The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-01-23

April, 1923. He was ordained in Morristown,
New Jersey on the 8th of February, 1926
After five years there he was called to the
pastoral charge of the First Presbyterian
Church of this city, and was installed on the
25th of January, $780, For thirty seven
years he discharged his duty in the pulpit of
that church, and resigned on the 18th of
November, 1867, when he was elected pastor
emeritus. He died on the 14th of December
1870.
The date of his birth and that of his death
mark the limits of life having few parallels
There was nothing in the opening years as
especially marked, but it was thought by his
teacher that he gave promise of more than
usual proficiency 1t was thought that the
law was suited to him. To the age of nine
teen he had no belief in the Bible as the word
of God. 1t was doubtless this early unbelief
that gave him such ability in stating clearly
the doubts of an unbeliever. He used to say
his own early doubts were stronger than any
he had ever seen expressed byany subsequent
unbeliever. An article from Dr. Chalmers
in the Edinburgh Re0teoO, first led him to lead
to the knowledge of the necessity of moral
life. His entire conversion, however, was
due to q simple statement of classmate. He
always spoke of this as the change which
affected his plans in this life. 1t gave to the
world the peoples commentary. How signal
the illustration that weak things in human
Giving up his law, he entered the theologi-
cal seminary, and became diligent student
Finishing his Princeton career, he assumed
his first charge as pastor at Morristown, n
j. He was thoroughly examined by the pres
bytery, and ordained with great unanimity
Here he formed all those habits of regularity
which we're so useful to him in after life
The Sabbath schools were assuming their i'm
portance, and he became fixed with the know
lo1O Of hn foot IF ha e oF,I
commentaries on the Gospels, designed for
Sunday school teachers and Bible classes
He little thought when he first planned these
works that he would make his name a house.
hold word almost whereverlapguage is spoken
Thus were the steps of this good man ordered
by the Lord.
In his first position he took grounds in
favor of temperance. He had said, when he
began his ministry in Morristown, there were
nineteen distilleries and twenty drinking
places where liquor was sold. Through his
labors eighteen of the drinking places aud
seventeen of the nineteen distilleries gave up
their work. Thirty years after, when the
flood gates of this iniquity were broken down,
when the press spoke not against it, and the
pulpit was dumb, he dared to be singular,
and said that the true and safe principle
would be to prohibit that which spreads
death and ruin around the land; he publicly
There was another source of evil in the
land, of which he was as great an opposer as
he was of intemperance-human bondage.
He said the gospel was an epistle of deliver
ance to the captive, and by the freedom of
the truth all the chains of slavery would be
broken. He never hesitated to express his
opinion of the evils, the wrongs, the crimes
of slavery. He thought it violation of
human right, and contrary to the will of God.
His was the calm, sober conviction of sober,
truthful loving man of God, and he gave it
expression on every fitting occasion. He
never attended an anti-slayery convention
in his life, and it was only in the direct
channels of his duty that he expressed
his conviction. For many years he
in opposition. He did it when the mayor,
firemen and police stood quiet while Penn
sylvania Hall was fired by mob and burned;
he lifted up his voice in the pulpit and
preached a sermon on the supremacy of the
law, and defended the oppressed while the
gates of the church were locked to prevent
disturbance He did it again in 1851 in a
discourse on one of the Psalms, when he said
that if man should come to him for safety,
he would do as he would expect any man to
do for his son under similar circumstances.
He wrote and published his Enquiry into
the Scriptural View of Slavery" and during
! his last years he thanked God he could die
| seeing America without a slave, and land
where man could look in the face of every
other man and say, 81, too, am free"
His connection with the managerial gov
eminent of the House of Refuge extended for
| many years, and he preached on the third
| Sunday of each month to the children of the
colored department, and on the fourth Sun
day of each month to the children of the white
department.
The work, however, the principal work of
| his life, and in which he was singularly sue
cessful was his preparation of the notes on
the sacred Scriptures. He says he had no
special preparation for them, and made it a
side work altogether, and for this work he rose
at every morning and worked to for more
than thirty years.
The subject of his ministry was then
touched upon. From sermon preached at
Morristown, after a revival there, called
''The Way of Salvation" q call was sent
him from this church, which he accepted.
He found here united people. During the
six years of conflict which ensued, his peo-
pie never wavered. To this conflict Mr..
johnson referred only by allusion, and said
| that to Albert Barnes it had been a terrible
time till he came out of the conflict acquitted
by the highest iudicatory in the Church, and
without stain. After peace he went steadily
on with his pastoral work. MIR. Johnson then
made rapid sketch of the principal events
| in Mr. Barnes life for the few succeeding
wears, giving quotations from his writings of
the various doctrines which he defended.
From his gradual impairment of vision he
ultimately dissolved his connection with the
church. This event took place on November
IS, 1867. After his resignation he continued
at various times to minister to his old flock,
and was seldom absent from the festival of
the Lords supper.
Ill n