I? PRINCETON, N. J- '^* 
 
 Shelf.. 
 
 BX 9225 .B78 B7 
 Brainerd, Mary 
 Life of Rev. Thomas 
 Brainerd, D.D. 
 
 ■<.> 
 
.,^' 
 
 / 
 
 
 LIFE 
 
 REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D., 
 
 FOR THIRTY YEARS 
 
 PASTOR OF OLD PINE STREET CHURCH, 
 
 PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 B Y M. • BRAINERD. 
 
 P ri I Ti A D E L P II T A : 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 
 
 1870. 
 
Entered according to Act of C'.ngress, in the jear 1870, by 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
 Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The present work was commenced at the urgent 
 request of several of Dr. Brainerd's friends, and 
 prepared chiefly for their gratification. It is a 
 venture in a new field, and has been written under 
 many disadvantages, with frequent interruptions 
 from impaired health and family changes, which at 
 one time would make writing difficult and at 
 another impossible. Removed from all the asso- 
 ciations of the past, and without the opportunity 
 of asking counsel or assistance from any one, it 
 will not be surprising if errors of judgment and 
 defects in execution should be apparent; but the 
 writer is encouraged by the belief that the personal 
 friends, for whom it is designed, will not become 
 severe critics. The generous contributions from 
 Dr. Brainerd's ministerial brethren constitute the 
 chief attraction of the book, and will be heartily 
 appreciated by his friends, as they are here most 
 gratefully acknowledged by the writer. 
 
 (V) 
 
Vi PREFACE. 
 
 The chapter on the Division of the Presbyterian 
 Church was written before the Reunion ; and, in 
 the simple narration of facts, the writer has aimed 
 to avoid everything approaching to acrimony or 
 bitterness, as none certainly existed in the heart of 
 the subject of this biography. 
 
 The oblivious wave of time closes so soon over 
 those who fall in its current, that it is hoped this 
 imperfect effort to rescue the earnest life of a man 
 who made it his daily prayer that " the world 
 might be the better for his living in it" — may not 
 be wholly in vain. ^^ j^ 
 
 Philadelphia, March, 1870. 
 
OOE^TENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAOE 
 
 Ancestry — Birth — Childhood 9 
 
 CHAPTEK II. 
 School Life — Leaving Home 1 2G 
 
 CHAPTEPv III. 
 Teaching — Eeading Law 36 
 
 CHAPTEK IV. 
 
 Andover Theological Seminary — Correspondence — 1828-1832. 52 
 
 CHAPTEPv V. 
 
 First Pastorate at Cincinnati — Editorship — Correspondence 
 
 —1831-5 77 
 
 CHAPTEPv VI. 
 Ecclesiastical Controversies 97 
 
 CHAPTEPv VII. 
 
 Cull to Utica — General Assembly at Pittsburg 113 
 
 CHAPTEPv VIII. 
 
 Life iu Philadelphia — Division of the Presbyterian Church... 136 
 
 (Tii) 
 
viii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEK IX. 
 
 PAOE 
 
 Personal Characteristics — Events of Pastoral Life — Anecdotes. 171 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 Family Changer — ^^''isit to Europe — Shipwreck 197 
 
 CHAPTEPv XL 
 Church Building — Literary Publications 221 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 Juhh Brown— The War 248 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Quarter Century Sermon and Festival 263 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 Current Events — Anecdotes 296 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Fourth of July, 186G— Reception of State Flags 345 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 Death at Scranton, Pa. — Funeral Services 357 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Public and Private Tributes 372 
 
!, M 
 
 LIFE 
 
 REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ANCESTRY — BIRTH — CIIILDUOOD. 
 
 THE Genealogy of the Brainerd Family was published in 
 1857, by the Rev. David D. Field, D.D., of Stoek- 
 bridge, Mass., in a volume of three hundred pages. Dr. 
 Field was for twenty-eight years pastor of the churches of 
 Iladdam and Higganum — the Homestead of the Brainerd 
 family. He gives abundant proof in these historical records 
 of the respect and affection in which the family were held, 
 many of whom were reared under his own eye as mem- 
 bers of the churches to which he ministered. Eight years 
 later, in 18G5, the publication of the "Life of Rev. John 
 Brainerd," by the subject of the present biography, led 
 the author to single out, for personal and family consider- 
 tions, one particular line of ancestry, from which is now 
 drawn a still more direct lineage with reference to the 
 parentage of the Rev. Thomas Brainerd. 
 
 For the information of such as have seen neither Dr. 
 Field's Genealogy nor the Life of Rev. John Brainerd, it 
 is proper to state, briefly, that a little boy, eight years of 
 
 2 ■" (9) 
 
10 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D D. 
 
 ago, named Daniel Brainerd, came over from Exeter, Eng- 
 land, in the 3'oai' 1641), with the Wyllis family, who settled 
 in Hartford, Conn. At the age of twenty-one, in company 
 with twenty-seven other young men about his own age, 
 Daniel Brainerd went thirty miles heloAV Hartford, and 
 selected a tract of land twelve miles t<quare, comprehend- 
 ing equal portions on each side of the Connecticut River. 
 The name of Haddam was given to the new settlement, 
 and Daniel Brainerd located his estate about two miles 
 above the present village of Haddam ; and his property 
 has remained with his descendants nearly two hundred 
 years, to the present generation. He aided to found the 
 first cliurch of Haddam, which he served as deacon. Dr. 
 Field says of him : " He became the proprietor and settler 
 of Haddam about 1662, and was a prosperous, influential, 
 and very respectable man — a justice of peace in the toAvn, 
 and a deacon in the church." 
 
 In 1664, Daniel Brainerd married Hannah Spencer. He 
 had eight children. His youngest son, Hezekiah, was the 
 father of the missionary brothers, David and John Brai- 
 nerd. James, the second son, was the ancestor of Rev. 
 Thomas Brainerd. He was born June 2d, 1669, and was' 
 married April 1st, 1696. He had a large family of chil- 
 dren ; the third child, Gideon, being the next in descent 
 in relation to the subject of this memoir. Gideon Brainerd 
 was born March 4th, 1700. He married Sarah Seldon, 
 and left five children. His third son, Eliaktm, born 
 1732, married (first) Eunice Doane, June 7th, 1753, Avho 
 left one child, Jesse Brainerd, born March 4th, 1754 — 
 the father of Rev. Thomas Brainerd. 
 
 In a quiet, shaded grave-yard, on the hill near Haddam, 
 the ancestors and descendants of five generations sleep 
 side by side. Of no place in our country, besides a New 
 England village, could this be said ; and only here before 
 the last half century. The enterprise and ijumigration of 
 
BIRTH. 11 
 
 fifty years have scattered the descenrlaats of the Pilgrims 
 through the length and breadth of this vast country.* 
 
 Jesse Brainerd married Mary Thomas, daughter of Ebc- 
 nezer Thomas, May 23d, 117G. They lived in Haddam 
 until the fall of 1803, when they removed to Leyden, 
 Lewis County, New York. Eleven children were born to 
 them before their removal, and one afterward. 
 
 Thomas Brainerd was the youngest of these twelve 
 children, and' was born June 17th, 1804, — the year after 
 his father's removal to New York. He was called 
 " Thomas," after the family name of his mother. Being 
 four years younger than the first child above him, and 
 nine younger than the second, he was emphatically to his 
 parents, the child of their old age. His father was a grave, 
 silent, reflective man, — of a thorough Puritan type; severe 
 in his views of duty, and stern in his adherence to 
 principle. 
 
 ® The following inscriptions were copied by Rev. Thomas Brainerd 
 himself from the tombstones of his own direct lineal ancestry of four 
 generations, as they rest side by side, in the same grave-yard at Iladdam. 
 The occurrence is as uncommon as ii is interesting. 
 
 " H^re lyeth ye body of Deacon Damel Braixerd; aged 74 years. 
 Who died April 1, 1715." 
 
 "Here lies interred the body of Deacon James Brainerd, who died 
 Feb. 10th, 1742 ; aged 73 years." 
 
 '•In memory of Captain Gideon Brainerd, who died Scj)t. 25th, 1767; 
 in ye C8th year of his age." 
 
 " Hark, what a solemn sound, 
 Let friends attend ye cry; 
 Come children view ye ground, 
 Where you must shortly lie." 
 
 "In memory of Deacon Eliakim Brainerd, who died June 17th, 1815; 
 aged 84. 'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.' " 
 
 Jesse Bhainerd, of the fifth generation from Daniel Brainerd, was in- 
 terred in Lewis County, New York, in 1837, aged 84, after a residence 
 there of thirty-four years. 
 
12 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 Occupying a new country, Avhere every provision of 
 necessity and comfort were wrested from the wilderness 
 by hard labor, and where " laborers were few," the chil- 
 dren of a family were early accustomed to share the toil 
 and responsibilities of their parents. A sketch of the 
 early life and training of Thomas Brainerd cannot be 
 better furnished than by a transcript of his own narrative, 
 in stating the influences which bore upon the early char- 
 acter of David and John Brainerd. In adlit-rence to the 
 plan of making this memoir, as far as possible, an autobi- 
 ography, no apology is needed for introducing it here. 
 
 In the memorial sermon preached by the Rev. Albert 
 Barnes, on the death of Dr. Brainerd, he says : " In re- 
 spect to his own early training, I cannot be wrong in sup- 
 posing that his account, in his life of John Brainerd — in 
 accordance with the general course of family discipline in 
 New England — was derived from what occurred substan- 
 tially in his own father's house." 
 
 When writing this sketch for his book. Dr. Brainerd 
 said repeatedl}' in his home circle, that he had drawn a 
 true portrait of his own family training, — while reproduc- 
 ing and perpetuating the century model of other days. 
 
 "We had enforced on us in early life, with too little 
 effect, we fear, many of the principles which formed the 
 characters of David and John Brainerd one hundred and 
 fifty years ago. 
 
 "A boy was early taught a profound respect for his 
 parents, teachers, and guardians, and implicit, prompt 
 obedience. If he undertook to rebel, his will was broken 
 by persistent and adequate punishment. He was accus- 
 tomed, every morning and evening, to bow at tiie family 
 altar; and the Bible was his ordinary reading-book in 
 school. He was never allowed to close his eyes in sleep 
 without prayer on his pillow. 
 
 " At a sufficient age, no caprice, slight illness, or any 
 
CIIILDnOOD. 13 
 
 condition of roads or weather, was allowed to detain him 
 from church. In the sanctuary he was required to be 
 grav^e, strictly attentive, and able on his return at least to 
 g'ive the text. From sundown Saturday evening- until 
 the Sabbath sunset, his sports were all suspended, and all 
 secular reading- laid aside, while the Bible, the New Eng- 
 land Primer, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Baxter's Saint's 
 Rest, etc., were commended to his ready attention and 
 cheerfully pored over. 
 
 " He was taught that his blessings were abundant and 
 undeserved, his evils relatively few and merited, and that 
 he was not only bound to contentment, but gratitude. Ho 
 was taught that time was a talent to be always improved; 
 that industry was a cardinal virtue, and laziness the worst 
 form of original sin. Hence he must rise early, and make 
 himself useful before he went to school; must be diligent 
 there in stud}', and be promptly home to do ' chores' at 
 evening. His whole time out of school must be filled up 
 by some service — such as bringing in fuel for the day, 
 cutting potatoes for the sheep, feeding the swine, water- 
 ing the horses, picking the berries, gathering the vegetables, 
 spooling the yarn, and running all errands. He was ex- 
 pected never to be reluctant, and not often tired. 
 
 " He was taught that it was a sin to find fault with his 
 meals, his apparel, his tasks, or his lot in life. Labor ho 
 was not allowed to regard as a burden, nor abstinence from 
 any improper indulgence as a hardship. His clothes, 
 Avoolen and linen, for summer and winter, were mostly 
 spun, woven, and made up by his mother and sisters at 
 home; and, as he saw the whole laborious process of their 
 fabrication, he was jubilant and grateful for two suits, with 
 bright buttons, a year. Rents were carefully closed and 
 holes patched in the 'everj^-day' dress, and the Sabbath 
 dress always kept new and fresh. 
 
 " He was expected early to have the ' stops and marks,' 
 2* 
 
U LIFE OF REV. THOMAS. BRAIN ERD, D.D. 
 
 the 'abbreviations,' the 'multiplication table,' the 'ten 
 eoniniandnients,' the ' Lord's Prayer,' and the ' Shorter 
 Catechism,' at his tongue's end. 
 
 " Courtesy was enjoined as a duty. He must be silent 
 among his superiors. If addressed by older persons, he 
 must respond with a bow. He was to bow as he entered 
 and left the school, and bow to every man or woman, old 
 or young, rich or poor, black or white, whom he met on 
 the road. Special punishment was visited on him if he 
 failed to show respect to the aged, the poor, the colored, 
 or to any persons whatever whom God had visited with 
 infirmities. He was thus taught to stand in awe of the 
 rights of humanity. 
 
 " Honesty was urged as a religious duty, and unpaid 
 debts were represented as infamy. He was allowed to be 
 sharp at a bargain, to shudder at dependence, but still to 
 prefer poverty to deception or fraud. His industry was 
 not urged by poverty but by duty. Those who imposed 
 upon him early responsibility and restraint led the way 
 by their example, and commended this example by the 
 prosperit}^ of their fortunes and the respectaljility of their 
 position, as the result of their virtues. He felt that they 
 governed and restrained him for his good, and not their 
 own. 
 
 " He learned to identify himself with the interests he 
 was set to promote. He claimed every acre of his father's 
 ample farm, and every horse and ox and cow and sheep 
 became constructively his, and he had a name for each. 
 The waving harvests, the garnered sheaves, the gathered 
 fruits, were all his own. And besides these, he had his 
 individual treasures. He knew every trout hole in the 
 streams ; he was great in building dams, snaring rabbits, 
 trapping squirrels, and gathering chestnuts and walnuts 
 for winter store. Days of election, training, thanksgiving, 
 and school-intermissions were bright spots in his life. His 
 
CHILDHOOD. 15 
 
 loiit^ wintcv ev^cning-s, made cheerful by sparkling" fires 
 within, and cold clear skies, and ice-crusted plains, and 
 frozen streams for his sled and skates, were full of enjoy- 
 ment. And then he was loved by those whom he could 
 respect, and cheered by that future for which he was being 
 prepared. Rolig-ion he was taug-ht to regard as a neces- 
 sity and luxury, as well as a duty. He was daily brought 
 into contemplation of the Infinite, and made to regard him- 
 self as ever on the brink of an endless being. With a deep 
 sense of obligation, a keen, sensitive conscience, and a ten- 
 der heart, the great truths of religion appeared in his eye 
 as sublime, awful, practical realities, compared with which 
 earth was nothing. Thus he was made brave before 
 men for the right, while he lay in the dust before God. 
 
 " Such w^as Haddam training one hundred years ago. 
 Some may lift their hands in horror at this picture, but it 
 was a process which made moral heroes. It exhibited a 
 society in which wealth existed without idleness or profli- 
 gacy; social elevation without arrogance; labor without 
 degradation ; and a piety which, by its energ}^ and martyr 
 endurance, could shake the world. 
 
 " We are not to suppose that boyhood passed under 
 these influences was gloomy or joyless: far from it. Its 
 activity was bliss ; its grov\^th was a spring of life ; its 
 achievements were victories. Each day garnered some 
 benefit; and rising life, marked by successive accumula- 
 tions, left a smile on the conscience, and bright and reason- 
 able hopes for the future. 
 
 " We might have desired that this Puritan training had 
 left childhood a little larger indulgence, — had looked with 
 interest at present enjoyment as well as at future good, — 
 had smiled a little more lovingly on the innocent gambols, 
 the ringing laughter, the irrepressible mirth of boyhood ; 
 and had frowned less sevei'ely on Imperfections clinging 
 to human nature itself. We might think that, by insist- 
 
16 LIIE OF REV. THOMAS BRAIXERD, D.D. 
 
 ing too much on obligation and too little on privilege, — 
 too much on the law and too little on the gospel, — too 
 much on the severity and too little on the goodness of the 
 Deity, — the' conscience may have been stimulated at the 
 expense of the affections, and men fitted for another world 
 at an unnecessary sacrifice of their amiability and happi- 
 ness in the present life. 
 
 " But in leaving this Puritan training, the world had 
 ' gone farther and fared worse.' To repress the iniquity 
 of the age and land, — to save the young men for them- 
 selves, their country, and their God, — I believe we shall 
 gain most, not by humoring childhood's caprices and sneer- 
 ing at strict households, strict governments, and strict 
 Sabbaths; but by going back to many of the modes which 
 gave to the world such men as John Hampden, Wil- 
 liam Bradford, Jonathan Edwards, Timothy D wight, and 
 David and John Brainerd :" — may we not now add, and 
 Thomas Brainerd'^ 
 
 At intervals, during his whole life, Mr. Brainerd would 
 get up great zeal for " keeping a journal," but he never 
 persevered long in it. Fragments of "journals" are found 
 among his papers, sometimes recording events of some in- 
 terest, but from their disconnected character of little avail 
 for a biography. The recollections of his early life consti- 
 tute the most interesting of these items. 
 
 [extract from journal.] 
 
 " I was born in Leyden, Lewis County, T^ew York, 
 June 17th, 1804. My father emigrated from Haddam, 
 Connecticut, to the above-mentioned town, one year be- 
 fore my birth. His family consisted of a wife and ten 
 children. He had buried one little girl, named Mary, who 
 died young, in Haddam. He journeyed up the country 
 (as it was then called) with an ox team, and commenced 
 
CHILD HOOD. 17 
 
 clearing- tliu laud uii which ho at present resides. He had 
 many difficulties to encounter; but being well instructed 
 in the art of subduing a new countr}^ he comfortably 
 maintained his family, and added to the amount of his 
 possessions. He purchased a farm of about one hundred 
 acres, and for eleven years was as prosperous in pecu- 
 niary concerns as any of his neighbors. I was the twelfth 
 child; and", though I was soon deprived of an excellent 
 mother," 
 
 if iti :if Hf. if. A^ 
 
 [Here several leaves are torn out.] 
 
 " When I first commenced going to school I was three 
 years old. I was a little, plump, cherry-cheeked urchin, 
 very vain of my juvenile attainments. The first day I at- 
 tended school the boys put me into a spring of cold water; 
 and as I then wore a frock, in emerging from the pool I 
 must have made a grotesque appearance. I do not affirm 
 positively that I remember this transaction ; it may have 
 been told nie so often by others, in my infantile j'cars, that 
 I may be mistaken, but I seem to recollect it. 
 
 " Being the youngest of the family — the favorite of my 
 mother — my time passed in an uninterrupted series of 
 childish enjoyments during several of my earliest years. 
 I was much interested in the pursuit of knowledge ; and 
 in the schools which I attended saw none of my age before 
 me. My advancement elicited praise from my friends, 
 and I usually gained the approbation and affection of my 
 teachers. Penalties were not necessary to urge me on or 
 restrain my faults. I had a pride of character which kept 
 me aloof from boyish pranks. I could not bear the thought 
 that my parents should suppose me capable of being a bad 
 boy in school. 
 
 " Unhappily for me, about this time a teacher was em- 
 ployed of no great abilities or acquirements ; indiscreet 
 and superficial, but vain in the highest degree of his sta- 
 
18 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BR A I NERD, D.D. 
 
 tion. A ferule was placed in the hands of a lad, who 
 was directed to give it to the first he saw whisper ; and in 
 default of finding such, he was to be punished himself. 
 This, of course, was offering him a reward for tattling; 
 and like most other informants, whether pedagogic or 
 governmental, when he could not find crimes he could 
 cause them. By a system of chicanery which would 
 hardly find a parallel, even among the unprincipled in- 
 formants for the Inquisition, he made a friend of another 
 lad, — suffered him to whisper and whispered with him 
 Avith impunity. They conspired against me, and deter- 
 mined, as I had never been puljlicly flogged, that I should 
 escape no longer. They therefore commenced a conver- 
 sation about their lesson in my hearing, making false 
 statements, apparently in ignorance as to the amount 
 necessary to be studied. The plot succeeded. I kindly 
 attempted to set them right, and for a reward of ray be- 
 nevolence was tendered the obnoxious ruler. I protested, 
 wept, promised, screamed, but it was unavailing. I stated 
 the circumstances — showed that I had no evil intention in 
 the premises — but my master was inflexible. I tried to 
 establish the fact, that although I had, perhaps, violated 
 the letter, I had not the spirit of the law. The cruel man 
 was deaf to the voice of reason. In short, I was punished 
 for no crime. 
 
 " This was the first time I had been chastised in school; 
 and oh ! that some kind influence had prevented it ! 
 That punishment has been a curse to me. It laid the 
 foundation of nearly all my folly and sin. Before, I was 
 jealous of my reputation, was desirous to be thought the 
 best boy in the school ; but now I was disgraced, shamed, 
 mortified ; and 1 recklessly plunged into all the wild, rude 
 excesses of childhood. I no longer sought the studious 
 and sober for playmates, but delighted to mingle with the 
 most rude and noisy spirits in the neighborhood ; and 
 
CHILDHOOD. 19 
 
 cared little what I did, provided I could have gport and 
 
 fun.* 
 
 I 
 
 "At the ag^c of six, a little boy near my father's, named 
 Lorenzo Wolcott, to whom I was much attached, Avas 
 taken sick and died. I was unahle, at that time, fully to 
 understand the meaning of death. I was told that Lorenzo 
 was to be buried in the ground, and that I should see him 
 no more. I wept bitterlv the morning he died; thought 
 much on what this thing, death, could mean ; attended 
 his funeral, and was a real mourner 
 
 " So much was I affected by what I had seen that my 
 tears flowed long after my return from the grave. The 
 thought that I should see him no more was indescribably 
 painful. My dear mother sympathized with me ; kindly 
 told me that only his body was buried ; that what consti- 
 tuted the thinking part of little Lorenzo was in heaven, 
 to which place I should go if I Avas a good boy till death. 
 
 " This made a deep impression on my mind ; I can 
 never forget it. From six to fourteen years of age I was 
 subject to almost continued convictions of sin. Under 
 almost every sermon which I heard I resolved to lead a 
 new life." 
 
 This fragment was written in 1828. His later records, 
 "few and far between," refer more especially to his religi- 
 ous emotions and purposes. They resemble, in character, 
 portions of David Brainerd's Diary. Inheriting the family 
 constitution, with a tendency to the same nervous depres- 
 sion, they are imbued with the somber rather than the 
 bright shades of Christian experience. It has been said 
 by those who knew Mr. Brainerd, that he was too con- 
 scientious ; and marked as great sins the natural infirmi- 
 ties of his disposition. Dr. Beecher has protested against 
 
 ■*■ This " reilhssucss" extended frrni the age of six to twelve. 
 
20 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 g-ivin<r to the world the effects of d\'spepsia in good men, 
 with its hypochondriac famil}^ of cv'jls. 
 
 Rev. William A. Stearns, President of Amherst Col- 
 lege, a classmate of Mr. Drainerd's, says, in reply to a 
 letter from him containing some lament over his ))hysical 
 and mental trials : " Of 3'our two great burdens, the first 
 you have in common with us all ; and in the endurance of 
 the second, you are not alone. But it is a comfort that 
 neither 'a bad stomach,' nor anything else bad, can enter 
 heaven with us. Such a state of freedom, as Dr. Beeclier 
 says, ' it Avill take a good while to get used to it ' " 
 
 As the youngest and cherished child of a large house- 
 hold, Thomas was allowed many indulgences to which the 
 older children had been strangers, — such as going with his 
 father and elder brothers to the neighboring towns of 
 Lowville, Boonville, and Utica, when business called 
 them there. 
 
 When he was about two years old his mother found 
 him in a tub of water, nearly drowned. While playing in 
 the water, he had lost his balance and fallen in. As he 
 was " born out of due time,' so he claimed the privileges 
 of babyhood be\'ond the ordinary season. He distinctly 
 remembered being " ifea??ec?,"at nearly three years of age ; 
 and of being taken by a sister twenty-two years older than 
 himself, to sleep in her room for this object. Of his rebel- 
 lion in the night, and his indignation when offered a bis- 
 cuit in lieu of his customary indulgence, he retained a 
 lively impression. He threw the biscuit across the room, 
 with all his small strength, and saw it roll into the fire- 
 place, among the asparagus boughs, which in summer oc- 
 cupied the place of the winter fire; upon which his sister 
 thought proper to admonish him of the sinfulness of the 
 act, both in view of the temper exhibited on the occasion, 
 as well as the waste of throwing away " a nice biscuit for 
 which some hungry child would be so thankful." 
 
CHILDHOOD. 21 
 
 At the age of three and a half years he commenced at- 
 tending school, — trudging cheerfully through miles of snow 
 with his brothers and sisters. The district school was a 
 long distance from his father's house, and was only kept 
 during the winter. In a new farming country, all the boys 
 were needed to work on the farm in summer. His school 
 days were seasons of great enjoyment, and he never re- 
 garded his lessons as a burden or a drudgery. 
 
 Most of the events of his early life here recorded were 
 gained from his own lips. He was accustomed to amuse 
 his own children with the rehearsal of stories concerning 
 his childhood, to which they were never weary of listen- 
 ing; while the excitements of sheep-shearing and of making 
 maple-sugar in the early spring, almost rivaled in interest 
 the adventures of Robinson Crusoe, with bis young 
 auditors. 
 
 Clearing away the snow for the sugar works, — building 
 the great fires to boil the sap, — and especially " camping 
 out" over night, to watch both the sap and the fire, — fur- 
 nished abundant occasion for pleasant excitement to these 
 New England boys. 
 
 Thomas was once sent by his father to find and bring back 
 a ram that was addicted to running away. After bringing 
 the animal home, he tied him by the neck in the back part 
 of the barn, which was built on a side-hill, so that while 
 the entrance was on a level with the ground the back win- 
 dows overlooked a height of ten or twelve feet. No sooner 
 was the ram left to himself than he leaped from the win- 
 dow, and hung suspended by the neck. One of the elder 
 boys coming in to dinner told his father that the ram was 
 hanging from the barn window. Thomas, comprehending 
 at once the situation, said, " He knew the ram could not 
 be dead, for he had not hung there more than an hour!" 
 The shout of laughter from the circle of older boys with 
 which this declaration was greeted, greatly disconcerted 
 
 '6 
 
22 LIFE OF REV THOMAS BR AT NERD, D.D. 
 
 the young- hangman ; but he escaped all rebuke from his 
 father ; while from his brothers he met the frequent in- 
 quiry concerning the time necessary to kill a man or beast 
 by hanging. 
 
 While Thomas was still a small boy, he became the pro- 
 prietor of a nice leather-covered trunk, in which he was so 
 much interested that he went over to the village several 
 times to watch the progress of its manufacture. A good 
 trunk, in which to keep his clothes and juvenile treasures, 
 was, at that time to a boy in the country, a great posses- 
 sion ; and he prepared to bring it home, when finished, 
 with magnified views of its value. 
 
 One of his father's near neighbors, a Baptist preacher 
 and farmer known as " Elder Clark," had a fine new wheel- 
 barrow, and Thomas concluded that nothing but this wheel- 
 barrow would serve his purpose. He went over to see Mr. 
 Clark, whom he found working in the field. Going up to 
 him with great confidence, he said : " Elder Clark, will 
 you please lend me your ^vheelbarrow to bring home my 
 new trunk ?" 
 
 Mr. Clark leaned on his hoe a minute in silence, and 
 then replied: "Why, no, Thomas; I think I can't lend 
 you the wheelbarrow." 
 
 The refusal was so unexpected, and such a disappoint- 
 ment to him, that for a moment little Tom neither spoke 
 nor moved. But, boy or man, he was never the one to 
 give up an object upon which he had set his heart. 
 
 "Elder Clark," said he, " doesn't the Bible say, ' from 
 him that Avould borrow of thee, turn not thou away ?'" 
 
 Mr. Brainerd said he remembered throughout his life 
 the twinkle of the eye and the twitching about the mouth 
 with which Mr. Clark received this quotation from the 
 small boy before him. It produced, however, the desired 
 effect ; for, after another short pause, wath an effort at 
 gravity, Mr. Clark replied: " Yes, Thomas, the Bible does 
 
CHILDHOOD. 23 
 
 say that; and I think I must let you have the wheelbar- 
 vovv this time if you will be careful of it." He went on 
 his way rejoicing', as well in the success of his appeal as 
 in the means of procuring his new treasure. 
 
 A brother nine years older than Thomas, who took a 
 deep interest in his progress and improvement, says of 
 him : " He was a very active boy and always in a pleas- 
 ant humor. I never knew him quarrel with his play- 
 mates and young friends. He was early ver}^ fond of read- 
 ing, and seldom sat down without a book or a slate. When 
 he was twelve years old he had read through Rollin's 
 Ancient History, Robertson's America, Goldsmith's Greece 
 and Rome, with many other volumes of travels and voy 
 ages as well as stories. He seemed never to forget any- 
 thing he read. He inherited from his father one trait, — 
 to do with his might whatever he undertook to do." 
 
 A great love for declamation was one of his earliest de- 
 velopments. While yet a small boy he was so enraptured 
 by the recital of Mark Antony's Speech over the body of 
 Caesar, by a graduate of the Lowville Academy, that he 
 offered to give the young orator " all of his pennies^^ if he 
 would repeat it again for him. He was associated early 
 with the debating clubs of that region, and his enthusiasm 
 contributed much to their success and permanence. 
 
 While Thomas was quite a lad he was summoned to 
 court as a witness in some case of neighborhood litigation. 
 He gave his testimony with such directness, comprehen- 
 siveness, and evident truthfulness that the judge, turning 
 to a lawyer by his side, said: " That hoy loill make a 
 man." 
 
 lu the year 1813 that new section of country was 
 visited by typhoid fever. The population was scattered, 
 physicians were few and distant, and the epidemic became 
 very fatal. The people were overworked, especially the 
 women ; it was impossible to procure hired assistance, and 
 
24 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAIXERD, D.D. 
 
 labor-saving appliances were as yet unknown. Bcinc^ 
 largely a grass-growing region, every farmer went into 
 stock-raising and dairy produce, which laid heavy burdens 
 upon the women of the household. 
 
 Seven members of Mr. Brainerd's family were sick with 
 typhoid fever at the same time. Thomas, at nine years of 
 age, Avith the sister next above him, then thirteen, the two 
 5'onngest of the family, were for a season the only persons 
 able to leave the house. All the errands devolved upon 
 these two children, — of going long distances for physicians 
 and medicines, and to procure neighbors to nurse the sick 
 and the dying. Thomas was sent alone on horseback to 
 the town of Boonville, several miles distant, for sugar, 
 lea, lemons, and medicines. Such were the responsibili- 
 ties forced upon children at that period. How many par- 
 ents now would consent to send a child nine years old 
 through a lone, dreary wood's road with a horse to guide 
 and manage, and, in case of accident, no one near to ren- 
 der assistance ? 
 
 Thomas executed his errands successfully, and remem- 
 bered the merchant with lasting gratitude who, after plac- 
 ing his purchases in the saddle-bags, gave him " a lump 
 of Hugar as large as a teacup,^^ to eat on the way home. 
 
 Four members of his father's family fell victims to this 
 fever — a brother, two sisters, and his excellent mother. The 
 eldest son and daughter and a younger daughter, sixteen 
 years of age, died within a few weeks of their mother's 
 death, in August, 1813. Another son died two years 
 later, in 1815, at the age of twenty-nine; and one little girl 
 of ten was buried in Haddam, before the father's removal 
 to AVestcrn New York. Two others were married and 
 settled in homes of their own, and the large family was 
 now reduced to five children, Avith the widowed father. 
 Of these five, two Mere over twenty years of age and 
 drilled to self-reliance. The vounsest of the twelve chil- 
 
CHILDHOOD. 25 
 
 dren seemed peculiarly to demand maternal care. The 
 dying mother summoned to her Ijedside the few who were 
 able to come, to give them her final farewell. The little 
 boy of nine was the last to receive a mother's blessing. 
 She laid her hand upon his head, and, with great tender- 
 ness, said : " It is hard for me to give you up, my boy. 
 You need my care more than the others. I have wished 
 to live on your account, but it seems to be the will of God 
 that I must die and leave you. When I am gone, remem- 
 ber how I have taught you to pray and read your Bible. 
 Don't forget God and He will take care of you." 
 
 The little boy could not then understand the extent of 
 the loss implied in the death of a mother. He looked 
 on, partly in wonder and partly in grief, as they laid her 
 in a coffin and bore her away to her burial ; but he learned 
 ever after to estimate fully the value of a mother's undy- 
 ing love. 
 
 After this season of unparalleled trial the oldest remain- 
 ing daughter, at the age of twenty-two, took charge of her 
 father's household, and bestowed a mother's love and care 
 upon her little brother until her own marriage and removal 
 to Ohio. And her brother recognized his obligations of 
 duty and gratitude by visiting her as often as his profes- 
 sional claims permitted, at intervals of a few years during 
 his life She survived him seven months ; and, in March, 
 1867, the companionship of their youth was renewed in 
 the upper city. 
 
 3* 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 SCHOOL LIFE — LEAVING HOME. 
 
 THE school life of Thomas Brainerd, from the age of 
 four until he was seventeen, was full of interest. He 
 W'as social, ambitious, quick to learn, and no study com- 
 mended to him was ever difficult or burdensome. In a 
 newly settled country educational advantages were, of 
 course, limited and unequal. At some seasons it was 
 difficult to procure suitable teachers, and incompetent men 
 were occasionally employed. 
 
 The New England principle, however, which planted 
 the church and school-house beside the dwelling, and 
 watched over their interest with a jealous eye, character- 
 ized the communit}^ of New England settlers in Lewis 
 County. A vigorous school was kept up ; a circulating 
 library established, containing all the popular histories, 
 ancient and modern, of that period, with the old school 
 family of poets and novelists. Debating societies were 
 formed and sustained by the young men, furnishing the 
 means of pleasant excitement and safe recreation. The 
 few and slow additions of new books to their village 
 library led Thomas Brainerd, who was always a great 
 reader, to read again and again such as it contained ; and 
 he attributed his familiarity with historical facts through- 
 out life to his early devotion to Hume, Smollett, Rollin, 
 Robertson, and Herodotus. 
 
 This grave reading was relieved and enlivened by all 
 the poems and novels he could get hold of To the latest 
 (2G) 
 
SCHOOL LIFE. 27 
 
 hour allowable in a strict IS'ew Eng-land household, the 
 boy would read by the bright wood fire, affording better 
 light than a dozen of the home-made tallow candles, — so 
 absorbed in his book as to be utterly unconscious of what 
 was passing around him. 
 
 The school was located about two miles from his father's 
 house, and the long walk over the crisp snow, with the 
 companionship of the neighboring boys and girls, all car- 
 rying their little dinner baskets, containing the "turnover 
 pie," the doughnuts and cheese (excelled in no part of the 
 country), created abundant material for boyish enjoyment. 
 The early breakfast at six o'clock, with the brisk walk of 
 two or three miles, often so stimulated their young appe- 
 tites that they would agree, if they had time before the 
 ringing of the school-bell, to eat their dinner before they 
 went into the school-room; preferring the present indul- 
 gence of a double breakfast to the prospective fast of a 
 missing dinner. They could, besides, often calculate upon 
 an apple or a ginger-cake from some one more fully sup- 
 plied than his wants demanded. And when the season 
 admitted, they would get up short nutting or fishing ex- 
 cursions in the interval of the school recess. 
 
 Scarcely any boy's school life passes Avithout some 
 notable occasions of triumph or mortification. The general 
 studiousness and conscientiousness of Thomas Brainerd 
 protected him from many of these school-boy reverses, 
 while yet his activity and love of fun or mischief procured 
 him a fair proportion of their risks and penalties. 
 
 During one winter the district school was kept by a 
 young man from Connecticut, whose name has since be- 
 come somewhat notorious, — Levi Silliman Ives, — in after 
 years Episcopal Bishop of South Carolina, and more re- 
 cently marked for his renunciation of Protestantism and 
 connection with the Roman Catholic Church. 
 
 Mr. Ives, as he was then called, introduced some new 
 
28 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 modes in the order and exercises of the school, among 
 which was a SN'stem of writing with parallel lines by 
 which to graduate the height of the letters. Under his 
 administration, Thomas perpetrated the most flagrant 
 piece of mischief of his juvenile life A boy of notoriously 
 careless hal)its attended the school, whose torn clothes and 
 hat subjected him to the frequent banter of his schoolmates. 
 Toward the close of the afternoon session, Thomas ob- 
 served this boy's hat under the desk ; and being sheltered 
 by some higher desks in front, be commenced trimming 
 the said hat with a sharp penknife, to give it a more uni- 
 form appearance, half the rim being already torn off. This 
 was at first his whole design, to cut off the rest of the rim 
 and thereby decidedly improve its appearance. It was a 
 gray felt hat, and the knife sung through the texture with 
 such musical ease that he lost sight of its execution, and 
 kept turning the hat and cutting on until the knife reached 
 the top of the crown, leaving only a small round piece the 
 size of a half dollar. He then awoke to a consciousness 
 of his work, and carefully replaced the hat on the floor, 
 which settled down with spiral regularity to its accus- 
 tomed form. 
 
 To avoid confusion in dismissing school, Mr. Ives re- 
 quired of the older boys, by turns, to " carry around the 
 hats" to their respective owners, when each boy, with a 
 bow, deliberately left the room. When this unfortunate 
 hat was lifted it fell into a string a yard long. " Wliose 
 hat is this V inquired the boy who held it up by the small 
 center top-piece, with such unrestrained merriment in his 
 face as encouraged the whole school to an outburst of 
 laughter. 
 
 Mr. Ives ordered the boys again to their seats. He 
 then inquired who had cut this hat. A fearful silence was 
 the only answer. Recognizing the privilege of the culprit 
 not to condemn himself, the teacher ordered all the boys 
 
SCHOOL LIFE. 29 
 
 "wlio owned penknives to hold up their hands, while he 
 examined theii" faces with inquisitorial scrutiny. He then 
 required all who had borrowed knives to go through the 
 same ordeal ; no light shone on the cut hat. The school 
 was then dismissed with the intimation that other means 
 of investigation would be adopted. 
 
 Mr. Brainerd's father engaged Mr. Ives to devote one 
 hour in the evening to giving his daughters lessons in 
 writing at their own house. On this memorable after- 
 noon Thomas went home alone, musing on the conse- 
 quences of his thoughtlessness. When he entered the 
 house he found Mr. Ives there before him, relating to his 
 sisters the story of the hat, and telling them how he would 
 punish that boy when he discovered him. This threat 
 made such an impression upon Thomas that he never to a 
 living soul confessed himself the author of the mischief 
 until after he was eighteen years of age. The successful 
 concealment of the act magnified its criminality, and led 
 Tom to frequent confessions of his " secret sin" in his 
 nightly praj^ers. He was about ten years old at this time, 
 and not until long after was he able to view the affair in 
 its true light as an act of mere boyish mischief. 
 
 His " confessions" did not end in his own closet. "When 
 he had reached the age of forty-five, " Bishojj^' Ives visited 
 some friends in Philadelphia with whom Mr. Brainerd was 
 acquainted. He related this story to them, requesting them 
 to tell the bishop that "he was the hoy who cut the hatV 
 The bishop was now " endowed with power" to give him 
 " absolution." 
 
 The town of Leyden was favored with the ministry of 
 the Rev. Reuel Kiml)all, a New England man, with the 
 comprehensive views and large heart of those earnest 
 pioneer Christian teachers who have baptized the land 
 with the spirit of true gospel light and liljerty. 
 
 Mr, Kimball had a large family, with whom Mr. Brai- 
 
30 TTFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAFXERD, D.D. 
 
 nerd's familr \rere intimate. One of the sons. Cotton 
 Mather Kimball, was born on the same day with Thomas 
 Brainerd, attended the same school, and they were of 
 eonrse associated in the interests of their boyhood. 
 
 Intercotirse with these neighbors constituted the great 
 charm of social enjoyment during the youth of Thomas 
 Brainerd, and the youngest daughter of the clergyman 
 soon became the cynosure of all his hopes and fancies 
 Regarded as an unattainable blessing for many years, the 
 attachment acted as an incentive to all his efforts, and be- 
 came the motive of his highest ambition. A school-boy 
 love, hidden in his heart until developed to a growth be- 
 yond his power of concealment, was influencing every 
 faculty of his being. 
 
 His final success, where for years he dared not hope for 
 success, with the blighting of those hopes by the early 
 death of their object, belong to a later period than the 
 present, and will be referred to again. 
 
 When about the age of fourteen. Thomas was walking 
 with young Reuel Kimball, two years his senior, when 
 their conversation turned upon preaching. In the brag- 
 ging style natural to boys of that age, Thomas said to 
 his firiend : " I can preach nearly as well as your father, 
 now !" Young Kimball questioned his ability, and chal- 
 lenged him to the proof. 
 
 Springing upon a stump, in which that newly cleared 
 land abounded, Thomas rehearsed Mr. Kimball's sermon 
 of the previous Sabbath, giving the iutroduction, the title, 
 the divisions, the arguments, the illustrations, the applica- 
 tion, and conclusion, in what seemed to his astonished 
 auditor the very words, without variation, in which he 
 heard it preached the day before. Although greatly sur- 
 prised by this exhibition, young Kimball would not yield 
 the victory. He added : " Well, you can't pray as well 
 anyhow!^' Thomas replied, in a lower voice, " I haven't 
 tried tfiat!" 
 
SCaOQL LIFE. 31 
 
 This incident was related to the writer by Mr. Reuel 
 Kimljall himself, about twelve years ago, when he was a 
 gray-haired man of fifty. The occasional visits to his 
 native town were cheered by such reminiscences of their 
 youth, between Reuel Kimball and Thomas Brainerd, 
 during their lifetime ; and both were called to heaven 
 within a few months of the same period. 
 
 The following sketch is furnished by E. P. Brainerd, 
 Esq., of Ravenna, Ohio, for twelve years Treasurer of the 
 Atlantic and Great Western Railroad Company. 
 
 "Jesse Brainerd, father of the late Rev. Thomas Brai- 
 nerd, and my father, owned and occupied adjoining farms, 
 in Leyden, Lewis County, New York. They were Dear 
 neighbors, so that from infancy till about twelve years of 
 age we were accustomed to seeing Thomas almost daily. 
 He Avas some ten years my senior, and a frequent visitor 
 at my father's house. My mother was a zealous Baptist, 
 and the repeated discussions between her and young 
 Thomas, on religious subjects, are remembered with more 
 than ordinary vividness. Although too young to fully 
 understand them, their earnestness on these occasions I 
 shall never forget. His dignified bearing repelled rather 
 than attracted me. Our childish fear of him was equaled 
 only by that for the ministers who were accustomed to 
 visit our house. Early impressions, however, like those 
 of later years, are frequently found to be erroneous. When 
 quite a lad, I accompanied my parents, on a summer's 
 evening, to one of the neighbors, where a large party were 
 assembled. Shortly after our arrival, Thomas Brainerd 
 happened in, direct from the field. The lady of the house 
 said to him (aside) : ' We are to have a wedding here to- 
 night and wish you to remain.' 'Impossible,' said he, 
 ' I am right from the plow.' After a moment's reflection, 
 he added : ' There is not time for me to go home and 
 
32 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAIXERD, D.D. 
 
 change my dress. If you think the company will excuse 
 my appearance I will sta}'", as I never saw a couple mar- 
 ried.''*' He remained, a close observer of all the cere- 
 monies ; at the conclusion of which, he entered into the 
 plays and amusements peculiar to such occasions in those 
 days, with a relish which made him the ' star^ of the 
 evening. As he left we heard him remark, ' If this is the 
 usual way of conducting weddings I shall make an effort 
 to attend them all hereafter, for I have enjoyed this 
 hugely.' It was then we first learned he had a relish for 
 harmless amusement, as well as a strong love for social 
 enjoyment. Subsequently, we became much attached to 
 hiui, on account of his genial nature and readiness always 
 to assist and encourage his associates, of whatever age or 
 condition, in their laudable undertakings. He seemed to 
 lead rather than follow the opinions of his fellows. His 
 advice was sought, and he was often umpire and adjudi- 
 cator of their differences. He was frank, apparently know- 
 ing no necessity for concealment, as he could accomplish 
 by directness and force Avhat many by tact and artifice 
 aim to do and fail. He was cautious in spirit, but not 
 artful or cunning. He seems to have been an early 
 student of natural theology. Fond of discussion, advoca- 
 ting spiritual rather than sectarian religion, he contended 
 that true religion consisted in right life, rather than in 
 ordinances; at least such was his position with my mother. 
 Physically, he was compact and strong, though not large; 
 he possessed a kind of toughness capable of great endur- 
 ance. He was passing au unfinished well on one occasion, 
 with several of his associates, and remarked that he could 
 descend and come out on the chain suspended from the 
 windlass. This being questioned by the party, he imme- 
 diately accomplished the feat. Another of the party, not 
 
 * This confession, from a man who in later life married over eight 
 huurhcd couples, is noteworthy. 
 
LEAVING HOME. 33 
 
 wishing to be outdone, went down on the cliain, and, when 
 near the top in ascending, lost his hokl, fell, caught on the 
 hook, which entered his body in a shocking manner. To 
 the presence of mind and good judgment of Thomas Brai- 
 nerd, he was indebted for his life. With recollections re- 
 plete with incidents illustrating the prominent traits of 
 his character, I have only alluded in this brief sketch to 
 the youthful working of an intellect destined to become pre- 
 eminent for good in subsequent life. The same generosity 
 of soul, earnest love of justice and right,, which were so 
 prominent in after-years, characterized the youth of Thomas 
 Brainerd. 
 
 "Ravenna, Ohio, Aug. 18th, 1S68." 
 
 At fourteen years of age, Thomas Brainerd became a 
 member of the Lowville Academy, then considered one of 
 the best educational institutions in Northern New York. 
 Here he devoted himself to the study of the languages, 
 which he pursued for a number of years, continuing his 
 classical studies with Oliver C. Grosvenor, at Rome, while 
 prosecuting the study of law. 
 
 Declining his father's proposition to take charge of the 
 farm, he deliberately resolved upon supporting himself 
 and carrying out his schemes of professional life. 
 
 The first step in this course was to take charge of the 
 school in a neighboring town. This would give him time 
 to mature his plans, and furnish him with a little money 
 for his immediate necessities. He left his home at the 
 age of seventeen, with a firm purpose to cut his way to 
 competence, respectability, and usefulness. On the even- 
 ing before his departure, he went alone to a favorite part of 
 his father's farm, where the extended landscape overlooked 
 the Black River, and the unbroken, mysterious, silent gloom 
 of the Adirondack forest beyond, as yet unexplored by 
 tourist or visitor, and, placing his back against a tree, he 
 
 4 
 
34 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAIXERD, D.D. 
 
 indulged in one of those farewell reveries wliieh might be 
 permitted to a young man in these circumstanees. Boy 
 and child enough still to cling to the shelter and provis- 
 ions of home with yearning tenderness, realizing that he 
 was going out to the untried world with only 
 
 " Providence his guide," 
 
 he might well look up to the old trees and ask if the new 
 world before him would, amid its storms, furnish him 
 friends like these. After watching the sun sink below the 
 horizon, he turned and cut the initials of hi& name, his 
 age, the day of the month and year in the bark of the tree 
 against which he had been leaning, then said to himself, 
 " Where and what shall I be seventeen years hence ?" 
 
 It so happened that in the summer of 1838, when Mr. 
 Brainerd was thirty-four, he visited his home again. Two 
 brothers alone remained in that section of the country. 
 His father was dead ; the farm sold, and the old home- 
 stead left desolate. But he sought the tree again — now 
 doubled in size — and readily deciphered the letters and 
 date engraved there seventeen years before. Again he 
 placed his back against the tree, and said, "Here I am 
 again at twice seventeen, 'a sadder and a wiser man;' a 
 life experience between these dates ; the weight of a large 
 metropolitan church upon my shoulders, and the responsi- 
 bility upon my soul of guiding my fellow-men to a higher 
 and purer life." 
 
 Mr. Brainerd was not much given to sentiraentalisra, espe- 
 cially of the sort which unnerved him. Such indulgences, 
 if taken at all, were taken in homoeopathic doses, on the 
 wing, as he rode and worked. He had no patience With 
 young men who neutralized their energies and smothered 
 their manhood in a sickly sentimentalism. His charge to 
 them was to be up and doing — 
 
 '• With a heart for any fate," 
 
 and in this course he was ever readv to lead the wav. 
 
LEAVING HOME. 35 
 
 Seventeen years later, in 1855, he had another oppor- 
 tunity of making a pilgrimage to his tree. It was proba- 
 bly of set purpose this time, for he continued through life 
 to visit the home and friends of his childhood every few 
 years. One brother had died and the other removed to 
 Ohio since his last visit. His father's house had fallen to 
 decay ; while the excavation of the cellar and the well 
 alone marked the spot of his birth. And of the old man- 
 sion — 
 
 " All its joys and pains, 
 That gloomy cellar now alone remains." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 TEACHING — READING LAW. 
 
 THE first school of which Thomas Brainerd took charge 
 was in the town of Boonvilie. Here, as elsewhere, 
 boys of his own age, seventeen and upwards, attended his 
 school. He had no difficulty in maintaining order and 
 discipline, nor in stimulating his pupils to a healthful 
 emulation. 
 
 It was the custom of that period for the teacher to 
 " hoard roiind," in the respective families of his pupils ; 
 each family thus contributing to his board, secured there- 
 by the tuition of one or more children. This experience 
 developed the grace of patience, and afforded many humor- 
 ous exhibitions of character. But no one ever heard a 
 complaint from Thomas Brainerd, however rough his 
 fare or uncomfortable his accommodations. Straitened 
 quarters and " short commons" were soon exchanged in 
 the rotation of service, for the most ample supplies and 
 congenial associates. Four years of district school teach- 
 ing was a grand school of progress in the study of human 
 nature, yielded great variety of incident, and laid the 
 foundation of many permanent and valuable friendships. 
 
 His second station of school operations was in the town 
 of Lee. Here Thomas Brainerd had the honor of being 
 the successor to Albert Barnes, who, as he preceded him 
 in the ministry by a few years, also preceded him in some 
 of the diversified experiences of the initiatory course. 
 
 By the kindness of the Hon. Anson S. Miller, of Hlinois, 
 (3G) 
 
TEACHING. St 
 
 we have been furnished with the following letter referring 
 to this period : 
 
 "RocKFOUD, 111., March 26th, 1868. 
 
 * * * " The late Rev. Dr. Thomas Brainerd 
 kept school in my native town, Lee, New York, more 
 than forty years ago. My first recollection of Dr. Brai- 
 nerd, when a youthful teacher in Lee, reaches back to the 
 Avinter of 1823-4, when he taught the school in the Button 
 District, in Lee, where Albert Barnes had previously 
 taught. My father resided in an adjoining district. In 
 this school Mr. Brainerd, though a mere youth, achieved 
 a perfect success. He kept a model school, and his pupils 
 both feared and loved him. Though familiar with his 
 pupils in their plays out of doors, he preserved his dig- 
 nity as master in the school-house. So good was his repu- 
 tation as a teacher that the Trustees of an adjoining district, 
 Lee Centre, with a larger school, secured his services at 
 an early day for the next winter, 1824-5. In this district 
 he made his home with my uncle, the late James Young, 
 Esq., a prominent citizen and public man of Lee My 
 Uncle Young and his brother Alvan were great readers. 
 The town library was kept at their house ; and Mr. Brai- 
 nerd, when at uncle's, enjoyed himself with congenial 
 spirits. They all wondered how he could read so rapidly 
 and remember so well. Occasionally, when visiting my 
 cousins, the sons of Uncle Young, 1 attended Mr. Brai- 
 nerd's school with them. It was a large school and not 
 the easiest to govern ; but he gave it the regularity of a 
 clock. He kept a live school because he was a live teacher. 
 He had a wonderful gift for animating his pupils, and in- 
 spiring them to emulate excellence; and of their social 
 circle out of school, he was the center and the soul. 
 
 " Subsequently, Mr. Brainerd taught school near Mr. 
 Talcott's, in Rome ; and was there, as in the schools in 
 Lee, exceedinglv popular. 
 
 4* 
 
38 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 " I knew Mr. Brainerd at a later period, when he had 
 commenced studying a profession. Previous to entering 
 upon theology, he gave some attention to the law. He 
 was regarded as a young man of distinguished promise. 
 His intellectual powers were at once brilliant and solid, 
 and he united great logical acumen with rare aptness and 
 beauty of expression. For happy and graceful conversa- 
 tional gifts and fluency of language, and ready wit and 
 sharpness of reply when speaking in debate, he could 
 scarcely have a superior. Add to this his purity of heart 
 and manly frankness and integrity, and you can have some 
 idea of what Thomas Brainerd was before he achieved a 
 national fame. " Anson S. Miller." 
 
 I inclose a letter from David S. Young, Esq., who was 
 a pu[)il of Mr. Brainerd : 
 
 "Lee Centre, March 4th, 1868. 
 
 * * * * " Mr. Brainerd taught school in 
 
 the Button District, during the winter of 1823-4, when he 
 was between eighteen and twenty years old. Having a 
 lively, social turn of mind, he readily introduced himself 
 into the society of the young. * * * * 
 
 "On one or two occasions, at noon-time, \\q preached, 
 i.e. he mounted the table for a pulpit, and would speak 
 to the scholars, calling it preaching. He said his father 
 told him he must be a minister; but he feared he should 
 be like a fifth calf, having no certainty that he would get 
 much support or milk from the old cow. He taught our 
 school the next winter, in 1824-5. I remember him very 
 well as a teacher. He made my father's house his home 
 a considerable portion of the time, especially over Sun- 
 days. It gave me a favorable opportunity to observe his 
 habits. He was social and cheerful, full of anecdotes, and 
 loved to talk. He was a great reader. Whatever book 
 he selected from the library he devoured its contents amid 
 
TEACHING. 39 
 
 the din and the 'confusion of tongues' of the different 
 members of the family that might be talking at the time. 
 No noise or conversation seemed to disturb him in read- 
 ing, so intent was he on the subject-matter of the author. 
 But still he seemed to peruse a book very carelessly; turn- 
 ing over its leaves leisurely ; glancing carelessly at its 
 pages; occasionally pausing to join in a laugh, or the con- 
 versation or talk, or to suggest an argument on one or the 
 other side of the question under discussion ; and then turn- 
 ing again to his book. Uncle Alvan was living at father's 
 at this time, and Mr. Brainerd and uncle were great 
 friends. Mr. Brainerd seemed to relish novel-reading, — 
 such works as 'The Children of the Abbey,' 'Scottish 
 Chiefs,' 'The Three Spaniards,' 'Peep at the Pilgrims,' 
 ' Thinks-I-to-Myself,' etc., etc. Uncle had read all these ; 
 and to test Mr. Brainerd, after he had closed some book, 
 reading in the indifferent manner I have stated, would 
 question him on the general plan or plot of the author ; 
 but very soon it would be apparent that Mr Brainerd was 
 far more correct in his statement of facts, anecdotes, or 
 history, than uncle was ; who perhaps had occupied six 
 times the length of time in perusing the book which Mr. 
 Brainerd had occupied. 
 
 "After he settled in Philadelphia, for many years he 
 made frequent visits to see his brother and other relatives, 
 in Lewis County, and at such times he usually visited his 
 nephew, who resided in Lee. 
 
 " We not unfrequently got one or two sermons from 
 him; but most generally he excused himself from preach- 
 ing, on the ground that his labors at Philadelphia were 
 arduous, and coming to the country he had relaxed his 
 bow and had paused to rest; and for one or two discourses 
 he could not ' gird himself to the work. 
 
 "About the last time Dr. Brainerd visited his brother I 
 happened to be at Delta, to hear Mr. Parmilee, of Western- 
 
40 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 ville. Dr. Brainerd had come to hear Mr. Parmilee, and 
 at the close of his discourse Mr. Parmilee introduced Dr. 
 Brainerd to his audience. 
 
 " The doctor commenced by saying that all present 
 were strangers to him ; that he recognized but one or two 
 faces that he had ever seen before ; but, on all occasions, he 
 never stopped to inquire if there were any sinners present 
 that wanted or needed salvation. He always assumed the 
 fact that all present were sinners, and that every soul 
 needed salvation ; and in the spirit of the Master, I go 
 forth, said he, like Paul, to proclaim it ' a faithful saying 
 and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into 
 the world to save sinners.' He seemed always ready for 
 the occasion; and his discourse had a telling eifect on his 
 hearers." 
 
 Extract of a letter from Mr. Cotton Mather Kimball* to 
 his sister-in-law, Mrs. Reuel Kimball, dated 
 
 " Kalamazoo, Mich., Feb. 20th, ISC?. 
 
 " Thomas Brainerd was a great reader and a good 
 scholar. I attended a debating school one or two winters 
 on the East Road, where he attended. As a debater he 
 had no equal. When he was sixteen or seventeen years 
 old he was. a match for any of the young men, and some 
 thought themselves quite smart. 
 
 " The day that we were twenty-one years old we spent 
 together. We went down to Brother Reuel's, to Aman- 
 da's, and then up to father's. We had a good time. I 
 think I did not see him again until four years ago, when I 
 called on him in Philadelphia. ***** 
 
 * Mr. C. M. Kimball and Thomas Brainerd were born on the same day, 
 June 17th, 1804; hence the reason of spending their twenty-first birtliduy 
 together. 
 
READING LAW. 41 
 
 " Sister Huldah's death was no doubt the cause of a 
 great change in his future life." 
 
 From Lee Mr. Brainerd went to Rome, and commenced 
 reading law ; first with Alanson Burnet, Esq., and after- 
 wards with Hon. Henry A. Foster and Hon. Chester 
 Hayden. At the same time he continued his classical 
 studies with Mr. Oliver C. Grosvenor, of Rome, aiding 
 him in his school, meanwhile, as an assistant teacher. 
 Heretofore he had been located at convenient visiting dis- 
 tances from his early home ; and he returned at frequent 
 intervals, to spend the Sabbath, or to join the remaining 
 family group at " Thanksgiving." A strong attraction 
 drew him to Leyden as often as circumstances permitted. 
 He kept watch over his heart's treasure there ; and his 
 accumulated offerings of mind and soul laid on this altar, 
 were appreciated and finally accepted. He became en- 
 gaged to Huldah Kimball at twenty-two years of age, and 
 returned to Rome in the prospective possession of all that 
 he held most dear in life. 
 
 Little of note marked the two years in which Mr. Brai- 
 nerd studied law at Rome. Of his social life a few inci- 
 dents have been preserved, partly by his own narrations, 
 and partly by those of his friends. 
 
 On public occasions, such as .the " Fourth of July," 
 "Training Days," and "Election," the popular demand 
 for amusement was supplied by out-of-door sports and en- 
 tertainments. At one of these seasons a party of stran- 
 gers furnished a gambling-table, with cards, lights, and 
 brandy, in a grove within the limits of the quiet village of 
 Rome. While this open defiance of public sentiment was 
 abundantly censured, no effort was made to suppress the 
 evil. Thomas Brainerd and three associates resolved to 
 " abate the nuisance," in their own time and mode. Under 
 
42 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 pretence of looking for something he had purposely 
 dropped, one of their number contrived to fasten the end of 
 a long rope around one leg of the table, while the others, 
 concealed among the trees in the dusk of the evening, held 
 the other end. At a given signal, the four young men 
 started off at full speed ; the table jumped two yards at a 
 bound ; lights, bottles, cards, dice, and money flew in 
 every direction, together with the men who surrounded 
 the table. The sudden darkness, the surprise and bewil- 
 derment which followed, gave the advantage of time to 
 the actors in this little drama; and, seeing the discomfit- 
 ure complete, they dropped the rope among the trees and 
 came round from an opposite quarter to mingle with the 
 crowd and inquire with innocent wonderment into the 
 occasion of the excitement. 
 
 When listening to reports of "table-turning" and "spir- 
 itual manifestations," in after-years, concerning which Mr. 
 Brainerd was entirely skeptical, he would say that he had 
 witnessed one " table-turning^' that was genuine ; and then 
 relate this adventure of upsetting the gambling-table, al- 
 though forced to acknowledge that his first practice of law 
 was by a very summary and extra-judicial process. 
 
 For a short time Mr. Brainerd boarded at the public 
 hotel, and his social tendencies drew him into a circle of 
 young men whose prolonged influence would have been 
 most perilous to his moral principles. Invited to their 
 rooms two or three evenings, he found they not only 
 drank hard but gambled deeply ; while mirth and good- 
 fellowship made their society attractive. 
 
 On one of these evenings, the door of the room was 
 opened by a young man with whom Mr. Brainerd was 
 but slightly acquainted, who said, " Brainerd, I want to 
 speak with you a minute." He stepped into the hall, 
 when the young man said to him, " Those fellows are go- 
 ing to ruin as fast as possible ; they will drink themselves 
 
READING LAW. 43 
 
 dead in a few years, but you were horn for a better des- 
 tiny. The sooner you get to your bed the better for 
 you." 
 
 Mr. Brainerd felt the full force of this timely warning. 
 His conscience had already been telling him the same 
 truths. He went directly to his room, without returning 
 to bid his dangerous companions "good-night;" and he 
 always regarded this young man as a true friend and bene- 
 factor. 
 
 In 1825, the Rev. Charles G. Finney preached in 
 Rome, and a religious interest of marked character at- 
 tended his labors. 
 
 Rev. Albert Barnes says of him: "Mr. Finney had 
 himself been a lawyer, and would have been distinguished 
 as a lawyer if he had continued to pursue that profession. 
 Few men in our country have been as well fitted to act on 
 the higher order of minds, or to bring men, proud in their 
 philosophy or their own righteousness, to the foot of the 
 cross. As the result of this great revival of religion, more 
 than one hundred and eighty persons were added to the 
 church on one occasion. Among these were nearly all the 
 merchants of the place, and all the lawyers. Since the fall 
 of man was such a thing ever known before, that all the 
 lawyers in any place were converted to the faith of the 
 Saviour ?" 
 
 As in the days of Job, when "the sons of God came 
 together, Satan came also among them ;" so it has ever 
 been to the present time. When the pulse of religious 
 feeling rose highest, under the preaching of Mr. Finney, 
 a Universalist preacher came to Rome and commenced a 
 series of opposition meetings. He was a popular speaker 
 and attracted many hearers. After repeated solicitation 
 from an acquaintance, Mr. Brainerd went one evening to 
 hear him. During the service he occupied himself in 
 scanning the audience. It seemed to him that everv 
 
44 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 drunkard, gambler, and profligate in the place was there. 
 After the service, Mr. Brainerd's companion eagerly in- 
 quired how he liked the preacher. " If that crowd is 
 going to heaven," replied Mr. Bralnerd, " I don't want to 
 go ; I have been used to better society here !" 
 
 Mr. Brainerd soon after became an interested listener 
 to Mr. Finney's appeals himself; and was one among that 
 "great cloud of witnesses" who consecrated themselves 
 to the service of God at that time. He united with the 
 church in Rome, of which the Rev. Moses Gillett was 
 j)astor, in 1825.* 
 
 Mr. Brainerd's mind was naturally skeptical ; and not 
 without a severe mental conflict did he yield his life to the 
 principles of Christianity. But a cloud was gathering in 
 his horizon, charged with influences to affect the whole 
 atmosphere of his future life, and turn his pursuits into 
 new channels. In little more than a year from this time, 
 Mr. Brainerd was hastily summoned to Leyden to attend 
 the burial of his heart's idol. A severe attack of illness 
 from a sudden cold resulted fatally, before the friends of 
 Miss Kimball apprehended any danger. No telegraph 
 carried lightning messages in that day ; and the first in- 
 timation of danger was the arrival of a friend with the ap- 
 palling intelligence that the cherished object of his early 
 hopes was dead. 
 
 This event occurred in September, 1827. When Thomas 
 Brainerd returned to Rome life seemed bereft of all its 
 beauty and value. He was now^ readily disposed to listen 
 to the persuasions of his friends in their endeavors to turn 
 his attention to the ministry. 
 
 Among Mr. Brainerd's intimate friends in Rome was 
 
 "•■■' A fitting tribute to the fidelity of Mr. Gillett was inscribed on his 
 monument, in these words: "He was a good man and full of the Holy 
 Ghost and of faith ; and much people was added unto the Lord." He 
 died in 18.37, after a pastorate of thirty years. 
 
READING LAW. 45 
 
 Mr. Talcott's family, with whom he continued to hold 
 pleasant intercourse through life. One of the sons united 
 with the church at the same time with Mr. Brainerd, and 
 a close correspondence for many years cemented their 
 friendship. While on a business visit to Leyden, a short 
 time before Miss Kimball's death, Mr. Wait Talcott wrote 
 to Mr. Brainerd, July 16th, 182T : 
 
 "I called on Miss Kijiiball, as you requested, and de- 
 livered your package. If Miss K.'s mental qualifications 
 correspond with her personal attractions, of which I have 
 not a doubt, she is every way worthy to be the object of 
 3'our warmest earthly affections. I congratulate you on 
 your success in finding one who is all that your heart could 
 
 \v isii ^ ^ ^ '^ '^ '^ 
 
 The charm which invested this sweet northern flower 
 was never dispelled by all that he saw of elegant and cul- 
 tivated women in forty years' subsequent intercourse with 
 the world. 
 
 We subjoin a few extracts from letters referring to this 
 period : 
 
 From Eev. Eeuel Kimball to Thomas Brainerd. 
 
 "Leyden, Sept. 11th, 1827. 
 
 " My dkar Young Friend : 
 
 " I this day received and read your letter with a mournful 
 pleasure. The thought that my dear daughter is gone be- 
 yond the reach of my prayers, admonitions, and parental 
 faithfulness, fills my heart at times with acute anguish. 
 
 " The closing scene with her is past, and she sleeps in 
 death. ' It is the Lord, — let Him do what seemeth Him 
 good.' ******** 
 
 " The disappointment to you is doubtless great. You 
 are taught by this dispensation that it is vain to look for 
 
 5 
 
46 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 happiness in man. I liope, Thomas, that you will so im- 
 prove the voice of God as to receive ' beauty for ashes, the 
 oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the 
 spirit of heaviness.' May God direct you in the path of 
 duty, and may you be willing to submit to his will. 
 
 " Your friend, 
 
 "Reuel Kimball." 
 
 From T. Braiaerd to Beuel Kimball, Jr. 
 
 " Rome, Sept. 19th, 1827. 
 
 " Dear Reuel : 
 
 "My mind constantly and irresistibly dwells on our 
 recent bereavement. Affection for Huldah has so long 
 possessed my mind, has so interwoven itself with every 
 emotion of my heart, that her death has produced an over- 
 whelming effect on every feeling of my soul. This village 
 seems a ' valley and shadow of death.' 
 
 " On Huldah's account as well as my own, I have here- 
 tofore sought friends, — I had succeeded ; and looked for- 
 ward with pleasure to the time when I should be per- 
 mitted to transplant so lovely a flower into scenes of 
 friendship and happiness worthy of her merit. My friends 
 manifest the most tender concern for my welfare, and ad- 
 mit the magnitude of my loss ; but they cannot heal the 
 wound. 
 
 "My friends in Leyden cannot realize my suflFerings. 
 They do not know how I have loved Huldah through long 
 
 TToa'pa * ^ ^ 'T' *> 'r* * ^ 
 
 " She was so beautiful and intelligent; modest without 
 prudery, and elegant without ostentation. In her were 
 associated every quality and accomplishment which can 
 attract admiration and enchain the heart." * * 
 
READING LAW. 47 
 
 T. Brainerd to Wait Talcott, Esq. 
 
 "Rome, Oct. 4th, 1827. 
 
 *****" Two short months since I 
 was as happy as the happiest ; now a cold and death-like 
 despair oppresses my soul. My heart is broken. ' Oh, 
 that my eyes were waters and my head a fountain of 
 tears!' The sun of my hopes has set forever. What I 
 write, compared with what I feel, is apathy itself. You 
 have acted the part of a true friend to rae, both in pros- 
 perity and adversity, and may Heaven reward you. You 
 know on what subject to write to interest me, and you 
 sympathize with me enough to choose that subject. 
 
 * * * * ** * * * * 
 
 "I sometimes see that this affliction was intended in 
 love to my soul. I had become worldly, ambitious, and 
 proud. H. K. was my idol. She occupied the place that 
 God demands in every human heart. God' saw the rock on 
 which I was about to shipwreck, and in kindness took her 
 away; disappointed my ambitious schemes, and in some 
 measure humbled my proud heart." * * * 
 
 By the kindness of Rev. Albert Barnes we are allowed 
 to publish the following letter in reference to this period. 
 Under date of August 2d, 186T, Mr. Barnes writes : 
 
 " I received some time ago the inclosed letter from Dr. 
 Brainerd's friend and my friend, the Rev. Horace Bush- 
 nell, a townsman of mine. He is a most remarkable man; 
 and, of all living men that I am acquainted with, I know 
 of no one that I think will occupy a place nearer the 
 throne in heaven. It has some notices of the early life of 
 Dr. Brainerd which I thought might be interesting to you, 
 and I therefore inclose it. The world will be the better 
 the more that is known of Dr. Brainerd. 
 
 " Sincerely and truly yours, 
 
 " Albert Barnes." 
 
48 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 " Cincinnati, May 31st, 1867. 
 
 " Rev. a. Barnes. 
 " Dear Brother : 
 
 " Since the death of Brother Brainerd, I have often 
 thought of you, and the ]o.ss you mn.st have sustained by 
 his departure. You knew his worth far better than ni}^- 
 self, though he was very dear to me. We both professed 
 our faith in the Lord Jesus at the same altar and on the 
 same day. I became acquainted with him in Mr. Oliver 
 Grosvenor's school, at Rome, in the autumn of 1826 ; and 
 during the winter vacations, studied with him. I had then 
 little hope of entering the ministry, being then twenty-four 
 years old. When I urged Brother Brainerd to enter the 
 ministry at that time he always evinced deep emotion, 
 but replied, ' I haven't grace enough to be a beggar ; 
 though I would love to preach the gospel. I cannot bring 
 myself to be a pensioner on others.' 
 
 " But our Master knows bow to humble his erring chil- 
 dren and make them willing in the day of his power. The 
 idol of his heart was suddenly removed by death, and our 
 dear brother then sat down at the feet of Jesus, teachable 
 as a little child; and the Blessed One led him till he had 
 finished his course. I was intimately acquainted with him 
 in Cincinnati, when pastor of one of the feeblest churches ; 
 and at our last interview he said, ' Those days spent 
 with the poor widows, in the Fourth Church, were the 
 happiest in my life.' He could condescend to the feeblest 
 of Christ's flock. 
 
 "I have no good reason for troubling you Avith this 
 communication, only to express my obligation for your 
 instructions. Your ^'otes have been almost my only 
 commentary during my ministry ; and 3'ou have accom- 
 plished a glorious work, in furnishing tens of thousands of 
 Sabbath-school teachers with the means of instructing 
 those under their care. 
 
READING LAW. 49 
 
 " I feci undei" obligations for your kind attentions when 
 in Philadelphia, and also when sick at Rome. 
 
 " My active life is probably about closed. I was 
 licensed to preach October 14th, 1831, — and till January 
 26th, 1867, had been detained from the pulpit by sickness 
 only three Sabbaths, and during those years have preached 
 as often as once a day. In my missionaiy labors for 
 thirty-five years I have found the work most pleasant, 
 and followed it till it seemed a part of my being. I had 
 almost forgotten my blindness; and, blessed with a re- 
 tentive memory, felt but little the privation of being un- 
 able to read. Thus cheerfully I passed by my sixty-fourth 
 birthday, thinking probably, like my ancestors, I should 
 hold out at least ten years longer ; not even sighing 
 for the rest of heaven ; for I loved my labor, and the 
 candle of the Lord shined in my darkness, But on the 
 26th of January I received a slight injury in my limb ; 
 inflammation ensued, and for eighteen wefeks I have been 
 confined to the house, and till within the last week to my 
 bed ; and I have learned by experience the extreme of 
 physical suffering. I am now convalescent; my pain less 
 severe ; but my limb is useless, and will doubtless remain 
 so. This is my first severe illness. I have not been left 
 to murmur, but rather to admire the goodness of God. 
 Friends have appeared on every side, and the unknown 
 future I commit to Him who doeth all things well, — who 
 has loved us and redeemed us to God by his own blood. 
 He is my light, my strength, and my salvation. 
 
 "And have I not been highly favored ,of the Master ? 
 Is it a small thing that the blessed Jesus has permitted 
 me, for the last thirty-five years, to tell the story of a 
 Saviour's love to so many thousands perishing in the hos- 
 pitals and prisons, and that so many of them have accepted 
 His salvation ? 
 
 5* 
 
50 I'IFE OF REV. THOMAS BRA [NERD, D.D. 
 
 "Accept my thanks for the aid you have given me in 
 this blessed work, and pray that I may finish my course 
 with joy. " Your brother, 
 
 "H. BUSIINELL."* 
 
 This era was marked by a change in all the purposes and 
 views which had heretofore controlled the life of Thomas 
 Brainerd. With abated worldly ambition, with a humbled 
 spirit, and under earnest convictions of duty, at the age 
 of twent3^-three he gave up the law for the gospel. 
 
 Ilis first local change in pursuing his new plans, was to 
 avail himself of an opportunity to teach a year in Phila- 
 delphia, to obtain the pecuniary means of entering An- 
 dover Theological Seminary. He was located in the north- 
 ern part of the city, and connected himself with the Rev. 
 Mr. Patterson's church. Extracts from his letters to his 
 friend, Wait Talcott, furnish the best account of his life at 
 this time. 
 
 " Philadelphia, Jan. 22d, 1828. 
 
 " To Wait Talcott, Esq. 
 
 " I am located in a central and pleasant part of this beau- 
 tiful city, and already have a circle of warm-hearted friends 
 around me. By a chain of incidental circumstances I was 
 brought here, and took charge of Trenton Academy three 
 weeks, the preceptor being absent on a visit. Friends 
 seem to have been provided by God to receive me in all 
 my wanderings. 
 
 " Mr. Patterson, a devoted minister of the gospel of this 
 city, received me to his house and procured pupils for me. 
 Life is a rugged road ; the scenes of August have left a 
 kind of melancholy tenderness on my mind which will ac- 
 company me to the grave. In this land of strangers I 
 remember you, my dear Wait, with peculiar affection. 
 
 * Mr. Bushnell has for many years been totallj' blind. We offer no 
 apology for giving this interesting letter entire. 
 
READING LAW. 51 
 
 Many hundred niilcs now separate us, but I trust we are 
 both journeying to that bright world where we shall join 
 hands to part no more. 
 
 " Our beloved Mr. Finney is here preaching with his 
 accustomed energ}'. Five or six of the Philadelphia clergy- 
 ]nen are much attached to him, while some others oppose 
 him. But prejudice is fast vanishing away, and hundreds 
 who came to find fault, go away ashamed of their jealousy. 
 
 ***** "Tray that God would give 
 me opportunities to do good. I am willing to try the 
 burning plains of Africa, or the cold regions of North 
 America among the Indians, if I think it my duty." 
 
 To the same. 
 
 " Philadelphia, April 3d, ]828. 
 
 * * * " The revival still continues under 
 
 the preaching of Mr. Finney. About one hundred and 
 fifty indulge hopes, and three times that number are anx- 
 ious. Mr. Finney is as much engaged as at Rome, and 
 nothing is able to stand before him. He pursues the even 
 tenor of his way ; but little is said by the doctors against 
 him, and though they stand aloof from the revival, they 
 no longer oppose openly. 
 
 " I attend meetings every evening, and have for months. 
 This, with my school and other duties, keeps me constantly 
 engaged. I am superintendent of a Sabbath-school, and 
 one of the Managers of the Sabbath-school Union. * * 
 
 "I expect to leave this place for Andover in July, and 
 you will not disappoint me in the expectation of receiving 
 a letter from you before I go." 
 
CHAPTER lY. 
 
 ANDOVER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY — CORRESPONDENCE — 
 
 1828-1832. 
 
 WE gain almost our only knowledge of Mr. Brainerd's 
 student life at Andoverfrom his letters during these 
 four years. We shall make such extracts from his corre- 
 spondence with friends as will illustrate his character and 
 pursuits during this period. 
 
 "Andover Theo. SEir., Aug. 9th, 1828. 
 
 " To Wait Talcott, Esq. 
 
 "I left Philadelphia July 15th, and stopping at Trenton, 
 New York, Lebanon Springs, and Boston, did not reach 
 this place till August 2d. 1 am much pleased with the 
 location of the Seminary, and the kind, brotherly feelings 
 of the students. 
 
 " The faculty are plain, fraternal, and affectionate in 
 their intercourse with the students." 
 
 From Rev. Charles G. Finney. 
 
 "Philadelphia, Oct. 21st, 1828. 
 
 " My dear Brainerd : 
 
 " Your letter came duly to hand, and afforded me much 
 pleasure. I seize a moment in which to mention a thing 
 or two. 
 
 '•First, be careful, amid the various specimens of public 
 speaking which are constantly before 3^ou, not to become 
 a copyist. Be Brainerd, or you will be nobody. I have 
 
AN DOVER TUEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 53 
 
 seen many young* men spoiled by setting up a model and 
 attemptinj^ to fashion themselves after it. In this the\^ 
 fail. In the attempt, however, they spoil themselves by 
 losing themselves under their borrowed manner, and often, 
 to observing eyes, render themselves very ridiculous and 
 disgusting. 
 
 " Be careful, my dear Brainerd, not to suffer yourself to 
 be criticised out of a natural and colloquial style of com- 
 munication. I cannot speak of Andover particularly as to 
 style and manner, but I am certain that much that is 
 called 79i<?piY eloquence, at the present day, is mere bosh, 
 and noise, and foppery. I have the greatest confidence in 
 the piety and theology of Andover, but there are three 
 principal defects in the specimens which I have seen from 
 there, which I shall mention to jovl with perfect freedom. 
 Their young men are not half enough in earnest. A 
 hearer would be very apt often to catch the impression 
 that they were performing professioiial duty. This makes 
 infidels, however logically they may reason. Unless they 
 appear to believe their own message, it would be a miracle 
 if others believed it. They are too stiff, there is not 
 enough of nature in their manner. They are not collo- 
 quial enough. Their style is too elevated, their periods 
 too round, too much dress and drapery and millinery and 
 verbiage about their preaching. They are, or seem to be, 
 afraid of being called vulgar. They are not, by the mul- 
 titude, understood. I do not mean that these things are 
 peculiar to Andover ; they are the common defects of most 
 theological students. The more I preach, and the more I 
 hear others preach, the more I am impressed with the ripe 
 conviction that a prominent reason why preaching pro- 
 duces so little effect is, because it is not understood. Young 
 men are often afraid and ashamed of using common words. 
 From this error stand off wide. Keep clear, or you make 
 shipwreck of your usefulness. I am called vulgar, and 
 
54 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 yet I find that I often use language that a gi'eat part of 
 my hearers don't understand. 
 
 " The remark is often made to me, ' I never understood 
 preaching until I heard you.' Don't think by this that I 
 mean to make myself a standard. By no means. I only 
 mean to advert to the fact, that if a man will be under- 
 stood, he must dare to be called vulgar. There is another 
 thing, however, of infinite importance to a student of 
 divinity, and that in which it is not slander to say almost 
 all ministers greatly fail. I mean a spirit of prayer. 
 
 " I am convinced that nothing in the whole Christian 
 religion is so difficult, and so rarely attained, as a praying 
 heart. Without this you are as weak as weakness itself. 
 With it you are irreaistihle. This would be thought a 
 strange remark by some, and to savor strongly of fanati- 
 cism. But I tell you, my dear B., before the millennium 
 comes the church will have to turn over a new leaf, and 
 take a new lesson on the subject of prayer. You remember 
 this ! When I think how almost certain you are to lose 
 what of the praying spirit you ever had, and come out of 
 the Seminary very wise, but very dry, and go about ' sow- 
 ing seed,'' without unction and life and spirituality, I am 
 distressed, and could I raise my voice with sufficient 
 strength, you would hear my cry, 'Brainerd, beware ! Lay 
 down your books and pray !' Frequent seasons of secret 
 fasting and prayer are, in my oiun mind, wholly indispen- 
 sable to the keeping up an intercourse with God. 
 
 " My dear brother, let me say again and again, if you 
 lose your spirit of prayer you will do nothing, or next to 
 nothing, though you had the intellectual endowments of 
 an angel. My beloved Brainerd, will you remember this? 
 If you lose your spirituality, you had better stop and break 
 off in the midst of your preparations, and repent and return 
 to God, or go about some other employment; for I cannot 
 contemplate a more loathsome and abominable object than 
 
ANDOVER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 55 
 
 an earthly-minded minister. The blessed Lord deliver 
 and preserve his dear church from the guidance and influ- 
 ence of men who know not what it is to pray. 
 " Yours in the best of bonds,* 
 
 " C. G. Finney." 
 " p. S. — On running over this letter, it occurred to me 
 that the impression might be made upon your mind by it 
 that T suppose the faults in the manner of preaching, which 
 I have mentioned, are more prominent in Andover students 
 than in others. This is not my meaning. Upon the whole, 
 I give, in my own mind, the decided preference to Ando- 
 ver above all the seminaries, and think the faults less con- 
 spicuous in their students than in others. But yet they 
 are faulty in these things generally. They are too meas- 
 ured and dryly systematic to be what they ought to be. 
 
 ''C. G. F." 
 
 We have given Mr. Finney's letter entire on account of 
 the judicious and practical nature of his instructions to 
 young men who are looking to the ministry. 
 
 To Wait Talcott, Esq. 
 
 "Andover, Oct. 29th, 1828. 
 
 " I have just returned from New Hampshire, — labored 
 in a Unitarian town, with a little orthodox church, who 
 have no pastor. I preached twenty times in four weeks, 
 and hope did some good. Crowds came to hear. I dealt 
 pointedly and faithfully with saints and sinners, — en- 
 couraging the former to pray and the latter to repent. I 
 left the church with a regret which I believe was fully re- 
 ciprocated, if tears mean anything. 
 
 " To-morrow the term commences. I am much pleased 
 
 ■••■On this letter was indorsed, in the handwriting of Thomas Brainerd : 
 "0 Lord, assist me to remember and practice the precepts contained in 
 this letter, for Christ's sake. Amen. 
 
 "T. Brainerd." 
 
56 I^IFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 with this seminary, and think I shall spend my time very 
 happily here." 
 
 To the same. 
 
 " Andover, Jany. 11th, 1829. 
 
 "About six weeks since, I received a statement of the 
 proceedings of your Temperance Society. I became a 
 member of such a society in Philadelphia, and have since 
 religiously regarded my promise to 'taste not, touch not' 
 the liquid fire. I think the time has come for putting 
 down a vice which has tainted the life-blood of society 
 and thrown myriads of immortal beings into perdition." 
 
 To the same. 
 
 " Andover, March 4th, 1829. 
 
 *****" Residing in this peaceful, 
 consecrated seminary, associating almost exclusively with 
 those who have drank at the fountains of ancient and 
 modern science, who have also sanctified their literary 
 acquisitions at the altar of heaven; enjoying good health, 
 every want supplied and almost every wish gratified, I 
 Avould most gratefully recognize the kind hand of a benefi- 
 cent God, and devoutly bless Him wiio hath given me a 
 pleasant heritage. Mercy, undeserved and abundant, has 
 been my portion. Light has risen in darkness, joy in the 
 midst of grief, hope out of despair, and rich consolations 
 and support in the hour of trial. Did my conscience tell 
 me that omniscience approves the sensations of my heart 
 and the actions of my hands; could 1 believe that daily 
 I was laying up a treasure for eternity, I should be 
 happy. 
 
 " But no place is too holy for the intrusion of vain 
 thoughts, ambitious purposes, unsanctified affections. 
 They entered heaven and poisoned the love of angels; 
 
ANDOVER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 57 
 
 they entered Paradise and taught man to rebel against his 
 God ; they entered amid the little band that Jesus chose, 
 and caused one to sink to perdition. Such feelings some- 
 times find a place in the schools of the prophets ; they are 
 sometimes felt by him who ministers at the altar. 
 
 " Wherever felt or found, they carry in their train spiritual 
 sickness and death. How natural it is to wish to be called 
 a great man ; to have popularity ; to be admired, flattered; 
 and yet how sinful are such wishes ! Gratified, they do 
 not procure happiness ; and ungratified, they certainly pro- 
 duce misery. Have men of genius accomplished most for 
 the cause of God and amelioration of the condition of man ? 
 Look at Byron — a meteor which shed a lurid glare on the 
 earth, quenched in the ocean of eternity, — its course can 
 only be known by the arid, scorched, blackened track which 
 it leaves behind. Such has been the influence not of By- 
 ron and Yoltaire only, but of nine-tenths of all men of 
 genius, who have lived and demoralized society and died. 
 This is being 'damned to everlasting fame.' May you and 
 I, dear Wait, keep at the foot of the cross ; and if there 
 we do our duty, Jesus will say to us in another world, 
 ' Come up higher !' 
 
 " The boys in the academy have the cannon out to-day, 
 to celebrate the inauguration of Jackson. 
 
 " Your sincere friend and Christian brother, 
 
 " T. Brainerd." 
 
 "Andover, April 9th, 1829. 
 
 " My dear Wait : 
 
 " Andover has become to me a home. It is truly a conse- 
 crated, lovely place. Gratitude and devotion to God ought 
 to burn in our hearts and melt on our lips, that in this 
 place where the wicked (ourselves excepted) trouble not, 
 wtiere the cares of the world oppress not, we may prepare 
 
 6 
 
58 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 ourselves with the armor of truth that we may fight the 
 battles of the Lord. 
 
 " A thousand interesting recollections are associated 
 with this place. Parsons, Fisk, Mills, Judson, Newell, 
 once trod the ground which we tread ; offered up their 
 morning and evening devotions at the same social altar. 
 They had our trials and more than our devotion. They 
 sleep silently on the burning plains of Asia — their warfare 
 over. Could I feel as they felt, and was I qualified as they 
 were, I would cheerfully abandon all that is near and dear 
 in my native country to follow their footsteps ; but, alas ! 
 how often does sin and unbelief and selfishness cloud my 
 own hopes and I'ender me indifferent to the sighing of a 
 lost world! The sinner stretches out his imploring hands 
 for that gospel to which he has never listened, and I feel 
 little and do little for the blessed cause of that Saviour 
 who abjured heaven for me. 
 
 " The cause of temperance prospers here. That period, 
 thank God, has arrived when it is disgraceful for a Chris- 
 tian even to taste the slow poison. 
 
 " Mr. Finney is still at Reading, in the midst of a 
 powerful revival, as usual. Pray for him! New York, 
 Boston, and Philadelphia have in each a revival. If 
 these moral hearts could be purified they would send a 
 healthful current through all the veins of our republic. 
 
 " Christians do not seem to be discouraged about the 
 Sabbath mails, the sophistry of Colonel Johnson to the 
 contrary notwithstanding. 
 
 " I shall leave this place for Philadelphia a week from 
 Monday, — vacation five weeks. I intend to be in Rome 
 about the tenth of May. 
 
 " Your attached friend, 
 
 "T. Brainerd." 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 59 
 
 To W. T. 
 
 " Andover, July 9th, 1829. 
 
 ''I arrived at this place in health on the 13th ult., and 
 am again permitted to enjoy the society of my Chris- 
 tian brethren in this school of the prophets. My health is 
 good, my studies pleasant, and I am happy if the world 
 can confer happiness. I am so crowded with study just 
 now that I am obliged to almost insult you with this 
 paltry scrawl. Accept it as an assurance of my affection- 
 ate remembrance for the present, and a pledge of something 
 more interesting in the future. 
 
 " 'Absent or dead, a friend should still be dear ; 
 A sigh the absent claims, the dead a tear.' 
 
 "Your true friend, 
 
 "T. Brainerd," 
 
 To the same. 
 
 "Wilton, N. H., Sept. 1st, 1829. 
 
 " You may be surprised to see my letter dated at Wil- 
 ton, N. H. It is a pleasant little town, amid the mount- 
 ains, the same in which I spent my vacation last fall. 
 They have no pastor, and so I came up to supply their 
 pulpit over Sabbath. 
 
 " I see by the Rome Repuhlican that Mr. Finney is in 
 Rome. lie will have a high place among that shining 
 number who have turned many to righteousness. He is 
 wise to win souls, and that certainly is the most desirable 
 wisdom. They say he is eccentric, enthusiastic, etc. And 
 what are his wise censors doing that they take the liberty 
 to condemn him? The only way to avoid censure is to 
 be tame, silent, still, careful, prudent; and some men are. 
 able to avoid all censure by pursuing this course, and they 
 
GO ^^IFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 deserve about as much praise for their negative goodness 
 as an oyster. JNlr. P'inney has outlived the opposition of 
 his brethren ; but he cannot expect to live till he can 
 preach the whole counsel of God without opposition. I 
 pray God that the church in Rome, where blessings have 
 fallen not in detail but in gross, may be preserved from 
 spiritual death." 
 
 To Wait Talcott, Esq. 
 
 " Andover, Nov. 25th, 1829. 
 
 * * * * "You knew that one year ago I 
 spent a vacation in "Wilton, N. H., striving to build up 
 the little orthodox church in that town. This church 
 separated from the Unitarians (who still hold their meet- 
 ing-house) six 3'ears ago. They numbered at first but five 
 men and tAvelve women. They had no meeting-house and 
 no pastor. The wealth and influence of the town being in 
 the hands of Unitarians, was arrayed against them. They 
 hired an ' upper chamber,' for worship, and being favored 
 occasionally with preaching from the ministers in the 
 vicinity, they have continued to increase to the present 
 time. Last August one of the members came to Andover, 
 forty miles, and informed me that the hall in which they had 
 been accustomed to assemble had become absolutely too 
 small for them ; that they had undertaken to build a small 
 church ; that, after taxing themselves to the extent of their 
 ability, there was still a deficiency of five hundred and 
 thirty dollars, which must be procured before the house 
 could be finished. They requested me to act as their 
 agent. I agreed to devote to the object one vacation of 
 five weeks. The business was full of trials. I sometimes 
 laid it before congregations on the Sabbath, but more fre- 
 quently applied in person to the benevolent in each town. 
 During the five Aveeks I traveled almost incessantly, but 
 
CORRESPOND ENCE. 6 1 
 
 before the end of my allotted time I bad collected five 
 hundred and thirty-four dollars. The people of Wilton 
 rejoiced in my success, and their gratitude more than com- 
 pensates for all my toil and labor." 
 
 The permanence of the interest which Mr. Brainerd ex- 
 cited was a marked feature of his whole career. In the 
 spring of 1866 he received a letter from Wilton, written 
 in th^ tremulous hand of age, recounting the 3^outhful 
 memories of thirty-five years past. 
 
 "Wilton, April 29th, 1866. 
 
 To Rev. T. Brainerd. 
 
 * * * * <' Some event often brings to mind 
 the few weeks you spent with us in your early labors in 
 the Christian ministry. I have been recalling some of 
 those interesting scenes through which we passed when 
 you were in Wilton. 
 
 " We are more indebted to you in obtaining the means 
 for the building of our church than to any other man. 
 
 " I should be very happy to meet you, and talk of the 
 past, the present, and the future. 
 
 " God bless you, brother ! If, in the kind providence of 
 God, your footsteps should lead you again to this cherished 
 spot (for it must be so to you), we should be happy to 
 greet you, and come face to face with our cherished friend, 
 Thomas Brainerd. 
 
 " Yours in Christian love, 
 
 " Z. Abbott." 
 
 "Andover, Jany. 17th, 1830. 
 
 My dear Friend, W. T.: 
 
 * * * * "As our acquaintance has been 
 
 long and the chain of friendship (to use an Indian phrase), 
 
 6* 
 
62 Ll^FE OF REV. THOMAS BR AI NERD, D.D. 
 
 which at an early period connected our hearts, has nev'er 
 been broken or even cracked ; though my negligence has 
 sometimes given it quite a stretch, I deemed it duty to 
 answer your letter first. 
 
 * * * * " You speak of the decision of 
 
 on the Sabbath question : ' That the moral law was abro- 
 gated by the advent of Christ.' I had supposed the moral 
 law to be the great chain which binds the universe to God. 
 The Sabbath was established at the Creation, long, long 
 before the Jewish dispensation. The Decalogue confirmed 
 it; the Apostles, though they changed the day to honor 
 the Son of God, observed it as a Sabbath ; their example is, 
 or ought to be, a law to all who believe in their divine com- 
 mission; and so long as God requires worship, so long will 
 the obligation to devote the Sabbath to this purpose bind 
 
 individuals and nations. That decision of ought to 
 
 be appended to Colonel Johnson's famous report, and both 
 published together. 
 
 " Revivals are becoming more frequent in New Eng- 
 land. The dark night seems to be passing away — the 
 light of heaven already seems to streak the East. 
 
 " I pray that above all else we may seek to promote the 
 interests of Christ's kingdom, — and feel deeply for perish- 
 ing sinners, — 
 
 "'Who, much diseased, yet nothing feel; 
 Much menaced, nothing drea I ; 
 Have wounds which God alone can heal. 
 Yet never ask his aid.' 
 
 " Your friend, 
 
 " Thos. Brainerd." 
 
 In the spring of 1S30 Mr. Brainerd undertook an agency 
 in behalf of Sabbath-schools in the eastern part of Massa- 
 chusetts. Strange as it now appears, they were almost a 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 63 
 
 new institution in the most enlightened section of the 
 country. 
 
 To Miss S. J. L. 
 
 "Salem, May 13th, 1830. 
 * * * * " You ask how I succeed in 
 
 my agency. Very well indeed. I have visited five towns, 
 most of which are large sea-port towns, and in each have 
 succeeded, by personal interviews and public addresses, in 
 exciting the friends of Sabbath-schools to more vigorous 
 exertions. Within two weeks I have delivered nineteen 
 public addresses, many of which were more than an hour 
 in length. On the Sabbath I deliver an address in the 
 pulpit of one church in the morning, and then go four or 
 five miles to another church in the afternoon. These, with 
 two addresses to Sabbath-schools, and one to young men 
 on Bible classes, in the evening, make out five speeches on 
 the Sabbath, three of which are an hour in length. Then 
 I have four or five addresses to make during the week. 
 There is perhaps not one student in twenty who is able to 
 speak as many hours in a day as myself without injury to 
 his health. I generally speak with great earnestness and 
 much physical effort, but still with great ease to myself. 
 
 " God has blessed my labors. In one Aveek fifteen new 
 scholars were added to one Sabbath-school. In every 
 other place God, I trust,, made me the instrument of 
 good. 
 
 " I left Andover April 30th, came to Salem, stayed two 
 days, — left two weeks ago to-day, — went through the 
 towns of Beverly, Wenham, Hamilton, Essex, and Glou- 
 cester, and returned yesterday to this place. To-morrow 
 morning I leave to visit Lynn, Mai'blehead, Lynnfield, and 
 Dan vers ; and after spending about two weeks in these 
 places, I shall return to this city, Salem, and labor one 
 week, including the Sabbath, in which 1 deliver an address 
 
64 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 to three churches, and then our term commences, and I 
 shall go to Andover. 
 
 "Yesterday I came from Sandy Bay, a parish on Cape 
 Ann, where the people obtain a living by the cod-fishery. 
 On the point of Cape Ann is one of the most flourishing 
 churches in Massachusetts, made up of these fishermen, — 
 many of whom are intelligent and Avealthy, — with their 
 wives and children. Mr. Jewett, the pastor, a very good 
 man, went to that village twenty-four years ago, and 
 found it a moral desolation. He commenced under every 
 discouragement, and labored ten years with doubtful suc- 
 cess. The Lord has blessed him, and Mr. Jewett has now 
 a church of more than two hundred members, a Sabbath- 
 school of nearly three hundred members, a moral, atten- 
 tive congregation of nearly two thousand. The tear 
 glistened in his eyes while Mr. Jewett recounted to me 
 the Avonders God had showed among his people. I did 
 not, in Sandy Bay, see one man intoxicated, nor hear one 
 profane word. The fishermen, while they pursue their 
 hazardous and laborious employment on the ocean, are 
 accustomed to have prayers morning and evening on 
 board their ships." ****** 
 
 The following letter, to a 3'oung friend who had written 
 to Mr. Brainerd for some directions to guide him in a 
 course of private study, contains suggestions so judicious 
 and comprehensive that it may be useful to others. The 
 early studies of his \'oung friend had been repeatedly iu- 
 teiTupted by inflammation of the e\'es, to which fact allu- 
 sion is made in the letter. 
 
 "Andover, May, 1830. 
 
 " You ask my advice about study. I highl}^ approve 
 of your purpose of mental improvement. The finest and 
 most finished education will grow rusty by neglect of 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 65 
 
 study. Mental cultivation is everything to those who 
 wish to exert an influence over mind. 
 
 " In the first place, let me advise you not to injure your 
 eyes. Secondly, carefully revise all the common, every- 
 day branches of education. These are more necessary 
 than any other, inasmuch as they are to be brought into 
 use in the daily concerns of life. Begin, and neglect 
 nothing until you understand it perfectly, with Grammar, 
 Geography, Arithmetic, Easy Geometry, Civil and Eccle- 
 siastical History, as it is found in compends for the schools, 
 jS^atural and Moral Philosophy, on a small but well-ad- 
 justed plan. Then Botan}^, Chemistr}', Blair's Rhetoric, 
 Astronomy. When you have refreshed your mind on these 
 studies, proceed to Paley's Natural Theology, — a little but 
 extremely valuable book, — Paley's Evidences of Christi- 
 anity, Alexander's Evidences, Watson's Apology for the 
 Bible, Dick's Christian Philosophy. And if your time is 
 not all occupied by tliese, try to write out your thoughts 
 on some subjects of moral interest. 
 
 "And how will you get time to do so much as I have 
 laid out for you ? 1st. By rising early, and never looking* 
 into a book after sundown. If you study evenings, your 
 eyes are gone forever. 2d. By improving all the shreds 
 and patches of time. ' Gather up the fragments, that no- 
 thing be lost.' 3d. By disciplining your mind to think 
 steadily and straightforward on a subject, till you under- 
 stand it in all its relations ; excluding from the mind every 
 thought not connected Avith the subject before you. 4th. 
 By taking care of your health ; spending a part of every 
 day, two hours at least, in vigorous exercise, and remain- 
 ing in the house evenings. Are you unwilling to practice 
 the self-denial attendant on this course ? I know nothing 
 better to advise. I practice these things myself, so far as 
 circumstances will admit. 5th. Do one thing at a time, 
 and do that one thing uell. Persevere in this course 
 
6G LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 steadily for a year at least, and then write me an account 
 of your progress, and if you find difficulties, tell me what 
 the}" are, and I will try to extricate you." 
 
 To Wait Talcott, Essi. 
 
 "An-dover, Sept. 9th, 18.30. 
 
 " My dear Friend : 
 
 " Soon after I received your letter, came our vacation. 
 I spent it in the south part of this county on an agency 
 for Sabbath -schools. I visited Marblehead, Salem, Lynn, 
 etc. These towns are pleasantly situated on the sea-shore 
 east of Boston. I spoke on the subject of Sabbath-schools 
 in as many as fifteen towns ; in almost every place to large 
 and attentive audiences. My business led me to the ex- 
 treme point of Cape Ann. 
 
 "At Newburyport I. went down into a vault and laid 
 ray hand on the bones of the great Whitfield, which repose 
 in that town. I felt a solemn awe in contemplating the 
 mortal remains of that eminent servant of God. I felt the 
 vanity of earth while the unsightly skeleton of the great 
 Whitfield lay before me. He has passed away, and the 
 millions who listened to his warnings and entreaties have 
 gone with him to the judgment of the great day. He does 
 not regret his zeal and self-denial. The toil was brief, but 
 the rest is eternal ; the self-denial was severe, but the re- 
 ward is rich as heaven and enduring as the everlasting 
 ages. I cannot be a Whitfield, but God grant that I may 
 resemble him in devotion to the cause of my Master. 
 
 " You have heard of the great Salem trials for the mur- 
 der of Mr. White ? I was there six days listening to the 
 eloquence of Daniel Webster. There is something very 
 majestic in his appearance. He is a large, black-eyed man, 
 with large whiskers. There is a fascination in his smile, 
 but terror in bis frown. As a public speaker, I have never 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 67 
 
 listened to his equal. He unites good taste, strength, and 
 vivacity. Had he not been engaged in the case, the mur- 
 derer, Avhom every one knew to be guilty, would probably 
 have escaped through a loophole of the law. As it is, to 
 the great satisfaction of all who love justice, he will be 
 hung. 
 
 " I superintend the Sabbath-school in this town. It is a 
 pleasant, but arduous and responsible office. Our school 
 consists of five hundred and seventy, of all ages and con- 
 ditions. We have one class over eighty years of age ; 
 and fifty little ones under five. The extremes of life meet 
 here. The Lord has blessed us with a revival, which com- 
 menced in May, and is still progressing with undiminished 
 power. About thirty-five scholars are indulging hopes, 
 and seventy attend the inquiry meeting. They come to me 
 sometimes and say, in a tone of deep feeling and affection, 
 'Mr. Brainerd, will you pray for me?' Mr. J., a plain 
 man in a remote part of the town, went out about four 
 o'clock one morning, and saw down by the wall, not far 
 from his house, a something, he could not tell what. He 
 cautioiasly drew near, and heard a low, faint voice ; he dis- 
 covered it was his little daughter, ten years old, out at four 
 o'clock in the morning, upon her knees on the damp 
 ground, praying. I could fill a sheet with such cases. 
 The revival is not confined to children, but extends to all 
 ages and conditions. Engaged in such scenes, and hav- 
 ing beside my studies the care of such a school, I have 
 written but few letters. Our vacation is at hand. I leave 
 Andover Sept. 23d, and return Nov. 1st. 
 
 " Yours affectionately, 
 
 " T. Brainerd." 
 
68 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BR AI NERD, D.D. 
 
 To Wait Talcott. 
 
 "Andover, Feb. 17th, 1831. 
 
 "My dear Friend: 
 
 "Your letter brought substantial evidence of the con- 
 stancy and sincerity of your friendship. Accept my hearty 
 
 tllHiIlKS ^ '^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ "^ 
 
 "I have had pecuniary trials many times since I com- 
 menced my studies. The benevolence of my friends in 
 
 and have relieved my pressing necessities, 
 
 so that I advance comfortably in my course. 
 
 "I was licensed to preach, the last of December, and 
 preached my first sermon before the congregation the 
 second Sabbath in January. 
 
 " As I draw near the time of my departure from this de- 
 lightful seminai'y, to enter upon the wide world as an am- 
 bassador of Christ, a sense of the overwhelming responsi- 
 bilities of the sacred office press me to the dust. How can 
 I sustain an office which made even an apostle cry out, 
 'Who is sufficient for these things?' I am weak, but 
 God is omnipotent ; ' I can do all things through Christ 
 strengthening me.' God made a pebble in the hand of a 
 stripling the instrument of death to the pride of Philistia's 
 host. He can sanctify my feeble talents and acquisitions, 
 so that 1 shall be mighty in the armies of Zion. 
 
 " My Sabbath-school still flourishes. Four hundred and 
 fifty attend this winter, though the weather has been pecu- 
 liarly cold and tempestuous. Within the last year sixty 
 from our Sabbath-school have united with the church. 
 
 " The popular feeling in this section of country toward 
 Mr. Finney has undergone a great change. 1 should think 
 one-half at least of the ministers are entirely favorable to 
 him. 
 
 " I graduate at this seminary the 23d of next Septem- 
 ber. It is my purpose to go soon after to the Valley of 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 69 
 
 the Mississippi, to labor, wear out,' and die there. But 
 before I go to my final destination, I shall visit Leyden 
 and Rome. 
 
 " I must confess that I was sorry to hear that a new 
 church was organized in Rome. When there are such 
 desolations in our country, I regret that large societies do 
 not remain united, if possible, that many may be fed at 
 the same time by the same hand. 
 
 " Yours truly, 
 
 " T. Brainerd. " 
 
 To Wait Talcott, Esq. 
 
 "Andover, July 14th, 1831. 
 
 " Since I first saw you, my long cherished friend, I have 
 traveled not a little and seen much. From a hundred dif- 
 ferent individuals I have received professions of affection. 
 1 have had the fortune, or, as it ma}' prove, the misfortune, 
 to be in everyplace where I have labored, a popular man; 
 but I have not found, nor do I ever expect to find, a friend 
 dearer to me than yourself. Your friendship has been so 
 disinterested, active, tender, constant and cheering, that I 
 feel fully prepared to solve the problem. Does real friend- 
 ship exist ? 
 
 " I have now been for three years surrounded by pious, 
 intelligent, worthy young men, whom I love and respect ; 
 and by whom I have reason to believe that I am esteemed. 
 Yet I have never formed a friendship with any of these of 
 the same familiar character with that which prevails be- 
 tween you and me. Thinking of you, I roll back the 
 wheel of time ; emotions, too thrilling for utterance, are 
 called up by the remembrance of the scenes in which we 
 have mingled. ******* 
 
 "I finish my studies in two months; and then, after 
 
 7 
 
70 I^IFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 making my friends in Utica, Rome, and Leyden a short 
 visit, shall probably go to the West and there spend my 
 life. I know not precisely the place where I shall be 
 located. If it is a place where I can be useful, no matter, 
 about the rest. 
 
 " Nearly or quite six hundred attend our Sabbath-school. 
 The state of things in the church is rather interesting. Re- 
 vivals are all around us. Our class consists of forty-two. 
 Eight are going on foreign missions ; thirteen as domestic 
 missionaries to the West and South, and the remainder 
 will stay in New England. We shall soon be scattered 
 over the wide world. 
 
 " It is said that Mr. Finney is coming to Boston. I 
 should be glad to see him, although I am fearful his re- 
 ception in Boston would be rather cold. I hope he will 
 do good. " Your sincere friend, 
 
 " T. Brainerd." 
 
 Mr. Finney's preaching, like that of Dr. Beecher's, formed 
 a new era in the history of the church. It was live preach- 
 ing ; and " life from the dead" everywhere followed it. Yet, 
 like all new movements, it was viewed with jealousy and 
 distrust in many quarters, and especially in New Eng- 
 land. 
 
 In July, 1827, a convention met at New licbanon, com- 
 posed of leading clergymen, when Dr. Beecher strongly 
 expressed his unwillingness to have Mr. Finney preach in 
 Boston. But while attending the General Assembly, in 
 Philadelphia, in 1828, Dr. Beecher writes as follows : 
 " There is such an amount of truth and power in the 
 preaching of Mr. Finney, and so great an amount of good 
 hopefully done, that it would be dangerous to oppo.se 
 him, lest at length we might be found to tight against 
 God." 
 
 In August, 1831, Mr. Finney commenced preaching in 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 71 
 
 Park Street Church and other churches in Boston, with 
 success, by direct invitation from the pastors.* 
 
 During Mr. Brainerd's residence in Philadelphia, more 
 particularly while supplying the Trenton Academy, in the 
 absence of the principal, he was introduced to the family 
 of Mr. Thomas Langstroth, of Trenton, New Jersey. 
 Subsequent acquaintance and correspondence while at 
 Andover resulted in his engagement to one of his daugh- 
 ters, Miss Sarah J. Langstroth, to whom he was married 
 October 20th, 1831. 
 
 T. B. to Wait Talcott, Esq. 
 
 "Cincinnati, Jany. 8th, 1832. 
 
 " My dear Friend : 
 
 " I conclude that you have lately been entirely at a loss 
 when you attempted to imagine wiiere I could be located. 
 You now see by my date that I have reached the great 
 valley, and sit down to write you from its lai'gest city. New 
 Orleans exce"pted. 
 
 " Do you wish to know a little of my history for the last 
 few months ? I must be brief, for I have many things to 
 say in a few words. 
 
 " I finished my studies at Andover, September 30th. It 
 was trying to part with my dear classmates. For three 
 years we had studied, walked, worked, recited, and prayed 
 together. With some I had shared the same room and 
 bed. With many I had formed most intimate and endear- 
 ing friendships ; friendships which I trust will travel over 
 the grave far down to eternity. It was hard to part from 
 these friends. Some were to remain in New England. 
 Some, with me, were to climb the Alleghanies, and labor 
 and die in the great valley. Some, a few, but six or seven, 
 
 * Life of Rev. Lyman Beecher, vol. ii. pp. 101, 106, 249. 
 
72 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 were to go far hence to the Gentiles, and to plant the stand- 
 ard of Jesus in the isles of the sea or on the plains of Asia. 
 From many I was to part for life, to see them no more 
 until life should be past, and they and I should be sum- 
 moned, with the souls to whom we had ministered, to the 
 bar of God. The scene is over. Our class is scattered 
 to the four winds. The day of our parting is one that 
 will stand out in bold relief in the history of our life. We 
 shall look back upon it with tender sadness, until the hand 
 of death shall unbar the gates of eternity, and reassemble 
 us, as we hope, in the upper sanctuary. 
 
 "From Andover, in company with ten others, I pro- 
 ceeded to New York, and was there ordained as an Evan- 
 gelist. From thence I proceeded to Trenton, New Jerse}'", 
 and was married to Miss Sarah J. Langstroth, of that 
 city. So far, I had never relinquished my purpose of 
 visiting Rome and Lcyden. But, after consulting with 
 my friends, I found at this season, the last of October, 
 that it would be very unsafe for us to cross the Lakes, 
 and concluded to come over the mountains to Pittsburg, 
 and so down the Ohio. We started from Philadelphia, in 
 the stage, October 25th, and began to ascend the mount- 
 ains the 2'7th. The third day of our journey we had 
 climbed the highest peak between Philadelphia and Pitts- 
 burg. We then began to breathe the atmosphere of the 
 great valley. As I looked far west on this valley and re- 
 flected that in some part of it my ashes would probably 
 rest, as I thought of the friends I had left behind and of 
 the uncertainty before me, I could not refrain from tears. 
 October 29th, we reached Pittsburg. It is a stirring place, 
 of twenty-two thousand inhabitants. We were three days 
 descending the Ohio to this place, five hundred and fifty 
 miles. When I reached Cincinnati, the Fourth Presby- 
 terian Church was vacant. I was invited to preach. The 
 people were pleased, and have given me an invitation to 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. ^3 
 
 stay with them. I shall probably remain. I board with 
 a brother clergyman, pastor of the Sixth Church, and am 
 pleasantly situated. 
 
 "Cincinnati has a population of thirty thousand. My 
 congregation is small, but increasing. 
 
 " May the blessing of God make you perfect in all 
 things. " Your friend, 
 
 " T, Brain ERD." 
 
 We make the following extracts from the journal of Mr, 
 Brainerd's sister, who was in New York at this time. 
 
 " Oct. Yth, 1831. This has been a solemn evening to me. 
 I have attended my brother's ordination. The sermon was 
 preached by the Rev. Dr. Cox, from Jer. xxiii. 28: 'The 
 prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream ; and he 
 that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully.' 
 
 " Six others were ordained with him, mostly young men 
 destined for the Valley of the Mississippi. The whole 
 service was peculiarly interesting, and closed with the 
 missionary hymn, — 
 
 "'From Greenland's icy mountains,' etc." 
 
 " Oct. 20th. This evening my brother is to be married. 
 Circumstances prevent my attending his wedding." 
 
 " Oct. 22d. To-day 1 have parted with my dear brother 
 Thomas, and heaven only knows whether I am to see him 
 again in this world. He, with his wife, sailed for Phila- 
 delphia, and from thence they will proceed to Kentucky. 
 He could not visit Oneida and Lewis Counties, which he 
 regretted very much. He spoke of father and his brothers 
 in Leyden with much tenderness, and said, ' I shall in all 
 probability never see father again.' 
 
 "From an upper window I saw the steamboat leave the 
 wharf, and gazed upon it until it was hid from view, and 
 
 7* 
 
•74 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 neither smoke nor flag was seen. I then returned to my 
 own room and relieved my heart with a flood of tears." 
 
 It must be remembered that "going to the West" thirty- 
 eight years ago, when the toilsome journey was made by 
 slow stages, through many weeks, was a very different 
 thing from being whirled over an iron track by the " Light- 
 ning Express Train" in thirty hours, at the present day. 
 Our home missionaries went with the same renunciation 
 of home and family ties as the foreign missionaries to 
 Ceylon and Burmah. 
 
 In a letter to her brother, some weeks later, this sister 
 writes : " I have been earnestly solicited to attend the 
 theater while I have been in New York, but, thanks to the 
 early instructions of my dear parents, who taught me to 
 despise theatrical performances, I have had no inclination 
 to go. A gentleman said, ' If you would be persuaded to 
 go this evening I think your prejudices would all vanish.' 
 To which I replied, ' I hope never to be less prejudiced 
 than I now am. If I have never attended theaters, I 
 know their bad effects and their natural tendency to dissi- 
 pation on those who have.' 
 
 "And shall I tell you what the wonderful play is that 
 has drawn thousands together this season, and is to-night 
 repeated for ihe fourteenth time ? 
 
 Cinderella ; or, The Little Glass Slipper ! ! 
 
 " We should think this ought to be the last story got up 
 to entertain rational beings." 
 
 On the blank leaf of Mr. Brainerd's Andover Bible was 
 recorded the following "resolutions:" 
 
 "At a meeting of the Senior class in Theological Sem- 
 inary at Andover, Sabbath evening, Sept. 25th, 1831, — 
 unanimously 
 
 " Resolved, 1. That we consider ourselves pledged to 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. -75 
 
 assist each other in the great work in which Ave are en- 
 gag-ed ; and that wo will strive to promote each other's 
 reputation, influence, and happiness at all times and in all 
 places. 
 
 " 2. That we will always remember each other in prayer 
 on the evening of the monthly concert." 
 
 On another leaf of the same Bible was written by 
 Mr. Brainerd, many years afterward, " This Bible has 
 gone with me as a home missionary in the West; was 
 once lost and carried sixty miles from me, but finally 
 got back ; went with me to Ireland, Scotland, England, 
 France, Belgium, and Switzerland ; and was in my berth 
 when I was wrecked in the Great Britain, in Dundrum 
 Bay, Sept. 22d, 1846." 
 
 The same Bible, his constant traveling companion, was 
 taken from his valise on Thursday, the 23d of August, 
 1866, — the day after his sudden death at Scranton, Pa. 
 
 From Eev. Beuel Kimball. 
 
 "Leyden, April 30th, 1833. 
 
 * * * * " I (\\([ expect we should see you 
 again in Leyden when you left Andover, but we have 
 little prospect now of meeting till we stand before the 
 judgment-seat of Christ. If we are faithful in the labors 
 to which we are called, our meeting then will be a happy 
 
 *-\>-»ri ^ Jji ^ ^ J|i "^ 5|C y^ 
 
 " You are young, and have just entered the war. You 
 are placed in a highly responsible station ; may God give 
 you grace to be humble, faithful, and successful. I feel 
 interested in your welfare as well as your future useful- 
 ness. I want you should do much good. 
 
 " It gives me no satisfaction to hear that you are highly 
 esteemed among men, or that you are rich, any further 
 
76 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 than you improve these advantages to do good. But the 
 thought that you are truly consecrated to the service of 
 the Saviour, if I know my own heart, this rejoices me. Be 
 careful to keep at the feet of Christ. The valley of humili- 
 ation is a safe place for the Christian. Never think you 
 have done your duty till you have done all you can, 
 ' Where much is given much will be required.' 
 " May Heaven's blessing rest upon you. 
 " With much affection, 
 
 " Your friend and brother in the gospel, 
 
 " Reuel Kimball." 
 
 Mr. Brainerd's brother, Hezekiah, in closing a letter to 
 him, about this time, says : " You are remembered with 
 much affection by all your friends here, and by none more 
 than Mrs. Reuel Kimball. She cannot speak of you with- 
 out tears. She says she loves you as much as any of her 
 children." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 FIRST PASTORATE AT CINCINNATI — EDITORSHIP — 
 CORRESPONDENCE — 1831-5. 
 
 Letter to Rev. C. E. Babb.— Publislied in the "Christian Herald." 
 
 " Philadelphia, Dec. 24th, I860. 
 
 "TN the fall of 1831, with a Home Missionary's cora- 
 -i- mission in my pocket, I started for what we then 
 called the ' Valley of the Mississippi.' I had not the least 
 idea of the place where I should find a resting-spot. This 
 was to be determined by the six gentlemen who constituted 
 the Executive Committee of the Home Missionary Agency 
 at Cincinnati. With my young wife I reached your city 
 about the 25th of November, and was hospitably received 
 and entertained for two weeks in the family of my vener- 
 ated friend. Judge Burnet. As it was settled by the Com- 
 mittee, I was located in the Fourth Church, in the eastern 
 part of the city. Front Street, above Deer Creek, was un- 
 paved, and I had to make my way to the church in the 
 deep mud, in which ray poor wife often lost her overshoes. 
 There were about sixty grog-shops in my parish, and you 
 may readily imagine that my ministry was no sinecure. 
 With the enthusiasm of youth I entered on my labors, 
 and, by the blessing of God, soon gathered a pleasant little 
 congregation, and a Sabbath-school of three hundred chil- 
 dren. Thirty were added to the church the first year. I 
 visited over and over every family from Deer Creek to Co- 
 lumbia ; and by sympathy with the sick, and kindness to 
 the poor, gained an influence in the entire communitv. In 
 
•78 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 the cholera -of 1832, six heads of families died within eight 
 doors of ray dwelling. I sometimes followed to the grave 
 three persons in an afternoon, as their bodies were borne 
 to their last resting-place on drays. In short, I identified 
 my affections and sympathies with my little church and its 
 peculiar surroundings. I have never been happier since, 
 and have no doubt, had I been let alone, I could have 
 labored there pleasantly to this day. The affections and 
 prayers of my little flock at Fulton have followed me, I 
 believe, through years of absence and change, and I still 
 regard individuals among them with most affectionate in- 
 terest. My salary was six hundred dollars for pastoral 
 labor, with one hundred dollars added for my services as 
 Clerk of the Executive Committee of the Home Mission- 
 ary Agency. I not only lived comfortably on this sum, 
 but paid out of it, in two years, three hundred and fifty 
 dollars, which I owed at Andover for my education, 
 library, etc. If any of your people think this could be 
 done in 1860, bid them remember that in 1832 I paid one 
 dollar and fifty cents a cord for wood, eighty dollars for 
 house rent, twenty-five cents for turkeys, six cents for 
 chickens, four cents a dozen for eggs, and other things in 
 proportion. I may here say, as a pleasant incident of my 
 introduction to Cincinnati, that the second week after my 
 arrival I was waited upon by Elnathan Kemper, the 
 founder of Lane Seminary, and invited to preach on a 
 Wednesday evening, in his log-house, on Walnut Hills. 
 Starting about half-past six with a lantern, I waded the 
 stream again and again, through Deer Creek Valley, and 
 struggled through the deep mud beyond, so as to reach 
 the place at eight o'chjck. It cost me a fever of six weeks, 
 but gained for me the friendship of Mr. Kemper, which 
 terminated only with his life. As he had no pew-rent to 
 pay at the seminary, where he worshiped, he sent me 
 fifteen dollars a year toward my salary in Fulton. 
 
EDITORSHIP. 79 
 
 " While I was engaged in my pastoral work I occasion- 
 ally wrote an article for the Cincinnati Journal, and this 
 induced the Pastoral Association, in the winter of 1832, to 
 ask me to take charge of the paper as editor. As I had 
 no desire for the work, no experience as editor, and no 
 wish to leave my field, I promptly declined. But as the 
 paper had no responsible editor, and was floundering on in 
 constant difficulties, the Pastoral Association, in March, 
 1833, made another deliberate onset on me, to persuade 
 me to take the paper; and this time, very reluctantly, I 
 yielded to their urgency. It may interest the present 
 generation of Cincinnati to know who composed, at that 
 time, the Pastoral Association. Of those who met once a 
 week for counsel, and who managed church affairs in the 
 New School branch of our denomination, few now remain 
 in your city. They were Lyman Beecher, James and 
 William Gallagher, Asa Mahan, Professors Biggs, Baxter, 
 and Stowe, N. S. Folsom, Dr. Slack, Lewis D. Howell, 
 Thomas Cole, Daniel C. Blood, Benjamin Graves, A. F. Mor- 
 rison, A Bullard, J. Spaulding, and though last, not least as 
 a manager, F. Y. Vail. Some of these seldom attended, 
 but their places were occasionally filled up by the pres- 
 ence of Father John Thompson, Gideon Blackburne, and 
 David Nelson, men of blessed memory. Such were those 
 that 'put me into' the editorship of the Cincinnati Jour- 
 nal, and sustained me in it by their influence and their 
 pens. 
 
 "On a Thursday morning, in the spring of 1833, I left 
 my house in Fulton, and, with a troubled spirit, went to 
 the Journal office, southeast corner of Main and Fifth 
 Streets, when Corey and Fairbanks, the proprietors, fur- 
 nished me with a batch of exchange papers, and installed 
 me in my high office. I was twenty-eight years of age 
 only. I had never seen a newspaper made up, and of the 
 details of editing was profoundly ignorant. I was stunned 
 
80 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 by the cry of ' copy !' ' copy !' and thought I should utterly 
 fail to find material in one day for twelve mortal columns, 
 to fill the outside pages. When I came to the inside it was 
 worse still, and I was heartily sick of myself and the whole 
 concern for the first three or four weeks. But I was on a 
 tread-mill, and must keep stepping, until practice gave me 
 some skill, and habit made my work tolerable. 
 
 "The Cincinnati Journal was established, I think, 
 about 1827 or 1828, under the influence of Presbyterians 
 of the Old and New School combined, and was among the 
 first religious papers published in the great valley. Before 
 1 assumed the editorial charge, it had been subjected to 
 various changes under the pressure of poverty, and the 
 rising spirit of controversy had separated it from the con- 
 fidence of the Old School bodies. Its subscription list 
 amounted to eleven hundred, scattered over the wide West. 
 But we had some great advantages. The publishers, 
 Corey and Fairbanks, were intelligent, enterprising, gener- 
 ous men. Save the Catholic Telegrajjh, there was no 
 other religious paper published in Cincinnati. Episco- 
 palians, Methodists, and many persons of no religious de- 
 nomination, took the paper freely, so that in a year and a 
 half after 1 became editor the subscription list had risen to 
 over two thousand, and by the purchase of the Luminary, at 
 Lexington, we at one time circulated four thousand copies. 
 Mr. Eli Taylor, who purchased the establishment from 
 Corey and Fairbanks, was more than their equal in energy, 
 and under his auspices the paper had a wide sweep through 
 the West. Our publishers, at an early day, got up also a 
 juvenile publication {the firnt, I believe, started in the 
 great valley), called the Child's Neiospax)er, of which we 
 circulated three thousand copies semi-monthly. Of the 
 twelve columns of the first number of this paper, I wrote 
 nine. My only reward for this extra labor was the grati- 
 tude of the little children of the West, and the hope that I 
 
EDITORSIITP. 81 
 
 was doing" some good. This little paper afterwavd be- 
 came the Youth'' s Mar/azine, and under some name or form 
 may be still alive. 
 
 " I look back now on my editorial life in the West with 
 mingled emotions. As a general thing, my labors were 
 cheered by the approbation of good men, and my office 
 opened the way to friendships which can only end with life. 
 No man ever had more enthusiasm for the West, and few 
 have ever met in the West sweeter tokens of love and con- 
 fidence. I failed often in duty, doubtless ; but, under all 
 the opposition I received from sectarian prejudice and ex- 
 cited philantliropy run wild, I was sustained by the con- 
 sciousness of good intentions, and the sympathy of the 
 best of friends. 
 
 "In June, 1835, my wife died of cholera one day, and 
 her cherished domestic, almost an adopted daughter, the 
 next. My house was literally left desolate. I continued 
 my labors until May, 1836, when, being elected to the 
 General Assembly, I hired Henry Ward Beecher, at the 
 rate of five hundred dollars a year, to conduct the paper 
 till my return. It was his first debut in public life, and 
 he sustained his responsibilities well. Tlie world has heard 
 of him since. 
 
 "In May, 1836, the Cincinnati Journal, with all the 
 conflicts of opinion around and all the new papers started, 
 still had about three thousand six hundred subscribers. 
 One thousand two hundred of these Avere in Kentuckv, 
 Western Yirginia, Tennessee, and Northern Alabama. 
 The paper has always been antislavery in principle, but 
 always fraternal in its spirit toward the South, and the 
 conscience of the South sustained it. Twenty-five years 
 of reflection have only confirmed me in the conviction that 
 the position of the paper was Christian and wise. 
 
 " When I left your city I expected to return to ni}' post. 
 My name was kept on the paper until December ; Ijut, 
 
 8 
 
82 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 with my home in the West desolated by death, with en- 
 feebled health, and new eastern social ties, I was induced 
 to give up editorial life and return to pastoral labor, which, 
 from my connection with Dr. Beecher, in the Second 
 Church of Cincinnati, I had never entirely suspended. 
 For near twenty-five years 1 have been the happy pastor 
 of a faithful and affectionate church here ; but it will 
 always be my joy that I was allowed, at an early period 
 and in an humble degree, to aid in forming the character 
 of the millions of the mighty West, and to secure there 
 friends whose remembrance and sympathy have refreshed 
 my heart through a quarter of a century. 
 
 " Your friend, 
 
 " Thomas Brainerd. 
 
 " p. S. — I ought to say, in justice to those who established 
 and sustained the Cincinnati Journal by their capital, that 
 all the sacrifices of this description were borne by them. 
 They paid me one thousand dollars a year simply for edit- 
 ing the paper. " T. B." 
 
 In the Cincinnati Journal of March 8th, 1833, it was 
 announced by the i)roprietors that Rev. Thomas Brainerd, 
 pastor of the Fourth Presbyterian Church, would here- 
 after be editor of the Journal. 
 
 We make the following extracts from Mr. Brainerd's 
 introductory article : 
 
 "In assuming the editorial responsibilities of the Cin- 
 cinnati Journal, the undersigned deems it his duty to say 
 a few words to its patrons. When first invited by the 
 publishers to the post he now occupies, he gave a prompt 
 negative. Having already under his pastoral care a small 
 but united, growing, and much loved church, he felt an 
 extreme reluctance to assume new and oppressive respon- 
 
EDITORSHIP. 83 
 
 sibilities in another field of labor. But four months' re- 
 flection, and more especially the advice of friends, to whose 
 counsel he gives weight, have induced him to review and 
 finally reverse his first decision. The adoption of the 
 sentiment, that every man is bound to expend his influence 
 where it will promote the greatest good, has compelled 
 him, much against his personal predilections, to take the 
 editorship of this paper. 
 
 " Of his ability to make it a first-rate family paper, it 
 would ill become him to speak. On this point the suf- 
 frages of the religious public will finally give a righteous 
 decision. 
 
 " But he may be allowed to speak frankly of the prin- 
 ciples on which it will be conducted, and the purposes at 
 which it will aim. Its pacific character will not be changed. 
 While its influence will be mainly devoted to the advance- 
 ment of morality and pure religion, through the agency of 
 the Presbyterian Church, it will breathe a kind spirit 
 toward other evangelical denominations. Inasmuch as 
 the true church of Christ, though apparently divided, is 
 essentially one, it will constantly encourage those volun- 
 tary associations of good men, who without sacrifice of 
 truth or conscience, can meet on common ground for the 
 promotion of benevolent objects, and thus give unity and 
 strength to the armies of Zion. 
 
 " In conclusion, the undersigned would most cordially 
 invite ministers of the gospel, and others who feel an in- 
 terest in the objects designed to be promoted by the 
 Cincinnali Journal, to make it a medium of transmitting 
 their best thoughts to the religious public. He need not 
 remind them that so long as Christian philanthropy brands 
 with the odious name of miser, the being who hoards up 
 gold to charm his jjricate eye, she will not exonerate from 
 blame those reflecting, talented men who bury in their own 
 
84 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 bosoms, or limit to their own neighborhood, thoiightii 
 which, properly arranged and placed on the wings of the 
 press, would enlighten and bless half a Avorld. 
 
 " Thomas Brainerd." 
 
 Although Avritten at a later period, this narrativ^e is Mr, 
 Brainerd's own account of his first experience as a pastor 
 and editor. The kind, maternal interest shown to him by 
 Mrs. Judge Burnet, was never withdrawn during his life. 
 She took him and his wife to her house until they could 
 procure suitable accommodations elsewhere, and when 
 they commenced housekeeping, she contributed many lux- 
 uries to their living which would have been entirely be- 
 3"ond the reach of their limited means. They Avere sup- 
 plied five 3'ears with an abundance of excellent milk and 
 cream, by her considerate kindness ; and Judge Burnet 
 persuaded Mr. Brainerd to sell his horse, assuring him that 
 one of his own fine horses should always be at his service. 
 The religious interests of the newly settled Western States 
 demanded frequent meetings of Presbytery, and appoint- 
 ments for preaching were widely separated, so that a 
 horse was a necessary accompaniment to the action of 
 ever}" public man. 
 
 Exposures, by da}" and night travel, to the influences of 
 a new climate brought on a serious attack of typhoid fever 
 during the first winter of Mr. Brainerd's residence in Ohio. 
 After several weeks' illness, when he seemed to be sink- 
 ing, Mrs. Judge Burnet took charge of him, and by the 
 aid of good nursing, and some of Judge Burnet's good 
 old wine, he finally rallied. His wife was sick with fever 
 at the same time, but less seriously, and recovered more 
 rapidly. 
 
 Mr. Brainerd threw his whole heart into whatever en- 
 gaged his attention. He identified his interests with his 
 little church at Fulton, and gave all his energies to its en- 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 85 
 
 largement. His labors were attended with a good degree 
 of success, and many pleasant friendships originating in 
 his first church, were perpetuated through life. 
 
 Inquiring after some of his Sabbath-school boys, in his 
 later visits to Cincinnati, he found one attorney-general 
 in a neighboring county of Kentucky, while others had be- 
 come wealthy and prosperous merchants and mechanics. 
 The ingenious inventors and manufacturers of the steam 
 fire-engine, now so universally relied upon, were two 
 orphan boys of his first Sabbath-school, — the Latta 
 brothers. 
 
 Six years after bis settlement in Philadelphia, Mr. 
 Brainerd received a letter from one of his old members 
 in the Fourth Church, asking aid for an improvement in 
 their church building. He says : 
 
 " No matter how small the donation, it could come from 
 no source where it would be received with such grateful 
 emotions as through the agency of our beloved pastor, 
 whose memory still lives in our prayer-meetings as vividly 
 as though he were among us as in days gone by, and it 
 will always be written upon our hearts in connection with 
 our highest hopes and interests. 
 
 "A few evenings since a man arose in our pulpit, and, 
 after taking his text, stated that he owed his conversion 
 to a sermon preached from the same text by the Rev. Mr. 
 Brainerd. Then, as we lifted our hearts to God in thanks- 
 giving, we felt under renewed obligations to continue our 
 prayers, that the blessing of God might still attend the 
 labors of one so dear to our hearts, and whose labors have 
 been to us as ' seed sown in good ground.' 
 
 "Your brother in Christ (the tie rendered doubly dear 
 by our long acquaintance), 
 
 "A. A. Yance." 
 8* 
 
86 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 Another note, dated March 21st, 1861, was received 
 from Laurel, Indiana : 
 
 " Dear Sir: 
 
 " Do you remember the little orphan girl you took in 
 your study, a small room in the brick house in Fulton, the 
 night, before you removed to Cincinnati, there to pray for 
 and with her? And while praying, you laid your hand 
 on her head, asking God to bless and watch over her lonely 
 state and make her a useful woman. The scene in your 
 study has been treasured in my heart as one of the dear- 
 est and almost the only bright one of my lonely child- 
 
 r|r\r\/j 'K 'K ^ ¥ ^K -r^ 5?* 'K 
 
 " I am now married, and surrounded by all the comforts 
 of life. I should like very much to see you, and hear 
 again your kind voice. I think you would enjoy a visit 
 among lis, and should you come, remember my house 
 must be your home." 
 
 "E. J. J." 
 
 Many such tokens of affectionate remembrance came to 
 Mr. Braincrd in after-years; the best earthly reward a 
 faithful minister can receive. 
 
 The following sketch was furnished by Dr. J. W. Dun- 
 ham, a member of the Fourth Ciuirch, and I think an 
 elder, during Mr. Brainerd's short ministry there: 
 
 " Mr. Brainerd came West with a number of classmates, 
 young ministers from Andover Theological Seminary, not 
 knowing where the Lord would give him a field to culti- 
 vate. The Fourth Church was without a pastor at that 
 time, and he was prevailed upon to labor with them. Jt 
 was a small and feeble church, located in the eastern part 
 of the cit\', and composed mainly of laboring men with 
 their families. His salary was small, and yet I apprehend 
 at no period of his laborious life did he put forth more 
 
LECTURES ON MORMON ISM. 8T 
 
 physical and mental labor than while here. His zeal gave 
 evidence that he entered the ministry, not for the 'loaves 
 and fishes,' but for the honor of his Master, and the good 
 of souls. 
 
 " Seldom has a young minister become more popular as 
 a preacher, or more dearly beloved by his people. His 
 constant aim was to interest and instruct them. 
 
 "At one time he gave notice that on the following Sab- 
 bath he would preach a sermon to young men, from the 
 words, ' Run, speak to this young man.' When the hour 
 for service arrived the house Avas filled with attentive 
 hearers, and many remembered that occasion to the end of 
 life. 
 
 "At this time the Mormons commenced their work of 
 proselyting, and for some weeks labored with a zeal worthy 
 a better cause. They succeeded in making a number of 
 converts within the bounds of Mr. Brainerd's parish, but 
 without unsettling the faith of any of his people. 
 
 " Mr. Brainerd procured a copy of the Mormon Bible, 
 and, after making himself familiar with its inconsistencies, 
 gave notice that he would deliver a course of lectures on 
 Mormonism. By the time he concluded his lectures but 
 little was heard in that region of Mormonism." 
 
 One of the anecdotes connected with these lectures, 
 which Mr. Brainerd was fond of telling, was this: In the 
 Mormon book allusion is made to the mariner's compass 
 long before the power of the magnet was discovered. Mr. 
 Brainerd pointed out this anachronism. A few days after, 
 a man brought the Bible to him, and read with an air of 
 great triumph the verse in the twenty-eighth chapter of 
 Acts, where, after Paul's shipwreck, it is written : " We 
 fetched a compass and came to Rhegium." To his mind 
 this was conclusive evidence that Paul had the benefit of 
 the mariner's compass in his nautical experience. 
 
88 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 A distiller in Cincinnati, named Absalom Death, placed 
 over the door of his manufactory the words: "Absalom 
 Death — Rectified Whisky." A lady read the sign care- 
 lessly, " Abmhite Death — Rectified Whisky;" and after 
 reaching her home commented upon this singular adver- 
 tisement. In his paper of that week Mr. Brainerd said, 
 
 "Mrs. , passing down Main Street, noticed the sign, 
 
 ^Absolute Death — Bectijied Whisky,'' and was a good deal 
 surprised that a man should put the effects of his traffic so 
 prominently before the eyes of his customers." As the 
 item created some talk and merriment, Mr. Brainerd soon 
 learned that Mr. Death was very indignant, and threatened 
 to whip the editor. One morning, while engaged at his 
 desk in the office, one of the clerks told him a man wished 
 to see him in the front room. Mr. Brainerd came forward, 
 and met there a man of great size, six feet four inches high 
 and of two hundred and fifty pounds weight. He bowed 
 to the stranger, who opened the campaign by saying in a 
 gruff voice, ''My name is Death!'' The solemnity of the 
 announcement, the name, and the story connected with it, 
 struck Mr. Brainerd as irresistibly ludicrous. With an 
 effort to preserve his gravity, he replied, " You have got 
 a very queer name, Mr. Death;" and" was then unable 
 longer to repress his laughter, in which the by-standers, 
 and finally his really good natured visitor, heartily joined. 
 This ended the whole thing. Mr. Death recognized the 
 affair as a joke, and remained very friendly toward Mr. 
 Brainerd ever after. And he soon gave up his traffic in 
 alcohol. Whether the " absolute death" was the agent in 
 this result or not, he never confessed. 
 
 Professor O. M. Mitchell, the astronomer, settled in 
 Cincinnati about the same time that Mr. Brainerd did. 
 They were very nearly the same age, similar in many 
 points of character, and naturally sympathized in each 
 other's circumstances. When Mr. Brainerd preached in a 
 
AT A rRESBYTERTAN CAMr-MEETING. 89 
 
 log- school-house, holding a tallow candle in one hand, 1)V 
 which to read the hymns and the text (he was iinincuni- 
 hercd Avith manuscript in those daj's), O. M. Mitchell Avas 
 liis frequent auditor. On other evening-s Mr. Brainerd 
 would rally lialf a dozen young friends to "go and hear 
 Mitchell lecture on astronomy;" and find him in some ob- 
 scure building, with just light enough to render "darkness 
 visible ;" but from out of that darkness flashed the glorious 
 lights of the firmament all the more brilliantly, as the gifted 
 young astronomer handled them with the familiarity of 
 playthings. 
 
 Going to hear him again twenty-five A^ears after, in one 
 of the largest and best lighted rooms in Philadelphia, 
 Jayne's Hall, Professor Mitchell, at the close of his 
 lecture, threw his arms around his old friend, giving him 
 a fraternal hug in memory of their early experience to- 
 gether. The next Sabbath found Professor Mitchell an 
 interested listener in Old Pine Street Church ; and after 
 service he accompanied Dr. Brainerd home, Avhen the tAvo 
 friends "compared notes," from the early dawn of their 
 small beginnings to the high noon which both had reached 
 in their respective professions. 
 
 The following interesting narrative from the Rev. Wil- 
 liam M. Cheever, of Terre Haute, Indiana, Avill be read 
 Avith interest, especially by those Avhose memory recalls 
 similar scenes. Mr. Brainerd's OAvn recollection of these 
 events Avas most vivid and enthusiastic. 
 
 Dr. Brainerd at a Presbyterian Camp-meeting in Indiana, Aug. 1832. 
 
 " My first acquaintance Avith Dr. Brainerd Avas at a 
 Presbyterian camp-meeting, near Paris, Jennings County, 
 Indiana, some time during the latter part of August, 1832. 
 It Avas a mere sight-acquaintance, for I never spoke to him 
 until many years after I met him in the General Assembly; 
 
90 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 yet, connected as it was with the great event of my life, 
 tliis first meeting with liim was stereotyped upon my 
 soul. 
 
 ''The decade from 1830 to 1840 is memorable in the 
 history of the Presbyterian Church of the West — of Indi- 
 ana specially — as the era of camp-meetings. How fra- 
 grant to all of us, who were then boys, are the memories 
 that cluster about Pisgah, Mount Tabor, Salem, Logans- 
 port, and Paris! Those who are not familiar with them 
 can have but little conception of the wonderful interest 
 which gathered about these annual feasts more than thirty 
 3'^ears ago, and the moral power which they exerted. No 
 old Hebrew ever went up with his household to the feast 
 of Tabernacles with more joy than did our good Pres- 
 byterian families annually rally in August or September, 
 to Pisgah and Mount Tabor, and enter upon these great 
 feasts of in-gathering. Conceding that something must 
 be set down to the score of educational prepossession and 
 a youthful imagination, I am still, after thirty years have 
 rolled by, convinced that those meetings were as orderly, 
 as solemn and effective for good, as any revival meetings 
 of later date it has been my privilege to attend. Scattered 
 and feeble as were the Presbyterian congregations of the 
 State at that time, there seemed to be a necessity for such 
 convocations. Brethren in the ministry too far apart to 
 exchange, and churches isolated by distance — as to per- 
 sonal Christian fellou'ship — hailed with joy the time for 
 the fall camp-meetings. What greetings of old friends, 
 formerly members of the same church, but who had not 
 met since taking up the emigrant's line of march from the 
 older States, many years ago! What forming of new 
 friendships, — what consecration of households, — what re- 
 turn of prodigals to their Father's house ! In the breasts 
 of the old fathers and mothers of our Presbyterian Israel 
 what pleasant thoughts arise at the mere mention of the 
 
AT A PRESBYTERIAN CAMP-MEETING. 91 
 
 names of such camp-meeting veterans as Dickey, Sneed, 
 Cressy, Martin, Kittridge, McFerson, Crowe, Lowry, 
 Johnston, Brainerd, Clelland, and a host of others ! 
 
 " It Avas at one of these great meetings, held near Paris, 
 Indiana, in August, 1832, as I remarked before, that I first 
 saw Dr. Brainerd. My father, who was a great admirer 
 of the heroic David Brainerd, hearing that a young minis- 
 ter from Cincinnati, of the same name, was to be present, 
 went with all the household from South Hanover, some 
 fifteen miles, to attend the meeting. A site for the camp- 
 meeting is usually selected for its slope, its shade, and es- 
 pecially its springs or wells. Like Enon, near to Salem, 
 it should have much water — many springs — for both man 
 and beast. A shady place is chosen, comprising an area 
 of an acre or two, gently declining toward the 'minister's 
 stand,' and surrounded by capacious canvas tents, or, if it 
 be intended for a permanent camp-meeting ground, by 
 rough log-cabins capable of containing the family and an 
 unlimited number of guests. I have known from forty to 
 seventy-five persons comfortably lodged at night on the 
 straw within one of these wooden booths. On the outer 
 side of these tents are all the arrangements for cooking and 
 eating. An abundance of provisions, already prepared for 
 the table, is brought with each tent-holder, so that the labor 
 of supplying the ordinary temporal wants of the crowd of 
 guests is made as light as possible, — all the family thus 
 having opportunity to give undivided attention to the re- 
 ligious services Avhich they have come so far to enjoy. 
 The area within the inclosure is furnished Avith seats, 
 usually rough boards laid across logs, capable of holding 
 from one to two thousand people. At night, when the 
 grounds are lit up with torches, on firmly erected posts at 
 convenient distances through the camp, or, as upon the 
 occasion to which special allusion is now made, by innu- 
 merable candles fastened to the trees, or hung from the 
 
92 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 branches, the whole scene is wildly picturesque. At break 
 of da}^, a rousing blast from the trumpet wakes up the en- 
 campment. In a few minutes a second sig-nal announces 
 that the sunrise prayer-meeting is about to begin. Some 
 manly voice at the 'preacher's stand' strikes up 'Come, 
 thou fount of every blessing,' to the tune of Nettleton, the 
 only tune to which those words should ever be sung. Out 
 from the numerous tents the people, 3'oung and old, come 
 thronging, and gather close about the stand, and in song, 
 prayer and exhortation thus forty minutes are spent in 
 fitting preparation for the services of the day. Seldom since 
 have I so thoroughly enjo3'ed an early morning prayer- 
 meeting. Then comes breakfast. After that a second 
 prayer-meeting. Then, at nine o'clock, preaching, and 
 again at eleven. Dinner is now served. At three p.m., 
 preaching; then inquiry meetings; social conference, or 
 tent prayer-meetings, fill up the time until the evening re- 
 past, and the hour for the night service arrives. It was about 
 the beginning of this evening service that we came within 
 hearing and sight of the cainp. The rising and swelling 
 on the air of that distant harmony, from a great multitude 
 devoutly praising God, impressed me strangely. I now 
 recall that peculiar thrill which always pervaded me when- 
 ever I listened to the old hearty, devout, Presbyterian 
 camp-meeting singing. I have never since been so car- 
 ried away and absorbed by any ' service of song in the 
 house of the Lord.' Away out, for nearly a mile, on that 
 quiet night, came the grand hymn of praise to meet us as 
 we ascended the little hill and silently took a panoramic 
 view of the imposing scene. 
 
 " The day after our arrival was one memorable in my 
 life. The scenes of the previous evening had made me 
 unusually thoughtful. The ordinary morning services 
 were concluded, and a short discourse had been preached 
 at nine o'clock, to which I do not remember that I gave any 
 
AT A rRESBYTERIAN CAMP-MEETING. 93 
 
 special attention. After a few moments' recess, the signal 
 for resuming public worship was again given by the spirited 
 singing of old Lennox, ' Blow ye tiie trumpet, blow I' The 
 people began to crowd forward, until the great area Avas 
 quite packed. Before the h3'mn was ended I had leisurely 
 strolled down the middle aisle, looking in vain for a seat, 
 until arrested, within twenty feet of tlie 'stand,' by a sweet 
 but to me strange voice leading the congregation in prayer. 
 'AVho was that ?' was the whispered inquiry about me. 
 'A Mr. Brainerd, of Cincinnati,' was the reply. Then I 
 understood he was the young man whom my father wished 
 to bear. At once I became interested in him. My recol- 
 lection of his personal appearance, at that time, is not 
 specially vivid, yet I can even now recall his kind, bright, 
 and enthusiastic look, and his very pleasant and persuasive 
 voice. He had a directness and earnestness of manner 
 that, from the announcement of his text to the close of the 
 sermon, held me, standing by a tree during its entire de- 
 livery, with unflagging attention. It was, I think, his ap- 
 pearance and voice that first arrested me, but when he 
 announced his text, 'And they made light of it,' I was 
 completely absorbed. As to his method of treating the 
 subject, my memory is entirely at fault. I cannot enu- 
 merate the points specially made. All that I remen)ber is 
 the beaming countenance, the loving eye fixed upon me, 
 as I stood directly before him, and the tremendous convic- 
 tion all the time surging through my soul that /was the 
 one who had deliberately made light of the great salva- 
 tion ! So deeply was I moved with a sense of my own 
 personal guilt that I cannot state what may have been the 
 general eliect of the discourse, only I had the impression 
 that there was much weeping, and even audible sobbing, 
 around me. The services closed, and, in accordance with 
 an invitation given to all who were awakened to seek some 
 secret place of praj^er without delay, I went into the spa- 
 
 9 
 
94 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 cions grove, in the rear of the encampment, that I might 
 find some spot where I could be alone and pour out my 
 troubled soul to God. But here I came upon one, and 
 there upon another, kneeling in prayer, and from every 
 direction there came to my ear the low voices of supplica- 
 tion. The whole grove was a Bethel. I see now, in my 
 mind, the place, the very log by the side of which I cast 
 myself, and with the last lines of the hymn sung at the 
 close of Mr. Brainerd's sermon ringing in my ear, — 
 
 "'Venture on Him, venture wholly, 
 Let no other trust intrude, etc.,' 
 
 I endeavored to take hold of my Saviour's hand. I ven- 
 tured. 
 
 " Though it was many years after before I again saw dear 
 Brother Brainerd, that one scene was so distinctly photo- 
 graphed on my heart that I never could forget him. 
 
 " Well, my brother ! thou hast already taken possession 
 of thy crown and kingdom. May it be my privilege and 
 joy to join with you in heavenly ascriptions of praise to 
 Ilim who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb forever ! 
 
 " Wm. M. Cheever." 
 
 Rev. Wm. M. Cheever has been an earnest and suc- 
 cessful preacher in the West for more than a quarter of a 
 century, and is another whom Mr. Brainerd can welcome 
 as a son in the gospel. 
 
 The rescue of these stirring incidents from oblivion is 
 of essential service to the history of the Presbyterian 
 Church, and is due to those pioneer men who subdued the 
 moral " wilderness" in those early days, and " stopped the 
 mouths of lions." 
 
 We are also permitted to publish part of a letter from 
 Rev. J. H. Johnson, of Crawfordsville, Indiana, who was 
 pastor of the Presbyterian church at Madison, Indiana, 
 
MEETING IN 31 A D ISO N, IND. 95 
 
 near the camp-meeting' ground, at the time mentioned in 
 tlie foregoing narrative, — 1832. 
 
 Speaking of that event, Mr. Johnson says: 
 
 "Brother Brainerd preached several times during the 
 meeting. Of one sermon I have a very distinct recollec- 
 tion, and of the text from which it was preached. It was 
 the passage in Rom. viii. 7, ' The carnal mind is enmity 
 against God.' He dwelt particularly on the force of the 
 words rendered 'carnal mind ;' Hhe minding of the Jiesh.^ 
 It was a sermon of much interest and power. Great in- 
 terest was manifested during the meeting, and much good 
 resulted from it ; but I cannot call to mind the number of 
 hopeful conversions that occurred. 
 
 " He was once with us at Madison, three years later, in 
 1835, in the month of June. The anniversary meetings of 
 a number of benevolent societies were appointed to be held 
 there at that time, and many brethren from abroad had 
 assembled to attend upon them. A short time, however, 
 before the time appointed for these, the cholera commenced 
 its ravages in Madison, and was still prevailing when the 
 brethren arrived. It was judged inexpedient, of course, 
 to attempt to hold the meetings, and those from abroad at 
 once dispersed. While Brother Brainerd was still in town, 
 waiting for a boat, the people were called together, and he 
 preached a very appropriate and impressive discourse." 
 
 The following reminiscence of the Rev. William W. 
 Hall, M.D., Editor of the Journal of Health, was first 
 published in the Preahytery Beporte?; and afterward in 
 the Ne^v York Evangeliat, of December, 1858. 
 
 Dr. Hall was born in Kentucky, studied for the min- 
 istry, and was licensed to preach in 1832. He was then 
 engaged one year in St. Charles, Missouri. 
 
 Returning to Kentucky in 1833, he says : " I came to a 
 
96 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 place where tlie I'oad forked : one toward home, the other 
 toward Lexington. Not having any choice, I laid the 
 reins on the horse's neck, and he turned toward Lexing- 
 ton, where I found the people were deeply interested in 
 religious things, for Brainerd and Bullard and Spaulding 
 and Little were there jireaching, as none could preach but 
 they — good and true men all. I was called on suddenly 
 and most unexpectedly to preach. I had no notes, and 
 could think of only one text which seemed appropriate, 
 and, for the life of me, I could not find it, — ' For the night 
 Cometh in which no man can work.' My failure to give 
 the place of the text, and my youthful appearance, made 
 an impression ; and I labored and spoke two or three 
 times a day, with those glorious men, for weeks ; and re- 
 mained laboring in Lexington some four years. 
 
 "During this time, thinking I might be a missionary 
 abroad, and having in view Dr. Nelson's great idea of sus- 
 taining myself, I entered the Transylvania Medical School, 
 and graduated. Thinking it better to clinch my medical 
 knowledge and practice, I went directly to the sickliest 
 regions of the Union, the bayous of Louisiana, where I 
 practiced and preached day and night, all the summer, 
 Avinter, and fall. 
 
 "Having, since 1837, preached without pay, it occurred 
 to me to brush up my medical knowledge and secure it in 
 that way. I at once set about it, and went to Europe to 
 advance myself in medical knowledge. * * * 
 
 "I should feel more at home in the pulpit, if I could be 
 there independently of support out of myself. 
 
 "Many clergymen who had given up preaching are 
 now in full discharge of ministerial duty, as pastors, 
 professors, etc., through my medical instrumentality. 
 Through my books and Journal I have an influence 
 throughout the country. A single profession requires the 
 most entire devotion to accomplish much." 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROVERSIES. 
 
 IX giving extracts from letters and anecdotes of the 
 stormy period when the elements of disunion rent the 
 Presbyterian Church, culminating in its division in 1838, 
 we shall occupy only the position of a narrator. 
 
 Mr. Brainerd was a young man of twenty-eight when 
 Dr. Beecher came to Cincinnati. He had received a New- 
 England education ; had been accustomed to regard Dr. 
 Beecher with deep reverence and affection, which naturally 
 grew into warm attachment when brought into associa- 
 tion with " his great heart and giant intellect." 
 
 No one ever ventured to doubt Mr. Brainerd's ortho- 
 doxy, or soundness in Calvinistic doctrine and Presby- 
 terial order. On these points he was invulneraljle, — a 
 "Hebrew of the Hebrews." He was assailed solely on 
 the ground of his social affinities. The charges against 
 him were the same as those made to one of the apostles : 
 " Surely thou art one of them, and thy speech agreeth 
 thereto." 
 
 His love for Dr. Beecher led him to earnest sympathy 
 in his trials and confliats ; and he rejoiced in the privilege 
 of standing by him through the warfare of partisan jeal- 
 ousy and the fires of persecution which surrounded him. 
 
 Soon after Dr. Beecher's arrival in Cincinnati, Mr. Brai- 
 nerd received a letter from the Rev. Samuel H. Archer, 
 dated Salem, Mass., December 5th, 1832, in which he 
 says : 
 
 9* (97) 
 
98 LTFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 " You have our good Dr. Beecber among you. We 
 gave the West a strong testimony of our love to them 
 when we yielded up this good man. Let them itse him 
 well:' 
 
 The report of appreciation, of kindness, and liberality 
 toward Dr. Beecher would be a grateful record to the 
 church for all future time. But, as Paul said that " the 
 Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds 
 and aJBflictions abide me," so this apostle of New England 
 met everywhere strife and opposition arrayed against him 
 in his old age. 
 
 Dr. Beecher could say, too, with Paul, " But none of 
 these things move me; neither count I my life dear unto 
 myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and 
 the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to 
 testify the gospel of the grace of God.-' 
 
 It has been said that man is ^' a fighting anivial.'" It 
 will be some satisfaction to place many of the controver- 
 sies of good men to this inherent propensity of their 
 natures, — to fight. As professed religionists cannot enter 
 other fields of combat without scandal, they exercise their 
 intense vitality here, in " earnestly contending for the faith 
 delivered unto the saints." Oftentimes, too, without know- 
 ing " what manner of spirit they are of." Good old Dr. 
 Bishop, President of Miami University — the peacemaker 
 — used to say, with his broad Scottish accent, if he 
 should try to characterize the age in which he lived, he 
 should call it "an age of original investigation'' [pro- 
 nouncing the words adge and investig-a-^z-o-/;]. 
 
 The shaking and sifting process has always resulted in 
 final good to the church. The chaff is blown off, the sedi- 
 ment left behind, and the pure grain secured. " What is 
 the chaff to the wheat, saith the Lord." In this light the 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROVERSIES. 99 
 
 church may rejoice in the tempestuous quarter century 
 just closed, as well as in the brightening dawn of peace 
 and confidence which now gladdens the churches of our 
 land. 
 
 The M)>tory of this period will be preserved, though it 
 should bring a blush of shame to the brows of many who 
 persecuted their braver brethren for climbing higher than 
 themselves the " mount of vision," gaining thereby a 
 clearer observation and a broader range. 
 
 A friend writing to Mr. Brainerd from Albany, under 
 date of Sept. 29th, 1832, says, "I suppose you have to 
 fight some battles with the D.D.'s of the Old School and 
 with the devil in Cincinnati, but you are more able to en- 
 dure than we. ******* 
 
 " Sinners expect to see developed in Christians the ex- 
 cellency of their religion ; but what a miserable epitome 
 of the gospel do we make !" 
 
 These years of distrust and alienation are fully recorded 
 in the annals of the church, and there they will stand as 
 the monuments of human weakness fur all future ages. 
 
 During Dr. Beecher's trial before Synod, Mr. Brainerd 
 read such portions of his sermons and theological writings 
 as were called for by the exigencies of the trial. He 
 threw so much heart and sympathy into the office of 
 reader that a clergvnian said to him, as he was passing 
 out of the house, "Brainerd, if I am ever tried for heresy 
 I hope you will be there to read my sermons!" 
 
 Some years after these events, while on a visit to Mr. 
 Brainerd, in Philadelphia, Dr. Beecher was talking over, 
 in his good-humored style, the incidents of his trial, and 
 then subsided into a fit of musing. Suddenly, raising his 
 head, he said, " Brainerd, it was hard for Wilson and his 
 party to have us come there and take away their name 
 and nation.''' 
 
 In this playful implication he put his finger upon the 
 
100 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 secret springs of action more directly than any one had 
 done who sought, by human sagacity, to discover a reason- 
 able occasion for those trials. 
 
 In July, 1834, Mr. Brainerd received a call to the Pres- 
 byterian church in Jacksonville, 111. 
 
 The following letter and " Resolutions" were addressed 
 to him by the Committee, dated 
 
 "Jacksonville, July 1st, 1834. 
 
 " Rev. Thos. Brainerd. 
 
 " Dear Sir, — The Presbyterian church and congrega- 
 tion of this place have invited jon to become their pastor, 
 and it is with sincere pleasure that the Committee inform 
 you that in this call there was entire unanimity, and that 
 there is an earnest desire that our application may receive 
 from you a favorable consideration. And it is our hope 
 and prayer, with submission to the will of God, that you 
 may find the leadings of Providence to correspond with 
 our earnest wishes, and that you may find it compatible 
 with your views of duty and plans of usefulness, to ac- 
 cept our invitation. 
 
 " The Committee feel that this is a field of no small in- 
 terest, presenting a prospect for usefulness, to the minister 
 of Christ, more extensive and full of promise than is often 
 to be found in a country so recently settled. 
 
 " Your rcph^ will be waited for with no small degree of 
 anxiety. 
 
 "At a meeting of the Presbyterian church and congre- 
 gation of Jacksonville, convened this 30th day of June, 
 1834, the following resolutions were unanimously adopted, 
 viz.: 
 
 " Bcsolved, That the Rev. Thos. Brainerd, of Cincin- 
 nati, be invited to take the pastoral charge of this church. 
 
 " Besolved, That Messrs. Catlin, Ayres, and Jones, be 
 a Committee to communicate to Rev. Mr. Brainerd the 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROVERSIES. 101 
 
 proccedinji's of this mectiiifr, and that said Committee 1)6 
 authorized to offer for his support a salary of six hundred 
 dollars per annum. 
 
 [Sig-ned] " Joel Catltn, 
 
 " David B. Ayres, 
 •' Henry Jones, 
 
 " Committee.'''' 
 
 At the same time a letter from Kev. Edward Beecher, 
 then President of Illinois College, was addressed to Mr. 
 Brainerd on this subject, urging various reasons for his 
 acceptance of the call. 
 
 A short time after, a second letter, from one of the Com- 
 mittee, was received, containing the following statement : 
 
 " The great need of a proper pastor to this church has 
 been a subject of much prayer and solicitude for a long 
 time past, and when you were fixed upon, it was with con- 
 fidence that God had directed us in that choice, and so we 
 are willing to leave it with God and your own conscience. 
 We feel this post to be a very important one, — none cer- 
 tainly of the same importance in Illinois, and probably few 
 of the same importance in this western valley. 
 
 " Rev. W. G. Gallaher will visit Cincinnati in a few 
 days, and use his influence in our behalf And as far as 
 I have been able to learn the feelings of the ministers in 
 this region, they are all extrcmel}^ anxious that you should 
 come. Our disappointment will be great if 3"ou cannot 
 accede to our wishes. 
 
 "In behalf of, and at the request of, the Committee, 
 
 "David B. Ayres." 
 
 Notwithstanding these earnest appeals, the claims of 
 Cincinnati, and the interests of the paper of which Mr. 
 Brainerd had only the year before taken charge as editor, 
 decided him to remain at his post. The wishes of Dr. 
 
102 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 Beechor to have him continue with him were more pre- 
 vailing than those of his son at Jacksonville to call him 
 away. 
 
 The most fearful visitation of cholera in this country 
 swept over Cincinnati in the summers of 1832-33. The 
 panic-stricken people fled before it, and but two clergymen 
 had the courage to remain in the city. From that time, 
 although scattered cases occurred each summer, it did not 
 become epidemic. 
 
 In June, 1885, while Mr. Brainerd was absent in Ken- 
 tucky to fulfill a preaching engagement, his wife was taken 
 ill ; but no anxiety was felt by any one on the first day of 
 her attack. Her sj^mptoms becoming more alarming at 
 night, Mr. Brainerd was sent for. There was no tele- 
 graph to speed such messages, and the mail stage was the 
 swiftest conveyance. In a few hours more Mrs. Brainerd 
 was dying. The best medical skill was emplo3^ed, and the 
 kindest friends ministered to her; while her husband, who 
 left her a ^e\w days before in perfect health, returned to find 
 her shrouded for the grave. 
 
 Mrs. Brainerd died on Saturday, June 20th, 1835; and 
 a young girl of eighteen, who had lived with the family 
 three years, and to whom they were greatly attached, died 
 on the Monday following, June 22d. 
 
 In the Cincinnali Journal of that week the publisher 
 says, " We will not offer any apology for the absence of 
 the usual editorial care and labor from our paper of this 
 week. A bare statement of the cause is sufficient, — the 
 sudden illness and death of the wife of the Rev. Thomas 
 Brainerd, our highly esteemed friend and editor. This 
 event occurred on Saturday last. Symptoms of cholera 
 manifested themselves during the night, but a favorable 
 change in the morning encouraged hope ; but soon the 
 destroyer again commenced his work, and with frightful 
 rapidity hurried his victim to the tomb. 
 
DEATH OF MRS. BRAINERD. 103 
 
 " The death of Mrs. Brainerd has been widely and deeply 
 felt in this community. Youth, kindness of manners, and 
 lovely piety, as well as the unexpectedness of the blow, 
 called forth the sympathies of a large circle of friends and 
 acquaintances." 
 
 In a subsequent notice it was said, " For three sncces- 
 sive summers the profession of her husband, as well as her 
 own benevolence, had rendered her familiar with the rav- 
 ages of the pestilence. While many were dying around 
 her, an expression of fear never escaped her lips. Through 
 these scenes she passed safely. In a time of general health 
 the messenger approached in his most appalling form. She 
 liad fortitude to give a dying message to her absent hus- 
 band and her distant relatives." 
 
 The young orphan girl who lived with Mrs. Brainerd 
 was born in Cincinnati, and before the death of her parents 
 was in comfortable circumstances. She was converted 
 under Mr. Brainerd's preaching, and joined his church at 
 the age of fifteen. She was an intelligent, conscientious 
 girl, a teacher in the Sabbath-school, for which responsi- 
 bility she made careful preparation during the week. She 
 nursed Mrs. Brainerd with anxious care during her short 
 sickness, and appeared inconsolable after her death ; she 
 said she had been a mother to her and that she was losing- 
 her best friend; but they w^ere separated only thirty-six 
 hours. 
 
 The only remaining member of Mr. Brainerd's family 
 was a nephew, nineteen years of age, a member of Lane 
 Seminary, who was preparing for the ministry. The 
 tokens of affectionate sympathy extended to him by his 
 friends were most touching and grateful to his stricken 
 heart. Immediately after the burial of his wife, on the 
 22d of June, the following note was handed to him from 
 Major Clarkson : 
 
104 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 " Rev. T. Brainerd. 
 " Dear Sir : 
 "T presume under your present deep affliction, in which 
 I most earnestly sympathize with 3'ou, it will not be 
 by any means desirable for you to continue to keep 
 house. Will you do Mrs. Clarkson and myself the favor 
 to accept of a comfortable and retired room in our house, 
 for some weeks or months, as you please ? We think it 
 would perhaps be more agreeable to you than to remain 
 in the city. I have several idle horses, and one shall at 
 all times be at your service, to ride to and from the city. 
 I find it perfectly convenient to attend to my business in 
 the city and reside at this short distance out, and I think 
 you would find it equally so. We sincerely hope this pro- 
 ])osition may meet your approbation, and, at as early a 
 day as will suit your convenience, we may have the pleas- 
 ure of seeing you an inmate of our family. 
 
 " Your sincere friend, 
 
 " Charles S. Clarkson. 
 
 '• June 22d, lS3.i." 
 
 But his ever-watchful and maternal friend, Mrs. Judge 
 Burnet, claimed and took charge of him and his nephew 
 by what she called a prior right. His house was locked 
 up, with everything standing in its accustomed place, and 
 Mr. Brainerd was established in her luxurious home, 
 where he received the most tender and assiduous kindness 
 from every member of ihe family. 
 
 The tread-mill duties in the editor's office now became a 
 blessing; and the excitement of Dr. Beecher's trial, — in 
 the midst of which the doctor's own lovely wife, Mrs. 
 Harriet Beecher, was consigned to the grave, two weeks 
 after Mrs. Brainerd, — occupied his whole time and de- 
 manded his undivided energies. 
 
 Mr. Brainerd invited a sister of his wife to take charge 
 
COREESrONDENCE. 105 
 
 of his house, who arrived in Cincinnati in two or three 
 weeks, when he and his nephew returned to their deso- 
 lated home. 
 
 About two months after the death of his wife, Mr. Brai- 
 nerd received a letter from his friend, Reuel Kimball, Jr., 
 announcing a similar bereavement in his own family. 
 
 Mr. Brainerd writes in reply : 
 
 " You can well imagine that I know the extent of your 
 loss, and rest assured that you have my warmest sym- 
 pathy. 
 
 " We have a tendency to make our home on the earth. 
 God is too good to allow us to sleep on this enemy's 
 ground. We stand at the beginning of existence. The 
 value of happiness in the present life we magnify bej^ond 
 its proper proportion. God looks down through eternal 
 ages, and so arranges his providence as to secure the 
 greatest happiness of our whole being. You do the same 
 thing with your children. They look only at the present 
 moment; you look at their whole life, and consequently 
 are often compelled to inflict present pain to save them 
 from future evils. 
 
 "My life has been checkered and singular. God has 
 blessed me abundantly in some respects. He has gone 
 before me all my life and given me favor with the people. 
 He has invested me with peculiar responsibilities and 
 given me opportunity to exert a wide-spread influence. 
 He has gathered around me all the enjoyments that the 
 world could give. Now, could I have borne this without 
 affliction? I have been tempted to congratulate myself on 
 my advantages. God saw this. Twice he dashed the cup 
 of worldly enjoyment from my lips. Twice he has clotlied 
 the earth with sackcloth around me, and compelled me to 
 
 10 
 
106 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BR AI NERD, D.D. 
 
 feel that I was a poor, weak, sinful man, dependent entirely 
 on his providence. 
 
 " No common discipline would suffice for me. Pressed 
 on by labors and cares, and constantly excited by the 
 changing scenes around me, I should not have felt a slight 
 blow. God knew this ; and he has twice sundered, as it 
 Avere in a moment, the strong cords which bound me to 
 the world. Thus he has compelled me to give up the 
 world as a pillar to be leaned upon. He is now dealing 
 in the same manner with you. I pray that you may have 
 grace not onl}' to bear Ijut to improve your deep affliction, 
 and get your medicine in 'the Ijalm of Gilead.' 
 
 " Give my love to all your family. I cherish for them a 
 peculiar affection, which neither time nor distance has 
 weakened. 
 
 " Your brother and sincere friend, 
 
 "Thomas Brainerd. 
 
 " CiNCi-NSATi, Sept. 20th, 1835." 
 
 From Rev. John Spaulding. 
 
 " The first generation that peopled Ohio and the West 
 generally, was less intelligent, less stable, less qualified to 
 lay the foundations of future generations than the second. 
 It had not the means, if it had possessed the will, for con- 
 verting broad forests into fruitful fields ; unlimited water- 
 power into giant arms to turn the wheels of all the varie- 
 ties of manufactures ; open roads, build bridges, erect 
 dwellings, churches, school-houses, villages, and cities; 
 found schools, colleges, and literary periodicals ; establish 
 lines of stages and steamers for intercommunication, and 
 furnish the adequate numl)er of competent men to keep all 
 these industries, — all these literary and religious interests 
 alive, and in healthy action. 
 
 "A large portion of the population was uneducated; its 
 enterprise extending no further nor higher than a log- 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 107 
 
 cabin, a limited corn-field, and the pursuits of the chase. 
 These constituted the borderers between civilized and 
 savage life, to blaze the trees from settlement to settle- 
 ment, keep the Indians at bay, kill the wild beasts, and 
 float off when a better tide of immigration came in. In 
 1827, Ohio was the greatest emigrating State in the 
 Union : while a ratio of population was pouring over the 
 Alleghanies, into the Yalley of the Mississippi, at the rate 
 of one thousand a day. 
 
 "At the end of the first generation the work of large and 
 liberal improvements had fairly commenced. Intelligence 
 had come to the aid of will, capital to the aid of industry ; 
 and, by the middle of the second generation, all hands were 
 hot at work, all hearts beating hopefully, and all minds 
 wondering at present and prospective results. 
 
 " It was stimulated and largely directed by leading 
 minds from the Eastern States. ' There were giants in 
 the earth in those days ;' and if few of them found their 
 way to the West, their sons went and worked there. 
 
 "Among them Avas the brother bclo\ed whose recent 
 monument bears the inscription, — 
 
 'An earnest Preacher, a true Philanthropist, anJ a Christian Patriot:' 
 Rev. Thomas Biiainerd, D.D. 
 
 "Soon after finishing his course at the Andover Theo- 
 logical Seminary, he was earnestly at work in the Queen 
 City of the West ; first as a preacher, and then as the 
 editor of the Cincinnati Journal. Here the writer of this 
 sketch first made his acquaintance: laboring with him in 
 the protracted meetings of that day ; consulting together 
 on matters of personal duty and usefulness ; sitting at the 
 same table, and bowing together at the same family altar 
 for several consecutive months ; enjoying together, in the 
 hours of relaxation from toil, some of the richest clusters 
 of social life; and, after the cholera had suddenly bereaved 
 
108 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS DRATNERD, D.D. 
 
 him of his excellent wife, going with him to the grave to 
 weep there. 
 
 " Under all these circumstances he was uniformly cour- 
 teous, kind, faithful, and true. Asa counselor, his breth- 
 ren ever found him judicious ; as an advocate of human 
 rights, firm; as a friend of every good work, promjyt ; 
 and as an opponent of ultraism and error, fearless. For 
 example, when the students of Lane Seminary became 
 suddenly wiser than their teachers, and, scouting their 
 advice to desist, continued the discussion of slavery 
 far beyond the possibilities of a discreet usefulness ; and 
 when, to break down what they called a wicked caste in 
 society, they brought a colored woman into church, and 
 seated her beside one of the most prominent white ladies 
 in the city; when also they denounced severely those who 
 • lagged in duty,' and ran not with them to the same excess 
 of riot; how faithfully he rebuked their intolerance and 
 indiscretion ; and how earnestly did he labor to stop their 
 headlong course, and save them from the results of their 
 folly, viz., expulsion from the seminary, and a great abridg- 
 ment of their future usefulness. 
 
 "So when Dr. Joshua L. Wilson arraigned Dr. Lyman 
 Beecher before the Presbytery of Cincinnati, charging him 
 with heresy, slander, and hypocrisy, no member of that 
 body was more able and impartial in procuring a righteous 
 acquittal than Mr. Brainerd; and when the question arose 
 whether the prosecutor, having utterly failed to prove the 
 charges, should be himself censured as a slanderer of the 
 gospel ministry, Mr. Brainerd was among the first to pal- 
 liate his rashness and excuse him, on the ground of his 
 being more honest than wise, and more pugnacious than 
 prudent. 
 
 " The courtesy and kindness of his private life be also ex- 
 pressed on the pages of his public t/o?<r»a/. If the times were 
 exciting, and tongues and pens were bent on mischief in the 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 1 9 
 
 household of faith, his tongue and pen seldom let fall a 
 hitter word in reply. While he contended earnestly for 
 the faith once delivered to the saints, he was scrupulously 
 careful not to inflict a needless wound, not to sadden an 
 honest heart. In the light of the present better days and 
 brotherly feelings, some of those editorial columns may be 
 read as models of a magnanimous spirit earnestly seeking 
 and teaching the truth as it is in Jesus. 
 
 " On the subject of slavery his position was never 
 equivocal : always speaking, when in his judgment ho 
 could benefit either master or slave ; always judicious, 
 whether discussing with the Hon. Henry Clay, of Ash- 
 land, Kentucky, the best means for putting an end to the 
 dark system, or disputing with Rev. John Rankin, of Rip- 
 le}^ Ohio, the measures of the abolitionists. It was a mar- 
 vel often to those who knew the nervousness of his tem- 
 perament that he could keep so cool on the hottest battle- 
 field, and lighten so vividly in the storm of debate without 
 scathing too severely some of his gnarled opponents. 
 
 " Whenever he officiated as a minister, whether in the 
 city or country, on communion and other occasions of 
 religious interest, it was manifest that he deeply felt him- 
 self the messages he delivered. Hence the depth and per- 
 manence of the good impressions left. Many, besides his 
 ministerial brethren who survive him, bless God for the 
 labors of Thomas Brainerd as a co-worker in the second 
 generation, in laying the foundations of good for all the 
 future generations of the West." 
 
 From Eev. Horace Bushnell, of Cincinnati. 
 
 "I first met Dr. Brainerd in March, 1826, the day we 
 both united with the church. In the autumn of the same 
 year, we both attended Mr. Grosvenor's Classical School, 
 in Rome. Mr. Brainerd then opened a school himself and 
 I became his pupil. He was then universally esteemed 
 
 10* 
 
110 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 foi' his piety and respected for his talents. In Rome he 
 was a universal favorite, and his memory is warmly cher- 
 ished there, 
 
 "At Cincinnati he was popular with all classes, and 
 at once secured the confidence and love of the Fourth 
 Church, and the whole community learned to respect 
 him. His Christian kindness and condescension won all 
 hearts. 
 
 "In our ecclesiastical trials of that day, he was always 
 present, active, and earnest ; but never suffered himself to 
 be thrown off his guard. In no exigency would he violate 
 an ecclesiastical rule, or infringe upon the constitution of 
 the church. In the midst of party strife he was at times 
 violently assailed ; but always remained calm, dignified, 
 and, however great the provocation, treated his opponents 
 with respect. 
 
 " My last interview with Mr. Brainerd was near the 
 grave of President Harrison. We talked of our child- 
 hood ; the trials of our youth, and the labors of our man- 
 hood ; of the grace that redeemed us, and of our hopes for 
 the better land. He has finished his work, and entered 
 into rest. I linger for a little season, cheered by the same 
 promises that sustained him." 
 
 Reminiscences of Dr. T. Brainerd. By Eev. D. C. Blood. 
 
 " I first knew Dr. Brainerd in the autumn of 1828; was 
 a member of the same clnss three years, in Andover Theo- 
 logical Seminary, where we graduated September, 1831 ; 
 and came thence to Cincinnati, Ohio, as missionaries to 
 the great West. I saw him nearly every week, until lie 
 was recalled to Philadelphia. 
 
 " Brother Brainerd was diligent as a student, active as 
 a Christian; ready, instructive, and spiritual in devotional 
 meetings; a faithful Sabbath-school laborer; and, in all 
 respects, a zealous missionary. He was able in studied 
 
REMINISCENCES. HI 
 
 discourses, but especially happy in bis off-hand speeches; 
 and the more embarrassing the occasion, the more com- 
 posed and gifted were his efforts. 
 
 " "While at Andover, he was often called out for temper- 
 ance and Sabbath-school speeches ; and he was one of the 
 few men whose name would fill a country meeting-house, 
 and whose speech would hold an audience in breathless 
 attention by the hour, amid the noise of fife and drum, 
 and all the jargon of an old-fashioned Fourth-of-July. 
 
 "Mr. Brainerd's coolness and practical good sense were 
 striking features of his character. In the autumn of 1832, 
 while the Synod of Cincinnati was in session in Chilli- 
 cothe, the cholera made its first appearance in Cincinnati. 
 Synod immediately adjourned and started for home. As 
 Mr. Brainerd and others came near a village where they 
 were to pass the night, a man in a cabin by the way was 
 heard crying, 'Cholera! cholera! I'm dying!' Mr. Brai- 
 nerd returned to the scene of alarm ; and, regardless of 
 the protestations of fear-stricken neighbors, who were 
 'standing afar off,' went directly to the bedside of the 
 alarmed man; assured him that he had not one of the 
 symptoms of Asiatic cholera, but was suffering from i)leu- 
 risy ; ordered warm applications to be made, and, in the 
 course of an hour, had the man free from pain and in a 
 fair way for recovery 
 
 " The same features of character showed themselves in 
 all the scenes of ecclesiastical warfare which distinguished 
 the early years of his ministry. In all these scenes of 
 perplexity, I never knew Brother Brainerd to be discon- 
 certed or ever worsted in debate. 
 
 "Mr. Brainerd was peculiarly happy in his personal in- 
 tercourse, especially Avith plain people. He was pressing 
 the claims of religion on the attention of a day-laborer, 
 who, not knowing what else to say, brought up the com- 
 mon excuse, that there were ' so manv different denomina- 
 
112 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAIN ERD, D.D. 
 
 tions.' 'Mv friend,' said Mr. Brainerd, ' jou live by your 
 labor ; now suppose you find a man of your sort loitering 
 at street corners, and exhort him to go to work and earn 
 bread for his family. But the loiterer replies, Do you sup- 
 pose I will work while there are so many sorts of work to 
 be done ? One man wants me to dig, another to drive 
 team, another to unload his boat, and thus not less than a 
 dozen offer me wages ; but so many kinds of work are 
 enough to craze one ! And so with you, my friend. The 
 Baptists call you, then the Methodists, then the Episco- 
 palians, and then the Presbyterians, — and all proffer you 
 eternal life ; and you refuse because so many join to invite 
 you.' 
 
 " In an intimate acquaintance with minister.s, extending 
 through almost forty years, I have known but few who 
 were the equals of Dr. Thomas Brainerd." ^ 
 
CHAPTER A' 1 1. 
 
 CALL TO UTICA — GENERAL ASSEMBLY AT PITTSBORG. 
 
 IN October, 1835, the year following the call to Jackson- 
 ville, Illinois, Mr. Brainerd received a call to the First 
 Presbyterian Church of Utica, New York. This call, 
 coming from those who had known him in youth, and urged 
 upon him by friends whom he regarded with great love 
 and reverence, gtove him unmingled satisfaction. The 
 honor a prophet receives in his own country is doubly 
 grateful. 
 
 But the motives which constrained him to decline the 
 call to Jacksonville were still in full force, and influenced 
 him to continue in Cincinnati. 
 
 The official call to Utica, bearing date October Gth, 
 1835, was received without any previous intimation, as 
 unexpected as it was gratifying. 
 
 The Committee who signed the call were Oliver Wet- 
 more, Spencer Kellogg, J. A. Spencer, T. Walker, and John 
 Bradish ; while the friends by whom it was urged, and 
 the motives assigned for his acceptance of it, made the 
 refusal one of the most painful duties of his public life. 
 
 Hon. Chester Hayden, with whom he had studied law, 
 writes as follows: 
 
 " I was greatly delighted to learn, by a letter from the 
 Rev. William Patton, of New York, who has taken a deep 
 interest in the claims of this church, that with his exten- 
 sive acquaintance in the American church, he recom- 
 
 (113) 
 
114 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 mended you, as the best adapted to our wants and the 
 wants of this region, of any clergyman of his acquaint- 
 ance. Ever since the vacancy occurred I have felt a wish 
 that we might have you' for our pastor. We last evening 
 had a regular meeting of the society, and such was the 
 confidence with which Dr. Patton had inspired the congre- 
 gation by his frank and honest representations, that, after 
 a short discussion of the subject, a unanimous vote was 
 passed calling Mr. Brainerd to the pastoral care of this 
 people. 
 
 " I assure you, my dear sir, that on this occasion recol- 
 lections of the past were to me intensely interesting ; and 
 several adverted with lively interest to a sermon with 
 which you once favored us. And now, my dear sir, allow 
 me to hope that a favorable response ufay be returned to 
 this call, 
 
 " You know something of the importance of this station, 
 and that it should be properly occupied ; Ave are all satis- 
 fied that if our call meets a favorable reception, it will be 
 so occupied. 
 
 "The salary proposed is the same that Mr. Aikin re- 
 ceived ; but is only twelve hundred and fifty dollars, 
 which, though I do not imagine that a salary would be 
 with you a primary object, is, I fear, less than you will 
 think this society ought to pay. There are means enough 
 to raise the sum to two thousand ; and I am confident 
 that no difficulty would be experienced on account of com- 
 pensation. I cannot but wait with anxiety for your 
 decision, as I know many others will, — but I more. 
 
 " The affliction with which you were visited the last 
 summer, as sudden almost to yourself as to your friends 
 here, brought again vividly to my recollection the latter 
 part of your residence at Rome. Be assured you did and 
 do partake largely of the sympathy of Mrs. H. and my- 
 self. It seems that the Lord designed to make you perfect. 
 
CALL TO UTICA. 115 
 
 in a degree, through suffering. I doubt not that such has 
 been and will be its salutary influence. 
 
 " Yerj truly yours, 
 
 " Chester Hayden. 
 
 "Utica, Oct. 7th, 1835." 
 
 A joint letter from the committee followed immediately 
 upon the call. 
 
 " Rev. and dear Sir : 
 
 " In consequence of the interest taken by the Rev. Wil- 
 liam Fatten, of New York, in the welfare of this church, 
 and his recommendation of yourself as a minister every 
 way qualified for this location, we addressed the call 
 through him, requesting him to forward the same to you, 
 accompanied with such remarks as he might deem proper. 
 
 " The unanimity with which the call was made, when 
 we consider the numbers connected with this congregation, 
 seems clearly to evince an overruling Providence, which 
 should always be recognized. 
 
 "The location, in itself considered, offers claims which 
 cannot easily be resisted. It is the geographical center 
 of this great State, and a position that must and will give 
 an influence to a large extent of territory. Ecclesiastical 
 bodies will receive a greater or less influence from this 
 individual church. ****** 
 
 "We are aware that your feelings must necessarily have 
 become interwoven with the important interests of the 
 West; and you may have become so identified with that 
 portion of the country, as tQ lead you to the conclusion 
 that it would not be your duty to leave. Your knowledge 
 of the wants of the great Western Valley would enable 
 you to present them to this community in a light never 
 before presented. And blessed as we are with one of the 
 
110 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 richest portions of the earth, it might only be necessary to 
 excite an interest on this subject, to secure much good to 
 the church. 
 
 "We now leave this subject in the hands of God, believ- 
 ing that He will bring you to such conclusions as shall 
 best promote His own glory and the good of His church. 
 " Spencer Kellogg, T. Walker, 
 "J. A. Spencer, John Bradish." 
 
 From Rev. William Patton, D.D, 
 
 "New York, October 10th, 1835. 
 
 " Rev. Thomas Brainerd. 
 "My dear Brother: 
 
 " I learn with great pleasure that the First Presbyterian 
 Church in Utica have given you a unanimous call to be- 
 come their pastor. I am made glad by this intelligence, 
 because of the personal friendship I bear you, the interest 
 which I feel in that church, and the general good of our 
 Saviour's Kingdom. As I was instrumental in bringing 
 your name before that people, it is proper I should give 
 you some of the reasons which influenced me in so doing. 
 
 " The conviction has been deepening upon my mind 
 that your forte is preaching ; acting upon the minds of 
 men by the living voice. God has given to you more 
 preaching talents and pulpit powers, than to most of your 
 brethren in the ministry. In this view I find many others, 
 who know and love you, cordially concurring. They feel, 
 with me, that your present employment is by no means so 
 important, and that you are not so well adapted for it as 
 for preaching. 
 
 " The paper you are editing has now made its charac- 
 ter, and has, perhaps, so far done its great work, that it 
 can be safely transferred to other hands. 
 
 "Your knowledge of the West Avould be of immense ser- 
 vice in counsel and action at the East, and by your removal 
 
CALL TO UTICA. 117 
 
 East, the bonds of union would be more intimate. From 
 Oneida and adjoining counties there is a very strong emi- 
 gration West, which you could materially influence and 
 shape, from your knowledge of the whole country. You 
 could thus send more ministers and active Christians than 
 you could in any other way secure for the valley. 
 
 " If ever you are again to. settle as a pastor, it is well-nigh 
 time for you to do it, before your mind and heart become 
 secularized and alienated from the peculiar feelings which 
 are connected with love for the pulpit and the pastoral 
 work. 
 
 " The unanimity of the call is an important item, when 
 you consider the size of the congregation and the amount 
 of intelligence and wealth which it contains. I know of few 
 congregations in the land where there is so much talent 
 and educated mind, and so much wealth connected with 
 the church. 
 
 " Utica exerts a metropolitan influence over some twenty 
 counties and gives tone and action to the churches there. 
 The First Church in Utica is, beyond all comparison, the 
 largest and strongest in all that region, and has always 
 been an empire church. 
 
 "The law-school, now established at Utica, will have 
 several hundred students, whose minds are to be religiously 
 moulded. Multitudes of young men, who are now floating 
 from church to church, would be fixed in the First Church 
 if you accept. Yours afTectionatcly, 
 
 " William Patton." 
 
 " Brother Brainerd : 
 
 " In all that Brother Patton has said concerning Utica, 
 and the importance of the place and its influence on the 
 surrounding region, there can be but one opinion. He has 
 given an outline that might be filled up with facts of very 
 decided character. But concerning a previous ({ucstion, 
 
 11 
 
118 LIFE OF liEV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 the duty of leaving the West and coming' to the East, I am 
 not so clear. If you settle that question in favor of the 
 East, then come to Utica. Yours, 
 
 " Charles Hall." 
 
 From Rev. Albert Barnes. 
 
 " My dear Brother : 
 
 "Brother Fatten has read me his letter; and I would 
 join my testimony to his on the subject. You know Utica; 
 and you know that it is immensely important to have a 
 man of large views, and firm, independent principles and 
 right feelings there. There are very few points in the 
 land of so much importance as that; and I regard this call 
 to you as signally providential. For one, I am becoming 
 more and more impressed with the truth that all who can 
 preach sJiould preach, as the main business of life, and I 
 have not a doubt that you have a call to preach; and that 
 the pulpit is more important than a paper can be. But 
 you can judge on this subject. You have our feelings and 
 views. Truly yours, 
 
 " A. Barnes." 
 
 Notwithstanding these earnest persuasions, Mr. Brai- 
 nerd still considered it his duty to remain at his post in 
 Cincinnati. But the arguments of his friends Avere not lost 
 upon him ; and as he had never wholly relinquished 
 preaching during his editorial career, he proposed to re- 
 sume it, as the great work of his life, as soon as the exi- 
 gencies of the times pointed out his duty clearly in that 
 direction. 
 
 In May, 1836, Mr. Brainerd came East as Commissioner 
 to the General Assembly. Dr. Beecher accompanied him, 
 with several other clergymen, among whom was Presi- 
 dent Labaree, a classmate of Mr. Brainerd's at AndoVer. 
 In an editorial of May 5th, Mr. Brainerd announces his 
 
VISIT TO HIS AGED FATHER. HQ 
 
 temporaiy absence, and Ins purpose to visit his aged and 
 sick father in Northern New York before his return. He 
 says: " Eighty-two years press heavily upon his frosted 
 head and threaten soon to sink him to the grave. His 
 best afifections are in heaven, but his heart is still warm 
 toward the son of his old age. He has expressed a wish 
 to see him once more. 
 
 "Will any father or mother among our readers say that 
 we ought not to go ? Will any complain if, after two years 
 of crushing labor and responsibility, we again leave our 
 post for a few weeks, to gladden the heart which loved us 
 before we could appreciate the obligation, and to grasp 
 once more the trembling hand which sustained and guided 
 our infancy and childhood ? 
 
 " During the editor's absence, our paper will be con- 
 ducted by one every way competent to assume such re- 
 sponsibilities. He is a gentleman of piety, talents, and 
 scholarship ; and a thorough Presbyterian by birth, edu- 
 cation, and choice. We think he will give general satis- 
 faction."* 
 
 Dr. Beecher and Mr. Braincrd remained a short time in 
 Philadelphia after the Assembly adjourned, and then came 
 on to New Haven together. 
 
 While in Philadelphia, Mr. Brainerd was invited to 
 supply the pulpit of the Third Presbyterian Church on 
 the Sabbath, and to officiate at the June communion. 
 One of the elders of the Third Church, who was a dele- 
 gate to the General Assembly, said he was first impressed 
 in Mr. Brainerd's favor, by the ability and fearlessness 
 with which so young a man (then not quite thirty-two) 
 defended Dr. Beecher from the attacks of his opponents. 
 
 * The substitute thus spoken of was Rev. Henry Ward Beecher; or, as 
 he was then called, " Mr. Henry Beecher." We are glad to see that he 
 does not ignore his " Presbyterianism " since the Reunion. 
 
120 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 It will be remembered, these were the days of stormy 
 gathering before the tempest which broke upon the churches 
 in the divisions of the next year. We are not to forget 
 these chapters of wonderful history. In reviewing them, 
 we more gratefully recognize the peace which has dawned 
 upon the Christian horizon. " The spirit of God has 
 moved upon the face of the waters," — " stilling the noise 
 of the waves and the tumult of the people." 
 
 Mr. Brainerd's visit to New Haven led to the acquaint- 
 ance which resulted in his second marriage. Dr. Beecher 
 went on to Boston, where he was himself married before 
 his return. The events of the next three months so con- 
 trolled Mr. Brainerd's movements, that the season w^as 
 spent between Philadelphia and New Haven. His letters 
 at this time will give the best report of his plans and 
 pursuits. 
 
 To Mrs. W. 
 
 " New York, Sept. 9th, 1836. 
 
 " I had thought to have left this morning for Phila- 
 delphia, but Mr. Patton insists upon my giving a few 
 weeks to his favorite cause [American Education Soc.]. 
 He says that his treasury is exhausted, and that I shall 
 be untrue to the great interests of religion if I refuse to 
 lend a helping hand in this emergency. The intrinsic im- 
 portance of the work itself has made so much impression 
 on my mind, that I am not sure but I shall devote my 
 leisure time to making speeches and collecting money. 
 The first duty I have some experience in ; but collecting 
 money is a harder business. 
 
 "When a man looks me in the face, and says he is 
 poor ; that matters have gone hard with him in pecuniary 
 concerns; that he is a 'mighty' generous man, but thinks 
 he cannot give anything this time ; I may know that it is 
 the groaning of avarice, — but how can I urge the business 
 
CORRESrONDENCE. 121 
 
 farther ? Poor agents 1 In the prospect of becoming one 
 of their fraternity for a few weeks, I begin to exercise 
 toward them an unwonted compassion." * * 
 
 To the same. 
 
 "Philadelphia, Sept. 11th, 1836. 
 
 " Mr. Patton's offered agency would so embarrass my 
 plans for the coming weeks, that I finally concluded to 
 decline it, and therefore came to this city yesterday. 
 From the fact that I have changed my mind as to pro- 
 ceeding West directly, my friends here more than suspect 
 that I have peculiar reasons for it. * * * 
 
 "The great valley of the West is now in its infancy. 
 It is destined to become a giant, omnipotent in its energies 
 for the weal or woe of this country and the world. 
 
 " It has been said that Paris has twice revolutionized 
 France. What Paris is to France, Cincinnati is to the 
 great valley. It is the commercial, literary, and religious 
 emporium of a territory, more expansive, more fertile, more 
 adapted to sustain uncounted myriads of immortal souls, 
 than any ever before embraced under one system of laws 
 and moral influences. Cincinnati is the point of the greatest 
 influence, present and prospective, which can be selected 
 in the length and breadth of the valley. It is central for 
 the whole West. It has gained the vantage-ground of all 
 rivals in intellect and wealth. It is conscious of its power 
 and disposed to exercise it. 
 
 " Where would one wish to spend life, if not at such a 
 position, where rivulets of influence may be sent forth to 
 grow broader and deeper, until their pure waters shall 
 lave every hamlet of the West? Daniel Webster once 
 thanked God that he was born when and where he was 
 born ; in a glorious era — in a happy country! I can thank 
 God that he has so guided me in his providence that my 
 moral influence has for five years been expended upon the 
 
 11* 
 
122 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 germ of a great nation ; upon elements of being destined, 
 in their increase and combination, to control the welfare 
 of a Avorld. ******* 
 
 " I do claim to have an intense desire for the diffusion 
 of a proper influence over the West. This, for five years, 
 has been my ruling passion. I have labored for it with 
 almost a martyr si^irit." ***** 
 
 To the same. 
 
 "Philadelphia, Sept. 14th, 1836. 
 * * * * << I preached twice in one of the 
 churches of this city yesterday, and have agreed to supply 
 the Third Church next Sabbath. I have been spoken to 
 ten times to settle in this city ; but my voice is still ' for 
 the expansive West.' So long as nothing interferes to 
 impair my usefulness at Cincinnati, I must regard it as 
 my home. There I commenced my ministry ; there I 
 have gained whatever of influence and character God has 
 given me in my profession ; there I have enjoyed a large 
 measure of happiness, as well as endured severe suffering — 
 there is my home. ****** 
 
 " Have you ever been in this city ? To me, this place is 
 far more attractive than New York. True, there is no one 
 view here so imposing as that which meets your eye in 
 advancing up Broadway from the Battery toward the 
 Park. Philadelphia is more modest. She has little to 
 dazzle and fascinate at first sight ; but here you can take 
 your stand at fifty different points, and have the same 
 great city still before you. In wandering from street to 
 street, you insensibly gain the impression that you are in 
 the midst of a people more anxious to enjoy life than to 
 hold out signals of such enjoyment; more solicitous to 
 possess wealth, for the comforts it will purchase, than to 
 astonish the multitude by the appearance of affluence." 
 
CORRESrONDENCE. 123 
 
 Dr. Beecher to Rev. T, Brainerd. 
 
 " Boston, Sept. 24th, 1836. 
 
 " Bkloved Son and Brother: 
 
 "Yours of the 15th reached me only yesterday. * * 
 " I have fully expected, and have understood it to be 
 the desire and expectation of my people, that you should 
 be settled as a colleague with me, as soon as your place at 
 the Journal could be supplied ; the definite arrange- 
 ments, of course, can be made only by our presence and 
 agency Avith the people. But that you ought to go on, 
 and must go on, cannot be doubted for a moment. No 
 man can be withdrawn from our ranks at the West now 
 with so much evil, as yourself. Your extensive knowl- 
 edge and influence and tact cannot be found in another, 
 and cannot be dispensed with in you. I wonder that any- 
 body should think of detaining you from us. Nor does 
 the safety or expediency of your going turn at all on the 
 success of our plans in respect to the Second Church. If 
 that were out of the question, we must have you with us 
 and will ; for we must now organize East and West thor- 
 oughly, to meet coming events. God and our country call 
 us to stand — ' and having done all to stand.'' 
 
 " The destiny of the church. East and West, is deeply in- 
 volved in the manner in which we hold together or sepa- 
 rate. You can settle, if need be, in twenty places, and you 
 may safely go, and must go, and not listen for a moment 
 to overtures this side. I shall break down and die if you 
 break away. I could say much more, but intend to see 
 you in New York and have a full talk. I hope you will 
 be able to make your arrangements to go on with me about 
 two weeks hence. I request you by all means to meet me 
 in New York, and to make no engagements contrary to 
 my hopes. Affectionately yours, 
 
 " Lyman Beeciier." 
 
124 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 Dr. Lyman Beecher to T. Brainerd. 
 
 "Boston, Sept. 29th, 18.36. 
 
 " My dear Son and Brother : 
 
 " I wrote immediately to New Haven, in reply to your 
 former letter. If there i.s any change in the plans of ray 
 church and people, I am not so apprised of it as would make 
 it judicious to act upon it. But, as I shall return two 
 weeks before you, I think it best to go home and ascertain 
 the condition of things. It will be a grievous disappoint- 
 ment to me to part with you, after having so long and 
 with so much comfort and affection leaned upon you, 
 where few, like-minded and capable, would have been 
 found to aid me through the fiery trial ; and I shall do 
 whatever may be done to consummate our anticipations of 
 a permanent union. If this should fail, for you know the 
 inconstancy of human affairs, I can even then by no means 
 relinquish, and hope you will not relinquish, the idea of 
 consecrating your remaining days at the West. I doubt 
 not arrangements can be and will be made to retain you. 
 
 ********** 
 
 " The pending crisis ought not to come on with all possible 
 preparation on one side and none on the other. Your pres- 
 ence will be imperiously needed. "We cannot spare you from 
 our circles. ******** 
 
 "I shall be in JS'ew York on Saturday next, and on 
 Monday and Tuesday following. We must have a gen- 
 eral consultation of ministers and laymen, and organize 
 thoroughly in New York ; and the same should be done 
 in Philadelphia. 
 
 " In the mean time, should all our hopes be blasted and 
 God should station you in Philadelphia, then I shall be- 
 lieve that you are after all more needed there, and will do 
 even more good than at the West. Rely on my gratitude 
 and affection forever. * * * It is the way of 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 125 
 
 Heaven to do for us better than our fears and exceeding 
 abundantly beyond all we ask or think. 
 
 "Affectionately yours, 
 
 "Lyman Beecher." 
 
 To Mrs. W. 
 
 "Philadelphia, Oct. 4th, 183C. 
 " The people of the Third Church have taken into their 
 heads an idea that I must become their pastor, and have 
 sent an Elder to confer with me this morning on the sub- 
 ject. I preached twice yesterday, and attended a prayer- 
 meeting last night. The congregation was the largest 
 which has assembled there for three months. I get up in 
 the pulpit, and preach away as hard as I can, without the 
 least regard to tones or gestures ; without the least effort 
 to be graceful ; and it seems to me not a little strange that 
 I should so repeatedly be selected for refined city churches. 
 For some reason or other, while hundreds of better men 
 are overlooked, it has been my destiny to pass for more 
 than I am worth. I feel deeply humbled when I see good 
 men soliciting ray services as a privilege. 
 
 " I do not know yet as I could possibly make up my 
 mind to stay at the East. I most intensely love the West. 
 There, with the self-sacrifice and perseverance, if not with 
 the godliness of a martyr, I have labored five years; there 
 I have formed a thousand acquaintances, almost all of 
 whom have met me with the demeanor of kindness ; there 
 I have acquired whatever of professional reputation I now 
 enjoy ; there I have formed great plans, as I surveyed au 
 empire of mind waiting the impress of truth and the mes- 
 sage of salvation. Can I leave such ties? Now the press- 
 ure is laid upon my conscience and I know not how to 
 decide. 
 
 " If I remain in Cincinnati, I shall be in the city and 
 Dr. Beecher will reside out of the city. I shall be obliged 
 
126 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRA NERD, D.D. 
 
 to perform all the pastoral labor, and bear all the burdens 
 of hospitality. I shall be compelled to meet all the re- 
 sponsibilities of a city minister. 
 
 " In refusing to go to TJtica I made a pecuniary sacrifice 
 in salary of several hundred dollars a year. I did it 
 cheerfully for my love to the West. 
 
 " I feel the force of Dr. Beecher's appeals. To separate 
 myself from communion with his giant intellect and noble 
 heart will be a sore trial. I love him as a father. I could 
 cheerfully spend my life in alleviating his labors and cheer- 
 ing his work; but I cannot consent, not only to occupy 
 the place of colleague, but to do it under the embarrass- 
 ment caused by getting a part of my support by editorial 
 laljor. To Cincinnati I have been a true son, — but I have 
 trundled two loaded wheelbarrows long enough, and must 
 now content myself with moving one. 
 
 " I wish you would hold a steady purpose to go West, 
 and then wait the developments of divine Providence." 
 
 When Mr. Brainerd came East, his nephew, Carlos 
 Brainerd, then a member of Lane Theological Seminary, 
 remained at Cincinnati. In a letter to him, dated Sep- 
 tember IGth, 1836, he writes : 
 
 " My life, I think, Avill not be a long one. I want you 
 to be an able preacher when I am dead. Be wide awake 
 to improve opportunities to gain information, and to secure 
 a happy mode of imparting it. The difference among 
 mea of common sense is about this : one man keeps his 
 eyes and ears open to receive impressions, and then em- 
 ploys his reflective powers in arranging and preserving 
 these impressions for use. Another man is always asleep; 
 or if half awake, he is putting forth no energy of mind to 
 any purpose. Waste no time ; read, write a letter, make 
 poetry ; anything, better than dozing. Cultivate a manly 
 
MARRFAGE. 121 
 
 and graceful mode of address ; and in order to this, con- 
 stantly observe the habits of well-bred men for imita- 
 tion."* 
 
 In a letter dated Philadelphia, October Yth, 183G, Mr. 
 Brainerd says: "Dr. Beecher is married to-day. He 
 started last and has come out first." 
 
 The three clergymen who left Cincinnati together, each 
 having lost his wife the year before, returned in the fall, 
 married. Several of the Western papers published the 
 fact, heading the notice, " Celibacy of the Clergy." Then 
 followed, in a group, the record of these three marriages : 
 Dr. Beecher's, Mr. Labaree's, and Mr. Brainerd's. 
 
 Mr. Brainerd was married at Kew Haven, by Rev. 
 Leonard Bacon, D.D., to Mary Whiting, on the 29th of 
 October, 1836. They left for New York the same day, 
 and after a visit of nearly three weeks, to their friends in 
 the northern part of the State, returned to Philadelphia on 
 the 18th of November. 
 
 Mr. Brainerd preached in Pine Street Church the next 
 Sabbath, with renewed and urgent solicitations to become 
 their pastor. He left the question open, promising to give 
 them a definite answer soon after his return to Cincinnati. 
 When he left in May, he expected to be absent about six 
 weeks, and the events which no man foreseeth led him 
 through a period of six months. 
 
 He left Philadelphia on the 23d of November, in an 
 old-fashioned stage-coach, and reached Cincinnati on the 
 5th of December, after twelve days' journey. 
 
 The complication of affairs during his absence, the ne- 
 cessity of uniting abundant pastoral labor with the vexa- 
 tions of editorship, by remaining as colleague with Dr. 
 
 •■■ This nejihcw, to whom Mr. Brainerd was much attached, died in 
 the fall of 18.37, of typhoid fever, — the last member of his Cincinnati 
 family'. 
 
128 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 Beechcr in the Second Church, induced Mr. Brainerd to 
 lay down the double burden, each demanding his whole 
 time and strength, for one which could do no more. 
 
 Mr. Brainerd received one thousand dollars a year for 
 editing the Cincinnati Journal, and about two hundred 
 additional wa.s all that he realized for his assistance in the 
 Second Church. 
 
 The vastly cheaper rates of living of that day over the 
 present, as will be seen by recalling the items enumerated 
 by Mr. Brainerd in his sketch of his first pastorate, made 
 twelve hundred dollars then equivalent to four times that 
 sum now. He often noted the fact, that in Cincinnati he 
 used money more freely, and had it more freely to use, 
 than at any later period of his life. But then, as noAV, the 
 churches never incurred the censure of spoiling their pas- 
 tors by luxurious indulgence. Rev. Mr. Patterson's judg- 
 ment bears the indorsement of the universal brotherhood. 
 He used to say, "he thought clergymen ought to be hum- 
 ble, and ought to be poor ; he had often prayed to be kept 
 humble, but he never prayed to be poor; he could trust 
 the churches for that V How often "the bed is shorter 
 than that a man can stretch himself on it, and the cover- 
 ing narrower than that he can wrap himself in it." 
 
 Almost immediately after his arrival in Cincinnati, the 
 official "call" from the Third Church, dated Oct. 31st, 
 1836, was forwarded to him, backed by cordial and hearty 
 letters from several persons, and was accepted. The trial 
 of breaking loose from his cherished associations, of meet- 
 ing the sorrowful acquiescence of Dr. Beecher, of super- 
 intending the auction sale of his household furniture, of 
 making farewell visits to the places and friends of his 
 early life ; all combined, were more than he was prepared 
 for, and occasioned several da^-s' illness. But it was the 
 rule of his life to do resolutely what he had to do, and in 
 live weeks he was ready to return to Philadelphia. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 129 
 
 " Philadelphia, Nov. 1st, 1836. 
 
 " Rev. and dear Sir: 
 
 " The congregation of the Third Presbyterian Church 
 in this city met last evening, agreeable to public notice, 
 for the purpose of choosing a" pastor. 
 
 " The undersigned, members of the session, a committee 
 appointed for the purpose, talie great pleasure in commu- 
 nicating to you the information of your election to that 
 office. They would also acquaint you that two thousand 
 dollars per annum was voted for your support. 
 
 " In the selection of yourself as their pastor, we doubt 
 not but they have been directed by the great Head of the 
 Church, in answer to their frequent and fervent prayers ; 
 and we humbly trust you will feel it your duty, under 
 Divine guidance, to accede to the wishes of the congrega- 
 tion, and come and labor among us in building up this 
 portion of Zion. 
 
 " Yours in Christian affection, 
 
 " R. W. Davenport, 
 " JouN R. McMutten, 
 
 " Committee.' 
 
 The following letter was addressed to Mr. Braiuerd by 
 members of the Third Presbytery: 
 
 "Philadelphia, Deo. 16th, 1836. 
 
 " Rev. Thos. Brainerd. 
 " Dear Brother: 
 "It may be of some importance that you know the 
 opinion of your brethren as to ihe course best for you to pur- 
 sue. In a word, we would recommend that you come on 
 forthwith. It is high time that church should be regularly 
 supplied ;* and every day's delay is a serious injury to the 
 
 The pulpit had then been vacant fur more than two jears. 
 
 12 
 
130 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 general interests of religion. The sooner, therefore, 
 Brother Brainerd is on the ground, the better. 
 " Thus advises, your brother in the gospel, 
 
 " John L. Grant, 
 
 "And thus says, with all his heart, 
 
 " A. Barnes, 
 " John W. Scott, 
 " E. Phelps, 
 " G. N. JUDD. 
 
 " Mr. Duffield and others Avould have signed this, bat 
 were not present." 
 
 Two members of the Old School party in Cincinnati 
 were moved to write to individuals in Philadelphia, both 
 in the Third Presbytery as well as in the Third Church, 
 to endeavor to stir up prejudice against Mr. Brainerd, on 
 the ground of his New-Schoolism. 
 
 We give a letter from the Rev. J. W. Scott. 
 
 "Philadelphia, Dec. 14th, 1836. 
 
 " It was hoped that you would commence your minis- 
 terial work in this church with the commencement of the 
 new year, but I suppose this will be impracticable. I 
 spent a short time with Dr. Ely on Monday ; he expressed 
 his approbation of the choice of the congregation, and the 
 pleasure he felt in the prospect that they will soon have a 
 pastor, who, under the divine auspices, will be instru- 
 mental in promoting their spiritual prosperity. 
 
 " The letters received from Dr. W and Rev. Mr. 
 
 B — '■ — were what might have been expected from such 
 men ; but I did suppose that a man of Dr. W 's repu- 
 tation had more magnanimity in his moral constitution, 
 
FAREWELL TO EDITORSHIP. 131 
 
 and move dignity of character, than to indulge in sneering 
 at the good opinion which others express of those who do 
 not entirely agree with him in his measures. But for such 
 men we have, I trust, both pity and prayers. May God 
 give them a better spirit, and a more practical regard for 
 the law of Christ, by the observance of which his disci- 
 ples may ' be known of all men.' " 
 
 Mr. Brainerd had not yet officially resigned his editor- 
 ship of the Cincinnati Journal. In his temporary absence 
 he continued to furnish articles for its columns. In the 
 paper of December 15th, 1836, he publishes his farewell. 
 Speaking of the period when he commenced his labors, he 
 says : 
 
 " At that time the waves of ecclesiastical controversy 
 rolled high and threatening. Shoals and quicksands lay 
 all around us. False lights were gleaming on every 
 side. The vessel itself, by the misfortunes of other com- 
 manders, and stress of weather, was in a leaky condition, 
 and, by many, condemned as unseaworthy; and not a few 
 stood on the shore, hat in hand, ready to shout if she 
 went down. The cargo was valuable. She was freighted 
 with the 'bread of life' for thousands and tens of thou- 
 sands. To take the helm at such a period required more 
 skill than we possessed. Days of anxiety and almost 
 sleepless nights followed each other for weeks and months, 
 until experience had inspired courage to face the angry 
 elements without apprehension. Sometimes the clouds 
 seemed to divide and promise a great calm. We looked 
 for the rainbow of peace, but looked in vain. 
 
 " No sooner had one exciting subject relinquished its 
 grasp upon the public mind but another succeeded. The 
 last four years, above their predecessors, have been distin- 
 guished for a succession of moral earthquakes which have 
 convulsed society. While our readers have been divided 
 
132 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 into parties, mutually distrusting each other, it has often 
 been our lot to occupy a middle position, where no party 
 could fully approve our course, where our want of parti- 
 sanship has been a crime inviting reprehension from those 
 who could never agree except in their mutual dislike of 
 prudence and moderation. 
 
 " In retiring from our post, we are cheered with the be- 
 lief that we have poisoned no weapons to rankle in the 
 hearts of our readers. We have carried on no envenomed 
 personal controversies with good men. Our friends have 
 been many and constant, our enemies few. Those who 
 have injured us we forgive. If an unadvised word from 
 us has inflicted pain upon others, we crave forgiveness. 
 We part in peace with all. 
 
 " Wherever our lot may be cast in life, or whatever 
 may be our earthly destiny, it will be pleasant to reflect, 
 that we have mingled, to some extent, a good influence 
 with the elements which are to give character to the hun- 
 dred millions who will yet have their habitations on the 
 long rivers and broad plains of the great valley, — we have 
 had a humble share in the attempt to diff'use the lights of 
 literature and religion over the fairest domain on the face 
 of the earth. 
 
 " Long before the West shall have reached that eleva- 
 tion of Vealth, intelligence, and moral excellence for which 
 she is destined, this hand will be cold and this heart will 
 be still. But there is another and a better world, where 
 our friendship shall be renewed and perpetuated, and 
 where the results of Christian efforts will be garnered up. 
 In that home of the righteous may all our kind readers find 
 a habitation." 
 
 Most grateful to his heart were the assurances of confi- 
 dence and affection from those beloved brethren with whom 
 he had labored in these past years, conveyed in the accom- 
 panying letter : 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. I33 
 
 "Dear Brother Brainerd: 
 
 " The subscribers, members of the pastoral meetin<^ in 
 which we have for so long- a time borne one another's 
 burdens, and mingled our counsels and joj'S and sorrows, 
 cannot, without regret, give you the parting hand, or per- 
 mit you to depart without the assurance of our affection 
 and confidence in you as a faitliful brother — commending 
 you, also, to the grace of God in your new sphere of labor, 
 where, if you must leave us, we rejoice that you are to be 
 stationed; and where, we doubt not, God will crown with 
 success your labor, in the feeding of the lambs of the 
 flock, in the edification of the saints, and in winning souls 
 to Christ. 
 
 " Lyman Beecher, Benjamin Graves, 
 " B. Dickinson, Herman Norton, 
 
 " Thomas J. Biggs, Thornton A. Mills, 
 " John Spaulding. 
 
 "Cincinnati, Jan. 10th, 1837." 
 
 Mr. Braiuerd's Beply. 
 
 "Dear Brethren: 
 
 " Please accept my grateful acknowledgments for 3'our 
 kind note. Next to the pleasure arising from a conscious- 
 ness of having aimed to do well, is the satisfaction of find- 
 ing our efforts approved by those who are capable of judg- 
 ing impartially. The pain of parting with brethren whom 
 I have so much reason to respect and love, is only alle- 
 viated by the consideration that, in following the paths of 
 duty to a distant field, I shall still be engaged in that 
 glorious cause, which we mutually love, and to which our 
 mutual labors and prayers have been hitherto devoted. I 
 know the singleness of heart with which you have desired 
 to diflfuse an evangelical influence throughout the great 
 
 12* 
 
134 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 valley, and shall never cease to pray that you may see the 
 great work consummated. Yours truly, 
 
 " T. Brainerd." 
 
 On the 11th of January Mr. Brainerd left Cincinnati to 
 return to Philadelphia. Dr. Beecher, in parting with him, 
 threw both arms around him, kissed him twice, and with 
 eyes full of tears, said : " Brainerd, I feel as if I were 
 losing my right hand !" 
 
 Again the lumbering stage made its slow winter journey 
 across the mountains. It carried nine passengers, and, 
 stopping over two Sabbaths on the way, reached Philadel- 
 phia on the 25th, after two weeks' weary travel. 
 
 But one incident occurred to vary the monotony of the 
 journey. In crossing the Alleghanies, the stage-horses, 
 from some cause, took fright. 1 he first intimation to the 
 passengers was a bound of the vehicle, which threw the 
 dfiver from his seat to the ground, and then the four young 
 horses dashed down one hill and up another, whirling on 
 the very edge of the icy precipice which bordered the way. 
 The gentlemen looked out in dismay. There was no driver 
 on the box, and the reins were tangling under the horses' 
 feet. One man got out of the door, clambered over the 
 top of the stage and reached the driver's seat, but was 
 powerless to guide or check the horses without reins. Mr. 
 Brainerd stood on the step, between the wheels ; the 
 horses ran up a long hill, called the Laurel Ridge, slack- 
 ening their speed a little toward the top, for a heavy 
 stage with nine passengers and their baggage was no 
 trifling weight for their six miles run. At this point he 
 sprang off and ran ahead until he caught and held the 
 leaders. The whole party now got out of the stage to 
 assure themselves of safety, and, after a careful examina- 
 tion of the horses and harness, two of the passengers vol- 
 unteered to drive on to the next stopping-place and there get 
 
INSTALLATION IN PHILADELPHIA. 135 
 
 a light wagon to go back for the driver. This was done. 
 The driver was not much hurt. He was overtaken on foot, 
 in great anxiety respecting the fate of his team and passen- 
 gers. There were six men and three women in the stage. 
 
 On reaching Philadelphia, Mr. and Mrs. Brainerd were 
 invited to the house of Mr. John C. Farr, one of the elders 
 of Pine Street Church, until they could make arrangements 
 for a more permanent location. Dr. Ely was in the city 
 on a visit, and on the first Sabbath of Mr. Brai nerd's ser- 
 vices as pastor of the church he cordially welcomed his 
 successor to the sympathies, affections, and prayers of the 
 church in the presence of an unusually large congrega- 
 tion. 
 
 The installation services were appointed for the first 
 Sabbath in March, 1837. The sermon was preached by 
 the Rev. Albert Barnes, from II. Cor. v. 20: "Now, then, 
 we are ambassadors for Christ." 
 
 The Rev. John L. Grant proposed the constitutional 
 questions; the Rev. Dr. EU' delivered the charges to the 
 pastor and people, and the Rev. George Dufiield offered 
 the prayer and benediction. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 LIFE IN PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 THE year 1837, so full of e.xciteraent and solicitude to 
 those who regarded the welfare of the church at larg'e, 
 rolled on with its burden of hopes and fears. 
 
 In April the congregation of the Third Church com- 
 menced a very thorough renovation of the house, remodel- 
 ing it at an expense of $19,000. This work was completed 
 late in the fall. For two months the congregation held an 
 afternoon service in the Baptist Church in Spruce Street. 
 The new lecture-room, in the basement of the church, was 
 opened for service on the 16th of June; after which time 
 the people again worshiped in their home sanctuary. Mr. 
 Brainerd's sermon on this occasion was from the text, 
 " What mean ye by these stones?" — Joshua, iv. 6. 
 
 But his Western friends were unwilling to leave him in 
 quiet possession of his new field of labor. The following 
 letter was received from a gentleman in St. Louis, Mo.: 
 
 "Aug. 29th, 1837. 
 
 " Rev. Thos Brainerd. 
 "De.\r Sir: 
 "We have been without a pastor since last May, when 
 the Rev. Mr. Wisner left us, on account of the decline of his 
 health. We have looked around upon the ministry of the 
 church to find a person suited to this station, and we have 
 been encouraged to hope that you might be induced to 
 come to our help. We have an active church, all of whom 
 are living in perfect freedom from the distractions which 
 (136) 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. ]3t 
 
 are found in other parts of the church. We have here no 
 Old School, and no New School, as parties ; and we all 
 deplore without participating in the strifes that are rend- 
 ing the church in other places. 
 
 " We are persuaded there is not in the United States a 
 place, with the exception of New Orleans, in which a 
 church can exercise an influence so extended as the one to 
 which we belong. Here is to be found a continual con- 
 course of strangers from all parts of the Union, and this 
 city is the commercial center of a very great extent of 
 territory. 
 
 " The congregation is one of a very high degree of in- 
 telligence, requiring to be constantly fed Avith strong food. 
 We must, if possible, have a pastor not only of eminent 
 personal piety, but one of high talent, and one who is an 
 agreeable speaker. 
 
 "After due consideration, Ave have determined to ask 
 whether you can accept a call to become our pastor. We 
 propose it in this form, because, with the uncertainty that 
 rests upon our minds whether you would accept our call, 
 we think it not advisable to incur the delay of a regular 
 meeting of the church to make out the call. At the same 
 time, we assure you that, if you can come, we will have 
 the call regularly made as soon as we receive your assent 
 to our proposition. 
 
 " We have been influenced in this application by the 
 consideration that you are a Western mmi, acquainted 
 with the feelings and manners of the West. The salary 
 will be such as will render you altogether comfortable. 
 
 " We ask your kind and immediate consideration of the 
 subject proposed, and remain 
 
 " Yours very respectfully, 
 
 " (For the Session), " H. R. Gamble." 
 
 This letter was accompanied by another, from a personal 
 friend. 
 
138 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 "St. Louis, Aug. 31st, 1837. 
 
 " Dear Brother Bratnerd : 
 
 " Learning from the Elders of the Presbyterian Church 
 here, of their intention to correspond with you on the sub- 
 ject of your becoming their pastor, I take the liberty of 
 addressing a line to you in relation to this matter. 
 
 " I have become acquainted with the Elders and many 
 of the church members, and have had the opportunity of 
 knowing the standing of the church with the respectable 
 part of the community, and of the influence it exerts upon 
 them. I know of no church in the West that embraces so 
 much wealth, so much respectability, and so many active 
 male members. At a prayer-meeting, on Saturday even- 
 ing, I saw some of the richest lawyers and merchants in 
 the city. At the Sabbath-schools, which are large and 
 interesting, I saw the same class of persons engaged as 
 teachers. The Session and church are very much united, 
 and liberal in their views and feelings. You would be 
 astonished at the growth of this city. Its wharf is always 
 lined with steamboats, seldom less than thirty. 
 
 "In my opinion, this church is a more important one 
 than any in Cincinnati, and the prospect for usefulness 
 very great indeed. If it is at all consistent for you to 
 come, they would be unanimous in a call, and you may 
 confidently expect much warm-hearted co-operation from 
 the Session and church. 
 
 "You know the kind of man they want; a man of 
 talents, a good speaker, and one whose own feelings are 
 enlisted in his sermons. 
 
 " May the Lord direct you. Two things have urged 
 me to write this letter, a sense of duty and my love to you. 
 
 " Your friend, 
 
 " Robert Boal." 
 
 Mr. Brainerd at once discouraged all hope of his accept- 
 ance of this field, and suggested to the Session the names 
 
LIFE IN PHILADELPniA. 139 
 
 of two or three clergymen whom he thought available, 
 and adapted to their wants. 
 
 On the 2nh of September, 1837, Mr. Brainerd's first 
 child was born, which he named Thomas Chalmers. He 
 said life seemed duplicated in value and interest from that 
 hour. 
 
 The church was finished and re-dedicated for service in 
 November of this year. On the 29th of the same month 
 Mr. Brainerd's father died, in the eighty-fourth year of his 
 age. He had been up to visit him, for the last time, a few 
 weeks previous to his death. His father was a man of 
 the strictest integrity, and bore such a reputation for 
 honesty, that a rough, scoffing blacksmith said of him, 
 " There never was but one Christian in Lewis County, 
 and that was Mr. Jesse Brainerd, for he had seen him sell 
 Avheat, during the war of 1812, half a dollar per bushel 
 below the market price, because he said ' wheat was not 
 worth more than two dollars a bushel.'" At another 
 time he purchased a cow of a neighbor, about to emigrate 
 to Ohio, at the owner's valuation ; but finding the animal 
 an uncommonl}- good one, he sent ten dollars more to the 
 man by letter, stating that the cow was worth that sura, 
 and he feared that his neighbor's necessities had led him 
 to undervalue her. This would be considered a rare kind 
 of honesty at the present day. 
 
 In March, 1838, sixty-four members were received to 
 the communion of the church, and during the year ending 
 March, 1839, one hundred and three were added. The 
 church services were attended for a number of years by the 
 fullest congregations, occupying the aisles and pulpit stairs 
 on all occasions of fair weather. 
 
140 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 Dr. Beecher to T. Brainerd. 
 
 "Lane Seminauy, May 12th, 1837. 
 
 "Dearly beloved and longed for: 
 
 " The reply to the Princeton Review is well under way, 
 and will prol)ably be with 3"ou in the next Journal. I had 
 intended to maintain silence, but when that Review came 
 out I determined that longer silence would be a sin, and 
 that the answer to the Review should have the light of the 
 antecedent facts shining upon it for public edification. I 
 have made up my mind to endure aggression and slander 
 no longer unans'wered. 
 
 " Write soon and let me know what are the prospects of 
 the Assembly, so far as you can judge, in the metropolitan 
 city — for a long time the center of mischief — now destined 
 I hope soon to be the radiating center of light and peace 
 and love. Though we feel sadly the want of you here, 
 wp hope our loss will in the end be gain to the cause. 
 
 " 1 rejoice to hear of your prosperity and happiness. 
 Love to all the brethren. 
 
 " Yours alfectionately, 
 
 " Lyman Beecher." 
 
 The summer of 1837 was marked by scenes of outrage 
 and violence in the Southern and Western States. In 
 July, the Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy, Editor of the Alton Ob- 
 server, was murdered by a mob, for maintaining anti- 
 slavery principles, and his press and office destroyed. 
 His press had been destroyed once before, in St. Louis, 
 on account of his rebukes for the burning to death by the 
 mob of a colored man named Mcintosh. 
 
 Mr. Lovejoy was personally known to Mr. Brainerd ; 
 and the circumstances of his death excited such indigna- 
 tion and horror that he could not rest without relieving 
 his heart and conscience, by the following communication 
 to the Cincinnati JoxLrnal: 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 141 
 
 "Eev. E, P. Lovejoy. 
 " Mr. Chester : 
 
 " Will you allow me a column of your paper for a few 
 remarks upon the late 'Alton Massacre?' The deep in- 
 terest which I feel in the West, as well as the public rela- 
 tion which I held while conducting your paper for four 
 years, may give me a claim upon the attention of your 
 readers. 
 
 " The first emotion felt by the public on this side of the 
 mountains, on hearing of the murder of Lovejoy, was one 
 of deep and universal abhorrence. That a minister of the 
 gospel, in the discharge of what he believed a solemn 
 duty, should be deliberately shot down like a beast, 
 because 
 
 ' He knew his rights. 
 And knowing dared maintain them,' 
 
 was a crime so horrid — so appalling — so extraordinary, in 
 a land of laws and professed liberty, that scarce an editor 
 could be found corrupt and impudent enough to justify or 
 palliate the outrage. I am in the daily habit of glancing 
 over about sixty newspapers in the reading-rooms of this 
 city. Among all these periodicals, I could find but four or 
 five which did not speak out in terms of manly indignation. 
 Among the four or five was the American Manufacturer, 
 Pittsburg, the Paul Pry (Mrs. Royal's), Washington, and 
 one in Cincinnati. The indignation seemed to be deep, 
 generous, and universal. No event of the last ten years 
 has excited more attention or called forth more deep exe- 
 cration. 
 
 " It cannot be disguised, however, that now an efi'ort is 
 making to lessen the sympathy for Brother Lovejoy. It 
 is perceived that his death has gone down to the bottom 
 of society, — that the mass of the community are beginning 
 to inquire whether it is longer expedient to outlaw the 
 
 13 
 
142 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 abolitionists, and thus expose her citizens to murder, in 
 order to please the holders of slaves. 
 
 " To stop this reaction, some editors now affect a holy 
 horror that a minister of the gospel should be found with 
 arms in his hands defending- his rig-hts at the peril of his 
 life. They ask if that was consistent with the sacreduess 
 of his profession. . 
 
 " To them it was no great matter that Brother Love- 
 joy's office was invaded — that his press was three times 
 destroyed — that on the Sabbath he should be dragged by 
 ruffians from the arms of his screaming wife — that he 
 should be week after week threatened with death by assa.s- 
 sins — that at last, deprived of the protection of law, he 
 should be left at the mercy of a mob, whose approach had 
 been invited by the denunciations of men in high stations 
 — all this is of little consequence. But that Mr. Lovejoy, 
 left in peril of life, property, freedom, and all that is dear 
 to any man, should prepare to defend himself, — is a very 
 bad thing. They say that Jesus Christ did not defend 
 himself — nor did the Christian martyrs. 
 
 "Has it come to this, that, in a land professedly free, 
 an apology is to be sought for a mob in taking life, be- 
 cause the victim was unwilling to die unresistingly ? Be- 
 cause, in pagan Rome, Christians were covered with the 
 skins of wild beasts, to be devoured by dogs, when resist- 
 ance would have been unavailing, that therefore every 
 minister of the gospel must bare his throat to every ruffian 
 that thirsts for blood ! If public sentiment will not pro- 
 tect ministers in a few expressions of conscientious opin- 
 ions — and if the guardianship of law is withdrawn from 
 them — does their sacred office forbid them to defend them- 
 selves and their families from the assaults of assassins ? 
 When the Bev. Dr. Witherspoon signed the Declaration 
 of Independence, and lent to it the persuasion of his elo- 
 quence and the power of his great reputation, — when the 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 143 
 
 pastors of New England, in desperate cases, led their 
 people to the 'tented field,' and to defend all that was dear 
 from a ruthless foe, — they did not imagine that they were 
 building up a government which should remove the segis 
 of its protection from the ministers of Jesus, and then re- 
 buke them for using the poor privilege of lifting their own 
 feeble arms in defense of life. 
 
 " It is asked why did not Lovejoy flee from the storm. 
 To what place could he have fled ? Had he gone to Cin- 
 cinnati, would he (with the mob at his heels, and the press 
 encouraging them on) have been safe there? In what 
 place in our land is a good man, who has opposed intem- 
 perance, licentiousness, and slavery, safe, if the mob is 
 given to understand that he is left unprotected at their 
 mercy ? 
 
 " But it is said that Lovejoy had written severe arti- 
 cles. What if he had ? Did not the popish press at St. 
 liOuis heap upon him every vile epithet adapted to stir 
 up a mob? Did not that press first begin to stir up the 
 multitude by calling him an incendiary ? Has not the 
 press, in every part of the Union, loaded the abolitionists 
 with most opprobrious epithets, — accused them, without a 
 shadow of truth, with desiring to excite insurrection, with 
 being traitors to the country ? May the mobites and their 
 apologists do all this, and, if the reply is severe, may 
 they, without crime, consummate their injustice, hj killing 
 their victims ? 
 
 " You know I did not approve of the course of Mr. 
 Lovejoy — that I have always stood aloof from the abo- 
 lition societies — but I never had a doubt of the perfect in- 
 tegrity of Mr. Lovejoy's purposes. I read his paper up 
 to the time, and long after the time, when he took his 
 stand against slavery. His articles were, spirited, and 
 sometimes caustic, but not more severe than I always em- 
 ployed in Cincinnati against grogsellers — and intemper- 
 
144 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 ance. Tliey had as good an apolog-y for murdering nie as 
 the slaveites had for murdering Lovejoy. 
 
 " It is said that Mr. Lovejoy braved public opinion — 
 that he knew a majority disapproved his sentiments, but 
 still persevered. Does not the editor of the Cincinnati 
 Bepuhlican know, by the result of elections, that a major- 
 ity of the Cincinnatians are Whigs, and yet no one thinks 
 of murdering him for persevering with his very respect- 
 able paper? He writes able and severe articles against 
 the sentiments of the majority — what do they do ? attack 
 his press — drag him from his house ? No ! they rely on 
 Hammond and Conover to answer him. 
 
 " Was the grave article in the Constitution of the 
 United States, were the articles in the Constitutions of 
 most of the States, guaranteeing freedom of the press, in- 
 serted to tell persons they might echo the opinions of the 
 majority ? Were not these designed to guard the rights 
 of a minority ? If the people of Illinois have not given 
 their Legislature the right to decide when and where and 
 what a man shall p^Hnt, has the little town of Alton, with 
 its mob, any such authority, that they may justly murder 
 a minister of the gospel to prevent his publishing a neivs- 
 paper ? 
 
 " These remarks are hastily written, but I could not 
 rest without lending my influence to reprobate the vile 
 act which has stabbed the freedom of the press, and con- 
 signed to the grave a minister whose talents, piety, zeal, 
 moral courage, and philanthropy posterity will appreciate. 
 " Your friend, 
 
 " Thomas Brainerd. 
 
 "Philadelphia, Dec. 12th, 1837." 
 
 The General Assembly met in the Seventh Presbyterian 
 Church, Ranstead Court, Philadelphia, on the ITth of May, 
 1838. 
 
DIVISION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 145 
 
 Br. Beecher, Rev. Edward Beecher, and Rev. Baxter 
 
 Dickinson came on to the Assembly, and made their home 
 with Mr. Brainerd. 
 
 The history of that revolution and of the division of. the 
 Presbyterian- Church need not be recounted here. Their 
 acts of violence, of wrong, and injustice, "Are they not 
 written in the Book of the Chronicles" of the dismem- 
 bered church ? No one who witnessed them Avill ever 
 forget the exciting scenes of that period. No one who 
 enjoyed the privilege of hearing the earnest discussions 
 out of Assembly, at the dinner and supper table, — with the 
 "speeches continued until midnight," — will ever willingly 
 obliterate from the memory those eloquent thoughts and 
 words for the right. 
 
 All the odium of the antislavery excitement at that time, 
 with exaggerated and unfounded reports of the impru- 
 dences of antislavery men, were artfully drawn in and 
 made subservient to the prejudices industriously cultivated 
 toward the New School party. It seemed at one time as 
 though the " powers of darkness" were let loose ; for the 
 stormy debates of the Old School Assembly, in doors, were 
 alternated by the incendiary iires and shouts of the mub 
 without, who selected this very time to burn " Liberty 
 Hall," in Sixth Street, where the Antislavery Society were 
 holding a convention, and the " African Hall," in Thir- 
 teenth Street — a modest building in which the colored peo- 
 ple were allowed to hold meetings for promoting their reli- 
 gious and social interests. The tolling of the State House 
 bell, as an alarm signal, vied with the ringing church bells 
 in calling out their respective forces. 
 
 On the night in which the hall in Sixth Street was burned 
 Mr. Brainerd and his guests went out as spectators. Many 
 of the fire companies wholly refused to work, and the hose 
 of such as attempted to save the burning buildings were 
 cut by the mob. 
 
 1.3* 
 
146 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 Suddenly a rush was made by the mob, now swelled by 
 thousands of spectators, and everybody was irresistibly 
 borne on with the moving mass. Our four clergymen, 
 who had kept together until now, were separated, and each 
 thrown upon his own skill and forecast for safety. Mr. 
 Brainerd kept sight of Dr Beecher, and by skillful crowd- 
 ing through two or three squares, they gained the edge of 
 the living mass, and soon extricated themselves and re- 
 turned home. Mr. Brainerd then became alarmed for the 
 safety of Prof. Dickinson and Edward Beecher, going fre- 
 quently to the street door to look out for them. Wiicn more 
 than an hour had elapsed without their arrival, he said to 
 the Doctor, " Where can Dickinson and Edward be ?" 
 
 " Runniii' yet, I guess /" coolly replied Dr. Beecher, with 
 his ready humor and fearlessness. He made larger allow- 
 ance for their excitement and curiosity than Mr. Brainerd 
 did. They only remained to see the end, and came in all 
 right about an hour later. 
 
 This incendiary spirit continued until one or two churches 
 belonging to the colored people were burned, and various 
 other outrages committed on their property. 
 
 The laws of Pennsylvania make the State liable for all 
 damages from mobs. The congregations of these churches 
 commenced an action against the State, and recovered 
 damages to nearly the full amount of their losses. 
 
 Mr. Barnes, Mr. Brainerd, and some others sat out the 
 whole trial, in token of their sympathy with the colored 
 people, and to give the weight of their influence to their 
 cause. 
 
 After the successful issue of the suit, one of the colored 
 clergymen said to Mr. Brainerd: "Our white brethren 
 were for us what the cotton-bags of Xew Orleans were for 
 General Jackson, — they gained the day for us." 
 
 It is interesting and suggestive to learn the sentiments 
 of clergymen and leading men in regard to the proceed- 
 ings of the Assemblies of 1837-38: 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 14t 
 
 To Rev. T. Brainerd. 
 
 "New Haven, June 19th, 1837. 
 " Perhaps you may wish to know what is the opinion 
 here in respect to the proceedings of the late General As- 
 sembly of your church. There is but one sentiment in 
 respect to the measures of the Old School ; it is that of the 
 deepest surprise. If they wanted ' division,' why did they . 
 not effect an honorable division, and not attempt to crush 
 their opponents by an illegal assumption of power? 
 
 " Dr. Beman has done himself much credit by the very 
 able advocacy which the interests of his party and the 
 cause of truth found in him. Every one here is looking 
 Avith intense interest at the movements of the New School 
 party. 
 
 " As your neck has been under the guillotine, 1 should 
 like to know how you felt in that predicament. 
 
 "D. S. B." 
 To T. Brainerd. 
 
 '• Rome, June 24th, 1837. 
 
 * * * * "I have just returned from our 
 Presbytery, where my heart was made to bleed anew at 
 hearing the report of our delegates from the General As- 
 sembly. ******** 
 
 " Our religious papers are now sought with as much 
 avidity, by the enemies of religion, as a political paper is 
 during the heat of a Presidential campaign. We bad a very 
 full meeting of Presbytery, all taking a deep interest in the 
 present condition of the church. Our Presbytery are en- 
 tirely unanimous in their feeling of indignation at the con- 
 duct of the majority of the General Assembly, and we are 
 entirely united as to the proper course to be taken at this 
 time. We recommended a convention for the four Synods, 
 to meet at Rochester on the 17th of August next, and we 
 hope there will be a very full and general attendance ; and 
 
148 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 we trust the Lord will be with us, and give us wisdom in 
 this hour of deep trial, to prepare a way that will make for 
 peace and advance the glory of Christ's kingdom. 
 
 " Let me know what has been the influence of the Gen- 
 eral Assembly in your city, and what abroad. 
 
 "B. P. J." 
 
 "Lane Seminary, May 29th, 18.37. 
 
 " Dear Brainerd: 
 
 " I thank you for your short letter, and your filial de- 
 fense of me against M . 
 
 " In respect to the doings of the Assembly, and the 
 course to be pursued by us, you will see my views in a 
 former letter to Dickinson, which, if needed, 1 hope he will 
 make know'n to the brethren. 
 
 "You know all about us here, and how things affect us, 
 and I know something about you and the East. I calcu- 
 late to spend the year to come in writing an exposition 
 and defense of the West, and of myself; for I will not any 
 longer stand still and be misrepresented by those who have 
 given me the right hand of fellowship : and since they re- 
 fuse to redeem the pledge, God and my own right hand shall 
 be ni}' dependence. 
 
 " Tbe Lord preserve you, — and the church and nation 
 and world, — and soon permit us to see better days, is the 
 prayer of your old friend — who is neither scared, nor dead, 
 nor asleep. 
 
 " Lyman Beecher." 
 
 Another Presbyterian clergyman writes, June 16th, 
 1837 : " It would be a sad spectacle to see the Old School 
 party constitute the Presbyterian Church; a church so ven- 
 erable, and covered with so many graces and honors, should 
 not be deserted by its friends in such a time as this." 
 
 Mr. Brainerd was not a delegate to the Assembly of 183T 
 — only a "lobby member." He found this responsibility 
 
BTVISrON OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 149 
 
 much harder to bear than though he had been " permitted 
 to speak for himself J^ It was amazing- to those acquainted 
 with his nervous temperament, to witness his external cool- 
 ness and restraint. His excitability found a safety-valve, 
 and worked off the extra steam, by giving expression to his 
 feelings — sometimes in " parables," and sometimes in verse. 
 Mr. Brainerd said of himself: " He was a poet made, not 
 born" (and not much of one at that) ; but he would 
 write in rhyme, on any subject and for any length of time, 
 as readily as in prose. 
 
 It was reported that a member of the Old School As- 
 sembly, standing in the lobby, swung his hat and gave 
 three cheers when the Moderator of the General Assembly 
 announced that three Synods were cut off from the church 
 b}^ a drilled party majority. This incident was signalized 
 by the following paraphrase : 
 
 THE THREE CHEERS. 
 
 What tidings borne upon the breeze 
 
 Excite this boisterous joy ; 
 What visions bright with power to please 
 
 This Pastor's thoughts employ ? 
 
 Is't told to him that yet one more 
 
 Of Adam's ruined race 
 Hath heard the word, " Go, sin no more ; 
 
 You are pardoned by rich grace ?" 
 
 Or does he hear that far away, 
 
 In distant pagan lands. 
 Full beaming in the light of day 
 
 The Cross, just lifted, stands? 
 
 Or has he heard that weary Saints 
 
 Have reached the happy shore 
 Where Jesus soothes their hearts' complaints 
 
 And bids them " weep no more ?" 
 
 'Tis naught like these; to his charmed ear 
 
 The word has now been given, 
 That, answering to his earnest prayer. 
 
 The Church of Christ is riven. 
 
150 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 Let 7i im rejoice ! a thousand tongues 
 
 Will rend the air with cries; 
 Their father's church, oppressed with wrongs, 
 
 In broken frat/ments lies. 
 
 At another time, one of the Southern members, while 
 retailing " common fame''^ against the New York Synods, 
 was asked by a clergyman from that section, if it was pos- 
 sible that he believed such charges, and questioned for his 
 authority. The reply was : ''It is none of your busi- 
 ness !^^ Such " Cliivalrif could not remain unsung. 
 
 CHIVALRY. 
 
 With warrior heart, with zeal and flame, 
 I blow the trump of " Common fame ;" 
 'Tis mine to heed her words, and hurl 
 Her gossip round the Christian world. 
 
 Delay me not; I'm charged this day 
 
 To tattle what this dame may say ; 
 
 The " Conclave " speaks ; I see their nod; 
 
 " Drive out those ministers of God !" 
 
 What do I hear? Does some one dare 
 My stories with the truth compare ? 
 Down, heretic! thy hated form 
 Will stay the progress of reform. 
 
 You have "no business" here to donbt 
 The stories which my dame brings out; 
 Should truth appear, 'tis clear as glass 
 The "Resolutions'' would not pass. 
 
 On, comrades, on ! this is the hour 
 To gain for us the future power. 
 This moment lose; where are ye then? 
 Ye'll never hold this power a[/ain ! 
 
 We give but one more. 
 
 Before the adjournment of the Old School Assembly it 
 was moved to return thanks to God for the " purification 
 of the church." 
 
DIVISION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 151 
 
 TE DEUM LAUDAMUS. 
 
 The Popish priests, with thankful tongue, 
 Sent up to God their joyful song, 
 That Louis' zeal, so stern and true, 
 Had sent them "St. Bartholomew." 
 
 To these good men 'twas blithesome sport, 
 AVith license just received from court, 
 To scour the land, arrest and vex, 
 Then murder all the heretics. 
 
 To share their fame we stand a chance; 
 Our Leader,* late- returned from France ; — • 
 In battles old, in years a youth, 
 Shows equal zeal for gospel truth. 
 
 To rend the church we hither came ; 
 To prove our facts, stood "pommon fame;" 
 We've purged the church from its foul blots. 
 As Louis did from Huguenots. 
 
 Full fifty men, from off this floor, 
 We've banished to return no more; 
 Five hundred brethren with them fall; 
 We now shall stand here — all in all! 
 
 We tried them not; the Yankee elves 
 Too well could answer for themselves; 
 We sealed their lips, ere they could show 
 'Twas outrage base, to treat them so. 
 
 Away, away ! none dare again 
 To say that we have lived in vain ; 
 When autumn comes Princeton will see 
 That some of us shall have D.D. ! ! ! 
 
 For all the tricks to swell our power. 
 For all the triumphs of this hour; 
 Before we leave this blessed sod, 
 Our thanks we offer v}} to God. 
 
 During the spring- of 183*7, Mr. Brainerd wrote two 
 Parables, which were published in the Philadelphia Ob- 
 
 * R. J. B. 
 
152 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 server, — the first eutitled "Uncle Peter's Farm," and 
 the second, " General Peter's War." As many inqui- 
 ries were made concerning their authorship, it is not im- 
 proper, as a record of the times and the man, to notice 
 them here, though somewhat obsolete, as parables them- 
 selves are in these latter days. 
 
 On publishing the first piece, the Editor says : 
 
 " Farmer Jotham has employed the interval between 
 plowing his ground and sowing his oats in writing a 
 parable. He is a shrewd old man, and manifests that he 
 has not been living without taking notice of things as they 
 have occurred. Our young people would be highly amused 
 if they could see the manuscript as sent to us. It looks 
 as if one of the turkeys on his farm had dipped its feet in ink 
 and then walked backward and forward on the paper.* But 
 this is of no importance. While we perceive that so many 
 ministers and law^yers are miserable scribes, we do not 
 wonder that a plain farmer should be unable to write with 
 the dashing beauty of young men in the counting-house. 
 
 "Some affirm positively that the honest farmer has 
 allusion to church affairs ; is exhibiting a picture of the 
 causes of the dissensions prevailing in the Presbyterian 
 Church ; and treads on the toes of some who have exer- 
 cised a prominency in producing the present unhappy state 
 of things. 
 
 "As corn planting is yet a month ahead, we hope Farmer 
 Jotham will not allow his pen to be idle." 
 
 As the " Parables " contained many allusions to persons 
 and incidents unfamiliar to the present generation, which 
 the older class of clergymen only would recognize, we 
 make a few extracts of the most obvious and general feat- 
 ures. The first Parable, " Uncle Peter's Farm," illus- 
 
 * Those who have seen Mr. BrainerJ's manuscript, when writing under 
 nervous excitement, will appreciate this description. 
 
''UNCLE PETER'S FARM." I53 
 
 tratecl more especially the case of Rev. Albert Barnes ; 
 and the second, " Gen. Peter's War," that of Dr. Lyman 
 Beecher : 
 
 " In the year 1792, a healthful old farmer, named Peter, 
 finding that he had 'squatted ' on more land than he could 
 cultivate, entered into a negotiation with another farmer 
 who lived east, named Jonathan. Peter proposed that 
 Jonathan, who had more sons than were required at home, 
 should send his 3^ounger boys over to aid Uncle Peter in 
 subduing the wilderness. He was the 'rather inclined to 
 this negotiation, from the fact that Jonathan's sons had a 
 roving tendency, and, as their Uncle Peter had no fee-sim- 
 ple, nor life lease, nor any other legal title to the tract on 
 which he had ' squatted,' they would certainly come and 
 settle whether invited or not. 
 
 " Peter knewthat the mode in which Jonathan had trained 
 up his sons had been somewhat different from his own 
 plan ; but, as they were good farmers, as their fathers be- 
 fore them had been for a century and a half, he thought 
 their little peculiarities were no obstacles to the agree- 
 ment. At that time the old gentleman's hobby was to 
 subdue the wilderness; and whether Jonathan's sons cut 
 down timber with four-cornered axes or three, he did not 
 care a straw, provided they did good execution. 
 
 " The bargain being completed, on the very terms pro- 
 posed by Peter, Jonathan's sons flocked over in consider- 
 able numbers. Peter's sons received them joyfully in the 
 main, though a few were a little sour when they saw that 
 the tools employed by the new-comers were not all in a 
 triangular form. 
 
 "Under the labors of the two families united, the 'wil- 
 derness ' began to 'blossom like the rose.' Each year they 
 held a great meeting, and Peter's heart was made glad b}^ 
 the reports of successful industry, which came in from 
 every quarter. 
 
 ]4 
 
154 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAIXERD, D.D. 
 
 "A few of l^ncle Peter's sons were great friends to 'tri- 
 angular' implements of husbandry. They wrote much 
 and oftea upon the superior excellences of this form of 
 axes, spades, and hoes. They persuaded Peter to set up a 
 school for young farmers, and took especial care that all 
 the teachers should have views like their own. They were 
 also accustomed to harp a great deal upon the excellence 
 of Uncle Peter's ftnu-i'a; and some thought, if they had 
 the sole management of affairs, they would give up culti- 
 vation of the soiH and turn all hands out to make fences, 
 whether any crops were secured therel)y or not. 
 
 " But for forty years all things went on pretty harmo- 
 niously. Uncle Peter grew exceeding wealthy in flocks 
 and herds; and, as he had all the benefits of the labors of 
 Jonathan's sons, he treated them just like his own chil- 
 dren. Being a liberal old man, he consented to an arrange- 
 ment by which another set of nephews should be adopted 
 as his sons. These nephews had quarreled with their 
 father, John Knox, on the other side of the great lake, 
 and 'seceded^ from him, and set up for themselves in 
 Uncle Peter's neighborhood. They had a great many 
 good qualities, for farmers, but had a relish for building 
 strong fences more than for clearing the land. They were 
 also quite irritable, and accustomed to break up into clans, 
 of which their father's family had furnished about half a 
 dozen. They were never in their element so much as 
 when engaged in ' plucking up tares ' Over a single this- 
 tle they would hold a solemn council, and spend a whole 
 summer in watching to get at the root, and sometimes tram- 
 ple down a whole field of wheat and corn in the process. 
 They even seemed to rejoice in a drought, as it kept down 
 the weeds. 
 
 ********* 
 "One of the best farms in the country wanting an over- 
 seer, application was made to a young man named Albert, 
 
''UNCLE PETER'S FAR My 155 
 
 to eoiiie and cultivate it. Albert was not a son of Jona- 
 than, but he was no friend to triangular lots, with hug-e 
 fences and no fertility. The sons of John Knox represented 
 the impropriety of allowing Albert to occupy such a central 
 farm. lie would lay it out in square lots and set a bad 
 example. A council was held in the family, and it was 
 agreed that unless Albert would consent to have triangu- 
 lar lots, he should not be allowed to come into the neigh- 
 borhood. A son of John Knox found a four cornered 
 spade used by Albert in preparing a ' highway,' and he 
 determined to make use of it to keep him out of the neigh- 
 borhood. So he brought it before a stated meeting of the 
 farmers. 
 
 " These farmers did not all like the shape of the spade, 
 but they knew that Albert's venerable predecessor had 
 used such a spade with great effect. Indeed, the old man 
 himself, now past working, came forward and testified, 
 that the spade was, in all respects, adapted ' for breaking 
 up the fallow ground ' and preparing a ' highway.' 
 
 " Albert was allowed to come ; but it grieved these men 
 much, and they determined to bring the matter before a 
 larger meeting of the farmers. It was then decided that Al 
 bert should be questioned about the ' spade.' Great pains 
 were taken to show that it was the worst spade that was 
 over constructed. 
 
 " Albert, finding that he could not have justice done, de- 
 termined to appeal to Uncle Peter. When Uncle Peter 
 took his seat in council, how great was the grief and aston- 
 ishment of the sons of John Knox, generally, to find that 
 the good old gentleman was not at all disposed to molest 
 Albert. 
 
 " His opponents professed submission to Uncle Peter, but 
 one of their friends, who was a great Warrior, having 
 spent more time in the camp than on the farm, denounced 
 Uncle Peter's decision to his face. 
 
156 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 " Uncle Peter was firm and decided, and there the matter 
 ought to hav^e rested. But though these men had always 
 professed a great respect for Uncle Peter, they now began 
 to cry out that he was crazy; that everything was going 
 to rack and ruin. But they 'scorned to lay hands on Al- 
 bert alone.' They said they would never rest until Uncle 
 Peter should drive not only Albert, but all his friends, and 
 especially all the sons of Jonathan, out of the territory. 
 
 " For four years, successively, they came before Uncle 
 Peter with their complaints, and each time the old gentle- 
 man shook his head at them, and more than intimated that, 
 as long as nobody interfered with their mode of farming, 
 they should attend more to their own farms and less to 
 their neighbors. 
 
 "But the fifth year they determined to frighten Uncle 
 Peter. So they called a great meeting of their friends, to 
 meet in advance of the regular council, and here they con- 
 certed their schemes and entered into Uncle Peter's pres- 
 ence with all their force, threatening to rebel if he did not 
 grant their request. 
 
 "Uncle Peter listened to these men with attention, and 
 finally decided that no man could honestly labor on Uncle 
 Peter's farm without using ' triangular ' tools. A decision 
 was obtained that Albert should be made an outlaw and 
 be driven from his farm. 
 
 " Great was the grief of Uncle Peter at this intelligence. 
 He knew that Albert was a first-rate farmer ; that he was 
 industrious in seed-time and harvest — rising early and 
 sitting up late — and as a result of his labors, his farm was 
 as fruitful as any in the neighborhood. 
 
 " When Uncle Peter took his seat in council, to hear Al- 
 bert's appeal, he acquitted him of all blame, and restored 
 him to his farm. 
 
 "JOTHAM." 
 
"GEXERAL PETER'S WAR." 157 
 
 A fen- weeks later the second Parable was published, 
 called -'General Peter's War." After a short introduc- 
 tion, representing the great army moving in battalions, 
 under different leaders, the writer said ; •' Xo officer had done 
 more to excite the hopes of his sovereign than General 
 Peter.* He was ardent in patriotism, unflinching in 
 courage, wise in council, and untiring in perseverance. To 
 him. in connection with four or five other officers, was 
 committed the subjugation of a large western province, of 
 immense territory. 
 
 " General Peter laid down the plan of his campaign with 
 great skill. He was careful that his officers should be well 
 instructed in the laws of the kiugdom, the terms on which 
 pardon would be granted, and the best mode of bringing 
 rebels to submission. 
 
 "He established garrisons iu all parts of the countrv, to 
 keep the rebels in check, and to afford sympathv and pro- 
 tection to all who would return to their allegiance. 
 
 " He had enlisted a standing army of more than 200,000 
 men, organized iu 2500 stations, and commanded by more 
 than 2000 skillful officers f He saw, under his influence, 
 many academies for training cadets. In conjunction with 
 General Jonathan, he established a great many military 
 stations in far distant provinces. His officers were so 
 true, and conducted the war with such skill and braverv, 
 that they were more feared by the rebels than the officers 
 of any other division. 
 
 '•It was just at this period, when the fortifications of 
 General Peter had become invulnerable to everv foreign 
 foe, when he was prepared to send out large reinforce- 
 ments, and make a glorious onset upon his enemies ; it 
 was just at this period that disaension broke out in the 
 camp. 
 
 ^ The Presbyterian Church. t These are the statistics of 1S37. 
 
158 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 " General Peter's officers had been so engaged in con- 
 tending with the common enemy that they had no leisure 
 for personal jealousies. While they were few in number 
 they stood shoulder to shoulder, and acquitted themselves 
 like men. 
 
 " When a consideraljle portion of the country had been 
 subdued, the officers of a certain city began to manifest 
 distrust of their brother officers, and to circulate by mys- 
 terious whispers, that there was treason plotting against 
 General Peter. 
 
 " They did not pretend that the offending officers were 
 disloyal to their sovereign ; they were compelled to admit 
 that the objects of their suspicion were warmly engaged 
 against the enemy ; at every point of hardship and of danger 
 the ' suspected ' officers had been tried and found faithful, 
 and the sovereign had accepted their services, and granted 
 them many tokens of his favor. 
 
 " Perhaps this very success, the number and splendor of 
 their conquests, excited the envy of the more indolent and 
 timid. However this may be, the officers of a certain city 
 sounded the alarm and filled the country with the cry of 
 ' Treason ! treason !' They ceased to fight the common 
 enemy, and leveled their muskets at the true friends of their 
 king. * * * * After shooting at him for along 
 time from ))ehind the trees, they finally seized an old vet- 
 eran officer, named Lyman, and brought him before a 
 court-martial. His locks were whitened with age ; he had 
 swung the battle-axe upon the walls with giant power for 
 seven-and-thirty years. In the East he had made those 
 quail who undertook to rob Prince Immanuel of his crown 
 and his throne. 
 
 "At threescore years of age, hearing that help was 
 needed on the frontier, he struck his tent, shouldered his 
 knapsack, marched a thousand miles to the West, and took 
 his position where he could counsel and cheer the young 
 
^'GENERAL PETER'S WAR." 159 
 
 officers as they went forth to the battle-field. As he 
 had never used his sword but against the common foe; 
 as he never had 'even fought a duel' with a friend of his 
 king ; as he was old and covered with hard-earned laurels, 
 it was hoped he might be unmolested. 
 
 " But no ; an effort was made to prove him a traitor. 
 The court-martial cleared him. His enemies appealed to 
 General Peter ; Ijut the general showed such evident tokens 
 of friendship for the old veteran that his adversaries were 
 afraid and ashamed to confront him in the general's presence. 
 They thought it better to open upon him a fire from behind 
 the breastwork of one of the military academies. This, 
 with the aid of some sharp-shooters in ambuscade, they 
 thought would maim the old soldier, and render him less 
 formidable as a leader. 
 
 " The catalogue of crimes of which Major Lyman and 
 his friends are accused is a curiosity: 
 
 "1. He has been heard to say that when General Peter's 
 orders differ from the orders of the sovereign, the latter 
 must be obeyed. 
 
 " 2. That while no one could force allies upon General 
 Peter without his consent, yet anybody had a right to 
 send in supplies for his officers, if they saw fit to receive 
 them. 
 
 " 3. That the strength of the army would be augmented 
 by concert among all the officers, and that the generals 
 would do well to unite in the prosecution of the war. 
 
 " 4. That the standard borne by the army should bear 
 on its folds the name of Prince Immanuel, and not that of 
 General Peter. 
 
 " 5. As General Peter could not be present in all parts 
 of the country, to direct the mode of attack and defense, 
 he had given discretionary power to his officers to unite 
 in ' voluntary associations ' to make inroads upon tlie 
 enemy. 
 
160 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 "6. Major Lyman and his friends had liocn heard 
 to sa}'^ that the sovereign could save all to whom he 
 offered pardon, if they would submit ; that when he said 
 he was 'not willing any should perish,' he meant just 
 what he said. 
 
 " 7. That if a soldier incoluntarili/ discharged his gun, 
 he would not be executed for it, unless willful carelessness 
 could be proved. 
 
 " 8. That though a child might often suffer necessarily 
 the consequences of his father's rebellion, yet no child was 
 to have its brains dashed out deliberately and specifically 
 as a punishment for having had a rebellious father. 
 
 " 9. That the king never chopped off the legs of a child 
 as a penalty for his father's sins, and then caused hint to 
 he whipped because he could not march with the army. 
 
 " 10. That no rebel would be subjected to extraordi- 
 nary punishment for not accepting a pardon when no 
 provision had been made for his forgiveness by the king. 
 
 " 11. That Lyman and his associates had Ijeen known 
 to hold a conflict with the eneni}^ in the open field on the 
 frontiers, instead of bringing them into the forts to be sub- 
 dued. 
 
 " 12. That L^^man and his friends had the folly to chal- 
 lenge the enemy to immediate submission, instead of 
 asking him to ' delay and use the means' to lay down the 
 weapons of his rebellion. 
 
 " 13. That Lyman and his friends sometimes held a 
 ' protracted' battle with the rebels, and vanquished them 
 outright, instead of giving them a breathing time of six 
 cla\"S out of seven. 
 
 "14. That Lyman and his friends sometimes brought a 
 hundred rebels to submission in a week, instead of sub- 
 duing them singly, at periods ' few and far between.' 
 
 "15. But the greatest crime of Lyman and his friends 
 was this; when General Peter came to them for counsel 
 
DIVISION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 161 
 
 i\\Qj gave it according to their ability. It was said that 
 General Peter had no right to take counsel of any of his 
 ofBeers except the professors in the military academy. 
 
 " For this, and like offenses, Lyman and his friends are 
 declared 'outlaws' and 'rebels.' 
 
 " His opponents will have no ' compromise.' They have 
 called a mutinous council to devise the best mode to maim 
 and cripple a larg-e number of the sovereign's subjects, — a 
 council to divide and weaken the power of the army." 
 
 In an article written fifteen years later [1852], Mr. 
 Brainerd says: "Having revolutionized a church under 
 the forms of ecclesiastical law, then seized its charter and 
 its funds by the force of a mere majority, they cannot 
 satisfy their own consciences, or the sense of justice in the 
 world at large, but by striving to believe, and constantly 
 repeating the charges in which their acts of violence first 
 found apology. ******* 
 
 " Like our brethren in the Free Church of Scotland, 
 we have met and safely passed a most fearful and trying 
 crisis in our church. Like that noble body of men, we 
 were forced by principle to give up rights in the church 
 which we loved. Like them, we relinquished to other 
 bands the seminaries we had aided to endow. Not alone 
 our Presbyterian fidelity, but our honesty as men, our 
 soundness as theologians was denounced by church au- 
 thority, echoed by the approbation of church institutions 
 fed by our charity, and periodicals conducted by professors 
 elevated by our votes. ***** 
 
 "But it is with us a proud consideration that almost a 
 moiety of the Presbyterian ministry — some thirteen or 
 fourteen hundred — in that storm of obloquy and whole- 
 sale excisions, stood firm by their principles Among 
 these men we delight to record such names as those of 
 Richards, Hillyer, Fisher, DuflQeld, Beecher, Mason, Cle- 
 
162 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRATNERD, D.D. 
 
 land, Blackbuni, Catheart, Nelson, Hill, and Anderson. 
 Some of these are historic names, and the}^ are all worthy 
 to be placed b\' the side of the Chalmerses, the Cunnini^- 
 hams, the Welshes, and the Candlishes of the exiled Church 
 of Scotland. 
 
 "It was predicted that without the cohesive attraction 
 of their more orthodox brethren their union would be a 
 rope of sand. Each successive General Assendjly was 
 pronounced the last that could be held. But these modern 
 prophets consulted their hopes rather than the signs of the 
 times. It was not likeh" that men who had suffered so 
 mucli for principle would hold lightly by either truth or 
 the order of the church ; and hence, after a quarter 
 century, in the body with which we are connected, no 
 man has moved to alter a tittle of the Confession of Faith 
 or an essential principle of Presb\'terian Church govern- 
 ment. 
 
 " There is not a minister of our body who does not love 
 and cheri.sh the Westminster Confession of Faith as the 
 be.st human delineation of Biblical theolog}"" ; while all are 
 prepared to bow, implicith' and finally and fearlessly, be- 
 fore the only infallible standard — the Word of God. ' Our 
 church standards as symbols for union, but the Bible for 
 authoi'ity ,'' is the motto of our denomination. 
 
 " As we love the Westminster Confession of Faith and 
 the Catechisms, we stand ready to vindicate them from 
 Arminian, Socinian, and infidel assaults, on the one side, 
 as well as Antinomian glosses on the other." 
 
 While s\'mpathy and fellowship with the orthodox 
 churches of New England were represented as among the 
 heinous offenses of the New School, several cases occurred 
 during Mr. Brainerd's ministry in Philadelphia, of Congre- 
 gational clergymen being settled over Old School Presby- 
 terian Churches, — all unshriven of their " Congregational" 
 sins. 
 
DIVISION OF THE rRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 163 
 
 It was observable, too, that the "separated brethren" 
 eagerly availed themselves of every opportunity to secure 
 the charg-e of prosperous churches in the other division, 
 without any conscientious scruples about joining a New 
 School Presbj^tery, or misgivings in regard to the theo- 
 logical soundness of the body \vho?e alliance they sought. 
 
 It seems incredible even now, after only thirty years, 
 that good men in the nineteenth century could be excited 
 to such opposition and arrayed against each other with such 
 bitterness on such untenable grounds : not on points con- 
 cerning the great vital doctrines of Christianity, in which 
 they were fully agreed, but abstruse speculations on the 
 extent of man's natural ability to obey the commands of 
 God; the imputation of Adam's sin ; how far the atone- 
 ment is available for those who will not accept of it — 
 subjects on Avhich no two men, probably, ever thought 
 alike, nor any one man ever held the same views for two 
 years in succession. Yet some men expended all their 
 strength in endeavors to crowd the best workmen from 
 the field, and silence the lips of the most persuasive Chris- 
 tian teachers ; holding back the Whitfields and the Beechers, 
 because in every variety of thought, or minutia of plan, 
 they "followed not us." 
 
 That "the angels desire to look into these things," and 
 have been ocmipied for more than six thousand years in 
 the investigation without fathoming their exhaustless mys- 
 teries, implies something a little too deep for any self-con- 
 stituted pope or autocrat to define with bars and limits. 
 Milton's fallen spirits 
 
 " Reasoned high 
 Of providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate ; 
 Fixed fnte, f, ee will/'' foreknowledge absolute ; 
 And found no end, in wandering mazes lost." 
 
 * " Decrees' and " ability." 
 
164 I^rFE OF REV. TirOM iS BRAIXERD, D.D. 
 
 And one hundred years hence the division of the Pres- 
 bj'^terian Church will be classed with the intolerance which 
 imprisoned Galileo for daring to imagine that the world 
 was round and moved, and b}' rewarding Columbus with 
 irons for opening the unlimited wealth of the Xew World 
 to Catholic Europe. 
 
 The two parties are like the banks which line and hold 
 in the same river; running parallel all the wa}"" ; sustain- 
 ing the same relation to the life-giving waters which flow 
 pure and healthful between them, and yet remaining on 
 opposite sides. 
 
 Mr. Brainerd believed that Calvinism was logical, 
 expansive, progressive ; and not the illiberal, narrow, 
 bigoted system represented b}' its enemies. He held that 
 Calvin emancipated the Christian world from the popish 
 despotism which forbids a man to use his own reason and 
 common sense — encouraging the very spirit of liberty to 
 discuss all points of doubtful theology ; confirming to every 
 one the privilege o{ digging deep for the " wells" of truth, 
 from which "to draw the waters of salvation." 
 
 With these views he always insisted that we were truer 
 Presbyterians — better Calvinists — than the Old School, 
 according to " The Book." His early residence and ac- 
 quaintance with the clergymen of Western and Northern 
 New York; his subsequent life in Cincinnati, during the 
 fiercest period of the conflict ; his large acquaintance with 
 the churches throughout Kentucky and the Western States, 
 together with the local information gained through the 
 press, by newspaper exchanges, as editor, furnished Mr. 
 Brainerd with a more accurate statistical knowledge of the 
 condition of the church at large than was possessed, prob- 
 ably, b}' any other man of the same age. With a compre- 
 hensive observation, quickened, perhaps, by a sense of in- 
 justice, he kept a clo.>^e watch of the churches. East and 
 West, North and South, in both divisions. He had a large 
 
DIVISION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CnURCH. 1G5 
 
 number of personal friends in the Old School branch, many 
 of whom continued to be life-friends — such as President 
 John C. Young-, of Kentucky. President Young visited 
 him in Philadelphia, when a delegate to the Old School 
 Assembly there; and together they discussed the wrongs 
 and mistakes of the past in a fraternal spirit. 
 
 Every instance of irregularity or disorder which came 
 to his knowledge (and they were not a few) was found in 
 Old School churches ; while the New School pastors, made 
 more circumspect by the unfounded charges brought 
 against them, were careful to " avoid even the appearance 
 of evil " 
 
 The defects in the Old School division consisted mainly 
 in negligences and imprudences — such as admitting mem- 
 bers to the communion of the church in a hasty and un- 
 presbyterial manner; examining tlicm for admission on 
 the day of communion, or on their first cx[)ression of reli- 
 gious interest — this mode becoming habitual, where no 
 emergency of sickness or necessary absence furnished an 
 apology for it; neglect and carelessness in teaching the cate- 
 chism to the children of the church ; with other defects of 
 like nature. In a communication on this point, Mr. Brainerd 
 says : " After having often witnessed the high-pressure 
 excitements of our separated brethren in some parts of the 
 country, — with their anxious-seats, their conversions over- 
 night and admissions to the church in the morning, their 
 lax discipline and low moral standard, — we are amazed to 
 hear them echo the cry of ' new measures and disorder.'' 
 
 "In Western New York, which has been so often repre- 
 sented as desolated by fanaticism, there will be found a 
 higher standard of ministerial qualification, a more thorough 
 jjulpit instruction in Calvinistic theology, a larger attend- 
 ance upon the means of grace, a more thorough examina- 
 tion for admission to church privileges, a more effective 
 
 15 
 
166 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAIXERD, D.D. 
 
 discipline, as well as more regard to Sabbath-keeping and 
 temperance, than in the best districts cultiv^ated by our 
 separated brethren. " 
 
 In bis own church, in Philadelphia, Mr. Brainerd encour- 
 aged rewards in the Sabbath-school to such children as com- 
 mitted perfectly to memory the Assembly's catechism ; and 
 in one of the mi.ssion-schools, established by the young 
 men of his church, those who best understood the catechism 
 were promoted to the "Banner class," which bore for its 
 motto, "Hold fast the form of sound words." 
 
 This is history ; and the recital of it no more opposes a 
 perfect '^reunion''' than the facts of our late appalling civil 
 conflict nullify 
 
 " The awful victory we have won," 
 
 and the lasting peace it will purchase. 
 
 The ecclesiastical, like the civil conflict, was a warfare 
 with brethren; and the reunion of both will be more firmly 
 cemented than ever when " Righteousness and Peace have 
 kissed each other." 
 
 The lives of these men cannot be written without " call- 
 ing to remembrance the former days," and the " great fight 
 of afflictions" through which they passed, any more than 
 the history of our country can be written without recording 
 the terrible strife from which it has just emerged. Both 
 have come out purer and brighter, and stand on a higher 
 platform to-day for their fiery trials. 
 
 It is cause of profound gratitude, that a younger class of 
 clergymen can see above the clouds of battle, as the smoke 
 clears away, and shake bands for the coming centuries. 
 
 No man would have rejoiced more intensely over the 
 consummation of Reunion ; no man would have labored 
 harder for it than Dr. Brainerd. Appointed Chairman of 
 the first Committee to open "fraternal correspondence" 
 with the other branch in 1849; and again in 1866, of the 
 
CORRESPOXDEXCE. 161 
 
 first committee on Reunion ; it would seem as though he 
 had participated in forming the '' Basis of Union" when 
 he wrote, seventeen years before, as defining the position 
 of the New School division : " OcR Church Standards 
 AS Symbols for Union, but the Bible for Authority, 
 is the motto of our denomination.*' 
 
 Nor does it appear unwarrantable to believe that the 
 brethren who have been " elected"' to " The General Assem- 
 bly and Church of the First Born" have shared with those 
 on earth in the joy and glory of the reunited church — Dr. 
 Duffield and Dr. Juukiu. John ^r. Krebs and Thomas 
 Brainerd. 
 
 Dr. Beeoher to T. Brainerd.* 
 
 •• Lane Semixaet, Xov. 19th, 1S3S. 
 
 '• Dear Brother: 
 
 ********* 
 
 " The trial by jury may be for the best, as it will give 
 us the benefit of public sentiment, sympathy, persecution, 
 abhorrence of despotic ecclesiastical power, and a jealous 
 vigilance against the beginning of ecclesiastical monopolies 
 of legislative, judicial, and executive power, with the power 
 of the purse and secular patronage ; — the true origin of the 
 papal power. It will also approximate in feeling more to 
 a court of equity, and give our evidence and argument a 
 larger sweep. 
 
 "It must not be forgotten neither, that in high church 
 Episcopacy and high church Methodism there is a lust of 
 power and dominion not unlike to that claimed by our high 
 church ; and if there be any danger from the jury, it lies 
 here, and should be guarded against by our counsel, if it 
 can be. The opposing counsel, certainly, will neglect no 
 
 * This letter refers to the lawsuit in the Supreme Court of Pennsjl- 
 vania, in regard to the constitutionalitv of the Xew School division, in- 
 Tolving questions of church property. 
 
1(58 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 such advantage in forming the jury if it lies within tlie 
 reach of their dexterity, and our counsel must not sleep 
 over the subject. 
 
 " The claims of parliamentary and judicial power, and 
 their carrying out in their 'Acts,' is blown to atoms by 
 'Historicus,' and needs no funeral oration, there being 
 nothing left to bury. It is a claim of perfect, despotic, ir- 
 responsible power, sustained by no vestige of evidence, and 
 contradicted by omnipotent documentary evidence. It de- 
 stroys Presbyterianism in the fundamental right of appeal. 
 The Poles might as well appeal to Nicholas, as New School 
 minorities to the Old School Assembly. The greatest 
 danger I apprehend, lies in the reiterated claim of genuine 
 Presbyterianism by the Old School, connected with the 
 greatness of the loss to them if that law should take its 
 course. To oljliterate this : 
 
 " 1. The evidence of early and constant plans of union, 
 
 " 2. That Congregational and Presbyterian ministers 
 were the primary elements of American Presbyterian 
 churches ; and as much genuine sons of the church as 
 those born in Scotland or the metropolitan city. A 
 second obliterater is, that their peril is of their own 
 creation, in attempting to subvert our rights, — the pit their 
 own hands have digged, — and, therefore, if one or the other 
 must fall into it, it should be those who dug it. 
 
 " 3. The whole of this impression is removed by the 
 consideration that our claims, sustained, do not exclude 
 them if they choose to adhere to the constitutional church. 
 We have not accused them of heresy, or instituted vexa- 
 tious trials, or declared them out of the church, avowedly 
 to give us the power to control and despoil them. We 
 shut not the door of the church against them. We only 
 claim a constitutional organization to protect our rights, 
 and theirs too, if they choose to avail themselves of it. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 169 
 
 The confirmation of our constitutional organization will 
 not di-sfranchise them, if they choose to 'abide in the 
 ship ;' and only on their voluntary abandonment of the 
 church. 
 
 " There is another reason for an unflinching, straight 
 course, if it fall on our side, which is, that it is the direct 
 road to peace ; to prevent the disastrous division and 
 rending of families, churches, and Presbyteries even now 
 begun ; and to unite more than three-fourths of the entire 
 church in firmer, sweeter bonds of love and concord than 
 before. The ultras, if they go off, will be few, and leave 
 the church at rest. If they come in, they return defeated 
 and shorn of power and influence to kindle up the fires of 
 contention again; and we may calculate on 'peace as a 
 river,' till the millennial day. 
 
 " The plea of numbers will be relied on some ; but 
 theirs is a majority created by their own unconstitutional 
 action ; by their monopoly of the discipline and patronage 
 of the church, and by that reckless, daring violence and 
 courtly management which make the ambitious and the 
 timid, who in fact are with us, halt between two. For 
 five years out of seven we had majorities. In thirty-seven 
 we were a majority of the whole church, had we been re- 
 presented ; and if all who disapprove of the whole perse- 
 cuting course, and would willingly walk with us in love 
 and fellowship, are included, we should constitute three- 
 fourths of the entire church, especially if those who have 
 gone against us on account of slavery are struck off. But 
 after all, majorities do not make right or determine law ; 
 and will not, I am persuaded, be allowed in our case to 
 do so. 
 
 " All quibbling about our heresy and reference to doc- 
 trine is shut out by the repeated acquittals Ijy large major- 
 
 15* 
 
no LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 ities of the greatest alleged heretics, including the votes of 
 Old School men, and by our repeated public adhesion to 
 the Confession. 
 
 " This is all, doubtless, familiar to our counsel, and yet, 
 if you think it proper, I shall be glad to have these sug- 
 gestions submitted to their consideration, praying most 
 devoutly that the Head of the church may guide and 
 sustain them in their effort to secure the right, and restore 
 the peace and prosperity of the Presbyterian Church. It 
 is in the hands of God and able counsel, and I leave it. 
 But however it goes, our counsel have no fears for Lane 
 in a trial in Ohio " Yours, 
 
 " L. Beecher.'' 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS — EVENTS OF PASTORAL LIFE 
 
 ANECDOTES. 
 
 n^HOSE best acquainted with Mi'. Brainerd were the most 
 -L impressed with the frankness and transparency of his 
 character. There was a child-like simplicity about him 
 which revealed his thoughts almost unconsciously to him- 
 self. He was utterly unable to conceal his feelings, even 
 Avhere a wise policy might justify such concealment. Ap- 
 probation or displeasure, respect or contempt, joy or grief, 
 flashed out in his face before his voice could give its cor- 
 roborative testimony to his feelings. 
 
 Naturally very impulsive and quick-tempered, he often 
 said no one but himself knew the efforts he made for self- 
 control, nor the pain he endured over his ill success. His 
 language was always the exponent of his heart and his 
 conscience. 
 
 Possessed of a highly nervous temperament, with great 
 conscientiousness, he easily fell into morbid views of reli- 
 gious experience, such as characterized David and John 
 Brainerd. His standard was so far above human attainment 
 that, like Paul, he "counted not himself to have appre- 
 hended" the measure of his duty or the proofs of his 
 acceptance. AYhen his health faltered, or his plans for 
 usefulness were obstructed, if he could not overcome the 
 obstacles, he became mentally depressed. Always w^ork- 
 ing under high-pressure, he suffered the natural reaction 
 in nervous prostration. It was very common for him to 
 
 (HI) 
 
1'72 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 feel and say, after a most successful enterprise or a long'- 
 continued revival, "that this was his last work — that he 
 felt his time was short — that he must set his house in 
 order," — with like expressions. His friends sometimes 
 endeavored to banter him out of these moods; but soon 
 found the surest course was to get him off on a journey, 
 and with a few days or weeks of recreation, under the in- 
 fluence of new scenes and climate, he would return as 
 fresh and vigorous as ever, and work on for another year 
 without once recalling his apprehensions. 
 
 The development of fraud, treachery, or injustice, roused 
 Mr. Brainerd to great indignation ; and for offenders in 
 these respects his eyes and words meted out no gentle 
 measure of retribution. He frequently regretted his im- 
 pulsive severity afterward, feeling that the rebuke exceeded 
 the magnitude of the offense. 
 
 He never fostered ill feelings or retained a grudge against 
 an opponent ; but when the occasion of dissent was passed, 
 would renew the former kindliness of intercourse ; often 
 with surprise to find it coldly received. 
 
 After he had been settled about three years in Phila- 
 delphia, a contributor to the newspaper press amused 
 himself and the community by writing spirited sketches 
 of public men in the city, both of the bar and the pulpit, 
 which were published in the secular papers. As wise 
 people know what degree of allowance to make for these 
 pen pictures, we prefer to give the testimony of outside 
 witnesses, as free from the imputation of that partiality 
 which insensibly clings to the record of interested friends. 
 
 "Pencilings of the Pulpit."— No. 5. 
 REV. MR. BRAINERD. 
 
 " The celebrity which Mr. Brainerd enjoyed as a preacher 
 preceded him from Cincinnati to this city, and raised high 
 expectations here of his talents and his manly eloquence. 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. HS 
 
 Few who have listened to him have been disappointed in 
 their anticipations; and his congTog-ation only grow more 
 attached to him as they know him better. 
 
 "The personal appearance of Mr. Brainerd is, in the 
 pulpit, remarkably fine. His face is frank and intellectual, 
 with an eye of much power, and a commanding brow. He 
 does not, however, avail himself of his appearance to be- 
 come a master in action, but rather affects the calm, im- 
 passioned gestures of a lecturer in a synagogue. On rising, 
 he adjusts his manuscript carefully before him, places his 
 hands at convenient distances on each side of the pulpit 
 cushion, and thus resting upon them, scans tlie audience 
 with a searching glance, and plunges at once into the mid- 
 dle of his subject, never relieving himself from his easy, 
 though awkward posture, except to enforce some striking 
 truth by a sudden, impassioned motion of the hand. It is 
 only some startling thought, some lofty idea, or some re- 
 sistless argument, which breaks in upon ' the even tenor 
 of his way.' 
 
 " Far different is the style of Mr Brainerd's oratory. If 
 his gestures are uncouth, his rhetoric is by no means like 
 them. In fact, the whole of his power, as a speaker, con- 
 sists in the matter rather than the manner of his sermons. 
 His efforts, judged as compositions, would rank high in 
 the scale of mind, and call down praises from the keenest 
 critic or tlie most unflinching enemy of written sermons. 
 It is a style peculiar to himself, distinguished by mingled 
 logic and declamation; full, flowing, and rich, with little 
 rant and no tinsel ; slightly antithetical, but never arti- 
 ficial ; condensed at times, but diffuse when necessary; full 
 of sound logic, and kindling with feeling; strong, impas- 
 sioned, argumentative, unanswerable ; — it sweeps down 
 upon the reason and the heart together, rolls resistlessly 
 across the mind, and whirls away with it the thousand 
 excuses of the hearer. Few men weld argument and ap- 
 
n-i LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 peal so powerfully together ; and few men enforce their 
 argument with such labor and research. All that ancient 
 histor\^ affords, all that Biblical criticism has discovered, is 
 brought in to uphold his positions, until the mind staggers 
 under the accumulated testimony; our convictions yield, 
 our opinions talie color from his own, and we wonder that 
 we never before saw the subject in so strong a light. Nor 
 does he pause in this compact and glowing strain of argu- 
 mentation. Each link is welded into the other, and the 
 whole is riveted together with consummate strength. 
 From the first sentence to the last, one universal truth 
 pervades the whole ; and, though a score of lesser ones 
 arise and are illustrated in the course of his remarks, they 
 all tend to establish the one great idea, and lend their in- 
 fluence to impress it at last upon the mind. As the lens 
 concentrates the scattered rays upon a focus, so each sepa- 
 rate idea is brought forcibly to bear upon one point. This 
 is the great secret of powerful oratory ; by it not a thought 
 is lost, but even the idlest illustration is made to tell. It 
 is gathering the electric fluid into one burning chain ; it is 
 pouring a hundred rills into one mighty river. 
 
 " The voice of Mr. Brainerd is strong, sweet, almost mu- 
 sical. Some of its intonations are peculiarly fine, and re- 
 mind us of the deep breathings of an organ. Few but 
 admire the elocution, though scarcelv any praise the action 
 of the speaker. We trust, by improving one without less- 
 ening the other, he will win for himself his proper station 
 as a pulpit orator. Most men may acquire gesture, but 
 Heaven only endows the mind." 
 
 This sketch was published in the fall of 1839 ; and its 
 truthfulness can be attested or disproved by his numerous 
 hearers through his long ministry. Mr. Brainerd was 
 perfectly conscious of his defects of manner. He was 
 naturally diffident, and could never feel perfectly at ease 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 175 
 
 before an audience. He had a great contempt for cox- 
 combry in the pulpit; and it was easy for him to forget 
 himself when absorbed in his great subjects. Yet he was 
 not insensible to the advantages of a thorough physical and 
 elocutionary training for a public speaker. Rev. Thornton 
 A. Mills, who succeeded him in the Fourth Church of Cin- 
 cinnati, visited Philadelphia in the spring of 1839, and 
 occupied the pulpit in the morning, while Mr. Brainerd 
 preached in the afternoon. When they reached home, Mr. 
 Mills said, playfully : 
 
 " Brainerd, you haven't improved a bit since you left 
 Cincinnati. Why don't you throw away that paper and 
 reel it off to them, as you did at the West ?" 
 
 Mr. Brainerd preached extemporaneously half of the 
 time, but he found the habit of writing one sermon a week 
 of great service to him, notwithstanding Brother Mills' 
 opinion. 
 
 City congregations scatter during the summer, es- 
 pecially Philadelphia congregations. Being too far inland 
 for the benefit of sea-breezes, with the surrounding coun- 
 try very level, it is an exceedingly hot city from the mid- 
 dle of June to the middle of September. Every one who 
 can, endeavors to get away for a season ; returning leisurely 
 through September and October. This makes the winter 
 the working season for city ministers, and the spring com- 
 munion the period of their gathered harvest. Every year 
 of Mr. Brainerd's ministry was more or less marked by 
 special religious interest during the winter ; and as he 
 never spared himself, but worked to the utmost limit of 
 his strength, he almost invariably suffered, from the reac- 
 tion of this protracted mental excitement, by nervous pros- 
 tration. A season of rest and relaxation was needful to 
 restore the tone of his nerves and spirits. 
 
 Shortly after the March communion of 1839, Dr. Thomas 
 H. Skinner, of New York, came to Philadelphia, in very 
 
176 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 much the same physical condition as Mr. Brainerd, and 
 from the same cause. 
 
 He persuaded Mr. Brainerd to go with him to his 
 native place, Edenton, N. C, for their mutual benefit ; and 
 they left Philadelphia on the 8th of April, reaching Eden- 
 ton, by steamboat and railway, on the 10th. The region 
 was new, and Mr. Brainerd enjoyed the visit greatly. His 
 letters home will give the best report of his impressions. 
 
 "Edesto.v, N. C, April 11th, 18.S9. 
 
 " Here I am four hundred miles south from Philadel- 
 phia. AVe reached this place last evening, and 1 found the 
 journey here very pleasant. Dr. Skinner is excellent com- 
 pany. Tlie family consists of his brother, J. B. Skinner, 
 Esq., and his only daughter. They live in princely style, 
 and are fine specimens of Southern hospitality. To-day 
 we rode five miles on horseback to a fishing-place, where 
 I saw five thousand herrings caught at one haul." * * 
 
 "Edenton, April 16th, 1839. 
 
 "Up to last Sabbath I felt no improvement in my 
 health, but I am now radicall}^ better. I have been con- 
 stantly riding out with Dr. Skinner to see his friends. 
 They give him everywhere a most hearty welcome. Life 
 here is different from an3'thing which I have seen before. 
 
 " Last Sabbath I heard Dr. Skinner in the morning, 
 and heard the Methodist minister preach to slaves in the 
 afternoon. The church was given up to them. About 
 fifty received the communion of the Lord's Supper. They 
 seemed happy, and were orderly. 
 
 "There are large fishing-places five miles from us, on 
 Albemarle Sound. I have seen three draughts of from 
 four to ten thousand each, — shad, herring, catfish, rockfish, 
 sturgeon. We have had every variety of fish, dressed iu 
 
 flllC^tVIG" ^ ^ ^ '^ ^ '^ 
 
EVENTS OF PASTORAL LIFE. 1^7 
 
 In the evening Dr. Skinner and Mr. Brainerd attended 
 a prayer-meeting witli tlie slaves. One old colored man 
 thanked the Lord that they had been spared " to see 
 young Massa Tom come home once more I" Dr. Skinner 
 carried out this impression, by running over the place with 
 a boy's enthusiasm, to show Mr. Brainerd where he 
 "snared rabbits," and carried on various achievements of 
 juvenile adventure. 
 
 When they returned to the North, two pretty little 
 white slave girls, with blue eyes and brown hair, were 
 placed under their charge to be sent to school in New 
 England; this being the only mode by which, thirty years 
 ago, their emancipation and education could be secured. 
 So far as good looks, becoming dress and deportment were 
 concerned, these children might have passed for their own 
 through the whole homeward route. 
 
 At the March communion of 1840, Mr. Brainerd received 
 eighty-four new members to the church — seventy-eight of 
 them on profession. During the three years and one month 
 of his ministry here, three hundred and nineteen persons 
 were added to the church. One hundred and three were 
 received in the year 1838. The church-meetings were 
 uniformly crowded, so that the aisles and pulpit steps were 
 occupied in all seasons of fair weather. 
 
 Clinton Street Church about this time was advertised 
 for sale at public auction, and was in danger of passing 
 from the denomination. Rev. Anson Rood and Mr. Brai- 
 nerd bid it in for thirty thousand dollars, without having 
 a single dollar wherewith to meet the purchase. They 
 made great efforts to collect this large sum of money in 
 the ten days of grace allowed them, and succeeded. It 
 might almost be said that Mr. Brainerd worked day and 
 night for this object; for he spoke out in his sleep very 
 distinctly one night, saying, "Thy money perish icith 
 theeT^ After being roused to a consciousness of this apos- 
 
 16 
 
nS LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAIN EUD, D.D. 
 
 tolic abjuration, and enjoying a laugh over it, he said he 
 was dreaming that a rich man refused to give him a dona- 
 tion for Clinton Street Church, after he had exhausted every 
 argument in his appeal for it. 
 
 From Dr. Lyman Beecher. 
 
 "Lane Semisary, May 2.'5d, 1840. 
 
 " My dear Brother : 
 
 " I expect to be with 3'ou about the 28th of June, to at- 
 tend to matters far and wide, at the East, essential to the 
 prosperity of Lane Seminary and the constitutional church. 
 
 "Our cause, I see, is rising in Pennsylvania, and every- 
 where at the East. It would rise still faster and more 
 powerfully here if we had (as we once had) a supply of 
 ministers, and if we could have a fair portion of Eastern 
 patronage in students. But what Breckenridg-e said he 
 wished to do, he seems to have done, by the quarrel in our 
 church, viz., to tie up the jugular vein between New Eng- 
 land and the West. The benevolent, brotherly, paternal, 
 and missionary feeling of ministers and churches has al- 
 most expired, and the work of charity and prayer of fifty 
 years is left to take care of itself. * * * * 
 
 " Now, if in the Presbyterian Church and in New Eng- 
 land tlie ministers and churches help us, our cause will 
 go beyond measure ; but if the missionary feeling for the 
 West cool down, other denominations — Campbellites, and 
 all sorts of * i/cs,' will occupy the ground. You know that 
 the New School have been God's pioneers in laying foun- 
 dations and building up the permanent Christian institu- 
 tions of the West, And you know how immeasurably 
 important it is that we hold our own, and move on in this 
 work to its consunimation. If Lane Seminary receives, 
 the coming year and hereafter, a cordial patronage in stu- 
 dents, the great course of events will soon roll on rapidly 
 and with irresistible power; but if a temporary derelic- 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. n9 
 
 tion betide us, a reverse such as you dream not of — and 
 for which no place for repentance will be found — is at the 
 door. I am coming on to tell you more than I can write, 
 and more than my heart can hold. We have gained the 
 battle completely at the AVest, prospectively, if we are 
 sustained ; and have lost it, too, if we are not. And all 
 now needed to secure the labors of half a century, is but 
 the dust of the balance to what has been done. Shall it 
 be lost, — the building, — for want of its finishing ? the ship, 
 — in sight of harbor, — for a momentary effort of great ease 
 and certain success ? 
 
 " Lane Seminary is the Gibraltar of the West. It can, 
 with Eastern and Western patronage united, pour out a 
 powerful supply, augmenting every year, till other institu- 
 tions are needed and arise ; and a small general effort will 
 give us free course forever. 
 
 " The additional subject I alluded to is my own sup- 
 port. By economy, and the liberality of my own people, 
 I have got along to this time. Now, if I can secure six 
 hundred dollars for one or two years, if needful, I can get 
 along, and if I cannot gather some such temporary aid, I 
 see not how I can stagger under double labor and poverty 
 beside ; and if I should stop, as there is now no income to 
 my professorship, I know not who could go through the 
 course of labor through which God has been pleased to 
 sustain me, or how my place could be supplied. 
 
 "God has been favorable to us in the Second Church 
 the past winter; and the last two months has brought in 
 almost the whole circle of my most important young fami- 
 lies. This makes three revivals which I have superin- 
 tended the three last successive years, — during which 
 years I have lectured six times a week, and preached five 
 times, and often six, besides parochial visits.* If n)y mind 
 
 * Dr. Beecber was at this time sixty-five years of age. 
 
180 LIFE OF REV. TIIO^IAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 is free from secular embarrassment, I may last some years 
 longer ; but I know how much I can bear, and when, if 
 the cord be pressed farther, it will break. 
 
 " So you see I am coming to you, my son and friend, 
 who have so often and nobly stood by me and the cause, 
 to appeal once more to your heart and head, and probably 
 for the last time it will ever be needful. 
 
 " Please reply to this, and b}"- all means let me know 
 that you will be glad to see me; and that you think you 
 can gatiier up crumbs enough from all your tables to feed 
 me for a season while 1 work for the Lord and his 
 church. 
 
 "Affectionately yours, 
 
 " Lyman Beecher." 
 
 Dr. Beecher's visits to Philadelphia, when he always 
 made his home with Mr. Brainerd, were seasons of great 
 social enjoyment and intellectual holidays. The love and 
 reverence with which he was regarded made labor and 
 sacrifices in his behalf not only light, but a positive 
 pleasure. In reply to one of Dr. Beecher's letters, about 
 this time, Mr. Brainerd says : " In all my acquaintance 
 with men, I have known but one to whom I could be 
 subordinate with pride, and with and for whom I could 
 cheerfully suffer persecution. Doctor, you have had many 
 bitter assailants; it will do you no harm to receive these 
 assurances of love and vei,ieration from one who knows 
 your private character as Avell as your public services." 
 
 From Rev. Lyman Beecher. 
 
 "Cincinnati, Feb. 1841. 
 
 " Dear Brainerd : 
 
 " My return by Philadelphia was prevented by paternal 
 obligation to visit my children on the Northern route; and 
 this long silence has been caused, you know how, by six 
 lectures a week and four sermons, care of the seminary and 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 181 
 
 of the church, weddings, funerals, Presbyteries, Synods, 
 whicli have left me scarcely time to eat, and none at all in 
 the daytime to sleep. 
 
 "Our concerns at the West are, I think, convalescent; 
 'bone is coming to its bone,' and the constitutional body 
 is approximating to compactness, animation, and vigor. 
 The incubus is off at length from Kentucky ; and as soon 
 as she can command a supply of efficient ministers, she 
 will make a noble development of vigor and zeal, and be- 
 come one of the best of the Western States, especially 
 when the incubus of slavery is thrown otf, which is an 
 event rapidly approaching. 
 
 " The seminary is more and more appreciated as a heart 
 of power to our church, and securing the confidence and 
 patronage of ministers and churches, and of the young 
 men, whether Old School or New, and without respect to 
 antislavery affinities or repellencies. * * * 
 
 " Nothing possible to be done by me to keep the channel 
 open and the flood rolling in and the stream rolling out to 
 make glad the West shall be omitted. Having first given 
 my own self and all my Eastern associations, money is 
 nothing. But the diversion of my funds has brought me 
 to the place where, without some help from my friends, I 
 shall be sorely pres.sed, for my necessities just now are no 
 fiction. 
 
 " We have now twenty students for whom we have not 
 been able to make out half the antiual appropriation. The 
 young men stand poverty and short living and short cloth- 
 ing nobly, rather than to break away from their studies ; and 
 the estimation of a thorough course, and a determination 
 if possible to secure it, we rejoice to see increasing. 
 
 "And now, dear brother, you have all my heart in your 
 hands, with such a fullness of affection and confidence and 
 comfort as is afforded by few, since so many much-loved 
 ones have gone to heaven, and sjme that remain have dis- 
 
 IG* 
 
182 TJFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 appointed and abused my confidence. But I am neither 
 misanthropic, nor melancholy, nor weary in the work of 
 the Lord, but thankful that lie continues as yet ray powers 
 of mind and body, and am determined to consecrate to his 
 service the whole of what remains of heart and soul and 
 time and strength. One thing I do feel most deeply — the 
 absence of counsels and co-operation of personal friends. 
 But we cannot all be together in this world, and it is better 
 to serve Christ than to enjoy one another. I keep watch 
 of your movements, and rejoice in your prosperity. 
 
 " Lyman Beecher." 
 
 From the same. 
 
 "Walnut Hills, Maj- 9th, 1841. 
 " I sympathize with you in anxiety about the coming 
 Assembly. Though I am opposed to ultra measures, I 
 fear the course some propose, to ' leave slavery to politics 
 aud God's providence, without marring every meeting of 
 Assembly,' would lead to the most ultra measures possi- 
 ble ; I mean the disruption of a large portion of our West- 
 ern Church, with a sad rending of many churches in both 
 divisions. If the memorials and petitions that will come 
 before you are met with coldness or evasion, — if the lead- 
 ing brethren in New York and Philadelphia, instead of 
 conservative, mediatorial influence between the two ex- 
 tremes, rather amalgamate with the Southern policy of 
 'letting alone,' there is, in my belief, an avalanche totter- 
 ing on the brink, such as you are not aware of, which will 
 thunder down. There are multitudes of our best ministers 
 and churches that will abide as long as there is any hope 
 tkat the Assembly will do something, and who, if nothing 
 is done, will, I believe, abandon our church. I think' they 
 will err in judgment, but that they will do so I cannot 
 doubt, if they are met by an augmented do nothing party 
 in alliance with the South. 
 
CORRESrONDENCE. 183 
 
 "I think it were better if they would alhjw 'the Earth 
 to help the woman,' by allowing the wrath of men in 
 politics to work out the righteousness of God, and much 
 more, to await the antislavery movement at the South, 
 which with great power is moving and cannot be stopped. 
 
 " I do think that discussion enough on the moral and re- 
 ligious merit of slavery has been had, and resolutions 
 enough repeated ; but I do think that in the form of a pas- 
 toral letter an argument for temporary forbearance on both 
 sides might be written, which would have a soothing. 
 Christian influence, much better than any possible resolu- 
 tions or action. In fact, there is now no difficulty, if the 
 parties will only stand still and see the salvation of God, 
 which is coming to our aid rapidly and powerfully. It 
 will be suicidal to throw ourselves into confusion and 
 destruction just when God is rushing to our aid. 
 
 "I have written merely to satisfy my own conscience and 
 be able to say I have done what I could. 
 
 "Yours affectionately, 
 
 " Lyman Beech er." 
 
 These letters contain so much history of the struggles 
 of those years of travail that they ought not to be sup- 
 pressed. 
 
 In the spring of 1842 Mr. Brainerd visited Cincinnati. 
 In writing home, under date of April 13th, 1842, he says : 
 
 "I reached this place yesterday. I met a warm recep- 
 tion at Judge Burnet's, and, as yet, have been nowhere 
 else, except to visit my old house. This morning I shall 
 go up to see Dr. Beecher." ***** 
 
 "April 16th. Wednesday, I spent the morning in call- 
 ing upon some old friends, who all seemed glad to see me. 
 In the afternoon I rode out to Fulton, where I was first 
 sjttled. Here I raised a great excitement. The old ladies 
 all cried over me, and my friends seemed to be as warm in 
 
184 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAIKERD, D.D. 
 
 their love as ever. Indeecl, I think the old church of Ful- 
 ton embraces the most attached friends I ever yet made. 
 More than a dozen inquired if I was not ready to come 
 back. They told me of old times and other days, until 
 yeai'S seemed to be almost annihilated. 
 
 " Last evening they all collected in the old church, when 
 I talked to them for an hour. I have a good horse at my 
 disposal, and I ride about to all my old haunts. My mind, 
 hitherto, has been kept cheerful, though some sadness is 
 mingled with the tlioughts of other days. I see great 
 changes, physical and moral ; and I find that I myself am 
 greatly changed. ******* 
 
 " Mrs. Burnet is still to me all that she was in days 
 gone by." 
 
 After his return home, Mr. Brainerd received another 
 invitation to take charge of a new church enterprise in St. 
 Louis, backed by an urgent letter from Dr. Artemus Bul- 
 lard, from which the following extract is made: 
 
 "Sr. Louis, May 12th, 1842. 
 
 "Dear Brother Brainerd: 
 
 " The Third Church, recently formed in this city, is 
 composed of a large share of my best and most active 
 members. They wish to obtain one of the best ministers 
 in the land for their pastor. They should have such a 
 pastor. In no place in the land could such a man do more 
 good. They will proceed at once to build a large house, 
 and will be one of the largest churches in this city. 
 
 " Our city has more than doubled its inhabitants during 
 the four years 1 have been here. I would rejoice to have 
 you a co-laborer in this city. 
 
 " Will you write me immediately, letting me know 
 whether you could be induced, on any conditions, to come 
 and be the pastor of this church? 
 
 " They are in great haste; and if you cannot, under any 
 
EVENTS OF PASTORAL LIFE. 185 
 
 circumstances, come yourself, can you name a g-ood man 
 who would probalily come ? I cannot tell you ho\v impor- 
 tant it is that they should have a first-rate pastor soon. 
 " Your affectionate brother, 
 
 "A. BULLARD." 
 
 Mr. Brainerd had been settled only five years in Phila- 
 delphia, and he was not a man to make easy changes. He 
 said he could not keep his heart on a swivel, to l)e turned 
 by every influence. So this proposition was again de- 
 clined. 
 
 The next June Mr. Brainerd went as a delegate to the 
 General Conference of Maine, which met at Portland. He 
 attended the General Association of Massachusetts at 
 Westboro', near Boston, the week following, stopping two 
 days at Wilton, N. H., where he assisted to build up a 
 little church in his student days, and then made a short 
 visit to Andover, and addressed the Sabbath-school of 
 which he was formerly the superintendent. 
 
 In connection with the business of the General Confer- 
 ence of Maine the usual spring anniversaries of the reli- 
 gious societies were held. At one of these, the Maine 
 Missionary Society, Mr. Brainerd made a speech. He 
 always had a horror of high pulpits. Suffering as he did 
 from vertigo while speaking, a high pulpit invariably 
 aggravated this uncomfortable symptom. Observing that 
 the pulpit in the church where the anniversaries were held 
 was an old-fashioned one of more than ordinary elevation, 
 Mr. Brainerd declined going into the pulpit, and made his 
 address on the platform in front of it. In the nevvspaper 
 report of the anniversaries, it was said, " The Rev. Mr. 
 Brainerd of Philadelphia, with a modesty truly j^^^^possess- 
 ing, declined to enter the pulpit, making his speech on the 
 platform below it " 
 
 This report, copied into the New York Evangelist and 
 
186 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 the Observer, reached Philadelphia before he did. On re- 
 joining- his brethren of the Pastoral Association, he was 
 obliged to run the gauntlet of raillery for many weeks, 
 on the newly-discovered ground of his " modesty,''^ with 
 proposed thanks to the citizens of Maine for revealing 
 virtues undeveloped hitherto in Philadelphia. 
 
 The whole of this year was marked by increased ner- 
 vous debility and consequent depression of spirits, which 
 his spring and summer journeys failed to remove. The 
 next winter he made an arrangement Avith the Rev. G. S. 
 Boardman, of Northern New York, who wished to secure 
 a milder climate for his wife, to assist him in the church 
 services. By thus lightening his labors, he was enabled 
 to carry on the great responsibilities connected with his 
 charge. He was now thirty-eight years old, and for eleven 
 years had worked under high-pressure, without intermis- 
 sion. Many young preachers break down at this stage 
 of labor, and are tempted to seek new fields of occupation, 
 where the studies of the past may be made available for 
 the future. Men of the world, who regard the work of 
 the ministry as a life of ease and indulgence, should know 
 that the average professional life of a clergyman, at the 
 present time, is but fifteen A'^ears. The unceasing taxa- 
 tion of the brain and nerves wears out life faster than any 
 physical labor. 
 
 After much anxious deliberation, Mr. Brainerd decided 
 upon trying the experiment of work in the open air to re- 
 store the vigor of his system. He rented a place on 
 Green Hill, near Girard College, for two hundred dollars 
 a year, to which he removed in May, 1843. It was a 
 beautiful })lace, containing a fine house built by a wealthy 
 merchant for his own residence, a few years before, with 
 half, an acre of ground laid out in garden and lawn, and 
 tliirteen large elm-trees running diagonallv through the lot. 
 It seemed a paradise to Mr. Brainerd's three little children, 
 
EVENTS OF PASTORAL LIFE. 187 
 
 emancipated from the strip of brick pavement whicli con- 
 stituted their play-ground in Pine Street. For a house of 
 far less size and convenience, in the south part of the city, 
 he had paid a rent of five hundred dollars, and the finan- 
 cial gain was a positive one. 
 
 The new residence Avas about two miles from the church. 
 There were neither lights nor pavement bej^ond Ninth and 
 Vine Streets ; but the long rides home in dark nights, 
 through mud and storm, were compensated by improved 
 health. Mr. Brainerd found horseback riding the best 
 remedy for his dyspeptic and nervous complaints ; and 
 both in Cincinnati and Philadelphia, u horse was regarded 
 as a necessary member of his family. Accustomed to 
 horses from his youth, and delighting in his boyhood to 
 catch colts and subdue them to his horsemanship, he could 
 hardly believe that life was possible without the aid of 
 this faithful assistant. ^ 
 
 Mr. Brainerd attended all the Sabbath services of his 
 church at this time as well as the VN'ednesday and Friday 
 evening meetings ; and the greater part of each day was 
 devoted to pastoral calls, visiting the sick, and attending 
 funerals. An average of six persons were on the sick list 
 in his large congregation at all times, demanding more or 
 less attention. The very sick, appointed to death, he 
 visited daily ; others, two and three times a week. 
 
 He would work in his garden in the early morning, both 
 before and after breakfast, and about ten o'clock a.m. go 
 down to the city. He had a study in the basement of the 
 church, where messages were brought to him with the 
 same convenience as though he lived in the vicinity. He 
 usually returned home between five and six o'clock p.m., 
 often taking his dinnef with some family of his congrega- 
 tion. His health improved under this process of working 
 and riding, and the tranquilizing influences of fresh air, 
 good society, and pleasant scenery made this temporary 
 residence a source of great satisfaction. 
 
188 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 Improvements were fast progressing in this section of 
 the city. Street lamps and pavements were soon supplied, 
 and the population extended up Broad Street beyond 
 Girard Avenue. Mr. Brainerd felt the importance of the 
 church keeping pace with the growth of ihe city, west 
 and north ; and as there was no Presb3^terian church 
 within a mile, he resolved to establish one in this neigh- 
 borhood. 
 
 By communicating his purpose to several of the property- 
 holders near him, he obtained the donation of a fine lot on 
 Girard Avenue, for the church, from Charles Macalester, 
 Esq., valued then at $3800 (now worth $15,000), and con- 
 tributions from other gentlemen in the neighborhood, 
 amounting to $5000 more, before he made an\" application 
 to his friends, or the churches in the city. With so favor- 
 able a beginning the young church was soon placed be- 
 yond the chance of failure, and in two -months he had secured 
 the means of building the tasteful Gothic stone edifice on 
 Girard Avenue, known as the " Green Hill Church." 
 
 The following items are copied from the Records of the 
 Green Hill Church : 
 
 "In the spring of 1843 Rev. Dr. Brainerd, Pastor of 
 Pine Street Church, was induced, for the sake of his 
 health, to move into a house on the northwest corner of 
 Poplar and Sixteenth Streets. Dr. Brainerd saw the 
 necessity of forming a Presbyterian church in that part of 
 the city; and the Sabbath-school established in the 'Old 
 Frame' serving as the basis of operation, he applied him- 
 self to the work of organizing and building up such a 
 church. A meeting was held December 27th, 1846, to 
 constitute a new church, under the title of the Green Hill 
 Presbyterian Church, Dr. Brainerd presiding. Dr. Brai- 
 nerd saw the probability of the neighborhood soon becom- 
 ing a populous part of the city, and, though the task was 
 
EVENTS OF PASTORAL LIFE. 189 
 
 bv no means an easy one, applied all his energies to the 
 work of building a church edifice. Through his represen- 
 tations, Charles Macalester, Esq., offered to donate to the 
 church a valuable lot of ground, on what is now Girard 
 Avenue, for this purpose, provided a building worth at 
 least $6000 should be erected upon it. Upon Dr. Brainerd 
 chiefly rested the labor of raising this money. The society, 
 though now organized into a church, was feeble and with- 
 out means, so that he was obliged to depend almost en- 
 tirely upon friends in other parts of the city. After braving 
 repeated discouragements, when the enterprise seemed 
 almost hopeless, the energies of Dr. Brainerd increased. 
 He invited a number of the city pastors to his house 
 to tea; gathering them together undet* the old elms that 
 grew by his dwelling, he pointed out the advantages of 
 such an edifice, and urged their instant and active co- 
 operation. Catching his spirit, they there agreed to appeal 
 to their people in behalf of the church and endeavor to 
 raise the $8000 necessary to secure the ground. The 
 enterprise was successful, and a beautiful and commodious 
 building, costing over $10,000, was commenced Nov. 15th, 
 1847, and completed the following year: $1500 were con- 
 tributed by Dr. Brainei'd's own congregation, in Pine 
 Street Church. 
 
 " After the walls were raised, and while the lumber was 
 all prepared upon the ground for the interior work, Dr. 
 Brainerd, who lived one square from the place, was awak- 
 ened at midnight by a glare of light. Springing to his 
 feet, he saw that it came from the church lot. In an in- 
 stant he thought all was over. The church which had 
 been the object of his desire, hope, and prayer for years, 
 he thought was about to be destroyed. Raising his win- 
 dow, he gave the alarm. In a few moments the entire 
 neighborhood was on the spot, and the flames, which had 
 not extended beyond some loose lumber, were soon extin- 
 
 17 
 
190 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 guished. Had there been a little delay, the whole would 
 have been destroyed."* 
 
 The foundations of Girard College were laid in J 836, 
 and seven years of labor had been expended upon the noble 
 structure, which was now about two thirds completed. 
 The daily walk to the building, talking to the architect and 
 the w^orkmen, observing " what manner of stones" were 
 wrought into this Temple without a Shekinah, made the 
 college a source of perpetual interest to Mr. Brainerd. He 
 mused over its origin, its history, its progress, and its 
 destiny. Familiar with the clause in Girard's will which 
 excluded foreve*; from the college walls clergymen of every 
 denomination, he avus led to bestow some thought upon 
 the principles on w4)ich the will was founded. During the 
 period of its erection, when he could gain admittance, h's 
 visitors were taken there, as to one of the great exhil>i- 
 tions of the neighboi'hood. He visited the college one 
 afternoon with a young clergyman about to leave his coun- 
 try as a foreign missionary, and while they stood together 
 on the marble-slabbed roof of the noble building, the young 
 man, turning to Mr. Brainerd, said : " Stephen Girard put 
 his life into marble ; I will put mine into the hearts and 
 lives of ni}' fellow-men " 
 
 Mr. Brainerd had gained the confidence of the hundred 
 mechanics employed on the college; and just before its com- 
 pletion arrangements were made to invite him to make an 
 address to them on temperance, or any other subject he 
 might choose, at the noon hour of recess They said they 
 could eat their dinner in fifteen minutes, and leave forty- 
 five minutes for his address. 
 
 * "When Dr. Brainerd saw the light, he threw up his window and cried 
 fire so lustily that be awakened the people all the way down to Broad 
 Street. Mr. Arrison, who lived opposite the doctor's house, facetiously 
 remarked that if ever his proper!}' touk fire he hoped to have Dr. Braiuerd 
 near to sound the alarm." 
 
ANECDOTES. 191 
 
 Mr. Brainerd felt that it would be a i^Tcat triumph for 
 an accredited clergyman to deliver the fir^t moral lecture 
 within the walls of Girard College; while a hundred intel- 
 ligent mechanics constituted an audience before which he 
 was proud to speak. But the favorite scheme was not 
 carried out ; being deferred to the closing week of their 
 labor, when the building would be in the highest state of 
 completion, a meeting of Presbytery or Synod called Mr. 
 Brainerd from home ; and when he returned, the college was 
 delivered over to its appointed controllers, the City Coun- 
 cils, who were bound to carry out, to the letter, the terms 
 of Girard's will. • 
 
 Mr. Brainerd was never disposed to enter the building 
 again, after being formally excluded ; but as he considered 
 the claims of the will to the support of a Christian commu- 
 nity, he was not satisfied with the disfranchisement of a 
 class of citizens entitled to, and receiving, the most un- 
 doubted public confidence. He published a short article in 
 the North American and U. S. Gazette, giving his views 
 on this subject ; and afterward learned that both Rufus 
 Choate and Daniel Webster had said, on a careful examina- 
 tion of the case, that the question could be fairly contested 
 on this ground. The Christian laymen who compose the 
 Faculty of Girard College have done everything possible 
 to secure to the institution the influence of Christian prin- 
 ciples, by teaching their pupils to honor religion, so far as 
 this can be done, while the appointed teachers of Chris- 
 tianity are thus publicly dishonored. 
 
 Exclusion of Clergymen from Girard College. 
 
 " A doubt has arisen in many minds as to the propriety 
 of discriminating among citizens in carrying out the will of 
 Girard. While all have the highest esteem for the intelli- 
 gent, gentlemanly, and benevolent directors, and an entire 
 approbation of the manner in which they are administering 
 
192 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 the concerns of the institution, many still doubt their right 
 to catechise visitors as to their occupation, and bar out 
 men of a lawful profession. No doubt Stephen Girard had 
 a right to do what be would with his own, but it is ques- 
 tioned whether the City Council have a right to admin- 
 ister a trust in a mode which places a bar on a certain legal 
 occupation. In any instrument a condition against mo- 
 rality or against the public weal is void or voidable. It is 
 against the public weal, according to many decisions, to 
 render odious a lawful business — to make men suffer 
 penalty for following a profession protected by laws. 
 Lord B3-ron ga*'e a legacy to his daughter on condition 
 that she should not marry an Englishman. It was void. 
 Suppose the condition had been that she should not marry 
 a lawyer or physician, the same effect would follow. 
 
 " The City Council represent the entire body of their 
 constituents. If the}^ so mismanage the Girard Estate as 
 to throw the support of the college on taxation, the prop- 
 erty of clergymen is made liable to aid in footing the bill. 
 
 " Has the Council a right, while representing the votes 
 and the property of all classes, to exclude shoemakers and 
 blacksmiths from Fairmount and Independence Square? 
 Because no one has a legal right to go up the steeple of the 
 State House without a ticket from the authorities, have the 
 fathers of the city a right capriciously to admit lawyers and 
 exclude merchants ? — to say that any man worth ten thou- 
 sand dollars may ascend, but the poor must remain below ? 
 
 "If visiting as spectators is a privilege — a courtesy — 
 still are not the city fathers bound to regulate this courtesy 
 by some general principles which shall not disfranchise 
 men for following a legal employment, or because they 
 happen to be pour ? 
 
 " If the city fathers have not this right in respect to 
 Fairmount or Independence Square, how do they acquire 
 it in respect to the grounds of Girard College ? From the 
 
ANECDOTES. 193 
 
 will of Girard ? But no xcill of any man can g-ive a right 
 to do wrong — can authorize the rulers of a city, in a land of 
 libert}^, to discriminate between common citizens — and to 
 bar from common privileges men by whose suffrages they 
 hold their authority ! The sum of the argument is this: 
 the condition of the will of Girard which excludes a lawful 
 profession from privileges common to all others, is opposed 
 to the national equality recognized by law in this land, and 
 therefore cannot be carried legally into efl'ect by a City 
 Council forbidden to degrade or disfranchise any class of 
 their constituents. I know the city fathers well enough to 
 be assured that they would rejoice to be released from the 
 petty office of asking every man with a black coat and white 
 cravat if he is not a preacher. " Burnet.'' 
 
 Those who remember Mr. Brainerd can recall some 
 "story" concerning him, characteristic either of his prin- 
 ciples or his modes. His great fondness for talking with 
 plain, laboring men, and drawing out their unsophisticated 
 views of life, from their personal experience, furnished a 
 perpetual source of amusement and interest to him. He 
 never cherished a particle of that weak and offensive self- 
 love which tempts a man to value himself above his fellows. 
 Hence plain and poor men came to him \vith freedom and 
 trusted him with confidence. They were never made to 
 feel uncomfortable in his presence. He belonged to the 
 " Abou-Ben-Adhem" tribe ; and had he dictated his own 
 eulogy, I think it would have been, — 
 
 "Write me as one who loves his fe!lo\v-men." 
 
 When Mr. Brainerd was called to attend the funerals 
 of obscure people, living in some court or alley, he was ac- 
 customed to call on some of his Avealthy members in the 
 neighborhood, and request them to attend this funeral. 
 He would tell them it was doing a benevolent work at a 
 
 17* 
 
194 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 very small sacrifice, to stop in for a half hour and cheer 
 these humble dwellings with their sympathy. These 
 wealthy neighbors often thanked him for the suggestion ; 
 as they were ignorant of the sorrow so near their door 
 until informed of it by their pastor. And in many cases 
 the occasion which appealed to their tenderest emotions 
 resulted in material "aid and comfort" on one side, and 
 lasting gratitude and friendship on the other. 
 
 When one of the new streets on Green Hill was graded 
 to the city level, an excavation of ten or twelve feet was 
 made back of Mr. Brainerd's residence. He often looked 
 out from his back gate a few minutes after breakfast or 
 dinner to mark the progress of the work. After undermin- 
 ing the bank, the men inserted crowbars at regular inter- 
 vals above, and by working the lever simultaneously, huge 
 masses of many tons were thrown off at once. One time, 
 when the men had tugged longer than usual at the great 
 tenacious mass of earth, the}" halted awhile to breathe and 
 wipe the sweat from their faces. As Mr. Brainerd stood 
 in the range of the file of crowbars he fancied the earth 
 was about yielding to the force applied above. In the 
 momentary suspension of work he took hold of one of the 
 center crowbars and gave it a strong thrust into the earth, 
 when, as much to his OAvn surprise as that of the workmen, 
 the whole mass tumbled off with a mighty crash into the 
 area below. " There," exclaimed one of the Irishmen, 
 "see what holy hands will do P^ 
 
 At another time, stopping at a blacksmith's to have a 
 shoe of his horse fastened, he found the owner of the shop 
 gone to his dinner, and another man in his place, idly blow- 
 ing the bellows. " What !" said Mr. Brainerd to him, 
 "blowing and not striking!" Just then the blacksmith 
 came in. " Mr. K., I found a man here blowing and 
 not striking," continued Mr. Brainerd. " What does that 
 mean ?" A twinkle of fun shone in the eyes of the witty 
 
ANECDOTES. 195 
 
 blacksmith as he replied, "Don't your reverence do a 
 little of that yourself sometimes ?" 
 
 Mr. Brainerd relished a joke none the less for being- him- 
 self the subject of it. He seemed often to enjoy it the more 
 for this very reason. He liked the manliness and inde- 
 pendence which could express an honest judgment in any 
 presence on proper occasions. 
 
 A fine little boy, about five years old, who lived oppo- 
 site the church, frequently came over and looked timidly 
 in at the study door. Mr. Brainerd often invited him in, 
 and gave him leave to stay and look at his books, if he 
 would not make much noise. In those days Mr. Brainerd 
 used a large, old-fashioned sand-box — writing very rapidly 
 and sanding the page before turning it over. The little 
 boy quietly watched this operation for some time, and 
 during a short suspension of the writing inquired earn- 
 estly, "When will you put on the pepper again ?" The 
 question suggested an " ivijjrovemeni" to Mr. Brainerd ; 
 for he said he thought a great many sermons needed more 
 " pepper^ ^ — that they lacked both pungency and flavor. 
 
 One cold winter day Mr. Brainerd was riding on horse- 
 back, wearing a seal- skin cap, neck-muffler, and gloves — 
 the two latter the gift of a friend. Passing a group of 
 boys thus muffled, one of them said to another, " That is 
 Dr. Brainerd !" " He looks like a managerie,^^ replied his 
 companion ; apparently supposing that so much fur en- 
 titled the wearer to the reputation of a whole caravan of 
 wild beasts. 
 
 A profligate man in the neighborhood was in the habit 
 of visiting daily a handsome woman, whose husband had 
 gone to California, and her friends requested Mr. Brainerd 
 to caution her against his visits. As she occasionally 
 called at his house, Mr. Brrfinei'd spoke to her on the sub- 
 ject with great kindness, but advised her to decline this 
 man's visits in future. A few days after, while sitting at 
 
196 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 the tea-table the door-bell was rung, and the girl who an- 
 swered it was requested to ask Mr. Brainerd to step to the 
 door. He obeyed the summons, and was met by this neigh- 
 bor with a volley of abuse. Every epithet was heaped 
 upon him that an enraged, intoxicated man could call 
 up. Mr. Brainerd listened with perfect quietness until his 
 visitor concluded by saying, " Thafs what I have to nay 
 to you!^' " Is that all you have to say to me, Mr. H. ?" 
 replied Mr. Brainerd. This set him off again, and he 
 edged up toward Mr. Brainerd as though he would strike 
 him. " You don't suppose I am afraid of you ?" Mr. Brai- 
 nerd added. " You think God will protect you," replied 
 the other, with a sneer. " Yes," said Mr. Brainerd, "but 
 I shall be the instrument, in this easel" 
 
 Mr. H. turned immediately and went down the steps, 
 still muttering imprecations to himself. Every word of 
 this interview was heard by the family at the tea-table, and 
 they were greatly relieved when Mr. Brainerd returned, 
 laughing, to finish his supper. As he related the story to 
 several friends afterward, it found its way into Uarper\^ 
 Magazine, with some trifling embellishments. The narra- 
 tor added, " The visitor left hastily, not liking the looks 
 of the Lord's instrument." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 FAMILY CHANGES — VISIT TO EUROPE — SHIPWRECK. 
 
 IN the winter of 1844, Mr. Brainerd's fourth and last 
 child was born, making a family of two sons and two 
 daughters. His duties called him from home the greater 
 part of the day, but he treasured up for his children many 
 little occurrences of interest, to relate on his return at even- 
 ing. If he did not invite them to the recital, he was sure to 
 hear the request, "Papa, tell us your 'life and history^ 
 to-day !" This had become a standing title for these re- 
 hearsals. 
 
 He M'as a great governor in his own family, but with 
 very little severity. His children never entertained the 
 thought of disobedience as possible. Accustomed from 
 their earliest childhood to implicit, prompt obedience, he 
 found no difficulty in keeping them to the track of whole- 
 some restraint. He believed this to be the way to save 
 children from severity and suffering, as well as from the 
 paths of error. He was averse to crowding young chil- 
 dren, early, with study ; but labored earnestly to give 
 them a taste for study, and a desire for knowledge. When 
 this was gained, he considered the end accomplished. 
 
 He took his oldest son with him, whenever it was prac- 
 ticable, on excursions of business, and carried him to ex- 
 hibitions of art and of natural science, and through all 
 the great mechanical institutions in which Philadelphia 
 abounds. A familiarity with the productive, industrial 
 operations of the country he considered a branch of educa- 
 
 (197) 
 
198 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 tion inferior in no respect, to any other ; tending directly 
 to enlarge the mind and elevate the character, by cultiva- 
 ting a sympathy with the multiplied agencies employed in 
 this wonderful department. lie bought carpenter's tools 
 for his son, and let him have a room for his workshop, in 
 which his juvenile efforts were perfected and commended. 
 
 A plot of ground was marked off for his boy's vegetable 
 garden ; and the radishes, lettuce, and peas raised on it 
 were bought by his parents, at the highest market price. 
 
 A State Convention to promote the better observance 
 of the Sal)bath was held at Harrisburg, Pa., in May, 1844 ; 
 and Mr. Brainerd was chairman of the committee to pre- 
 pare an address on the subject. The address, which he 
 read to' the Convention at the morning session of May 
 31st, filled nine pages of the printed report, and occupied 
 three-quarters of an hour in reading. He received a note 
 of thanks from John A. Brown, Esq., for his timely and 
 telling appeal in behalf of the imperiled Sabbath. Mr. 
 Brown says: 
 
 " I take this opportunity of expressing the gratification 
 your able and eloquent address afforded those who heard 
 it, and the general satisfaction and pleasure with which it 
 has been perused since its publication, by many who love 
 the Sabbath. It is eminently calculated to do good and to 
 excite an interest in this important subject. 
 "I remain with much esteem, 
 "Yours truly, 
 
 "John A. Brown." 
 
 The church at Utica, in 1845, was again vacant. The 
 following letter was received from one of his old friends: 
 
 "Utica, February 24lh, 1845. 
 
 " My dear Friend Brainerd : 
 
 " You will no doubt be somewhat surprised by the mis- 
 sion of Rev. Mr. Spencer to you, with a call from the First 
 
CORRESrONDEXCE. 199 
 
 Church in this city. Mr. Spencer will make you acquainted 
 wiih all the proceedings in the matter, so I will only say 
 they were characterized by g-reat harmony and good feel- 
 ing, and an earnest, strong desire that you might accept. 
 
 " As I am connected with this church, I need not say my 
 own wishes are very strong that you may find it consistent 
 to do so. The field for usefulness here is very large. A 
 leading man is wanted in this Presbytery, and the First 
 Church of Utica should have such a man. 
 
 "I am fully aware of your pleasant location in Philadel- 
 phia, but there are other considerations. Your labors 
 w^ould be much lightened here, and this in the end might 
 add much to the aggregate of your usefulness. 
 
 " The people here feel disposed to give a pastor a liberal 
 support, and I know you well enough to be satisfied that 
 this question will not present any obstacle to your coming. 
 " Your sincere friend, 
 
 " C. P. Wetmore." 
 
 Rev. T. Spencer visited Mr. Braincrd in March, and 
 after urging the claims of the church by varied arguments, 
 left the call with him for consideration, refusing to accept 
 an immediate decision. The state of his health led his 
 friends to indulge strong hopes of success, from the mo- 
 tives presented of the physical benefit to be derived from 
 a local change at this time. Meanwhile a second letter 
 from his friend, Mr. Wetmore, was received, as follows: 
 
 "Utica, March 17th, 1845. 
 
 " Dear Brother Brainerd : 
 
 "I lose not a moment in replying to your letter, if per- 
 chance I may say a word that may influence your decision 
 in favor of coming here. It is not mere personal motive 
 that governs me in earnestly wishing you might accept the 
 call to this city. I feel that this church does need, in their 
 present state, such a pastor as I believe you would make 
 
200 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 them. I believe you could fill this place better than any 
 other man. The union of members, the prominent posi- 
 tion of the pastor of this church in Presbytery and Synod, 
 the influence to flow from it, makes it necessary to have 
 a man of the right stamp. 
 
 "I have no doubt Mr. Spencer made all this more plain 
 to you than I can ; but still, could it be impressed upon 
 your mind fully the true state of things here, I feel it 
 would influence your decision. Would not the prospect 
 of permanent restoration of health and firmness of nerve, 
 which I have no doubt you would obtain in this region, 
 increase your future usefulness and perhaps prolong your 
 life ? 
 
 " This is an intellectual church ; they expect able preach- 
 ing, and they intend to have it. You could fulfill all these 
 expectations and yet avail yourself to a great extent of 
 past labor, which Avould greatly relieve you. 
 
 " There is a general disappointment at the discouraging 
 prospect of your coming, and I fully believe so unanimous 
 a call could be had for but few men in the Union. 
 
 "At a meeting of our society last night your letter was 
 
 read, and, in allusion to your statement that you were 
 
 sometimes obliged to sit and preach, it was said : ' We 
 
 are willing to stand with him, sit with him, fall with him.' 
 
 " Hoping for the best, your sincere friend, 
 
 " C. P. Wetmore." 
 
 From Eev. T. Spencer. 
 
 " Utica, April 21st, 1845. 
 
 " Dear Brother Brainerd : 
 
 " We have just received your letter declining the call 
 from the church in this city. It has been communicated 
 to a few of the brethren, who have learned your final de- 
 termination with deep regret. They had hoped, from your 
 protracted silence, that your mind was verging toward a 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 201 
 
 contrary conclusion. While they still think they were 
 right in urging your acceptance, and feel grieved at your 
 conclusion, they are convinced thatj'ou have honestly, and 
 in the fear of God, examined the subject and reached that 
 conclusion. 
 
 " You expressed your readiness to render the society 
 Avhat aid you could toward securing a proper pastor. The 
 particular object of my letter is, at the request of the 
 brethren, to inquire whether you or Brother Barnes know 
 of any one whom you would be willing to recommend, and 
 who might be induced to accept an invitation. If a good 
 name could be presented, it might save the congregation 
 from many difficulties. This is an important church, and 
 nothing must be left undone to sustain it. 
 
 " Your sincere friend, 
 
 " T. Spencer." 
 
 Except to communicate this call to the members of his 
 session, and give it, as it deserved, a thoughtful considera- 
 tion, Mr. Brainerd never alluded to it; nor to the other 
 calls which he received ; and probabl}^ not six people of his 
 church ever knew of the repeated efforts that were made 
 to draw him away from his charge in Philadelphia. 
 
 In later years, he has said he would " never leave Pine 
 Street Church until he was carried out feet first, unless 
 they quarreled with him." A resolution most literally 
 fulfilled. 
 
 In December of this year the following official notice 
 was received from Andover : 
 
 "December 3d, 184.5. 
 
 " Rev. Thomas Brainerd. 
 "Dear Sir : 
 
 " As secretary pro tern, in the place of Prof. B. B. Ed- 
 wards, who has left for Florida, I would inform you of 
 your apitoiiitiiH'iit as first preacher to the Association of 
 
 18 
 
202 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BR AT NERD, D.D. 
 
 the Alumni of the Theological Seminary at its next anni- 
 versary; and William Adams, D. D., of New York, second 
 preacher. If anything should arise to prevent you from 
 fulfilling this appointment, you will please to give season- 
 able notice to Dr. Adams, as your second, and to myself 
 as Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements. 
 " Your brother in the gospel, 
 
 "Saml. C. Jackson." 
 
 Mr. Brainerd's habitual aversion to meet the excite- 
 ments of these anniversary occasions, led him in this case, 
 as in many others, to decline fulfdling the appointment ; 
 and he gladly transferred the responsibility to Dr. Adams. 
 
 Nearly three years had passed since Mr. Brainerd's re- 
 moval to Green Hill. Ills health improved, his church 
 prospered and was in peace, each spring was marked by 
 large accessions, and, so far as temporal and external pros- 
 perity was concerned, he had nothing to ask. 
 
 One of his Andover classmates visited him at this time, 
 whose history had been a series of changes and trials. 
 They were enjoying the summer evening, sitting on a gar- 
 den-lounge under the large elms, recounting the vicissi- 
 tudes of the past fourteen years since they parted at Andover, 
 when his friend said, abruptly, " What have you ever done 
 that you should be settled in such a luxurious city as this, 
 and live in such a place ?" 
 
 " This is not a state of rewards and punishments," re- 
 plied Mr. Brainerd ; " but if you will take my dyspepsia 
 and poor nerves, I will gladly give up the house to you." 
 
 But "/n the garden there was a sejmlcher,'^ as there is 
 in most gardens. In a time of great prosperity a bolt fell 
 from a clear sky, and almost without warning the oldest 
 daughter, a sweet little girl of seven years, was taken 
 away by scarlet fever. It was the first invasion of the 
 little group by death, though not the last. The season of 
 
VISTT TO EUROPE. 203 
 
 scarlet fever had apparently i)assed by, and Mr. Brainerd's 
 little daughter was the oidy victim on Green Hill. The 
 other three children escaped at this time. She died on 
 the 1*7 th of January, 184G, and was buried at the church 
 in Pine Street. 
 
 Mr. Brainerd loved his children intensely, and this 
 little girl was a great comfort and treasure to him. 
 
 As the spring advanced he began to listen favorabl}'' to 
 the proposition of attending the Evangelical Alliance, 
 Avhich was to meet in London on the 17th of August, 18-40. 
 He was appointed by the Fourth Presbytery a commis- 
 sioner to the " Christian Alliance," in connection with 
 Rev. Albert Barnes, Rev. Joel Parker, D.D., and Rev. 
 Anson Rood. As none of these gentlemen would attend 
 the Convention, more solicitation was employed to induce 
 Ml'. Brainerd to accept the appointment. 
 
 The Pennsylvania State Teaiperance Society elected 
 him at the same time a delegate to " The World's Tem- 
 perance Convention," to meet in London on the 4th of 
 August. 
 
 The motives presented b}' his brethren in the ministry, 
 the hope of more positive benefit to his health, and the 
 depression occasioned by the death of his child, which 
 coveted change for relief, induced him to accept these ap- 
 pointments, and make the necessary preparations for going 
 to Europe. 
 
 A paid passage-ticket out for eighty dollars was pre- 
 sented to him ; but excepting this he went wholly at his 
 own charges. The custom had not then become as gen- 
 eral as now, of presenting a clergyman with two thousand 
 dollars to defray the expense of a trip to Europe. As Mr, 
 Brainerd's salary of two thousand dollars demanded close 
 economy to meet his wants at home, the exercise of this 
 virtue was not suspended by a half-year's travel in Europe. 
 The church agreed to supply the pulpit during his absence, 
 
204 T^TFE OF REV. THOMAS BRATNERD, D D. 
 
 and he sailed on the 25th of May, in the packet-ship Wy- 
 oming', accompanied by one of his Elders, John C. Furr, 
 Esq. 
 
 He encountered the usual variety of weather, of incident, 
 and of interest, which always marks a first voyage to a 
 landsman. He found his chief amusement here, as else- 
 where, in talking with the sailors and the steerage pas- 
 sengers. In a letter home, he says : " In the steerage are 
 about sixty adults and twenty children. Here is the suc- 
 cessful emigrant going back for aged parents, — the happy 
 young mother going over to exhibit her little ones to their 
 grandparents in her native land, — the heart-broken, home- 
 sick, disappointed emigrant going back from America to 
 endure the yoke of his task-master in ' Ould Ireland,' be- 
 cause it is his native land. We have the dying consump- 
 tives here, being borne back to lay their bones with their 
 kindred. What joys and sorrows are hidden under these 
 plain garments. I have conversed with not a few, and 
 find that all can understand and appreciate the language 
 of kindness. 
 
 " Our sailors, thirty-five in number, are stout, active 
 young men, proud of their noble ship, and regular at their 
 appointed task. Separated from their shore temptations, 
 and compelled as thcj^ are on the Wyoming to be temper- 
 ate, they are a well-informed and rational class of men. 
 They have traveled over the world, seen much and suf- 
 fered much and thought much. Many of their observations 
 are marked not alone by good sense, but by great shrewd- 
 ness. 
 
 " I have conversed with nearly all personally. They 
 all treat me with great kindness, and give their assent to 
 good counsel. One said, ' It is hard to teach an old dog 
 like me new tricks.' Another said 'He often made good 
 resolutions, but as often broke them.' 
 
 " Death has found its way to our little company. A 
 
VISIT TO EUROPE. 205 
 
 child, fourteen years old, died when we were in mid- 
 ocean. 
 
 "I have conducted religious services each Sabbath. 
 The attendance was good, and all were sober and reflec- 
 tive. Our prayers, counsels, and songs on the broad sea, 
 mingled with the voice of many waters, have, we hope, 
 been accepted by God. Our music-leader was a deck 
 passenger returning to Europe. ' Where,' said T, ' have 
 you attended church V ' Mostly in yours,' he replied, ' in 
 Pine Street.' Five from Pine Street congregation have 
 thus met on this vessel." 
 
 After several days of calm, the wind rose, and one night 
 ^Ir. Brainerd thought it blew very hard. In the morn- 
 ing he said to an old sailor, " When did the blow com- 
 mence?" "There hain't been no blow," replied he, "only 
 a smart breeze!" 
 
 They reached Liverpool on Monday, June 22d, just four 
 weeks from the day they left Philadelphia. Mr. Brainerd 
 wrote a long letter on shipboard to his own children and 
 iiis Sabbath-school children ; telling them all the events 
 that were likely to interest them. In Liverpool, he saw a 
 Sunday-school procession, which he tells them looked very 
 well, adding, " But Mr. Farr and I agreed that we knew 
 some children, three thousand miles off, who looked brighter 
 and better than these." 
 
 The Evangelical Alliance would not meet until the 17th 
 of August. The Temperance Convention was to meet on 
 the 4th. This allowed Mr. Brainerd but six weeks to 
 make his rapid survey of all that he could see in Europe. 
 He designed to return home early in the fall as soon as 
 these Conventions adjourned. He made the most of his 
 time and means. In three weeks he had made a flying 
 visit to Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow, Ayr, Stirling, Falkirk 
 and Edinburgh, remaining from two to three days in each 
 place. He was never so tired at night, after a day's travel, 
 
 18* 
 
20G LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 l)at he would walk out, to gain the first impressions of the 
 place ; and in the smaller toAvns, make a superficial survey 
 of the city or villag-e. 
 
 Like all enterprising Americans, Mr. Brainerd pre- 
 ferred riding in the second class cars for two reasons : the 
 economy of so doing, and the advantages of information 
 gained from intelligent passengers, who all patronize this 
 class of cars. He rode often on the top of the stages, 
 where his opportunities for seeing the country were better, 
 and where he found fellow-passengers able and willing to 
 point out the places of interest on the route. 
 
 He indulged his Yankee habits of talking Avith every- 
 body, the same as at home, and gained much information 
 as well as amusement thereby. On one occasion, when in 
 the neighborhood of a church built by Oliver Cromwell, he 
 asked a fellow-traveler, an Englishman, if he could tell 
 where " Cromwell's Church " was. " CromwelVs Church V 
 repeated the man to himself, in an inquiring tone, then 
 raising his voice he called to a passer-by, "Here, boy, can 
 you tell us where Mr. Cromwell preaches about here?" 
 
 Mr. Brainerd said of Scotland, " I like the Scotch a 
 great deal better than ever before, and you know how en- 
 thusiastic I am concerning Sir Walter Scott. I have gone 
 this whole round in the greatest excitement and pleasure. 
 In Glasgow, Stirling, and Edinburgh I have met the most 
 abundant hospitality. I could not accept half the invita- 
 tions I received to dinner and tea. 
 
 "I saw Dr. Chalmers twice, and took breakfast with 
 him. He is some like Dr. Beecher. I showed him David 
 Brainerd's manuscript journal, with which he was greatly 
 delighted. He seemed much pleased when I told him that 
 I had named my eldest son after him. ' Have ye?' said he. 
 ' I will write him a letter !' He went immediately to his 
 desk, wrote, and carefully sealed it for our 'Tom;^ direct- 
 ing it in full to 'Master Thomas Chalmers Brainerd.' 
 
VISIT TO EUROPE. 207 
 
 After he liad written the letter, lie said, ' TTow old is 
 yourljoy?' ' Nine,' I replied. 'Can he read?' said the 
 doetor. ' Oh, yes/ said I, ' he is quite a good scholar.' 
 ' Then he will be offended at one sentence in my letter,' 
 said he ; ' I supposed he was younger.' The letter con- 
 tained a eulogy of the Bible, which Dr. Chalmers said he 
 'hoped he would learn to read and to love.' 
 
 " It was a beautifid thought in the old doctor to give 
 Tom this document." 
 
 Dr. Chalmers died the following winter, and it was a 
 great satisfaction to Mr. Brainerd that ho was allowed to 
 see so much of him. 
 
 Mr. Brainerd had reserved several days for Teviotdale, 
 the classic ground made so memorable by Sir Walter 
 Scott. We give his own narrative. 
 
 " Having finished my explorations in Edinburgh, I took 
 the coach for Kelso. As usual I paid sixpence extra for a 
 seat on the coachman's box. Promise the driver a six- 
 pence and he will tell all and singular of her Majest3''s 
 subjects that a 'gemman^ has engaged the box, and 
 deems it an honor to tell a 'gemman ' all that ever occurred 
 on the route, and some more. 
 
 " After the inside of the coach was well filled, a gentle- 
 man and his family came to find accommodations. His 
 family consisted of his wife, four children, and three ser- 
 vants. They were returning to their home from their ac- 
 customed summer trip to the sea-shore. 
 
 " Fortunately for me the g(Miilenian and lady occupied 
 the seat on the top of the coach just Ijack of my own. The 
 gentleman at once entered into conversation. My deep 
 interest in the places and scenery around marked me as a 
 stranger, and my inquiries or intonations revealed my 
 Americanism. My Scotch friend was as intelligent as 
 courteous, and while he answered all my questions, sought 
 compensation in various and minute inquiries concerning 
 
208 ^^IF'E OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 America. I could not understand his interest in me as an 
 American until he told me tliat liis beloved brother had 
 traveled in America; had experienced great hospitality in 
 Philadelphia, where he had died among strangers; but 
 strangers who had sympathized in his sufferings, obeyed 
 his dying requests, and given him an honored grave. After 
 a ride of thirty miles, 1 saw with regret that my compan- 
 ions were making preparations to leave. Mr. R., turning 
 to me, said suddenly, ' Where is your destination to-night ?' 
 'Kelso.' 'Are you acquainted there ?' 'No; but I have 
 letters of introduction.' ' Do you expect to stay any time 
 in the neighborhood ?' 'A few days, to see Melrose, Ab- 
 botsford, etc' 'You must go home with me, sir,' said 
 Mr. R. ' I reside about a mile distant. You may like to 
 look over a Scotch farm, and I will go with you to visit 
 the scenery of the Tweed and Abbotsford.' 
 
 "'Your kindness surprises me, exercised toward a 
 stranger, and I fear you would wonder if I should ac- 
 cept it.' 
 
 "'No,' said Mr. R.; 'my brother was everywhere in 
 America greeted with kindness, — especially in Philadelphia, 
 where you reside ; and I shall be most happy to recipro- 
 cate to any American the same.' His wife joined in urg- 
 ing my acceptance of the invitation ; and I was overcome 
 by this courtesy and the advantages which it promised. 
 The carriages and servants made their appearance, Mr. R. 
 saw my baggage safely bestowed with their own, and then 
 a drive of a mile through his grounds brought us to the 
 family mansion. I told Mr. R. my name and profession 
 as a clergyman, and found he was an officer in the same 
 church. This establislied terms of confidence between us. 
 
 " His plantation consisted of more than two thousand 
 acres, on which were some twenty tenants' cottages. 
 
 " After a family supper, worship was held in good old 
 Scotch fashion, and we retired for the night. I have sel- 
 
VISIT TO EUROPE . 209 
 
 (lorn laid my head on mv ])illow under a hig-her sense of 
 g-ratitude, than I then felt for sueh sympathy and kindness 
 from strangers In a strange land. 
 
 " During breakfast the next morning, Mr. R. said, ' I 
 have ordered the carriage and must take you myself to see 
 the scenery of the Tweed and Abbotsford.' I can- truly 
 say this drive furnished the most picturesque, various, and 
 charming views I met in Europe. Nine miles of this river 
 scenery brouglit us to Dry burgh Abbey, where I gazed at 
 the sod which covers the ashes of Walter Scott. Our next 
 visit was to Melrose Abbey ; and from Melrose we followed 
 the Tweed about three miles, mostly through the estate of 
 Sir Walter Scott, to Abbotsford. 
 
 " The house is a Romance in stone and lime. It is 
 picturesque and beautiful, but too diminutive for a Gothic 
 castle, which it was designed to imitate. It is a vast store- 
 house of curiosities, so that it resembles a museum more 
 than a dwelling. The library is as the great poet left it, 
 and so is his study, — even the garments which he last wore, 
 which are here shown in a glass case. 
 
 " We reached home about sunset. Resting on the Sab- 
 bath, according to the commandment, in the hospitable 
 mansion of Mr. R.; on Monday, in a carriage furnished by 
 my host, I reached Kelso, at the junction of the Tweed and 
 Teviot. Such hospitality, such scenery, such historic as- 
 sociations, have left impressions never to be forgotten." 
 
 On separating from these pleasant friends, ]\Ir. R. pre- 
 sented Mr. Brainerd with a set of views of the places of 
 interest in Teviotdale, which they had visited. 
 
 Mr. Brainerd left Kelso on the 15th of July, via Jed- 
 burgh, Newcastle, and York, for London. lie remained 
 but ten days in London, as he expected to return soon ; and 
 Avould be located there for several weeks during the ses- 
 sions of the Convention. 
 
 He then embarked for France with Mr. Farr. 
 
210 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRA/NERD, D.D. 
 
 At the hotel in Paris he met Div^. Skinner, Patton, and 
 Mason, of New York; a dozen Philadelphians; Gov. Arm- 
 strong', of Mass., and several other acquaintances. His 
 visit to the Continent was little else than an aggravation ; 
 as he had but ten days to appropriate before he must re- 
 turn to attend the Temperance Convention. 
 
 Quoting again from his letter, Mr. Brainerd says : " I 
 went from Paris to Brussels ; from thence to Cologne, and 
 up the Rhine two hundred miles to Strasburg. I then 
 took the railroad to Basle, in Switzerland. After just 
 glancing at the Alps, I turned back, and returned to Lon- 
 don by way of Ghent, Ostend, and Ramsgatc. I traveled 
 in all about sixteen hundred miles on the Continent, and 
 with the greatest satisfaction." The want of time and 
 money prevented any farther progress. The self-denial 
 was considerable to a man who so heartily enjo3'ed traveling 
 and sight-seeing. 
 
 The Convention met on the ITth of August, and con- 
 tinued in session and earnest delil)eration fourteen days. 
 Jt enrolled over two thousand names. Sixty-three Amer- 
 ican" delegates were present, representing every Christian 
 denomination. The meetings were held in Exeter Hall, 
 where four thousand people assembled to hear addresses 
 from speakers of different nations and creeds, but of one 
 heart. 
 
 After eight days' deliberation, when every other doubtful 
 point had been settled, and a common platform constructed, 
 on which Protestants of all parties could hold fellowship, 
 the question of union with slaveholders was introduced. 
 
 For a time, this discussion seemed likely to undo all that 
 had been done. It was regarded as very discourteous to 
 the Americans present, — nearly all of whom were from the 
 North and strongly antislavery. Mr. Brainerd writes : 
 "The subject of slaver}' was settled by a resolution, which 
 I aided in preparing, as one of a great committee, who 
 
VISIT TO EUROPE. 211 
 
 labored twenty-four hours over it. It does not please me, 
 but we must adopt it or blow our Alliance to fragments." 
 
 Dr. Beecher was a member both of the "Evangelical Al- 
 liance" and the " Temperance Convention." He reached 
 England during Mr. Brainerd's short absence on the Con- 
 tinent. 
 
 Mr. Brainerd was much gratified by receiving, soon after 
 his return to London, the following note: 
 
 "Stoke Newington, 6th day. 
 
 " Esteemed Friend : 
 
 " I have the pleasure of entertaining as guests Dr. Beecher 
 and his wife. Dr. Beecher has mentioned thy name to me, 
 as a friend of his, and I write to solicit that thou wilt make 
 my house thy home while in the nei^ihborhood. And that 
 thou wilt accompany Dr. Beecher to Stoke Newington this 
 evening and during the sittings of the Convention. I must 
 join with this another request — that thou wilt take regularly 
 in the evening what we call a ' box-cab,' to convey thyself 
 and Dr. Beecher to my house, and I will repay this expense. 
 This I must ask thee not to decline. It is due to Dr. 
 Beecher's age and services in the cause of Christ and of 
 man that we should do all we can to promote his comfort. 
 " I am, although personally unknown, 
 
 " Thy sincere friend, 
 
 " G. VV. Alexander." 
 
 Accepting this cordial invitation, Mr. Brainerd found 
 himself established in most luxurious quarters, with his 
 dear old friend, Dr. Beecher, in the family of G. W. Alex- 
 ander, President of the British Antislavery Society, and 
 one of the leading members of the Society of Friends. In 
 addition to the indulgence of the " box cab," Mr. Alexan- 
 der, the next morning after breakfast, presented both Dr. 
 Beecher and Mr. Brainerd with a guinea to meet the daily 
 omnibus fare from his house to Exeter Hall. Mr. Brai- 
 
212 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAFXERD, D.D. 
 
 nerd declined this Ijonnty, when Mr. Alexander insisted 
 upon its reception, saying: ''Thee must take it; this is 
 my mode ; I cannot think of taxing- thee to meet the dis- 
 tance from my house to the Hall." 
 
 After breakfast they were invited to join the family cir- 
 cle in their devotions, which consisted in listening for 
 twent}^ minutes to a portion of the life of one of the preachers 
 of their Society, commended to them as an example. Mr. 
 Alexander courteously added, "Thomas, thee or Lyman 
 is at libert}^ to pray, if the Spirit moves thee." 
 
 The " Spirit" did, once, move both Dr. Beecher and 
 Mr. Brainerd to offer a petition for the blessing of God 
 upon the action of the Conventions, the country, the world, 
 and the family of their philanthropic host. 
 
 On leaving this pleasant family, Mr. Alexander pre- 
 sented Mr. Brainerd with one of the most beautiful Greek 
 Testaments, in clearness of type and execution, that he had 
 ever seen. On the fly-leaf was written, " Remember them 
 that are in bonds, as bound with them." Ileb. xiii. 3. 
 
 The same adhesiveness seemed to attend the friend- 
 ships cultivated during Mr. Brainerd's short sojourn in 
 England and Scotland as had alwaj's marked them at 
 home. From several sources he received letters bearing 
 grateful evidence of kindly remembrance for many years 
 after this visit. 
 
 During his short sta}^ with Mr. R., of Xenthorn, Teviot- 
 dale, Scotland, Mr. Brainerd learned that his brother had 
 died in Pliiladelphia, and was buried in the grounds of St. 
 Peter's Church, occui)ying the square next to his own 
 church. After his return home he examined the monu- 
 ment, which was one of the most tasteful in the ground, — 
 a broken column on a handsome pedestal, — in the south- 
 east part of the ground, inclosed by an iron railing. He 
 employed a good painter to make a coj)y of the monument, 
 with the beautiful surrounding drapery of willows and ivy, 
 
VISIT TO EUROPE. 213 
 
 and sent the picture to Mr. R. by a friend going to Scot- 
 land. He received the following hearty acknowledgment 
 from his Scotch friend, which amply repaid this small 
 service : 
 
 * * * * " We feel much gratified hy this 
 proof of your friendship ; it is, besides, a pleasant reflection 
 that my brother's remains rest so near your place of wor- 
 ship. 
 
 " Return my warm thanks to Mr. Catlin for his very 
 beautiful })ainting. If he ever visits this country, which 
 would be interesting to a painter, it would give us much 
 pleasure to have him visit us. 
 
 "Mrs. R. and myself look back with great pleasure to 
 our meeting with 3'ou. She unites in very kind regards. 
 " And I remain, very sincerely, yours, 
 
 "F. L. R." 
 
 After returning to London, Mr. Braiuerd writes, under 
 date of Aug. 30th, " I was greatly interested in all I have 
 seen ; but the most happy moment was the one when I 
 said in Switzerland, ' My journey ~is ended — now I turn 
 toward home.'' I have seen the best things in the Old 
 World, but nowhere have I seen a place so sweet to me 
 as Green Hill. Thank God, the time has nearly elapsed 
 when I can go home." 
 
 "London, Aug. 30th, 1846. 
 
 " The World's Temperance Convention met on the 
 4th of August. It was attended by a crowd, but they 
 were mainly of the common and lower class. With many 
 honorable exceptions, the nobility, gentry, and clergy of 
 Great Britain nre all in the daily habit of using intoxica- 
 ting drinks. Had the delegates from the United States 
 consulted their own popularity they would not have ven- 
 tured upon the advocacy of a, cause so un})opular with the 
 
 L9 
 
214 TAPE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 upper classes here. But they threw themselves into the 
 Convention with a hearty desire to arouse the British na- 
 tion to a conviction of the dignit}' and value of the temper- 
 ance cause. I trust they were able to get some American 
 principles into the popular mind. 
 
 "Dr. and Mrs. Beecher and myself are at a 'Friend's' 
 house, in one of the most beautiful environs of London. 
 It is a perfect little Paradise of about three acres, and we 
 'fare sumptuously.' He made us both take ten dollars to 
 pay our omnibus expenses to and from the city. 
 
 " I have been so interested in the Convention that I have 
 clung to it day and night for two weeks. My head has 
 ached, but I could not stay away. It is the first time so 
 many British and American clergy have met since the 
 Pilgrims left for Plymouth. I think we have honored 
 America ; and we have perr^onally been treated with great 
 
 L'lrirliTii^c; * * * 'T* ^ 'l^ ^ * 
 
 " I was on the most important committee of the session, 
 and was invited to address a congregation of four thousand, 
 in one of the four great public meetings; and I was ap- 
 pointed one of a permanent committee to get up a Branch 
 Alliance in the United States. 
 
 " The Protestant world never before had such a meeting. 
 There has been good speaking, and high profes.sious of love, 
 and great enthusiasm, — and sound debate and some fanat- 
 icism, — but what will be gained I am unable to say. 
 
 " I have also addressed two of the largest temperance 
 meetings ever held in London. I send you some papers 
 in which are meager reports of our speeches." 
 
 Mr. Brainerd delivered the address on temperance in 
 Exeter Hall, Monday evening, August 24th. This occasion 
 procured him the misfortune, or the good fortune, to be 
 caricatured by "Punch." Mr. Brainerd closed his re- 
 marks by an appeal to the women present, and said, "That 
 as one woman ruined the world by persuading man unlaw- 
 
CORRESPOND ENCE. 2 1 5 
 
 fully to eat, he was .s-lad to l)elieve that the sex, with un- 
 diminished power, would rally to save the world by per- 
 suading men not unlawfully to drink.'" 
 
 After ridiculing the object and spirit of the Temperance 
 Convention, as might be expected, and bestowing a large 
 share of obloquy upon the '^American AjjOi<lles of Tem- 
 perance," "Punch" goes on to say: "The Rev. Thomas 
 Brainerd, of Philadelphia, however, has settled the ques- 
 tion by shifting it upon the shoulders of weak woman, 
 whom he twitted with an indiscretion (now of a few thou- 
 sand j^ears' standing) in a very shabby si)irit. Eve having 
 plucked the apple, he thought it was the duty of her 
 daughters to set tiieir faces against cider." 
 
 To Mrs. B. 
 
 " HUBDKRSFIELD, Sept. 9th, 1846. 
 
 "After leaving London, on Tuesday morning, I reached 
 the old city of Coventry about 12 M. From Coventry I 
 went to Kenilworth Castle, the finest ruin I have seen 
 anywhere. There is just enough of it, not too much. 
 I came near catching a fall of some fifty feet, as I was 
 clambering along an ivy-covered wall. Tuesday night 
 I returned to Birmingham. Wednesday I went to Shef- 
 field, and examined the grand cutlery establishment of 
 Rodgers. I came to this place (Huddersfield, Yorkshire) 
 last evening, and addressed a great temperance meet- 
 ing. Rev. John Marsh, Dr. Muzzy, and myself are here 
 to officiate at a great temperance festival which is to 
 come off to-night, in a supper and speech-making, where 
 some twelve hundred will be assembled. I shall stay a 
 day or two longer, and then make some excursions in the 
 neighborhood. I have engaged my passage home in the 
 Great Britain, for the 22d September. I tried to get a pas- 
 sage in the Great Western, of the r2th, but failed, as it was 
 full. The Cunard steamers charge two hundred dollars. 
 
216 LTFE OF REV. THOMAS BRATNERD, D.D. 
 
 and I save b}' the Groat Britain seventy dollars of this 
 amount. 
 
 "My health is better than when I last wrote, and when 
 I gQi back to my old diet and quiet habits, I hope I shall 
 find great improvement." 
 
 ********** 
 
 To Mrs. B. 
 
 " Leamington, Sept. 17th, 1S46. 
 
 * * * "I wrote one week ago from Iludders- 
 field, one hundred and thirty miles from this place. I 
 lectured at Leeds, a city of one hundred and twenty thou- 
 sand inhabitants, on Friday evening. Then Mr. Castles,* 
 of London, insisted I should come back to Leamington, as 
 he said he had announced me there for Monday evening, 
 Leamington is a watering-place of great beauty, six miles 
 from Kenilworth and ten from Stratford- on-Avon. It is 
 the geographical center of England, and the center of its 
 best scenery. Mr. Castles paid my passage, gave me a 
 hospitable place to board, and has taken me to Kenil- 
 worth again, Warwick Castle, Guy's Cliff, and Stratford- 
 on-Avon. We have ridden every day to the most charm- 
 ing scenes of Old England. Mrs. Castles has given me 
 for you two fine colored engravings of Warwick and Ken- 
 ilworth Castles. You see 1 am a lucky fellow in making 
 friends and saving money. 
 
 "I preached on Sunday evening ; had a good deal of 
 my old vertigo; but on Monday evening I lectured an hour 
 on temperance with great comfort, 
 
 " The Great Britain, in which I am to embark, sails on 
 Tuesday, the 22d. So you see, if I am favored, I shall be 
 in Philadelphia soon after this letter. I shall leave this 
 l)lace for Liverpool Saturday or Monday. I am impatient 
 to get home." 
 
 * The publisher of "cheap literature for the million." 
 
SHTrWRECK. 211 
 
 "Liverpool, Sept. 29th, 1816. 
 
 " I am b\' tlio kind providence of God alive and well. I 
 know, as day after day has passed by and no tidings from 
 the Great Britain, you must have been anxious and 
 alarmed. According' to my i)lan, which I sent to you 
 from Leamington, I made a little visit to Manchester, and 
 came on to Liverpool on the 2Lst, and on the 22d em- 
 barked in the Great Britain. She is twice as large as any- 
 other vessel that ever floated, — three thousand five hundred 
 tons burden and three hundred and twenty feet long. I 
 felt a little fear before I saw her, as several had said she 
 would break in two in a storm. But after I saw her 
 motions I hadgreat confidence that she would run across 
 in twelve days. 
 
 "All our passengers were in fine spirits. The ship was 
 so large that she had almost no motion, and we made one 
 hundred miles to the Isle of Man by dark. I had not 
 been very well for a day or two, and went to bed at nine 
 o'clock. I had fallen asleep about half an hour, when our 
 great leviathan ship struck a rock. This tore off" her rud- 
 der and stopped the propeller. In five minutes more we 
 came with a tremendous crash on the ground. We had 
 stranded — but on what or where neither the captain nor 
 any one else knew. The night was pitchy dark ; the storm 
 rose higher and higher ; it thundered, lightened, and rained 
 in torrents. The sea broke over us, and our ship thumped 
 up and down as if every timber would break asunder. 
 There were three hundred souls on board ; men were pale 
 and women agitated. I rose from my berth on the first 
 striking and tried to find my clothes. This was hard in 
 the dark ; but I succeeded in dressing partially ; then went 
 and got a candle and adjusted my clothes. I thought my 
 last hour had come. ' Here on this shore,' I said, 'I am 
 to die.' I knelt in my little room and commended myself 
 to the mercy of God ; I prayed for my absent family 
 
 19* 
 
218 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRATNERD, D D. 
 
 individually; I rcniPinbercd my beloved congre^-ation in 
 Pine Street Church, and prayed for them. While thus 
 occupied I felt a courage Avhich I had never anticipated. 
 
 " I then went into the large cabin and said a ^aw words 
 of religious direction and encouragement to my fellow- 
 passengers. Dr. Cox followed with an address and prayer ; 
 the Rev. Dr. Tucker read the 4Gth Psalm ; and the Rev. 
 Mr. Gilvery, of Glasgow, made a short address and prayer. 
 While engaged in these services, the wind had ri.sen to a 
 tempest, and the ship was rising and falling on the beach 
 with a most appalling crash ; but not a word was spoken 
 nor a cry uttered during our religious service. There was 
 a deep impression that our help was alone in God. 
 
 "I had eaten no supper, and, as I thought I might be 
 called to struggle for life, and should need all the strength 
 I could make, I went to the steward for something to eat. 
 All he could furnish me in the confu.-ion was a piece of 
 bread and cheese, which I ate with a high relish. Dr. Cox 
 said he wondered I could eat ; but m\' eating in the middle 
 of the cabin seemed to quiet the fears of many, who sup- 
 posed I felt confident of safety. On that stormy and dark 
 shore I gave you what I sujiposed were the last j»rayers I 
 could offer for you. In this way I wore awa}' several 
 hours of the night. Once I determined to go on deck, but 
 a huge wave drove me back again. I emptied my small 
 valise, strai)i)ed it tight, so that it would exclude water 
 for some time, and determined, if the ship broke up, to use 
 this in my left hand and swim with my right, with the 
 full puri)Ose to struggle for life; and 1 had much hope that 
 I would succeed in getting ashore. 
 
 "Capt. Hosken came down and assured the passengers 
 that he thought the ship would stand till morning, when 
 we would take the l)oats. But as he confessed he did not 
 know w^here we were, and the equinoctial storm was on 
 us, and no boat could live in such waves, we all thought 
 
SHIPWRECK. 219 
 
 the possibility of escape was slight. The captain burned 
 l)lue lights at the forecastle and fired signal guns. We 
 could see lights along the shore, indicating that our fellow- 
 men knew our danger while they could not help us. About 
 three o'clock the wind fell ; and at daylight a boat came 
 alongside and told the captain that we had run ashore 
 in Dundrum Bay, thirty miles from Belfast. As the 
 light increased, we saw that we had escaped two rocks 
 which gird the mouth of this bay, about two hundred 
 feet apart, called the ' Cow and Calf.' Had we struck 
 on either, death would have been inevitable. We had 
 struck on the onh' sand-beach in twenty miles, on a coast 
 where sixty-eight vessels have been wrecked in a few years 
 past, and scores of lives lost. 
 
 "We all in succession got 'safe to land.' We were 
 charged most exorbitant prices for the transportation of 
 ourselves and our baggage six miles to Downpatrick, 
 which I reached at seven o'clock p.m. The clergyman 
 here invited me to his house, where I remained two days, 
 and then took the coach for Belfast. I found a most hos- 
 pitable home with Mr. Isaac Arrott, to whom Mr. James 
 Arrott, of Philadelphia, had given me a letter, and '\\ho 
 treated me very kindly last June. On reaching Liverpool 
 the owners of the Great Britain paid back our passage- 
 money. We found every berth in the steamers of the 
 4th and 9th of October had been taken, so that Dr. Cox 
 and daughter and m3'Self, with many others, have taken 
 passage in the packet-ship New York, which sails on the 
 2d of October. I can hardly expect to reach home before 
 the 10th of November. But for this casualty I shi)uld 
 have been at home by the Gth of October. Tell the Pine 
 Street people I am more impatient than they can be. Still, 
 I think the long voyage is just what I need after all my 
 excitements. 
 
 " The cause of our accident is yet a profound mystery. 
 
220 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAIXERD, D D. 
 
 The captain fias not given a word of explanation. I fear 
 the world will say that the lives of three hundred and 
 twenty human beings have been put in jeopardy, and a 
 vast amount of property sacrificed to the ambition of Cap- 
 tain Hosken to make a quick passage, and his want of care 
 as a navigator." 
 
 After a rough passage of five weeks, Mr. Brainerd 
 arrived at New York on the 6th of November, and 
 reached home on the evening of the same day. With the 
 ordinary visitations of sickness and death in his congrega- 
 tion, he found everything in a prosperous condition, and 
 resumed his labors with expanded views and quickened 
 purposes from the experience of the last six months. 
 
 While Mr. Brainerd was detained in Belfast and Liver- 
 pool, before again embarking for America, he received 
 several letters from the friends with whom he had been 
 recently staying, expressing their sympathy for the occa- 
 sion of his detention, and many of them proffering pecuni- 
 ary assistance if he should require it. Soon after his 
 return home he received a kind letter from his liberal 
 host, Mr. G. W. Alexander, who said: 
 
 "I hope that thou wast not inconvenienced from want 
 of funds, in consequence of delay. I would cheerfully 
 have supplied such a want hadst thou applied to me, and 
 I had certainly known where to address thee. Be assured 
 that, although we did not wholly agree on the duty de- 
 volving upon Christians in America, in reference to the 
 existence of slavery upon a gigantic scale in that country, 
 my wife and self entertain a feeling of friendship toward 
 thee which I believe will onlv cease with life." 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 CHURCH BUILDING — LITERARY PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 THE Green Hill Church, which was commenced before 
 Mr. Brainerd went to Europe, was now nearly com- 
 pleted. To obtain a good pastor for it, Mr. Brainerd gave 
 much time and influence, in counsel and correspondence. 
 Among the clergymen who occupied the new pulpit was a 
 young man recently licensed, from New England. He 
 had considerable popular talent, and the people were much 
 pleased with him, and invited him to settle among them. 
 Ho was satisfied with the attendance and intelligence of 
 the congregation ; and, as lie was unmarried, he regarded 
 the salary as adequate to his wants. He came to consult 
 Mr. Brainerd on the sul)ject, who urged him to give an 
 affirmative answer. With some hesitation, he said, "7 am 
 a/raid it is not the jjlace for me to develop myi^elf.'''' Mr. 
 Brainerd replied, " It is an excellent place to develop the 
 gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ ; but I do not know 
 whether it is exactly the place for you to develop your- 
 self.^^ In relating this circumstance afterward, Mr. Brai- 
 nerd said, "He left the field, and has since ''developed 
 himself by giving up the ministry. The little congre- 
 gation, under the patient labors of better men, has also 
 'developed itself into one of the most intelligent and 
 affluent churches in the city." 
 
 This church always retained a large share of Mr. Brai- 
 nerd's affections. Growing out of his temporary residence 
 in the neighborhood, watching over its infancy, and mark- 
 
 (221) 
 
222 LTFE OF REV. TITOMAS BRATNERD, D.D. 
 
 ing its steady progress, he felt it to be a most successful 
 enterprise, while it was but one of many in which he took 
 an active part, and for which he cherished an abiding 
 interest. A pastor was settled over it in the summer of 
 184T, and it has gone from "strength to strength" for 
 twenty-two years. 
 
 On the Tth of June, 1848, the National Whig Conven- 
 tion, to nominate candidates for the Presidency and Vice- 
 Presidency, was held in the Chinese Museum, at Phila- 
 delphia. Mr Brainerd was invited to open the Conven- 
 tion with praA'er. 
 
 After the inauguration of General Zachary Taylor as 
 President of the United States, in the following spring, 
 Mr. Brainerd saw him in Washington, and said to him: 
 "As I had the honor of praying for the convention which 
 nominated you, I shall now claim the privilege of praying 
 that you may administer the government so as to secure 
 the best interests of the nation which you represent." 
 
 President Taylor took his hand in both of his own, and 
 in the heartiest manner thanked him fortius grateful assur- 
 ance. 
 
 While getting his horse shod one day, Mr Brainerd told 
 the blacksmith that after his shipwreck in Dundrum Bay 
 he visited the grave of St. Patrick, and was compelled to 
 receive a handful of earth from the grave, which he 
 brought home. " Did ye?" replied the blacksmith. " Now 
 if your reverence has ever a snake or a toad on ye're 
 place, just put some of that yearth on his head, and he'll 
 give up the ghost." 
 
 "I haven't faith enough for that," said Mr. Brainerd; 
 " I will give the earth to 3'ou and let you try it!" 
 
 A few days after he carried round the small package of 
 Irish soil to this son of Erin, and as often as he passed the 
 shop he stopped to ask how many snakes and toads he had 
 killed. The man always protested that want of time had 
 
ANECDOTES. 223 
 
 prevented him from using- it, but he was just about to try 
 the experiment. "And wlien I do," said he, "they'll die; 
 if not," raising his heavy hammer, "this ivill finish them!" 
 
 Standing in one of the locomotive factories, watching 
 the heavy machinery roll off iron shavings as if they were 
 feathers, Mr. Brainerd said, " I have to work on a great 
 deal harder material than this." 
 
 " What is it?" replied the mechanic, glancing up at him 
 with an inquiring look, — "converting sinnei'sV "Yes," 
 returned Mr. Brainerd, "lam glad you so well compre- 
 hend the nature of the material." 
 
 During the summer of 1(S48 some repairs were made to 
 the church, at which time an organ was introduced; the 
 interior of the building was painted, and the recess for the 
 pulpit very handsomely frescoed. This was done during 
 the summer vacation, and Mr. Brainerd was absent several 
 weeks. He took his oldest son, then nearly eleven years 
 of age, with him, and made a journey by way of Pittsburg, 
 to Cleveland, Niagara Falls and Buffalo, and returning 
 through New York, stopped for a week at his native town, 
 Leyden. At Niagara Falls, where he passed the Sabbath, 
 he preached to the fashionable crowd assembled in one of 
 the large hotels; a wonderful contrast to the audience of 
 the Sabbath following. 
 
 In the visits to his early home, which were made every 
 few years, Mr. Brainerd never failed to open the old 
 church on the hill for religious services, where, in his boy- 
 hood and youth, he attended with his parents. No place, 
 he said, was so dear and sacred to him. A more modern 
 church had been built at Port Leyden, about four miles 
 distant, where the people now assembled, and the old 
 church had for years been abandoned, literally, to " the 
 owls and the bats." The panes of glass were broken in 
 
224 LIFE OF REV. TFIOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 the window;^, and the buildinii' was otherwise dilapidated, 
 but was still sound enough for these occasional services in 
 the summer season. 
 
 A few of his old friends alwaj^s entered with enthusiasm 
 into his proposition to preach in the church on the hill. 
 On one occasion, when the Sabbath was unusually cool, a 
 temporary curtain was tacked up to the pulpit window at 
 his back, to secure him from the danger of taking cold. 
 Here he peopled again the old square pews with the occu- 
 pants of the olden time, the great majority of whom were 
 in heaven, while their children, now filling the same seats, 
 looked just enough like their fathers to help out the illu- 
 sion. His friend, Mr. Reuel Kimball, Jr., led the singing 
 on these occasions, and the halo of his early love lighted 
 up the building. A member of Mr. Kimljall's family, in 
 speaking of these occasions, says: " Ko clergyman ever 
 commanded the congregation in his native town that Mr. 
 Brainerd did; and his religious influence has lived on 
 there since the period of his early conversion." 
 
 One morning in September, 1848, a number of letters 
 were brought in while Mr. Brainerd was at breakfast. 
 After glancing rapidly over one or two, he held a third in 
 his hand some minutes, while a peculiar expression of in- 
 terest and humor told his famih' it contained something 
 unusual. In reply to the inquiry concerning it, he passed 
 over this letter to his wife: 
 
 "AiiHERST, Mass., Sept. 5th, IS 48. 
 " Dear Sir: 
 
 " Absence from home has prevented me from stating to 
 you at an earlier date, what you may perhaps have seen in 
 the newspapers, that the Trustees of Amherst College, at 
 the late commencement, conferred upon you the title of 
 Doctor of Divinity. 
 
 " It was due to vou to have received this testimonv frou] 
 
REPORT TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 225 
 
 some older college ; but as it was not done, we took the 
 liberty to offer it to your acceptance. 
 
 " We know not whether you esteem such notices of any 
 value, but we hope you will at least believe that it was in- 
 tended, in the present case, not only to bestow a well- 
 merited honor, but to increase your means of influence as 
 a minister of the gospel. 
 
 " Respectfully and sincerely yours, 
 
 "Edward Hitchcock." 
 
 Mr. Brainerd had not received an}" previous notice of this 
 action ; and it took him some little time to dispose of it 
 satisfactorily. When he left the house to go down to the 
 city, he said, playfully, " I am not quite certain that I 
 shall know how to behave to-day, as I never was a D.D. 
 before !" 
 
 In the General Assembly of 1849, of which Mr. Brai- 
 nerd was again a member, he was appointed chairman of 
 the committee to open, for the first time, a fraternal corre- 
 spondence with the Old School Assembly. He reported to 
 the next Assembly as follows : 
 
 " Philadelphia, May 15th, 1850. 
 
 " To THE Moderator of the General Assembly op 
 THE Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. 
 
 " Dear Sir: 
 
 " As Chairman of the Committee on ' Fraternal Corre- 
 spondence,' appointed in May, 1849, with directions to re- 
 port to the present Assembly of 1850, I would simply say, 
 — that as no corresponding committee was appointed by 
 our brethren of the Assembly which met in Pittsburg last 
 year, no opportunity has been had to carry out the frater- 
 nal and Christian spirit of our Assembly. That two denomi- 
 nations having the same creed, government, and forms of 
 worship, the same historic associations, and the same sub- 
 
 20 
 
226 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAIN ERD, D.D. 
 
 stantial enemies and friends, should have some obvious 
 fellowship with each other, is plain ; and it is hoped that 
 God will inspire all concerned to reach a consummation so 
 much to be desired. But as to the mode, I will venture no 
 suggestions. 
 
 "With great respect and earnest prayer for God's bless- 
 ing on your deliberations, 
 
 " I remain your brother, 
 
 " Thomas Brainerd." 
 
 During the sessions of this Assembly, death again en- 
 tered the family of Mr. Brainerd and took away his youngest 
 child, — a lovely little boy of five years, who died on the 
 20th of May, 1849. 
 
 His father was illy able to bear trials of this nature, from 
 his peculiar nervous constitution ; and to see his little boy 
 suffering under brain fever, as the result of his precocious 
 intellect, completely unmanned him. For three years from 
 this time, he was affected with a nervous debility which 
 compelled him to sit while preaching. 
 
 The funeral of his little son was largely attended by the 
 members of the General Assembly, from many of whom he 
 received the warmest expressions of fraternal sympathy. 
 
 While Mr. Brainerd had realized his general expectations 
 of benefit by his residence at Green Hill, yet the death of 
 his two children here, had cast a shade over his enjoyment 
 of it which decided him in the purpose of returning to the 
 city. There were disadvantages in living at such a dis- 
 tance from his church which even his daily visits to the 
 study could not wholly remedy. He made an effort to se- 
 cure the purchase of a house, about two squares from the 
 church, which was the only one in the vicinity within his 
 pecuniary means. He purchased this on mortgage, by the 
 payment of one thousand dollars. He had paid less than 
 half the sum for rent at Green Hill, with his half-acre gar- 
 
ADDRESS AT PITTSFIELD, MASS. 22T 
 
 don and fine sliade-trees, than was charged him for a 
 moderate city house, with its few feet of brick pavement. 
 
 His object in buying- a liouse, instead of renting one, was 
 to reduce his rent to the interest of the mortgage, and 
 stimulate tlie effort to save something in this way for his 
 family. The event finally proved it to be the only mode by 
 which anything was to be secured for them from his small 
 salary of two thousand dollars. On leaving the beautiful 
 home they had enjoyed for seven summers, a member of 
 the family said it was " giving up houses and lauds for 
 the gospel." 
 
 Toward the close of September, 1849, Mr. Brainerd 
 went on to Pittsfield, Mass., to fulfill an engagement to 
 deliver an address at the Anniversary of the Young Ladies' 
 Institute, under the charge of Prof. Tyler. In a letter to 
 his family he says : 
 
 "I went on board the Isaac Newton at six o'clock r.M., 
 and was sauntering around, when whom should I see in 
 a corner but our dear, good Dr. Beecher and his wife. 
 Wasn't I glad to see him and hold a chat ! We got break- 
 fast together in Albany, and he took the West train and I 
 the East. 
 
 " I reached Pittsfield at ten a.m. The chapel was filled 
 and the exercises going on. At one they adjourned to a 
 public dinner, and at two o'clock we assembled again, when 
 my speech came off! I was followed by ex-President 
 Tyler, of Virginia, who made a short address, and then by 
 a poem from Oliver Wendell Holmes, of Boston. 
 
 * * * * "I have had man}"^ thanks and 
 compliments, and have got through the occasion with a 
 comfort which is miraculous!" 
 
 Mr. Brainerd's address was published at Pittsfield, and 
 soon afterward by Mrs. Sarah J. Hale in " The Ladies' 
 Book." Extracts were frequently published in magazines 
 and papers in various parts of the country. 
 
228 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D,D. 
 
 In the summer of 1850, Mr. Brainerd was surprised and 
 gratified by a call from Mr. G. W. Alexander, of Loudon, 
 accompanied by Mr. Josiah White, of Philadelphia. 
 
 Mr. Alexander had just completed an official inspection 
 of the British AYest India Islands, to ascertain the results of 
 emancipation in those islands, for the British Antislavery 
 Society, of which he was president. 
 
 He addressed a large audience in Mr. Brainerd's church 
 on the evening of July 15th, making a very interesting 
 statement of the successful working of the emancipation 
 policy, and urging upon his hearers the duty of exerting 
 every influence to promote the just rights, the happiness, 
 and the intellectual, moral, and religious improvement of 
 the colored people. Mr. Brainerd was invited to meet a 
 large circle of the most influential Friends of Philadelphia 
 at Mr. Josiah White's, the same week, to discuss measures 
 for promoting the interests of the colored population of the 
 United States. He greatly relished the hearty cheerful- 
 ness, geniality, and good-will exhibited on this occasion, 
 as well as the magnificent hospitality which graced this 
 antislavery council. 
 
 Mr. Alexander's report was published by the British 
 Antislavery Society, and a copy forwarded to Mr. Brainerd. 
 
 Mr. Barnes and Mr. Brainerd were led to frequent dis- 
 cussion on the importance of meeting the religious wants 
 of the western part of the city, where families from their 
 churches were continually removing, and the younger mem- 
 bers being drawn into other denominations, from the ab- 
 sence of Presbyterian churches in that part of the city. 
 
 In the fall, Mr. Barnes called on Mr. M. W. Baldwin 
 and other members of his church, and they concluded to 
 call a meeting to consider the claims of this growing neigh- 
 borhood.* 
 
 * Wc make the following extract, by permission, from the Memoir of 
 M. AV. Baldwin, by Rev. Wolcott Colkins, pp. 115, 116. 
 
PLAIN TALK. 229 
 
 " The meetings continued to adjourn from week to week, 
 until more than a dozen of the most substantial and earn- 
 est Christian men from the congregations of the First, Tine 
 Street, and Clinton Street Churches, were interested in 
 the deliberations. Forty successive meetings in all were 
 held. They were of one mind, but, unfortunately, the sub- 
 scriptions could not be brought up to anything like the 
 required sum. At last Dr. Brainerd made one of his char- 
 acteristic speeches. Only a month or two before his death 
 he happened to relate the circumstance to a friend, so that 
 this little model of persuasive eloquence can be preserved 
 almost in his exact words: ' I made up my mind,' said he, 
 ' that Brother Barnes and I were dealing a little too ten- 
 derly with our rich friends I was not afraid of them, and 
 thinking the time had now come fur pretty plain talk, I 
 said to them : 
 
 " ' Brethren, the Lord has denied to you the privilege of 
 exercising many of the most precious graces of the Chris- 
 tian character, which in his infinite mercy he has vouch- 
 safed to the rest of us. You never knew what it is to 
 repose absolute, unassisted faith in God for the things of 
 this world. You never had to go to sleep at night without 
 knowing where your breakfast was to come from. You 
 never had a sick child wasting away for the want of costly 
 luxuries. You never had to deny \'ourselves the gratifica- 
 tion of the impulses of pity when a sufferer came to your 
 door. You never had to endure the humiliation of being 
 dunned for an honest debt without knowing whether you 
 Qould ever pay it. All these unspeakable advantages in 
 developing Christian character an inscrutable Providence 
 has taken from you and bestowed upon us poor men. The 
 one solitary grace of the Christian life which has been de- 
 nied to us and given to you, is the grace of liberality, and 
 if youdoii't exercise that, the Lord have mercy on your 
 souls r 
 
 20* 
 
230 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BEAINERD, V.D. 
 
 "Every one who ever heard Dr. Brainerd talk when he 
 meant it, can see the upturned face, sparkling eye, and 
 compressed lip with which these pungent words came out. 
 As he reached this part of the narrative to his friend on 
 that memorable ride in the summer of 186G, he reined in his 
 horse and broke out in the heartiest tone : ' My confidence 
 in human nature was not misplaced. At first I was al- 
 most frightened at my boldness ; but soon I saAV one of 
 those amused and genial smiles begin to creep over Bald- 
 win's face. Somebody caught the twinkle of his eye, and 
 in half a minute the whole company broke into inextin- 
 guishable laughter. In two or three weeks we had some 
 $t5,000 on the paper.'" 
 
 Matthew Baldwin was the first man to draw the paper 
 toAvard him that evening, and put down $10,000. Others 
 followed this noble example, and subscribed thousands, 
 Avhere they were before giving only hundreds of dollars. 
 The great enterprise was secured in one of the most taste- 
 ful and costly church edifices ever erected in Philadelphia. 
 The corner-stone was laid on the Fourth of July, 1851, and 
 November 6th, 1853, Calvary Presbyterian Church 
 Avas dedicated to the service of Almighty God. 
 
 Accompanied by Rev. Albert Barnes, Matthew Baldwin, 
 and John A. Brown, Esqs., Mr. Brainerd went to Boston, 
 with a view to secure the services of Rev. Edward Kirk, 
 as pastor of the new church. Failing in this application, 
 and one or two other negotiations, which were carried on 
 by letter, Mr. Barnes and Mr. Brainerd went to Montreal 
 together to confer with the Rev. Mr. Jenkins of that citj. 
 Mr. Jenkins accepted the invitation, and soon after was 
 installed pastor of the new church, which ofiQce he held 
 for eight years. 
 
 Mr. Brainerd was engaged during the same year, 1853, 
 in promoting the erection of a church at Lyon's Falls, 
 Lewis Co., N. Y., within a few miles of his early home. 
 
CnURCn BUILDING. 231 
 
 The township of Greg, containing- 1500 inhabitants, was 
 destitute of a church of any kind; the church-going part 
 of the community attending at Port Leyden, the nearest 
 adjacent town. In the summer Mr. Brainerd preached 
 in a hotel to about 300 attentive hearers, and was excited 
 by the scene to try to do them a permanent service. The 
 town is located on the western border of the great Adiron- 
 dack forest. Mr. Brainerd selected the site /or the build- 
 ing on a picturesque promontory at the junction of the 
 Moose and Black rivers, and one of his personal friends, 
 Miss Henrietta Lyon, donated an acre of ground for the 
 erection of the church. 
 
 A few families in the neighborhood pledged themselves 
 to raise $1000 toward the building, and Mr. Brainerd 
 promised to procure for them one thousand more, and go 
 up and dedicate the church when completed. On his re- 
 turn to Philadelphia, he sent them the plan of a tasteful 
 clmrch, and collected the amount which he had promised 
 in the course of a few months. The work was pushed 
 rapidly forward, and finished within a year. It was called 
 " The Forest Church," and the name was beautifully 
 executed in a stained-glass window, at the entrance of 
 the church. It stands with a fine grove in its inclosure, 
 shading its walls, and the dark, tangled, unbroken forest 
 behind it. The chancel is furnished with Avindows of 
 stained glass, and the church fitted up Avith furnace, 
 marble table, oak chairs, belfry, bell, etc. Its cost, all told, 
 was 12500. 
 
 In accordance with his promise, Mr. Brainerd preached 
 at its dedication, Aug. 6lh, 1854. An immense crowd 
 Avas present. Before the hour, the house Avas filled in 
 every part. Six hundred and fift}^ people Avere in the house, 
 and twice as many around it. It was said by those Avho 
 attemi)ted to "number the people," that over eighteen 
 hundred Avere present. At least three hundred vehicles 
 
232 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 brought this multitude from Greg, and tlie neighboring 
 towns of Leyden, Lowville, Marti nsburg, and Constable- 
 ville. Having conducted the dedication services within 
 the house, Mr. Brainerd went out of doors and addressed 
 the mass outside. The occasion was one of great enthu- 
 siasm both to speaker and hearers. The communion was 
 administered in tlie afternoon. The Rev. Mr. Yale and 
 Kev. Mr. Morris were present and took part in the ser- 
 vices. 
 
 Occasions of open air preaching were of frequent occur- 
 rence during Dr. Brainerd's ministry in Philadelphia. 
 The southeastern part of the city contained a large popu- 
 lation that seldom saw the inside of a church. Many of 
 the.se were mechanics, engaged in the extensive manufac- 
 tories located in that section, who regarded the Sabbath 
 as chiefly ordained for physical rest and recreation. They 
 Avere idlers and Sabbath-strollers on this day. In the 
 summer months, when the city congregations were thinned 
 by absence and the afternoon services were suspended. Dr. 
 Brainerd employed the usual hour in preaching iu one 
 of the southern market-houses, or in the Carpenter Street 
 burying-ground, which belonged to Pine Street Church. 
 The shade-trees of this inclosure afforded protection from 
 the sun, and seats were readily provided from the neigh- 
 boring lumber-yard. A sufficient number of his own 
 church memljers attended these services to give dignity 
 and order to the exercises, while an audience of out- 
 siders was collected in whom the novelty of the service 
 developed earnest emotion, which reacted strongly upon 
 both preacher and hearers. 
 
 After one of these services, a member of his church said 
 to him: "Dr. Brainerd, why can't you preach as well iu 
 Pine Street Church as you do here ?'" " 1 can," he replied, 
 "if you will cry as much as they do here!" 
 
 A correspondent of the Christian Obsercer says: "Un- 
 
VISITS TO MARTHA'S VINEYARD. 233 
 
 derstanding' that the Rev. Dr. Braincrd desig-ned again to 
 mount the ' block' in the market-house, I determined to g'O 
 to 'the reg'ions below' and hear him. 
 
 " I have often heard Dr. Braiiierd preach in his own 
 church, and much admired his bold, vigorous, energetic 
 style ; yet I am half inclined to believe, with some of the 
 doctor's own congregation, that ' Jie preaches better in the 
 market than in his own pulpit at home.' 
 
 " But I apprehend the cause of any apparent change in 
 the preaching lies less in the pastor than in the people. 
 Keed it create surprise that a mortal man should grow a 
 little tired of constantly preaching eloquent sermons to a 
 listless congregation ? In the market-house the congrega- 
 tion is entirely new. It is a mixed multitude drawn 
 together from their various pastimes and recreations and 
 Sabbath desecrations. The preacher knows he may never 
 see his hearers again, and he must address them on the 
 most vital points. The emergency calls out his energies, 
 and imparts to him the inspiration demanded by the 
 occasion. 
 
 " At the close of the services a young man distributed 
 Penny Gazettes among the junior portion of the audience, 
 while an elder of the church dealt out, ' without money and 
 without price,' to those further advanced in life, a variety 
 of religious newspapers." 
 
 Mr. Brainerd's brother-in-law settled on Martha's Vine- 
 yard in 1851, and from this time the island became one 
 of his frecjuent and favorite resorts in his summer vaca- 
 tions. The pure air, the sea-breeze, the primitive sim- 
 plicity of the place and the people, united to their New 
 England shrewdness, gave the place a peculiar charm for 
 him. He never failed to find materials for interest and 
 improvement in these visits. 
 
 His first observation of the remarkable honesty and 
 morality of this place was on board the little steamer 
 
234 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 which made veg-ular trijis from New Bedford to the island 
 every other day, returning on alternate days. On a table, 
 in the cabin, was a l)asket of fruit, and another of confec- 
 tionery, with the price labeled on each article, and beside 
 tliem a small box of change, containing five, ten, and 
 twenty-five cent pieces, where every passenger was at 
 liberty to go down and help himself, making the change 
 from this small, independent, unofficered, and un watched 
 bank, and selecting such fruit and candies as he pleased, 
 for himself and family. The captain told Mr. Brainerd he 
 found the trafiic profitable, and had no reason to suspect a 
 single case of fraud or dishonesty. 
 
 There is not a drop of intoxicating liquor of any kind 
 sold on the island in any of its four towns, and the ''jaiV 
 is a decayed, empty, fabulous relic of other days, unoccu- 
 pied in the memory of the " oldest inhabitant." 
 
 It is well known that a mammoth Methodist camp- 
 meeting is held here annually, in the summer, gathered 
 from the States of Rhode Island and Massachusetts. We 
 will not venture to say that when the people from the 
 "main,'''' as the islanders term the main land, come over 
 to attend this meeting, no rogues are ever found among 
 them. But the whole population of the island organize 
 themselves into a police force, and keep their eve upon 
 every suspicious-looking fellow who lands on their shores, 
 and this vigilance committee never lose sight of him until 
 they see him safely off again. 
 
 The attempt has been repeatedly made to smuggle in 
 some varieties of alcoholic poison, for the use of the 
 visitors to the camp-meeting; but a mysterious knowledge 
 of the fact seems to be communicated to the islanders, and 
 the fishing smack containing the precious contraband cargo 
 is quietly boarded by a few resolute men, and the costly 
 beverage poured out as a libation to the fishes, it being 
 wisely judged that when well mixed with the waters of 
 
"A SWORD IN GOOD ITANDS." 235 
 
 Buzzard's Bay it will not be fatally injurious even to the 
 finny occupants of that fine harbor. 
 
 On one of these visits to the Vineyard, Mr. Brainerd 
 found his brother waiting* with his carriage at " the 
 Landing-," to carry him and his family to his residence, 
 at West Tisbury, seven miles distant. There was not 
 room in the veliicle fur the baggage, and ^Ir. Brainerd 
 inquired, with some concern, what should be done with it. 
 " Leave it here," replied Mr. W., "until I can send down 
 for it." "But it may be stolen," said Mr. Brainerd ; upon 
 which his brother indulged in an uncontrollable burst of 
 laughter at the idea of anything being stolen from Martha's 
 Vineyard. As the carriage drove off, Mr. Brainerd cast 
 an unbelieving, rueful look at the two trunks left alone on 
 the wharf, and was only reassured when three hours later 
 they were safely delivered to their owner. 
 
 While driving to West Tisbury, Mr. W. stated that a 
 peddler from New Bedford, with a valuable load of fancy 
 wares, broke his wagon on the road some miles from any 
 dwelling. He led his horse to the nearest town, put up 
 for the night, as it was toward evening, and in the morn- 
 ing took over the materials for mending his wagon, 
 and went on his mission as safely as if no accident had 
 occurred. 
 
 W^e give another incident of this visit, which Mr. 
 Brainerd published after his return to Philadelphia, as a 
 further illustration of the place and the people. 
 
 "A Sword in Good Hands. 
 
 "In the month of August last, 1 spent two weeks on 
 the pleasant Island of Martha's Vineyard, Mass. It is 
 the custom of the Methodists to hold a ' camp-meeting' 
 annually, in a grove, in the northeastern part of the island, 
 where from six to twelve thousand usually attend, froni 
 Boston, Providence, New Bedford, etc. It so happened 
 
236 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 that this camp-meeting was in progress while I was in the 
 neighborhood, and I spent part of two days very pleasantly 
 in listening to my Methodist brethren, to whom I lent, as 
 I was able, a helping hand. 
 
 " To reach the meeting 1 was obliged to travel from my 
 temporary residence eleven miles over a plain, mostly 
 covered with scrub oaks, and where the road was barely 
 the width of the carriage. For perhaps one mile and a 
 half of the distance, oaks of a larger size had so extended 
 their branches as constantly to thrash the sides of the 
 carriage and put the eyes of passengers in peril. As 
 the road was little traveled, except in camp-meeting 
 times, no one had taken pains to lop off the troublesome 
 branches. 
 
 " On my second visit to the meeting, I had entered with 
 a single carriage upon this oak plain accompanied by a 
 lady friend and her young daughter, when I saw, about 
 twenty rods before me, a gleaming sword flashing over the 
 track, as if it was in the hands of a strong man, laying 
 about him in deadly strife. I was startled. The vision was 
 right in the track, and there was no turn-out possible. It 
 was in the forest, miles from any human habitation. I 
 had no means of defense, and my companions needed pro- 
 tection. As I drew near I could see the form of a stalwart 
 man, striking at some object as if in desperation. Nothing 
 could be done but to go on. I first said, ' It is a drunken 
 man !' But then I remembered that, by the grace of God 
 and the temperance reform, there was not a grog-sliop nor 
 a drunkard in Duke's County, Massachusetts. The man 
 could not be drunk. I said, ' Is it a highwayman ?' There 
 never was such a man on the island. I said, ' Can it be 
 possible that some maniac has escaped his keepers, and 
 gone out with a reckless thirst for blood V Where every- 
 body knows everybody, as is the case on the island, this, 
 if possible, was not probable. These thoughts flashed 
 
PLACES OF SUMMER RESORT. 237 
 
 through my mind on the moment, but loft no absolute fear 
 to lead me to check my horse. I soon came up to the 
 startling apparition ; and behold, I recognized the colored 
 servant of the worthy Captain Cleaveland, a retired whal- 
 ing-master, who, having in "Valparaiso found the man in 
 poverty and distress, had brought him home and made 
 him the faithful hired servant of a just and considerate 
 master. The man, having obtained leave to go to camp- 
 meeting, was dressed in his best suit, and, though he had 
 eleven miles to walk himself, had procured the captain's 
 old cutlass, and giving it a keen edge, was engaged in 
 lopping off the oak branches that troubled persons in car- 
 ringes. Do you wonder that my heart Avarmed toward a 
 philanthropist employed in a voluntary work, so humble 
 indeed, but so dixintere)iledbj benevolent'^ I cried out to 
 him as I approached, 'Haa the millennium come? I see 
 you are ^iHing a spear for a j^runing-hoo/c. I wiifh no 
 sword ivas ecer \oorse employed.'' He gave me a smile 
 and a bow, and went on with his work with the cheerful- 
 ness of one conscious that he was doing good, but not 
 ambitious of praise. I doubt not he received a blessing 
 at the camp-meeting, as a ' doei-'' as well as ' hearer of the 
 word.' I gave him a mite as a token of my gratitude ; 
 and, that so good a deed shall not fail to be set forth as 
 an example, I have sketched the whole scene, that this 
 hero of the oak plain may have the wreath to which he is 
 entitled." 
 
 The Island of Martha's Vineyard, in the east, and the 
 beautiful valley of the Housatonic, in the western part of 
 JNIassachusetts, became rivals in Mr. Brainerd's regard 
 as places of summer resort, and he gratified his partiali- 
 ties by visiting them in alternate seasons. The hills of 
 Columbia and Uerkshire Counties, on either side of the 
 river, where, for more than a century, had been located the 
 
 21 
 
238 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAIXERD, D.D. 
 
 homestead of family relatives, aflFonled the most abundant 
 materials of interest, in their varied scenery; while the 
 cultivated societ}^ of its clustered towns supplied equal 
 social attractions. 
 
 In the summer of 1862, Mr. Brainerd happened to be 
 on a visit to Canaan, Columbia County, New York, at the 
 time the draft was levied for recruits to the army. He 
 addressed a "mass meeting-'' there, making earnest ap- 
 peals to the patriotism of his hearers, with encouraging 
 success. 
 
 Early in May, 1855, Mr. Brainerd received a letter from 
 the Secretary of the American Bible Society, with an 
 urgent request for a speech at their anniversary in New 
 York, on the 10th instant. The apology g-iven for the 
 shortness of the notice, three days, was, " It will not take 
 you as long to load as it does some others." 
 
 His old friend, Mrs. Judge Burnet, of Cincinnati, visited 
 him this spring, and insisted upon Mr. Brainerd returning 
 home with her. Writing from Cincinnati, he says: 
 
 " We arrived here this morning (June 23d), in thirty- 
 two hours from Philadelphia. Mrs. Burnet bore the journey 
 as well as she could at thirty years of age. 
 
 "Among the pleasant acquaintances on the way was 
 Governor Wright, of Indiana. He was twelve years in 
 Congress. He is an out-and-out old-fashioned Western 
 man ; he said he had no hopes from any party politics, 
 but he believed that individual industry, temperance, re- 
 ligion, and intelligence were the only hope of the country. 
 He is to deliver the address before the New York Agri- 
 cultural Society next fall, and says he will call upon me 
 in Philadelphia, and make a speech to my Sabbath- 
 school." 
 
 Governor Wright redeemed this promise, and made an 
 interestin"- address to the children when he came East. 
 
INCREASE OF SALARY. 239 
 
 "June 28th, 1855. 
 
 *****" On Tuesday I went clown 
 to Xorth Bend, and spent half a day with my old friend, 
 Mrs. General Harrison. She was very glad to see me, 
 and thanked me many times for calling. She is still in the 
 ' log-cabin,'' which is furnished as plainly as the house of 
 any farmer in Ohio." 
 
 In September, 1855, Mr. Brainerd accompanied his son 
 to New Haven, who joined the Freshman Class of Yale 
 College at this time. He said that he could give him no 
 fortune except a thorough education, which no reverses 
 could depreciate or take from him. The sacrifices to ac- 
 complish this were only such as thousands of clergymen 
 have cheerfulh'^ endured for their children, and became, if 
 not a pleasure, at least a source of satisfaction. 
 
 He sold his horse and buggy, and rented his stable for 
 a year, which added about four hundred dollars to the 
 year's income. At the expiration of the year, feeling the 
 need of his accustomed exercise, which he regarded as 
 essential to his life, he purchased another horse. But he 
 never again had the money to appropriate for a carriage of 
 an}' kind, and never after this possessed one. His horses, 
 though famous and historic, were not of the most expen- 
 sive kind, while his ownership and attachment invested 
 them with many perfections. One of them, a blooded 
 English horse, had been a noble animal, but was injured 
 by overtrotting. With the considerate care he received, 
 he served Mr. Brainerd faithfully for fifteen years, and 
 was then given to a Quaker farmer, on condition of gentle 
 usage, and a burial in his skin and shoes when his useful 
 life should terminate. 
 
 The following February, the Trustees of Pine Street 
 Church voted an addition of five hundred dollars to Mr. 
 Brainerd's salary. This was not realized until the next 
 
240 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 quiirter, tlio payniciit dating- from May, 185fi. This iiiucli- 
 needed relief was duly appreciated. It was the twentieth 
 3"ear of his pastoral labor in Pine Street Church, and his 
 salary, which had Ijcen heretofore two thousand dollars, 
 was from tliis period two thousand five hundred. 
 
 Mr. Brainerd was again a delegate to the General As- 
 sembly, which met in the City of New York in 18.56. 
 
 By way of apolog}^ for the brevity of a letter home, 
 dated May 18th, 185G, he says: "I have used what 
 strength I had in the Assembly, and could not endure the 
 sight of a pen. 1 lean against a jJoat and make some 
 speeches." 
 
 It became such a habit with him to select a seat near a 
 post for its support, under the vertigo which he often 
 experienced when speaking, that one of his ministerial 
 brethren said to him, playfully, as they entered the house 
 together, "Every man to his post/" 
 
 The nervous aversion to writing, which resulted from 
 his physical peculiarities, prevented him from pursuing 
 literary labors beyond the actual necessities which his 
 profession forced upon him. 
 
 When the Presbyterian Quarterly lieview was estab- 
 lished in Philadelphia, in the year 1852, he felt his ob- 
 ligations, as one of the associate editors, to contribute 
 occasionally, as he was able, to its pages, during the ten 
 3'ears in which Dr. Wallace conducted the work. It so hap- 
 pened that the opening and closing articles of this period 
 were from his pen. The first, defining the position of the 
 New School branch of the Presbyterian Church, and the 
 demands for the Revieio, was entitled " Our Church and 
 Our Review." The closing article of the tenth volume 
 was the memorial tribute to Rev. Benj. J. Wallace, in 
 October, 1862. He wrote several other articles, among 
 which was a Sketch of tlie Character and Public Life of 
 Daniel Webster, written in December, 1852; and in the 
 
LITERARY PUBLICATIONS. 241 
 
 spring of 1860, amid the fearful apprehensions which shook 
 the nation, he wrote an article entitled " Wiro is Responsi- 
 ble FOR THE PRESENT SLAVERY AGITATION ?" 
 
 At the earnest solicitation of Dr. Win. B. Sprague, 
 of Albany, Mr. Brainerd wrote a memorial sketch of Re\^. 
 James Patterson in 1857, and one of Dr. Arteinus Bal- 
 lard the same year, for the "Annals op the American 
 Pulpit." 
 
 He published twenty sermons in pamphlet during his 
 ministry in Philadelphia, and a still larger number in the 
 newspaper press — all of them by solicitation, or through 
 the agency of " Reporters," on occasions of public interest. 
 
 His contributions to the daily and weekly press on mis- 
 cellaneous topics of moral or political bearing were too 
 man}^ to be specified or collected. These were what he 
 called ''hoeing ahurt I'ows,^' which he found time to do in 
 the intervals of his more laborious duties. 
 
 His early habits as an editor, his interest in the current 
 topics of the day, and his convictions of the superior ad- 
 vantages of the newspaper press for reaching the public 
 mind, led him to prefer this mode of publication to every 
 other. His love for newspapers was one of his ruling pns- 
 sions. Not satisfied with ten or twelve daily in his own 
 house, he was a regular reader at the Athenaeum, where he 
 could glance over thirty and forty a day from every part 
 of the country. 
 
 This was accomplished so rapidly that it was difficult to 
 note the time appropriated to it ; yet every fact worth re- 
 membering, thus hastily gathered, was as securely pre- 
 served in his memory as in the newspaper files themselves. 
 
 The only work which claimed the dignity of a book was 
 " The Life of Rev. Jolin Brainerd," published in 18G5, to 
 which reference will be made hereafter. 
 
 The summer of 1857 was marked by a number of pleas- 
 ant events. The friend of his early youth, Mr. Wait Tal- 
 
 21* 
 
242 I^IFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 cott, residing in Rockfovd, Illinois, made him a visit with 
 his wife and little son, six years of age. While in Phila- 
 delphia, the little boy was greatl}^ distressed by seeing the 
 dogs in the street muzzled. It was explained to him that 
 this law was one of kindness to the dogs, for without this 
 precaution they would all be killed. The little fellow 
 mused over this statement for some minutes, and then 
 said, " In Illinois, where I live, the people are mostly 
 good — they doiiH kill dogs f' 
 
 When Mr. Talcott left Philadelphia to visit his brother 
 in Jersey City, he agreed to join Mr. Brainerd again in 
 August, at the Catskill Mountain House. Several mem- 
 bers of Pine Street Church were there, who persuaded 
 Mr. Brainerd to make a week's sojourn with them, while 
 his church was undergoing repairs. 
 
 The entire release from professional labor during these 
 two months, together with the social interest of the circle 
 of friends gathered at the " Mountain House," the won- 
 derful romance and beauty of the place, the decided phys- 
 ical improvement gained during the summer, all contrib- 
 uted to make it a season of unusual enjoyment. 
 
 On Sunday morning Mr. Brainerd preached in the large 
 l)arlor of the " Mountain House." The room was well 
 tilled. Among the guests was Mrs. James Parton (" Fanny 
 Fern"), with her husband and two daughters. 
 
 She thus heralds this occasion in the New York 
 Ledger: 
 
 " Sunda}^ at the Catskills! 'There is no church here,' 
 said one. 'No church?' W^hat human hand could span 
 an arch like yonder blue vault? W4iat pillars could it 
 frame beautiful as those shapely trees ? What carpet 
 weave equal to that dew-bespangled moss? What choir 
 more perfect than those untutored birds, singing for very 
 joy that God is so good and his earth so fair ? 
 
HISTORY OF riNE STREET CIIURCTL 243 
 
 " ' Service in the public parlor at eleven ;' so the land- 
 lord informed us. 'Heaven trraut,' said I, 'that the 
 preacher may utter no discord amid all this harmony of 
 nature.' So I took my seat among the worshipers — young 
 and old, sick and well, grave and gay— with creeds as 
 various as their places of birth, or the lineaments of their 
 faces, and some with no creeds at all. IIow shall the 
 preacher say a fitting word to all these ? 
 
 " I am happy to say that, in my opinion, he did it ; that 
 not one word would I have had erased or changed ; that 
 I could conceive of no one present who could object to the 
 sincere, fair, and loving exposition of gospel truth, which, 
 like another 'Sermon on the Mount,' will, I trust, long be 
 remembered. 
 
 "I have now an added reason for liking Philadelphia 
 and its people since having listened, on that lovely Sab- 
 bath morning, to Rev. Dr. Brainerd ; since having made, 
 also, at the Cat.'^kills, the acquaintance of other agreeable 
 Philadelphians." * ***** 
 
 Pine Street Church is the oldest Presbyterian church 
 building in Philadelphia. The lot on which it stands, with 
 the surrounding grave-yard, was granted to the congrega- 
 tion by the Penn proprietors, in 1T()4. Built Ijefore the 
 Revolution, it is of course located in the old section of the 
 city. Its architecture was of the plain, simple style be- 
 longing to that period. As the city extended its limits 
 north and west, the more prosperous young families of 
 the church were continually removing to the newer and 
 more fashionable portion of the town. Knowing how 
 readily the young are attracted by external beauty and 
 style, Mr. Brainerd realized the importance of keeping his 
 church up with the progress of the times. He urged upon 
 the congregation the duty of so remodeling the church as 
 to meet the tasteful demands of the age. For two or three 
 
244 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 years this subject burdened bis mind, before he could brin,i^ 
 his people up to his views. The older class were attached 
 to the antiquity of the building, and insisted that it was 
 "good enough for them," as it had been for their fathers. 
 After three years of persistent labor, Mr. Brainerd finally 
 induced the congregation to engage in quite extensive 
 alterations. These were commenced in August, 1857; 
 and when Mr. Brainerd returned home early in September, 
 the basement rooms of the church were finished, and the 
 services were resumed and held in the lecture-room. 
 
 The upper part of the church was opened for service on 
 the 25th of October, 1857. 
 
 The improvement in the church edifice cost $11,500, all 
 of which was promptly paid b}^ voluntary subscriptions 
 within a single year ; fifteen hundred and fourteen dollars 
 of this amount was collected by Mr. Brainerd from friends 
 outside of the congregation. The alteration was chiefly 
 confined to the exterior of the church, modernizing and 
 changing its whole appearance. The congregation designed 
 to make an equally thorough renovation the following year 
 of the interior, but the financial embarrassments which 
 begun in 1857, and accumulated through successive years, 
 hindered the fulfillment of this purpose. The civil war 
 which broke out in 18G1, delayed the work to a still later 
 date ; and not until the necessit}^ was forced upon them 
 by the settlement of a new pastor, in 18G7, was it finally 
 accomplished. For the last ten years of his ministry Mr. 
 Brainerd was impressed with the idea that his work was 
 nearly finished, and said it was his dearest wish to leave 
 Pine Street Church in the highest condition of prosperity. 
 He represented to his people the difficulties they would 
 meet in securing such a pastor as they needed, without 
 first making the church as attractive as possible, and the 
 embarrassments under which a stranger would labor in 
 securing the pecuniary means for these improvements. Cir- 
 
ANDOVER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 245 
 
 cumstanccs provod more absolute than these arguments, 
 arid the evil he foresaw came upon them. It was, liowever, 
 bravely met and overcome, although at double the pecu- 
 niary cost which would have belonged to the earlier season. 
 The congregation expended over $15,000 in 18G7, in car- 
 r3-ing out the improvements projected ten years before at 
 an estimate of $7000. 
 
 Mr. Brainerd believed tliat every church needed reju- 
 venating once in twenty years at least, to keep the young 
 ill complacent sympathy with their home sanctuary, and to 
 give the rising generation the opportunity to identify them- 
 selves with their church by actual labor and sacrifice. 
 
 About this time, 1857, Mr. Brainerd published a short 
 historical sketch of Pine Street Church, in the course of 
 which he spoke of his predecessor. Dr. Archibald Alex- 
 ander,, with the affectionate reverence he had always cher- 
 ished for his character. Soon after he received a letter 
 from Bev. James W. Alexander, in which he says: " I am 
 certainly your debtor for the manner in which you have 
 written concerning my dear and honored father. I' shall 
 treasure up the important fragments which you have 
 rescued, as additions to my memoir. Such things cause 
 me to feel more deeply how great are our common in- 
 terests and experience, and how trifling the points about 
 which we difler." 
 
 The semi-centennial anniversary of Andover Theologi- 
 cal Seminary was celebrated in August, 1858, at Andover, 
 Mass. The authorities of the institution issued a general 
 invitation to all the Alumni, and about two hundred and 
 fifty clergymen responded to the call. Mr. Brainerd was 
 one of a committee of four, including Dr. John G. Owen, 
 Edwards A. Park, and J. Q. A. Edgell, to call together his 
 own class, which graduated in 1831. The class numbered 
 fifty on leaving the seminary, and twenty-two returned, 
 after an interval of twenty-seven years, to greet each 
 
246 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 other once more at this slirine of early affections and 
 religious consecration. After engaging in prayer, each 
 was invited to recount the history of the twenty-seven 
 years gone by. Such a review was full of interest to 
 those who had parted in the freshness of early manhood, 
 and now met again, worn and gray-haired men, with their 
 varied experience of joy and sorrow. 
 
 The political horizon this year began to be overclouded 
 with unmistakable tokens of the coming storm. Not fully 
 credited as yet at the North, not, perhaps, sufficiently 
 heeded ; but the defiant, reckless spirit of the South was 
 met by a firmer and more resolute expression of public 
 sentiment at the North on the "irrepressible" question of 
 slavery. 
 
 The public journals took a higher ground of principle in 
 their discussions than before. Mr. Brainerd's sympathies 
 were especially drawn toward the articles of Dr. Court- 
 land Van Eenssalaer, on slavery, in the Presbyterian 
 3Tagazine, insomuch that he was led to assure him by 
 letter of his earnest approval of his views. He received 
 the following reply from Dr. Yan Renssalaer, a few days 
 after : 
 
 "Dec. 11th, 1858. 
 
 "Rev. and dear Sir: 
 
 " I received, with a great deal of satisfaction, your fra- 
 ternal letter, expressing your approbation of my articles 
 on slavery in reply to Dr. Armstrong. It is not often 
 that I care for man's judgment, one way or the other, pro- 
 vided I think that I am clearly right ; but, on this great 
 and intricate question of slavery, I confess that many 
 anxieties have come across my mind, and that I have 
 been even solicitous to know what opinion good and wise 
 men entertain of my views. Your letter has cheered me. 
 It is strong testimony from one who has examined the 
 subject, felt its perplexities, and is able to form an opinion 
 
ULTRA ISM IN THE SOUTH. 247 
 
 worth having to the loriter. Please to accept my thanks 
 for communicating with me on the subject, and for encour- 
 aging mc in the hard work I have had to encounter. 
 
 " As regards the South, there have been fearful signs 
 of ultraism in the political world, even to the revival of 
 the slave-trade, and to the persecution of individuals for 
 their private opiinions in opposition to extremes. This 
 ultraism has threatened an invasion into the church. 
 Thank God 1 our testimony of 1818 remains unimpaired, 
 and can never he altered. Our own church in the South 
 (0. S.) has been slightly aflfected, I fear, by the prevailing 
 change in public sentiment, but I do not think that many 
 have left the old ground occupied by the fathers, and that, 
 after a little reflection, even these will return to the old 
 belief. 
 
 " Again thanking you for your sympathy and the kind 
 expression of your approbation, 
 
 " I am yours fraternally, 
 
 " C. Yan Rensselaer. 
 
 "Rkv. T. Braixeup, D.D." 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 JOHN BROW'N — THE WAR. 
 
 DURING the intense excitement wliich attended the trial 
 and e.xecution of " John Brown," of Ossawatomie, the 
 Avriter sent to the American Presbyterian the narrative of 
 the Scottish martyr, " Jo7?,u i??*OM;?i," whom Claverhouse 
 shot with his own hand because he refused to betray the 
 place of concealment of one of the persecuted ministers of 
 the gospel, among the Covenanters, for whom Claverhouse 
 was searching. The piece concluded with the quaint epi- 
 taph : 
 
 " Clavers might murder godly Brown, 
 But could not rob him of his crown." 
 
 To this thrilling story of Professor Wilson's was simply 
 added the following paragraph : 
 
 " The courts of Virginia and Gov. Wise may execute 
 John Brown ; but there will be another monument erected, 
 and another century couplet thereon inscribed : 
 
 'Although you murder godly Brown, 
 You cannot rob him of his crown !' 
 
 And his death may ' light such a fire'' in our land as will 
 never be extinguished until the principles of true liberty 
 enlighten the nation. As truly as ' the blood of the martyrs 
 is the seed of the church,' so surely will the blood of free- 
 men be the well-spring of libert}^ ! ' He that is higher than 
 the highest regardeth it;' and we deal with One v)ho does 
 not settle accounts in December.''*- 
 
 * Jolin Erown was executed December 2d, 1S59. 
 (248) 
 
JOHN BROWN. 249 
 
 Mr. Brainerd was reading the article soon after the paper 
 came in, when I entered the room and said, "What do 
 you think of my contribution ?" 
 
 " Did you send this to the paper ?" he replied. " It will 
 never do to indorse John Brown's raid in this way." 
 
 "I have not indorsed it," I answered; "I have only 
 implied that God will indorse it." 
 
 The next morning Dr. Houghton (then editor of the 
 American Presbylerian) called at Dr. Brainerd's house, 
 as pale as the paper on which his journal was printed, 
 and said that one, and another, and another, including 
 one of the city clergymen, had called at his office, and, in 
 " fear and great wrath," peremptorily ordered their paper 
 stopped. 
 
 j\lr. Brainerd leaned back in his chair and laughed im- 
 moderately, for him. But he told Dr. Houghton that he 
 would do the best he could to get his wife and the paper 
 out of this scrape. He wrote hastily the following explana- 
 tory note, on his own responsibility, which was published 
 in the next week's issue : 
 
 " The article on our first page last week, entitled ' John 
 Brown,' w^as written by a lady whose sj'mpathies have been 
 excited by the prospective execution of a man whom the 
 Governor of Virginia has publicly pronounced 'brave, 
 honest, and sincere.' It was far from her intention to 
 justify, directly or indirectly, the sanguinary enterprise of 
 Harper's Ferry. She still believes that true public policy, 
 as well as a considerate charity, claims executive clemency 
 for the few surviving offenders. The promotion of this end 
 was tiie object of her article." 
 
 The pro-slavery Chi^istian Observer opened fire on the 
 unfortunate paragraph with its heaviest batteries ; rung 
 all manner of sarcastic and sneering changes on the phrase 
 " godly John Brown," which were echoed in some of the 
 
 22 
 
250 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 secular papers as well as in the religious exchanges from 
 other cities. 
 
 The Washington Slar and the Charleston (S. C.) News 
 quoted the paragraph, with comnientsof Southern liberality. 
 
 The Frankfort (Ky.) Yeoman had an article, understood 
 to be from the pen of Vice-President Breckinridge, con- 
 taining the following sentence : 
 
 " If old John Brown is executed, there will be thousands 
 to dip their handkerchiefs in his blood ; pilgrimages will be 
 made to his grave, and the blood of this martyr will be as 
 seed to this fanatical church ; and Governor AVise will be 
 compared to Julian the Apostate, or Grahame of Claver- 
 house.'' 
 
 A few days after, Dr. Houghton called again, with a 
 terrible denunciatory letter in his hand from a Presbyterian 
 clergyman in Mobile, dated Decentber 14th, 1859, and fill- 
 ing three pages of large quarto-sized writing paper. Among 
 other things, the writer says : 
 
 " Tirades of abuse, misrepresentation, and falsehood ap- 
 pear daily in ever}' abolition paper; the most ofi'ensive of 
 which that I have yet seen has appeared in your columns 
 as a leader, on the canonization of 'Godly John Brown.' 
 I will not be one of the number to sustain a paper in such 
 a work. I will excuse you from sending me your paper any 
 longer. If your enmity does not extend so far as to refuse 
 the balance due you, and you will send me your account, 
 the money shall be forthcoming. 
 
 " Yours, etc." 
 
 Dr. Houghton was, at this time, ready to join in the 
 laugh himself; he told Dr. Brainerd that he had gained 
 more subscribers than he had lost by the article in question. 
 The people were in advance of the timid journals of the 
 day, and hailed joyfully every omen of courage. 
 
 The writer has long since been abundantly compensated 
 
JOHN BROWN. 251 
 
 iV)r the annoyance of this occasion. The "Monument" 
 has been builded these seven years — 
 
 " Of the great deeds of the brave ;" 
 
 and while 
 
 "John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave, 
 His SOUL is marching on .'" 
 
 The brave old man was executed at ten o'clock a.m., 
 on the 2d of December, 1859. The colored people of 
 Philadelphia observed the day with fasting and prayer — 
 called to this service by the ministers of their churches, 
 who invited them all to meet at ten o'clock A M. " Pre- 
 senting themselves with fasting and prayer before a God 
 of truth and justice, whom we acknowledge as the common 
 Father of mankind. That to this ever-living God and 
 Father we may make a united appeal that He remove from 
 us the miseries of oppression, and from our common country 
 its infatuated blindness, its skeptical spirit, and practical 
 atheism ; that repentance and pardon may be given to the 
 black man and white man of this country ; — to the black 
 man, because he has said in the bitterness of the anguish 
 of his heart, ' God has forgotten us!' and to the white man, 
 because he has said in the pride and insolence of his heart, 
 'There is no God !' 
 
 " It is the opinion of intelligent colored men in Phila- 
 delphia, that any public demonstrations of feeling in re- 
 gard to this matter are unwise and injudicious, and had 
 better be omitted." 
 
 The mode in which God ^^ settled this accounV is fresh 
 in the memory of every American. For this oppressed, 
 down-trodden, despised race, he demanded of the flower of 
 a'l our sons nearly life for life! 
 
 "Four hundred thousand men, 
 The good, the brave, the true. 
 Lie dead — for me and you, good friend ; 
 Lie dead — for me and yod!" 
 
252 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAIN ERD, D.D. 
 
 Early in May of tlie following- spring, ISGO, Dr. Lyman 
 Beecher and Mrs. Beeeher made a visit of some weeks to Dr. 
 Brainerd, the last he was ever to make on earth. The 
 cloud had befi;'un to settle upon the overtaxed brain of the 
 nol)le old man ; but when roused and interested, flashes of 
 the old fire broke out, with its old-time sparkle and humor. 
 
 The General Assembly met at Pittsburg this spring, and 
 as Dr. Brainerd was a delegate, he Avas obliged to leave 
 home during Dr. Beecher's visit. He told Dr. Beecher that 
 the whole house was at his service, and to make himself 
 perfectly at home in his absence. Dr. Beecher looked up 
 with his benignant smile and replied, " I should have done 
 that if you hadn't told me !" On the morning of his de- 
 parture, he said, "I wish, doctor, you were going with 
 me, as in time past. What shall I tell the brethren for 
 you ?" " Tell them," said Dr. Beecher, his eyes filling 
 with tears as he spoke, " that / remember them all and 
 love them all P^ 
 
 At the June communion, this summer. Dr. Brainerd's 
 only daughter joined the church His son had made a pro- 
 fession of religion three years before, while a member of 
 Yale College, at the commencement of his Junior year. 
 
 THE WAR. 
 
 No man ever cherished a keener interest in the political 
 questions which affected the liberties of his country than 
 Dr. Brainerd. He kept an anxious eye for years upon the 
 increasing aggressions and unreasonable demands of the 
 South, and felt every outrage upon the rights of free speech 
 and free citizenship throughout the Union, as really as 
 though it concerned himself personally. Still, he was re- 
 garded as a "conservative" man, in church and state, 
 and he so realized the horrors of civil war, that whenever 
 it could be done without compromising principle, he recom- 
 
THE WAR. 253 
 
 menclod prudential measures to avert the threatened evils 
 which overhung the country. 
 
 But when the war was forced upon us by the half mad 
 and entirely bad leaders of the rebellion, he accepted the 
 issue as he would have done a decree from Heaven, and 
 bent his whole soul to meet it. He enlisted for the war 
 as truly as any man who shouldered his musket, and never 
 intermitted his services until Lee surrendered at Appo- 
 mattox Court House. 
 
 Those acquainted with Mr. Brainerd's nervous excita- 
 bility, will remember the flushed cheek and brow, the flash- 
 ing, restless eye, which marked his appearance during these 
 four years of fearful anxiety and conflict. From the hour 
 when the first gun was fired at Fort Sumter, he exerted an 
 almost ubiquitous influence in keeping up the community 
 to the highest point of sacrifice and endurance. 
 
 The young men of his congregation caught his enthu- 
 siasm, and on the first call of the President for volunteers, 
 thirty enlisted at once. As the exigency and the demand 
 increased, the supply increased, untiJ one hundred and 
 thirty young men connected with his church and congre- 
 gation were serving their country in the army and navy. 
 
 While these young men were girding themselves for the 
 war,^— 
 
 "And heavy to the ground the first dark drops of battle fell," — 
 
 Dr. Brainerd was called to stand by the coffin of Lieutenant 
 Joiin T. Greble, who was killed at Great Bethel on the 
 10th of June, 1861, — oneof his most beloved young friends, 
 brought up in his church and Sabbath-school, and now 
 brought home for burial, wrapped in the flag of his 
 country. Dr. Brainerd said of him then : 
 
 "This 3^oung man has fallen in the beginning of the 
 conflict to preserve this countr}'^ — our Constitution, our 
 prosperity — the liberty of men everywhere, from treason, 
 
254 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 anarchy, aristocratic oppression and final ruin. He died, 
 that his country might not die. He died, that the great 
 experiment of self-g-overnraent in this land, which has 
 made man everywhere feel that he was truly man, might 
 nut fail, to the despair of humanity itself in all time to 
 come." 
 
 Two or three weeks later, in July, Dr. Brainerd's only 
 son entered the army as assistant surgeon, and was 
 stationed in the first United States Army Hospital opened 
 at Washington, before the battle of Bull Run. 
 
 Amid these scenes of absorbing interest. Dr. Brainerd 
 was obliged to leave home to fulfill an engagement to make 
 an address at the Quarter Century Celebration of Knox 
 College, at Galesburg, Hlinois. He was urged to this ser- 
 vice by the Rev. George W. Gale, the founder of the col- 
 lege, who was the friend of his early years, and with 
 whom he always preserved a fraternal intercourse. A year 
 later, Dr. Brainerd was called to write a memorial sketch 
 of Dr. Gale, Avho died at Gale.sburg, September 13th, 1862, 
 which was puljlished in the Presbyterian Almo,nac iov ihdX 
 year. 
 
 He reached Galesburg on the day of the anniversary. 
 At the close of the commencement exercises, on Thurs- 
 day, the President introduced Dr. Brainerd to the*audi- 
 ence. 
 
 The Chicago Presbyterian Recorder thus speaks of his 
 address on this occasion : " It was a perilous undertaking 
 to stand up before a tired assembly, who had been sitting 
 already three hours, and to attempt to hold them willing 
 listeners still. Most men in such circumstances would have 
 failed ; but the doctor by a few well-told anecdotes (and 
 he seems to have one all fitted to the place, and adapted to 
 every emergency, and no one can tell a story better than 
 he) soon put his hearers in good humor, pleased with 
 him, with theni.selves, and with the world generally. 
 
A FOVRTH-OF-JULY SPEECH. 255 
 
 "Dr. Brainord speaks like no other man; and this ad- 
 dress was a good example of his many excellences. It 
 was full of important thought, arranged in compact argu- 
 ment, with apt and forcible illustrations, and then deliv- 
 ered in his easy and yet impressive manner. One of his 
 hearers, as we passed out of the house, said, ' I wish he 
 had kept on another half hour.' " 
 
 After leaving Galesburg, Dr. Brainerd went to Rock 
 Island City, Illinois, to see the Jlississijypi ; from thence 
 to Toledo, Iowa, to visit his brother. He writes from 
 Toledo, July 4th, ISGl : 
 
 * * * * "I have attended a great 
 
 ' Fourth-of- July ' county gathering in this place to-day. 
 About two thousand people were present, all bringing their 
 dinners and eating in the grove. My speech gained three 
 cheers and a tiger ; so that I am quite elated. It was the 
 most curious Fourth-of-July celebration I have ever at- 
 tended, and I enjoyed it very much. Xext Sabbath I am 
 to preach here, and on Monday I mean to leave for home. 
 " I am starving for war news, which at home I get 
 
 three times a day. May God save the country ! 
 
 ********* 
 
 "Love to all Pine Street Church from the Western 
 pilgrim and their friend, 
 
 " Thomas Braixerd.'' 
 
 On the 2Gth of December of this year. Dr. Brainerd's 
 only daughter was married to Henry M. Boies, of Sauger- 
 ties, N. Y. The excitements of the war at this time ena- 
 bled him to bear the absence of his children better than he 
 could otherwise have done. 
 
 When the regiments, which were constantly passing 
 through Philadelphia to the seat of war, landed at our 
 steamboat wharves or railroad stations. Dr. Brainerd was 
 there to cheer and encourage them, and share, so far as he 
 
256 LIFE OF BEV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 ■was able, in the responsibilities of our patriot citizens. At 
 the ver}' coniniencement of the conflict, when the soldiers, 
 as yet unused to long- marches and longer fasting, bore 
 the evidence of overtaxed energies, the citizens residing 
 in the neighborhood of their arrival and departure con- 
 tributed every possil)le assistance and refreshment to them. 
 All tlie day long women baked bread and biscuit by the 
 bushel ; made coffee by the gallon, which they carried out 
 to the troops, as they formed in line on the sidewalk. 
 These spontaneous offerings suggested to a few enthusias- 
 tic men the plan of renting a boat-house at the foot of 
 AVashington Avenue, where the soldiers could be fed with 
 more convenience and comfort than in the public street. 
 The suggestion was acted upon at once ; with rough boards 
 laid on supporters for tlieir tables at first, but rapidly ac- 
 cumulating new accommodations, under the almost super- 
 human exertions of those engaged in the work, until the 
 "Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon" furnished to 
 sexen hundred thousand men, going and returning through 
 Philadelphia, as good a meal as the}^ could have procured 
 at any well-appointed hotel. Comforts, and even luxuries, 
 were daily added. The building was enlarged, with the 
 addition of hospital, bathing-room, office for writing, fur- 
 nished with stationery and postage-stamps free, ^ where, 
 during ten minutes' delav or leisure, the soldiers could mail 
 a letter to the families they had just left, and cheer them 
 with the report of their present comfort. The pecuniary 
 supplies for this gigantic provision rolled in with an un- 
 ebbing tide, under the energetic and unwearied efforts of 
 the committee in charge. Furniture for the house and 
 table were donated by merchants and mechanics until no- 
 thing was lacking to comjilete the establishment. Floored, 
 whitewashed, adorned with pictures and flags, brilliantly 
 lighted with gas, the place glowed with the patriotism, the 
 hope, and the love which originated and sustained it. 
 
UNION VOLUNTEER REFRESH3IENT SALOON. 257 
 
 This description is necessary because this place became 
 to Dr. Brainerd the palladium of his hopes, the theater of 
 his labors, and the scene, to him, of many of the most 
 thrilling incidents of the war. If ever discouragement, or 
 doubt or fear, was gaining the ascendency, in the darkest 
 days of the rebellion, a visit to this place dispelled it. The 
 fresh troops coming in, with their fresh zeal and unfalter- 
 ing resolution — the determined purpose of every one con- 
 nected with this institution to persevere to "the last drop 
 of blood in every heart and the last dollar in every purse," 
 nerved the hopes of the most desponding. Above all, he 
 here found the full measure of his own enthusiasm met 
 and carried out in a living stream of patriotic beneficence. 
 
 Dr. Brainerd's admiration was unbounded for these dis- 
 interested workers, who, without an emotion of selfishness, 
 or a thought of remuneration, " enlisted for the war." They 
 stood at their post, sleeping and waking at the "tap of 
 the drum," often not seeing their own homes for three 
 nights in succession. While one or two failed under this 
 protracted labor and excitement, the enthusiasm which 
 nerved this noble little band endowed them with "strength 
 equal to their day," and they lived to " welcome back" the 
 worn veterans of the war with the same hopeful energy 
 which cheered them on in the beginning. The exhaustless 
 supplies, from the warm hearts of the citizens of Philadel- 
 phia, at the rate of one hundred and fifty dollars a day, 
 lasted while the rebellion lasted, and the need of the army 
 lasted, and wou-kl have been doubled had the need de- 
 manded. 
 
 Dr. Brainerd was not an idle spectator, contented with 
 the selfish enjoyment of this grand work. From its earliest 
 organization he endeavored to promote both its popular 
 reputation and its pecuniary resources He was connected 
 Avith many agencies for promoting these ends ; at one time 
 speaking at festivals and gatherings, where the collections 
 
258 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 were designed foi* this " Saloon," and at others, lecturing 
 directly for the same object. He was very successful in his 
 appeals for money to the wealthy, patriotic citizens of Pliil- 
 adelphia ; and while on a visit to Washington he obtained 
 leave from the Secretary of the Navy to exhibit the rebel 
 ram "Atlanta," lying at the Philadelphia dock, for the 
 benefit of this Refreshment Saloon. Quite a handsome 
 sum was realized from this source. No wonder this place 
 was a wholesale store-house of joy and hope for those who 
 loved their country as Dr. Brainerd did. 
 
 From memoranda furnished by Saml B. Fales, Esq., Cor- 
 responding Secretary of the " Committee" of the " Union 
 Yolunteer Refreshment Saloon," we gather the following 
 items: 
 
 " Dr. Brainerd was always called upon by our Com- 
 mittee to speak for us, and in all our appeals for aid the 
 Committee always referred to him as an indorser. He 
 was present, took an active part, and made an address on 
 the occasion of laying the corner-stone of our little hos- 
 pital, in September, 1863. He also made addresses in 
 the Saloon at the opening of two different ' fairs' (18G2 and 
 18G3j held at the Saloon. 
 
 "January 11th and April 24th, 1863, Dr. Brainerd 
 preached in the Saloon. In the early part of the year 1863 
 religious service was held in our building every Sunday 
 night. In May he accompanied the members of the Gen- 
 eral Assembly of the Presbyterian Church to the Saloon, 
 and made an address. He said, ' That if every beam, post, 
 and lintel could speak, they would be eloquent in praise of 
 what had been done there in the cause of Christian philan- 
 thropy and patriotism.' 
 
 "He has often been called upon to pray by the bedside 
 of sick and dying soldiers in our hospital, and frequently 
 attended their remains to the grave. 
 
 " When tiie Ladies' Committee was getting up the 
 
UNIOX VOLUNTEER REFRESHMENT SALOON. 959 
 
 second flonil fair, Dr. Brainerd gave thcni a letter of 
 introduction to Mrs. Thomas Latimer, of Wilming-ton, 
 Pel., from whom a liberal donation was received, both for 
 the fair and the hospital. 
 
 "Dr. Brainerd was present and made an address at the 
 raising of the large gilt eagle over the Union Y. R. Saloon, 
 January 2d, 1863. 
 
 " But it is impossible to state what he has done for the 
 soldiers, our Saloon, and the country. He teas ahcayH 
 doing something for the cause ; from the first he identified 
 himself with our Committee, and felt a deep interest in 
 our institution, and was always our warm and steadfast 
 friend. Ho fully sympathized with us in our efforts for 
 the comfort and refreshment of our brave soldiers, and 
 cheered us on in our pathway of duty. 
 
 "January 12th, 1863, after a heavy snow-storm. Dr. 
 Brainerd called at the Saloon, and handed in the sum of 
 forty dollars. This amount was received by the doctor 
 through the Rev. Dr. Eva, and was a contribution from 
 the Young Ladies' Bible Class of the First Presbyterian 
 Church, Kensington. The doctor being pressed for time, 
 would not dismount, and I was obliged to write the re- 
 ceipt resting on the shoulder of his horse. Dr. Brainerd 
 Avas, from the first, a constant visitor, even to tlie close of 
 our institution. Having commissioned Mr. Edward Moran 
 to paint for me a series of views of the Saloon, I called 
 ui)on the doctor and stated that as he was identified with 
 our Saloon, and beloved by our Committee, I was exceed- 
 ingly anxious to introduce him and his old horse in one of 
 the pictures, and wished him to select some pleasant inci- 
 dent connecting him with our operations. A few days 
 afterward he informed me that he had chosen the above- 
 mentioned occurrence, which the artist has most truthfully 
 depicted. 
 
 " Sa>]l. B. Fales. 
 
 " Philadelphia. Dec. otli, ISGC." 
 
260 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 " In the four and a half years of their labors the ' Saloon' 
 fed between eight and nine hundred thousand soldiers, and 
 expended about 100,000 dollars in money, aside from sup- 
 plies. The Saloon hospital had during the war nearly 
 fifteen thousand patients. 
 
 " The women connected with these Saloons, with a pa- 
 tience and fidelity which has nev^er been surpassed, winter 
 and summer, in cold and heat, at all hours of night as 
 well as day, at the boom of the signal-gun hastened to 
 the Saloons, and prepared those ample repasts which 
 made Philadelphia the Mecca to which the soldier turned 
 longingly during his years of army life. These women 
 were accustomed to care for their own households, and do 
 their own work, and it required no small degree of self- 
 denial and patriotic zeal on their part, after a day of the 
 housekeeper's never-ending toil, to rise from their beds at 
 midnight (for the trains bringing soldiers came oftener at 
 night than in the daytime) and go through the darkness 
 or storm a considerable distance, and toil until after sun- 
 rise at the work of cooking and dish-washing. 
 
 " Mrs. Mary B. Wade, a widow, nearly eighty years of 
 age, a woman of remarkable energy and perseverance, was 
 as constantly at her post, as faithful, and as efficient as any 
 of the Executive Committee of the Saloon. Suffering from 
 slight lameness, she literally hobbled down to the Saloon 
 with a cane, by night or day, but she was never absent. She 
 is a native of Philadelphia, and tlie widow of a sea-captain." 
 
 Dr. Brainerd learned that a regiment from Lewis County 
 was organized, under the command of Col. Wheelock, one 
 of his old pupils, and addressed to him the following letter : 
 
 , ^ _-,- "Philadelphia, Jan. 16th, 18C2. 
 
 " Col. Wheelock. 
 "Dear Sir: 
 " A Jioonville Herald, sent me by a friend, furnishes de- 
 lightful evidence of the patriotism of my native region. 
 
LETTER TO COL. WHEELOCK. 261 
 
 Forty years ago, you were my pupil in the old school- 
 house. I claim some right, therefore, to congratulate you 
 on the confidence which has placed you at the head of the 
 brave men of the Black River country for a conflict the 
 most important ever waged by man for liberty and order. 
 May GodhhtiS you and your regiment! 
 
 " If the North fails in this contest — if traitors are allowed 
 to kill our country and break down our Constitution, men 
 hereafter will be afraid to attempt self-government; and 
 tyrants will reign by the grace of God, pointing to our 
 anarchy as their apology for putting chains on the necks 
 of their subjects. No matter what it costs, we must rescue 
 our country from peril. 
 
 "My only son, carefully educated and highly promising, 
 is in the field. He may fall ; if so, I v/l]] say, — I had 
 rather have my dead son, fallen for his country's salvation, 
 than see him an ingrate to the land that gave him birth. 
 But I took up my pen to say that Philadelphia has given 
 a good meal to every soldier passing through the city. 
 We have fed one hundred and ninety thousand already. 
 When your regiment comes I want to be on the spot to 
 give them a word of cheer, as well as a cup of coffee. 
 
 "May I ask you to telegraph me from New York, or if 
 that is not convenient, when 3'ou reach the Saloon in this 
 city, tell the managers to let me know you are here? 
 "With great respect, yours truly, 
 
 " Thomas Brainerd." 
 
 The evening this regiment was expected, Dr. Brainerd 
 waited at the Saloon until after ten o'clock, when a telegram 
 was received, stating that it would be near morning before 
 the regiment could reach the city. By invitation of Mr. 
 Arad Barrows, President of the " Committee," Dr. Brai- 
 nerd went to his house and obtained a refreshing sleep of 
 some hours before the signal-gun was fired announcing 
 
 23 
 
262 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRATNERD, D.D. 
 
 the arrival of the regiment. He then repaired to the Saloon 
 to welcome his northern townsmen. He recognized among 
 the men a number of acquaintances, and a still larger num- 
 ber of them were the sons of his early friends. After talk- 
 ing with them individually, he made an address to the 
 regiment, to which Col. Wheelock responded. This regi- 
 ment did good service for their country, but the brave Col. 
 "Wheelock early fell among the slain. 
 
 Some months later, Dr. Brainerd was present at a town 
 meeting in Boonville, Oneida County, New York, held for 
 the purpose of enrolling volunteers. A sufficient sum was 
 subscribed to pay every volunteer from the town fifty dol- 
 lars, in addition to all other bounties. Says the Boonville 
 Herald : 
 
 " The business of the meeting being thus disposed of, the 
 Kev. Dr. Brainerd, of Philadelphia, who is spending a few 
 days in this vicinity, — the Dr. Brainerd who has so en- 
 deared himself to the heart of every patriot in the land, by 
 his activity and zeal in connection with that blessed asso- 
 ciation which was formed in his city soon after the rebel- 
 lion broke out, whose mission is to furnish refreshments to 
 all the loyal soldiers passing through that city to the seat 
 of w^ar, — then gave the meeting one of the most patriotic 
 and soul-stirring addresses to which it has ever been our 
 good fortune to listen. When he was about to stop speak- 
 ing, the CT}^, ' Go on ! go on !' came from every part of the 
 hall. He replied, ' He could talk indefinitely on the sub- 
 ject;' and we believe the audience Avould have sat and 
 listened an indefinite length of time also." 
 
CHAPTER XIIT. 
 
 QUARTER CENTURY SERMOX AND FESTIVAL. 
 
 THE first of February, 1862, was the Quarter Century 
 Anniversary of Dr. Brainerd's settlement in Pine Street 
 Church. We make free extracts from his sermon on this oc- 
 casion, where it is a review of his work, or a recital of the 
 events of this period. The publication of the sermon was 
 requested by members of the cong-regation, on the ground 
 that it was a valuable document as a part of the history 
 of Pine Street Church. In complying with their request, 
 Dr. Brainerd said: "Under the touching reminiscences of a 
 quarter of a century, it seemed to be a time when a pastor 
 was allowed to speak more of himself than good taste 
 would ordinarily justify." 
 
 He preached from the text. " Ye know from the first day 
 that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with 
 you in all seasons." Acts, xx. 17.* 
 
 " That minister of the gospel must be a pure and happy 
 man, who can review years of past labor without self-re- 
 proach, and who can boldly appeal to his hearers to attest 
 his fidelity. Paul enjoyed this eminent satisfaction. He 
 calls the elders of Ephesus to bear witness to the holiness 
 of his life, the soundness of his doctrines, the fearlessness 
 
 * This sermon was dedicated to John C. Farr, Esq., the snle survivor of 
 the Board of Elders -who sanctioned Mr. Brainerd's call to Old Pine 
 Street Church in 1S36. 
 
 (263) 
 
204 LIFE OF REV. TIT03fAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 of his reproofs, the tenderness of his sympathy, the encrpry 
 of his labors, and the fullness of his charity. 
 
 " Your pastor shrinks from applying such a test to his 
 Quarter of a Century of service in this sanctuary. He 
 feels more like hiding his face in the dust, and saying : ' I 
 have done the things I ought not to have done, and have 
 left undone the things I ought to have done.' 
 
 "But though it is less safe for themselves, it is equally 
 proper for modern ministers to appeal to the judgment 
 their hearers may pronounce. If aljle to bear the scrutiny, 
 they may use it for their comfort. If rightly censured for 
 their unfaithfulness, they need it for their humiliation, 
 penitence, and reform. 
 
 " Standing before you to-day, at the end of a Quarter 
 of a Century, I say: ' Ye know after what manner I have 
 been with yoti in all seasons.' You have known me from 
 youth to gray hairs ; you have known my manner of life 
 at home and abroad, in sickness and health, in joy and 
 sorrow. Ye have known me as a neighbor, citizen, pastor, 
 and preacher of the gospel. I have been with you in all 
 seasons ; in your prosperity and adversity, your sighs and 
 your songs. I have been with some of you from infancy 
 to manhood ; and with some of you from manhood to old 
 age. At your fasts and feasts ; at your weddings and 
 3^our funerals ; I have been with you. You have the 
 materials for judging, and you have the right to judge 
 me ; and I submit to your verdict. In saying this, I ap- 
 prehend that I have less to fear from your severity than 
 your partiality. I shrink not so much from the scrutiny 
 of my congregation, as from my own self-inspection and 
 from the searching eye of God. 
 
 "And on this Quarter Century Anniversary, it is proper 
 to remind you, that our relations are reciprocal. I have 
 owed duties to you and you have owed duties to me ; 
 
QUARTER CENTURY SERMON. 265 
 
 and you may transpose the text and say: 'Our pastor 
 knows after what manner we have been with him in all 
 seasons.' We have had his services; we have had his 
 sustenance, his reputation, his comfort, his usefulness very 
 much in our hands ; and he knows after what manner we 
 have been with him, in all seasons. This mutual review 
 of twent3^-five years' relation of pastor and people, has in 
 it great solemnity ; a solemnity only surpassed by our 
 final meeting at the judgment-seat of Christ. 
 
 " In reviewing these many years passed together, I 
 think we shall be able to make common record. 
 
 " I. On the piUar which, in the pilgrimage of life, we 
 set up to-day, we are prepared to inscribe a record of 
 gratitude. — 'Goodness and mercy have followed us' 
 through these twenty-five years. 'The lines have fallen 
 to us in pleasant places, and we have had a goodly heri- 
 tage.' We have had twenty-five years together, in the 
 best age of the world ; in a land the most abundant, most 
 intelligent, and most free ; in a city beautiful, healthful, 
 and prosperous; concentrating almost every intellectual, 
 artistic, and social appliance for our instruction, our recre- 
 ation, and our enjoyment. With an open Bible, and full 
 liberty to worship God according to our consciences; our 
 thousand Sabbaths and praying circles ; our blessed revi- 
 vals of religion ; our mingled prayers and songs ; our 
 sweet sacred festivals ; our Christian friendships ; our 
 dnys of pleasant activities; our home evenings, and our 
 nights of safe and refreshing repose — all continued through 
 a quarter of a century ! ' What shall we render to the 
 Lord for all his benefits ?' 
 
 "For myself, my heart is overborne with a sense of obli- 
 gation to-day. Twenty-five years ago I began my labors here, 
 literally ' in fear and much trembling.' I had a magnified 
 
 23* 
 
266 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 apprehension of the dignity and critical severity of a con- 
 gregation in this great Eastern metropolis. I had a dis- 
 trust of my own talents, m}^ acquirements, my health, and 
 my piety. I have always had a beau ideal of excellence 
 in sermonizing which has mocked my attainments. I have 
 constitutionally an awful reverence for God, and a shrink- 
 ing humiliation, under tlie apprehension of the sublimity 
 of the Infinite. The thought of the immortal soul; of the 
 deep, vast, eternal realities of a hidden existence, over- 
 power me. "When I came to this city I could not enter a 
 pulpit without trembling. I cannot do it yet. This pe- 
 culiar awe of the solemnity of standing up in the name of 
 God, has had much to do with the physical causes which 
 compelled me, at one period, for three years, to sit while 
 I preached to you. By the counsel of friends, and what 
 seemed to be dutj^, by a strong will, and trusting in God, 
 I pressed over my fears to accept the charge of this church. 
 You know the result. My brethren around me have died, 
 and I am still in vigorous health. Other and perhaps 
 better pastors have found difficulties, and have been dis- 
 missed.* We are as firmly united as ever. Other churches 
 
 * "I seem to belong almost to a past generation, though I lack some 
 years yet of ' threescore.' Time has brought great changes to the churches 
 and ministers of the Presbyterian denomination, during my residence in 
 Philadelphia. Arch Street Church has had three pastors; Waterman, 
 Thompson, and Wadsworth. Second Church, two; Ciiyler and Shields. 
 Eleventh Church, two: Grant and Edwards. Sijcth Church, three; Win- 
 chester, Jones, and Harbaugh. Ceutrnl Church, two; McDowell and 
 Clark. Seventh Church, s'\x; McCalla, Ely the, Lord, Ruffner, Rogers, and 
 Crowell. Scots' Church, three; McCalla, Macklin, and Conklin. Mariners' 
 Church, two ; Douglas and Ripley. Fourth Church, four ; McCalla, Lough- 
 ridge, Cheeseman, and Mowry. Ninth Church, three; Gibson, Tudehope, 
 and Blackwood. Church in Sixth Street above Green, three, at least; Din- 
 widie, Janew.ay, and Christian. Smithwnrk Church, three ; Judson, 
 Adair, and Brucn. Cedar Street Church, three; Eustace, Ramsey, and 
 Smith. First Church, N. L., four; Patterson, Carroll, Ely, and Shepherd. 
 Central Church, X. L., four; Mines, Rood, Wilson, and Duffield. First 
 
QUARTER CENTURY SERMON. 26T 
 
 of our denomination in the vicinity have faded, and some 
 sold out and removed ; while old Pine Street Church has 
 still six hundred andfiftij members. 
 
 ********* 
 
 "II. Ill reviewing tiuenlij-five years ^^ax^ to-day, ive 
 have to make a record of responsibility. — A single inter- 
 view with an immortal soul, on which we can impress an 
 influence for good or evil that must last forever, is a serious 
 matter. But to stand for twenty-five years before one 
 thousand souls, all entitled to look up to me for the teach- 
 ing, the SNMiipathy, the example, and the prayers best 
 adapted to renew, sanctify, and save ; to have had twelve 
 hundred Sabbath opportunities to preach to such the glo- 
 rious gospel; to have had the atfection and confidence that 
 adapted them to receive truth from my lips ; to have been 
 sustained by their earnings that I might be wise to win 
 their souls to Christ ; to have had a place in their prayers, 
 private and public, that I might be fitted to do them good ; 
 to have had a thousand gratuitous tokens of their love, 
 binding them to my heart ; all this presses on my thoughts 
 
 to-day. 
 
 **** * **** 
 
 Church, Kensington, two; Chandler and Eva. Weaferyi Church, four; 
 Patton, Richards, Gilbert, and Smith. Logan Square, four; Davis, Moore, 
 Brown, and Patton. Mantua Church, three ; Drysdale, Renshaw, and 
 Johnson. Walnut Street, W. P., two ; McKnight and Butler. Clinton Street, 
 four; Todd, Parker, Darling, and March. 
 
 " The Rev. John Chambers, Rev. Albert Barnes, and Rev. Henry A. 
 Boardman, D.D., were in their respective churches when I came to the 
 city. May they long continue to edify and strengthen the churches. 
 
 " In other denominations, ministerial changes have been as frequent as 
 in our own; so that old pastors have seen several generations of their 
 clerical brethren. 
 
 " It is pleasant to remember that I have lived in peace with all ; and 
 with many of my brethren in the ministry, of all denomination.*, have 
 had delightful social intercourse. As I have given these statistics from 
 memory, there may be some omissions or misapprehensions. 
 
268 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAIXERD, D.D. 
 
 " In your relation as bearers of the gospel through 
 tweut\'-live years, you know that a fearful responsibility 
 has also rested upon you. You will ask yourselves, have 
 I fully availed myself of every opportunit}^ to hear the 
 gospel from my pastor's lips? When I have asked him 
 to stand in the pulpit Sabbath morning, afternoon, and 
 lecture evening, have I Glled my place in the pew ? Have 
 I estimated the gospel, embraced it, lived it, spread it? 
 Have I loved my pastor as much as I asked him to love 
 me? Have I sympathized as deeply in his trials as I ex- 
 pected him to sympathize in mine ? Have I bound myself 
 to hear while I bound him to speak; and lived truth as 
 earnestly as I required him to preach it ? Has there been 
 deep feeling in the pews, while I demanded feeling in the 
 pulpit ? These are solemn questions to carry over our 
 twenty-five years' relation of pastor and people. 
 
 "III. And (he quarter century has its record of sor- 
 rov). — I speak not now of our sins but of our afflictions. I 
 have often wept with you, and you have wept with me, as 
 we laid our loved ones down in that sleep, which on earth 
 has no waking. In the last twenty-five years nearly all 
 our dwellings have at some time been 'houses of mourn- 
 ing.' As I look over this house after twenty-five years, I 
 see the ravages which death has wrought. In the middle 
 ai.sle, I believe but three are left alive, who were its pew- 
 holders when I came. In other portions of the house, 
 death has been equally busy. I may well ask : ' The 
 fathers, where are they ?' 
 
 "Of the elders of this church, William Xassau, "W. B. 
 Duffield, Robert "W. Davenport, James H. Eaton, Thomas 
 McLeod, Dr. Samuel McClellan, Levi Eldridge, F. A. Ray- 
 bold, and John R. McMullin, men that bore to you the 
 sacramental emblems, have all gone to join the 'four-and- 
 
QUARTER CENTURY SERMOX. 269 
 
 hi-enhj elders who stand before the Throne' of God in 
 heaven. Though I was their pastor, I felt, in regard to 
 some of them, willing to sit at their feet. In life and death 
 they were ensamples alike to the pastor and the flock. 
 
 " The beloved physicians have died, as others. We 
 have together stood at their open graves and wept that we 
 were to see them on earth no more. 
 
 "The mothers in Israel, 'noble women not a few,' true- 
 hearted wives, lovely maidens, and cherished little ones, 
 as well as young men in the pride of their manhood, we 
 have followed to their narrow house. 
 
 " I have stood at many a death-bed and many a grave 
 here, and spoken words of consolation, which my own 
 heart craved as deeply as yours. How could it be other- 
 wise when death was robbing me of my dearest, most 
 trusted earthly friends ? 
 
 " My most impressive recollections to-day are connected 
 with these scenes of bereavement and burial. By cholera, 
 by yellow fever, by water, and by fire ; by sudden violence, 
 ordinary disease, and expiring age ; by every form in which 
 death comes, I have met it among you. I have attended 
 more than eight hundred funerals of every age, color, char- 
 acter, and condition. I have gone to the grave-yard with 
 the poor and obscure ; a hearse and a few followers on 
 foot; and I have gone with the affluent and a numerous 
 train, and insisted on the vanity of earth by the coffins of 
 such men as John Price Wetherill, James Fassitt, Joel B. 
 Sutherland, A. II. Simmons, and F. A. Raybold. 
 
 " I have sat a hundred times in the dim light and close 
 atmosphere of the dying chamber, and with aching head 
 and heart have we watched and prayed while humanity 
 Avas struggling with life's last agonies. Little do those 
 know the heart of a pastor who regard him as a ' hireling ;' 
 giving so much service for so much money. His office, as 
 it widens his friendship, deepens his affections ; and sends 
 
270 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 him as a constant mourner to the grave of some friend ; or 
 veils him in the draper}' of the house of mourning, and 
 almost tixes his mansion in the valley of death. 
 
 " I have not spoken of my personal and family afflic- 
 tions, of sickness or of death. These I have only shared 
 with you. 
 
 "While we wept they have rejoiced. Our tears have 
 be.irun, where theirs were forever wiped away. ']iles>ied 
 are the dead ' of Old Pine Street Church, ' xvho have died 
 in the Lord; for they rest from their labors, and their 
 works dofolloio them.'' 
 
 "Remembered are the dead ! They have lain down, 
 Believing that when all our work is done 
 We would lie down beside them, — and be near 
 When the last trump shall summon, to fold up 
 The trusting flock, and with the promises, 
 Whose words could sweeten death. 
 Take up once more the interrupted strnin, 
 And wait Christ's coming, saying: 'Here am I, 
 And those whom thou hast given me .'' 
 
 " IT. JVe are allowed to-day to make a record of j^^^og- 
 ress. — But for the dark shade now over our Southern 
 horizon, I should like to allude to our national growth in 
 twenty-five years ; our augmented territory, our doubled 
 population, our increased commerce and wealth, our iron 
 roads and invented telegraphs and power-presses. Twenty- 
 five years have wrought great national changes. In the 
 winter of 1836 I came from Cincinnati to settle in this 
 church, by stage — a ten days' journey. It can now be 
 traveled in thirty hours. Our city then had not half of 
 its present population. It then numbered 237,000 ; now we 
 have GOO, 000.* The foundation of Girard College had just 
 
 * 800,000. 
 
QUARTER CENTURY SERMON. 271 
 
 been laid. The walls of the Old Walnut Street Prison were 
 standing at Sixth and Walnut. Two railroads, one to 
 Trenton and one to Columbia (on the first, horse-power 
 was used), were finished. Scarce a public school-house 
 had been erected in the city. We have made great prog- 
 ress physicallj, in twenty-five years. 
 
 " In religious affairs we have made also some advance. 
 Twenty-five years ago Philadelphia had about one hundred 
 churches of all denominations. Xow it has near four hun- 
 dred. Our N. S. Presbyterian denomination then had in 
 the city eleven churches; now we have twenty, though 
 we have failed to keep up with the population. 
 
 "When I came to this church-edifice it was barn like in 
 its aspects. We had no vestibule ; no lecture, Sunday- 
 school, nor business rooms. Our weekly lectures were 
 held in the great, dimly-lighted church ; our Sunday-school 
 in the high galleries and high-backed pews. We have not 
 dwelt 'in ceiled houses,' and allowed the house of our God 
 'to lie desolate.' By the appropriation of thirty thousand 
 dollars, all paid, you have made this edifice worthy of the 
 age and the cause to which it is devoted. 
 
 "And while we have cared for ourselves, we have not 
 been unmindful of others. You have given eighteen 
 hundred dollars to German Street Church ; five hundred 
 dollars to Camden Church ; fifteen hundred dollars to 
 Green Hill Church ; eight hundred dollars to Cedar Street 
 Church; seven hundred dollars to the Western Church. 
 With some three or four exceptions, every church of our 
 denomination in this city has received your contribution 
 in the last twenty-five years. 
 
 " We have not been unmindful of our great national 
 charities. In ' all seasons,' some twelve times in each 
 year, you have contributed to these causes ; and your 
 charities have generally averaged three and four thou- 
 sand dollars a year; and all told, would probably reach 
 
272 LIFE OF REV. THOSIAS BRAIXERD, D.D. 
 
 one hundred thousand dollars in the quarter of a century. 
 Every month we have had also a collection for the poor of 
 the church. Besides this, our 'Ladies' Dorcas Society' 
 has given each winter, to the indigent around us, at least 
 twelve hundred garments, making thirty thousand gar- 
 ments in twenty- live years. 
 
 " I have felt my responsibility to widen out the influ- 
 ence of the gospel, under Presbyterian forms, as I was 
 able, in this city. I counseled the purchase of Clinton 
 Street Church, and walked the streets for ten days solicit- 
 ing means to pay the fir.st indebtedness. Nine hundred 
 dollars were advanced by you. My ill health, which 
 drove me to Green Hill to reside, was the occasion of my 
 interest in building a church there ; and I gave two 
 months of successful labor toward erecting the Gothic 
 edifice on Girard Avenue, which I trust may echo the 
 gospel for a thousand years. 
 
 " I was one of four persons, including the Rev. Albert 
 Barnes, Dr. J. M. Paul, and the late Charles S. Wurts, 
 who met to devise the erection of Calvary Church. I 
 gave to that church the Thurf?day evenings of thirty-si.x 
 weeks ; begged for it among the wealthy ; subscribed five 
 hundred dollars, of which you returned me three hundred; 
 and traveled first and last near three thousand miles, to 
 find them an able pastor. It pays well ; for it is a fount- 
 ain of truth, at which generations shall quench their 
 thirst. 
 
 "By procuring your contributions to the amount of 
 nearly one thousand dollars, I Avas enaljled to aid in 
 building a beautiful little church, in a destitute town, on 
 the borders of the great Adirondack Forest of New York. 
 I went upwards of four hundred miles to preach at its 
 dedication. I have engaged in these enterprises with an 
 earnestness, anxiety, and self-denial such as I never bore 
 to any matter of personal gain, reputation, or enjoyment ; 
 
QUARTER CENTURY SERMON. 273 
 
 and the thought that the gospel will bo preached in these 
 temples long- after I am dead, is one of my sweetest re- 
 flections to-day. 
 
 "During my ministry here I have been called to deliver 
 an address at the laying of the corner-stone of Calvary 
 Church, Olivet Church, Walnut Street Church, W. P., 
 German Street Church, -Rising Sun Church, Norriton 
 Church, Reeseville Church, Camden Church, 0. S. Church 
 at Bridesburg, Third Church, Elizabethtown, N. J., Central 
 Church, Wilmington, Del., Rev. Mr. Dunning's Church, 
 Baltimore, and others. 
 
 "By order of Presbyter}", I organized Calvary Church, 
 Green Hill Church, Rising Sun Church, Camden Church, 
 Beverly Church, and some others. I was also present in 
 the little circle which planned the establishment of the 
 Presbyterian House, now a treasure to our denomination. 
 The Preahylerian QuarterJij Review originated in a coun- 
 cil of the late Dr. Gilbert, Dr. Parker, Rev. Mr. Barnes, 
 and myself. It has realized, under its able editor, all our 
 expectations. 
 
 " I have preached at the installation of the Rev. Dr. 
 Jenkins, Calvary Church ; Rev. Dr. Darling, Clinton 
 Street ; Rev. Dr. Patton, Western Church ; Rev. Mr. 
 Gould, Norristown ; Rev. Mr. Mears, Camden ; Rev. Mr. 
 Bliss, Beverly ; Rev. Mr. Eva, Kensington ; and of some 
 others which 1 do not now recall, as I keep no journal. 
 1 have never coveted these services, but have always 
 shrunk from them when duty would permit. 
 
 " In respect to all these enterprises outside of my 
 church, I have been only a co-laborer with my ministerial 
 brethren, especially with my friend, the Rev. Albert 
 Barnes, who, if he brought to the work less enthusiasm 
 and impulse, sustained it most effectually by the steadi- 
 ness of his purposes and the great weight of his character. 
 
 24 
 
2T4 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAIN ERD, D.D. 
 
 I may say of liim, after an acquaintance of t went}'- five 
 years, as my nearest clerical neighbor, that I have never 
 known a man whom I would prefer to labor by my side ; to 
 offer a last prayer by my dying-bed, or greet me first at the 
 open gate of heaven. His counsel, sympathy, companion- 
 ship, and friendly indorsement have been to me a source 
 of comfort and strength in all my ministry here. Neither 
 lie nor I have studied our own conifort and prospcu'ity 
 only. We have aided to build for our brethren better 
 church edifices than our own, with the certainty of dis- 
 missing to them some of our best members and our 
 warmest fi'iends. 
 
 "In these outside labors, I hope I have not robbed you. 
 I should condemn myself, if I could remember that any 
 interest or enjoyment elsewhere had ever bribed me to neg- 
 lect my duties here. As God has given me health and 
 grace, I have earnestly sought your welfai-e. I have 
 sought your profit more than 3'our praise ; and been more 
 anxious to bless, than to please you. Three times on the 
 Sabbath and twice in the week I have aimed to be 
 with you. I never allowed the love of ease, nor money, nor 
 pleasure to detain me from church services, when I suj)- 
 posed I could do you good. To a call from any sick-bed 
 or any house of sorrow among you, I have never been in- 
 sensible. I have never here courted the rich and slighted 
 the poor; I have not ambitiously made sermons to gain 
 a reputation for genius, learning, and taste, rather than to 
 benefit my people. I have not shrunk from the avowal of 
 any sentiment, however distasteful, if I thought truth de- 
 manded such avowal. 
 
 " Had I been a better man in heart, in prayer, in medita- 
 tion, in life, I should have done you more good ; but God 
 to-day gives me the consciousness that I have earnestly, 
 continuously, and often with great self-denial of my own 
 comfort, labored for youi- welfare. And here I cheerfully 
 
QUARTER CENTURY SERMON. 215 
 
 bear my testimony, at the end of twenty-five years, that 
 you have been most kind, considerate, indulgent, and often 
 generous to your pastor. To me and my family, with few 
 exceptions, you have all been faithful ; and, my dear people, 
 in the name of God I blens you to-day. 
 
 " Our union and peace have lasted twenty-five years, and 
 hence our prosperity. As a church we have had some 
 evils to struggle with. The occupation of the east part of 
 this city with business, has turned the tide of population 
 north and west ; to higher ground, larger space, and more 
 modern dwellings. This emigration, while it has entirely 
 broken up some churches, has had its effect on us. It has 
 taken away many of our best families. It tends to draw 
 away from Old Pine Street our children, when they marry 
 and settle in life. It gives a general feeling of insecurity 
 to all, as it makes our abidance in this vicinity doubtful. 
 
 " But in spite of all these causes, our church roll has not 
 been diminished. Hitherto our accessions have surpassed 
 our dismissions; so that we have six hundred and fifty 
 members. And those who have left us are not lost to us. 
 They are our missionaries to plant and sustain churches 
 elsewhere ; and they are now fulfilling their work. We 
 claim that they are our men still. And so we claim all 
 our old members in Green Hill, Calvary, Clinton Street, 
 and elsewhere. We believe their hearts cling to us, as our 
 love follows them. We ask them to cherish their own pas- 
 tors, and build up their own churches ; but though organ- 
 izations externally divide us, and distance separates, in 
 heart we are still one. Their old pastor claims the right 
 still to love and pray for them ; and if they are in trouble 
 and sorrow, he hopes to be with them in sympathy and 
 consolation. 
 
 " When I came to this church it enrolled four hundred 
 and fifty members; now we have six hundred and fifty. 
 The Sabbath-school had about twenty teachers and two 
 
276 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAIN ERD, D.D. 
 
 hundred scholars. Xow our Pine Street School has t\\'enty- 
 eight teachers and four hundred enrolled scholars; our 
 infant school, seventy f in the Robert Eaikes School we 
 have twenty-three teachers and two hundred and thirty 
 scholars, — making a total of sixty-three teachers, and seven 
 hundred and ten enrolled scholars. 
 
 "In respect to the youth, I ma}^ say, since the founda- 
 tion of this church, one hundred years ago, there has never 
 been a period when so many of the young were connected 
 with it as at the present time. This is hopeful and blessed. 
 For five years you know our Sunday evening prayer-meet- 
 ing has been under the special control of our young men. 
 It is a beautiful spectacle. The large room acconmiodating 
 some five hundred, thronged with youth of both sexes; the 
 middle aisle set out with camp-stools and filled with young 
 men ; the faces of all radiant with youth, health, and happi- 
 ness ; the sacred songs and exhortations, all tinged with 
 youthful earnestness and enthusiasm ; it is good to be there ! 
 Most tenderly has my heart yearned over the young people 
 of my charge, and I have had delightful evidence that they 
 give me their confidence in return. May I be allowed to 
 lead them all to Him who, looking upon a young man, 
 ' loved him.' 
 
 " In twenty-five years I have baptized here over eight 
 hundred ; married over seven hundred couple ; and ad- 
 mitted more tlian one thousand to the communion of the 
 church. One generation has gone ; but another has risen 
 under m}' labors to praise the Lord.' 
 
 " Time will not allow me to speak as I would like of our 
 spiritual conflicts and triumphs; of our hundred commu- 
 vions ; of our half a score of precious revivals. These we 
 shall remember in heaven. 
 
 " V. The years loast give ua a record of solemn adino- 
 nili'jn. — We shall never meet on another such anniversarv. 
 
COMMEMORATION FESTIVAL. 27t 
 
 T went}"- five yoavs are g-one since I first preached within 
 these walls. AVhat a startling portion of human life! 
 
 " The old persons I met here — they are all dead ; the 
 middle-aged, they are bent with years, and are blossoming 
 for the grave. The little children are men and women, 
 waiting for the same change. ' AVe all do fade as a leaf.' 
 ' Work while the day lasts, for the night cometh.' 
 
 " My gifted predecessors, Rev. Drs. Milledoller, Alex- 
 ander, and Ely, have all died since I came here. I am the 
 sole survivor of the pastors of this old church. Patterson, 
 Carroll, Chandler, Rood, J. W. Scott, Gilbert, McKnight, 
 Judson, Ramsey, Eustace, Judd, Harris, Gloucester, and 
 Templeton ; many of them my cherished friends ; they are 
 all ill the grave. Rev. Drs. Ashbel Green, William Xeill, 
 C. C. Cuyler, and Rev. Messrs. McCalla, Douglas, Macklin, 
 Cheeseman, Loughridge, Winchester, Tudehope, and Ripley 
 — my Old School brethi'on ; they have all fallen by my side. 
 I now live in Philadelphia among new men. My old asso- 
 ciates are in heaven. May God give me grace to be ready 
 to follow them ! 
 
 "While I ask a place still in your hearts and your 
 prayers, I would urge upon you, as a matter of infinitely 
 greater moment, that you make here a solemn covenant to 
 consecrate your hearts' affections, and 3-our whole being 
 to that Saviour who says, ' Be thou faUhful unto death, 
 and I will give thee a crown of life.'' " 
 
 COMMEMORATION FES'IIVAL. 
 
 It was thought proper by the congregation of Old Pine 
 Street Church to mark the Quarter Century Anniversary 
 of their pastor's settlement, by a public manifestation of 
 their confidence and affection. The mode adopted and the 
 
 24* 
 
278 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRATXERD, D.D. 
 
 proceedings are narrated in the following* report, which 
 Ave copy substantially from the American Presbyterian, 
 whose editor, llev. J, W. Mears, was present at the 
 Festival : 
 
 "Monday evening, February 17th, through one of the 
 worst storms which have been so numerous during this 
 Avinter, six hundred persons, members and ex-members of 
 the Third Church, with a few invited guests, assembled iu 
 Sansom Street Hall, to celebrate the Quarter Century of 
 the existing pastoral relation It was a goodly, a cheer- 
 ful, a happy company. The middle-aged and the old were 
 there. One venerable lady, in her nineties, moved, with 
 slight assistance, among the throng, receiving many atten- 
 tions and entering with zest into the enjoyments of the 
 occasion. But youth, too, was well and abundantly repre- 
 sented there, proving that the old stock has plenty of vital- 
 ity and promise for the future yet. The character of the 
 Festival has been Avell hit by one of our contemporaries, 
 the Evening Bulletin, who styles it ' such a family gather- 
 ing as is but seldom seen in this cold and selfish world.' 
 There was order without restraint or formality ; there was 
 true Christian cheerfulness and hilarity. From the pastor 
 and the presiding officer, Mr. John C. Farr, down through 
 the whole compan}^, ease and cordiality marked the manners 
 of all ; while mutual congratulations were frequeiitly ex- 
 changed between the honored pastor and an appreciative 
 people. There Avere not Avanting representatives of our 
 noble army mingling with the throng. Thirty-four young 
 men of the congregation are in the field; and one of these, 
 an officer of the church, Mr. William Ivins, appeared in 
 regimentals as lieutenant in the Curtin Life Guards. And 
 the exciting and glorious news of the fall of Fort Donel- 
 son, just received, threw a peculiar and elastic element 
 into the grateful jo}" of the occasion itself. 
 
COMMEMORATIOX FESTIVAL. 279 
 
 " At a quai'ter past eight o'clock, Mr. Robert J. fiercer, 
 Chairman of the Committee of Arrangement, called those 
 who had assembled in the reception-room to order; when 
 the Secretary, Mr. George Young, read the general order 
 to be preserved at the table, and announced the names of 
 the officers appointed for the evening. 
 
 "The summons to supper came at half-past eight 
 o'clock, on which important occasion John C. Farr, Esq., 
 presided, the Stars and Stripes being gracefully festooned 
 behind his seat. He was assisted by Messrs. Alexander 
 Whilldin, Captain W. Whilldin, D. C. McCammon, K. J. 
 Mercer, Samuel Work, A. Getty, John Wallace, W. Tay- 
 lor, and B. Webb. Among the invited guests were "Rev. 
 A. Barnes, Rev. Dr. Jenkins, Rev. John McLeod, Rev. 
 Dr. Wallace, Rev. John W. Mears, Rev. A. Culver, and 
 others. After the officers had been announced, grace was 
 said by Dr. Jenkins, and the company proceeded to dis- 
 cuss the good things set before them. When sufficient 
 time had elapsed to do justice to this important part of 
 the celebration, the Star-spangled Banner was sung, 
 Lieutenant Ivins leading, and the whole company joining 
 most heartily in the chorus. 
 
 REMARKS OF DR. BRAINERD. 
 
 "Dr. Brainerd was first called for, and on rising was 
 received with a jjerfect ovation of applause, which the 
 people scarcely seemed to know how to bring to an end. 
 When order was restored, Dr. Brainerd commenced by 
 saying that he was sure he had none too much modesty, 
 but that after such a welcome he felt doubtful how to pro- 
 ceed. The chairman, he said, was very kind in giving me 
 an introduction to this audience. I have had a slight ac- 
 quaintance with them. And I can say of my people that 
 Avhile I commenced ray ministry with a proper estimate of 
 them, an acquaintance of twenty-five years has only in- 
 
280 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRATXERD, D.D. 
 
 creased my esteem and regard. Every sentiment of affec- 
 tion on your part is fully reciprocated. The present is not 
 the time for pathos, nor for recalling those chapters of our 
 histor}' that so touch the heart. This is the time to take 
 the mercies of God, and felicitate ourselves. For my- 
 self, I never supped uith so many friends before, and I 
 never expect to again. I have dined with crowds often, 
 but never before was able to recognize in every face a 
 friend. 
 
 " A ministry of twenty-five years is likely to develop 
 character. When I came among you I was relatively a 
 young man. By your kindness and indulgence you have 
 made a Quarter of a Century of ray life pleasant to me. 
 There has been almost no shade on my mind in regard to 
 my congregation. I have never had a difficulty with 
 them. I have never distrusted you, nor you me. In a 
 connection which has lasted so long, such a fact marks a 
 great deal of kindness, of conscientiousness, and of self- 
 restraint. I have had an eldership which has enjoyed 
 my perfect confidence. Except on some rare occasions, 
 we have never had a negative vote. When we have had 
 differences of opinion, we have differed as gentlemen. I 
 have uniformly been sustained by them in my labors. A 
 great part of the peace, prosperity, and unity of the church 
 I attribute to the eldership, some of whom are in heaven. 
 And the Trustees of Pine Street Church have been con- 
 scientious, reliable, and true-hearted men. Though we 
 have expended thirty thousand dollars in repairs. Pine 
 Street Church owes no man a dollar. I have been met in 
 the congregation with a spirit of Christian activity. There 
 was no worthy object for which I could not summon the 
 energy of my people. And I have been able to move 
 to outside enterprises, because they have carried the people 
 with them. 
 
 '• We have felt the pressure of the migration to the 
 
COMMEMORATION FESTIVAL. 281 
 
 westward and northward of our city. "We have parted 
 with many of our best members, who have g-one to engage 
 in new enterprises in that direction. But those who have 
 gone out from us are still with us. By the blessing of our 
 heavenly Father, our church still has numbers, unity, and 
 strength. If you will look around upon these happy 
 groups — upon these noble young men and these blooming 
 maidens — you will see that Old Pine Street Church has 
 hope of prosperity in years yet to come. 
 
 "I have known some pastors who sympathized with 
 humanity, ' not as God made it, but as the tailor made it.' 
 I have not been of that class. The people of Pine Street 
 Churcli have not been what is called 'fashionalile.' They 
 generally slept in the night and kept awake in the day- 
 time. They have lived in houses that they owned, or the 
 rent of which has been paid. If they walked in Chestnut 
 Street, they owned the garments and bonnets in which 
 they were arrayed. In the vear 1857, not a single indi- 
 vidual in the congregation failed. We are a very unfash- 
 ionable people, very! Another unfashionable feature is 
 that we believe religion to be eminently social. Hence 
 there is great shaking of hands at our gatherings; a great 
 deal of tarrying to inquire after one another's welfare ; 
 much kindly greeting and friendly feeling that has grown 
 up in thirty years. If respectability depends on sub.stan- 
 tial qualities, on general culture, or on a disposition to do 
 right to all men, I claim that Pine Street Church falls 
 below no other in this particular. 
 
 "I sustain peculiar relations to many of this assemblage. 
 One of the pleasant things in my Quarter Century is the 
 fact that I have been able to organize so many Iiappy families 
 among 3'ou. How many couple have stood up to receive my 
 blessing! Let all here present, whom I have thus unitetl, 
 lift up their hands and lift them high, so that they can be 
 seen. (A forest of hands, male and female, twinkled in the 
 
282 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 air.) Xow let all who expect me to perform the same 
 office for them, raise their hands ! (Xot a few hands raised 
 again.)" 
 
 [After the merriment occasioned by this characteristic 
 sallj had subsided the doctor resumed :] 
 
 "I can only say, in conclusion, that I have a feeling of 
 profound gratitude to my congregation who have l)een so 
 kind as to meet with me on this occasion. I am grateful 
 to them for regarding the termination of my twenty-five 
 years as worthy of such a demonstration. Why, as to the 
 news we have heard to-day, I don't know but the capture 
 of Fort Donelson will be remembered by the coincidence! 
 (Prolonged cheering and merriment.) But I cannot sit 
 down without acknowledging my obligations to other con- 
 gregations. Especially have I been sustained always by 
 the weight of character, excellent influence, and kind heart 
 of my good Brother Barnes. I owe much, also, to other 
 ministers of our church. And with the ministry of other 
 denominations in this city, I have had no dissension. The 
 onh' exception to this was when my brethren of the 'Old 
 School' turned me out of the church ; an act which I cer- 
 tainly felt deeply. Otherwise, I have lived in peace with 
 all during my entire ministry among you. For some 
 reason — no merit of mine — the newspaper press has always 
 been my ally ; and I take this opportunity to acknowledge 
 my obligations to the Press, which has treated my name 
 and character with so much kindness. 
 
 "In conclusion, I desire to renew the covenant entered 
 into with you a Quarter of a Century ago ; and I promise 
 with the help of niy Master to Ije more faithful in the per- 
 formance of my duties among you. 
 
 REMARKS OF MR. BARNES. 
 
 " A loud call having been made for Mr. Barnes, he rose, 
 and, referring to Mark Antony's speech over Julius Caesar, 
 
COMMEMORATWX FESTIVAL. 283 
 
 said that while he did not come to bury Dr. Braiiicrd — it 
 ■would be more in the order of nature for Dr. Braincrd to 
 perform that ofBce for him — neither had he come to praise 
 him. Yet, he said, it is not improper in the position we 
 occupy, to refer to the manner of our intercourse. Wc 
 were brought up in the same part of the country. It so 
 happened that Dr. Braincrd came to the same town — Eomc 
 — and that we joined the church under the same pastor. 
 There we both gave ourselves to the Saviour; tliere Ave 
 both consecrated ourselves to the work of the ministry. 
 Contrary to my early ambition and to the brightest dreanj 
 of my life, I was brought to this city ; and here Dr. Brainerd 
 has been on my right hand at all times. I confess he has 
 always been ahead of me. If there was ever a smart thing 
 to be said, he said it before I could ; or if there was a good 
 thing to be done, he was sure to do it before I did. Yet 
 he has been one Avith whom I have taken sweet counsel. 
 He has been a faithful and true man as a personal friend. 
 
 " You see I am not a young man now. I was young 
 Avhen I came here. It is a marvel, a wonder to me that I 
 ever did come ; that I dared to come to this great city, and 
 allow myself to be put in the situation I occupy; that I 
 dared to become the successor of that trulv great man. 
 Dr. Wilson. I have remained here till I have seen changes 
 in every Presbyterian church. Old and Is^ew School (un- 
 less Mr. Chambers be excepted), in every Scotch, German 
 Reformed, Episcopal, Baptist, Moravian, and of course, 
 Methodist church. 
 
 "I have lived while the ministers of all have passed away 
 except Messrs. Chambers and Furness. I look back with 
 interest over the names of those who have passed away 
 from this and other congregations in that period. There 
 are Sanford and Eustace and Scott, and Judson, and Pat- 
 terson, and Gloucester, and Templeton, and Gilbert, and 
 llamsav, and Elv, and others, whom I cannot at this 
 
284 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 moment recall, — they have gone. I remember that I owe 
 not a little to Pine Street Church and its pastors. The 
 fact that I am now a minister in the Presbyterian Church 
 is due to the predecessor of Dr. Brainerd. At a moment 
 Avhen I sat in deep distress of mind on the point of declar- 
 ing myself no longer a member of the body, he laid his 
 hand kindly upon my shoulder, and held me down. Yery 
 much do I owe to Dr. Ely ; I cannot repay him in this 
 world, or in the next either. Soon after I came to this city, 
 I was thrown into a fiery furnace of trial ; I shoidd have 
 sunk again and again, but for Dr. Ely, then editor of the 
 Fhiladelplnan* who became my warm friend, and ad- 
 mitted freely to his paper articles in my defense. He was, 
 indeed, a strong, warm, personal friend. He made sac- 
 rifices for me — not, indeed, exclusively for me, but for tiie 
 cause in which we were both engaged. He was a true 
 friend — a life-long friend. I shall remember his kindness 
 till I lay my head in the grave. 
 
 " It is affecting to think that we are so far along in life. 
 It is much, very much to have passed through such an 
 extent of life, and to have maintained a position like this 
 of Dr. Brainerd's under such circumstances. One occasion 
 of gratitude lies in the fact that changes in the pastoral 
 relation are so common. That a pastor, after a connec- 
 tion of twenty-five years, can come before an assembly 
 like this, exliibiting so many evidences of youth and vigor, 
 and be received with such expressions of cordiality and 
 enthusiasm as you have manifested to-night, is truly a 
 matter of profound congratulation. Mr. Barnes was heard 
 with deep and respectful attention, and sat down amid the 
 applause of the people. 
 
 -•■■ A religious paper, printed and published by William F. GcdJes, from 
 1825 to 1835. 
 
COMMEMORATION FESTIVAL. 285 
 
 REMAPaCS OF DR. JENKINS. 
 
 " The Kev. Dr. Jenkins, having been called upon to 
 address the meeting-, said : 
 
 "Mr. Chairman and Christian Friends: — I was 
 brought up in my own country under the regime of 
 'Breakfast Meetings' and 'Tea Meetings,' and am glad 
 that I am this evening permitted to behold a scene such 
 as that which now presents itself before me, and to be in 
 this way reminded of ' days of old' and of ' ancient times.' 
 All the arrangements of the evening — the order and de- 
 corum of this large assemblage — are gratifying to me, as 
 they must be to those who have had the labor of provid- 
 ing for us this Christian entertainment. Truly, I have 
 never witnessed a more orderly — shall I add ? — happy 
 company, in any country. 
 
 "I congratulate Dr. Brainerd on being privileged to 
 enjoy this ' silver wedding' with the people of his love. 
 I am tempted to wish that he may live long enough to 
 enjoy a ' golden wedding' with Old Pine Street congrega- 
 tion ; such an event does not lie beyond the range of prob- 
 ability, for if my reverend and venerable brother's life be 
 prolonged twenty-five years more, he will not then have 
 reached the age of some who are now present, though I 
 cannot deny that he will be older than he is to-day. 
 
 "Some eight years ago, your pastor, in company with 
 Mr. Barnes, visited Montreal, for the purpose of inducing 
 me to transfer my presence and labors to this city. I am 
 glad to meet them both here this evening ; and to have 
 the opportunity of testifying to the faithfulness with which 
 they have redeemed the pledges which they then volun- 
 teered, namely, to stand by me in the prosecution of the 
 arduous duties upon which they were inviting me to enter 
 The fact to which I refer has, in my own esteem, created 
 
 25 
 
28G LIFE OF BEV. THOMAS BRAIXERD, D.D. 
 
 a sort of relationship between us which neither time nor 
 distance can ever extinguish. 
 
 " It is a great thing for the Pine Street Church and 
 congregation that they have enjoyed the services of one 
 pastor for a Quarter of a Centuiy. It is an honor to 
 pastor and to people equally, that the relations between 
 them have been so long and so harmoniously maintained. 
 In the progress of his address this evening, my reverend 
 friend solemnly renewed his pastoral covenant with you. 
 May I not charge his people to follow his example, and to 
 renew their covenant with him ; that they will succor and 
 uphold him ; that they will care for him and sympathize 
 with him ; that they will pray for him ? 
 
 "Other brief addresses were delivered; one in particu- 
 lar by Rev. Theron Baldwin, Secretary of the Collegiate 
 Education Society, who shrewdly traced a connection 
 between this occasion and the fall of Fort Donelson. 
 The influence which Dr. Brainerd exerted, when in the 
 Great West himself, and which he has always exerted as 
 the active friend of education in the West, has aided to 
 train the brave soldiers of that region, and prepare them 
 fur the great work they are accomplishing for the Republic. 
 The intense feelings of the people found vent at this men- 
 tion of our glorious victory in a great and prolonged out- 
 burst of applause. 
 
 " William Talcott, Esq., an Elder in the First Presby- 
 terian Church, Jersey City, said he had been invited as an 
 early friend of the pastor of Pine Street Church. He 
 had been a school-mate of Dr. Brainerd ; be had known 
 him when he wms a student of law, and when, in the 
 great religious revival at Rome, Xew York, he gave his 
 heart to the Saviour. He united with the church with 
 Dr. Brainerd; sat down with him at the first communion. 
 He loved him then, and was glad to be present to con- 
 gratulate him at his Quarter Century Festival. 
 
COMMEMORATION FESTIVAL. 287 
 
 "Mr. P. B. Simons, being- call(Ml up, said : — T)r. Brai- 
 nerd, in his remarks, j^ave many proofs tliat his congreji-a- 
 tion are not fashionable, — a truth which is now being de- 
 monstrated. The fashionable world is just about setting 
 out to pass the evening, while we are all anxious at this 
 point to get back to our homes. 
 
 " Mr. President, I too, with others who have spoken, 
 have sacred memories crowding upon me of by-gone days, 
 passing before my mind like some great panorama, but, 
 like all other pictures, with its light and shade. Yes, sir, 
 it is not all bright. There are forms and features that we 
 do not see to-night that were wont to meet with us upon 
 such jo\'ous occasions. Well do I remember the old 
 church with its square pews, and the old grave-yard 
 which contains the sacred dust of those we loved, and the 
 old Green's Court Session Room with its little Sabbath- 
 school ; and how fresh in my mind is the voice of the 'old 
 man eloquent,' who broke to us the bread of life from the 
 old-fashioned pulpit. ****** 
 
 " And I remember, too, when the new pastor came how 
 anxious we were to see his face and hear his voice ; how 
 we listened as our curiosity was being gratified ; how an 
 interest was awakened as we listened that Ave had never 
 felt before ; and then how soon after we were found twice 
 a week in the study to talk upon a subject we had so 
 often promised to attend to, and to this time had always 
 neglected. 
 
 " Mr. President, of all other emotions that fill my heart 
 to-night, the greatest is that of gratitude ; that I, with 
 many here around me, in the providence of God was per- 
 mitted to receive my early religious training in the Old 
 Pine Street Church. I stand before you to-night as the 
 first fruits of Dr. Brainerd's ministrv in this city; and I 
 will close my remarks by offering a sentiment — yes, some- 
 thing more sacred than a sentiment — a prayer, in which 
 
288 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRATNERD, D.D. 
 
 you will all join, that the beloved pastor may live to cele- 
 brate the Fiftieth Anniversary of his ministry ; and that 
 ' Old Pine Street Church' may stand for ages untold as a 
 beacon light upon the shores of time to point way-woru 
 mariners to the haven of eternal rest. 
 
 "The speaking and social congratulations were con- 
 tinued until half-past ten o'clock, when the meeting 
 was dismissed with the Apostolic Benediction by the 
 pastor." 
 
 Fraternal Eesponse from Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. 
 A CHURCH SILVER WEDDING. 
 
 From 'TAe Independent,'' February 27th, 1862. 
 
 " The twenty-fifth anniversary of his pastorate over the 
 Pine Street Church was recently celebrated by Dr. Brai- 
 nerd and his parishioners, in Philadeli)hia. The occasion 
 seems to have been deej)ly interesting. There are few 
 such scenes on earth as such a Christian meeting. A 
 quarter of a century in a pastor's life ! How many children 
 have grown up into manhood about him ; how many that 
 Avere young have become old ; how many of the aged are 
 not, because God hath taken them ! What hours of trouble 
 has his presence cheered ! how many have been consoled 
 in sickness, counseled in difficulties, succored in temptation, 
 rebuked and entreated ! How many have been aroused 
 and led through the dark way, and to the rising light 
 of the Sun of righteousness ! Ko other profession lies so 
 close upon the border of disinterested benevolence, or deals 
 so nearly with absolute truth as the gospel ministry. Its 
 Avhole aim is to make men good and noble. It has its cares 
 and burdens. But they are fewer than in any other call- 
 ing, and its joys and p'easures are a hundredfold greater. 
 
A CHURCH SILVER WEDDING. 2S9 
 
 Even in the rudest settlements, amid the discomforts of 
 pioneer life, with weariness, sickness, and poverty, such is 
 the incomparable joy of a true minister of Christ, that he 
 would not relinquish his privilege of suffering- with Christ 
 for any earthly boon. 
 
 "Althoug-h somewhat late, Dr. Brainerd will allow 
 us to add our congratulations to those of his immediate 
 parishioners, and our good wishes for his future prosper- 
 ity. He will not forget the da3"s when Cincinnati had 
 scant thirty thousand inhabitants; when its manufactories 
 were just struggling into existence ; when he labored in 
 true missionary spirit along the river, among the strag- 
 gling population that was then fnnging the city! 
 
 " He will not forget, either, the Cincinnati Journal, 
 published by Corey and Fairbanks, and edited by one 
 Thomas Brainerd, whose pen filled it with pointed sen- 
 tences and brilliant paragraphs. He will not forget the great 
 controversy between the Old and New School Presbyte- 
 rians ; the divided Presbyteries, the vigilant watch which 
 each side kept upon the other ; the tactics that prevailed 
 to prevent a sudden vote being sprung upon a thin house. 
 He will not be likely to forget the renowned conflict in 
 Presbytery and Synod between Drs. Wilson and Beecher. 
 The Presbyterian church on Fourth Street, in Cincinnati, 
 will alwa3's be memorable for the grand debate between 
 these two champions of the Old and the New. 
 
 " Dr. Brainerd will perhaps remember venerable Dr. 
 Bishop, too, President of Miami University, learned in 
 Scotch learning — w'hose tongue could never forget the 
 Scotch accent and twist — who was a sound theologian, 
 but a yet sounder man. Over six feet high, if he would 
 only stand up, which he seldom did, with light hair, and 
 very little of it, of a blue eve, under a high and broad fore- 
 head, with a face reverend and full of benignity. 
 
 " We see the noble old doctor, in the lecture-room of the 
 25* 
 
290 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 Second Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, walking up and 
 down ill the l)ack of tlie room, calm and sweet-faced, while 
 the battle of disputation was raging in the front part. As 
 the heat became dangerous, the discussion was suddenly 
 arrested by a voice. All looked at the old doctor, now 
 turned full upon them, and straightened up to his full 
 height; and with a voice clear, firm, commanding, but not 
 loud, — ' Moderator, sing Salva-a-tion.' Then one might 
 have seen a sight worthy of Rembrandt's pencil. Some 
 ready singer instantly raised the tune, ' Salvation, oh the 
 joyful sound.' Very joyful, to men hot with argument ; 
 to good men red in the face ; to men pushing an adversary 
 with fierce logical fidelity ! But, the hymn over, the old 
 man walked slowly and solemnly up and down as before, 
 while the members recommenced the business, quite soothed 
 and softened. But, in an hour, the flame was again shoot- 
 ing forth to every part of the room, when suddenly the 
 strong Scotch accent sounded out peace again, — ' Modera- 
 tor, let us pra-ay !' Some resented such interruption. One 
 man overhastily blurted out, 'Mr. Moderator, this is too 
 bad; it's no time for prayer now.' But the absurdity of 
 the protest by a minister among ministers, set every one 
 to laughter, which always humanizes — and to prayer they 
 had to come. 
 
 " Dr. Brainerd was sent to the General Assembly meet- 
 ing at Philadelphia. Having a taste of his preaching, the 
 Pine Street Church had the good sense to want more. 
 Accepting a settlement, the Cincinnati Journal needed 
 an editor. There was at that time in the middle class of 
 Lane Seminary a green young man of some facility of 
 pen. He had written a series of anonymous articles on the 
 Catholic question in the evening paper edited by Mr. 
 Thomas. He was considered rather 'tonguey,' and not 
 likely to back down from anything for want of hopefulness 
 and self-confidence. Him Dr. Brainerd called to the chair; 
 
HISTORY OF PINE STREET CHURCH. 291 
 
 and, on relinquishing the editorship, recommended this 
 beardless youth to the proprietors of the journal as his suc- 
 cessor. One fine morning* this young man found himself 
 an editor upon a salary ! An editor must have a coat ; 
 and riatt Evans made a lion-skin overcoat that has never 
 had a successor or equal. He must have a watch ! A 
 plain white-faced g'old watch soon ticked in his pocket. 
 Alas ! evil days befell the publishers. Even Gallaher's 
 Watts Entire could not save them. The paper had a new 
 owner. He did not want the young- editor. The young 
 editor did want the watch, but could not pay for it ; the 
 seller took it back, to the great grief of the young theolo- 
 gian, who went back disconsolate to his classes at Lane 
 Seminary, and was broken-hearted for a whole day. The 
 3'oung man recovered, and has been in mischief ever since, 
 some folks think. 
 
 " But our dear Dr. Brainerd has been steadily working, 
 in season and out, with fervent spirit and fertile brain and 
 sympathetic heart. Hundreds have gone home to glory 
 from his spiritual family. Hundreds are on the way. 
 Long may it be before he shall meet his heavenly church! 
 But when that day shall come, may he find Him whom he 
 has served so long nearest to his emerging spirit ; and 
 then, in radiant crowds, and with overflowing joy, those 
 who shall bring him into that sacred city to which he had 
 first directed them." 
 
 In the short history of Pine Street Church, before 
 alluded to, published in 1857, Dr. Brainerd says of the 
 church : 
 
 " The people among themselves and toward their pastor 
 have ' studied the things that make for peace.' The pastor 
 has loved the people of his charge, identified himself with 
 
202 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 tlieir interests, confided in them, and never been dissatis- 
 fied with iiis lot, nor disappointed in their affection. 
 ********* 
 
 " For almost a century the church has, at no time, been 
 left desolate. It has yiever quarreled xcilh one of its six 
 pastors. Xo pastor ever left ' Old Pine Street Church' 
 but of his own choice, and for what he regarded as a 
 better field for health or usefulness. God's ministers have 
 ever been treated with kindne.-^s, forbearance, and respect. 
 The church has enjoyed nearly one hundred years of uni- 
 form peace, competence, and prosperity, and was never 
 more influential, hopeful, and happy than at the present 
 time. It has been always characterized by great good fel- 
 lowship among the members, rich and poor; by an earnest 
 love to pra3'er-meetings and revivals of religion ; by a de- 
 sire to hear plain truths in plain language, and by a will- 
 ingness to labor and sacrifice, for the general interests of 
 the church of God. As the fathers have passed awa}^, 
 God has so replenished the church by revivals of religion, 
 and so ' turned the hearts of the children' to the good ways 
 of their fathers, that the congregation has, in its age, all 
 the enthusiasm and energy of a fresh manhood. 
 
 " The following hymn, composed by the pa.stor for the 
 children of the Sabbath-school, has been often sung in the 
 old church. We insert it here, in the hope that it will be 
 sung there, by hearts as warm, for one hundred years to 
 come : 
 
 "'OLD PINE STREET CHURCH.'" 
 
 " Tune — ' There is a happy luiid.' 
 
 " Old Pine Street Church I love ! 
 Full ninety years — 
 Leading the heart above, 
 An J hushing fears — 
 
SABBATH-SCHOOL HYMN. 293 
 
 Its ancient walls have stood, 
 Reared by the wise and good, 
 To yield a balm, that could 
 Dry human tears. 
 
 "Old Pine Street Church I prize; 
 And well I may ; 
 My mother in yon skies 
 Here learned the way : 
 My father too here trod 
 The way that leads to God ; 
 He sleeps beneath yon sod; 
 Here let me pray ! 
 
 " And shorter graves are near 
 Thy sacred fane ; 
 My gentle sister dear 
 
 They here have lain ; 
 My brother too here sleeps, 
 Where rose or wild-flower creeps, 
 And love in sadness weeps 
 The early slain. 
 
 "Old Pine Street Church, my heart 
 
 Still clings to thee ; 
 I well may claim a part 
 
 In each old tree ; 
 For in their summer shade 
 My early footsteps strayed. 
 And my first vows were made, 
 
 Oh, God, to Thee ! 
 
 " Old Pine Street Church, thy gates 
 Yet open stand ; 
 And there in mercy waits 
 
 The Teacher band — 
 Who' by the truth would guide 
 All to the Saviour's side, 
 And through Him open wide 
 A better land. 
 
 " Old Pine Street Church !— that hour 
 When life is o'er, 
 And sin with tempting power 
 Can vex no more ; 
 
294 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 Oh, let ray grave be found 
 In thy long cherished ground, 
 Where saint? may me surround 
 Till time is o'er." 
 
 During Dr. Brainerd's ministry of thirty years, lie re- 
 ceived to the communion of the church over twelve hun- 
 dred members ; l)aptized more than eight hundred persons ; 
 attended one thousand and eighty funerals ; and solem- 
 nized over eight hundred marriages. 
 
 The Synod of Pennsylvania met at Wilmington, Dela- 
 Avare, October, 18G2. The preamble and resolutions on 
 " The State of the Country," were drawn up and offered 
 by Dr. Brainerd. In the following year the Synod met at 
 Washington, D. C, and the action of the last General 
 Assembly was adopted as the expression of its views on 
 this subject. 
 
 Rev. John C. Smith, D D., Moderator, Eev. Thomas 
 Brainerd, and Rev. E. E. Adams were appointed a com- 
 mittee to wait upon the President and inquire when it 
 would be convenient for him to receive the Synod. 
 
 " Thursday, Oct. 22d, 186.3. 
 
 " The Synod proceeded in a body to the Presidential 
 Mansion, and were introduced in the East Room to Presi- 
 dent Lincoln, by Rev. J. C. Smith, D.D., Chairman of the 
 Committee. Brief addresses were made by the Modera- 
 tor, Rev. W. Aikman, and by Rev. T. Brainerd, D.D., 
 and Rev. E. E. Adams, members of the Committee. The 
 President briefly responded, recognizing the hand of Provi- 
 dence in his elevation to his present position at this crisis, 
 and his dependence upon God and upon the sympathies 
 and prayers of ' the noble churches of which the Synod 
 were the noble representatives. ' After which the mem- 
 bers of the Synod took the President by the hand and 
 pa.^^sed out, most favorably and deeply impressed with the 
 
THE SYNOD'S VISIT TO PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 295 
 
 unaffected manners and devout expressions of our Chief 
 Magistrate. 
 
 Although expecting the Synod by appointment, Presi- 
 dent Lincoln was unavoidably detained for some minutes. 
 He sent a characteristic message to the Synod, telling the 
 clergymen that " The\^ must fall back on the Old Testa- 
 ment, and exercise the patience of Job." 
 
CHAPTER XIY. 
 
 CURRENT EVENTS — ANECDOTES. 
 
 THERE ahvays Pcemed to be a general impression 
 among the intimate friends of Dr. Brainerd that his 
 mental structure peculiar]}' fitted him for the legal profes- 
 sion. When an abstruse or knotty question came up for 
 discussion in the "Pastoral Association," it was quite 
 common for some one to say, " Let us hear what the law- 
 yer says about it," referring to Dr. Brainerd. 
 
 Speaking of the pecuniary sacrifices of the ministerial 
 calling, Rev. Albert Barnes once said in the " Associa- 
 tion," that " Dr. Brainerd could have made twelve thou- 
 sand dollars a year b}' the law as easih^ as he could make 
 one thousand ; therefore, he has given fen thousand dollars 
 a year for the privilege of j)reaching the gospel.''^ 
 
 In a pleasant interchange of compliments, published in 
 the American Presbyterian, in 1861, Mr. Barnes said of 
 his fellow-laborer : 
 
 " He was entering on his career with every prospect of 
 the most brilliant success, and with a moral certainty of 
 reaching the highest eminence in his profession. Had he 
 continued to devote himself to the law, long ere this time 
 he would have been in the first rank in that profession. 
 But the heart of the young la\v3'er was changed by the 
 grace of God, and he resolved at once to abandon his 
 chosen profession. ******* 
 
 " For twenty-five years he has been the pastor of the 
 (296) 
 
CURRENT EVENTS. 297 
 
 Old Pine Street Church, in this city. During all that 
 time, though often struggling with feeble health, by his 
 unequalcd mastery of language, by his strength of logic, 
 by his striking and commanding power of thought, by his 
 comprehensive views, by his tact and talent in grasping 
 his subject, and in infusing the warmth of his own soul 
 and his own enthusiasm into the hearts of his hearers, by 
 his unflinching fidelity to truth and to his own denomination, 
 and his rebukes of bigotry, injustice^, and wrong; by his 
 influence over men of thought and wealth ; by his firm 
 opposition to all that was intended to alienate or divide 
 the churches ; by his warm advocacy of the great causes 
 of truth and charity, and by his faithfulness as a preacher 
 and a pastor, he has, by the grace of God, made himself 
 in the ministry what he would have been at the bar — a 
 man felt to be needful in our city, a man that ' Old Pine 
 Street' could not spare, a man that his brethren could not 
 spare from the ministry here." 
 
 In Dr. Brainerd's daily horseback rides, he often en- 
 countered friends whose society gave a social zest to the 
 exercise. Among these, the Rev. Dr. Newton, of the 
 Episcopal Church, whom he had known and loved for 
 many years, was always a welcome companion on the road. 
 Riding home together one evening, they agreed to go out 
 in company the next morning before breakfast. Each was 
 to ride toward the hou.se of the other, by a given route, 
 until they should meet. Mr. Brainerd was a little behind 
 time in the morning, and met Dr. Newton within a square 
 of his house. Forestalling the merited rebuke for his 
 tardiness, Mr. Brainerd exclaimed, " This is just what I 
 expected of you, Dr. Newton ; I knew you would meet the 
 Presbyterians more than half way !" 
 
 In May, 1862, the body of Major-General Charles F. 
 Smith, who died of wounds received ia the capture of 
 
 26 
 
298 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAIKERD, D.D. 
 
 Fort Donelson, was brought home to his native citj for 
 interment. He was the grandson of Rev. John Blair 
 Smith, D.D., the second pastor of Pine Street Church, and 
 was baptized in this church in his infancy. As both his 
 paternal and maternal grandparents were buried here, a lot 
 was tendered to the family of General Charles F. Smith, 
 by the Trustees of Pine Street Church, but arrangements 
 had previously been made for his interment at Laurel Hill 
 Cemetery. Mr. Bratnerd attended his funeral, in connec- 
 tion with other clergymen of the city. 
 
 At short intervals, a number of the young men from 
 his church were borne from the l)attle-field to their last 
 resting-place, until Dr. Brainerd had spoken words of love 
 and honor over the lifeless remains of Iweniy whom he saw 
 go forth in the strength of early manhood to the fearful 
 conflict. These occasions took hold of the very fibers of 
 his soul, and shook his nerves, as if he were laying his 
 own children in the grave. Besides these, he attended the 
 funerals of a number of young soldiers from the Union 
 Refreshment Saloon Hospital, and other places in the 
 city. 
 
 During the first years of the war. Dr. Brainerd was 
 favored with a great many anonymous letters, circulars, 
 and printed extracts from disloyal journals. One of these 
 letters, dated from the " Continental Hotel," warned him 
 to " leave the city in three days, as he was known and 
 marked for a Black Republican." He tossed the note into 
 the fire, with a quiet smile, and went out to see how he 
 could best counteract and arrest the treason at the North, 
 more difficult to meet than the Southern bayonets. 
 
 No one ever uttered a disloyal sentiment or treasonable 
 expression in his presence without meeting a stern rebuke. 
 A citizen of some standing in the community from his age, 
 connections, and wealth, entered a store where Dr. Brai- 
 nerd was conversing with a number of friends, and com- 
 
CURRENT EVENTS. 299 
 
 nieiiced a general abuse of the government, with all the 
 measures adopted by its executive officers. 
 
 As soon as a pause permitted, Dr. Brainerd said, "Any 
 man who expresses such sentiments at a time like this, is 
 a traitor to his country f'' 
 
 The person thus addressed inquired, angrily, if that 
 was intended for Mm. Dr. Brainerd repeated, with greater 
 emphasis, "Any man ivho ridiculeH and abuses the gov- 
 ernment of his country in its struggles to sujjpress treason 
 and rebellion, is a traitor, and should be dealt with as a 
 traitor.^' 
 
 The Copperhead vented his anger in a few threatening 
 epithets, but finding no sympathy in the by-standers, left 
 the store. 
 
 Another time, in conversation with one of the neutral 
 clergymen of Philadelphia, of whom it was said in regard 
 to a recent speech, — that it was impossible to tell on which 
 side of the conflict his sympathies were enlisted. Dr. Brai- 
 nerd said : " I thank God, it will never be doubtful, when 
 this war is ended, whether I sympathized with my country 
 or her enemies !" 
 
 Dr. Brainerd deliberately withdrew from all further in- 
 tercourse with two clergymen who were open secessionists, 
 on account of their hostile and dangerous attitude in regard 
 to the liberties of the country. 
 
 The interest which Dr. Brainerd had alwaN^s manifested 
 in the colored people residing in the south part of the city, 
 led them to appeal to him for advice and direction in what- 
 ever concerned their well-being. At the very commence- 
 ment of the civil war they evinced a strong desire to give 
 some substantial proof of their S3'mpathy with the govern- 
 ment. Many of the most intelligent among them came to 
 Dr. Brainerd to inquire what they could do. "Can't we 
 drill — so as to be prepared to enlist for the defense of the 
 country?" they asked. "Not yet," he replied — " at least 
 
300 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 not openly ; the time may soon come when your services 
 will 1)0 required and appreciated." 
 
 They did drill, in secret places, without arms, and went 
 with the army in every capacity in which they were 
 allowed to engage, as waiters, nurses, and messengers. 
 From the beginning they saw in this conflict the distant 
 prospect of their own emancipation. 
 
 In a statement of Mr. Brainerd's, published in the Bulle- 
 tin in the summer of 1861, he says : 
 
 " We perceive that Southern papers chronicle with great 
 satisfaction the fact that slaves are employed on the forti- 
 fications at Pensacola, Charleston, and Norfolk — that the 
 free colored men of New Orleans are armed, and invited to 
 take stock in the loan of the Confederate government. 
 
 " Our colored men North are not indifferent. One of 
 them yesterday presented a horse, worth five hundred dol- 
 lars, to the State. Others, in a quiet way, are drilling 
 without arms, but in preparation to defend their homes, if 
 a Southern army reaches the city. We cannot muster 
 them into the ranks, but we approve their patriotism." 
 
 Dr. Brainerd's son owned a bright little terrier that 
 ventured out one evening without his muzzle, during the 
 " reign of terror " under the " dog-law." He wore a collar 
 with his owner's name engraved on it. The front door- 
 bell was rung at a late hour in the evening by a colored 
 man, who led the dog home by tying his silk pocket-hand- 
 kerchief to the collar. When the door was opened, he said, 
 " I found by the name that this was your dog, and I feared 
 he would be taken in the morning by the dog-catchers." 
 The young man turned hastily and went down the steps 
 before the person addressed could thank him or inquire his 
 name. 
 
 Many such instances of consideration and kindness Dr. 
 Brainerd received from his colored neighbors during his 
 residence in Pine Street. 
 
CURRENT EVENTS. 301 
 
 A colored Methodist congreg-ation, of the most demon- 
 strative type, occupied a small church in the rear of Dr. 
 Brainerd's house. After a very nois}^ meeting one evening, 
 Dr. Brainerd said to one of the members, as he left the 
 house, " You have made a great deal of noise hero to- 
 night !" 
 
 " Better make it here than in hell," was the prompt 
 reply. 
 
 Dr. Brainerd was so much amused with this retort that 
 a few weeks after he again said, as one of their meetings 
 broke up, " You have had a very noisy meeting." 
 
 " Well, now," said the person addressed, " if a man has 
 the ' spirit '' in him he can't keep still; a live child cries — 
 a dead one is still." 
 
 Dr. Brainerd thought they rather had the advantage of 
 him in both cases. 
 
 While a colored barber was wrapping up a pair of razors 
 he had been setting. Dr. Brainerd was talking with him 
 about the social condition of the race. He told him that 
 the colored people must get rich — and when any of theni 
 should be worth a million of dollars that people would 
 take off their hats to him half a square distant. When 
 called to pay for the razors, he was charged just double 
 the ordinary amount. On expressing some surprise at 
 this charge, the barber replied, " I thought I would begin 
 to put your advice into practice ; it will be long before we 
 get rich on our present prices, or in our present circum- 
 stances." 
 
 In 1863, Dr. Brainerd was appointed one of the Board 
 of Visitors to attend the examination of cadets at the 
 Militaiy Academy at West Point, commencing the first of 
 June. The thorough investigations of the Board im- 
 pressed him more than ever with the beauty, the order, 
 and the efficiency of the institution ; while the exigencies 
 of the country suggested the importance of increasing its 
 
 26* 
 
302 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 capacity for usefulness, as well as employing fully those 
 already possessed, which had never been the case hereto- 
 fore. 
 
 The fortnight occupied in this examination was full of 
 interest ; while some objects, appealing to his professional 
 sympathies, excited his deepest emotions. 
 
 One of these was the weekly prayer-meeting of the 
 cadets. It was a touching sight to see a handful of these 
 young men meet resolutely every week for prayer, taking 
 their seats in a stone-paved basement room with military 
 precision and vprightnes^s. The meeting was continued 
 through the whole year, without a fire in the severe 
 months of winter. Dr. Brainerd met with them during 
 his visit, encouraging the young men by his hearty appro- 
 bation. He urged upon the officers and the chaplain of 
 the post the claims of this little band to their sympathy 
 and co-operation, and received the assurance that they 
 should have enlarged privileges and the comfort of a warm 
 room in the winter. 
 
 While solving a mathematical problem at the black- 
 board, one of the cadets retained his perfect military atti- 
 tude and bearing under a fainting fit, until he fell like a 
 statue to the floor. Dr. Brainerd said he was impressed 
 with the value of the physical training which could enable 
 a man to stand with such self-possession in circumstances 
 so trying.* 
 
 The intervals of relief from the sessions of the Board 
 were delightfully occupied in exploring the places of his- 
 toric interest in this fascinating region ; visiting Washing- 
 ton's head-quarters at Newburg, and " Warner's Island," 
 on which are the remains of fortifications constructed in 
 the revolutionary war. The island is now the property 
 and the residence of the popular authors of " Wide, Wide 
 World," " Queechy," etc. 
 
 But he could not stop here long. This season was the 
 
CURRENT EVENTS. 303 
 
 very crisis of the country's peril. The long- heart-sicktiess 
 over the siesre of Richmond was broken by the inv^asion of 
 Pennsylvania by Lee's army. This event roused the 
 whole North to that concentrated vigorous effort which 
 virtually struck the death-blow to the rebellion. Dr. 
 Brainerd reached home on the 16th of June, to find Phil- 
 adelphia in a state of intense excitement from the vicinity 
 of the rebel array. For months previous to this time 
 every availaljle military force had been sent forward to 
 support the Army of the Potomac, leaving not the shadow 
 of defense for Philadelphia, which as little apprehended 
 an attack as did the City of Boston. 
 
 It is difficult to convey a correct idea of the state of 
 affairs to any one who was not present. All business was 
 suspended ; the telegraph wires cut, and all communica- 
 tion interrupted ; the out-going railway trains toward 
 Harrisburg were stationary — the cars abandoned and the 
 engines collected in a long procession for greater security 
 and protection ; the State House bell tolling through the 
 whole day, with the solemnity of a funeral dirge as well 
 as with the authoritative notes of demand and warning; 
 colored refugees from Chambersburg, Carlisle, and Gettys- 
 burg coming in on foot, with their small effects in every 
 variety of package and bundle that could be carried by 
 hand ; gathering in crowds in the south part of the city, 
 rehearsing to excited listeners their fears and their danger; 
 the hurried movements of responsible men, meeting in 
 council for the adoption of such measures as were practi- 
 cable ; the groups of irresponsible loungers, gaping with 
 wonder or fearful with apprehension, answering appeals 
 to their patriotism with the assurance of their willingness 
 to do anything if they only knew what to do; — all these 
 things constituted a chapter of experience which will never 
 be forgotten. 
 
 Professor Bache arrived from Washington, and with 
 
304 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 liis corps of assistant engineers was endeavoring to plan 
 defenses for a city, approachable by a dozen avenues, all 
 equally indefensible. 
 
 Thirty more young men from T)r. Brainerd's church 
 went out for the "Emergency." One of them closed his 
 manufactory and took fourteen of the men in his employ 
 with him to Harrisburg, having first secured thirty dollars 
 bounty to every man for his family during the month of 
 his absence. 
 
 The great difficulty seemed to be the want of officers to 
 organize and direct the willing but unskilled populace. Dr. 
 Brainerd urged every unoccupied man he met to enlist for 
 the defense of his home and country. Most of them said 
 they would go if they had any one to lead them. "I will 
 lead you," he replied ; and they at once fell into line and 
 followed him. He walked the streets throughout one of 
 the hottest days of the summer, until he recruited a whole 
 company. Meeting Colonel Childs, — an ex-militia officer 
 before the war, — he said, " You are just the man we want, 
 Colonel Childs; these men are ready to go if they can 
 have a leader." Colonel Childs immediately took charge 
 of the company, saying, " Fall in, Dr. Brainerd !" — and 
 through the whole day he continued to persuade and en- 
 courage men to meet this emergency with the promptness 
 it demanded. He sent to his house for a large flag that 
 had been presented to him, which was raised at the base- 
 ment entrance to his church, converting the place for a few 
 davs into a recruiting depot, where volunteers rallied for 
 this urgent service. 
 
 Thus closed the mouth of June. On the first day of 
 July, three Maine regiments— nine months' men, whose 
 term of enlistment had expired— arrived at the " Union 
 Refreshment Saloon" on their way home. Strong hopes 
 were cherished that these troops could be retained for the 
 defense of the city until the impending danger should be 
 ])ast. 
 
CURRENT EVENTS. 305 
 
 The late Benjamin Gerhard, Esq., called for Dr. Brai- 
 nerd in the middle of the night, between one and two 
 o'clock, to come down to the saloon and exert his influence 
 in persuading- these regiments to remain. The scene was 
 a very memorable one. It was a bright, still, moonlight 
 night ; manj prominent citizens were present with mem- 
 bers of the City Council ; the troops were drawn up in 
 line, Avhile Dr. Brainerd urged them by every motive grow- 
 ing out of the imminent peril of the city in its defenseless 
 condition ; appealing to their humanity, their patriotism, 
 their militar}' reputation, to remain for ten days only ; — 
 but all in vain. He was authorized by the City Council 
 to offer to every man fifty dollars bounty for his ten days' 
 service. All of the officers and three hundred of the men 
 consented to remain ; but the rest cried, "Home! homeP'' 
 at the close of each appeal, and the ofiBcers were obliged to 
 go with their regiments until they were regularly dis- 
 banded. 
 
 The Clergy and the Crisis. 
 
 " The clergy of this city, of all denominations, to the 
 number of over one hundred, held two meetings in the 
 Church of the Epiphany, as heretofore briefly noticed. 
 Rev. Dr. Nevin was called to the chair, and addresses 
 breathing the warmest patriotism and courage were made 
 by a number of divines. The feeling as gathered from 
 the speeches was, that in view of the present crisis the 
 clergy of the city desired, not ofBcially but as citizens 
 and men, to tender their services to the Mayor of the 
 city, to work in the trenches, shoulder the musket, or in 
 any way whicii his judgment should dictate, render the 
 most eSicient aid in defending the city from a cruel and 
 malignant foe, and preventing the longer desecration of 
 the soil of the State by the tread of the invaders. They 
 feel that they could not ask members of their congrega- 
 tions and other citizens to rally to the defense of their 
 
306 J^IFE OF REV. TII03IAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 homes unless they should first lead the way. They de- 
 clared that they were not moved primarily to this demon- 
 stration by the moral influence it miglit exert in arousing 
 others to patriotic and manly exertion, but from the deep 
 conviction that it was their duty, as it was their desire, 
 not only to preach and pray, but to pledge their muscle to 
 the service of their country. 
 
 "Among the speakers were Rev. Dr. Brainerd, Rev. Dr. 
 Newton, Rev. A. Barnes, Rev. Dr. Goddard, and others. 
 During the afternoon the ministers marched in a body to 
 the Mayor's office, where they met many other clergymen, 
 the entire number representing nearly all the churches in 
 the city, and the scene being one of deep interest. Dr. 
 Neviu stated the object which they had in view in thus 
 tendering their services in the cause of their city and 
 State. The Mayor was deeply affected. He remarked 
 that no demonstration during the crisis had so deeply af- 
 fected him, and been so grateful to his feelings. There 
 was, in his opinion, more moral power in this movement 
 of the united clergy of Philadelphia than was possessed 
 by the civil and militar\^ authorities combined. He ex- 
 pected this demonstration would have an influence in 
 arousing the communit}* to a sense of their duty in this 
 hour of peril. With the profoundest feelings of gratitude 
 on his own part, and in the name of our common country, 
 so sacredly loved b}^ us all, he thanked them. On so 
 short a notice he could not determine in what way their 
 services could be most efficiently employed, but that he 
 would reply after a consultation with General Dana." 
 
MAJOR-GENERAL DANA TO THE CLERGY. 307 
 
 Major-General Dana to the Clergy. 
 
 "Head-quarters, PniLAHELPniA, Pa., 
 "July 2d, 18fi3. 
 
 " Rev. Dr. Nevin, Secretary of Committee op 
 Clergymen. 
 " Dear Sir : 
 
 " I beg you will remind the Committee that the offer of 
 three hundred of the clergy of Philadelphia and vicinity to 
 work on the fortifications of the city ha,s not been lost 
 sight of 
 
 " I am frequently called on b}^ some of them to inquire 
 when their services will be needed, and to reannounce that 
 they are waiting for employment. 
 
 " The chief engineer, Professor Bache, is unable as yet 
 to assign them a place. The city authorities have put 
 at his disposal as many men as he has hitherto been able 
 to use. As the work progresses your services will be 
 required. 
 
 "If inappropriate for me to express my gratificalion at 
 so touching an example of a conscientious perforanance of 
 patriotic duty on the part of men who could not be ex- 
 pected to neglect a call of that nature, I may at least be 
 allowed to express admiration of the real pleasure they 
 appear to take In anticipation of fulfilling so laborious a 
 task. 
 
 " I trust the example may have a favorable effect on all 
 of us, and may influence us to do with our might whatever 
 our hands may find to do, and in such an exhibition of 
 lofty devotion, we Avill recognize an illustration of the 
 proverb, 'Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a 
 reproach to any people.' 
 
 " With great respect, your servant, 
 
 "N. J. T. Dana, Major-General'' 
 
308 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 July 2d, Dr. Brainerd, with others, took part in the ser- 
 vices of hiving- the corner-stone of Tabor Presbyterian 
 Church, at Eighteenth and Christian Streets — built en- 
 tirely, from foundation to turret, by the liberality of Mat- 
 thew Baldwin, Esq.* 
 
 The battle of Gettysburg, commencing on the first of 
 July and continuing for three days, held the hearts of men 
 in fearful suspense. On Saturday and Sunday, car-loads 
 of wounded men were brought to Philadelphia directly 
 from the field, in their bloody garments, and distributed to 
 the diflferent hospitals throughout the city. 
 
 A note was sent to Dr. Brainerd toward the close of the 
 Sabbath morning service, from the Union Refreshment 
 Saloon, requesting linen, bandages, and changes of under- 
 clothing for the wounded men in their hospital, seven 
 hundred and fiftv in number. This note was read to the 
 congregation, the afternoon service omitted, and the rest 
 of the day devoted to receiving and delivering the gar- 
 ments sent in by the congregation. Dr. Brainerd carried 
 down twice, in a wagon, as many garments as could be 
 packed in it, accompanied by a member of his church, who 
 held on his lap a clothes-basket of the largest size, filled 
 with delicacies for these sufferers. The remaining time 
 was occupied in affording such aid at the hospital as cir- 
 cumstances permitted. Dr. Brainerd was at all times 
 ready to pray with the dying and bury the dead. 
 
 The tide of battle was turning ; the oppression lighteu- 
 ing from the heart by the victory of General Meade 
 at Gettvsburg, and the retreat of Lee's army, when the 
 
 * " It was during the battle of Gettysburg, when rumors of disaster filled 
 the air and made the heart sick: when hastening fugitives were coming 
 to tell exaggerated and alarming tales of the near approach of the coun- 
 try's enemies. It was difficult to speak with hopefulness of the work un- 
 dertaken ; yet this beautiful church was finished and dedicated Dec. 15th, 
 lS6i."— J/e»ioi> nf M. W. Baldiclii, page 131. 
 
A SOLEMNLY-IMPRESSIVE SCENE. 309 
 
 oountry was electrified by the tcle_i>rnphic news of the 
 Surrender of Vicksburo to General Grant, on the ??a- 
 lional biiihdaij, the Fourth of July. The reaction was 
 as great as the previous fear, suspense, and anguish had 
 been. 
 
 By an instinctive impulse, patriotic men congregated at 
 the League House, as the place where the truest sympa- 
 thy and heartiest congratulations would naturally be met. 
 Dr. Brainerd hurried to this spot, while at the same time a 
 messenger was dispatched to his house with the following 
 note, missing him, of course, — but he was there to answer 
 the summons in person : 
 
 " Dear Sir: 
 
 " We propose to give thanks to God at five o'clock this 
 afternoon, at Independence Square, for the successes of our 
 arms. You are requested to officiate. Please be at the 
 League House at five o'clock precisely. 
 
 " Very truly, 
 
 " Charles Gibbons. 
 " Rev. Dr. Bsainerd." 
 
 We cannot give a narration of this event to compare in 
 interest with the report published at the time in the North 
 American. However well remembered, it will bear re- 
 peating. 
 
 A Solemnly-impressive Scene. 
 
 "We have read of the first prayer offered in the Conti- 
 nental Congress, and of the sublimity and impressiveness 
 of the scene, as the assembled body knelt while Jehovah 
 was praised for the workings of his providence in ordain- 
 ing freedom to America. 
 
 " Independence Square yesterday saw a sight emulating 
 it in solemn grandeur, and presenting a spectacle Phila- 
 
 27 
 
310 ^^^FE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 (U'lpliia never before witnessed — never raay again. The 
 tidings of the progress of the Union arms brought it about. 
 \Vhen first promulgated, a large number of the members of 
 the Union League met eoincidently at the League rooms. 
 The throng increased until the place was nearly filled. 
 Everybody had left their places of business, and the mem- 
 bers instinctively sought the League House for mutual con- 
 gratulation. 
 
 " It was proposed that something more than an informal 
 recognition of so bountiful a blessing of victory should be 
 made, and the gentlemen present took steps to make it. 
 Birgfeld's band of forty-six instruments was secured, and 
 with this at its lead the Union League, headed by the 
 llev. Kingston Goddard and Rev. Dr. Brainerd, moved 
 down Chestnut Street to Independence Square. 
 
 " As the end of the line reached the Square, all uncov- 
 ered. The line filed to right and left, when Hon. Charles 
 Gibbons ascended the steps of Independence Hall. The 
 concourse of people that now poured into the Square were 
 thousands in number. They spread over a surface beyond 
 earshot of the loudest enunciation. 
 
 " Mr. Gibljons made a brief address. He said that this 
 day the l)eginning of the end is in view. The rebels are 
 losing their strongholds, the cause of the Union is ap- 
 proaching its final triumph. He drew a picture of what 
 we were as a nation, Avhat we are, and what, in God's 
 providence, we shall be. He spoke briefly and to the 
 point, but was so overwhelmed with cheers that we failed 
 to catch his speech as he uttered it. 
 
 " Rev. Dr. Brainerd now bared his head, and instinct- 
 ively — we believe reverently, as by an intuitive impulse — 
 every man present was uncovered. A hush fell upon the 
 densely- crowded assemblage as the hand of the reverend 
 doctor was raised, and an invitation given to the multitude 
 to follow him in rendering thanks to Heaven for its many 
 
A SOLEMNLY-IMPRESSIVE SCENE. 311 
 
 morcios, and for crowning the arms of the country with 
 victory. 
 
 " Amid more profound silence, we verily believe, than an 
 equal number of people ever kept before, Dr. Brainerd gave 
 praise. He thanked the Almighty for the victories that 
 were now crowning our arms. He had chastened us in 
 his displeasure, and alike in that chastening as now in the 
 blessing upon our work he recognized the hand of the 
 Omnipotent. He implored the divine blessing upon the 
 country and its people — that religion, and truth, and justice 
 might take the place of pride and arrogance and vainglory, 
 and that this people might recognize in every event of life 
 the ruling of divine power. He prayed for the President 
 and Cabinet; for the continued success of our arms, and 
 for the restoration of our national unity ; for liberty to the 
 oppressed ; for freedom to worship God everywhere, and 
 for the coming of that day when his kingdom shall extend 
 over the whole earth. 
 
 " When at the close of his prayer the Christian minister 
 pronounced the word 'Amen!' the whole multitude took up 
 the Greek dissyllable, and as with one mighty voice, re- 
 echoed it, reverently and solemnly, 'Amen !' 
 
 " While this prayer was being offered, the band silently 
 disappeared. As the final word of the supplication was 
 pronounced, a strain of sacred music burst from overhead. 
 The band had ascended to the State House steeple, and 
 there played with effect that no tongue can adequately 
 describe the air of Old Hundred, written by Martin Luther 
 two centuries ago. 
 
 " Spontaneously a gentleman mounted a post, and started 
 the melody to the words, 
 
 'Praise God from whom all blessings flow.' 
 
 " The whole multitude caught it up, and a doxology was 
 sung with a majesty that Philadelphia never before heard. 
 
312 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 Every voice united. The monster oratorios that we have 
 heard, with a vocal chorus of three hundred singers, dwin- 
 dled into insignificance in comparison to it. Rev. Dr. 
 Goddard then pronounced the benediction, and tlie vast 
 audience again covered themselves and slowly dis[)ersed. 
 The whole scene Mas remarkable. It was a touching 
 illustration of the fact that down deep in every man's heart, 
 no matter what may be the utterances of his lip, or his 
 daily walk and conversation, there is a recognition of the 
 fact that the Lord reigneth." 
 
 In this acme of the nation's agony it Avill be remem- 
 bered that the City of New York was under mob rule and 
 mob law. As if treason and civil war on a gigantic scale 
 were not enough to combat, the "foes of our own household" 
 proved themselves the most bitter and malignant. The 
 spirit of outlawry and misrule in the city extended to ad- 
 jacent towns; and wherever large masses of foreigners 
 were employed, the influence of Democratic politicians 
 arrayed them against the government of the country. 
 
 Acts of violence were perpetrated in the towns on the 
 Hud.son River for a hundred miles in extent. 
 
 Dr. Brainerd received a letter from his daughter, resid- 
 ing at Saugerties, Ulster County, New York, giving him 
 an account of the alarm of their quiet little town from a 
 threatened attack of the mob. His son-in-law had been 
 active in promoting voluntary enlistments, and was knov.-n 
 as an earnest friend of the government. 
 
 During the absence of his father, a friendly message was 
 brought to the family, stating that their house was marked 
 for attack that night, advising them to dispense with lights 
 and retire to the security of a neighbor's dwelling, while 
 some active friends Avould endeavor to divert the purpose 
 of the mob. 
 
 The family were greatly alarmed, and passed several 
 
LETTER TO GOVERNOR SEYMOUR. 3 13 
 
 hours of the nig-ht in a strove of trees near the house, 
 where they could distincth" hear the inuruiur and rush of 
 the excited mass, about two squares distant. 
 
 Instead of replying to his daughter's letter, Dr. Brainerd 
 addressed Governor Seymour. 
 
 " Piiii.AnELPniA, July 21st, 1863. 
 
 " Hon. Horatio Seymour, 
 
 " GOVERXOR OF THE StATE OF XeW YoRK. 
 
 My Dear Sir: 
 
 " You will pardon the liberty I take in addressing you. 
 Though I once had the honor of an introduction to you 
 by my friend, Mr. Thomas H. Wood, of Utica, yet I can 
 hardly expect you to remember me. As a native of Lewis 
 County, a student of law in Rome, in the da\'s of Storrs, 
 Maynard, Beardsle\", Bronson, etc ; as a frequent visitor 
 of the great Adirondack Forest, where I have often heard 
 of your sojournlngs, and as one familiar with your public 
 history, I seem to have a right to approach you. I have 
 a motive in doing it at the present time. 
 
 "My only son, a graduate of Yale College, is battling 
 for his country's integrity and honor, on Morris Island, 
 South Carolina, under the guns of Fort Sumter. He 
 may fall there. My only daughter is the wife of Henr}^ 
 M. Boies, of Saugerties, New York, a classmate of my 
 son's and a noljle young man, w4iose only fault seems to 
 be that he enthusiastically stands by the flag and the laws 
 of the government of these United States. 
 
 "I received to-doy a letter from my daughter, in which 
 she says that on Tuesday evening last, in the absence of 
 Mr. Boies, Senior, an alarm was given that two hundred 
 and fifty excited Irishmen, fresh from a drinking-house, 
 were approaching, to burn down the mansion of the 
 family. 
 
 " My daughter, twenty-two years of age, with her in- 
 27* 
 
314 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 fant of six montlis old, accompanied by the other female 
 members of the famil}^, went bareheaded into the open 
 air, and there waited until assured that a relative, who 
 was a Democrat, had dissuaded them from burning- the 
 beautiful mansion of Mr. Boies, by assuring- them there 
 was none but women in the building. 
 
 "I read this communication with humiliation and hor- 
 ror. My own and only daughter, with her little infant, in 
 the dead hour of night, put in peril of her life because her 
 husband zealously sustained the laws of his country ! 
 This is a case which comes home to me ; but it is only 
 one of mar.y, I am informed, occurring in various parts of 
 the State. And worse than this, the impression is forced 
 upon me that these Irish mobs are a part of the political 
 machinery which unscrupulous and heartless politicians 
 are using to force the government of the United States 
 into submission to rebel terms, and to overcome and 
 silence such as patriotically stand by their flag and their 
 principles. Can anything be conceived more base and 
 dastardly than first to inflame the prejudices and passions 
 of an ignorant and excited class, by stirring up their jeal- 
 ousy and hate of the poor blacks, and then turn them 
 loose as a political police, to dragoon, by incendiarism and 
 murder, intelligent, peaceful, and patriotic citizens into an 
 abandonment of their princii)les and the cause of their 
 country ? A more diabolical scheme could not be con- 
 ceived; a more certain method to reduce the country to 
 anarchy and barbarism could not be adopted. 
 
 " From your ancestral origin, your fine talents and high 
 cultivation, from your instincts as a man of honor and a 
 gentleman, from your regard to the welfare of your State 
 and country, from your felt obligations as a Christian and 
 a citizen, I know you must abhor this plot and this mode 
 of political action as really as I do, — as really as posterity 
 will execrate it and its abettors. 
 
LETTER TO GOVERNOR SEY3I0UR. 315 
 
 " If I iinderstanrl your mossag-es, you indorse the neces- 
 sity of prosecuting the war for the restoration of the Union. 
 To do this we must have men ; and, as the nobly patriotic 
 liave gone out and fallen, voluntary enlistments droop, and 
 the g'overnraent is under the necessity of summoning the 
 more selfish and indifl'erent to protect the institutions 
 which shelter and protect tiiem. There may be infelicities 
 in the mode adopted; but, as those Avho had a right have 
 prescribed the mode, is a man to be mobbed out of his 
 house by an ignorant rabble because he stands by the laws 
 of the land? Does not. the matter demand a clear, un- 
 equivocal expression on the part of the governors of the 
 States, that they will favor and encourage such as in a 
 day of peril are true to their country? 
 
 " The Irish character I have admired ; and I have 
 always refused to sympathize with all those 'Know- 
 Nothing' operations which would rob them of their equal 
 rights. On this accourit I regret that they should be 
 made tools by demagogues, and i)ushed out into ex- 
 cesses which will stir up a deadly hate to their nation and 
 their religion. The worst that the most excited fanatic 
 of Protestantism ever uttered of danger from foreign im- 
 migration will be more than realized, if traitorous dema- 
 gogues succeed in using the Irish Catholics to palsy the 
 arm of the government in its struggle with a wide-spread 
 rebellion. 
 
 " But I trust the crisis is past. You have succeeded in 
 quieting the city, and may God enable you to be the 
 'terror of evil-doers' throughout my glorious native State. 
 I send you a pamphlet, from which you will see I care 
 nothing for party, but much for principles and for my 
 country. 
 
 " With my best wishes for your health and happiness, 
 I remain Yours, 
 
 "Thomas Brainerd." 
 
316 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 In a few days the following laconic reply was received 
 
 "ExECCTivE Department, 
 
 "Albany, July 29th, 1863. 
 
 " Rev. Thos Braixerd. 
 "De.ar Sir: 
 " Your letter of the 21st inst. is received. Please accept 
 my thanks for your good wishes, and also for the pamphlet, 
 which I will examine when I have leisure. 
 " Truly yours, etc., 
 
 'Horatio Seymour." 
 
 Quiet and comparative security being restored, Dr. Brai- 
 nerd went North for a short rest, after these two months 
 of intense excitement. He visited his daughter at Sauger- 
 ties ; and while in this region, was invited to join an ex- 
 cursion with some friends into Green County. He thought 
 he had seen enough of treason nearer home, but here he 
 found a more open, bold, and defiant spirit of opposition to 
 the government than had yet come under his observation. 
 At the hotel where the party stopped, every newspaper 
 was of the most unequivocal Copperhead ciiaracter. Dr. 
 Brainerd examined a number of The New York Day 
 Book, a journal he had never before seen. He said he 
 could not have believed, without the testimony of his own 
 eyes, that a newspaper so steeped in treason and falsehood 
 could be published in this country. He threw the paper 
 down with an expression of contempt and indignation, and 
 gave the by-standers one of his scorching speeches on the 
 criminality of falsifj'ing and obstructing the measures of 
 the government in its efforts to restore liberty and union 
 to the country. A bar-room politician present took up the 
 gauntlet, and a debate of the closest and most exciting na- 
 ture ensued between them, holding all present amazed and 
 interested auditors for two hours. Finding Dr. Brainerd 
 fully prepared for defense at every point of attack, the 
 
THE REV. DR. MASS IE. 317 
 
 politician finally gave up the battle, saying, " You are an 
 emissary sent up here by the government to carry out 
 some scheme of your party !" The friends who accom- 
 panied Dr. Brainerd were much amused by this charge. 
 
 In the evening, the clergyman of the neighborhood 
 called upon him and thanked him for this timely service. 
 Not a single loyal man, he said, had ventured to open his 
 mouth in this place before. 
 
 James W. Massie, D.D.,LL.D., of London, visited the 
 United States in the summer of 1863. He w^as one of 
 a deputation to convey the sympathies of the Protestant 
 clergy of Great Britain and France to their brethren in 
 the United States, in their great national struggle for 
 liberty and human rights. 
 
 The " Letter " and "Address " of w^iich Dr. Massie was 
 the bearer bore the attested signatui'es of seven hundred and 
 fifty-eight French pastors and four thousand British clergy- 
 men. Dr. Massie made the tour of the United States, from 
 Maine to the Mississippi, addressing large assemblages of 
 clergymen of all d^ominations in the principal Northern 
 cities. During his stay in Philadelphia he was the guest of 
 Dr. Brainerd, and addressed a large meeting in his church at 
 evening, which was attended by the city clergymen gen- 
 erally, and many of the members of the Union League. 
 The following notice of his mission was published by Dr. 
 Brainerd : 
 
 " Tlie Rev. Dr. Massie is a Scotch clergymen, brought 
 up at the feet of Dr. Chalmers, whom in person and man- 
 ner he somewhat resembles. He was pastor for a time of. 
 one of the London churches, and identified with all the 
 great refurm movements of the liberal and progressive 
 party in England for the last thirty years. A minister of 
 peace and of universal freedom, he came by declarations, 
 to soften American prejudices against England, and to 
 cheer the efforts of all who were praying for the emancipa- 
 
318 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 tion of the slave. With a hiii'h admiration of our free in- 
 stitutions, and an abiding faith in the ability of our govern- 
 ment to protect its integrity and vindicate its authority, 
 lie was prepared to look on the sunny side of our character 
 and prospects, and in our darkest hours to give us words 
 of confidence and cheer. He has put on record his high 
 estimate of the material advantages of Philadelphia, of its 
 abounding comfort and taste, and of the sincere cordiality 
 with which he was here welcomed." 
 
 In October of this year, Dr. Brainerd's son brought 
 up from Morris Island a ship-load of sick and wounded 
 men. He was retained in Pl)iladelphia, and appointed 
 Executive Officer of the "Mower U. S. A. General Hos- 
 pital," at Chestnut Hill. This was the largest hospital 
 in the country, containing three thousand five hundred 
 patients. 
 
 In January, 186 4, he Avas put in charge of the hospital 
 at Broad and Cherry Streets ; and afterward had charge 
 of " McClellan" and " Mower" Hospitals After the ter- 
 mination of the war, in 1865, Pr. IL C. Brainerd was 
 ordered to close successively five of these large govern- 
 ment hospitals ; superintending the sales of the prop- 
 erty, and turning it over to the United States govern- 
 ment. 
 
 In May, 1864, Dr. Brainerd was appointed Commis- 
 sioner to the General Assembv, which met at Dayton, 
 Ohio, and was elected Moderator. He was now serving 
 the Presbyterian Church for the sixth time as a delegate 
 to the General Assembly. First, in 1836, when the 
 Assembh^ met in Pittsburg; in 1849, at Philadelphia; 
 1854, Philadelphia; 1856, New York; 1860, Pittsburg; 
 1864, Dayton. 
 
 Alwaj's averse to letter writing, his communications to 
 his familv were short and hurried. 
 
CURRENT EVENTS. 319 
 
 "Dayton, Ohio, May 22d, 1804, 
 
 " You have learned by the pttpers, I suppose, that I am 
 in the Moderator's chair. May God enable me to do my 
 duty in it. George Duffield is Clerk. John Brainerd 
 and George Duffield, D.D., were Moderator and Clerk 
 in 1764 ! Is it not a strange coincidence ? 
 
 " I rode out yesterday with Major-General McCook and 
 Rev. Dr. Thomas, of this city. "We went up on a hill to 
 see Indian fortifications, inclosing a hundred acres." 
 
 " May 20th. 
 
 * * * * " We are getting on well in the 
 
 Assembly, and I think will close next week or the last of 
 this. I find it easy to manage the work, but hard to sit 
 out the sessions. I hope to be home the first week in 
 
 Tnnp" ^ 'T^ ^ 'K ^ ^ 5fi '^ 
 
 It is unnecessary to dwell upon the particulars of this 
 session. It was marked by hopefulness in the brighten- 
 ing aspects of the war, as well as in the growing strength 
 and influence of the churches. 
 
 A little incident related by Dr. Specs, soon after the 
 death of Dr. Brainerd, will interest those who were 
 familiar with the habits and physical infirmities of the 
 latter. He told Dr. Specs, confidentially, that on account 
 of his nervousness he must have a high-backed cha'r, to 
 give support and rest to his head, or he could never sit 
 out the sessions of the Assembly. Together they ex- 
 amined chairs of various qualifications until they found 
 one which Dr. Brainerd pronounced precisely the right 
 thing. It chanced, too, to be one of the most beautiful 
 and costly of its kind in the City of Dayton. The manu- 
 facturer, however, generously consented to loan it to the 
 church for the present object. When the General Assem- 
 
R20 /-/^^ OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 bly adjourned and the chair was about to be restored to 
 the warerooms of the owner, the congregation refused to 
 part with it; purchased it*at once for the pulpit, and named 
 it " The Brainerd Chair." The great interest felt in the 
 deliberations of the Assembly was the reason given for 
 retaining this " chair" as a memorial of that occasion. 
 
 Letter from Rev. John C. Smith, D.D. 
 
 " Washington Citv, June 29th, 1864, 
 
 "Rev. Thomas Brainerd, D.D , 
 
 "Moderator of General Assembly: 
 ********* 
 
 " With your official letter, we presented the resolutions 
 of the Assembly beautifully transcribed on parchment, 
 signed by Thomas Brainerd, Moderator, and Edwin F. 
 llatlield. Stated Clerk. 
 
 " The President gave respectful and earnest attention to 
 the reading, and said that he wonXd. write his reply if he could 
 find as much time. He was evidently much gratified with 
 ' the document ;' and, though oppressed with special calls 
 at the close of the session of Congress, he was cheerful 
 and said kind things, especially to my 3'oung relative, who 
 was charged with 'the resolutions,' while I read (with 
 difficulty) the letter in the handwriting of my noble friend 
 and honored brother of ' Old Pine Street.' May God bless 
 him and his loyal church a thousand fold more and mori;, 
 with all in our consecrated brotherhood. 
 
 " Always, 
 
 " John C. Smith." 
 
 On the 1st of July, 1864, at the close of the P'riday 
 evening prayer-meeting. Dr. Brainerd was both surprised 
 and gratified by a donation o^ fuurteen hundred dollars, 
 as a " supplement" to his moderate salary. This sum 
 was contributed by the congregation and presented by 
 
VISIT TO FORT DELAWARE. 321 
 
 Robert J. Mercer, Esq. At the same time a very hand- 
 some plated tea-service, from the ladies of the church, was 
 presented to Mrs. Bralnerd, by George Young, Esq. 
 
 While no man ever talked less about money for himself, 
 or appeared to think less of it. Dr. Bro.inerd gratefully 
 appreciated every token of thoughtful consideration in his 
 people. Seasons of pecuniary embarrassment, requiring 
 self-denial, patience, and skill to overcome, were of fre- 
 quent occurrence. Fifteen hundred dollars were still due 
 on the house which he had been sixteen years in purchas- 
 ing. One year he had managed to pay from his salary 
 five hundred dollars on the mortgage ; at others, one, two, 
 or three hundred only. He now added another hundred to 
 this donation, and, with a light heart, paid off the mort- 
 gage. The appropriation of this money to his house left the 
 burden of living on " war prices'' about the same as before. 
 
 Dr. Brainerd was not insensible to the value of money ; 
 he was always collecting great sums for great objects ; 
 and knew well both the difficulty of obtaining it and the 
 worth of the benefits it could secure. 
 
 Blessings, like trials, often come in clusters. Soon after 
 Dr. Brainerd's return home in the fall, he learned that one 
 of his young men had originated a project for securing a 
 paid-up " Life Insurance" for three thousand dollars, 
 for his pastor's family. This was a private enterprise, 
 carried out by the affectionate liberality of a few young 
 men of the church. 
 
 In the fall of 18G3, Dr. Brainerd went down to Fort 
 Delaware and preached to the rebel prisoners there, eight 
 thousand in number. The men came around him like bees ; 
 many of them eager to tell him how much they disapproved 
 of this war, or describe the mode by which they were 
 forced into it. One man said he was on his way to a mill, 
 when he was compelled to leave his bag of corn and march 
 with the company, without being allowed to return home 
 
 2S 
 
322 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 to take leave of his family. Among the i)risoners he recog- 
 nized a rresbyterian clergyman of Maryland, whom he had 
 known before, and who had preached for him in former 
 years. AVith an air of assumed conlidence, he said, "You 
 find me here, Brother Brainerd, like John Bunyan, a suf- 
 ferer for my principles." " I think you are a great deal 
 more like Benedict Arnold,^'' )'eplied Mr. Brainerd. 
 
 A great proportion of the men could not read, and a 
 school was established for them by ihe Union officers in 
 charge. Mr. Brainerd offered to aid these educational 
 efforts, and soon after his return he received a letter from 
 tiie cliaplain, Rev. Wm. H. Paddock, requesting him to 
 send them one hundred spelling-books, one hundred Bible- 
 readers, and fifty simple arithmetics. He adds, " When 
 may we see your face here again, and hear your voice 
 among the 'sick and in prison' ?" 
 
 One of the prisoners from Texas told Mr. Brainerd that 
 be preferred prison-life to fighting against the flag that he 
 was taught to love in his 3'outh. 
 
 After returning home, the fall and winter were occupied 
 with abundant labors in the churches, the city, and the hos- 
 pitals. There were now in Philadelphia and the suburbs 
 some twenty government hospitals, accommodating over 
 thirty thousand sick and wounded soldiers. 
 
 In the latter part of July Dr. Brainerd left the city for 
 his customary summer vacation, a portion of which was 
 spent at Saugerties, and the remainder in a visit to his 
 native place in Northern New York. In October he at- 
 tended the annual meeting of the American Board, at 
 Worcester, Mass., of which he was a corporate member. 
 • After his return and before commencing in earnest his 
 fall and winter work. Dr. IJrainerd called a meeting of tiie 
 session of his church, and stated to them his increasing 
 inability to sustain all the responsibilities which had accu- 
 mulated through twenty-eight years. He told them they 
 
A NEW TEAR'S GIFT. 323 
 
 inij^ht do one of three thing^s, — omit for a year the Sunday 
 afternoon preaching- service, or engag-e an assistant, or let 
 him resign the charge of the church altogether. It is al- 
 most needless to add that they accepted the first proposi- 
 tion, \yith the assurance that he should have an assistant 
 besides, if he really required one. 
 
 For ten years the young men of the congregation had 
 sustained a yery yigorous and profitable prayer-meeting 
 on Sabbath evenings. The large lecture-room was uni- 
 formly crowded in good weather, and Dr. Brainerd was 
 unwilling to disturb this fine school for religious improve- 
 ment. He was always present at this meeting and made 
 an address, as well as at the Wednesday and Friday even- 
 ing meetings. He was now sixty years of age, and worn 
 by the excitements of the war. He seemed to have a 
 presentiment that his work was drawing to its close. He 
 frequently said, as President Lincoln did, " This war lo ill 
 kill 77?e/" It was amazing that he endured the continuous 
 strain of nervous excitement through this period of four 
 years. In what were termed "the dark days of the re- 
 bellion," including the seven days before Richmond, Dr. 
 Brainerd frequenth^ rose at the dawn of day from a sleep- 
 less pillow, and went out to get a newspaper, unable to 
 wait the call of the early newsboys. Supporting his head 
 Avith one hand while reading the paper, the other hand 
 frequently shook to such a degree that observers marveled 
 that he could keep his eye on the printed line. 
 
 A Nevy Year's gift was presented to Dr. Brainerd in 
 January, 1865, which afforded him more unalloyed pleas- 
 ure than any token of affectionate remembrance be ever 
 received. It was a copy of his " Quarter Century 
 Sermon," most beautifully illustrated by his friend and ex- 
 parishioner, Frederick J. Dreer, Esq. Mr. Dreer had been 
 three years collecting photographs and engravings of per- 
 sons, places, and churches alluded to in the sermon, — over 
 
324 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 one hundred in number. These were arranged and inserted 
 in the book with exquisite taste and skill, making a large 
 octavo volume, two inches in thickness. 
 
 Besides containing eighty-five portraits of clergymen 
 and friends, living and dead, with a large number of the 
 Philadelphia churches, and other places of interest, it con- 
 stituted a pictorial histor}" of the quarter century gone by, 
 full of the most touching personal recollections. It was 
 an album of his pastorate, and a most grateful token of 
 the afiiection w'hich originated such a tribute of friendship 
 to his former pastor. 
 
 Amid the accumulated labors of the next spring, 1865, 
 Dr. Brainerd prepared for the press " The Life op John 
 Brainerd, — the brother of David Brainerd, and his suc- 
 cessor as missionary to the Indians of New Jersey." As 
 he himself states in the preface, this was " his first attempt 
 in making a book.^' "Possessing the diary of his name- 
 sake and remote kinsman, and impressed by the holiness 
 and consecration of his life, the author first projected this 
 publication from family as well as public motives, with no 
 expectation of gain or reputation." 
 
 Dr. Brainerd had this publication in view for a year or 
 two preceding the war; and as he had opportunity, was 
 reading the history of the early missions to the Indians, 
 and collecting such facts as the literature of that day sup- 
 plied. He had written about two hundred pages, when 
 the absorbing claims of the country in 1861 so occupied 
 his mind that the work was wholly laid aside until the 
 spring of 1805. He was induced to resume it at the soli- 
 citation of a New England clergyman, whose advice had 
 weight with him, and by the consideration of his preca- 
 rious health, which might prevent its completion in the 
 future. When recommenced, it was carried on Avith his 
 usual energy, and finished in three mouths, making a vol- 
 ume of 500 pages octavo. 
 
LETTER FROM DR. MACKENZIE. 325 
 
 Dr. Brainerd was much cheered l)y the success of his 
 book; and the favorable notices of it in tlie religious and 
 secular papers, as well as in the various quarterly reviews, 
 afforded him substantial satisfaction. Extended notices 
 were published in several English papers, the London 
 liecord, the Wesleyan Times, the ChrisLiaa Witness, and 
 others. 
 
 By the kindness of Dr. Mackenzie, we are enabled to 
 give the accompanying cBaracteristic letter, and his state- 
 ment of the occasion which called it forth : 
 
 ''Philadelphia, March 1st, 1S70. 
 
 "Near the close of 1865, I received Dr. Brainerd's 
 'Life of John Brainerd,' which had been sent some weeks 
 earlier, but was mislaid en route. I had met Dr. B. once, 
 if not twice, at the St. Andrew's Society, and was struck 
 with the thorough simplicity of his manners, with an 
 under-current of quiet humor. In the street we always 
 paused to exchange words en passant. I heard him 
 preach, and was charmed with his earnestness and unaf- 
 fected piety. 
 
 " When the book reached me, the Press, of which I have 
 been literary editor since its establishment, in August, 
 1857, was contending, single-handed (for all the other 
 daily papers kept aloof from the contest), for the privilege 
 or right of having the city passenger cars running on 
 Sunday. It finally carried the day, and could say, 'Alone 
 I did it' Many of the city clergy took part against the 
 Press on this question, Dr. Brainerd among them. The 
 strife was raging Avhen I got Dr. B.'s book. 
 
 "Having a high opinion of John and David Brainerd, 
 I read the book with interest, and was so much pleased 
 with it that, in consideration of the subject, the execution, 
 and the author (so long minister of Old Pine Street 
 Church, in Philadelphia), I gave it an extended review. 
 
 28* 
 
326 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 Had Dr. Brainevd been twenty times as vehement against 
 tlie PrenH on the car question as he was, that could have 
 made no difference in my opinion of his book. I thought 
 it entitled to a critical examination and a very favorable 
 verdict, and it got both. Mr. Forney, proprietor of the 
 Press, was in Washington when the article appeared, and 
 did not read it or hear of it until the Press of February 
 1st, 186G, reached him there. There was no necessity for 
 consulting him on such a matter. When he returned to 
 Philadelphia he expressed liis satisfaction at the course I 
 had taken. It was this review which caused Dr. Brainerd 
 to write to me on Februar}' 9lh. It gave mc great pleas- 
 ure to find that my critique had gratified such a gifted, 
 good, and religious man. I met him once after the re- 
 ceipt of his letter, and he said, very frankly, with the 
 genial smile which often lighted up his face, 'When I 
 read the kind criticism of yours on my book, at a time 
 when I had felt it ni}-^ duty to oppose the Press, I felt as 
 if you had put coals of fire on my head.' All I could 
 say was the plain truth, that both of us had done what 
 we conceived to be our duty. He pressed my hand 
 warmly, and evidently was much affected. I never again 
 saw him. 
 
 " 11. Shelton Mackenzie." 
 
 "Philadelphia, February 9th, 1866. 
 
 " Dear Dr. Mackenzie : 
 
 " I ought before this to have expressed my gratitude for 
 the extended, discriminating, and kind 'notice' of my 
 ' John Brainerd,' in the Press of last week. Your criti- 
 cisms, so far as you have uttered them, arc natural and 
 just, and I am specially grateful (with what I know of 
 your al>ility and taste, and of the crudeness of my ' book') 
 that you treated its faults so indulgently. . 
 
 'As David Brainerd was entirely supported by the 
 
THE rULPIT AND THE PRESS. 327 
 
 ' Scotch Society,' John was in reality tlie first missionary 
 of the Presbyterian Church in this country. 
 
 " Perhaps you may^ have seen that the WeaJeyan Times, 
 of London, has given five columns, and the Becord a 
 column and a half to my 'book. All that comes from the 
 prestige of David's great name, of which John gains the 
 benefit. I would like to send a copy to the editor of the 
 principal religious paper of Edinburgh. Is the Weekly 
 lievieio the leading journal of Presbyterians of all classes? 
 
 " I am sorry Mr. Forney and the clergy have got into a 
 muss. I said nothing until he struck at the clergy as a 
 body, and at our American views of the fourth command- 
 ment. 
 
 "The pulpit and the press, as educators of the world, 
 ought to be on one side, and that the right side, which it 
 is not always easy to find. By admitting your very kind 
 article into the Press, Mr. Forney has rather 'got me on 
 the hip.' He seems to be coming up on the weak side of 
 the 'proscriptives.' 
 
 " Perhaps he has been imitating the generous chivalries 
 of knights of yore, who interspersed war with personal 
 courtesies, as when Bruce said to D'Argentine, — 
 
 "'Thus, then, my noble foe, I greet ; 
 Health and high fortune till we meet, 
 And then — what pleases Heaven.' 
 
 "I hope it will ' please Heaven,' when ' we meet,' that it 
 may be at my table for a social cup of tea, etc , so far as 
 you are concerned. 
 
 "With great respect, I remain, 
 
 " Most truly yours, 
 
 " Thomas Bratnerd." 
 
 It will be remembered that the war closed in the same 
 month in which it opened by the bombardment of Fort 
 
328 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRATNERD, D.D. 
 
 Sumter. The nation was aprain electrified l^y tlie report 
 of the fall of Richmond on the 3d of April. Again the 
 people crowded the Union League rooms ; again the great 
 procession hurried to Independence Square and the old 
 State House, where thrilling speeches, prayers, and sa- 
 cred music could alone express their grateful joy. After 
 an enthusiastic speech from Charles Gibbons, Esq., Dr. 
 Urainerd addressed the as-sembled multitude as follows : 
 
 " jNIen of Philadelphia and fellow-citizens: — In the long 
 past there have been many stirring events in our country's 
 history, but perhaps none rising in importance to that 
 Avhich brings us here to-day. The great events of our 
 Revolution directly impressed but three millions. The 
 victory which we celebrate has thrilled thirty )nilIions, 
 and promises to affect the destiny of this entire continent, 
 with the hundred millions which shall people it in a thou- 
 sand years to come. We have come to this sacred edifice 
 often before. A little more than one 3'ear ago, when a 
 ruthless army of traitors was treading down the harvests 
 of Pennsylvania, and threatening its metropolis, we came 
 here, and not in vain, to invoke the protection of Almighty 
 God. In the hour of our country's agony, when there 
 trembled in the scales all that had been gained by the 
 labors, prayers, and blood of our fathers ; when there 
 vibrated in the balance the freedom and elevation of aii 
 humble race; when the interests of mankind in all time 
 and all lands, and the very existence of civilization itself, 
 were in peril, we besought God in his mercy to protect us. 
 We believed that we had a right to expect, on our cause 
 and our petitions, the sanction of God. I call on you, my 
 fellow-citizens, from your own consciousness, to bear tes- 
 timony that in our hearts we have cherished no malice 
 toward our brethren in tlje South. We regarded with 
 surpri.se, with sorrow, with shame, the causes which 
 
SPEECH ON THE FALL OF RICHMOND. 329 
 
 pressed us vcUictanily into the present coiitlict. We did 
 believe that by how nmcb a feeble race was degraded and 
 oppressed, by so much was Christianity bound to plead 
 for their welfare. We accepted the bitter cup of war, 
 forced upon us, not because we loved our Southern breth- 
 ren less, but because we loved our country and humanity 
 more. 
 
 " The clergy are here in large numbers. They have a 
 right to be here. For myself, I can lift my hand to heaven, 
 and, in the name of Christ, with a clear conscience, ask 
 God for success in our conflict. It is alike the cause of 
 government, of order, and of human happiness. No 
 clergyman has a right to hold an equivocal position in the 
 hour of his country's agony. If the cause be worth the 
 martyrdom of our noble young men, it is a clergyman's 
 duty to sanction the right and give consolation under the 
 necessary sufferings of the contest. As God heard our 
 prayers offered in our defeats and perils, it is most fit and 
 proper that when by his favor our noble army has tri- 
 umphed over the chief seat of treason — over the very nest 
 of rebellion — we come here to relieve our swelling hearts 
 by devout thanksgiving to the Author of all good. Prince 
 Eugene, in heralding a victory, said, * It is easy to be de- 
 vout when we are happy !' I trust, then, you will all 
 bare your heads and incline your hearts while we are led 
 by the Rev. Mr. Brooks, of this city, in expressing our 
 gratitude for the great victory which has crowned our 
 national arms." 
 
 Rev. Phillips Brooks then offered a most impressive 
 prayer, and, with a closing benediction, the vast assemblage 
 dispersed. 
 
 A week later came the message of Lee's surrender and 
 the death of the rebellion. 
 
 This information, it will be remembered, was received 
 
330 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BR A I NERD, D.D. 
 
 by telegram on Sunday evening', April 0th. From nine 
 o'clock until twelve the door-bell of Dr. Brainerd's house 
 was rung at frequent intervals by enthusiastic friends, to 
 communicate this intelligence — almost too great for belief. 
 Tlie pealing bells of the city soon confirmed these ''glad 
 tidings of great joy.'''' 
 
 Dr. Brainerd hurried from the house ; stopped for a friend 
 ^\ hom he found in his slippers, and said, " Put on your 
 boots and come with me !" 
 
 Alluding to this occasion some time afterward, this gen- 
 tleman said : "We went into Chestnut Street together on 
 Sabbath-night, as the news of Lee's surrender threw our 
 ((uiet city into deliriun). Parting with Dr. Brainerd at a 
 late hour in front of his own door, his whole being seemed 
 to glow with gratitude. ' Good-night,' said he, '3'ou will 
 not forget this walk ; we have never seen the like of this 
 before, and will never see such a night again.' 
 
 " The transition from national joy to national grief came 
 quickly. On the night of Good Friday, April 14th, 1865, 
 Abraham Lincoln was slain. A night of darkness, of 
 longer duration than that which fell on Egypt in the days 
 of Moses, shrouded the land, and there was no 'light in 
 our dice.llingH.'' Without manuscript, and almost without 
 a selected text, Dr. Brainerd on the Sabbath morning fol- 
 lowing the sad event, entered Old Pine Street Church, 
 crowded, unexpectedly to him, to its full capacity, and for an 
 hour and a half preached with an unction and power such 
 as are never wielded except by the great in intellect and 
 eloquent in speech. Indeed, he spoke as though some mi- 
 I'aculous agent had sustained him. We never knew a man 
 more bountifully endowed to equal every emergency which, 
 in the course of Providence, he was called to fill." 
 
 On that fearful night of the fourteenth of April, at the 
 very hour when the real tragedy was enacting in Ford's 
 Theater, the quiet circle for prayer in Pine Street Church 
 
DEATH OF PRESIDENT UNCO LIST. 33I 
 
 were considering the costly sacrifice for the redemption of 
 the race. The evening of " Good Friday " had given this 
 turn to tlie current of remarks. Dr. Brainord closed the 
 meeting with an address suggestive of the gratitude that 
 would be the due of any victim (if such an one could be 
 found) who had averted the wholesale bloodshed of the 
 late war bv the voluntary sacrifice of himself; applying 
 this illustration to the sacrifice of the Son of God for a lost 
 world; and closed with the quotation, " It is expedient for 
 us that one man should die for the people, and that the 
 whole nation perish not." 
 
 These remarks were recalled by those who listened to 
 them, as almost prophetic, when the knell was sounded 
 throughout the country the next morning over its mur- 
 dered President. The hush that fell upon the nation after 
 its paeans of victory ; the sorrow that so soon 
 
 " Trod on the heels of joy," 
 
 when strong men grasped each other's hands in silent an- 
 guish, while tears like rain fell from their eyes, will never 
 be forgotten. 
 
 Before it was fully light the next morning Br. Brainerd 
 heard anxious voices in the street, and caught the words — 
 " The President tilled!^' He sprang from his bed, opened 
 the window, and asked what had happened. A group of 
 colored men near told him the terrible fact, and no class of 
 men felt it more deeply than they. 
 
 Amid the vast demonstrations of woe which clothed the 
 country in sackcloth. Dr. Brainerd said none were to him 
 so touching as when the poor colored people fastened up 
 their small strips of black crape or muslin on their dwell- 
 ings in the courts and alleys, as a sorrowful tribute to the 
 worth of their best friend. 
 
 Occasionally a pleasant occurrence connected with the 
 past or present glimmered out to relieve the lowering sky 
 of these dark davs. 
 
332 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAIXERD, D.D. 
 
 Such were letters, like the followinu- from lion. Nathaniel 
 Wright, of Cincinnati, proving the adherence of Dr. Brai- 
 nerd's early friends : 
 
 "CiNci.s-NATi, Feb. 8tb, 1805. 
 
 " My dear old Friend : 
 
 " You must allow me to be thus familiar with you, to 
 tell you how much I was gratified with your letter of Jan- 
 uary 7th. It must be that I am getting old, for I find myself 
 almost alone, so far as intimates out of my own family are 
 concerned ; and I see that you are getting old enough to 
 realize how much this endears to you the few that re- 
 main." 
 
 Speaking of the death of Mr. John Groesl)eck, Judge 
 Wright says : " Our views were very much alike in reli- 
 gious and church matters; and, among other things, we 
 agreed in our estimation of yourself, regarding you as 
 the most discreet and reliable man for counsel among our 
 acquaintances of the clergy. You may recollect that one 
 or the other, perhaps both of us, have often applied to you 
 for advice — and, by-the-way, your advice has always 
 turned out right. We used often to talk of you, and 
 always when important church movements were to be 
 made. 
 
 " 1 rejoice that your situation is so pleasant and your 
 life so useful. You say you are not satisfied with your- 
 self; very natural — but how should it be then with multi- 
 tudes of others ?******* 
 "Your loving friend, 
 
 "N. Wright." 
 
 While the United States School-ship " Sabine" was 
 anchored in the Delaware, in the spring of 18(55, Dr. Brai- 
 nerd received a note from Commodore R. B. Lowry, com- 
 manding the ship, in which he says, "It will give me 
 
'^ WISDOM IN WINKING SOULS." 333 
 
 great pleasure if, on any Sunday afternoon, it will suit 
 your convenience to visit this vessel and address the boys 
 under my charg-e." Dr. Brainerd was able to make but 
 one visit and address in response to this invitation ; but 
 at the June communion he had the satisfaction of receiv- 
 ing to the membership of his church the first lieutenant of 
 the ship, a fine young man with an "empty sleeve^' — 
 having lost his arm at the taking of New Orleans. 
 
 In May, Dr. Brainerd Avent to Brooklyn, to attend the 
 General Assembly, which convened on the 18th. His 
 opening sermon was pieached from the text, "He that 
 winneth souls is icise,'"' Prov. xi. 30. And the subject — 
 " Wisdom in winning souls'' — implied not only that it Avas 
 Avise to win souls, but that great ^cisdom, in its common 
 acceptation, Avas requisite for the successful prosecution of 
 this work. 
 
 * The sermon was thus noticed in the Neiv lor^ Evan- 
 gelist : 
 
 '•Brooklyn, May 19th, 1865. 
 
 " The opening of the General Assembly in Lafayette 
 Avenue Church, yesterday, AA'as participated in by a very 
 large number of Commissioners, Init by a very slim audi- 
 ence from the people. The people had no idea of what 
 they missed in failing to hear the sermon of Dr. Brainerd. 
 Although physically AA^eak, so that he feared he should not 
 be able to endure the fatigue of delivery, the doctor held 
 his audience for over an hour in delighted, aroused atten- 
 tion, stirring the highest moods of feeling, and not unfre- 
 quently causing a buzz of assent and satisfaction as he 
 pronounced his strong, terse conclusions, or provoking 
 their smiles by his shrewd and telling illustrations and 
 thrusts at error in church and state. We shall not at- 
 tempt to analyze the sermon, as aa'c give it in full in an- 
 other place ; but Ave must say its tone and temper were 
 
 29 
 
334 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 most wholesome, and the younger ministry in the Assem- 
 bly could not but carry from it germs of thought, rules 
 of action, and principles of judgment of the highest im- 
 portance to them in their future career. It was more 
 relished, and difiTused more real pleasure among the audi- 
 ence, than any Moderator's sermon we have been privi- 
 leged to hear." 
 
 At the conclusion of his sermon, Dr. Brainerd said that 
 as the state of his health did not permit him to perform 
 the duties of a Commissioner, he had given way to his 
 alternate. Rev. John B. Ileeve, one of the first two colored 
 men ever elected to the General Assembly. 
 
 The following letter to the editor of the American 
 Presbyterian, shows the estimate in which Mr. Reeve 
 was held Ijy the Fourth Presljyter}", of which he was a 
 member: 
 
 "Dear Brother Mears: 
 
 "As my health and inclination will not allow me to take 
 my place as a delegate to the General Assembly, I may 
 be alloAved to say a word for my alternate, the Rev. John 
 B. Reeve. 
 
 " Pie is, I believe, the first colored man ever elected to 
 any General Assembly. As our grand national conflict 
 has settled the question that color is no longer to be an 
 apology for oppression, and as colored men have shed their 
 blood freely for our flag and our country, there seems to 
 be a propriety in giving some merited token of re.-^pect 
 and regard to their representatives in the church. And 
 it is eminently proper that our branch of the church, which 
 first enunciated the principles of human freedom, should 
 be the first to rise above the prejudices of caate. 
 
 " That my alternate will personally do no discredit to 
 the Assemblv mav be inferred from the following letter, 
 
REV. JOHN B. REEVE. 335 
 
 which I received from my disting-uished friend, Rev. T. 
 11. Skinner, D.D. Among- us Mr. Reeve has sustained 
 the character which he brought. 
 
 " TnoMAS Brainerd." 
 
 "New York, Jany. 24th, 1S61. 
 
 "Rev. and dear Brother: 
 
 "John B. Reeve, of our senior class, informs me that 
 he has a call from a church of Africans, in Philadelphia, 
 to become their pastor. He is himself a colored man, and 
 I presume he has no prospect of exercising his ministry, 
 except among his fellow-Africans. But it is only his 
 color that limits his sphere. He has not a superior in 
 the class as to the preaching gift, and I doubt if there is 
 one above him, in academical and theological culture. He 
 stands among the first in all the departments in our semi- 
 nary. He will, I am sure, appear at our anniversary among 
 the live or six who will receive special distinction, as 
 speaker, on the occasion. 
 
 "And he is, in other respects, a first-rate man. There 
 is not one of our students of a sounder mind on the sub- 
 ject of slavery and its political l)earings, and on all the 
 points which are so much agitated in church and state in 
 these times. His piety commands every one's confidence; 
 and his gentlemanly and dignified course in his relations 
 with his white brethren in the seminary, is a sufficient 
 presage of what he will be in general society. Apart 
 from his complexion, he would be in as much demand, in 
 churches of our best class, as the best of his classmates. 
 I regard Mr. Reeve as entitled to no common interest 
 from his white brethren as a candidate for the pulpit. I 
 have never known a man of color at all comparable to 
 him. I rejoice that he is called to Philadelphia. 
 
 " Yours in Christ, 
 
 "Trios. H. Skixner." 
 
336 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 The war was over. The two " Refreshment Saloons " 
 ■were publicly closed, August 2Sth, 18G5, with appropriate 
 ceremonies at the Academy of Music. 
 
 Fourteen hundred soldiers, however, arriving just at this 
 time, the " Union " Saloon was reopened, and provided 
 meals for 30,000 returning troops, additional. It was 
 finally closed December 1st, 1865, and the buildings taken 
 down on the 3d of January, 1866. It went into opera- 
 tion on the 2*7^1 of May, 1861; — and during this period 
 the receipts were estimated at about $130,000, including 
 money, sanitary stores, and donations in provisions, etc. 
 
 " From this fund more than a million of meals were 
 provided, not only for the soldiers, but for sailors, refugees, 
 freedmen, and Southern prisoners or deserters ; no one who 
 claimed their hospitality ever being turned away. All this 
 was done by the voluntary offerings of the people, day by 
 day, week by week, month by month, and year by }' ear, the 
 Committee receiving no aid whatever from city, State, or 
 general government 
 
 " Two hospitals were erected in connection with the 
 Saloon, where 15,000 sick and wounded have received 
 medical treatment, and 20,000 have had their wounds 
 dressed in iransilu.^^ 
 
 Hon. Edward Everett said of this enterprise, " It has 
 given your city a new and most commanding title to her 
 beautiful name." 
 
 "As at a well-spring struck on holy grourd, 
 Here Patriotism drew its life anew ; 
 And like the draught Samaria's daughter found. 
 Its freshness lasted all the journey through." 
 
 When these buildings were closed and removed, the 
 "Committee" sent to Dr. Brainerd, as memorials of his 
 interest in them, and their appreciation of it, one of the 
 dinner castors which had been used in this service, and a 
 fine larffe stuffed Eagle, — the cift to the Saloon of a soldier 
 
NEW YEAR'S MORNING PRAYER-MEETINGS. 33t 
 
 from Northern New York, wlio early in the conflict laid 
 down his life for his country. Never were sacred relics 
 more highly valued or more fondly cherished. 
 
 Early on a summer morning- of 1805, lsh\ Brainerd heard 
 the approaching- tramp of many horses in the street, and 
 rising- hastily, reached the window just in time to see one 
 of the young- men from his church, Colonel Charles H. 
 Hand, who went out at the first call for volunteers, return- 
 ing .at the head of a regiment of cavalry. 
 
 Bronzed and scarred in the service, as well as his war- 
 Avorn veteran soldiers, tlie instant and mutual recognition, 
 with the bow, smile, and wave of the hand, between the 
 pastor and the young officer, conveyed the crateful as- 
 surance of the return of peace. Colonel Hand had been 
 in numberless engagements through the war. He was 
 swamped in the Shenandoah, taken prisoner, wounded and 
 imperiled often on land and sea, but escaped all to return 
 in safety. 
 
 Dr. Brainerd introduced in his church tlie early New- 
 Year's morning- prayer-meetings, commencing January, 
 1838, the year after his settlement, and continuing with- 
 out interruption through every year of his ministry in 
 Pine Street Church, the last one being held on New 
 Year's morning, 1866. He never failed to be present 
 at these early meetings, in all conditions of health and of. 
 weather. It was a most inspiriting- sight to those who had 
 braved the winter storm, or trodden over the crisp, spark- 
 ling snow before light, to find the large lecture-room well 
 filled with a happy, grateful company ; and at the close of 
 the hour's service, to witness the hearty congratulations 
 and good wishes expressed on every side. Several people 
 uniformly attended these meetings from Wharton Street, a 
 mile south, and from Vine Street, a mile north of the 
 church. 
 
 2U* 
 
338 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 Other churches in the city followed this example, after 
 a few 3'ears, making it quite a Philadelphia custom. 
 
 Dr. Brainerd usually gave out a " maxim ^' toward the 
 close of the meeting, as a help to the members of the 
 church in their purposes of improvement for the new year, 
 or of resignation and trust under its trials. Quite a num- 
 ber have told him that they religiously adopted these 
 "maxims" as monitors through the year, and found sul)- 
 stantial aid and comfort in so doing. Some of the younger 
 members kept a record of them, noting their success or 
 failure in abiding by the spirit of their instructions. 
 
 We give here a few ofthe.se " maxims" as specimens of 
 their character. 
 
 Obey and trust. 
 
 Do right, because it is right. 
 
 Be, and not seem. 
 
 " liife for life " — Life here, for life Eternal. 
 
 Never be troubled about what you can't help; nor ichat 
 you can ! 
 
 In the early years of his ministry, a metrical one was 
 given out: 
 
 I will not knowingly offend, 
 
 Nor easily be offended ; 
 What is wrong I'll strive to mend, 
 
 And endure what can't be men Jed. 
 
 The first public "Thanksgiving" ever appointed by 
 the Governor of Pennsylvania was in the fall of 1838. 
 From this time until his death Dr. Brainerd never failed, 
 in a single instance, to officiate in his own pulpit on these 
 anniversaries. He regarded it as a signal mercy that be 
 had health and ability to be present at every New Year's 
 prayer-meeting for twenty-eightyears, and to preach twenty- 
 eight Thanksgiving Sermons. 
 
 About the year 1860, a few young men of Dr. Brainerd's 
 church established a Sabbath-school in the vicinity of the 
 
THE '^ ROBERT R A IKES SCffOOL." 339 
 
 Navy Yard, naming it " The Bratnerd Mission School." 
 Mr. Randolph Sailer was the originator and the moving 
 spirit of this enterprise, and carried it forward with great 
 energy and skill. The school was held in the hall of one 
 of the fire companies, until the room became entirely too 
 small for its operations. Mr. Sailer then matured a 
 project for building a fine large chapel in Greenwich Street, 
 suitable for religious services, in a neighborhood where 
 such an influence was greatly needed. The money was 
 secured by his efforts; a tasteful building erected at a cost 
 of $12,000 dollars, and paid for, and the new chapel was 
 dedicated on the 14th of January, 1866. 
 
 Dr. Brainerd officiated at the dedication. Preaching was 
 held in the chapel every Sabl)ath evening to large and 
 attentive congregations, from the time of its completion. 
 
 The following year, 186T, the entei'prise grew into a 
 self-sustaining church, under the title of " The Greenavich 
 Street Church." The Rev. Mr. Hutton was chosen pas- 
 tor, and Mr. Randolph Sailer elected an elder. Mr. Sailer 
 was a graduate of Union Theological Seminary in 1860 ; 
 but he was compelled to relinquish his cherished purpose 
 of preaching on account of a serious affection of his eyes. 
 Had he foreseen the shortness of his life-service, he could 
 not better have appropriated it than in planting a Christian 
 church, where the gospel which he was not allowed him- 
 self to preach should be faithfully proclaimed by other 
 men. Mr. Sailer followed his beloved pastor to the upper 
 sanctuary in just three years from the dedication of his 
 favorite "Mission Cha2:>el." He was a young man of fine 
 talents, of uncommon executive power, and of most con- 
 sistent and symmetrical piety. 
 
 Another Sabbath-school in which Dr. Brainerd was 
 deeply interested was that of the "Robert Raikes School," 
 in Sixth Street, below Fitzwater. Originally started on 
 the "union" plan, it had gradually become ^foster-child of 
 
340 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 Pine Street Church. For seventeen years it was sustained 
 by Dr. Brainerd's church, while the sui)erintendent and 
 teachers were all drawn from the same source. The 
 building in which the school was held for many years, 
 under the old " union" tenure, was unexpectedly sold, 
 without the knowledge of the managers, and the school 
 turned adrift, homeless The house would have been pur- 
 chased by Pine Street Church if this movement had been 
 known in season for counsel and united action. Enrolling 
 between three and four hundred scholars, the school was 
 forced to accept such temporary accommodations as the 
 neighborhood afforded, which were neither comfortable nor 
 sufiScient. In connection with the teachers and superin- 
 tendent. Dr. Brainerd attempted to secure for the school a 
 better building than the one from which it had been so in- 
 considerately ejected. He obtained permission from the 
 Trustees of Pine Street Church to erect a suitable building 
 for the use of the school, on the burial-lot in Carpenter 
 Street, belonging to the church, and enlisted for the work 
 the interest of several of his liberal men.* 
 
 At this stage of the enterprise Dr. Brainerd was obliged 
 to leave the city, but he assured the noble band of teachers, 
 who were endeavoring to collect funds for the new build- 
 ing, that after his return he would give his first attentioa 
 to this work, and see it through to its completion. 
 
 The dismay which followed the sudden death of their 
 pastor, the complicity of claims arising from the necessity 
 of refitting the church, in order to preserve its prosperity, 
 created some hinderance and discouragement at first. But 
 the friends of the Robert Raikes School wisely considered 
 the carrvins" out of Dr. Brainerd's views in this matter as 
 
 ■■■■ A co])y of the Eesolution of the Trustees, granting the appropria- 
 tion of the lot for the school-house, was taken from Dr. Brainerd's coat 
 pocket after his death, in August, 18G6. 
 
THE ROLL OF IIOXOR. 341 
 
 the l)est proof of their regard for him, and the result en- 
 tirely justified the decision. 
 
 With great labor and self-sacrifice on the part of a f(!\v, 
 the superintendent assuming personally the responsibility 
 of half the pecuniary expense, a beautiful building was 
 completed, at a cost of seven thousand dollars, and was 
 ready for occupation on the first of January, 186t. The 
 name was changed from "Robert Raikes" to "The 
 Brainerd Memorial School," as the " Brainerd Mission 
 School" was merged in the "Greenwich Street Church." 
 
 On the second anniversarj" of the school, in its new 
 building, and the twenty-first year of its age, the super- 
 intendent, Mr. George Griffiths, reported 400 scholars, 5G 
 experienced, earnest teachers, with a new library of 1000 
 volumes. A large number from this nursery have joined 
 the communion of Pine Street Church, and the place is 
 already becoming too strait for them. 
 
 Greenwich Street Sabbath-school gives evidence of equal 
 prosperity on its eighth anniversar\^, reporting 500 schol- 
 ars, and at the close of the second year, "the church owns 
 property Avorth $17,000, and owes nothing." 
 
 Including the Home School at Pine Street Church, about 
 twelve hundred children have received Sabbath-school in- 
 struction from the parent church, — each of the three 
 schools averaging over 400 scholars. 
 
 One of Dr. Brainerd's prominent characteristics was 
 his love for his young people; and almost his last act was 
 to secure a permanent memorial to the patriotism and valor 
 of those who had served their country, both the living and 
 the dead. A Roll of Honor, recording the names of the 
 one hundred and thirly volunteers who had entered the 
 army and navy for the war, beautifully engrossed and 
 framed, was placed in the vestibule of rhu church,* while 
 
 ® Four families gave three sons to the service of their country, and nine 
 families sent two members each to the Held. 
 
342 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 an exquisitely finished Mural Tablet, designed by Ed- 
 win Greble, Esq., contained tlie names of the eighteen who 
 bad fallen in the conflict. The tablet is four feet by seven, 
 of fine Italian marble, with a design in bass-relief carved 
 in a panel at the top, representing the martyr's crown of 
 thorns, with the shackles of slavery severed by the sword. 
 Then follow, in chronological order, the names of the young 
 men, with the date and the place of their death. Two 
 were starved to death in Libby Prison, and two were 
 killed at the storming of Petersburg. The tablet was 
 placed at the right hand of the middle door of entrance, 
 in a roomy vestibule, which is filled every Sabbath with 
 visitors, examining with reveren(?e and admiration this 
 well-merited tribute to the " Martyrs of Pine Street 
 Church." They bear among them the rank of Lieutenant, 
 Captain, Adjutant, and Surgeon, and the brave young 
 men of the rank and file are here equally honored and 
 lamented. 
 
 When the tablet was j^laced in the wall on the 1st of 
 May, 1866, an inauguration ceremony was observed, which 
 was generally noticed and fully described in the daily and 
 weekly papers, both religious and secular. One of them 
 thus speaks of it : 
 
 "An occasion of solemn and unwonted interest was wit- 
 nessed in Old Pine Street Church on Tuesday, May 1st. 
 The mural tablet, inscribed with the names of the fallen 
 heroes, whom the old church will now cherish as among 
 her most precious ornaments, and whose record of service 
 and martyrdom she shall twine forever as a thread of gold 
 among her histor}'", had been conspicuously placed in the 
 wall of the vestibule, and now the pastor and people 
 assembled suitably to commemorate the deed." 
 
 [The tablet is then described, and the introductory ser- 
 vices of music and prayer suitably noticed.] 
 
 " Dr Brainerd said that ' he hoped the duty of doing 
 
INAUGURATION OF THE MURAL TABLET. 343 
 
 honor to our noble dead, beo-un in this church to-day, would 
 be followed by every church in the land. lie knew that 
 if those whose names are inscribed upon that tablet had 
 been asked what tribute they would most delight in, if 
 they were to fall in their country's cause, the}^ would pre- 
 fer to be remembered by their church, and honored just as 
 we have honored them. Many of those whose names 
 appear on the tablet he had baptized in their infancy, and 
 he felt still that they were his children.' 
 
 "Dr. Brainerd said, 'Our action to-day was designed: 
 
 "'1. As a perpetual rebuke to the traitors by whose 
 hands they fell, and the disposition to conciliate the trea- 
 son for which they fell. 
 
 "'2. As marking the priceless cost of the unity and 
 freedom wi'ought out by their sufferings. 
 
 "'3. As a tribute to their own noble patriotism. 
 
 '"4. As a consolation to bereaved mothers and sisters, 
 who have in these sons no treasure but their memory and 
 their fame.'" 
 
 Dr. Brainerd then introduced Charles Giblions, Esq., 
 who made a most telling speech. He was followed by 
 Hon. Morton McMichael, the Mayor of Philadelphia, who 
 in a few well chosen words stated that he was there in 
 his o^cfaZ capacity : " lie came in the name of his high 
 position, as the chief magistrate of Philadelphia, to in- 
 dorse the action of this congregation in the erection of that 
 monument to their honored dead. He hoped to see the 
 example emulated by every church in the land." 
 
 After the Mayor's short address, the assembly was dis- 
 missed with the benediction. 
 
 It was said by one of the city editors "that no tribute to 
 the memory of the gallant men who perished as martyrs 
 to a hoh^ cause could be more appropriate. It would keep 
 their memories green in the localities whei'e thev were best 
 
344 ^^^FE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 known, and hanrl down to posterity an imperisliable record 
 of their patriotic deeds." 
 
 The day following this public service, as Dr. Brainerd 
 stood in the vestibule of the church exaniining this beau- 
 tiful monument, he said to himself, as if thinking aloud, 
 " Xow I have done everything for my dear boys that I 
 can possibly do for them !" 
 
 At the meeting of the General Assembly in May, ISGO, 
 Dr. Brainerd was appointed Chairman of the New School 
 Committee on " Reunion " He was appointed on the 
 first Committee to open "Fraternal Corresi)ondence " with 
 the other branch of the Presbyterian Church in 1849, and 
 submitted a paper in relation to it. He had marked the 
 progress of confidence and fraternal bearing through these 
 seventeen years with growing interest. Jn the Report of 
 the Committee, which met in the City of New York in 
 February and May of the following year, 1867, it was 
 said : " The circumstances in which the Committees held 
 their first meeting were so peculiar as to demand special 
 mention, as they were fitted to produce an unusual 
 sobriety. 
 
 " The chairmen of both Committees, as originally con- 
 stituted, were absent. One, Rev. Dr. Brainerd, had been 
 translated to that world Avhere all the distinctions of 
 Christian discipleship, which exist on the earth, are lost 
 in the harmony of heaven. The other, Rev. Dr. Krebs, 
 was disabled by severe illness from all participation in 
 our conferences, waiting for that change to come which 
 will unite him to the great company of Christian ministers 
 in the kins'dom of God." 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 FOURTH OF JULY, 18GG — RECEPTION OP STATE FLAGS. 
 
 PREPARATIONS were being made on a great scale 
 for the celebration of the approaching Fourth of July ; 
 wliieh was to be signalized by the reception of the State 
 Flags. Ten thousand dollars were appropriated by the 
 City Councils of Philadelphia to defray the expenses of 
 the coming ceremonies; and everything was done to make 
 this closing scene of the great events of the last five years 
 worthy of the history which it commemorated. An im- 
 mense amphitheater of semicircular seats was erected in 
 Independence Square, back of Independence Hall, leaving 
 an open space in front, of one hundred feet, through to the 
 Walnut Street gate. The seats, fifteen in number, rising 
 one above the other, the last being sixteen feet elevation 
 from the ground. The staging included in these arrange- 
 ments accommodated over six thousand persons. The 
 stand in the center, with an elevation of ten feet, was de- 
 signed for the principal actors in the "Reception." This 
 center platform was capable of seating over sixty persons ; 
 the whole, including the rear of the State House, the 
 entrance gates to the Square, and the arcade of stately 
 trees, was beautifully ornamented with national flags and 
 mottoes. 
 
 About three weeks in advance of this celebration, Dr. 
 Brainerd received the following note from Colonel Ell- 
 maker : 
 
 30 (345) 
 
346 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 " United States Marshal's Offtce, 
 "Philadelphia, June 13th, 1866. 
 
 " Rev. and dear Sir: 
 
 " You have Ijeen selected by the committee a|)pointed 
 to make arrangements for the reception of the State Colors, 
 on the Fourth of July next, hv his Excellency Governor 
 Curtin, to offer a prayer at the commencement of the cere- 
 monies in Independence Square. Will you have the kind- 
 ness to let me hear from you at an early day on the sul)- 
 
 ject? 
 
 Yery truly your obt. servt., 
 
 " P. C. Ellmaker, Chairman of Commiltee. 
 "Rev. Thos. Brainerd." 
 
 No celebration of the kind was ever attended with such 
 excitement in Philadelphia. The early part of the day 
 was fine ; and the seats af>propriated to spectators were 
 filled long before the appointed hour. The seats on 
 the left of the amphitheater were occupied by the orphan 
 children of the soldiers from the various "Homes" of 
 Penns3ivania. Twelve hundred were present ; and, until 
 the arrival of the militar}' procession, they sung a number 
 of touching songs, prepared for the occasion. 
 
 The head of the grand procession reached the Walnut 
 Street gate of the Square at ten minutes of eleven o'clock. 
 The first to enter the gate was Major-General Hancock 
 and staff, amid cheers that might have been heard at Wal- 
 nut Street wharf. Soon afterward Major-General Meade 
 and staff entered, and again shout after shout rent the air. 
 The Square soon became filled by the numerous color- 
 bearers, with their standards torn and discolored, which 
 excited those who saw them to a still higher pitch of en- 
 thusiasm. " Up toward the walls of the hall the tattered 
 banners were borne ; up the avenue came the bronzed 
 guards who had borne them through scores of battles ; 
 and up rose the multitudes of men and women who had 
 
RECEPTION OF STATE FLAGS. 34t 
 
 been awaiting the magnificent sight. No living man or 
 woman will ever see such a sight again as that presented 
 when those torn flags were gathered aroand the stand 
 where the reception was to take place." In solid phalanx, 
 through the whole length of the avenue, one hundred feet 
 wide, from the hall to the Walnut Street gate, was this 
 forest of battle-stained, war-worn, shattered standards, in 
 the hands of the very veterans who had carried them 
 through the strife and fire of battle. 
 
 The exercises were opened by the playing of a triumphal 
 march by Birgfeld's Band, after which a short introductory 
 speech was made by General White, who announced that 
 prayer would be oflfered by Rev. Thomas Brainerd. 
 
 The presentation of the colors to Governor Curtin by 
 General Meade then followed. 
 
 General Meade said, amid repeated cheering : " Of all 
 the honors that have been showered upon me for the 
 humble services which it has been in my power to render 
 to my country, none have been so grateful to me, and of 
 none am I so proud, as being on this occasion the repre- 
 sentative of these hardy and noble men who stand before 
 
 vou. 
 
 4:4:**:(:*4:3|: 
 
 "I will not attempt here to recount the deeds of the 
 soldiers of Pennsylvania. To do so would be to repeat 
 the history of this war; for, with few exceptions, there is 
 not a battle-field from Gettysburg to Mobile that the 
 ground has not been stained by the blood of the soldiers 
 of Pennsylvania." 
 
 In his reply. Governor Curtin said: "If I consulted 
 my own feelings, I would receive these flags in silence ; 
 for this occasion is its own most eloquent orator. Human 
 lips cannot express such lessons of patriotism, of sacrifice 
 and heroism as these sacred relics sublimely attest. 
 
 " As the official representative of the Commonwealth, I 
 
348 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 cannot take back the remnants oftlic colors she committed 
 to your keeping without attempting to gather into my arms 
 tlie full measure of her overflowing gratitude and lay it at 
 your feet. 
 
 * * * * " In the presence of these mute 
 
 symbols of living soldiers [pointing to the flags], of yonder 
 touching memorials of our dead soldiers [pointing to the 
 children], in fealty to the blood poured out like water, in 
 remembrance of the sorrows yet to be assuaged and the 
 burdens yet to borne, in loyalty to our State, to our coun- 
 try, to our fellow men everywhere, and to God, let us rise 
 to the height of our great privileges and place the Ameri- 
 can government upon the enduring basis of justice and 
 liberty." 
 
 No feature of the celebration was more impressive than 
 the presence of the soldiers' orphans, twelve hundred in 
 number, who are provided for and educated by the State 
 of Pennsylvania. The boys, in uniform, six hundred and 
 fifty, walked in the procession with soldierly pride and 
 manliness. After the ceremonies of the morning, a sump- 
 tuous dinner was provided for them, at the Soldiers' Home, 
 Sixteenth and Filbert Streets, by Mrs. John Winter, at 
 her own expense. They were visited here by many dis- 
 tinguished citizens, and in the afternoon were taken to 
 the League House, where Governor Curtin made a short 
 address to them. 
 
 The little girls, about five hundred, rode in the beautiful 
 ambulances of the fire companies, which, during the war, 
 had borne so m'any thousands of our wounded soldiers 
 from the railroad stations to the hospitals. These were 
 fitted up and decorated for this grateful service, and were 
 now filled with these little girls, each carrying in her hand 
 a small American flag, and singing as they moved along. 
 A delegation from forty-five fire companies, in full equip- 
 ments, with chief engineer and assistants, acted as "guard 
 
RECEPTION' OF STATE FLAGS. 349 
 
 of honor" to these children. Many of the Ijrave men ht\A 
 themselves served in the war who were now jruardinji- their 
 fallen comrades' children.* It was a beautiful spectacle. 
 
 Dr. Brainerd's friends remember the enthusiasm with 
 which he entered into every interest relating to the coun- 
 try. He regarded these great public demonstrations as 
 links uniting the past with the present — "the patriots who 
 created the Union with the patriots who saved it." It has 
 been said of our national festival that " God himself long 
 ago took this day into his own keeping and crowned it 
 with glory and honor, which it should be ou?' glor}^ and 
 honor to preserve." 
 
 During the performance of the " Triumphal March," at 
 the beginning of the exercises. Dr. Brainerd observed the 
 Rev. Dr Hutter, a friend of twenty years, on the platform 
 near him. He beckoned to him, and as he approached 
 said, "I am nervous and nhaky under this excitement. 
 Brother Hutter. Will you give me the support of your 
 arm through my part of the service ?" Dr. Hutter re- 
 plied, "There is no one I would rather have lean upon me, 
 Brother Brainerd." "And there is no one whom I would 
 rather lean upon," added Mr. Brainerd f 
 
 The great heat of the day at high noon ; the discomfort 
 of the packed crowd, both on the platform and throughout 
 the square; the hum and buzz of thirty thousand people, 
 made it impossible for the speaker to be heard except by 
 those inmiediately around him. Even the reporters only 
 caught an occasional phrase, so that the published petition 
 was really the repor-ters^ prayer, instead of Dr. Brainerd's. 
 
 * These items of the celebration are of course gleaned from the reports 
 of the papers at the time. 
 
 f This little fraternal colloquy was related some weeks after by Dr. 
 Hutter, who said to a member of his family, on his return home, "Dt, 
 Brainerd is more feeble than his friends imagine, — a general tremor 
 affected him through the whole of his prayer." 
 
350 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 After the service was over, he turned to Governor Cur- 
 tin and General Meade, who stood near him, and said, "/ 
 hope the Lord heard that prayer, for lam sure no one 
 ehe did /" 
 
 This was his last public service for the City of Philadel- 
 phia and the country he loved so intensely. It was fitting 
 that he should be there. He had served through the four 
 years' struggle with treason as faithfully as these veteran 
 soldiers ; he had watched, and labored, and prayed with 
 them and for them. It was fitting he should lay down his 
 colors, with these toil-marked and blood-marked banners, 
 on the birthday of the nation — " born again" to-day to a 
 purer and higher life, and "baptized''^ yv\i\\ the blood of 
 '■'■four hundred thousand''^ of her sons. It was a most 
 appropriate close of his patriotic life. 
 
 Dr. Brainerd preached in his own pulpit on the following 
 Sabbath, July 8th. This was his farewell message to his 
 own beloved Christian household, and it seemed to 
 breathe a prophetic consciousness of his removal from 
 them. 
 
 He preached from the text, "Abide with us, for it is 
 towards evening and the day is far spent." Luke, xxiv. 29. 
 
 After the introduction, he said, " This was a proper 
 prayer for us. We could have the spiritual presence of 
 Jesus, if we could not have his visible presence. We 
 could have him for eternity, instead of a tarrier for a 
 night. 
 
 " We may sa}^, ' Abide with us,' by the efficacy of his 
 atonement ; 
 
 "By the ever-present aid of his spirit : 
 " ' Lo, I am with you alway.' 
 
 " ' Where two or three are gathered together in my 
 name,' etc. 
 "In the light of his truth he will 'abide with us.' 
 " Truth heard, remembered, understood. 
 
A FAREWELL MESSAGE. 351 
 
 '• ' Did not our lioavt buni within us while he opened 
 to us the Scriptures?' 
 " Truth obeyed : ' Whosoever shall do the will of 
 God, the same is my brother, and sister, and 
 mother.' 
 " ' Abide with us ' to sanctify : 
 
 "We need penitence, humility, faith. 
 We need a model 
 
 For prayer, for forbearance, for benevolence. 
 ' He went about doing good.' 
 " ' Abide with us ' in thy sympathy : 
 
 "We have such burdens in Providence; in our 
 sins ; in the spirit of the world ; we need sym- 
 pathy. 
 " ' Abide with us' by thy power : 
 
 " To protect us from evil ; to aid and answer our 
 prayers ; to give effect to our labors. ' I can do 
 all things through Christ which strengtheneth 
 me.' 
 " Abide with us all: 
 
 " These little children; these young men and maid- 
 ens; these in middle life ; these aged ones, with 
 whom 'it is towards evening and the day is far 
 spent.' 
 "Abide with us everywhere : 
 
 "In this house; in our families; our stores ; our 
 journeys. 
 " Abide with us ever : 
 
 " In prosperity; in affliction ; in death; at the judg- 
 ment-seat. 
 " If Jesus abide with us we are safe. 
 
 " Let us, in view of this subject, 
 " Remove every hinderance to the abidance of Christ. 
 " Let us tell the world how blessed it is to have the 
 abidance of Christ." 
 
352 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRATNERD, D.J). 
 
 Tins skeleton was filled out in his own way, with full 
 illustrations on every point. The occasion of his prospec- 
 tive journey led him to say many tender and touching- 
 thini^s. He prayed that Jesus would "abide'''' with his be- 
 loved people during their separation, and amid all their 
 wanderings. 
 
 The whole service was imbued with the spirit and the 
 tenderness of a final leave-taking and benediction. The 
 people wept as though he had spoken the words of Paul, — 
 "That (hey should see his face no more.'''' 
 
 Dr. Brainerd left Philadelphia on the next Wednesday, 
 July 11th, to visit his daughter, in her new residence, at 
 Scranton, Pa. He had accepted, with considerable he.-jita- 
 tion, an urgent invitation to preach at Easton, Pa , on tiie an- 
 niversary of the " Brainerd Evangelical Society," connected 
 with Lafayette College, July 22d. He declined at first from 
 a reluctance to burden his season of recreation with the re- 
 sponsibilities of an important service; but as the managers 
 of tliis anniversary seemed ver}^ desirous to make the occa- 
 sion this year a special "Brainerd " service, he finally con- 
 sented. His recent publication of the life of one of these 
 missionary brothers, including a sketch of the other, had 
 stimulated his interest in the location of their labors, and 
 added another motive to the claims of the College Society. 
 He was considerably invigorated by his ten days of rest, 
 and enjoyed very much his explorations in Luzerne County, 
 to him a new section of country. Commencement-week at 
 Lafayette College was the hottest of the summer, and the 
 church where he preached was very much crowded and 
 illy ventilated. Still, he felt no serious ill effects from the 
 service, and spoke of his visit to Easton with unalloyed 
 satisfaction. The occasion was thus noticed by the Eas- 
 ton Daily Express : 
 
THE BRAINERD SERVICES. 353 
 
 THE BRAINERD SERVICES. 
 
 "Rev. Thomas Brainercl, D.D., of Philadelphia, grand- 
 nephew of the well-known missionary, David Brainerd, 
 preached the annual sermon before the Brainerd Mis- 
 sionary Society of the Colleg-e in the Brainerd Church, 
 standing- on the very spot consecrated by the self-denying 
 labors of that early and successful preacher to the Indians. 
 The text was, * Let no man despise thy youth ;' and the 
 venerable divine, in language of rare polish, gave words of 
 counsel to the young men before him that will long be re- 
 membered. He dwelt upon the noble work which David 
 Brainerd had done, and which was finished at an early age 
 when many ministers were just commencing theirs. The 
 speaker was in feeble health, and sometimes his voice could 
 scarceh^ be heard by all in the crowded house, yet the 
 respectful and eager attention to catch every word, showed 
 how much he was honored, and how much the discourse 
 itself was valued." 
 
 The most observable symptom of impaired strength for 
 the past 3'ear was in his voice, which had been remarkable 
 for its compass and volume ; but now it often seemed too 
 great an effort for Dr. Brainerd to speak with his accus- 
 tomed strength; although when he became absorbed in 
 his subject he frequently rose to the ordinary tone of other 
 years. The American Presbyterian, in noticing this oc- 
 casion, says : 
 
 " There was a singular and beautiful propriety in the 
 event. That he should be invited to perform the duty 
 was felt to be highly becoming. But that the descendant 
 and the biographer of the Brainerds who preached upon 
 that consecrated ground centuries ago should, after a life 
 of active and honorable labor for the Master, give his last 
 public testimony to the truth upon that spot, at the call of 
 
354 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRATNERD, D.D. 
 
 the youth of our day organized as the Brainerd Missionary 
 Socieli/, in ' The Brainerd Church:'' this happy coincidence 
 was nothing- less than the seal of Providence put upon the 
 life-work of Thomas Brainerd." 
 
 This last public service of Dr. Brainerd's life was on the 
 twenty-second of July, ISBG. On the twenty-fourth he re- 
 turned to Scranton, and for two weeks occupied himself in 
 riding and walking over the beautiful hills and valleys of 
 this region, with great enjoyment and apparently with 
 decided physical improvement. He relished a new field ; 
 and the large mining operations of this county opened fresh 
 sources of observation and interest to him. Nearly every 
 day he would bring home some incident of his adventures 
 to relate, especially in connection with conversations held 
 with the miners at their noon hour of rest. 
 
 Talking with these men one day, he inquired how many 
 of them were in the habit of drinking whisky. He then 
 asked what the cost was per day. Making a calculation 
 for the year, he showed them the benefits of abstinence in 
 a pecuniary view, — and said that one man could soon pur- 
 chase a horse with his savings ; and another build a snug 
 house in a few years. One of the men replied that a friend 
 of his had tried the experiment ; he was sober, industrious, 
 and economical ; he saved his money and bought a horse, 
 but the horse died in a week after, so he lost his time, his 
 money, his whisky, and his horse ! Then, as the company 
 joined in the laugh at his adroitness, he called out, " But 
 come and see us again, captain ! We won't trifle with . 
 your advice." 
 
 Two events, of a private social character, occurred just 
 before Dr. Brainerd left Philadelphia, which tended to in- 
 crease his depression. One was the departure for Europe, 
 for a term of eighteen months, of his friend and former 
 elder, Alexander Whilldin, Esq. Associated in the closest 
 
DEATH OF CAPTAIN WIIILLDTN. 355 
 
 intimacy for thirty 3'ears, with never a rlissenting- opinion 
 between them, Mr. Brainerd felt that in Mr. Whilldin he 
 had a true friend and brother, as well as " elder'' and 
 counselor ; a man whom he could lean upon in every time 
 of need. Although separated from his church for the last 
 few years, by his removal to the northern part of the city, 
 and officially connected with North Broad Street Church, 
 time and distance made no inroads upon their friendship. 
 Mr. Whilldin's house was the frequent terminus of J\Ir. 
 Brainerd's rides, the place of his hreakfant calls in the 
 summer mornings, and the refuge from professional vexa- 
 tions that coveted a rest for the heart. There was an 
 ominous shadow upon his mind when Mr. AVhilldin de- 
 parted for his long Eastern journey, which left the im- 
 pression that he had taken his final leave of him. 
 
 The other event, occurring within the same week and 
 in the same family connection, was the sudden death of 
 Captain Wilmon Whilldin. Captain Whilldin was just 
 the age of Dr. Brainerd, and their mutual friendship had 
 strengthened with every year of its progress. He was a 
 man of ready sympathies, of most generous impulses, and 
 prompt to aid, with heart and purse, every benevolent ob- 
 ject which gained his approbation. He w^is President of 
 the Board of Trustees of Pine Street Church ; and only 
 a day or two before his death he went with Dr. Brainerd 
 to examine the site for the new Mission School-house, de- 
 signed for the Robert Raikes Sabbath-school ; and with 
 characteristic enthusiasm assured Dr. Brainerd that he 
 would see this enterprise through, if he had to build the 
 house entirely himself He was an earnest patriot, and 
 in the very commencement of the war, when Major An- 
 derson and his men were shut up in Fort Sumter, Captain 
 Whilldin declared if he could gain the consent of the gov- 
 ernment he would " provision h s steamboat and go directly 
 down to their relief." 
 
356 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 But the fate 
 
 "Of the bravo 'seventy'' men, 
 Shut up in their narrow pen, ♦ 
 
 Battling for life" — 
 
 was settled before any plaus could be matured for their 
 rescue. 
 
 Captain Whilldin always retained a larg-e share of Mr. 
 Brainerd's respect and affection. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 DEATH AT SCRANTON, PA. — FUNERAL SERVICES. 
 
 IN just a month after Dr. Brainerd left Philadelphia his 
 dau.srhter's two little children were attacked with an 
 epidemic disease, which terminated fatally in a few days. 
 The youngest child, fifteen months old, died on the 10th 
 of August ; and the elder, three and a half years of age, 
 on the 13th. They were very lovely, promising children; 
 and fond as Dr. Brainerd was of all children, those of his 
 only daughter w^ere inexpressibly dear to him. Worn by 
 the excitements of the war, his nervous system was un- 
 equal to the shock of this great bereavement. He bore 
 it externally with composure, and bent his efforts to 
 strengthen the overwhelmed young parents under the 
 blow. But it was too heavy for him. 
 
 The death of the children being communicated by tele- 
 gram to friends in Philadelphia, and published in the 
 papers there, called out a number of kind, sympathetic 
 letters from the elders of Pine Street Church as well as 
 other friends in the city. These letters were so grateful 
 to him that he replied to them immediately; and, in the 
 following week, he had answered them all but one, which 
 he designed to write the next day. 
 
 Dr. Brainerd's son had resigned his post in the army, 
 and returned from Little Rock, Arkansas, a few weeks pre- 
 vious to these events. Leaving his wife and child at Sau- 
 gerties. New York, he joined the circle at Scranton on the 
 10th of August, a few hours after the death of his sister's 
 
 31 (357) 
 
358 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRALVERD, D D. 
 
 youngest child. His presence at this time was a great 
 support and comfort to the entire family. He remained to 
 help them through all that was to follow. In the after- 
 noon of the 21st of August, his father walked with him 
 over to H3'de Park, a sul)urb of Scranton, about two miles 
 distant, and back. He complained of being a little tired, 
 but partook of his supper with his u.-^ual appetite and 
 joined in the conversation of the evening. After reclining 
 on the sofa about half an hour, he rose, saying, " I am 
 somewhat tired and will go to bed ; but don't let me dis- 
 turb the rest of you ;" and bidding the family a cheerful 
 "good-night," he left the room. His wife followed him 
 in a few minutes, and after reaching their room he com- 
 menced talking of his grandchildren. His wife said she 
 could not yet reconcile herself to their death. He replied, 
 "We must he 7-econciled ! I trust it will do us all good ; 
 I hope that I shall be more reconciled to the xvill of God 
 and better fitted for his service by this trial.''' This was 
 the last sentence he ever spoke. He fell asleep in a few 
 minutes, and slept as tranquilly as a child until after 
 eleven o'clock. But, — "At midnight there was a cry," — 
 his wife Avas awakened at one o'clock by a heavy groan ; 
 believing he was suffering from " nightmare," she en- 
 deavored to rouse him, but in vain. Then hastily calling 
 her son, who had been a practicing physician for six years, 
 and who reached his father's bedside in half a minute, 
 every eil'ort was made to restore him to consciousness, — 
 but, with two or three heavy lireathings and then a soft 
 g;isp, he was gone. His daughter and her husband bent 
 over his lifeless form, and the latter then ran for his family 
 physician at the request of Dr. Brainerd's son, who still 
 persisted in stimulating efforts, even though persuaded of 
 their uselessness. Dr. Brainerd's countenance all this 
 time was perfectly tranquil and natural ; he lay with his 
 eyes and mouih closed, and his left hand under his cheek, 
 
HIS LAST LETTER. 359 
 
 as if in a peaceful slumber — not a shadow of fear or suffer- 
 ing upon his face. 
 
 With the early light of morning a telegram announcing 
 the death of Dr. Brainerd was sent to tiie press, and to 
 friends in Philadelphia, requesting them to open the house 
 in Pine Street; and at nine o'clock a.m. the family left Scran- 
 ton, with their precious and silent burden, for the desolated 
 home, where they arrived at six p.m., August 22d, 1866. 
 
 The necessary measures for leaving Scranton in the early 
 train allowed no opportunity for funeral services, and yet 
 at the early hour of eight a.m., the Rev. Dr. Hickok, of 
 Scranton, with many of the leading citizens, including the 
 Methodist, Episcopal, and Baptist clergymen of the place, 
 gathered spontaneously at the house of Dr. Brainerd's son- 
 in-law, where Dr. Hickok conducted a short service ; after 
 which they all accompanied the body to the railroad station. 
 
 A large number of Pine Street congregation were assem- 
 bled at Dr. Brainerd's house on the arrival of the family at 
 Philadelphia for this sad reception. Before noon the same 
 day the notice of Dr. Brainerd's death was posted on the 
 bulletin boards of several leading newspapers of the city, 
 and published in the evening papers, so that the news of 
 the event was widely circulated before night. John C. 
 Farr, Esq., one of the elders of his church, carried home 
 the tidings to his family; and on reaching his summer 
 residence, a few miles from the city, he found there Dr. 
 Brainerd's last letter, written the day before, and received 
 after his death. This letter was read by Mr. Farr at the 
 Friday evening prayer-meeting the day before Dr. Brai- 
 nerd's interment at Pine Street Church. 
 
 "Scranton, August 21st, 1S66. 
 
 "John C. Farr. Esq. 
 " Dear Brother 
 " Your kind and sympathizing letter was gratefully re- 
 ceived. We need all the aid our friends can furnish to 
 
360 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 help us bear our great sorrows. Our trouble came like a 
 clap of thunder in a clear sky. For three weeks after we 
 reached here we all had excellent health ; the little chil- 
 dren were full of life and happiness. Little Mary was my 
 companion in my work in the garden and my walks. She 
 was one of the sweetest solaces of my life. The little boy 
 was sick five days, and the little girl three. Their disease 
 (dysentery) was a painful one, carrying them down rapidly. 
 We had with us Mr. Boies, Sr., his daughter Ella, and my 
 son Thomas. We had all the support of each other in our 
 trials, which was a great mercy. Our house now seems 
 desolate. Poor Emma and her husband are quiet, self- 
 controlled, submissive, but perfectly crushed in their affec- 
 tions and hopes. I am concerned for Emma's mental and 
 physical health. She is of the still sort, and her feelings 
 run deep. Her mother and myself must not leave her 
 alone just yet in her empty house. We think some of 
 taking a trip with Emma and her husband to Quebec, 
 to try, by new scenes, to break the thoughts which 
 overburden her. If I go, we can hardly expect to get 
 back to Philadelphia until the middle, at least, of Sep- 
 tember. I feel that my first duty now is to protect and 
 comfort my stricken child. Is it not so ? My wife and I 
 have hardly reached the grace to ' rejoice in affliction,' but 
 we lay ' our finger on our lips,' and bow our heads and say, 
 'the will of the Lord be done.' ' The Lord gave, and the 
 Lord hath taken away, and blessed be his holy name.' 
 
 " It comforts us both to know that old friends, like Mrs. 
 Farr and yourself, appreciate our sorrows, and are bearing 
 and praying with us. With love from Mrs. Braincrd, 
 Emma, her husband, and myself to you all, 
 "I remain your friend and pastor, 
 
 " Thomas Brainerd. 
 
 "P.S. — If you please, show this letter to the session, if 
 convenient." 
 
CAUSES OF ins DBA TIL SCA 
 
 Anothci' letter, written a few days earlier, aildressed to 
 Samuel Work, Esq., was also received after Dr. lirainerd's 
 death, in couseqaence of Mr. Work's absence from the 
 city. 
 
 "SCRANTON, Aug 17,1866. 
 
 "Dear Brother Work: 
 
 "I am obliged to you for your kind, sympathizing letter. 
 We are almost heart-broken over the.loss of our little ones, 
 who made the light and joy of the house. Poor p]mma is 
 drinking a bitter cup. I hope that neither her mind nor 
 her health will fail under the blow. Your own trials from 
 the same cause I well remember, and hope that Emma 
 and her mother will find support where you obtained it — 
 at a throne of grace. It seems to be my duty now to 
 stav by Emma until she rallies from her sorrows; and 
 this may detain me longer from the church than I at first 
 purposed. If so, I will let you know in time. 
 
 " I am glad to hear of your health, and that you are en- 
 gaged in plans for entering on business for which you are 
 so well qualified. May God bless you above the past! 
 
 " We are in good hands. Every event in God's holy 
 providence will prove a blessing, if improved. 
 
 " With hearty love from us all to Mrs. W., Mary, 
 Samuel, and yourself, 
 
 "I remain your friend, ever, 
 
 " Tiios. Brainerd."* 
 
 If any immediate cause other than Dr. Brainerd's im- 
 paired strength and the death of his grandchildren, hast- 
 e led the final result of his own death, it was the excite- 
 ment of a discussion held the day but one preceding his 
 
 * Dr. Brainerd's daugViter died on the 1st of November, 1868, a little 
 more than two years after these events, leaving a little boy twenty-one 
 moutlis old. 
 
 31* 
 
362 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 death, with a prominent Old School clergyman on the re- 
 union of the Presbyterian Church. 
 
 From the time of his appointment as Chairman of the 
 Committee on "Reunion," Dr. Brainerd inquired the opin- 
 ion of all the clerg-ymen he met, of both branches, '-feeling 
 the pulse of the churches," as he expressed it, in regard to 
 this measure. 
 
 In reply to Dr. Braincrd's inquiry, the person addressed 
 expressed the most decided opposition to reunion, and com- 
 menced at once to give his reasons by bringing up against 
 the New School all the obsolete charges which had been 
 disproved and exploded long ago, and which amazed Mr. 
 Brainerd to find brought forward again at this late day. 
 
 While he believed, with Dean Swift, that " it is impos- 
 sible to remove by reason prejudices which were never 
 founded in reason," yet he replied to these objections point 
 by point, going over the whole ground, and proving to 
 any fair, unprejudiced mind the utter groundlessness of 
 the charges preferred against the New School brethren. 
 
 Dr. Brainerd talked earnestly, under great excitement, 
 as he always did where his heart was concerned; but per- 
 ceiving, by a final remark of his opponent, that his state- 
 ments had made no impression, he closed the conversation 
 by saying, "It requires all my charity for you as Chris- 
 tian men to believe that you have the slightest conviction 
 yourselves of the unsoundness of the other branch of the 
 church.^'' 
 
 It will surprise no one to learn that this man was one 
 of the very few who to the last stoutly opposed reunion, 
 with as little sympathy from the good men of his own 
 division as from those of the other side. 
 
 This conversation was not a private one; the parties 
 met, accidentally, in a place of public resort. Dr. Hickok, 
 of Scranton, accompanied his friend ; and Rev. A. L. 
 Clark, of Hyde Park, was with Dr. Brainerd. Mr. Clark 
 
UNEXPECTED PRESENCE OF HIS SON. 3G3 
 
 said he never heard a case so ably handled in his iife, and 
 he would not have missed hearing the discussion for any 
 consideration. 
 
 Dr. Brainerd returned to his daughter's house, and re- 
 lated this occurrence with a face still flushed by the excite- 
 ment of the discussion. After dinner his family noticed 
 that he became unusually pale, so that his daughter said, 
 anxiously, " I am afraid that discussion has hurt father ; I 
 never saw him so pale before." We always believed it 
 had its influence in the sad termination of the following 
 day. But he fell at his post, standing, as he had ever 
 done, by his friends and his principles. 
 
 Among the many providences which marked this fearful 
 interval, none was more striking than the unexpected pres- 
 ence of Dr. Brainerd's son. After remaining twelve days 
 at Scranton, he was expecting to return to Saugerties on 
 the 23d of August, the day after his father's death, when 
 that event changed the purposes of the whole family. 
 
 A journey to Quebec had been proposed by Mr. -Boies, 
 in the hope of rousing and diverting the mind of his 
 wife from her overwhelming sorrow, and Dr. Brainerd 
 was urged to accompany them ; but he said to his Avife, 
 "/ would rather go homeP^ And he was permitted to 
 
 "GO HOME." 
 
 The resignation of his position in the army left Dr. 
 Brainerd's son free to attend to the trying duties which 
 followed upon his father's death ; to superintend the sale 
 of the house, furniture, and library, forced immediately 
 upon his attention by the necessities of the case, for the 
 whole income was at once suspended with the life of the 
 incumbent. 
 
 AVe prefer to give the incidents of Dr. Brainerd's funeral 
 from the notices of the press, supplying such facts as were 
 unknown to the public. One of these was the deep feeling 
 manifested by the colored people in the neighborhood, who 
 
3G4 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAIN-ERD, D.D. 
 
 closed their houses on the day of the funeral, many of 
 tliem bowing their window-blinds with crape. 
 
 Another most grateful tribute of respect was the request 
 from the vestry of St. Peter's Episcopal Church, in the 
 square below Pine Street Church, to be allowed to toll 
 the bell of their church, as a token of their interest in this 
 sad event. 
 
 It was the season when most of the clergymen of Phil- 
 adelphia were absent on their summer excursions. Many 
 of them returned for this service, where the distance and 
 time permitted, and about sixty were present at the obse- 
 quies of their friend and brother. 
 
 The Funeral of Dr. Brainerd. 
 
 [From the American Presbyterian.'] 
 
 " The services of this saddest of all occasions to a vast 
 multitude of the Christian people and ministry of the city, 
 took *iDlace on Saturday afternoon, at four o'clock, in the 
 Old Pine Street Church, and were managed with great 
 propriety and solemn effect. The church had been heavily 
 draped, the pulpit with its fixtures, Bible and hymn book 
 being completely veiled in mourning for its now ever-to- 
 be absent pastor. The windows were darkened, and a 
 subdued artificial light shone upon the sad scene. The 
 bell of St. Peter's (Protestant Episcopal) Church was toll- 
 ing, and the organ was playing a low dirge, when, pre- 
 cisely at four o'clock, the clergy of all denominations and 
 the elders and trustees of the church entered the building, 
 followed by the corpse and the bereaved family. The 
 organ played the Dead Ifarch in Saul while the prelimi- 
 nary arrangements were being made. All the invited 
 persons having found seats, the public generally were 
 admitted, and, in a moment almost, the building was 
 crammed to its utmost capacity. Many had already been 
 
INCIDENTS OF THE FUNERAL. 365 
 
 waiting for hours in the gallery. The presence of police- 
 men was necessary, not to quell disturbance, but to enforce 
 arrangements necessary for comfort. 
 
 "Among the ministers present, besides those of our own 
 denomination, were Drs. Bomberger, Cooper, Pale, Church, 
 Crawford, and many others in this city; Rev. Dr. De Witt, 
 of the Reformed Dutch Church, New York ; Dr. Backus, 
 of Baltimore, and President Cattell, of Easton. Notwith- 
 standing the season, one of the largest gatherings of 
 clergymen that has been seen for some time in our city 
 assembled to do honor to a member of their body so 
 widely reverenced and esteemed. 
 
 " The choir introduced the services by singing, with 
 very great taste, skill, and feeling, ' Vital spark of 
 heavenly flame.' The concluding passages commencing, 
 ' Lend, lend your wings,' were grandly done, and were 
 full of inspiration to the sorrowing but hopeful friends of 
 the departed. Prayers, hymns, and reading of Scripture 
 followed, in which Messrs. Dulles, Butler, Crowell, 
 McLeod, Adair, Mears, and Taylor took part ; when 
 Rev. Albert Barnes, upon whom a tender interest was 
 concentrated as the most intimate friend of the deceased, 
 and as made most lone and solitary by the bereavement, 
 made the Funeral Address.* 
 
 " Mr. Barnes' deeply interesting remarks were delivered 
 without notes, and were received with the most rapt at- 
 tention by the immense congregation. All felt it a fitting 
 tribute from the most distinguished minister of our church, 
 himself on the borders of threescore and ten, to one so 
 near to himself in age, in true worth, in eminence, in per- 
 sonal relations and official ties — one so worthy of the best 
 
 * This "address" was embodied in a "sermon," and preached by ap- 
 pointment of Presbytery, a few weeks later, in Pine Street Churoh. It 
 will be given hereafter, with the exception of such portions as relate to 
 facts already recorded in the biography. 
 
366 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 eulogy of Albert Barnes. And bow inexpressibly lonely 
 did this David, celebrating the praises of his Jonathan, 
 appear! How like a sculptured monolith — tall, simple, 
 majestic, serene, and — alone ! How much more dear to his 
 brethren, now since his and their Brainerd is gone ! Many 
 a fervent prayer was doubtless breathed as he stood there 
 pouring out his sympathies in affluent, chaste, and dis- 
 criminating language, that some at least of the years 
 denied to Brainerd might be added to his own, and that 
 his counsels and example might yet be long spared to 
 his brethren prepared now, more than ever, to appreciate 
 them. 
 
 "After prayer and singing, the vast congregation moved 
 in slow procession before the coffin, to take a last look of 
 the beloved clay. The body was dressed in a plain suit 
 of black. A superb bouquet and wreath of natural flowers 
 lay at its feet. The features were natural, and wore that 
 placid expression which it is so pleasant to carry as a last 
 remembrance of a beloved form. Some of the congrega- 
 tion touched the brow or cheek with their hands; some 
 stooped to kiss the now sealed lips. It took three-quarters 
 of an hour for the performance of this last act of respect, 
 and then they closed up the face forever from mortal sight 
 and laid the body in its earthly resting-place in the ceme- 
 tery adjoining the church, by the side of the dust of his 
 two children, Mr. Barnes performing the closing services 
 
 at his grave." 
 
 [From the NortJi, American.^ 
 
 " There was a sad gathering on Saturday afternoon, 
 when in the grave-yard of Old Pine Street Church, almost 
 on a line with its pulpit, were laid the remains of its late 
 pastor, Rev. Dr. Thomas Brainerd. A few weeks ago the 
 good man in person was pointing out to the writer the 
 most aged monuments in the yard, and giving him their 
 historv. In that little citv of the dead lie side bv side 
 
INCIDENTS OF THE FUNERAL. 367 
 
 men who had crossed swords in the war of the Revolu- 
 tion. British and American sleeping- together ; and among- 
 them, resting from more than a quarter of a century of 
 labor in Old Pine Street Church, was laid on Saturday, as 
 we have already said, the remains of one of the most 
 faithful and beloved ministers in the American pulpit. 
 
 " The concourse of people gathered to participate in the 
 solemn ceremonies exceeded by hundreds the capacity of 
 the church in which they were held The Union League, 
 of which the deceased was a member at the time of his 
 death, attended the funeral in a body, marching from the 
 residence in Pine Street to the church-yard at Fourth and 
 Pine, where the dust of the departed pastor was deposited. 
 The members of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, the 
 Yolunteer Refreshment Saloon's Committee, and a very 
 large number of clergymen of all denominations, followed 
 the coffin to its place of deposit. The congregation of 
 Old Pine Street Churcli evinced even by tears how deeply 
 they felt their bereavement in the loss of their pastor. 
 Never have we seen the funeral of a clergyman at which 
 there seemed to be present a greater number of heavy 
 hearts. 
 
 " The church windows on the occasion were closed, and 
 the rites were performed by gasdight. The pall-bearers 
 were the trustees of the church, including Hugh Steven- 
 son, J. D. Maguire, John Moore, S. T Y. R. Scott, Sam- 
 uel Hilt, and Ezra Calhoun, and more than fifty clergymen 
 were among the chief mourners. 
 
 " The church was draped in black. The coffin was 
 placed in front of the pulpit and the remains exposed to 
 view. The choir then sang the anthem, 'Vital spark of 
 heavenly flame.' Rev. Dr. Dulles followed in thanks for 
 the just record of the departed, and in prayer that his ex- 
 ample and precept might not be forgotten by his brethren 
 who survive him. 
 
368 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 " Rev. Dr. Butler, of West Philadelphia, announced the 
 hymn, ' Come ye disconsolate,' which was feelingly sung. 
 Prayer by Rev. Robert Adair came next, and another 
 hymn was sung. 
 
 " Rev. Albert Barnes, pastor of the First Presbyterian 
 Church, now addressed the assemblage, whose attention 
 was alike tearful and unbroken. It was an eloquent and 
 beautiful eulogy upon the deceased, and a touching exhor- 
 tation to the assemblage to cultivate his many virtues. 
 After another hymn, beginning 
 
 "' Hear what the voice from Heaven proclaims 
 For all the pious dead,' 
 
 Rev. Mr. Adair invited all present to pass in line by the 
 coEBn, to take a last look at the lips that so often had 
 spoken to them of the way to the heaven to which he had 
 gone before them. To do this required a long space of 
 time The immense throng filed slowly through the 
 church, and many a tear fell upon the calm, cold forehead 
 of the departed shepherd. The remains were laid, as 
 we have said, in the Brainerd family lot adjoining the 
 church." 
 
 All of the city papers published notices of the funeral, 
 with little variation, giving abstracts of Mr. Barnes' ad- 
 dress. The Evening Bulletin says: 
 
 "Rev. Thomas Brainerd, D.D., has for nearly a third 
 of a century been pastor of the Pine Street Presbyterian 
 Church, and long been known as one of the most eloquent, 
 patriotic, warm-hearted, and, in his pastoral sphere, one of 
 the most useful clergymen who has ever lived in Philadel- 
 phia. His nature was of the kindliest character, and he 
 was loved by all who came in contact with him, either in 
 his pastoral relations or in his social movements, or in the 
 performance of his duties as a citizen and a patriot. 
 
IXCIDEXTS OF THE FUNERAL. 8(19 
 
 " The death of Dr. Braincrd will be long felt cand deeply- 
 lamented, and by none more than the residents of the 
 southern section of the city, among whom he ' went about 
 doing good' unceasingly year after year. As a loyal citi- 
 zen, whose prayers and efforts w^ere put forth on behalf of 
 the Republic, he will also be nobly remembered ; and in 
 every way in which a man can have respect paid his 
 memory, the Rev. Thomas Brainerd, D.D., will be so hon- 
 ored." 
 
 [From the Public Ledger.] 
 
 " But few congregations in this city have been so free 
 from changes in its pastors as old Pine Street Presbyte- 
 rian Church. The ministrations of two of its pastors 
 bridge over the whole of the last fifty years, the last thirty 
 of which were under Dr. Braiaerd. Both in and outside 
 of his own denomination. Dr. Brainerd was a man of 
 mark. He was almost universally known and quite as 
 universally esteemed, as an able and faithful minister and 
 a good man. ******* 
 
 "Dr. Braiuerd's fame as a minister rests mainly on his 
 rare gifts as a fervid and most eloquent preacher. But 
 he was an accomplished man in other respects than as an 
 orator. The few productions of his pen that he gave to the 
 world show that, had he chosen general literature as his 
 profession, he would have arrived at eminence there as 
 readily as in the church. He was very successful as an 
 editor, but we rest our judgment of his ability and talents 
 as a writer upon his ' Life of John Brainerd,' his kinsman. 
 Here he took up the biography of an almost unknown 
 good man — one whose light was eclipsed by the greater 
 brilliancy of an illustrious brother — and by the gifts and 
 graces which he possessed in so eminent a degree, he 
 made one of the most charming books in the range of re- 
 ligious biography. The clear and beautiful style of the 
 
370 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 narrative, and the skill with which the subject is handled, 
 show that Dr. Brainerd was a master with his pen, as he 
 was of effective oratory in the pulpit. Dr. Brainerd was 
 born in 1804, and died at the age of sixty-two, struck down 
 by apoplexy — that enemy of all men who toil with their 
 brains." 
 
 The Inquirer, the Press, the Evening Telegraph, City 
 Item, and other papers, contained similar notices, all 
 marked by deep feeling and true re.spect. In one of them 
 it was said, "The sudden death of Dr. Brainerd has 
 striken the city with gloom and grief." 
 
 Two papers edited and sustained by the colored people 
 added their testimony of affectionate regard on this oc- 
 casion. 
 
 Zioyi^s Standard, published in New York, quotes from 
 the Philadelphia paper the following notice : 
 
 " Died, in Scranton, Pa., the Rev. Thomas Brainerd, 
 pastor of the Old Pine Street Church, Philadelphia. His 
 funeral created quite an excitement among us as a people. 
 None knew him but to love him. He was a Christian and 
 a gentleman, and in token of respect to this good man we 
 find our people closing their places of business in the 
 neighborhood — the Recorder office and others. 
 
 "Among the large concourse of ministers we find Rev. 
 John B. Reeve, pastor of the Central Presbyterian Church, 
 and Rev. James Adams, missionary to Africa." 
 
 The Christian Recorder, published by the African 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, after noticing 
 the death of Dr. Brainerd, adds, " We have always re- 
 garded him as a strong advocate of that pure religion that 
 makes men better, and that untrammeled liberty which 
 helps on their development. He lived opposite to our 
 office, having resided on Pine Street for many years, and 
 
INCIDENTS OF THE FUNERAL. ^ll 
 
 many friendly calls he made us, not to gratify curiosity, 
 but to speak a word of cheer, advice, and comfort. Every 
 improvement that marked the career of our Book Concern, 
 was hailed by him with expressions of delight. The Old 
 Pine Street Church, with its large congregation, will feel 
 the loss of one who, for thirty years, has stood as their un- 
 sullied spiritual overseer and clear-headed instructor. He 
 liced to make the world belter, and succeeded." 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 
 
 ACTION OF COPvPOKATE ASSOCIATIONS. 
 
 IN regard to the summary of public notices which follow, 
 we would only say that the personal and family friends 
 of Dr. Brainerd, for Avhoni the book is chiefly designed, 
 will gratefully approve of their preservation in this perma- 
 nent connection. 
 
 "At a meeting of the Session of Pine Street Church, 
 held on the 29th August, 1866, the following resolutions 
 M-ere adopted in relation to the death of our beloved pastor, 
 Rev. Thomas Brainerd, D. D.: 
 
 " Whereas, In view of the recent afflictive dispensation 
 of divine Providence, by which this church is bereaved of 
 an honored, faithful, and efficient pastor, therefore 
 
 " Beaolved, That we hereby place upon the records of 
 this church our testimony to the fervent piety, the untiring 
 and active zeal, the self-sacrificing spirit, the anxious and 
 constant watchfulness, in season and out of season, in 
 health or in sickness, for the prosperity of tliis church and 
 congregation. 
 
 " Hesolved, That whatever measure of prosperity we 
 now enjoy, in our temporal or spiritual condition, is, under 
 God, mainly due to his wisdom in devising, and his energy 
 and perseverance in carrying out any work necessary to 
 tlie ]>iirity and enlargement of the church. 
 
 "Resolved, That our thanks are pre-eminently due to 
 (372) 
 
PUnrJC AXD PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 373 
 
 Almighty God, for the prevailing' spirit of unity, brotherly 
 kindness, and harmony of action which, for a period of 
 thirty years, has characterized the relations existing be- 
 tween the pastor and the elders, in all their social and 
 ecclesiastical intercourse. 
 
 " Besolved, That we deeply sympathize with the family 
 of Dr. Brainerd in their severe affliction, and our prayer 
 is, that the rich promises of the gospel may be made mani- 
 fest in their consolation ; that God will be a father to the 
 fatherless and the God of the widow ; dealing gently with 
 them in this life, and finally gathering them, an unbroken 
 family, into that kingdom where sorrow and death shall 
 never enter. 
 
 "John C. Farr, 
 " Samuel Work, 
 " George Young, 
 " William Ivens, 
 "James Fraiskr, 
 "Elders of Fine Street Church. ^^ 
 
 At the monthly concert of prayer held on the 17th of 
 September, 1866, by the teachers of the Sabbath-sceiool 
 of Old Pine Street Church, a letter was addressed to Mrs. 
 Brainerd, as the expression of their united and hearty 
 sympathy with the family of their deceased pastor, adding, 
 * And we feel that in the death of Dr. Brainerd we each 
 have lost a personal friend, and as teachers all have lost 
 one who was always first with us in counsel and effort for 
 the prosperity of our school. 
 
 " In behalf of the officers and teachers of Old Pine Street 
 Church Sabbath-school. 
 
 " L. M. Wiiilldin, Superintendent. 
 
 " William McIxtire, Secretary.''^ 
 
 32* 
 
374 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 Extract from the Minutes of the Board of Trustees of Pine Street 
 Church, Septemher 4th, 1866. 
 
 [Prepared by Randolph Sailer, Esq.] 
 
 "Besolved, That this Board has received the startling 
 announcement of the death of Dr. Braincrd with a grief 
 which is too profound for expression in mere words. Its 
 members share with the whole of Pine Street Church and 
 congregation in a feeling of personal bereavement; and 
 while they join in the testimony which is borne by the 
 community and b}" the church to the inestimable worth of 
 our departed pastor, and share fully in the sense of loss 
 which is so universally expressed by the press and the 
 pulpit, it belongs especially to us to record the impressions 
 which have been so deeply made in his intercourse with 
 this Board. 
 
 "We bear heartfelt testimony to his absorbing and un- 
 flagging interest in the welfare and prosperity of Pine 
 Street Church, and to his intelligent and untiring exertions 
 for the accomplishment of the highest good in and through 
 her. 
 
 " We record our thankfulness that the unequaled influ- 
 ence which he possessed over the people of his charge was 
 always exerted with a lofty and conscientious regard for 
 their highest prosperit}^ and that his talents and eloquence 
 were always manfully used in the cause of humanity, of 
 justice, and of bold and uncompromising patriotism. 
 
 " His sudden departure has left a void in the affections 
 of his people which can never be tilled ; and our sad privi- 
 lege now is only to bear witness to his virtues and emu- 
 late his bright example. 
 
 " S. TusTON Eldridge, 
 
 "Secrela7y of the Boards 
 
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 375 
 
 Pastoral Association. 
 
 "At the meeting- of the Pastoral Association of Philadel- 
 phia, held September 3d, 18G6, being the first meeting after 
 the summer recess, Messrs. Adair and Brown were ap- 
 pointed to prepare a paper in relation to the death of Rev. 
 Thomas Brainerd, D. D. At the subsequent meeting the 
 following paper was presented and adopted unanimously: 
 
 "As an Association, we cannot satisfy the prompting of 
 our hearts in view of our recent bereavement, without 
 })lacing on record this tribute to the memory of our de- 
 ceased fellow-member and beloved brother, the Rev. 
 Thomas Brainerd, D.D. The position he held as one of 
 the oldest and wisest members of our Association, as well 
 as his distinguished standing as a minister of our denomi- 
 nation in this city and throughout our country, renders 
 such a memento most fitting. 
 
 " In the sudden and unexpected death of our brother, 
 endeared to us by many pleasant recollections, we rever- 
 ently recognize the hand of God. Though by this dispen- 
 sation our denomination, and the church at large has sus- 
 tained a heavy loss, we desire to acquiesce in this event, 
 knoAvingthat God doeth all things well, and being assured 
 that our friend has been called from his earthly toils to his 
 everlasting rest. 
 
 "As an Association Ave regarded the intellectual endow- 
 ments of our departed brother of a very high order. In 
 the discussion of subjects before our Association, he often 
 displayed commanding powers of mind. His perceptions 
 were quick, his powers of discrimination acute and philo- 
 sophic ; his diction chaste and forcible, his illustrations apt, 
 and the wit and pleasantry with which he interspersed his 
 remarks, made his impromptu remarks on these occasions 
 exceedingly instructive and entertaining. 
 . "But we not only admired his talents. We loved him 
 
376 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 for his social and moral qualities. He had a warm heart, 
 as well as a clear head. He was fraternal and genial in his 
 intercourse with his brethren. He was tender and sympa- 
 thizing when they were in affliction or in necessity. His 
 attendance at our Association on Monday mornings, after 
 the exhausting labors of the Sabbath, seemed to be to him 
 a pleasure and a recreation ; and no one's person was 
 more welcomed than his, as he seldom failed to contribute 
 largely to the interest of its discussions. In his removal, 
 we sincerely and deeply deplore our loss, a loss which we 
 cannot hope will ever be repaired. 
 
 "As an Association we very tenderly sympathize with 
 the wife and children of our deceased brother, and we earn- 
 estly pray that the consolations administered by him, in 
 his parochial duties, to bereaved mourners, may be richly 
 experienced by them in this the time of their triljulation." 
 
 Fourth Presbytery on the Death of Dr. Brainerd. 
 
 [This minute, put upon the records of the Fourth Pres- 
 bytery at its last stated meeting, is understood to be from 
 the pen of Kev. Albert Barnes.] 
 
 " The Presbytery enters on its records, with profound 
 sorrow, the death of one of its oldest and most useful 
 members, the Rev. Thomas Brainerd, D.D. Dr. Brainerd 
 was, except one, the oldest member of the Presbytery, 
 having been connected with it for thirty years, and in all 
 that long period thoroughly identified with all its interests, 
 true to its principles', and true to the denomination with 
 which we are connected. He has participated with us in 
 all our struggles, and has contributed largely to our strength 
 and growth as a Presbytery. In very many of the churches 
 now constituting this Presbytery, he has been present and 
 aided at the laying of the corner-stone, at the dedication, 
 at the ordination and installation of the pastors; and very 
 manvofour feeble churches he has aided bv his counsels, and 
 
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 31 1 
 
 by collections in the clnirch of which he was pastor, in 
 times of pecuniary embarrassment. More than one church 
 in our Presbytery and denomination owes its origin and its 
 establishment to his sagacity and to his personal efforts. 
 To his personal efforts, as much as to those of any other 
 man, the Green Hill Church and the Calvary Church owe 
 their origin ; by his efforts, more than by those of any other 
 man. the Clinton Street Church and the German Street 
 Church have been saved to our denomination ; and one of 
 his last efforts was the erection of a new edifice, through 
 his own congregation, for a Sabbath-school, with an ulti- 
 mate reference to the establishment of a church. 
 
 " The Presbytery deeply mourn his loss as a member of 
 their body. They feel deeply the want of his presence, his 
 counsel, and his animating voice. They feel that influence 
 and experience have been withdrawn from them by his 
 sudden death, of great value to them, to the churches, and 
 to the cause of religion. But while they thus mourn, they 
 would record with much gratitude, the goodness of God 
 in granting to them and to the churches, for so long a 
 time, such a man — a man endowed with such rare and 
 excellent gifts ; a man so eloquent, so zealous, so true ; 
 a man so kind and genial in hfs disposition ; a man so 
 wise, so prudent, so faithful. That he has, for so long a 
 time, given to one of our churches a pastor so faithful, so 
 much beloved, and so useful; that he has given to our 
 city one so well qualified to defend the interests of truth, 
 and one so devoted to the cause of temperance and phi- 
 lanthropy; that he has preserved among us, through the 
 fearful strife of a four years' war, one who was a true pa- 
 triot, who was a self-denying friend of the soldier, both in 
 going to the field of strife and in returning from it ; sym- 
 pathizing with the w^ounded, and comforting the sick and 
 the dying; that he has made him the instrument of convert- 
 ing so many souls, and that he has given to us, as members 
 of the Presbytery, such an example, and such a friend." 
 
378 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRATNERD, D.D. 
 
 Synod of Pennsylvania. 
 
 The annual meeting of the Synod was held in Carlisle, 
 Ta., on the 16th October, 1866. 
 
 In the Report it was said: "In every exercise, no one 
 could forget that one voice which for thii'ty years had been 
 heard in cheerful and wise counsels, was now forever silent. 
 The manly form of Dr. Brainerd, seldom absent at our 
 nieetings, was now missed at every step. The older mem- 
 bers felt this absence most intensely, and yet nothing about 
 the memory of such a man could be shaded with a deep sad- 
 ness. His whole personal and official life was cheery and 
 bright. His prevailing tone of discourse was hopeful and 
 encouraging. That pei^sonal life was still felt in its pecu- 
 liar character upon our spirits, and forbade us to despond 
 or falter. One there was who, though in many respects 
 unlike him in temperament, appears to have been peculiarly 
 intimate in friendsliip with him, who still remained with 
 us, and who seemed more than others to dwell upon his 
 memory. As Brother Barnes occupied a few moments 
 near the close of our meeting in recounting some of his 
 characteristic and last suggestions, and added to these his 
 own solemn, sincere, and' thoughtful admonitions to minis- 
 terial and Christian diligence, however dissatisfied we 
 might be with our own performances, every one must 
 have been resolved to do with his might what his hands 
 
 find to do. 
 
 "C. P. Wing." 
 
 The General Assembly of 1867. 
 
 The sermon of the retiring Moderator, Rev. S. M. 
 Hopkins, D.D., closes with this admonition : 
 
 "Final]\^ my brethren, the time is short. Events which 
 have occurred since the last meeting of this General As- 
 semblv, admonish us that if we wish to see the church 
 
rUBLIO AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 379 
 
 united and our land redeemed, we must be up and doing. 
 The Lord, who spared long his sincere but misjudging 
 servants, the responsible authors of the schism, that they 
 might eat the fruit of their own rash sowing, has taken 
 away — in the one case by death, and in the other by pros- 
 trating disease — the two honored hrelhren whom we put 
 forward to guide our steps toward the goal of reunion. 
 We mourn, at such a time as this, the loss of those bright 
 intellects, those warm hearts, those genial and conciliating 
 manners, that could have efifected so much in smoothing 
 for us the way of peace." 
 
 The Preachers' Meeting of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
 
 in this city forwarded to the Pastoral Association, of 
 which Dr. Brainerd was a member, the following resolu- 
 tions of sympathy : 
 
 "Whereas, The Preachers' Meeting of Philadelphia 
 M. E. Church has heard Avith profound regret of the death 
 of Dr. Thomas Brainerd, of the Presbyterian Church, and 
 
 " Whereas, His spirit was so truly catholic, and his use- 
 fulness so general, not being confined to his own pastoral 
 charge, contrary to our usual custom we deem it fitting to 
 pay special honor to the memory of one not of our denomi- 
 national ranks; therefore 
 
 "Resolved, That in the sudden death of Rev. Dr. Brai- 
 nerd we are forcibly reminded of the uncertainty of life, 
 and of the importance of being also ready. 
 
 "Resolved, That we praise the great Head of the Church 
 for the gifts, grace, and usefulness which distinguished our 
 departed and now sainted brother in so eminent a degree. 
 
 "Resolved, That we cherish the memory of his eloquence 
 and devotion as a minister of Christ, his simplicity and 
 sincerity as a catholic Christian, and his devoted loyalty 
 and patriotism as a citizen. 
 
380 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 ''Resolved, That we most affectionately sympathize with 
 his bereaved family, and with his church, which has lost 
 a shepherd whose voice they have heard for thirty years 
 past, and pray that God may be with them in this great 
 sorrow. 
 
 "0. W. Landreth, Secretary p?^o teni." 
 
 At a meeting of the Trustees of the Presbyterian 
 House, held in the House, December 5th, 1866, 
 
 "The death of the Rev. Thomas Brainerd, D.D., a 
 Trustee of the House, was announced ; whereupon it 
 was 
 
 "Mesolved, That the Trustees record with profound sor- 
 row their sense of the loss thus sustained to themselves, 
 to the denomination, and to the church at large. They 
 deplore the removal from themselves of a wise and trusted 
 counselor; from the denomination of an eloquent preacher 
 and efficient pastor; from the church at large of an earnest 
 and exemplary Christian. They recognize in the death of 
 their late associate the monitory exhortation 'to do with 
 their might what their hands find to do.' 
 
 " [A true extract from the minutes.] 
 
 " Thomas J. Shepherd, 
 
 "Secretary.''^ 
 
 Union Volunteer Refreshment Committee. 
 
 " At a meeting of the Union Yolunteer Refreshment 
 Committee, held August 23d, 1866, the following preamble 
 and resolutions were offered by J. W. Hicks and unani- 
 mously adopted : 
 
 "Whereas, We have heard with sincere regret of the 
 sudden death of our late co-laborer. Rev. Thomas Brai- 
 nerd, D.D., who, during the late struggle that our be- 
 loved country has passed through, proved himself one of 
 the most zealous and unfaltering patriots in the land by his 
 
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 381 
 
 efforts to cheer and refresh our brave soldiers, and his un- 
 ceasing- ministrations to the sick and wounded ; in him we 
 recognize a pure-minded Ciiristian gentleman and patriot; 
 therefore 
 
 "Hesolced, That we bow in submission to the decree of 
 our heavenly Father, whom we believe to be too wise to 
 err and too good to be unkind. 
 
 "Besolued, That we tender our heartfelt symi)athies to 
 bis afflicted family. 
 
 "Resolved, That we will attend his funeral in a body. 
 
 "Bemlced, That a copy of these resolutions be sent to 
 the family of the deceased, and published in the daily 
 papers " Akad Barrows, 
 
 "J. B. Wade, ''Chairman. 
 
 "Secrelary.^' 
 
 The Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, 
 
 in opening its eighteenth annual session, October 16th, 
 1867, contains, in its introductory address, the following 
 paragraph : 
 
 "A grateful tribute is here due to the memory of one 
 of the corporators, Thomas Brainerd, D.D., who has been 
 removed during the year from his connection with earthly 
 organizations. Though he had been prevented by other 
 duties from active co-operation in the care of the college, 
 he had maintained a warm interest in its success, and'had 
 given it many benedictions." 
 
 33 
 
382 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 A Discourse on the Death of Rev. Thomas Brainerd, D.D. By Rev. 
 Albert Barnes. Delivered in the Pine Street Church, Philadelphia, 
 November 25th, 1866. 
 
 "And man}- of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awnke — 
 and they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; 
 and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever." 
 ^Daniel, xii. 2, 3. 
 
 " They shine as stars here, constituting bright constella- 
 tions shedding their radiance upon the earth. They are 
 removed at death to shine in other spheres and worlds, 
 shedding a brighter radiance there. To human view they 
 seem to become extinct, as when a star in the sky seems 
 to burn out, and to pass away forever. Those stars vixaij 
 pass away. The power that created them, and that made 
 them so bright and beautiful, can as easily annihilate 
 them ; and bright, and beaming, and beautiful as they are, 
 they may have accomplished their purpose, and may have 
 ceased to be. They are material, and they may perish. 
 But it is not so with mind — bright, beaming, illustrious 
 mind. That does not die. It is not lost. It does not 
 cease to shine. It is removed to other worlds; it does 
 not die. It leaves the earth indeed ; it is withdrawn from 
 human view; but it is transferred to other realms, to shine 
 with undimmed and increasing luster forever. 
 
 " There is a difference in the brightness of those minds 
 both here and in the world above, as there is a diS'erence 
 in the brightness of the heavenly bodies. ' There is one 
 glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and 
 another glory of the stars; for one star dififereth from an- 
 other star in glory.' — I. Cor. xv. 41. Those 'stars' that 
 God removes from earth to other spheres, shine with 
 different brightness here, and will shine with different 
 brightness forever. All that are ' wise' will shine indeed 
 ' as the brightness of the firmament' — perhaps with col- 
 lected radiance, like the Milky "Way in the heavens — but 
 
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 383 
 
 thoy tliat ' turn many to righteousness' will shine with 
 particular and brighter luster, as distinguished from 
 others, for ever and ever. All that are redeemed, all 
 that, in their appropriate spheres on earth, live to honor 
 God, and to do good to men, will shine forever; but the 
 brightest of those stars will be those who ' turn many to 
 righteousness.' He who in another sphere of life, if a 
 good man, would have shone brightly in the world above; 
 he who in other callings could have secured a place among 
 those that shall shine for ever and ever, will shine more 
 brightly if he consecrates his life to the purpose of turn- 
 ing men to righteousness. He can make more of his own 
 life; he can make his influence radiate further over his own 
 generation ; he can make it strike onward with more effect- 
 iveness, into the interminable future, than he could have 
 done if his life, how^ever brilliant and useful, had been 
 spent on objects soon to pass away. Paul, as a Christian 
 man, if he had employed his eloquence in defense of liberty 
 or violated rights, would have won and worn a bright 
 crown among mortals, for Longinus places his name 
 among the great orators of the world ; but Paul made 
 more of his talents, and will wear a brighter crown, and 
 will shine as a brighter star, from having employed his 
 talents in turning men to righteousness, than he could 
 have done in the widest fields of secular usefulness, am- 
 bition, or glory. 
 
 " The removal of a man of eminent usefulness from our 
 world is not such a loss to the universe as the extinction 
 of a bright star might be, or as the extinction of the soul 
 would be. The earth is but an atom in the immensity of 
 the vast domain over which God presides, and the widest 
 sphere of labor and of usefulness here is inconceivably 
 small as compared with that vast field in which the re- 
 deemed soul is to live and act forever. True, it is a loss to 
 earth, to friends, to the cause of truth, to the church, to a 
 
384 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 nation it may be, as if the soul had ceased to be. The 
 mind sa3;acious to plan, to counsel, to execute, is withdrawn 
 from earth ; the lips eloquent in the cause of truth, are 
 silent; the pastor is no longer in the pulpit, in the house 
 of mourning, or by the bedside of the sick. He who 
 guided the young, who warned the wicked, who strength- 
 ened the feeble, who comforted the sorrowful, who ani- 
 mated the desponding, is seen no more; he who brought 
 the richness of his experience, and the maturity of his 
 judgment to the aid of the great interests of truth and 
 humanity, has passed away. Influence is of slow growth, 
 and is of inestimable value in our world. It is that in a 
 man's known talents, learning, character, experience, and 
 position, on which a presumption is based that what he 
 holds is true ; that what he proposes is wise. When a 
 man has reached the maturity of life, this is all that, in 
 th(!se respects, is the fruit of his experience — the growth 
 of many years — and constitutes, in our world, the best in- 
 heritance of virtue and of truth. It is a protracted work 
 to form such a character. Native talent, learning, disci- 
 pline, conflict, toil, experience, moral worth, all enter into 
 its formation ; and when one of such a character is re- 
 moved, another such slow process — the accumulation of 
 many years — is necessary before it can be replaced. There 
 is nothing more valuable in society than this ; there is 
 nothing more difficult to replace. A city burned may be 
 built again. Soon the rubbish will be cleared away ; the 
 streets be widened and straightened ; long lines of dwellings 
 and warehouses rise from the ruins, and a busy population 
 there again drive on the affairs of commerce, of manufac- 
 ture, of trade. Fields visited with drought are soon fresh 
 and green again. The hills and valleys are clothed with 
 verdure and flocks, the grain falls before the reaper, and 
 the wains groan heavily laden with sheaves. From the 
 fields where armies have encamped or fought ; wdiere the 
 
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 385 
 
 harvest has hcen trodden down by passing- and repassing 
 legions, where the torch has made everything desolate, all 
 traces of the war are soon removed; for trees are planted, 
 and the harvests grow, and the earth is rendered fertile by 
 blood, and the little mounds of earth which marked the 
 place where brave men fell and died, are leveled also, and 
 the plow passes over Marathon, and Waterloo, and An- 
 tietam, as it did before. 
 
 " But though the useful man, the preacher, the pastor, 
 the man of experience, the man of eloquence, is no more 
 among the living, yet he is not lost to the universe, nor in 
 a higher sphere, to the cause to which he devoted his life. 
 There is an aggregate ; a collection ; a gain to the universe - 
 which constitutes heaven — for heaven is made up of all 
 that is redeemed from earth. The results of all the wisdom, 
 experience, and moral worth of eai'th are there, and what 
 is gathered there will shine as the brightnesss of the fir- 
 mament, and as the stars for ever and ever.* 
 
 " While a student of law in Rome, N. Y., an important 
 event occurred, which led to an entire change of his pur- 
 pose of life. It was in that vicinity that the Rev. Charles 
 G. Finney, who had himself been a lawyer, began his 
 labors in the ministry, and his most marked early success 
 as a preacher occurred in that place in a revival of religion 
 of great power. In that revival, nearly every merchant, 
 almost every lawyer, and almost every man of influence, 
 was converted, and among the converts was young Brai- 
 nerd. 
 
 ********** 
 "I am ignorant of the mental exercises through which 
 he passed at that time. I know only that he became a 
 member of the church in Rome, in 1825 ; that he at once 
 
 •*■ litre follows a narration of facts nlready recorded in the biography. 
 
 33* 
 
386 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 abandoned his profession ; that he chose the profession of 
 the ministry without hesitation ; and that his conversion 
 changed the entire current of his life. With a view to se- 
 cure the means of prosecuting his theological studies, he 
 spent a year in teaching in Philadelphia. During that 
 time he was connected with the church of the Rev. James 
 Patterson, and entered heartily with him into every meas- 
 ure for promoting the interests of religion in the northern 
 part of the city. 
 
 " In October, 1S28, he entered the Theological Seminary 
 in Andover, and graduated there in the class of 1831. He 
 was ordained as an evangelist in New York, October 7th, 
 1831, and went immediately to the West, as a home mis- 
 sionary. In December of that year he was settled as 
 pastor of the Fourth Church in Cincinnati, where he 
 labored two years. In March, 1833, he became editor of 
 the Cincinnati Journal, which he conducted, together 
 with the YoutJVs Magazine, until the autumn of 1836, 
 nearly four years. During that period he assisted the Rev. 
 Dr. Beecher as a preacher in the Second Presbyterian 
 Church of that city, an event which laid the foundation of 
 mutual confidence and affection for life. In October, 1836, 
 he was called to the pastoral charge of the Third Presby- 
 terian Church in Philadelphia, where he commenced his 
 labors February 1st, 1837. His pastoral life here embraced 
 a period of just about thirty years — as eventful years in 
 the history of the church and of our own country as any 
 that have occurred since we became a nation. The history 
 of those years is familiar to you all. 
 
 " I have referred, with a special design, to the fact that 
 Dr. Brainerd was converted under the preaching of the 
 Rev. Charles G. Finne}^; that he was early associated in 
 labor with the Rev. James Patterson; and that he was 
 more intimately, and for a longer time, associated with 
 Dr. Lyman Beecher ; for it was by the influence of these 
 
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 38T 
 
 men and their preaching, more than by any other cause, 
 perhaps unconsciously to himself, that his character as a 
 preacher was formed. Perhaps no three men could be 
 named whose character and mode of preaching- would be 
 more likely to influence a mind like his. He himself was 
 indeed original. He copied no one. He probably never 
 set any man before him as a model ; he transferred to him- 
 self in no perceptible manner, the language, the modes of 
 thought, or the theological opinions of another man ; but 
 there was, if I mistake not, a silent influence of great 
 power which went forth from his early connection with 
 those men, which greatly affected his subsequent character 
 as a preacher and pastor. Two of these men have passed 
 away ; hundreds, perhaps thousands, will bless the name 
 of each one of them forever, as the instrument, under God, 
 of their conversion. 
 
 "Charles G. Finney. — Dr. Brainerd's earliest religious 
 impressions were probably received from liim. Mr. Finney 
 had himself been a lawyer, 'and would have been distin- 
 guished as a lawyer if he had continued to pursue that 
 profession. Not always safe in his theological opinions, 
 and not having been trained to great thoroughness in the- 
 ological learning, he was, nevertheless, a man of great 
 power in showing to men the danger of false hopes ; in 
 setting forth the real nature of religion ; in driving men 
 from their subterfuges and refuges of lies ; in proclaiming 
 the terrors of the law and the fearfulness of the world to 
 come ; in laying open to men the delusions of their own 
 hearts ; and above all, in proclaiming the majesty of God 
 and the greatness of eternal things, and in making all thing.s 
 else dwindle to nothingness before the Eternal One, and 
 the eternal world. Few men in our country have been as 
 well fitted to act on the higher order of minds, or to bring 
 men, proud in their philosoi)hy or their own righteousness, 
 to the foot of the cross. 
 
388 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAFNERD, D.D. 
 
 "James Patterson. — Not graceful in manner; not pol- 
 ished in sentences and periods ; not aiming at beauty of 
 style ; and not courting the praises of men — with a keen 
 eye that penetrated the soul ; with a tall and impressive 
 form; with unpolished but most forcible gestures; with 
 an earnestness of manner that showed that his whole soul 
 was on fire ; never awed by the fear of any man ; ready to 
 do good in any way, whether in approved or unapproved 
 modes, if the hearts of men could be reached ; at home 
 alike in the fields, in the highways, and in the sanctuary ; 
 preaching everywhere ; talking everywhere ; praying every- 
 where; most fearful in his warnings of sinners, most terri- 
 ble in portraying the wrath to come, and yet most aflfable, 
 genial, pleasant in his intercourse with men, — he lived and 
 labored for the sole purpose of converting men. He had 
 an unwavering faith in revivals of religion, and his minis- 
 try was made up of successive revivals rapidly following 
 each other, bringing great multitudes into the kingdom of 
 God. 
 
 " Dr. Lyman Beecher. — Than he there has been, in our 
 country, no man more eloquent in the pulpit ; no man that 
 could make a more effective use of the Anglo-Saxon lan- 
 guage. Clear, rapid, discriminating; placing truth in a 
 few words in the light of a sunbeam ; rising often to the 
 highest flights of oratory ; often exhibiting the most beau- 
 tiful poetic conceptions in language most expressive of 
 those conceptions; and then, as with a sledge-hammer, 
 driving great thoughts through the soul until you were 
 penetrated through and through with them ; piling on ar- 
 guments until you are crushed and weary; not always 
 equal, and sometimes falling so low that you wondered 
 where was the great power of the man: but even then in 
 what seemed to be tame, and dull, and somber, like a dull 
 day, by some new and startling thought suddenly illumi- 
 nating all as by a flash from the heavens, — /belabored, too, 
 
■ PUBLIC AND FRIVATE TRIBUTES. 389 
 
 for revivals of religion. I have sat while he was urg-ing 
 great thoughts through mv soul till I was weary and could 
 bear no more. His eye was then eloquent. The adjusting 
 of his spectacles was eloquent; his whole manner was 
 eloquent. He sought revivals as the glorious triumph of 
 the gospel ; and his great thoughts and his keen words 
 were designed to secure this result. There has been but 
 one man in this country that understood the Saxon part of 
 our language as well as Dr. Beecher — Daniel Webster. 
 
 " Dr. Brainerd, whether he was conscious of any influence 
 from these sources or not, carried much of all this into his 
 subsequent life ; and his style of public speaking was 
 formed much on these models. He would have risen high 
 in the profession which he had first chosen. He had been 
 endowed with those talents which we naturally associate 
 with the best efforts at the bar — a deep knowledge of 
 human nature ; a quick perception of the point at issue ; 
 power of disentangling that from all other points; skill in 
 debate ; abundance of illustration and of anecdote ; the 
 power of perceiving the weak points of an adversary and 
 the strong points of his own cause ; keenness of sarcasm 
 and invective, if necessary ; the power of anticipating the 
 point of defense of an adversary ; readiness in summon- 
 ing to his memory all that he knew; and a power seldom 
 equaled of showing the heinousness of guilt, and the evils 
 of a violation of law. 
 
 " Dr. Brainerd's power eminently was that of a public 
 speaker — a public speaker in regular and set discourses, 
 but perhaps more strikingly in debate. His early oppor- 
 tunities of scholarship had not been great, and the state of 
 his health and his abundant public duties and his active 
 life had prevented his greatly enlarging his scholarship. 
 He had, indeed, by reading, by observation, by conversa- 
 tion, stored his mind with a great amount of information 
 on the subjects most important for him to know ; but it did 
 
390 l^IFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 not pertain, in any remarkable degree, to either scientific 
 or literary subjects. Of information to be derived from tlie 
 daily press, perhaps no man surpassed him ; of information 
 derived from observation and a keen sagacity, there were 
 none of his brethren who were his equals. His literary 
 labors were mostly confined, with one exception, which I 
 shall have occasion to notice, to a few sermons, to a few 
 articles in our Qaarlerhj Review, and to the newspaper 
 press To the latter, alike by his taste and I)y his convic- 
 tion that in this way truth could be best promulgated, 
 regulating the public mind and correcting public errors, he 
 contributed much ; and there are few men, even of those 
 devoted to the newspaper press, tliat could reach the pub- 
 lic in this way in a more timely, sagacious, and effective 
 manner. 
 
 "As a public speaker, alike in the pulpit and in delibera- 
 tive bodies, with no particular advantage of manner, but 
 with much, arising from his nervous temperament, that 
 would seem to promise little, he yet had a power which 
 few men possess. In preaching, he often plunged at once 
 into the middle of his subject, and made most direct and 
 earnest appeals to the reason and conscience ; in debate, 
 he seized at once upon the real point in question, and 
 pressed that with a power of argument, with a fervor of 
 language, with an amplitude of illustration, and with a 
 severity of invective and sarcasm, if necessary, which few 
 men have ever exhibited in debate. His language in his 
 public discourses, whether extemporary or written, was as 
 nearly perfect as possible ; and often his happiest efforts 
 — efforts seldom surpassed — were in extemporary address. 
 No man could use the English language better ; from the 
 lips of no one could fall more pertinent and fit words, 
 more complete sentences, more beautiful figures, more 
 striking illustrations. In description, in statement, in ar- 
 gument, in warning, in appeal, in invective, his language 
 
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 39 1 
 
 presented the best forms of our Anglo-Saxon tongue. 
 Often in a public assembly — in such a vast concourse as 
 Avas assembled in the great hall in 1S5T — when the inter- 
 est of the meeting languished, a few words from him 
 roused the vast assembly ; when the coarse of things was 
 taking an unprofitable direction, a few remarks from him, 
 with no reflection cast ou others, changed the current of 
 remark and feeling, and gave, in a moment, a new aspect 
 to the course of things. 
 
 " When he fell so suddenly by death, there occurred that 
 of which the prophet Isaiah speaks as a great public 
 calamity — when God takes away 'the eloquent orator,' 
 or, as it is expressed more appropriately in the margin, 
 and with an eminent adaptedness to his case, 'the skillful 
 of ^liecch..'' Isa. iii. 3. No words could better describe Dr. 
 Brainerd's eloquence than to say that he was 'skillful 
 of speech ;' none could better represent the impression 
 which his eloquence made on his hearers. No man could 
 hear him in his happiest moods without being impressed 
 with the force and beauty of our own English tongue, and 
 the greatness of the endowment of being able to speak in 
 such words for truth and for God. 
 
 "For the endowment of being 'skillful of speech' is one 
 of God's great gifts to man; one of the noblest and the 
 most marvelous of our talents ; one which, as much as any 
 other, alike in the original power and in the highest forms 
 of that power, shows the Creator's greatness and wisdom. 
 No philosopher has been able to explain how man at first 
 learned to speak ; none could teach man to speak if God. 
 had not taught Adam; none who deny the miraculous 
 agency of the Creator can exj)lain how it is. 
 
 "And it is worthy of such an origin as it had. Alike in 
 the daily intercourse of life, in our business, in our enjo\'- 
 ments, and in all the great purposes of divine Providence 
 in the advancement of the interests of the world, it shows 
 
392 I'IFE OF REV. TIIOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 itself worthy of such an origin. For speech has been 
 connected with all the purposes of justice. It has been a 
 prime agent in the defense of liberty. It has been identi- 
 fied with the triumphs of religion and the salvation of 
 souls. Speech in the Senate house ; speech in the hall of 
 justice ; speech before a battle ; speech in the pulpit has 
 been identified with all the triumphs of justice, liberty, and 
 religion in the world. There is no power like the power of 
 Demosthenes, Cicero, Burke, Chatham, Webster. It sways 
 the passions, and the will, and the intellect, and the imag- 
 inations of men, as the trees of the forest are moved by 
 the mighty winds ; and more than to the power of arms in 
 battle, is the progress of the world to be traced to the 
 power of language. 
 
 " It is most noble, and reaches its highest and most dis- 
 tinct results when employed in proclaiming the gospel to 
 men. The pulpit is its loftiest place, and there the pur- 
 poses of God in speech are most signally accomplished. In 
 defending the truth of God, in proclaiming his will, in pub- 
 lishing the great facts of redemption, in persuading men to 
 turn from sin, in making known the realities of eternity, in 
 inviting a lost race to the cross — that is its highest office 
 and its sublimest employment. Paul, on Mars' Hill, in 
 proclaiming the gospel, was greater than Demosthenes 
 thundering against Phillip; AVhitfield at the collieries, 
 was greater in the results of his speaking than Burke in 
 the splendors of Westminster Hall on the trial of Warren 
 Hastings, or than Patrick Henry when he summoned the 
 American colonies to freedom. 
 
 " The success of Dr. Brainerd as a pastor depended not 
 only on the character of his preaching, but, in a large de- 
 gree, on his character as a man. His frank, open, genial 
 manners; the fact that he was accessible at all times ; his 
 allabiliiy; the interest which he took in the wants of 
 others; his sympathy with the poor, the sick, and ihe be- 
 
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 393 
 
 roaved ; his happy addresses on funeral occasions; and 
 especially his appreciation of the feelings, the aspirations, 
 and the stragglings of young men, contributed- in an enii- 
 nent degree to this, and, to an unusual extent, he retained 
 these characteristics in advancing years, when he had 
 reached a period of threescore. From auN^thing that ap- 
 pears, his preaching, and his mode of intercourse with the 
 young, was as attractive in his last years as it had I)een 
 at any former period of his life. Probably at no period of 
 his life were there more young men, in proportion to the 
 Avhole number in attendance on his ministry, than in his 
 last years; and it was one of the things that eminently 
 gladdened his heart, in all the discouragements from the 
 position of his church — which he felt indeed keenly — that 
 Avhile numbers of his best families were removing in the 
 general tide that was, and is, setting to other parts of the 
 city, he was still drawing around him the young, the en- 
 terprising, and the prosperous, just as they were forming 
 their character, to sustain this ancient and venerable 
 church. 
 
 "Dr. Brainerd, as a pastor, had one peculiarity in his 
 labors and plans which it is not improper to advert to, as 
 it, in his case, was attended with marked success. It was, 
 that while he labored earnestly for revivals of religion, and 
 relied on such works of grace in promoting the progress of 
 religion, he looked for the most marked success at a certain 
 season of the year. The ordinary labors of the autumn 
 and winter were almost uniformly followed by special 
 efforts, mostly in the form of protracted meetings, in the 
 close of the winter and the beginning of the spring; and 
 then he hoped to gather, as in a harvest, the result of the 
 labors of the year. These efforts were almost uniformlv 
 successful ; and a large portion of those received into the 
 church, during his ministry here, were admitted at that 
 season of the year. At such times his own labors and 
 
 M 
 
394 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 anxieties were so exhausting- as to make, in his case, the 
 ordinary rest to which pastors, with other men, look for- 
 warr] in the summer months, absolutely indispensable. 
 
 "Dr. Brainerd was a man whose labors and influence 
 could not be confined to his own particular church, or to 
 his own denomination, or to religion alone. He was not 
 made to be a mere 'parish minister,' and the churches of 
 our own denomination here and elsewhere, and the cause 
 of religion in general, and the interests of patriotism and 
 the country, owe much to his zeal, his talents, his large, 
 catholic spirit, and his patriotism. 
 
 " Philadelphia, and especially our own denomination, 
 owes much to his counsels, and to his persevering efforts 
 in the establishment of the churches which have been or- 
 ganized here since he became pastor of this church. 
 
 "The renovation of this church was owing very much 
 to his conviction of the necessity of such renovation, that 
 it might maintain the position which it had long held, and 
 to his personal efforts. 
 
 " The Green Hill Church had its origin entirely in his 
 convictions of the necessity of such a church in that part 
 of the city. Ilis own residence, for seven years, owing 
 to feel)le health, was in that part of what is now the city, 
 but what was then a suburb, lying quite beyond the city, 
 but Avhich he saw would soon demand a church of our de- 
 nomination. The lot on which the church stands was 
 secured by him, and a considerable part of the funds for 
 building the church was raised by his own personal 
 efforts. 
 
 "To him, almost entirely, it is owing that the Clinton 
 Street Church is now connected with our denomination. 
 It was about to pass from the Congregational denomina- 
 tion to other hands, and that it did not pass to a denomi- 
 nation ia no way connected with us, is to be ascribed to his 
 determination of purpose. He formed the plan of secur- 
 
rVBLIG AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 395 
 
 ing it to our denomination, and he and the Rev. Anson 
 Rood, by personal solicitations and efforts, secured the 
 amount necessary to carry out the purpose. 
 
 " The Calvary Church owes its establishment much to 
 his efforts and to his counsels, and it may be safely said 
 that, if it had not been for his efforts, and for his remark- 
 able influence over men of wealth, this enterprise would 
 never have been carried through. Forty meetings were 
 held, sometimes protracted to a late hour in the night, in 
 consultation on the plan, and in efforts to secure its suc- 
 cess. From those meetings he was almost never absent; 
 and, in all that was doubtful about it, he never lost his 
 confidence in it, or faltered in his own purpose that it 
 should be accomplished. Often did his voice rouse and 
 animate those assembled, when desponding or doubtful; 
 and often did his appeals and his ready wit — even when 
 there was some hazard of giving offense in such appeals — 
 create new zeal in the cause. He could say things which 
 others could not have said without giving offense. On 
 one occasion, when the whole enterprise seemed to hang 
 in doubt, he rose and said with deep gravity and solem- 
 nity: ' Gentlemen, there are certain Christian graces which 
 those in your condition have never had the privilege of ex- 
 ercising. The grace of submission in times of poverty ; the 
 grace of a deep sense of dependence on God for your daily 
 bread ; the grace which they exercise who, at the head of 
 a family, see their children crying for bread; and the grace 
 needed to sustain the heart in the night-watches, when a 
 man does not know where provision is to come from to 
 supply the morning meal — these and similar graces of the 
 Christian, you have never had the opportunity of exercising, 
 and probably never will. The grace which you are called 
 upon to exercise is that which arises from the right use of 
 property — from devoting it to God in promoting his cause 
 — from doing what is necessary to be done to secure the 
 
396 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 spread of religion around 3'ou — and if you do not do this, 
 the Lord have mercy on your souls.'' Any man might 
 well have hesitated as to what would be the effect of such 
 an appeal. From some men it would have been received 
 with cold silence, or would have stirred up wrath. There 
 was, indeed, at the close of this singular speech, a mo- 
 mentary silence, and then all present burst out into a loud 
 laugh — and his object was accomplished. 
 
 " To his efforts, also, associated with the members of 
 this church and congregation, it is owing that the German 
 Street Church has been completed, and has been retained 
 to our denomination ; and, at the time of his death, he had 
 projected a new enterprise in the extreme southeastern part 
 of the city, with an ultimate reference to the establishment 
 of a church. 
 
 " Dr. Brainerd, though he was a decided Calvinist in his 
 doctrinal views, and a thorough Presbyterian in his con- 
 victions on the proper mode of the organization and gov- 
 ernment of the church; and though in all that long conflict 
 which has been waged with the other ' branch' of our de- 
 nomination — alike in the trial of Dr. Beecher, for heresy, 
 when he was associated with him as a preacher; in the 
 debates of the General Assembly previous to the division, 
 of which he was a member ;* in the division of the church 
 in 1838 ; and in all the long period since, now nearly thirty 
 years, he has been thoroughly identified, on the firmest con- 
 viction of truth and justice, with oar branch of the church, 
 true to its rights, to its principles, and to its interests, — 
 yet he Avas not a bigoted man, or a man who regarded all 
 
 * lie was a member of the General Assembly in May, 18.36, the year 
 before the '• Excinding Acts," leading to thi division of the church were 
 passed. His being a icember of the Assembly that jear was the imme- 
 diate occasion of his being employed during the summer as a stated sup- 
 ply in the Pine Street Church, which resulted in his being called to the 
 church as its pastor. 
 
PUBLIC AND rniVATE TRIBUTES. 397 
 
 the interests of truth, of religion, and of humanity as con- 
 fined to his own denomination. In the temperance cause; 
 in Union Prayer-meeting-s ; in promoting tlie interests of 
 religion in general ; in public matters, he did not make it 
 a subject of inquiry whether they were controlled by 
 Presbyterians, or whether his own denomination was to 
 acquire strength or credit as being prominent in such 
 public movements. As long as the great prayer-meetings 
 in Jayne's Hall shall be remembered, Dr. Brainerd will be 
 remembered as having, with that holy man of the Baptist 
 denomination. Dr. Kennard, and Dudley Tyng, of the 
 Episcopal, both now with him before the throne of the 
 same Saviour, contributed as much as any other man to 
 the interest and the success of the meeting. 
 
 "It occurred before his death that there was an oppor- 
 tunity of evincing, in a manner such as there has never 
 before been an opportunity of evincing, the love of country ; 
 and in that fearful struggle of four years, all that was the 
 proper fruit of his early training, and of the Puritan doc- 
 trine which he had been taught to believe, and all that was 
 generous, large-hearted and patriotic in his nature, was 
 fully developed. He felt, as few even then felt, that all 
 that was dear to liberty was at stake. He felt more keenly 
 than most men feel the evil of treason and rebellion. He 
 appreciated in the highest degree the blessings of liberty 
 for which our fathers fought in the war of Independence, 
 and anticipated with more apprehension than most men did 
 the evils which would result if the rebellion should be suc- 
 cessful. He was not formed to be a military man, and he 
 was too old, and his health too much impaired, even if 
 his position had not prevented it, to join in the active de- 
 fense of his country. But he could defend by his eloquent 
 appeals the righteous cause ; he could denounce in such 
 burning words as few men could use the evils of treason 
 and rebellion ; he could stimulate and animate his own 
 
 34* 
 
398 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D D. 
 
 people in sustaining tlie government ; he could encourage 
 bis own young men to give themselves to the service of 
 their country ; he could counsel and animate them as they 
 left their homes for the field of strife, perhaps not to return 
 again ; he could meet the soldier on his way to the battle- 
 field at the ' Refreshment Room,' and encourage him in 
 bis purpose, and could greet him again on his return, 
 weary, or sick, or wounded, and minister to his wants ; 
 and he could visit the great hospitals of our city, as a min- 
 ister of consolation to impart comfort to the wounded, the 
 sick, and the dying. And it was done ; done as this work 
 was done by no other pastor in this city. For four years 
 he was under as intense excitement as his physical frame 
 could bear : — an excitement unintermitted b}^ day and by 
 night, wearing on his exhausted nervous system, perhaps 
 hastening the event which we mourn to-day. From this 
 intense excitement he found no rest, no intermission — until 
 that eventful night when the news ran through the city 
 that ' General Lee and his army had surrendered.' Then 
 thousands crowded the streets. Then the sound of joy 
 and rejoicing was heard everywhere. Then tears of joy 
 flowed freely. Then men met men as they had not done 
 for four years before. Then, in as sublime a scene as our 
 country has witnessed, thousands of voices spontaneously 
 joined in front of the building where the Declaration of In- 
 dependence was made, in singing to Old Hundred, 
 
 ' Praise God from whotn all blessings flow,' 
 
 and then — who could have done it more appropriately than 
 he ? — Dr. Brainerd led the vast multitude in expressing 
 thanks to God. 
 
 " Beyond his newspaper labors, a few sermons, a few 
 tracts, and a few articles in our Preahyterian Quarterly — 
 of which he was one of the founders, and of which he con- 
 tinued to I)e one of the editors to the time of his death — 
 
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 399 
 
 Pr. Brainerd's published productions are not numerous. 
 It is remarkable, and it was singularly appropriate, that 
 the only literary work of considerable magnitude in which 
 he engaged, AA^as the Life of a member of the Brainerd 
 family, who was comparatively unknown, and who died 
 seventy years since : a modest, earnest, humble, patient, 
 and laborious missionary. The name of David Brainerd 
 was known as far as that of any man in modern times who 
 has engaged in the work of missions That name has 
 been most influential in promoting the present movement 
 in the work of converting the world. More than perhaps 
 by any other man, the character of Henry Martyn had 
 been formed, and his zeal awakened, by the character and 
 life of David Brainerd. But the name of John, his brother 
 and his successor, not less pious and devoted to his Mas- 
 ter's cause, was little known. He had labored in obscurity; 
 he had not been remarkably successful in his work among 
 the Indians ; he had become an humble pastor in an ob- 
 scure church ; and he had died with no one as yet to re- 
 cord his worth, and to perpetuate the record of his labors. 
 
 " It occurred to Dr. Brainerd to endeavor to rescue from 
 forgetfulness what could be recovered respecting his life 
 and labors, and to hold him up, also, as an example to the 
 church and the world. To this work he gave the leisure 
 of the last years of his life. On that work he bestowed 
 a great amount of labor, in correspondence and in travel- 
 ing, and gathered all that there was to be gathered, alike 
 in this country and in Europe, in memory of a man little 
 known, and over whose remains for nearly seventy 3'ears 
 there was not even a stone to mark the place of his rest; 
 for whom, as Dr. Brainerd remarked, 'no gazette heralded 
 his departure, no orator gave him an eulogy, and no gen- 
 erous appreciation raised him a monument.'* 
 
 ■■■ Life of John Brainerd, pp. 434, 435. 
 
400 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 "This work, most happily executed, and which furnishes 
 a ground for regret that its author gave no more to the 
 work! through the press, might be appropriately considered 
 as the biography of three men of rare piety and usefulness. 
 David Brainerd, a sketch of whose life is necessarily 
 given to prepare the way for the notice of his brother and 
 successor, John, the obscure and unknown, but faithful 
 missionary ; and the author himself. Some of Pr. Brai- 
 nerd's best thoughts, and some of the happiest specimens 
 of his writing, and specimens that will compare favorably 
 with any others found in our best writers, occur in that 
 volume. As a specimen of his style and manner, and as 
 an illustration of the remark which 1 have just made, I 
 will copy a single paragraph, alike for its own beauty, and 
 for the justness of its reflections. 
 
 "'In moving into the future, it is the destiny of man 
 to move into relative darkness. Every individual human 
 advance is an adventure in paths dim, difficult, and perilous, 
 never yet trodden ; an experiment of labors and perils not 
 yet endured, of responsibilities yet to be discharged, and 
 of aims and elevations yet to be surmounted. No wonder 
 that in these circumstances man looks around him to in- 
 quire, " Has any one mapped out the way ? Has an}'^ one 
 successfully threaded the difficult and dreary paths? Has 
 any one borne the labors and overcome the dangers ? Has 
 any one scaled the heights, and laid his hand on the prof- 
 fered prize?" 
 
 "'The martial spirit is kept alive by the great names 
 and achievements of its heroes : its Caesars, Wellingtons, 
 and Napoleons. Science renews its energy in communion 
 with the names of its Galileos, Lockes, and Newtons. 
 Men are brave to strike for human freedom under the shel- 
 ter of the great examples of Hampden, Cromwell, and 
 Washington. The biographies of the eminent dead not 
 
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 401 
 
 only furnish illustrations of what the living may be, and 
 do, and dare ; they not only lift men above the crowd to a 
 higher estimate of human capacity and power; they do 
 more through the social principles by which one is set to 
 imitate the good works which he contemplates in others. 
 The church of God has always availed itself of these 
 principles of our nature ; and while war has cherished its 
 heroes, and science its devotees, Christianity has wisely 
 embalmed the memory of her great teachers, her saints, 
 and her martyrs. It is well it is so ; for, however dwarfed 
 may be the present age in any grace or attainment, the 
 true and growing Christian can find solace, sympathy, and 
 companionship with the more excellent men and things of 
 the past.'— pp. 10, 11.* 
 
 " It Avas also a remarkable — can we suppose it to have 
 been otherwise than a providential? — arrangement that the 
 last public service of Dr. Brainerd should have had refer- 
 ence to the name which he himself bore, and that it should 
 have occurred in the very place — ' The Forks of the Del- 
 aware' — where these Brothers, David and John, whose 
 memory he had thus contributed to perpetuate and em- 
 balm, had successively labored. A church had been 
 founded at Easton,"!" called the 'Brainerd Church,' in 
 honor of the labors of David Brainerd, and he was invited 
 to address the ' Brainerd Missionary Society,' in that 
 church. It was his closing work on earth. Feeble then, 
 with a trembling frame, with a voice so weak as scarcely 
 to be audible, under the influence of a state of body which 
 was in a few weeks to remove him from earth, he per- 
 formed his last public services there on earth, and finished 
 
 ® For similar specimens of beautiful writing, and of valuable senti- 
 ments, I may refer to pp. 88-91, 93-95, 102, 103, 122. 
 f On the missionary field of Da,vid Brainerd. 
 
402 J^IFJ^ OF REV. THOMAS BRAIN ERD. D.D. 
 
 the labors of a life spent in eminent usefulness in the 
 church of God.* 
 
 " Like David Brainerd, and like most of his family, he 
 was a man subject to depression of spirits, and he appre- 
 hended much, as his own father had suffered much, in the 
 closing scene of life. He apprehended paralysis, perhaps 
 months or years of helplessness, and at the same time 
 months or years of mental darkness and depression. Prom 
 both these he was mercifully preserved. In a moment, 
 almost in the twinkling of an eye, without anything un- 
 usual to excite apprehension or alarm, without pain, with- 
 out consciousne^ss, he was taken from earth to heaven. 
 Could the warmest affection for him have ordered the cir- 
 cumstances of his deatli more mercifully or kindly? 
 
 "I trust that it will not be regarded as inappropriate, in 
 conclusion, to refer, in a word, to my own personal feel- 
 ings, and my own sense of loss when he was so suddenly 
 taken away. Kever before have I so felt that I stood 
 alone on the shores of the great ocean of eternity as I felt 
 then ; and why should not the personal friendship of so 
 many years be allowed to utter its feelings in sympathy 
 with a mourning congregation on an occasion like this? 
 
 " Why should not the memory of other days come over 
 my soul here? AVhy should I not speak of the loss which 
 I have sustained as well as you ? Why should I not be 
 permitted, while I speak of his public life, also to bear my 
 testimony to him as a warm-hearted, true, generous, sin- 
 cere, and affectionate friend ? For, for an unusual period 
 in human life — for thirty years — we were united in such 
 intimacy and friendship as rarely exists on earth, and is 
 still more rarely prolonged for such a period; for we lived 
 
 * That sermon has been published under the title, "The Last Sermon 
 of the Rev. Thomas Brainerd, D.D." It is oo the text, ''Let no man 
 deepise thy youth." 
 
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 403 
 
 and labored side by side, we took sweet counsel together, 
 we traveled together, we prayed together, we rejoiced to- 
 gether, we mourned together. We had no envies, jealousies, 
 or heart-burnings, and there was nothing to be forgiven 
 on either side when he died. We rejoiced each in the suc- 
 cess of the other as if it were his own success — for it was 
 success in the cause which we both loved, and in the ad- 
 vancement of that Master's kingdom which w^e were both 
 endeavoring to. promote. When he was buried I felt as if 
 half of myself was in that coffin, and was committed to 
 that grave — how could I help it ? I have younger friends 
 among my brethren, dear to my heart, and securing daily 
 more and more my affections; but you must approach the 
 period where the ominous number 'threescore and ten' is 
 not remote to understand how a man feels when the friend 
 of thirty years — and such a friend — is committed to the 
 tomb." 
 
 At the close of the sermon, Mr. Barnes read the hymn — 
 
 "Servant of God, well done; 
 Best from thy loved employ; 
 The battle fought, the victory won, 
 Enter thy Master's joy. 
 
 "The voice at midnight came, 
 He started up to hear; 
 A mortal arrow pierced his frame, 
 He fell — but felt no fear. 
 
 "Tranquil amidst alarms. 
 It found him on the iield, 
 A veteran slumbering on his arms, 
 Beneath his red-cross shield. 
 
 "The pains of death are past, 
 Labor and sorrow cease; 
 And life's long warfare closed at last. 
 His soul is found in peace. 
 
404 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 "Soldier of Christ, well done; 
 Praise be thy new employ ; 
 And while eternal ages run, 
 Rest in thy Saviour's joy." 
 
 This hymn was sung by the choir with much feeling. 
 
 " No sketch can do justice to the eloquence, ferv^or, and 
 truth of the memorial sermon delivered yesterday by Rev. 
 Albert Barnes, in eulogy of the late Rev. Dr. Brainerd. 
 'Old Pine Street Church' was filled by an immense con- 
 gregation, all of whom had some affectionate association 
 connected with his memory, and the pathetic voice of his 
 venerable co-worker fell upon ears eager to receive the 
 warm words of sympathy, of praise, and of loving analysis 
 of the noble character of Dr. Brainerd. It will be long 
 ere any who heard this noble tribute to one of Philadel 
 phia's ablest divines will forget it." — Evening Bnlletin. 
 
 Dr. March on the Character of Dr. Brainerd. 
 
 " I shall always remember Dr. Brainerd as a nian of 
 genial spirit, pleasant address, and hopeful temperament. 
 I met him in all places ; quite as often in the street as any- 
 where else — he generally on horseback, and I as genernlly 
 on foot. He never would let himself pass without riding 
 up to the curbstone and dropping a good-humored word, 
 which made the walk seem pleasanter to me for several 
 squares after he was out of sight. 
 
 " I never knew him to speak in a public meeting, large 
 or small, religious or secular, without diffusing a glow of 
 kindly feeling through the audience, and disposing every 
 heart to respond to the sentiments and sympathies of our 
 common humanity. The great burdens of life were as 
 heavy on him as on the rest of us, but he had the happy 
 faculty of bearing them himself, and helping others to bear 
 them, with so much geniality, buoyancy and hopefulness. 
 
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 405 
 
 as to take away half their weight. He supported his own 
 burden of care and responsibility with a good-humored and 
 elastic spirit, knowing that the strain upon the carriage, 
 and the friction on the wheels are less when the load rests 
 upon springs. 
 
 " In our ministers' meeting, in our consultations upon the 
 common good of all our churches, in our efforts to raise 
 money, or to relieve difficulties, or to start new enterprises, 
 we always looked to him for an apt remark, or a telling 
 illusti'ation, or a 'little story,' that would make the task 
 before us seem lighter, and bring its accomplishment within 
 the range of our hopes. His playfulness always had a 
 serious and practical turn. If he cast the pleasant light of 
 humor upon our most thoughtful deliberations, it was only 
 to scatter the shades of doubt and fear, and make the path 
 of duty plain. And it was a very great matter for us all 
 to have a man among us of large experience, of earnest 
 purpose, and of practical judgment, who could help us over 
 the hard places with a touch of humor, and scatter the 
 clouds of despondency by a cheerful glance at l)etter things 
 to come. 
 
 " Dr. Brainerd excelled greatly in his ready adaptation 
 to times and circumstances. He had the happy art of 
 putting things in their right place, giving to every occasion 
 its full and fit expression. Belonging to a profession which, 
 by instinct, usage, and education, clings to stately ceremo- 
 nies and established forms, he could step out of the old 
 track with the grace of propriety and the ease of uncon- 
 scious adaptation. He could preach the gospel with ten- 
 derness and solemnity, in the church, in a market-house, 
 and in the open air. He could command the attention of 
 citizens and soldiers, in saloons and hospitals, in public 
 streets and crowded squares, in camp and on shipboard. 
 He could preside with equal propriety over a General As- 
 sembly, a Presbytery, or a prayer-meeting. He could 
 
 35 
 
406 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAIXERD, D D. 
 
 make himself beard and respected b}- the rich in their par- 
 lors and counting-houses, and by the poor in their cheer- 
 less homes and lowly occupations. In times of trouble 
 and danger, when the cloud of national calamity hung thick 
 and dai'k over us all, he was a safe man to soothe the gen- 
 eral alarm, a brave man to meet the coming peril, a tender- 
 hearted man to utter the public sorrow. In times of joy 
 and triumph, none rose with a more exultant and child- 
 like joy upon the waves of public gratulation, none could 
 speak the common gladness, better than he. He had a 
 quick sensibility to catch the spirit of any occasion, and a 
 ready tact to meet its demands. Men who scoffed at re- 
 ligion, and made light of all sacred things, were not likely 
 to go unrebuked from his presence. The cultivated skep- 
 tic and the rude blasphemer found that in assailing him 
 they had something more vital and human than a walking 
 book or an official gown to contend with. He had a pecu- 
 liar skill in setting the troubled and doubting in a posi- 
 tion to see the light which their fears had hidden from 
 their eyes. In his quick and unceremonial adaptation to 
 all times and persons and circumstances, he was like the 
 divine preacher, who proclaimed the word of life in the 
 synagogue and by the sea-side; in the streets, on the 
 mountains and in desert places ; in private homes, in the 
 marts of business, and by the way-side ; and always speak- 
 ing with equal earnestness and propriety, whether con- 
 versing with a single listener or addressing assembled 
 thousands. 
 
 " Dr. Brainerd judged wisely what he could do, and he did 
 it well. He chose the place and mode of action in which his 
 powers could work most easily, and he did the task the 
 better and with the less strain and friction, because he had 
 discretion and self-command enough to give his strength to 
 that which he could do best. Rejoicing that others pos- 
 sessed endowments and opportunities not given to him, he 
 
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 407 
 
 improved his own proper gift so well as to take a front 
 rank with all who live to instruct and improve mankind. 
 The world loses much talent and effort for good, just 
 because many fail to find the secret of their greatest 
 strength, or, having found it, they are not content to do 
 that which they can do best. And hence we have many 
 unmanly complaints from those, who excuse themselves 
 for failure, by saying that, in some other position or pro- 
 fession, they could easily have become greater and better 
 men. 
 
 " Dr. Brainerd was himself greater than his best per- 
 formance. However well he may have acquitted himself 
 on any occasion, he left the impression that he had more 
 forces in reserve than he had brought into the field of ac- 
 tion. No one act or service of his seemed to have ex 
 hausted his capacity to do more and better. This impres- 
 sion was undoubtedly due to the force of character by 
 which he controlled the convictions and stimulated the 
 expectations of others, whenever they came under the in- 
 fluence of his clear mind and commanding will. No written 
 composition, no reported speech of his, no partial estimates 
 of friends even, could have told a stranger how much of a 
 man he was in his living presence, and in his power to 
 quicken and control other minds. He was not unmanned 
 or paralyzed by great responsibilities, or unexpected cir- 
 cumstances, or by the overpowering influence of strong 
 character and great reputation in others. He rose to the 
 demand of the occasion, and he met it easily, by looking 
 through the glare and parade and mystery directh^ to the 
 simple and practical elements of any question or duty. He 
 could separate the practical and sure from the mystical 
 and uncertain, and he would never allow the dreams and 
 subtleties of idle speculation to impair the force of settled 
 opinions and daily duties. In climbing up the steep of 
 the heavenly hill, he chose to keep the tried and safe path, 
 
408 l^IFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 and he was not embarrassed or hindered in his course, be- 
 cause, when he looked over the precipice, he could not see 
 the bottom of the abyss, or, when he looked up he could 
 not measure the whole length of the path by which he was 
 journeying. And he showed his peculiar manliness and 
 force of character, by imparting to others the feeling of 
 safety and self-possession which steadied his own mind. 
 
 " Dr. Brainerd dwelt upon the plain and practical ele- 
 ments of truth. He believed that the gospel is its own 
 best witness, and that the preacher should show his fitness 
 for his work by presenting truth in such a form as to be 
 understood and appreciated by all candid and attentive 
 listeners. lie believed that the most essential truths are 
 most easily understood, and that the clear and distinctive 
 doctrines of the gospel are so immeasurably important 
 that the minister of Christ can have little time for the em- 
 bellishments of fancy, or the mists of speculation. He 
 made people understand that he had opinions and princi- 
 ples, and good reasons for holding them, and that when 
 he spoke, it was not simply to supply a pleasant enter- 
 tainment for the hour, but to show that all have something 
 infinitely important both to believe and to do. He put 
 forth his appeals and instructions in such clear, practical, 
 every-day forms that common minds grasped the full scope 
 of his meaning, and the careless and the caviling were 
 made to feel that in opposing or neglecting tlie claims of 
 religion, they must slight the lessons of their own experi- 
 ence and the deepest wants of their own nature. He 
 clothed the great spiritual truths of divine revelation in 
 such a human and homelike dress that they could be re- 
 ceived and recognized in the busy street as well as in the 
 sanctuary. 
 
 " Dr. Brainerd had full faith in the capacity of the gospel 
 to supply the chief elements of progress, in all states of 
 human societv, and to answer all forms of unbelief He 
 
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 409 
 
 was not afraid that any real discoveries in science would 
 impair the authority of divine revelation. If the philoso- 
 phers do not ag-ree with Moses, it will be found in the end 
 to be only the worse for the philosophers, not to the dis- 
 credit of Moses. And he was not very much troubled if 
 ingenious and skeptical men could devise objections, 
 which, for a time, seemed hard to answer. Every new 
 phase of unbelief will have its day, but the word of the 
 Lord endureth forever. And Dr. Brainerd kept himself 
 up abreast of all the progress of the age, by keeping 
 himself in sympathy with that revealed truth, which is 
 the chief element of progress in all ages. He fully be- 
 lieved in the power of Christianity to sustain itself against 
 the most severe and subtle skepticism, and to vindicate its 
 divine origin, both by reasoning and by experiment, before 
 all the world. 
 
 "Dr. Brainerd could advance with the real advance of 
 the age, and he could adapt himself easily to the changing 
 circumstances of society and the world. He kept even 
 pace with the time, and refused to grow old in feeling and 
 spirit, while the years of toil and suffering were growing 
 heavy upon his shoulders. He. never fell into the habit 
 of thinking that truth and virtue were fast leaving the 
 earth, that all changes were for the worse, and that things 
 were a great deal better in the world when he was young. 
 He always liked to class himself among the young men, 
 and he was sure to show so much buoyancy, hopefulness, 
 and adaptation, as to make the young men feel at home 
 in his company. 
 
 " He respected the wisdom, the virtue, and precedents 
 of the past, and yet he felt called upon to use them all, in 
 attaining a sounder wisdom and loftier virtue. 
 
 " When the form or issue of great questions of principle 
 or duty changed, he was quick to meet the new demand. 
 He was not the man to spend his strength in figiiting over 
 
 36* 
 
410 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 an old battle, when there was no longer any demand for 
 the conflict. 
 
 " Dr. Brainerd was truly and conscientiously denomina- 
 tional in his principles and preferences, and yet he was 
 liberal and conciliatory toward all. We had no truer man 
 to rely upon, when the order, the doctrine, the good name, 
 and the associated interests of our own churches were to 
 be maintained ; and when the fit occasion came to forget 
 all denominational differences, and unite in common efforts 
 and supplications for the growth and harmony of all 
 churches alike, none could cause all hearts to flow forth in 
 common sympathies and efforts more happily than he. No 
 minister in the city had a larger personal acquaintance 
 with ministers and laymen outside of his own denomina- 
 tion, and none would have received a more ready welcome 
 to other pulpits ; no one would have been more sure to 
 speak kindly and acceptable words, whatever sect or class 
 of Christians he might address. And yet he was wise 
 and hearty in giving the great strength of his life and 
 labor to the upbuilding of his own denomination. It is 
 for the interest of the one universal church that every 
 branch shall be united and strong, and any minister's life 
 will be worth most to the cause of Christ when he works 
 most freely and earnestly in the way of his own choice, 
 and with such forms and instrumentalities as he can use 
 best. Christianity is scandalized in the eyes of the world, 
 not by the existence of different denominations, but by the 
 unchristian mode in which they treat each other. 
 
 " Dr. Brainerd labored cheerfully and uncomplainingly 
 for a whole generation in his chosen profession, and found 
 in the work of the ministry his exceeding great reward. 
 He expressed no regret that he had abandoned other pur- 
 suits, or that he saw others making themselves rich, while 
 he, with greater effort, ability, and sacrifice, must live and 
 die poor. He felt rich in his own heart and life if he could 
 
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 411 
 
 lead others to lay up for theinselvos imperishable treasures 
 in heaven. In thirty years' time he passed through many 
 vicissitudes of trial, difficulty, and discouragement, as well 
 as of toil, hope, and success ; but, in them all, he bore 
 himself honorably and bravely, and, in the darkest days, 
 he had grace given him for his own necessities, and a re- 
 serve of fiiith and cheerfulness with which to strengthen 
 his brethren. He bore up under great bodily infirmities, 
 and worked on hopefully and successfully, while daily ex- 
 pecting the end, anxious only to be found at his post when 
 the Master came. His unsteady hand and faltering step 
 indicated no abatement of high purpose and firm resolu- 
 tion to carry his burden till the Master bid him lay it 
 down. And so he went on his way, bearing his own sor- 
 rows lightly, that he might comfort others in their afflic- 
 tion ; living upon a bare competence, that he might enrich 
 others with the resources of his gifted mind and chastened 
 heart; forgetting his own discouragements, that he might 
 cheer others in their despondency ; hoping all things, be- 
 lieving all things, enduring^ll things, if by any means he 
 might save some." 
 
 By Rev. J. W. Mears, D.D. 
 
 "AVith startling suddenness came the telegraphic an- 
 nouncement of the death of the beloved and venerated pas- 
 tor of Old Pine Street Church, at Scranton, on Wednesday 
 morning of last week. Dr. Brainerd had been so long ail- 
 ing, and had for so many years contrived to get through 
 a great amount of parochial and public duty without any 
 alarming increase in his unfavorable symptoms, that we 
 Avere in a manner used to them, and ceased to fear any speedy 
 culmination of them in death. Only a day or two, indeed, 
 before he died, he wrote in an animated strain, in view of 
 the probable early resumption of his duties with increased 
 health and prospect of usefulness. All, therefore, but per- 
 
412 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERP, D.D. 
 
 haps the few who had more carefully considered the state 
 of his health, were greatly shocked by the announcement 
 that, after passing Tuesday with no unusual symptoms, and 
 retiring comfortably to rest at night, he gave forth his life 
 in one single, deep sigh, at one o'clock of the following 
 morning. 
 
 " With such a speedy, peaceful, painless exit, well closed 
 a life full of years, of high usefulness, of ripe Christian 
 character, of distinguished ministerial success, and crowned 
 with well-merited honors. For us his death came all too 
 soon. We would not have put it earlier than threescore 
 and ten at the soonest. For him, doubtless, in the order- 
 ing of Providence, it came at precisely the most appro- 
 priate moment. 'All things shall work together for good 
 to them that love him.' It is certain that Dr. Brainerd's 
 career has been steadily upward, both in the measure of 
 his usefulness and his honor. He dies with nothing to 
 dim the luster of the name he leaves with his church and 
 his family. His star was yet in the ascendant when its 
 light was quenched, and it \^11 ever shine full-orbed in 
 our memories. 
 
 "Especially in the last five or six years of his life has 
 the reputation of Dr. Brainerd been gaining most rapidly 
 among his fellow-men. With the first mutterings of rebel- 
 lion he took his stand for the maintenance of the laws and 
 for the preservation of the national life and unity, and 
 never swerved from it for a moment to the end. He pre- 
 served and cherished the patriotic associations of Old Pine 
 Street Church, and greatly enhanced their luster. Dr. 
 Brainerd and Old Pine Street Church became the most 
 conspicuous among the loyal agencies in our city outside 
 of the great public organizations. They were a rock of 
 strength and a never-failing spring of encouragement to 
 loyal men and enterprises. In sermons and prayers, in 
 addresses, speeches, and appeals, the manly voice of Dr. 
 
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 413 
 
 Brainerd lias everywhere been heard cheering the de- 
 spondent, stimulating to nobler exertions the patriotic, 
 piercing to the very heart the false arguments of the dis- 
 loyal, silencing cavils, and kindling fresh enthusiasm for 
 the national cause in every breast. Few men showed a 
 clearer judgment and a better appreciation of the high 
 moral principles at stake in the conflict. Few rejoiced 
 more heartily at the revival of national life in the masses 
 of the North, and at the substitution of a martyr zeal for 
 country and liberty in place of the low and groveling.aims 
 which seemed to have gained almost exclusive control 
 over the American mind. 
 
 " Dr. Brainerd rejoiced greatly and devoutly in the fact of 
 emancipation as one of the greatest boons of the war. He 
 never for a moment lost his intense interest in the national 
 cause, or abated a jot of his earnest efforts for its suc- 
 cess. He ever cherished the most profound confidence in 
 the uprightness and sagacity of Abraham Lincoln, whom, 
 indeed, he resembled in his shrewd observation of men 
 and his accurate estimate of public opinion. 
 
 "The honor in which Dr. Brainerd was held by his loyal 
 fellow-citizens was shown in his election as a member of 
 the Union League almost at its very organization, and by 
 the prominent position usually assigned him in the religious 
 portion of the public services held by that and other bodies 
 of our citizens during and since the war. No hour of his 
 life could have been more glad or more solemn than when 
 he was thus called to lead the devotions of the people after 
 the victory of Gettysburg. A throng of ten or twenty 
 thousand people blocked the streets before him. The fire 
 companies with their equipages had, by a spontaneous im- 
 pulse, turned out to celebrate the occasion. Far above in 
 the steeple, a band was wafting the strains of 'Old Hun- 
 dred ' to the skies, and there, standing on the sacred steps of 
 Independence Hall, amid the indescribable raptures of that 
 
414 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 hour of great deliverance, lie gave suitable expression to 
 the sentiments of a grateful people. He has also been 
 closely identified with the Union Volunteer Refreshment 
 Saloon, and with various movements, great and" small, for 
 the relief of our suffering soldiers in the hospitals and on 
 the field. When the battle of Gettysburg was imminent, 
 and when sore distress darkened many of the faces of our 
 citizens, Dr. Brainerd, nearly sixty years old, marched 
 beside a recruiting officer to the drum and fife, aiding to 
 gather up recruits for the emergency. More than all, he 
 gave his only son, Thomas, to the service of his country, 
 and had the satisfaction to see him rise to honor in his pro- 
 fession, and return in entire safety with the conquering 
 armies of the nation before he died. And perhaps no act 
 of his life caused him greater pleasure than the erection, in 
 the vestibule of his church, of the mural tablet to the 
 memory of the men of his congregation who fell in the war. 
 It seemed to complete his patriotic record and to blend it 
 beautifully with that of his people. 
 
 "With such a bright, undimmed record as a patriot, he 
 passed away. No rack of a cloud will ever rest upon his 
 memory in this high regard. His example Avill live imper- 
 ishably, and will instruct and inspire the youth and the 
 clergy and the people of the land, for generations to come. 
 No cold suspicion, no heartless cavil, no momentary 
 unfaithfulness to the high interests of nationality and 
 of liberty will weaken its power or darken its perfect 
 beauty. 
 
 " Dr. Brainerd had never seemed to court literary distinc- 
 tion. His editorial career in Cincinnati, many years ago, 
 was, indeed, a great success. But since that time he has 
 been content with such fugitive issues as are consonant 
 with burdensome pastoral duties, until he undertook the 
 great work of his life, the Life of his kinsman, John Brai- 
 nerd. That work, after years of pains taking toil, he lived 
 
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 415 
 
 to complete, and to see welcomed with unanimous and 
 even enthusiastic approval by the religious journals of 
 all denominations, by our daily press, and by many critics 
 of the old world. Its character, as a faithful record of a 
 pure, devoted, and noble life, rescued from obscurity, and 
 preserved among the choicest treasures of the Christian 
 Church, suffered to speak its own story and only enlarged 
 with skillful touches here and there to serve as the setting 
 to the diamond — this work insured him a literary immor- 
 tality as certain, at least in the esteem of the church, as 
 that of David and John Brainerd themselves. He has 
 bound his name up in a trio with theirs, which time will 
 not be able to dissolve. 
 
 "Dr. Brainerd had received the highest honors the 
 church of his choice could bestow. In the General As- 
 sembly of 1804, he was chosen Moderator, and performed 
 his duties with urbanity, skill, and success that gave un- 
 mingled satisfaction and delight. The Assembly of lb 66 
 bestowed upon him the honor of chairmanship of its Com- 
 mittee on Reunion. In that position, without any of the 
 discomfort of failure, he died, being translated to a blessed 
 region, where, without any preliminary measures, reunion 
 is universal, without mistrust, without smothered jeal- 
 ousies, without fear of renewed contention and division. 
 
 " Thus ripe in honors from the church and his fellow- 
 citizens, at the climax of his usefulness, he ceased to be 
 among us. He feared much that it might be otherwise. 
 He dreaded an old age of prolonged infirmity, incapacity, 
 and dependence. He loved the cheerful, sunny side of life, 
 and he made life such wherever his influence was. He 
 delighted in the gambols and the natural gracefulness of 
 children, and he freshened his own life by drinking at the 
 fountain of their pure joys and sympathies. And it is 
 touching to think that the deep tenderness of a grandfather's 
 attachment to his children's children, rent from him one after 
 
416 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 another by death, helped to snap the cord of his own life, 
 and so bore him over that dreary period of infirmity which 
 he dreaded, and landed him at once, from a life which he 
 had ever kept fresh and youthful, into the life of eternal 
 youth beyond ; for a marked feature of Dr. Brainerd's life 
 was his refusal to grow mentally, morally, socially, and 
 theologically old. 
 
 " Fixed on great principles of Scripture and Calvin- 
 istic divinity, Dr. Brainerd had no cowardly dread of any- 
 thing, simply because it was new. He kept himself fully 
 abreast of current opinion in his age. He studied men ; 
 he identified himself heartily with the interests and feelings 
 of the generation of youth grown up around him. They 
 found in him one who wonderfully understood and sym- 
 pathized with them, and who drew them to him by an un- 
 common and a noble Christian magnetism. His name was 
 the bond of union to the widely-scattered congregation of 
 Pine Street Church, and nothing can be so powerful as his 
 memory to hold them together, now that he has gone. His 
 name was a tower of strength to every enterprise to which 
 he gave it, and he gave it with such sagacity that it was 
 almost a sure guarantee of success. His own parochial 
 life was one long success. A steady average of about 
 forty additions, on profession, per annum, marked his pas- 
 torate in Pine Street Clmrch. And no numbers can 
 adequately portray the exuberant life and the ceaseless 
 activity with which, under God, he has been able to in- 
 spire its members. Although it is one of the old ' down- 
 town' churches of the city, remote from the new and 
 popular districts, its meetings are crowded with promising 
 young people, the most hopeful elements of a congrega- 
 tion. There is the utmost freedom, combined with de- 
 corum, in taking part in meetings for prayer and confer- 
 ence. The crowded Sunday-night meetings, from week to 
 week, present all the better features of a revival prayer- 
 
rUBLIC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 417 
 
 meeting; and the Braincrd Mission Chapel, a large build- 
 ing in Greenwich Street, put up by members of his con- 
 gregation, at an expense of twelve thousand dollars, and 
 manned by the young people of the church, proves the 
 munificence and the zeal of ' Old Pine Street.' 
 
 " It was the money, too, of Old Pine Street which re- 
 stored, when on the verge of ruin, the German Street 
 Church, which paid its debt and completed its house of 
 worship, at an expense of fifteen or twenty thousand dol- 
 lars. These are only recent proofs of the beneficent influ- 
 ence exerted from this vigorous center. 
 
 "As a man of the people. Dr. Brainerd was deeply in- 
 terested in all efforts to reach the masses with the gospel. 
 He was an earnest advocate of ' open-air preaching,' and 
 himself had practiced it on many occasions. He was 
 associated with Kev. James Patterson in those famous 
 out-door efforts which laid the foundation of the church in 
 the Northern Liberties. And in later days, in spite of 
 increasing bodily infirmities, he continued the practice. 
 He frequently used a butcher's block in one of the market- 
 houses for a pulpit, to which, however, a support had to 
 be attached to steady him during the discourse. Nervous 
 as he was, the surroundings were of no consequence to 
 him, provided he had opportunity to proclaim the un- 
 searchable riches of Christ to his fellow-men. One of his 
 latest declarations on the subject of open-air preaching, 
 made in a discussion in the Pastors' Association, was to 
 the effect that the practice would increase fivefold the 
 pulpit efficiency of the brethren if they would engage 
 in it. 
 
 "A notice of Dr. Brainerd would be unpardonably de- 
 fective which omitted to mention his remarkable power as 
 an extempore speaker. Educated for the law, he seemed 
 ever to retain the readiness of speech so needful to that 
 profession. He was greatest as a speaker when called on, 
 
 36 
 
418 l^IFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 often without apparent premeditation, to meet some special 
 occasion — to take the place, which, alas ! none as he could 
 fill, at the grave-side of departed worth aud eminence ; to 
 stimulate to some new patriotic effort ; to express the joy 
 of the people at the dedication of a new house of worship ; 
 or to give direction to their thoughts in great public prayer- 
 meetings. There was a freshness, a manliness, a strength 
 of common sense, a singular shrewdness and penetration, 
 which put the subject in a new and powerful light. En- 
 dowed with retentive memory and excellent powers of ob- 
 servation, he had a store of capital illustrations, Avhich he 
 had wonderful skill in bringing in precisely at the right 
 time and place. Over his speeches there was a constant 
 play of native wit, of good humor, and of winning geni- 
 alit}^ that gave them a peculiar charm. He never seemed 
 to be exhausted ; he always had something new, some- 
 thing more appropriate to the special occasion than any- 
 thing he had ever said before, lie was never common- 
 place, yet never far-fetched. Everywhere the people 
 welcomed him, everywhere they expected edification and 
 stimulus from his words, and rarely were they disap- 
 pointed. At the Jayne's Hall monster prayer-meeting, in 
 1858, where thousands met every day for weeks, he was 
 one of the few ministers Avho knew how to meet and use 
 those marvelous and somewhat trying scenes to the high- 
 est spiritual profit. A frequent, he was ever a most wel- 
 come speaker at those meetings, and was as calm, as ready, 
 and as felicitous in his remarks as in the most familiar 
 scenes. There the heart of the multitude was bared as, 
 perhaps, it has never been since, and it was because Dr. 
 Brainerd's heart was so large, and so warm, and so thor- 
 oughly the people's that he found himself so ready, so 
 much at home, so marvelously adapted to the occasion. 
 
 "A man of somewhat similar character and adaptedness, 
 who contributed no small share himself to the noonday 
 
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 419 
 
 and other prayer-meetings ; a man of most tender and de- 
 voted spirit, toward whom Dr. Brainerd was drawn by 
 unusual ties of Christian affection ; like himself, one of 
 the oldest pastors of our city churches, has gone to heaven 
 but a few weeks before him ; — great, often, in anticipation 
 of heaven, was the joy of meeting in religious services, 
 between Dr. Brainerd and Dr. Kennard. Who shall 
 attempt to describe the joy with which, after so short a 
 separation, they met to renew their joint worship in 
 heaven ? Who shall draw the lines of their features — 
 noble even on earth, but glorified above? Who, rather, 
 shall not look forward with longing to join the blcs.sed 
 company and enjoy those raptures of which our happiest 
 and most elevated scenes of devotion, under their leader- 
 ship, were but faint anticipations ? 
 
 " When almost every old citizen of a great city, and 
 almost every member and minister of a large church feels 
 stricken and bereaved by a providential event, as they do 
 in the death of Dr. Brainerd, it seems idle for any one in- 
 dividual to parade his grief as special, or to demand spe- 
 cial sympathy for the loss as his own. Yet we cannot 
 refrain from offering a wreath of personal homage to the 
 memory of one who has been our warm and fast friend 
 almost since we knew him ; who has encouraged us in all 
 our undertakings by his cheering words and fraternal acts; 
 and who has especially stood by us in the trying and re- 
 sponsible duties of the editorial office. With those, the 
 earlier associations of his career prepared him to sympa- 
 thize, while his native shrewdness and quickness of wit 
 and penetration, his unflagging interest in all the great 
 movements of the time, and especially his loyalty to the 
 interests of Christ's cause and of the denomination, fully 
 qualified him as an adviser, and as such he was a frequent 
 and the most welcome visitor in the office of this paper. 
 Without any attitude of officiousness or solemn assump- 
 
420 J^IFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 tion of superiority, or even any great amount of specific 
 advice, it was rather the magnetic influence of contact with 
 a man of such large sympathies and such ennobling views, 
 such a warm and generous nature, that we felt and wel- 
 comed as a powerful stimulus, and that w^e shall most 
 sadly miss. We differed at times — occasionally our views 
 were wide apart ; but time and a closer interchange almost 
 invariably drew us together, and our intimacy in the edi- 
 torial sanctum was unbroken to the last, 
 
 " We have, therefore, our owu tear of regret to shed apart 
 from the crowd ; our own tribute to lay upon his tomb; 
 our own memory of individual loss to deplore in his sud- 
 den departure." 
 
 Death of Bev. Dr. Brainerd. By Bev. Henry M. Field, D.D.^ 
 
 " The Presbyterian Church in the United States is called 
 to mourn the loss of one of its very best men — a wise coun- 
 selor, a faithful preacher and pastor — one who was truly a 
 man of God. With surprise and grief we learned on Thurs- 
 day last that our honored friend and brother. Rev. Thomas 
 "Brainerd, D.D., of Philadelphia, had ceased from among 
 men on earth. Unexpectedly, as always, and suddenly, 
 as usual in cases of apoplexy, he ended his days at Scran- 
 ton, Pa., on the night of Tuesda}^ the 21st inst., in the 
 s'xty-third year of his age. 
 
 " It is but the other day that we saw it announced that 
 he was to bear a conspicuous part in a literary festival at 
 ' the Forks of Delaware,' a locality made memorable in the 
 annals of missionary enterprise by the arduous and self- 
 denying labors of his illustrious kinsman David Brainerd. 
 Not many months ago we congratulated the church that 
 he had conferred a boon upon it, in gathering up the ex- 
 tant memorials of Rev. John Brainerd, whom David, his 
 
 * Editor of The Evangelist. 
 
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 421 
 
 brother, loved 'the best of any creature living',' and on 
 whom he bestowed his missionary mantle. 
 
 "And now the biographer of these sainted men is him- 
 self numbered with them. He has gone to return no 
 more. The chair at the social board and household altar 
 is vacant. The sacred desk where he ministered so long 
 and so faithfully, even at times when he could not stand, 
 is draped in sable. The voice that spoke in such tones of 
 sweet persuasion for his Master, is now silent in death. 
 All too soon for the favored flock over which he watched 
 so long, and which he fed with a shepherd's care; and 
 which in turn looked up to him with perfect confidence 
 and trust ; all too soon for the reverend members of the 
 Pastoral Association, with which he had been identified 
 from the first, and by which he was regarded with min- 
 gled respect and affection, as a true friend and brother ; 
 too soon, so in our blindness it seems to us, for the inter- 
 ests of learning, morality, philanthropy, and religion, he 
 is taken from the labors of earth to the rest and rewards 
 of heaven. 
 
 " The deceased was a man of rare faculties, a Christian 
 of ripe experience, a minister of peculiar gifts and graces. 
 He came of a noble stock. He was a Puritan of the Puri- 
 tans — a son of an honored mother — a child of Connecticut, 
 of which Bancroft has said, ' There is no State in the 
 Union, and I know not any in the world, in whose early 
 history, if I were a citizen, I could find more of which to 
 be proud, and less that I should wish to blot.' Haddam, 
 on the Connecticut River, was the home of the family. 
 They that are curious in genealogy may learn his lineage 
 in Farmer, Savage, and H in man ; how nearly also he was 
 related to the poet, John G. C. Brainerd. They were of 
 th6 same stock, and not unlike in temperament. 
 
 "Thomas Brainerd was born June 17th, 1804, the 29th 
 anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill. He studied 
 
 36* 
 
422 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 theology at Andover. At the seminary he was recognized 
 as a student of uncommon excellence and promise; a 
 young man of positive opinions, carefully formed, and not 
 backward when occasion offered to give them expression ; 
 yet, a most kind-hearted brother, of great good humor, 
 and the life of every circle. All who knew him then were 
 sure that he would be heard from in after-years. 
 
 " Having finished his theological cour.se at Andover, in 
 September, 1831, and received ordination at the hands of 
 the Third Presbytery of New York, early in October, he 
 proceeded to the West, prompted by an ardent zeal for the 
 extension of Christ's kingdom in the frontier States. 
 Providence directed him to Cincinnati, then just emerging 
 into greatness as the Queen City of the West. Here he 
 found a promising sphere of missionary service, in con- 
 nection with a growing settlement, called Fulton, a short 
 distance from the city up the river, in the immediate 
 vicinity of Walnut Hills. It was soon found that he was 
 just the man to undertake the work of editing the Weekly 
 Journal, conducted in the interests of our church in that 
 city, of which the present Christian Herald is the lineal 
 successor. 
 
 " It was a time of great agitation. The Home Mission- 
 ary cause was passing through a serious conflict. The 
 newly-founded theological seminary, under the lead of Dr. 
 Lyman Beecher, was involved, for a time, in great trouble. 
 Dr. Beecher, as the representative of what was called 
 ' the New School,' was assailed with unrelenting opposi- 
 tion, and no little virulence. Throughout this season, the 
 young editor did effective battle for the truth, and made 
 his paper a power in the land. His name has ever since 
 been cherished among the friends of Lane Seminary, and 
 through all that section of the church, as one of pleasant 
 and grateful memories. Nowhere will he be more truly 
 mourned. 
 
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 423 
 
 "In 1835 the Rev. Ezra Stiles Ely, D.D., occupying the 
 pulpit formerly filled by Archibald Alexander, D.D., deter- 
 mined to identify himself with the Marion College enterprise 
 in Missouri, and resigned the charge of Pine Street Church, 
 Philadelphia, and Brainerd was called to fill the vacancy. 
 He accepted and removed to Philadelpliia. It was a period 
 of great perplexity, calling for firmness, decision, wisdom, 
 and strength of character in the ministry. The very air 
 was full of discord and strife. Having had some experi- 
 ence of ecclesiastical warfare in his Western home, Brainerd 
 was fully prepared to appreciate the situation, and at once 
 identified himself with the proscribed brethren, and stood 
 manfully by them through the whole eventful struggle that 
 culminated in the excision and separation of the years 1 887 
 and 1838. He proved himself a valiant defender of the 
 Constitution of the church, and succeeded in carrying his 
 congregation with him. It pleased God to spare him to 
 see that portion of the church with which he had so fully 
 identified himself consolidated and increasing in numbers, 
 and in all other essential elements of church-life, until it 
 commanded the respect not only of all other denominations, 
 but even of the Old School brethren theuiselves. At the 
 meeting of the General Assenibl}^ of our church, at Dayton, 
 Ohio, in May, 1864, he was chosen Moderator, and pre- 
 sided with admirable tact and dignity. The Assembly that 
 met at St. Louis, last May, appointed him with the utmost 
 cordiality, Chairman of their Committee of Conference on 
 the Reunion of the two branches of the church, a posi- 
 tion that he had fairly earned by his life-long devotion to 
 the interests of the denomination. 
 
 " The history of his ministry in Philadelphia can best be 
 told by our brethren there, and doubtless will be. In brief, 
 we will say, that during the thirty years of his pastorate, 
 he not only endeared himself greatly to his people, and 
 succeeded in holding them together, though a down-town 
 
424 TJFE OF REV. THOMAS BRATNERD, D D. 
 
 church, but he made himself widely felt in every part 
 of the city, in his advocacy of measures for the general 
 good. His influence was second to none in the ministry 
 of Philadelphia. 
 
 " When the war of the rebellion was precipitated upon 
 the country, his Bunker Hill spirit was kindled within 
 him. With untiring energy, and zeal, and patriotism, he 
 gave himself to his country's cause, and especially to the 
 welfare of the brave men that fought the battles of free- 
 dom. 
 
 " Excellent as our brother was in the pulpit, he was even 
 more so on the platform. In consequence of a serious nervous 
 affection, from which for many years he suffered greatly, 
 it was not always easy for him to command himself suffi- 
 ciently to engage in earnest debate. But when he did, it was 
 greatly to the delight of his brethren. His ardent temper- 
 ament, his genial humor, his quick perception, his keen 
 wit, his aptness of illustration, his sharp logic, his com- 
 pactness of argument, and his ready utterance, combined 
 to secure the fixed attention of his audience, and in most 
 cases to carry their convictions. 
 
 "But we forbear. More competent hands will do him 
 better justice. Of the circumstances of his decease we only 
 know, that he died at the house of his beloved daughter, 
 Mrs. Henry M. Boies, from whom it had pleased God to 
 take to himself, on the 10th and 13th instant, her only two 
 children, of fifteen months and three and a half years, the 
 latter but eight days before its grandfather. Possibly it 
 was this that was made the immediate occasion of our 
 brother's death. 
 
 " God moves in a, mysterious way, 
 His wonders to perform." 
 
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 425 
 
 Reminiscences of Dr. Brainerd. By Rev. E. W. Hutter, D.D. 
 [From the Lutheran Observer.] 
 
 "Among the most noted Philaclelpliia clerjicymenjthe last 
 twenty-five years, was Dr. Thomas Brainerd, of the 
 Pine Street (N. S.) Presbyterian Church. There are few 
 people in this city to whom he was not known, and by all 
 was he admired and esteemed as a gifted and eloquent 
 preacher, a laborious and self-denying pastor, a sincere 
 and steadfast friend, a true and devoted patriot, a genial, 
 kind-hearted, public-spirited Christian gentleman. Than he, 
 the Presbyterian Church never had a warmer or more 
 eflicient friend, and yet his denominational attachment 
 happily never dwarfed him into a bigot, nor circumscribed 
 his sympathies within the domain of a selfish and little- 
 minded sectarianism. Christians of all denominations 
 loved him, for he fraternized with all, loving his own 
 church none the less. Of the great Union Prayer- 
 meetings, held at Jayne's Hall, and other localities, of 
 blessed memory, his was long an accredited master-mind. 
 Often, when addressing these popular Christian assem- 
 blies, as he alone could address them, did his face shine, 
 like that of Moses after his descent from the Mount, with 
 the reflected glory of God, and yet ' he himself wist not 
 that it shone,' for he was as humble as he was great, and 
 only great because he was humble. We have never 
 known a wiser man — one whose speech was habitually 
 so characterized by soundest judgment, safest counsel, and 
 sweetest temper. Both in his method of thought and ex- 
 pression he was singularly original, evolving from his 
 well-stored mind new and striking ideas, when others 
 thought they had exhausted the subject. His originality, 
 too, was never feigned, but always natural as the blowing 
 of the wind or the sports of a little child. For more than 
 twenty years was it our privilege to share the doctor's 
 
426 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAIN ERD, D.D. 
 
 personal intimacy, and never did we prize human friend- 
 ship more, or more deeply mourn its severance by the 
 hand of Death. We have many of the doctor's quaint- 
 nesses stored away in memory. From them we cull at 
 random the following' : 
 
 " His View op Preaching. — On a Saturday afternoon 
 there came to his residence a young Presbyterian minister, 
 a graduate of Princeton, who had only recently been re- 
 ceived into the sacred office. Of course, the doctor in- 
 vited him to occupy his pulpit the next day, to which he 
 readily assented. 'And now, doctor,' asked the young 
 divine, 'on what subject do you desire me to preach?' 
 This was the doctor's reply : ' It is not my habit, when 
 another fills ni}^ pulpit, to prescribe to him how or what 
 he shall preach. But, as you have made the request, I 
 will tell you what I wish you to say. I wish you, to- 
 morrow morning, to tell my people that by nature they are 
 all sinner.-*, alienated from the life and love of God ; that 
 they all need daily to exercise repentance toward God and 
 faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; that they all need the re- 
 newing and sanctifying power of the Holy Ghost. Exhort 
 the brethren to be steadfast in the profession they have 
 made. Entreat the impenitent and unconverted to awake 
 out of their sleep, and flee for safety to Christ, before it be 
 forever too late. And if you are in need of a text, take 
 the words of Christ to Nicodemus : Except a man be born 
 again of wat^r and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the 
 kingdom of heaven.' 'But,' replied the young minister, 
 exhibiting signs of embarrassment, ' I am sorry to say, 
 doctor, I have no sermon on that subject.' ' Then,' con- 
 cluded the doctor, ' I recommend to you, forthwith, to pre- 
 pare one.' The young minister came to the Pine Street 
 Church next morning, discoursed ably and earnestly on 
 that very text, and on those identical themes, producing a 
 profound impression, and ever after thanked the doctor for 
 
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 427 
 
 having-, in his own pleasant and effective way, furnished 
 the key-note to his entire subsequent successful ministry. 
 How true the declaration of Solomon: 'A word fitly spoken 
 is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.' 
 
 " His Practical Benevolence. — During the war, on 
 a Sunday morning, there came to the Pine Street Church, 
 occupying one of the front pews, a soldier, who before 
 Charleston had lost bolh his oi-ms. The doctor had pre- 
 viously made his acquaintance at the Volunteer Refresh- 
 ment Saloon, and taken a deep interest in his history. 
 Without preconcert and quite unexpectedly to the armless 
 soldier, at the close of his sermon, the doctor called at- 
 tention to him ; quoted the words of St. James, ' He that 
 knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin ;' 
 and the words of Paul, ' As we have, therefore, oppor- 
 f unity, let us do good unto all men.' He requested his 
 friend, Major R., in whose pew the armless soldier was 
 sitting, to conduct him through the middle aisle to the 
 vestibule, and asked a few of the elders to occupy places 
 at the front doors, and receive donations for him, using 
 their hats as the places of deposit. In this impromptu 
 way over one hundred dollars were received, sufficient to 
 enable the brave ' Boy in Blue' to begin a newspaper-stand, 
 hire an assistant, and maintain himself comfortably. 
 
 " His Patriotism. — On a Thanksgiving Hay, during 
 the war, at the close of a delightful discourse, combining 
 fervent piety with purest patriotism, the doctor remarked, 
 ' Before I dismiss the audience, I have a request to make 
 of the choir, which is, that they will sing the Stat-- 
 spangled Banner, and if there be any one in the audi- 
 ence to whom it is an offense, he is at liberty now to 
 retire.^ The grand national anthem was performed by 
 the organist and choir with thrilling effect, the entire audi- 
 ence remaining, and rising to their feet. Let it not be 
 supposed that a solitary worshiper went away offended, 
 
428 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 for the doctor bad a way of saying and doing things 
 that nobody else has, and doing them with entire im- 
 punity." 
 
 A Tribute to Dr. Brainerd. 
 
 [From the Cincinnati Herald.] 
 
 "A few weeks ago, while visiting in Cincinnati, I re- 
 ceived a letter from a friend in Philadelphia, which in- 
 closed a withered leaf which had been plucked from Dr. 
 Brainerd's newly-raade grave. Since then it has been my 
 mournful privilege to visit this hallow^ed spot, and, as 
 there are not a few readers of the Herald who will also 
 prize a memento from this grave, I intrust to them a 
 simple memorial. 
 
 " The brief newspaper telegrams which announced the 
 death of Dr. Brainerd, from apoplex}', in Scranton, Pa., 
 August 22d, could give no particulars to distant friends of 
 the manner of his departure. It was a translation rather 
 than a death. He retired at 9 o'clock p.m. in usual health, 
 and shortly after slept ; at one o'clock a.m., as we com- 
 pute time, he awoke in heaven, having known neither 
 struggle nor pain in the awakening. Within three min- 
 utes from the time his loud breathing aroused his wife, 
 medical aid was at hand, but in vain ; the pulse was gone, 
 and his children, who hastened to his chamber to minister, 
 found themselves standing beside his inanimate clay. The 
 cheek rested upon his hand, which pressed the pillow in 
 ihe easy posture of slumber; but it was the slumber of 
 death. 
 
 "At nine o'clock the sapie morning his family set out for 
 Philadelphia wnth the remains. They were attended from 
 his daughter's residence to the depot by the clergymen of 
 Scranton, of whatever denomination, and by the leading 
 citizens of the town, w'ho came si)ontaneously in a body, 
 to proffer this final tribute to the coffined dead. 
 
PUBLIC AXD PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 429 
 
 "The following Saturday afternoon (Aufrust 25th) the 
 funeral took place in ' Old Pine Street Church,' the scene 
 of Dr. Brainerd's pastorate of thirty years. It is said 
 that, except the obsequies of Lincoln, so large a funeral 
 was never known in Philadelphia. Between six and seven 
 o'clock, amid the tears of the multitude, the body was 
 committed to a grave which had been prepared for it in 
 the church-yard, close to the eastern wall of the venerable 
 sanctuary. It was in a small lot inclosed by an iron rail- 
 ing, where already slept ' May, the pastor's daughter,' 
 and a son, who also died in childhood. The white tomb- 
 stones which have been accumulating in this somewhat 
 spacious church-yard for more than a century crowd each 
 other closely, suggesting the thought that in the ' church 
 triumphant' Pine Street Church far outnumbers the throng 
 of communicants which now people her pews. Dr. Brai- 
 nerd chose well his resting-place — where his people might 
 visit it, where the voices of children in the Sunday-school 
 might float above it, and sounds of the sanctuary in prayer, 
 in sermon, and in song, might hallow it until the resurrec- 
 tion morn. 
 
 " When I visited this grave, it had been closed six 
 weeks. It was covered with fresh flowers then, and had 
 been kept so, I was credibly informed, ever since the 
 funeral. Each Sabbath morning a fresh wreath of exqui- 
 site beauty had been laid upon it, and bouquets such as 
 only the resources of the Avealtby could command. But it 
 was tributes of another sort which kept up the freshness 
 through the week ; these were ofi'erings from his numberless 
 friends among the poor, who would slip quietly in as they 
 passed about their week-day work, and lay their single 
 flowers, bedewed with tears, upon the sod. 
 
 " His congregation constitute a great bereaved family. 
 The church and the Sunday-school rooms are still heavily 
 
 37 
 
430 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 draped, and in every service there is mention of the de- 
 parted. 
 
 " They have found much consolation in the remembrance 
 of Dr. Brainerd's last sermon in his own pulpit. This was 
 on Sabbath, July 8th, and was preached in anticipation of 
 his leaving, during the week, for his summer vacation. 
 The te.xt was Luke, xxiv. 29. 'Abide with us ; for it is 
 toward evening, and the day is far spent.' He remarked 
 that he left them each year with increasing pensiveness ; 
 soon the last parting must come, for with him the day of 
 life drew on toward its evening; but he said there was a 
 Friend who could abide with them, although he might 
 leave them ; and unto the keeping of that divine Friend 
 he committed them. 
 
 "A fortnight ago the Sunday-school of the church, to- 
 gether with the two mission-schools under their charge, 
 held their anniversary. Seven hundred children excluded 
 all spectators from the lower part of the audience room, 
 and their demeanor as sincere mourners was marked. 
 
 " The boys from the mission-schools all knew and loved 
 Dr. Brainerd from personal contact, and they distinguished 
 themselves by unparalleled good behavior in this house of 
 mourning. For a period extending over the entire life of 
 the principal superintendent and of most of the teachers, 
 Dr. B. had addressed them upon each anniversary occasion. 
 For the first time he Avas absent, and there seemed a great 
 void in the services, which tears alone could in any degree 
 fill. 
 
 " The climax of these commemorative services was 
 reached last Sabbath afternoon, when the house, with its 
 spacious galleries, was densely crowded to hear Rev. Mr. 
 Barnes's memorial sermon. This discourse was preached 
 by appointment of the Presbytery of Philadelphia. The 
 text was Daniel, xii., first and second verses. 
 
 " Words fail to adequately convey an idea of the sermon 
 
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 43 1 
 
 and the scene. The old walls which for thirty years had 
 given back the faithful pastor's well-remembered voice, 
 now resounded with the earnest, tremulous tones of his 
 dearest ministerial friend in sentences of discriminating 
 eulogy, and at length, in the agonized expression of his 
 own sense of personal bereavement. He had come to 
 weep with those who wept, and surely sympathy with the 
 living and affection for the dead were never more grace- 
 fully blended than in this eloquent tribute of Albert Barnes 
 to the memory of his quarter-century co-worker, Thomas 
 Brainerd. 
 
 " Dr. Brainerd will long be remembered as preacher, 
 patriot, and author, but longer still as pastor. He consti- 
 tuted the model pastor of our day. In his genial presence 
 there was ever light and life for the people of his flock. 
 He baptized the children, and, as they grew up, he watched 
 over them in the sanctuary and in the street, prayed with 
 and for them, and in due time was permitted to receive 
 numbers of them into the church of Christ. As soon as 
 qualified, he appointed each to his or her place in the 
 working corps of ' Old Pine Street Church,' and kept each 
 in place by his untiring vigilance ; thus it came to pass 
 that, although the fathers had fallen asleep, and leading 
 families were constantly removing up town, this old far 
 ' down town ' church at the time of his death was one of 
 the most efficient of our denomination in Philadelphia. 
 
 " Cincinnati's interest in this noble Christian life finds its 
 origin in these same pastoral qualifications, which in their 
 incipiency bore fair fruits in the old Fourth Church, which 
 still stands on the hill-side in the suburb of Fulton. This 
 church was feeble and poor — the congregation a mere 
 handful — and Dr. Brainerd was with them but two years. 
 Yet there are to-day, on the banks of the Ohio and else- 
 where, scores of men and women who are among the most 
 faithful workers in the Master's vineyard, who date their 
 
432 r^tFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 inspiration to the Fourth Church of Cincinnati and its 
 youthful pastor. Upon some of these he only laid his 
 hand in the rite of infant baptism, but through that sanc- 
 tified 'power of the individual ' which so characterized the 
 man, his influence ever followed these baptized children, 
 and was largely instrumental in leading them to Christ. 
 
 "He never forgot them. When he visited Cincinnati 
 the churches of the city rarely knew of his presence, but 
 he called upon each member of the old families within 
 reach, and never omitted to stand upon the steps of his 
 'first church,' and when access was possible, entered his 
 old pulpit for a few moments, the better to recall the past. 
 
 "This love for Cincinnati did not wane in his latest 
 years. Over the vicissitudes of Christ's kingdom there 
 his tears often fell, for through the Herald and otherwise 
 he kept himself in close sympathy with its life. Cincinnati 
 friends were welcomed to his fireside, and if of the Fourth 
 Church, he would sometimes get out a little old note-book 
 belonging to the early time, for the purpose of talking over 
 and inquiring after the people of long ago. Many of these 
 people upon whom he bestowed remembrance, were, when 
 he knew them, laborers in the rolling-mills and ship-yards 
 of Fulton, poor women who toiled by the day to support 
 their families, or young boys who worked for their scanty 
 bread. 
 
 " This Christ-like trait of preaching the gospel to the poor 
 was characteristic (although above most Christian minis- 
 ters, it had been his privilege to bless and to mould the 
 rich), and was as beautifully revealed in his last work as it 
 had been in the first. During his month in Scranton his 
 most enjoyed reci'eation was to go at noon-time and sit 
 with the miners when they came out from the pits to eat 
 their lunch. Going among them, he would inquire in his 
 pleasant way, whether there was not room on their plank 
 for another man to sit. They would crowd together and 
 
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 433 
 
 make room for him — and sitting among them be would 
 talk, while they ate, of their homes across the ocean, of 
 their families, their personal habits, and doubtless of the 
 better country, they, the while, not knowing who he was. 
 Leaving them when the signal for return to work was 
 sounded, they would call after him familiarly, expressing 
 in their rude speech the honest wish that he would come 
 again. 
 
 " From this humble service among the miners Dr. Bi'ai- 
 nerd, the beloved, passed to his rest and reward. 
 
 "R. L. B." 
 
 Dr. Brainerd. By Rev. Jam3s J. Marks, D.D. 
 
 "Earth is poorer and heaven is richer, for one of the 
 best and noblest of men is gone from us and is with God. 
 This morning, as my eye glanced over the dispatches in 
 one of our morning papers, it fell on the lines, ' Dr. 
 Thomas Brainerd, pastor of the Pine Street Church in 
 Philadelphia, is dead.' The paper dropped from my 
 hands, and the words burst from my heart, ' Oh, what a 
 loss ! what a light has gone out!' What a genial, broad- 
 minded, catholic-spirited man has gone from among us. 
 I had known Dr. Brainerd by reputation and his writings 
 for years — indeed, since 183Y ; and occasionally I had met 
 him in the General Assembly, but I had no intimate per- 
 sonal acquaintance until 1863, when our nation's struggle 
 brought me to his house. From this time our relations 
 were of the most friendly and intimate character. M}'" 
 relation to the army and various charitable associations 
 connected with the service, brought me frequently to Phil- 
 adelphia, and in his family I made my home; and every 
 hour I spent with him ended with but one regret — that I 
 had not known him sooner. I have gone with him to the 
 social and religious assemblies of the church, into the alleys 
 and remote streets of Philadelphia, where we addressed on 
 
 37* 
 
434 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 the sidewalks, in school-houses, and in churches, small 
 groups and large congregations of colored people, urging 
 them to avail themselves of the hour for their race and 
 their country. I have been with him on many visits to the 
 hospitals, where we endeavored to pour balm into the 
 wounds of our broken heroes. I have stood by bis side 
 in many gatherings of loyal men ; and, in the darkest 
 days of despair and gloom, he spoke such words of cheer, 
 of faith in God and the right, of courage, as rarely fall 
 from human lips, and sent forth thousands with brighter 
 eyes and spirits nerved for every sacrifice. In these years 
 of our great nation's travail and agony, the pastor of the 
 Pine Street Church was the leader of that noble host of 
 loyal men and women whose munificent charities and sac- 
 rifices for the army and country have won for Philadelphia 
 the gratitude of millions. Were the soldiers from other 
 States, hastening to the field of battle, to be met, warmed, 
 and cheered, Dr. Brainerd was your voice and hand. The 
 profound admiration that glowed in his words and face for 
 those who were willing to shed their blood and lay down 
 their lives for their country, the benedictions of his re. 
 ligion, the reverence felt by him for the poorest and 
 humblest man that followed the flag of his country, gave 
 dignity in the eyes of the soldier to his mission, and sent 
 him forth a more cheerful and courageous man.* Were 
 the wounded to be received and borne to the hospitals. 
 Dr. Brainerd was foremost among you, who, with bless- 
 ings and tears, prayers and sympathies, softened the 
 couches and relieved the anguish of the sufferers. Was 
 there an hour when all hearts stood still in fear, when a 
 mighty, crushing storm bewildered us all, there was one 
 among you who knew no fear, and whose head rose far 
 
 *' It was his custom to take off his hat to every loyal soldier he met, 
 during the war. 
 
PUBLIC AND rRIVATE TRIBUTES. 435 
 
 above the darkness of the tempest. Was there an hour of 
 great deliverance, when the power of the enemies of the 
 country was broken forever, and strong men wept in each 
 other's arms, and all rushed, as by a common impulse, 
 before the sacred shrine of American liberty, again, by 
 one consent, Dr. Brainerd expressed, in seer-like words, 
 your gratitude to God. In these scenes, I would one hour 
 most admire Dr. Brainerd's self-forgetfulness, his indiffer- 
 ence to fatigue; at another, I would most admire his 
 eloquence, his sympathy with man, and magnanimous 
 generosity. Another day I was most impressed with his 
 far-seeing wisdom and tact, his knowledge of men, and 
 power of silencing opposition and stimulating to enthu- 
 siasm the lukewarm and the wavering. 
 
 " In those years there was a marvelous growth in the 
 affections and spiritual being of Dr. Brainerd ; his trials 
 and sorrows, exertions and struggles, deepened his sym- 
 pathies with human nature, and made him love more 
 earnestly all true and good men. And whatever, like 
 broken shreds, had remained of human weaknesses, such 
 as ambition, self-seeking, the love of ease, the fear of man, 
 repugnancy to those of different o})inions and faith, were 
 all thrown off as unworthy of the man. 
 
 " Long before his departure from us the angels were 
 weaving above him his robes of light. 
 
 " Such a man ennobled our nature and increased our 
 gratitude to the gospel, which gives us the assurance that 
 we shall meet him again, and know him and love hiui for- 
 ever. 
 
 " Probably, there is reason for gratitude to God that in 
 the fullness of his usefulness, if not of his strength, he de- 
 parted from us. It is best that such a man should not 
 gradually retire from the thoughts and walks of those who 
 have revered and loved him. We will pray more earnestly 
 for his mantle, because we saw it hanging fully and grace- 
 
436 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 fully on the shoulders of one not creeping into silence, but 
 in the full glory of his ministry." 
 
 The Presbyterian of Philadelphia, says : 
 
 "Dr. Brainerd had a character of no common force. In 
 the pulpit and lecture-room he was an earnest, instructive, 
 and practical preacher ; and as a Presbyterian counselor, 
 he was always a ready and fluent speaker, as well as an 
 active and influential participator in church enterprises and 
 general works of benevolence. During the recent war he 
 was a firm and uncompromising supporter of the govern- 
 ment, and his voice often cheered our troops as they passed 
 through the city to the seat of war. He was a patriot 
 without disguise, and to no heart did the ultimate success 
 of our cause bring a livelier thrill of pleasure. In private 
 intercourse his manner was kind and genial, and to the 
 Philadelphia public he was well known for his zeal in a 
 good cause, and the ready devotion of bis best influence. 
 Now a chasm has been caused by his departure, which it 
 will not be easy to fill. So it is, humanly speaking; but 
 when one of God's servants has fulfilled his appointed 
 time, served his generation, and passed away, God has 
 inexhaustible resources from which to fill up the broken 
 ranks." 
 
 Dr. Brainerd' s Death and Funeral. 
 
 [From the Episcopalian.] 
 
 " In the full notice of the funeral of Dr. Brainerd, which 
 this paper contains, it was pleasant to find a mention of 
 the circumstance that the bell of St. Peter's Church, in the 
 immediate neighborhood of Dr. B.'s church and home, 
 tolled during the solemnity. It was a fitting token of re- 
 spect to a highly respected and distinguished minister of 
 the gospel, which compromised no principle of our own 
 
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 437 
 
 cburcli, and was calculated to win for it the esteem of those 
 who follow not us. 
 
 " In the list of clergy present from other denominations 
 and other cities, none of our own appears ; but this is 
 owing to the fact that many of our most prominent min- 
 isters were then absent, who would have been glad to 
 testify their appreciation of his character and services, and 
 thus to reciprocate the courtesies which Dr. B. and his 
 brethren have been careful to extend to us, when the lights 
 of our own church have been extinguished by death. 
 
 " The main feature of the funeral service, as recorded 
 in this notice, was the address of Kev. Albert Barnes, 
 who was, in fact, the chief mourner also, after Dr. B.'s 
 own family and flock. This address is described as a very 
 touching one, the lament of a David over his beloved Jon- 
 athan, and it is no small distinction that Mr. Barnes was 
 able to say of the deceased, that he had 'many other val- 
 uable friends, wise and greatly beloved, but none like Dr. 
 Brainerd.' 
 
 "Besides his pastoral labors, Dr. Brainerd deserves to 
 be remembered with special gratitude by all who rejoice 
 in the deliverance of our country from civil war. Valua- 
 ble to others and grateful to himself were his efforts in 
 behalf of the sick and wounded, the weary and friendless, 
 among the soldiers in our refreshment saloons and hos- 
 pitals. The writer has heard him relate affecting incidents, 
 showing the appreciation of his kindness and activities by 
 returned or recovered soldiers whom he afterward met in 
 his travels in other States and cities ; and heard him at 
 the same time lament that he could not go through the 
 trying scenes connected with such services, without a de- 
 gree of fatigue and exhaustion which surprised him. 
 Doubtless the excitement which he then passed through, 
 helped to undermine his strength. 
 
 ********* 
 
438 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 " He sleeps beside the old church where he ministered 
 so long, and in the midst of the heroic dead of his flock, 
 whose monument he helped to rear with tearful pride a 
 few weeks only before he was himself joined to their hon- 
 ored company. 
 
 "Let us rejoice to believe, that the country will not 
 need any more such efforts of sympathy as he was obliged 
 to put forth, and that he has gone to that better world 
 where neither national strife nor domestic bereavement 
 will ever again distress or injure him. " S." 
 
 By Rsv. T. K. Baeoher. 
 
 " Dr. Thomas Brainerd, for thirty years pastor of Pine 
 Street Presbyterian Church in Pliiladelphia, ceased from 
 his labor and entered into his rest on the 22d of August 
 last 
 
 " One of the earliest admirations of our boyhood, the very 
 first comforter of our manhood, the hospitable host of our 
 first Philadelphia home, our pastor in the first days of in- 
 telligent Christian hope, the promoter of our earliest Chris- 
 tian labor, our constant and well-beloved friend up to the 
 day of his release, was Dr. Brainerd. 
 
 "Though sixty years old when we saw him last, he 
 seemed to us a brother in close and sympathetic love. 
 Trundling through the streets on the crowded city cars, 
 we talked of slavery, of war, of Roman Catholics, of 
 schools, of old time controversies, and so gentle was his 
 ripe discourse that we thought of Jesus Christ, his master, 
 and gave thanks. 
 
 "He was a Presbyterian, and pastor of a very old and 
 influential church of that name, in Philadelphia — the home 
 and center of that denomination. All the honors and dis- 
 tinctions which that church can bestow, he long since had 
 most worthily received, honoring them by acceptance. A 
 trusted ecclesiastical counselor, chairman of many respon- 
 
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 439 
 
 sible church committees, and of necessity touched by all the 
 controversies of the past thirty-five eventful years, he never- 
 theless so bore himself that no man felt that he was a Pres- 
 byterian, so stronger was his influence as a Christian. We 
 loved him, and we love his church for his sake, and have 
 new love for Jesus Christ, and his doctrine, because he 
 has power to change a man into such a Christian. 
 
 " We were once a boy, and remember how hapjiy we 
 were when 'Brainerd ' (as father fondly called him) would 
 come in and tell stories of his mission work in F'ulton, a 
 suburb of Cincinnati. We remember him in the Sunday- 
 school, always welcome. We remember him, when as a 
 child we stood by an open grave to see a mother buried, 
 and were, after a childish sort, comforted because mother 
 was lying so near to Mrs. Brainerd. And here the curtain 
 falls, to rise again twelve years after, and show us our 
 pastor — who greeted us as a Christian, because we loved 
 and trusted Jesus Christ — even though we were ignorant 
 and unsettled as to all received orthodox doctrine. 
 
 " His boys and girls romped with us, and now they 
 are men and women. But he did not change. Years and 
 separation wrought no wavering in his love. The whirl- 
 wind of war did not blind his eyes, nor extirpate his 
 charity. His great church loved him and followed him. 
 His young men became middle aged and still reverenced 
 him. His children made homes of their own, but his 
 house was still the home. Infirmity came upon him and 
 critical peril of life, yet he sat in his pulpit and discoursed 
 of Jesus Christ. 
 
 " Dear friends, who read these words, you did not know 
 Dr. Brainerd. Perhaps you wonder that I thus write of 
 one to you a stranger. I cannot write of aught else, for 
 my 'exchanges ' all remind me of him, and I cannot write 
 till I have freed my heart of the delicious pain — of Chris- 
 tian sorrow. 
 
4i0 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D D. 
 
 " He fought the good fight, he finished his course, he kept 
 his faith. We will be followers of him as was he of Christ." 
 
 The family of Rev. Dr. Kennard sent to the American 
 Pi'eahylerian for republication, the report of Dr. Brainerd's 
 remarks at the funeral of Dr. Kennard, on the 28th of June, 
 1866, as "singularly applicable to himself;" making the 
 offering with considerate kindness to Dr. Brainerd's family, 
 as the expression of their Christian sympathy. 
 
 When the Anniversary Sermon before the " Brainerd 
 Society " of Lafayette College was published for the next 
 3'ear, 1867, President Cattell himself prepared an "Ap- 
 pendix," occupying eight pages, containing an epitome 
 of Dr. Brainerd's public life, and a summary of the preced- 
 ing testimonials. He said, " The admonitions given by 
 Dr. Brainerd only one year ago from the same pulpit, now 
 seemed invested with the solemnity of a voice from the 
 grave. Dr. Brainerd's sermon was listened to with delight 
 and profit by an eager and attentive audience; but none 
 thought that the occasion would ever after be recalled by 
 them with a yet deeper interest, from its being the laat 
 message this honored servant of Christ would deliver from 
 the pulpit." 
 
 Letter from Rev. Septimus Tustin, D.D., of Washington. 
 " During the exercises connected with the recent com- 
 mencement at Lafayette College, I sat with Dr. Brai- 
 nerd in the pulpit of the Brainerd Church at Easton, and 
 after listening to an admirable discourse, probably his 
 last, addressed to the young men of the Brainerd Society, 
 on the appropriate text, ' Let no man despise thy youth,' 
 I was requested by President Cattell to offer the conclud- 
 ing prayer of the service. I was thus brought into close 
 proximity with Dr. Brainerd, and was charmed with the 
 delightful spirit which he displa3^ed toward me at the 
 close of the service, in the interchange of Christian civili- 
 
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 44 1 
 
 ties, though not wearing an ecclesiai^tical rose of precisely 
 the same color, yet both aiming to bring about the blending 
 into one of those roses whose united fragrance, I doubt not, 
 will fill the Church militant and the Church triumphant 
 with joy and gladness. May we not reasonably suppose 
 that, as he looks down from the portals of light and love 
 upon the discordant elements which still exist in the 
 church bought with the Saviour's blood, he is disposed 
 to chide our hesitancy and tardiness in bringing about this 
 delightful consummation ? I confess, my dear brother, 
 that the nearer I approach to the termination of my earthly 
 probation, now not far distant, the more my soul pants to 
 witness the reunion (to change my illustration to one, per- 
 haps, more appropriate) of these bleeding members of the 
 Redeemer's mutilated body ; and when that shall have been 
 accomplished, I trust that, through abounding mercy to 
 the chief of sinners, I may at least be ready, if not willing 
 or anxious to say, with good old Simeon, with the Eojje of 
 Salvation, not only in his trembling arms, but in his joyful 
 heart, ' Now, Lord, lettest thou thy servant depart in 
 peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.' I believe 
 there are scores and thousands of Simeons and Annas 
 throughout the bounds of both branches of our beloved 
 Zion who are looking forward to such an event with emo- 
 tions too deep for utterance. 
 
 "'How long, dear Saviour, 0, how long 
 Shall that bright hour delay; 
 Fly swiftly round, ye wheels of time, 
 And bring the welcome day.' 
 
 "Sbptkmbkr 1,3th, 1866." 
 
 38 
 
442 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 Extract of Letter from Rev. George Duffield, of Galesburg, 111., 
 Sept. 18th, 1866. 
 
 " I)r. Brainerd is gone, a friend from whom I parted 
 more unwillingly and with a greater sense of sacrifice than 
 any other ministerial friend in Philadelphia. One of his 
 peculiarities, you remember, was to cultivate the society 
 of 3'ounger brethren in the ministry; and how much we 
 enjo3'ed such intercourse in the Union Prayer-meetings, 
 the Monday morning meeting, at Presbytery and Synod, 
 I need not say. Never shall I forget a day that I once 
 spent with him (after the meeting of Synod at William.s- 
 port) in a trip along the West Branch of the Susquelianna. 
 The mountain and river scenery seemed to make him 
 almost wild with delight; and as from time to time he 
 sketched so vividly the leading incidents of his life, and 
 especially the manner in which he was weaned from the 
 law and led into the ministry, it was rare enjoyment indeed. 
 But the place, of all others, in which he seemed to be the 
 most at home, was in the editor's room, and anything of 
 importance that escaped Ma notice in the exchanges, was 
 a marked exception to the general rule. The last time I 
 saw him was on his old horse in Chestnut Street; and that 
 little curbstone conversation, short as it was, showed as 
 much of the fire of 1Y76 as ever. His record, also, as one 
 of the fathers of 1837, will prove a most instructive one, 
 and sincerely do we hope that the falling mantle will not 
 be lost in the wilderness. As there are engineers in the 
 army, and statesmen in the nation, so there are engineers 
 and statesmen in the church, and in that number Dr. 
 Brainerd ranks primus iiiter pares." 
 
 A correspondent of the Boston Recorder says : 
 
 " The writer attended service at Dr. Brainerd's church 
 some months ago, and while waiting in the porch for the 
 
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 443 
 
 sexton, the doctor entered. Stepping up, he inquired if he 
 was a stranger, his name, and what church he usually at- 
 tended, and then turning to a gentleman, \vho with his 
 family was entering the church, said, ' Here, Brother 
 
 , please give this stranger a seat in your pew this 
 
 morning.' This rare act of courtesy from a pastor was 
 not unusual with him. And it was his custom after 
 service, to speak to strangers whom he had noticed in the 
 congregation." 
 
 Reminiscence of the late Rev. Dr. Brainerd. 
 
 " Several years since a young man came from a distant 
 city to Philadelphia, au entire stranger, having not one 
 acquaintance in all the multitude of its vast population. 
 He had only a few letters of introduction and a new-born 
 Christian's ardent faith in God, to enable him to find the 
 business success he came to seek. One of these letters 
 introduced him to the pastor of Pine Street Church, the 
 late Dr. Brainerd, and was given, as the writer told the 
 bearer, because Dr. B. took an especial interest in young 
 men. Soon after his arrival he called upon Dr. B., and 
 met him at the door of his home, as he was leaving to 
 fulfill a public engagement. He was cordially invited to 
 call in the evening, and did so ; was most kindly received, 
 and made a frank avowal of his plans and hopes. Dr. 
 Brainerd listened with much interest, and advised the 
 young man to leave the Girard House, where he was stop- 
 ping, for a less expensive boarding-place; and that very 
 evening went out among his people, secured a very pleas- 
 ant home, and introduced him to it. As he left him, Dr. 
 B. invited him to take tea with him the next evening, and 
 to attend his church prayer-meeting, both of which invita- 
 tions were accepted. During the evening meeting, most 
 unexpectedly to his young friend, Dr. B. stated that he 
 had lately received a letter from an old acquaintance, con- 
 
444 I^IFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAIN ERD, D.D. 
 
 fiding to his care a young man, an entire stranger, who 
 had come to the city to enter upon a business life, and 
 after a few kind remarks, called upon the young man to 
 give some account of the religious interest in the place 
 from which he had just come. At the close of the prayer- 
 rneeting Dr. B. requested the young men present to re- 
 main, and the stranger was introduced to them. This 
 kind and eminently Christian reception seemed to open 
 wide the doors of the City of Brotherly Love to the young 
 man, and he felt that God had indeed heard the prayers at 
 the altar of home, that the son might be befriended when 
 away from its shelter ; and a course of Christian activity 
 and enjoyment was entered which proved rich with price- 
 less blessings. In many ways these Christian courtesies 
 were repeated, and this pastor proved a far more valuable 
 friend than all the others to whom the young man brought 
 letters of introduction. 
 
 " While under Dr. B.'s pastoral care, he decided to study 
 for the ministry, and has been for some years a preacher 
 of the gospel. No one who has not been in like circum- 
 stances can fully appreciate the worth of such a reception 
 and introduction, and among the memories treasured by 
 that pastor, few are more fragrant than those of this noble- 
 hearted Christian minister ; and few incidents of his life 
 bring such tides of grateful feeling as that warm-hearted 
 sympathy and peculiarly kind attention, when he moved 
 a stranger amid an unknown multitude. No doubt this 
 was but one of many such noble deeds in the life of that 
 sainted laborer, now gone to his reward, and this sketch is 
 brought as a single sweet flower to be laid upon his tomb, 
 — the offering of a thankful and loving heart, — which may 
 bring something of pleasure also to the bereaved ones who 
 still look from the earthly shore, through tearful vision, 
 to the heavenly city, where they shall yet see him in 
 glory, "G RAT us." 
 
rUBLTC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 445 
 
 The American Guardian, published in Boston and 
 Philadelphia, contains the following paragraph : 
 
 death's doings in PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 " Three very prominent men of this city have closed 
 their earthly labors and entered into their rest. The Rev. 
 Dr. Kennard, of the Baptist denomination, Rev. Dr. Brai- 
 nerd, of the New School Presbyterian Church, and Mat- 
 thias W. Baldwin, also of the New School Presbyterians. 
 
 " Dr. Brainerd was called away suddenly. He had been 
 the faithful pastor of the ' Old Pine Street Church' for thirty 
 years. Few, perhaps none, of the churches in the old 
 part of the city, so mingled with its business portion, has 
 been as well sustained as this. Dr. Bi'ainerd was always 
 engaged in the Master's service. He has gone, but his 
 works remain." 
 
 The Rev. Henry H. Jessup, missionary in Syria, writes: 
 
 " I have learned with sincere sorrow of the death of 
 two of your noblest Christian-citizens, Dr. Brainerd and 
 M. W. Baldwin. 
 
 " The slight acquaintance I had with Dr. Brainerd led 
 me to respect and love him. The church of Christ has 
 too few of such men." 
 
 Extended notices of Dr. Brainerd's death were repub- 
 lished in England, in The Patriot, The ChTistian World, 
 The Wesley an Times, and The Christian Witness. These 
 all contained large extracts from Mr. Barnes' memorial 
 sermon, extending through one and two columns. They 
 were headed by an introduction from Rev. James W. 
 Massie, D.D., and were probably due to the friendship 
 originating in Dr. Massie's visit to the United States in 
 1863. 
 
 He savs : " I have received from a minister at Philadel- 
 
446 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 phia information of Dr. Thomas Brainerd's sudden re- 
 moval from earthly scenes. All who knew Dr. Brainerd 
 will remember his excellencies and pastoral reputation 
 with affectionate regard, and mourn the loss his church 
 and family have sustained. 
 
 " The Rev. Albert Barnes pronounced the eulogy at his 
 interment, and your readers will welcome a few para- 
 graphs of what he delivered. I venture to make the 
 selection for your columns, believing they may prove 
 serviceable for the living, as well as tributary to the 
 memory of the dead. " James W. Massie. 
 
 "Oct. 1st, 1866." 
 
 The above papers were forwarded by Dr. Massie to the 
 family of Dr. Brainerd. 
 
 PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY CONSENT. 
 
 From Rsv. John McLeod. 
 
 * * * * * <' I have seen enough in the 
 doctor's doings, and heard enough of his words of wis- 
 dom, to fill many pages, if all could but be called up 
 again. But while the words and deeds have, in a great 
 measm-e, passed away, the general impressions of his 
 character, which they formed, are fixed very definitely 
 and deeply in my mind. 
 
 "Among the things that most deeply impi'essed me 
 were his love of laboring among, and his deep sympathy 
 for the poor, in contrast with those who, having abilities 
 like his, wish to he found mostly among the rich. So, 
 
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 447 
 
 too, I was always struck with his love for all practical 
 workers in doing good ; with his contempt, if I may use 
 that word, for all ambitious preaching, no matter how elo- 
 quent or ingenious, that displayed the preacher rather 
 than the Master, and lacked the aim of saving souls. So, 
 too, his forgiving spirit; and while ready, when he thought 
 it needful, to give a sharp rebuke, just as ready to take 
 one in a truly Christian spirit. He was broad in all his 
 views and sympathies; in judging of people, always look- 
 ing beyond their words and actions to their meaning, and 
 estimating them, as the Bible does, by that. So also his 
 remarkable love for all Christians without reference to 
 their name. 
 
 " If I cherish myself, in any measure, the sentiments 
 above, and if my ministry has been in any way practical, 
 it has l)een owing much to the example and influence of 
 Dr. Brainerd. 
 
 "I shall never forget several very pleasant rides on 
 horseback I had with the doctor, in one of my vacations 
 while at Montreal. In one of our rides I happened to 
 have a fine-looking horse, but very hard in the mouth and 
 very difficult to hold in, and needing constant watching. 
 The doctor was on ' Old Mike,' where all went easy and 
 smooth. Looking over at me in my effort to keep my fiery 
 steed in his place, he said, ' Ah, we just represent the two 
 classes in the world ; I have all the comfort and you have 
 all the shovj." 
 
 From Rev, Charles Brown. 
 
 "Dr. Brainerd long retained a grateful sense of favors 
 conferred. In 1840, when his spirits were much depressed 
 by the feeble condition of his body, I furnished him, from 
 my diary, an account of my own sufferings when in a 
 similar condition, and of my subsequent recovei'y. This 
 
448 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 had so happy an effect upon his feelings that for ten years 
 after we would seldom meet in our weekly associations 
 without reference on his part to the benefit he had derived 
 from my communication. And so late as the year 18G5, 
 in conversing with my wife, he remarked, ' I was much in- 
 debted to your husband, twenty-five years ago, for the 
 comfort he then afforded me in the season of my despond- 
 ency, occasioned by the loss of health.' 
 
 " On a certain occasion, when several gentlemen were 
 discussing the question, how errors in doctrine and prac- 
 tice could best be counteracted, he gave it as his opinion 
 that, 'when you are in the majority, vote; but when you 
 are in the minority, deal in argument.'' 
 
 "A clergyman having recently preached from Acts, xvi. 
 30, ' Sirs, what must I do to be saved ?' mentioned to the 
 doctor the outlines of his sermon. The doctor, by way of 
 improvement, said, ' It would be well, in applying that 
 subject to the case of an inquiring sinner, to ask him what 
 he is willing to do in order to secure the salvation of his 
 soul,' 
 
 "On another occasion, when somebody was presenting 
 rather crude views on the subject of making sermons, the 
 doctor observed, ' It does not necessarily follow that a ser- 
 mon is good merely because it is divided under three or 
 four heads, and has a few verses of poetry hung on the 
 end of it.'' 
 
 " Dr. Brainerd's wit was sometimes very keen, and sub- 
 jects of it were made to smart. On one occasion I was 
 made to feel it. But as the joke was so apropos I cannot 
 refrain from mentioning it, though it be at my own ex- 
 pense. It occurred in the presence of a large number of 
 clergymen, one of whom was a colored man, but for the 
 moment I had forgotten that he was in the room. The 
 subject under discussion was the duty of ministers to be 
 diligent in the exercise of their preaching talents. When 
 
PUBLIC AXD PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 449 
 
 my turn came to speak, I remarked that I ever made it a 
 point to preach as God gave me ability and opportunity ; 
 and that rather than be silent on the Sabbath-day, I would 
 go and preach to a black congregation. This sounded a 
 little like condescension on my part, and the doctor kept 
 his eye on the expression. After several other persons 
 had followed me, the turn came for the colored minister to 
 speak, and he proceeded to express his views in a modest 
 Avay, saying that he felt the importance of improving the 
 opportunities of preaching the gospel to men. The doctor's 
 chance had now come, so he interposed by asking the 
 
 speaker, ' Brother , would you not be willing to 
 
 preach to white people rather than not preach at all ?' 
 The merriment that followed can be imagined ; yet I 
 sincerely joined in the laugh, because it was one of 
 the finest specimens of pure wit that I have ever wit- 
 nessed. 
 
 "Many years ago, when a new Presbyterian church 
 was projected in Philadelphia, Dr. Brainerd was spoken 
 to on the expediency of sending some of the members of 
 his church into the enterprise. The persons who pro- 
 posed the measure ventured to name several of the more 
 prominent families connected with the doctor's congrega- 
 tion as those whose presence and influence were very de- 
 sirable for the new undertaking. The doctor admitted 
 that it was reasonable to expect that he should consent to 
 some of his members going into the enterprise, yet he did 
 not quite like the idea of dividing his church 'horizonlaJli/ 
 to accomplish the thing.' From this remark it would 
 seem that, in adding to the roll of a new church, the 
 doctor did not fancy the idea of exscinding from his own 
 its tallest members." 
 
 39 
 
450 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 From Rev. Theron Baldwin. 
 
 "New York, Dee. 10th, 1866. 
 
 " In common with the very large circle of friends of 
 Dr. Brainerd, I was greatly pained to see the notice of 
 his death in the newspapers, and with his that of his 
 grandchildren. Nothing could have been more unex- 
 pected. But he who 'doeth all things well' knows when 
 to take his children home ; and, for reasons best known to 
 himself, the time chosen is often, not to say generally, the 
 one which we should never have selected. * * * 
 
 " You have exceeding consolation in your sore bereave- 
 ment in the character and work of the departed, as these 
 appear on the great field of benevolent and Christian 
 effort, where he was so constant and untiring and success- 
 ful, and from every part of which have been coming to 
 you such expressions of sympathy, and such testimonials 
 as to the estimation in which Dr. Brainerd was held, as 
 must have been exceedingly grateful. Were I to give my 
 individual views, they would be but a repetition of what 
 has been said from so many sources. 
 
 " My first acquaintance with him, formed on the great 
 Western field, soon ripened into a warm friendship that 
 knew no subsequent interruption, and our intercourse here 
 at the East only strengthened the bonds then formed. 
 There was something about him so frank and genial that 
 one could not well come into his presence without feeling 
 at once the attracting power of his high social qualities, 
 that made his company a pleasure. These qualities ever 
 came into full development in our unrestrained intercourse, 
 especially under his own roof, and when (as we generally 
 were) wc were upon that great theme which fired our 
 hearts alike, — the educational and religious interests of 
 the West. 
 
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 451 
 
 " lie lived in a g-lorioiis period — occupied fields West 
 and East, wide and various, and adapted to call forth all 
 his intellectual, moral, and social power. God owned his 
 labors and helped him to do a blessed work, and then 
 took him in the full maturity of his powers, in the high 
 tide of usefulness, in the very hour of triumph. 
 
 " His whole life speaks, and here is your precious con- 
 solation. 
 
 " In my report to the Directors of the College Society 
 on Lincoln University, I incorporated the larger portion of 
 a letter written by Dr. Brainerd, in wiiich he strongly ad- 
 vocated the claims of that institution, and which was 
 strongly influential with the Board. The vote was unani- 
 mous to aid the university." 
 
 **** * **** 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM PRIVATE LETTERS. 
 
 From Mrs. Lyman Beecher. 
 
 "Sept. 7th, 1866. 
 
 *****" My past associations with 
 Dr. Brainerd, and the strong afiection cherished for him 
 by my late husband, which was that of a father for a son 
 beloved, had produced a very warm attachment. His 
 death, in connection with that of his two grandchildren, 
 was a most touching event ; and my heart is deeply 
 moved for both yourself and daughter in this sorrow. 
 My husband used to say, in regard to the death of chil- 
 dren, ' Jesus Christ has taken them acrosa lots, that he may 
 
452 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 educate them, and that they should not travel through 
 this wilderness world !' " * * * * * 
 
 From Jolin Gaul, Esq. 
 
 * * * * * " It was my pleasure to form 
 the acquaintance of Dr. Brainerd during the session of the 
 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, at Pitts- 
 burg, in 1860. Brought into daily intercourse with him 
 in the meetings of the body, I was charmed with the 
 brightness of his intellect, the readiness and facility with 
 which he entered into the dispatch of the business which 
 claimed his attention, and with the genial, kind, and 
 attractive deportment manifested by him upon all occa- 
 sions. 
 
 "I learned not only to respect and admire him as a 
 Christian gentleman, but to love him; and I feel that in 
 his death I have lost a dear and valued friend. 
 
 " Hudson, Sept. 8th, 18G6." 
 
 In a note from Rev. George Leeds, Rector of St. 
 Peter's Church, he says: 
 
 "I have always entertained a sincere respect for Dr. 
 Brainerd. His uniform courtesy and kindness drew me 
 toward him, though I had never the pleasure of his inti- 
 mate acquaintance. His interest in our venerable parish 
 cliurch was a bond of friendship between his and many 
 hearts. 
 
 " I regretted much that I was not able to be present at 
 the funeral solemnities on Saturday, the press about the 
 doors not allowing me to enter. I was by the grave, 
 however, to join in the last sad offices ; and I felt it was 
 fitting as well as soothing then that the familiar sounds of 
 the neighboring bell should fall on the ear of the living, 
 
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE TRIBUTES. 453 
 
 and over his resting-place, as he was about to disappear 
 from their sight in the shadows of death. 
 
 " It is a mysterious Providence which cuts down man- 
 hood in its usefuhiess and children in the hour of promise ; 
 but it is a mystery over Avhich we hear the words, 'What 
 I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know here- 
 after.' 
 
 "Aug 30th, 1866." 
 
 From Rev. T. S. Janeway, DD. 
 
 [To Rev. Albert Barnes.] 
 
 "Aug. 24th, 1866. 
 
 " I am greatly distressed to read in the papers the death 
 of Dr. Brainerd. I greatly admired Dr. Brainerd ; his 
 whole character and great usefulness in God's church 
 drew me toward him ; and, though our intercourse was 
 not frequent, 1 esteemed him as a man of God and a 
 fellow-worker in his service. Your section of the church 
 will feel his loss. 'Help, Lord,'' etc. I could not resist 
 the desire to say a few words — and to you. May God 
 raise up Elishas when Elijah is taken ! 
 
 " You will be kind enough to convey to your brethren 
 of your Presbytery my sympatbies." 
 
 From Rev. T. W. J. Wylie, D.D. 
 
 [Aecompanj'ing a photograph picture of the Presbyterian Union 
 Convention, held in his church, November 6th, 1867.] 
 
 Speaking of the " Convention," Dr. Wylie says : 
 
 " How much it is to be regretted that Dr. Brainerd was 
 not present. His heart would have sympathized thoroughly 
 with the proceedings of the Convention. But in his seat 
 in glory I doubt not he is aware of what has transpired, 
 and rejoices in it. Nor can it be wrong to suppose that 
 
454 LIFE OF REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D.D. 
 
 his prayers may arise with those of 'souls under the altar,' 
 that the people of God may be united in holy fellowship, 
 so that the world may know that Jesus has been sent by 
 God to be the Saviour of mankind. 
 
 " Feby. 4th, 1868." 
 
 From Alexander Whilldin, Esq. 
 
 "Switzerland, Sept. IGth, ]86fi. 
 
 " What a load of sadness filled our hearts on receipt of 
 our last letters and papers from home, announcing- the 
 death of Dr. Brainerd! I have thought of him a thou- 
 sand times since I bade him good-by. Can it be that my 
 dearest earthly friend is gone ? he ' with whom I took 
 sweet counsel, and so often walked to the house of God in 
 company!' No man lives whose mind was so entirely in 
 accord with my own ; and, in the conflict and troubles of 
 life, I am confident we w^ere often mutually consoled by 
 imparting to each other the burdens that oppressed our 
 spirits, wiiether such burdens related to the church, our 
 country, or ourselves. It was always a great treat to me 
 to be in his company. I valued his friendship beyond all 
 price ; and at my time of life, I feel that my loss is irrep- 
 arable, lie was a man after my own heart, and I can 
 think of nothing but my loss. 
 
 *****" From our stand-point we 
 should say he could not be spared by the church and the 
 world ; but let us rather bless God for the great work he 
 has been enabled to do, and that the world is so much 
 better for his having lived in it. 
 
 "My old friend seems a part of my very self; our 
 friendship never waned for an hour during the past thirty 
 years ; and his memory is woven through my life and em- 
 balmed in mv heart of hearts." 
 
PUBLIC AND rilTVATE TRIBUTES. 455 
 
 By one of those pleasant accidents which frequently 
 occur to trav^elers in a foreign country, Mr. Wliilldin, 
 while in Europe, met the family of Lyman II. Lyon, 
 Esq., of Lewis County, New York — friends of Mr. Brai- 
 nerd's from early youth. 
 
 Their mutual acquaintance with, and love for Mr. 
 Brainerd, became a bond of fellowship between the two 
 families, and they together visited Egypt and Palestine. 
 
 After returning home, Mrs. Lyman R. Lyon writes: 
 
 " It is among our most ])leasant remembrances and 
 associations that w^e became acquainted with Mr. and 
 Mrs. Alexander Whilldin, and were fellow-travelers 
 through the Holy Land. 
 
 " I would like to describe our last Sabbath in Palestine. 
 Mr. Whilldin had received the memorial sermon of Mr. 
 Barnes on the death of Dr. Brainerd. lie read it aloud 
 to our party, assembled in a circle around him. Mr. 
 Whilldin's voice was often choked with emotion. Mr. 
 Lyon listened earnestly, while the tears flowed down his 
 cheeks.* We had prayers and singing; it was A Sab- 
 bath NOT TO BE forgotten!" * * * * 
 
 The affection for the dead and the living, which 
 prompted these heart-felt tributes, will forgive the liberty 
 of recording them here. 
 
 * Mr. L. R. Lyon died April 7th, 1869. 
 
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