Litchfield enquirer., 1873-12-18


 abilities would not allow hln 10 side with one and leave the other. and he declined both invitations. and purchased himself q small farm. aboanding n choice fruits, on l the outskirts of Mort East village, and there built himself home. He was at traeted thither partly by Deacon Ensign, 1 Selkregg, Dr. Smedffey and others, Msis were converted in Litchfeid in the same revival with himself Yet he could have | found a welcome home in hundred | localities where he. had labored in revivals. | This North East hometwas the center of attfacrion to his children and a large cir cle of those who dated the commencement of new life to his preaching. That home was made delightful by his remark able buoyancy, his playful witticisms and incessant prying into new authors. Here the worn pilgrim might have rested. But who ever heard of his resting? By his life he said, i've seek a rest, this is not our rest" When he had reached about three score years q have 1t from the lips of my sister, Mrs. Orton), he preached that winter 112 days in succession in rev1vals. And this was not in excess of some other, 0 to speak, long winters.
 l During twenty-eight years of his minis terial life he had the pastoral care of his churches, yet leaving his flock to labor l in reyivals, while his labors as an evange- list were of fifty years continuance. From a careful survey of the different localities visited by the outpouring of the Divine Spirit under his preaching, and which were reported at the time, we find more than 10000 hopefully converted. And the num- Der of young men led by. him to Christ, and who became ministers of the gospel, is very large.
 He survived the wife of his youth many years; but no m1rmuring word escaped his lips because he was left alone, for he was not alone. He was revered and loved by his four children who survive him. God gave him more than competence, so that he could satisfy his generous heart in ben- efactlon to the poor. spent d week with him last winter. The lustre of his eyes was gone both were ecipsed by cataracts. The we'll rounded cheeks were sunken, the voice sepulchral, the step tottering. He was only a skeleton, yet the ponderous brain bespoke the man. All could see that he was going He had fought good fight he had finished his course and kept the faith. He knew that his Redeemer lived. We prayed together as in other days, and 1t was scene of true sublimity to see him weeping as he wrestled with the angel for his children. He spoke with re- markable animation of the church of the future. He believed that Zion was soon to put on her beautiful garments, and the days of refreshing would surely come. He wished his clerical brethren would labor harder to save men Yet his charitable heart would not chide or rebuke them. | His genial nature was overruning with love to all. His playful witticisms would break out daily. l never saw him happier. There he stood, "with one foot in the stir rup, just ready to mount"
 John Stuart MiiPs Religious Views. Extract from John Stuart Mill s Autobiography ]
 was brought up from the first without any religious belief in the ordinary accept ation of the term My father, educated in the creed of Scotch Presbyterianism, had by his own studies and reflections been early led to reject, not only the belief ill Revelation, but the foundations ol what is commonly called natural religion. h~vo hoard hin, say. that tha turning point of his mind on the subject WAS read. ing Buffers Analogy" That work, oi which he always continued to speak with respect, kept him, as he said, for con siderable time believer in the divine authority of Christianity, by proving to him that, whatever are the difficulties in believing that the Old and New Testa ments proceed from, of record, the acts of a perfective wise and good being, the same and still greater difficulties stand in the way of the belief that being of such a character can have been the maker of the universe. He considered Buffers argu- ment conclusive against the only op- ponents for whom 1t was intended. Those who admit an omnipotent as we'll as per fectly just and benevolent maker and ruler of such world as this, can say little against Christianity but what can with at least equal force be retorted against them selves. Finding, therefore. no halting place in Deism, he remains in state of l perplexity until, doubtless after many struggles, he yields to the conviction that concerning the origin of things nothing whatever can be known. His aversion to 1 religion, in the sense usually attached to the term, was of the same kind with that of Lucretius-he regarded it with the l feeling due, not to mere mental delusion, bnt to great moral evil. He looked up- on 1t as the greatest enemy of morality; first by setting up fictitious feelings excel lencies-belief in creeds, devotional feel ings, and ceremonies not connected with the good of the human kind-and caus- ing these to be accepted as substitutes for 1 genuine virtues; but above all, by radical ly vitiating the standard of morals; mak- ing 1t consist in doing the will of being OF whom it lavishes indeed all the phrases 1 of andulatiOn, but whom in sober truth 1t depicts as eminently hateful. I have hundred times heard him say that all ages and nations have represented their 1 gods as wicked, in a constantly Increasing progression; that mankind have gone on l adding trait after trait till they reached 1 the most perfect conception of wicked ness which the human mind can devise, and have called this God, and prostrated 1 themselves before it. This ne plus ultsG of wickedness he considered to be em- l bodied in what IS commonly presented to mankind as the creed of Christianity | Think Che used to say) of being who would make he1l-who would create the race with the infallible foreknowledge, and therefore with the intention, that the greatly ma jority of them were to be con- | signed to horrible and everlasting tor l ment! The time, I believe, is drawing near when this dreadful conception of an object of worship will be no longer identi- l fled with Christianity; and when all per \ sons, with any sense of moral good and OsAAS VIII AOOh uHOA 10 "AeA bAO 6dulO 1u- dignation with which my father regarded | it. My father was as we'll aware as any one, that Christians do not, inf general, ! undergo the demoralizing consequences which seem inherent in such creed, in l the manner or to the extent which might have been expected from it. The same sIovenliness of thought. and the subiec-. I tion of the reason to fears, wishes, and I affections, which enable them to accept a l theory involving contradiction in terms, l prevent them from perceving the logical consequences of the theory. Such is the facility with which mankind believe at one and thessame time things inconsisti ent with one another, and so few are those who draw from what they receive as truths 1 any consequences but those recommend- ed to them by their feelings, naultittdes l have held the undoubting belief inI an | A-,4L 1f H117