The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1886-03-31

were OlGSA lOuuO III IulS CldSS, WHICH,
sometimes presented the other extreme.
But we may imagine that even those who
were most deficient in moral training
would feel certain degree of tenderness
toward the modest and quiet youth who
had placed himself under their protec-
ton, and would do what they could to
soften the hard lot to which he was less
accustomed than themselves.
His Journey by the river ended at
Richmond. No prophetic voice, as he
entered this city, whispered that hither,
after the lapse of seventeen years, he was
to come as preacher of the gospel, and
that the people among whom he walked
a stranger should feel in days to come
the force of that energy which now i'm
PEELED him in the obscurer tenor of his
way. To none was it revealed, and by
none suspected, that here in the metrop-
oils of his native State, he should build
those moral and spiritual memorials by
which his name should be transmitted to
remote generations.
Whether on foot, or by the circuitous
course of James river, in some little YES
sci, he reached Malvern Hill, we are not
informed. Possibly he was met at Rich
mond by some conveyance sent by his
employer. And now as he approaches
the mansion of this old Virginia family,
where the evidences of comfort and lux
ury which belonged to timp of peace
and condition of wealth appeared on
every side, we are forced to recall con-
trast which, in less than three-score
years and ten, appeared. The country
had passed through the throes and ago
MES of the Revolutionary war, and had
after the probation of few years under
the Articles of Confederation, been con-
solidated under the Constitution of the
United States, and was now, in 1895,
under the administration of Washington,
enjoying state of comparative repose,
and laying the foundations of future pros
perity. But on the fields over which the
young teacher passes is to be heard, in
years to come, the thunders of the can
non that proclaim that the day of civil
strife has arrived; and then this soil
drank the blood of Christian patriots,
whose fathers received the gospel from
the lips of John II. Rice.
Within much less than day Journey
OF Malvern Hill there stand two houses
of worship, one in Charles City and one
in New Kent, the erection of which, as
well as the organization of the churches
which worship within them, may be large
ly traced to the ministry of John h
Rice In the city of Richmond. Mainly
by the descendants of those who received
their early Christian training under him,
were these foundations laid, and the aged
elder, whose last days were devoted
chiefly to the erection of the latter one of
these houses, where his children and
grandchildren might worship, was one OF
the young men under the pastoral care
of DR.. Rice in Richmond of that
band who stood nearest to him as pupils
and -workers-to whom he delivered
special courses of lectures; and who, uD-
der his ministry, were imbued with that
spirit of enlightened piety, and zeal, and
steadfastness which has been found to be
so marked characteristic of those Chris
tians who received him as their teacher
and were kindled by his example. Mr.
John N. Gordon was more than three
score years and ten when, during the
burning heat of summer, saw him tray
ersing the streets of Richmond, and re-
joicing in the liberality of his old friends
among the merchants, and his fellow
Christians of the different Presbyterian
churches of the city, who had responded
to his appeals in behalf of house of wor-
ship for what is now the Bethany con-
gregation in Charles City. To cooperate
with those who were dear to him in com.
pleting this sanctuary for them, as Olivet
in New Kent had for some years been
completed by others Of his household and
their associates, was the dear desire OF
his heart, the object that lay between
him and the prayer of Simeon for a
peaceful departure; and his desire was
fulfilled. Such are the connections of
history, and the streams that flow from
the prayers and labors Of the godly.
CLoUerdaLe, Va. P. B. PRICE
Note.-The Descendants of Edith Rice.
am greatly indebted to Mrs. Isaac
Hudson, of Dublin, Pulaski county, Va,
for the following facts, as well as for
words Of encouragement in this work
Edith was the only one of Rev. John
II. Rice's sisters who left any children.
She married Gabriel Minor, and after his
death, DR.. Rice took her three oldest
children, Elvira, Clementina, and Har.
riette, to his house, and educated all Of
them. He adopted Harriette, the young
est, as his own child and she remained
with him until after he removed to the
seminary There sha married. Par,