Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1869-10-19
The N. Y. Tribune on Rev. Peter
cartHright,
A GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT.


Apart from all sectarian and even ro-
ligious considerations, the recent honors
paid to the Rev. DR.. Cartwright, at Lin.
coin, ILL.,, by his brethren in the .hihistfyf
have an interest for all to whom the spec.
tacle of life devoted to duty is beautiful.
DR.. Cartwright, who is now eighty.fvo
years of age, has been for si&ty-fve Of
those years in the mnistry-a fact III this
day of shifting aims and vacillating extrs
ton in itself sufficiently remarkable. The
fine old man, after half century of
toilsome travel, Of self-sacrfce, of genuine
apostolic devotion, stood before his brcth-
ren to'rcceive the need of their admira;
tion and gratitude. Such a career, such
a man, must have recalled to those who
listened to him the beginning of the Meth
odist Church, when its founder, tsith his
little band of devoted adherents, with his
saint-like minstrel brother by his side, went
out to no holiday task and, weeping over
the lukewarm condition Of the Church ts
which he still adhered, sought among pads
pers and outcasts in the highways and BY
ways Of England for the witnesses of
faithful ministry. DR.. Cartwright is a
living representative of the genuine, prim.
tive discipline of Wesley-of the meI
who thought no journey too long, no dam
ger too imminent no suffering too acute, if
only they might carry glad tidings to the
sinful and the degraded He is one of the
last as he is one of the greatest Of the trav-'
cling preachers of the old school. He is
one whom John Wesley would have taken
to bosom which rarely glowed with emo
tional affection, and who would have mov;s'
ed the ascetic nature of that extraordina-'
ry man to words Of approval, perhaps even
of unaccustomed praise. The speech in
which DR.! Cartwright responded to the
congratulations Of Ills brethren was re-:
markable for rare simplicity, an sngag:
ing candor, and rude strength altogether
refreshing in these days Of shallow pulpit
rhetoric. There was, indeed, mo absence:
Of sectarian techncalities and of camp
meeting phrases, for which the refined
reader might have no relish for DIR. Cart.
wright adheres (as he has right to dop
to the dialect of his youth, and may not
have kept pace with his associates in the
march of refinement. Hut nothing could
/, be more beautiful or touching in the whole
range Of domestic poetry than the allus.
, ion Of the octogenary to his aged wife,
) He had not been speaking five minutes be-
fore his thoughts went back to her. She
| had been his " worthy companion 2aone
who had never hindered him from travel
ing and preaching, had never scolded him
for leaving her destitute and lonesome
I but had always urged him to do what hes
! Thought to be his duty" g. have," said
r he, II expect the oldest Methodist preach
r ers wife in the world" And then not
simply with pardonable but just compla-"
, cency, the patriarch spike Of his ffty
grandchildren and of his twenty gfessf--
grandchildren. He had been not only o
preacher Of the gospel but the founder of
a tribe. Nor could anything be more en-
tertaining than the "reminiscences in which
upon this occasion, DR.. Cartwright in
dulged. All autobiography is interesting,
and the stupidest man could hardly write
in good faith the story of his life SO stu
pidly as to fail utterly Of readers. But
whether because it appeals to wants which,
) we always feel, to aspirations which We
never lose, there is in religious autobiog;
raphy peculiar charm It may be, and
) often is, rudely written, but the most fass
tidious reader will pardon this, if the pa
ges which record spiritual experience
: bear upon their face the stamp of simple
sincerity. We confess to have read with
pleasure, if not with profit, the narratives
: Of many preachers who could hardly spell
: correctly, and who had bat LITTLE fame OUT
: side their own connections. AS we have
> perused the journals Of the early Quakcrs
IS "a distinct literature hardly known out4
G side "the meeting'-we have felt how
precious in such writings is that ungrudg.
s ing veracity, which conceals nothing be-
y cause it is small, and extenuates nothing,
u because it may appear to the eyes of tho
It world ridiculous. DR.. Cartwright RAM
: bled through the story of his life with
e something Of the minuteness Of De Foe
1t here stopping for an anecdote, there paus.-
ot ing to detail some humorous circumstance
II but always giving evidence of an earn
y est and kindly nature. He had suffered
" good deal in body and misd and circum-
stance.' lie had been Acihght FIVE hum
b. dred miles from his fathers house with
of but seyenty.fve cent5 in his pocket in q
in strange land, as a Methodist travelling
t., preacher, on horseback, and with not q
garment but what WIS brought 10 the