The Portland daily press., 1863-06-06

cution on every side, the issue of church pam
phlets and volumes was almost continuous for
over century. A large number of these fu-
gitve sermons, reports and controversial pub
lications have been gathered together in vol
umes, perhaps fifty in number, embracing a
wide range of photographed rarities, and
comprising not a few issues from the early
American press, unobserved in Richs famous
Btbtiothecd americana, or in earlier or later
works in the same department of literature.
Some of these "small rare volumes black with
tarnished gold' are among the American bib
liographer's nuggets" and their value is only
known to the bbiomanac or the collector.
Among these are some OF the early issues Of
the New York press referring to the Episcopal
Church. the publications of John Peter Zeng-
er, Sharps sermon at Trinity church, New
York, nearly hundred and fifty years since;
the famous Checkley pamphlets, for the pub
fishing of one of which under pretense that a
defense of Episcopacy was libel on Con-
gregationalism the indefatigable John Check
ley, afterwards M. A. of Oxford England, was
tried, imprisoned and fined; the rare contro-
versial tracts of Beach; the still rarer and
earlier publications of Keith, the first mission
airy Of the venerable Society for Prop agating
the Gospel in foreign parts, and Bray, the
faithful commissary of the Bishop of London
in Maryland; the Georgia Sermons, preached
year after year before the trustees for estab-
fishing that colony; Sermons and abstracts Of
the proceedings Of the Society for the Propa-
CATION of the Gospel, the Oldest Protestant
Missionary Society now existing in the world.
In works illustrating the early history of
Methodism, SO far as connected with the
church from which it sprung, the library is
quite rich. In the original journals of White
field and Wesley, while missionaries of the
Church of England in Georgia, in the publish
ed sermons Of both of these pioneers of the
great evangelical movement Of the last centu-
ry, in the history of the Orphan House estab-
lished by the former near Savannah, and in
the early minutes of the Methodist Conferences,
this collection is well supplied. Among the
many articles of interest may be mentioned a
sermon of Wesley's, published for the benefit
of the families of the British who fell at Bun
ker Hill; the first sermon published by White
field at the outset of his wonderful career and
two editions of his farewell sermon in London,
before his last voyage to Georgia; the rare
volumes of Whitefield's letters. &c. There is
almost complete set of controversies grow
ing out of the establishment of the Episcopal
Church in this country, embracing the writ
ings of both sides.
OF manuscripts Mr.. Perry has large num-
Der, embracing the letters of many of the ear
ly American bishops, Seabury, White, Bass,
Parker aud others. Few of these letters have
ever been published, and their value as illus
ization of the American Church cannot be TOO
highly estimated. He has also large collec-
tion Of Autograph letters and documents, relics
of the Revolutionary struggle, &c. There is
unique specimen of Benjamin Franklin's, be-
ing his bill against the Colony of Georgia for
services rendered as their agent at the English
Court There are series of unpublished let
ters of the Rev. Jacob Bailey, the frontier mis-
sionary of Maine, to which reference is made
in Mr.. Willis's recent volume on the Lawyers of
Maine, and the original documents OF the trial
of VIM. Hull.
Mr.. Perry's library contains eight or ten vol
umes of interesting records of the history of
the Episcopal Church in Falmouth and Port
land, during the century Of its existence here.
Hardly an old family of the city but has the
names of some of its representatives on the
time-stained pages OF these records, which are
nearly complete for hundred years. The
Waites, Prebles, Deerings, Motleys, Minots,
Oxnards, Moodys, Tyngs, Wiswalls, Riggs,
Hopes. McLellans. Ilsleys, Mountforts, Purin-
tons, Burnhams, Fosdicks, Crafts, Plummers,
Boyntons, Shattucks, Symmes, Webbs, Wyers,
Fernalds, Greenleafs, Watts, and others, all
find mention on these pages and attest the
past prosperity of parish just entering upon
its second century of existence with strength
and respectablity. b.