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J UD SON'S MEMOIR, 
 
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O.Pelton. 
 
MEMOIR 
 
 EVER TON JUDSON, 
 
 BY 
 
 & & 
 
 E. P. BARROWS, Jr 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY CROCKER AND BREWSTER; 
 
 47, Washington-street. 
 
 1852, 
 
.«.«*»»! 
 
 ■J2B3 
 
 WASHINOTOK] 
 
 Entered according to an Act of Congress, in the year 1S52, 
 
 BY C. L. LATIMER, 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The materials for the following Memoir were 
 mostly collected by the author in the summers 
 of 1849 and 1850, during the brief intervals of 
 leisure then enjoyed by him. But the pressure 
 of his official labors has prevented him from ar- 
 ranging them in a proper form for publication 
 before the present year. To the numerous friends 
 of Mr. Judson who have contributed, partly by 
 epistolary correspondence, but principally by per- 
 sonal interviews, to complete the portraiture, he 
 tenders his sincere thanks; and he ventures to 
 hope that his statements of facts will be found 
 to be, by their aid, in all important particulars; 
 accurate. Few understand the amount of labor 
 necessary to exclude errors from even a brief nar- 
 rative ; and some of these, in respect to minor 
 points, may have found their way into the fol- 
 
6 PREFACE. 
 
 lowing pages. But the author is firm in the be- 
 lief that the Memoir will be found to be, in the 
 whole, what he has aimed to make it, historic, 
 and not ideal: and he now commits it to the 
 public with the hope and prayer that it may con- 
 tribute to perpetuate not the memory alone, but 
 (which is the chief thing) the usefulness of his 
 much lamented friend. 
 
 Sept. 1, 1852. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Introduction ...... 13 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Mr. Jtidsoii's youth and conversion. — His parentage — his pater- 
 nal and maternal grand-fathers — his parents — anecdote of his 
 mother in New York Evangelist — traits of his youthful char- 
 acter — his conversion and activity in religious meetings — 
 teaches a school in Sherman, Ct. — notice of his school by one 
 who attended it 19 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 His preparation for the ministry, including his collegiate and the- 
 ological course. — Turns his thoughts to the work of the minis- 
 try — his doubts respecting his qualifications for that office — 
 hurried and imperfect preparation for College — character and 
 standing in College — extreme diffidence and retiring habits in 
 College, and in the Theological Seminary — religious activity 
 in both — efforts for the colored population of New Haven — 
 holds religious meetings in the vicinity of New Haven — notice 
 ofoneofth«se 28 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 His licensure and Sabbath School agency. — Receives licensure 
 at the close of his second year in theology — general interest at 
 this time in behalf of the West— offers his services in connec- 
 
O CONTENTS. 
 
 tion with Mr. Barber to the Amerinan Sunday School Union — 
 letter to his father in reference to this step — the two friends 
 repair to Philadelphia to receive their commission and outfit — 
 Southern Ohio assigned as their field of labor — their first plan 
 of operation — Mr. Judson's account of his first reception in 
 Ohio — they adopt a new plan of labor — its efficiency and suc- 
 cessful results — Mr. Judson is laid aside by sickness — returns 
 to Woodbury in feeble health — depression of spirits — remarka- 
 ble incident connected with this 38 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 His location in Milan, with an account of his labors in Berlin. — 
 Offers himself to the American Home Missionary Society — 
 is assigned to Marion County, Ohio — providential events that 
 guided him to Milan — influences that repelled him from Ma- 
 rion county — correspondence with Mr. Barber on the subject 
 — sickness in Milan — decides to remain in Milan — preaches 
 every third Sabbath in Berlin. 
 
 Notice of the Congregational Church in that place — success 
 of his labors in Berlin — his account of the Sabbath school 
 there — erection of a new house of worship — his liberality on 
 this occasion — discontinues his labors in Berlin — solicitude for 
 the Church in that place 49 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 His labors in Milan till the Fall of 1831, with a notice of the part 
 he bore in protracted meetings. — Notice of the Congregational 
 Church in Milan — its organization at Spears' Corners — form 
 of government changed to Presbyterian in 1S25 — changed 
 back to Congregational in 1S30— Mr Judson's first discourse 
 in Milan — ardor with which he commenced his work — 
 abundance of his labors — fresh attack of the ague — revival 
 in 1830 and 1831— extracts from his reports in the Home 
 Missionary. 
 
 Notice of his labors in protracted meetings — change of his 
 views in regard to " new measures " — engages with Mr. Con- 
 ger in protracted meetings— extent of his labors — discontinues 
 them — reasons of this discontinuance — how he fell into the 
 habit of preaching unwritten sermons 62 
 
CONTENTS. 9 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Continuation of his labors in Milan till the close of the year 1836. 
 — Plans the Huron Institute — letter to Mr. Barber on this sub- 
 ject — the Institute located at Milan — superintends the erection 
 of the edifice — Mr. Barber removes to Milan — his congrega- 
 tion commence worshiping in the Institute — revival of 1S33 — 
 notice of this in Matheson and Reed's Visit to the American 
 Churches — Mr. Judson's marriage — plan for a new house of 
 worship — part Mr. Judson bore in this enterprise, with remarks 
 on the same — the congregation remove to the basement of the 
 Church — protracted meeting — results — remarks on these re- 
 sults — effect on Mr. Judson's views. 75 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 From the beginning of 1837 to the close of his public labors in 
 December 1847. — Dedication of the new Church — Mr. Judson 
 returns to written sermons — gives increased attention to read- 
 ing — enlarges the range of his pulpit themes — is installed as 
 pastor of the Congregational Church in Milan — previous views 
 on the subject of installation — effect of these various changes 
 on his pulpit ministrations — introduces Bible classes — his care- 
 ful preparation for these — courses of sermons — extent of his 
 labors during this period — seasons of special religious interest 
 — in 1839 and 40 — in 1846 — his own account of the progress of 
 his Church. 
 
 Notice of his connection with Western Reserve College — 
 elected a Trustee of the College in 1842 — declines a perma- 
 nent agency for the College — reasons — takes a temporary 
 agency — results. 91 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Review of his public life. — General remarks. .... 103 
 
 Section 1. — Mr. Judson as a preacher. — Remarks on his two- 
 fold change, from written to unwritten discourses, and from 
 unwritten to written— the general question of the comparative 
 advantages of written and unwritten sermons considered — 
 simplicity and transparency of his style— its animated and 
 graphic character— sarcasm— habit of introducing into his dis- 
 courses the results of his reading — simplicity in the arrange- 
 
10 CONTENTS. 
 
 ment of his sermons — dislike of expository discourses — variety 
 of topics— extracts from his article in the Biblical Repository 
 on this subject — peculiar habit of preparing sermons — disas- 
 trous result of this — length of his discourses — views in the- 
 ology . . . . . . . . 104 
 
 Section 2. — Mr. Judson as a pastor.— His excellence in this 
 respect connected with the steady growth of his Church — 
 his whole-hearted devotion to the pastoral work — watchful 
 care of his flock — intimate knowledge of his people — habit in 
 respect to absentees from his Church — watchfulness in respect 
 to strangers — visitations — his caution to pastors in this respect 
 — ability to discern and forestall rising trouble — his sound 
 judgment and fertility of resources — tact in approaching men 
 of all classes — first point of contact with the irreligious — assi- 
 duity in visiting the sick — great success in improving afflic- 
 tions — his views on this point — indirect way of encountering 
 error — care in respect to the reading of his congregation — 
 high sense of his rights as a pastor — treatment of intruders — 
 paramount influence in his parish — care to consult the leading 
 men of his congregation — seasons of depression — unhappy in- 
 fluence of these 132 
 
 Section 3 — Mr. Judson in ecclesiastical meetings. — His public 
 spirit — great influence in ecclesiastical meetings — testimony 
 on this point — his caution in respect to points which he wished 
 to carry — impetuosity towards opponents — his relation to the 
 Ministers' meeting — views of Church polity. .... 156 
 
 Section 4. — His efforts for the young. — His way of addressing 
 the young— solicitude to interest them in religious services — 
 efforts to bring young men into the Huron Institute with a 
 view to their preparation for the ministry — his fatherly interest 
 in such — it followed them through their whole course of study 
 — testimony on this point — children of others received into his 
 family— his mode of repelling undue familiarity — review of his 
 labors for Western Reserve College 161 
 
 Section 5. — His position in regard to questions of reform. — 
 His decided stand on the temperance question — sympathy for 
 the colored population — joins the Huron County Anti-Slavery 
 Society — leaves it when it takes a political aspect — his position 
 in this respect — in questions of reform looks at realities — 
 anecdote ISO 
 
CONTENTS. 11 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 His last sickness and death. — General view of his health — symp- 
 toms of apoplexy begin to appear — does not relax his labors- 
 extra service in Cleveland — severe effort upon his return to 
 Milan — the attaek of apoplexy — 6ets out on a journey to the 
 Eastern States — sudden and entire change of symptoms — his 
 letter from Green's Farms — proseeutes his journey without 
 benefit — returns to Milan — his disease assumes its final form. 
 
 The closing scene — general view of his last hours — spirit 
 with which he bore his sufferings — his own reflections on his 
 ministry — composure in prospect of death — parting intercourse 
 with his people — his dying messages — exhorts his ministerial 
 brethren to increased earnestness — solieitude respecting a suc- 
 cessor — his death 184 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 General estimate ef his character. — The elements ©f a strong 
 character considered — Mr. Judson possessed these elements ; 
 — 1. Great motive power — consequent impetuosity — 2. Tena- 
 city of purpose — 3. High intellectual powers— their sphere was 
 practical life — elements of his power in deliberative assem- 
 blies — capacity of gaining access to the minds of others — busi- 
 ness talents. 
 
 Subordinate traits of character — great plainness of speech — 
 generosity — social disposition — his views on social gatherings 
 — jocularity and sarcasm. 
 
 General complexion of his piety — it was solid and practical 
 in its eharaeter — his views respecting high- wrought exercises 
 — he held the great doctrines of grace in a practical way — his 
 adaptedness to the field of labor assigned to him by God's 
 providence. 197 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 The genuine feelings of the christian heart are 
 expressed by the Apostle, when he says, " None of 
 us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. 
 For whether we live, we live unto the Lord ; and 
 whether we die, we die unto the Lord : whether 
 we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's." It 
 is the prayer of every true believer, that not his 
 life only, but also his death may be " unto the 
 Lord." If he hopes after death to be himself at 
 rest with Christ, he also hopes to leave behind him 
 in the world an influence which shall bring others 
 to Christ. His brethren who remain yet for a sea- 
 son on earth, sympathizing with him in this the 
 strongest desire of his heart, are anxious to use in 
 the most effective way his past life and labors for 
 advancing the kingdom of their common Lord. 
 All religious biographies should have this for their 
 end. To gratify the feelings of surviving friends 
 is not a worthy motive for the expenditure of time 
 and toil in their preparation. If they cannot be 
 2 
 
14 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 made subservient to the interests of Christ's 
 Church, they were better omitted. 
 
 But, that they may accomplish this high end, it 
 is necessary that they be strictly conformed to 
 truth. The biography must present not an ideal 
 of the man, but, as far as possible, the very man 
 himself, as he lived and moved about in society. 
 Thus much may, indeed, be conceded, that his 
 faults should be touched with a friendly hand, and 
 dwelt upon only so far as the exhibition of them 
 shall be necessary to a correct understanding of 
 his history with the lessons of instruction which it 
 contains. But they should not be denied or con- 
 cealed ; nor should his virtues, on the other hand, 
 be exaggerated, so as to produce a false picture of 
 his character. For it is reality, not fiction, that 
 moves the human mind to emulation. The exhi- 
 bition in actual life of the christian graces, though 
 they be in comparatively feeble measure and al- 
 loyed with many imperfections, has far more 
 power than any high-wrought portraitures of ideal 
 excellence ; which, indeed, precisely because they 
 are the products of imagination instead of history, 
 are regarded as above the range of human attain- 
 ments, and, consequently, though they may elicit 
 much admiration as works of art, excite to imita- 
 tion only in a feeble degree. Consider for a mo- 
 ment how the life of Christ, as given by the four 
 Evangelists, would be shorn of its mighty power 
 over the human heart, could we even but suspect 
 it of being ideal, and not strictly historic. Or, to 
 
INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 take an example from a man like ourselves, con- 
 sider how the Apostle Paul's influence over the 
 churches, as a christian man, would be, for all 
 practical purposes, annihilated, were the record of 
 his life and labors and sufferings believed to be a 
 romance instead of a reality. In character and 
 morals it is by what we know to exist as a part of 
 history, rather than by what some genius can con- 
 ceive to exist, that our spirits are stirred within us 
 to emulation. 
 
 It follows that no man is worthy of having his 
 biography written, who has not strength enough 
 of character to be described as he is. If, in order 
 to make out an interesting and attractive memoir, 
 it be necessary to falsify and exaggerate the facts 
 of his history and character, then let his memory 
 rest with his ashes in quiet oblivion. The cause 
 of truth needs no such helps. A truly strong char- 
 acter, when faithfully exhibited with its real ex- 
 cellencies and defects, always produces a salutary 
 impression upon the reader's mind. So are the 
 ancient worthies presented to us in the Holy 
 Scriptures for our instruction. 
 
 From what has been said, the reader will natu- 
 rally infer that the author considers the person 
 whose biography he now presents to the public, 
 as having been a man worthy to be described as 
 he was, without the embellishments of fiction. In 
 this inference he will be entirely correct. Mr. Jud- 
 son, with some faults which — such was his native 
 openness of spirit — he took no pains to hide be- 
 
16 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 hind a smooth exterior, possessed rare excellencies 
 and great force of character. Not to anticipate 
 the proof of this, which will be found in the fol- 
 lowing memoir, it is sufficient here to refer to 
 what he accomplished, and to the influence which 
 he exerted. The Church in Milan, he found in a 
 feeble and broken condition ; he left it, after nine- 
 teen years of ministerial labor, one of the strongest 
 and most flourishing churches on the Western 
 Reserve : during the whole of this period, charac- 
 terized, as all know, by strong excitement, and 
 abounding in causes of alienation and division, he 
 ever maintained a paramount sway over the minds 
 of his people, young and old ; and succeeded in 
 either keeping out of his parish or counteracting 
 those influences which, in so many other churches, 
 led to disunion and separation : nor was his a 
 waning power ; on the contrary, it steadily grew 
 with the growth of the community in which he 
 lived, and the congregation to which he minister- 
 ed ; and when he fell, smitten by the hand of dis- 
 ease, he fell in his full strength, in the very zenith 
 of his influence. He was the father of the Huron 
 Institute, and, while he was able to superintend 
 its affairs, he gave to it a remarkable degree of 
 efficiency and success : especially was he success- 
 ful in gaining the confidence of the young, and 
 directing them into paths of piety and usefulness ; 
 and it is conceded that no pastor in Northern Ohio 
 was the means of putting so many young men 
 into the ministry. His counsel was ever highly 
 
INTRODUCTION. 17 
 
 prized and abundantly sought by all, even by those 
 who did not sympathize with him in his religious 
 views: in the ecclesiastical and ministerial bodies 
 with which he was connected, as well as in the 
 Board of Trustees of the Western Reserve Col- 
 lege, he ever maintained a high place, and showed 
 himself a most efficient and useful member. A man 
 who could, in troublous times, gain and hold such 
 influence, and accomplish such results, must have 
 possessed no ordinary force of character. It is 
 from the persuasion that the exhibition of this 
 character in a brief memoir will furnish salutary 
 lessons of instruction, that the author has been in- 
 duced to undertake the work. 
 
 That all will be satisfied with the manner of its 
 execution, is more than he dares to hope. To Mr. 
 Judson's ardent friends, who were admitted to in- 
 timate converse with him — and it was in such in- 
 timate converse that his excellencies peculiarly 
 manifested themselves — the following pages may 
 perhaps appear tame and spiritless ; because it is 
 impossible adequately to describe upon paper a 
 character like his. Others, again, who saw him 
 only at a distance, where certainly he did not ap- 
 pear to the best advantage, or who found them- 
 selves brought into collision with him in respect 
 to those principles and measures in which he dif- 
 fered from them — a thing which could not but 
 often happen in the case of one occupying his po- 
 sition and living in his times — may think that his 
 character is overdrawn. But the author commits 
 2* 
 
18 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 this memoir to the public, with the firm belief that 
 it contains a just, though it may be in some re- 
 spects inadequate, view of the man ; and, as such, 
 his prayer to God is that it may be blessed as the 
 means of propagating more extensively after his 
 death that good influence which was so eminent 
 in his life. 
 
MEMOIR 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 MR. JUDSON's YOUTH, AND CONVERSION. 
 
 Everton Judson, the subject of the following 
 memoir, was the son of Asa and Sarah Judson, 
 and was born in Woodbury, Connecticut, Decem- 
 ber 8, 1799. He was descended on both sides 
 from pious ancestors. His paternal grandfather, 
 Benjamin Judson, is represented to have been an 
 eminently devoted Christian. His maternal grand- 
 father, Mathew Minor, held the office of deacon in 
 the Congregational Church of Woodbury for the 
 space of forty-three years, and died at the advanced 
 age of eighty-three. He was a Christian of the old 
 Puritan stamp, regular and strict in his observance 
 of the Sabbath day, and spending much of his 
 time in prayer and the perusal of the Scriptures. 
 
20 
 
 MEMOIR OP 
 
 His practice was to read his Bible through once a 
 year, taking for his daily portion three chapters, 
 and on Sabbath days five. He took a deep inter- 
 est in his youthful grandson Everton ; and having 
 been permitted, at a family meeting in Wood- 
 bury, to hear him preach, expressed a lively satis- 
 faction, that he had entered the ministry. His 
 example seems to have left its impress on Mr. 
 Judson's mind ; and it deserves to be mentioned, 
 in connection with the high value which the latter 
 ever attached to God's covenant with believing 
 parents, that a constant expression of the aged 
 deacon in his prayers was, " May we and our pos- 
 terity be the blessed of the Lord forever." 
 
 Asa Judson, the father of Everton, was a man 
 of quick feeling, ardent in his friendships, and im- 
 pulsive in his character. He had a jocose turn, 
 and was very communicative. He was extremely 
 fond of children, and always had a word ready for 
 every boy or girl whom he met. He had no sar- 
 casm. This trait, which was sometimes unpleas- 
 antly conspicuous, the son inherited from his 
 mother. In the family of Mr. Judson, religion was 
 made a topic of familiar conversation, and both 
 the parents took pains to instruct their children in 
 its doctrines and duties. The Assembly's Cate- 
 chism they taught as a matter of course. On Sab- 
 bath afternoons, moreover, Mr. Judson was in the 
 habit of gathering his children around him, and 
 conversing with them respecting the sermons which 
 they had heard. Both parents had the most un- 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 21 
 
 wavering faith in God's covenant with believers 
 and their children. 
 
 The mother, Mrs. Sarah Judson, is uniformly 
 described as having been a woman of great worth, 
 sterling integrity, and decision of character. One 
 speaks of her as " a very substantial woman ;" 
 another, as " a stable woman, firm as the hills ;" 
 another still, as " a very judicious, consistent 
 Christian." She was very frank and plain of 
 speech. Mr. Judson always affirmed that it was 
 from his mother that he inherited his plainness of 
 speech. She was very decided in her way, which, 
 in consequence of the clearness of her judgment, 
 was generally right ; but, whatever were her decis- 
 ions, she was not easily moved from them. She 
 had no jocoseness, but, if she wished to say a se- 
 vere thing, she knew how to make it felt. Her 
 piety took its color from these natural traits of 
 character. It was not of the sentimental or fitful 
 kind, but steady and substantial. She was emi- 
 nently a woman of faith and prayer. She died 
 May 5, 1820, while the subject of this memoir was 
 yet unconverted. In her death faith triumphed. 
 She was composed and enjoyed the exercise of 
 her reason to the last; conversing calmly with her 
 friends, and all whom she saw, particularly with 
 her children, whom she solemnly committed to the 
 care of God. Many years afterwards, Mr. Judson 
 inserted in the New York Evangelist an interest- 
 ing article entitled "My Mother" which strikingly 
 illustrates the deep impress that her example and 
 
22 MEMOIR OP 
 
 instructions left upon his youthful mind. It is 
 here given, with the omission of only some con- 
 cluding sentences addressed to the young who 
 might peruse it. 
 
 " My mother has been for many years among 
 the glorified in heaven. Her look, her manner, 
 her tones of voice, are all embalmed in my mem- 
 ory. The most distinct impression of these ever 
 made, and the one which is still the most vivid in 
 my eye, was implanted when I was quite a small 
 boy. I cannot readily tell how old I was — perhaps 
 six or seven. The circumstances are fresh in my 
 recollection as if they had occurred yesterday. It 
 was a cool evening in autumn — the fire burned 
 very briskly on the old kitchen hearth. My mother 
 sat in the corner of the fire-place at the right, and 
 just upon her left hand I had seated myself upon 
 the large stone hearth in front of the fire with my 
 hammer, amusing myself in bending a piece of 
 wire for carrying on my childish sports. I was 
 exceedingly animated at my work. After watch- 
 ing me for some time, she dropped her knitting in 
 her lap, and, in a mellow subdued tone, such as 
 mothers only can use, she said, c My son, I wish 
 I could see you as much engaged in serving Jesus 
 Christ as you are at your play.' She said not 
 another word, but it went directly to my heart. I 
 turned around, and slily wiped a tear from my eye, 
 and resumed my task. My wicked heart had even 
 then pride enough to prompt a wish to conceal my 
 tears, yet the arrow remained in my bosom, and, 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 23 
 
 though many a long year passed away before I 
 began in reality to serve Jesus Christ, the scene 
 upon the kitchen hearth was never driven from my 
 mind. In all the fo]]y of childhood, and wildness 
 of youth, it returned at intervals to haunt my soul. 
 It was just about one full year after my mother 
 had gone home to glory, that I first gave myself 
 to the hand of Jesus. O, I would have given all 
 this world, had it been mine, could I at that mo- 
 ment have taken the wings of a dove and flown 
 away, where I could mingle, for an hour, with her 
 happy spirit, that I might recall to her recollection 
 the scene passed on the old kitchen hearth. I sel- 
 dom think of her except in connection with that 
 scene. The fixedness of her large blue eyes, her 
 look, her mellow and subduing tones, her very ges- 
 ture as she dropped her knitting upon her lap, are 
 all present to my eye. It is no picture of the 
 imagination. After the lapse of more than a 
 quarter of a century, I love to drop a tear as I 
 think of that hour." 
 
 To those who knew Mr. Judson personally it is 
 unnecessary to say that in him were blended the 
 natural traits of character of both his parents, as 
 they have been above described ; and that the 
 whole of his public and private life exhibited the 
 fruits of their early pious training. 
 
 Mr. Judson was the eldest of six children, of 
 whom the youngest alone, Mrs. Lorena Abbott, 
 survives. 
 
 In his youth he is described as having been 
 
24 MEMOIR OF 
 
 prompt, decided, unyielding in his opinions, jocose, 
 and sarcastic. His moral character and conduct 
 were always unexceptionable. He was quick to 
 learn, and rather fond of reading, though not re- 
 markable in these respects. To the age of twenty- 
 one, when he first became personally interested in 
 religion, he labored on his father's farm, and few 
 notices of this period remain. 
 
 In the spring that followed the death of Mr. 
 Judson's mother — the spring of 1821 — an exten- 
 sive revival of religion took place in Woodbury. 
 His attention was now aroused, and he commen- 
 ced attending the evening meetings. He was not 
 a man to do any thing which he undertook at 
 halves. With his characteristic decision he went 
 to all the meetings however remote from his fa- 
 ther's residence. On one of these occasions he 
 heard a sermon from the words, " How long halt 
 ye between two opinions ? If the Lord be God, 
 follow him : but if Baal, then follow him." The 
 preacher exhorted his hearers to go home and 
 write down, each one for himself, his decision for 
 God or for Baal. To a man of his temperament 
 this proposition could not but come with peculiar 
 force. He determined to comply with the sugges- 
 tion, and, upon going home, wrote down his deci- 
 sion for the Lord. From that time his convictions 
 of sin were deep, and he had no peace till he found 
 it in believing. As soon as he had himself chosen 
 Christ for his Master, he became very active in his 
 labors to bring others to the knowledge of the same 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 25 
 
 Saviour. He frequently spoke in the religious 
 meetings. There was at this time too much of 
 that sharpness and asperity which also character- 
 ized his early ministry, and some blamed him as 
 being too forward. But what he said came from 
 an earnest heart, and it never failed to produce an 
 impression upon the hearers. 
 
 Before his conversion Mr. Judson grieved for his 
 mother's death, and felt that he could not be re- 
 conciled to it. But after that event there was in 
 this respect a marked change in his feelings. 
 "Now," said he, "I can see the hand of God in 
 her death." He doubtless felt that it had been 
 made, under God, a means of bringing him to re- 
 pentance. He connected himself with the Church 
 in Woodbury in January 1822, along with thir- 
 teen others. 
 
 After his conversion he was very useful in form- 
 ing the habits of the younger children of the fam- 
 ily. In the temperance cause he was very decided 
 and thorough-going. So early as 1821 y in the 
 very dawn of the temperance reformation, and be- 
 fore the formation of any temperance organization, 
 he told his brothers that he should positively re- 
 fuse to go into the field with them, if they carried 
 to their work ardent spirits. This is the more no- 
 ticeable because his father never came into the 
 principles of total abstinence. 
 
 In the winter of 1821—2, Mr. Judson, having 
 then but recently made a profession of his faith in 
 Christ, was employed to teach a school in Sher- 
 
 a 
 
26 MEMOIR OF 
 
 man, Ct. One who was a member of the school 
 has furnished the following statement concerning 
 him. 
 
 "It was a large school, and many of the scholars 
 were well advanced. I was not at that time a 
 professor of religion, but his earnest, sincere efforts 
 for the spiritual good of his pupils made a deep 
 impression on my mind. In this respect he went 
 farther than such labors had ever been carried be- 
 fore. His religious feelings manifested themselves 
 in his earnest, affectionate prayers for the conver- 
 sion of his pupils. On Saturday afternoons, in 
 connection with the Catechism, his exhortations 
 were very solemn and earnest. On one occasion 
 he requested all who felt an interest in the prayer 
 which he was about to offer to kneel. But one 
 pupil complied with the request, yet the impres- 
 sion was deep. The language of his prayers was 
 so peculiar, so earnest and importunate, that it 
 was a common topic of conversation among the 
 boys. These prayers were often accompanied with 
 many tears.* 
 
 "In teaching, he was careful to mix in with 
 his instructions interesting anecdotes. Every les- 
 son in geography he made interesting in this way. 
 His instruction was of a high order, calculated to 
 leave a stirring impression on the mind. He spent 
 but one winter there. I have ever looked back to 
 it as the most interesting winter of my life. He 
 
 * Throughout the whole of his ministry, his prayers had a peculiarly 
 fervid and impressive character. 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 27 
 
 differed from all my other teachers in the practical 
 character of his instructions." 
 
 Those who, many years afterwards, enjoyed the 
 privilege of attending Mr. Judson's Bible Classes, 
 will understand well what is meant by his " mix- 
 ing in with his instructions interesting anecdotes." 
 He had a rare faculty of bringing in illustrations 
 in such a way as to make them exactly in point. 
 In this respect the schoolmaster in Sherman was 
 the same person as the pastor in Milan- 
 
CHAPTER IL 
 
 HIS PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY, INCLUDING 
 HIS COLLEGIATE AND THEOLOGICAL COURSE. 
 
 Soon after his conversion, Mr. Judson turned 
 his thoughts to the work of the ministry, and, with 
 a view to this, he began, in the spring of 1822, to 
 prepare for entering College. That his desire to 
 obtain a liberal education had reference entirely to 
 the work of preaching the gospel there can be no 
 doubt. So his father and friends always under- 
 stood it. Yet it is true that, during his college 
 course, he expressed doubts whether he was called 
 of God to this work. A friend, who knew him 
 intimately at that time, says, that, during his senior 
 year, he came very near deciding to be a physician. 
 His argument was, that he should be " so dull as 
 a preacher, and accomplish so little in the minis- 
 try." Upon conversing with his father on the sub- 
 ject, the old gentleman replied, " You know, Ever- 
 ton, what sacrifices I have made in educating you 
 for this very object. And now I feel that all I 
 have done for you is lost." As his father said this 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 29 
 
 he wept. Everton was much moved, and told him 
 that he would make the trial. 
 
 His preparation for College was so hurried and 
 imperfect that he lost much of the benefit of the 
 college course. He commenced his studies, as al- 
 ready remarked, in the spring of 1822, and in the 
 fall of 1823 he entered the Sophomore class in 
 Yale College, having occupied only a year and a 
 half in the work of preparation. To go through 
 all the preparatory studies, with those of the 
 Freshman year, in this period of time, with accu- 
 racy and thoroughness, was impossible. Several 
 books of the classical course he omitted, and the 
 rest he read superficially. By this hurried and in- 
 adequate preparation he not only lost almost en- 
 tirely the benefit of the classical course in College, 
 but, as was quite natural, passed through the The- 
 ological Seminary afterwards without gaining an 
 accurate knowledge of the original languages of 
 Scripture. Of this defective preparation for Col- 
 lege, he ever spoke as a great calamity, and one 
 which followed him during the whole of his min- 
 isterial life ; and he was in the habit of warning 
 young students against committing the like error. 
 
 One who knew him intimately, studied with 
 him in preparing for College, and was his room- 
 mate throughout the three years of his college life, 
 bears the following testimony on this point. " The 
 truth is his college course was almost ruined by 
 the deficiency of his preparation to enter College. 
 We studied together one year, (he had been study- 
 3* 
 
30 MEMOIR OF 
 
 ing by himself a few months previously,) and then 
 we entered the Sophomore class, not half fitted. 
 I can say, without a metaphor, I have often looked 
 back upon my college course, and regarded it as 
 almost entirely lost by my miserable mistake of 
 hurrying over my preparation so hastily ; and I am 
 satisfied that if Mr. Judson had been more care- 
 fully fitted to enter, especially in the languages, 
 he would have ranked among the first of his class. 
 I do not believe that in our class of one hundred, 
 there were ten persons who equaled him, either in 
 talents or application." 
 
 One reason of his crowding his preparatory 
 studies into so narrow a space, seems to have been 
 his father's straitened circumstances. Several 
 years before, in 1816, when his means were more 
 at his command, he had offered to give Everton a 
 liberal education, but the offer had been at that 
 time declined. Now, when the son had changed 
 his mind, the father's property was not in such a 
 shape as to be easily made available for the pur- 
 poses of an education. To his intimate friends 
 his struggles with poverty during his college 
 course were well known. 
 
 In College, Mr. Judson ever maintained the 
 character of a sincere and consistent Christian. 
 u I remember him," says the same class-mate and 
 room-mate whose words have been quoted above, 
 u as an active, useful Christian, during a revival 
 which occurred in College. Religion with him 
 was not a periodical or spasmodic affection. He 
 
EVERTON JUDSON, 31 
 
 always, I think, cultivated and maintained the 
 spirit of prayer; and was always seeking to be 
 useful. At one time we were both complaining 
 of low spirits, and he quoted, 'taedet me vitae ' — 
 J life wearies me ' — -and I said something in reply 
 of 'a lodge in some vast wilderness.' He imme- 
 diately added, ' Yes, it would do, if one had a hea- 
 then to instruct, or some way of being useful.' 
 I mention this incident, because it impressed me 
 deeply with the spirit of the man ; for surely noth- 
 ing was further from my thoughts, in that hour of 
 despondency; than the idea of usefulness : and this 
 spirit he manifested, I think, in a somewhat re- 
 markable degree, throughout life." 
 
 In steady, consistent piety, and desire for use- 
 fulness, he was the same man in College as after- 
 wards in the ministry. Those who knew him only 
 in the latter capacity may naturally enough con- 
 ceive of him as taking the same bold and open 
 attitude, and exerting the same commanding in- 
 fluence. If so, they will be very wide from the 
 truth. In this respect, Mr. Judson on the Western 
 Reserve was exceedingly unlike Mr. Judson in 
 College. One who was associated with him af- 
 terwards in the Theological Seminary, has well 
 said, " You will inquire in vain of that period for 
 the unfolding of his character. His college and 
 seminary life was comparatively obscure. He 
 shrank from any public exhibition of himself or 
 his talents." He was to a most remarkable extent 
 diffident and retiring. He never, on any occasion. 
 
32 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 put himself forth prominently in his class ; never 
 rose to address a religious meeting; never took 
 part in the debates of any literary society ; never 
 so much as declaimed in his turn before the Col- 
 lege. The writer of this memoir well remembers 
 his detailing to him one evening, as he sat with 
 him in his parlor in Milan, the way which he took 
 to escape this to him extremely unpleasant exhibi- 
 tion of himself in public. His plan was that of 
 engaging substitutes to fill his place, who, when 
 their own turn came round, quietly appeared for 
 themselves also the second time. This was un- 
 doubtedly unwise as well as wrong. It is not 
 mentioned here as a thing to be approved, but 
 simply as a historic fact illustrative of his diffi- 
 dence. 
 
 If any are surprised at these statements, let 
 them remember that, if Mr. Judson was a very 
 energetic and decided man, he was also a very 
 sensitive man ; and a man, too, whose ideal of a 
 public performance was very high, while he was 
 conscious of his inability to come up to it in exe- 
 cution. This is equivalent to saying that he was 
 a very diffident man ; for great sensitiveness and a 
 high standard of excellence, with the conscious in- 
 ability of reaching it, and, as a natural conse- 
 quence, the apprehension of exposing one's self, 
 by a failure, to disparaging remarks, are the ele- 
 ments which go to make up diffidence. It should 
 be considered, too, that in College, with a misera- 
 ble preparation, as we have seen, he was daily 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 33 
 
 brought into contact with those who had enjoyed 
 much higher advantages of training than his own, 
 and were consequently able to appear, to much 
 better advantage. This, though in reality a high 
 privilege, unfortunately exerted upon his spirits a 
 depressing influence, and kept him back from all 
 public performances. His subsequent mastery of 
 this diffidence is nothing very unusual or surpri- 
 sing. It often happens to men of great energy and 
 force of character, that when, under the impulse of 
 some strong moral feeling, they once break through 
 their native bashfulness, they are able to fill the 
 most public stations without embarrassment. Nay 
 more, the very determination to overcome their 
 feelings of diffidence seems to impart to them a 
 peculiar warmth and impetuosity of spirit. 
 
 What has been said of his collegiate life holds 
 good of the two years which, after his graduation, 
 he spent in the Theological School of Yale Col- 
 lege. " If I remember aright," says the same as- 
 sociate in the Theological Seminary, " he seldom 
 or ever read a dissertation before the theological 
 class. He w T as accustomed to borrow the profes- 
 sors' lectures, and take the heads after reading, 
 and sometimes make copious extracts, and even 
 copy whole lectures, for his own use in his study, 
 but he made no show of his labor. He was a dili- 
 gent, regular student, retiring in his manners, seek- 
 ing obscurity ; or rather remaining in that obscur- 
 ity which his natural diffidence had thrown over 
 him." 
 
34 MEMOIR OF 
 
 But neither in the College nor the Seminary 
 was Mr. Judson's life devoid of religious activity. 
 His earnest, ardent spirit, could not rest without 
 some field of usefulness. Such a field he sought 
 and found, humble but blessed, and removed from 
 the notice of his fellow students. With one of his 
 class-mates, the Rev. E. Barber, he engaged in the 
 work of giving instruction in the Sabbath school 
 of colored children belonging to the Rev. Mr. Joce- 
 lyn's congregation. This was in his junior year. In 
 this school he continued during the whole time of 
 his residence in New Haven. It was also his custom 
 to go out with the same companion among the 
 neighborhoods of colored families in and around 
 New Haven. From a pocket Bible, which he al- 
 ways carried, he read to them, prayed with them, 
 and, whenever a proper opportunity presented it- 
 self, urged the parents to send their children to the 
 Sabbath school. " I remember one Sabbath after- 
 noon," says one, u he invited me to go with him 
 to visit some colored families down in the New 
 Township, as it was called, and as we passed from 
 house to house for religious conversation, I well 
 remember they greeted him kindly, as one with 
 whom they were well acquainted, and he seemed 
 also well acquainted with their spiritual condition. 
 I am not aware that he ever sought the society of 
 the wealthy, the refined, or the fashionable, during 
 his residence in New Haven, but, by his unobtru- 
 sive course of useful labor, he had the esteem and 
 the confidence of some of the best citizens." 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 35 
 
 In his senior year he taught an evening school 
 of colored children, under the room then occupied 
 by the Brothers' Society. This he was at some 
 pains to keep private, probably from the appre- 
 hension of molestation from such of his fellow stu- 
 dents as had no sympathy with his efforts. For 
 this work he received a compensation. 
 
 Upon entering the Theological School imme- 
 diately after his graduation, he attended, in addi- 
 tion to his other labors for the colored people, a 
 Thursday evening meeting of the nature of a Bible 
 class, composed mostly of young colored women 
 at service in families. There were generally 
 twenty or thirty present. The order of exercises 
 was singing, prayer, and the exposition of a pas- 
 sage of Scripture in that style of familiar illustra- 
 tion in which he always excelled. This exercise 
 he continued during the two years of his connec- 
 tion with the Seminary. 
 
 All the above labors for the spiritual good of the 
 colored people were under the direction of Mr. 
 Jocelyn, the pastor of the colored congregation. 
 In this respect he was always punctilious ; and 
 did not hesitate to express his decided disapproba- 
 tion of the course pursued by some theological 
 students, who allowed themselves in the habit of 
 making appointments within the fields of stated 
 pastors, without seeking their advice and direc- 
 tion. 
 
 He was also, when a theological student, in the 
 habit of going out on Sabbath evenings into the 
 
36 MEMOIR OP 
 
 neighborhoods and villages around New Haven, 
 to hold religious meetings, generally in company 
 with some layman of standing in the city. The 
 time was occupied with singing, prayer, and ex- 
 hortation. He spoke to great acceptance, always 
 taking care (as he did ever afterwards) to make 
 himself understood by the people present. There 
 was hardly a week, from the commencement of 
 his junior year, in which he was not engaged in 
 active efforts for the spiritual good of others, more 
 especially of the colored people. All these labors 
 were conducted in a still and noiseless way. To 
 the author, though his class-mate and a member 
 of the church, they were utterly unknown, as he 
 presumes they were to all the rest of his fellow 
 students except a select few. 
 
 His motive, in these labors among the more ob- 
 scure part of the community, was doubtless the 
 simple desire of doing good. At the same time 
 he probably hoped to overcome in this way that 
 diffidence which had so far kept him back before 
 his fellow students, and thus to qualify himself for 
 more extended usefulness. He had a strong de- 
 sire to do good, but was doubtful whether he 
 should succeed — an apprehension which he not 
 unfrequently expressed — and he preferred to make 
 trial of his powers in this humble way. " The 
 first time," says the friend last quoted, " that I 
 heard him address an audience was at a Sabbath 
 evening meeting in Derby. Though I do not re- 
 member the order of his remarks, yet I shall al- 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 37 
 
 ways remember the theme, and the interest with 
 which I heard him. He exhibited God in the 
 character of a Father. He drew especially the 
 parental character of his moral government. He 
 spoke with much feeling himself, and, if I may 
 judge from my own interest at the time, he inter- 
 ested those who heard him. It was with him a 
 favorite theme, and I was interested not only with 
 the theme and the manner, but it may be more 
 with witnessing so unexpected and happy an ex- 
 hibition of his talent for popular address. From 
 that time I never feared for his success as a pub- 
 lic speaker." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 HIS LICENSURE AND SABBATH SCHOOL AGENCY. 
 
 At the close of his second year in the Seminary, 
 Mr. Judson, with others of his class, was licensed 
 to preach the gospel. Finding it necessary to en- 
 gage in some employment which should furnish 
 him the funds of which he stood in need, he pro- 
 posed to Mr. Eldad Barber, his class-mate in both 
 the College and the Seminary, and who was un- 
 der the like necessity with himself, that they 
 should undertake a Sabbath School Agency for 
 the West. At this time there was in the Seminary, 
 as well as generally among the patrons and friends 
 of Home Missions and Sabbath Schools, an in- 
 creased interest for the West, and missionaries for 
 both these departments of benevolence were in de- 
 mand. A Committee of the American Home 
 Missionary Society, of whom the then Corres- 
 ponding Secretary, Rev. Absalom Peters, was one, 
 had recently visited the Seminary to present the 
 claims of Home Missions. It was about this pe- 
 riod also that the movement commenced, which 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 39 
 
 resulted in the establishment of Illinois College. 
 In this general sympathy for the West Mr, Judson 
 shared largely. But, instead of immediately en- 
 tering upon the work of Home Missions — a work 
 in which we shall hereafter see him embarked — 
 he preferred first to undertake a Sabbath School 
 Agency. The warm interest which he had always 
 manifested in Sabbath Schools was one motive 
 that determined him in this direction. He was 
 also, as we shall presently see, anxious to begin 
 with some field of labor less embarrassing to him 
 than the pastoral charge, which should, at the 
 same time, furnish an opportunity of exploring the 
 West as a prospective field of missionary labor. 
 
 In accordance with Mr. Judson's suggestion to 
 Mr. Barber, the two friends offered their services 
 to the American Sunday School Union, which 
 were accepted. 
 
 In a letter to his father, written from New Ha- 
 ven and announcing this appointment to a Sab- 
 bath School Agency, he says, " There is a great 
 and desolate field at the West, where multitudes 
 are perishing through lack of a ministration of the 
 gospel. This agency will afford me good oppor- 
 tunity to survey the ground and see where is the 
 best field for usefulness. My prevailing opinion 
 at present is that, by the permission of a kind 
 Providence, I shall ultimately plant my feet be- 
 yond the Mississippi river, and, most probably, in 
 the State of Missouri. You will say to me, ' You 
 will be exposing yourself to innumerable trials and 
 
40 MEMOIR OF 
 
 privations.' Probably I shall, but still I do not 
 allow them to occupy my mind. Matth. vi. 34,* 
 furnishes me with all I wish for on this subject, 
 especially when taken in connection with Matth. 
 xxviii. 20,f and 2 Cor. xii. 9.$ My greatest, and I 
 can almost say, my only trial on this subject is 
 that I must leave four members of our family pro- 
 fessedly destitute of any saving faith in Jesus 
 Christ. This grieves me to the heart. I say it 
 most sincerely, it is my greatest grief. Not that I 
 can save them by remaining with them. Perhaps, 
 my bad example gone from their sight, they will 
 be more likely to repent. But still the thought of 
 parting for eternity — it is too painful — I will not 
 dwell upon it." 
 
 In the beginning of October Mr. Judson and 
 Mr. Barber repaired to Philadelphia to receive 
 their commission, outfit, and instructions. They 
 spent a week in Philadelphia, during which time 
 Mr. Judson visited a number of public institutions, 
 and was an attentive observer, entering in his 
 journal his remarks on what he saw and heard. 
 Under date of Thursday, Oct. 8th, occurs the fol- 
 lowing : " The Committee met this afternoon, and 
 decided on sending us to Nashville, Tennessee." 
 Had this decision been carried out, it might have 
 
 * Take therefore no thought for the morrow : for the morrow shall 
 take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the 
 evil thereof. 
 
 i Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. 
 
 X My grace is sufficient for thee : for my strength is made perfect in 
 weakness. 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 41 
 
 materially altered the history of both these breth- 
 ren. But the next day he mentions a different ar- 
 rangement ; — " On account of intelligence that the 
 Ohio river is so low as not to be navigable, our 
 destination was to-day changed from Tennessee 
 to the Southern part of Ohio. Determined to com- 
 mence our journey tomorrow." Accordingly the 
 next day they set out for Wheeling, Va., and from 
 that point entered their field Saturday, Oct. 18, 
 1828. 
 
 Their first plan was to labor separately. Mr. 
 Judson went down the Ohio river, and Mr. Barber 
 north. In a letter to Mr. Barber he describes, with 
 some humor, his first entrance upon his field, and 
 the fruitless attempts which he made to find an 
 .opportunity of presenting his subject. To him, as 
 has been the case with many others, it happened 
 that the chief difficulty was to obtain the first 
 hearing. After riding all day on Saturday, he 
 called on the man to whom he had been directed, 
 and told him his business. " He very drily re- 
 marked that I might call on Mr. A., (who was, by 
 the way, near half a mile from the main road,) 
 and if he thought I had better stay with them over 
 the Sabbath, I might come back to stay at his 
 house." Mr. A. received him with a good degree 
 of cordiality, but informed him that an Agent had 
 been there, and had done all that could be done 
 on the subject of Sabbath Schools. Accordingly 
 
 he mounted his horse and rode on to M , 
 
 where he arrived about an hour after dark, calling 
 4* 
 
42 MEMOIR OF 
 
 there by the advice of Mr. A on Dr. G , 
 
 who sent him to the tavern for a lodging. But 
 here he could obtain no promise of an audience, 
 or help in collecting one. " I requested," he says, 
 "of the landlord permission to preach, and that 
 notice should be forwarded through the village. 
 To this he would not consent, claiming that it 
 would be impossible to give notice." So the next 
 
 morning, he started for the Rev. Mr. C 's 
 
 parish about ten miles distant, but learned on the 
 way that his Church was shut in consequence of 
 his being absent at Synod on the Sabbath. He 
 next turned off into a corner of the parish where 
 
 he learned that a Mr. W was to preach, and 
 
 arrived just as the meeting was about commencing. 
 Mr. W., on reading his commission, and hearing 
 his business, consented to give him his place ; but 
 one of the audience rose and stated that he had 
 
 come ten or fifteen miles to hear Mr. W 
 
 preach ; that they had all assembled for the pur- 
 pose of hearing him, and that the disappointment 
 would be too great. " Again," says Mr. Judson, 
 " my hopes were dashed : I bit my lips and re- 
 mained silent." "But, after sermon," he says, " I 
 requested the people to have a few minutes inter- 
 mission and hear me preach. They all staid. The 
 house was crowded. I preached from Prov. xxii. 6, 
 " Train up a child in the way he should go," etc. 
 
 The best part of Mr. C 's Church were present, 
 
 on account of there being no meeting in their own 
 house. The scale was now turned: I received 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 43 
 
 many warm invitations for the night. They had 
 not attempted a Sabbath School here. I remained 
 two days, visited nearly all the families, collected 
 a Sabbath School of about fifty, and near $20 for 
 a library." 
 
 After this Mr. Judson had no further difficulty. 
 The ice was effectually broken. The people had 
 found out that he was a preacher to some purpose, 
 and he found openings enough in every direction. 
 
 In January 1829 Mr. Judson and Mr. Barber 
 met in Zanesville. Being now fully convinced 
 that they could operate together with more effi- 
 ciency, they adopted, after mature deliberation, 
 the following plan. As they were about closing 
 up their labors in a county, one of them went 
 forward as a pioneer to the principal seat of reli- 
 gious influence in the adjoining county, and made 
 arrangements thera, in connection with the minis- 
 ters and churches, for the public presentation of 
 the subject at designated times in all those places 
 where it was believed that a Sabbath School So- 
 ciety could be organized and sustained. Notices 
 of these appointments were duly forwarded to the 
 several places. The Agent now returned, and 
 communicated to his colleague the arrangement; 
 after which they divided the county between 
 themselves, taking different routes, and fulfilling 
 the designated appointments. In going through a 
 county their general plan was to present the cause 
 publicly at a given place in the evening, and cir- 
 culate a constitution previously prepared, with a 
 
44 MEMOIR OF 
 
 subscription list attached to it. This they did for 
 the double purpose of obtaining signatures to the 
 constitution and subscriptions for a Sabbath School 
 library. They also generally recommended that 
 delegates should be appointed to attend a general 
 central meeting to be held at the close of the ef- 
 fort in the county. They spent as much of the 
 next day in visiting the families of the vicinity as 
 was consistent with the fulfilment of the next 
 evening's appointment; for they generally had an 
 appointment for every evening. " We labored 
 hard," says Mr. Barber, "beyond our strength, as 
 we were afterwards fully convinced, feeling that 
 every day was precious." 
 
 When the way had been thus prepared, the 
 general central meeting was held. This was by 
 day-light and in a church. Both attended, and 
 endeavored to make the most of the occasion. 
 A county Sunday School Union was formed, to 
 which the separate Sunday School organizations 
 had been, by way of anticipation, made auxilia- 
 ries. This was a well digested plan, and under it 
 they found themselves able to accomplish four or 
 five times as much in a given period as before, 
 when they operated separately. 
 
 The fact has already been noticed that it enter- 
 ed into the plan of their neighborhood evening 
 meetings to take up subscriptions for Sunday 
 School libraries. In this way a large number of 
 libraries was established. Mr. Judson's journal 
 abounds in such notices as the following : — 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 45 
 
 " Preached in the evening, organized a S. S., raised 
 $25 for a library, with a prospect of some in- 
 crease " — " preached and organized a S. S. Socie- 
 ty, with $23 subscribed for a library " — " a sub- 
 scription was commenced with a prospect of ob- 
 taining $75 for a library." This latter subscrip- 
 tion, which was at Lancaster, far exceeds the usual 
 average ; which, for forty-five societie's, is about 
 $17. At the County meeting for Muskingum, 
 held in Putnam, he states that " Reports were made 
 from all the Societies formed, and $220 paid over 
 to the County Treasurer, to be forwarded to Phila- 
 delphia for a library." At a similar meeting for 
 Licking, held in Granville, " delegates were pre- 
 sent from twelve of the fourteen places visited in 
 the county, and $215 were reported for libraries. 
 Granville, having been visited yesterday, had not 
 yet made up its collection, and several of the 
 places visited last intend to add to the amount re- 
 ported. The whole amount for the County will 
 probably be not far from $250." At Mansfield, 
 upon the organization of the County Union, 
 " more than $100 were reported from the Schools 
 formed, although several of the Schools did not 
 report." 
 
 It was their aim to make the Schools which 
 they organized auxiliary to the American Sunday 
 School Union ; but, in this respect, they pursued 
 a liberal and catholic policy. This policy Mr. 
 Judson thus indicates in the letter to Mr. Barber 
 from which some extracts have already been made : 
 
46 MEMOIR OF 
 
 " Where there are Methodists, I advise them to 
 belong to the Methodist Union. Where Metho- 
 dists and Presbyterians are mixed in a school they 
 are divided on the question [of becoming auxi- 
 liary,] and here I advise them to become auxiliary 
 to no Union." This relates to the time of the 
 separate operation of the two brethren. 
 
 It appears from Mr. Judson's letters and journal 
 that he also distributed Tracts and Magazines to 
 some extent. On one page of his journal occurs 
 the following anecdote. "While passing along 
 the road, saw two small boys drawing home corn 
 on a chair leaned back. They lived in a cabin 
 near by. Asked the eldest (eight or ten years of 
 age) if he could read. 
 
 L No Sir, I am not old enough to learn to read.' 
 
 * Can your mother read ?' 
 
 < Yes.' 
 
 1 Will you give her this tract V 
 4 Yes Sir, but may I not have it to learn to read 
 in?' 
 
 c Yes, and I will give one to your brother.' 
 < 1 think you must be a religious man, Sir.' 
 
 < Why ? ' 
 
 * Because you are so clever as to give us books. 
 Thank you, Sir, for the books.' 
 
 I rode on much delighted with the simplicity 
 and the gratitude of the boy." 
 
 In this agency they continued together until 
 March, five months. But Mr. Judson's health 
 sunk under the labor and exposure of the service. 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 47 
 
 Traveling, and the irregularity of diet connected 
 with it, always disagreed with him. That he 
 might enjoy good health he needed a settled and 
 regular mode of life. He retired from his Agency 
 to Marietta, where he was confined by sickness 
 some six or eight weeks. His last entry in his 
 journal is the following : 
 
 " Aggregate [of travel] 2,070 miles ; add 120 
 miles on the Ohio river in steamboat — total 2,190. 
 Aggregate of sermons preached 127." 
 
 This was a hard winter's work ; but one which 
 resulted in the establishment of many Sunday 
 Schools, the resuscitation of some which were 
 languishing, and the introduction of a large num- 
 ber of valuable libraries. In the judgment with 
 which it was planned, and the energy and success 
 with which it was executed the discerning eye 
 eould discover the blossoms of that abundant har- 
 vest of usefulness which followed. 
 
 Mr. Barber, having completed a longer term of 
 service, met Mr. Judson at Marietta, and, as soon 
 as the state of his health would permit, set out 
 with him for home. On this journey he suffered 
 greatly from ill health and depression of spirits. 
 
 The summer of 1829 he spent in Connecticut, 
 preaching in various places. He had not yet re- 
 covered from the shock which his constitution had 
 received in Ohio, but continued feeble and sub- 
 ject to extreme depression of spirits. It was upon 
 one of these occasions that he wrote the sermon 
 so often referred to afterwards by himself as emi- 
 
48 MEMOIR OF 
 
 nently blessed by God, from the text, " I shall be 
 satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." Re- 
 specting this sermon he repeatedly averred that he 
 had the impression while preparing it that he 
 should die in preaching it ; and that he selected 
 that theme because he thought that it would be a 
 pleasant one to die upon. This impression fol- 
 lowed him on Saturday as he left his home in 
 "Woodbury, so much so that he regretted not hav- 
 ing left with his friends a notice of his expected 
 decease. It continued through all the services 
 until he had become warm in preaching, when it 
 was forgotten. This extraordinary incident may 
 serve to shed light on some passages in his history 
 afterwards, when, under the influence of gloomy 
 impressions, he took false views of things, and did 
 not act in accordance with his usual sound judg- 
 ment ; as, for example, when, more than once, he 
 handed in to the deacons of the Church in Milan 
 his resignation on the ground that his usefulness 
 in the congregation was at an end. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 HIS LOCATION IN MILAN, WITH AN ACCOUNT OF 
 HIS LABORS IN BERLIN. 
 
 " A man's heart deviseth his way : but the Lord 
 directeth his steps," — is a maxim of Holy Writ 
 which was strikingly illustrated in Mr. Judson's 
 case. In the summer of 1829 he offered himself 
 as a missionary to the American Home Mission- 
 ary Society, and was ordained in Woodbury by 
 the Litchfield South Association, in company with 
 seven other young men, of whom Mr. Eldad Bar- 
 ber was one. Immediately after the Commence- 
 ment in Yale College, he and Mr. Barber set out 
 together for Ohio, with a commission for Marion 
 county, but a chain of circumstances ordered in 
 God's providence led Mr. Judson to Milan, and 
 eventually brought his associate to the same place. 
 On the steamboat at New York, the two compan- 
 ions met the Rev. Xenophon Betts, who was on 
 his return, with his wife, to Wakeman in Huron 
 county, where he had been installed as pastor the 
 previous spring. In company with Mr. and Mrs. 
 5 
 
50 MEMOIR OF 
 
 Betts was also Mrs. Lockwood, a lady of Milan, 
 since deceased ; and, as they took the slow method 
 of the line-boat through the Canal, a good oppor- 
 tunity was afforded of mutual intercourse, which 
 was afterwards affectionately remembered by all 
 the members of the circle. Thus they traveled to- 
 gether till they reached Cleveland. Here Mr. Bar- 
 ber parted from them and went South to attend 
 the sessions of the Synod of Ohio at Lancaster ; 
 but Mr. Judson, having some relatives and other 
 friends in Mr. Betts' parish, concluded to accom- 
 pany him to Wakeman. To accomplish this they 
 proceeded up the lake to Portland [now Sandusky 
 City]. The remaining circumstances of this his 
 first visit to Milan, fraught with such important 
 interests to him and to that people, as well as to 
 the whole adjoining region, shall be given in his 
 own words contained in a letter from Milan to Mr. 
 Barber under the date of Oct. 6, 1829. " We 
 reached Portland about three o'clock in the morn- 
 ing after you left us. I reached this place about 
 noon the same day, and found, to my no small re- 
 gret, that Mr. Peters had preached here the eve- 
 ning previous, and had left for Columbus only two 
 or three hours before I arrived* I spent the next 
 Sabbath in Wakeman, and preached for brother 
 Betts while he went to Clarksfield. Last Sabbath 
 I preached in this place. It is a pleasant village, 
 and one of considerable importance. There is a 
 small church, but it is at present paralyzed by di- 
 visions and coldness. It is a post that ought by 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 51 
 
 all means to be occupied. They have expressed a 
 high degree of satisfaction with my performance 
 last Sabbath, and are urging me on all hands to 
 stay and preach for them. But you know I am 
 not at liberty to give them any encouragement. 
 I have become acquainted with several of the cler- 
 gymen here, and find them, as far as I can judge, 
 to be men of the right stamp." 
 
 While these influences were operating to detain 
 Mr. Judson on the Western Reserve, others not 
 less strong were repelling him from the place of 
 his original destination. The controversy on the 
 subject of New Haven Theology was then in pro- 
 gress, and, as a natural result, suspicions and 
 jealousies were afloat in the community in refe- 
 rence to the students who came out from that 
 Seminary. Before the two friends left New Ha- 
 ven a letter had been received, addressed to them 
 by a member of the Presbytery of Columbus, 
 which gave them to understand that their orthodoxy 
 was a matter of doubt in that region. " Your sys- 
 tem of theology," says the letter, " may not be the 
 same as ours ; and, possibly, when we come to 
 understand what it is, we may not approve of it ; 
 particularly should you embrace Dr. T.'s views of 
 original sin. But, if that should be your system, 
 we would not think it our duty to shut you out of 
 our limits, but require that you should not teach 
 it ; and endeavor, as brethren, having the same 
 God and engaged in the same cause, to have you 
 adopt a better system." It is not the author's in- 
 
52 MEMOIR OF 
 
 tention to impute any blame to the writer of this 
 letter, who undoubtedly acted from a sense of duty 
 and in the spirit of christian frankness. But it 
 could not operate otherwise upon Mr. Judson's 
 mind than as a dissuasive to his going within the 
 bounds of that Presbytery : for he was not the 
 man to preach any where upon sufferance, within 
 prescribed limits of doctrine. What he believed 
 to be the truth he held openly, and felt himself 
 under obligation to God to preach as openly. 
 Neither was he the man to seek a battle-ground 
 on disputed points of theology. However man- 
 fully he may have afterwards withstood the inroads 
 of error upon the field in which God's providence 
 had located him, he never manifested a disposition 
 to thrust himself forward as an ecclesiastical com- 
 batant. It is certain from his correspondence with 
 Mr. Barber that, ever after the receipt of this letter, 
 his mind had been averse to the idea of entering 
 upon a field of labor where he could not expect 
 the full confidence of his brethren as a man sound 
 in the faith. And when a good opening presented 
 itself to him in a region where, although the minis- 
 ters did not all agree with the New Haven divines, 
 they were yet ready to welcome him with open 
 arms as a faithful minister of Christ, he was 
 strongly set upon occupying it. In the same letter 
 to Mr. Barber, from which an extract has already 
 been given, he says, " I shall plead hard for a loca- 
 tion in this county. I have seen no county in 
 Ohio, except Delaware and Marion, which pre- 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 53 
 
 sents so urgent a call for tiuo additional ministers 
 in the same county as does this. So confident am 
 I that I shall remain here that I shall attend the 
 Synod of the Western Reserve instead of that of 
 Ohio. The county is new and promising, and has 
 quite as much missionary ground as any south 
 of it." 
 
 In accordance with the above intimation he at- 
 tended the Synod of the Western Reserve, and, 
 upon his return to Milan, wrote again to Mr. Bar- 
 ber under date of Oct. 28, 18*29. In this letter he 
 censures Mr. Barber for writing under the influ- 
 ence of " a military spirit," because the latter had 
 advised that they should disregard these suspi- 
 cions about orthodoxy, and go straight forward 
 in their work. " For my part," he says, " I am 
 willing to be called a coward. I had rather run 
 than fight. If the Assembly's Board want Marion 
 County, let them have it. I have confidence in 
 Princeton men, and do not fear for the cause of 
 Christ in their hands." He then dwells largely 
 upon the feeble state of his health. " I have," he 
 says, " much reason to tremble for my health, go 
 where I will. But my labors in Marion county 
 would be twice as great as here. At no time 
 since I arrived here has my health been sufficient 
 to go through with an extempore sermon an hour 
 long without fainting. In addition, if I go there I 
 shall have no roads, few of the comforts which my 
 feeble health requires, and be obliged to ride from 
 place to place, and encounter storms which will 
 5* 
 
54 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 soon wear out my feeble frame." At the close of 
 the letter he says, " I should be glad to write more, 
 but am so fatigued I must lie down. I am at 
 present under the doctor's care." 
 
 November 19, he wrote again as follows : " After 
 I sealed the letter which I wrote to you three 
 weeks ago, I went to bed, as I said I should, but 
 did not rise again, except to have my bed made, 
 for about two weeks. I have had something of a 
 run of fever, in addition to my old complaints. 
 Day before yesterday, three weeks from the time I 
 was taken, I rode out for the first time. How 
 soon I shall be able to preach is known only to 
 him who knows the end from the beginning. I 
 suppose my illness was brought on by the fatigue 
 and exposure of going to the Synod. I was taken 
 before I reached Milan on my return." In the 
 same letter he repeats his arguments against going 
 to Marion county. 
 
 Mr. Judson's disorder was an attack of ague and 
 fever, which, in its final issue, seems to have pro- 
 duced a favorable change in his system, and to 
 have operated as a kind of physical regeneration. 
 Before this attack he was thin and gaunt. It was 
 after he had fully recovered from it that a tendency 
 to corpulency first began to manifest itself. His 
 physician was the late Dr. A. B. Harris, at whose 
 house he was sick. The kind attentions of Dr. 
 Harris and his family made a deep impression on 
 his mind. In one of his letters he says, " Re- 
 specting my sickness I have to remark that my 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 55 
 
 obligations to God are infinite. The first house 
 which I entered in the place was that of Dr. Har- 
 ris.* In him and his wife I have found a brother 
 and a sister indeed. Their house is my home. I 
 could not wish for a better. In his family I was 
 sick, and every attention of every kind which I 
 could reasonably ask for was received, and every 
 thing gratuitous." Between Dr. Harris and Mr. 
 Judson an endeared intimacy existed till the death 
 of the former in the year 1844. 
 
 These particulars of the change of Mr. Judson's 
 plan in respect to his field of labor have been given 
 somewhat in detail, because upon this change 
 hinged the whole of his future life. The invita- 
 tion of the Church in Milan he felt it his duty to 
 accept, and from that time to the day of his death 
 his history is identified with theirs. Virtually, his 
 pastoral relation to them commenced at this point, 
 though he was not formally installed over them 
 until several years afterwards. 
 
 Mr. Judson did not, at the first, give his Sab- 
 bath days exclusively to Milan. One third of the 
 time he preached in Berlin, the township directly 
 east of Milan, which was then called " Eldridge." 
 This arrangement must have been made about the 
 close of the year 1829, for in a letter to Mr. Barber 
 dated Jan. 30, 1830, he says : " I preach two Sab- 
 baths in Milan and one in Eldridge. As I have 
 been at Eldridge but twice, I must defer my ac- 
 
 * He had, however, on his way to the village of Milan, stopped at 
 the house of Deacon Philo Adams, where he took his first meal. 
 
56 MEMOIR OF 
 
 count of that place." The present seems to be a 
 suitable place for inserting a summary of his la- 
 bors in Berlin. 
 
 When he commenced preaching there the Pres- 
 byterian Church had only fifteen members, and 
 was in a very depressed condition, other denomi- 
 nations having had the ascendency in the town. 
 His policy was to go forward in a quiet way, and 
 avoid all controversy with men of other sects. 
 On this point he expresses himself very decidedly. 
 " I feel," he writes to his friend, " that God has in 
 great mercy kept us from excitement;" and he 
 strongly counsels him, if surrounded by men of a 
 sectarian spirit, to "discountenance every thing 
 like noise or excitement," and thus give them 
 " nothing to feed on." To his intimate friends it 
 is well known that, at a later period, when he was 
 absorbed in the work of conducting protracted 
 meetings, he strongly condemned the above senti- 
 ments in regard to excitement, declaring his belief 
 that, through fear of excitement, he had stood in 
 the way of a powerful revival in Berlin. But, 
 many years before his death, he returned again, as 
 we shall see, to his first opinion. 
 
 Besides his regular services in Berlin on the 
 Sabbath, he visited the place once, and sometimes 
 twice a week, to preach an extempore lecture. 
 His labors were owned by the great Head of the 
 Church in the quickening of believers, and the 
 conversion of unbelievers. To his friend he writes, 
 March 16, 1830 : " The little church in Eldridge is 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 57 
 
 very much awake, and there have been of late 
 several hopeful conversions. A number of others 
 are serious. We do not call it a revival yet. We 
 are not, however, without strong hopes.'' And on 
 the 21st of the month following : " There have 
 been eight or ten hopeful conversions at Eldridge : 
 meetings are still crowded : several are still se- 
 rious, and we hope it w T ill continue. I frequently 
 need help there. I preach there every week, and 
 sometimes twice in the week." May 19th, he 
 writes : " The seriousness continues at Eldridge : 
 we have no powerful revival there, but a silent 
 dropping from above." The year following, he 
 notices indications of another revival. " In El- 
 dridge there is again considerable seriousness, and 
 four or five hopeful conversions. We are encour- 
 aged to hope that we shall again witness a revival 
 there." 
 
 Meanwhile he was not forgetful of that cause 
 for which he had labored so efficiently in the cen- 
 tral and southern parts of the state. In the spring 
 after he came to Berlin he organized a Sabbath 
 School which met under the shade of the trees. 
 This school was, for the place, very large and 
 flourishing. In one of his letters he thus notices 
 it : " Our Sunday Schools [at Milan and Eldridge] 
 keep up a considerable interest. The one in El- 
 dridge numbers nearly ninety scholars. That in 
 Milan has, perhaps, nearly as many, but they are 
 not near as regular in their attendance." 
 
 The only place of worship which Mr. Judson 
 
58 MEMOIR OF 
 
 could find in Berlin upon his entrance was a log 
 school-house near the centre of the town, in which 
 all denominations claimed an equal right. In his 
 report to the Home Missionary Society, inserted 
 in the Home Missionary for December 1830, and 
 written the previous autumn, he thus describes 
 the inconveniences to which his congregation was 
 subjected. " Our Sabbath School in Eldridge is 
 still interesting, though much of its interest must 
 soon be destroyed, if, indeed, the school be not 
 entirely suspended, by the approach of cold 
 weather. We have no house of sufficient dimen- 
 sions to accommodate the scholars. During the 
 summer we have assembled the school in the log 
 house which we use as a place of public worship. 
 Every part of the house is so entirely filled with 
 the members of the Sabbath School as would 
 render the scene one of utter confusion, should we 
 attempt to hear recitations. Our usual course has 
 been, after the school is opened by prayer, for the 
 teachers to take the scholars, and march them out 
 by classes, and lodge them under the trees and 
 fences in the neighborhood of the house, and, 
 after recitation, march them back to receive their 
 books from the library. There are usually con- 
 siderable numbers who cannot get within the 
 walls of the house during the public worship. 
 You will see by this that we greatly need a house 
 for the worship of God. The people are now 
 making efforts to build a house thirty by forty 
 next spring. It is doubtful whether they will sue- 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 59 
 
 ceed. Most of them have no dwellings except log 
 cabins, and many of them struggle with poverty. 
 Were the calls upon the benevolent in your city 
 not so frequent, I would ask you to present our 
 case to some who feel for the wants of " the west," 
 with the hope of aid. With $100 from abroad, 
 I would pledge myself that a plain, neat house, 
 thirty by forty, should be erected and finished in 
 one year from this date." 
 
 The $100 from abroad Mr. Judson did not ob- 
 tain. He raised it, as we shall presently see, or, 
 at least, supplied its place, by his own self-denying 
 liberality. Soon after the commencement of his 
 labors in Berlin he had begun to talk to the people 
 on the necessity of a house of worship ; and the 
 importance of this he pressed not only upon the 
 members of the church, but also upon the wealthier 
 men in the place out of the church, wherever he 
 had reason to believe that they would be disposed 
 to do any thing. A subscription paper was put in 
 circulation, and about §350 were subscribed, the 
 privilege being granted to the town of occupying 
 the house for business purposes. It was now that 
 Mr. Judson performed one of those acts of noble 
 liberality which were so characteristic of him. 
 He offered to give for the building of the house all 
 that they should raise that year for his salary, and 
 said, moreover, that if the subscription for this lat- 
 ter object should not amount to §100, he would 
 make up the deficiency. It actually fell short 
 some five or ten dollars, which he paid out of his 
 
60 MEMOIR OF 
 
 own pocket. Thus he bore more than one fifth 
 of the whole expense. And, when the house was 
 completed, in 1831, to furnish the pulpit he gave 
 a Bible and Hymn Book, with this charge : — 
 " I give you these, and, when you get able, you 
 must, in like manner, furnish some needy church." 
 As to the extent of his pecuniary resources when 
 he performed this act of liberality he shall tell his 
 own story. In a letter to Mr. Barber, written this 
 very year, he says : " Some of us [in the Presby- 
 tery of Huron] have nominally $400. I believe 
 I realize more than any other man in the Presby- 
 tery, and I had rather have $350 cash in regular 
 payments than all I now get." But Mr. Judson 
 was generous even to a fault, and, when his 
 heart was set on the accomplishment of an ob- 
 ject, he spared not his own purse, though but 
 slenderly replenished. 
 
 In his congregation in Berlin he manifested a 
 deep interest, and, feeling that he could not oc- 
 cupy both places, he frequently expressed his wil- 
 lingness to take either Berlin or Milan as his 
 permanent field of labor. " It is my wish," he 
 writes in April 1830, " another year, should Provi- 
 dence favor it, to give up either Milan or El- 
 dridge, I do not care which ;" and the same re- 
 mark he frequently repeated. After he left Berlin 
 in 1832, he always took a deep interest in the 
 spiritual welfare of the church to which he had 
 ministered. On one occasion he said to Deacon 
 Fuller : " I am raising up a minister for you : 
 
EVERTON JUDSON, 61 
 
 you must hold on, and struggle along as well 
 as you can ;" alluding to Mr. J. C. Sherwin, then 
 a student of theology in Western Reserve Col- 
 lege, who afterwards so long and so successfully 
 occupied the post of pastor in the Congregational 
 Church in Berlin. 
 
 6 
 
CHAPTER V, 
 
 HIS LABORS IN MILAN TILL THE FALL OF 1831 ] 
 WITH A NOTICE OF THE PART HE BORE IN PRO- 
 TRACTED MEETINGS. 
 
 The history of Mr. Judson's labors in Milan 
 will now be commenced. 
 
 The Congregational Church in Milan was origi- 
 nally organized April 25, 1818, in the house of 
 Mr. Spears at " Spears' Corners," two miles north- 
 west from the center of Milan, and was called the 
 u First Congregational Church of Huron." The 
 Rev. Messrs. William Williams and Alvan Coe, 
 missionaries of the Connecticut Missionary Socie- 
 ty, were present The Church originally consisted 
 of six members, viz. 
 
 William Spears, and Love his wife, 
 
 Gilbert Sexton, and Deborah his wife, 
 
 William Adams, and 
 
 Mrs. Eleanor Adams. 
 In May 1823, the Church removed from Spears' 
 Corners to the center of Milan. At the same time 
 they voted to alter their name to that of the " First 
 Congregational Church in Milan." 
 
EVERTON JUBSON. 63 
 
 In June 1825, the form of government was al- 
 tered from Congregational to Presbyterian, and 
 three Ruling Elders were chosen and regularly set 
 apart to their office. In connection with this 
 change of government a list of church members is 
 given in the records, from which it appears that 
 the church contained at that time nine males, and 
 twenty-eight females, making thirty-seven in all. 
 Upon Mr. Judson's arrival in the fall of 1829, this 
 number had been considerably reduced, for he says, 
 in one of his letters, that, in the summer following, 
 it reported only thirty-two members to the General 
 Assembly. And again, in giving an account of 
 Milan, under date of Jan. 30, 1830, he says : " The 
 number of families in the village is about sixty ; 
 the number of inhabitants not far from four hun- 
 dred. Of all these not more than twenty-five or 
 thirty profess religion. Of these about twenty are 
 Presbyterians." 
 
 In Jan. 1830, the Church petitioned the Presby- 
 tery of Huron for permission to change its form of 
 government back again from Presbyterian to Con- 
 gregational. This petition was granted on condi- 
 tion of the assent of two thirds of the members, 
 with a recommendation that the following article 
 be adopted as a part of their constitution, viz. 
 " Any person belonging to a Presbyterian Church, 
 or having a preference for the Presbyterian form 
 of government, and signifying this at the time 
 when he unites with the Church, may be received 
 as such, and for him the Standing Committee 
 
64 MEMOIR OP 
 
 shall be in the place of a Board of Elders in the 
 Presbyterian Church." 
 
 Mr. Judson preached his first sermon in Milan 
 Oct. 4, 1829, in "the yellow schoolhouse," oppo- 
 site to the present Methodist Church. Of the at- 
 tendance on that day, so memorable to the people 
 of Milan, he says : " Although it was a pleasant 
 day, there were not more than thirty present." 
 But these thirty appear to have been " men that 
 had understanding of the times to know what 
 Israel ought to do," for, as we have seen, they im- 
 mediately pressed him to remain with them. The 
 number of his hearers steadily increased till, in the 
 January following, it was " at least four times as 
 large as at first." 
 
 In commencing his pastoral labors he fully 
 obeyed the injunction of inspiration, " Whatsoever 
 thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." 
 The greatness and solemnity of the work to which 
 he had been set apart by his ordination vows filled 
 his vision, and called forth his utmost energies. 
 He had not the most distant idea of settling qui- 
 etly down in his parish, and performing just labor 
 enough to satisfy the congregation. On the con- 
 trary, he set himself earnestly about the work of 
 " breaking up the fallow ground " (to use his own 
 expression) in all directions around him. His la- 
 bors at this period were most abundant and ex- 
 hausting. Besides his regular sermons on the 
 Sabbath, which at this period were always written, 
 he attended frequent neighborhood meetings in the 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 65 
 
 vicinity of his two parishes. To one of his dea- 
 cons in Berlin he once said that for some three 
 weeks he had not lodged more than one night in a 
 place. He was occupied in preaching to the peo- 
 ple in the outskirts of his parishes wherever he 
 could find them. He preached in log-houses or 
 barns as opportunity offered. Another of his pa- 
 rishioners says of him, " He was almost always on 
 horseback." 
 
 These severe labors brought on, in the summer 
 and fall of 1830, a fresh attack of his old com- 
 plaint, the ague. Writing on this subject to Mr. 
 Barber, he says, Sept. 17, 1830 : " At the time I 
 wrote last I think I was recovering. Since that 
 time, in consequence of too much exertion, I have 
 suffered a second attack from the ague. I have 
 again broken it, and am fast recovering my health. 
 At the same time a little exposure would probably 
 bring it on again. So long as I am careful of my 
 health, I can preach four or five times a week 
 without inconvenience." 
 
 These earnest and abundant labors were sig- 
 nally owned of God. Of Berlin the account has 
 already been given. So early as March 1830, he 
 speaks of the success of his labors in connection 
 with his sense of his own unworthiness. " You 
 speak," he writes to Mr. Barber, " in your last let- 
 ter of the probable effect of my sickness" — the 
 sickness noticed in the last chapter — " in bringing 
 me near to God. I fear you are mistaken. It ap- 
 pears to me that I was never so far from God in 
 6* 
 
66 MEMOIR OF 
 
 my life — so cold, so dead, so destitute of a spirit 
 of prayer, so utterly unlike what a Christian should 
 be ; and yet, strange as it may seem, God seems 
 to be blessing my labors. The Church in this 
 place is revived almost inconceivably since I came 
 here." He then goes on to speak of the condition 
 of things in Berlin, as already given. 
 
 In the September following, a Conference of 
 Churches, which met regularly once a month, held 
 its sessions in Milan. Of this he says : " It was 
 productive of some good. Our meetings are much 
 increased in numbers and interest. Several are 
 seriously inquiring what they must do to be saved, 
 and two or three are indulging the hope that they 
 have passed from death unto life. I have been 
 led for some time past to believe that when I first 
 began to preach here I placed too much depend- 
 ence on my own arm, and looked too little to the 
 Holy Spirit to make the truth effectual. Are we 
 not in danger of feeling too little the inefficiency 
 of our own arm ? I am not changing my theo- 
 logical views with regard to the adaptedness of 
 truth to produce the effect. But I think I see more 
 of the stubbornness of the human heart in oppo- 
 sing it, unless it is bowed by the omnipotent ener- 
 gies of the Holy Spirit." 
 
 In this excellent state of mind we discern a pre- 
 paration to receive a refreshing from God's pre- 
 sence. It is not surprising that, a few months af- 
 terwards, Jan. 15, 1831, he should write to Mr. 
 Barber as follows : " Shall I tell you what God 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 67 
 
 has done for us in Milan ? Seventeen have united 
 with the church by profession. At our commu- 
 nion in February probably twelve or fifteen others 
 will come forward. The number of hopeful con- 
 versions has been from twenty-five to forty. Since 
 you left, the work has been more among heads of 
 families. * * * Our little church, which reported 
 only thirty-two members to the last General As- 
 sembly, will be able to report probably from 
 seventy-five to eighty next spring. What hath 
 God wrought ! Let us magnify the Lord together. 
 The number that attend meeting has considerably 
 increased since you were here. The house is 
 scarcely sufficient to hold them. Conversions are 
 not as frequent of late, although the attention does 
 not seem to diminish. Our meetings have never 
 been better attended than at present." 
 
 Again he writes, Feb. 25, 1831 : " T believe since 
 I saw you my public labors have amounted to 
 more than six sermons per week on an average, 
 besides considerable pastoral labor in visiting 
 families, schools, Sabbath schools, etc. * * * I know 
 I am too prone — far too prone — to magnify my- 
 self instead of exalting God. 1 am however more 
 and more convinced that God is all and in all in 
 the conversion of sinners. I think I see more and 
 more of the weakness and inefficiency of means, 
 until they are set home by the Holy Ghost sent 
 down from heaven. Since I wrote you last there 
 have been occasional instances of conversion. 
 Our meetings on the Sabbath and in the evening 
 
bO MEMOIR OF 
 
 are considerably more crowded, and our Sabbath 
 school has considerably increased. * * * God is 
 doing much for us in this County. The revival 
 continues in the congregations of Lyme and 
 Ridgefield. Several conversions have recently oc- 
 curred in Ruggles, and indeed there have been 
 conversions more or less in six or eight of the 
 churches of this County within a few weeks. - The 
 whole number that have united with the Church 
 in Milan within a year is forty-two. Eight or ten 
 will unite with us next communion. Till within 
 one year ago the moral aspect of this County was 
 probably as dark as that of Marion. Three years 
 ago there were only two ministers of our denomi- 
 nation. Now there are eight who bestow their 
 whole time upon the work. There had hardly 
 been a dozen conversions in five years previous to 
 this year." 
 
 The above extract shows that it was a time of 
 general religious interest in that region, as indeed 
 it was throughout a large portion of the United 
 States. Of this he speaks in another letter dated 
 July 18, 1831 : " There has not been a time for a 
 year and a half in which there has not been a 
 revival in some one of our churches. Yesterday 
 about thirty were added to the Church in Ver- 
 million. The Sabbath before, twenty were added 
 to the Church in Lyme. The Sabbath before 
 that, nine were added to the Church in Wakeman, 
 and several of our churches expect to receive addi- 
 tions soon. Thus you see God is doing great 
 things for us." 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 69 
 
 The following extracts from his Reports to the 
 Home Missionary Society, which appeared in the 
 Home Missionary for March and May 1831, will 
 be a suitable close to the notice of this revival. 
 " During the last three months I have attended 
 most of the time four stated weekly meetings in 
 different parts of my congregations, and occasional 
 meetings frequently. The contrast between the 
 religious aspect of things here now, and what it 
 was one year since, is very wide. Considering 
 the sparseness of our population, the revival has 
 probably been as extensive here as in many places 
 among our favored churches at the East, where 
 they count hundreds among the hopeful converts." 
 — Vol III p. 222. 
 
 " Twenty have united with our Church, [since 
 the last Report,] eighteen of them by confession, 
 which, added to the seventeen, before reported, 
 gives thirty-five who have united with us, as the 
 fruits of this revival. Others are expected to unite 
 with us at our next communion. The whole num- 
 ber that have united with the Milan Church with- 
 in a year is forty-eight. This, when we take into 
 consideration that the whole number antecedent 
 to that period was only thirty-two, may be re- 
 garded as a large accession to our numbers." — 
 Vol IV p. 11. 
 
 While Mr. Judson's pastoral labors were greatly 
 multiplied, he did not, as we have already seen, 
 forget the cause of Sabbath Schools. In addition 
 to the care which he bestowed upon the two in 
 
70 MEMOIR OF 
 
 his own parishes, he exerted himself for their es- 
 tablishment in the county. " I am expecting soon," 
 he writes in the spring of 1830, "to visit the 
 County for the purpose of forming Sabbath 
 Schools in eight or ten places." A County Sab- 
 bath School Union had been previously formed by 
 another agency, called the Huron County Sabbath 
 School Union. In behalf of this he wrote, as 
 Secretary, to Philadelphia, ordering $150 worth of 
 books, for which he promised to make remittances 
 as soon as the books could be sold. He was not 
 able to obtain credit for the books upon terms 
 which he thought reasonable, and was highly of- 
 fended at the conditions proposed. Upon this he 
 immediately sat down and drew up a subscription 
 which he headed with the sum of $10, mounted 
 his horse, and rode through the county, determined,, 
 as he said, that Huron County should have a de- 
 pository of its own if he paid for it himself. He 
 raised something over $100. " We are indepen- 
 dent," he writes,, " and get our books at New York^ 
 or Utica, or wherever else we please. I keep the 
 depository, and Dr. Harris is my clerk." This 
 movement was highly characteristic. 
 
 In the year 1831, Mr. Judson's views underwent 
 a great change in respect to the measures to be 
 used for the promotion of revivals. This change 
 may be summarily described as a conversion to 
 the system of protracted meetings — " Four Days' 
 Meetings " they were then called — with the usual 
 appendages of " anxious seats," and the like. He 
 
EVERT0N JUDSON. 71 
 
 had an agency for the New York Evangelist, 
 which was, at that time, strongly committed to 
 the measures of Mr. Finney and his coadjutors, 
 and it was probably through the influence of that 
 paper that his mind was first turned in this direc- 
 tion. His letters show that, in accordance with 
 the native ardor of his character, he went into 
 this system, respecting which he had not long be- 
 fore expressed himself unfavorably, with all his 
 soul. He speaks in one of his letters, written in 
 May, of his intention, during a contemplated jour- 
 ney to the East, to spend, if practicable, a week or 
 two with Mr. Finney. He adds : " It is the wish 
 of this Presbytery, at least of most of the mem- 
 bers, that I should invite him to visit this County." 
 Respecting this declaration it should be remarked 
 that he speaks only of the wishes of members of 
 the Presbytery unofficially expressed. They were 
 not unanimous in such a wish, and it was never 
 carried into execution. But from that time on- 
 ward, till the close of the year 1834, his labors in 
 Four Days' meetings were very abundant. To 
 enumerate all the places where he assisted in con- 
 ducting them is impossible. Eden, Tiffin, Bloom, 
 Lyme, Fitchville, Mansfield, Plymouth, Maxville, 
 Monroeville, Berlin, Ruggles, Windham, may be 
 mentioned. In company with the Rev. Enoch 
 Conger he attended nearly all the protracted meet- 
 ings of the region. For this purpose they occa- 
 sionally obtained leave of absence from their con- 
 gregations for specified periods. In communica- 
 
72 MEMOIR OF 
 
 ting to the Ohio Observer an account of the revi- 
 val in Eden, Mr. Judson says : " Brother Conger 
 and myself have obtained leave of our respective 
 congregations to be absent three months during the 
 remainder of this year. Our object is to spend 
 the time exclusively in protracted meetings. A 
 large proportion of it we expect to spend in these 
 Western counties." The meetings were generally 
 four days in length, and were conducted after the 
 usual manner of protracted meetings at that pe- 
 riod, with three sermons a day, and usually prayer- 
 meetings before sermon. Mr. Conger generally 
 called out the anxious and Mr. Judson addressed 
 them, setting forth their condition and prospects 
 as sinners, the reasonableness of God's service, 
 and the excellency of the gospel method of salva- 
 tion. Towards the close of these meetings they 
 sometimes called upon those who indulged the 
 hope of having passed from death to life to rise. 
 This was always after clear and definite instruc- 
 tion respecting the nature of true religion. The 
 success of these meetings was various, but was, 
 upon the whole, as great as usually attended such 
 services. 
 
 Within the bounds of Huron Presbytery they 
 never had much foreign help* Messrs. Judson and 
 Conger once attended a meeting in Carlyle con- 
 ducted by Rev. Lucius Foote. It rested with 
 them to say whether he should or should not be 
 invited to labor within the bounds of Huron Pres- 
 bytery. But they, after attentive observationj re- 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 73 
 
 turned without inviting him, fully persuaded that 
 it was best for the ministers to keep the manage- 
 ment of these meetings in their own hands. 
 
 At the close of the series of meetings held with- 
 in the bounds of the Presbytery of Huron, he be- 
 gan to express to his colleague, doubts as to the 
 utility of this form of advancing Christ's kingdom. 
 He said : " I do not wish to speak against them 
 publicly, but I have serious doubts whether upon 
 the whole they do good." His objections arose 
 from their extreme liability to perversion, and from 
 the fact that they were actually perverted. To an 
 intimate friend he once said: "These measures 
 for promoting revivals which I have employed in 
 connection with protracted meetings have been 
 greatly abused by the prominent leaders : I feel 
 that to encourage them further would be wrong : 
 to return to the beaten paths is now the best way." 
 His mind became gradually more and more set- 
 tled in this conviction, and he positively refused 
 to attend one that was held in Plymouth after Mr. 
 Conger took charge of that congregation. The 
 results of the protracted meeting held in his own 
 congregation near the close of the year 1835, of 
 which notice will be taken hereafter, contributed 
 largely to determine his mind against the utility 
 of their continuance. From that time till the day 
 of his death he firmly maintained the ground that 
 the time for this kind of efforts was past, and, in 
 promoting the cause of Christ among his people, 
 7 
 
74 MEMOIR. 
 
 he relied exclusively upon the ordinary means of 
 grace. 
 
 It should be added here that, during his efforts 
 in protracted meetings, he adopted from necessity 
 the method of preaching extemporaneously. Of 
 this he was for some time a warm advocate, and 
 practiced it exclusively. But he returned again, 
 about the year 1837, to his former habit of writing. 
 This two-fold change will be considered more at 
 large in another place. It is referred to here sim- 
 ply as a part of his history. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CONTINUATION OF HIS LABORS IN MILAN TILL THE 
 CLOSE OF THE YEAR 1836. 
 
 In the fall of the year 1831, Mr. Judson found 
 leisure, notwithstanding the multiplicity of his 
 labors, to form the plan of an institution which 
 was subsequently put into successful operation 
 mainly by his energy and indomitable perseve- 
 rance, and which still exists as a monument of his 
 wisdom and forethought. This was the Huron 
 Institute. The first notice of this is in the fol- 
 lowing letter to Mr. Barber, dated Sept. 29, 1831. 
 
 u At the late meeting of our Presbytery we re- 
 solved to establish a Manual Labor School as 
 soon as practicable. Its location will probably be 
 at Milan. We shall employ some one as a per- 
 manent Principal, with the expectation that he 
 will have such assistance as the growing interests 
 of the Institute may demand. We intend to have 
 a Ladies' Department as soon as we can support 
 it. Our first object is to train young men for Col- 
 lege, and, perhaps, carry some through their studies 
 
76 MEMOIR OF 
 
 for the ministry where they may be too old for 
 College, and may wish to cut short their course. 
 Our second object is to prepare teachers for our 
 common schools. Our third, to finish the educa- 
 tion of youth who expect to engage in the com- 
 mon business of life. You see we are looking for 
 something large. The Presbytery have appointed 
 a Board of twelve men, ministers and laymen, 
 who are to obtain a charter, and to possess the 
 power of filling their own vacancies, and have the 
 entire control of the Institution. I am one of that 
 Board. At its commencement we shall, perhaps, 
 be obliged to throw our three departments into 
 one. The whole county will patronize it. There 
 is no place in the county where young men may 
 fit for either of the above callings. * * * The in- 
 stitution is a child of my own creating, and my 
 whole soul is embarked in it. We intend to at- 
 tach to it a small farm and a mechanic's shop." 
 
 In a subsequent letter to Mr. Barber, written in 
 the December following, he says : " The Board 
 had pledged themselves to raise $2,000, provided 
 that any place would subscribe the same sum for 
 its location. Three places in the county came 
 forward with pledges to that amount — Portland 
 [Sandusky city], Monroeville, and Milan. * * * 
 At a meeting of our Presbytery last week, they 
 took the pledge of $2,000 off the hands of the 
 Trustees. So you see we start with a capital of 
 $4,000. "We intend to erect a brick building as 
 soon as practicable in the spring, probably three 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 77 
 
 stories, and thirty-five by forty-five or fifty. We 
 intend also to procure some chemical and philo- 
 sophical apparatus. We hope to have an estab- 
 lishment where we may fit for College all who 
 may wish, and where young men may acquire 
 still higher branches who may be too old to ac- 
 quire a liberal education, and still wish to enter 
 the ministry. We shall also, as soon as practica- 
 ble, sustain a female department, and a depart- 
 ment of English studies for young men." 
 
 The Institute was to be a manual-labor School, 
 in accordance with the universal fashion of the 
 day. It had originally a shop, with about twelve 
 acres of land. The manual labor part of it took 
 the same course and came to the same end that it 
 did in other similar establishments. The three 
 departments of which he speaks never existed in 
 the Institute as separately organized parts. When 
 he speaks of carrying "some young men through 
 their studies for the ministry, where they may be 
 too old for College, and may wish to cut short 
 their course," he is to be understood as referring 
 to the studies preparatory to the proper theological 
 course ; for it does not appear that he ever pro- 
 posed to give theological education at the Insti- 
 tute, or to put young men into the ministry with- 
 out such an education. But, although a firm friend 
 and supporter of the regular collegiate course, he 
 believed, in common with many others, that ex- 
 ceptions might occasionally exist which ought to 
 be provided for. 
 
78 MEMOIR OF 
 
 The people of Milan, who had obtained the loca- 
 tion of the Institute, subsequently increased their 
 subscription to $2,600. In the whole of the enter- 
 prise Mr. Judson was the moving power. It was 
 not his nature to commit to others the execution 
 of a plan which he had much at heart. He ob- 
 tained all the subscriptions, and took upon his 
 shoulders the whole burden of superintending the 
 erection of the building — a burden which was im- 
 mensely increased by the newness of the region — 
 even to the purchase of the materials, and to the 
 contracts with the workmen. The edifice was 
 completed and the Institute went into operation 
 in 1832. 
 
 The first principal was the Rev. Eldad Barber, 
 with whom he had maintained a constant episto- 
 lary intercourse since the time of their separation 
 at Cleveland in 1829. The cessation of this in- 
 tercourse, upon the removal of Mr. Barber to Mi- 
 lan, deprives us of one of the most certain means 
 of following Mr. Judson in his toils and enterprises. 
 For this reason the notices of his ministerial and 
 other labors must henceforward be briefer and 
 more imperfect. It is sufficient here to say that, 
 as far as we can follow him, we find his labors in 
 the way of preaching and holding meetings as 
 abundant as before. In one of his letters to Mr. 
 Barber, written in January 1832, he had said : 
 " I have undertaken to ride circuit this winter." 
 This language having been misunderstood, he, in 
 the next letter, explained his meaning as follows : 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 79 
 
 " You misunderstood my plan of circuit-riding. 
 I preach in Eldridge and Milan as usual, but de- 
 vote my evenings almost exclusively to preaching 
 in adjacent places through the week." 
 
 The year after the completion of the building 
 for the Huron Institute—the year 1833 — the Church 
 left "the yellow school-house," and commenced 
 worshiping in the lower room of that edifice. 
 This appears to have been to the Church a year of 
 great prosperity, as the records show the addition 
 of thirty-nine persons, twenty-one of whom were 
 by profession. A letter written by Dr. Chauncey 
 Stuart in the month of June says : " Religion is 
 gaining ground here very fast. There are many, 
 however, especially of the first settlers of the 
 county, who are irreligious. For many years they 
 had no preaching, the population being so scat- 
 tered. Some of them have become skeptical, and 
 others very indifferent, their minds being wholly 
 engrossed with the world. Mr. Judson is here, 
 and is one of the most efficient men in the county. 
 He is a very popular preacher, and is doing much 
 good. He is on good terms with all classes of 
 men, mingles with them, and gains their good will. 
 There have been from fifteen to twenty conver- 
 sions in the village since I came here — [he had 
 been in Milan about a month.] Mr. Judson has 
 preached every Sunday, and Tuesday and Thursday 
 evening. He not only puts the machinery in mo- 
 tion, (as every thing goes by steam-power now-a- 
 days) but keeps putting up the fire under the ket- 
 tle himself." 
 
80 MEMOIR OF 
 
 The concluding paragraph of this letter inti- 
 mates that, at this time, Mr. Judson's preaching 
 and measures were of an exciting character — too 
 exciting, as he was afterwards fully convinced — 
 and this accords with the fact already stated that, 
 about this time, he expressed in strong language 
 his disapprobation of the ground which he had 
 formerly taken against exciting measures — ground 
 to which he afterwards returned, and upon which 
 he stood firm till the day of his death. 
 
 It does not appear, however, that in these labors 
 he resorted to the means technically called " new 
 measures." His own account of the revival, fur- 
 nished by Mr. Reed from a conversation which he 
 had with Mr. Judson on board a steamer between 
 Buffalo and Sandusky City, and inserted in Ma- 
 theson and Heed's Visit to the American Churches, 
 is the following: 
 
 " The second occasion [of a revival — he had 
 spoken of one in another place] was connected 
 with the death of an aged woman, a member of 
 the Church, and a l mother in Israel.' She had 
 seven children ; they were now grown up and set- 
 tled in life ; but, notwithstanding all her instruc- 
 tions and prayers, they had become exceedingly 
 worldly, and, during her life time, disregarded se- 
 rious religion. Her death, however, did what her 
 life had failed to do. Her eldest [it should be 
 second] daughter was much affected by the event, 
 and by the painful reflections it brought with it. 
 She was visited, and conversed with. Her hus- 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 81 
 
 band came in at the time ; and the conversation, 
 without changing its character, naturally turned to 
 him ; and the season justified a pointed address, 
 and he also fell under the force of salutary convic- 
 tion. Another son, who was brought from New 
 York to the funeral, and who had been conspicuous 
 in the infidel club in that city, became fearfully 
 convicted of sin, and was driven to temporary 
 despair ; but in the end he confessed his sins, and 
 professed Christ with great earnestness and deci- 
 sion. In such a rural population these things 
 would not be done in a corner, but would be 
 known to all. They had a very beneficial effect 
 on many ; and the good minister sought a careful 
 improvement of the dispensation. The effect on 
 this family was that five of the seven children 
 were united to the Church ; and the effect of the 
 two seasons of revived influence [in Milan and in 
 the other place before mentioned] was that about 
 one hundred persons gave good ' reason of the 
 hope that was in them.' No particularity of 
 method was adopted here ; and the anxious seat 
 was not used." — Matheson and Reed's Visit. Let- 
 ter 10.* 
 
 The above extract is valuable as exhibiting one 
 of Mr. Judson's prime excellencies as a pastor, 
 which will be considered more at large in another 
 
 * Some corrections should be made of the incidents stated in the 
 above letter. The son to whom reference is made was not called 
 home to attend his mother's funeral, but had previously relumed. 
 There were but four of the family that united with the Church as the 
 result of this awakening. 
 
06 MEMOIR OF 
 
 place — his skill in seizing upon afflictive dispensa- 
 tions as the occasion of bringing evangelical truth 
 before the mind. 
 
 In February 1835, he was united in marriage to 
 Mrs. Catharine B. Stuart. This union was con- 
 ducive alike to bis comfort and his usefulness in 
 the ministry, and the happy influences resulting 
 therefrom were visible to the close of his earthly 
 career. 
 
 The labor of superintending the erection of the 
 Huron Institute was, after the lapse of a little 
 more than two years, followed by a still more ar- 
 duous and difficult undertaking, that of erecting a 
 brick Church, at an expense exceeding $8,000. 
 In January 1835, a few citizens convened, at the 
 instance of Mr. N. M. Standard, to devise mea- 
 sures for the erection of a house of worship. The 
 result was the completion in about two years of 
 the present brick Church. The building was pro- 
 jected, and much the greater part of the expense 
 sustained by those who were not members of the 
 Church. The funds were raised by subscription. 
 By the concession of all persons in Milan Mr. Jud- 
 son was the life and soul of this enterprise. He 
 circulated the subscription paper, collected the 
 subscription in great part, and was the most active 
 and efficient of the building committee- — rather he 
 embodied in himself the energies of this commit- 
 tee : for he humorously says, in a letter to his sis- 
 ter, now Mrs. Abbott, dated August 5, 1835 : 
 " Mr. S. and myself do all the business as building 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 83 
 
 committee, and as he is gone, the whole business 
 devolves on me." The purchases of stone, brick, 
 timber, etc., were made by him. " If you wish to 
 know how I am employed," he goes on to say in 
 the same letter, "just think of me with my little 
 brown roundabout, and my big palm hat, stream- 
 ing off to Berlin for stones, to Perkins for lime, or 
 to Wakeman for lumber, or somewhere else for 
 something else, on my old Kate." 
 
 The erection of such a building in a region so 
 new, and without foreign aid, was an arduous un- 
 dertaking. Few men indeed would have had 
 courage to attempt, or resolution and resources of 
 ingenuity and contrivance enough to carry through 
 the work. In its progress great difficulties were 
 encountered. The subscriptions were scattered 
 all over the place, and were to be collected at a 
 great expense of time and patience. He often 
 pledged his personal credit, and 5 at the close of the 
 work, found himself loaded with a bank debt of 
 $300. This was finally taken off from his hands 
 by a voluntary subscription of some of the citizens 
 of Milan. 
 
 The course pursued by Mr. Judson, in taking 
 upon himself the active supervision of the build- 
 ing, even to the purchase of the materials, is not 
 to be commended to pastors as an example for 
 general imitation. Besides other infelicities con- 
 nected with constant absorption in pecuniary 
 transactions, it must necessarily draw them away 
 from the study, in mind as well as in body, and 
 
84 MEMOIR OF 
 
 leave their preparations for the Sabbath meagre and 
 defective. Though Mr. Judson's christian charac- 
 ter and reputation were never tarnished in the 
 least by any of the numerous business transac- 
 tions in which he was engaged — against this his 
 good judgment, his quick perception of what was 
 fair and honorable, and his abhorrence of all mean- 
 ness were a sufficient guarantee — yet his pulpit 
 performances during this period showed that he 
 was no exception to the rule that a man's thoughts 
 cannot, at one and the same time, be absorbed in 
 two different objects. His sermons wanted that 
 fulness and body of thought which can be secured 
 only by the preacher who complies with the pre- 
 cept of inspiration, " Meditate upon these things ; 
 give thyself wholly to them ; that thy profiting 
 may appear to all." Of this he was himself con- 
 scious, and freely admitted that, as a general prin- 
 ciple, the minister of Christ should leave such a 
 work as this to the laymen of his congregation. 
 But he justified himself on the ground that his 
 situation was analagous to that of a missionary 
 who, as a pioneer preparing the way for future 
 laborers, is under the necessity of doing many 
 things which, in ordinary circumstances, were bet- 
 ter left to others. " The region," so he argued, 
 " is new, and unaccustomed to such undertakings. 
 If I do not take hold of it personally, it will fail." 
 The reaction upon his own mind of this conscious 
 deficiency in his pulpit preparations during the 
 above period — a deficiency which the best part of 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 85 
 
 his congregation felt the most severely — was pro- 
 bably one of the causes which led, soon after, to a 
 revolution in his habits of preparing sermons, and 
 caused him to devote himself with fresh zeal to 
 the proper business of the ministry. 
 
 In December 1835, Mr. Judson's congregation 
 left the Huron Institute and commenced worship- 
 ping in the basement of the new Church. About 
 the same time an increased religious interest be- 
 gan to manifest itself. Of the progress and results 
 of this, Mr. Judson gives the following account 
 in a communication to the Ohio Observer dated 
 Feb. 13, 1836. 
 
 " It may be well to advert for a moment to the 
 previous state of religious feeling and action 
 among us. There has been but one communion 
 season for some three years or more, (and these 
 seasons occur with us every two months,) in which 
 some, more or less, have not by profession united 
 with this Church, and conversions have occurred 
 at short intervals through the greater part of the 
 last four years. The last summer however has 
 been with us one of unusual stupidity. My own 
 feeble health, the people having thereby been de- 
 prived, in a great measure, of regular preaching 
 and pastoral labor, and the excitement occasioned 
 by successful efforts to erect a large and somewhat 
 expensive Church, may have been, and probably 
 were, the more efficient causes in hindering the 
 work of God. Early in the fall several of the 
 8 
 
86 MEMOIR OF 
 
 more active members of the Church became more 
 vigilant and more zealous in the discharge of their 
 duties to the impenitent, and in their efforts to 
 awaken their brethren and sisters in the Church. 
 
 Increased activity among Christians and a more 
 general attendance upon religious meetings were 
 all the marks of a revival of religion that were no- 
 ticed, until the last Sabbath but one of December^ 
 when there was a manifest solemnity upon the 
 whole congregation. Late in the evening of that 
 day, a young man, student in the Huron Institute, 
 who had been for several years a confirmed Deist, 
 sent for me to call at his room. I found him in 
 extreme anguish of mind. Before morning he be- 
 came willing to obey the Savior and receive him 
 by faith. In the course of ten or twelve days, 
 thera were about an equal number of conversions, 
 chiefly of youth, connected with the Institute. Mr. 
 Hickok, the Principal, and the students of the 
 Institution were very active in extending their la- 
 bors into the village. Just at this time Br. R. 
 Stone came into the place, on his way westward, 
 and, at the solicitation of the Church, spent two 
 weeks in very efficient labors for the promotion of 
 the revival. One week of this time was employed 
 in a protracted meeting which resulted in great 
 good.* The work of grace still goes forward, and 
 every week from the commencement of the revival 
 to the present time has added some to the number 
 
 * In consequence of the feeble state of Mr. Judson's health the labor 
 of preaching fell mainly upon Mr. Stone. 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 87 
 
 of converts. Last Sabbath was our communion 
 season, — thirty-six, three of whom by letter, con- 
 nected themselves with our Church. 
 
 About one half the number knelt around the 
 platform to receive baptism ; the others had been 
 baptized on the faith of their parents. Among 
 them were persons of almost every age and of, till 
 recently, almost every description of character. 
 An unusually large number of the converts is 
 gathered from the ranks of Infidelity and Univer- 
 salism, where, in perfect keeping with their faith, 
 they have formerly been engaged in Sabbath- 
 breaking, profanity, gambling, the midnight ca- 
 rouse, and such other works as were the legitimate 
 fruits of such faith. Others will probably unite 
 with us hereafter." 
 
 Mr. Judson, at the time when this communica- 
 tion was written, reposed great confidence in these 
 converts, and spoke of them to prominent mem- 
 bers of his Church as appearing well. In a letter 
 to his sister, of the same date as the above, after 
 detailing the facts already given, he adds : " The 
 addition, at one time, of a number greater than 
 the whole Church the first year of my labors, has 
 created emotions of no ordinary interest. Nine 
 were added two months before. I think our 
 Church now numbers about 180. I wonder, when 
 I remember the unworthy instrument of which 
 God has made use in bringing sinners to himself. 
 I am astonished at myself, so unfruitful and un- 
 worthy, and yet God has, in no mean measure. 
 
88 MEMOIR OF 
 
 owned my labors. I believe there has been but 
 one communion season in which some have not, 
 for the first time, sat down with us at the table of 
 our blessed Lord. The revival still goes on. 
 Every week adds to the number of the converts." 
 
 The sanguine hopes which he entertained re- 
 specting the fruits of this revival, were, in many 
 cases, destined to end in disappointment — such 
 disappointment as he did not experience in the 
 case of any other revival that took place under his 
 ministry. Numbers of the converts, indeed, en- 
 dured the test of time, and proved themselves to 
 be stable Christians ; but an unusually large pro- 
 portion were of that class who " receive the word 
 with joy," but " have no root, which for a while be- 
 lieve, and in time of temptation fall away." Min- 
 isters ought not to be lightly censured for the apos- 
 tasy of their converts. Such apostasies happened 
 under the preaching of inspired apostles, and will 
 happen in all ages. All for which the preacher 
 can be justly held responsible is "rightly dividing 
 the word of truth," so as to adapt it with care and 
 discrimination to the wants of the several classes 
 of his hearers. But when, as in the present case, 
 the number of the inconstant is greatly multiplied, 
 we may lawfully inquire after the causes. 
 
 One of these causes maybe found in the previous 
 character of many of the converts. Destitute, as they 
 were, of a religious education, and, consequently, ig- 
 norant of the principles of the gospel, they were far 
 more liable to take up false ideas of religion than 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 89 
 
 those who have been trained up in the bosom of 
 christian families. The experience of the christian 
 Church in all ages shows that such persons, when 
 they first become interested in religion, need, as a 
 general rule, a large amount of instruction on 
 many points of christian faith and practice, that 
 they may become well settled and grounded in the 
 christian life ; and that they are, moreover, pecu- 
 liarly liable to mistake the false fire of human ex- 
 citement for the genuine flame of heavenly love. 
 
 Another cause manifestly was the hurried man- 
 ner of their reception into the Church. Prudence 
 would have dictated that, in the case, at least, of 
 persons dug out of the mire of infidelity, there 
 should have been considerable delay, enough, cer- 
 tainly, to furnish opportunity for repeated inter- 
 views with the candidates for church-membership. 
 But no such delay took place. The revival did 
 not assume a marked character until the last Sab- 
 bath of December : the supposed conversions took 
 place throughout the month of January, and, on 
 the first Sabbath in February, we find thirty-three 
 of them admitted to the Church. 
 
 It may be added that the exciting topics which 
 were, by the concession of all who attended this 
 protracted meeting, made very prominent, were 
 better adapted to arouse the minds of the young 
 and ignorant, than to enlighten them in the nature 
 of true religion. Now universal experience, as 
 well as the example of our Lord and his Apostles, 
 shows that men need not only to be excited to 
 8* 
 
90 MEMOIR OF 
 
 seek the way of life, but also to be carefully di- 
 rected into it, and taught to distinguish it from 
 the many false ways that lead off from it ; and 
 that where this necessary work is, for any cause, 
 omitted, it may be expected that false hopes will 
 greatly abound. When we take into account all 
 these circumstances we need not be greatly sur- 
 prised that one who is every way a competent 
 witness should bear the following testimony : — 
 " I do not know of any who had previously been 
 infidel in their sentiments who persevered." 
 
 This painful result administered to Mr. Judson 
 a salutary lesson of instruction which he did not 
 fail to improve. " It is my impression," says the 
 witness whose words have been just quoted, " that 
 this was the turning point in his history. His 
 manner of preaching began from that time to be 
 more mellow, and, in speaking of this effort, he 
 condemned it. He never afterwards engaged in 
 protracted meetings." 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 FROM THE BEGINNING OF 1837, TO THE CLOSE OF 
 HIS PUBLIC LABORS IN DECEMBER 1847. 
 
 The new Church was dedicated on the last day 
 of January 1837. On this occasion Mr. Judson 
 preached a written sermon, the first written sermon 
 of his that is extant after the period of extempore 
 sermons already noticed. When the congregation 
 had become settled in their new house of worship, 
 and he had obtained more leisure, he began with 
 the custom of writing one sermon a week, which 
 he delivered in the morning. His afternoon dis- 
 courses were unwritten. During the last three 
 years of his ministry, however, he generally 
 preached two written sermons, the second being 
 one that had been delivered on a former occasion. 
 Dissatisfaction on his own part, as well as on that 
 of many of the best men in his congregation, was 
 the cause of his resuming the practice of writing. 
 There was, on the minds of some of his people, a 
 prejudice against written discourses, but, having 
 made up his mind in respect to his duty, he went 
 
92 MEMOIR OF 
 
 steadily forward, and all complaint soon disap- 
 peared. From this time to the close of his min- 
 istry his sermons steadily improved in fulness and 
 richness of thought. 
 
 It was about the same time also that he began 
 to give increased attention to reading. Up to this 
 period his library had been but scantily furnished. 
 After he resumed the habit of writing his dis- 
 courses, it grew rapidly. Nor was it kept for 
 empty show. No man better understood the art 
 of appropriating to the topic under discussion the 
 facts and principles that occurred in the course of 
 his reading. From encyclopaedias, from books of 
 travel, from civil as well as natural history, he 
 drew illustrations of evangelical truths. And, as 
 his reading was various and extensive, this habit 
 imparted, in the latter part of his ministry, a pecu- 
 liar interest to his discourses. 
 
 Intimately connected with these two things, the 
 change in his habit of preparing sermons and his 
 increased attention to reading, was a wider range 
 of topics in his pulpit ministrations. In a sermon 
 preached before the Synod of the Western Reserve 
 in the fall of 1837, he dwelt at large upon the in- 
 jurious consequences of a minister's confining 
 himself too exclusively to a few favorite themes, 
 whether they be of the tender and moving kind, 
 or of the more solemn and awful; and insisted 
 earnestly on the importance of exhibiting all the 
 parts of gospel truth in just proportion. He spoke 
 from his own experience. To an intimate friend 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 93 
 
 and fellow-laborer he said : " I once thought that, 
 by dwelling on exciting topics when my heart was 
 warm, I could keep the attention of the people: 
 but I found I was mistaken. This convinced me 
 that there was a fault somewhere. I determined 
 to return to my old habit of preaching written ser- 
 mons upon less exciting topics, and with a wider 
 range of subjects, and see what the result would 
 be." This method he found more successful. His 
 hearers remarked that, from this time forth, there 
 was a manifest improvement in his discourses. 
 They were fuller, more instructive, and left behind 
 a deeper and more definite impression. In the 
 Biblical Repository for 1847 is an article from his 
 pen (ascribed by mistake to another author) on the 
 " Range of Topics for the Pulpit," in which he 
 sets forth in a very striking way the necessity of 
 variety in the themes of the pulpit. This article 
 also, like the sermon just alluded to, sprung from 
 the depths of his own experience, and although, in 
 some few passages, unguarded, and liable, perhaps, 
 to misapprehension, it is, upon the whole, very in- 
 structive to the young minister, and furnishes the 
 key which unlocks the secret of the author's suc- 
 cess in maintaining year after year the interest of 
 his hearers. 
 
 The same vear of 1837 witnessed his installa- 
 
 %/ 
 
 tion as pastor of the Church in Milan. This event 
 took place in the latter part of May. To a formal 
 settlement he had before been, if not opposed, at 
 least indifferent. For nearly eight years had he 
 
94 MEMOIR OF 
 
 ministered to the people of Milan with no other 
 than a temporary engagement from year to year 
 between himself and them. When he first com- 
 menced his labors in Milan the churches in the 
 region had fallen into a very unsettled state. Dis- 
 missions were frequent, and often for slight rea- 
 sons. He seems to have unfortunately taken up 
 the idea that, in the existing state of things, in- 
 stallations could be only an unmeaning ceremony. 
 His people had early given him a call, upon which 
 he had, for years, neglected to act. The influence 
 of his example was greatly felt in the vicinity, and 
 went to encourage laxity in the relations of minis- 
 ters to their people. When this state of things 
 had existed for a considerable length of time, 
 Judge Brown of Brownhelm, who always insisted 
 earnestly on the importance of installations, sent 
 to Mr. Judson, whom he numbered among his in- 
 timate friends, a message to the purport that his 
 example on the subject of installation was doing 
 great injury to the churches, and that it furnished 
 the strongest argument which they could urge 
 against its importance. By this remonstrance he 
 was deeply affected, and, from that time, he began 
 to reconsider the grounds on which he had stood, 
 and finally decided to yield to the wishes of both 
 his people and his brethren in the ministry. 
 
 In a letter to his parents, written a short time 
 before his installation, he represents himself as in- 
 fluenced mainly by the wishes of his people. " My 
 people," he says, " have been urgent for some time 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 95 
 
 past to have me installed as their pastor. I have 
 regarded it as rather an unnecessary form, and 
 have felt reluctant ; but have finally consented to 
 the call of the Presbytery for my installation two 
 weeks from next Tuesday. The courtship has 
 been a long one — nearly eight years. Whether it 
 will be a happy match time must determine. 
 Should it not prove so, the evil will not be ascribed, 
 I think, to "hasty union." The salary proposed 
 in the call is $600, payable in four equal quarterly 
 installments. There has never been even a tempo- 
 rary engagement between us until the present time. 
 I have always been at liberty to go, and they to 
 turn me off at a moment's warning.* I do not 
 suppose it will change my feelings or conduct an 
 iota. It is to gratify the wishes of my people 
 rather than my own, that I have consented to their 
 solicitations. They have heretofore been governed 
 by their own benevolence in the amount of my 
 salary ; yet I have fared better than I had a right 
 to expect. I suppose few ministers have a kinder 
 or more affectionate people. They are stable, con- 
 sistent, and intelligent also. I should not feel re- 
 luctant to compare my Church with almost any 
 Church in Connecticut for intelligence, or benevo- 
 lence, or high christian character." 
 
 After the " union " between him and his people 
 was consummated, he seems to have felt that it 
 
 * This language seems to be unwarrantably strong. His congrega- 
 tion had, if the author is rightly informed, acted from year to year in 
 reference to the employment of him as their minister, though there had 
 been no fixed permanent arrangement between him and them. 
 
96 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 was something more than a mere form, and his 
 influence was, thenceforward, in favor of the regu- 
 lar induction of ministers into office. 
 
 When now we take into account all these near- 
 ly cotemporaneous changes — his return to written 
 discourses ; his increased attention to reading ; 
 the wider range of his pulpit themes ; his regular 
 induction into the pastoral office ; and the mel- 
 lowed tone of his ministrations — we see that his 
 mind received, about this time, a new and strong 
 impulse in an upward direction ; and that his 
 ministry, although remaining in its essential fea- 
 tures the same, was yet cast in a new and more 
 perfect mould. 
 
 If we look for the human grounds of these 
 changes, we shall find them partly in his own 
 experience and reflection upon his past mistakes, 
 and partly in the silent influence of other minds 
 with which he was brought into contact — an in- 
 fluence to which he was peculiarly susceptible, 
 and from which he did not fail to derive profit, 
 though perhaps often, as is the case with all other 
 men, in an unconscious way. 
 
 It was not till a later period that he introduced 
 the plan of Bible classes, for conducting which he 
 possessed rare qualifications. Some years before 
 his death he fell into the method of engaging a 
 few who were willing to answer questions, while 
 the main body of the youth sat as silent hearers. 
 He occupied most of the time in expanding the 
 answers to the various questions, and enlarging 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 97 
 
 upon the topics which came up in the course of 
 the exercise ; introducing, as he proceeded, illus- 
 trations gathered from his reading and his inter- 
 course with society. In this way he went through 
 the gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, 
 and then took the Epistle to the Romans. He 
 had nearly completed this Epistle when disease 
 arrested him. On this exercise he placed great 
 reliance as a means of interesting and instructing 
 the youth of his congregation. To an intimate 
 friend he said that he spent more time in prepa- 
 ring for his Bible class than for either of his other 
 services, and that he regarded it as a more efficient 
 means of instructing his people than any other. 
 In lecturing before his Bible class on the destruc- 
 tion of Jerusalem, he gave an elaborate description 
 of the temple, and conveyed to the minds of his 
 hearers an idea of its size by comparing it with 
 known areas in Milan. By the aid of such illus- 
 trations he added much interest to the exercise. 
 
 He also delivered, during the same period, 
 several courses of sermons on various topics. 
 Among these are seven on the Duties of Parents ; 
 four on the Church ; eight on the History of Fa- 
 naticism ; and seven on the Evidences of Revela- 
 tion. The last of these courses, which cost him 
 a great amount of labor and research, was never 
 completed. The exhaustion incident to the pre- 
 paration of such a series of discourses was one of 
 the causes that contributed to bring on that fatal 
 
 9 
 
y» MEMOIR OF 
 
 attack which put an end to his labors in the 
 ministry. 
 
 From the year 1837 to the close of his ministry, 
 his labors, if not externally so varied and exhaust- 
 ing as in some former years, were yet very abun- 
 dant, and the amount of preparation bestowed 
 upon them was far greater than before. It was 
 the privilege of the author to spend a Sabbath 
 with him in the spring of 1847. At this time the 
 regular order of his exercises on the Sabbath, be- 
 sides the Thursday evening meeting, was as fol- 
 lows : — two sermons from the pulpit, in preparing 
 the former of which he was occupied till the very 
 hour of meeting ; an afternoon neighborhood meet- 
 ing at five o'clock in the north part of his parish 
 four or five miles from his house of worship, where 
 he delivered a familiar extemporaneous address ; 
 and, finally, a Bible class in the evening in the 
 body of the Church. To this latter exercise he 
 attached great importance as a means of interest- 
 ing the youth of his congregation, and he had evi- 
 dently prepared himself for it with much care. 
 The lesson was on the Epistle to the Romans, 
 and he unfolded some of the deepest principles of 
 the gospel in a very simple and happy manner. 
 To a suggestion that the amount of labor which 
 he had taken upon himself was greater than he 
 could sustain, he answered, " I mean to make 
 these labors easy. Work does not come so hard 
 to me as to some." When further pressed with 
 the inexpediency of undertaking so much, he cut 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 99 
 
 the matter short by replying : " Brother B ," 
 
 (this was with him a usual way of beginning an 
 earnest and decided remark,) " I cannot keep my 
 young people together without labor. If a minis- 
 ter would keep up the interest of his congregation 
 in these times he must work." 
 
 During the whole of this latter period of his 
 ministry the growth of his Church was steady and 
 healthful. Some seasons of special religious in- 
 terest are to be noted. The first was in the winter 
 of 1839-40. It commenced in the northern part of 
 his parish, to which it was mainly confined. All 
 the public exercises were conducted by Mr. Judson 
 himself. He held meetings in one of the school- 
 houses every night for a week or more, then every 
 other night, and afterwards less frequently. He 
 also held meetings for religious conversation in 
 different houses in the neighborhood, and visited 
 from house to house. This revival was remarka- 
 ble for the conversion of a number of heads of 
 families. Some of the youth were interested in it, 
 but the majority were heads of families. The 
 number who were added to the Church by profes- 
 sion in 1840 was twenty -four. 
 
 In the fall and winter of 1842 there was an unu- 
 sual religious interest mostly among the youth of 
 the congregation. In the year following, as the 
 result of this, fourteen united with the Church by 
 profession. 
 
 A very interesting religious interest existed 
 throughout the entire year of 1846, and quite a 
 
100 MEMOIR OF 
 
 number were added to the Church. There con- 
 tinued to be more or less conversions till Mr. Jud- 
 son was laid aside by his last illness. The re- 
 cords of the Church show the addition by profes- 
 sion of twenty-three persons during the years 1846 
 and 1847. The whole number added to the 
 Church by profession, from 1838 to 1847 inclusive, 
 is seventy persons. 
 
 This historical sketch of the progress of religion 
 in Milan may be very properly closed with an ex- 
 tract from one of Mr. Judson's letters written to a 
 friend in Connecticut in November 1846, which 
 contains his own view of the matter. 
 
 " Our Church has held on an even course most 
 of the time since I came here. There is a large 
 per centage of our Western population that is of 
 a floating character. For three years preceding 
 this, as many as sixty-five members of our Church 
 have removed out of the place. I think, take one 
 year with another, we dismiss on letter as many 
 as we receive by letter. There is, however, a large 
 portion of the stable and valuable part of our 
 Church that remain, and have been here for years. 
 When I came here, seventeen years ago, there 
 were thirty members. We make one report yearly 
 to the Presbytery, and, during the seventeen years, 
 each successive report has been a little larger than 
 the report of the previous year. We now report 
 214. It is in size the second Church on the West- 
 ern Reserve. The First Church in Cleveland is 
 the only one that has a greater number of mem- 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 101 
 
 bers. When I came here there were within the 
 same bounds forty-five churches that numbered 
 more members than this. We owe much to God 
 for such continued prosperity: nay, it is all of 
 him." 
 
 In August 1842, he was elected a member of the 
 Board of Trustees of Western Reserve College. 
 At the same time an urgent request was presented 
 to him to relinquish his pastoral office in Milan, 
 that he might take an agency for the endowment 
 of ihe College. This was a dark period in the 
 history of this institution, and the request was 
 urged upon him with no little importunity. Mr. 
 Judson was now placed in a very trying situation. 
 On the one side he was greatly interested in be- 
 half of the College, and ready to make almost any 
 sacrifice that he felt could be lawfully made for its 
 good. Conversing on the subject with the author, 
 he said, in his peculiar and emphatic tone, 
 
 " Brother B , if the Western Reserve College 
 
 is to die, I wish to lay my head on the same 
 block " — words which forcibly expressed the feel- 
 ing of more than one of its friends. 
 
 But, on the other side, he found himself unable 
 to entertain the idea of leaving a Church and con- 
 gregation that had grown up under his watch and 
 care, and very many of whom he numbered among 
 his spiritual children. To his confidential friends 
 he often said, " You do'nt know how my heart 
 yearns over these members of the flock who have 
 9* 
 
102 MEMOIR. 
 
 been brought in under my own instrumentality." 
 He discovered also that he was likely to meet with 
 the strong opposition of the leading men in his 
 Church and congregation, and feared the results 
 of such a step in such circumstances. It was 
 these considerations, growing out of his pastoral 
 relations, and not any balancing of worldly mo- 
 tives, that induced him to decline the offer. 
 
 His Church, however, by a formal vote passed 
 January 8, 1843, granted him leave of absence for 
 three months, to engage in a temporary agency 
 for the College. Mr. William Russell was en- 
 gaged by the College to supply his pulpit in the 
 mean time. As the result of this agency, which 
 lasted three months, there are recorded in the Col- 
 lege books donations amounting to between three 
 and four thousand dollars. A considerable part of 
 these was in property and not in money, the finan- 
 cial affairs of the Reserve being at that time in a 
 depressed condition. He also raised, subsequently 
 to this agency, sundry sums for the relief of the 
 College, one of which he brought with himself 
 upon his last visit to the institution in the sum- 
 mer of 1847. 
 
 Mr. Judson's services as a Trustee were always 
 highly valued both by the Board and by the Fa- 
 culty. His excellent judgment and his uncommon 
 talents for business were warmly enlisted in the 
 work of promoting its welfare, and when he was 
 smitten down by the hand of disease the College 
 felt that it had lost the services of one of its most 
 efficient friends. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 REVIEW OF HIS PUBLIC LIFE. 
 
 In the preceding brief sketch of Mr. Judson's 
 life and labors the historical order has been fol- 
 lowed. But it has been impossible, in pursuing 
 this order, to give a full and satisfactory view of 
 him in his various capacities as a public man. 
 The difficulty of doing so is increased from the 
 fact that, for the largest part of his ministry, but 
 few letters written by him can be found ; and also 
 from his never having kept a diary of his labors. 
 To the latter practice he was decidedly opposed, 
 on the ground of its constituting a strong tempta- 
 tion to throw a false coloring over one's christian 
 life, if not by positive misstatements, at least by 
 omissions of the less commendable passages in it, 
 and by giving a false prominence to those of a 
 better character. He often expressed the opinion 
 that few, if any, write a religious diary without 
 being influenced by the thought that it may at 
 some future time, come before the eyes of their 
 fellow men — at least of the more intimate of their 
 
104 MEMOIR OF 
 
 surviving friends. Under such an influence he be- 
 lieved that it does not belong to human nature to 
 lay open the inmost depths of the soul without 
 reserve or concealment ; and that, even where in- 
 firmities and sins are dwelt upon with the greatest 
 apparent openness and self-condemning severity, 
 it is apt to be in such a way as shall, after all, re- 
 dound to the writer's praise as a very humble 
 Christian. The only journal left by him is that 
 of his Sunday School agency, and this is a naked 
 statement of places visited, sermons preached, 
 schools formed, subscriptions taken up, and the 
 like ; with only two brief notices of his feelings, 
 both of a self-condemning character. The histori- 
 cal view of him being thus necessarily inadequate, 
 the present chapter will be devoted to a review 
 of his public life under the several heads which 
 follow. 
 
 Section I. 
 
 Mr. Judson as a Preacher. 
 
 We have seen that, in the beginning of his 
 ministry, he wrote all his discourses which were 
 designed for the pulpit. His own statement, con- 
 tained in a letter to Mr. Barber under date of De- 
 cember 26, 1829, is : "I have preached all my old 
 sermons, and am now thrown entirely upon my 
 own resources. I do not extemporize at all." In 
 these words he has reference to his regular pulpit 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 105 
 
 discourses ; for, from the very beginning of his 
 ministry, he was in the habit of delivering un- 
 written evening lectures, and in this he greatly 
 excelled. He also began to preach occasionally 
 on the Sabbath without notes some time before he 
 became absorbed in the work of conducting pro- 
 tracted meetings. He said on one occasion to a 
 lady of his congregation with whom he was 
 boarding, " I do not feel able to prepare two ser- 
 mons this week which will be worth my people's 
 attention." She said, " Why not preach extempo- 
 raneously ?" From that time he began to do so 
 occasionally. He was not satisfied with his early 
 efforts, but remarked that perhaps it would please 
 the congregation at large as well as if he were to 
 write all his discourses. 
 
 We have seen how he was first led into the 
 habit of preaching exclusively unwritten sermons. 
 His labors in protracted meetings left him no lei- 
 sure for writing. The exciting themes, moreover, 
 too exclusively dwelt upon by him in those meet- 
 ings were not congenial to the use of the pen. 
 We have also seen why he returned again to his 
 first practice of writing. He discovered that his 
 extemporaneous sermons wanted substance, and 
 did not interest or edify his people. To use his 
 own expression, he found himself " running ashore" 
 in regard to variety and richness of thought, and 
 expressed his decided conviction that such a mode 
 of preaching could not for any long time be em- 
 ployed with profit by one who had charge of a 
 
106 MEMOIR OP 
 
 congregation. We have further seen that, in his 
 own judgment — a judgment sustained by the 
 opinion of all intelligent men who had the oppor- 
 tunity of hearing for themselves and witnessing 
 the results — his people were, after he resumed the 
 practice of writing, more interested and profited 
 than before. 
 
 And yet Mr. Judson possessed many desirable 
 qualifications for an extemporaneous speaker. 
 " He could," in the expressive language of one 
 who was long aassociated with him in conducting 
 protracted meetings, " turn himself round in the 
 harness as quick as any man. With a mere skele- 
 ton he could preach a powerful sermon. He had 
 a peculiar faculty of welding on to a discourse al- 
 most any thing, and making it appear as if it grew 
 there." The faculty here described consists in the 
 ability to perceive, in the facts of history and in 
 the every day incidents of life, principles directly 
 applicable to the discourse on hand. The princi- 
 ples being in place, the incidents which serve as 
 their envelope or casket, will, of course, be in place 
 also, and will " appear as if they grew there." Yet 
 ordinary minds, not having discerned the princi- 
 ples in the facts, will wonder how the preacher 
 could bring them in so naturally and pertinently. 
 For one who is called to speak without much op- 
 portunity of premeditation this is a most desirable 
 faculty. 
 
 It is not wonderful, then, that Mr. Judson should 
 have been for a time greatly enamored of this 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 107 
 
 mode of preaching, and should have expressed his 
 intention not to write many more sermons ; nor 
 that his people should have been, at first, much 
 pleased, and some of them should have boasted 
 that " their minister did not want more than five 
 minutes any time to prepare a sermon;" nor that 
 the influence of his example, with that of other 
 prominent men, should have made unwritten dis- 
 courses for the time being a very popular mode 
 of preaching in his region. 
 
 But no talents for extemporaneous speaking can 
 long sustain the preacher unless they be underlaid 
 by a rich stratum of well digested thought, and 
 this requires that he should be much in his study, 
 devoting himself there to reading, meditation, and 
 writing. The homely maxim of Franklin respect- 
 ing the meal-tub applies in its full force to the 
 reservoir of human thought. He who is always 
 taking out of it without putting in, will soon come 
 to the bottom, and then his discourses must be- 
 come dull and uninteresting. By the excitement 
 of awful and soul-stirring themes he may for a 
 while sustain himself and keep the attention of his 
 hearers. But this will be found in the end to be a 
 hardening process. For, to use Mr. Judson's own 
 similitude, in his article on the Range of Topics 
 for the Pulpit, "the thunder-storm would have no 
 terrors for one who had spent his entire life amid 
 its roar." 
 
108 MEMOIR OF 
 
 The experience of Mr. Judson throws some 
 light on the long-contested question of the com- 
 parative advantages of written and unwritten ser- 
 mons. 
 
 The author once heard the habit of reading ser- 
 mons- condemned by one of the brightest ornaments 
 of the American pulpit as " a lazy practice." This 
 sentence of condemnation is capable of being un- 
 derstood in two very different senses. 
 
 If the speaker's meaning was that indolence is 
 in general the cause why ministers write their 
 discourses instead of delivering them in an un- 
 written form, the charge is refuted by observation 
 and experience. Aversion not merely to the ma- 
 nual labor of writing, but, much more, to the se- 
 vere and continuous thought which it requires is, 
 with too many, the real cause which determines 
 them to the method of preaching ex tempore. 
 Others have a more honorable reason, as did the 
 subject of this memoir, in the multiplicity of their 
 engagements, and, along with this, the belief that 
 this method will be, upon the whole, productive 
 of the most good to their hearers. 
 
 But if the speaker's meaning was that to pre- 
 pare and deliver year after year unwritten dis- 
 courses that shall be as rich in weighty thought 
 and as full of instruction as if the same had been 
 carefully written, is a difficult task, from the labor 
 of which most preachers shrink through indolence, 
 then it may be replied that such a preparation of 
 unwritten discourses is indeed a very difficult task 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 109 
 
 — so difficult that, with the great body of preach- 
 ers, the ability to execute it cannot be attained 
 without much previous use of the pen, nor, indeed, 
 sustained in its perfection without the constant 
 aid of the same instrument. If there be any who 
 can form and maintain an accurate, compact, and 
 vigorous style — the true style of the pulpit orator 
 not less than of the statesman — they are so few 
 that we need here make no account of them. 
 Such were not Demosthenes and Cicero among 
 the ancient orators. Such, we have lamentable 
 evidence, is not the great body of preachers at 
 the present day who wholly discard the use of the 
 pen. 
 
 The man who adopts exclusively the extempo- 
 raneous method of preaching is in danger, as all 
 admit, of falling into a loose and rambling style, 
 which must soon become exceedingly wearisome 
 to any congregation. Or, if his ideas of order will 
 not allow this, then he will naturally fall into the 
 habit of laying out his discourse artificially, with 
 a multitude of divisions of the first, second and 
 third order, partly as a help to the memory, and 
 partly in order that, if, at any time, his mind will 
 not work freely on one division or subdivision, he 
 may have ready at hand a convenient retreat in 
 the next following. The effect of this habit, when 
 long continued, will be to convert his sermons into 
 rattling skeletons, plentifully supplied with wired 
 joints, but destitute alike of flesh and blood, and 
 of a living animating spirit. 
 10 
 
110 MEMOIR OF 
 
 He will, moreover, be peculiarly exposed to 
 another error, that of dwelling too exclusively 
 upon awful and soul-stirring themes, because the 
 excitement which these produce operates for the 
 time being as a support to both the speaker and 
 the hearers. This error the subject of the present 
 memoir did not escape. Of his extemporaneous 
 sermons one testifies that they "were altogether 
 different from those he had been in the habit of 
 preaching. They were always on exciting topics, 
 and excited others." Another says, " His unwrit- 
 ten sermons were inferior in character, and gener- 
 ally on exciting topics. His manner was vehe- 
 ment. He afterwards told me he was satisfied 
 that he could not embody in a sermon that truth 
 which he wanted, unless he wrote it out. He was 
 fully satisfied that in returning to writing he had 
 done right." 
 
 Mr. Judson's experience in regard to embody- 
 ing truth in a discourse by the help of the pen 
 was not peculiar. Few preachers can make their 
 unwritten discourses, delivered year after year to 
 the same congregation, rich in thought and in- 
 struction, unless they interchange them with those 
 that are carefully written out, whether such written 
 discourses be read, or pronounced memoriter, or 
 simply used as a means of accumulating and ar- 
 ranging thought, and then left in the study, with- 
 out being committed to memory. 
 
 On this point the experience of the prince of 
 Roman orators (speaking in the name of Crassus) 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. Ill 
 
 is as high in authority as the argument into which 
 he has woven it is conclusive in reasoning. " The 
 chief thing," he writes, u which (to speak the truth) 
 we practice very little (for it is a work of great 
 labor, which most of us shun) is to write as much 
 as possible. The pen is the best and most excel- 
 lent former and master of oratory : and for a good 
 reason : for if what is spoken off hand and at ran- 
 dom is easily surpassed by what is meditated and 
 thought upon, assuredly even this latter will be 
 outdone by constant and careful writing. For all 
 the topics of argument, whether they belong to 
 art, or to a certain native talent and skill, will, 
 provided only they exist in the subject upon which 
 we write, appear and present themselves to us 
 while we investigate and reflect with the whole 
 power of our mind. And all the most perspicuous 
 thoughts and words which belong to each class 
 must of necessity come up and pass in order under 
 the point of the pen." And he justly represents it 
 as the prerogative of the man who devotes much 
 time to writing that, even when he has occasion 
 to speak without premeditation, his words will 
 still bear a resemblance to written discourse. 
 
 The above words of Cicero have reference to the 
 speaker who practises writing in connection with 
 unwritten discourse, and with a view to improve- 
 ment in the latter art. To unwritten discourse 
 undoubtedly belongs the highest and most effec- 
 tive style of oratory — that which has most flexi- 
 bility, most capacity of adaptation to circum- 
 
112 MEMOIR OF 
 
 stances, and most power to move the human 
 mind ; and it would be a difficult task for the gos- 
 pel minister to show why he is not in duty bound 
 to strive earnestly for the possession of so excel- 
 lent a gift. The preacher w T ho gives himself up 
 exclusively to the practice of reading his sermons, 
 without any effort to excel in unwritten discourse, 
 subjects himself, not less than the extemporaneous 
 speaker, to some temptations that are not easily 
 resisted. 
 
 In the first place, he will be in danger, from the 
 amount of writing demanded of him, of falling 
 into negligent habits of composition, whereby the 
 main end of writing will be in a great degree frus- 
 trated. 
 
 Then, again ; he will be peculiarly liable to the 
 evil of sliding, insensibly to himself, from the style 
 of personal address into that of essay. Especially, 
 if he be a man trained to habits of analysis and 
 generalization, will he be in danger of falling into 
 an abstract and complex style, which, though it 
 may be very majestic and ornate, and, to thor- 
 oughly educated minds very attractive, will be but 
 poorly adapted to edify the mass of his hearers, 
 and, so far as some of them are concerned, might 
 almost as well be in an unknown tongue. Here 
 it should be noticed how written and unwritten 
 discourse act and react upon each other in a most 
 beneficial way. The former gives accuracy, com- 
 pactness, and fulness of thought, the latter sim- 
 plicity of style, and directness of address. 
 
EVERTON JUDSON, 113 
 
 It is well known, moreover, that many of the 
 most striking and effective thoughts of a discourse 
 spring up in the progress of its delivery from the 
 inspiration of the moment. All these are lost to 
 him who can utter nothing but what he has first 
 set down on paper. And, lastly, there are many 
 occasions upon which the preacher is called upon 
 to speak without the possibility of much previous 
 preparation. Who will say that he ought not to 
 train himself, at whatever expense, to the habit of 
 speaking well on such occasions ? But to him 
 who is exclusively confined to his notes this is im- 
 possible. 
 
 The conclusion at which we seem to arrive is 
 that the preacher who would excel in the pulpit 
 ought to interchange with each other, more or 
 less, the forms of written and unwritten discourse. 
 
 In extemporaneous address Mr. Judson always 
 excelled, although he found, as we have seen, that 
 exclusive adherence to it was very unprofitable to 
 himself and his people. There can be no doubt 
 that the abundant use of the form of unwritten 
 discourse contributed its share to that simplicity 
 and transparency of style which marked his writ- 
 ten sermons. Yet this was due also, in great mea- 
 sure, to the native character of his mind. It was 
 a mind formed not so much for subtle distinctions 
 as for broad and comprehensive views of things — 
 a mind that dealt in synthesis much more than in 
 analysis. He was no metaphysician. Indeed it 
 10* 
 
114 MEMOIR OF 
 
 may be said that he had as little to do with meta- 
 physics as with Hebrew. What is called " meta- 
 physical preaching" was his abhorrence. He never 
 employed it himself, and was unwilling that others 
 should employ it. Being associated once with a 
 brother minister in drawing up the narrative of 
 the state of religion within the bounds of his 
 Synod, his companion, who, as chairman of the 
 committee, had drafted the narrative, came, in 
 reading the document before the committee, to the 
 word " subjective" He immediately stopped him 
 and exclaimed, " Do, brother, strike out that word 
 < subjective? I hate to hear it. It is not fit to be 
 used any where but in the theological chamber. 
 The people do not understand it." The distinc- 
 tions which he made were such as are obvious to 
 the mass of mankind, and they were set forth in 
 clear and intelligible terms. He could, therefore, 
 be understood by all his hearers. His preaching 
 was of a plain and practical character, not ornate, 
 abounding in solid rather than brilliant thoughts. 
 He used (at least in his written discourses) no 
 superfluous repetitions, but advanced steadily to- 
 wards the point to be proved or illustrated. 
 
 Mr. Judson's temperament was ardent, and his 
 conceptions of things were strong and lively. 
 Hence another quality of his style was its animat- 
 ed graphic character. It was that kind of style 
 which conveys to the mind a lively picture of the 
 object. In his powers of description he greatly 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 115 
 
 excelled. He would, for example, set forth a hyp- 
 ocrite before his audience so that they could, as 
 it were, see him moving before them. It was with 
 him a frequent practice to illustrate a single idea 
 by exhibiting it in different aspects. 
 
 His power of sarcasm was not less remarkable 
 than that of description. When he chose he could 
 assail vice with a merciless torrent of satire. To 
 this he was in his early ministrations too much 
 addicted. In later years he had less of it : for he 
 had discovered that the satirist's lash is, as an or- 
 dinary means of reformation, powerless, irritating 
 wicked men without subduing them. His strokes 
 of sarcasm were now not only more infrequent, 
 but also of a milder and more subdued character. 
 One of their most common objects was the slan- 
 derer and mischief-maker, a personage for which 
 he entertained a profound abhorrence, and which 
 he did not fail to exhibit before his people in its 
 true colors. Thus, in a sermon from 1 Peter ii. 23, 
 on " the duty of Christians when injured by others" 
 he says : " Better bear your griefs alone than get 
 up a circle of gossip, which will banish the spirit 
 of Christ from the bosoms of all who partake of 
 it. There is too much tinder in the bosom of the 
 best Christian to render it quite safe to blow up a 
 fire there. Some people seem to amuse themselves 
 by seeing how many and how violent explosions 
 they can make: it affords as much pastime as 
 burning gunpowder does to boys; but it gives the 
 heart-ache to all sober lookers-on : it hinders the 
 
116 MEMOIR OF 
 
 progress of the gospel, the prosperity of Zion, and 
 the conversion of men." 
 
 And, urging to reconciliation, he says : " But in 
 a majority of instances you will find perfect recon- 
 ciliation quite easy. In more than half the cases 
 it will appear, upon kind inquiry, that you have 
 mistaken the real nature of the abuse : it is not as 
 bad as you supposed : there was no [bad] motive 
 in the bosom : the exaggeration is the work of 
 some one of that numerous army of news-carriers 
 and gossip-mongers who seem to think they have 
 entrusted to them a monopoly of the business of 
 manufacturing quarrels, and who are as diligent 
 as if they expected a large per centage on all the 
 neighborhood broils and church-difficulties they 
 can get up." 
 
 He had, as already hinted, a rare talent of wea- 
 ving into his sermons, lectures, and Bible-class ex- 
 ercises the information which he had obtained in 
 the course of his reading, and that in the most 
 natural and easy way, so that the results of his 
 reading always appeared in his pulpit discourses. 
 It was also his habit to draw illustrations from 
 passing events, as the death of a President, the 
 burning of a steam-boat, and the like. 
 
 The arrangement and division of his sermons 
 agreed with the general character of his mind. 
 For subtleties and complications he had no relish, 
 and none of these appear in the written discourses 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 117 
 
 which he has left. They are, like his plans of ac- 
 tion, marked in general by great simplicity. In 
 very many of them, especially those of an earlier 
 date, a few co-ordinate heads complete the divi- 
 sion. In others, his thoughts under the primary 
 divisions are arranged in subordinate heads. 
 Rarely indeed, and only on themes of a peculiar 
 character, does he proceed to divisions of the third 
 order. He was not very careful to observe strict 
 unity of form, nor a nice logical arrangement of 
 topics : neither did he always express his main 
 propositions in the shortest and most exact form. 
 Nevertheless he was remarkably successful in 
 bringing his thoughts before his people in an in- 
 telligible and interesting shape. The best possi- 
 ble proof of this exists in the fact that the mem- 
 bers of his congregation, old and young, listened 
 to him year after year with increasing interest and 
 profit. 
 
 In exegesis, in the proper sense of the term, he 
 never excelled. This is to be attributed to the de- 
 ficiency of his education in respect to the lan- 
 guages. He once delivered a course of expository 
 sermons, with which he was very much dissatis- 
 fied, and contracted a strong antipathy to that 
 method of preaching. 
 
 Of the variety of topics which he sought to in- 
 troduce in his later written discourses mention has 
 already been made. His views on this point are 
 expressed at large in an article in the Biblical Re* 
 
118 MEMOIR OF 
 
 pository for the year 1847, entitled " Range of 
 Topics for the Pulpit." From this article, to which 
 reference was made in a preceding chapter, a few 
 extracts will now be given. 
 
 " The range of topics which are considered as 
 legitimate themes for pulpit discussion, as this is 
 extended or contracted, more than any single con- 
 sideration, must ever affect the results of this spe- 
 cies of intellectual labor. There are boundaries, 
 even in morals, which the pulpit may not cross ; 
 but we know of nothing better fitted to destroy its 
 influence, than the confining of all its efforts to a 
 few common themes. No matter how practical 
 these maybe, no matter how important, no matter 
 how scriptural. It is said that Paul was the most 
 successful preacher, and the most perfect model 
 with which God has favored his Church ; and yet, 
 at Ephesus, it was the burden of all his labors to 
 unfold the way of salvation, testifying both to the 
 Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance towards 
 God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ: 
 while at Corinth he determined to know nothing 
 save Jesus Christ and him crucified; a theme, to 
 say the least, quite kindred to that which engaged 
 his attention at Ephesus. 
 
 Two things should be taken into the account, 
 before any preacher of the gospel feels bound to 
 restrict himself to exact conformity to this example 
 of Paul. 
 
 1. Does the preacher expect as short a resi- 
 dence in his field of labor, as Paul contemplated 
 either at Corinth or at Ephesus ? 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 119 
 
 2. Are the people to whom he preaches as igno- 
 rant of the vital points of true christian faith, as 
 were those whom Paul addressed ? With us the 
 truths of the Gospel are instilled in early child- 
 hood. The labors of the pulpit, the instructions 
 of the Sabbath school, the expositions of the Bible 
 class, united to the wide diffusion of religious truth 
 from the press, impart a knowledge of the gospel, 
 which renders the whole circle of religious duties 
 in a high degree familiar to even the youth in our 
 congregations. To preach habitually the same 
 truths which Paul preached, in the cases referred 
 to, is the surest method of putting the conscience 
 to sleep. The thunder-storm would have no ter- 
 rors for one who had spent his entire life amid its 
 roar; the tempest that blanches the cheek of the 
 raw recruit, is music to the old weather-beaten tar. 
 The peasant who cultivates the rugged sides of 
 Vesuvius, so near to the burning crater as never to 
 be beyond the glare of its lurid light, is unmoved 
 by the deep rumbling occasioned by its hidden 
 fires, while the stranger is terrified at every flash. 
 So faith and repentance, Christ and him crucified, 
 may fall upon the sinner's ear, till, like the dull 
 monotony of a waterfall, the sound does more to 
 hush him to sleep than to arouse his fears. It is 
 sometimes said that every sermon should have 
 enough of gospel truth to lead a sinner to Christ, 
 should he never listen again to a discourse from 
 the pulpit. This might do for a preacher who, 
 like Whitefield, was to be ever on the wing. But 
 
120 MEMOIR OF 
 
 let any pastor attempt this course, and he will 
 soon either preach his hearers to sleep or out of 
 church. It is our solemn conviction, that the fre- 
 quency with which the pastoral relation has been 
 dissolved, for the last quarter of a century, may be 
 attributed, more than to any other cause, to the 
 limited range of topics introduced for discussion 
 in the pulpit. It has been the era of revivals, and 
 the churches must have ' revival sermons.' " — Bib. 
 Repository for 1847, pp. 722-3. 
 
 From the closing sentence of the above extract, 
 as well as from the similitudes employed in it, it 
 is evident that Mr. Judson had in view that exci- 
 ting and impassioned style of preaching " faith and 
 repentance, Christ and him crucified " which has 
 been called " revival preaching." This he had 
 himself employed in his itinerating labors, and he 
 seems to have continued the use of it among his 
 own people, until he became aware of its harden- 
 ing and soporiferous influence. Thus much we 
 may infer from his acknowledgment to a friend 
 which has already been given. " I once thought 
 that by dwelling on exciting topics, when my 
 heart was warm, I could keep up the attention of 
 my people: but I found, by experience, that their 
 attention was not sustained." 
 
 Bat, while endeavoring to expose the above 
 error, he uses language which is unguarded, and 
 might be misapprehended as teaching dangerous 
 doctrine of another kind. To hear one say that 
 " faith and repentance, Christ and him crucified, 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 121 
 
 may fall upon the sinner's ear, till, like the dull 
 monotony of a waterfall, the sound does more to 
 hush him to sleep than to arouse his fears," sounds 
 harsh ; and, if uttered in some quarters, would lead 
 to the suspicion that the author wished to have 
 the doctrine of " Christ and him crucified " dis- 
 placed by other and more popular themes. Un- 
 doubtedly the doctrine of the cross is the centre — 
 the animating principle — of all the topics which 
 properly come within the range of the pulpit ; for 
 the pulpit was established by our Lord for the ex- 
 press purpose of setting forth to the world himself 
 and his salvation. Every christian duty derives 
 from faith in a crucified Savior all its vitality, and 
 is to be inculcated as a fruit of such faith. This 
 was the uniform practice of the Apostles, in 
 which, it may be added, they were faithfully imi- 
 tated by the subject of this memoir. Every chris- 
 tian virtue they represented as a good stream flow- 
 ing from the good fountain of faith in Christ cruci- 
 fied. " Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, 
 forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's 
 sake hath forgiven you." "Walk in love, as Christ 
 also hath loved us, and given himself for us." " For- 
 nication, and all uncleanness and covetousness, 
 let it not be once named among you, as becometh 
 saints." " Beloved, now are we the sons of God ; 
 and it doth not yet appear what we shall be : but 
 we know that when he shall appear we shall be 
 like him ; for we shall see him as he is. And every 
 man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself 
 11 
 
122 MEMOIR OF 
 
 even as he is pure." Whoever attempts to incul- 
 cate a system of social duties that has not for its 
 foundation the principle of faith in Christ, is guilty 
 of the same folly as the man who should plow 
 and sow the snows of winter, and expect to reap 
 a harvest matured by the light of the moon. 
 
 But while all this is true and important to be 
 remembered by every christian preacher, it is 
 equally true, that to be always dwelling formally 
 on a few such cardinal doctrines as faith, repen- 
 tance, the atonement, regeneration, and the final 
 judgment, is both contrary to the example of the 
 inspired writers (who are largely occupied with 
 the manifold application of christian principles to 
 the every-day duties of life) and hardening in its 
 influence. And that this was the meaning of Mr. 
 Judson in the above remarks is obvious, as well 
 from his own example, as from the general tenor 
 > of 1he article. Thus understood they contain a 
 weighty truth, which all young preachers would 
 ;do well to ponder.* 
 
 -* The author is not sure but that a brief historic note may be neces- 
 .sary to set forth the true course of events to which Mr. Judson had 
 reference in penning the above strictures. Such a note he ventures to 
 append in the belief that it will best exhibit the error which he was 
 combatting. 
 
 From about the year 1832 it had been in Northern Ohio, as in many 
 other regions, the era of protracted meetings, and, what was intimately 
 connected with these, itinerant evangelism. These protracted meet- 
 ings, in the beginning, while as yet they were regarded simply as 
 means of bringing divine truth to bear upon men's consciences, and 
 were undertaken in simple-hearted reliance upon God's grace, pro- 
 duced, in many cases at least, a rich harvest of permanent good fruits. 
 But (such is the downward tendency of every thing human) it so hap- 
 pened that they soon came to be invested, in the eyes of the many, 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 123 
 
 In proceeding to inquire how " the preacher is 
 to study, and how acquire that variety, which will 
 
 with a certain superstitious charm, as if they possessed some specific 
 efficacy for the conversion of the soul to God; and the people {practi- 
 cally, at least, whatever may have been their theoretic views) learned 
 to rely upon them, rather than upon the ordinary means of grace, for 
 the advancement of Christ's kingdom. Thus they degenerated into a 
 species of evangelic formalism, and became true opera operata — spiri- 
 tual machinery that might be expected, when set in motion and skill- 
 fully managed, to elaborate revivals of religion. The ministers into 
 whose hands the chief management of them fell were led, almost of 
 necessity, to restrict themselves to a few set themes, which Mr. Jud- 
 son describes as " faith and repentance, Christ and him crucified," 
 using the words in their narrow and restricted sense. This was espe- 
 cially true of the itinerating evangelists, whose sojourn with particular 
 churches was necessarily brief, and from whose labors great present 
 results were expected. In truth, the problem proposed to them was 
 how large a harvest could be reaped, and sheaved, and housed, in a 
 given number of weeks ; and upon their success in this work depended 
 their reputation as evangelists. In such circumstances it is not in hu- 
 man nature that a man should employ those gentler influences which, 
 precisely because they descend deepest into the moral character, are 
 slow in their operation, and require time for the development of out- 
 ward results. He will naturally throw himself, as did these evange- 
 lists, rather upon those more exciting themes and measures from 
 which immediate visible effects may be expected. 
 
 The author most earnestly repudiates the sentiment that great and 
 sudden effects may not be expected to accompany the true scriptural 
 presentation of the gospel. But these, at least in evangelized commu- 
 nities, where the elementary truths of the gospel are familiar to men's 
 minds, will generally be found to be the final issue of previoics i7iflu- 
 ences that have been silently penetrating deep into the inner man. 
 When such sudden results become the sole thing aimed at, there the 
 preaching of the gospel must degenerate into that peculiar exciting 
 style which Mr. Judson calls " revival preaching" — a style which had 
 been very popular in his region, and which, as we have seen, he had 
 himself adopted. 
 
 The true view of the gospel ministry is that, while the doctrine of 
 Christ crucified must ever constitute its grand central theme, all the 
 diversified topics which are discussed in the Holy Scriptures should be 
 clustered around it in rich variety. This is the view which Mr. Jud- 
 son, in the later years of his ministry, adopted, and so successfully car- 
 ried out into practice. 
 
124 MEMOIR OF 
 
 enlist attention, and secure the listening ear, as 
 the best means of gaining the consent of the 
 heart," he himself recommends, first of all, this 
 varied application of christian principles. " In the 
 first place," he says, " there may be a great variety 
 in the use of those truths that are usually classed 
 as experimental and practical. Much may be done 
 in mere adaptation to existing circumstances." 
 And, in illustrating this point, he draws a faithful 
 portraiture of his own practice. 
 
 " We might name the pastor of a Church, who 
 has for a long series of years, made special efforts 
 to adapt the truth to the circumstances, and press 
 it upon the consciences of the families of his pa- 
 rish, whenever they have been visited with severe 
 affliction, and almost ever with the happiest suc- 
 cess. It is believed that he has realized more ac- 
 cessions to his Church, in connection with such 
 instrumentalities, than from all other means. Let 
 the pulpit seize upon every stirring incident, upon 
 all distinguished blessings, upon every great ca- 
 lamity, whether individual or public, upon what- 
 ever in passing events, even if it be but an ordi- 
 nary political election, enlists the feelings of his 
 parish, and use it to illustrate and enforce divine 
 truth, and man's obligation to God, and it will 
 not be a vain attempt." — p. 724. 
 
 Another field of topics for the pulpit he finds in 
 unfolding the proofs of the Divine existence and 
 attributes, especially as impressed upon the works 
 of nature. " The pastor," he says, " who cannot 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 125 
 
 make the young and the thoughtful of his con- 
 gregation hang upon his lips, and become intel- 
 lectually charmed with the field on which God 
 has impressed the great lineaments of his own 
 character, has lived and studied with but half his 
 duty before his mind. 
 
 Let it not be said that all this is foreign to the 
 suggestions of the inspired volume. The most 
 beautiful and impressive illustrations of moral 
 truth in the Bible, are derived from the physical 
 creation. Whoever has read the parable of the 
 sower, the story of Christ weeping over Jerusalem, 
 the description of the descent of the Holy Ghost 
 upon Christ at his baptism, Christ's conversation 
 with the woman of Samaria, and a great variety 
 of the most inimitable scenes in the prophecies of 
 the Old Testament, cannot fail to have admired 
 the appositeness and beauty of the illustrations 
 there found, while he is impressed with the truth 
 of the Psalmist's declaration, that the works of 
 the Lord are great, sought out of all them that 
 have pleasure therein. The intelligence of a con- 
 gregation is by such a course not less enhanced 
 than their moral improvement." — pp. 726-7. 
 
 Another inviting field he finds in the depart- 
 ment of " Evidences of Revelation." 
 
 " Take, as an illustration of this remark, the 
 instruction that may be communicated in connec- 
 tion with the fulfilment of prophecy. Let us sup- 
 pose that the preacher selects for his text, " Egypt 
 shall be the basest of kingdoms :" or, " They shall 
 11* 
 
126 MEMOIR OF 
 
 destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her 
 towers ; I will also scrape her dust from off her, 
 and make her like the top of a rock ;" or that thril- 
 ling passage respecting the doom of Idumea, 
 which describes it as lying waste from generation 
 to generation. With such themes, let him collect 
 from the best authorities the history of the great- 
 ness, the splendor, the commercial importance of 
 these cities and countries, which the Lord hath 
 cursed, while from authentic modern travelers, he 
 gathers up the graphic pictures of their present 
 ruins. Let the present and the past be placed in 
 striking contrast, while due prominence is given 
 to the causes that have been in operation to pro- 
 duce the results. That congregation must be stu- 
 pid indeed, that cannot be made to perceive the 
 truth of prophecy, and feel the power and terrible- 
 ness of God's arm in avenging himself against the 
 sinner, in the discussion of such topics. While it 
 puts into the hand of the preacher a moral lever 
 of immense power, it may, at the same time, be 
 made attractive, by the fund of information which 
 it spreads before the eager eye of those anxious 
 to improve their knowledge of the present and the 
 past."— jo. 727. 
 
 This last extract will be read by the friends of 
 Mr. Judson with mournful interest. For it was in 
 the attempt to present to his own congregation 
 such a contrast between the present and the past 
 condition of Egypt and Tyre — an attempt in 
 which he overtasked his powers — that he sank un- 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 127 
 
 der the stroke of disease. The very last discourse 
 written and preached by him, in pursuance of his 
 course of sermons on the Evidences of Revelation, 
 was from Ezekiel xxix. 15. " It shall be the basest 
 of kingdoms, neither shall it exalt itself any more 
 above the nations : for I will diminish them that 
 they shall no more rule over the nations." 
 
 Another course which he proposes, and which 
 he also pursued in his series of discourses entitled 
 " The History of Fanaticism," is the history of the 
 various forms which error has, in different ages, 
 assumed. " There is no form of error, be it ever so 
 repulsive, that lures from the narrow path the fee- 
 bler, or more dull, or more enthusiastic disciple of 
 the nineteenth century, but has had its day, done 
 its mischief, and fallen into a centennial sleep in 
 some previous age. Every fashionable and every 
 silly form of human folly has its place in the cycle. 
 Nor is it without its points, rich in benevolence, 
 and fruitful in the devisings of warm hearts and 
 the promptings of christian love, that deserve the 
 approbation, no less than the other, the reprehen- 
 sion of the faithful of our day. 
 
 Nor is there any more effective method of en- 
 forcing important duties, or combatting pernicious 
 errors, than by bringing their origin, their bearing, 
 and their results, their whole history, from the dust 
 of ages, and revealing it to the eye of those whom 
 we wish to warn or instruct. Much of the fanati- 
 cism, and many of the forms of error that sprang 
 up at the time of the Protestant Reformation, in 
 
128 MEMOIR OF 
 
 spite of the holy men who were the chief actors in 
 that drama, were scarcely less like the errors and 
 fanaticism of the present age, than the successive 
 editions of a stereotyped book. They bear the 
 same image and superscription. History under 
 such circumstances becomes prophecy, and with 
 this advantage, that the confirmation of the be- 
 ginning by existing facts, conduces strongly to a 
 confirmation of the end, so as to reveal the proba- 
 ble termination of many things now in their high- 
 est state of prosperity." — p. 728. 
 
 Nothing more just and striking! and if some 
 preachers at the present day, as well as scores of 
 churches who give themselves up to their guidance, 
 would learn from the history of the past, they 
 might save themselves the pain and humiliation 
 of unlearning their errors from bitter experience. 
 
 But how does Mr. Judson meet the difficulty of 
 the want of books to enable the preacher to deliver 
 such courses of lectures as are here contemplated ? 
 Let us see. 
 
 " The objection may be felt by some, who are 
 less favored than their brethren, that an incompe- 
 tent salary deprives them of a library of such ex- 
 tent and diversity, as would afford the requisite 
 aid for a more extended range of topics for the 
 pulpit. The common doctrine of political econo- 
 my, that the demand regulates the supply, well 
 applies in a case of this kind. There are few pa- 
 rishes whose young men would not feel it a privi- 
 lege, at the close of every such series of discourses 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 129 
 
 as has been contemplated in this article, to furnish 
 the requisite means for securing a similar intellec- 
 tual feast in future. Persons of very good com- 
 mon sense sometimes wonder what use the pastor 
 who only preaches " doctrinal discourses," or " re- 
 vival sermons," can have for many books. The 
 range of topics suggested in this article, thorough- 
 ly and elaborately discussed from the pulpit, would 
 solve the question for such preachers, and lead the 
 congregation to supply that of which they might 
 not otherwise see the necessity." — pp. 729-30. 
 
 If Mr. Judson's practice in respect to diversity 
 of topics is to be warmly commended, the same 
 praise cannot be awarded to his habit of compos- 
 ing sermons, which was somewhat peculiar. He 
 usually commenced the business of writing his 
 sermon for the Sabbath — for which, however, at 
 least in many cases, he had been previously col- 
 lecting the materials — on Saturday morning, and 
 wrote till noon. The afternoon of Saturday he 
 spent out of his study, resuming and continuing 
 his work in the evening. On Sabbath morning 
 he went to his study at 5 o'clock, and wrote till 
 ten, that is, till it was time to leave for the sanc- 
 tuary, and took his discourse along, with the ink 
 hardly dry. This he did not from procrastination, 
 but from system. In a conversation which the 
 author once had with him respecting this practice 
 he defended it on the ground that he wished to 
 have the thoughts of his sermon fresh and glowing 
 
130 MEMOIR OF 
 
 in his mind ; which he found to be an impossible 
 thing for him if any considerable interval was al- 
 lowed to elapse between its composition and its 
 delivery. He further argued that he needed the 
 stimulus of the position in which the Sabbath 
 morning placed him ; that, with his congregation 
 just coming together, and, as it were, before his 
 eye, he could write with more force, animation, 
 and directness, than in any other circumstances. 
 
 The reality of this advantage to a man of Mr. 
 Judson's character and temperament needs not be 
 denied. But it was purchased at too heavy an 
 expense. One obvious consequence of this method 
 of writing was that he left few sermons that can 
 be called finished. The greater number of them 
 are first drafts, rich in thought and abounding in 
 striking illustrations, but unrevised and imperfect. 
 This fact was probably one of the considerations 
 that influenced him in his dying injunction that 
 none of his discourses should be published. 
 
 But a more serious evil was the injury which 
 his constitution received from this weekly Sabbath 
 morning effort, followed, as it was necessary that 
 it should be, by the arduous services of the day. 
 To write every Sabbath morning from five till ten 
 under the strain of constant excitement, then de- 
 liver two discourses and one extemporaneous lec- 
 ture, and conduct a Bible class in the evening (on 
 which latter exercise he laid out, as we have seen, 
 his full strength) was more than his constitution 
 could bear, and was one cause of hastening that 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 131 
 
 catastrophe which put a sudden and final end to 
 his labors in Christ's vineyard. Of this he him- 
 self was fully sensible when it was too late to re- 
 pair the mischief. 
 
 In regard to the length of his discourses it was 
 a maxim with Mr. Judson never to fatigue his 
 audience, and to this he attached great importance. 
 His written sermons generally occupied less than 
 forty-five minutes in the delivery. 
 
 From what has already been said the reader 
 will understand that Mr. Judson had no relish for 
 the abstruse and controverted points of systematic 
 theology. He did not willingly discuss them in 
 the Ministers' Meeting, and he never introduced 
 them into his pulpit. In his general views he 
 agreed with the system taught in the Seminary at 
 which he received his theological education. The 
 doctrine of the predominant volition or governing 
 purpose, as giving character to action, he adopted 
 very heartily and fully. The power of this simple 
 purpose he felt in his own soul with great strength 
 and definiteness. Habitually to do all for Christ — 
 this was his idea of what constitutes true christian 
 character. That this character is, though free, not 
 self-originated, but produced and maintained in 
 the soul by the Spirit of God, it is hardly neces- 
 sary to say that he most firmly believed and 
 taught throughout his entire ministry. 
 
132 MEMOIR OF 
 
 Section II. 
 Mr. Judson as a Pastor. 
 
 From the preceding historical sketch of Mr. 
 Judson's labors in Milan, it is manifest that he ex- 
 celled in the discharge of pastoral duties. The 
 steady growth and prosperity of his Church du- 
 ring the entire period of his ministry must be as- 
 cribed to the blessing of God upon his abundant 
 and wisely directed labors ; and no one who knew 
 him will doubt that among these, the* pastoral 
 held the foremost place. It is true that he was 
 favored by circumstances. His congregation was 
 located in a flourishing and enterprising commu- 
 nity, steadily increasing in population and wealth. 
 But secular and spiritual prosperity do not always 
 go hand in hand ; and, where they do, we may 
 lawfully assume that it is through God's blessing 
 bestowed upon the appropriate instrumentalities. 
 If, now, we examine Mr. Judson's character as a 
 pastor, we shall find in this one of the principal 
 causes of the continuous prosperity of his Church. 
 
 In the first place, he was a pastor whose whole 
 soul was in his work. He took the oversight of 
 the Lord's flock not by constraint, but willingly ; 
 not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind." This 
 love for the work of the ministry, though it needs, 
 indeed, to be supported and guided by various 
 good moral and intellectual qualifications, is, after 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 133 
 
 all, the prime preparation for usefulness, and one 
 without which all other qualifications are void. 
 No work is ever done in the best manner unless 
 the heart of the doer is in it. It was Mr. Judson's 
 love for his office that made him so thorough in 
 the discharge of its duties ; and this love, having 
 its seat deep down in the centre of his soul, con- 
 strained him, throughout the entire period of his 
 ministry, to do whatever his hand found to do 
 with his might. If he was ever temporarily drawn 
 aside from the appropriate work of a pastor, as in 
 superintending the erection of the Huron Institute 
 and his own house of worship, it was because 
 these enterprises were, in his view, identified with 
 the cause of Christ. The distracting influence of 
 these two interruptions, particularly the latter, he 
 himself felt and acknowledged ; and (if we except 
 his brief agency for the Western Reserve College) 
 he never afterwards allowed himself to be drawn 
 aside from his proper ministerial duties. During 
 the two last years of his ministry, in particular, 
 his absorption in these duties became more entire, 
 and led him, as we have seen, to efforts which 
 were beyond his strength. 
 
 Intimately connected with this whole-souled 
 devotion to his proper spiritual work was his 
 watchful care of the flock committed to him. He 
 was a bishop in the true primitive sense of the 
 word — an overseer of the souls entrusted to his 
 care. He made it his business to be acquainted 
 12 
 
134 MEMOIR OF 
 
 with every member of his congregation, and his 
 acquaintance extended to the temporal as well as 
 the spiritual condition of his people, for he rightly 
 judged that, in the plan of man's probation, God 
 has so connected the temporal with the spiritual, 
 that a thorough knowledge of the latter implies a 
 knowledge of the former also. He was not the 
 man to deliver the same set exhortation to persons 
 of all classes and conditions, as if religion had 
 nothing to do with man's outward circumstances ; 
 but, being fully persuaded that it is through these 
 that God tries and disciplines the spirit, he sought 
 through the outward dealings of God's providence 
 to approach the inner man. This gave to the ex- 
 ternal history of each member of his congregation 
 a religious importance, in his view, and he watched 
 it with an eagle-eyed scrutiny, ever anxious to 
 learn what lessons of spiritual profit he might draw 
 from it. The qualification which a living preacher 
 has stated as necessary for the pastor — " the pastor 
 must know every body and every thing" — was 
 possessed by Mr. Judson in an eminent degree ; 
 but he never gained or used it in such a way as to 
 be accused of being " a busy body in other men's 
 matters." Regard for the spiritual good of his 
 people regulated his mode both of acquiring and 
 of using it. Being very much among his people, 
 it was not difficult for a man of his discernment to 
 learn, in an indirect way, what did not come to 
 light in the course of confiding pastoral intercourse. 
 Often, as the writer of this memoir was riding by 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 135 
 
 his side along the streets of Milan, would he, by a 
 few graphic strokes, give the history and character 
 of the different converts whom he met. He dwelt 
 on the various ways in which they had been 
 brought into the fold of Christ in such a manner 
 as to show that he had been a keen observer of 
 their history. 
 
 He watched the countenances of the members 
 of his congregation on the Sabbath, and was quick 
 to discern the beginning of religious interest in 
 any breast. Cases of seriousness could not escape 
 his notice. Upon going home from preaching he 
 often remarked, " I must call upon such a person : 
 I saw a tear in his eye." A good impression made 
 in public he felt it his duty to follow up in private. 
 Here lay the secret of much of his success. His 
 watchfulness in regard to his Church was equally 
 remarkable. " Suppose," says one, " that a mem- 
 ber of the Church had been absent on the Sabbath. 
 He would come into my store on Monday morn- 
 ing and ask, ' How is Mr. 's family ? Have 
 
 you heard that any one there is sick ? I noticed 
 
 yesterday that was absent' Where one had 
 
 been missing he would generally make it conve- 
 nient to call soon upon the family." 
 
 The following incident may serve to illustrate 
 his habit in respect to absentees from his congre- 
 gation. One of his parishioners, well known for 
 his regular attendance upon the sanctuary, was 
 led, on a certain Sabbath, by particular circum- 
 stances, to the house of an adjoining parish which 
 
186 MEMOIR OF 
 
 was nearer to him than his own Church. One of 
 the elders playfully remarked to him, " Well, Mr. 
 
 D , I am glad that for once you have found 
 
 your true place." " There is no hope for you," he 
 immediately replied, " for to-morrow morning Mr. 
 Judson will ride over to your place, and call across 
 
 the street to Dr. B , to know if I am sick. 
 
 Or he will make it convenient to call on the way 
 at my house to inquire about my health." The 
 latter circumstance took place the next morning, 
 to the no small amusement of all the parties. 
 
 When persons who were not in the habit of at- 
 tending upon religious services appeared in his 
 Church, he took great pains to secure their confi- 
 dence and good will. This he effected in the ear- 
 lier part of his ministry by interviews brought 
 about in an indirect manner. Afterwards he 
 changed his plan in this respect, and kindly in- 
 vited them to call upon him. He was not in the 
 habit, however, in these preliminary interviews, of 
 introducing the subject of personal religion, unless 
 he discerned some tenderness. On this point he 
 was very strenuous. 
 
 On Monday forenoon, when he felt himself una- 
 ble to occupy his time in his study with profit, he 
 made the round of the shops and warehouses, 
 visiting the male part of his congregation at their 
 places of business. These visits were generally 
 short, and of rather a social character. The plea- 
 sant impression which he made, as he passed along 
 from place to place with his frank open counte- 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 137 
 
 nance and friendly salutations, one has well ex- 
 pressed, by saying that " he left a light streak be- 
 hind him." The afternoons of all the days of the 
 week which were not otherwise occupied he devo- 
 ted to visiting his congregation. In his ordinary 
 rounds of parochial visitation he did not adhere to 
 a strict plan previously laid down, but was di- 
 rected by circumstances as they arose. Upon oc- 
 casions of special interest he visited in particular 
 neighborhoods all the families of his congregation 
 in connection with his deacons. The sick he 
 made it a point to visit with great faithfulness and 
 assiduity, always requesting the physicians to in- 
 form him of cases of sickness as they occurred. 
 Persons sick for long periods of time he visited 
 regularly. The afflicted he visited with the ut- 
 most care and solicitude. The high end which he 
 proposed to himself in these visitations will be 
 considered in another place. 
 
 In respect to the amount of time which Mr, 
 Judson devoted to parochial visitations, he is not 
 proposed as an example to all pastors. Undoubt- 
 edly many would find themselves unable to be so 
 much of their time out of their studies without 
 abridging their highest usefulness. And here Mr. 
 Judson had a very liberal spirit. He knew where 
 his own strength lay, but did not wish to propose 
 his particular method for universal adoption. The 
 following extract from his article on the " Range 
 of Topics for the Pulpit," shows that he did not 
 wish to have any preacher neglect thorough pre- 
 12* 
 
138 MEMOIR OP 
 
 paration for the pulpit in order to satisfy the call 
 for " more visiting." 
 
 " That a style of pulpit discourses thus diversi- 
 fied, will not augment the duties of the ministry, 
 and call for much of that study which is a weari- 
 ness to the flesh, is not claimed. Nor is it a valid 
 objection to such an appropriation of the time of 
 the pastor, that the parish is clamorous for more 
 pastoral labor. However urgent may be the plea 
 for ' more visiting,' there are few congregations that 
 would not regard better and more varied preaching 
 as an excellent substitute for pastoral visits. The 
 weeks would be shortened by the anxiety for the 
 intellectual feasts of the Sabbath, and the inter- 
 vals between each successive visit would be less 
 carefully noted. It is not so much the superior 
 value of the fireside instructions, as the wish to 
 cultivate an affectionate interest in the pastor, that 
 calls for an increased frequency in his visits. 
 When this affectionate interest is secured by the 
 greater excellence and happier variety of his pul- 
 pit efforts, the same end is gained, and in a way 
 that is both more acceptable, and more perma- 
 nent."— Bib. Repository for 1847, p. 729. 
 
 In a charge to a newly ordained pastor, written 
 several years before, in 1840, he had insisted upon 
 the same thing. " If you would be a workman, 
 and a workman too that needeth not to be asham- 
 ed, rightly dividing the word of truth, you must 
 spend much time in your study. Here should be 
 your first and greatest effort, the place where your 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 139 
 
 energies are concentrated. Your congregation, 
 unless they are unlike all other congregations, will 
 say much to you about visiting. You will hear a 
 thousand complaints about your not visiting 
 enough, where you will hear one about not study- 
 ing as much as you should. But remember it is a 
 somewhat delicate matter for your parishioners to 
 urge you to study. Their polite regard for you 
 will prevent it. But though they may say little, 
 they will think much. And they will have a way 
 of showing what they think, more effectual than 
 kind words even, by leaving these seats empty. 
 You cannot chain a congregation in regular and 
 interested attendance upon the duties of the house 
 of God for a series of years, without introducing 
 into your sermons the fruits of much and severe 
 investigation." 
 
 One happy result of Mr. Judson's intimate ac- 
 quaintance with his parish was his ability to dis- 
 cern and forestall rising evils. He saw far ahead, 
 and often acted with reference to a point that 
 other people did not see. When the elements of 
 an explosion were at work he occupied himself in 
 a quiet way to quench them, and often employed, 
 on such occasions, the members of his Church 
 whom he knew to be most favorably situated for 
 the work, suggeting to them the best means of ac- 
 complishing it. So also he forestalled rising er- 
 rors, before they had gained a firm hold, by 
 preaching the truths best adapted to dissipate 
 them. 
 
140 MEMOIR OF 
 
 Another of Mr. Judson's qualifications for the 
 pastoral office was a sound judgment united with 
 fertility of invention. That he never erred in 
 judgment cannot be affirmed, for he was an impul- 
 sive man, and subject, moreover, to great inequali- 
 ties of spirits. From both these causes, as well as 
 from his unnecessary bluntness and sarcastic se- 
 verity, he was sometimes led into unwise mea- 
 sures, and said and did things which had an un- 
 happy influence. But, notwithstanding these 
 drawbacks, he possessed a judgment of a very 
 superior character. On all practical matters his 
 views were remarkably clear and comprehensive. 
 His fertility of invention, in devising ways and 
 means for the accomplishment of any enterprise, 
 was best understood by those whose acquaintance 
 with him and the field of his labors was most in- 
 timate. When any thing needed to be done he 
 had a way for doing it ; and his plans were in 
 general marked by simplicity and feasibility, and, 
 for this very reason, they commended themselves 
 to the common sense of his people, and were 
 readily adopted by them. 
 
 In the fourth volume of the New Englander is 
 an article from his pen, on " the Evangelization of 
 the West," in which he considers the various ob- 
 stacles that must be encountered by the christian 
 ministry in the West, and how they are to be 
 overcome. The article is throughout fraught with 
 good sense and practical wisdom, and is itself a 
 sufficient proof that its author was a man of clear 
 views and sound judgment. 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 141 
 
 Nearly related to the above qualification — rather 
 a branch of it — was his tact in approaching men 
 of all classes and conditions. Some, who knew 
 him only at a distance, may think this view of his 
 character incorrect. Instances are certainly known 
 of his addressing strangers, upon his first introduc- 
 tion to them, in a very abrupt way, by no means 
 adapted to conciliate their good will. In the heat 
 of ecclesiastical debate also, as well as in discus- 
 sions with his best friends, he sometimes said un- 
 necessarily severe things. It need not be denied 
 that this trait was a detriment to his influence as a 
 pastor. 
 
 Yet it may be confidently affirmed, that few 
 men ever understood more perfectly the deep 
 springs of human action, or were able to operate 
 upon them more skilfully or more successfully. 
 And, in his pastoral intercourse with his people, 
 having a deep and abiding sense of his responsi- 
 bility for the souls committed to his care, he laid 
 himself out, more perhaps than in any other situa- 
 tion, to win men's confidence, that he might thus 
 guide them to Christ. It is certain that in the 
 later years of his ministry there was a peculiar 
 mellowness and tenderness in his manner of ap- 
 proaching men on the subject of their spiritual 
 welfare, which, did not appear in the free inter- 
 course of society, and which, combined as it was 
 with a nice discernment of the most accessible 
 points, opened to him the door of many a heart 
 which, if approached in an unskilful way, would 
 
142 MEMOIR OF 
 
 have remained fast barred against him. He had 
 no set formula for approaching men, but varied 
 his manner of address according to circumstances, 
 always making it his first effort to gain their confi- 
 dence and good will. When any had become 
 somewhat interested in the subject of personal re- 
 ligion, he anxiously watched their progress, and 
 made from time to time suggestions appropriate 
 to the stage of inquiry which they had reached. 
 This was highly characteristic of his method in 
 the latter period of his ministry. He did not be- 
 lieve in attempting to force a mind at once through 
 an entire process of inquiry and reasoning; but 
 rather, in imitation of the skilful husbandman, 
 sought to aid and cherish it in the development of 
 its own inward powers. When, through the di- 
 vine blessing upon his labors, any one had been 
 brought to the knowledge and love of the truth, 
 he could give the history of the several stages of 
 his progress, and tell what suggestions he had 
 made at each successive step, and why he had 
 made them. 
 
 If any were indifferent to the subject of religion, 
 he approached them through their temporal inter- 
 ests. Suppose, for example, that there was a 
 family within the bounds of his parish that did 
 not attend religious worship on the Sabbath. If 
 he had noticed that the lady of the house had 
 shrubbery or flowers about her door — a thing for 
 which he had himself an exquisite relish — he made 
 her taste here a point of contact. When he had 
 
EVERTON JUDSON, 143 
 
 thus gained her interest and good will he pro- 
 ceeded to seek her spiritual good. In the same 
 way he drew into his congregation men of a skep- 
 tical turn of mind, always making some worldly 
 interest a door of entrance to their acquaintance 
 and confidence. " He conversed," says a lady of 
 his congregation, whose husband was brought to 
 Christ through the divine blessing upon his labors, 
 " on whatever matter my husband was engaged in. 
 He could interest himself in every thing that con- 
 cerned his affairs — even in a hill of potatoes." 
 
 The interest with which he followed the uncon- 
 verted members of his congregation, when he had 
 thus gained access to their hearts, strikingly ap- 
 pears in the following remarks, made to an inti- 
 mate friend, soon after the death of one for whom 
 he had a very high personal esteem. " There has 
 no death occurred in my congregation for years 
 which has been to me the occasion of so much 
 anxiety and uneasiness. I have followed that man 
 since I came here, and have thought that I ob- 
 served a gradual softening of his feelings. Few 
 in my Church know of what help he has been to 
 me. With his influence I was able to carry out 
 many measures, and that influence was always 
 cheerfully given. I would have given the world 
 to know that man's exercises in the last moments 
 of his life. It was hard for me to become recon- 
 ciled to the idea of his dying without giving evi- 
 dence of a change of mind." 
 
 Mr. Judson's habit of approaching irreligious 
 
144 MEMOIR OF 
 
 men through their worldly occupations and inter- 
 ests was probably the ground why some said that 
 he was a man of much policy. His principle he 
 may sometimes have carried to excess, but it was 
 nevertheless a sound principle. What shall forbid 
 the Christian, who has occasion to ride by the side 
 of a profane stage-driver, instead of immediately 
 uttering an abrupt reproof, first to prepare the way 
 for it by manifesting an interest every way lawful 
 and proper in his business and his horses? If 
 this is policy, it is certainly not " carnal policy." 
 Nevertheless the cases are few, and only consti- 
 tute the exceptions, in which a minister may not, 
 in private intercourse, especially among the people 
 of his own charge, introduce the subject of per- 
 sonal religion in a direct way. He is appointed 
 by his Master to be men's spiritual guide, and 
 even the wicked expect him, in his intercourse 
 with them, to act in his proper character; and 
 will, as an ordinary rule, be prepared to receive 
 from him appeals to their consciences, when made 
 with tenderness, and with a due regard to out- 
 ward circumstances. In this matter " wisdom is 
 profitable to direct ; and " there are diversities of 
 gifts." 
 
 In one respect Mr. Judson himself became satis- 
 fied that, in seeking personal interviews with men 
 on the subject of religion, he had pursued too in- 
 direct a method. In the earlier part of his ministry 
 he sought to bring these about in an incidental 
 way. Afterwards he changed his plan, and kindly 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 145 
 
 invited such as he believed to be somewhat 
 thoughtful to call upon him. The occasion of this 
 change he thus stated to the author : " Calling one 
 day at the study of a pastor, he informed me that 
 he was expecting a young man to call in the 
 course of a few minutes for religious conversation. 
 I asked him what method he pursued in seeking 
 such personal interviews. He replied that, when 
 he judged a member of his congregation to be in 
 a proper state of mind for the measure, he called 
 upon him, invited him to his study, and frankly 
 stated his object. Upon this some free conversa- 
 tion on the subject occurred between us. I went 
 home resolved to pursue a more direct course in 
 obtaining interviews with the thoughtful, and I 
 have found it a more successful way." He did 
 not, however, enter into a personal conversation 
 respecting their religious condition in the prelimi- 
 nary interview, unless he discerned some tender- 
 ness of feeling, but left this for subsequent oppor- 
 tunities. 
 
 His assiduity in visiting the sick and the afflic- 
 ted has already been noticed. In these visits the 
 administration of comfort, though a real, was with 
 him a subordinate object. Firmly believing that 
 the afflictive dispensations of God's providence 
 are adapted and designed to recal men from the 
 service of mammon to that of Christ, he sought 
 with solicitous care to improve them to this high 
 end, regarded them as golden opportunities for his 
 13 
 
146 MEMOIR OF 
 
 work, and expected to see saving divine influences 
 follow his faithful labors. When a brother minis- 
 ter once said to him that he did not expect any 
 permanent religious results from affliction, he re- 
 plied, " It is not so with me. When any of my 
 congregation are in affliction, I feel that I have a 
 special call to labor with them. My object is not 
 simply to comfort them, but to lead them to 
 Christ, and I expect to see them converted." He 
 had great skill in approaching persons at such 
 times, and often said that he had, in his own 
 opinion, been the means of converting more souls 
 in this way than in any other. Many members of 
 his Church ascribed their conversion to his labors 
 with them in seasons of affliction. He came to 
 them with deep sympathy and tenderness, and 
 was always able, by virtue of his power of dis- 
 cerning character, to present to them the most ap- 
 propriate truth in the most appropriate way. And, 
 when he had once gained access in this way to the 
 bosom of an unconverted person, he was not satis- 
 fied with one or two efforts, but made it a point of 
 duty to follow up the first good impression, till it 
 should result, by the help of divine grace, in a 
 saving knowledge of Christ. He had a rare facul- 
 ty of drawing out men's feelings. It was a com- 
 mon remark in Milan, that he would make one tell 
 all his heart. 
 
 In the article in the Biblical Repository, al- 
 ready so often referred to, Mr. Judson has given 
 his views of the reason why afflictions so seldom 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 147 
 
 result in the conversion of those who experience 
 them. 
 
 " It was but the other day we read in a popular 
 quarterly, conducted with great ability, the fol- 
 lowing sentiment, quoted as an approved apo- 
 thegm : ' People are never so wicked as during a 
 general mortality, or the ravages of the plague : 
 and sailors get drunk as the vessel sinks.' For 
 aught we know, the remark, as far as relates to the 
 effects of the Gospel, may convey a historic truth 
 of common occurrence. We have heard it from 
 our boyhood, and till we were so far persuaded of 
 its truth as to cast about for the philosophy of the 
 fact, that sinners never repent and turn to God in 
 seasons of deep affliction. The facts may be so, 
 but we believe, if they are, the ministry of recon- 
 ciliation is fearfully responsible for their existence. 
 "When does a sermon result in the conviction or 
 conversion of a sinner, unless the author of the 
 discourse prepared and preached it in earnest ex- 
 pectation of such results ? Let it become a part 
 of the philosophy of any pastor, that sickness and 
 death, and the various calamities with which God 
 visits men, are never to result in their immediate 
 conversion, and there is the best of all reasons for 
 the failure. 
 
 We might name the pastor of a Church, who 
 has, for a long season of years, made special ef- 
 forts to adapt the truth to the circumstances, and 
 to press it upon the consciences of the families of 
 his parish, whenever they have been visited with 
 
148 MEMOIR OF 
 
 severe affliction, and almost ever with the happiest 
 success. It is believed that he has realized more 
 accessions to his Church, in connection with such 
 instrumentalities, than from all other means." — 
 Bib. Repository for 1847, pp. 723-4. 
 
 In the pastor alluded to in the last part of this 
 extract the reader will not fail to discern Mr. Jud- 
 son himself. His view of the use to be made by 
 the pastor of the afflictive dispensations which 
 befall the members of his congregation, and of the 
 permanent results to be expected from such a use, 
 is so obviously correct and scriptural, that we can- 
 not but wonder that any should have maintained 
 a different view. In innumerable passages the 
 Scriptures assert, and all evangelical pastors ad- 
 mit, that afflictions are, in general, both designed 
 and adapted to bring men to repentance. "Why 
 then should any pastor fail to discern a golden op- 
 portunity for the accomplishment of his appro- 
 priate work when God has led the way before him, 
 and is, as it were, beckoning him onward to co- 
 operate with himself? It is not God's plan that 
 afflictions alone should have a saving efficacy. 
 Among the mass of unevangelizedmen they have no 
 such efficacy. But by them he interrupts the sinner 
 in his career of worldliness, embitters to him earthly 
 delights, softens his feelings, and prepares the way 
 for the reception of the word of life. Afflictions are, 
 so to speak, the plough that breaks up the fallow 
 ground. But if the pastor — the Lord's husbandman, 
 does not follow and sow the seed of truth, no harvest 
 
EVERT0N JUDSON. 149 
 
 of repentance will follow. Nor ought it to be ex- 
 pected, as a general result, that an afflictive dis- 
 pensation, even when accompanied with faithful 
 pastoral labor, will, by a single stroke, accomplish 
 the whole work. Very often it will be found to 
 be only the first in a series of influences which, 
 after a longer or shorter time, result, through the 
 power of the Holy Spirit, in the soul's salvation. 
 This was Mr. Judson's idea. His plan was to 
 follow up afflictions by a system of efforts varied to 
 suit each individual case. In this he was, as we 
 have seen, singularly successful ; and his example 
 may well be proposed for the imitation of all 
 pastors. 
 
 "We have seen that Mr. Judson's intimate ac- 
 quaintance with his congregation enabled him to 
 discern error in its incipient stages, and that his 
 habit was to forestall such error by preaching the 
 truth best adapted to meet it. It may be added 
 that his manner of encountering error was rather 
 indirect. It was not his way to give formal no- 
 tice that he would preach on such a day against 
 such a false doctrine or erroneous practice. Per- 
 haps he believed that this would be a sort of invi- 
 tation to its friends to come fully armed for its 
 defense. He preferred to give to his people the 
 antidote of an error in the shape of an inference 
 from premises to which he had already gained 
 their assent. It is well known, for example, that 
 he was remarkably successful in excluding from 
 13* 
 
150 MEMOIR OF 
 
 his parish certain erroneous doctrines on the sub- 
 ject of christian perfection which were, during a 
 part of his ministry, inculcated with great zeal in 
 the whole of this region. Yet he was never known 
 to preach a sermon directly against those doctrines. 
 He chose rather to exhibit what he believed to be 
 the true scriptural doctrine of holiness, and then 
 to show inferentially that such and such ideas of 
 perfection are opposed to it. 
 
 He kept himself fully acquainted with the char- 
 acter of the periodicals taken in his congregation, 
 and, from time to time, as favorable opportunities 
 presented themselves, he made brief suggestions 
 on the subject. The influence which he exerted 
 in this quiet way in behalf of sound and whole- 
 some publications was very great and salutary. 
 He was also in the habit of loaning books to the 
 members of his congregation, particularly the 
 young, and it was his custom, when any volume 
 was returned, to ask the reader his opinion respect- 
 ing its contents. 
 
 Mr. Judson had a high sense of his pastoral re- 
 sponsibilities, and his rights in his own parish, 
 and with intruders he was capable of being severe. 
 Such were quite apt to fall in with him in their 
 rounds, and to be handled in such a way that they 
 had no desire to renew the encounter. The same 
 rights which he claimed for himself among his 
 own people, he most cordially conceded to the 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 151 
 
 pastors of other congregations, both of his own 
 and of other denominations. In laboring in the 
 parishes of his brethren, or with other ministers on 
 common ground, he had a delicate sense of pro- 
 priety, which kept him from every thing like offi- 
 cious intermeddling. Toward that class of in- 
 truders who, under color of zeal for some good 
 cause, come in privily to alienate the affections of 
 the people from their pastor, and draw off a party 
 to their own side, he entertained a just abhorrence, 
 and showed himself a formidable opponent, fol- 
 lowing herein the inspired direction ; " Now I be- 
 seech you, brethren, mark them which cause divi- 
 sions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which 
 ye have learned ; and avoid them. For they that 
 are such serve not the Lord Jesus Christ, but their 
 own belly ; and by good words and fair speeches 
 deceive the hearts of the simple." 
 
 Mr. Judson's energy and decision of character, 
 united with a sound judgment and talents for busi- 
 ness of a high order, secured for him a permanent 
 and paramount influence in his parish. His opin- 
 ions, of which he was very tenacious, were gene- 
 rally adopted, and most matters of importance 
 were left to his management, perhaps too much so 
 for the highest good of his people. Yet he was 
 fully aware that he held his great power over his 
 parish only on the tenure of a prudent and rea- 
 sonable use of it. He was not in the habit, at 
 least not in the latter period of his ministry, of 
 
152 MEMOIR OF 
 
 coming directly across the feelings and opinions 
 of his people. When subjects were proposed in 
 the meetings of the Church from which he appre- 
 hended excitement and alienation of feeling, his 
 effort was to have the consideration of them defer- 
 red till there should be time for reflection and mu- 
 tual conference. If he had proposed a measure of 
 which he was warmly in favor, but which he per- 
 ceived was likely, if pressed, to produce division 
 and opposition, it was his custom to withdraw it. 
 Before making important movements he was 
 always careful to ascertain the minds of the prin- 
 cipal men in his Church. He often said that, 
 should he find the feelings of three prominent men 
 in his Church alienated from him, he should leave 
 his post. Conversing one day respecting the 
 troubles that had arisen in another parish, he cen- 
 sured the pastor in severe terms for his indecision, 
 and added, " If I were in his place I would know 
 whether I was pastor or not." To this a lady pre- 
 sent replied, " Mr. has not so many stiff backs 
 
 to support him as you have." In private conver- 
 sation afterwards with the author he said : " Mrs. 
 
 spoke of the 'stiff backs ' in my congregation. 
 
 But you know, brother B , that these stiffbacks 
 
 require very careful management. To get along 
 well with them, is a work of no little judgment 
 and skill. I have found, sometimes, when I set 
 on foot a plan which they have not examined, and 
 do not carefully explain it to them and ask their 
 opinion, they will stand perfectly still and be as 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 153 
 
 judicious ." To a brother minister he once 
 
 said : " I let my people do as they wish ;" meaning 
 that he was careful not to cross their wishes un- 
 necessarily. But he was, at the same time, equally 
 careful to put in a word here and a suggestion 
 there, which should lead them to do as he wished, 
 and this result he generally secured. 
 
 Yet his feelings sometimes impelled him to hasty 
 and unwise measures, and led him to say and do 
 unhappy things. As has been already remarked, 
 he was subject to seasons of great depression. At 
 such times he saw every thing subjectively, (to use 
 one of the terms which he so much disliked,) that 
 is, through the medium of his own feelings, and 
 as these were in a morbid condition, his views 
 were, in like manner, unhealthy. On two or three 
 of these occasions he sent in to the deacons of the 
 Church his request that they and his people would 
 unite with him in seeking a dissolution of the 
 pastoral relation existing between himself and 
 them. One of these was in 1838, soon after the 
 completion of the new house of worship. At this 
 time it must be acknowledged that he was suffer- 
 ing under an unjust external pressure, being re- 
 sponsible for a debt at one of the banks contracted 
 in the progress of erecting the Church, which he 
 thought his people remiss in paying. At this time 
 he was, perhaps, willing that matters should be 
 brought to a crisis. Another occasion was in 1845, 
 when he addressed to the deacons of the Church 
 a communication containing a very dark and dis* 
 
154 MEMOIR OF 
 
 couraging view of the spiritual condition of his 
 people, with complaints of their apathy and indif- 
 ference in many particulars which he enumerated, 
 and ending with a statement that " the spiritual 
 welfare of this people demands that they should 
 take an early opportunity to secure a dissolution 
 of the pastoral relation, with the hope of securing 
 some one to break to them the bread of life in 
 whom they shall repose a more hearty confidence, 
 and with whom they shall be more ready to co- 
 operate, and whose wearied hands shall be stayed 
 up by the Aarons and Hurs of the Church ;" — 
 and with a further request that they u will take an 
 early opportunity to consummate an event which 
 will only be rendered more painful to me by 
 delay." 
 
 That the evils of which he complained were, 
 to a great extent, real, there can be no doubt. 
 But that the remedy proposed was the right one, 
 he himself, when looking at the matter through 
 the medium of his usual good judgment, instead 
 of his depressed feelings, would hardly have af- 
 firmed. This communication the deacons man- 
 aged to keep from coming before the people, be- 
 ing, in this matter also, " as judicious ." 
 
 Nevertheless it had, through them, the effect of 
 stirring up the Church to duty. 
 
 The same sensitiveness and unevenness of feel- 
 ing sometimes led him, in the Thursday evening 
 meeting, to talk to his people with great severity, 
 and in a strain which would not have been borne 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 155 
 
 from any other man. In his ministrations on the 
 Sabbath also this sharpness frequently appeared 
 in the earlier part of his ministry. Too much heat 
 or cold, a little smoke, or a thin attendance greatly 
 discomposed him. But towards the close of his 
 ministry he had nearly overcome this infirmity. 
 An incident that occurred in connection with the 
 Thursday evening meeting, in one of the later 
 years of his ministry, was the occasion of adminis- 
 tering to him a salutary lesson of instruction. 
 
 There had been in Milan many strolling lec- 
 turers. One of these had obtained permission to 
 deliver several lectures on mesmerism in the base- 
 ment of the Church. It so happened, through the 
 inadvertence of those who had charge of the mat- 
 ter, that one of these fell on Thursday evening, 
 thus interfering with Mr. Judson 's weekly religious 
 meeting. He was greatly excited, and the next 
 Sabbath omitted to make the usual public ap- 
 pointment of the Thursday evening lecture. One 
 of his people, supposing that the omission might 
 have been through forgetfulness, ordered the bell 
 to be rung, and the meeting was held as usual, 
 but without the presence of the pastor. The 
 question was raised by those present, " Shall the 
 meeting be sustained?", and decided in the affir- 
 mative. The next Sabbath he again omitted the 
 appointment, and again the bell was rung and the 
 meeting held. On the following week, at the 
 stated church-meeting, he brought the matter be- 
 fore the Church, and asked the opinion of the 
 
156 MEMOIR OF 
 
 brethren on the expediency of maintaining the ex- 
 ercise. All answered in the affirmative, and Mr. 
 Judson frankly acknowledged that he had been in 
 the wrong. From that time onward the meeting 
 was maintained with new life. In reference to 
 this event, he often said that he had, like Wash- 
 ington, gained a victory by retreating. 
 
 Section III. 
 Mr. Judson in Ecclesiastical Meetings. 
 
 "D 
 
 Mr. Judson was eminently a man of public 
 spirit. His views were not circumscribed by the 
 bounds of his own parish, but he felt a deep in- 
 terest in the prosperity of all the neighboring 
 parishes and of the entire region, and was ever 
 ready to do what lay in his power to advance the 
 general interests of Christ's kingdom. This trait 
 in his character began to show itself upon his first 
 entrance into his field of labor ; and it lay at the 
 foundation of the interest which he ever manifested 
 in the meetings of his own Presbytery and of the 
 Synod of the Western Reserve. These meetings 
 he attended with great punctuality, and took an 
 active part in their deliberations. No one man, 
 probably, had more weight of influence than he on 
 the floor of the Synod. His strength lay partly in 
 his native energy and decision of character, and 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 157 
 
 partly in the clearness with which he apprehended 
 all the points at issue, and the readiness with 
 which he could present arguments to establish his 
 own views. The following paragraph from the 
 pen of one who was long associated with him in 
 the same Presbytery, well sets forth the elements 
 of his power in deliberative assemblies. 
 
 " If there was one mental trait by which he was 
 particularly distinguished above most men, it was 
 the power of seeing almost at a glance the rela- 
 tions and bearings of any question that was under 
 discussion, or of any measure that was proposed 
 for adoption. The rapidity of his judgment was 
 like intuition. Almost equally rapid was his 
 power of combination. He was almost never in 
 doubt how to act in an emergency ; but would 
 form a plan and suggest a method of procedure 
 on the spur of the occasion, which would generally 
 prove to be as well adapted to accomplish the 
 object, as if it had been the fruit of long con- 
 tinued study. It was these mental characteris- 
 tics, combined with a ready command of forcible 
 language, which gave him so much influence in 
 deliberative assemblies. It was found that his 
 views were generally correct : that his plans were 
 suited to the exigencies of the case. These, com- 
 bined with an open and frank disposition that 
 knew no concealment, inspired great confidence in 
 his opinions and suggestions." — Obituary Notice 
 by Rev. A. Neivton, Ohio Observer, Aug. 30, 1848. 
 
 He carefully avoided wasting his strength and 
 14 
 
158 MEMOIR OF 
 
 impairing his influence by the advocacy of mea- 
 sures in which he had no hope of uniting the 
 members of his Presbytery. When he wished to 
 carry any point, his way was to consult privately 
 those " who seemed to be pillars." If he found 
 several opposed to his plan he was not in the 
 habit of urging it. He preferred to drop it, or to 
 wait for a more favorable occasion of presenting 
 it. Herein, as in all his other relations, he had a 
 steady eye to the peace and harmony of God's 
 Church. 
 
 As it was his lot to live in times of excitement 
 and division on questions not only of theological 
 belief, but also of church polity and of reform, it 
 necessarily happened that he sometimes found 
 himself opposed on the floor of an ecclesiastical 
 body to men whose views were widely at variance 
 with his own. Such found in him both a very 
 formidable and a very uncomfortable adversary. 
 He was ready to meet them on every side, and 
 the weight of his arguments and influence they 
 had just reason to fear. They knew, moreover, 
 that, when he chose, he could assail an opponent 
 with such a storm of sarcasm as few would care 
 to encounter. It cannot be denied that, on such 
 occasions, he was apt to be impetuous and head- 
 strong. Nevertheless his impetuosity was, in al- 
 most every instance, guided by a sound judgment 
 and correct view of the matter in debate, and his 
 warmest onsets had in view the harmony and wel- 
 fare of Christ's body. 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 159 
 
 It sometimes happened that he had reason to 
 believe that an opponent concealed his real grounds 
 for advocating a given measure. In such cases he 
 avoided placing himself in a false position by im- 
 puting to his adversary a motive which could be 
 easily denied ; but chose rather to keep him in his 
 own false position, by meeting him on his avowed 
 ground, and setting forth in various ways its in- 
 adequacy. This game he sometimes carried on 
 with great good nature and humor, evidently en- 
 joying not a little the embarrassment which it oc- 
 casioned. 
 
 In the present connection Mr. Judson's relation 
 to the monthly " Ministers' Meeting," held within 
 the bounds of his Presbytery, may properly be no- 
 ticed. Of this he was a constant attendant, and 
 some of the best articles produced in it were from 
 his pen. In those exercises of the meeting in 
 which he took an interest — such as dissertations, 
 reviews, plans of sermons, and the like — he was 
 peculiarly happy. For exegesis and the reading 
 of the Scriptures in the original languages, he had, 
 for the reason already stated, little relish. In his 
 criticisms upon the performances he always ex- 
 celled. He had a rare talent of seizing at once 
 upon the subject under discussion, and making 
 happy off-hand remarks upon it. Ordinarily these 
 remarks were in a kind tone, though sometimes 
 his native tendency to bluntness and severity pre- 
 vailed, and made his criticisms uncomfortable. 
 
160 MEMOIR OP 
 
 His influence in the Ministers' Meeting was great, 
 but it may be doubted whether its reaction upon 
 his own character was not even greater. A well 
 conducted ministers' meeting furnishes a genial 
 and kindly influence, which is admitted by the 
 several members so much the more readily be- 
 cause it is silent and indirect. Mr. Judson was 
 not a man to be compelled to receive influences, 
 when they presented themselves before him with 
 a magisterial air and demanded his submission. 
 But his good sense and clear-sighted judgment 
 made him peculiarly ready to take a good hint 
 that came in an unassuming form. The Minis- 
 ters' Meeting had a marked effect upon him in re- 
 spect to his style of preaching. It was, indeed, 
 one of the chief among the causes which operated 
 to recall him from the loose method of preparing 
 sermons, into which he had, at one time, fallen. 
 
 In his views of church polity Mr. Judson was 
 decidedly a Congregationalist. The existing ec- 
 clesiastical organization on the Western Reserve 
 he regarded as expedient — the best under present 
 circumstances. In the last year of his ministry he 
 commenced a series of articles in the Ohio Ob- 
 server, which he never completed, designed to set 
 forth and maintain the rights of Congregational 
 churches under this organization. For such a se- 
 ries of articles he thought there was need. To 
 enter into a discussion of this point would be 
 foreign to the design of the present memoir. It 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 161 
 
 is sufficient simply to say that his object was not 
 to disturb the existing relations of Congregational 
 and Presbyterian ministers and churches to each 
 other, (a thing which, in so many words, he ex- 
 pressly disavowed,) but to show what are the 
 rights of Congregational churches under these re- 
 lations. 
 
 Section IV. 
 
 His Efforts for the Young-. 
 
 No part of Mr. Judson's character is more de- 
 serving of commendation and imitation than his 
 anxious and well directed efforts to secure the con- 
 fidence and affection of the young. Like his 
 father before him, he had a word for every child 
 he met — a pleasant and pertinent word. One he 
 asked concerning his studies ; another concerning 
 something that had happened upon his father's 
 farm, or in his father's business; another concern- 
 ing the health of some member of his family ; by 
 another he sent some message ; of another he in- 
 quired in respect to some report that he had heard 
 of him, with the addition of one or two short re- 
 marks. These kind notices of the children of his 
 parish, accompanied with his pleasant tone and 
 open good-natured countenance, thrilled through 
 their bosoms and quickened the blood in their 
 14* 
 
162 MEMOIR OF 
 
 veins. They did not shrink into some corner upon 
 his approach, but met him with sparkling eyes 
 and smiling faces. He had a peculiar talent for 
 saying things in such a way that children would 
 be sure to remember them. Almost every child 
 in Milan can recollect some striking remark of 
 his. 
 
 His laborious preparation for the exercises of 
 the weekly Bible class has already been mentioned. 
 The primary end which he proposed in this was 
 to interest the youth of his congregation, and thus 
 bring them to the knowledge of Christ. To se- 
 cure their confidence and affection, and keep them 
 within the pale of the sanctuary, that he might 
 thus bring them to the knowledge of Christ, he 
 spared no pains, remembering that what they were 
 his parish would soon be — that, if they should 
 grow up in the fear of God, the Church would go 
 on to prosper and enlarge her borders ; but if they 
 should become alienated and withdraw themselves 
 from her ordinances and influences, she must suf- 
 fer the decrepitude of old age. Nothing struck the 
 mind of the stranger, who had occasion to spend 
 a Sabbath in Milan, more pleasantly than the 
 manifest hold which he had upon the hearts of the 
 yoUng in his parish. To the thoughtful mind no 
 spectacle can be more animating than that of a 
 congregation in which the children are found by 
 the side of their fathers ; and nothing more sad 
 than a sanctuary deserted by the youth of the 
 parish. Over the door of such a Church is writ- 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 163 
 
 ten — " TJie glory is departed ;" and upon her pul- 
 pit is inscribed " TekelP She is gone into anility, 
 and unless God speedily " turn the heart of the 
 fathers to the children, and the heart of the chil- 
 dren to their fathers," she will die a natural death. 
 It is with the hope of turning the attention of 
 pastors more earnestly to this point, that Mr. Jud- 
 son's anxious care for the youth of his parish has 
 been so much insisted on. 
 
 The same enlightened concern for the young 
 impelled him to undertake the arduous work of 
 establishing the Huron Institute. We have seen 
 that this institution was brought into existence 
 mainly by his energy and efforts. He himself 
 claimed it as his own child, and his paternity was 
 never denied by any one. It may be added, that 
 he took a fatherly interest in its prosperity, watch- 
 ing over it with constant solicitude, and exerted 
 his influence to bring pupils within its walls. In 
 projecting this Institute, its founders had in view, 
 as we have seen, not only the general education 
 of the young, but especially the preparation of 
 young men for College who had the ministry in 
 view. Such he carefully sought out, and, when 
 he considered them worthy of encouragement, 
 urged them to enter upon a course of education, 
 and assisted them to obtain the requisite funds. 
 As his own pecuniary resources were limited, this 
 was accomplished by the presentation of their 
 claims to such as were able to render them the 
 
164 MEMOIR OP 
 
 needful aid. A large number of men now in the 
 ministry first had their attention directed to it by 
 him. 
 
 In his ardor for accomplishing this work he 
 sometimes went too far in the earlier years of his 
 ministry. This he afterwards candidly acknow- 
 ledged. To one of his confidential friends he said, 
 that he had formerly erred in urging young men 
 forward prematurely ; that thus he had encouraged 
 unworthy persons ; that his present plan was to 
 set facts before them with plainness and fidelity, 
 and leave them to judge for themselves. "When 
 any young man had commenced a course of study, 
 he found in Mr. Judson a kind, though very candid 
 counselor. His excellent judgment, the fertility of 
 his invention in providing resources, and his warm 
 sympathising manner, caused him to be very much 
 resorted to by students in their embarrassments 
 and trials. 
 
 When the student had gone from the Institute 
 to the College his solicitude for his welfare re- 
 mained undiminished. It followed him from the 
 commencement of the preparatory, to the comple- 
 tion of the theological course. " I well remember," 
 says one, " when I thought of leaving the Institu- 
 tion of which he was a Trustee for another where 
 I hoped to enjoy more ample pecuniary resources, 
 how he invited me to sit down with him upon an 
 apple-tree log in full view of the College buildings, 
 and insisted that I must remain, and showed how 
 I could obtain the requisite means. As he thus 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 165 
 
 conversed with me the tears streamed down his 
 cheeks." His own sad experience of the evils of 
 a defective preparation for College, led him to in- 
 sist earnestly upon thoroughness in the prepara- 
 tory studies. When the student had entered Col- 
 lege he was strongly opposed to any interruption 
 in his course. 
 
 The following statements furnished the author 
 by men who enjoyed his friendship and patronage, 
 and who are well qualified to bear testimony on 
 the subject, may serve as illustrations of what he 
 was accustomed to do for young men who were 
 in a course of preparation for the ministry. The 
 first is from the pen of one who is now a mission- 
 ary in the foreign field. 
 
 " I remember often words of encouragement and 
 incitement to keep me along, when I was almost 
 ready to stop in order to obtain means. Two in- 
 stances occur to me now. The one was in the 
 second term of my Junior year in College. I re- 
 ceived a letter from him saying that he had made 
 up his mind that I must not stop for want of 
 means, and that, if 1 had no other resort, I might 
 call on him, and he would see that my wants were 
 supplied. The letter contained five dollars, and I 
 made use of the patronage offered several times 
 before I graduated. I think that the amount for 
 which he received a note at the close of my [Col- 
 lege] course was not much short of a hundred 
 dollars. 
 
 The other instance was at the close of my 
 
166 MEMOIR OP 
 
 second year in Theology. I told him I had no 
 means and could not remain unless I took the aid 
 of the Education Society^ which I had never used, 
 and would not begin to use, in the last year of 
 my course. His reply was as usual, l You must 
 stay ;' and to effect this, he borrowed a hundred 
 dollars from one of his parishioners who should 
 wait on me till I could pay it. The plan suc- 
 ceeded, and I completed my regular course. 
 
 He was always strongly opposed to any inter- 
 ruption either in my collegiate or theological 
 course. A call upon him during vacation was al- 
 ways attended with pleasant hints relative to my 
 progress in study, or the difficulties which I en- 
 countered. A very common reply to my complaint 
 of trouble was a quotation of the text, (always as- 
 sociated in my mind with him,) < It is good for a 
 man that he bear the yoke in his youth.' " 
 
 Another, who is now a useful pastor on the 
 Western Reserve, bears the following testimony. 
 
 " In no particular part of his pastoral efforts 
 was Mr. Judson more successful than in looking 
 up young men for the christian ministry. The 
 future supply of the Church with the living 
 teacher, was a subject that pressed with great 
 weight upon his heart. Believing that the pre- 
 sent generation of pastors cannot c continue by 
 reason of death/ he felt it to be an indispensable 
 part of his ministerial duty to do all in his power, 
 to meet both present and future demands. He 
 believed, moreover, that this work would not take 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 167 
 
 care of itself. Nor, in his opinion, would it be 
 efficiently performed if left to the Church, or to the 
 agents of the great benevolent societies, or even 
 to the officers in our academies and colleges. His 
 conviction was deep and actuating: that it must be 
 attended to mainly by the pastors of the flock. 
 
 And he endeavored to carry out his theory in 
 practice. Hence originated his vigorous and self- 
 denying efforts in founding and sustaining the 
 Huron Institute. The same consideration induced 
 him to suspend his pastoral labors for a time, at 
 the earnest solicitations of the Trustees of the 
 Western Reserve College, to engage in an agency 
 to secure its permanent endowment. While he 
 was an ardent advocate of the cause of education 
 in general, he was still more desirous to furnish 
 the Church and the world with an intelligent and 
 thoroughly trained ministry. When he visited 
 the common school and the Academy, he was ac- 
 customed to note the most promising of the youth, 
 and seek occasion privately to urge upon them 
 the claims of the ministry. Many an earnest ap- 
 peal has he made in the conference-room, in the 
 Sabbath-school, at the monthly concert, and in 
 the sanctuary, to the pious youth of his charge ; 
 urging each one to propound the solemn question 
 to himself, ' Ought I not to be a minister of 
 Christ V Never can I forget the impression those 
 appeals made upon my mind, even while impeni- 
 tent. He was forward also in urging parents to 
 dedicate their sons to this work. In his pastoral 
 
168 MEMOIR OP 
 
 visits he generally had something to say on this 
 subject. 
 
 But Mr. Judson's eye was turned especially to 
 the Huron Institute as his nursery of christian 
 ministers. He knew all its pupils personally, and 
 was generally acquainted with their parentage and 
 early history, and their future plans. More than 
 one entered those walls with the fixed purpose of 
 preparing for business, but left them with a heart 
 on fire for the sacred office, mainly through his in- 
 fluence. In order to gain their confidence, and get 
 a deeper insight into their characters, he would 
 frequently invite them to his study, or take them 
 with him to attend an evening meeting in some 
 distant part of his parish. And the heart that 
 would not open itself and its hidden purposes to 
 his touch was peculiarly guarded. 
 
 Mr. Judson had an ingenuity in developing the 
 gifts and graces of his young men rarely equaled. 
 As soon as one professed piety, he was ready with 
 a test by which to try his sincerity. He would 
 call upon him to pray and to speak in public im- 
 mediately ; and enlist him at once in efforts for 
 the spiritual good of others. Some careless com- 
 panion was to be warned, some prodigal to be 
 brought back to duty, or some Sabbath school to 
 be collected and instructed in a destitute neigh- 
 borhood. And as the work was laid out, so must 
 it be performed. He was an accomplished logi- 
 cian, who could successfully excuse himself from 
 a mission to which Mr. Judson had appointed him. 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 169 
 
 In this way was he ever disciplining the pious 
 and hopeful young men of his flock for the service 
 of the Church. And the fruits of his labors are 
 abundant. Probably no pastor on the Reserve 
 has been instrumental, directly and indirectly, of 
 putting so many into the sacred office within the 
 same length of time. 
 
 While he was pastor of the Church in Milan, 
 twenty-six young men — all beneficiaries and more 
 or less assisted by him — passed from under his eye 
 to College. Of these nineteen have already en- 
 tered the ministry, three have died, and the others 
 are yet in their course of preparation to preach 
 the gospel. Very many of this number would 
 have devoted their lives to other employments had 
 it not been for his special exertions in their be- 
 half. 
 
 And he did something more than counsel them 
 as to their course of duty. He was always ready 
 to render them all the pecuniary assistance in his 
 power. During the embarrassment of the Educa- 
 tion Society in 1837-38-39, many of the benefi- 
 ciaries were obliged to board themselves in their 
 rooms, and live upon a very spare and stinted al- 
 lowance. Some subsisted for days together upon 
 crackers alone. The kindness of Mr. Judson and 
 his generous-hearted lady was most conspicuous 
 in those dark days, and prevented many a dis- 
 heartened student from an utter abandonment of 
 his studies. Scarcely a week passed that did not 
 bring to them some i material aid and comfort * 
 15 
 
170 MEMOIR OF 
 
 from the parsonage. Sometimes it came in trie 
 form of provisions sent to their rooms. At others 
 they were invited, either collectively or individual- 
 ly, to partake of a gratuitous meal prepared for 
 them in his own house. And he did quite as 
 much by his counsel on such occasions to inspire 
 the soul with a purpose to persevere in the good 
 work, as he did to refresh the body by the staff of 
 life. If he heard of one who was about to ' give 
 up the ship ? because ' the wind was so contrary/ 
 he would seek an interview with him at once, for 
 the purpose of persuading him to continue his 
 struggle a little longer, assuring him that the 
 4 darkest hour was just before day/ He would 
 narrate bis own severe but successful contests with 
 pecuniary embarrassments. Then he would dis- 
 close some plan he himself had already formed to 
 render the young man aid. Either be had made 
 arrangements to take him into his own family and 
 give him his board • or he had enlisted some 
 wealthy friend in his behalf; or some neighboring 
 parish had agreed to support him through his en- 
 tire course of study ; or some lucrative situation 
 had been secured, in which the young man could 
 save enough in a few weeks or months, to enable 
 him to pursue his studies again without difficulty. 
 No way was so strait and perplexing but Mr. Jud- 
 son could foresee a hopeful egress. His plan did 
 not always succeed — but when it did not — which 
 was rare indeed — it was a safe bridge over a pre- 
 sent difficulty. 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 171 
 
 The following is a specimen of his ingenuity 
 in devising schemes of support for the indigent 
 student In the spring of 1839, on a dark foggy 
 morning, two of the disheartened beneficiaries, 
 who, I believe, were on the last year of their pre- 
 paration for College, called on Mr. Judson, to ask 
 his opinion in reference to relinquishing their 
 studies. After a very minute but delicate investi- 
 gation of their circumstances and feelings, he said 
 he had a proposition to make, but that they could 
 do as seemed best about accepting it. Said he, 
 1 I have a piece of very rich bottom land on the 
 run back of the Institute ; and I will give you the 
 use of as much of it as you have a mind to spade 
 up and plant with sugar beets. This business, 
 you know, is getting to be quite common and bids 
 fair to be very profitable ; and who knows how 
 much you may make this summer in this way ? 
 All your outlay will be for the seed, as the labor 
 can all be performed by yourselves, without any 
 interference whatever with your studies. And, in 
 addition to the money you will probably get for 
 your beets, you will receive a still greater advan- 
 tage from the regular exercise it will afford you.' 
 The proposal appeared to be both generous and 
 wise, and was cheerfully acceded to. When the 
 proper time arrived, the ground was staked out, 
 thoroughly spaded, and planted. Morning by 
 morning could be seen the two young men delving 
 away in the beet-patch. Sometimes the dews of 
 evening would distil and mingle with the sweat 
 
172 MEMOIR OF 
 
 of their persevering, but hopeful toil. Not unfre- 
 quently Mr. Judson himself was an eye witness 
 to the laborious faithfulness of his two young 
 friends, being always ready to drop a word of ap- 
 probation and encouragement; manifesting as 
 much interest in the enterprise as he would if the 
 profits were to be all his own. 
 
 Time passed on. Soon after the beets were up 
 a drought set in which continued to the end of 
 dog-days. And so hot was the summer, and so 
 scorching were the winds and scanty the rains and 
 dews, that the bright vision of the beet specula- 
 tors began to disappear rapidly. It continued to 
 vanish away, until it was so nearly dissolved that 
 Mr. Judson's old cow finally disposed of the beet 
 crop, root and branch, in one or two meals without 
 any difficulty. Both parties were greatly disap- 
 pointed in this unlooked for result, but I do not 
 know that any very serious consequences followed. 
 Mr. Judson lost the use of his ground, and the two 
 students their beet-seed and hard labor. But it 
 was by no means a bootless experiment. That 
 beet-patch was the c crossing the Rubicon ' to the 
 young men, and to Mr. Judson was a satisfactory 
 test of their grit and willingness to help them- 
 selves, which probably was one object he had in 
 view in making such a proposal. Having found 
 them faithful in a very little, he deemed them 
 worthy of much, and ever after was incessant in 
 his acts of kindness to them through the whole of 
 their studies. Both of them entered College, 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 173 
 
 pressed their way through, in the face of much 
 pecuniary embarrassment, have since studied the- 
 ology, and are now in the ministry. If they ever 
 do any thing to honor God and save souls, very 
 much of the credit will be due to Mr. Judson and 
 the beet speculation. Many other facts of a simi- 
 lar character could be related, bearing upon the 
 same traits of his character, did time permit. But 
 this one must suffice. 
 
 Should every minister imitate Mr. Judson in 
 this respect, how long would it be before the halls 
 of our colleges and seminaries would be filled with 
 candidates for the sacred office, and all the desti- 
 tute portions of our land be blessed w T ith the la- 
 bors of the living teacher of the holy gospel ? 
 Is it not reasonably expected and demanded of 
 such as shared so liberally in his benefactions, 
 that they will follow him in this part of their 
 ministerial labors ?" 
 
 Another still says : 
 
 " My personal acquaintance with Mr. Judson 
 was only during the time of my stay at the Huron 
 Institute, a term of two years. On my first visit 
 at his house I was not decided to take a collegiate 
 course of education, having been advised by my 
 pastor to take a partial course. Mr. Judson in- 
 quired my age. and my means, and somewhat of 
 my ability ; whether I could study hard and long. 
 He said my means were not sufficient, but by aid 
 from the Education Society I could get through, 
 and the course he advised was that of a thorough 
 15* 
 
174 MEMOIR OF 
 
 collegiate education. He said my age was about 
 his when he entered upon a course of education ; 
 though rather old it was no objection. Then he 
 went on to give a condensed biography of himself, 
 and this he did in such an animated way and with 
 so much enthusiasm, that when I turned to leave 
 I soliloquized thus : Well, if Mr. Judson, a man 
 of such influence and power, was, at my age, as he 
 says, such as I am, why may not I, at Mr. Judson's 
 age, be as useful as he ? If a man can, by labor 
 and perseverance, thus rise through all sorts of 
 difficulties, and become a man of such extensive 
 usefulness, may not I by the same course at least 
 hope to accomplish something? "What man has 
 done, man can do. A new thought crowded on 
 my mind. It was that a man could and must 
 make himself. Hope rose high. 
 
 It is my wish, as one point of usefulness of your 
 memoir, that you make prominent the state of Mr. 
 Judson's mind when he entered upon his studies, 
 point out the difficulties he surmounted, mark ac- 
 curately his mental progress, tell when, where and 
 how he met and vanquished obstacles. In my 
 opinion it will do more to inspire, encourage ; and 
 sustain the christian ministry in all its primitive 
 devotion, earnestness, boldness and loftiness, to 
 present in its fulness this one living example, than 
 would whole volumes of theories. He managed 
 to get young men into a course of study by Ms 
 own example. He helped them through their dif- 
 ficulties by his example — he encouraged them by 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 175 
 
 his example. The recital of his own history, told 
 in the simple, graphic style of Homer's Iliad, in- 
 flamed the mind of every young listener, and 
 awakened longings for powers of usefulness. His 
 story always showed how power was gained, by 
 resolution and perseverance in overcoming diffi- 
 culties ; how man grows, how he becomes strong. 
 The means of success were no longer dark or 
 doubtful. His own history showed one just where 
 and how to labor. Hence his success in getting 
 young men through a thorough course into the 
 gospel ministry. 
 
 Another element, which tended greatly to en- 
 courage and fortify young men in their progress in 
 study, was his decided religious influence. If a 
 young man, a professor of religion, came to the 
 Institute, and was not seen in his place at the 
 prayer-meeting, Mr. Judson would ask the reason, 
 and he would press the young man's conscience 
 till his place was regularly filled. And he was 
 not permitted to sit as an idle spectator ; he must 
 have something to do ; he must pray at the prayer- 
 meeting, and he must get up and (as Mr. Judson 
 used to express it) ' not make a set speech, but tell 
 some simple truth.' If a student at the Institute 
 did not work he was sure to meet with Mr. Jud- 
 son's cutting rebuke. And he never spared a 
 troubled conscience. I have seen young men cut 
 down and then hewn in pieces. In this respect 
 Mr. Judson showed no mercy. 
 
 Mr. Judson went further. On the Sabbath his 
 
176 MEMOIR OF 
 
 eye was on the congregation. If he saw a mem- 
 ber of the Institute, whether a professor or not, 
 hold his head down or show any want of atten- 
 tion, (and listlessness was least to be expected in 
 one of his discourses,) that person was sure to have 
 some cutting question asked him by Mr. Judson 
 the next time they met; and, as he lived just 
 across the way from the Institute, the inattentive 
 one did not usually escape longer than till Monday 
 or Tuesday. 
 
 Mr. Judson's rebukes were very severe, yet ad- 
 ministered in such a way as not to give offense. 
 
 Dec. 6, 1843, he gave us a lecture at the Insti- 
 tute, and took for his theme, ' The inducements to 
 a thorough education? In it he spoke much of 
 Roger Sherman, how he overcame his difficulties ; 
 how every one is self taught ; how long and hard 
 study makes a strong man ; how the secret of pro- 
 gress and success in learning is to take every 
 thing thoroughly ; how important is thorough dis- 
 cipline of mind ; how one must learn to think, and 
 think closely and accurately and consecutively. 
 These points, presented in Mr. Judson's own style, 
 made a good impression, and some half a dozen 
 of his listeners have since graduated at the West- 
 ern Reserve College." 
 
 Mr. Judson had no children of his own. He 
 often received as inmates of his family for a longer 
 or shorter period the children of others ; and over 
 such he watched with truly parental solicitude. 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 177 
 
 He commonly had also some boarders in his fami- 
 ly who were in attendance upon the Huron Insti- 
 tute. Of those who thus came more immediately 
 under his influence it has been remarked that an 
 unusual number became Christians, and Christians 
 too of that class who did not go back into the 
 world. 
 
 He had a jocular turn of mind in which he 
 sometimes indulged himself with his young 
 friends. But if any, presuming upon their famil- 
 iarity, attempted to practice upon him their witti- 
 cisms, they were soon made to understand that in 
 this business the personation of the active voice 
 belonged to him, and of the passive, to themselves. 
 A dignified silence, or a grave question to a third 
 person on some topic as far removed as possible 
 from the matter on hand, was among the ways in 
 which he conveyed to the offender the hint that he 
 did not place him on a level with himself. Even 
 his intimate friends and equals understood well 
 that it became them to be very careful in this 
 matter. 
 
 It remains to consider Mr. Judson's efforts for 
 the young in connection with the Western Re- 
 serve College. He had not the honor to be num- 
 bered among its founders and pioneer patrons. 
 The subscription list was opened in 1823, before 
 its location in Hudson, under the agency of the 
 Rev. Caleb Pitkin, and it was prosecuted for the 
 
178 MEMOIR OF 
 
 space of six years before he came upon the ground. 
 His earliest recorded donation to the College was 
 in 1831. He does not appear to have become 
 deeply interested in its affairs till about the year 
 1837. From that time to the day of his death he 
 was numbered among the warmest and most effi- 
 cient friends of the Institution. Of his election, 
 in 1842, to the office of a Trustee, and his tempo- 
 rary agency the following year mention has al- 
 ready been made. But it may be proper here to 
 review the results of his labors for that Institu- 
 tion. 
 
 And first of all it may be confidently affirmed 
 that no pastor on the Western Reserve was the 
 means of directing so many young men to the 
 College for an education preparatory to the work 
 of the ministry. One of these, to whom the au- 
 thor made application for an expression of his 
 views on the subject, answered, briefly but very 
 comprehensively, u If it had not been for Mr. Jud- 
 son, I should not have been here." So might other 
 ministers at home and in the foreign field answer. 
 It was by his agency that their thoughts were 
 turned towards the work of the ministry, and their 
 steps directed to the Western Reserve College. 
 For accomplishing this most desirable end he had 
 already provided, in the Huron Institute, in which 
 he ever had a paramount influence, a most efficient 
 instrumentality. 
 
 Then again his influence in behalf of the Col- 
 lege in his own congregation, and throughout the 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 179 
 
 whole adjacent region was most happy. Well 
 knowing that knowledge and mutual intercourse 
 lie at the foundation of true affection and interest, 
 he was at pains to introduce the officers of the 
 College to the acquaintance of his people, by 
 means of addresses and courses of lectures, They 
 were sure ever to meet with a generous reception, 
 and the mutual acquaintance thus formed was 
 productive of the happiest results. It was not by 
 some lucky contingency, but through the influence 
 of his long continued and judicious labors, assisted 
 by men of his own spirit, that, in the late effort to 
 endow the College, so rich a harvest was reaped 
 from Huron and Erie counties. He had, indeed, 
 gone to his rest. But his spirit, like a good 
 leaven, had diffused itself throughout the region. 
 The title of " Judson Professorship" given to the 
 Professorship raised in these two counties, is not 
 3,n empty name. Its meaning is that to influences 
 which emanated from him the College is, under 
 God, principally indebted for its success in that 
 effort. Now that he can no longer be present in 
 person, he still helps the Institution through the 
 good influences in its behalf of which he was 
 once the centre ; and so long as there shall remain 
 a breast inspired with his spirit, so long will there 
 be one to pray for the prosperity of the Western 
 Reserve College, and to help it in its necessities. 
 
180 MEMOIR OF 
 
 Section V. 
 His Position in regard to Questions of Reform. 
 
 We have seen the decided stand which Mr. 
 Judson took on the subject of temperance very- 
 early in the history of the temperance reformation, 
 while he was yet employed on his father's farm in 
 Woodbury. It would be superfluous to add that 
 this cause ever found in him a stanch and efficient 
 advocate. 
 
 His love for the colored race was sufficiently 
 manifested by his laborious efforts for their intel- 
 lectual and spiritual welfare during his collegiate 
 and theological course. He was one that loved 
 the children of Africa " not in word neither in 
 tongue, but in deed and in truth." For noisy de- 
 monstrations of his regard for their welfare he had 
 no relish. He chose the more excellent way of 
 doing them good as he had opportunity, in a quiet 
 and unostentatious form: and yet he did not shrink 
 from a public avowal of his relation to them when 
 he judged it necessary. On the occasion of the 
 final emancipation of the people of color in the 
 State of New York in 1824, the colored congrega- 
 tion in New Haven celebrated the event by a pub- 
 lic procession. One of the teachers in the Sabbath 
 school was unwilling to appear with his pupils in 
 this formal manner; but Mr. Judson marched at 
 the head of the procession by the side of Mr. Joce- 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 181 
 
 lyn, because he thought it right on such an occa- 
 sion to let his position in the colored congregation 
 be known. 
 
 When the anti-slavery sentiment of the North 
 began to embody itself in the form of abolition 
 societies, he made a very characteristic remark — 
 that he believed he should be an abolitionist if 
 he was not afraid of running mad. The remark 
 was made in view of the extravagance of some of 
 the leaders. He did become a warm abolitionist, 
 was a member of the Huron County Anti-Slavery 
 Society, and occasionally delivered anti-slavery 
 addresses, but he took care to keep his senses and 
 his independence too. 
 
 He went very heartily with the Abolition So- 
 ciety until the proposal was made by the leaders 
 to give it a distinctly political aspect. The first 
 movement in his region in this direction was at 
 an anti-slavery meeting held in the Huron Insti- 
 tute about the year 1836. A resolution was intro- 
 duced that candidates for office should be publicly 
 questioned respecting their views on the subject. 
 A warm debate ensued, in which Mr. Judson 
 earnestly opposed the measure, as giving to the 
 Society a political aspect, and declared, with no 
 little heat, that if this principle was to prevail he 
 had done with the Society. It did prevail, and 
 he was as good as his word, for he never after- 
 wards attended its meetings. 
 
 The principle which he ever strenuously advo- 
 cated in regard to all voluntary associations for 
 16 
 
182 MEMOIR OF 
 
 moral reform was that they ought to stand upon a 
 purely moral basis, and not to invoke political aid 
 for the accomplishment of their objects. That the 
 people, acting in their proper capacity as citizens, 
 may lawfully legislate in respect to slavery or any 
 other political evil, he did not of course deny. 
 But he insisted that voluntary societies proposing 
 to themselves a moral end, should rely on moral 
 means alone. His argument was that a resort to 
 political aid tends to corrupt the purity of these 
 societies, and convert them into engines for the 
 use of political hypocrites. This principle he ap- 
 plied to all voluntary associations — for temperance, 
 for anti-slavery, for the suppression of Sunday 
 mails, etc. On this ground he refused to sign a 
 petition to Congress against Sunday mails. Many 
 of his brethren thought that in this matter he went 
 to an extreme. It has been the aim of the author 
 to state his position correctly, and leave it to the 
 judgment of the reader. 
 
 In all questions of moral reform Mr. Judson was 
 disposed to go beneath the surface and look at the 
 reality. He would not assent to measures which 
 he believed to be wrong because their advocates 
 marched under the banner of freedom, and might, 
 perchance, apply to him the epithet of " pro- 
 slavery." Nor would he put up at a hotel because 
 its front was labeled " Temperance House," unless 
 it was in other respects worthy of patronage ; for 
 he did not believe that the landlord had a right, 
 under color of keeping a temperance house, to put 
 
EVERTON JUDSON, 183 
 
 him off with poor accommodations. Having oc- 
 casion one morning to stop in his carriage before 
 the door of a " Temperance House " where he had 
 not staid the preceding night, (having been enter- 
 tained at a private house,) the landlord, who sus- 
 pected him of being hostile to his establishment, 
 improved the opportunity to deliver to him a lec- 
 ture on the impropriety of his course. Mr. Judson 
 listened with dignified silence till he was pleased 
 to bring his homily to a close. He then said, 
 " I do not know that I have any thing to say in 
 reply : good morning, Sir :" and, with a formal 
 bow, drove ofE 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 HIS LAST SICKNESS AND DEATH. 
 
 Till the twenty-second year of his age Mr. 
 Judson worked on a farm. During this period his 
 health was good. The change in his habits when 
 he commenced the work of preparation for the 
 ministry operated unfavorably to his health. In 
 the College and Theological Seminary he was 
 pale, thin, and dyspeptic. He was through his 
 whole life subject to severe attacks of sickness, 
 particularly when traveling. From irregularities 
 in diet he suffered much. We have seen how his 
 health was completely broken down during his 
 Sabbath School agency in Ohio, and how, imme- 
 diately upon his arrival in Milan, he was seized 
 with chills and fever, from which he suffered all 
 the following winter. After his recovery from that 
 attack he enjoyed better health, and the tendency 
 in his constitution to corpulency began to mani- 
 fest itself. From excessive lifting on one occasion 
 during the erection of the Church, he injured him- 
 self greatly, and was laid aside several days with 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 185 
 
 a severe pain in his right side. After that event 
 he was never able to endure severe exercise. 
 
 Mr. Judson was fond of gardening, and the cul- 
 tivation of his house-lot, upon which he bestowed 
 much care, afforded an agreeable and exhilarating 
 exercise that was greatly conducive to his health. 
 But, for the two years preceding the fatal attack 
 which put an end to his public life, he labored but 
 little in his garden, while his toils in his study 
 and parish were increasing. He was naturally of 
 an apoplectic make, and had now become quite 
 corpulent. Premonitory symptoms of apoplexy 
 began at this time to show themselves. For many 
 months he complained of a constant ringing in his 
 ears and flashes of light from his eyes. On one 
 occasion, while at table, there was a sudden rush 
 of blood to the head with dizziness and blindness, 
 This occurred but once, and its duration was very 
 brief. Yet so well convinced was he of the nature 
 of this and of the other symptoms, that he had 
 begun to read and make investigations in refer- 
 ence to the disorder which they foretokened. 
 
 It is greatly to be regretted that, aware as he 
 was of the danger which threatened him, he did 
 not relax his mental, and increase his physical la- 
 bors. But he had commenced a course of lectures 
 on the Evidences of Revelation, to the prepara- 
 tion of which his whole soul was given. He had 
 succeeded in awakening a deep interest in the 
 subject, which he felt himself fully committed to 
 sustain. The preparation of these lectures was to 
 16* 
 
186 MEMOIR OF 
 
 his mental powers very expensive and exhausting, 
 requiring much reading and careful investigation. 
 To a friend he stated, just before the attack of 
 apoplexy, that his sermons on the Evidences of 
 Christianity cost him more than double the labor 
 of his ordinary discourses. 
 
 While thus severely taxing himself with his 
 preparations for the pulpit, he received an invita- 
 tion, in November 1847, to deliver an address be- 
 fore the Young Men's Library Association in 
 Cleveland. Such an opportunity to exert a good 
 influence in behalf of young men he was not the 
 man to let pass unimproved. Upon a short notice 
 he prepared an address with great care and labor. 
 While he was in Cleveland, it was noticed by his 
 friends that he was oppressed with an unusual 
 lethargy. He returned to Milan on Saturday with 
 no preparation for the ensuing Sabbath. He had 
 announced a special subject in his course of ser- 
 mons, and he could not admit the thought of dis- 
 appointing the congregation. He wrote till after 
 midnight, lay down and slept two or three hours, 
 and then resumed his toil, completing his dis- 
 course just before the hour of meeting. This im- 
 prudence was the more remarkable, when we con- 
 sider that the symptoms of apoplexy had been so 
 plain that he himself had expressed his apprehen- 
 sion of an attack. 
 
 It was on the afternoon of Sabbath, the 19th 
 day of December, two weeks after this extraordi- 
 nary effort, and while he was engaged in the 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 187 
 
 prayer before sermon, that the attack came on. 
 His voice suddenly ceased, and he fell forward 
 with a groan upon the pulpit. The loss of con- 
 sciousness was but brief, and he was able to walk 
 across the street to the house of Dr. Galpin. 
 
 Of his own choice he now put himself, contrary 
 to the advice of his physicians, upon an extremely 
 low diet. This he did from the impression that 
 his life depended upon it, as he had constant apo- 
 plectic symptoms, such as a pressure on the brain 
 and ringing in the ears. Meanwhile a journey to 
 the eastern states, including a visit to Woodbury, 
 his native place, had been projected, with the hope 
 that he might derive benefit from it. About the 
 middle of May, after he had commenced this jour- 
 ney accompanied by Mrs. Judson, the apoplectic 
 symptoms suddenly ceased, and signs of a vitiated 
 state of the secretions of the liver appeared. It 
 was manifest that the brain had been relieved at 
 the expense of the liver and digestive organs. It 
 was the opinion of his physicians that the disor- 
 der which now began to show itself, and which 
 soon put an end to his earthly existence, was a 
 schirrous affection of some internal organ, proba- 
 bly the liver. To affections of this kind there was 
 a predisposition in his family. His brother Ben- 
 jamin died of a similar difficulty. He prose- 
 cuted his journey to the East and visited his na- 
 tive home. 
 
 From Green's Farms he wrote, June 22, 1848, 
 to Dr. M. Stuart of Milan, as follows : " So far as 
 
188 MEMOIR OP 
 
 my head has been concerned, I could, for the last 
 three weeks, have preached; but such has been 
 my general debility that I have scarcely felt able 
 to walk half a mile, and that at an exceedingly 
 moderate gait. This state of health has kept the 
 future, so far as this world is concerned, quite 
 veiled." After detailing his distressing symptoms, 
 he goes on to say : " I must beg of you not to in- 
 fer from all this tale of woe, that I have been dis- 
 spirited or gloomy. I believe I have been cheer- 
 ful as usual, except at those periods when my 
 sufferings have been such as to prostrate strength 
 and spirits together. I think my protracted pros- 
 tration has made the world look more worthless 
 than ever before, and yet I cling to it. I should 
 like yet again to preach in my Master's name, and 
 on his behalf, but I will not complain, though he 
 slay me. * * * I can say nothing definite about 
 a return. I wish to give a fair trial to the climate ; 
 but, if I do not gain soon, I shall undertake a re- 
 turn. I had rather be sick and die in Milan, than 
 in any other spot on earth." 
 
 His journey to the East was attended with no 
 apparent benefit, and he returned to Milan on the 
 18th of July in a state of extreme debility and 
 suffering. 
 
 Such was his prostration at one time during his 
 stay in Woodbury that he well nigh despaired of 
 ever returning home. The apprehension of dying 
 at a distance from his beloved people in Milan 
 was to him a cause of great uneasiness ; and, after 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 189 
 
 his return, he frequently expressed his devout 
 gratitude to God for the privilege of spending his 
 last hours in the bosom of the congregation to 
 whose spiritual good he had so many years de- 
 voted himself. 
 
 His disease progressing rapidly, soon assumed 
 its final form, that of abdominal dropsy, and 
 it was manifest that all hope of a favorable issue 
 was at an end. It remains to consider the closing 
 scene in his life. The following extract from the 
 sermon preached by the Rev. A. Newton on the 
 occasion of his funeral, well expresses the charac- 
 ter of this. " The last hours of Mr. Judson were 
 in beautiful harmony with the whole tenor of his 
 life. His was a religion of deep-seated principle, 
 resembling the equable flow of a majestic river, 
 rather than the fitful impetuosity of a mountain 
 torrent. His dying conduct, like his living, bore 
 the impress of holiness to the Lord. There were 
 no raptures — no ecstasies — but a calm confidence, 
 a peaceful trust in God. His spirit obeyed the 
 divine will as the law of its being — abased itself 
 before the infinite purity of the Divine majesty — 
 manifested its adoring gratitude for redemption, 
 and its self-renouncing faith in the Redeemer. 
 These, as they were the elements of his piety, and 
 its grand characteristic in life, were conspicuous 
 in death." 
 
 During the whole of his last sickness his suffer- 
 ings were great and unintermitted. He never 
 seemed to have a moment's ease. Yet of these 
 
190 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 sufferings he was never heard to complain. He 
 spoke of them with cheerfulness, as those which 
 his heavenly Father had appointed him to bear in 
 order that he might be delivered from the body. 
 To Mrs. Judson he remarked, that they were just 
 such sufferings as he had anticipated — that many 
 of his family had suffered in the same way before 
 him. With reference to his languishing condi- 
 tion, with the certain prospect of death before 
 him, he once said to Mr. Newton : " Since I have 
 been sick, perhaps no human language can better 
 express my feelings than Toplady's hymn," the 
 first verse of which he repeated : — 
 
 " When languor and disease invade 
 
 This trembling house of clay, 
 'Tis sweet to look beyond my pains, 
 
 And long to fly away." 
 
 He added, " I would except the word i long] 
 and substitute for it wait : for it would seem pre- 
 sumption, in one so much encompassed with in- 
 firmities as I am, to long- to fly away." 
 
 Of death he ever spoke with entire composure 
 as of a journey to his heavenly home, expressing 
 a humble but firm hope of his interest in Christ. 
 As he was looking through the window one morn- 
 ing at his garden, about a week before his death, 
 he exclaimed, " How beautiful !" A friend said, 
 " Do you not regret to leave it ?" " Oh no," he 
 replied, " I feel that I am letting go of earth." 
 During the progress of his disease, Dr. John Dela- 
 mater of Cleveland visited him, and, with his usual 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 191 
 
 frankness, communicated to him his view of his 
 condition. His wife's mother coming in soon 
 after the doctor's departure, he took her hand with 
 a placid countenance, pressed it tenderly, and said, 
 " Well, mother, Dr. Delamater has just left. He 
 says there is nothing that can arrest the rapid 
 downward course of my disease ; and I think I 
 can say, i Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good 
 in thy sight.' " Seeing one day his wife in tears, 
 he said tenderly, " I have all the joy, you have all 
 the trial of this separation." A friend, before 
 praying with him, had read to him our Savior's 
 last prayer for his disciples. After he was gone 
 he said to Mrs. Judson, with eyes filled with tears, 
 " What a privilege to have been included in that 
 prayer !" His oft repeated declaration to his friends 
 was that he found the gospel which he had preach- 
 ed to others fully adequate to meet all his wants. 
 " I never realized so fully before," he said, " that 
 there is 'none other name under heaven given 
 among men, whereby we must be saved.' " 
 
 In reviewing his ministry he said, " I felt re- 
 luctant to commence a course of study for the 
 ministry, on account of my advanced age. I did 
 it at the earnest request of my father. I have 
 been twenty years in that office, and that, I sup- 
 pose, is as long as the average life of ministers. 
 So far as labor is concerned, I have nothing to re- 
 gret. I have done all I could. But the manner 
 and spirit in which this work has been per- 
 formed have fallen far below what they should 
 
192 MEMOIR OP 
 
 have been. How much have I to regret in that 
 respect ! 
 
 The parting intercourse of a faithful pastor 
 with his people is of a high and holy character. 
 As the lamp of life grows dim and begins to 
 flicker, the flame of his affection for them kindles 
 into new purity and splendor. His love for them 
 has taken hold of eternity, and it is natural that, 
 as he draws near to his heavenly home, he should 
 think much of those whose preparation for the 
 same blest abode has been the very scope of his 
 ministry. Nothing in the closing scene of Mr. 
 Judson's life is more touching than his affectionate 
 regard for the members of his congregation.* 
 The little strength he had to spare he spent in 
 conversing with them as they called upon him. 
 Upon them all he urged faithfulness in the dis- 
 charge of their christian duties, varying his exhor- 
 tations according to their different circumstances 
 and relations, and he hardly ever failed to add an 
 earnest exhortation to " keep the unity of the 
 
 * Since writing the above the author has met with the following 
 just and beautiful reflection, in the Memoir of Dr. William Gordon, 
 published by the Presbyterian Board of Publication. It is here inserted 
 as applicable, in the fullest sense of the words, to the last days of Mr. 
 Judson's life. 
 
 " There is a sad satisfaction in a deliberate farewell previous to a 
 long separation, the loss of which is the greatest evil connected with 
 the sudden death of a Christian. But this privilege was fully enjoyed 
 in the present instance, and a rich legacy of love and piety bequeathed 
 to survivors, more precious than any worldly wealth." — Triumph over 
 Death, p. 86. 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 193 
 
 spirit in the bond of peace." These words were 
 constantly on his lips. Of the unconverted in his 
 congregation he said, " My preaching to them is 
 done." When they entered his room he generally 
 addressed them to the following effect ; " I com- 
 mend to you the gospel of Christ : it sustains me 
 now." 
 
 To his brethren in the ministry, to his people, 
 and to the youth of his congregation, he sent by 
 Mr. Newton his dying messages. — " Tell the 
 brethren of the Ministers' Meeting and of the 
 Presbytery that I thank them for the confidence 
 they have reposed in me: I have loved to labor 
 with them, and to be associated with them : tell 
 them to be earnest, earnest in the work of the 
 Lord. Express to my people my dying obliga- 
 tions to them for the long continued confidence 
 and love which they have manifested towards me, 
 notwithstanding my many infirmities. If I have 
 been in any degree useful, I owe my usefulness in 
 a great measure to the manner in which the 
 Church has stood by and sustained me. Remem- 
 ber me affectionately to the youth of the congre- 
 gation, and say especially to the young members 
 of the Church that I honor them for their con- 
 stancy and faithfulness in Christ's service. Tell 
 my congregation to prepare to meet me at the 
 judgment-seat of Christ. Say to all that the great 
 truths which I have preached to them sustain me 
 now, and are completely adequate to all my wants. 
 I am satisfied that the views I have entertained, 
 17 
 
194 MEMOIR OF 
 
 in regard to both doctrines and measures, are sub- 
 stantially correct ; and the errors I have combatted 
 appear to be magnified rather than diminished." 
 
 Earnestness in the work of the ministry was a 
 theme much upon his lips when conversing with 
 his brethren. The following words, addressed to 
 one who had but just entered upon that holy of- 
 fice, are very characteristic of his own spirit. 
 " Be a man : be an earnest, earnest man. Make 
 your people feel that you love their souls. One 
 earnest heart is worth more than a hundred drones. 
 You have just entered on your course : you have 
 fallen on times of commotion and trial. Don't 
 spare yourself: don't spare yourself. Some men 
 wear themselves out early, but they accomplish 
 more than those that live longer. Be an earnest, 
 faithful minister of the gospel of Christ." 
 
 Respecting his successor in the pastoral office 
 he felt deep solicitude, and recommended confi- 
 dentially to some of his people the brother who 
 succeeded to his place. 
 
 On the Thursday evening preceding his death, 
 a severe paroxysm of his disease came on, and he 
 was thought to be in a dying condition. He called 
 together the members of his family, took his leave 
 of them, delivered to them his parting messages, 
 and closed with a prayer for himself ending with 
 the stanza — 
 
 " Jesus, to thy dear faithful hands 
 
 My naked soul I trust : 
 My flesh is waiting thy commands 
 
 To drop into the dust." 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 195 
 
 Yet he revived a little, and lingered through the 
 remainder of the week. On Saturday, about noon, 
 a great change was apparent, indicating his 
 speedy release from the body. At this time he 
 was resting in a nearly upright position, supported 
 by pillows. To Mrs. Judson he said, " Lay me 
 down," and, when this was done, added, u How 
 blessed it would be to pass away now!" On Sab- 
 bath morning, about four or five o'clock, his wife 
 said to him, " We do not think you will live long." 
 He replied, « Well, God will do right." She then 
 asked him if he was able to have any distinct 
 thoughts of God and Christ. He answered, " Not 
 many ;" but added, " Jesus Christ has been a pre- 
 cious Savior to me." These were his last words. 
 It was the 20th of August, a calm summer's 
 morning. The sun had newly risen upon the 
 earth in his brightness and glory, ushering in 
 another day of holy rest, such as he had been 
 wont to devote, at this very hour, to the work of 
 preparing for each of his flock " a portion in due 
 season," when, without a struggle or a groan, his 
 spirit passed away to him who gave it. The 
 solemn peals of the bell spoke to the heart of 
 each person in Milan. They told the community 
 that it had lost the first man of the place for 
 efficiency and usefulness. They told his anxious 
 waiting people that they were now " as sheep 
 without a shepherd." They told the impenitent 
 of his congregation that his labors for their salva- 
 tion had closed forever. 
 
196 MEMOIR. 
 
 On the afternoon of the Monday following, the 
 last office of love and respect was performed to- 
 wards the remains of the deceased. Ten or twelve 
 of his brethren in the ministry walked by the side 
 of his bier, and thought of the seasons when he 
 and they " took sweet counsel together, and walk- 
 ed unto the house of God in company." Of all 
 his class-mates, numbering, twenty -two years be- 
 fore, one hundred, the writer of this memoir alone 
 was permitted to see his clay deposited in its final 
 resting place, " dust to dust, ashes to ashes," till 
 the resurrection of the just. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 GENERAL ESTIMATE OF HIS CHARACTER. 
 
 It remains to give a general estimate of Mr. 
 Judson's character. The materials for this are to 
 be sought in the preceding chapters. These 
 should contain, directly or by inference, all the 
 traits which are here combined into a whole. In 
 this concluding part of the work, then, some re- 
 petition is not only allowable, but necessary. 
 
 When we consider the elements which go to 
 make up a strong character, we shall always find, 
 along with others of a subordinate nature, the 
 three following — capacity of deep feeling, tenacity 
 of purpose, and strength of intellect. The former 
 of these is necessary to give motive power. No 
 man accomplishes any arduous and difficult enter- 
 prise without the capacity of throwing his whole 
 soul into it, and being borne forward by a strong 
 and steady tide of excitement — excitement that 
 may be indeed calm, because it is uniform, but 
 which is, nevertheless, of the nature of an engros- 
 sing passion. We frequently meet with men of 
 17* 
 
198 MEMOIR OF 
 
 good intellectual endowments, who seem to be 
 capable of accomplishing something valuable for 
 mankind, could they but be aroused to energetic 
 action. Of such, a common remark is, " What a 
 pity that persons endowed with such good parts 
 should be so indolent!" But this excitability needs 
 to be sustained by tenacity of purpose ; in other 
 words, by a strong and determined will. Other- 
 wise we shall have a fickle man, given to per- 
 petual changes ; to-day, all absorbed in this pro- 
 ject, to-morrow, abandoning it for another. Such 
 an unstable mind can achieve nothing great. It 
 is further manifest that both excitability and 
 strength of will must be under the guidance of a 
 clear and vigorous understanding, else they will 
 be only blind impetuosity and narrow-minded 
 obstinacy. "We frequently meet with persons 
 abundantly supplied with these two latter quali- 
 ties, but without the compass of intellect neces- 
 sary to guide them to valuable results. The in- 
 tellect, again, has two spheres, that of abstract 
 principle, and that of actual life. According as 
 the one or the other of these prevails, we shall 
 have a philosophical or a practical turn of mind. 
 
 If now we inquire after the combination of 
 these elements in Mr. Judson's mind, we find that 
 he had, in the first place, great motive power. 
 This his physical constitution indicated. He pos- 
 sessed what is called the nervous-bilious tem- 
 perament. In person he was below the ordinary 
 stature, with a large head, short thick neck, thin 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 199 
 
 light hair, light eye full of vivacity and varied ex- 
 pression, and a pale marble complexion. Upon 
 their first introduction strangers were apt to be 
 disappointed in his appearance, for it was not re- 
 markably graceful and imposing : especially was this 
 true in his earlier years, when he was gaunt and 
 thin, with a very youthful look. But no one could 
 be long in his presence without discerning that he 
 possessed great force of character. His feelings 
 welled up strong and copious from a deep reser- 
 voir within. Of whatever enterprise he took hold 
 it was with a strong hand, and he gave himself up 
 to an engrossing interest in it. He was like a 
 ship under full canvass before a strong breeze, that 
 cannot be readily stopped or turned aside in its 
 course by any outward force. Hence his impet- 
 uosity. To those who found themselves opposed 
 to his views and plans this was an unpleasant 
 trait in his character, and even his best friends 
 were often made uncomfortable by it. Yet it 
 should be remembered that without this impe- 
 tuous spirit he would not have been fitted for the 
 rough encounters assigned to him in the field of 
 his labor. With less warmth of temperament he 
 might have been more bland and courteous as a 
 companion, but he could not have been, as a pub- 
 lic man, so efficient. 
 
 Mr. Judson's impetuosity of character made him 
 impatient of every thing like stagnation in his 
 parish. He was not the man to settle down in 
 quietude, and let matters take their course. If he 
 
200 MEMOIR OF 
 
 could not see his Church advancing in numbers 
 and in piety he had no rest. This is strikingly 
 manifest in his communication to the deacons, to 
 which allusion has already been made. After an 
 enumeration of the signs of declension, of which 
 the last named are that "the members of the 
 Church are diminishing and no sinners are con- 
 verted," he adds, — " This state of things has for 
 many months filled my soul with anxiety and dis- 
 tress. My nights have been sleepless, and I have 
 wet my bed with tears. You cannot but know, 
 as well as myself, that my preaching and labors 
 are productive of no good. I have done what I 
 could to arouse the Church the winter past, but it 
 is too apparent to need notice from me, that I 
 have had almost no co-operation, even from those 
 on whom I had a right to lean for help." We 
 have seen that his dying testimony to the co- 
 operation of his Church was highly honorable. 
 But when this letter was written it was a time 
 of general apathy and inactivity, and this his sen- 
 sitive spirit, ever on the reach for progress, could 
 not bear. It disquieted him so as to lead him to 
 request that measures might be taken for a disso- 
 lution of the pastoral relation existing between 
 him and his people. 
 
 Tf Mr. Judson's motive power was great, so also 
 was his tenacity of purpose. Hence he was a very 
 decided man. He was capable not only of em- 
 barking warmly in an undertaking, but of persis- 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 201 
 
 ting in it, and pursuing it steadily year after year. 
 Of this the preceding pages furnish the proof, and 
 no other proof is necessary. The same strength 
 of will appears in the fact that he did not readily 
 yield his opinions to those of his brethren. When 
 he had formed a judgment (which was very apt to 
 be right) he stoutly maintained it against the op- 
 posing judgments of others ; or, when he had no 
 hope of carrying his point, he waived discussion 
 upon it, while he did not abandon it. The changes 
 which his views underwent on some important 
 points were always gradual. They were the re- 
 sults of his own observations and reflections, 
 aided by the indirect influence of his intercourse 
 with other minds. For example, he went into the 
 system of protracted meetings with great ardor, 
 and for a time, he was much engrossed in them, 
 and managed them with no little success. After- 
 wards he began privately to express to his confi- 
 dential friends doubts respecting their further 
 utility; next he took with respect to them the at- 
 titude of inactivity ; and, finally, that of open dis- 
 approbation. Changes in his views were gen- 
 erally after this fashion. His impulsiveness some- 
 times led him to take up a plan hastily, but he 
 never abandoned it in haste ; nor, while engaged 
 in the full pursuit of it, was he apt to treat with 
 much deference the objections which others urged 
 against it. But, after he had abandoned it, he 
 would frankly acknowledge that he had been in 
 an error. 
 
202 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 Mr. Judson's intellectual powers were of a high 
 order, and their sphere was the practical rather 
 than the theoretic. For philosophical investiga- 
 tion and analysis he had no relish. He was nei- 
 ther a maker nor a combatter of metaphysical sys- 
 tems. His field was the world of actual life, and 
 here he manifested uncommon rapidity, correct- 
 ness, and comprehensiveness of judgment; dis- 
 cerning the various relations and bearings of a 
 subject under discussion as soon as the facts were 
 placed before his mind, so as to be able, with 
 great promptness, to propose a plan and sustain it 
 by valid reasons. It was this capacity of rapid 
 and correct judgment, united with his peculiar 
 energy and decision of character, that gave him 
 such pre-eminence in deliberative assemblies. 
 Men had learned from experience that his opinions 
 were generally correct, and that he would adhere 
 to them with tenacity, and sustain them with 
 ready argument. And here it is pertinent to re- 
 mark that his judgment was pre-eminently of a 
 positive character. He was not the man to throw 
 cold water upon the undertakings of others, while 
 he himself maintained an attitude of inaction. 
 On the contrary, his mind was, in an eminent de- 
 gree, inventive and fertile in expedients. In any 
 emergency he was among the first to propose a 
 plan, and his plans, commending themselves by 
 their simplicity and feasibility to the good sense 
 of others, were very apt to prevail. 
 
 In nothing were his judgment and skill more 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 203 
 
 conspicuous than in his capacity of gaining access 
 to the minds of others. He had a deep insight of 
 the springs of human action, and was able to ope- 
 rate upon them with great success. All set and 
 formal modes of approaching men he avoided, 
 and varied his manner of address to suit circum- 
 stances and characters. Of this trait sufficient no- 
 tice was taken when his character as a pastor was 
 under consideration. But it may not be improper 
 to add here a suggestion on the importance of a 
 minister's making the human heart and the means 
 of approaching it an object of earnest and prayer- 
 ful study, since a failure in this respect is most 
 calamitous. A stiff and formal way of addressing 
 men on the subject of their spiritual interests, 
 which knows no variation for either age, charac- 
 ter, or office, is a serious drawback to a pastor's 
 usefulness ; while felicity of address (which must 
 always have its foundation in a knowledge of the 
 human heart) is a perennial fountain of influence. 
 How much was accomplished in this way by the 
 subject of the preceding memoir, will be manifest 
 to the reader. 
 
 Mr. Judson had talents for business that were 
 rarely excelled. He was wise to plan, and with 
 this wisdom he united great energy of purpose 
 and promptness of execution. Whatever he did, 
 he did strong. " I remember," says a former 
 member of the Presbytery of Huron, "a very une- 
 quivocal token of respect paid to brother Judson's 
 
204 MEMOIR OF 
 
 talent of dispatch. At a meeting of the Presby- 
 tery in Berlin, it was desirable, for some reason, 
 to have the business of the meeting carried 
 through with as much dispatch as propriety 
 would admit. It was the meeting at which a 
 Moderator was to be chosen for the year, and al- 
 though brother Judson had been Moderator for the 
 year past, he was, I think, unanimously reappoint- 
 ed. * * * I do not know that such a circumstance 
 ever occured before or since in that body. It was 
 a spontaneous and unpremeditated tribute of re- 
 spect and confidence to his business tact." Of 
 his superiority in this respect no better proof is 
 needed than the fact that men of business in Mi- 
 lan were much in the habit of resorting to him for 
 counsel. There are few men in that place who 
 did not esteem it a privilege to avail themselves 
 of his excellent judgment and practical wisdom 
 when engaged in difficult enterprises. One who 
 had his confidence from the first and knew him 
 thoroughly uses the following language respecting 
 him. " I have heard Judge Choat say that he 
 would give more for his judgment in respect to 
 any new improvement than that of any other man 
 he knew. The same was my opinion. The mo- 
 ment he looked at my 'reaper' he said, 'That 
 tool will be worth half its cost to you every year.' 
 His judgment proved to be correct." Another 
 says of him : " In any business which he under- 
 took he had few equals. In helping young men 
 forward he was very useful, being fertile in re- 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 205 
 
 sources. Whatever needed to be accomplished, 
 he devised ways and means to bring it to pass. 
 This was a striking trait in his character." 
 
 Some subordinate but striking traits in Mr. Jud- 
 son's character remain to be considered. One of 
 these was his great plainness of speech, proceed- 
 ing, too often, to an unpleasant bluntness. This, 
 as he himself affirmed, he inherited from his 
 mother ; and it is not a little remarkable that it 
 was sometimes exhibited, in its most naked form, 
 upon his first introduction to strangers. Instances 
 are known of his giving unnecessary offense in 
 this way in a first interview, for which, in subse- 
 quent interviews, he took no little pains to make 
 amends, not by a direct apology, but by a kind 
 and conciliatory manner. The offense was given 
 not through defect of judgment (otherwise than as 
 inconsideration is always ill-judged) but from 
 heedlessly yielding to the impulse of the moment 
 The reparation was considerate, and, in most 
 cases, remarkably effectual. He had indeed rare 
 skill in making peace with those to whom he had 
 given umbrage. Striking cases could be men- 
 tioned of his overcoming the dislike of such. It 
 was his way to treat those whose feelings towards 
 him he knew to be cold as though nothing had 
 happened. 
 
 18 
 
206 MEMOIR OF 
 
 His generosity was known and admitted by all. 
 No man had a more profound abhorrence of what- 
 ever borders upon meanness in pecuniary transac- 
 tions. In the earlier part of his ministry he seems 
 not to have had a fixed salary. He took what was 
 given him, and a considerable part of it was in 
 produce, or, to use the expressive term of the re- 
 gion, "dicker." To this he always allowed the 
 subscriber to set his own price. If remonstrated 
 with on the absurdity of taking oats at thirty-seven 
 cents per bushel, when the market price was thirty- 
 one, he would reply, " Higgling destroys a minis' 
 ter's influence" That the maxim was true must 
 be conceded ; and it furnishes a strong argument 
 against the habit of paying a pastor's salary in 
 this way. Unhappy indeed is the position of the 
 man of God, who is compelled to see one of the 
 people committed to his spiritual care doing a 
 thing which deserves rebuke, and to feel, at the 
 same time, that the administration of such rebuke 
 will subject him to the imputation of unworthy 
 motives. It must not be inferred, however, that 
 such littleness as that above described was com- 
 mon among his people. On the contrary they 
 were, as a body, very liberal in their dealings with 
 him, so that, upon the whole, he was a gainer 
 rather than a loser by the principle which he 
 adopted. 
 
 Of his liberality a striking example has been 
 given in his donation to the congregation in Ber- 
 lin of $100, when, according to his own statement, 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 207 
 
 he would rather have had $350 cash, in regular 
 payments, than the total amount of salary which 
 he realized. He was generous to a fault. When 
 he had his heart set on the accomplishment of a 
 good enterprise he would become liable for large 
 sums of money, as in the case of the erection of 
 his Church. He would part with his last dollar, 
 and then borrow money to give away. In this 
 way he kept himself in slender pecuniary circum- 
 stances. With his superior talents for business, 
 his extensive acquaintance, and abundant oppor- 
 tunities of profitable investment, he might have 
 easily enriched himself. But he was never known 
 to engage in a business transaction for his own 
 emolument. Towards the close of his life he be- 
 came a little more careful in his pecuniary mat- 
 ters. One of his parishioners, during this period, 
 interested himself in the management of them, 
 and thus rendered him very valuable assistance. 
 His people also were very generous towards him 
 and frequently made him valuable presents. 
 
 Mr. Judson had a social disposition. His warm 
 and sympathising spirit instinctively sought so- 
 ciety. His habits were as far removed as possible 
 from those of the recluse. No where (if we except 
 his pastoral visitations to the serious, or to the 
 sick and afflicted) did he shine more conspicuously 
 than among friends of kindred spirit and views. 
 In such circles his talent of uttering striking 
 thoughts appeared to great advantage ; and his 
 
208 MEMOIR OP 
 
 discourse was seasoned with pithy and oft-times 
 numerous anecdotes set off by his peculiar tones 
 and varied expression of countenance. Of the 
 vast influence of social intercourse he had a just 
 appreciation, and he strenuously insisted on its 
 being regulated in his parish by christian princi- 
 ples. To large social gatherings he was always 
 hostile, on account of their tendency to extrava- 
 gance, frivolity and vain display. His maxim 
 was, " As many as can be seated around one ta- 
 ble;" and this he defended on the ground that 
 some definite rule was expedient, and that this 
 was both simple and natural. In like manner he 
 once remarked to the author that, when he went 
 into his wood-shed on Sabbath mornings for 
 kindling-wood, it was his habit to select such 
 pieces as could be broken with the hand without 
 the help of the axe. " Not that I suppose," said 
 he, " that to strike a few blows with an axe on 
 Sabbath morning would be in itself wrong, but 
 because I find that I need, and the youth in my 
 family need, some definite and simple limit." 
 
 Mr. Judson united the jocular turn of his father, 
 with the sarcastic vein of his mother; and it 
 would seem that the question which should, for 
 the time being, bear sway, was determined by the 
 state of his animal spirits — we might say, per- 
 haps, by the state of his digestion. In one of the 
 letters of the Empress Josephine to her daughter 
 Hortense, the wife of Louis Bonaparte, there is a 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 209 
 
 striking remark on the connection between the 
 digestion and the animal spirits and temper. 
 " You have not failed," she writes, " to remark 
 that almost our entire existence depends upon our 
 health, and that upon our digestion. Let poor 
 Louis digest better, and you would find him 
 more amiable." When Mr. Judson's digestion, 
 and consequently the flow of his animal spirits, 
 was good, he had an exuberance of humor and 
 jocularity. But when, from the influence of ill 
 health, his spirits were depressed and his mind 
 was in a gloomy mood, he was impatient of little 
 annoyances, and his sarcastic remarks would 
 come across the feelings of his friends in an un- 
 pleasant way. This infirmity he often lamented, 
 and it was to him the source of deep sorrow. 
 During the last years of his ministry he was 
 gradually overcoming his disposition to sarcasm 
 as well as his habit of offensive bluntness. 
 
 The most prominent, indeed, of Mr. Judson's 
 failings were connected with his impulsive and 
 uneven temper. The unfavorable influence of this 
 upon his judgment in some remarkable cases has 
 been already noticed. It should be added that 
 the same trait of character made him somewhat 
 liable to personal prejudices. His first impres- 
 sions of an individual were strong and lasting, 
 and sometimes unfavorably colored by the hue of 
 his own feelings. 
 
 18* 
 
210 MEMOIR OF 
 
 Mr. Judson's piety took its complexion from 
 the traits of his natural character that have now 
 been considered. It had very little of the ideal 
 and imaginative ; but was rather solid and prac- 
 tical, keeping ever in view substantial, tangible 
 results. It was that vigorous and healthful piety 
 which projects itself upon the field of christian 
 labor. By his native constitution he was averse 
 to the employment of dwelling upon and analy- 
 zing his varying frames and feelings; and from 
 principle he kept no record of the same. Profes- 
 sions of high-wrought exercises and of an intense 
 experience he ever regarded with suspicion, be- 
 lieving that, in proportion as such exercises are 
 genuine, they will naturally manifest themselves 
 in the life, without being made objects of direct 
 display ; and that the ostentatious exhibition of 
 them is the worst kind of vanity and hypocrisy. 
 Nothing did he denounce with more severity than 
 what he called " pious talking" united with wick- 
 ed acting. 
 
 The great doctrines of grace he embraced with 
 all his heart, and gave himself up to their influ- 
 ence, without troubling himself with metaphysical 
 difficulties respecting their relations to each other. 
 Of him it may be said emphatically, that he first 
 gave himself to the Lord, and then to the Church, 
 by the will of God. If, as one has said, a call to 
 the ministry is a " passion for souls," then he had 
 this call ; and no one simple idea would more 
 beautifully harmonize with the entire course of his 
 
EVERTON JUDSON. 211 
 
 ministry. His motive power was a passion, an 
 impulsive, controling emotion ; and it had for its 
 scope the salvation of men. That a religion of 
 this healthful and substantial character should 
 have endured the touchstone of disease and ap- 
 proaching dissolution, and burned brightest as the 
 lamp of life was expiring, is not surprising. It is 
 written that the path of the just shall be " as the 
 shining light, that shineth more and more unto 
 the perfect day." 
 
 In the general review of Mr. Judson's character 
 we see in him a man who had faults, but whose 
 failings were far outweighed by his excellent quali- 
 ties. He was such a man as one would love to 
 have for a companion, a counselor, a neighbor, a 
 pastor, an associate in the ministry. He was pre- 
 eminently fitted for the time in which he lived, 
 and the field of labor which he occupied. He left 
 his native place in the autumn of 1829, intending 
 to locate himself in Marion county. But God had 
 marked out for him another sphere of action, and 
 arranged a series of providences which should 
 guide him into it. He came at the right time, 
 and to the right field for the development of his 
 peculiar mental endowments. God, by his provi- 
 dence and his Spirit, was already preparing the 
 way for an extensive work of grace in all that re- 
 gion, from which, within a few years after his ar- 
 rival, he and his brethren were permitted to reap a 
 
212 MEMOIR. 
 
 rich spiritual harvest. When this season of spe- 
 cial awakening was past, he still held on his way, 
 and exhibited to his brethren an example of suc- 
 cessful pastoral labor that cannot but be both in- 
 structive and encouraging. It is not for the pur- 
 pose of exalting an imperfect mortal that this 
 Memoir is presented to the public, but with the 
 humble hope and prayer that it may be made con- 
 ducive to the edification and usefulness of those 
 who may read it, especially of such as labor in the 
 work of the gospel ministry.