necessity of 
 spreading the Gospel in Ireland, as the only remedy for 
 her woes.' 
 
 " One day, in walking with him from his own resi 
 dence to the First Church, he paused, and said, as ho 
 gently put his hand on my shoulder, 'Brother Bates, 
 I wish you would send for your family and stop in 
 America.' I replied that I must go back, and inquired 
 'if Ireland did not need the Gospel?' 'Oh, yes,' was 
 his prompt reply ; ' go back and labor in that destitute 
 country, and God bless you. Situated as it is on the 
 great pathway of the Atlantic, from England to Amer- 
 ica, it ought to be occupied by American as well as 
 English Baptists, seeing that so many come to our 
 shores." In conversing with him on this point, he 
 evidently felt much for Ireland, and thought that it was 
 ' ground for American missions quite as much as 
 English," and if any project had been started among 
 the English and American Baptists for the more perfect 
 occupation of the island, I believe that his heart and 
 soul would have been thrown into the subject. 
 
 " As regards any description of him as a preacher, I 
 feel that I am unable for the task. He possessed clear 
 views of Divine truth, and in an eloquent manner pecu- 
 liarly his own, he proclaimed the message of Divine 
 mercy in silvery tones, with beautiful simplicity, great 
 tenderness, and earnest zeal. The great characteristics 
 of his heart and mind seemed to be an invincible desire 
 to set forth the Gospel in all its heavenly light, linked 
 with an unquenchable thirst for the salvation of men." 
 
 To return, however, t > the subject of Indian missions 
 from which the kind and valuable letter just given has 
 diverted us. 
 
282 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 In 1817, Isaac McCoy was appointed by the Board 
 of Managers of the Baptist Missionary Convention, for 
 the United States, a Missionary to the American Indi- 
 ans. His earlier labors were performed in Indiana and 
 Illinois, then the realization of that indefinite American 
 idea, "the far West." The acquaintance of Isaac McCoy 
 with the subject of our memoir commenced at a very 
 early period of his missionary enterprise. The word 
 enterprise is, indeed, the only one which describes the 
 undertaking. It was long considered almost chimerical 
 to attempt anything for the moral or physical ameliora- 
 tion of the condition of the American Indian, and the 
 best men doubted the wisdom or practicability of the 
 effort. Indeed, even after the astonishing successes of 
 Isaac McCoy, successes achieved in the teeth of every- 
 thing that would have disheartened a man less sanguine, 
 or less faithful, no clear and hearty support was ever 
 afforded him. It was the task of Spencer H. Cone, a 
 task performed with the ungrudging heartiness of faith 
 and love, to stand between him and many who failed to 
 comprehend the value of his services in the cause of 
 missions, or the generous scope of his benevolence. 
 Thus, when unfounded tales had been told to McCoy's 
 discredit, and the majority of the Board of Missions in 
 Boston were inclined to believe, and act upon them, 
 he says, in a letter to Dr. Bolles, secretary of the Board 
 of Missions, December 29th, 1829, " I am not inclined 
 
 to put • and McCoy on the same shelf. It is not in 
 
 my natv/re to give up a friend because others do, and, 
 therefore, without intending the slightest disrespect to 
 the pious and intelligent Boston brethren, I must wait 
 for more light." 
 
 lie waited ; the light shone on the character of Mc- 
 Coy, and showed him, by every new discovery, to be only 
 the more worthy of friendship, affection, and support. 
 
LIFE OF SrKKCEE HOUGHTON CONE. 283 
 
 Isaac McCoy was one of the most lovable men we 
 ever had the happiness of being acquainted with. Liv- 
 ing his whole life amongst wild Indian tribes, and 
 wilder frontiers-men ; living a life of exposure, vicissi- 
 tude, and hardships scarcely to be described ; always in 
 the saddle or the camp, and every day risking life and 
 limb to preach the Gospel amongst those whom all the 
 rest of the world seemed, to conspire to destroy or 
 forget — his mind and manners, instead of becoming 
 rude or hard in these rough uses and associations, grew, 
 all the while, softer, holier, and more loving. Nothing 
 could be finer than his manners. Never familiar, and 
 carrying in his quiet eye an indescribable something, 
 which prevented any one from ever being familiar with 
 him, he never repelled. On the contrary, he attracted; 
 children loved him. Men were compelled to feel, in his 
 company, that they were near something, good, kind, and 
 noble. The warm coloring of the heart tinged his words 
 and manner, quiet as they were, in everything he did or 
 said. If you had done anything true or good, you knew 
 he loved you for it. When he looked at you, you felt 
 there was no selfish thought or scheme working in his 
 mind; but that he was thinking what he could do for 
 y<mr benefit, or happiness, or for the benefit of some poor 
 soul that was in need of others' help and kindness. 
 
 That two such hearts as his and Spencer II. Cone's 
 should beat in unison; that their trust and confidence in 
 each other should be without limit or reserve, w^as a 
 thing of course. To know each other but a little, was 
 to ripen acquaintance into friendship ; to know each 
 other better, and have their hearts laid into each other's 
 hands, as they soon were, like open books where every 
 pure and generous thought was plainly written, was to 
 deepen friendship into a loving brotherhood strong as 
 that of Jonathan and David. " I love McCoy tenderly," 
 
284 LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 he says, to Dr. Bolles, in a letter dated April 26th, 1827. 
 Hon. Pieman Lincoln says, in a late letter to us: " Your 
 father was deeply interested in the welfare of the Indian 
 tribes on the frontiers of our country. He was actively 
 engaged in many important measures for their instruc- 
 tion and conversion to Christianity. Our friend, Isaac 
 McCoy, who devoted his life to the benefit of the red- 
 men of the forest, depended more upon his counsel 
 and assistance than upon any other individual. They 
 are now, we hope, mutually reaping their reward in 
 Heaven." One accustomed to distinguish betwen men, 
 or observe with any nicety the shades of human char- 
 acter and human callings as developed in their manner, 
 would, before they knew his occupation, have fancied 
 Isaac McCoy habitually the denizen of a court. There 
 could be no finer illustration of how much the heart has 
 to do with the bearing and manner, than was shown in 
 him, and it is, therefore, worthy to be recorded, as high 
 evidence of the truth, that a Christian gentleman is the 
 most perfect gentleman in the world. The manners of 
 the courtier may have exquisite finish and polish, as the 
 result of daily intercourse with the refined and great, 
 but something too much of care and nicety betra} T s 
 them often to be merely the fine covering of gross 
 wishes and selfish purpose. When, however, as in 
 Isaac McCoy, to a heart all love to man, and faith in 
 God, is added the warm glow of its passionate and eager 
 longing after opportunity to do good to all men, elegance 
 of manner comes to he but the reflection of a holy and 
 universal benevolence. 
 
 McCoy had not only to contend with nature in its 
 ruggedest form, and learn the full penalty of Adam in 
 breasting the seasons' change ; not only to meet the dif- 
 ficulties of an intercourse with wild men and savage 
 habits, but away beyond the limits of civilized life, he 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 285 
 
 was met and opposed, and often thwarted, by one of its 
 most dangerous developments. The ubiquitous Jesuit 
 followed or preceded him, and busied himself with. 
 
 sowing doubt in the minds of the red-men of the forest, 
 and planting- thorns everywhere beside the pathway of 
 the Baptist Missionary. At Fort Wayne, one of his 
 earliest stations, he came first in contact with them, and 
 recognized a new and powerful element of opposition. 
 Three priests visited the station, one immediately 
 commenced preaching on the subject of Baptism. "I 
 soon became convinced," says McCoy, " that his design 
 was to provoke altercation with me, which he might, 
 through the Catholics mingling with the Indians, turn to 
 the disadvantage of our mission. I had been admonish- 
 ed by their prejudices, soon after I became a missionary, 
 to be ever on the alert with regard to them." His con- 
 ciliatory bearing, and refusal to enter upon a warfare of 
 polemics before such an audience, averted the threatened 
 storm. 
 
 Certain of his own brethren were quite as hostile as 
 the Jesuit missionaries. " In 1818," he says, " 1 met 
 at the Silver Creek Baptist Association, in Indiana, a 
 certain minister of that State, who violently opposed all 
 our missionary operations, and, as I thought, needlessly 
 provoked altercation, not to say strife. He was marshal 
 of the State, and, in discharge of official duties, visited 
 Fort Wayne in 1822." 
 
 McCoy invited this violent opposer to his house ; 
 showed him his school, and his scholars ; gave him the 
 opportunity of making himself fairly and fully acquaint- 
 ed with all he had done, and was doing. The effect of 
 personal acquaintance w.th the facts, was such that, "on 
 his return home, he wrote to Colonel Richard M. John- 
 son, then a member of Congress, highly commending 
 the mission, its prospects, &c." 
 
286 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 The marshal of Indiana was not a solitary instance 
 of perverse sentiments prevailing in the Baptist mind 
 with regard to the Indian Mission : and against both 
 lukewarm friends and open foes, McCoy had scarcely a 
 single unwavering supporter, in the leading men of the 
 denomination, besides Mr. Cone, for some of the most 
 laborious and trying years of his missionary life. 
 
 Left without resources in the very commencement of 
 his labors, and when everything began to bear the most 
 favorable aspect for their success ; oppressed with debt 
 contracted for support of the mission and its schools, he 
 set out in company with the mail carrier, and traversed 
 the desert to Detroit. " On reaching Detroit, my busi- 
 ness was with General Cass (then Governor of Michigan 
 Territory), who listened to the story of our wants with a 
 sympathy that does honor to humanity, and having 
 control of some public means, he was so kind as to 
 promise me aid. He furnished about four hundred and 
 fifty dollars' worth of clothing and food for our Indian 
 scholars." 
 
 To General Cass, indeed, the mission was frequently 
 indebted for invaluable services. Its rivals and oppo- 
 nents, the Catholics, were openly favored by many 
 Indian agents and men holding official station on the 
 frontier, to the prejudice and exclusion of the Baptist 
 missions and missionaries from the benefit of lands and 
 funds set apart by government for the purpose of Indian 
 education and improvement. The wrong and injustice 
 was very great, and conflicted directly with the spirit 
 and intention of the authorities at Washington, and the 
 policy of the American government, in matters of 
 religious concern. That policy has been under all 
 administrations to preserve a strict impartiality, and 
 apply the funds set apart for the improvement of the con- 
 dition of the Indian tribes, w T ithcut reference to sectarian 
 
LIFE OF SPENCEE HOUG/ITON CONE. 28f 
 
 systems or divisions. To prevent the perversion of 
 government funds and lands, McCoy depended greatly 
 upon Mr. Cone's acquaintance and influence with Andrew 
 Jackson, Lewis Cass, and Kichard M. Johnson — the 
 three men, of all the men in the United States, who took 
 the most direct, and constant interest in the Indian 
 tribes and were always foremost to do them good, as 
 far as their personal or official power extended. 
 
 The financial condition of the mission was but little 
 improved down to the year 1833 ; occasional aid was 
 procured from government, and the Board of Missions, 
 but from neither sufficient to relieve them entirely from 
 their embarrassments. 
 
 June 20th, 1833, McCoy writes to Rev. Charles E. 
 Wilson, " Our friend, Mr. S. 11. Cone, has recently had 
 a personal interview with the Secretary of War (General 
 Cass) on the subject of the Baptist mission amongst the 
 Choctaws. The Secretary has promised to appoint you 
 one of the three teachers stipulated for in the treaty of 
 Dancing Rabbit Creek, * * * * forward your 
 testimonials to Dr. Bolles, also a copy to Mr. Cone, and 
 one to me. 
 
 " You will perceive by the treaty at Doak's stand, 
 October, 1820, that 51 sections (640 acres each) of land 
 are to be sold to raise a fund for the support of schools. 
 By the treaty at Dancing Creek, 1830, the United States 
 agreed to keep 10 Choctaw youths in school for twenty 
 years. This I presume has been intended for Colonel 
 Johnson's school. 
 
 "By the treaty at Washington, January, 1825, the 
 sum of $0,000, annually, for twenty years, is to be applied 
 to the support of schools in the Choctaw nation. 
 
 ••It seems to be the opinion of Mr. Cone that with 
 the $6,000 annual appropriation it is contemplated by 
 the government to establish in the nation about ten 
 
288 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 primary schools, and that the three schools provided for 
 by the treaty of 1830, under the management of the 
 three teachers, shall he schools of a higher order." 
 
 In a letter to Dr. Belles, August, 27th, 1830, Mr. Cone 
 says — " Suppose the government should choose to do 
 nothing for another year or two ; must we be still and 
 not lift a linger in the cause ; are our benevolent enter- 
 prises suspended upon the will of politicians and ungodly 
 men? I hope not. I have no doubt that missionaries 
 could be called out, and funds raised for their support 
 (with reference to the American Indians) with just as 
 much ease as has been accomplished for the heathen 
 abroad ;" and in a letter to the same, October 13th, 
 1830 : " It is a grief to me that I am not able to coin- 
 cide with the views of the board, as expressed in yours 
 of 16th ultimo. You say, ' we have had our convictions 
 severely tried, whether we should continue to have any 
 connection with the government," and yet you say — 
 ' it appears to us inexpedient to do more than follow 
 them ; but hazard nothing by anticipation." Now I 
 cannot think it right to follow or wait for government 
 or ungodly men, in this matter. It is our duty to go 
 forward / if the earth be made to help the woman, it is 
 well ; but if not, the Master still says to us, ' Go ye — ■ 
 preach the Gospel,' &c. And relying on His promised 
 aid, we must with sacred courage go. There are 
 already many Indians west of the Mississippi — have they 
 no claims upon us ?" 
 
 In a letter of the same date as the last quoted from 
 him, McCoy writes to Mr. Cone — " I rejoice much to 
 hear of the favorable reception you met with at 
 Washington. I have no doubt that much benefit will 
 be produced by your visit. Your visits to that place 
 must be repeated. I have heard nothing as yet from 
 General Clark about surveying — I hope I shall soon. 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 289 
 
 I am sensibly affected, and so are my family, with your 
 kindness in offering to contribute towards our support 
 May the Lord abundantly reward you and yours with 
 better things than { the meat that perisheth.' Should 
 necessity oblige me, I shall thankfully avail myself of 
 your kindness. Still I hope that the Lord will provide 
 some other way for me to live. It is a source of much 
 grief to me that the procuring support for my family, 
 under my peculiar circumstances, occupies my head 
 and my hand so much as greatly to abridge their labors 
 in Indian matters. Be assured that your solicitude for 
 the welfare of the Indians, and your kindness to me, are 
 appreciated." 
 
 McCoy and all that concerned him lay constantly at 
 his heart, and were the daily subject of his thoughts and 
 prayers. He knew his devoted spirit, his noble sacrifice 
 of every selfish consideration to the call of duty, and 
 sympathized with them. How could he do otherwise, 
 with such a touching evidence as the following before 
 him. " I think," says McCoy, " I will tug along as I 
 am some three or four months longer. If the matter of 
 giving to the Indians a permanent home and territorial 
 government were once established on a footing that 
 would facilitate the labors of missionaries, I should feel 
 the less concern about the manner of spending the little 
 life which remains to me. 
 
 " Do not imagine, my dear friend, that because I am 
 earning nothing for the support of my family, I am 
 doing nothing in Indian business. I am busily employed 
 in labors for the benefit of these poor people, and hope 
 to continue busy until about the time that the last loaf 
 comes to the table" 
 
 Lone: before this Mr. Cone had learned so well tc 
 appreciate the " dauntless temper of his mind," and the 
 
 13 
 
290 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 character of his services as a missionary, that he writes 
 to Dr. Bolles : 
 
 " I know not how it is, my brother, but the sentiment 
 is deeply imprinted upon my heart, that while the 
 Elliots and Brainards are remembered, the name of 
 Isaac McCoy, the red-man's benefactor, will not be foi 
 gotten. Let us think of him in our daily orisons." 
 
 To entirely understand McCoy's position, it must bo 
 kept in mind, that his constant desire and ambition w.is 
 to pursue his course as a missionary with as little help 
 from the Board of Missions as possible. Thus he says, in 
 the same letter : " Whatever may be the duty of thp 
 Board in respect to offering me a living, I am deter 
 mined not to accept of a dollar, so long as 1 can live 
 without it and still work for the Indians." 
 
 His main dependence, therefore, was upon the gov- 
 ernment of the Cnited States, and in their employment 
 as a surveyor of government lands, or other small offices 
 in and about the Indian reservations, he contrived 
 to eke out a precarious subsistence. To many of these 
 Mr. Cone had the happiness of being able to procure his 
 appointment. What men of the world would think a 
 foolish honesty prevented McCoy from being a very 
 rich man. At almost eveiy cession of their lands to the 
 United States by the Indian tribes, they insisted upon 
 making it one of the conditions of the cession that he 
 should receive a part of the land conveyed, and the 
 expression of their desire would have ensured the 
 prompt acquiescence of the government. But he inva- 
 riably and peremptorily forbade it. His desire was for 
 the soul of the Indian, not his lands ; and his knowledge 
 of human nature taught him that the least appearance 
 even of a selfish care of his own interests would destroy 
 his usefulness amongst them as a missionary. 
 
LIFE OF SPENCEE KOUGIITON CONE. 291 
 
 What kind of a life lie chose, rather than one of ease 
 and opulence, appears by an extract or two from a letter 
 of 1835, to Mr. Cone. "Not long since, Mr. Lykins 
 received a letter from you, in which yon informed him 
 that the Secretary of War had directed that surveying 
 should be given me, sufficient to employ my time 
 through the year, and directing him to inform you if I 
 had been thus employed. In answer to you, I say, that 
 they wrote me from the War Office that General William 
 Clark, superintendent for Indian affairs in St. Louis, had 
 been directed to employ me to survey one tract on the 
 Mississippi, provided he had not previously made an 
 arrangement with some other person to perform the 
 work. Clark wrote me that he had employed another 
 person prior to receiving instructions from the Secretary 
 of War in my favor. This I believe was not true. But 
 it happened as I expected when I discovered that there 
 Was a discretion left with Clark. General Clark is 
 under the influence of the St. Louis Catholics, and of St. 
 Louis infidelity. lie has ever been fair to my face, but 
 he has never been my friend, and he will not do 
 anything for me, only as he is compelled. I have no 
 business from government. About half my time I 
 employ in writing, and in other matters relating to our 
 missions. The other half /spend in posting hooks for 
 n< ighbori/rbg merehemts, for which I receive moderate 
 wages. We have also three or four men commonly 
 boarding with us, which brings us a little profit and 
 a good deal of trouble. By these means, and by selling 
 some movable property, which we could spare with 
 least inconvenience, I am yet unembarrassed in pecuni- 
 ary circumstances. 
 
 " I feel ashamed to trouble jou with these little 
 things when you have so many mighty men and matters 
 
292 LIFE OF SPENCER I OUGHTON CONE. 
 
 to engross your attention, hut I know who I am writing 
 
 tor 
 
 He knew well who he was writing to, and his confi- 
 dence was not misplaced, as the prompt action of the 
 government proved. In his next, Mi-. McCoy writes, 
 "Your valuable letters of the 5th September were 
 received here in my absence to St. Louis. The corres- 
 pondence which you had the kindness to open with the 
 Secretary of War in my behalf, resulted in a communi- 
 cation promptly made to me by General Clark, proposing 
 to give me the surveying of the northern boundaries of 
 the Osage and Kansas lands. Clark had intended 
 to give the work to another person had you not inter- 
 posed in my behalf. I have taken it. It will be four or 
 five months' labor, and will be worth to me six or seven 
 hundred dollars. I believe your kindness to me will be 
 rewarded to you and yours by our Heavenly Father." 
 
 Five y r ears before this time Isaac McCoy was one 
 winter a guest at Mr. Cone's house, in New York under 
 very painful circumstances, and whilst there all the 
 family learned to love him. 
 
 He had arrived one very cold day in the mid-winter 
 when most of the family were absent. The servant 
 admitted him. He put off his overcoat, and asked for 
 water to wash his face and hands. He then sat down 
 in the parlor, and waited quietly the return of some of 
 the family. He must have remained thus for more 
 than an hour. When *Mr. and Mrs. Cone came in, 
 after exchanging the usual greetings of friends who had 
 been long separated, and answering the many questions 
 always put at such times, he said quietly : 
 
 " We have had an accident coming from Philadelphia, 
 and I fear I am seriously injured. I believe, Brother 
 Cone, some of my ribs are broken." 
 
LIFE OF SrFXCER HOUGHTON CONE. 203 
 
 Everybody was, of course, instantly on the alert to aid 
 him. Mr. Cone assisted him to his chamber, and put 
 him to bed, and for nearly six weeks he had to lift and 
 turn him like an infant. 
 
 His own account, given in his " History of Indian 
 Affairs," published in 1810, shows against what suffering 
 he sustained himself, without a groan or complaint on 
 that occasion. 
 
 "At this time the subject of Indian removal was 
 warmly agitated, and numerous memorials reached 
 Congress, opposed to the collocation of the tribes in the 
 "West. In order that those in Congress who opposed the 
 measure might not have all the argument to be drawn 
 from memorials on their side, I wrote to friends in divers 
 places what I deemed to be the true state of the case. 
 In order also to promote light views in reference to 
 memorializing Congress, and to confer with the board, 
 at its request, I went to Philadelphia, where I remained 
 ten days. I had left Philadelphia but a few miles for 
 New York, on the 13th of February, 1830, when the 
 stage capsized, and so injured me that for sometime my 
 recovery was doubtful. One of my shoulders was much 
 injured, several ribs broken, and my chest was so 
 crushed by r a vast weight which fell upon me, that my 
 breast and sides ever after remained much out of natu- 
 ral shape. 
 
 At the time, I thought it probable that I should not 
 recover, and made a vigorous effort to reach the residence 
 of my untiling friend, Mr. Cone, in New York. I was 
 conducted into his hospitable dwelling under circum- 
 stances which scarcely admitted a hope that I should 
 leave it with life. Here, with Mr. and Mrs. Cone, I 
 remained thirty-seven days, and when I left I was 
 barely able to move, being exceedingly sore and in 
 much pain. The kindness of these good people made a 
 
294 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 deep impression on my sense of gratitude, and that of 
 all my family. To their unremitted attention and their 
 ardent sympathies, and sensible and consoling conversa- 
 tion, when anxieties respecting my family, the Indians, 
 and the missionaries, were rapidly accumulating, may 
 be attributed in a great degree the agency which a gra- 
 cious God employed for my restoration. No doubt such 
 acts of kindness are noticed in heaven." 
 
 During his illness he had endeared himself to the 
 family by his patience in suffering, and the sweetness of 
 his manners, and they all parted with him with unaffec- 
 ted sorrow. 
 
 Crushed and helpless as he was, Mr. Cone was, ot 
 necessity as w T ell as choice, his constant nurse. McCoy 
 could not make the slightest effort either to turn or 
 change his position in the bed. His friend's great phy- 
 sical strength made him, under such circumstances, a 
 tenderer nurse than the kindest woman could have been. 
 He moved and handled him as if he were a child. Time 
 has not effaced the impression on their minds who were 
 the daily observers of those scenes. Nothing could be 
 more touching than to see those two men, whose lives 
 were governed by the same lofty sentiment of devotion 
 to the cause of human regeneration, giving ar.d receiving 
 from each other the tenderest evidences of an almost 
 "womanly affection. 
 
 If anything could increase the interest felt by Mr. 
 Cone in Indian missions, or enlist his sympathies and 
 efforts more actively in their behalf, it can hardly be 
 doubted that the relationship established between him- 
 self and Mr. McCoy at this time had such a tendency. 
 
 McCoy's ideas were never restricted to laboring as a 
 missionary in a single tribe. His mind was large and 
 comprehensive. All its powers were devoted without 
 intermission or distraction to the subject of the Indians. 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 295 
 
 He desired their conversion to Christianity, hut he took 
 in at a grasp, all the accidents and peculiarities of their 
 position and relationship to the whites, and saw the 
 necessity of combining their moral instruction with a 
 certain physical and social process of gradual concen- 
 tration and elevation. 
 
 In Mr. Cone he found a kindred spirit, capable of 
 holding all the threads of the difficult web it was neces- 
 sary to weave. The interest of speculators, Indian 
 traders, government agents, and a thousand others, 
 exercising a large influence at Washington, and on the 
 public mind, was interfered with by the success of the 
 missions. The elevation of the social condition of the 
 Indian rescued him from the influences of intemperance, 
 and all the crimes out of which their craft made great 
 gain. Separated himself by more than a thousand miles 
 from the centre to which all these influences against 
 him directed themselves, and from which they levelled 
 their secret attacks, McCoy depended constantly upon 
 his friend Mr. Cone, to frustrate or divert them. The 
 following extract, from a private letter of McCoy's, very 
 briefly and strongly develops the spirit which actuated 
 and sustained the difficulties which surrounded him. 
 
 '•You will easily perceive the critical state of Indian 
 affairs at this time. For the two latter sessions of Con- 
 gress, the scale has hung in suspense, or it has rather 
 indicated a preponderance unfavorable to the Indians. 
 
 " Do not accuse me of arrogance on account of the 
 remarks which I make to you. I am sensible of my 
 want of qualification, for the work about which I am 
 talking. I entered upon it because I believed it ought 
 to lie done, and no one else appeared inclined to do it. 
 I have no hope of success only as I labor on my knees. 
 
 "I have recently received information from govern- 
 ment, that there is no surveying or otl er business that 
 
296 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 can be given me this year (1835). I am now consuming 
 the proceeds of a little property that I owned before I 
 became a missionary, and a little beqneathed to lis by 
 my son Bice, neither of which I have ever supposed 
 that I could consume without great injustice to the 
 portion of my family which is still dependent upon me, 
 and which would have no other resources in the event 
 of my death." 
 
 And in reference to the effect of restricting himself to 
 a single station : 
 
 "Should I locate within an Indian tribe, and receive 
 support from the Board, my labors would become 
 limited to that tribe. "With the views which the Board 
 possess, I could do nothing for the promotion of the 
 Indian cause generally. My influence with govern- 
 ment would be destroyed. Had some person feelingly 
 interested in the welfare of the Indians, been in 
 Washington during the session before last, the Bill for 
 the organization of the Indian territory would probably 
 have passed." 
 
 McCoy's "History of Indian Affairs," refers constantly 
 to Mr. Cone, and the part he took in sustaining the 
 Indian missionaries and their cause. 
 
 " Rev. Mr. Cone, of In ew York, was a friend who 
 never forgot us, whether we were near or far off', who 
 kept himself informed of our circumstances, and. whose 
 generosity was equal to his zeal. 
 
 " About this time (September 1830), we had become 
 so scarce of funds that we were obliged to borrow 
 money to fit out Mr. Lykins for Michigan, and for the 
 support of our families, though I hoped to be able to 
 pay out of my earnings from government, when I 
 fihould receive it. Mr. Cone, knowing that we must 
 necessarily be scarce of funds, and that we were in a 
 land of strangers, wrote us, saying, that if we were in 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 297 
 
 want of funds we might draw on him. We were happy 
 that by credit in our place we were not under the neces- 
 sity of availing ourselves of his liberality. Some time 
 afterwards I accepted of a similar oiler, and received of 
 him a considerable sum, all of which I was afterwards 
 enabled to return." 
 
 We are sorry that we have been unable to obtain all 
 Mr. Cone's letters to Mr. McCoy ; the few that have 
 been put at our disposal through the kindness of the 
 Rev. J. Lykins, and which were all he was able to 
 collect at the time, relate chiefly to business matters 
 connected with Indian missions, and. would probably 
 not be generallv interesting. 
 
 None of Mr. Cone's many addresses on the subject 
 were ever reported. The habit of reporting the pro- 
 ceedings of benevolent societies, is indeed of very recent 
 date, and we owe its benefits entirely to the enterprise 
 of the American newspaper press. To the casual reports 
 of the New York press, made for the purpose of placing 
 before their readers specimens of the pulpit oratory of 
 the day, by distinguished clergymen of different 
 denominations, we owe all that is preserved, of the 
 sermons delivered by Mr. Cone. 
 
 Isaac McCoy, the great, intrepid, and devoted friend, 
 of the Indian, and faithful servant of the Cross, died in 
 1846. 
 
 Some record of his labors, and a mine of information 
 with regard to the native red-men of the American 
 Forest, are preserved in his "History of Indian Affairs." 
 His appreciation of the value of Mr. Cone's services in 
 the cause of Indian Missions appears from its dedica- 
 tion : — 
 
 13* 
 
298 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE, 
 
 President of the General Convention of the Baptist 
 
 Denomination in the United States, for Foreign 
 
 Missions, and other important objects 
 
 Relating to the Redeemer's 
 
 Kingdom, 
 
 THE CONSTANT AND ARDENT FRIEND OF THE INDIANS, 
 
 and for the last twenty-five years the efficient promoter of their 
 
 Temporal and Spiritual welfare, 
 
 The following pages are respectfully inscribed by 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 Mr. Cone, writing to Mrs. McCoy, July 30th, 1816, 
 says: "Your excellent husband, whom I truly loved, 
 has been taken away ; and you are left to weep as others 
 cannot weep. The world with all it calls good or great 
 can offer you no consolation : but there is a Friend who 
 Bticketh closer than a brother. Your dear McCoy has 
 obtained his discharge from the militant army a little 
 sooner than we have, that is all ; we must not grieve 
 that he is happy before us, having joined the triumphant 
 Host above." * * * 
 
 In this brief and imperfect sketch of the labors of 
 Isaac McCoy, we feel the delightful assurance that we 
 are to the best of our abilities discharging an inherited 
 duty. It was an often expressed sentiment of Mr. 
 Cone's heart, that American Baptists had never suf- 
 ficiently appreciated the life-long devotion of that 
 li friend of the red-man," to the cause of Indian Mis- 
 sions. 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 299 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 On the occasion of Mrs. Wade's visit to Philadelphia, 
 
 in 1834, his sister Martha writes to him, "Mrs. Wade 
 told me you were a dear friend of hers before ever you 
 saw her." The same feeling of friendship and reliance 
 possessed the hearts of almost all the missionaries in for- 
 eign lands. His whole course of action showed them 
 that he thought for them as he would for himself; and 
 made their griefs, and wants, and trials his own. From 
 this it resulted that he frequently dissented from the 
 "decisions of the Acting Board at Boston, and interposed 
 his influence between the missionaries and it. Whether 
 separated by many thousand miles of ocean from the 
 missionary, or in daily intercourse with the Board, 
 he neither forgot the one, nor allowed himself to be 
 unduly influenced by the other. His position was always 
 that of mediator and peace-maker in every difficulty or 
 misunderstanding which might arise between them. 
 His heart was in the cause; his eye glanced over all the 
 field ; and he viewed the whole system as a great war, 
 in which too many mighty interests were involved, to 
 allow any trifling or unworthy cause to disturb the har- 
 mony of its combinations. In a letter to Rev. T. T. 
 Devan, February 4th, 1850, he says, in reference to 
 united effort, "1 think I have looked over all this 
 subject for many years, carefully. I have occupied 
 from the commencement of our foreign missionary oper- 
 
300 LITE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 ations, such a position that everybody knew I would 
 go for icnion, and were there now anything that could 
 be construed into a want of confidence in the existing 
 organization, too many, alas ! would be ready to say, I 
 pray thee have me excused." At the same time he felt 
 that every missionary was a fellow-soldier, who was 
 nobly offering his life to that cause, and his constant 
 effort was to keep them before the Board in that light. 
 Thus writing to Dr. Peck, in 1841, he says, " It is and 
 has been my opinion that all may be set right by a cor- 
 respondence imbued with brotherly love ; based upon the 
 fact that missionaries love the cause of missions quite as 
 "well as those who remain at hqme and dwell in their 
 own ceiled houses." 
 
 It appears from his letters that he constantly urged 
 wider scope of effort, and the occupation of every field 
 their means permitted. He was for no tardy or hesitat- 
 ing course. He was not willing that the heathen 
 should be left to perish whilst the soldier of the Cross 
 spent years in buckling on his armor. As for instance, 
 in a letter to Dr. Bolles, dated December 27th, 1830, he 
 says, " The value of education I certainly appreciate, 
 and think a preacher of the Gospel cannot know too 
 much, although, it sometimes unhappily occurs, to use 
 the language of L. Richmond, that Christ is crucified in 
 the pulpit, between the classics and mathematics. 
 Those missionaries destined, like Judson, to translate 
 the Word of God, should be ripe scholars, before this 
 branch of their work is performed ; but I am still of 
 opinion that the learning of Dr. Gill himself would have 
 aided him but little, had he been a missionary to 
 our American Indians." 
 
 In the same letter, he says, " I drew the conclusion 
 that some of the members of the Acting Board are 
 opposed to the establishment of a mission in Greece. 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. SOI 
 
 I regret this met very much. We are commanded 
 to preach the Gospel to every creature. Can we give 
 any good reason for not preaching it in Greece? The 
 New Testament was written in Greek; a large propor- 
 tion of primitive churches were planted where the 
 language was spoken, and our denominational views are 
 evidently strengthened and extended by an acquaintance 
 with Greek." 
 
 In 1831, he urges also the planting of a mission 
 in France, and indeed procured the occupation of that 
 field and the appointment of the first Baptist Missionary 
 sent there by the Board, Professor Eostan, to whose 
 talent, ardent piety, and reputation as an able expound- 
 er of the Scriptures, he says, the most competent judges 
 bear high testimony. " As an expounder of the Word 
 of God, he was considered," he says, " by foes as well 
 as friends, one of the most gifted and powerful men 
 in France. He has the boldness of a Luther in his 
 Master's cause, and would march into the lion's den 
 without flinching, if duty called to the enterprise." 
 Such men he loved. 
 
 Hon. Heman Lincoln says of Mr. Cone, " He was one 
 of the earliest friends of Foreign Missions, and uniformly 
 manifested the deepest interest in that great enterprise 
 till the close of his useful life. In seasons of depression 
 he was always hopeful, and did much to cheer and 
 encourage the hearts of his brethren." 
 
 We have said elsewhere that he had many of the 
 qualities of a successful general. A single sentence in 
 one of his letters to Dr. Peck, secretary of the Board, 
 shows how naturally his mind threw every plan into 
 the shape it would naturally take in that of a captain. 
 " Your principle of concentration," he says, " I approve. 
 It is better for the purpose of conquest, to have one post 
 in the enemy's country which we can maintain, than 
 
302 LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 half-a-dozen from which to be driven one after ano- 
 ther." 
 
 The same quality of mind gave him a clear view 
 of the basis upon which permanent conquests must 
 be founded, lie insisted that, "pure translations" of 
 the Sacred Scriptures must be made for every people, 
 among whom missionaries were sent, without a moment's 
 unnecessary delay. Thus in 1844, he urges upon the 
 Board, through its secretary, Rev. R. E. Patterson, the 
 wisdom and necessity of taking immediate steps to perfect 
 the Chinese version. "Do you not," he says, " consider 
 Brother Dean a good Chinese scholar? Is the man yet 
 to be sent from the United States, to study the language 
 and some fifteen years hence furnish us with a transla- 
 tion of the New Testament? I think it of immense 
 moment that he should prosecute this business of circu- 
 lating the Sacred Scriptures in China, immediately and 
 vigorously. If we are to wait for perfection in the 
 translation department, this generation will pass away 
 before Baptists are ready to do anything more than pray 
 that the great wall of China may be broken down ! I 
 look over our convention field, and find the living 
 teacher is all the cry, and the Bible translated may be 
 put upon the shelf until a more convenient season. 
 There must be some new light upon this subject 
 since Thomas exclaimed, ' If I had one hundred thou- 
 sand pounds, I would give it all for a Bengalee Bible.' 
 Still my fixed sentiment is, the Bible and the missionary 
 must go together. The missionary must point to the 
 "Written Word as his authority — thus saith the Lord ! 
 And the converts among the heathen must have the 
 Scriptures to search — to see whether the missionary 
 preaches 'flesh and blood,' religion — the religion of man 
 or the religion of God. I am the more impressed with 
 the correctness of this sentiment from the fact — the inel- 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 303 
 
 anclioly fact — that a great many preachers, even in the 
 United Stales at this time, do everything in their 
 preaching, except explaining to the people ' God's plan 
 of saving sinners.' The time has emphatically come 
 when men must be directed to read the Bible for them- 
 selves, and make it the lamp to their feet and the light 
 to their path, amidst the Lo ! here and Lo ! there of liv- 
 iiitj teachers." 
 
 One other feature of his character, and which marked 
 it as that of a man (qualified for successful leadership, 
 was his attention to details. lie never forgot the least 
 minutiae, or apparent trifles connected with a great work. 
 It is related of Napoleon, that he often terrified com- 
 misaries and clerks, in remote parts of his empire, by 
 having them suddenly before him, and showing his 
 intimate knowledge of the most petty accounts kept by 
 them ; and that when lie was making combinations to 
 move a hundred thousand men from many different 
 points widely separated, and concentrate them upon a 
 single one, for the conquest of a kingdom, he knew 
 every ration of biscuit which ought to be supplied at 
 any given point on their line of march, and was par- 
 ticular to inspect even the quality of the shoe-strings 
 furnished by the contractors. All men really born and 
 qualified for command possess this niceness of research, 
 this analytical tendency of the mind to dissect the greatest 
 combinations, and examine the moral or physical atoms 
 of which they are composed. This was very strongly 
 evinced in Mr. Cone. None of the steps or minutiae of 
 a plan escaped him. He reasoned down from the effect 
 desired to the smallest thing necessary to be done, as 
 the commencement of a chain of sequences leading up 
 to it. If the Bible is to be translated and published in 
 India, he immediately examines what kind of press is the 
 best to print it on ; how paper, ink, type, pressmen — 
 
30-i LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 everything are to be got, and how much is to be saved by 
 buying in one market instead of another. For instance, 
 he says to the secretary of the Board in 1830: "In 
 writing to the East, will you ask tor definite information 
 touching printing-ink, paper, &c. — whether they could 
 not be sent from this country, of better quality and for 
 less money than they can be obtained in Asia ?" 
 
 We find him also, in 1830, suggesting the following — 
 " Our domestic cottons, I am told, are better and cheaper 
 than those of the East ; could not some pieces be sent 
 out, and be made up in Burmah ?" A pleasant illus- 
 tration of how he loved to look after everything for the 
 missionaries, is given in a letter to Dr. Peck, of July 
 12th, 1813 — " In a recent communication from Brother 
 Judson," he says, " he laments the loss of the ' church- 
 going bell,' from his Maul-main Zayat. Alas ! the 
 clapper was too heavy and cracked the bell, so that it 
 utterly refused thenceforth to send out any pleasant 
 sounds. Hence, take warning, good people all, that your 
 hammers are not too heavy, for it is much easier to crack 
 a bell than mend it. The moral of this history is, that 
 Brother Judson wishes me to send him another bell, and 
 you will oblige me by saying when you expect to have 
 an opportunity to send to Burmah V 
 
 As to the establishment of missionary stations, he 
 says — "In my letter to the committee, as a member of 
 the Board, with whom they expressed a strong desire to 
 act in harmony, I gave my opinion that missionary 
 stations were to be established where God opened the 
 door — not by human calculations : that great cities 
 were to be entered by the heralds of the Cross, when- 
 ever the way was open, and referred to the Apostles — 
 infallible guides — in Jerusalem, Samaria, Antioch, the 
 capitals of all Asia Minor, Philippi,, Rome, &c, and 
 also Calcutta, Hamburgh, &c, in modern missions. * * 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 305 
 
 I see a great work to bo done. We must he more 
 devoted — more spiritually-minded — more prayerful — • 
 more unselfish — or I fear the Muster will not let us do 
 it. If He delights in us for His dear Sou's sake, then 
 He will open doors in His providence, which no man 
 may shut, and we shall enter and labor until He shall 
 choose to say to us, one by one : ' Child, come up 
 higher.' " 
 
 We have attempted to give a few extracts from his 
 letters on missionary subjects. A mere glance at them 
 is all that can be ventured. Covering the history for 
 denominational effort for forty years, in every quarter of 
 the globe, a fair digest of them would constitute of itself 
 a larger volume than the present. 
 
 We can also barely refer to the great and successful 
 effort made by him for Oncken. The history of 
 Oncken's struggles, persecutions, and imprisonment in 
 Germany, is yet fresh in the minds of all. Many, too, 
 remember how warm the friendship which subsisted 
 between Mr. Cone and himself, and how, when Oncken 
 was persecuted and imprisoned for preaching in Luth- 
 eran Germany that Baptism was immersion, the former 
 devoted his entire energies to effect his liberation, and 
 to enlist in his behalf the governments of the United 
 States and Great Britain. Our space permits us only to 
 allude to it. His efforts to raise money for Oncken and the 
 circulation of the German Scriptures were vigorous, and 
 continued to the end. After Oncken's visit to this 
 country, and when personal acquaintance ripened admi- 
 ration and esteem into warm Christian friendship, it 
 may easily be conjectured that those efforts lost nothing 
 of their vigor. 
 
 Writing in 1848 to Eev. T. T. Devan, Mr. Cone says— 
 " You will perceive that we are making a strenuous 
 effort to raise at least $5,000 for German Scriptures, to 
 
306 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 be printed and circulated by Brother Oncken and his 
 coadjutors. We raised at least $1,000 in the First 
 Church, of which sum C. Thomas pledged $500. 
 The Lord return it into his own bosom a hundred- 
 fold." 
 
 The following interesting review of his connection 
 with missionary operations has been kindly furnished 
 by Baron StoAv, I). D., of Boston. He says: " As my 
 intercourse with your dear father, whether personal or 
 by correspondence, related mainly to missionary matters, 
 I have confined myself mostly to that department. 
 
 " I was in Europe in the spring of 1841, and therefore 
 caii furnish nothing from personal knowledge of the 
 circumstances touching his retirement from the presi- 
 dency of the General Convention. I have heard 
 different versions of the matter, and never had any 
 definite impression as to the real facts in the case. 
 
 "My acquaintance with him commenced in the year 
 1822, when he was pastor at Alexandria, and I was a 
 member of the Freshman class, in the Columbian 
 College. He had then been but a few years in the 
 Christian ministry; but I found that in the District of 
 Columbia, and in Maryland and Virginia, he was held in 
 high estimation, both as a man of great personal excel- 
 lence, and as an eloquent preacher. Of the churches 
 in that part of Virginia, lying between the Blue Ridge 
 and the Potomac, he was not far from being the idol. 
 
 " In April, 1823, the Baptist General Convention 
 held its Triennial session in Washington. Fifty-one 
 delegates were present, and among them was Mr. Cone. 
 
 Then 1 had the first opportunit} T to see proofs of that 
 interest in Christian Missions for which he was so lone; 
 distinguished, lie was not a member of the Conven- 
 tion at Philadelphia, in 1811, but at the next session in 
 1817, he was elected a member of the Board of 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 307 
 
 Managers, and from that day until his death he held 
 some important office in the institution. 
 
 " In April, 1826, the Convention met in Oliver street, 
 Kew York, where Mr. Cone had become pastor. In 
 that meeting it was easy to perceive the growing 
 influence which he w T as acquiring amongst his brethren, 
 and to anticipate the elevated position which he was 
 destined to reach. 
 
 " Among the delegates were such men as Semple, 
 Stanford, Mercer, Maclay, Staughton, Rice, Kendrick, 
 Gano, Bolles, Going, and others, his seniors, whom all 
 regarded with special deference ; but there was no one 
 whose uttered opinions commanded, more general 
 respect than those of Spencer H. Cone. His views of 
 missionary policy were then the same as he maintained 
 to the last, and they were clearly enunciated, though 
 uniformly with a considerate regard to the opinions of 
 others. At that session the Convention cut loose from 
 the educational interests, with which for nine years it 
 had been encumbered to the great detriment of its 
 missionary operations. In effecting that divorce, which 
 was not accomplished without a hard struggle, Mr. 
 Cone was strenuously active. He was a friend of the 
 Columbian College, and of its enterprising founders ; but 
 he desired a Missionary body to have singleness of 
 object — 'the diffusion of the Gospel, by means of 
 missions, throughout the world.' 
 
 "I had often heard him before, and have often heard 
 him since, but on no occasion have I heard him plead 
 so eloquently for the heathen, as during that, session of 
 the Convention. He loved the cause of education, but 
 he loved the great work of evangelization more, and 
 many of his fervid appeals for the vigorous prosecution 
 of the latter ; by the united force of the denomination I 
 
SOS LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 shall never forget. His spirit seemed to me to be 
 peculiarly in harmony with that of the Apostles. 
 
 " In 1832, he was elected president of the Convention ; 
 of his excellence, as a presiding officer, it would be 
 gratuitous to speak. It is conceded by all who ever saw 
 him in the chair. He was always self-possessed ; he was 
 familiar with rules of order ; he had a quick perception 
 of the right and the wrong; he controlled debate within 
 the limits of Christian courtesy; he made no mistakes; 
 he gave no offence. 
 
 " Such were uniformly the facts as they came under 
 my observation. He served the Convention as presi- 
 dent during three consecutive terms. In 1811, at his 
 own suggestion, the office was filled by the appointment 
 of another. 
 
 " I well remember his presence and labors in the 
 session of the Board, at Salem, Mass., in 1833. Then 
 came up, for the first time, the question touching trans- 
 lations, and we had the first development of his theory, 
 which was destined to a prominent place in his subse- 
 quent history. Some of our missionaries in South- 
 Eastern Asia had solicited instructions, as to whether 
 they should faithfully 'translate,' according to their 
 apprehension of its meaning, the whole Bible, into the 
 language of the heathen, or, following the English 
 version, should 'transfer' certain words. The response 
 was given at that meeting, in those famous resolutions, 
 which have since been often referred to, as containing 
 the only basis on which translators of the Word of God 
 can legitimately proceed with their work. No direc- 
 tions were given as to the translation of any particular 
 terms, but the translators in the service of the Board 
 were enjoined not to 'transfer' any word, which could 
 be intelligibly rendered into a Heathen tongue. These 
 resolutions were from the facile pen of Professor 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER nOUGHTON C03TE. 309 
 
 Knowles, and, after an able advocacy by Mr. Cone, in 
 which there was a foreshadowing of what might follow, 
 thcv were unanimously adapted. 
 
 " In April, 1835, the Convention met at Richmond, 
 Virginia; Mr. Cone preached the sermon from i JLord, 
 what wilt thou have me to do? 1 At that session, the 
 deputation from the English Baptists was present. I 
 well recollect the profound interest felt by Mr. Cone, 
 when one of them, the Rev. Dr. Iloby, made certain 
 inquiries touching translations. He regretted the intro- 
 duction <>f the subject, for he apprehended the bearing 
 which the discussion might have upon our relations to 
 the American Bible Society, of whose board he was an 
 active and deeply-interested member. The storm was 
 even then brewing below the horizon, which he foresaw, 
 was likely to come, and he deprecated any premature 
 agitation of the subject. By skill peculiarly his own, 
 he responded to Dr. Iioby, and transferred the fuller 
 explanation to a private interview. 
 
 " Allow me now to pass over the next ten years, which 
 were full of events that brought him prominently for- 
 ward as a leading actor. 
 
 " To records in your possession of his ' labors more 
 abundant.' I can add nothing. 
 
 " In 1845 occurred the disruption of the General Con- 
 vention. Our Southern brethren, dissatisfied with the 
 answer of the " Acting Board ' at Boston, to certain 
 inquiries which they had made, withdrew, and formed 
 a separate organization. Mr. Cone regretted the sepa- 
 tion ; he was grieved by it ; but with the true Christian 
 spirit he adhered to the great enterprise, and continued 
 to work with the brethren at the .North, whose action in 
 that case he disapproved. 
 
 " A special meeting of the Board was held in Philadel- 
 phia, in September, to adjust certain relations with &**■ 
 
310 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 Southern Convention, and to deliberate upon questions 
 of future policy. The General Convention held its 
 charter of incorporation from the Legislature of Penn- 
 sylvania; but its business had been conducted mostly 
 in the District of Columbia and in Massachusetts: and 
 it was more than probable that the charter was null and 
 void. 
 
 "At that meeting, it was agreed to call a special session 
 of the Convention, with a view to some changes in the 
 organization, and an effort to obtain a new act of incor- 
 poration. Accordingly, a committee of nine were ap- 
 pointed to prepare a constitution. Four members wer-e 
 appointed from New York, one from Pennsylvania, one 
 from Rhode Island, and three from Boston. Of this 
 committee, Mr*. Cone 'was chairman, and he proposed 
 that the members from the Middle States should confer 
 together, and propose their plan, and the members from 
 New England should do the same. He himself drew up 
 the form of a constitution, and after submitting it to his 
 associates, forwarded it to Boston. A form was, in like 
 manner, drawn up in New England, and transmitted to 
 New York. The two were widely dissimilar, and a cor- 
 respondence ensued, which resulted in the preparation 
 of two new forms, which, in some respects, came nearer 
 together. By correspondence, the differences were still 
 further diminished; but on some points there was a very 
 decided disagreement. 
 
 "At length the committee assembled in New York the 
 day previous to the meeting of the Convention. Two 
 plans of re-organization were presented and amicably 
 discussed. At length it was agreed to adopt the New 
 England plan, with some modifications proposed by 
 Mr. Cone, and a few by other members. The result 
 was not a compromise of principles, but of opinions, re- 
 specting the best form of machinery. It is due to Mr 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 311 
 
 Cone to say, that he was in favor of a more simple 
 organization, as better suited to the genius of the de- 
 nomination, and less likely to occasion friction against 
 the strong democratic element, which he well under- 
 stood. But with the adoption of several of his pro- 
 positions, he came cordially in with his brethren, and, 
 in the closing prayer, thanked God for the fraternal 
 unanimity that had been reached. As secretary of the 
 committee, I have in my possession the documents, and 
 never do I review them without emotion, at the remem- 
 brance of the Christian kindness and courtesy manifested 
 in the sessions of that committee. Concessions were 
 made on all sides ; but it was plain to all that the greatest 
 were made by Mr. Cone. The next day the constitution 
 was reported as the unanimous product of the commit- 
 tee. Mr. Cone made the requisite explanations, and 
 defended every article and every provision as earnestly 
 as if the entire instrument had been his own favorite 
 offspring. The committee, knowing his preference for 
 something different, were filled with admiration at the 
 Christian magnanimity which lie there exhibited. I 
 believe he never altered his opinion that something else 
 would have been better, but I never heard of his utter- 
 ing a syllable to the dispargement of the constitution, to 
 whose unanimous adoption he contributed more largely 
 than any other man. His n< ible conduct on that occasion 
 fixed him a place in many hearts, from which nothing 
 has since occurred to dislodge him. Under the new 
 organization, he worked with the same apparent cordi- 
 ality and earnestness, as under the old. 
 
 " He was throughout, a consistent supporter of the mis- 
 sionary enterprise. He raised, mostly by personal effort, 
 and paid over to the treasury, more money than any 
 other Baptist pastor in the United States. He was at 
 once the friend of the board of management and of the 
 
312 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGETON CONE. 
 
 laborers in the foreign field. He rejoiced in all the 
 reported successes abroad, and grieved over everything 
 that conduced to diminish the efficiency of the enter- 
 prise. His heart was set on two things — the giving of 
 the Bible, faithfully translated, to all nations, and the 
 publication of the Gospel, by means of missions, to every 
 unevangelized people. To these objects, as the means 
 of gathering in God's chosen, he devoted his life, his 
 thinking, his labors, his prayers. Many things occurred 
 that occasioned in his bosom profound anxiety ; but he 
 never, under the most trying circumstances, indicated a 
 wish or a disposition to retire from the service, or to 
 withhold the helping hand. At the first meeting of the 
 Missionary Union, held at Brooklyn, in May, 1846, one 
 of about his own age, who had from the begin?iing been 
 an active home laborer, signified his wish, on account of 
 advancing years, not to be re-elected to an office which 
 he had long and usefully filled. I consulted Dr. Cone 
 as to the propriety of passing a resolution, recognizing 
 his valuable services, and expressing regret at his pur- 
 posed retirement. The reply was characteristic — ' Why 
 should we do that? If you will offer a resolution that 
 
 Brother be desired to continue in the work till his 
 
 Master calls him home, I will second it and make a 
 speech. I have enlisted for life : I intend to die with the 
 harness on.' 
 
 " In times of difficulty, the Acting Board, and after- 
 wards, the Executive Committee, were accustomed to 
 look to Dr. Cone for counsel. He was ever prompt to 
 respond and to render any assistance in his power. On 
 more than one occasion were his services of special value, 
 and in few places was his removal by death more 
 seriously deplored than at the Missionary Kooms, in 
 Boston. A column of great strength, and at one of the 
 most important points, was smitten down at a critical 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 313 
 
 period, and we felt that the fabric had been weakened. 
 Few will do for the general cause what he has done. 
 
 " As the friend and supporter of foreign missions, hig 
 memory is fragrant." 
 
 We have taken the liberty of substituting "Mr. Cone," for "your father," in many 
 pi ices m the foregoing valuable eommunica tion of Dr. Su w. — Eds. 
 
 for letter of President Waylajv 1 , see Appe ndix. 
 
 1-i 
 
314 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 CHAPTER XYIII. 
 
 THE BIBLE AND THE AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY. 
 
 Do Baptists preach the truth ? If they do, and it be right to preach it, 
 is it not right to jorint it ? 
 
 In every effort to circulate the sacred Scriptures he 
 took, not only a lively interest, but a constant, earnest, 
 and decided part. When he first settled in New York, 
 and for twelve years and upwards after, the American 
 Bible Society occupied the whole field. Almost all 
 evangelical denominations united in it. Its views 
 appeared large and catholic, and its success was brilliant. 
 The resolution upon which it acted, to supply every 
 destitute family in the United States with a copy of the 
 Bible, elicited the admiration of the Christian world. 
 Stretching the arms of its benevolence as wide as the 
 globe, it offered to almost every people, amongst whom 
 the missionary penetrated, in their own tongue, the 
 inspired record of the wonderful works of God. Differ- 
 ent sects and denominations emulated each other in 
 swelling its treasury, and its auxiliaries sprung up in 
 every town. In this good work, the Baptists of America 
 were nothing undervalued to the most ardent and gene- 
 rous suppoiters of the institution. They gave every 
 where gladly. It was a cause which appealed at once 
 to their principles and their hearts. The Bible, the pure 
 unadulterated Word of God, was the basis of the Baptist 
 faith and practice, and its dissemination, a duty springing 
 naturally and inevitably from all their principles. 
 
LIFE OF SPENCEE HOUGHTON" COKE. 315 
 
 "With an ungrudging liberality, therefore, they poured 
 their money into its coffers. 
 
 Mr. Cone very soon became a member, and before 
 iong, one of the leading workers in the institution. 
 There as elsewhere his willingness to work, and his 
 capacity to work, were immediately recognized, and a 
 laboring oar put into his hands. Painstaking and 
 punctual, as well as intense ; practical, and methodical, 
 as well as impulsive — capable of not only taking a large 
 view of the scope and capacities of such an institution, 
 but also of grasping all the minutiae, he made himself 
 rapidly acquainted with every part of the mere machi- 
 nery of its operations. At the same time his mind 
 busied itself with all the possible combinations of its 
 powers, and having once mastered the mechanism of its 
 action, gave it its true place and value as a mere means 
 to the one great end of the conquest of the world for 
 Christ. Vast and imposing as it was, and full of claims 
 upon the respect of Christians, his mind was not of a 
 character to be influenced by its apparent magnitude 
 beyond a certain point. That point was the division- 
 line between truth and error. So long as he believed it 
 to be the exponent of the truth, he was ready to give 
 heart and hand to its service. It was a labor he 
 delighted in. lie never grew weary of it ; storm and 
 shine found him at his post, and his work prepared and 
 arranged for meeting, committee, or anniversary. They 
 depended on him, and calculated upon him as much as 
 upon one of their presses. 
 
 In 1S33 he was elected one of the corresponding sec 
 retaries, and re-elected in 183-1 and 1835. 
 
 During those years, however, many signs made it 
 apparent that the spirit of Pedo-Baptisin would not long 
 permit its union with Baptists, even in the work of giving 
 the Bible to the heathen. The action of the British and 
 
316 • LIFE OF SrENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 Foreign Bible Society, quickly imitated by the Ameri- 
 can Bible Society, in refusing appropriations for transla- 
 tions made by Baptist missionaries, precipitated the crisis. 
 
 His Baptist coadjutors in the society at this time, were 
 Dr. Maclay and Messrs. Leonard Bleecker, Garret 1ST. 
 Bleeeker, William Colgate and Timothy K. Green. On 
 him, however, as both able and willing to sustain it, the 
 principal weight of the contest was thrown. 
 
 " The Baptist missions in India were commenced by 
 Carey and Thomas in 1793. From their commencement 
 special attention was paid to Biblical translation, and Dr. 
 Carey, who excelled as a linguist, executed more versions 
 of the Sacred Scriptures into foreign languages than any 
 other scholar of any age. As early as 1S16, the number 
 wdtolly or partially completed by him and his immediate 
 associates was twenty-seven. During the last years of 
 his life, Dr. Yates was his associate, and was his successor 
 in the same employments until his own death July 3d, 
 1845. The latter, in addition to several new versions 
 undertaken and partially completed by him, revised and 
 improved the most important of Carey's translations} 
 especially the Bengali, which he brought to so high a 
 degree of accuracy and elegance, as to command the 
 admiration of educated natives, and of foreigners con- 
 versant with the language." — The Bible, its Excellence. 
 By Spencer H. Cone and William II Wyckoff. 
 
 The Rev. Messrs. Yates and Pierce revised and 
 improved the Bengali translation of the New Testament 
 made by Dr. Carey. They applied to the British and 
 Foreign Bible Society to print it. Three Pedo-Baptist 
 missionaries had anticipated their application, and 
 informe 1 the society that Yates and Pierce had transla- 
 ted the word jSa-nr^w, to immerse. The British and 
 Foreign Bible Society refused to print it. 
 
 Yates and Pierce next applied to the American Bible 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 317 
 
 Society. Faithfully copying the example of their 
 British Pedo-Baptist brethren, the American Bible 
 Society also refused. The contribution of the Baptists 
 of the United Slates to the funds of that society had 
 fallen little short of one hundred thousand dollars. Out 
 of this the society had appropriated less than twenty-nine 
 thousand in aid of the translations made by Baptist 
 missionaries. Yet they peremptorily refused. A simple 
 principle of honor, it would seem, ought to have dictated 
 a different course. 
 
 The committee of the American Bible Society 
 reported, not that sprinkling, pouring, or washing, was 
 the true translation, and immersion a false one, but that 
 it was ^inexpedient to appropriate funds in aid of trans- 
 lating or distributing any version containing translations 
 ot' the Greek words (iairrL^o j3anrtana and their cognates." 
 Thus the rule was laid down that translators were to 
 manufacture for the heathen an ingenious mosaic of 
 Bengali and other dialects, " cut on Greek and Latin." 
 No provision being made for the concurrent distribution 
 of Greek grammars and lexicons among those remote 
 people, the question among Baptists, who are a common 
 sense sort of logical folk, naturally arose: how are 
 they to know what it means; and if our missionaries are 
 to teach the heathen Greek for one word., of what avail 
 is it to have the rest in the vernacular ? Why not put 
 the Hindoos to their Greek, for the whole, at once? 
 The strangest part of it was, that the refusal to aid 
 translations containing the word immerse was confined 
 strictly to those made by Baptist Missionaries. The 
 German Bible, and the Dutch Bible, circulated amongst, 
 and read by many millions, had it so, and they never 
 thought of refusing them. The shade of Luther forbade 
 it. With what would seem to be a strange inconsistency, 
 they patronized, a version which translated the word to 
 
318 LIFE OF SrENCEE HOUGHTON CCSTE. 
 
 sprinkle; and published Morrison's Chinese version 
 which had it " to make a wash." It was something noto- 
 rious also, that learned Chinese pronounced Morrison's 
 version " an unintelligible jargon." Whether, viewed 
 in the light of " expediency," this was not rather a 
 recommendation than otherwise, as rendering it homo- 
 geneous with the practice of Greek transfers, and very 
 weighty with the British and Foreign and American 
 Bible Societies, their actions leave but little doubt. 
 
 Against this course of the society, Mr. Cone strove so 
 long as a hope of arresting their unwise and unphilo- 
 logical tendency remained. He had recourse to every 
 thing that argument, entreaty, or Christian sentiment 
 could suggest. 
 
 He urged upon them the fact, that the uniform 
 practice of Baptist translators, from the commencement 
 of the missions in Asia, was to translate into the vernac- 
 ular tongues words relating to baptism, and other 
 " ecclesiastical " terms, as some have denominated them, 
 and that this practice was never kept secret, but was 
 written and talked about publicly and privately, with- 
 out restriction — that Rev. Andrew Fuller, the corres- 
 ponding secretary of the Baptist Missionary Society, 
 in 1813, in answer to an inquiry of the secretary of the 
 British and Foreign Bible Society, had replied, "In a 
 letter which I lately received from Dr. Carey, he men- 
 tions having received one from you, inquiring in what 
 way certain words were rendered in their translations. 
 Flo wished me to inform you that they had rendered 
 PartTi^G) by a word that signifies to immerse, and emoKOTrot, 
 by a word signifying an overseer." He further urged 
 that the American Bible Society, with the full knowl- 
 edge of all these facts, had aided in the circulation of 
 these translations, and if it now refused to continue such 
 aid, after Baptists had contributed so largely to the funds 
 
LITE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 319 
 
 of the society, they might with justice complain of hav- 
 ing been lured into swelling its revenues by the very 
 natural belief that, at least, a reasonable proportion of 
 
 that revenue would continue to be applied to transla- 
 tions made by their missionaries. 
 
 He showed them that the Galilean version, the first 
 made, had it k> immerse ;" and as Christ preached 
 in Galilee and the Apostles were yet alive when it was 
 made, and probably used it, it was the next best author- 
 ity to the inspired original. That the next, the Ethiopic 
 version, had it so also. That all the original Oriental 
 versions used it. That the society published and 
 circulated a Roman Gaaiulie version in Spanish, which 
 translated '"repent" — "to do penance" — and "Jacob 
 worshipped the top of his 8-taff" — instead of "Jacob wor- 
 shipped npon the top of his staff." Which certainly 
 Avas an indication that the patronage of versions 
 differing from the English was not contrary to their 
 principles. That the constitution of the society inter- 
 posed no obstacle. That their decision was not confined 
 in its effect to the versions under consideration, but 
 involved principles in which all translators of the 
 Scriptures were concerned. That they were about 
 to say to these, either that they must faithfully trans- 
 mute the Divine original into the current coin of every 
 human language ; or that they must suppress and covei 
 up a part of God's truth. 
 
 The objection that Baptists refused to employ terms 
 "unobjectionable" to other denominations had no force, 
 for two reasons — first, that Pedo-Baptists would not 
 abide by the same rule, and use terms " unobjectiona- 
 ble " to Baptists ; and second, that on this point there 
 were but two sects in the whole Christian world, 
 Immersionists, and Non-Immersion ists ; Baptists, and 
 Pedo-Baptists. That it was not contended that "im- 
 
320 LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 merse " was a false translation, but merely "objection- 
 able." Why objectionable? Because it took away from 
 a human ceremony the implied sanction of Holy Writ. 
 The question then resolved itself into this — are human 
 opinions to control the Bible, or is the Bible to control 
 human opinions. 
 
 Thus the great issue was definitely joined, and their 
 heriditary task and labor of love, the defence of the 
 truth against human inventions, devolved upon Baptists. 
 How gallantly and fearlessly they undertook and carried 
 it through in the United States, under his leadership, we 
 have now to show. 
 
 In the following pages, it will be seen that we are 
 under great obligations to the Rev. Dr. Baker, of 
 Williamsburg, New York, who was appointed by the 
 Board of the Bible Union to prepare an address com- 
 memorative of the life and labors of Dr. Cone, especially 
 as the staunch friend and supporter of pure versions of 
 God's Word. 
 
 The Baptist Missionaries in India, early distinguished 
 themselves as translators of the Scriptures. No censor- 
 ship impeded their work. They sought to impress upon 
 their translations the exact meaning of the Holy Spirit, 
 in the original, without reference to human dogmas or 
 disputes. The labors of Pierce, Yates, Judson and the 
 rest, attracted the warmest sympathy of Mr. Cone's 
 heart. He seized the earliest opportunity for its expres- 
 sion, and at the meeting of the Board of the Triennial 
 Convention, held in Salem, April, 1833, he prepared, in 
 conjunction with Professor James D. Knowles, resolu- 
 tions affirming it to be the duty of Baptists to sustain 
 them, and of the Board to instruct them to endeavor, by 
 earnest prayer and diligent study, to ascertain the 
 precise meaning of the original text ; to express that 
 meaning as exactly as the nature of the languages into 
 
LITE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 321 
 
 which they translated would permit, and to transfer 
 no words which are capable of being literally trans- 
 lated." Mr. Cone was at that time a member of the 
 Board of managers of the American Bible Society, and 
 immediately hud upon its table a number of copies of 
 the resolutions. 
 
 It is worthy of remark, as a historical fact, that Joseph 
 Hughes, a Baptist, was the most active founder of the 
 British and Foreign Bible Society in 1804. Prior to 
 the founding of that institution, Baptist translators in 
 India had translated /3anrc^o) and its cognates, in the 
 exact manner afterwards objected to by that body. 
 
 After their refusal to patronize such versions, Mr. 
 Packard of Philadelphia transmitted to the American 
 Bible Society, from Pierce and Yates, the same applica- 
 tion. The resolutions of refusal, and restriction to a 
 copy of the received English version were also passed, 
 as we have seen, by the latter society. Upon the pas- 
 sage of these resolutions, Rev. Spencer H. Cone, the 
 dissenting member of the committee, being the presi- 
 dent of the general Triennial Convention of the Baptist 
 Denomination in the United States for foreign missions, 
 prepared and issued an address to that body, explaining 
 the action of the American Board, and requesting the 
 members of the Convention to communicate their senti- 
 ments upon the important matters thus brought before 
 them, at the meeting of the Foreign Board at Hartford, 
 in April, 1836. Protests embracing the most weighty 
 arguments against the resolutions were presented at the 
 American Board, but notwithstanding, the resolutions 
 were confirmed by the society at its next anniversary, 
 May, 1836. 
 
 The preliminary discussions of the question had 
 attracted public attention. The Baptist and Pedo-Baptist 
 world were equally interested and excited. The 
 
 14* 
 
822 LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 anniversary was held in the Broadway Tabernacle, and 
 that immense hall, capable of seating from four to five 
 thousand persons, was crowded to its utmost. 
 
 The platform, and the seats, which rise tier on tier 
 behind it, were filled with the vice-presidents, managers, 
 and directors of the American Bible Society. The most 
 eminent talent of the Pedo-Baptist side was present, and 
 prepared for the contest. Judges and governors, 
 senators, and lawyers of fame, swelled the array. 
 Against the decision of its Board, the Baptists had 
 appealed to the annual meeting; and alone against the 
 host of Pedo-Baptist talent and knowledge, Spencer II. 
 Cone stood up as the champion of his people and of the 
 truth for which they lived. Speech after si^eech was 
 levelled against him. Hhetoric and argument, menace 
 and entreaty ; the most specious appeals and considera- 
 tions were urged upon him. His denomination and 
 himself were made the mark of a thousand arrows of 
 subtlety, wit, and declamation. 
 
 Time has effaced most of these efforts from our 
 memory. Some, however, made an impression which 
 nothing can wipe out. We forget the name of the last 
 gentleman who spoke on the Pedo-Baptist side of the 
 question, in defence of the course pursued by the 
 American Bible Society. He was, we think, a senator 
 from one of the Eastern States. The point of his speech 
 was this : Christians are a great army, arrayed against 
 the evil which is in the world. Their warfare is perpe- 
 tual. Every day finds them compelled to face the 
 enemy. And when we see the army drawn up in 
 battle array ; the enemy in front ; the fierce tug of war 
 on the point of commencing — what must we think of 
 that regiment which wheels out of line, and abandons 
 the field, leaving the rest of the army to fight the battle 
 alone? And should a regiment be guilty of such an 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 323 
 
 act, will not every true-hearted soldier step ont of its 
 flying ranks, and tailing into the line again, stand to his 
 arms until the fate of the battle is decided ? 
 
 The instant he closed, Mr. Cone was on his feet. He 
 stood upon the left hand, on the front of the platform. 
 High excitement, and the vast responsibility which 
 weighed upon him, lent a more than ordinary grandeui 
 to his carriage, and an added power to his voice. He 
 was the living embodiment of a great orator, and before 
 the words formed upon his tongue, an intense and 
 breathless silence pervaded the house, and every eye 
 was fastened upon him. 
 
 " Mr. Chairman," he said, not loud, but with that 
 wonderful clearness of enunciation and concentration of 
 manner which seems, as it were, to drive every word 
 directly into the hearts of an audience— "Mr. Chairman: 
 
 ' There is a tide in the affairs of men 
 Which taken at the flood leads on to fortune; 
 
 Neglected, all our lives afterward 
 
 Are bound in shallows and in miseries.' 
 
 " On that tide my denomination is launched. It has 
 risen to their feet. It commands them to embark. They 
 dare not disobey the God they serve. They dare not 
 cover up His truth, forsake high fortune, and incur the 
 just retribution of being bound in shallows and in mis- 
 eries all their life after. Sir, I love the army, but I love 
 my regiment better, and whether they fall amid the 
 mountains of America, or on the plains of Burmah, 
 I fall with them." 
 
 The remainder of the speech, or rather the words in 
 which it was couched, have faded from memory. It was 
 devoted to I he argument, and put in clear, bold terms 
 the principles of Baptists on the subject of Bible trans- 
 lations, and their resolve, with God's help, to give His 
 
324 LIFE OF 6PENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 "Word literally to men. Its effect upon the audience 
 was to elicit repeated applause, which was checked 
 by the presiding officer as improper in such a place. 
 His appearance and manner, on that and similar occa- 
 sions, were such as to command a peculiar attention 
 from the people. It was frequently and admiringly 
 remarked by preachers and public men. Characterized 
 by entire freedom and grace, without being open to the 
 censure of effort after effect, the eye and ear received 
 equal pleasure. The platform was evidently a place on 
 which he felt perfectly at home. It put no barrier 
 between him and the people. He could speak right 
 at them from it. He always stepped forward, cleared 
 himself of everything, and stood before them with the 
 cause he had to advocate, living and breathing in every 
 motion of the body and intonation of the voice. 
 Preachers, from the habit of being shut up in a desk, 
 very commonly feel ill at ease, and out of place, when 
 brought into full relief upon the platform. Many of 
 them remarked the fact to him, and said, they envied 
 his happy self-forgetfulness and freedom. Undoubtedly 
 early training had a great deal to do with it, but intense 
 interest in his subject, and its aim had more. Like the 
 patriot soldier, his " cunning of fence " was a mere 
 subordinate matter, the servant of a great design. 
 
 In spite of protest, argument, and eloquence, however, 
 the society affirmed the action of its Board, and by 
 an arbitrary exertion of the law of might, exiled the 
 Baptists from its ranks. 
 
 During the preliminary discussions in that society, the 
 brunt of the battle was borne by Dr. Maclay in the 
 Board of managers, and by Mr. Cone in the committee. 
 He was the only Baptist in the committee, and, as such, 
 prepared and presented the protest against its action. 
 In that protest he demonstrated that the principle 
 
LITE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 325 
 
 sought to be laid down by the society was radically 
 wrong. That it was not competent for it to control the 
 consciences of well qualified Evangelical missionaries, 
 or decide what words they should transfer, and what 
 translate. That if the society can make an arbitrary 
 rule for one word, it may for all. That the pervading 
 sentiment of the majority was inconsistent with the 
 spirit of brotherly kindness and benevolence in which 
 the society originated. That it specially singled out 
 Baptists as unworthy to co-operate with other denomi- 
 nations, and placed upon them an unjust stigma. That 
 to avoid this they offered them the impracticable alter- 
 native of forbearing to do what they believed God 
 required at their hands. That the words baptize etc., 
 had been rendered by words signifying to immerse in 
 Syriac, Arabic, Abyssinian, Ethiopic, Egyptian, Coptic, 
 German, Dutch, Danish, and other languages, and 
 therefore, it was not fair or just to stigmatize our trans- 
 lations as sectarian, when similar translations have been 
 long in use in almost all the churches of the Eastern 
 world, and in most of the churches of Northern Europe." 
 
 The protest was in vain. Pedo-Baptism was alarmed, 
 and fear obscured reason and justice. The question 
 with them was no longer obedience to God, but how to 
 guard and defend the human system to which they were 
 committed. Mr. Cone immediately issued an address 
 " to the General Convention of the Baptist Denomination 
 in the United States for Foreign Missions," and asked 
 them to come to the meeting of its Board at Hartford, 
 prepared to consider the subject of the duty of Ameri- 
 can Baptists in the crisis. 
 
 The following statement in reference to the course of 
 Dr. Cone in the controversy with the American Bible 
 Society, was communicated to Dr. Baker, by Deacon 
 William Colgate, of New York. 
 
326 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 On leaving the committee to which the letter of 
 Pierce and Yates, touching the Bengali version, had 
 been referred, Dr. Cone called on Deacon Colgate, and 
 in stating the case to him, spoke as follows : 
 
 "I presume nothing will be given. Shall I let it 
 go by ; or shall I say — ' the application shall not be 
 refused, on the ground of these words being translated, 
 without first referring the matter to the Board V " 
 
 To this question Deacon Colgate replied, by ask- 
 ings 
 
 " Do you put this question in order to ascertain what 
 
 I think on the subject, or do you ask it that my answer 
 may be a guide to your action in the committee ?" 
 
 Dr. Cone replied : 
 
 " I ask your opinion that it may guide me in my 
 course in that committee." 
 
 " Then," said Deacon Colgate, " this is probably the 
 most important question ever put to me, and I should 
 not think of answering one of such importance without 
 taking time for reflection and prayer." 
 
 "I will call then some time next week for your 
 opinion," said Dr. Cone. 
 
 The next week he called, and the conversation, as near 
 as it can be recollected, was as follows. Deacon Colgate 
 remarked, 
 
 " That we Baptists who were members of the Board 
 of the American Bible Society, were looked to as repre- 
 senting our denomination, and in this view, our position 
 became very important and responsible ; and that if we 
 or our denomination should be found guilty of clouding 
 or changing in any way, God's communication to men, 
 it would be criminal in the sight of God and man. Yet 
 if this be brought before the Board, it will, in all proba- 
 bility, produce a painful controversy, and our own 
 denomination will probably be less respected, and our 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 327 
 
 friends on the Board be highly censured. Yet the prin- 
 ciple of right demands this course at our hands, in my 
 opinion." 
 
 Dr. Cone replied : 
 
 "I fully agree with } t ou in that sentiment." 
 
 Deacon Colgate then reminded him that the Baptists 
 in the Board were few in number ; that the members of 
 other denominations were numerous, talented, and 
 highly respectable. Now if you take this stand, will 
 you be firm in carrying it through ?" 
 
 Dr. Cone replied with much firmness, and at some 
 length to this effect: 
 
 " If I take my stand upon a principle established by 
 my Master, you know I am not to he moved. 
 
 Deacon Colgate again reminded him — "That before 
 such an array of character and talent, few have been 
 found who have not faltered in the trial when hard 
 beset." 
 
 Dr. Cone replied : 
 
 " That having been brought into a position where the 
 eyes of the Lord, and of Baptists were upon him, he 
 would never falter while he had God's truth to stand 
 on." 
 
 Confident in the propriety of his course, and fortified 
 in the resolution to pursue it, by the advice of such men 
 as Colgate, Maclay, Kendrick, and others, he buckled 
 on his harness, and marched forward to the conflict. 
 That it would be no ordinary one, the magnitude of the 
 interests, and the character of the men concerned in it, 
 made it evident. It is no small honor to him that against 
 every odds, and Avithout even the hope of success to cheer 
 him, he fought it to the last in the American Bible 
 Society, and yielding at last to the force of numbers, 
 instead of entertaining for a moment the idea of abandon 
 ing the field, like an able general diverted the attention 
 
328 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 of the enemy by alarms and skirmishes, until he could 
 bring up his reserves, and renew the battle upon a more 
 impregnable position. To his thinking the battle for 
 truth was never lost. Her soldiers might be worsted, 
 and suffer a temporary defeat; but as long as life lasted 
 there was always time to strike for and retrieve the 
 victory. Thus, instead of losing a moment in mourning 
 over the action of the American Bible Society, his 
 thoughts were busy with plans for a remedy. Baptists 
 were right. They had the truth, they knew it. They 
 must stand by it, no matter what men did. They must 
 support their missionaries. It was God's work, and 
 God's work must go on. Nothing was needed but an 
 ordinary executive machinery. That must be put 
 together without loss of time. The past was irretrieva- 
 ble. They might regret it. Time, however, was too 
 short, and there was too much to be done, to waste an 
 hour in useless sorrow. They must act. A Bible 
 Society to sustain pure versions must be formed without 
 delay. He went right at it. Tasked his mind to it. 
 Aroused them to its necessity. Put the ball in motion ; 
 touched all the chords which answered to the keys of his 
 wide correspondence with every State and district in the 
 Union ; and backed by the manifest justice and truth of 
 his position, found himself at Hartford, Conecticut, sup- 
 ported by an almost unanimous voice of the denomina- 
 tion, in the design of forming a new Society. Five votes 
 only were cast in the negative. It was resolved " that 
 it is expedient to call a convention of delegates from 
 churches, and associations, and other religious bodies, to 
 meet in Philadelphia in 1837, to adopt such measures, 
 as circumstances, in the providence of God, may 
 require." 
 
 The majority, amongst whom was Dr. Cone, expressed 
 their opinion in private that a convention ought to be 
 
LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 329 
 
 called immediately after the animal meeting of the 
 American Bible Society, unless that society rescinded 
 the resolution of their board of managers not to aid 
 translations made by Baptist missionaries. So soon as 
 the society approved the coarse of its Board, it was 
 evident to this majority that to postpone their action 
 until 1837, was an unnecessary delay. The Board of 
 Missions, by resolution passed February 17th, 1836, con- 
 tinued them in this opinion. 
 
 A large number of delegates met, therefore, in Oliver 
 street meeting-house, where he then preached, on the 
 12th of May, 1836, and formed a provisional organiza- 
 tion for Bible translation and distribution. Of this 
 organization Mr. Cone was chosen the president. On 
 Wednesday, April 26th, 1837, the Convention, pur- 
 suant to the call of the Hartford meeting, met in Phila- 
 delphia. After several days of able discussion, in which 
 every point of the controversy was brought out, the 
 action of Mr. Cone and his colleagues in Oliver street, 
 during the previous May, was confirmed, the provisional 
 organization made permanent, and the American and 
 Foreign Bible Society definitely constituted. Among 
 the ablest debaters, and most determined and unflinch- 
 ing advocates of the creation of that society, were the 
 Eev. Messrs. Bartholomew T. Welsh, John Dowling, 
 and others, who have not been since willing to carry 
 out opinions then expressed to their legitimate conclu- 
 sion. Dr. Welsh said, eloquently—" It had been said 
 we were leaving the American Bible Society. lie, on 
 the contrary, believed they were leaving us. Another 
 charge which has been alleged against us (said Dr. 
 Welsh), is that of sectarianism. If to adhere to the 
 truth; if to prefer allegiance to the throne of Jesus 
 Christ ; if to regard the integrity of His institutions and 
 the purity of His Word, be sectarianism, then let 
 
330 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 sectarianism be written on my brow in indelible charac- 
 ters; then let bigotry be connected with it in all its 
 odious forms. And I would wear the stigma till death 
 should obliterate it!" 
 
 The following letter to Dr. Dagg, dated May 21st, 
 1836, serves to explain the motives which governed 
 Mr. Cone in the formation of the American and Foreign 
 Bible Society in Oliver street. 
 
 "I received,'' he says, "the joint communication of 
 Brethren Brantley, Dagg, and Babcock, and answered 
 yesterday 'calamo currente.' To-day I have leisure to 
 add a few thoughts to you. 
 
 "The board of managers of the Baptist General Con- 
 vention passed no opinion upon the Bible question. It 
 was a subject they refused to entertain. Had they 
 responded to the call of the president of the Convention 
 (himself), and disposed of the question by resolution or 
 otherwise, it would have been the official act of a Board, 
 representing the only organized Baptist body, of a 
 general character, in the United States, and as such 
 would have been weighty and important ; but the Hart- 
 ford conference could speak only for itself, and not for 
 the Denomination, and its resolutions were entitled to 
 no further general respect than their own intrinsic 
 excellency and fitness might demand. 
 
 "The Oliver street Convention was a much larger 
 body — many of its members were expressly sent by 
 Baptist churches and associations, to form a Bible 
 society immediately, if the American Bible Society did 
 not rescind the resolutions of February 17th, 1836, and 
 a much larger amount of information upon the Bible 
 question was before the meeting than at Hartford. 
 They were satisfied fully, from circumstances before them 
 on the 12th of May, that it was pleasing to God and to 
 the great mass of Baptists who take an interest in 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOLGHTON CONE. 331 
 
 Bible translation and distribution, ft? go forward, and 
 they did so in the name of the Lord. The eight or ten 
 brethren who were in Oliver street as well as at Hart- 
 ford, never dreamt of being so pledged by the resolu- 
 tions of one conference, as to prevent them acceding to 
 those of the other. We have committed no sin against 
 our brethren, but acted according to the light given to 
 us, and the peculiar circumstances of the day, and hope 
 that all appearance of collision and discrepancy, which 
 indeed refer almost exclusively to time, may, by proper 
 explanations, be entirely removed, and 'audi alteram 
 partem,' contains a sentiment that we are none of us, 
 I trust, disposed to disregard. 
 
 "I have not the minutes of the conference before 
 me, and write from memory, but as I drew ap the reso- 
 lutions, I think these were about the words of one of 
 the last, which was passed unanimously; viz: — ■ 
 
 "'Resolved; that the first anniversary be held in 
 Philadelphia, the last Wednesday ot April, 1837, when 
 a report of the doings of the society shall be laid before 
 a convention to be then and there assembled from dif- 
 ferent parts of the United States, for the purpose of 
 securing the united and concent/rated action of our whole 
 denomination in the Bible cause.' 
 
 "This resolution was supposed to be so strong and 
 unequivocal as to show clearly our intentions, and save 
 us from the charge of disregard to the feelings of our 
 brethren, or an unwillingness to submit to the voice of 
 the majority, whenever properly and plainly expressed. 
 As far as I am personally concerned, I assure you 1 had 
 much rather escape from the presidential chair, than 
 occupy it, and I had rather the seat of the society's 
 operations should be Philadelphia than New York, if 
 competent brethren there would undertake its manage- 
 ment ; for here we have societies enough already. 
 
332 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 "After all, what worse can you say of us, than that 
 we were willing to encounter a responsibility and labor 
 that nobody else was willing to touch, and though dear 
 Brother Sharp said 'we had not the men,' we hope, by 
 the assistance of our Heavenly Father, that we shall 
 prove that he was mistaken on a Bible question for once 
 at least if no more. 
 
 Dr. Dagg, says in reference to this : 
 
 " In the discussions at Hartford, Dr. Sharp, who was 
 opposed to the forming of a new society, assigned as a 
 reason that we had not the men to manage it. How 
 greatly he mistook the ability of our New York brethren, 
 especially that of Brother Cone, for conducting such an 
 enterprise, the event fully demonstrated. The new 
 society went forward with astonishing success ; and 
 much of that success is doubtless to be attributed to the 
 wisdom and energy of him who so long presided over 
 it. 
 
 " The question as to the time of organization, which 
 at first produced some difficulty, was amicably settled, 
 and the American and Foreign Bible Society received 
 a cordial support from the Baptists throughout the 
 United States, with but few exceptions. Brother Cone, 
 at the head of the society, enjoyed a high degree of 
 popularity ; but it pleased Infinite Wisdom to render his 
 relation to this society one of the severest trials that he 
 ever endured. His withdrawal from it, and the forma- 
 tion of the American Bible Union, are facts which I leave 
 others to record. Many who loved and honored him, 
 did not fully concur in this movement; and of this 
 number I was one. It gives me great pleasure, how- 
 ever, to say, that I honor the principles which governed 
 him, and the motives by which he was actuated ; and 
 to express the hope that the result may prove his 
 superior wisdom." 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 333 
 
 In August, 1837, he writes to Dr. Dagg on the same 
 subject, from Schooley's mountains: 
 
 "I have been rusticating for ten days among the 
 mountains of my native State, and feel somewhat recruit- 
 ed both in body and mind. 
 
 " The last year has multiplied my avocations, and 
 some of them have been sufficiently exciting. I have 
 laid too much to heart the opposition, and I could 
 almost say, persecution, which some of our good breth- 
 ren have exhibited towards our Bible Society ; and the 
 decision of the Philadelphia Convention seems to have 
 no influence upon their course. Still they insist upon 
 it, that a distinct Bible organization is unnecessary and 
 most inexpedient, and must in its results prove injurious 
 to the best interests of the Baptist denomination, as 
 well as to the common cause of Christianity in our 
 happy land. I hope I am cooling dow r n a little. I 
 want more of your quiet calmness ; or, you will say, I 
 want more of the mind that was in the precious Saviour, 
 I try to pray for it constantly, that I may walk by 
 faith, and not by sight ; aim to do right, and leave 
 
 the results with Him. Bro. , has thus far kept South 
 
 Carolina from coming up to our help. I hope his Anti- 
 Baptist-Bible doctrine will never gain many disciples in 
 your State. I grieve over the course he has taken, and 
 winder how he can think he is doing God service, 
 by abusing his brethren. But I strive to comfort 
 myself with the assurance, that 'the Lord God omnipo- 
 tent rc'igneth] and if He be for us, who can be against 
 us ? JS~o one successfully, most surely ! 
 
 " Bro. B. is out again in print about baptizo. ' The 
 word is untranslatable.' I am waiting for him to show 
 that the Saviour delivered the commission to the Apos- 
 tles in Greek, for if this is not clearly made out, I 
 
334 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON' CONE. 
 
 cannot see but that baptizo stands for some Hebrew 
 word which may mean to dip ; and if Naaman was 
 dipped seven times without being drowned, it seems 
 possible, that a believer may be immersed without 
 being kept under the water for ever. When Gary, 
 Marshman, Yates, Judson, etc., have translated the 
 word into languages spoken by so many millions of the 
 human family; and since Gill, Booth, Carson, etc., have 
 so clearly demonstrated its meaning, my spectacles do 
 not magnify sufficiently to discern the modesty of the 
 man who boldly declares that uuptizo is untranslatable. 
 But in the face of so great a linguist, I still think 
 we may safely immerse willing converts." 
 
 A few extracts from Mr. Cone's presidential address 
 at the close of the first anniversary of the American and 
 Foreign Bible Society, will place in the clearest light 
 the motives upon which he acted, not only in that, but 
 in all things connected with his denomination. 
 
 "Borne along," he says, "by circumstances which we 
 could neither anticipate nor control ; cut oil* from 
 resources upon which we had been accustomed, perhaps, 
 too much to rely ; and having examined the signs of the 
 times with prayerful solicitude, we have at length been 
 constrained to organize a distinct society, for the print- 
 ing and circulation of the Sacred Scriptures. To this 
 course we have been impelled, not merely by the fact, 
 that the Calcutta, the British and Foreign, and the 
 American Bible Societies, have combined in the deter- 
 mination to afford no further aid to versions made 
 by Baptist missionaries ; versions which obvious duty 
 binds us promptly and adequately to sustain ; but the 
 measure has been imperatively demanded by the cry of 
 the destitute ; by the ardent desire of many of our 
 churches, to come up to the help ol the Lord, in this 
 
LITE OF SrENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 335 
 
 matter, against the mighty; and bj the peculiar facili- 
 ties now afforded us in the glorious work of Bible 
 distribution. 
 
 " In communicating to the human family the gracious 
 plan of salvation through Jesus Christ, Holy men of God 
 spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Not only 
 did they deliver the sentiments, but the very words 
 of Jehovah. * * * * All Scripture is given by 
 inspiration of God. * * * * The gift of inspira- 
 tion, it is true, is not vouchsafed to modern missionaries 
 and translators ; nevertheless, in connection with their 
 high vocation, the doctrine we advocate is of immense 
 moment. Under its influence, not a single word can be 
 intentionally neglected, obscured, or perverted. * * * 
 Among the errors and frauds which have marked the 
 rise and progress of the Papal Hierarchy, handling the 
 word of the Lord deceitfully, certainly, is not the least. 
 To keep back any part of the price ; to add to, or take 
 from the words of the Booh-, is a crime of no questiona- 
 ble character — the curse of the Almighty rests upon it ! 
 
 * * * In the version used by Papists, for the 
 maintenance of their "prodigious structure of imposture 
 and ivirhdness,' Baptizo and its cognates are invariably 
 Latinized— never translated ; and the same policy was 
 pursued in all European versions, wherever the author- 
 ity of the 'man of sin' prevailed. The unlearned 
 not being permitted 'to read in their own tongues 
 wherein they were born,' what God required of believ- 
 ers, were compelled to rely upon their spiritual guides, 
 and they told them that Baptizo signified to sprinkle, or 
 pour, or christen ; that it was too holy to be translated; 
 and that its meaning was as immaterial as it was indefi- 
 nite, and so, unhappily, one of the important ordinances 
 of the Gospel, described by the Holy Spirit as with a 
 sunbeam, has been covered up, and hid from the great 
 
336 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 mass of the people, by the Popish artifice of trans- 
 fer. 
 
 " The Baptists, in every age and in every clime, from 
 the days of Paul, when the sect was everywhere spoken 
 against, to the present hour, have been the steadfast 
 friends of the Voluntary Principle, in whatever 
 pertains to religion. They maintain, to use the language 
 of a forcible writer, ' that man cannot be born into a 
 system of faith, nor be surrendered in infancy or age to 
 a form of religion, but may assert his right to judge for 
 himself; to examine and decide, under the lofty convic- 
 tion that God has not made him a slave. They 
 acknowledge no clerical or secular domination, but 
 scorn, with becoming indignation, every attempt to 
 subdue reason by enforcing the dogmas of a party, and 
 hold, with determined fidelity, the high vantage 
 ground assigned them by their Creator.' No man is 
 born a Baptist. Membership in our churches is matter <• 
 of choice, after the Christian character is formed. 
 
 " The compulsory system, which tramples upon the 
 freedom of judgment and will, is written in the history 
 of our denomination in characters of blood. The Bap- 
 tists, in the valleys of Piedmont, in Germany, Bohemia, 
 France, Wales, and New England, have been the sub- 
 jects of the most unrelenting persecutions. They were 
 fined, imprisoned, banished, and massacred ; not upon 
 the principle of retaliation, because they had persecuted 
 others ; not for any immoralities laid to their charge ; 
 but because they immersed willing converts; and 
 opposed the baptism of unwilling infants ; and refused 
 to receive for doctrine the commandments of men ; and 
 adhered, with unyielding integrity, to the great Bible 
 principle, Liberty of Conscience the Inalienable 
 Birthright of Man ! Attachment to this sentiment has 
 resulted in our separation from the American Bible 
 
LITE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 337 
 
 Society. The managers of that institution interfered 
 with the consciences of Baptist Missionaries, in th< 
 execution of their trust as translators of God's Hoh 
 Book ; requiring them to make versions that might be 
 consistently used by the several denominations compos 
 ing the society, as the indispensable condition of future 
 patronage. Believing that ' the Bible should control 
 human opinions, and that the creeds of different sects 
 ought never to govern the Bible,' we have disallowed 
 the rule adopted by the American Bible Society, and 
 ceasing from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, would 
 lift up our eyes to the hills whence our help cometh." 
 
 The Voluntary Principle was the key to his action 
 in this matter, as in all others relating to human associa- 
 tion. It is clear that the more astute of his opponents, 
 in the American Bible Society, saw the tendency and 
 consequence of his opinions. They saw that his great 
 principle struck at the root and life of every other 
 system than that adhered to by Baptists. His coursa was 
 governed by an inexorable logic. Baptists founded their 
 entire system upon the Bible. Their system was true. 
 Pure translations, literal translations of the Bible must 
 sow the seed of those principles everywhere, and the 
 whole civil and religious policy and aspect of the world 
 be ultimately changed. Translate the Bible, spread 
 abroad Baptist sentiments, and if the whole world did not 
 become Baptist, it must at least assimilate to them in most 
 important particulars. Those sentiments were a lever 
 able to lift the worid, if a fulcrum only could be found. 
 The United States of America was that fulcrum. God 
 appeared to point directly to them by the finger of His 
 providence. Here the democratic sentiment sustained 
 and defended the Voluntary Principle in its purity. 
 For this he fought. It was the foundation upon which 
 he stood. Nowhere so perfectly understood or 
 
 15 
 
338 LIFE OF SPENCEE HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 practised as amongst Baptists, the whole machinery of 
 whose church relationships and religions policy were 
 strictly conformed to it, the diffusion of Baptist senti- 
 ments in religion carried, of necessity, with them the 
 pure principles of human freedom, or the Voluntary 
 System in civil government. To spread these principles 
 of civil and religious liberty he preached from the 
 pulpit; lie spoke from the platform; he worked in 
 benevolent societies ; to show the world to whom it was 
 imdebted for them, he republished " Jones' Church 
 History," which is indeed but an extended record of 
 Baptist struggle to engraft upon the civil policy of 
 states, the principles of the voluntary system. To lay 
 for them an immovable basis he contended for " pure 
 versions of the "Word of God." A few years will show 
 that his life, a life devoted to this principle, was not in 
 vain. What he preached for forty years, and what was 
 heard by hundreds of thousands, did not fall upon 
 barren places. He knew and felt his people, because 
 he loved them. A large souled American of the type 
 and fashion of the early founders of the Republic, his 
 republicanism was not confined to a form of civil 
 government. To the poor the Gospel was preached, 
 and his republicanism and Christianity were inseparable. 
 He knew the heart of his denomination, because he 
 knew the people's heart ; and his own beat with it. This 
 was the great secret of his success. He did not take 
 hold of a little finger, or lay his hand upon a foot, or an 
 arm to find what was in it ; but he -put his hand with 
 the boldness of love and sympathy directly upon its 
 heart, and learned how it beat. Men made a great 
 mistake if they fancied he did anything in a hurry, or 
 from his own mere motion only. He never hesitated 
 because he stood alone upon a great truth, and yet he 
 never stirred hastily. By a happy intuition, the intui- 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 339 
 
 tion of honesty, he struck out great popular truths — - 
 but they were always truths, and popular because true. 
 Error had no venerable quality for him, no matter 
 how hedged about by great names, or hoary with the 
 rime of age. To him there was no divinity in the 
 royalty of falsehood. Its crown and sceptre had no 
 more terror for him, than a shepherd's crook. Its very 
 majesty, and power over men's minds, was the strongest 
 reason for entering the lists against it. In a just quarrel 
 he was fearless ; and as careless of what men's hearts 
 might think or tongues might say as if he had been 
 "locked up in steel." 
 
 Referring to both these qualities, a distinguished 
 brother preacher writes to him : 
 
 " Your inquiry as to whether we have done what we 
 ought, to keep the great heart of our denomination, is a 
 legitimate one. 
 
 "I have suffered so much from every attempt to act 
 independently, that I have become timid. I have not 
 your bravery. I cannot, like you, bear hard knocks. 
 This you will call weakness. Probably it is so. I love 
 the cause ; I am willing to work for it ; but to fight for 
 it—' there's the rub.' " 
 
 Not so with him. Let him believe he had a " thus 
 saith the Lord " to go to battle on, and he was quite as 
 ready to fight as work. The one or the other; it was 
 perfectly indifferent which. If God gave his banner 
 into his keeping, he had always a soldier's carelessness 
 where it was to be carried. That was his Captain's 
 business, not his. 
 
 The principles he preached were not new ; they have 
 been written on the lives of Baptists from the }-ear of 
 our Lord, 330, and the time of the Bishop of Rome, 
 called Sylvester. But it is notorious that his ministry 
 of forty years stirred up the Baptists of the United 
 
340 LIFE OF SPENCEB HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 States to a livelier and more consistent defence and pro- 
 pagation of them than that of any other man of his 
 time. 
 
 What he preached during all those years, and labored 
 mightily to upbuild, is daily finding new advocates. To 
 some extent, Professor Curtis, in his able " progress of 
 Baptist principles," sustains his favorite positions, 
 although he does not go quite so far as he did. Every 
 such work, however, serves more clearly to instruct the 
 people of the United States, to whom they are indebted 
 for that unshackled "soul freedom" wherein they now 
 rejoice, and under the happy influence of which they 
 are pressing exultingly forward. It is right that the 
 people of these States should know that, belong to what 
 denomination they may, or belong to none, they are 
 living under a government constituted purely upon 
 Baptist principles, and that but for the preaching, and 
 suffering, and indomitable energy of Baptists, such a 
 government never could or would have existed upon the 
 earth. It is right that they should learn to what the 
 principles of Baptists tend, and how their triumph is the 
 triumph of voluntaryism over coercion, of republican 
 freedom over every usurpation of power, by whatever 
 name disguised. It is just, too, that in his memoirs 
 which we write, the principles for which he lived should 
 stand boldly out. Professor Curtis states the distinctive 
 principles of Baptists thus: 
 
 1. Freedom of conscience, and the entire separation 
 of Church and State. 
 
 2. A converted church membership. 
 
 3. Sacraments inoperative without choice and faith. 
 
 4. Believers, the only scriptural subjects of baptism. 
 
 5. Immersion always the baptism of the New Testa- 
 ment. 
 
 The word " sacraments " was not in Mr. Cone's voca- 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 341 
 
 biliary. He denied that there were anything but 
 " ordinances of the Gospel." In the "summary of the 
 faith and practice " of the First Baptist Church in the 
 City of New York," printed under his supervision in 
 1851, and on the title-page of which his name appears, 
 the 18th Article states " That the only symbolic ordi- 
 nances appertaining to the Gospel dispensation, are 
 Baptism and the Lord's Supper." 
 
 From the principle mentioned, fifth in order, by Pro- 
 fessor Curtis, resulted the views Mr. Cone had, in 
 common with all Close Communion Baptists, of the 
 order of a Christian church, as formed upon the apos- 
 tolic and primitive model, of the necessity of conversion, 
 &c, &c. ; of the proper subjects of Christian baptism, 
 and the proper character of those who should publicly 
 put on Christ by immersion, and sit down to His table. 
 
 From the one first stated resulted his whole system of 
 republican civil government, and republican Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 The best authorities would seem to sustain his belief, 
 that these distinctive principles of Baptists, particularly 
 those referring to the separation of civil and religious 
 matters, and entire freedom of conscience to all men, 
 freedom to believe or disbelieve as they choose, dates 
 from the age of the Apostles. Thence flowing down, 
 interrupted, indeed, by persecution, but still permeating 
 the harsh soil of Popery, and breaking out in rills as 
 limpid as the waters of life, from the rocky declivities 
 of the Cevennes, or the more luxuriant falls of Italy ; 
 they nourished the seeds of truth and freedom in the 
 hearts of Arnold of Brescia, Peter de Bruis, and the 
 Waldensian leaders. 
 
 Their principles found their earliest exponent upon 
 American soil in Roger Williams, of Rhode Island. 
 "In 1630, Roger Williams commenced to preach in favor 
 
342 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 of religions liberty, and in 1636, having purchased ter- 
 ritory from the Indians, commenced to found the colony 
 on the express principles of perfect religions liberty. In 
 1638, others having joined and purchased the territory 
 of the present State of Rhode Island, a voluntary gov- 
 ernment was formally instituted, by a solemn covenant 
 of all, to ' submit to the orders of the major part in civil 
 things only.'' Thus was a constitution formed on the 
 express basis of a perfect liberty of conscience. It is 
 true that it was not until 1614 that Roger Williams 
 obtained his charter from the king. This was not 
 sought, even then, because he deemed it necessary, but 
 only expedient, as a means of preventing the encroach- 
 ments of the colony of Massachusetts. This charter was 
 obtained and solemnly accepted and adopted by the 
 inhabitants, in 1647, and on the 10th of May, in that 
 year, a body of laws were enacted, and the government 
 further settled upon the principle of perfect religious 
 liberty. Even this last was about two years previous to 
 any enactment in favor of toleration afterward esta- 
 blished in Maryland. A more vital point, however, 
 than one of dates, remains to be considered. The very 
 word toleration implies the right to persecute " (Curtis, 
 p. 41 ; Hildreth, vol. 1, pp. 207, 347, 256, 322) Bap- 
 tists — the Baptist Williams and his compeers did not 
 tolerate, they established perfect religious liberty. 
 
 Here they stand alone. They have not only the 
 honor, whatever Archbishop Hughes may say to the 
 contrary, of first establishing religious liberty on this 
 continent, and on any continent, but also of establishing 
 the only religious liberty which was here opened to 
 men's souls. Lord Baltimore tolerated; Roger Wil- 
 liams enfranchised. 
 
 How he of whom we write preached, with what 
 exulting satisfaction he dwelt upon those distinguishing 
 
LIFE OF SPENCEB HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 343 
 
 features of Baptist principles, and labored to spread 
 them for the benefit of all men— Baptist or not— believ- 
 er or n ot— but simply to spread them for the temporal 
 as well as spiritual welfare of men, are there not many 
 thousands who remember'; 
 
 Let us listen to him in 1854, speaking to the Lible 
 Union these memorable words. 
 
 "No other Bible organization in the wide world, 
 advocates the translation and circulation of the whole 
 truth No other lives and breathes, and has it existence 
 exclusively in the unclouded atmosphere of pure unal- 
 loyed principle ; as the beloved Oncken, whilst amongst 
 h^ said, oim principle is divine *** here no king can 
 threaten us ; here no civil tribunal can coerce us, * 
 in no preceding age were so just views entertained ol 
 religious liberty, as at the present time. With few excep- 
 tions, and those chiefly among the Baptists, even the 
 advocates of religious freedom in past days, have insisted 
 upon some restriction upon the rights of conscience, 
 some connection between Church and State. Luther, 
 Calvin, Zwinglius, Knox and their followers together 
 with the Puritans, both of Old England and New Eng- 
 land, all fell into this grievous error. The present cen- 
 tury has done more to explode it than any other, since 
 the days of Christ and his Apostles. * * * In this 
 hio-hlv favored land, the sun of liberty first shone with 
 unobstructed rays. Rhode Island was the first State that 
 really established the principle of freedom to worship 
 God This was the pattern commonwealth ol Koger 
 Williams, followed by the other States in our glorious 
 Union, where all civil power should be exercised by the 
 people alone, and where the Ruler of the Universe 
 should be the only ruler over the conscience. 
 
 « Of all denominations, Baptists have most strenuously 
 and efficiently battled for unrestricted religious liberty. 
 
344 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 From the time when John the Baptist was imprisoned 
 for freedom of speech, to the time of John Banyan, who 
 suffered for the same crime ; and from the time of the 
 ingenious dreamer to the formation of the American Bible 
 Union, they have been bold to declare and maintain their 
 views of truth. They never could endure to receive their 
 religion by inheritance instead of conviction, or yield np 
 their souls to the domination of popes, kings, councils, 
 or assemblies. To the Law and to the Testimony has 
 been their uniform appeal; the living oracles j the 
 revealed mind and will of Jehovah ! 
 
 " Such is the age — such the country — such are the 
 principles which have grown with our growth, and 
 strengthened with our strength. Is it wonderful that 
 they should have conduced to originate and cherish in 
 our hearts an earnest desire to know exactly what God 
 has taught? Is it surprising that we should reject the 
 authority of King James and the rules by which he 
 restricted the revisers of the Bishop's Bible from ' LET- 
 TING- OUT THE WHOLE TRUTH?' 
 
 " But we are told that the legitimate exercise of our 
 liberty in seeking to know what God had revealed, pro- 
 duces disturbance. No doubt of it. Truth and princi- 
 ple always create disturbance in our sinful world. The 
 inspired Apostles themselves turned the world upside 
 down by preaching the truth. You cannot put a little 
 leaven into three measures of meal without producing a 
 great ferment, until the whole is leavened. The Refor- 
 mation was a fruitful source of trouble, the effects of 
 which have not yet died away. The translation of the 
 Bible by "Wickliffe caused great disturbance ; and Tyn- 
 dale's version produced still greater. What would have 
 been the effect of the revision made under King James, 
 if the revisers had been permitted by him to do their 
 duty, and had done it, who can tell ? Probably it would 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 345 
 
 Lave changed the whole aspect of religions affairs in 
 Great Britain; and have severed probably the cords 
 that bound together Church and State ; nay, it might 
 even have gone far towards pulling down infant sprink- 
 ling, that great ' part and pillar of popery !' 
 
 " And what is the truth for which we are contending? 
 Is it some personal matter between man and man ? Is 
 it an affair that concerns only a city, a state, a nation? 
 Ko ! the truth for which we strive is the truth as it is 
 ln Jesus ! the truth that concerns the immortal soul ; 
 the truth that affects the welfare of our whole race, and 
 the declarative glory of God on the earth. We assert 
 that there should be no embargo laid upon God's word, 
 that it should be given to our countrymen, and to the 
 whole family of man, in as pure translations as can be 
 made ; and that it should be free as the air we breathe. 
 No priestly faction, no prejudiced society, no combination 
 of wealth or influence should prevent it. Let the Word 
 of God run, and have free course, and he glorified I The 
 motto of Bro. Kobner, of Hamburg, we have acted upon 
 from the beginning — Who can measure the consequences 
 
 OF AN UNFAITHFUL TRANSLATION OF A SINGLE SENTENCE ?" 
 
 At Providence E. L, in April, 1845, he had said 
 of Eoo-er Williams, " He established a commonwealth 
 upon the pure principles of democracy. He set an 
 example which exerted a mighty influence upon neigh- 
 boring colonies, and resulted in the formation of our 
 happy national government. Christians of every name 
 should be reminded of the obligations they owe to God, 
 for the principles and conduct of Roger Williams. But 
 for these the descendants of the Puritans might yet 
 have been employed in burning, for witches, helpless 
 and inoffensive old women ; or in whipping, lining, 
 imprisoning, banishing, or murdering Quakers, and 
 Ajiabaptists (falsely so called) for no other reason than 
 
 22* 
 
34:6 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 their obstinately refusing 'to receive for doctrine the 
 commandments of men.' When thinking of that first 
 of American Baptists, in connection with Providence, I 
 cannot refrain from exclaiming : 
 
 " ' Oh, call this holy ground! 
 The soil where Williams trod, 
 He left unstained, what here he found, 
 Fkeedoh to worship God.' " 
 
 Tims we have, in the claim he makes for Baptists as 
 the first to establish religious freedom, what more or 
 less pervaded every speech and sermon he delivered 
 during the forty years of his ministry. The glory of the 
 principle and of Baptists as its exponents through ages 
 of persecution and violence, until its happy triumph at 
 last on the shores of America, was ever in his mind, and 
 formed one of the strong ties which bound him to his 
 denomination. There was no novelty, indeed, in it, since 
 the fact of its assertion by Baptists in every age, made 
 it as venerable for antiquity as for truth. The marked 
 boldness and pertinacity with which he asserted it, the 
 prominence he gave it, and the popularity he added 
 to it, by a powerful and courteous presentation of the 
 fact, made him pre-eminent as the apologist of his peo- 
 ple. Is not his eloquence also yet ringing in our ears 
 as he dwelt upon the glorious simplicity of a Baptist 
 church, a voluntary association of men of like faith in 
 the Lord Jesus, electing their officers — pastor, deacon, 
 all — by open vote of majority ; transacting their church 
 business after the manner of a free republic ; every 
 church distinct and substantive in its existence, subordi- 
 nate to nothing on earth, amenable to no law but God's 
 law in the Bible, in its church relationship ; subject to 
 no ecclesiastical jurisdiction ; acknowledging no superior 
 but the Head over all things to his church, even Christ ; 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 3-47 
 
 recognizing Baptist churches, but no Baptist church! 
 are not all these things fresh jet in our hearts, and shall 
 not these principles live ; shall they not be immortal ? 
 Shall not a " translated bible " carry them on the 
 wings of the wind wide as the world? He believed it, 
 and that belief made every labor light, allayed every 
 rising sorrow, plucked the sting of every disappointment 
 and animated with the fire and energy of youth his 
 happy age. He was the first we ever recollect hearing 
 say, that "Baptists were not Protestants, that they 
 came in a direct line from the apostolic churches, and 
 as they never consented to the iniquities of Rome, they 
 nad not to come out from her and protest." 
 
 And what God has by the miraculous interposition 
 and care of His high providence "kept so pure of old," 
 and transmitted unadulterated even to this time — shall 
 it not endure 
 
 " Until the elements shall be burned up, 
 And every creature shall be purified ?" 
 
348 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 CHAPTEK XIX. 
 
 THE AMERICAN AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY. 
 
 The first annual meeting of the American and 
 Foreign Bible Society, was held on Thursday, April 
 26th, 1838, in the meeting-house of the Oliver street 
 Baptist Church, New York. The second annual meet- 
 ing was held on Tuesday, the 22d of April, 1839, in the 
 meeting-house of the First Baptist Church, Second 
 street, Philadelphia. Mr. Cone was again chosen as its 
 president. After reading of the treasurer's report, the 
 president opened his address, and the business of the 
 session, by saying, " A review of the gracious dealings 
 of Divine Providence in reference to its operations, was 
 calculated to excite emotions of the liveliest gratitude. 
 With but one agent, our indefatigable Brother Maclay, 
 the receipts of the treasurer for the current year have 
 furnished a gratifying proof of the estimation in which 
 the society continues to be held by the Baptists of the 
 United States, and a pleasing presage, that still more 
 liberal supplies may be confidently anticipated, as new 
 facilities are presented to expend them judiciously. 
 * * * * In the exercise of Christian courtesy, the 
 many yielded to the wishes of the few, and the efforts 
 of the Board of Managers were, during the year suc- 
 ceeding the convention in Philadelphia, limited to the 
 circulation of the Word of God in foreign tongues. At 
 the last anniversary, this feature of the constitution was 
 obliterated, by the unanimous vote of the society, and to 
 our original motto — The Bible translated — we were 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 349 
 
 permitted to add — The field is the world ! The 
 debatable ground being thus happily passed over, we had 
 only to commend ourselves, in humble reliance upon 
 Almighty God, to the work evidently set before us. 
 
 "As Americans, and Baptists, we have from the 
 beginning felt the claims of our country." 
 
 The unanimity of the society, and the cordial support 
 afforded it by the denomination, proved the unsound- 
 ness of the objections urged against it in the Philadel- 
 phia convention. The most uncompromising opponents 
 in that convention, were Drs. William T. Brantly, and 
 William R. Williams. It is questionable, whether they 
 had at that time a party prepared to sustain them in their 
 extreme opposition views. Although many were unde- 
 cided, a second class, the class always found in deliberative 
 assemblies, as everywhere else in life, were nervous, 
 undecided, and busy looking for an opportunity to see 
 which way the current set, and swim with it, and 
 so keep well with the strongest party. The third 
 section, and happily an overwhelming majority, asked 
 only, ' What is the truth ? What does it require at our 
 hands V These rallied under the great leader in the 
 enterprise, and stood immovable against every shock. 
 It seems proper to give a sketch of the arguments used 
 in that convention. Dr. Brantly opposed it as unneces- 
 sary, there was, he maintained, already an organization 
 for this specific purpose, and until its deficiency should 
 be proved, he would not vote for a new one. The 
 Baptist Board of Foreign Missions had sustained, and 
 conducted the whole matter of translating and diffusing 
 the Bible. Why add another power to the machinery ? 
 He opposed a new organization, on the further ground 
 that the translation and dispersion of the Bible in 
 foreign tongues is a missionary work, and should be left 
 to a Missionary Board ; and lastly, that in directing the 
 
350 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 attention of the denomination to the work of foreign 
 versions and distribution, there might be danger of 
 drawing on* their energies from co-ordinate departments 
 of missionary duty. He treated the scheme as vision- 
 ary. He was opposed to the separation it would 
 produce between Baptists and other Christians. He 
 was a Baptist, but he loved the name of Protestant 
 better. He wanted reasons, not poetry and declam- 
 ation. 
 
 Dr. Williams eulogized the translators of King James. 
 He anticipated that the effect of leaving the American 
 Bible Society would be to beget a schism in the denom- 
 ination. He maintained that Mr. Cone had acted 
 improperly in calling the convention. That it was an 
 usurpation of power. That those who sent him, Dr. 
 W., would support foreign, but not domestic operations. 
 
 Dr. Wayland desired to see the convention unan- 
 imous, but opposed domestic operations, or making 
 home distribution a part of it, or attempting a better 
 version. He denied the power of the convention to do 
 so, on the ground that the denomination could not be 
 represented — " Every Baptist man being responsible to 
 his own church, and responsible to no other being 
 under God." A very true and noble Baptist republican 
 sentiment, but rather illogically applied. Dr. Wayland, 
 although in opposition, was kind, dignified, and Christ- 
 ian-like, in argument. He adhered, however, to the 
 American Bible Society, and we believe still continues 
 to do so. He was the apologist of that institution 
 throughout, and was the author of the resolutions 
 cutting off the Baptist missionaries. He was undoubt- 
 edly sincere ; but, how a Baptist can " believe infant 
 sprinkling a pillar and ground of Popery," and yet 
 sustain the system which perpetuates it, is hard to 
 understand. 
 
LIFE OF SPENCEIi HOUGHTON CONE. 351 
 
 Mr. Lincoln, of Boston, took the same view of the 
 subject, and was enthusiastic in his eulogium upon the 
 greatness and success of the American Bible Society. 
 He denied that Baptists had a right to complain of the 
 resolution cutting off their missionaries. It was in con- 
 sonance with the letter and spirit of its constitution. 
 The A. B. S. was a great and noble institution. His 
 esteemed Brother Cone, himself, introduced the resolu- 
 tion, adopted by the A. B. S. to supply the whole world 
 with the Sacred Scriptures, in the shortest time practi- 
 cable. Mr. Cone had by that given a pledge the 
 Baptist denomination were bound to redeem. We could 
 not be released from our obligations to it. His conclu- 
 sions were hostile to a Baptist institution, as liable to 
 interfere with that " great and noble " one. 
 
 Mr. Maginnis, of Maine, concurred in the general 
 views of the opposition. Letters had been presented 
 from different parts of the country, in favor of a new 
 organization ; if he had made the effort he could have 
 obtained more against it, and in favor of the American 
 Bible Society. If formed, however, he insisted upon 
 restricting the New Society to foreign distribution. If 
 not, the New Society would go beyond the circum- 
 stances which it was alleged called for it. He hoped 
 the convention would not censure the American Bible 
 Society, or do anything to disturb the good feeling 
 which had so long existed between Baptists and that 
 glorious society. Where could Christians unite, if not 
 in the circulation of the (Pedo-Baptist?) Bible? He was 
 terrified at the idea of Baptists ever attempting a revi- 
 sion of the common version. He hoped they would not 
 touch it. 
 
 Mr. Sherwood regarded the amendment restricting 
 the Society to distribution in " foreign languages " as 
 
352 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTOX CONE. 
 
 the test question. He would go for vesting it with that 
 power, and would not go further. 
 
 To make the record clear, it is, perhaps, well here to 
 state that this was in fact the " test question." 
 
 The original resolution offered by Professor James D. 
 Knowles read : " Whereas, the American Bible Society 
 has ratified the resolutions of the Board of Managers, 
 passed February 17th, 1836, therefore, JResolved, that 
 it becomes the duty of the Baptist denomination of the 
 United States to form a distinct organization, for Bible 
 distribution in foreign lanomasjes." 
 
 Mr. Cone offered as a substitute, " That under exist- 
 ing circumstances, it is the indispensable duty of the 
 Baptist denomination in the United States to organize a 
 distinct society, for the purpose of aiding in the transla- 
 tion, printing, and circulation of the sacred Scriptures." 
 
 On the difference between these two propositions the 
 whole debate, occupying four days, turned. 
 
 A small minorit} 7 , but a very able and influential one 
 in learning and position, came forward to sustain the 
 American Bible Society, and oppose the formation of a 
 distinct institution. On looking over the three hundred 
 and eighty-six members present, as delegates from every 
 section of the United States, twenty-four States being 
 represented, and feeling the pulse of the body, the par- 
 liamentary experience of these gentlemen showed them 
 that direct and unqualified opposition would not only 
 be vain, but would also react very injuriously upon 
 themselves. They perceived clearly that a powerful 
 majority were fully determined to carry out the will of 
 the denomination, and form a Bible Society. The 
 tactics of the opposition were instantly changed, and as 
 they could not prevent its formation, it became their 
 object to reduce its proportions as much as possible, to 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER nOUGHTON CONE. 353 
 
 restrict and hamper its action, and confine it within such 
 strait limits as would prevent it from conflicting with 
 the interests of the American Bible Society. The able 
 leaders of the minority were not ignorant of the charac- 
 ter, nor did they fail to surmise the purposes of Mr. 
 Cone. They knew that the desire to give the whole 
 world pure versions of the word of God was in his 
 heart — that the desire was an indomitable one — that 
 between his thoughts and actions time rarely made 
 much gap. They saw that the instant he obtained the 
 machinery of a Bible Society, pledged, under his resolu- 
 tion, simply to "circulate the sacred Scriptures," the 
 home field, would not be long unoccupied, nor King 
 James's Bible long unimpeached as a witness for truth. 
 Therefore they expended their wdtole force in the endea- 
 vor to add the words, " in foreign languages." The 
 abstract of the arguments we have given fairly, repre- 
 sents the tone of the opposition debates. 
 
 In answer to them, at different times, during the four 
 days' debate, and with an eloquence, the effects of which 
 the opposition vainly endeavored to sneer away, by 
 stigmatizing it as " poetry "■ — " rhetoric " — " declama- 
 tion," &c, " the usual resort of men who seek rather to 
 inflame passion and prejudice, than to convince reason," 
 
 Mr. Cone presented his reasons for calling the meet- 
 ing at Hartford ; for forming the provisional Bible 
 Society, and finally for appealing to that body, the 
 representatives of the whole denomination, to ratify his 
 acts. He contended that it was necessary to organize a 
 new society. That delegates from twenty-four States 
 were present, and the sentiment of the denomination on 
 the subject could be fairly ascertained. That he 
 believed it to be the imperative and pleasing duty of the 
 Baptists of the United States to organize such a society. 
 
354 LIFE OF SPENCER HOTJGHTON CONE. 
 
 That they would sustain it liberally. The field was the 
 world. The British and Foreign and American Bible 
 Societies would no longer aid Baptists, unless they 
 would consent to conform to the principle in their 
 versions, which their missionaries and the whole deno- 
 mination had disallowed. Baptists must, therefore, aid 
 themselves. They were bound to give vernacularly the 
 mind of the spirit, in the nearest possible approach to 
 that mind as expressed in the original record-. They 
 had greater prospects of success than had ever fallen to 
 the lot of any denomination. America was the land of 
 Baptists. Roger Williams contended undauntedly and 
 successfully for the "Voluntary Principle," viz., that a 
 man cannot be born in a system of faith — that he must 
 take the Bible as his only guide. This principle had. 
 been introduced into all the institutions of civil and 
 religious freedom, which distinguished our happy land. 
 He would say, then, under the circumstances in which 
 the Baptists in the United States were placed — where 
 there were no acts of uniformity — where there was no 
 union of Church and State — where there was no sword 
 of majesty placed in the hand, of religious despotism, 
 they ought to act unshackled and fearlessly. This was 
 the land where we spoke as we printed, and printed 
 what we spoke, and there was " none daring to make us 
 afraid." Baptists wanted no new Bible ; they merely 
 wished to have the privilege of printing and circulating 
 it as they understood it now. Were they to stand still? 
 Must they not give the Scriptures unmutilated and 
 uncovered to the nations of the earth? An organization 
 to do so, would be the most popular of all Christian 
 efforts. Baptist Missionaries have translated the Bible 
 into the languages on both sides the Ganges. They lift 
 a piercing cry to us. Shall that cry be unheard? Ger- 
 many, too, implores aid. Have American Baptists for- 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 355 
 
 gotten that they have martyrs to their principles in that 
 land ? Xo one was more devoted to the missionary 
 interest than he 'was. It had been said we can send all 
 our funds through that channel. We could not. That 
 society had as much to do now as it could attend to. 
 The formation of the American and Foreign Bible 
 Society had already tested the wishes of the denomina- 
 tion. With very little effort $21,000 (in one year, the 
 first of its existence) had been thrown into the treasury, 
 and $15,000 more subscribed. He gave a detailed 
 account of the controversy between the Baptists and the 
 American Bible Society. Ill-used as the Baptists had 
 been, but one course was left them — the one they had 
 taken. Baptists were under as much obligation to print 
 a pure version as to preach it. He had not called the 
 Convention ex-offlcio — as president, as was charged ; he 
 had merely asked that there might be a full representa- 
 tion, and that such as could not come would send their 
 opinions. It was unjust to charge that he had stretched 
 his power. He did not think it wise to limit the society 
 to foreign distribution. He desired a full discussion, 
 and a public one. He desired the Baptist denomination 
 to know what the}'' did there. He wished to lie no 
 longer under the imputations which had been put upon 
 him. It had been said for a year past that he was mis- 
 representing his denomination. He wished that con- 
 vention to say whether he had or had not misrepresented 
 it. He desired to test the sentiment of the whole deno- 
 mination. 
 
 A great deal had been said in regard to the transla- 
 tors and translation of the Scriptures. He had heard his 
 brethren here utter the most singular remarks in relation 
 to the forty-nine translators appointed by King James ; 
 and some had gone so far as to pronounce the Bible as 
 translated by the distinguished forty-nine, a perfect 
 
356 LIFE OF SPENCER HCUGHTON CONE. 
 
 work/ Had we ever heard of a work so lauded to the 
 skies? The modest Cary devoted forty odd years to the 
 translation of his work, and what was his answer to a 
 question in reference to it ? " It may oe made a perfect 
 work." They were met, when discussing the propriety 
 of extending the operations of the society to domestic 
 distribution, with the argument that they were not to 
 assume the name "American" because it would look 
 to a period of a change of the version. He was really 
 astonished at the trepidation and fears of some of his 
 brethren. He believed that the time was not far distant 
 when in England a new version would be prepared and 
 presented to English readers. Yates had translated the 
 New Testament from the original Greek into English. 
 When he heard so much said as to the " forty-nine " 
 translators (of King James), heard them so lauded to 
 the skies, he asked — " Who knows that they were such 
 very learned men?" He had looked into the matter, 
 and could not discover that they were men of such 
 extraordinary and transcendent talents. Where were 
 their learned works — their critical and extensive know- 
 ledge ? Did gentlemen feel at liberty to say that forty- 
 nine Baptists could not come together, and make 
 amendments in the version of the Scriptures? He 
 opposed transferring — because the result of it had been 
 to unite Church and State, and to produce much evil. 
 He was not disposed to award King James's translators 
 the high wrought eulogies he had heard pronounced on 
 that floor. He could not discover foundation enough 
 for them. He maintained that the word " Baptizo" 
 meant to immerse. He would r either repeat nor reply 
 to the personal allusions and charges made against 
 him. 
 
 Throughout the debate he was boluly and eloquently 
 sustained by Drs. B. T. Welsh of Albany ; Cushman, of 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 357 
 
 Philadelphia; Kendrick, of Ilamilton, New York; 
 Professor Knowles, of Massachusetts ; Mr. Tinsley, of 
 Virginia ; Mason, of South Carolina; Anderson, of 
 Kentucky ; Armstrong, of North Carolina ; Octavius 
 Winslow, then of New York, now of Leamington, Eng- 
 'and ; Soramers, of New York; J. B. Jeter, of Virginia; 
 Crane, of Baltimore ; Galusha, of New York ; Mills, of 
 Virginia ; and others. 
 
 Of the efforts of Drs. Welsh and Cushman, in that 
 crisis, he always spoke in terms of unqualified admira- 
 tion. He has often repeated since that Bartholomew T. 
 Welsh made the ablest speech in favor of pure versions 
 that was made in that body. The impression left upon 
 the minds, both of friends and enemies, by this Conven- 
 tion, was that a new version of the English Scriptures 
 must ultimately be produced. The "Bible Repertory" 
 tor July, 1838, in its review of the proceedings of that 
 body, said — " Eveiy principle of the movement was 
 y< nrral, and every argument of the Convention went as 
 strongly for an English translation, as for a Burman or 
 a Bengalee. Every speaker who alluded to the matter 
 of translation at all, seemed to look, with one eye at 
 least, towards an English translation. * * * * It 
 was only by mutual compromise, that they confined 
 their operations for one year to foreign lands.' 1 ' 
 
 The American and Foreign Bible Society was 
 originally constituted as the advocate and exponent of 
 the principle of pure translation. This was clearly set 
 forth in the first article of its constitution, which defined 
 its " single object" to be " to promote a wider circula- 
 tion of the Holy Scriptures, in the most faithful versions 
 that can be procured." 
 
 AVe will say here that in making up this review of 
 the progress of the principle embodied in that first 
 article, we avail ourselves of Dr. Baker's address ; the 
 
35 S LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 reports and addresses of the different societies; Mr. 
 Cone's speeches and letters ; Cone and Wyckoff's work, 
 "The Bible; its Excellence," and other similar docu- 
 ments, using or condensing their language, as the space 
 which can be allotted to the subject demands. The 
 annual meeting, in April, 1838, decided the question of 
 entering upon the work of domestic distribution. There 
 was no direct opposition to the measure, but some 
 thought that prudence required the postponement of the 
 work till the new organization had acquired more 
 strength, and was better able to undertake it. At that 
 meeting they agreed to distribute the commonly receiv- 
 ed version of the English Scriptures " until otherwise 
 ordered by the society." The position of the society 
 was.thus established. Its principle, Pure Versions for 
 the World, the English version being temporarily 
 excepted, until experience in its new duties, and enlarg- 
 ed observation, should prepare the body for procuring 
 a thorough and faithful version. So firmly established 
 was this original policy of the Institution, that the pages 
 of the annual reports and addresses abound with expres- 
 sions upon the subject of the most unequivocal charac- 
 ter. In one report the object of the organization is 
 described as " the glorious enterprise of giving the 
 Bible faithfully translated to all nations." In another, 
 " the distinguishing principles of the society " are 
 declared to be " The Bible — the Bible faithfully trans- 
 lated for the w t orld." In another it is declared " Let 
 but the Bible, pure and immittilated, be universally 
 distributed, and armed with the Spirit's power, it will 
 conquer the world for Christ." 
 
 The third annual meeting was held in die Oliver 
 street meeting-house, Tuesday, April 28th, 1840. Mr. 
 Cone was again chosen its president, and said in his 
 address, that " In the prosecution of their labors, they 
 
LIFE OF SrENCER HOUGIITON CONE. 359 
 
 had been much gratified to find that all the Baptist Mis- 
 sionaries of England and America were of one heart and 
 oru judgment with them, in the Bible cause. * - " :: " In 
 the estimation of some, the formation of our society was, 
 indeed, the day of small things. Even the late excel- 
 lent Dr. Fish ventured to predict, upon the platform of 
 the American Bible Society, that the effort could not 
 succeed, because his own denomination, as numerous 
 and wealthy as ours, had tried the experiment, and 
 failed. " :: " * * The day of small things is never to be 
 desjjised, if it spring from an orb of indestructible light. 
 Clouds may overshadow its rising, but sooner or later it 
 shall attain meridian splendor." 
 
 In reference to the subject of its home distribution, 
 the article in the "Bible Repertory," already quoted 
 from, says : " Soon the home distribution must com- 
 mence ; indeed, at the recent annual meeting in ISTew 
 York, they resolved to take it up at once ; and then 
 they encounter again the untranslated JBaptizo, and 
 after the Burman precedent of conscientiousness, what 
 will conscience dictate then ? How long will the trans- 
 lating society be content to translate into one language, 
 and transfer into another? If the Baptists can consent 
 to use the common English version in this country, 
 while they make such conscientious ado about the foreign 
 versions, corresponding to that in the principle of their 
 translation, we shall be forced to entertain a disrespect 
 for their consistency, which we cannot now think them 
 capable of deserving." The "Bible Repertory" is a 
 very able Presbyterian publication. 
 
 It was clearly the opinion of the whole Pedo-Baptist 
 world that, having committed themselves to the princi- 
 ple of " pure versions for the world," the Baptists could 
 not, without covering themselves with confusion, strike 
 England and America out of the map. The principle 
 
360 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 was either true or false ; and if true as to one language, 
 must be true as to all. It was either a whim or a duty. 
 If a whim, it was unworthy a great religious denomina 
 tion ; if a duty, it admitted of no circumstance qiioac* 
 majus, or minus; it admitted no exception on the 
 ground of expediency. The latter view was the one 
 taken by President Cone. Strange to say, many good 
 men admitted the duty, but obeyed the expediency / for- 
 getting that expediency, a fickle tyrant seldom fails to 
 prove a hard master ; whilst God and duty, always sure, 
 shelter obedience behind the eternal fortress of the 
 " rock of ages." 
 
 The fourth anniversary of the American and Foreign 
 Bible Society was held in the Calvert street Baptist 
 meeting-house, Baltimore, April 27th, 1841. 
 
 In reference to this meeting, and some interesting 
 facts and circumstances preceding it, we shall quote the 
 testimony of the Kev. Dr. Joseph Belcher, of Philadel- 
 phia, published in the " Christian Review " for January, 
 1856. 
 
 " Dr. Cone had a remarkable tact for the execution 
 of ecclesiastical business, and hence he was, more fre- 
 quently, perhaps, than any other man in his denomina- 
 tion, called to preside at public meetings. To say 
 nothing here of his presidency, first of the American 
 and Foreign Bible Society, from its origin till 1850, and 
 afterwards of the American Bible Union ; or of his being 
 many years, before either of these societies existed, a 
 secretary of the American Bible Society ; he was, for 
 many years together, the moderator of each of the asso- 
 ciations ti> which he belonged; and in 1832, 1835, and 
 1838 he was elected [resident of the Triennial Conven- 
 including repr isentatives of the Baptist body from 
 every State of the Union. Those who remember the 
 manner in which he discharged the duties of this office, 
 
LITE OF SrENCER HOUGnTON CONE. 361 
 
 may well shed an additional tear over Lis loss. !Not 
 very many, perhaps, who were present at the Conven- 
 tion in Richmond, in 1835, will cast their eyes over this 
 page, but those who may do so will remember the im- 
 pression he then produced. The delegation from 
 England, consisting of the late venerable and beloved 
 Drs. Cox and Iloby, when speaking in their printed 
 volume of the manner in which he gave them, at the 
 request of the body, the hand of fellowship, say, ' Well 
 did he sustain the dignity of his office, while with equal 
 affection and eloquence, he received us as brethren 
 beloved for our works' sake, and emphatically as 
 Englishmen, as Christians and as ministers. u We 
 welcome you," said he, "to our country, our churches, 
 our houses, and our hearts." When the tumult of emo- 
 tion had subsided, after a few moments of solemn still 
 ness which succeeded the president's address, he rose, 
 and gave out a stanza of the hymn which commences — ■ 
 
 "Blest be the tie that binds 
 Our hearts in Christian love." ' 
 
 " We happen to know that this statement was not made 
 in a merely complimentary manner, as we heard more 
 than once from their own lips even stronger expressions 
 of admiration of his spirit and conduct. 
 
 " Perhaps his talent in discharging the duties of a 
 chairman was best evinced in preventing the introduc- 
 tion of irrelevant matter. It is probable, however, that 
 on no other occasion was his control of a public body so 
 fully shown, as at the fourth annual meeting of the 
 American and Foreign Bible Society, held at Baltimore 
 in 1811. The reader will probably recollect the circum- 
 stances under which our denomination was then placed. 
 For nearly a .generation had the whole body of 
 
 16 
 
362 LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 Baptists, from Maine to Georgia, acted in perfect har- 
 mony, in sending missionaries to the heathen, and sus- 
 taining them in their labors ; and with almost equal har- 
 mony had they acted in labors at home, as also from its 
 origin, for years before this period, in the American and 
 Foreign Bible Society. But dark clouds were now hov- 
 ering over the whole land, opposing elements were col- 
 lecting alike from the north and the south, flashes of 
 lightning had for some time past indicated the approach 
 of a storm, which was to rend the body asunder at Bal- 
 timore, during that last week in April. One class of 
 brethren had determined, cost wdiat it might, to seek the 
 immediate destruction of the system of slavery, or at 
 least to hold no further fellowship with those who sus- 
 tained it, and another class resolved, if possible, to con- 
 tinue united efforts to extend the Gospel, in which all 
 hitherto united as one. Strongly excited feelings had 
 already been privately manifested, and as no one could 
 tell wdiether the awful explosion would take place in 
 the Bible Society, or in the Home Mission, or in the 
 Triennial Convention of Foreign Missions, alarm pre- 
 vailed. It was the lot of the Bible Society to meet first 
 on the morning of Tuesday. Brother Cone was in the 
 chair, and after the usual preliminaries, rose to deliver 
 his annual address. It was eminently characteristic. 
 He evidently felt his solemn responsibility, as giving, in 
 some degree, tone to the meetings of many day*, and 
 made an effort to ward off, if possible, the danger. 
 From the speech, as printed with the fourth annual 
 report, we give an extract. 
 
 '• To the successful prosecution of this enterprise, 
 union is indispensable. Do soldiers and politicians, and 
 men of the world, appreciate duly the importance of 
 this principle, in their various spheres of action? God 
 forbid that they sliou.d continue to be wiser in their 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 363 
 
 generation than the children of light are in theirs. In 
 coming to this house to-day, my heart was deeply 
 affected, while I leaned upon the arm of a brother, and 
 gazed upon the Calvert street monument, erected to the 
 memory of the brave men who fell at the battle of the 
 North Point, September 12th, 1814. The first names 
 which my eyes rested upon were MeComas and Wells, 
 and in an instant the scenes of that memorable day 
 were present. We belonged to the battalion of sharp- 
 shooters, and were stationed in the edge of a wood, 
 some five or six miles distant from the Point, when one 
 of the videttes riding furiously to head quarters, deliv- 
 ered the stirring news that the British were landing 
 below us. The General immediately sent one of his aids 
 along the line for two hundred volunteers, including 
 forty sharp-shooters, to feel the pulse of the enemy. As 
 they stepped out one after another, Wells said to me, 'I 
 am this day twenty-one years old, just out of my 
 apprenticeship ; I know I shall be shot, but I'll go with 
 yon, live or die.' We advanced rapidly to ascertain the 
 position of the invaders, and were soon upon them; 
 swift flew the leaden messengers, and one of the first was 
 sent to poor Wells ; it passed through his head, and he 
 faintly exclaimed, ' I am a dead man /' Oh, never shall 
 I forget the sound of his voice as he uttered the words, 
 nor the expression of his glassy eye, as he looked up in 
 my face, fell across my feet, and expired. 
 
 " My brethren, shall men thus devote themselves to 
 their country, and follow their leader, whether to live 
 or die, and shall we not manifest equal devotion to 
 the cause of the Great Captain of our salvation? Do 
 we talk of unionl Baltimoreans, participators in the 
 scenes of September, 1814, preach to American Baptists, 
 I beseech you, on the nature and necessity of union. 
 Remember the bombardment of Fort McHenry, as from 
 
364 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 the opposite hill-top we watched the range of each suc- 
 cessive shell, and as it exploded groaned inwardly as 
 though it were the death-knell of some brother in arms ; 
 remember, that full ten thousand men were at the same 
 moment pressing with hostile feet our native soil, and 
 already within a few miles of this devoted city ; remem- 
 ber that as we prepared to meet them, how every 
 avenue for miles around, was crowded with women and 
 children flying for safety ; the?i, when we saw some 
 troops from Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, 
 coming to our aid, did we ask 'from what States do 
 they come?' did we pause to discuss domestic institu- 
 tions or local prejudices? No! the stars and stripes 
 upon their floating banner, bespoke a common country, 
 and a common cause ; and to preserve the bold American 
 Eagle from the paws of the British Lion, was the ardent, 
 the common purpose of every patriotic heart. We 
 heard the immortal Washington, the father of his coun- 
 try, though dead, yet speaking — ' United we stand, 
 divided we fall y' and shoulder to shoulder, we breasted 
 the storm of war. And shall we not much rather be 
 united in wielding the sword of the Spirit, which is the 
 Word of God, in obeying the commandment of Him 
 1 who came not to destroy men's lives but to save 
 them ?' Brethren, excuse this extemporaneous burst of 
 feeling, and these allusions to the battle-field and gar- 
 ments rolled in blood ; they came upon me suddenly, 
 with a force that would not brook control. But let me 
 not be misunderstood. I love my country, and were it 
 necessary should not hesitate a moment to stand forth 
 again in her defence ; but I abhor war, and deprecate 
 its recurrence as one of the greatest of national calamities, 
 especially a war between Great Britain and the United 
 States. Let us strive against it, and pray always that 
 these two nations, now accomplishing so much in 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 365 
 
 extending the means of civilization and salvation to 
 earth's remotest bound, may henceforth be delightfully 
 and profitably employed in provoking one another to 
 love and good works." 
 
 The result of this address, delivered in his own anima 
 ted manner, was to allay the storm, and to produce a 
 sacred determination to maintain the peace and union 
 which had so long reigned, and the object for this time 
 was secured." 
 
 His views prevailed at the time, but subsequently a 
 division took place in the Foreign and Home Mission 
 ranks. Of this division and its results we have already 
 given an account. But no such marked division ever 
 took place in Bible operations. Southern Bible boards 
 were formed, connected with the Southern Baptist 
 Biennial Convention, but sympathy and co-operation in 
 the cause of pure versions continue to the present day 
 between Baptists who leve the truth throughout the 
 whole Union. 
 
3GG LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 REVISED ENGLISH VERSION AND EVENTS OF 1849-50. 
 
 The question of a revised English version began 
 veiy soon to be considered. It found, we believe, the 
 first public denominational expression in its favor at the 
 General Convention of Western Baptists, held at 
 Cincinnati, November 2d, 1836, in an address of Dr. 
 Maclay's, the sentiments of which met with universal 
 favor. " The day may come," said he, " and perhaps is 
 not distant, when the Baptist denomination will give a 
 A r ersion in the English language, wherein the word 
 (baptizo) will be faithfully translated." The idea of an 
 English translation lay, indeed, at the root of the whole 
 matter. Pedo-Baptists saw this sooner, and more surely 
 than many Baptists. They were more logical in their 
 inferences. It showed itself in the instructions issued 
 to Baptist missionaries, in April, 1833, by the Board of 
 Foreign Missions which met at Salem, viz : "to transfer 
 no words which are capable of being literally trans- 
 lated. " Nor was the question of a revised version a new 
 one in the United States. Rev. Morgan Edwards, 
 author of a history of the Baptists in Pennsylvania, 
 advocated it. Charles Thompson, secretary of the first 
 Provincial Congress, published a translation of the Sep- 
 tuagint. It was agitated in 1796, in the New York 
 Association, and " the terms of baptism proposed to 
 be translated agreeably to their original import." 
 
 Mr. Cone's course with regard to the subject, was, 
 
LTFE or SPENCER nOUGHTON CONE. 367 
 
 from the first, uniform and consistent. In the words of 
 Dr. Baker — "If he embraced a principle he was not the 
 man to flinch from its open advocacy on all proper 
 occasions. If he believed that infant sprinkling is " the 
 last pillar of Popery," and bad set himself to the task of 
 writing a history of Romanism, be would have gone to 
 work to batter down this last pillar. When truth was 
 at stake he received "not honor from men," but sought 
 "The honor that cometb from God only." His motto 
 was, -The Bible faithfully translated for all the world ;" 
 and for this be steadily contended, insisting in public 
 and in private, on all suitable occasions, that the cause 
 of God and righteousness requires, that the Sacred 
 Scriptures should be given in their purity, fully and 
 accurately translated, to all the inhabitants of the 
 earth. And when he spoke of "giving to all lands the 
 word of God faithfully translated," he really supposed 
 that England and America were necessarily included in 
 the words " all lands.'''' In strict consistency with his 
 principles, he constantly advocated the correction of the 
 English version." 
 
 Having arrived at this conclusion, all his deductions 
 from it were logical. What was true, was true every- 
 where, and always. The essence of truth was eternity 
 and invariability; if the Word of God must be given 
 purely to heathen nations, Christian lands had an equal 
 right to it. If wrong to conceal any part of it in India, 
 it was equally wrong to cover up or conceal in Amer- 
 ica. "The sword of the spirit," he said, "must be 
 drawn out of King James's scabbard." The objects for 
 which he pleaded on the platform or from the pulpit, 
 were the objects for which he labored everywhere. 
 That which distinguished him, in his attachment to the 
 rule ot translating God's Word, from many of his breth- 
 ren, was, that his attachment was love in action and 
 
368 LTFE OF SPENCER IIOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 universal in its character. The object of his attachment 
 was not a something not to be touched with one of his 
 fingers, but a principle which was to serve as a rule of 
 action ; he saw no good reason for excluding his country- 
 men from the benefits of its application." 
 
 Error, although wounded to the death, dies hard. 
 "Writhing amid her worshippers," she strikes wildly on 
 eveiy side. The pains of dissolution add horror to her 
 crest, and venom to her sting. 
 
 With the first announcement of the principle of 
 "pure versions of the sacred Scriptures for the world," 
 she felt the principle of her own life invaded. It was 
 not wonderful, therefore, that she should rally all her 
 strength to repel the dangerous assault, and crush, if 
 possible, the enemy who threatened her. How despe- 
 rate and unscrupulous the means resorted to, to gain 
 that end, and with what a common consent and cunning 
 her partisans acted together, we shall proceed to show 
 before entering upon the last chapter devoted to the his- 
 tory of the revision movement. Our narrative would 
 be imperfect without it. To-day w T e have the record 
 open and fresh before us. The words of his opponents 
 are in evidence against them. After a few years, it 
 would be impossible to collect the material scattered, as 
 it is, through an hundred newspapers, issued from every 
 point of the American continent. Without condensing 
 them here there would be a gap which the future could 
 not fill up, and in the absence of such a record, it might 
 be tempted to think that we had magnified the trial 
 through which he passed, by way of adding a fictitious 
 value to the services he performed. 
 
 A rapid digest of the whole matter at issue, from the 
 first, and of the various pleadings, will show how 
 exceeding bitter they were against him, and through 
 
LIFE OF SPEXCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 369 
 
 what a ho9t of resolute foes he carried the banner of 
 revision, with God to aid, victoriously to the end. 
 
 Up to the year 1850, neither the American and 
 Foreign Bible Society nor its Board ever bound them- 
 selves not to circulate a corrected English version. The 
 temporary resolution of 1838 confined the Board to the 
 commonly received English version, until otherwise 
 dm ctcd by the Society. At the annual meeting in 1819, 
 that restriction was removed. The Board subsequently 
 passed unanimously the following resolutions, which 
 were introduced by the Hon. Isaac Davis, of Massachu- 
 setts : 
 
 Resolved, That, in the opinion of this Board, the Sacred Scrip- 
 tures of the Old and New Testament ought to be faithfully and 
 accurately translated into every living language. 
 
 Resolved, That -wherever, in versions now in use, known and. 
 obvious errors exist, and wherever the meaning of the original is 
 concealed or obscured, suitable measures ought to be prosecuted to 
 correct those versions, so as to render the truth clear and intelligible 
 to the ordinary reader. 
 
 Resolved, That in regard to the expediency of this Board under- 
 taking the correction of the English version, a decided difference of 
 opinion exists, and therefore that it be judged most prudent to await 
 the instructions of the Society. 
 
 In the spring of 1850, Spencer H. Cone and "William 
 H. Wyckoff issued their tract called " The Bible Trans- 
 lated." In one of the concluding paragraphs of this 
 pamphlet, the authors state, that a corrected edition of 
 the English New Testament had been prepared by 
 them ; that copies would be sent to every member of 
 the Society who wished to examine it. They invited its 
 examination, and solicited the attendance of all who felt 
 interested in it, at the approaching anniversary. At 
 that time they also informed them the stereotype plates 
 of the work would be offered to the society, as a dona- 
 
 16* 
 
370 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 tion, with a proviso that they should be printed from 
 according to whatever demand the public might make 
 for copies. The authors did not even profess to have 
 removed all known errors, but only such as could be 
 rectified without hazard of any difference of opinion 
 among Greek scholars. 
 
 The tract closes, as he closed everything referring 
 to the Master's kingdom, with an appeal to his bre- 
 thren to take the matter to the throne of heavenly 
 Grace ; to shake off the fear of man, and inquire only 
 -whether it will please God; to believe that he and his 
 associates were pleading " the cause of dut}^ — of con- 
 science — of Jehovah." 
 
 Such was the appeal for a revised version of the 
 English Scriptures. Five or six years only have passed 
 since it was made, and at even that short distance of 
 time it is hard to discover how it could properly be 
 charged as dangerous or wicked. The presentment 
 seems, indeed, to be plain, modest, and Christian-like. 
 Its authors certainly had no idea, no suspicion that they 
 had committed a high crime against the Christian 
 world and the English language. " They had acted as 
 individuals claiming the right of private judgment," 
 and yet, from the date of its publication to the meeting 
 of the American and Foreign Bible Society, in 1850, what 
 a storm of indignation pelted pitilessly upon them. If 
 Tetzel had been alive again to sell " indulgences," and 
 Luther to write " theses," and the thunder of the Vati- 
 can, yet armed with all its terrors, Reform could not 
 have been more bitterly assailed. Almost the whole 
 Baptist press were in opposition. They teemed with 
 articles of unsurpassed violence. No charges were too 
 serious to make, no means considered unworthy against 
 the man who had come to turn the world upside down. 
 " Churches had been snared and taken " — ■" the denomi- 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 371 
 
 national name tarnished " — "principles of honor which 
 are looked for in religious connections trilled with." It 
 was assumed that — "the officers of the society were 
 taking advantage of their position, to induce it to tram- 
 ple on its own covenant with the churches." "The 
 plan of action proposed, involved a temptation to an 
 ah use of trust — a gross departure from fair and honora- 
 ble dealing." 
 
 Such were a few of the harsh and un-Christian 
 charges exhibited against Cone and Wyckoif, by the 
 editors of Baptist journals. It is curious to remember 
 that the majority of editors were also ministers of the 
 Gospel, and professed not only to preach peace on earth, 
 and good will to man, hut to draw the sweetest assu- 
 rances that " they had passed from death unto life," 
 from the fact that "they loved the brethrm." 
 
 And it was thus they manifested their love for these 
 brethren whose alarming motto was " the truth of God 
 for the, world." They said they were " radical men, 
 intoxicated by the dignities of office, and the possession 
 of temporary power." We quote always the exact 
 words of the opposition — suppressing much of strange 
 unworthiness, but adding nothing : and see what burn- 
 ing ploughshares were laid everywhere for those two to 
 walk upon, because they chose to obey God rather than 
 man. It was felt at the time, that the agitation was 
 kept alive by a bitter spirit ; it is conceded now the 
 feeling which animated it was not a Christian one. It 
 has since very clearly appeared that it was put in motion 
 and kept working by a few individuals in the city of 
 New York and its vicinity. Their subsequent conduct 
 affords too much reason to fear that a veneration for 
 King James's version was not the exclusive motive. It 
 looks too much as if calculations of personal benefit and 
 advantage, or a sense of weariness at hearing Aristides 
 
372 LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 always called the Just, had exercised the larger but 
 less honorable influence. 
 
 The cry, started in New York, was adroitly made to 
 echo itself, as it were by a spontaneous burst of public 
 sentiment, from every quarter of the land. Urgent 
 appeals, couched in every form of language, were made 
 to all the members of the society, who did not desire to 
 see so noble an institution ruined, to come up to its next 
 anniversary prepared to put down, at once, the dreadful 
 scheme. A very dear friend of Mr. Cone's, a methodi- 
 cal man whom nothing escapes, was at the pains to 
 collect and put together all that was printed by the 
 opposition. We have that curious volume before us. 
 It is a very strange collection; strange to see the word 
 " Baptist " printed before the other titles of newspapers 
 issued from e\ ery section of the country ; but strangest 
 of all to consider the character of the arguments 
 advanced. With one accord they assume that Cone 
 and Wyckoff, as they styled them, had made a new 
 Bihle ! and were bent upon straining their official 
 influence to obtain the society's endorsement of their 
 manufacture. And this when they knew, on the con- 
 trary, that " Cone and Wyckoff " had merely corrected 
 some well-known errors in the renderings of the New 
 Testament; that their work had been stereotyped, 
 through the liberality of a private Christian ; had been 
 published as a private enterprise, along with their 
 reasons for the undertaking ; and that their whole 
 project was to offer the plates as a donation to the 
 society. 
 
 It is, however, merely fair to allow the newspapers to 
 state things in their own way. How far their manner 
 of reasoning will persuade Baptists, or those of any sect 
 who aim only at the truth, time must show. They said, 
 "They wanted no new Bible, because the old one was 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 373 
 
 good enough." " It had defects, but was the most 
 perfect translation ever made." " It was a Baptist 
 Bible as it stood." " If Baptists make a new one 
 (Translation or Revelation ?) it will separate them further 
 than ever from Pedo-Baptists, who will more than ever 
 call them sectarian." "It would involve the abandon- 
 ment of the denominational name." "The Bible 
 Society was not a proper body to make such a version." 
 " If it were — it was inexpedient," &c. &c. 
 
 But not once, from press or pulpit, was the question 
 asked or answered by the opposition. Is it the duty 
 of Christians to remove notorious errors and obscurities 
 from the present English version? That question, 
 and that only was put by Spencer II. Cone and 
 William II. Wyckoff, in their tract "The Bible Trans- 
 lated ;" and as a question of Christian duty it was never 
 met ! 
 
 The excitement, already described, having been skill- 
 fully fanned into so bright a flame, seemed to lead 
 naturally and necessarily to the meeting in Oliver street, 
 April 4th 1850. This meeting was commonly known 
 as the " Indignation Meeting," and was called to oppose 
 the project, described in the Hartford "Christian Secre- 
 tary," of April 5th, 1850, " the gilded pill " of " the 
 modern New York firm of publishers, Cone and 
 Wyckoff." 
 
 How singular the repetition of such a sentence 
 sounds now, when so vast an amount of the learning and 
 piety of the Christian world is engaged in carrying 
 on that project. The date fixes it, beyond a doubt, in 
 the latter part of the nineteenth century ; and yet it 
 seems almost as if one of those cardinals, who urged 
 the imprisonment of Galileo for asserting that the earth 
 revolved about the sun, was yet speaking. 
 
 The call for the meeting in Oliver street, signed by 
 
374 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 several Baptist ministers, and many wealthy and 
 influential laymen, was addressed to the friends of the 
 society opposed to " the project for a corrected version of 
 the English Scriptures," as described in a pamphlet by 
 Bev. Dr. Cone and Mr. William H. Wyckoff. The 
 purpose of the meeting was set forth to be, " to take 
 such action as may be deemed advisable to awaken the 
 friends of the society who live at distance, to the 
 dangers which impend over it from this measure." 
 
 On the night designated, a large number of persons 
 assembled in Oliver street meeting-house, among whom 
 were many friends of the revision movement. 
 
 The meeting was called to order, and Rev. B. T. 
 "Welch elected chairman. Dr. "Welch stated the objects 
 of the meeting. Portions of a reply to a pamphlet of 
 Dr. Cone and Mr. Wyckoff were then read, and a series 
 of resolutions passed. The resolutions developed no 
 new idea. They simply reiterated the assertion that, 
 translating the Scriptures for the heathen was one 
 thing, and for English readers another; that, although 
 they admitted the imperfections of the commonly 
 received version, they deprecated any attempt to depre- 
 ciate its excellence as calculated to endanger the res- 
 pect due to it ; that to correct it, was the work of 
 Christendom — not of a single denomination; that it 
 would injure Sunday schools; endanger the union of 
 sects in labors of common interest; that to substitute 
 immerse for baptize would be to ignore the denomina- 
 tional history, and was a responsibility from which they 
 shrank ; and therefore they resolved, lastly, " to sound 
 a serious alarm to friends of the society, at a distance, 
 to attend the meeting of the society, and refuse the 
 plates of the amended version — and, "re-enact a funda- 
 mental law which shall bind the society to the circula- 
 tion of the commonly received version." These resolu- 
 
LIFE OF SrENCEE HOUGHTON CONE. 375 
 
 tions were supported by speeches winch were thought 
 not to have added anything to the argument. 
 
 Almost immediately after this meeting, appeared the 
 pastoral letter of Dr. Win. Ii. Williams, of New York, to 
 members of Amity street Church, in answer to certain 
 inquiries upon the meaning of the word baptize, &c. 
 From the celebrity of its author, as a scholar and writer, 
 and the prominence given to this particular production 
 by the chief actors in the Oliver street meeting, it must 
 be regarded as a strong link in the chain of events 
 which brought about the final action of the society in 
 1850. 
 
 The peculiar ability of the author characterized it. 
 It displayed to advantage, his varied and elegant 
 accomplishments as a scholar; his acute, and perhaps 
 dangerous critical aptness, and his mastery of dialectics. 
 It was almost entirely confined to a minute review of the 
 pamphlet issued by S. II. Cone and Win. H. Wyckoff, 
 and received unmeasured applause from those who 
 approved of the object designed to be accomplished by it. 
 In the opinion of those well qualified to judge, it was 
 completely answered, and its criticisms and objections 
 disposed of by a review which appeared in the "New 
 York Chronicle." 
 
 The excitement of the time has passed away. The 
 two productions must stand on their own merits as the 
 work of Baptist ministers. So considered, few Christ- 
 ians would fail to remark the striking difference in their 
 religious tone. 
 
 The authors of " The Bible Translated," commence 
 with such texts as these impressed upon their hearts and 
 work. " Ye shall not add to the word which I com- 
 mand you, neither shall ye diminish aught from it." — 
 " If any man add unto these things, God shall add unto 
 him the plagues that are written in this book. If any 
 
376 LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 man shall take away from the words of the book of this 
 prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book 
 of life," and others of like import. From these solemn 
 warnings they deduced the duty of Christians to reject 
 " additions," and to replace whatever had been " taken 
 away " from " the words of the Book." They further 
 proclaimed that, " a follower of Christ has no right to 
 conceal what his Lord has communicated for the 
 knowledge of man. * * * God has revealed His 
 will in the Scriptures. All speculations, as to what 
 part of this may or may not do good, are forbidden to 
 man. * * * It is God's Revelation, not man's." 
 and the tract closes with this " solemn appeal." " Breth- 
 ren, weigh this matter carefully. Examine it at the 
 throne of Heavenly Grace. Look at the probable con- 
 sequences oi propagating the truth of God. If it will 
 please Him to spread the knowledge of the truth, then 
 hesitate not on account of the fear of man. Had we 
 invited you to conceal the truth, you might suspect us ; 
 had we asked you to compromise it, you would be 
 reasonably indignant. But we request you to liberate 
 from captivity the words of Christ — to let the truth as it 
 is in Jesus go free from the fetters in which it has been 
 so long bound. We plead the cause of duty ; of 
 conscience ; of Jehovah." 
 
 These appear to be the suggestions of practical piety, 
 of evangelical religion. We seek in the " Pastoral 
 Letter," an answer to them, and are surprised that no 
 answer, no allusion, however remote, is made to the 
 passages of Scripture claimed to be " the Law and the 
 Testimony," controlling the decision in this case. No 
 notice is taken of the inferences, as to Christian duty, 
 towards God and man, drawn from the Divine com- 
 mand above stated. The able author of the " Pastoral 
 Letter," closes the work which displays his wealth 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 377 
 
 of learning, and power of critical analysis, with a few 
 sentences of great literary brilliancy, sentences which 
 glitter indeed like polished steel, but reflect no ray of 
 that mild and Heavenly light— that fire of Christian love 
 which warms the " appeal " he is reviewing. 
 
 The discussion and excitement was kept up from 
 press and pulpit until the meeting of the society. 
 
 Immediately preceding this meeting, a somewhat 
 novel occurrence took place. As the first instance of 
 the kind in the history of the Baptists, it is worthy of 
 being recorded. Before the meeting of the society on 
 the 22d of May, 1850, probably indeed some days before, 
 printed ballot*, containing an entire new list of officers, 
 president included, were industriously circulated 
 throughout the country. This ticket was elected, and 
 thus the threats previously made in many of the 
 religious papers, of a probable change in the adminis- 
 tration of the society, were accomplished. 
 
 At the annual meeting in 1850, Dr. Cone, as Presi- 
 dent of the Society, delivered his annual address, in 
 which his views and conduct, to say nothing of their 
 correctness, were most fully vindicated from the charge 
 of insincerity and inconsistency. A most animated dis- 
 cussion took place, and the Society, to the astonishment 
 and grief of many, rejected by an overwhelming vote 
 the resolution : — 
 
 Resolved, That it is the duty of this Society to circulate the Sacred 
 Scriptures in the most faithful versions that can be procured, 
 
 and adopted instead the following : — 
 
 Resolved, That the Society in its issues and circulation of the 
 English Scriptures be restricted to the coninionly received versions 
 without note or comment. 
 
 Whereas, By the Constitution of this Society, its object is u to 
 aid in the wider circulation of the Scriptures in all lands," therefore 
 
378 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 Resolved, That it is not the province and duty of the American 
 and Foreign Bihle Society to attempt on their own part, or to pro- 
 cure from others, a revision of the commonly received English ver- 
 sion ©f the Sacred Scriptures. 
 
 Four distinct rules or lines of policy are here 
 marked : — 
 
 1st. The Society hinds itself to the perpetual and exclusive use of 
 the common version, without condition or hope of change. 
 
 2d. It prohibits itself from ever revising or correcting it, declar- 
 ing this not to be "its province and duty." 
 
 3d. It forbids any encouragement to others to do the work for 
 the Society, asserting that it is not its province and duty to pro 
 cure a version from others. 
 
 4th. It imposes a construction upon the Constitution that extends 
 beyond the English. For if, because the Constitution defines the 
 object of the Society to be, " to aid in the wider circulation of the 
 Holy Scriptures in all lands," therefore it is not in its " province 
 and duty " to revise or procure the revision of one version, it can- 
 not be its province and duty to revise or procure the revision of any 
 oilier version. 
 
 The Society having thus decisively assumed an entirely 
 new line of policy regarding the principle of pure ver- 
 sions, proceeded to enforce that policy by removing 
 from office those officers and managers (with the excep- 
 tion of the president, who resigned) who were known to 
 be in favor of removing the errors and obscurities from 
 the common English version. — The Bible : Its Excel- 
 lence. 
 
 Dr. Cone then rose and said, "I believe my work in 
 this society is done. Allow me to tender you my resig- 
 nation ! I did not withdraw my name in advance, 
 because of the seeming egotism of such a step. I thank 
 you, my brethren, for the kindly manner in which you 
 have been pleased to offer me once more the office of 
 president of your society. Bat I cannot serve you 
 longer. I am crushed." 
 
LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CCNE. 379 
 
 The society at first peremptorily refused to accept 
 the resignation of their president. He was firm to his 
 purpose however, and the resignation was finally 
 accepted. Rev. Bartholomew T. Welch was then pro- 
 posed as president, and unanimously elected. 
 
 Twelve members of the old Board, out of twenty -four, 
 were removed on account of their favoring revision. 
 
 " The whole number of votes cast was 297. The elec- 
 tion of all the officers was nearly unanimous, with 
 three exceptions, the corresponding secretary, treasurer 
 and recording secretary — who were elected by con- 
 siderable majorities. Mr. Cutting (opposed to the new 
 version) received 125 votes out of the 197 for corres- 
 ponding secretary — a majority of 34; Mr. Piatt like- 
 wise received 125 votes for treasurer, against Mr. 
 Colgate (new versionist) — a majority of 12; Mr. Rhees 
 received 119 votes against 21 for his opponent. The 
 current evidently ran strong. 
 
 " The chair was taken by Bro. Sommers as first vice 
 president of the society, and Dr. Cone took an eloquent 
 and affectionate leave of his brethren of the society. 
 
 " ' I bid you, my brethren,' said he, ' an affectionate 
 farewell, as president of a society I have loved — which 
 has cost me money, with much labor, prayers, and tears. 
 I hope that God will direct your future course in mercy 
 — that we may all do as much good as such creatures as 
 we are able to accomplish. May the Lord bless you all.' 
 
 " Saying this he descended from the pulpit, and 
 immediately left the house, accompanied by the former 
 secretary, Mr. Wyckoff. 
 
 * * * " Thus ends the most exciting and univers- 
 ally interesting chapter of many years in the history of 
 the Baptist denomination." — New York Tribune. 
 
 "The sensation produced upon the audience was 
 indescribable. The strongest sympathy was manifested 
 
380 LTFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 for Dr. Cone, and many were affected to tears, not 
 more on account of the resignation itself, than from the 
 measure which led to it." 
 
 They might well weep, but human tears were vain to 
 wipe the record out. A great society, founded upon an 
 immutable principle, had abandoned its foundation .to 
 seek a resting place on the shifting sands of expediency. 
 It had deserted the commandment of God, for the 
 opinion of man. Forgetting every Christian grace, it 
 had suffered envy, malice, and all uncharitableness to 
 arm its hand against the head which had grown white 
 in the service of the denomination it professed to repre- 
 sent. Alarmed at the power of a principle which must 
 compel all who wore the name of Baptists to be Baptists 
 indeed, and, abandoning every form of alliance with 
 unscriptural church establishments, obey the command, 
 " Come out from among them, and be ye separate my 
 people," they consummated an act without a parallel in 
 their history. 
 
 It w r as at once our privilege and our unhappiness to 
 sit through that meeting. We sat very near the presi- 
 dent. Although many there sympathized with him, 
 none knew as well as we did with what anguish his 
 heart was beating. The calm and Christian quiet of his 
 manner was like the soft blue of a summer cloud above 
 the ocean which yet heaves before the retiring storm. 
 With bitter and relentless animosity 
 
 " They in whose wars he had borne his part, 
 They whom he loved with a brother's heart," 
 
 were, hour after hour, insidiously aspersing his char- 
 acter, maligninghis motives, misrepresenting his conduct, 
 and proscribing his friends. Except the last, all this 
 would not have moved him. What merely affected 
 himself never troubled him. It passed him like the 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 381 
 
 idle wind, and left no mark on heart or head. But to 
 attack his friends in whom he trusted and believed, was 
 to find his most vulnerable point. But what above all 
 made the weapons of his opponents keen and dreadful 
 to him was this, that with every blow aimed at him, 
 they struck down some cherished principle, in which he 
 believed the truth of God, and the honor of his denomi- 
 nation, were involved. We saw him walk the floor of his 
 study during the few moments' respite allowed him, 
 wringing his hands and crying out when he thought no 
 one heard him — " that his people were abandoning their 
 principles, that they were afraid and ashamed of the 
 truth of God, and the baptism wherewith they had been 
 immersed into his name, in the presence of men." We 
 saw him bow his white head, and cover his face with 
 his hands, and sob as if his heart were breaking — and 
 an hour afterwards we saw him sitting calm, patient and 
 impartial, to preside over the proceedings of men who 
 were laboring to undo all, he had spent everything he 
 could command, money, influence, energy, all he had -or 
 was, to accomplish. Watching his face through it all, 
 and knowing what a tempest of disappointment, mortifi- 
 cation and sorrow was stirring his nature from its lowest 
 depth, the words of Lear kept whirling through our 
 mind : 
 
 " I will not tax you with unkindness, 
 Here I stand your slave, 
 A poor, infirm, weak and despised old man : 
 But yet I call you servile ministers, 
 That have joined 
 
 Your high engendered battles 'gainst a head 
 So old and white as this !" 
 
 He was a " slave" to God's people for the truth's sake, 
 to what he believed to be the truth. Next to that, he 
 
382 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 was bound to the good opinion of his brethren. He 
 loved them. He desired to be loved ; it was the great 
 want and craving of his nature. Nothing but his devo- 
 tion to great principles upheld and fortified him against 
 the loss of their sympathy. A personal attack was 
 nothing. He could easily consent to bear and forget it. 
 But to find himself deprived of the affection of any 
 number of his brethren, cut him to the heart. It 
 brought him nearer to weakness than anything else 
 which could happen to him. To avoid it, to retain their 
 love, lie was ready to make any sacrifice, and to con- 
 cede everything, but principle. When it came to thai', 
 nothing moved him. The heart might throb, and the 
 eye fill with tears, but the will was iron, the determi- 
 nation to please God rather than man inflexible. Had 
 he lost the confidence and love of any considerable por- 
 tion of his denomination, or countrymen, by any dere- 
 liction from duty, or compromise of principle, he would 
 never have held up his head afterwards ; but when he 
 felt-clear and free from such fault, felt that they, and 
 not himself, were abandoning the vantage ground of 
 truth, and going over to the dangerous morass of error, 
 he felt the loss of their sympathy to be one of the sor- 
 rows and trials of the way by which the Lord had led 
 him, and to sustain him against which, he could lean 
 upon his Master's staff. 
 
 Thus, when the American and Foreign Bible Society 
 abandoned their original ground, and committed their 
 great error, he felt it keenly, not because he believed 
 the principle ultimately in danger, but because it forced 
 the necessity of creating a new machinery for the spe- 
 cific purpose of Bible translation ; divided the forces of 
 the Baptists, and postponed the period of a revision of 
 the English Scriptures. 
 
 The party temporarily in the ascendency in the 
 
LITE OF SPENCER nOJGHTON CONE 383 
 
 society "believed, as they saw him leave the house on 
 that eventful day, and bid them farewell as their presi- 
 dent, that the power of the denomination had passed 
 into their hands, and that the bold and truly American 
 enterprise of giving "pure translations of the sacred 
 Scriptures to all lands," was defeated. Temporary 
 majorities often make such mistakes. They neither 
 understood the man they thwarted, nor the principle 
 they shrank from. Death only could chill the courage 
 of the one, and eternity will demonstrate the purity of 
 the other. 
 
 The most violent in opposition were Drs. Dowling, 
 Hague, Granger, Wescott, and Lie. 
 
 Against them, and on the side of pure versions and 
 Mr. Cone, were Rev. T. Armitage, Prof. Eaton, Rev. O. B. 
 Judd, William D. Murphy, William Colgate, William 
 II. Wyckoff, and others. It would, perhaps, be super- 
 fluous to say that the minority monopolized the argu- 
 mentative portion of the debate. The majority, drilled 
 and prepared to carry their purpose at whatever cost, 
 felt all time consumed in speaking merely lost, and were 
 anxious to come to the vote, and finish the matter. 
 Indeed, one of their number had, at the opening of the 
 meeting, proposed to take the question instantly. " They 
 had come there," he said, " to vote, not debate." Dr. 
 Cone was almost unanimously elected, but, as we have 
 seel), instantly refused a compliment which had quite as 
 much the air of an insult. It is noticeable, however, 
 that with all the canvassing and preparation on the 
 election of the other officers, through whom the reproof 
 was meant to be administered to their president, the 
 opposition majority out of two hundred and ninetj'-seven 
 votes was only thirty-four ; showing him to be sustained 
 and supported in a meeting specially prepared and 
 packed against him, by above an hundred and thirty 
 
3S4 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 votes. Indeed, had the tellers counted the Hanks cast 
 in the contest for the secretaryship between William II. 
 Wyckoff and Sewall S. Cutting, "as both custom and 
 law require, Mr. Cutting failed of an election" (New 
 York Chronicle). This was the actual test election, and 
 was only carried by over-riding both law and custom. 
 
 This was of little matter, however ; the opposition had 
 secured their end — they had rid themselves of their 
 president. 
 
 After he had retired, on motion of Rev. S. S. Cutting 
 it was unanimously " Resolved — That this society enter- 
 tains a high sense of the valuable services of the Rev. 
 Spencer H. Cone, D.D., president of this society from 
 the beginning of its history, and profoundly regret his 
 retirement; and that he will bear with him our best 
 wishes for his long life, and his continued usefulness and 
 happiness." 
 
 It has been said " that conversation is the art of con- 
 cealing one's thoughts." How near kin conversation 
 and " resolutions " may be is worthy to be considered. 
 
 He was even urged, with some show of warmth, to 
 retain the presidency. This was done to satisfy many 
 who, though opposed to him, still loved and respected 
 him. His remark with regard to it, made in his own 
 quiet way, showed that he was not at all deceived by it. 
 " Would they have the general," said he, " keep the 
 command of the army, after they had cashiered all the 
 officers he loved, and taught his men to think him a 
 traitor ?" 
 
 " The opponents of the new version " — we quote again 
 from Dr. Baker — " might have been characterized as 
 the many men of many MiNns. One was in favor of 
 the commonly received version, because the translators 
 had seen fit to insert the word Baptize there (Dr. Dow- 
 ling). Another opposed it as a New York movement 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 385 
 
 (Dr. Hague). Another contended that we did not need 
 a revised version — we ought not to attempt to make one 
 — and we could not accomplish it if we did try (Dr. 
 Ide). He preferred his dear old English Bible 'as it 
 was, with all its errors and inaccuracies.' A conclusion 
 worthy of a courtier of King James I. ; but speaking 
 after the manner of Americans, scarcely logical. Ano- 
 ther would have the version amended, but desired the 
 cooperation of all religious denominations in the work 
 (Rev. Mr. Woolsey). A pleasing figment of the imagi- 
 nation. Another would have it postponed till all sects 
 agreed to practise immersion (Editor of Tennessee Bap- 
 tist). A truly indefinite postponement. Another 
 ' looked upon the enterprise as Quixotic ; as the scheme 
 of a few radical men intoxicated by the dignities of 
 office (Christian Chronicle, April 3, 1850). A benevo- 
 lent view of the subject. Another opposed revision 
 because Baptizo was the only important word, and 
 everybody understood it already (N. Y. Recorder, April 
 10th, 1850). These were a few of the strong reasons 
 against the movement." 
 
 The weight they had with Mr. Cone, his subsequent 
 course clearly showed. That they failed to convince 
 the denomination, the ardent support he received, and 
 the earnest and thorough men who rallied to his aid, 
 and that of the " Bible Union " evinced with equal 
 clearness. After having been, however, for thirteen 
 years its president, and devoting himself with unexam- 
 pled ardor to its service, his connection with the Ameri- 
 can and Foreign Bible Society terminated under the 
 circumstances we have related. 
 
 17 
 
386 LIFE OF SPENCEE HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE AMERICAN BIBLE UNION. 
 
 In the language of Dr. Baker : 
 
 " Dr. Cone could not see a mountain before liim that 
 might not become a plain. To his eye of faith there was 
 no formidable impediment to obstruct the progress of 
 pure versions of the Word of God. He felt that the 
 principle for which he contended, must ultimately tri- 
 umph. Let who would oppose, he could say, ' My mind 
 is steadfast and immovable. I have said, in my own 
 pulpit, and say again, that I am as thoroughly convinced 
 that God has called me to aid in procuring and circula- 
 ting faithful versions of the Bible in all languages, as 
 that he ever called me to preach the Gospel ; and I am 
 willing to die at the stake, as Tyndale did, if I may be 
 instrumental in giving to my own countrymen a correct 
 version of the Bible ' " — First Annual Report of Bible 
 Union, 1850. 
 
 He could say to the American and Foreign Bible 
 Society, "I believe my work is done in this society. I 
 am crushed." But he could say, at the same time, 
 " that the Lord had a work for him to do, which he 
 was not permitted to do in that society." 
 
 As the American and Foreign Bible Society could 
 not now be relied on for a faithful version of the English 
 Scriptures, the celebrated prayer-meeting was held at 
 the house of Deacon William Colgate, ~No. 128 Chambers 
 street, New York, on Monday, May 27th, 1850. It will 
 be seen he did not permit much time to elapse. Tho 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 3S7 
 
 American and Foreign B.ble Society abandoned the 
 field on the 22d, and on the 27th he was preparing the 
 skeleton of a new army. 
 
 At the meeting at Deacon Colgate's, many kindred 
 spirits were present, and united with Dr. Cone in a sol- 
 emn pledge to undertake the work of " procuring and 
 circulating the most faithful versions of the sacred 
 Scriptures in all languages." They held an adjourned 
 meeting on the 31st of May, and on the 10th of June, 
 1850, a regular public meeting was held at the Baptist 
 Tabernacle in Mulberry street, the result of which was 
 the formation of the American Bible Union, with Dr. 
 Cone as President. 
 
 "Whether the American and Foreign Bible Society 
 was formed to give the world a better version of the 
 sacred Scriptures in the English language, or not, Dr. 
 Cone, and the other founders of this Society, determined 
 that there should be no mistake as to the specific object 
 for which the " Bible Union" was formed. They in- 
 scribed their object on their flag, and hung it out to the 
 view of mankind. " Its object," says the second article 
 of its constitution, " shall be to procure and circulate the 
 most faithful versions of the sacred Scriptures in all 
 languages throughout the world." 
 
 On taking the chair, when elected president of this 
 society, at its organization, he said : 
 
 "I am very much obliged to you, brethren, for this 
 mark of your esteem and confidence, and I accept it 
 with thankfulness. By the Providence of God I am 
 placed in a position from which I cannot recede, until it 
 shall please my God to remove me from time into eter- 
 nity ! There is nothing in me that says go back ! Oh, that 
 we could but hear that voice which spoke to the trem- 
 bling Israelites, when the waters of the Red Sea rose up 
 in either hand as living walb, bidding them go forward 
 
388 LITE OF SPENCER HO JGHTON CONE. 
 
 and not fear ! "Would that the same spirit might lead 
 us now !" 
 
 " To make the translations of God's holy book, utter 
 the same clear, distinct, unequivocal voice in all langua- 
 ges, has been no sudden or precipitate movement ; it 
 has been my cherished purpose for many years ; I would 
 never have lifted up my finger to form the American 
 and Foreign Bible society upon any other principle ; 
 and when the Society, at its late anniversary, virtually 
 resolved to stereotype and perpetuate the errors and 
 obscurities of King James's version, it was evident that 
 it could never accomplish the glorious mission for which 
 I had supposed it had been organized, and therefore, 
 promptly to resign the office of president became a duty 
 as plain as it was imperative" — Reported in the New 
 York Tribune, June Wth, 1850. 
 
 " In a letter to Dr. Dagg, of Georgia, dated June 18th, 
 1850, he says, " We organized the American Bible 
 Union, the 10th instant, upon the basis of the annexed 
 constitution, and in the evening raised in cash and good 
 subscriptions, above six thousand dollars, for the objects 
 of the institution. The meeting was large and enthu- 
 siastic, and I think the Lord, by His spirit, was in our 
 midst. 
 
 " I have taken this stand in the sixty-sixth year of my 
 age, because I wish to see the work of the English Bible 
 at least commenced before I die, and because I thought 
 the resolution of the American and Foreign Bible 
 Society, at its late anniversary, to confine themselves to 
 the issue of the commonly received version, inconsistent 
 with the fundamental principle of the institution." 
 
 On the 25th of July, 1850, he also writes to him from 
 Lake Mahopac, Putnam Co., New York : " For two or 
 three months, 1 have with difficulty occupied my pulpit 
 statedly, and now for a few weeks of July and August, 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 389 
 
 shall seek for strength and reinvigoration of body and 
 mind among the lakes and mountains of this romantic 
 region. The end will be as the Lord pleases. 
 
 "I have been grieved and surprised at the result of 
 the last anniversary of the American and Foreign Bible 
 Society, but the misrepresentations, envy, and election- 
 eering tricks by which that result was secured, are the 
 chief ingredients of my sorrow. But if this is the way 
 by which we may be the better prepared to carry out 
 the great principle of Bible Translation, I desire to feel 
 and say, the will of the Lord be done. Take the trouble 
 to read Bro. Colgate's questions, and although they were 
 treated with silent contempt by Drs. Ide, Dowling, 
 Ivingsford, Hague, &c, yet it seems to me that a deacon 
 who has devoted forty years, and to my knoweledge has 
 given more than forty thousand dollars to carry 
 forward the missionary, educational, and Bible opera- 
 tions of our denomination, and is withal a modest 
 and retiring man, deserves to have questions of moment, 
 upon which he has been pondering for years, plainly 
 and candidly answered by his learned clerical brethren. 
 The proscription of William Colgate for holding S, true 
 Baptist sentiment, and his ejection from the office 
 of treasurer, would have prevented my serving in 
 any office of the American and Foreign Bible Society — ■ 
 had there been no other obstacle in the way. 
 
 But we must work while it is day, 
 'Tho' earth and hell obstruct the way. 
 
 "I mean to unite North and South in Bible work 
 as much as I can, and I want your help. TVe began 
 together preaching the same Gospel, and still hold 
 fast to the form of sound words. Let us end together, 
 striving for the same things, and by God's grace, wo 
 
390 LIFE OF SPENCER IIOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 shall soon meet in a happy country, where there is 
 but one language, without obscurity or imperfection. 
 
 " Your reason for retaining baptize is not good. The 
 same reason would retain pasche, azymes, tunicke, holo- 
 caust, &c. Baptize does not mean to immerse, except to 
 Baptists. "What though we understand it, have we no 
 responsibility as Christ's witnesses to make others under- 
 stand it? If it is our duty to preach 'immersion,' it is 
 obviously our duty to print immersion, and if it is not 
 immersion in the Bible, we have no right to preach or 
 print it anywhere else, as a part of God's revealed will. 
 'To the Law and to the Testimony: if they speak not 
 according to this "Word, it is because there is no light in 
 them.'- — Isa. viii. 20. This used to be a good quotation 
 in Virginia — you remember ! Has it lost any of its 
 virtue ? I20 for immersionist versions in all lanjniaffes 
 univocal. If it was wrong not to translate baptizo two 
 hundred and fifty years ago, it will be right to do it as 
 soon as we can. If I am wrong in this, may the God of 
 the Bible, in tender mercy, set me right." 
 
 In his address at the second, anniversary of the Amer- 
 ican *Bible Union, he said, " "With all the disposition to 
 peace and quiet, which the great Teacher inculcated 
 and exemplified, He never gave the slightest counte- 
 nance to error; nor can we, as his disciples, lend our 
 sanction to the principle or policy of disseminating as 
 His "Word, aught but the most faithful representation 
 of the inspired original that can be procured. To circu- 
 late as true, what we know to be erroneous or defective, 
 would be contrary to our character as honest men, and 
 in direct opposition to our duty as professing Christians. 
 But the attempt to maintain the principle of pure 
 versions in all languages, the English not excepted, has 
 subjected us to obloquy and reproach, even from many 
 who once professed to be our warmest and best friends. 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 39l 
 
 Is it not astonishing that the desire 'to correct errors 
 and remove obscurities,' from the commonly received 
 version, should expose men to persecution from their 
 own brethren, to opposition the most violent, unrelent- 
 ing, and uncompromising? That the strongest bonds of 
 personal friendship should be dissolved in consequence? 
 That even church relations, and pastoral connections 
 should be threatened, if we declare ourselves in favor 
 of allowing every man to know just what God has said? 
 Yet. however astonishing, such has been the afflictive 
 experience of your presiding officer. He has dared to say 
 from this pulpit, again and again, that Christian baptism 
 is immersion only , that if right to preach it, it is right 
 to print it; to print it in the Bible; for if it is not 
 In the Bible, we have no right to preach or print it as a 
 part of God's revealed will to man. For preaching 
 these 'principles and projects of the American Bible 
 Union,' as they are called, he has been denounced in a 
 printed 'Statement,' as having 'departed from his duty,' 
 and it is of the Lord's mercies alone, that he has 
 not been driven from these walls of Zion." 
 
 In answer to some objections which had been raised, 
 he continues, " One of the most specious arguments that 
 has been advanced against the correction of the common 
 version, is, that thereby we must forfeit the name of 
 Baptists. The words relating to the ordinance must 
 necessarily be translated, and because the common 
 people will learn that it is the duty of believers to be 
 immersed, therefore, the term Baptist, will cease to be 
 the appellation of those who follow their Lord. They 
 will be called Immersionists. This is not a necessary 
 consequence. Episcopalians are not called Bishopites, 
 nor Presbyterians Blderists, although Ep)iscop>os is trans- 
 lated Bishop, and Presbuteros Elder. These denomina- 
 tions take their name from the Greek, and Baptists 
 
392 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 might continue to do the same, if they choose. But is 
 it possible a Christian man can suppose there is any 
 weight iu such an argument against the translation of 
 God's truth? What if all denominations, by such a 
 measure, should lose their distinctive human titles, or 
 have them changed — what evil would ensue ? These 
 distinctions will probably not obtain during the Millen- 
 nium ; certainly they will not in Heaven. It must, 
 therefore, be of little consequence what we are called 
 on earth. The great thing is to follow Christ ; to be 
 His disciples in deed and in truth ; to believe what God 
 says, and practise what God commands. To do this we 
 must know what He commands. Does He command 
 believers in Christ to be immersed in His name? 
 Where is the difference in criminality between preach- 
 ing and printi/ng it? If the latter be wrong, the former 
 cannot be right. A most strange and anomalous condi- 
 tion of things exists at present. Go where you will, and 
 you may hear Pedo-Baptists talking about the impiety 
 of our attempting to correct the Bible. Their minds 
 are filled with prejudice and misconception about our 
 undertaking ; and their erroneous ideas upon the subject, 
 alas ! may be traced to Baptists ! Who have raised 
 the hue and cry, that it is sacrilege to ' correct errors 
 and remove obscurities ' from the translation of God's 
 Word ? Baptists ! Who have endeavored to prove 
 that oaptize is not properly translated by Immerse f 
 Baptists ! Who have raised the shout, ' Our craft is in 
 danger;' the translation of the words relating to bap- 
 tism, will endanger the denomination ? Baptists ! 
 Who have reproached and vilified their brethren for 
 wishing to give the plain and unadulterated truth of 
 God to the com,mon people ? Baptists ! Melancholy, 
 mortifying facts ! The people who have least reason to 
 fear the truth, oppose its printing. Bapth ts, ' who 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 393 
 
 cleave to the simple and determinate language of Holy 
 writ ;' who in every age, and in every clime steadfastly 
 maintained that the text of Scripture is the only infal- 
 lible authority in all matters both of faith and of prac- 
 tice ! How strange — how inexplicable that any who 
 wear this name should be afraid or ashamed to print 
 what they believe and preach. 
 
 " We might pursue this subject, and inquire who has 
 endeavored to prove that the versions of our missionaries, 
 the translations of the Sacred writings, made by Carey, 
 and Yates, and Judson, are ' sectarian V A Baptist. 
 And who combined to print the slander and scatter it 
 by thousands over this land? Baptists. Well may 
 Pedo-Baptists now lay aside their armor, and watch 
 with complacency the progress of events. They have 
 no more need to fight, while Baptists take King James's 
 sword in their defence; and as far as recklessness of 
 attack and fierceness of invective are concerned, they 
 certainly surpass those for whose ' Infant Sprinkling ' 
 they are indirectly but most powerfully contending. 
 The common version is exclusively Episcopalian. It 
 was prepared by the direction of an Episcopal king; 
 by Episcopalian scholars, and not one of any other 
 denomination was permitted to meddle with it. It was 
 designed, as its preface teaches us 'for the benefit of 
 the Church of England.' Who, then, have fulminated 
 the thunders of censure and rebuke against its correc- 
 tion ? Have Episcopalians ? No. They have been well 
 content to be quiet, and leave their cause to Baptist pens 
 and Baptist tongues. Bishop and Easter please them 
 well, and if Baptize can only be kept untranslated, it 
 may mean sprinkle, or pour, or christen, or anything 
 else that men may fancy ; ' and so they wrap it up.' 
 
 " But some say we are not the men, anc 1 this is not the 
 time. The principle that the Bible ought to be trans- 
 
 17* 
 
394 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 latecl in all lands is generally admitted; that the com- 
 mon English version needs correction the ignorant only 
 can deny ; and we hear of many who are willing to 
 co-operate, as soon as "all Christendom shall unite in 
 the work.' If we understand this loud and oft vocife- 
 rated cry, it means, that as soon as those who hold 
 ' Infant Sprinkling,' shall agree with those who believe 
 it to be ' Part and Pillar of Popery,' then will be the 
 time to correct King James's version; for sprinklers and 
 immersionists will cordially unite in the enterprise. 
 This sentiment is so absurd, so impracticable, that to 
 name it is to refute it ; and as to the men, why, that is 
 the very thing about which the Bible Union is anxiously, 
 industriously, and prayerfully inquiring. We are look- 
 ing after learned men, good brethren and true ; having 
 neither the " fear of man," nor of Pedo-Baptism before 
 their eyes ; who will do their work, in " the fear of the 
 Lord ; and we trust in God, that in the use of appointed 
 means, the men will in due season be found.' " 
 
 In Iiis address, in 1854, he said : 
 
 " On this platform we stand — the truth, the whole 
 truth, and nothing but the truth — the truth of God fok 
 the world ! Here we stand, and here we hope to stand 
 while life remains. 
 
 " We will be free ; free to speak or write, to preach or 
 print — yea, to circulate in all lands, as far and as fast as 
 we can, the Bible as God gave it. 
 
 " I was born and bred a freeman, and am too old now 
 to learn the language, or wear the fetters of bondage. 
 Yea, more, I trust I am one of Christ's freemen, and 
 the children of the kingdom should not become subject 
 to human tradition. 
 
 "There is no sacredness in a translation, except just 
 bo far as it develops the features of divine truth. All 
 else is refuse, and should be removed. Shall we hesi- 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 395 
 
 tate to filter and clarify the water we drink, because 
 past generations have partaken of its impurities ?" 
 
 " It cheered his heart to see the society he loved 
 placed in an invulnerable position. It gave him holy 
 joy to witness the zealous and efficient co-operation of 
 such a host of friends, and to see that the work of 
 "revision had taken so tenacious a hold upon the minds 
 of his brethren in Christ." 
 
 " He entered upon the revision of the English Scrip- 
 tures with clear views of the great importance of the 
 work. As he pressed forward, however, in the cause, 
 light increased upon his path, his horizon expanded, 
 and the claims of duty became more and more impera 
 tive. 
 
 " If the opponents of revision had seen Dr. Cone, and 
 the little band of kindred spirits, in Deacon Colgate's 
 parlor, uniting in a solemn pledge to undertake the 
 work of 'procuring and circulating the most faithful 
 versions of the Sacred Scriptures in all languages,' they 
 might have been tempted to say ' What do these feeble 
 Jews? Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he 
 shall even break down their stone wall,' Neh. iv. 34. 
 But they could soon reply, ' Who hath despised the day 
 of small things? Behold how great a matter a little 
 fire kindleth.' "— Dr. Baker. 
 
 The spirit which animated that little band, and the 
 influence of which has made itself felt in less than five 
 years throughout Christendom, may be learned from 
 Bev. T. Armitage's account of the meeting : 
 
 "The exciting and unfortunate anniversary of 1850 
 was over, and the brethren had returned to their homes, 
 but they left the churches enveloped in the pillar of 
 cloud, without one mitigating ray from the pillar of 
 tire. When the day arrived, those Who had been 
 
396 LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 invited to that conference, in a drenching rain, wended 
 their way from the different points in these three cities 
 (New York, Brooklyn, and "Williamsburg), to the place 
 of meeting. I never went to a meeting in my life with 
 a heavier heart. The Ark of God was removed, and 
 my heart trembled for it. Truth seemed to have fallen 
 in the streets, and no triumphant "assurance said, ' tho' 
 I fall, yet shall I rise again.' We met, but oh ! how we 
 felt. The moment the eye of the more youthful pastors 
 met the eye of the aged, each countenance seemed to 
 ask, 'What shall we do?' The moment one layman 
 took the hand of another, the quivering lip interrogated, 
 ' "What does God require ?' The meeting was called to 
 order, and prayer to the Lord God of Sabaoth proposed. 
 Deacon Colgate, as the oldest in the company, was 
 called upon to address the throne of Grace. "We knelt 
 down. And if I were in that room I could point to the 
 very spot on which I bowed. I can never forget it 
 while I live. All was silent. The venerable man of 
 God was too much overcome even to lead in devotion, 
 but his emotion found vent in sobs and tears. And 
 there the whole company knelt, weeping for several 
 minutes, in solemn silence, before God, save as, now 
 and then, some struggling sigh was heard. "When he 
 was able to offer vocal prayer, he asked God to direct 
 ns aright ; if it were our duty to form another society, 
 to give us a clear sense of duty, and to open our way ; 
 but if not, to permit confusion and hesitancy, and to 
 throw a hedge about us on every side, with much more 
 of earnest supplication. 
 
 " After prayer, a long time was spent in free confer- 
 ence as to our duty, and it was unanimously resolved, 
 that but one path was before us. That path waa 
 taken. 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGnTON CONE. 
 
 397 
 
 It is right that the names of those who, in the darkest 
 hour, rallied lovingly and fearlessly around the stand- 
 ard of God's unadulterated truth, and strengthened with 
 their sympathy, their prayers, their actions, the unfal- 
 tering standard-bearer, who never loosed his grasp 
 upon its staff until death struck him down on a victori- 
 ous battle-field ; it is just that their names should be 
 whined with his whilst memory holds her seat. 
 
 '•Their names and memories will be fondly cherished 
 in the ages to come, and associated with all the tri- 
 umphs of God's pure word over the errors of man. 
 They were — 
 
 Stephen Remington, 
 Heman J. Eddy, 
 Thomas Aemitage, 
 
 JonN RlCHARDSON, 
 
 "William Colgate, 
 Samuel R. Kelly, 
 John B. Wells, 
 E. S. Whitney, 
 
 William D. Muephy, 
 James H. Tcwnsend, 
 Sylvestee Piee, 
 James B. Colgate, 
 William S. Clapp, 
 Oeein B. JtJDD, 
 A. C. Wheat, 
 William H. Wyckoff.* 
 
 (Dr. Elon Galusha's Address, 1853.) 
 
 Alex. McDonald, 
 Geoege W. Abbe, 
 James Faequaeson. 
 Edwaed Gilbeet, 
 Henry P. See, 
 Lewis Bedell, 
 James Edmonds, 
 
 In considering the question of " revision," as con- 
 nected with Mr. Cone, nothing strikes us with such 
 entire surprise as the storm of abuse which assailed him 
 on account of it. Had that abuse come from anti-Bap- 
 tists, from men, some pillar of whose creed was threat- 
 ened by the " removal of errors and obscurities " from 
 the commonly received English version, it would have 
 been but little surprising. We might have wondered 
 how any men, claiming to be Christians, could so far 
 forget what was due to propriety as to invoke harsh 
 invective, and unfeeling sarcasm to aid them. We 
 might not have been surprised to hear it from English 
 press or pulpit ; but that Americans and Baptists — that 
 men who claimed " one faith, one Lord, one baptism " 
 
39 S LIFE OF SPENCEE HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 with him — that men for every interest of whose relictions 
 lives he had toiled so long and faithfully, and who, if 
 they believed what they preached, were " Immersion- 
 is ts " because they dare not be anything else — that men, 
 every one of whom had preached and written, from the 
 time of their immersion, about the " errors and obscuri- 
 ties " he proposed to remove — that they should oppose, 
 traduce, and persecute him, is a thing scarcely to be 
 credited. But they did. Why? Ah! that is beyond 
 the reach either of our philosophy or information to 
 answer. The melancholy and mortifying fact stands 
 upon the record in naked ugliness. lie found no fault 
 with any man, Baptist or Pedo-Baptist, for entertaining 
 a different opinion on the subject from the one he advo- 
 cated. He might be surprised at it, but had no right 
 to find fault. The right of private judgment is sacred. 
 He respected the honest convictions of his brethren. 
 He found no fault with such as obeyed their convic- 
 tions. One of the men he loved best, Dr. Dagg, dis- 
 agreed with him ; but he disagreed like a brother and a 
 Christian, and he loved him just as dearly as ever, and 
 loved him to the end. 
 
 After ages, if they read his story, will view with won- 
 der the spectacle that part of it presents. They will see 
 a Baptist loaded with every epithet of vituperation, and 
 
 assailed by every artifice of malice for what ? For 
 
 defending the faith once delivered to the saints. For 
 holding fast the doctrines and ordinances of the Lord, 
 blameless. For saying in New York, when the snows 
 of age whitened on his head, the same thing he said at 
 the first A^irginian Association, in the earliest flush of 
 holy zeal, in the fruitful summer of his manhood, 
 
 "I'm not ashamed to own my Lord, 
 Nor to defend his cause !" 
 
LITE OF SPENCER nOTTGHTON CONE. 399 
 
 For asserting that Baptism was immersion, and that if 
 it was right \o preach it, it was right to print it, to print 
 it in the Blhhp "Was it not passing strange? Will not 
 the wonder of the future be tinged with doubt ? Will it 
 not say, these things have been feigned to lend a height- 
 ened color, an added lustre to his bold inflexibility in 
 the cause of truth ? "Will it. atsucli a distance, be able 
 to discern the cause within a cause, and see that envy 
 of the man had its share in begetting opposition to the 
 principle, or where that was not, that the syren charms 
 of expediency, lured and made shipwreck of the truth, 
 upon the shore of inconsistency and human inventions ? 
 Scarcely : for " expediency " has never been a Baptist 
 doctrine. It will be very hard, indeed, for the future 
 to understand, since the present even begins to doubt, 
 and other voices than those of " Bible Unionists " are 
 demanding a revision of the English Scriptures. 
 
 "We find nowhere so apt a description of the class, 
 whose burst of indignation and rage, against Spencer 
 II. Cone, and his design to remove from the English 
 Bible " its errors and obscurities," disturbed the quiet 
 of almost every Baptist church in the United States, as 
 in John Milton's glorious " speech for the liberty of 
 unlicensed printing." 
 
 "There be, who perpetually complain of schisms and 
 Eects, and make it such a calamity that any man dissents 
 from their maxims. It is their own pride and ignorance 
 which cause the disturbing, who neither will hear with 
 meekness, nor can convince, yet all must be suppressed 
 which is not found in their syntagma. They are the 
 troublers, they are the dividers of unity, who neglect, 
 and permit not others, to unite those dissevered pieces 
 which are yet wanting to the body of truth. To be still 
 searching what we know not, by what we know, stil. 
 closing up truth to truth as we find it, (for all hoi- bod} 
 
400 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 is homogeneal and proportional,) this is the golden rule 
 in Theology as well as in Arithmetic !" 
 
 But beyond the astonishment of the thing, that it 
 should happen among Baptists, is the wonder, that it 
 should happen in America, the land of Baptists, the land 
 of free thought. Whilst England and English Baptists 
 almost everywhere received the news gladly, his own 
 brethren, those of his own nation and household, were 
 scanted in the expression of their indignation, at the 
 awful design of " revising " King James' version, by 
 nothing but the poverty of the English language in 
 passionate phrase. 
 
 And yet at the very time when the storm was at its 
 loudest in America, English Baptists were saying to 
 him " well done !" Their hearts and hands were with 
 him the instant he struck the blow, " to save free con- 
 science from the paw of the Presbyterian and Episcopa- 
 lian wolf." To the Baptists of America, was reserved 
 the strange inconsistency of preaching, and practising 
 what they dared not print. 
 
 Passing beyond the Baptists of England, it has struck 
 the common sense and intelligence of the people 
 without reference to sect. " In the British house of 
 Commons recently, Mr Heywood, the member for Lan- 
 cashire, gave notice that he should, at the next session, 
 move an address to her majesty, praying that her 
 majesty will be graciously pleased to appoint a commis- 
 sion to inquire into the state of the authorized version 
 of the Bible, and to prepare a plan for the further 
 revision of that translation !" 
 
 Who is Mr. Heywood, the honorable member for 
 Lancashire? Is he Episcopalian, or dissenter; who or 
 what is he? Clearly the men of Lancashire, his consti- 
 tuents, have began to lose their superstitious reverence 
 for the il commonly received version " and believe a 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 401 
 
 better may be made. Clearly enough the mind of Eng- 
 land is aroused to the necessity of the work. But where 
 is the cry of horror, from American Baptist men, over 
 Mr. Hey wood and the iniquity of his proposition? Why 
 was Spencer Houghton Cone accused of being a des- 
 troyer of all that was stable in language, or reverend 
 in faith, for proposing a revision on this side of the At- 
 lantic? 
 
 And if " our Sovereign Lady Victoria," yield to the 
 solicitation of the member from Lancashire and the 
 English people, will the "gracious pleasure" of an 
 English queen anoint with the magic oil of kingcraft 
 the'wits of her revisers to the height of infallibility, and 
 make the act holy in them, which in republican Ameri- 
 cans came little short of being stigmatized as a sugges- 
 tion of the evil one ? 
 
 In the "Edinburgh Review " for October, 1855, we find 
 an able article urging the necessity of an immediate 
 revision of the English Scriptures. It attacks without 
 stint the errors of the received version, and yet it seems 
 not to have drawn down upon either writer or review 
 any exhibition of indignant horror ; and, indeed, it is 
 doubtful whether the article cost the " great Quarterly " 
 a single subscriber. 
 
 The writer says, " that it is universally agreed among 
 Protestants of all denominations, that the Bible is their 
 one great, paramount, religious authority ; that they re- 
 pudiate all traditional law, and human teaching; and that 
 every man depending on his own judgment, and avail- 
 ing himself of his right to use it, looks to the Sacred 
 Scriptures, and to the Sacred Scriptures alone, for 
 the spiritual light which should inform his faith and 
 direct his conduct. Such is the theory ; but it is 
 little more than a theory. If Christians acted upon it 
 honestly and more freely than they do, they would in 
 
4,02 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 all probability find their differences diminish, and their 
 charity increase. But the fact is, that the right of pri- 
 vate judgment in religion is a principle more vaunted 
 than exercised." 
 
 We shall make but a single quotation further from 
 this article. It has been reprinted in this country, and 
 very widely circulated ; and, indeed, its arguments had 
 been presented fully and strongly long before, by the 
 friends of revision. The objection that it is irreverent to 
 touch the present version, is thus treated by the reviewer. 
 
 " But there is another, a more general and plausible 
 objection to the alteration of our common version :— it 
 ought not to be touched, because it has, for centuries, 
 been held in reverence by the people. We admit the 
 fact. It has obtained, and most deservedly so, the deep 
 and affectionate reverence of our Protestant population ; 
 but how is that any objection against its being rendered 
 more worthy of the deep and affectionate reverence 
 with which they regard it? If their reverence extend 
 beyond the respect that is due to the most accurate and 
 complete translation of the inspired writings, which on 
 the whole, has ever been submitted to the contemplation 
 of the unlearned disciples of the Gospel ; if their rever- 
 ence attaches to its admitted errors and deficiencies — 
 such a feeling is not pious, but superstitious ; and it 
 ought not for a moment to be deferred to as an 
 impediment in the way of so great a blessing as an 
 improved edition of the sacred volume. It classes, as 
 an instance of ignorance and folly, with the popish 
 priest's obstinate adherence to his old 3£ii?npsimus, 
 which has been a jest amongst Protestants ever since 
 the first dawn of the Reformation. They who would 
 resist the elimination of the palpable mistakes, and the 
 acknowledged imperfections of our English Bible, from 
 an apprehension of offending the religious prejudices of 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 403 
 
 the people, are guilty of a pious fraud, which though of 
 a lighter shade of guilt, ranks in the same vicious cate- 
 gory with the practice of the Romanist, who lends his 
 support to the perpetuation of a belief in fictitious 
 relics, or endeavors to sustain the faith of his flock 
 by the contrivance of a fraudulent miracle. In dealing 
 with a book, of which divine truth is the argument, 
 nothing ought to be regarded, but the means of render- 
 ing it the most distinct and perfect reflection of that 
 truth ; aud if our present translation do not afford such 
 a distinct and perfect reflection, it ought to be subjected 
 to a course of continuous and careful revision, till it 
 shall. * - * Whatever course our ecclesiastical 
 authorities may pursue, they may depend upon it, that 
 the Bible will not long be allowed to remain in its 
 present mutilated and unsatisfactory condition. What- 
 ever the public demand will in some shape be supplied." 
 On this point of superstitious regard, so forcibly put 
 by the reviewer, we rind a very striking illustration in a 
 sermon delivered in 1852, by Rev. R. H. Xeale, of Bos- 
 ton, before the governor and legislature of Massachusetts. 
 At page ten of the sermon, he says, " It is recorded 
 of the Alexandrian fathers, that in their honest inten- 
 tion to develop the true sense of Scripture, they inserted 
 a punctuation mark after tV, in the 3d verse of 1st chap, 
 of the Gospel of John. The conscientious Chrysostom 
 was greatly alarmed at this proceeding, and denounced 
 it as rank heresy. Epiphanius, still more zealous, 
 declared it an act of blasphemy and a sin against the 
 Holy Ghost. Excitement rose high in the theological 
 world. Wise heads combined to stay the ^reading evil. 
 .Viul thus, on account of a single dot, the perilous work 
 of punctuating the inspired volume was delayed for 
 years." If this is the view given of those who opposed 
 what they deemed an unjustifiable meddling with the 
 
401 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 sacred text, we hardly knew how Dr. ISTeale would 
 write of those who opposed the removal of known errors 
 from a translation y who caused "excitement to rise so 
 high in the theological world " of Baptists ; and so 
 many of whose " wise heads combined to stay the 
 spreading evil." 
 
 In its issue of January 17th, 1856, The "Christian 
 Intelligencer," one of the oldest and ablest journals 
 in America, and an organ of the Dutch Reformed 
 Church, speaking of the writer of the review above 
 quoted, says, " He shows conclusively, we think, that it 
 (revision of common English version) is demanded by 
 every consideration of truth and duty." Strong testi- 
 mony, surely, as to the character of the English wit- 
 ness. 
 
 In the Lower House of Convocation (Church of 
 England) Canon Selwyn has given notice of a motion 
 " to propose a petition to the Upper House, requesting 
 his grace and their lordships, to take into their consid- 
 eration the subject of an address to the crown, praying 
 that Her Most Gracious Majesty may be pleased to 
 appoint a body of 'learned men, well-skilled in the orig- 
 inal language of the Holy Scriptures, to consider on 
 such amendments of the authorized version as have 
 been already proposed, and to receive suggestions from 
 all persons who may be willing to offer them ; to com- 
 municate with foreign scholars on difficult passages 
 when it may be deemed advisable ; to examine the 
 marginal readings which appear to have been introduc- 
 ed into some editions, since the year 1611 ; to point out 
 such words and phrases as have either changed their 
 meaning, or become obsolete in the lapse of time." 
 
 Of all the objections brought against the Bible Union, 
 that of sectarianism seemed to Mr. Cone the strangest. 
 And yet it was one most frequently urged, and indeed, 
 
LIFE OF SFENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 405 
 
 coming from the highest Baptist quarters, had met him 
 at every step of his course, from the first public expres- 
 sion of his sentiment in favor of pure versions, at Salem 
 in 1S33, down to the close of his life. 
 
 He urged in his addresses that the Bible — the "Word of 
 God — was The Truth; that The Truth could not be 
 sectarian ; how then could a society whose fundamental 
 and controlling principle was, The pure Word of God 
 for all the world,be properly charged with sectarianism? 
 
 Other Bible societies have hedged about their trans- 
 lators with constitutional barriers of sects, creeds, and 
 " received versions," allowing them to " consult God no 
 further than sectarian influence would permit ; making 
 sectarian tenets the test and limit of the perfection of 
 their versions." — Rev. D. R. Campbell, Ky. 
 
 The Bible Union is founded on the simple principle 
 of " The Bible faithfully translated for all the world," 
 and its grand direction to all the translators employed is 
 "give the exact meaning of the inspired text." 
 
 How then other Bible societies could be catholic, and 
 the Bible Union sectarian, was to him both a logical 
 and a religious puzzle. 
 
 Elder Isaac Erret, of Warren, Ohio, in an address 
 before the Bible Union, in 1856, adverting to this objec- 
 tion, says very forcibly and eloquently : 
 
 "The work of the American Bible Union is, in the 
 true sense of the word, catholic. That is to say, it is 
 not sectarian. It demands the faithful translation of 
 the Scriptures of truth on no low party plea. It asks it, 
 irrespective of partisan interests or aims. It says, if the 
 ■party cannot be sustained by the pure Word of God, let 
 the party perish. Every man coming into this movement 
 says, I recognize its claims as superior to party interests. 
 If my party, in any of its peculiarities, cannot be sustain- 
 ed bv the pure Word of God, let those peculiarities be 
 
406 LIFE OF SPENCER BOUGHT DN CONE. 
 
 given to the winds, like the chaff of the summer thresh- 
 ing-floor. ' What is the chaff to the wheat V If any 
 other party can find countenance in a faithful transla- 
 tion for anything which I have disapproved, so let it 
 be ; I will not be found fighting against God. In this 
 point of view, the Bible Union movement is a most 
 noble triumph over selfish and party aims and inspira- 
 tions. It knows no party. It is determined to know 
 none. The impulse it will give in the direction of a 
 catholic spirit, and catholic Christian enterprise, cannot 
 be estimated either in force or value. Often do I thank 
 God for this precious development of the true catholic 
 spirit, and pray that it may never be grieved away by 
 sectarian strife, or disturbed by a single discord. 
 Sectarianism is the bane of modern Christian enter- 
 
 " Is it too much to hope that the American Bible 
 Union, advocating the pure Word of God in faithful 
 translations, though it seems like a very feeble instru- 
 mentality, may, by gentleness and perseverance, prevail 
 against a thousand discordant tongues, and gather round 
 it steadily the sympathies, and prayers, and lives of 
 those who fear God, until all the harsh and grating 
 sounds of sectarian strife shall be drowned in the rich, 
 full, swelling harmonies and melodies of the united 
 children of God? Surely, if this may be, earth has 
 never yet heard so glad a song; heaven has not yet 
 been addressed in strains so triumphant as shall then go 
 up from the one body. It will be like Milton's 'seven- 
 fold chorus of hallelujahs and harping symphonies." 
 May God hasten it in His time." 
 
 So too, Dr. Conant, of Rochester University, speaking 
 of the fear that their peculiar religious tenets would 
 give color to the work of revisors says, "The apprehen- 
 sion that the peculiar theologica. views of the revisors 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 407 
 
 •would appear in the revision was groundless, Biblical 
 interpretation was one thing, and translation was another. 
 * * * Should a translator color his revision by his 
 theological views, the philologist will find him out. De- 
 pend upon it, the work of this Union is so guarded by its 
 congress of living scholars, by the light from the past 
 shed upon their labor, and by the ordeal of criticism to 
 which it must be subjected, that we are confident it will 
 attain to the nearest possible approach to perfection." 
 In the same address, Dr. Conant said, "In all enterprises 
 of this kind, the common people take the lead, the learned 
 ahoays follow" Coming from the source it did, this 
 sentiment made a strong impression on us, and we could 
 not refrain from quoting it here, thus abruptly and dis- 
 connectedly. It is a beautiful illustration of the modesty 
 of true learning, and it leads us naturally back to the 
 subject of this memoir. He thoroughly understood and 
 appreciated this great truth. His conduct was shaped 
 by it steadily to the end ; and to the fact of his never 
 for a moment, either forgetting or undervaluing it, 
 much of his ability to aid so efficiently in the accom- 
 plishment of the great objects for which he toiled, must, 
 humanly speaking, be attributed. 
 
 One of the ablest, perhaps the ablest, and certainly 
 one of the honestest of those ministers of his own deno- 
 mination who opposed all his plans for pure versions, is 
 reported to have said, "I have opposed Spencer Ii. 
 Cone twice, and each time I certainly thought I had the 
 denomination with me, but somehow or other it has 
 gone with him. I believe, after all, he knows the people 
 better than I do." Speaking of some other traits of his 
 character, and of the value of his services, Dr. Baker 
 says: 
 
 "For the prosperity that has attended the Bible 
 revision enterprise, it has, under God, been largely 
 
4:08 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 indebted to Dr. Cone. From his native ability, gracious 
 endowment, long experience, and rare efficiency, he 
 was eminently qualified to be useful in such an enter- 
 prise. This work secured for itself the warmest fellow- 
 ship of his generous heart, for while he possessed an 
 intense affection for the Bible, his love was not a super- 
 stitious regard for the defects or faults of a translation 
 of God's Word. He desired that the mirror which 
 reflected the face of his God and Saviour, should have a 
 polished and speckless surface. As one of ' God's 
 freemen,' he felt that he had a natural and inalienable 
 right to worship God according to the dictates of his 
 own conscience ; but he knew that conscience was not 
 the rule of action, but the faculty of judging ourselves 
 by a rule, and that this rule is the word of God. When 
 he would settle the question, 'What is right? he would 
 ask ' what saith the Scriptures V He knew that to be 
 prepared to do right we must first form a right judg- 
 ment of the word itself, and that it was our duty to 
 have our conscience first directed by the Scriptures, and 
 then to have our lives guided by our conscience. 
 Hence he felt it to be important to know what was truly 
 ' the word of God,'' and all defects and errors of transla- 
 tion he rejected as no part of that word. With him the 
 simple question was, ' What is the truth V and his 
 motto, ' Buy the truth and sell it not.' This ardent love 
 to truth made him a revisionist, and called out all his 
 energies in that holy work. 'He chose the right and 
 adhered to it.' 
 
 "The wide-spread influence of Dr. Cone, carried 
 great weight with it into the revision enterprise. His 
 name was a tower of strength to the Bible Union. In 
 the great Missionary, Bible, and kindred enterprises, he 
 had held many important trusts, and had always ful- 
 filled his high responsibilities with uncommon energy 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER IIOUGIITOX CONE. 
 
 409 
 
 and fidelity. This tried fidelity inspired confidence, and 
 secured co-operation in that work. 
 
 " As his life was one of intense activity, he found time 
 to consummate for the society a vast amount of labor. 
 His executive ability was very great. He knew what 
 ought to be done, and how to do it ; and he loved to 
 work for the institution. All the great aims of his 
 Christian life converged towards the objects contem- 
 plated by it. During the last five years these objects 
 largely engrossed his attention. Seldom a day passed 
 that he did not spend a part at the Bible rooms. He 
 originated its valuable library, and contributed most 
 largely to its stock of recondite works. And he person- 
 ally secured many liberal contributions to the treasury. 
 His energies were so essentially interwoven with the 
 society, that he seemed to be an essential portion of it. 
 
 Of the high qualifications of Dr. Cone as a presiding 
 officer, it is not necessary for me to speak. ' No other 
 minister among us was so often called to preside over 
 the deliberations of his brethren, and few men, in any 
 circles, knew so well how to discharge the delicate and 
 important trust of a presiding officer.' 
 
 " In contending for the principles of pure versions in 
 all languages, the English not excepted, he was called 
 to endure obloquy and and reproach, even from many 
 who once professed to be his warmest and best friends. 
 He encountered opposition the most violent, unrelenting 
 and uncompromising. He saw the strongest^ ties of 
 friendship dissolved, and even his church relations and 
 pastoral connections threatened, because of his adhesion 
 to this principle. His warm and generous nature 
 keenly felt such treatment from his brethren. Had he 
 met opposition and reproach from an enemy, he could 
 have borne it. But thus to be cut oft' from Christian 
 fellowship, from brethren that he had loved, and to have 
 
 18 
 
410 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 to bear their reproaches, was to him an afflictive 
 experience. 
 
 " The fortitude of superior minds under unmerited 
 reproach, does not result from hardihood of feeling ; that 
 is the unenvied privilege of the leader of the mob, who 
 addresses himself to the worst passions of our nature, 
 because they are the most easily excited ; whose work is 
 defamation, and who has no character of his own to lose. 
 In a virtuous mind, fortitude under calumny and injus- 
 tice is the result of principle, struggling against feelings 
 which are acute and sensitive, and deeply seated in the 
 soul. The struggle is always painful, and if in public, 
 the consciousness of rectitude supports, and the brow is 
 consequently tranquil and serene ; yet, in secrecy, the 
 power of feeling prevails, and the eye poureth forth tears 
 unto God." 
 
 " Dr. Cone felt deeply the opposition and persecution, 
 to which he was exposed in the new version enterprise. 
 He said — " My reputation is dear to me, to my wife and 
 children, and I will defend them as long as I am able." 
 But he was religiously inflexible alike through evil 
 report, and through good report. His convictions of 
 duty were intelligent and sincere, and he was prepared 
 to carry them out in action, fearless of consequences. 
 If the Bible question must be turned into one of per- 
 sonal hostility, and waging " war to the knife," his reply 
 was " my mind is steadfast and immovable, and I am 
 willing to die at the stake as Tyndale died, if I may be 
 instrumental in giving to my own countrymen a correct 
 version of the Bible." 
 
 Such is the testimony of those who knew him best ; 
 of those whose minds, " enlightened from above," sym- 
 pathized with the vast beneficence of the principle, of 
 which he was the unfaltering champion. The ideas he 
 sowed broadcast through the world for twenty years, 
 
LITE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 411 
 
 are already springing up, and " the seed time and the 
 harvest " are nigh at hand. England and America have 
 already replied to his summons, and the voice " that 
 •was poured on the free winds far," although silent now 
 for ever upon earth, has found a thousand undying 
 echoes to reiterate its demands, with a power that will 
 not be denied. 
 
 Yiew his course from what stand point we will, its 
 resoluteness and consistency must be conceded at once. 
 
 He commenced his public and determinate opposi- 
 tion to the " errors and obscurities " of our present 
 English version the moment the American Bible Society 
 passed their uncatholic resolution of February 17th, 
 1835. He avowed the principle then ; he never swerved 
 from it afterwards. To carry it out he formed the 
 American and Foreign Bible Society. That Society 
 failed of its high mission. Age had found him and the 
 work was not commenced, the night was at hand and 
 the enemy yet held possession of the battle-field. He 
 saw the columns of his people wavering and uncertain, 
 or flying ignominiously from the field. Like the gal- 
 lant Desaix, when he rode upon the field of Mar- 
 engo, after that day of gigantic war, when the sun was 
 dropping slowly down behind the mountains, and the 
 wearied French were sullenly retiring before the Aus- 
 trian charge, he exclaimed " the battle is lost, but there 
 is day -light enough left to win another," and he founded 
 the Bible Union. God spared him to do it. It was his 
 work. His Master had set it to him to do. It was not 
 written that the Lord's host should be defeated. 
 
 In all the war, and it was a " war to the knife," 
 amongst the many who stood by him, William H. 
 "Wyckoff was one of the men whose "convictions of 
 duty" were as intelligent as his own, and who never 
 hesitated or failed him. They labored together from 
 the first, and Mr. Cone relied upon him in every emer- 
 
412 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 gency as a faithful friend, wise in # counsel, patient in 
 trial, and resolute in action. Their names appear so 
 often together in the published history of the movement, 
 and Mr. Wyckoff's character and services are so well 
 known, that our testimony may appear superfluous. 
 We, however, who know more intimately how much he 
 did to comfort, support, and strengthen the leader 
 whom he loved, and under whom he fought with so 
 happy a bravery, cannot permit ourselves to fail in 
 offering a just tribute to his affection for the man, and 
 his loyalty to the principle. In originating the move- 
 ment for the revision of the English Scriptures, and by 
 the force of his character, the popularity of his name, 
 the energy of his will, and the untiring devotion of his 
 talents and his time, to placing the society, whose busi- 
 ness it is to carry out and perfect the work, so far as 
 human instrumentality may, by God's grace, achieve it 
 ■ — in a position of such influence and prosperity, as to 
 insure its ultimate success, Spencer Houghton Cone 
 performed an act which crowned, with her own eternal 
 circlet, a life spent in the service and defence of truth ! 
 
 Everything conspires to show that the revision of the 
 English Scriptures, and the " removal of their errors 
 and obscurities " — that the enthronement in the hearts 
 of Christians throughout England and America, of his 
 principle of " the Scriptures as God gave them — the 
 truth of God for the world " — is fixed so that it can 
 never again be shaken. 
 
 The' result, thus far, has proved that Mr. Cone neither 
 misunderstood the signs of the times, nor entered upon 
 his work unadvisedly. Not only has the American 
 Bible Union grown into a large national society, em- 
 bracing its tens of thousands of life-members and sub- 
 scribers for life-membership, and raising, in one year 
 more than forty-five thousand dollars, but it numbers 
 amongst its warmest friends and adherents influential 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGIITON CONE. 413 
 
 members of every evangelical body, employs distin- 
 guished scholars connected with ten different denomina- 
 tions, and exerts an influence that is felt throughout the 
 religious public of England and America. From this 
 influence cognate institutions have sprung up in both 
 countries for the same object, the revision of the English 
 Bible, and men of high positions in the British parlia- 
 ment, the Church of England, and the Free Church of 
 Scotland, are prosecuting the most vigorous means for 
 engaging both Church and State in the enterprise. The 
 principles and plans of the Bible Union have vindicated 
 the wisdom of its founders, and have resulted in giving 
 to the world portions of the word of God, so ably and 
 faithfully translated as to warrant the belief that before 
 long the English speaking nations will rejoice in the 
 possession of the best version the language has ever 
 boasted of. 
 
 The following eloquent and Christian testimony to 
 Mr. Cone's services in the cause of p are versions, is from 
 the lips of Elder Isaac Erret: 
 
 " From no field of toil and sacrifice could the Chris- 
 tian of this age more earnestly desire to be carried to 
 his reward than from this of endeavoring to give the 
 Word of the Lord plain to the nations. My thoughts 
 now linger around the tomb of a venerable and beloved 
 man of God, who laid the foundations of this enterprise 
 in tears and prayers, and daily w T atched it with fondest 
 care and anxiety, and fearlessly faced the storm, and 
 breasted the Avaves of opposition. I can conceive of no 
 more fitting close to an earnest, laborious, and godly life 
 than his. With what joy will he greet, in the world of 
 light, the Wickliffes, and Tyndales, and Coverdales, and 
 Eogerses, and the hosts of reformers and martyrs, who 
 lived and died contending for the word of God ! He 
 has gone from more peaceful scenes, and from a bloodless 
 
414 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 warfare ; yet, perhaps the faith which rejects the smile 
 of worldly approbation, and the moral courage which 
 breaks the dearest bonds of fellowship with friends and 
 brethren, for the truth's sake, are scarcely less now than 
 then. It will be blessed to be even the least in that 
 throng of heroes, who nobly battled for the word of 
 God, and to say in going up with them to cast one's 
 crown at the feet of Jesus : ' I have not refrained my 
 lips, O ! Lord, thou knowest.' It will be blessed for the 
 feeblest and least of us all, if, when we stand before that 
 judgment seat, where the Word of God will decide our 
 eternal fate, it shall appear that in heart, and in life, in 
 word and in deed, we have loved and honored that 
 perfect law." 
 
 Let who will carry out the work, whether her " gra- 
 cious majesty " of England, by her commission to the 
 learned doctors of her realm, or republican America, by 
 means of faithful men, not the less learned or faithful 
 because they lack the "image and superscription " of 
 royalty upon their work ; let who will do it — his name 
 will be twinned with it, and the millions who shall here- 
 after rejoice in the triumph of truth and the confusion 
 of error, will remember his name with reverence and 
 affection, when the brilliance of the orator, and the love- 
 liness of the man, slull be a misty and uncertain tradi- 
 tion. 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 415 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 HIS CONDUCT TO YOUNG PREACHERS — DIRECTIONS — ADVICE 
 — VD3WS OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER, FAITH AND PRACTICE. 
 
 His heart was always young. It was one of the 
 most striking things about him. Neither mind nor heart 
 seemed ever to feel the chilling touch of age. To the 
 last moment of his working life, a youthful vivacity and 
 eagerness of sentiment, distinguished word and action, 
 and both were the true reflex of the inner man. The 
 human machine wore out with intense physical and 
 mental labor, the divine essence within worked as bright 
 and bravely as ever, until the servant failed the master, 
 until the main spring was fretted through, and every 
 wheel stopped at an instant. Young in soul, he loved 
 the young. Their eagerness and ardor were kindred 
 with his own. Children loved him and played with 
 him as if he had been one of themselves. He could find 
 a minute to chat and romp with his grandchildren in 
 his busiest hours, or have them play about him, and do 
 his work all the better for their noise and mischief. 
 
 Especially, however, he loved the young, who, ser- 
 ving their Creator in the days of their youth, felt called 
 to preach the Gospel. Here duty hallowed what incli- 
 nation prompted. To serve them was to serve the cause 
 he lived for. To cultivate their inclination for a holy 
 sacrifice of all that in them was to that cause, and labor 
 to make it " full of growing," was to plant trees in the 
 Lord's garden, the fruit whereof, like the tree of life, 
 should be for the healing of the nations. He believed 
 
416 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 that the principles of Baptists were the hope of the world. 
 The young preacher who stood beside him ardent in lore 
 and faith, and eager to spread those principles, was to 
 to him a pledge of the future. In the fire of his eye, in 
 the echo of his voice, he heard God promising that 
 he would never leave himself without a witness among 
 men. The warworn soldier, as his arm grew weak with 
 smiting in the battle, hailed exultingly the accession of 
 youthful strength and vigor, and girded up his loins and 
 forgot his weariness. The moment they struck into the 
 press beside him, and bared their breasts against the 
 common foe, they were brothers of his heart, and 
 his shield was ready to cover them, wounded, his sword 
 busy to open for them, victorious, a wider pathway. 
 
 One whom he loved, and who happily for himself can 
 speak experimentally of these things, tells of this better 
 than we can. We will not call the kind contribution 
 of John Wesley Sarles a favor. He does not think it so. 
 He lays it as a laurel upon the grave of his father in 
 the Gospel, and his tears are yet warm upon its leaves. 
 
 " I send," he says, " fourteen letters written by your 
 father. The re-reading of these letters has again brought 
 fresh before me, more of his generous solicitude, and 
 prayerful wise counselling, than I know how to express. 
 With all his leading characteristics engraven on your 
 heart, and mind, I have thought the reading of these 
 letters alone might better supply that which you seek 
 than any expression I could give. 
 
 " I will simply add an unstudied sketch of my general 
 impressions, which may possibly contain some thought 
 or incident that you can use. When I remember his 
 unwearied kindnes to me, and his constant care for me, 
 it pains me that I did not in some more practical way 
 than I did, seek to express to him my sense of indebted- 
 ness. 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 417 
 
 " But I have no idea that he saw any failure in my 
 appreciation, for if I do not greatl} mistake, he was 
 accustomed to forget most of the kindness he showed to 
 anybody. He had no time, and not the slightest dispo- 
 sition to make a record of such parts of his life. 
 
 " He never acted as if he regarded me as his debtor. I 
 think he really had no idea of the extent of my indebt- 
 edness to him. The kindness of his heart made him 
 unconscious of the pains he had taken. And besides, 
 from long habit, he quickly dismissed his own generous 
 acts, with no desire to see them again, short of the 
 judgment. I never saw in another as happy an exem- 
 plification of what I suppose to be included in the ver- 
 ses of Matthew, ' Then shall the righteous answer him, 
 saying, Lord, when saw we Thee an hungered, and fed 
 Thee ? or thirsty and gave Thee drink ? When saw we 
 Thee a stranger and took Thee in ? or naked and 
 clothed Thee.' 
 
 " He took a very lively interest in young ministers 
 generally. They met with such a warm welcome, he 
 was so unreserved and free, that they loved to come to 
 him for counsel and sympathy. None whom he knew 
 were in want of a friend in their need. In their failure 
 to see clearly the truth, instead of upbraiding them, 
 he admired and followed the example of Aquila and 
 Priscilla in the case of Apollos ' and took them unto 
 him, and expounded unto them the way of God more 
 perfectly.' 
 
 " While he freely sympathized with them in their tem- 
 poral affairs, his kindness was specially manifest and over- 
 flowing for them as fellow ambassadors for Christ. He 
 loved to help them in their great work, stopped not to 
 count the cost to himself, regarded it as his business, and 
 all of it done for and at the expense of Christ. 
 
 "I said fellow ambassadors, for though they were 
 
 18* 
 
418 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 young, he drew no lines between himself and them, 
 assumed no right to dictate, claimed no superiority, but 
 having presented the result of his own experience, was 
 sure to leave them unhampered, and free to dissent, if 
 they could. In the youngest of his brethren he fully 
 recognized the right to exercise their own judgment, 
 and often reminded them of the obligation to do so, after 
 all that was spread before them by their seniors. 
 
 " If he could promote them in the favor of the people, 
 and extend their usefulness, his own happiness was just 
 as much enhanced. He was so completely above and 
 beyond those little jealousies towards brethren, which 
 have painfully characterized some good men, that, in 
 the minds of those who knew him intimately, his very 
 name is a rebuke to it. As the harbinger of our Lord 
 truly rejoiced in the growing ascendency of Christ, so, 
 I believe, did Spencer H. Cone, in every place, and on 
 every occasion, when he was obscured by a fuller and 
 happier exhibition of Christ crucified. All thoughts of 
 himself were forgotten when the honor of his Lord was 
 involved. The higher Christ was exalted by young or 
 old, the more his heart exulted, irrespective of his or 
 another's connection with it. His abiding and ardent 
 desire for his younger brethren in the ministry, was 
 that they might greatly excel him in preaching the 
 unsearchable riches of Christ. It was pre-eminently 
 this kind of excellence in them that he sought and 
 prayed for. He appreciated learning, but rarely at- 
 tempted to excite a young man's ambition in that direc- 
 tion ; for the simple reason that he usually found them 
 awakened to the value of intellectual training, while 
 vastly higher qualifications were but dimly seen. 
 
 " Long years since I often remarked that while many 
 other ministers with whom I met, talked much and 
 largely about literary studies, and taste and training, 
 
LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 419 
 
 style of composition and elocution— excellence in those 
 particulars upon which the educated world sits in judg- 
 ment — he was always seeking to make a Scriptural 
 preacher, a Gospel preacher, a spiritually minded 
 preacher. Accordingly, I well remember words like 
 the following from his lips : 
 
 " ' Avoid seeking a reputation as a preacher. It costs 
 dearly to support a reputation, destroys spirituality of 
 mind, has greatly detracted from the usefulness of some 
 good and able men. 
 
 "'Beware of withholding, for some great occasion, 
 thoughts which you may regard as specially valuable. 
 If you make such use of thoughts given by the Holy 
 Spirit, He will be likely to withhold from you. Give 
 them to the people the first opportunity — wait not till 
 another occasion. 
 
 " ' Guard against judging of the state of your heart, by 
 any liberty or light you may have in preaching. You 
 may be aided in that way, in answer to the prayers of 
 the church which you serve, while the real state of your 
 heart may be deplorable. 
 
 " ' Never be drawn or swerved from a plain duty by 
 inconvenience and trouble. For instance, defer not a 
 baptism, because it is stormy, or because there is only 
 one, or because it may be a very humble and obscure 
 disciple. 
 
 '"There are two courses before you as a preacher: 
 make yourself familiar with classic authors, study 
 the popular taste, bring forth well-written essays, use 
 the Bible as a fine collection of texts, and fill up your 
 sermons from other sources ; or — 
 
 "'Give yourself chiefly to the study of the Bible, 
 bring forth the whole counsel of God, whether men will 
 hear or forbear, " Present the Word." 
 
 In the first course you will make yourself popular, 
 
 .. . 
 
420 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 in the other you will be useful to the souls of men, and 
 please God. Take your choice. 
 
 " ' Accustom yourself to give Christ His place in every 
 sermon. Get the Gospel by the handle. Never preach 
 a sermon without enough of the Gospel to show a sinner 
 how he must be saved.' 
 
 " The above were not presented in precisely this lan- 
 guage, and not at all in this order, nor all of them on 
 any one occasion ; but in a very informal way, he was 
 constantly throwing out the weightiest suggestions 
 whenever I had an hour with him. 
 
 "I am aware that this is a very meagre outline on the 
 point named. 
 
 " Turning from these peculiarities, allow me to name 
 another, and his crowning characteristic as a Christian, 
 which I have not seen duly noticed, and which, I think, 
 ought to be made prominent in a faithful memoir of 
 him. I refer to the strength — the greatness of his faith 
 in the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 " I believe that his cordial renunciation, before God, of 
 every work and service of his head and heart, his grate- 
 ful exulting reception of the sinner's friend — the good 
 faith in which he received the promise of life in Christ, 
 and accordingly fled from himself to Christ as his all, 
 this, I believe, was the crowning triumph of grace in 
 his heart and life. Abraham-like, ' he staggered not at 
 the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in 
 faith, giving glory to God.' 
 
 " This was the ground of his power with God and 
 men, and of his wide-spread, honored usefulness." 
 
 The following letter to Mr. Sarles, is a very striking 
 exhibition of his way of thinking, and manner of coun- 
 selling a young preacher. He is writing from Schooley's 
 Mountain, New Jersey, and says, " The first Sabbath of 
 the month (August) I supplied a large Presbyterian 
 
LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 421 
 
 Church in Hackettstown. I have preached twice in the 
 chapel on the mountain. My texts have heen, Jer. 
 xxii. 29, Mark. viii. 36, and 2 Cor. v. 17, from which 
 you may at least gather the character of the subjects to 
 which the attention of my hearers was directed. 
 
 " So you sat up till near midnight, and had the head- 
 ache the next day, as a very natural consequence. 
 Well, don't do so again. Experientia docet. Your 
 mental preparations can never be set off in a Boanerges' 
 strain, unless you give the body fair play. 
 
 " I think I left a copy of the ' Pulpit Cyclopedia ' for 
 you. You may consult it to advantage. Not only the 
 essays on the art of preaching, but the skeletons of 
 sermons. Use everybody — work them in, if they have 
 anything that's worth it — but coj)y nobody. 
 
 " Look over Jay's morning and evening exercises — he 
 has great tact in sermonizing — in the choice of texts, and 
 in the manner of handling them. 
 
 " I wish you to get into the habit of always having a 
 subject on your mind, not 'half matured,' but wholly 
 matured for presentation. Why, a Baptist preacher 
 ought to be ready to preach at a minute's warning, 
 if necessary. I do not expect him to be inspired on such 
 occasions, although, I believe the Lord always helps 
 those who boldly and cheerfully stand in their lot ; nor 
 do I wish him to be ready to say anything that comes 
 uppermost, and suppose that the single word ' unpre- 
 pared ' will serve as the mantle of charity to cover over 
 all his jargon. !N"o, this is the motto for my preacher, 
 ' semper paratus,' and that the motto may be appropri- 
 ate, let him remember that preaching is his business — 
 his reasonable and delightful service. 
 
 " In the morning he rises — reads — meditates — prays — 
 a passage strikes him — if not, let him read until he find 
 one that does — then let him throw it into the shape of a 
 
422 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 sermon at once. Say it is 2 Cor. v. 17. ' Therefore if 
 any man be in Christ, he is a new creature ; old things 
 are passed away ; behold, all things are become new.' 
 Now what is it to be in Christ ? 1. By election — by 
 conversion, &c. 2. Evidence of the fact — new creation 
 — new thoughts — principles — desires — hopes — fears, &c. 
 Of God, of Christ, of soul, &c. 3. Privileges and bene- 
 fits of this new state — embracing earth and Heaven. 
 
 " Let this or a similar outline from any text be 
 on your mind — think how you could speak of Christ, or 
 the spirit, or Heaven, or the worth of the soul from it ; 
 and the ' paratus semper ' shall stand up, if duty calls, 
 and say something to the purpose, for he has thought on 
 his text, and satisfied himself of its import, and has 
 several proof texts impressed upon his memory, that 
 can be at once made available. Then he can use his 
 liberty, and dwell on the 1st, 2d, or 3d points, as they 
 open to his mind, and if he finds that he has talked 
 long enough, he can wind up with a stroke or two, just 
 to clench the nail he has spent the hour in driving ; or 
 if he has ten minutes that ought to he occupied, let him 
 remind Christians of their privileges — gratitude — devo- 
 tion, &c, or sinners that if the soul is lost — all is lost ! 
 Never forgetting that his ' wind up ' must not be forced 
 or far-fetched, but be ' fitly framed ' to the text. The 
 Lord bless you, and make you more useful, and more 
 devoted than your assured friend and brother." 
 
 Tew men of good mind, and honest purpose, could 
 practise on the system recommended in a letter on 
 the same subject, without attaining excellence in extem- 
 poraneous speaking. It is true, much self-conceit and 
 pride, must be first had away from the heart; and 
 the bad habits of a majority of students and speak- 
 ers got rid of; but it seems to us, that a frank and 
 determinate adoption of these rules, will, perhaps, go as 
 
LITE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 423 
 
 far to banish all such, as any mere mental training 
 can. 
 
 " I hope," he says to the young student of theology, 
 who at his request often supplied his pulpit whilst 
 he rested a week or two from his labors during the heat 
 of the summer — but who was now himself resting 
 a little from his studies in a country retreat, " I hope 
 you will have sufficient confidence in God, and in the 
 fullness of Christ, and in the promised presence and aid 
 of the Holy Spirit, and in the abundant supplies treas- 
 ured up in the Gospel, to preach at least once every 
 Lord's day. Yon may sometimes be mortified and shut 
 up, as others have been before you, but notwithstanding 
 all this, preach frequently . Practise only makes perfect. 
 A man might read about cutting out a coat until he was 
 grey, and not be able to make a garment that would fit 
 a lap-board after all. You must practise. Learn a 
 little, and preach it ; learn a little more and preach that, 
 and so on, till you have the bag of the Gospel, full 
 of milk, to resort to, and your hand so thoroughly prac- 
 tised in the art of milking, that you can pull away 
 at the teat of election, and if the milk don't run freely, 
 try the teat of adoption, or justification, or sanctification, 
 or conversion, or the offices of Christ, or the graces 
 of the spirit, or the duties and privileges of the 
 Christian, &c. Only take care always to feed your 
 hearers upon ' the sincere milk of the word, that 
 they may grow thereby.' As you are in the country, 
 ascertain how the girls learn to milk. I think they try 
 constantly till they succeed. Go thou and do likewise. 
 
 " I am sorry you are fallen into such Arminian bor- 
 ders, but hope it will do you good. Resort to the Bible 
 for arguments, and call up your own experience on the 
 subject. Salvation is either of grace or wor'ks. Paul 
 has set thai matter in a clear light. Your views of the 
 
424 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CCNE. 
 
 atonement are correct. You can sustain them by plain 
 passages of holy writ; by the doctrine of the Trinity; 
 by the offices of Christ — shepherd, husband, priest, 
 surety, advocate, &c. Disputes are not profitable ; 
 avoid them when you can with propriety, and always 
 speak the truth in love. If you must argue, ask the 
 Arminian to solve your difficulties about total depra- 
 vity, and the passages that speak of salvation by grace, 
 the power of God, &c, and he will find that it is easier 
 to ash questions sometimes, than to answer them. 
 
 " Head Booth's " Reign of Grace " carefully and criti- 
 cally. If you should commit it to memory, it would do 
 you good to the day of your death. It would furnish 
 your mind with an outline of the plan of redeeming 
 mercy, so that you could not be taken by surprise, or 
 find yourself incapable at any time of defending a scrip- 
 tural position. But more especially, study the Bible 
 prayerfully ; commit to memory striking passages, that 
 you may be mighty in the Scriptures, and then your 
 profiting will appear unto all men. 
 
 " Set out with the determination to preach extem- 
 poraneously. And to do this, premeditate not on 
 words, but tilings / not to fix upon a mode of expression 
 — this will only hamper you — but to fix the subject on 
 your mind. The man who commits a sermon, when 
 he preaches, seems to be performing a task — his highest 
 success is not to forget what he had previously, in the 
 cold study, written ; but he who meditates upon a sub- 
 ject — say ' the love of God ' — and has enriched his mind 
 by looking at it in various aspects, as the spring of all 
 his blessings — the gift of Christ — his sufferings — the 
 influences of the Spirit — the guilty creatures to whom it 
 comes — the misery from which it rescues — the holiness 
 and happiness to which it elevates them, &c. ; when 
 such a man comes to the people, he has to throw him- 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 425 
 
 self upon God and pray for help — a most profitable 
 exercise ! Then whilst he adheres mainly to the outline 
 he has carefully formed of his subject, he is not afraid 
 to employ passages, or historical facts, or Bible illustra- 
 tions, as they come into his mind, in the warmth of 
 argument or exhortation, as he feels the worth of souls, 
 and the preciousness of Christ, and there will be a fresh- 
 ness, an attractiveness, an adaptation in such efforts, 
 not to be found in written essays. And when success 
 accompanies the effort, there is a consciousness of imme- 
 diate aid from God, and an evidence that he has called 
 us to the work which is above price. At least, such is 
 my experience, and such the abiding sentiment of my 
 soul. You must learn to preach extemporaneously. It 
 will give you much more time for study, and render 
 your ministry much more efficient." 
 
 In answer to a young brother, who has asked for a 
 course of study, he says : " I never studied an hour in a 
 theological seminary — how can I mark out a course of 
 instruction for licentiates ? You know as well as I — let 
 common sense have fair play. Preachers need to know 
 everything. Let them begin with first principles, and 
 go on to perfection, making the Bible their daily com- 
 panion, and valuing learning of any and every kind, 
 only as it helps to understand and explain the Bible." 
 
 In another letter he says : " You ask for standard 
 works — they are so numerous and so various in their 
 excellence that I scarcely know where to begin, I prefer 
 Abram Booth, 6 vols., 8 vo., London, to any other mere 
 human writer. Gill, Hall, Fuller, Bunyan, have much 
 that is good, but some things to be guarded against. 
 Maclain, on Hebrews, and Haldane, on Romans, 1 vol., 
 8vo. each, are studies. I prize Haldane above the rest 
 as a commentator." 
 
 Making, of course, exceptions in favor of those which 
 
426 LIFE OP SPENCEB HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 particular occasions required to be reduced to writing, 
 his general and strong preference was for extemporane- 
 ous preaching. 
 
 He was in the habit of putting the argument in favor 
 of the practice very strongly, in this wise : " You will see," 
 he said, " a lawyer in a court of justice trying a case. 
 His client's interests are at stake. He is their defender. 
 Perhaps it is money interest ; perhaps the deeper inte- 
 rest of reputation ; or, dearest of all, life itself. The 
 judge upon the bench — the jury in the box, have the 
 fate of his client in their hands. To save him, their 
 minds are to be impressed by argument; their hearts 
 touched by eloquence and pathos. To what a task does 
 a good counsel set himself. Every power of the body — 
 every quality of the mind is taxed and strained to the 
 utmost. His memory contributes its stores of learning. 
 His rhetoric adorns what is dry, smooths what is rug- 
 ged, and makes the path so pleasant that his hearers are 
 enticed along with him wherever he will have them go. 
 His fancy and imagination play with seductive bril- 
 liancy around the subject. His heart contributes all its 
 tenderest emotions to heighten and fix the impression, 
 and stamp his words with the mint-mark of nature and 
 truth. Does he not deserve success in a good cause? 
 But behold, man is arraigned at the bar of heaven. A 
 God too just to look upon sin with the least allowance, 
 is the awful Judge. The doom of the finally impenitent 
 is a hell of endless torment, where hope never enters. 
 The prisoner, careless of his fate, ignorant of his danger, 
 stands there in hardened folly. The preacher who is to 
 plead with sinners — who is to stand between the living 
 and the dead — who is to warn a soul worth more than all 
 the worlds, to flee from the wrath to come ; who is to 
 point him to Christ as the only Saviour for one so lost 
 and guilty ; the only Advocate with the Father ; who is 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 427 
 
 to endeavor to strike through the iron casing which bars 
 the passage to his heart, and arouse hirn to the immi- 
 nent peril in which he stands ; the man who is to tell 
 that wonderful — that soul-piercing and enrapturing 
 story of the Cross — reads it all from a well-written 
 manuscript! Can that man's soul be lifted up to the 
 mercy-seat as he does so ? Can his heart be bursting 
 with agony and love for precious human souls — his eyes 
 fountains of tears — his whole being wrapt and engaged 
 in the sublime responsibility of his office ? It is possible 
 it may, but can sinners see it in his eyes, and hear it in 
 his voice ? Can he forget himself — his mere words — 
 everything but the infinite sorrow of a lost soul — the 
 infinite love of a dying, risen, interceding Saviour? and 
 will that be so palpable that conviction will strike the 
 dullest ? I cannot think it. And shall a lawyer, for the 
 sake of the things of this world, task all the noblest 
 attributes of man, and, but to save for some unhappy 
 wretch an hour, a month, a year of painful breath, dis- 
 play unmatched devotion, energy, fire, passion, every- 
 thing ; and he who pleads for souls, whose object is to 
 snatch men from the precipice below which, roll the 
 fiery billows of eternal woe — shall he do less ? Dare he 
 do less?" 
 
 We offer no apology for giving so many of his letters 
 to Rev. Mr. Sarles in this connection ; they tell their own 
 story better than we can. They possess also a peculiar; 
 ity, best shown by themselves. It was the only writing 
 he indulged in after he began to preach. Dashed off at 
 railroad speed, anywhere, under any circumstances, the 
 simple, unstudied pouring out of his heart or mind ; 
 they have yet, many of them, the compactness and force 
 of closely-reasoned, and carefully-prepared essays. The 
 reason of this is very plain ; they were the skeletons of 
 his own system of thought and action. He had acted 
 
428 LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 all he wrote, for a life-time. Every point and rule had 
 been digested and considered for years — turned and 
 looked at in every possible direction — and when shaped 
 in a manner to satisfy his mind, set up as a land-mark 
 to travel by in the journey of duty. 
 
 Thus as he was always thinking of the best way to 
 advance the cause of Christ in the world, as he thought 
 of nothing else in fact and cast about him every 
 moment of the day to find the best means to do it, his 
 conversation, the product of so much thought, was full 
 of weighty suggestions. Half the time he was not 
 aware that he had said anything strong or valuable. It 
 had been turned over in his own mind so often that it 
 seemed like something which must be apparent to every 
 body as a thing of course. So with his letters, they 
 flowed out of a full heart and mind, naturally and with- 
 out effort. Entirely free from the idea of producing an 
 effect, and, indeed, simple relations of processes of 
 thought, through which he had gone himself in the elim- 
 ination of truth, or rapid digests of his system of Theol- 
 ogy, benevolence, principles, they possess the charm 
 rather of a great and good man's conversation, than his 
 writings. How many natural traits and thoughts are 
 scattered through this one. " With reference to your 
 request to address the Society I am not now prepared to 
 reply. I cannot make any positive engagement; all I 
 can say is, the cause of missions is dear to my heart ; to 
 address your association upon the soul stirring theme, 
 would be to me most gratifying, and if circumstances 
 permit I intend to be present at your next anniversary. 
 Further than this I cannot go, and it will be proper for 
 your society to secure the services of some competent 
 brother for the important occasion in question, and if I 
 should happen to be at Hamilton, you may work me in 
 anywhere. 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 429 
 
 u I hope you will not dispose of yourself positively for 
 the month of August, at least until we have an opportu- 
 nity of ascertaining whether you ought not to spend that 
 month with the church under my pastoral care, 
 (The First Baptist Church New York.) It is a lovely 
 church, sound in the faith, united and happy, and I bless 
 God for the usefulness and comfort he has given me 
 among them from the beginning. 
 
 " I have looked over your case carefully and deliber- 
 ately, and without repeating details and particulars, my 
 judgment decidedly is, that you are not called to occupy 
 the field of foreign missions. 
 
 " Next as to your ' future course.' Were I in your 
 position, if I understand it correctly, I should enter upon 
 the work of the ministry after your collegiate course is 
 completed. 
 
 " Study Theology from the Bible, your own heart, the 
 experience of your people, the wants of the community 
 among whom you labor. Reading makes a full 
 preacher, thinking makes a wise one, and speaking a 
 rt ad \y one. The man who reads two hours and thinks six 
 is the preacher I should like to sit under. 
 
 " If you were to be a missionary, with a view espe- 
 cially to the translation of the sacred Scriptures, you 
 should remain where you are, and obtain a critical 
 knowledge of Hebrew and Greek ; but as a pastor of 
 one of our churches, there are other things of more 
 importance, and you can learn them better and faster 
 when you every day are made to feel what you need, 
 than if you were to study for years with an indefinite 
 idea of what mental furniture you might probably use 
 to the best advantage in future possible emergencies. 
 
 " You may be a missionary in spirit, and yet remain 
 in the United States ; my first impulse was to preach the 
 Gospel to the heathen, and had I been single, I should 
 
430 LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 have gone forth immediately. Having wife and child 1 
 could not go, but God has manifestly made my thirty 
 years' ministry a greater blessing to the heathen world 
 than if my bones were bleaching on the plains of Asia, 
 and He is able to do the same, yea, and much more 
 with you, and so may He do for Christ's sake !" 
 
 In a letter written to Mr. Sarles, in May, 1846, he indi- 
 cates his idea of the wide distinction between " revivals," 
 got up by extraordinary means of excitement and pre- 
 paration, and the gracious outpouring of the Spirit " like 
 the former and latter rain." His tender care and affec- 
 tion for the wife of his youth and of his old age, peep out 
 under the modesty of the word " necessity " — ah ! it was 
 a necessity of the heart. In the same wholesome way 
 he shows too the distinction between trusting " Christ" 
 and trusting " self." 
 
 " I shall expect you to supply my pulpit in August, 
 at least. Mrs. Cone is now sick abed with influenza, 
 her lungs are weak, and the slightest cold oppresses 
 them ; indeed, she has never had one entire week of 
 good health since last September. I shall, of necessity, 
 devote a considerable part of the ensuing summer to 
 her restoration to health — if the Lord will ! 
 
 " I do not wish you to interrupt your studies, but let 
 me know when you can come, and how long you can 
 consistently remain, and I will make my arrangements 
 accordingly. The members of the First Church love 
 you and your preaching ; they will receive you cordially 
 and listen to you kindly, so that there needs nothing 
 more to be said upon that subject. 
 
 " I hope the Lord will make plain paths for your feet 
 — you need not be in a hurry where to fix your post. 
 "Watch and pray, and the Lord will provide you a pulpit 
 of wood, or a stand under the spreading oak, where 
 you may proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ. 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 431 
 
 " With the character of the recent revival at Hamil- 
 ton I was happily made acquainted, from different 
 sources, and it rejoiced my heart. It was evidently 'a 
 work of Grace,' and that is all we need to break the 
 hardest heart and turn the stone to flesh. Salvation by 
 free and sovereign grace, is not only written upon the 
 sacred page with a sunbeam, but in the experience of 
 every Christian, if he will only tell the story of his con- 
 version in the language of the Spirit, and not in the 
 phraseology of mortals. 
 
 " Think of the Saviour's account of a converted soul, 
 in the parable of the shepherd, who goes after the poor 
 wandering sheep— -finds him, hinds him to his shoulder 
 — brings him home to his fold, &c. How simple, plain, 
 beautiful, true ! 
 
 " Now suppose that sheep could talk, and we should 
 hear him say to others of the flock, ' I took the first step 
 — I was tired of wandering on the mountains of error — 
 I determined to seek the shepherd — I found Him and 
 jumped upon His shoulder — and here I am safe and 
 sound, as long as I am faithful and choose to stay 
 here !' 
 
 " Oh ! these I, I, I, how they hide the Saviour ! Let 
 me continue to sing — while life, and strength, and being 
 last, or immortality endures. 
 
 " 'Jesus sought me when a stranger, 
 Wandering from the fold of God, 
 He to rescue me from danger, 
 Interposed his precious blood !' " 
 
 The following short extract shows how careful he 
 was not to attempt to influence the judgment of younger 
 preachers : " As to future study I cannot direct you ; 
 you must judge for yourself. You must decide whether 
 it will be best to remain at Hamilton one two or three 
 
432 LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 years; or whether you ought to 'go a fishing' imme- 
 diately, relying upon Him who sends you forth to 
 furnish you with a net, and after perhaps much apparent 
 fruitless toil, tell you how to put it down at length on 
 the right side of the ship." 
 
 The following, too, indicates the just appreciation he 
 had of learning in a preacher, and how he put it in 
 its right place : " The importance of education to 
 a preacher is admitted on all hands, and true learning 
 always promotes humility rather than pride, and I 
 rejoice, therefore, that you are solicitous to seek out 
 acceptable words with which to clothe your thoughts. 
 The question to be solved, in the case of Brother Taylor 
 and yourself, is simply one of duty, and is between God 
 and your own souls. You have taken the right method 
 to ascertain the path of safety, by 'making known your 
 request to God, by prayer and supplication with thanks- 
 giving,' and as you think the 'long course ' will please 
 God, and as your mind is at peace, while you contem- 
 plate it, I say to you both, go on, and the blessing of the 
 Highest overshadow you. The only difficulty in my 
 mind is the length of time it will keep you from preach- 
 ing Christ to the perishing and destitute ; but if by this 
 delay you are made ' workmen that need not to be 
 ashamed,' the cause of truth will be the gainer, and not 
 the loser by it. I therefore say, ' Go on,' under the 
 assurance that your motives are pure, and that your aim 
 is to be useful rather than great and learned — to win 
 souls to Christ, rather than gather classical laurels for 
 yourselves." 
 
 " Whenever and wherever you preach, preach Christ. 
 Never leave out Christ when you are trying to make in 
 your thoughts the skeleton of a sermon. Habituate 
 yourself to give Him His place whatever be your sub- 
 ject — whom we preach," &c. 
 
LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 433 
 
 The other letters, with the perusal of which Tlev. Mr. 
 Sarles has obliged us, display his care over several of 
 the young students at Hamilton ; his solicitude for their 
 temporal and spiritual welfare ; anxiety to be useful to 
 them in procuring books and comforts, and urgent 
 desire that they should advance the reputation of the 
 institution, and the cause of Christ, by coming out from 
 it, not only learned, but scriptural and evangelical 
 preachers of the Gospel. How he found time to do all 
 this, in connection with his public duties, seems hardly 
 possible to understand. Keeping the threads of every 
 public enterprise of the denomination in his hand ; 
 preaching without relaxation ; reading much, and read- 
 ing closely too ; studying Biblical criticism intensely ; 
 recollecting and attending to all the wants of individual 
 members of his church ; visiting the sick, and at the 
 same time discharging a thousand offices of friendship 
 daily. Such was his life. To compass it, every minute 
 had its allotted work, and system co-operated with 
 genius. • 
 
 Dr. Armitage's account of his first interview with 
 Mr. Cone offers a pleasing illustration of his manner to 
 young preachers, he says : " My introduction to Dr. 
 Cone was at the pastor's conference in the lecture-room 
 of the First Baptist Church, in 1848. As he extended 
 his hand to me, he said : 
 
 " ' Ah, this is Brother Armitage, is it ? I have heard 
 much of you, my brother, since Dr. "Welch baptized 
 you. We welcome you into the Baptist denomination. 
 But I hope you are sound in the faith on the subject of 
 our doctrines, as well as on the ordinances.' I replied, 
 ' Yes, sir, I presume I am, at least I have been pro- 
 nounced so by Dr. Welch, Alfred Bennett, William 
 Arthur, and the largest council which ever met in 
 Albany, after a full and lengthy examination.' 
 
 19 
 
434 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON COISTE. 
 
 " ' Oh well, then,' said Dr. Cone, 'I presume it is all 
 right. Bartholomew T. Welch ought to know. He's a 
 safe man in his views of the Gospel. If he says you are 
 right, I reckon we shall have to let you pass. May God 
 bless you, my brother.' " 
 
 The following communication from one of his early 
 children in the Gospel, covering several important 
 letters, shows, that however separated by lapse of time 
 or distance, he carried them all in his thoughts, and was 
 never too busy to attend to their spiritual welfare, or 
 labor to upbuild them in the faith ; and is especially 
 valuable for its statement of some of his views of divine 
 truth. 
 
 " In your last letter," she says, " you spoke of his 
 death. Yes ! he is gone, but the remembrance of him 
 is to me very precious. Dearly did I love him. [ 
 prized him, and felt him to be my friend. Though I 
 have been so long separated from him, still in any diffi- 
 culty I always applied to him, and always found him a 
 willing counsellor. How often now do I think of him, 
 and my warm attachment in days gone by. How well 
 I remember the farewell sermon he preached, and the 
 tears I shed when he left Alexandria ! 
 
 " At a time when my mind felt dark, and I needed 
 Christian counsel, I wrote to him, and he answered ; ' I 
 regret that any consideration should have prevented 
 you from making known your Christian exercises and 
 difficulties, for it could not be a question with you, but 
 that the present and everlasting happiness of my chil- 
 dren in the Gospel, must ever be a subject near to my 
 heart. With reference to Christian character, the 
 Apostle says, that those who measure themselves by 
 themselves, are not wise ; that is, those who make the 
 sorrows and joys, the convictions and ecstasies, the 
 apparent humility and spiritual mindedness of their 
 
Life of spencer houghton cone. 435 
 
 professors, the rule by which they judge of their own 
 state, do not act consistently ; they do not draw conclu- 
 sions upon- safe or scriptural principles. Open the Bible. 
 Who is a Christian according to God's unerring descrip- 
 tion ? If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature ; old 
 things have passed away ; behold ! all things have 
 become new. This is a Christian, who can say from 
 experience, whereas once I was blind, now I see ! See 
 what ? The holy character of the Divine Being ; the 
 just requirements of His Law; the depravity and 
 sinfulness of the human heart ; the need of a better 
 righteousness than our own to justify us in the sight of 
 God; the loveliness, suitableness, and fullness of Christ 
 as our Redeemer, substitute, and surety ; the hateful 
 nature, as well as fatal consequences of sin ; the beauty of 
 holiness, and the utter impossibility of ever satisfying the 
 soul with earthly things. Now if these are our views, 
 we can go on a little further, and say, we love God 
 because he is holy, and just, and good, and has given 
 His only begotten Son to die for sinners ; we love 
 Christ, because he first loved us, and manifested the 
 infinite loveliness of his character in becoming poor 
 that we might be made rich ; we love the Holy Sjnrit ; 
 because He has convinced us of sin, shown us the abil- 
 ity of Christ to save to the uttermost all that come unto 
 God by him, drawn us with the cords of love, and made 
 us to pant after holiness, as the hart panteth after the 
 water brooks ; we love the children of God, because 
 they bear the image of their elder brother, because 
 they love Jesus, and desire to glorify Him in their 
 bodies and spirits, which are the Lord's. Hence the 
 never-failing mark of true discipleship is left on record 
 for the comfort of the saints in every age, and under 
 every dispensation, ' hereby do we know that we have 
 
436 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 passed from death unto life, because we love the breth- 
 ren.' 
 
 " ' Christians should earnestly desire the best gifts, 
 they should never be satisfied with present attainments; 
 they should forget the things that are behind, and press 
 towards the mark of the prize of their high calling. 
 And yet Christians often write bitter things against 
 themselves, by confounding Grace itself with large 
 attainments through Grace. There were many Old 
 Testament saints who arrived safely in Heaven, 
 although, they were not translated like Enoch, or 
 carried thither in a cloud of fire, like Elijah. 
 
 " 'The foot is not an eye, and the hand is not the 
 tongue ; shall we say, therefore, that the foot does not 
 belong to the body ? This would evidently be an 
 absurd conclusion. Our faces do not shine like the face 
 of Moses; we have not the eloquence of Apollos, the 
 profundity of Paul, the zeal of Peter, or the ardent love 
 of John. Oh, for grace to be more like them. But do 
 I love the head even, Christ? Am I attached to the 
 members of His mystical body, His redeemed, and 
 chosen, and sanctified ones? Then may we each of us 
 say, 'my soul shall rest immovably secure upon the 
 promise of Him who is not a mau that he should lie, 
 nor the son of man that he should repent. His promise 
 is, ' where I am, there shall my people be also, that 
 they may behold My glory.' " 
 
 Sometime after the above was received, my mind was 
 considerably exercised on the subject of close commun- 
 ion. The following extracts from his letter, in reply to 
 mine on the subject, are those which referred to the 
 question. 
 
 " You believe that Baptism is immersion only, and 
 that believers are the only proper subjects of the 
 
LIFE CF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 437 
 
 ordinance. There is not in the Bible, either precept or 
 example for infant sprinkling. 
 
 " The act of Baptism, is an act of obedience to Zion's 
 King;, of which infants are incapable. 
 
 "The religion of Jesus Christ is personal, spiritual, 
 and voluntary / it is, therefore, utterly inconsistent with 
 infant Baptism, for babes have no faith, no volition in 
 the act. It is an unmeaning, unscriptural, human cere- 
 mony. Now, do not Baptists stand alone in this matter, 
 as "witnesses for God? Thousands are torn Catholics, 
 or Presbyterians, or Quakers, or Churchmen ; but no 
 one is torn a Baptist. We must first be brought to the 
 knowledge of the truth ; then cry ' Lord, what wilt 
 Thou have us to do?' The answer is, 'if ye love Me, 
 keep my commandments. Arise and be baptized.' 
 We obey, and it is well-pleasing to God ; for to obey is 
 better than sacrifice, and to hearken, than the fat 
 of rams. 
 
 " A Gospel church is a voluntary association of such, 
 persons, and such only, as have been baptized upon 
 profession of their personal faith in Jesus Christ. They 
 are organized for the purpose of maintaining the, doc- 
 trines and ordinances of the Lord blameless. 
 
 One of these ordinances, and the one now in question, 
 is the Lord's Supper. It is a church ordinance, not a 
 ministerial or private one like preaching or pra} T er. It 
 can only be scripturally kept or administered when 
 " the church is together in one place." It is a sign of 
 fellowship with the church and with Christ, the glorious 
 Head, in obedience to whose commands in the ordi- 
 nances of Baptism " we keep the feast," and without 
 whose commands to do so, it would be neither a privi- 
 lege nor a dutv. Now the order Christ has established 
 is faith, baptism, breaking of bread. Such was the 
 order of primitive churches; but Pedo-Baptists have 
 
438 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 changed one of the ordinances, as well as their order. 
 For baptism, they put sprinkling ; for believing, they 
 put infant. Instead of making faith the jjrerequisite of 
 baptism, and. saying, " if thou believest with all thy 
 heart, thou mayst," they leave faith out of the question, 
 and baptize, or sprinkle, or pour those who are incapa- 
 ble of its exercise. Have you communion, agreement, 
 fellowship with such a church. ? 
 
 " You say you have dear Christian friends in other 
 churches, whose piety is vastly greater than your own, 
 and with these individuals you have fellowship. 
 
 " But the Lord's supper was not instituted as a sign of 
 Christian communion, but of union in church relation- 
 ship. 
 
 " We may love Quakers, or Catholics, or Methodists, if 
 satisfied with the evidence they give of personal piety; 
 and in preaching, singing, prayer, conversation, &c, 
 may delight to manifest our Christian fellowship ; but 
 we have conscientiously and deliberately embraced 
 different views of the order and laws of God's house ; 
 we have not church fellowship with them, and cannot, 
 therefore, consistently sit down to the Lord's supper 
 with them, which is the sign of that fellowship. 
 
 " Why should we have the sign, if we have not the 
 thing signified ? 
 
 " You say they would commune with you, why should 
 you not with them? 
 
 "The cases are not parallel. They believe with you 
 that baptism is the indispensable prerequisite of commu- 
 nion ; they hold to close communion as pertinacious^ as 
 we do. They hioto that immersion is baptism ; they 
 are satisfied that you are baptized, and have a right to 
 the Lord's supper. Of course, in sitting down with you, 
 they have nothing to abandon — nothing to concede. 
 But you have to abandon believer's baptism as the only 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 439 
 
 scriptural baptism, and still believing, as you do, that 
 Christ has established this prerequisite, are you ready 
 to say baptism is of no importance, or infant sprinkling 
 will do as well ? 
 
 " Until you can do this, you cannot consistently sit at 
 the table with those whom you know to be unbaptized." 
 
 A year after my marriage, when I was in deep afflic- 
 tion both mentally and physically, I wrote to him again, 
 and again he endeavored to come to my relief, by a 
 speedy and feeling answer, thus : " You say, ' I am un- 
 happy because I have not peace with God.' If I were 
 entirely unacquainted with you, and were to judge of 
 your state simply by your own expressions, I should 
 certainly conclude that you were a child of God, though 
 ' cast down, yet not to be destroyed.' ' The necessity 
 of prayer; a new heart — a heart of flesh; godly sorrow 
 for sin ; removal of the load of guilt from the wounded 
 conscience ; personal interest in the atonement of Christ ; 
 His love shed abroad in the heart ; the light of God's 
 countenance ; ardent desire to go up to the house of 
 God ; to be useful to others.' These are your expres- 
 sions and feelings. These things are learned only in the 
 school of Christ. He alone can show us the exceeding 
 sinfulness of sin — make us hate it, and groan under its 
 burden until we are delivered from the bondage of cor- 
 ruption — and teach us that His precious blood alone can 
 cleanse us from all sin. You are like Job — ' Oh ! that 1 
 knew where I might find him !' or like David, ' Restore 
 to my soul the joys of thy salvation, and uphold me 
 with thy free spirit ;" or like Paul, ' Oh ! wretched man 
 that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this 
 death V Now why, my friend, rather not say with Job, 
 ' I know that my Redeemer liveth ;' and with David, 
 ' The Lord is my shepherd — surely I shall dwell in the 
 house of the Lord for ever ;' and with Paul, ' Who shall 
 
440 LIFE OF SPENCEIt HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 separate me from the love of Christ? I am persuaded 
 lie is able to keep all I have committed unto Him 
 against that day.' If your knowledge of sin, and ardent 
 desire to be useful, and holy, and happy, in the society 
 of Christ and his people, are the same marks of Chris- 
 tian character that distinguished Job, and David, and 
 Paul, then, doubtless, your end shall be like theirs. 
 Your unhappiness may be ascribed to a diseased body, 
 and not to the work of grace in the heart. 
 
 " But you seemed disposed to look at your case, as 
 of one who had learned these Scriptural forms of expres- 
 sion from associating with Christians, and from hearing 
 the Gospel faithfully preached. You ascribe your pro- 
 fession of religion to ' natural feeling, which operated on 
 you in witnessing the change in others, &c.' I question 
 whether ' natural feeling,' sympathy with others, could 
 give you the knowledge or abhorrence of sin, or the 
 panting after Christ and holiness which you express, but 
 even granting the bitter things you write against your- 
 self to be true, and that ' you now know you have only 
 a name to live,' why, it is an unspeakable mercy 
 that you now know your need of a Saviour, and that 
 repentance which needeth not to be repented of, and 
 of a heart of flesh, and of a well grounded hope. Mil- 
 lions even where the Gospel is preached, know nothing 
 of these things — they are foolishness to them ; of course, 
 they feel no need of them, and never pray for them. 
 In one word, then, I say, look to Jesus for wisdom, 
 righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. "We can 
 only be complete in him. You have been looking too 
 much to yourself, to frames, and feelings, and walk, for 
 comfort, and God is showing you that you must look to 
 Christ. Look to Him wholly and alone. The more 
 you see in Him, the more you will resemble Him, for 
 the beloved John teaches us that we shall be perfectly 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 441 
 
 " like Him when we shall see Him as He is." 1 com- 
 mend you to God and to the word of His grace. Read 
 and judge for yourself. Hold fast of whatever Christ 
 teaches you. Be decided. Trust Him, and He 
 will never leave you nor forsake you. He is a greater 
 Saviour than you are a sinner, and you dishonor Him 
 every moment you stay away from Him ; His hlood gives 
 the peace of conscience which passethall understanding. 
 You are dear to me as one of my children in the Gospel, 
 which I have ever regarded you. For your happiness I 
 do fervently pray. May the Lord keep you in the 
 truth." 
 
 These extracts from letters must necessarily be of a 
 desultory character, covering as they do, so wide a field 
 of thought on pastoral duties, and church discipline and 
 doctrine. In a letter to a member of the First Church 
 then residing abroad, referring to some trouble in the 
 church, Mr. Cone says, " I have been thirty-five years a 
 pastor, and never took sides in a case of discipline yet, 
 so you see we agree in one thing at least. I hold up the 
 rule of God's word, for doctrine and church order, and 
 Christian deportment, and as far as possible endeavor to 
 make the disciples walk thereby ; but neutrality does 
 not always satisfy either a delinquent or his friends * - * 
 There are few additions to the church, the fisherman's 
 hands are tied. Hard catching fish in the waters of 
 strife. Lord revive us ! all our help must come from 
 Thee." 
 
 Writing to Eev. T. T. Devan, May 10th, 1848, in ans- 
 wer to suggestions of his correspondent, he says, " You 
 are right in jyreaching at once as well as you can. 
 Pride might suggest, wait till you are able to speak 
 properly and fluently, and then why not wait till you 
 are a walking theological seminary ? No ! your decision 
 is correct, to-day lift up your voice like a trum- 
 
 19* 
 
442 LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 pet ; we know not what shall be on the morrow. * * * 
 Baptism is undoubtedly a ministerial ordinance, and if 
 you meet a man going to Ethiopia or Patagonia, with 
 whose Christian experience you are satisfied, and he asks 
 to be baptized that he may go on his way rejoicing, I 
 would advise you to comply with his request. He may 
 like the Eunuch, have an opportunity of preaching the 
 Gospel to the destitute, and baptizing converts where 
 churches do not exist. But when you ask whether ' you 
 ought to immerse, knowing that the subjects will retain 
 their connection with mixed or Pedo-Baptist churches V 
 I say no ! All things must be done decently and in 
 order. Converts are baptized and the same day added 
 to an existing Gospel church, or with a view of becom- 
 ing constituent members of such a church. If they do 
 not sufficiently understand the New Testament to see 
 that Gospel churches are composed of baptized believers, 
 then they are not sufficiently enlightened to be baptized ; 
 and if they are not willing to be baptized into the fel- 
 lowship of a Baptist church, however weak and small, 
 then they have not humility enough to put on Christ by 
 baptism, and follow him through evil as well as good 
 report. You could not baptize according to your 
 hypothetical case without practically teaching and 
 preaching open communion, and this you certainly 
 were not sent to do by the church that licensed you and 
 ordained you ' earnestly to contend for the faith once 
 delivered to the saints.' I send you a little work by 
 Rev. E. Turney, on the law of Baptism ; it will repay a 
 careful perusal." In another letter to the same person, 
 he says, " The first Gospel church, was the church in 
 Jerusalem, of which James was a pillar. The 18th of 
 Matthew on offences and the institution of the Lord's 
 Supper, anticipated the formation of a Gospel church out 
 of those persons baptized by John the Baptist, or the 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGH'iON CONE. 443 
 
 Apostles, as well as all succeeding Gospel churches iu 
 which the doctrines, ordinances, and discipline, estab- 
 by Zion's King, were to be observed to the end of time. 
 The question of ' strict communion ' is no more affected 
 by the fact that our Lord administered the supper to his 
 disciples before the organization of a Gospel church, 
 than their ' ordination ' to the work of the ministry 
 could be called in question, because, ' a church did not 
 license them to preach and administer ordinances." In 
 another letter to the same he says, " Preach the truth, 
 print and circulate the truth, and live the truth to the 
 utmost. 'Proselyte' quotha? By all means. What 
 did you go to France for ? Let not your mind faint nor 
 grow weary in the good work. Make as many Baptists 
 as the Lord shall graciously ' make willing in the clay 
 of his power.' Infant sprinkling is ' part and pillar of 
 popery.' Insomuch as you drive it away or bring it 
 into disrepute, as being a mere human dogma, without 
 scriptural authority, you undermine popery, and lead 
 the public mind to examine the Bible. Proselyte 
 wisely, deliberately, determinately, prayerfully, scriptu- 
 rally." 
 
 "We have given a general idea of his manner of pre- 
 paration for preaching. His earlier habits, in Virginia, 
 were the foundation, however, upon which all else was 
 built. "Whilst there, and for several years after his 
 removal to New York, he was a very hard student of 
 theology : a closer student perhaps, in Alexandria, than 
 at any other time, as he enjoyed there a more ample 
 leisure. The society which surrounded him in that place 
 contributed greatly to his progress in knowledge of 
 divine things. With time Virginian, or, better, with a 
 Christian hospitality, his house was always open, and 
 several young Baptist preachers, as well as students 
 from Columbian college, Washington, made it their home 
 
4:4:4 LIFE OF SPENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 when in the city. The hours passed there, by these 
 gentlemen, were profitable to all. They were generally 
 spent in discussing whatever points of theology their 
 late studies had particularly fastened on their minds. 
 Books were consulted ; commentators collated and com- 
 pared ; above all, the Scripture searched, that ".to 
 the law and to the testimony" all things might be 
 brought. Thus they mutually established and built up 
 each other in the doctrines and ordinances of the Lord. 
 Of the members of that little society almost all after- 
 wards became eminent and successful Baptist preachers, 
 and without exception, that we know of, held fast unto 
 the end to the same form of sound words. The cardinal 
 doctrines of his system of theology had been impressed 
 upon his mind from the time he heard McGloughlin 
 preach, he being then little more than eight years old ; 
 but during those years of delightful intercourse with 
 his young brethren in the ministry, he accumulated 
 an invaluable store of learning to sustain and fix them. 
 He never varied in doctrinal belief or preaching from 
 the commencement to the close of his ministry. 
 During almost his entire career as a pastor, he was 
 eminently a worker. Constantly preaching ; fulfilling a 
 round of pastoral duties ; and actively engaged in every 
 benevolent enterprise, it was not possible for him to de- 
 vote much time to the studies of the closet. It would, 
 however, be a mistake to suppose that he was ever any- 
 thing but a hard student. He was always studying ; 
 and what he learned once he never forgot. He was 
 always revolving in his mind some doctrine, or passage 
 of scripture, or peculiarity of Christian experience, or 
 great principle. Pass his study door, at any hour, and 
 you would hear him talking over one or the other with 
 himself. Hardly anything that passed about him, in 
 the world, escaped him ; changes in government, politi- 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 445 
 
 cal events in various countries, incidents and facts 
 observed during his pastoral visits, remarkable dis- 
 coveries in science — were all seized by bim, and trans- 
 muted by a happy mental alchemy, into apt and striking 
 illustrations of some view of divine truth. It is impos- 
 sible to tell exactly when or where men of this quality 
 of mind study. Their whole life is, in fact, an uninter- 
 rupted study. They are studying you whilst they talk 
 with you about the commonest things. They are full 
 of a great principle of creation, magnetic — and attract- 
 ing to itself momentarily all the atoms which it needs 
 to make its masterpieces. The world, life, all that any 
 sense can reach, are hourly teachers of their thoughts, 
 and fill them with the wisdom of which books may be 
 made, but which they cannot teach. He has often told 
 us that he had never passed an idle hour from the time 
 he was fourteen years old. 
 
 It is not possible to present more than a very brief 
 notice of Mr. Cone's connection with several benevolent 
 enterprises, of which no particular mention has yet 
 been made. He was one of the first patrons of the 
 University of the city of New York. He attended most 
 of the sittings of the convention that settled the 
 principles on which it should be founded. After its 
 incorporation, he secured considerable subscriptions 
 from Baptists for its benefit, and acted from the begin- 
 ning to within a very few years of his death with the 
 friends of the Institution. As a member of the council, 
 he devoted a large portion of time to many long and 
 arduous sessions, during a period when the prospects of 
 the University were so gloomy as to discourage its 
 most sanguine supporters. 
 
 For many years, too, he served the Colonization 
 Society of New York, as a member of its Board ; 
 regularly attending the business meetings, and was 
 
446 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 usually relied on as one of the popular speakers at the 
 anniversaries. 
 
 For The Christian Alliance, an association formed in 
 New York for the diffusion of knowledge amongst the 
 downtrodden nations of Italy and central Europe, he 
 exhibited a strong interest, and gave to it much of his 
 time and thoughts. In fact, in nearly every effort for 
 the amelioration of the condition of his fellow men, 
 which took form in the place where he dwelt, he bore 
 so active a part that few who knew him but believed 
 that in this world he was one of the Workers. 
 
 In the American Baptist Publication Society, from 
 its first organization in Washington, under the name of 
 the Baptist General Tract Society, to the close of his life, 
 he took a lively interest. 
 
 And from the official acknowledgments of money 
 received from him, which we have found amongst his 
 papers, he must have been the channel through which 
 many contributions flowed into the treasury of that 
 society. 
 
 It is, indeed, a fact worthy of being noted, that the last 
 moneys contributed to the cause of benevolence, through 
 him, were for this society. They were placed in his 
 hands by a member of the First Church after the con- 
 clusion of the services at the last prayer meeting he 
 ever attended. Before the money reached the treasury 
 of the society, the tongue that had spoken so long and 
 bo eloquently in its behalf, was silent for ever. 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 447 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 THE LAST TEAK. 
 
 The measures adopted and enforced by the deputation 
 of the American Baptist Missionary Union, during their 
 visit to some of their Asiatic stations, produced great 
 dissatisfaction in the minds of several missionaries. 
 Statements were made by the latter, strongly conflicting 
 with the report of the deputation, and an appeal taken 
 from their decisions, to the churches at home. 
 
 A special meeting of the Board of the Union was 
 convened, in March, 1855, in the city of New York, to 
 adjust, if possible, the subject matters in dispute. In 
 Mr. Cone's judgment, this meeting was inexpedient, 
 because, called to act upon questions so gravely inport- 
 ant in themselves, and so widely affecting the cause of 
 missions, it was clearly necessary, that everything 
 should be in evidence before the body assuming to 
 render a decision. But at that period the evidence was 
 defective. The statements of some individuals were in 
 their possession ; the statements of others, viz. : letters from 
 various missionaries, still in transitu between Asia and 
 the United States. Justice to all, seemed to him, 
 therefore, to demand that the investigation should be 
 deferred until the entire testimony was in a state to be 
 submitted . to the Board. The wisdom of his long 
 experience was not, however, deferred to, and the 
 meeting was insisted upon. 
 
 At the opening of the session, the Executive 
 Committee submitted their statement and views in 
 
448 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 detail, and solicited, by their counsel, an immediate 
 decission of the points contested. Mr. Cone foresaw 
 that such a course would not only foster the unpleasant 
 feeling already existing between brethren, but tend 
 directly to engender new discussions, and spread the evil 
 far beyond, its original limits. He felt, above all, with 
 painful solicitude and regret, that it would afford a 
 public occasion of rejoicing to the enemies of divine 
 truth, who would find in the mutual differences of 
 Christians, the opportunity for a dangerous triumph. 
 He, therefore, warmly urged, that the whole matter 
 be referred to a committee sufficiently large to ensure a 
 settlement of the dispute, in a manner satisfactory to 
 every interest. This wise and temperate proposition 
 was treated with cold indifference. Foiled in his 
 attempt to prevent the feelings and disputes of his 
 brethren being offered as food for public scandal, he 
 still persisted in urging measures of conciliation. To 
 that end, he moved the reference of the whole subject 
 to the general meeting of the society, to be held at 
 Chicago, the following May. By such a course, he 
 submitted, an opportunity would be afforded to the 
 aggrieved brethren to be heard in their defence, and 
 justify themselves before that body, whose agents they 
 were. Thus he said ; " I am convinced, that the 
 committee ought to be sustained ; but I think we ought 
 to seek further light, in justice to the brethren, and wait 
 for the regular meeting of the Board. I do not see, that 
 such delay would be ruinous to the Union. We are 
 assuming very much the character of an ex parte 
 council, a thing which I abhor, and abominate, as 
 Anti-BaptistP 
 
 The report of the meeting in New York is on record ; 
 it is not necessary to our purpose, that we should 
 go into its history, further than to show Mr. Cone's 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 449 
 
 course, and its consistency with his whole life. His de- 
 sire, and ambition, was to prevent injury to the cause of 
 missions. Internal dissension, always more dangerous 
 than external difficulty, or attack, threatened to impair 
 its prosperity, and check its progress. Earnestly, and 
 prayerfully, therefore, he tasked his mind, and drew 
 upon the resources of a long experience, for a remedy 
 which should carry with it oblivion of the past, and 
 immunity for the future. The result has proved, even 
 to the majority of those who were then unconvinced of 
 its wisdom, that the course proposed by him would have 
 been best. 
 
 After experiencing, at that meeting, in New York, 
 the contemptuous indifference to his counsels, so unwisely 
 manifested by his juniors, we remember, he came home, 
 and quoted in sadness, and with a kind of tender piety 
 for them, the remark made there by a brother whom he 
 loved. It was an expression of feeling, prompted as well 
 by personal attachment to the " disregarded veteran, 
 Cone," as by an appreciation of the propriety of the 
 course he had suggested : 
 
 " I had thought," said he, " that there was some ray 
 of light, when my beloved brother of the church 
 in Broome street, read his resolutions. I apprehend we 
 have fallen upon times in which grey hairs are not as 
 much respected, as in my childhood. I have almost 
 begun to wish I might not live to old age." — (Rev. 
 Baron Stow.) 
 
 The actions of men were not such things, however, 
 as could alienate Mr. Cone from duty to God, his 
 people, or the world. "As long as I live, I mean 
 to sustain the cause," was his answer to all there, as 
 ever before. Nor, although disappointed in the con- 
 duct of many, did his interest flag, or his labors suffer 
 diminution. 
 
450 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 In the interim between the special meeting of the 
 Board, and the meeting of the society at Chicago, in 
 May, he received the letters of the aggrieved mission- 
 aries, containing their statement of the facts connected 
 with the doings of the deputation. These he immediately 
 pat to press, and caused to be circulated among those 
 interested in the matter. His object was to enable 
 every one to examine both sides of the subject in agita- 
 tion, not doubting that such a course would lead to an 
 impartial and happy issue. Nor was he disappointed. 
 
 The special meeting of the Board, at the Tabernacle 
 meeting-house, after a protracted session, failed to 
 arrive at any conclusion, or to decide upon a course of 
 action which would tend to overcome the difficulties 
 which had arisen, or allay the excitement created by 
 them. The matter was therefore adjourned over to the 
 May meeting of the Board and Society at Chicago. 
 
 When the letters from the missionaries reached the 
 United. States, Mr. Cone, as we have said, published 
 them. During the time which elapsed between the 
 special meeting and that at Chicago, the excitement 
 constantly spread and increased. The feeling upon the 
 subject was particularly strong in those churches 
 throughout the country with which individual mission- 
 aries had been connected, prior to their entering the 
 service of the " Union," and the commencement of their 
 labors in the Eastern world. 
 
 This excitement had become, indeed, so general, and 
 had increased so much, that when, at last, the society 
 came together at Chicago, its best and staunchest friends 
 and supporters took their seats, oppressed with the 
 gloomiest forebodings. Everything appeared dark and 
 threatening, and no man knew where it would end. 
 
 The Board met on the 15th May, 1855. Many fruit- 
 less hours were spent in the discussion of the question, 
 
LITE OF SPENCER HOUGHTC1T CONE. 451 
 
 but no nearer approach was made to a solution of the 
 difficulty. On the 17th the Missionary Union itself 
 met, Ex-Governor Briggs, of Massachusetts, its President, 
 in the chair. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Jenks, a returned missionary, offered 
 the following resolutions : — Resolved, that the mission- 
 aries of this Union are its agents, subject to its constitu- 
 tional control. Resolved, that this control has frequent- 
 ly been exercised with too little regard to the rights and 
 feelings of the missionaries themselves." These resolu- 
 tions were lost. 
 
 Mr. Cone then proposed his resolutions, which were 
 supported by Dr. Stow. They were referred to a large 
 committee, and finally passed, as reported by the com- 
 mittee in the following words : 
 
 " Inasmuch as grave differences of opinion exist be- 
 tween certain of our missionaries and the executive 
 officers of the Board, as to their respective rights and 
 duties, and the best means of conducting our missionary 
 operations ; and inasmuch as these difficulties have 
 seriously affected the confidence of some of our patrons, 
 and curtailed our pecuniary resources ; and, inasmuch 
 as the work of evangelizing the heathen cannot be 
 abandoned, and must not be interrupted ; your commit- 
 tee present the following as the basis of action in the 
 premises : 
 
 " We deem the relation between the Board and its 
 missionaries, and the rules set forth in the documents 
 submitted to the Union, and by the Union to this com- 
 mittee, at this anniversary, by which they are mutually 
 to be governed in these relations, to be explicit and 
 sound, and such as, if rightly adhered to, will secure 
 harmony and peace in carrying forward the work to 
 which they are especially devoted. 
 
 It is, we think, clear that the authority of the Board 
 
452 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 is absolute over all the interests of the missions submit- 
 ted to their care. But, at the same time, their autho- 
 rity is limited, and as used in the prosecution of their 
 work, and in connection with their missionaries and 
 agents, must be exercised under the rules by which the 
 parties are to be governed. To what extent these rules 
 have been disregarded, either by the executive or the 
 missionaries, it is not the province of your committee to 
 determine. We deem it advisable to recommend to the 
 Union the adoption of the following resolutions: 
 
 "Resolved, That the Union recommend that a committee of one 
 from each State in the home-field he appointed hy the Board of 
 Managers, to whom all these differences and difficulties shall be 
 referred ; and that it be the duty of this committee to give a patient 
 and attentive hearing to all that shall be offered by all the parties 
 interested, and to make all suitable investigation touching the mat- 
 ters involved, and report to the Board of Managers at the next 
 annual meeting, or sooner, if deemed by them expedient, provided 
 that in any and all matters of difference now existing between mis- 
 sionaries and the Executive Committee, the Executive Committee 
 act with the advice of the committee now appointed. 
 
 2. Resolved, That this Union, in confiding as heretofore to the 
 Board of Managers, its Executive Committee, officers and mission- 
 aries, the work of the body, with every assurance of united sympa- 
 thy, support, and co-operation, will take immediate measures for 
 the full payment of the existing debt, and for the enlargement 
 of our missionary operations, as the providence of God may 
 direct." 
 
 1. Resolved, That the measure be set forth to the churches at home 
 and the. missionaries abroad, as the nearest approach to a perfect 
 conciliation which at present can be attained, and as a basis for the 
 persevering and liberal co-operation of the friends of missions. 
 
 Thus, his original suggestion, rejected by the special 
 meeting of the Board, was adopted, and became the 
 rule of action of the parent body ; the excitement was 
 calmed ; brethren reconciled ; difficulties smoothed 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HCiUGHTON CONE. 453 
 
 away, and the great cause of missions apparently 
 rescued from danger. 
 
 To fully understand the position he occupied there, 
 and to justify the warm encomiums upon his conduct, 
 uttered by so many of his brethren, it is necessary to 
 glance at circumstances which had lately occurred in 
 connection with the Home Mission Society. 
 
 He had been the subject, for some time, of much 
 harsh and unchristian treatment. Just before leaving 
 New York to attend the meetings in Chicago he had 
 been compelled by the circumstances in which that 
 treatment and the attitude it assumed, placed him, to 
 resign the office of chairman of the executive board 
 the American Home Mission of Society, a position 
 he had occupied with very little interruption from 
 the time of the organization of the society. In 
 his letter of resignation he entered without reserve 
 into the reasons which governed his decision. He 
 stated that the board of the Home Mission Society 
 had become tenants of the American and Foreign Bible 
 Society in their marble building in Nassau street con- 
 trary to the instructions of the society issued at its 
 annual meeting at Troy, and directing the Board to 
 secure an independent location ; contrary to numerous 
 petitions and remonstrances from old and fast friends of 
 the society, all which had been treated with contempt ; 
 that the purpose, if persisted in, would drive away, and 
 alienate wholly, many valuable friends of the society ; 
 that every proposition for an independent location had 
 been rejected, a majority of the Board having proclaimed 
 their resolve to go to the building in Nassau street, 
 whatever the obstacle ; that it was his conviction the 
 business of the society could not be harmoniously and 
 successfully carried on in that place ; the appointment 
 
454 LIFE OF SIENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 of their annual meeting for the same day of the year, as 
 that of the American Bible Union, and at another 
 extremity of the country, was the first instance, in the 
 history of the benevolent institutions of the denomina- 
 tion, of an intentional collision ; and for all these reasons, 
 and many more, any further hesitation on his part 
 must be regarded as indifference to principle, or neglect 
 of the proceedings of the Board, therefore he was con 
 strained to resign. 
 
 In support of these his views, a meeting of upwards 
 of fifty pastors of Baptist churches in Boston and its vicin- 
 ity signed a remonstrance, and forwarded it to the Board, 
 recommending the selection of an independent location. 
 
 A sad event is connected with his history as chairman 
 of the Home Mission Board. It was in that character, 
 and during the last year of his life, after so long and 
 varied a career, after sixty years' intercourse with all 
 manner and conditions of men, that for the first ana 
 only time, he received a direct personal insult. The 
 author of the insult to the old man, to him to whom grey- 
 haired preachers of the Gospel loved to look up as a 
 father in the faith and services of their common Lord, 
 was a young member of the Board. If he be a true 
 Christian he may pray for his master's forgiveness ; his 
 own he can scarcely hope to obtain. 
 
 For the following able sketch of Mr. Cone's general 
 course in the meetings at Chicago, and the skeleton of 
 the speech delivered by him on the floor of the " Union," 
 a speech which decided the question at issue in the 
 minds of a controlling majority of its members, we are 
 indebted to the Hon. George E". Briggs, formerly gov- 
 ernor of Massachusetts, president of the Union. 
 
 " I am very sorry" he says, " that I am not able to do 
 more than to give a very partial account of the words 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOIGHTON CONE. 455 
 
 and acts of your venerated father at the meeting of the 
 Baptist Missionary Union at Chicago in May last. 
 
 " I did not arrive at Chicago until late in the evening 
 of the second day of the anniversary, and I think I saw 
 your father but twice whilst I was there. 
 
 " In the morning of the third day, at a meeting of the 
 Board before the hour for the meeting of the Union had 
 arrived I heard him make a few remarks on some sub- 
 ject that was before the Board. His apparent feebleness 
 surprised and struck me sadly. After that I do not 
 remember that I observed him again until the last day 
 of the session. 
 
 " He obtained the floor, and proceeded in a course of 
 remarks, which commanded the attention, and excited a 
 deep interest in the audience. In very appropriate and 
 touching terms, he alluded to the early days of the 
 existence of the convention, before the missionary 
 operations of the Baptists took the form and name of 
 the Union. 
 
 "In a very feeling manner he spoke of those brethren 
 in the ministry, who were dear to his memory, and with 
 whom he so long and so cordially labored in the mis- 
 sionary cause. He said, and in a voice stifled with 
 emotion, that he had been anxiously looking round for 
 those, who with him in other days constituted what was 
 called the old guard. But they were all gone. He 
 only was left, and he felt that his work was almost done. 
 He then spoke of the difficulties which at that time 
 were unhappily disturbing the counsels of the Union, 
 and disuniting the attention of the friends of missions 
 from the great and noble object which they all had so 
 much at heart. He expressed a strong desire and wish 
 that before he should take his departure from them and 
 follow those tried friends who had gone before him into 
 another world, ho might say or do something which 
 
456 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 would tend to heal existing divisions, and restore har- 
 mony and concord among them. He said the state of 
 things had heen to him a subject of much anxiety am< 
 pain, and he had put into form, propositions which 
 he wished to submit to the consideration of the Union, 
 and which in his judgment were the best calculated of 
 anything which had occurred to his mind, to produce 
 such a result as he was sure all persons were most anx- 
 ious to see produced. 
 
 " He submitted his propositions, which appear upon the 
 journals of the Union, and after a few additional remarks, 
 said he should leave then to be disposed of by others. 
 
 " His short address, with the tone and spirit with 
 which it was uttered, evidently made a deep impression 
 upon the assembly who listened to it. Several members 
 suggested some formal amendments to the paper submit- 
 ted, and he was asked if he would consent to some verbal 
 modifications which had been proposed. He replied, 
 that he made no objection to any verbal alterations 
 which did not affect the substance of his propositions ; 
 and remarked farther, that he had submitted what he 
 believed best calculated to bring to an amicable termi- 
 nation, the unfortunate difficulties which existed, and 
 had said what he felt his duty to say, and then the 
 whole matter was in the hands of his brethren of the 
 Union, to do with it what they thought best. 
 
 " After various propositions from different persons, 
 and some discussion, the whole subject was referred to 
 a committee, of which he was a member. That com- 
 mittee reported to the Union, resolutions which em- 
 braced substantially the original propositions of Dr. 
 Cone, with some things in addition, and their report was 
 adopted by the Union. 
 
 "The whole of that disturbing and threatening sub- 
 ject is now in the hands of a large committee, appointed 
 
LIFE OF SPENCEE nOTJGHTON CONE. 457 
 
 by the order of the Union ; -what will be the result, the 
 friends of missions and of humanity are waiting to learn. 
 
 "I am quite sure, if all of us members of the Ameri- 
 can Baptist Missionary Union, and its missions, upon 
 whom rests the responsibility of settling the disagreeable 
 differences which were the subject of the proposition 
 of our departed, friend and brother, could be actuated 
 by that spirit which actuated him on that occasion, 
 those differences would not long remain as obstructions 
 in our path of duty, and in our course of usefulness. 
 
 " I do not profess, in the very imperfect account of 
 what I have related, to have given the precise words 
 used by Dr. Cone. But I believe I have correctly 
 stated the substance of what he said, and did, and used 
 much of the language that he used. 
 
 " It was the lovely Christian spirit which he mani- 
 fested, in what I thought he sorrowfully felt to be 
 his last acts and his last words to the assembled breth- 
 ren of a great Christian association, in whose cause 
 he had exerted the vigor of his manhood, and the best 
 energies of his life, which I own, deeply moved and 
 affected my heart. His pale face, his emaciated and 
 feeble frame, the unnatural brilliancy of his fine eye, 
 and the softened tones of his clear voice, were to me so 
 many melancholy witnesses that we were looking upon 
 him, and listening to him for the last time. I know that 
 others concurred with me in these gloomy forebodings. 
 Death had set his seal upon him, and the news that so 
 soon followed, that death had smitten down his victim, 
 was not surprising. 
 
 "Whilst his propositions were under discussion I beck- 
 oned him to the chair which I was occupying ; I told 
 him I wished most heartily, to thank him for offering 
 what I regarded as the olive branch on the subject of the 
 difficulties which were hurting the Union, and for the 
 
 20 
 
458 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 Christian spirit, and kind "words with which he had 
 presented it, and that I loped, his plan wonld be 
 adopted, and that under Providence it might lead to a 
 happy termination of all our difficulties. He said, those 
 were the views, and that was the hope which had 
 induced him to move in the matter, and he trusted 
 Heaven would bless the effort. As he bowed and 
 turned away, I looked upon him for the last time. 
 
 " It is fit that others should speak of what earth has 
 lost, and Heaven gained by the departure of this good 
 man from amongst us." 
 
 The " feebleness " alluded to by Governor Briggs, 
 arose from an attack of illness which followed his journey 
 to Chicago. For two days preceding that meeting, he had 
 suffered terribly ; spasms of pain in the chest and pit of 
 the stomach, almost beyond endurance, had shaken his 
 entire system. The mind compelled the body, however, 
 to obey, and he went from a sick room to stand in the 
 breach between bis brethren. His son supported him 
 to the place of meeting, and when he rose to speak, his 
 weakness was such, that he expected every moment to 
 see him sink down. Those who listened to him, did not 
 know at what an expense of life he was playing the 
 mediator of conflicting interests. 
 
 Hundreds of his brethren, who knew what he had 
 gone through, expressed their admiration of the Christ- 
 ian and the man ; but none have uttered the warm 
 feelings of the heart, or expressed a noble sympathy in 
 more eloquent language, than the Rev. George W. 
 Eaton, of Madison University, in the address delivered 
 by him before the American Bible Union, at its anni- 
 versary, in 1856. 
 
 " I am constrained," he said, '•' to pause here by the 
 rising image of a venerable form, whose image enshrin- 
 ed in our ' heart of hearts,' is now, alas, all that is left 
 
LITE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 459 
 
 us of that form, to make a personal application of these 
 remarks I can do it now without offence, for he is far 
 beyond the praises or censures of his brethren. They 
 are alike indifferent to him who has heard his praises 
 from the lips of his Divine Master, whom he served so 
 faithfully through good and through evil report, in the 
 conflicts of His militant kingdom, and been crowned by 
 Him in the presence of His holy angels, and Redeemed 
 in glory. I need not name him. "Whose thoughts are 
 not even now full of him ? Whose heart is not heavy, 
 with the swelling emotion of sorrow, as he seeks in 
 vain, in his wonted place, for that beloved form whose 
 very presence in our meetings was a strength and a 
 joy ; and the thought rises that he shall ' see his face no 
 more ;' no more hear that familiar voice which ever 
 rung like a clarion-peal in defence and advocacy of the 
 highest and holiest truth, in enforcement of unswerving 
 fidelity to that truth, and in cheer and encouragement 
 to its faithful friends, and whose very name and advo- 
 cacy were a guarantee of success to every enterprise 
 and principle to which he gave his heart and soul. Of 
 all those to whose character and services I have been 
 attempting to render a feeble tribute, he was by the 
 spontaneous consent of all — ' facile princepsj ' facile 
 princeps.'' — Beyond dispute the chief — beyond dispute 
 the Chief. O, may hi3 mantle have fallen as he passed 
 upward in the chariot of God, upon some surviving 
 Elisha, in the cause he loved so well, and whose certain 
 and glorious triumph he saw in the vista of the future, 
 ere he went up to receive his crown. 
 
 " I would also, have the friends of the American 
 Bible Union instructed and admonished by the example 
 of their late illustrious and now sainted president, who, in 
 the meetings at Chicago, soon after he had been tho 
 selected mark of a very extraordinary personal attack, 
 
460 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 manifested most beautifully and impressively the meek- 
 ness and peace-loving spirit of the Gospel of Christ — ■ 
 who, forgiving and forgetting his own personal wrongs, 
 stood forth before Israel as the peace-maker among 
 divided brethren, and with all the power and fervor 
 and peculiar eloquence of his best days, plead the cause 
 of Christian charity and benevolence, and of a perishing 
 world. How felicitous was that last opportunity in his 
 long and eventful life, in kind Providence given, to 
 vindicate before his assembled brethren ami the Christ- 
 ian world, his undiminished claim to their confidence, 
 honor, and love. Who that witnessed, can forget the 
 appearance and the voice of the venerable man, as lie 
 stood in the midst of the assembled representatives of a 
 great people, his form slightly stooped, and his bushy 
 locks whitened by age and hard service, uttering, in 
 silvery tones, gracious words of wisdom, of love, and of 
 fraternal charity, and waving in his uplifted hand the 
 olive-branch of peace, which he had wrought out of the 
 resources of his sanctified sagacity and rich experience 
 as the initiative to the adjustment of a most sore and 
 calamitous strife, which had appalled and perplexed the 
 wisest and best in Zion. That scene was prophetic. 
 Without his or our knowing it, he was even then fanned 
 by gales from the Heavenly City, through whose pearly 
 gates he was so soon to pass, and their odors were 
 diffused around him. May God have mercy on the 
 man wlic can cherish ought but honor, love, and grati- 
 tude for the character and services of Spencer, H. 
 Cone." 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 461 
 
 CHAPTER XXIY. 
 
 LOVE STRONGER THAN DEATH. 
 
 New York never agreed with Mrs. Cone's health. 
 The winters of a northern climate were too severe for a 
 constitution naturally delicate, and lungs easily affected 
 by atmospheric changes. In winter she was usually a 
 close prisoner at home, and never perfectly well whilst 
 the cold weather lasted. Several times during her 
 residence in New York she was so severely attacked by 
 inflammation of the lungs, as to render her removal to 
 a milder climate necessary, so soon as the disease was 
 sufficiently arrested to allow the fatigue of travelling. 
 Iu summer time Schooley's Mountain, New Jersey, was 
 a favorite resort of both her husband and herself. He 
 found there, for the three or four weeks of rest he per- 
 mitted himself during the heats of August, the recruit- 
 ment he so much needed. He breathed there his native 
 air, and he regained his strength more rapidly than any 
 where else. 
 
 It is a famous watering-place, and within the last four 
 or five years much crowded. When they were first in 
 the habit of spending the summer there, the visitors 
 were comparatively few, and principally people from 
 Charleston, Baltimore and Philadelphia, amongst whom 
 were many of their early friends and acquaintance. 
 
 In addition to escaping for a few weeks from the 
 thronging avocations of his life, he enjoyed there a 
 quiet, the most retired country spot in the land would 
 have failed to afford him. They always had their own 
 
462 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 little room. Nobody came near it. Everybody knew 
 him and his habits, and with the delicate sense of pro- 
 priety, which is, perhaps, the best thing learned in 
 society, carefully abstained from intruding on them. A 
 few books on some important subject, about which he 
 wished to get up a ' : report," or formalize a plan, were 
 his companions, and liberated entirely from the harass- 
 ing interruptions to which every moment of his time at 
 home was exposed, he prepared his work, and, as may 
 be seen by many important letters already quoted, wrote 
 up his widely-scattered correspondence. It may be 
 well to remark here with regard to his correspondence, 
 that we have not pretended even to give an abstract of 
 it. Extending over nearly forty years, directed to 
 every quarter of the globe, and occupied with every 
 subject of benevolent enterprise or denominational 
 interest, it would, of itself alone, have filled several 
 volumes, if collected together. In a notice of so varied 
 and important a " life," it would have been entirely 
 impossible to do so. 
 
 When tired of writing he would now and then take a 
 turn up and down the long piazza of the hotel, or arm 
 and arm with his inseparable companion, for they never 
 tired of each other's company, stroll slowly away through 
 the woody walks, and pleasant solitudes of the plateau, 
 upon the mountain top, where the hotels are built. 
 Five minutes brought them, in any direction, to a seclu- 
 sion as complete, as if they had been a thousand miles 
 away from the scenes of civilized life. There was one 
 particular spot he always sought at the going down of 
 the sun. It was a point from which its last rays could 
 be seen, coloring the undulating line of hills which lay 
 beyond the deep valley below. There he would stand 
 quite alone, sometimes for an hour, watching the glories 
 of the sunset, till the crimson and gold faded into their 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER IIOUGHTON CONE. 463 
 
 lines of misty grey. He seemed at such, times to be so 
 full of quiet and heavenly contemplation that if, by 
 accident, Ave came near where he was, we passed on. 
 We knew the temper of his mind, and how sweetly 
 then, with how full a soul, he was dwelling upon the 
 perfection of the Creator, and adoring Him in His 
 works. 
 
 Frequently, at the desire of a great number of the 
 visitors, one of the parlors was set apart for prayers, and 
 all who desired went in whilst he read a chapter in the 
 Bible and offered a prayer. Many men and women 
 kneeled and listened there to what they had perhaps 
 never heard before, for in his public prayers, as in his 
 sermons, the way of salvation for sinners through the 
 alone merits' sake of the blood of Christ was very plainly 
 preached. After that, and never later than half past 
 nine, he retired to sleep. Next day he rose betimes 
 and wrote or walked out through the fields and woods 
 till breakfast time — and so the day passed. On the 
 Sabbath he usually preached in the little stone chapel, 
 which stands a hundred yards or so from the mountain 
 Houses. Writing to his sister Martha from Schooley's 
 Mountain, he says : 
 
 " I preached to a very fashionable, and attentive 
 audience last Sunday morning from Luke — last four 
 verses — and dwelt particularly upon the divinity of 
 Christ, and the joy and fortitude of those who worship 
 Him in spirit and in truth. My heart was enlarged, 
 and seeing before me two or three hundred of the 
 fashionables of our country, who, perhaps seldom hear 
 the Gospel of the Grace of God, and who under other 
 circumstances would probably never have heard me, I 
 could not but hope that some precious soul might be 
 benefited. The rich are generally envied ! but oh, it 
 is a melancholy thought, that it is easier for a camel to 
 
464: LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to 
 enter into the kingdom of Heaven ! How soon, oh 
 how soon, in most instances, the purple and fine linen 
 are changed for the garments of despair." 
 
 Another time : 
 
 " I rode eight or nine miles yesterday along the 
 mountain, and preached to a little Baptist church with 
 much comfort." 
 
 In a letter written from there the next year, he says : 
 "Last Lord's day I rested, and now begin to feel like 
 preaching again. But do you know that I begin to 
 understand what grey hairs mean? I am an old man. 
 My brethren in the ministry call me their venerable 
 brother and father. Only think of it. It seems but 
 yesterday when we were playing children in Princeton. 
 Now I am old and grey-headed. O, Lord, forsake me 
 not ! Thou hast been the guide of my youth, and my 
 prayer shall be to the God of my life." 
 
 Many meetings there brought back old times and 
 feelings. " Lawyer M.," he says, " and family, have 
 been here since our arrival. They introduced them- 
 selves very soon as part of the old W. family, and then 
 you know as I had to go back to my old Dr. Abercombie 
 connection, 1802 — 1806, it seemed to threaten to get the 
 ladies out of their teens sooner than they were aware. 
 But then it was so easy to remember that they were 
 wild and very young chits of girls, while I was quite 
 old ! An old schoolmaster of 'fifteen. But no matter ; I 
 am old now — pressing on to the three score years. 
 "Whether the ten will be added the Lord only knows, 
 and in His hands most cheerfully I leave it. He hath 
 done all things well, and it is my daily prayer and my 
 heartfelt desire to praise Him for all that is past, and to 
 trust Him for all that is to come." 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Cone spent many quiet happy hours 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 465 
 
 together there. She suffered, however, constantly, for 
 five years, with ulcerated mouth and tongue. Medicine 
 would not reach it. The air and chalybeate waters of 
 the mineral spring, for which the mountain is famous, 
 partially relieved her, but the disease remained. 
 
 Early in August, 1854, a strange presentiment 
 seemed to forewarn her. Riding out with him one day, 
 they passed the little secluded cemetery at Pleasant 
 Grove, about three miles from the mountain, and a 
 stone's throw from a little knot of houses called Anderson 
 Town. She made him stop, and after looking long and 
 wistfully over the place, and marking all its peculiari- 
 ties of quiet and seclusion, she said : " Spencer, I have 
 a horror of city burying-places. They do not let even 
 the dead rest, near cities. Promise me, when I am 
 dead, that you will lay me here — here in this quiet 
 place!" and he promised her. 
 
 Only a few days after she was attacked by typhoid 
 fever. Her husband and her son nursed her — how ten- 
 derly we need not say. She was all the world to them, 
 the comfort and idol of their lives. 
 
 Her husband spoke cheeringly to her about change 
 of air, and taking her home to New York as soon as she 
 was able to be moved. She answered quietly. " I shall 
 go home — to heaven — from the mountain this time, 
 dearest !" 
 
 And, indeed, upon the 15th day of August, 1854, she 
 went home. They saw that she was dying, and her 
 husband leaned down, and asked her if Jesus was with 
 her for the way through the dark valley. She looked 
 happily into his eyes, and whispered her Saviour's 
 name. She never spoke again, and about ten o'clock at 
 night fell asleep in Him. 
 
 When his son came into his room, and found him 
 sitting alone, his head bowed listi essly upon his breast; 
 
 20* 
 
466 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 he turned to him, and seeing him weep, said softly: 
 " Weep on, my boy, you are young. Your poor old 
 father has not been able to weep yet," and then we felt 
 more bitterly for him who was left desolate, than for 
 her who had gone before. 
 
 And the next day, as there was none else to do it for 
 her, he stood by her coffin in the little chapel, and 
 preached Christ to the people, with such a strange, 
 unnatural power and calmness, it was almost as if one 
 dead had been speaking to the living. What words he 
 said we know not. Our minds were, alas ! too full of 
 busy sorrows to take them in ; but the place was full of 
 men and women of the world, and they heard and 
 remembered. That act by which all selfish weakness 
 was put aside until a holy duty was performed, and the 
 supreme sacrifice and offering of human love was made 
 for her, seemed to them, what indeed it was, an un- 
 equalled spectacle of Christian heroism. There was, 
 perhaps, hardly any there in whom the sentiments of 
 religion commonly awoke a tender feeling ; and yet, not 
 women only, but hard and careless men of the world, to 
 whom fashion and amusement was the sole business of 
 life, bowed their heads, and wept like children. And 
 one, a woman, on whom fortune and fashion have 
 lavished all their gifts, a woman yet young, and with 
 all the world's desires at her feet, said to us afterwards : 
 " As I sat there, and saw that astonishing exhibition of 
 heroic love, nothing but shame kept me from shrieking 
 aloud. You must not sorrow for her. If I could die as 
 she did, I would pray to die to-night !" 
 
 And we buried her in the little grave-yard at 
 Pleasant Grove. What sustained her husband, and 
 made the broken-hearted stronger than they who had 
 known no sorrow ? 
 
 " Dear Brother " — he says to lis friend Baron Stow, 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 467 
 
 « my loss is indeed great— irreparable ! My dear Sally 
 was one of the best of wives. True and faithful ; indus- 
 trious and loving ; making her house a place of rest and 
 happiness for her husband always, for more than turfy- 
 one rears, whatever might have been the occasional trials 
 and annoyances without-whatever the toils and anxie- 
 ties of a pastor's life; and you will believe that mine 
 have not been few. I am left alone, and yet not . 
 alone, for Christ is with me ; his rod and staff they com- 
 fort me. , 
 " I received the last sigh of my darling, and parted 
 from her without a tear, and spoke at her burial with 
 holy confidence and joy. Do you ask how was this? 
 Through Grace that strengthened me. An overwhelm- 
 ing sense of gratitude to God for giving me such a wife 
 Jfor lending her to me so long— for blessing her with 
 the assurance of faith and hope unto the end— and for 
 taking her at last from sin and sorrow and sickness and 
 pahvto the mansions of peace and holiness and joy! 
 made my cup of bliss full even to overflowing, and I 
 could say with David, from my inmost soul, ' Oh God, 
 my heart is fixed! my heart is fixed! I will smg and 
 
 give praise !' " 
 
 And to his early companion in arms, and afterwards 
 
 in the ministry— Dr. Dagg : . 
 
 « The Lord has indeed removed from me the desire 
 of my eves with a stroke ! My best earthly friend; the 
 mother of my children ; the wife of my youth and of 
 my old age. It was a heavy stroke, but I remembered 
 that the hand which inflicted the blow was that same 
 hand that was nailed to the Cross for me, for her, and 
 I was dumb— I opened not my mouth to complain; I 
 shed no tear ; I was a wonder, not only to many ; but 
 most-most of all to myself. I have not language to 
 tell yon how the Lord has bee 1 a present help in the 
 
468 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 time of trouble, and has strengthened me by a bereave- 
 ment which, when anticipated only, I have for years 
 thought would well-nigh break my doating heart. 
 
 " When I held her hand and heard her last sigh, and 
 all was still as death, I was filled, in the twinkling of 
 an eye, with an overwhelming sense of gratitude to 
 God that He had given me such a wife, and had lent 
 her to me so long ! And my joy of soul was equal to 
 my gratitude, when I saw her released from sorrow, 
 pain and sin ; and in the exercise of faith and hope and 
 love, could follow her emancipated spirit home to the 
 mansions of peace and holiness and rest. 
 
 " Two passages of sacred Scripture came to me with 
 omnipotent sweetness. " How precious are thy thoughts 
 unto me O God !' and — ' So He giveth His beloved 
 sleep.' 
 
 " What I now feel but cannot describe is loneliness. I 
 come home from my work, and go into the parlor — she, 
 who was emphatically ' a keeper at home,' is not there! 
 I go to the bed-room, to the table, she is not there — 
 but still I am supported by the everlasting arms. The 
 crook and staff of the good Shepherd, they comfort 
 me. 
 
 " You ask if my views have changed with reference to 
 what are usually known as 'The doctrines of Grace.' 
 !N"ot a jot. The 10th of John, and 8th of Romans, and 
 1st and 2nd of Ephesians are dear to me as ever. Grace 
 reigning through righteousness unto eternal life by 
 Jesus Christ our Lord, is the only plan by which sinners 
 can be saved. If I am not complete in Christ, I have 
 no hope of ever entering into the mansions of bliss. 
 But I hear him say, ' Because I live ye shall live also,' 
 and then I reply with holy boldness, surely I shall 
 dwell in the house of the Lord for ever ! 
 
 " I shall be 70 if I live till the 30th of April next, and 
 
LIFE OF SFENCEK HOUGHTON CONE. 469 
 
 •find my pastoral labors, witU Board meetings, &c, quite 
 as much as I can stagger under ; but / mean, in spite 
 of earth or bell, to die on the field of battle. This is 
 what I mean to do, but whether it will turn out to be 
 so — I cannot tell ; the Lord knoweth. 
 
 "When you have leisure, write to me. Your letter 
 was a great comfort to me. Christian sympathy is a 
 reality — it is needed — it is in accordance with tbe yearn- 
 ings of the inner-man. Else, why did Christ take Peter, 
 and James, and John, to watch and pray with him in 
 the Garden ? They fell asleep, I know, but that may 
 serve to show how far, but no further, human sympathy 
 may go, and direct us after all, and above all, to look to 
 Him whose eyes do neither slumber nor sleep. 
 
 " I have been going back to Virginia all the evening, 
 1816 — what a memorable year! My dear Sally and 
 many others that year, and the next, were immersed in 
 the Potomac. Sweet seasons ! I thank God for them — ■ 
 they will never return ; young has passed away, and 
 old has come. 
 
 " Farewell, dear friends of my early Christian life ; if 
 we are not to meet again on earth, I trust we shall meet 
 in Heaven ! 
 
 " As ever, thine, in the Crucified One !" 
 
470 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 After his return from Chicago, in May, 1S55, there 
 was an evident change in him. We did not notice it so 
 much at home as strangers did. When we were with 
 him in the house he was always so lively and pleasant, 
 that he quite deceived us as to the real state of his 
 health. He would often say, " I am getting old, boys, 
 and feel hard work more than I used to do." But he 
 went about his work just as he had always done: 
 and, indeed, during that last year did more than ever, 
 preaching oftener, and with greater fire and energy, if 
 possible, and busying himself every hour of the day 
 with some of the manifold duties which were laid upon 
 him. Going by the study door, however, in the evening 
 we would see him sitting in his arm-chair, his head 
 thrown listlessly back, and his whole figure wearing an 
 appearance of weakness and exhaustion. Attributing 
 it to his loneliness, for whilst she lived his wife 
 always sat in the room with him in the evening, busy 
 with her sewing or book, whilst he paced the floor back- 
 wards and forwards, talking to himself in an under 
 tone : attributing it to her absence from the accustomed 
 seat, rather than to a failure of his own physical powers, 
 we would leave our own purposes for the evening, and 
 20 in and chat with him. He always rallied at once, 
 and fell into animated conversation on matters of gene- 
 ral interest. We never talked about mother. Each of 
 us knew that the other was thinking more about her than 
 about what we were talking of; but with a pardonable 
 insincerity, w t o all pretended to be absorbed in the 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON GONE. 471 
 
 question of the minute ; and each fancied that he had 
 deceived the other in believing that all was well about 
 the heart. 
 
 Dr. Armitage has told, alas ! too truly how the blow 
 fell upon him whose comforter she had been through all 
 the chansnno; scenes of an eventful life. 
 
 " From the death of Mrs. Cone, in August, 1854, he 
 felt that his own work was nearly done. When she who 
 had stood by his side in all the changes of forty years 
 was taken away, he realized, as he never had before, 
 that human life is bounded by three score years and ten, 
 and that his foot rested on the margin of those bounds. 
 The pain of that event made him tread the few paces 
 that were left more heavily, and he could not have 
 endured it for a day, but for the special support which 
 he drew from the precious promises of Christ. Nay, 
 with all these consolations, it was a blow from which he 
 never fully recovered. No man could be more devoted 
 to his wife than Dr. Cone was to her whom he so ten- 
 derly characterizes, as, "The wife of my youth, the com- 
 panion of my age, the sharer of my sorrows and my 
 joys ; affectionate, faithful, and true, her price was 
 above rubies." 
 
 " I can never forget a scene which occurred in my 
 own pulpit on the 4th of June last, illustrative of his 
 deep sorrow under this bereavement. A young minis- 
 had lost his wife, and had brought her to the house 
 of God where she formerly worshipped, that we might 
 celebrate her funeral services. Dr. Cone was present, 
 and rose in the pulpit to address the friends. But as he 
 opened his mouth to speak, his eye caught a glance of 
 the young brother, quivering with suppressed grief 
 before the coffin of his sleeping wife. The sight was 
 too much for his very sensitive heart, and he was over- 
 whelmed. For some moments he stood unable to utter 
 
472 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 a word. The big tears came pouring down his cheeks, 
 and he attempted to brace himself against his emotions, 
 in his own j:>eculiar way, but failed. At length, regain- 
 ing perfect control of his heart, he said, in tones of 
 hallowed tenderness, " It is hard to bury a young wife, 
 my dear brother. But when you have lived with one 
 forty and two years — the wife of your youth, the mother 
 of your children, the companion of your lonely hours, 
 the undeviating and always reliable friend of your 
 whole life — then, indeed, the stroke is heavy.'' " 
 
 On the Sabbath, being the 5th day of August, he 
 baptized in the morning, and when he came home, 
 appeared quite tired out. At dinner he complained of 
 numbness in his limbs, and especially in his left arm. 
 We felt no serious apprehensions, however. He had had 
 during his life several slight attacks of bilious fever, 
 preceded by the same symptoms. So we told him that 
 he ought to be careful, and recollect that his bilious 
 attacks always commenced that way. We tried very 
 hard to persuade him to stay at home for the rest of that 
 day, and let us tell the deacons that they must get a 
 supply for the pulpit. But he would, not listen to us. 
 He had to break bread in the afternoon, he said; it 
 would wear off ; he often felt very sick before he began 
 to preach, but preaching cured him ; and that afternoon 
 he preached his last Sabbath sermon, from the text 
 " No man cometh unto the Father but by me," and 
 commemorated for the last time, with the people of his 
 heart, the dying love of that Saviour, unto whom his 
 prayer for many months had been " even so, Lord 
 Jesus, come quickly !" 
 
 He spoke again for them at the prayer-meeting on 
 Tuesday evening, and some have said since, that he 
 seemed to have a difficulty they had never observed 
 before, in fixing his mind upon the subject, and spoke 
 
LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 473 
 
 several times during the lecture in a rambling and 
 uncertain way. 
 
 On the 9th, Mr. Gwathney, of Virginia, an old friend, 
 called on him, and he said: "I have been working 
 very hard and incessantly, from the age of fourteen till 
 now, and now I begin to feel that my work is done." 
 
 On the morning of the 10th, after breakfast, all that 
 was left of the little family came into the study as usual 
 to morning worship. Sometimes he would read a chap- 
 ter from the Bible himself, and sometimes ask one of 
 us to read. Latterly, indeed, he almost always said to 
 one of us, " Read a chapter, my son — read us one of 
 those sweet psalms of David." It may have been 
 merely fancy, but we used to think he liked to hear our 
 voices repeating the words of the book, and felt as if so 
 he drew his children closer with him around the family 
 altar. 
 
 That morning, however, he took the book and began 
 to read. Twice during the reading he stopped, as if a 
 blur passed over his sight. We were surprised at it, for 
 it was very unusual, and the idea that he was threat- 
 ened with a bilious attack was strengthened. After 
 reading, he knelt and prayed. His prayer was so unu- 
 sual that it made an immediate impression. Ordinarily 
 he prayed for the prosperity of the cause of Christ ; for 
 his beloved country ; for all who were near and dear to 
 him by the tender ties of consanguinity or affection; 
 for strength and counsel from above to do the work his 
 Master gave him to do; for guidance through the day; 
 for humility and singleness of heart; but now he prayed 
 for none of these things. His prayer was one earnest, 
 almost passionate supplication for himself. Like Jacob, 
 he seemed wrestling with God at the foot of the ladder, 
 and saying, "I will not let Thee go except Thou bless 
 me." He had been set as an under-shepherd over the 
 
474: LIFE OF. SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 flock, and he asked to be permitted to give up Lis 
 charge into the hands of the Good Shepherd. He had 
 been set as a watchman upon the walls of Zion, and 
 he prayed that he might be found free from the blood 
 of all men. He had been made a steward and a servant 
 of the Most High, and acknowledging all his im worthi- 
 ness, all his weakness — entreating his Master to forgive 
 the unprofitable servant, to pardon the steward if he 
 had hidden any talent given to his keeping, he prayed 
 with touching humility that in some few things, at least, 
 he might not be found unfaithful. 
 
 It was his last audible prayer. As he kneeled, his Lord 
 had said to him : " Servant, thy work is done. Son, 
 come up higher." 
 
 He went up stairs into his chamber to make some 
 change in his dress. His son was in the next room. 
 Hearing a step, he turned and saw him standing near 
 the door, very pale, and trying to button his waistcoat. 
 He went hastily to him, exclaiming, " What is the mat- 
 ter with you, father?" 
 
 " I believe you must button it for me, my son ; my 
 hand is very numb." His son put his arm around him, 
 and stopped to do as he desired. As he did so, his 
 father said, "I am very sick," and looking up, his son 
 saw the change pass over his face, and felt his limbs 
 stiffen. His arms were around him, or he would have 
 fallen. He laid him on the bed, and just at that 
 moment Deacon Hillman, one of his most attached 
 friends, came into the house. He was immediately 
 called up to the chamber, and together they undressed 
 him, and rubbed his paralyzed limbs and side. As 
 they were doing so, he said to the deacon: "I-have 
 kept on the harness till my work is done. The spirit of 
 a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit 
 who can bear? But I have no wounded spirit. What 
 
LIFE OF SPEXCER HOUGHTON CONE. 475 
 
 a blessed thing it is to know that when Ave leave this 
 world, we are going to a better place." 
 
 Dr. Thomas Markoe was immediately called in, and 
 a telegraphic dispatch sent to Dr. Devan, who was in 
 the country with his family. 
 
 Dr. Devan, a bosom friend, and for many years the 
 family physician, left everything on the instant to come 
 to him ; sat by him ; scarcely left the house indeed for 
 days, but slept a little, at night, in an adjoining room, 
 until what was considered the crisis of the disease was 
 over. All that human skill and kindness on the part of 
 his physicians could do, was clone. Human skill, how- 
 ever was at fault ; the quiet comatose state into which 
 he immediately fell, and which was for some time con- 
 sidered favorable, never altered — he never rallied. 
 "When spoken to about ordinary matters he would 
 answer very briefly, for he articulated with great dif- 
 ficulty. He answered always, sensibly. Active thought 
 however was extinct ; he never went beyond the answer 
 to the question. 
 
 Dr. Devan tried several times to arouse his mind 
 with regard to the church ; but it was in vain. He 
 would make no answer, once only after the doctor had 
 said, "I am going to the church — have you anything to 
 say to them ?" he looked after him as he went out, and 
 said slowly, " I should like to finish my 'exposition of 
 the 22nd of Kevelation." 
 
 "With that exception he never mentioned anything 
 relating to the matters in which his mind had been so 
 long and ardently employed. The stroke seemed at 
 once to have paralyzed both mind and body. 
 
 It may have been a vain fancy on our part ; but we 
 could not help thinking the hand that struck him down 
 at once, upon the battle field, was full of mercy. He 
 had been so strong; so filled and overflowing with life 
 
476 LITE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 and energy ; so active, every waking moment, that 
 when we saw him helpless, and the physicians told us, 
 " even if he recover, he will never preach or work 
 again," we had no more hope of his life. Something in 
 our hearts told us he had fallen as he longed to fall — 
 " in the harness." His Master had honored his energy 
 and activity so much, he had been so marked by it, 
 that we felt he would not try him with lingering years 
 of useless painful life. Dear as he was to us, we knew 
 that he was dearer to his Lord. Our selfish love would 
 have kept the faded form, to watch and tend, vain per- 
 haps to think that he was all ours, and nothing else could 
 come between him and our love. But He who loved 
 him better than we could, He who died for him, would 
 not suffer it to be so. He would not leave him in the 
 world, after the work which He had given him to do 
 was done. The everlasting crown was ready for him, 
 and his Lord would have him wear it. And so, after 
 he had lain very tranquil, and with scarce a groan or 
 sigh, for eighteen days, on the morning of the nine- 
 teenth, which was the 28th day of August, 1855, he fell 
 into a deep sleep — and was not, for God took him. 
 
 Only a little while before, we went together to lay his 
 granddaughter Alice on her grandmother's bosom, at 
 Pleasant Grove. The coffin was enclosed in a plain 
 pine box. The father of the child took it in his arms to 
 carry it from the cars to the carriage. As he did so 
 one of the men about the depot stepped up kindly and 
 asked to help him. After we had laid it in the carriage 
 we saw father put a small piece of gold in his hand. 
 The man looked up surprised, and hesitated to take it. 
 Father shut his hand on it, and motioned him gently 
 away — saying, " The thing you touched was wry pre- 
 cious tc us — she v. as worth more than gold — keep it." 
 
 And now our father, and our mother, and their little 
 
477 LIFE OF SPENCER HOUGHTON CONE. 
 
 grandchild, lie side by side in the quiet burial-place, far 
 away among the hills of his native State. But the least 
 of them does ever behold her Father's face in heaven, 
 and they all have entered into the holiest, by a new 
 and living way; by the blood of Jesus Christ which 
 cleanseth from all sin. 
 
 THE END 
 
APPENDIX I. 479 
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 The following kind note from President Wayland, of 
 Brown University, was mislaid, and we did not find it 
 until after the entire volume had been stereotyped. It 
 should properly have been inserted in connection with 
 Dr. Stow's communication on the subject of Foreign 
 Missions, at page 313. 
 
 Providence, Nov. 20th, 1855. 
 
 * * It would give me great pleasure to have it in 
 my power to add anything to the interest of the memoir 
 which you propose to publish, of the life and labors of 
 your late honored father. I sincerely regret, however, 
 that I have so few reminiscences that would be of ser- 
 vice to you. 
 
 I first became acquainted with your father, if I recol- 
 lect aright, about the time of my settlement in Boston. 
 Afterwards for several years, I used to meet him at our 
 public anniversaries, over which he commonly, and very 
 admirably presided. * * Of late I have been una- 
 ble to attend those meetings so frequently, and I have 
 met him but rarely. Indeed I do not remember to have 
 conversed with him since the formation of the Missionary 
 Union. On this occasion, we were, for several days, 
 thrown much together. Every member of the commit- 
 tee appointed to prepare the form of a constitution to 
 be submitted to the public meeting, was struck with 
 the frankness, kindness, and admirable judgment mani- 
 fested by him on that occasion. "When the draft was 
 agreed upon, the duty of advocating it in the public 
 
480 APPENDIX L 
 
 debate, was, by common consent, assigned to him. Of 
 the manner in which he performed this service there 
 has never been but one opinion. I have frequently 
 heard it remarked, that no man in our country, of any 
 profession, could have done it so well. In all the dis- 
 cussions, he exhibited great readiness and acuteness, 
 with perfect knowledge of his subject and of his 
 audience, enforcing his views with an irresistible elo- 
 quence, which carried the final vote, without, I believe, 
 a single dissenting voice. The adoption of that consti- 
 tution was owing more to your father's efforts than to 
 those of all the rest of us put together. Without him, I 
 do not believe that it could have been carried. But 
 this is not all ; in several points he differed somewhat 
 from his brethren of the committee. But it was 
 observed by us all with great admiration, that he advo- 
 cated just as forcibly, and as eloquently, those articles 
 in which he had not originally agreed with us, as those 
 which had from the beginning met his approval. 
 
 Magnanimity of this kind was perfectly in harmony 
 with all that, by personal acquaintance, I have known 
 of his character. 
 
APPENDIX n. 481 
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
 The following letter from Dr. Maclay, was handed to us, too 
 late for insertion in the body of the memoir. Dr. Maclay 
 informed us that owing to sickness, and engagements at a dis- 
 tance, he was not able to give it to us at an earlier period. 
 At his request, we insert it here. — Eds. 
 
 New York, 28th June, 1850. 
 Dear Brother Cone : — 
 
 The God whom we love and serve, in the gospel of His son, has 
 preserved our lives, and I trust, in some measure, our usefulness in main- 
 taining and defending His truth, to a good old age; while many of our com- 
 panions and associates in the ministry have been removed from the field 
 of labor to enter into that rest which remaineth for the people of God. 
 It affords me great pleasure to reflect on the intimate and delightful 
 intercourse which I have enjoyed with yourself and your predecessor in 
 the ministry in this city, the venerable John Williams ; and with other 
 excellent brethren with whom we were associated. There has been a 
 cordial union of spirit and of action in all the great measures in which 
 we have been engaged to advance the kingdom of our Lord. In the 
 great conflict which we had in the American Bible Society with our Pedo- 
 Baptist brethren, we were placed in the minority, for all the different 
 denominations combined against us; yet we remained unterrified by our 
 adversaries, boldly maintaining, that the inspired originals were the only 
 standard to the translators of the Sacred Scriptures, and that all their 
 translations must be made, not in conformity to the jarring views of the 
 different sects and parties embraced in that Institution, but in exact con- 
 formity to the inspired oracles of God. We were nobly sustained, with a 
 very few exceptions, by our Baptist brethren in England and America, in 
 maintaining the great principle, that the Bible ought to be faithfully and 
 completely translated into all the languages of the nations without 
 human addition, diminution or concealment. We maintained, with the 
 great body of our denomination, ministers and people, that all men ought 
 to have the Bible in their own mother tongue, unmutilated and undis- 
 guised. Our opponents charged us with great inconsistency in maintain- 
 ing and defending the principle, that baptize and its cognates ought to 
 
 21 
 
482 APPENDIX II. 
 
 be faithfully translated in all our versions in heathen lands, while we con- 
 tinued to circulate the common English version, in which the words rela- 
 ting to the ordinance of baptism are transferred, and not translated. We 
 felt the force of the objection, but replied that we had no hand in mak- 
 ing our present English version ; it was made by Episcopalians to our 
 hands. We thought, however, that great injustice was done to the truth 
 of God, and to us as a denomination, in concealing by non-translation, 
 from the great mass of the people for whose benefit the translation was 
 designed, the true and full meaning of the original words relative to the 
 ordinance of baptism — giving them to the people in a language which 
 they did not understand, instead of plain English. We then said most 
 solemnly that the day might come, and we hoped was not distant, when 
 the Baptists would give to the Morld a new and revised version of the 
 Scriptures in the English language, which in our judgment was greatly 
 needed ; allowing the great Teacher to speak to the people in their own 
 mother tongue, in the great commission — " Go, disciple all nations, 
 immersing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Spirit." I had long before that been convinced of the desirable- 
 ness of a new, or revised version of the English Scriptures ; and from 
 that time to the present my mind has been more deeply impressed with 
 its importance. I had, in the course of my ministry, expounded thf 
 whole of the New Testament and considerable portions of the Old Testa 
 ment, examining carefully every chapter and every verse ; and all mj 
 experience satisfied me that a revision ought to be made, and the error? 
 of our common version corrected. This conviction I have not only felt, 
 but often avowed both publicly and privately for the last fifteen years. 
 
 My reasons for desiring a revision are by no means confined to the 
 ordinance of baptism ; for although the common version has many excel- 
 lences, from which I would not detract in the slightest degree, it has 
 also many defects, and some serious ones I am well satisfied, that have 
 no relation to the ordinance of baptism — defects which ought to be 
 remedied and not perpetuated. 
 
 I had always hoped that the American and Foreign Bible Society 
 would ultimately undertake the work of revising our English version. I 
 think that a Bible Society is the proper body to perform such a work, or 
 to secure its performance. It should be done by men of the highest 
 standing for learning and piety that can be obtained in the world — men 
 thoroughly versed, and critical students in the Scriptures. It should be 
 deliberately and thoroughly done ; and when it is done, if any error can 
 be pointed out by friend or foe, it should be at once corrected, until a 
 version is obtained as near like the original as honesty of purpose, and 
 human ability and industry, aided by the Holy Spirit can make it. But 
 there is no body to which the charge and direction of the work belongr 
 eo appropriately ns to a Bible society. The American and Foreign BibI 
 
appendix n. 483 
 
 Society was founded on right principles, and if those principles had been 
 carried out in all languages, that Society would have furnished us with a 
 revised version in English. I wish from my heart it had done so. That 
 society has always been very dear to mc. I have labored hard, and 
 risked my life to promote its prosperity. I have contributed from my 
 limited means towards the grand object of giving to the nations the pure 
 unadulterated word of God, and have been enabled through the divine 
 blessing, within the last year, to constitute twenty of my family life-mem- 
 bers of that society. Nor do I regret what I have done. I only wish I 
 had had it in my power to do more. For, although I have been disap- 
 pointed and grieved by the recent movement of the society, in refusing 
 to take any measures towards the work of revising the Scriptures in Eng- 
 lish, and in declaring that it was beyond its province ever to perform or 
 procure such a work, yet I feel no hostility towards the society, and shall 
 most cordially and cheerfully do what I can consistently to promote its 
 original and legitimate object — the distribution of God's word, plainly 
 and completely translated into all the languages of the world. 
 
 I am decidedly of the opinion that as the American and Foreign Bible 
 Society declined the work of correcting our common English version, it 
 was necessary to form a new society with this special object in view : 
 and I feel gratified, on examining the Constitution and Address of the 
 American Bible Union, to find its principles and provisions so well 
 adapted to the work which the providence of God has thrown upon our 
 hands. I love union on Bible principles. "There is one body and one 
 Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling ; one Lord, one 
 faith, one immersion, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and 
 through all, and in you all." 
 
 The only effectual way to secure Christian union is to be of one mind 
 with God, and one mind with Christ; and then we shall be of necessity 
 of one mind with each other. And a correct and complete translation of 
 God's word must tend greatly to produce this union. I have long been 
 convinced that the immersion of infants in the Greek church, and the 
 sprinkling of infants in the Roman and Protestant churches, are the 
 grand barriers to Christian union. Christian union must be founded 
 in the truth. It must be a holy union, a union of which Christ is the cen- 
 tre. It must be the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The fruits 
 and effects of such a union, founded in, and promoted by the truth, 
 will be most blessed. 
 
 It was once in my heart, to devote my life to the missionary work in 
 {he East Indies, but the providence of God diverted me from that field 
 of labor, 'and perhaps, I have been enabled, through His abundant good- 
 ness, to do even more for the heathen, by collecting means to send them 
 Ihe Holy Scriptures, than I could have done by spending my life among 
 them. And my heart is still most deeply interested in the Bible cause ■ 
 
484 
 
 APPENDIX n. 
 
 and I shall cheerfully continue to labor in its promotion, although far 
 advanced in years, while life and health remain. 
 
 I intend by this to signify my acceptance of the appointment as an 
 agent which the Board of the American Bible Union has kindly ten- 
 dered me ; and I trust the God of all truth and grace will abundantly 
 bless our endeavors to obtain the requisite means, to procure faithful 
 versions of his word, and to circulate the Holy Scriptures among all 
 nations. 
 
 I am, my dear brother, in the bonds of the gospel, 
 Affectionately yours, 
 
 Archibald Maclay. 
 
Date Due 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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