
I !■»■ 



PRINCETON, N. J. 



No. Case, 
Wo. Shelf, 
No. Book, 



e3e 



The John M, Krehs Donation. 



I 



BX 5995 .M63 S76 1849 
Stone, John S. 1795-1882 
A memoir of the life of 
James Milnor 




r 




"FiTi g ■ "by ?. BalpirLifrmn a-DagdecreotTOe. 



-^^ 




A MEMOIR 



OF 



THE LIFE 



/ 

JAMES MIL NOR, D.J) 



LATE RECTOR, 



OP ST. GEORGE'S CHURCH, NEW YORK. 



BY THE REV. JOHN S. STONE, D.D. 

BECTOK OF CTHKIST CHURCH, BROOKLYN. 



ABRIDGED BY THE AUTHOR. 



PUBLISHED BY THE 
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YORK. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1849, ty 

WILLIAM H. MILNOR, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Soutlj- 

ern District of New York. 



PREFACE. 



As to his own part in the following Memoir, the writer desires 
to say, that in the use made of Dr. Milnor's diaries, journal, and 
letters, he has taken no other liberties than such as he supposed 
his friend would liimself have taken, had he attempted, while 
living, to prepare them for the press. Written as those papers 
.-^'were, amid the bustle of a busy life, and with no thought of their 
being ever embodied in their present form, they of course needed 
some revision. The clearing of the meaning of some sentences, 
by an occasional transposition in the order of their members, and 
by the occasional substitution of more exactly significant words 
for those which had been seized in the process of rapid composi- 
tion, and which but imperfectly expressed the author's thought; 
and the softening, here and there, of a term, which in the confi- 
dence of familiar intercourse, was safe and proper, but which with 
a public necessarily ignorant of minute and explanatory circum- 
stances, might be regarded as too strong ; these are the chief free- 
doms, wliich, in the execution of his task, he has felt at liberty to 
indulge. Generally, Dr. Milnor's expressions needed no correc- 
tion. Many perso7ial references, however, both to himself and to 
others, have been dropped ; and as little, that could be painful to 
the feelings of the living, has been retained, as was consistent 
with fidelity to the character and views of the dead, and to those 
public interests and trusts under which he was called to act. Dr. 
Milnor lived to see the church pass into, if not through troublous 
times — times during which public feeling was often most pain- 
fully alive ; and he felt called to act in many stations where he 
became himself the occasion of much of the feeling by which the 
public was affected. It was therefore difficult, if not impossible, 
to write the life of such a man after he had left the stage, with- 
out sometimes reviving memories more or less unwelcome to not 
a few of his survivors. 

It should be borne in mind, that in the following work are 
virtually two memoirs : one of Mr. Milnor as a man of the world, 



4 PREFACE. 

and another of Dr. Milnor as a Christian man. The former could 
not with propriety be omitted, because, though a distinct life by 
itself, with its own principles, character, and acts in full devel- 
opment, yet it is important to a just appreciation of the latter. 
In some things, Dr. Milnor as a Christian, is very like Mr, Mil- 
nor as a worldly man j in others, quite unlike. These lights of 
likeness and of contrast combine, or stand out in distinctness, to 
give us the true idea of the whole man. Even the false and dan- 
gerous notions of religion which he entertained in his days of 
darkness and self-righteousness, help to set forth in stronger colors 
those right conceptions of divine truth to which he was led by 
the great crisis of his life. Those, however, to whom the details 
of his early history would be likely to prove uninteresting, and 
who have kno\\ni, or wish to contemplate him as a Christian only, 
will find the former part of the work as brief as it could well be 
made, and will not have to turn over many pages before they 
reach what will more specially meet their wishes, and it may be, 
satisfy their desires. 

And now, all that remains is to say, that although the writer 
has felt that he was dealing with a character of uncommon excel- 
lence, yet he has not felt that he was writing the life of a perfect 
being. However much, therefore, he has found in that character 
to commend, he has endeavored not so to shape his commendations 
as to make the praise redound to the man, instead of Him from 
whom alone cometh every good, and to whom alone, especially 
in the results of Christian excellence, all praise is due. 



CONTENTS. 



PART I. 

HIS EARLY LIFE, LEGAL PRACTICE, AND POLITICAL 

CAREER. 

Section I. — Quaker parentage — Family history — Youthful traits — Education 
— Law studies — Yellow-fever of '93 — Admittance to the bar — Debating 
societies — Commences practice at Norristown — Freemasonry — Return to 
Philadelphia — Early abolition society — Fire department — Yellow-fever of 
'98 — Retreat to Norristovm — Marriage — Read out of Quaker meeting — 
Reasons for keeping a diary — Character as a lawyer — Incidents of legal 
life — An honest lawyer — Business habits — Affecting incident — Value of 
business habits — A fashionable man of the world, 11 

Section II. — Entrance on political life — Member of city-council — Milnor's 
popularity — Election to Congress — Takes his seat in the House-^First 
winter's letters from Washington — Speech in Congress — Second winter in 
"Washington — Extracts from letters — Speech — Dinner with the President — 
War fever — Washington gayeties and war debates — Mode of life — Domes- 
tic feelings — Prospect of long session — Grout — Secret debates — War im- 
pends — Is declared — Address of the Federalists — Eventful speech — Phila- 
delphia newspaper report — Difficulty with Henry Clay — Challenge — Cor- 
respondence — Review — Third winter in Washington — Extracts from let- 
ters — Speech — Political excitement — Grrand national ball — Political asper- 
ities — Quincy's severe speech — Short session — Adjournment — G-out — Close 
of political life, 44 

PART II. 

HISTORY OF HIS RELIGIOUS CHANGE. 

Section I. — Early moral traits — Aquila M. Bolton — Serious letters — Mr. 
Milnor's remarks thereon — Milnor a Universalist — Examination of the 
Christian evidences, and study of the Bible — Universalism renounced — A 
rational believer — Dependence on works — Second diary — Attendance on 
Presbyterian ministry — Probable influence of Bolton's letters — Begins to 
attend Episcopal church — Feeling after truth — New-year's reflections, 
1810 — Dr. Pilmore — Election to vestry of associated churches — Hearing 
sermons — Inward struggle — Views of the Sabbath — First recorded prayer 
— Influence of early Quakerism — Review of religious progress to 1812 — 
Greneral Convention at "New Haven, 80 



6 CONTENTS. 

Section II. — Thomas Bradford — Anecdote in a law-office — Remarkable inci- 
dent — E,eligious letters from Congress to Mrs. Milnor — A praying Congress- 
man — Religious letters continued — Weariness of politics — Solemn morning 
walk, Dec. 22, 1812 — Unfriendly influence of poHtics, 102 

Section III — Correspondence with Thomas Bradford — Letters — Epistolary 
account of conversion — Views of death — Letters to Mrs. Milnor — Solicitude 
for her conversion — Struggles with the world — Review, 122 

PART III. 

HIS MINISTRY FROM 1814 TO 1830. 

Section I Theological studies — Norristown — Lay-reader — Reflections on a 

change of profession — Prayer — Visit to Rev. Mr. Bull — Journey into Vir- 
ginia — Dangerous illness — Invitations to Baltimore and Richmond — Re- 
plies — Praying spirit — Return to Philadelphia — Temporal affairs — Letter 
to Aquila M. Bolton — Preparatory studies completed — Examinations — 
Ordination — First sermon — Assistant in the associated churches — Ordain- 
ed presbyter — Interest in the Bible cause — Call to St. George's, New York 
— Visit to New York — Acceptance of the rectorship of St. George's — Settle- 
ment in New York, 171 

Section II American Bible Society — Correspondence with a doubting pa- 
rishioner, and a cavilling inquirer — Opening of new Sunday-school rooms — 
Glance from 1817 to 1821 — Letter to Mr. Mcllvaine — Ingenuous acknov/- 
ledgment — Glance to 1825 — Perilous illness — Religious exercises — Public 
sympathy — Letter to Mr. Mcllvaine — Account of illness by Dr. Stearns 
and Wm. H. Milnor — Origin of American Tract Society — Sick chamber — 
Mr. Hallock — Espousal of tract cause — First sermon after recovery — 
Public organization of Tract Society — Dr. Milnor's agency — Delegation 
from New York to Boston — Dr. Woods, 201 

Section HI. — 1825. Letters to a theological student — Bishop Hobart's return 
from Europe — Letter touching that return. 1826. Letters to Prof. Mcll- 
vaine during the revival at West Point — Letter to the student touching 
his fourth of July address — Backslider reclaimed. 1827. State of St. 
George's — Dangerous accident in returning from Flushing — Death of Rev. 
Mr. Duffie. 1828. State of St. George's— Milnor professorship. 1829. 
" Protestant Episcopal Clerical Association of New York." 1830. Letter 
to Rev. J. P. K. Henshaw — African mission-school — Review, . . . 234 

PART IV. 

MISSION TO ENGLAND. 1830. 

Section I. — American origin of the idea — Views of Dr. Milnor in accepting 
the appointment — Engagements on the eve of departure — Instructions and 
commissions — Embarkation — Extracts from journal of voyage — Reaches 



CONTENTS. 7 

Liverpool — Deaf and dumb instruction — Birmingham — Clergy of Birming» 
ham — Dr. Kewley a Jesuit — First Sabbath in England — J. A. James- 
Journey to London — Bible Society's House — Mr. Brandram — Lord Teign- 
mouth — Bromley and Beckenham Auxiliary anniversary — Clergymen's 
•widows — Dinner at Mr. Inglis' — Dr. Parker — Woolwich grounds — Royal 
marquee— First Sabbath in London — Bishop Blomfield — Preachers char- 
acterized — British and Foreign Bible Society — Counsellor Marriott — Re- 
ligious Tract Society — St. Bartholomew's, and Rev. Mr. Wilkinson — 
Samuel Charles Wilks — Methodist Missionary House — Prayer-book and 
Homily Society, and !Mr. Pritchett — Irish Society anniversary — Hibernian 
Society — Statistics, 273 

Section H. — AVeek of the great anniversaries — Monday, May 3, Wesleyan 
Missionary Society — Dinner at Mr. Haslope's — .Tuesday, Church Mission- 
ary Society — Dinner at Mr. Solicitor Forster's — Wednesday, British and 
Foreign Bible Society — Lord Bexley, Bishop of Winchester, Bishop of 
Chester, Mr. Wilberforce, Dr. Milnor, Hon. (Jharles G-raat, M. P.. Daniel 
Wilson, etc Introduction to the bishops — Dinner at Mr. Williams" — Re- 
ligious exercises — Thursday, clerical breakfast — Tract Society's western 
meeting — Prayer-book and Homily Society — Dr. Milnor's speech — Dinner 
at Mr. Bickersteth's — Literary company — Friday, clerical breakfast — Lon- 
don Jews' Society — Dinner at Mr. Hatchard's — Saturday, rural scene at 
Clapham — Mr. G-illiat — Mr. Mcllvaine's arrival — Blackheath Branch Bible 
Society — Third Sabbath in London — Further anniversaries — Religious ex- 
ercises of the week, at breakfasts and dinners — Baptist Noel and Waltham- 
stow — Critique on country residences — Daniel Wilson, and breakfast at 
Islington — Anniversary of the Reformation Society — Bishop of Winches- 
ter — G-uernsey custom — Capt. G-ordon, and St. James'-place — Discussion 
revived — Animated scene at one of the anniversaries — Clarkson, Wilber- 
force, and others — Mr. Ewbank, 291 

Section III.— Sabbath at Camberwell — Melvill — Dulwich college — Green- 
wich hospital — Breakfast at J. Haldane Stewart's — Caledonian chapel, 
and Dr. Chalmers — Social engagements — Woolwich, and Dr. G-regcry — 
Sabbath at Paul's Cray, and John Symonds — Institution for Deaf and 
Dumb — Dirmer at Zachary Macauley's — Views of Millenarians, Irving, 
McNeile — Interesting intercourse with Daniel Wilson at Islington — Stoke- 
Newington, and Dr. Watts — Business with Church Missionary Society — 
Charity-school anniversary at St. Paul's — Joseph John Grurney — Sunday 
thoughts of home — Trait in morals — Visits about London — Missionary insti- 
tution at Islington — Professors Pearson, Ayre, and Lee — Daughter of Legh 
Richmond — Turvey — William Allen, and Stoke-Newington — Hannah Kil- 
ham — Accident and peril — Sufferings, 313 

Section IV, — ^Visit to Paris — Accident on the Thames — From Calais to Paris 
— Beggars — Paris — Catholic service at St. Roch's — Vaults under the 
Pantheon — Bishop Luscomb — Professor Kieffer — Sunday in Paris — Parox- 
ysm of gout — Mons. and Mad. Serrurier — Reminiscence of political life-- 



8 CONTENTS. 

Teacher for the New York Institution for the Deaf and Dumb — Dinner with 
M. Vaysse, Sen — Literary company — Symptoms of revolution — "Versailles 
— Return to England, 335 

Section V — "Visit to Isle of Wight — Contrast between France and England — 
Sabbath at Ryde — Mr. Sibthorpe — Scenery — Tomb of "Little Jane" — 
Brading church — Sandown bay — Scenery of "African Servant" — Natural- 
ness of Legh Richmond's descriptions — Shanklin-Chine — Reading of " The 
Young Cottager" — Bonchurch and TJnderclifF — Appuldercomb — Scenery 
of " Dairyman's Daughter " — Dairyman's cottage — Arreton church — New- 
port — Mr. Mcllvaine ill — Trip to Southampton — ^Western tour — Carisbrook 
castle — Clerical mayor — Shorwell — Scenery — Freshwater-gate — Caverns 
— The Needles — R,eturn to Newport, 342 

Section VI — Departure from the Isle of AVight — Tour through England, 
"Wales, and Ireland — Southampton — ^Winchester, cathedral and school — 
Exeter — Scenery — Expensive road — Humorous signboards — Ilfracombe — 
Romantic position — Ancient church — Linton — Striking scenery — Porlock 
— Amusing colloquy with an innkeeper — Progress to Bristol — Mr. Prust — 
Clifton — Robert Hall — Visit to Hannah More — Bishop Hobart's letter on 
Dr. Milnor's speech — Departure from Bristol — Election mob — The four 
daughters of Droitwich — Election canvass at Bridgenorth — Rotten-bor- 
ough system — Lovely scenery — Romantic scenery — AVelsh language — 
Passage of the mountains — Snowden — Ma.gnificent scenery — Bangor — 
Suspension-bridge over Menai Strait — Anglesea — Holyhead — Embarka- 
tion — Sleep in a storm — Jaunting-car — Dublin — Rainy ride to Belfast 354 

Section VII. — Tour through Scotland, and north of England — Arrival at 
Gr\asgow — Contrast with Ireland — Institutions of Glasgow — Statistics — . 
Social engagements — Temperance meeting — Deaf and Dumb Institution — 
Departure for Edinburgh — Dr. Byrne, and the Greneral Assembly — A Scotch 
discussion — John Sheppard — Mrs. Sheppard and Lord Byron — Long walk 
to Arthurs-seat — Dr. Chalmers — Episcopal clergy — Breakfast at Dr. 
Chalmers' — Discussion — Holyrood House — Asylum for Deaf and Dumb — 
Journey among the Cheviot hills — Assize Court at Carlisle — Lake scen- 
ery — Kendal and Manchester — School for Deaf and Dumb — Sabbath in 
Manchester— The Rev. Mr. Stowell — Remarkable infant-school teacher — 
Journey to Sheffield — Derbyshire scenery — Sheffield — Montgomery — Social 
and religious scenes — Bible Society meeting — Valuable acquaintances — ■ 
Vicar of Sheffield — Affecting parting with Montgomery — Touching remi- 
niscence — Return to London — Business engagements — Recurrence to 
Bishop Hobart's letter — Adieus of the Bible Society — Lord Bexley — 
Parting dinner with Zachary Macauley — Robert Owen and his schemes — 
William Allen — Parting dinner with Lord Bexley — Visit to Cambridge — • 
Professor Parish — Mr. Simeon — Parting visit to Lord Teignmouth — De- 
parture from London — Mrs. Dixon of Henley — Religion at an inn — Oxford 
— Embarkation at Liverpool, 27th of September — Reception in New York 
— Reputation of Dr. Milnor in England — Results of mission, . . . 373 



CONTENTS, 



PART V. 

HIS MINISTRY FROM 1830 TO 1845. 

Skction I. — Kenyon College, and Milnor professorship — State of St. Greorge's 
— Letter to a clerical correspondent — Clerical removals — Literary conven- 
tion — Letters to his son — Cholera season — Extracts from letters — Letter 
to Bishop Mcllvaine — Bristol college — Mission to Grreen Bay — Results of 
the mission — Visit to Boston, Massachusetts Convention — Greneral Conven- 
tion, 1835 — Reorganization of Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society — 
. Secretary and general agent — Generosity — The Rev. J. W. Cooke — Labors 
as secretary and general agent — Reappointment declined — Influence on 
our missions — Letters during his secretarj'ship — Tour to Cleveland — Ohio 
Convention — Letters on his tour — Close of labor as secretary and general 
agent, 403 

Section' II. — Rev. Mr. Cooke — Letters from Lord Bexley and Montgomery — 
Tractarianism — Letter to Bishop Smith on church views — Board of ilis- 
sions at Baltimore — Letter to Bishop Mcllvaine — General Convention, 
1838 — Division of the Diocese of New York — Northern tour with Bishop 
Meade, 435 

Section III — Oxford Tract controversy — Letter to Bishop Mcllvaine — Gloomy 
forebodings — Charge on Justification — From Dr. Sparrow, resigning the 
Milnor professorship — To Bishop Mcllvaine, "Oxford Divinity" — Letter to 
Dr. Beasley — Visit to Alexandria — Letter from the Bishop of Calcutta — 
Splendid tribute to Bishop Mcllvaine's "Oxford Divinity" — Answer — 
From Bishop Meade, ]\Iissions to Western Asia — Letter to Bishop Mcll- 
vaine, Dr. Fuller appointed " Llilnor Professor " — Maryland State Coloniza- 
tion Society — Carey ordination — Letters from Bishops Meade and Smith — 
Semi-annual Bible Society meeting at Cincinnati — Dr. Milnor appointed 
to read an essay on " The Rule of Faith" — Letter to Bishop Smith, Oxford- 
ism — Stormy Convention in New York, 1843 — Letter from Dr. Aydelott, 
Dr. Spring's essay on " The Rule of Faith" — The Rev. P. P. Irving assist- 
ant at St. George's, 446 

Section IV. — Dangerous attack of gout, 1844 — Letters on recovery, from 
Bishop Eastburn, and Mr. Irving — From Bishop Mcllvaine — From the 
Bishop of Calcutta — Love of repose — Visit to Middle Haddam — Heavy 
domestic affliction — General Convention of 1844 — Ecclesiastical trial — Dr. 
Milnor's testimony — Bishop Smith's tribute to Dr. ^lilnor's conduct at the 
trial — His son's "Recollections" — Longings for repose, not for inaction — 
Free-chapel movement — Vigorous old age — Impressive incident at a meet- 
ing of the Directors of the Deaf and Dumb Institution — Sudden death — 
"Wm. H. Milnor's account of the closing scene — Habitual preparation for 
sudden death — Public demonstrations of grief — The funeral — Discourses on 
his death, 480 

I*' 



10 CONTENTS. 

PART VI. 

RETROSPECT OF HIS LIFE AND CHARACTER. 

1. His connection with the Bible Society — Principle of action — Dr. Brigham's 
statement — Influence of Dr. Milnor in the Society. 2. His connection with 
the Tract Society — Carrying out of principle of action — Mr. Hallock's 
statement — Illustrative documents — Preciousness of Dr. Milnor's name in 
the tract cause. 3. His connection with the cause of education. 4. His 
position in the Episcopal church — A sketch — Prominence of Dr. Milnor in 
the evangelical cause — His relation to the Church at large, and to the 
Diocese of New York in particular — Anecdotes. 5. Traits of character — 
Illustrative anecdotes and views — Intellectual traits — Theological traits — 
Pulpit traits — Dr. Cutler's sermon — Domestic traits, hospitality, cheerful- 
ness, the Christian gentleman, benevolence — Mr. Peet's sermon — Death to 
the good man never sudden — Anecdotes — Habits of sermon-writing, and 
pastoral duty — Favorite allegory — Idea of true Catholicism — IndilTerence 
to official elevation — Close, 499 



MEMOIR. 



PART I. 

EARLY LIFE, LEGAL PRACTICE, AND POLITI- 
CAL CAREER. . 

SECTION I. 

It is peculiar to the true children of God, that before they 
reach that perfect life wliich awaits them in heaven, they 
will have hved two blessed and beneficent lives on earth. 
This made the apostle say of the faith of Abel, " By it he, 
being dead, yet speaketh." For thousands of years, men 
have had a knowledge of the name, and faith, and gracious 
acceptance of that early saint. Through that whole period, 
indeed, he has been sleeping among the dead. Yet has he 
all the while had a most precious life among the living. In 
the experience of eminent saints, the one of these two lives 
is, at the longest, short ; the other is, at the shortest, long. 
The one is spent by the hving among the hving ; the other 
Cometh up to the living from among the dead. The one is 
the light of labor, and example, and influence, moving rap- 
idly towards the grave ; the other is the power of faith, and 
love, and suffering, coming back in perennial memories from 
the tomb. In the one, the faithful may see rich fruits from 
the short summer of their toils ; in the other, they will hear 
of fruits richer still, because so many ages shall he witliiu 
their harvest-time. In the former, faith sometimes does its 
work, like Abel's, in one great sacrifice ; in the latter, that 
faith, living in some God-inspired record, often carries on its 
work through long generations, and over distant realms. 



12 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

To those who have finished well the former of these two 
lives, rehgious biography seeks to secure the most beneficial 
results of the latter ; and whether that biography swell to 
volumes, or be but as the brief paragraph wliich has brought 
down to our laiowledge the triumph of Abel's faith, yet, if 
it include all and only what God would keep ahve, it doeth 
excellent work, and shall have unfailing fruits. Such is the 
work at which the writer has aimed, in penning the follow- 
ing memoir. 

James Milnoe., late rector of St. George's church, New 
York, was born in the city of Philadelphia, on the 20th day 
of June, 1773. His immediate ancestors belonged to the 
society of Friends ; his father and mother, William and Anna 
Brientnall Mihior, being by birth and education members of 
that respectable body. Family tradition reports that they 
were both descendants of the early settlers of Pemisylvania, 
and has treasured facts showing that they were worthy of 
their descent. 

His father was born in the state of New Jersey, settled 
early near Falsington, in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, sub- 
sequently removed to his native state, and finally fixed him- 
self with his household in Philadelpliia. The original orthog- 
raphy of the i'amily name was Milner, and so it is still written 
in England. When the subject of this memoir visited Great 
Britain, he found the Milners numerous in Lancashire. The 
name was changed to Milnor by the early pioneers of the 
family in this country. 

William Milnor shared largely the respect of his people. 
To the plain manners and characteristic integrity of the 
Friends, he added great energy and a cheerful disposition. 
His cheerfulness was often tried, but never overcome, by that 
trying disorder to which he was a victim, the gout. Even 
when suffering the most violent paroxysms of his disorder, 
he always preserved his equanimity of temper. Under a 
pecuharly agonizing fit, he was once sitting with his feet on 
a pillow, swathed in flannel, and too tender to be touched 



HIS EARLY LIFE. 13 

without distressing pain, when his daughter's dress, in her 
attempt to reach something on the mantel, took fire. Upon 
rushing into the room, his son James found the old gentle- 
man, wholly unconscious of pain, busily stamping out the 
flames with his gouty feet. In truth, the gout had left him, 
and he was liighly delighted with the suddenness of his cure. 
The next day, however, his delight ended in bitter disap- 
pointment ; for his disorder not only returned, but came back 
with strong reinforcements of violence. 

According to the wholesome custom of those good old days, 
which provided every young man some sure means of iiveh- 
hood, William Milnor was early bred to the handicraft of a 
cooper ; but developing talents for other pursuits, he soon 
engaged in trade, and at the period which introduced the 
Revolution, was extensively concerned in a fishery. At the 
same time, he was factor to Col. Wasliington of Mount Ver- 
non ; and a valuable correspondence, now in possession of 
the Milnor family, shows that for sound judgment and strict 
integrity, he enjoyed largely the confidence of that great 
man. From one of the letters in this correspondence, it ap- 
pears that they had a joint interest in one of the fisheries. 
" I have not been unmindful of my promise," writes Col. 
Washington, " in respect to the fish-house. Before the next 
season, I shall have one erected for your accommodation, not 
doubting but it may turn out to both our advantages." 

His connection in business with Col. Washington was 
proof of his high character, and had no little influence on his 
subsequent life. When the drama of the Revolution opened, 
his patriotism took fire ; and in spite of the discipline of the 
Friends, wliich is opposed to all war, defensive as well as 
aggressive, he at once applied for a commission in the army. 
His attachment to his old friend, who had by this time be- 
come General Wasliington, was perhaps the spark which 
kindled his patriotism into a flame, and made his subsequent 
disappointment so painful. The reasons for withdrawing his 
application for a commission are stated in the following letter 



14 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

To G-en. G-eorge Washington, January, 177G. 

*' Honorable Sir — Your very kind favor of the 20tli of 
December came safe to hand, and gave me great relief I 
am happy, inasmuch as I have not displeased your Excel- 
lency in my conduct so far. I am unhappy, however, be- 
cause I cannot get into the army. I had thrown in a peti- 
tion for a captaincy, and had the greatest prospect of success. 
Mr. Frankhn, in consequence of your letter, had made the 
way clear for me ; my spirits were elevated, and there ap- 
peared nothing in view that could stop me. My wife, from 
continued assurances of my unalterable intention of going, 
had got nearly reconciled to it. But alas, a few days before 
the appointment of officers, the old ferry was to be let. I 
was immediately surrounded by my friends, insistmg that 
there was no fitter person for that business than myself ; and 
as it was a place of profit, I ought, in consideration of my 
large family, to prefer being with them to going abroad on 
any terms. Their reasonings, together with the entreaties 
of my dear partner, prevailed on me to withdraw my peti- 
tion, and I am now a drudge at the old ferry, witliin two 
doors of where I formerly lived m Water-street. / thank 
my God, he has given me a persevemig disjjosition, equal 
to any task he is pleased to lay upon me m this life. I never 
found any prospect of fatigue an annoyance to any undertak- 
ing, when a probability of a good, genteel sustenance for my 
Httle flock offered in view ; and this business would be a 
very agreeable one to me, if these unhappy disturbances were 
at an end. But I cannot conclude this letter until I have 
assured your Excellency, that / shall remain a poor, un- 
happy ivretch, as long as I am chained, and cannot take an 
active part in my country's cause. Whether a true patriotic 
concern for my country, or secret thirst after honor, or both 
combined, is the sprmg by which my spirits are actuated, I 
have the vanity to believe that the former is the chief mo- 
tive, and that only experience is wanted to make me a sol- 
dier. I sometimes please myself by thinkmg, that, when 



HIS EARLY LIFE. 15 

my wile has gained experience in our present business, and 
if the troubles should increase in the ensuing summer as it 
seems probable they will, I will place some steady hand to 
assist her, and again offer myself to my country." 

In this letter breathes the true spirit of '76 ; and to those 
who were well acquainted with Dr. Milnor, it will be evident 
that one at least of the characteristic traits of the father — his 
inflexible, self-relying perseverance in any high and worthy 
pursuit — was largely inherited by the son. Although the 
former was constrained to abandon his suit for a commission 
in the army, yet he by no means remained idle during the 
great struggle on which his country was then entering. 
Even his position at the " old ferry," in his plain, Quaker 
garb, gave him no poor facilities for acquiring important 
information of the enemy's movements ; and of those facili- 
ties he made the most. He was one of the many, whom the 
clear-judging Washington had the good fortune to attach to 
liim, whose humble names have long since been forgotten ; 
but whose services, as in other matters, so especially in 
transmitting by various channels intelligence of great value . 
to the cause of the struggling colonies, were truly invaluable. 

About the "old ferry," Mr. Milnor usually drove a chaise 
with an ingenious false bottom ; so that, though often sus- 
pected of being in the interests of the revolutionists, yet he 
was never detected by the enemy. Twice, indeed, he was 
obliged to fly for his life ; but the same good Providence 
which guided and guarded Washington, preserved liim harm- 
less to the close of the conflict. His services were not con- 
fined to the conveyance of intelligence : he did much towards 
furnishing supplies for the patriot army. 

His conduct during the Revolution, of course gave great 
offence to " the heads of meeting," and he was formally dis- 
owned. A few years before his death, however, he was re- 
united, and died in the society's connection, at the age of 73. 
His wife had preceded him to the grave Yet both hved 



16 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

long enough to see their country in peace and prosperity, 
and their youngest son settled in life, and as a lawyer rising 
rapidly to wealth and honor. 

The children of the family were five, two daughters and 
three sons. The elder of the two daughters died at middle 
age. The younger, who was also the youngest child, was 
married to Dr. Joseph Klapp, a physician of eminence in 
Philadelphia ; and after a life of sufiering from a painful 
disease, borne with Christian patience, died a few years be- 
fore her favorite brother James. 

Of the sons, Isaac, the oldest, was a merchant, and a man 
of strong mmd and great energy. He died at middle age, 
of an acute attack of the gout. William junior was also a 
merchant, and stood high in the community. At one time 
he ably represented the city of Philadelphia in Congress. 
He was exceedingly attached to liis brother James, and it 
was evident to the family that his death was hastened by 
his grief for that dear brother's decease. He died about a 
year after the subject of this memoir. 

In passing, now, from these brief notices of the family 
kindred of James Milnor, to a detail of particulars in the life 
of this beloved "man of God," we find, as in other cases, 
little in his childhood that calls for record. His school-boy 
days were bright and happy, because moral and industrious. 
At the Pennsylvania grammar-school, in his native city, he 
received the rudiments of his education ; and at an early age 
entered the university of Pennsylvania. A surviving school- 
fellow and playmate, still living amid the scenes of their 
childhood, remembers well, that when a boy he was distin- 
guished for the very traits which characterized him as a man, 
especially for soundness of judgment and kindness of disposi- 
tion. By a sort of tacit election among his school-fellows, 
James Milnor was early raised to two important posts of 
distinction : that of judge in their boyish controversies, and 
that of a student for his class-mates, whenever it was their 
purpose to let play trench on the hours of study. They will- 



HIS EARLY LIFE. 17 

ingly submitted to liis judgment in the former capacity, be- 
cause confident his decisions would be just ; while they gladly 
availed themselves of his diligence in the latter, because cer- ' 
tain that the lessons wliich he prepared for them to copy, 
would be willingly as well as correctly done. His superior 
abilities were perhaps the more readily aclaiowledged, be- 
cause associated with such superior kindness. 

After leavmg the grammar-school and entering the uni- 
versity, his father's resources grew somewhat straitened. 
Unwilhng, therefore, to exhaust on himself means to wliich 
he felt others had at least an equal claim, he generously 
resolved on the sacrifice of leaving the university before tak- 
ing liis degree. This, with his sense of the importance of a 
thorough education, must have been a pauiful step. It left 
him to supply, as best he might, the deficiency to which it 
doomed him. It did not, however, prevent his alma mater 
from subsequently giving him his degree of Doctor of Divm- 
ity. It may be added, that during his earlier studies, he had 
made considerable progress in the German language ; an 
acquisition of great service to him in his subsequent practice 
among his German clients about Norristown. 

He commenced the study of the law with Mr. Howell, 
an eminent duaker lawyer of Philadelphia. Tliis was prob- 
ably as early as the year 1789, when he was no more than 
sixteen years of age ; for during this year we find him a 
member of a debating club, called " The Ciceronian Society," 
and, as one of its members, appointed to argue an important 
legal question. His whole argument has been preserved in 
manuscript ; it bears clearly the impress of the juvenile age 
at which it was penned, and shows, moreover, the disadvan- 
tages under which he labored, from the interruption of his 
earlier classical studies. Still, it is an interesting paper ; 
especially as it shows him to have become already warmly 
interested in the Pennsylvania penitentiary system, and in 
measures for melioratmg the criminal code of the state ; and 
as it enables us to trace the progress of his mind, in style, 



18 MEMOm OF DR. MILNOH. 

and thought, and legal ability, between this period and that 
at wliich, four or five years later, he entered on the practice 
of the law. 

He continued his law studies with Mr. Howell til] the 
year 1793, when that gentleman fell a victim to the yellow- 
fever, the fearful scourge which, at that time, almost deso- 
lated the city of Philadelphia. He then entered the office 
of Mr. Rawle, with whom he completed his preparatory 
legal studies. 

In the summer of that year occurred an incident deserv- 
ing- record, as illustrative of some beautiful traits in his char- 
acter. When, from the flight of its inhabitants, the city 
had become almost a desert, and young Milnor was finally 
induced to retire to Alexandria, where one of his brothers 
then resided, he embarked, with other citizens, in a schooner 
bound to that port. During the passage, he gave a striking 
proof both of real benevolence and of true courage. Soon 
after their embarkation, one of the passengers was seized 
with the well-known symptom.s of the dreaded epidemic. 
The captain, crew, and all the other passengers forsook the 
poor victim, and left him to liis fate. But m young Milnor 
was found another spirit. Although he had a peculiar dread 
of the disease, yet he remained by the sick man's side, and 
nobly acted as his faithful nurse. As the schooner's medi- 
cine-chest contained nothing but herbs, he admuiistered to 
his patient a variety of decoctions, till, as the last spark of 
hope seemed expiring, a profuse perspiration was induced, 
and the man most unexpectedly recovered. 

His admittance to the bar took place in the spring of 1 7 94 ; 
and at the May term of the same year he was, on motion of 
his preceptor Rawle, admitted as an attorney of the court 
of Common Pleas for the county of Montgomery. He was, 
therefore, in the practice of the law before he reached his 
legal majority. He was not twenty-one years of age till 
about a month after he became a practising attorney, or on 
the 20th of Jurve, 1794. 



HIS LEGAL PRACTICE. 19 

Previous to this date, however, he became a member, 
and was elected president of " The Law Society," in Phila- 
delphia ; for on the 8th of February, 1794, he gave, from 
the presidential chair of the society, an extended and elabo- 
rate opinion, drawn up Avith all the gravity and precision, 
and with no Httle of the learning of a judge, on the question, 
" Whether a jur}% in an action of ejectment, can find the 
mesne profits in damages ?" and, apparently, near the same 
date, he also delivered, as president of the society, an address 
at the first meeting after the adoption of its constitution. 
The fact of liis being president of the association, as well as 
the comparatively finished and very judicious character of 
both the documents to which I have referred, speaks well 
for liis standing and attainments as a student of the law. 
In truth, between his first appearance in the Ciceronian, 
and his performances here as president of the Law Society, 
there is all the difierence that can well be imagined between 
a boy of sixteen, and a young, but well-furnished scholar in 
legal science. 

From the fact, lying on the records of the court, that 
when admitted as an attorney, he did not take the oath, but 
only gave an affirmatio7i, it appears that he was then a 
regular and conscientious member of the society of Friends. 

Though very young, and youtliful m appearance even for 
his years, yet his practice soon became respectable, and grew 
reasonably lucrative. It lay among the best famihes in 
Norristown, and he retained it after his removal from the 
county of Montgomeiy. The date of his return to his native 
city is uncertain, but it was as early as 1797 ; since, m June 
of that year, he was again an active member of the Phila- 
delphia Law Society ; and in August of the same year was 
once more its president. 

His membership in the societies wliich have been men- 
tioned, was doubtless of great practical utility. It was there 
that he early acquired the somewhat remarkable readiness 
and accuracy in extemporaneous discussion and debate, which 



20 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

enabled him to bear so active and prominent a part in the 
business of all the deliberative bodies in which he was sub- 
sequently called to act. 

The incidents of his life while engaged in legal practice 
at Norristown, are not at this time recoverable. He was 
yet unmarried, though it was there he formed an acquaint- 
ance with the lady who subsequently became his wile. It 
was there, too, that he was uiitiated, and entered, with the 
enthusiasm of youth, uito the mysteries of the society of 
" Free and accepted Masons." In a diary, which he after- 
wards began to keep, and under date of March 17, 1800, he 
writes, " I was elected master of Lodge No. 31, while I re- 
sided in Norristown ; but since my return to the city, I have 
been a member of No. 3, and am now treasurer of the latter." 
" On St. John's day, December 27, 1798, 1 was elected senior- 
warden of the Grand Lodge ; and on St. John's day, Decem- 
ber 27, 1799, was unanimously reelected to the same office." 
In 1805, after having filled many important subordinate 
offices, he was elected grand-master of the Grand Lodge of 
Pennsylvania, and held that office, by yearly reelections, till 
1813, the great turning-point of his life. 

His labors, during his grand-mastership, in disseminating 
the principles of the order, and ui extending its prosperity, 
were most assiduous, and his annual communications to the 
lodges under his charge are said to have been replete with 
sound and wholesome moral mstruction. He was mainly 
instrumental in the erection of the old Masonic Hall in Ches- 
nut-street, Philadelphia, and conducted the ceremony of its 
dedication, on the festival of St. John the Baptist, June 24, 
1811. In St. John's Lutheran church, Race-street, he pro- 
nounced the dedicatory oration, wliich liis friend Bradford 
calls "graceful in delivery, and eloquent in itself;" and it 
was on this occasion, that, as they left the church together, 
liis fiiend remarked to him, "Why, Right- Worshipful, you 
were cut out for a parson ;" little dreaming that the idea 
would one day be realized. 



HIS LE^AL PRACTICE. 21 

Concurrently with his relinquishment of legal practice in 
1813, he resigned his grand-mastership; and, upon accept- 
ing his resignation, a beautiful and costly jewel, now in pos- 
session of the family, was voted to him by the Grand Lodge, 
as a testimony of respect and attaclmient ; its delivery 
being accompanied by appropriate formalities and a touch 
ing address. 

With many, peradventure, the last few paragraphs will 
throw more of a painful than of a pleasing interest round 
the name of Milnor ; nevertheless, as a faithful biographer, 
the writer could hardly with propriety keep out of sight so 
prominent a portion of his early life as was his connection 
with Free-masonry. Besides, whatever men's present views 
of Masonry may have become, none can refuse to beheve that 
he considered the 'princi'plc?> of the order to be pure. 

On the 5th of July, 1795, he was elected a member of 
" The Society for promoting the abohtion of Slavery, for the 
rehef of free negroes unlawfully held m bondage, and lor 
improvhig the condition of the African race." At the annual 
meeting of that society for 1796, he was elected one of its 
counsellors ; and for several succeeding years was annually 
reelected to the same office. In 1797 he was made secre- 
tary, as well as counsellor ; and continued to hold both offi- 
ces for several years. In liis diary of March 17, 1800, he 
writes, " For two years past, the partiahty of my fellow- 
members has honored me with the appointment of the cor- 
responding committee ; and besides various nominations on 
special committees, I was, in the year 1798, elected one of 
the delegates to ' the fifth convention of delegates from the 
several abolition societies in the United States.' Soon after 
I became a member, I went through my routine of service 
(nine months) on the acting committee ; and, having drafted 
the address of our society to the fourth and fifth conventions, 
I have been requested to prepare the one which is to be pre- 
sented to the sixth convention, to be held in this city on the 
Qrst day of June next." 



22 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

These elections and appointments were not unmeaning 
compliments. The}^ were selections of a man who, though 
young, yet entered with mature heartiness into the interests 
of the society with which he was thus incorporated. If he 
was not horn with antislavery feelings, they were yet quickly 
generated in his heart by the whole inoral nurture through 
wliich his infancy and childhood were carried by his Q,uaker 
parents. Besides the various offices, already mentioned, 
which he filled, he was attorney to the society, and on him 
devolved the burden of much of its business. The society, 
it is believed, was founded and supported chiefly by the 
Quakers ; and the zeal and ability with which he entered 
into its measures, made him conspicuous in its counsels and 
influential on its action. 

It would be a groundless inference to conclude, from 
what has now been said, that when the more recent aboli- 
tion movement took its rise, Dr. Milnor must have been 
found among its active supporters. Such was not the posi- 
tion Vv^iich he subsequently assumed. His sympathies with 
the slave never abated ; but they enlisted him, at a later 
period, in the cause of African colonization, and in the chan- 
nel of that society's labors they continued strongly to flow. 
The original abolition societies of this country, as we have 
seen, aimed at the improvement of the condition of the Afri- 
can race, and at the relief of free negroes unlawfully held in 
bondage ; while, if they contemplated the abolition of the 
slave-trade and of slavery itself, they still evidently looked 
at this latter result as a point to be reached, not directly, 
but indirectly, through the " improvement," the gradual ele- 
vation " of the African race." Under the quiet forms of such 
an organization, and amid the temperate influences which 
emanated from those forms, his zeal for the slave was early 
disciplined ; and by long use, he became habituated, perhaps 
it may be said, unchangeably habituated, to such action only 
as those forms and influences admitted. 

At an early period, he also became warmly and actively 



HIS LEG-AL PRACTICE. 23 

interested in the fire department of his native city. In De- 
cember, 1797, he says, " A number of young men, of whom 
I was one, associated together for the purpose of forming a 
fire company. "We subscribed fifteen dollars each towards 
the purchase of an engine, and near eight dollars each for 
the purchase of buckets. Our company is limited to sixty 
members. We have been full, but have now," March 17, 
1800, " not more than fifty attending members. Soon after 
its formation, the company honored me with the office of 
president, and have since, at each successive election, con- 
tinued me in that station." The company was called "The 
R-esokition Fire Company." 

The fire companies of Philadelphia were, at that time, 
evidently composed of respectable young gentlemen ; and 
were voluntary, irresponsible bodies, acting without concert, 
and, to a great extent, without efficiency. In this state 
they continued till he had been about two years a fireman. 
Early in the winter of 1800, however, having deeply felt 
the serious evils incident to the condition of the fire com- 
panies, he attempted, as president of the Resolution Fire 
Company, to introduce a new order of things ; and his la- 
bors, m conjunction with those of his fellow-firemen, resulted 
in giving existence to " The Philadelphia Fire Association" — 
a body of form, system, and efficiency, in the place of what 
had before been a formless, ungoverned, and in a great 
measure inefficient multitude of firemen. 

The details of his labors and of the posts of honor which 
he occupied, in connection with this association, as recorded 
in his disLTj, illustrate Mr. Milnor's talents for business, the 
readiness with which he engaged in every thing that con- 
cerned the public welfare, and the manner in which he in- 
fused life and activity into the various bodies to which he 
belonged. He evidently considered the fire department an 
important institution ; and felt that his post of service in it 
was highly useful, and because useful, therefore honorable. 

In July, 1798, the yeUow-fever again invaded Philadel- 



24 MEMOm OF DE.. MILNOR. 

pliia, and coiitiiiued, for several months, to rage with truly 
desolatmg violence. Early in August, his father's family, 
where he still had liis home, broke up, and dispersed. He 
makes the following entry m his diary, August 11: "The 
yellow-fever made its appearance in this city about two 
weeks since. Preparations for escaping its destructive rav- 
ages have so engrossed my time, that, for some days past, I 
have omitted to pay any attention to my diary. To-day, 
my father's family are removmg to Mr. Aaron Oakford's, 
near Darby ; my sister Anna starts for Elkton ; and I go to 
Norristown. Thus distributed, God knows when it will be 
our fartune again to unite at our home." 

The pestilence raged horribly. His diary for Septem- 
ber 5, gives a lively idea of the state of the city, and at the 
same time of the tenderness of his nature. 

" The accounts from Philadelphia are to the last degree 
distressing. On the list of victims to the ruthless destroyer, 
I find the names of several of my friends ;" especially that 
of " my ever-to-be-lamented friend Dr. Francis Bowes Sayre. 
Tliis gentleman fell a glorious martyr to liis pliilanthropy. 

" A most aflecting address has been published by the 
board of health. They declare their efforts to arrest the 
progress of pestilence and death to be vaui. Safety is to be 
secured only by flight. Indeed, the greater part of those 
who have the means, have already deserted this dreadful 
place. But the poor I How must the heart of every feel- 
mg man be melted at the description which is given of their 
horrid situation. Never did time and opportunity offer when 
it more properly behooved the rich to extend rehef and pres- 
ervation to this unfortunate class of our fellow-men. Past 
experieiice authorizes the anticipation that the occasion will 
be embraced with a cordiality worthy of generous minds." 

" November 4, 1798. — It is two months this day since 
I have made a muiute in my diary. During all this time, 
I have led the dull and monotonous hfe of an idle man. 
Expelled from home by the dreadful scourge which has un 



HIS LEGAL PRACTICE. 25 

ceasingly ravaged the city since the beginning of August 
last, I have had no business, except my small practice in 
Montgomery county, to attend to. Yesterday I returned to 
the city, my father and his family having arrived a few 
days before me. The streets have not yet resumed their 
iiiual cheerfulness ; nor can such a tiling be looked for very 
&oon, considermg the loss, by death, of 3,446 of our inhabi* 
tants, and all the variety of miseries attendant and conse- 
quent on such a mortahty. Other accounts make the number 
of deatlis 3,637." 

The principal object in referring to these ravages of the 
fever, is to show how they introduced important incidents 
in liis life. During his temporary retirement, having re- 
sumed his law practice m the courts of Montgomery county, 
he engaged as counsel for plaintiff in trymg an important 
cause — ^the demand upon defendant being for £1,161. He 
obtained a verdict for his chent, awarding the full amount 
claimed. His argument was regarded as one of his best 
efforts, and raised him liigh in pubhc favor. He says of it 
in his diary, 

*' I have the great satisfaction of finding my conduct in 
this business very generally approved ; and have received 
many flattering encomiums from the jury to whom my 
speech was addressed. I never felt myself better master of 
my subject, nor better inclination for doing justice to it ; but 
the weather is so excessively warm, that I find standing on 
my feet for an hour and a quarter has excessively fatigued 
me." 

But the most interesting result of his summer and au- 
tumn retreat from Philadelphia grew out of his mtercourse, 
during that time, with the family of Mr. Henry Pawling, a 
substantial farmer near Norristown. Of tliis mtercourse he 
gi v^es some glowing accounts ; and it was doubtless the oc- 
casion of ripening in liim a most true and tender aflection 
for the only daughter of that gentleman, the amiable Miss 
Eleanor Pawlmg. She became liis wife, their marriage be- 

ftlem. Milnor. 2 



26 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

ing celebrated not long after his return to the city. With 
this lady he lived till the day of liis death, in the enjoy- 
ment of a confidence, an affection, and a happiness, which 
soberly realized much, if not all of the bright imaginings 
which he records on the day of their marriage. His record 
is as follows : 

"February 28, 1799.— This day, the happiest of my 
life, I was united in marriage wdth my best of friends, 
Eleanor Pawling, daughter of Henry Pawling, Esq., of 
Montgomery county. 

" 'This was the day — the eager wished-for day, 
My greedy soul had treasured up so long, 
And, in contracting fancy, half-possessed, 
To blot ovxt every blacker hour of life. 
And pay, with double interest of joys, 
Courtship's dull toils and expectation's pangs : 
The day has now arrived, and brings more joy 
Than keen, imagination's self e'er hoped.' 

" This is the state to which all my reflections have taught 
me to look, as the happiest with which it has pleased a be- 
neficent Providence to bless his creature man. In the pos- 
session of the woman who has my first and warmest love, 
and perfectly assured of a reciprocity of affection, I look for- 
ward to the enjoyment of many happy days." 

Shortly after Mr. Milnor's marriage, occurred an incident 
which, peradventure, proved the remote antecedent of an 
important consequence. Till his marriage he lived, as he 
had been educated, a Gluaker. His education, indeed, had not 
been one of great strictness in the customs of the Friends ; 
still, it had induced him not to forsake the ways of his par- 
ents and remoter ancestry. But his marriage led to the 
severance of the bond which had thus far detained him 
among the religious followers of "William Penn. The sever- 
ance, moreover, was not, on his part, voluntary ; it was on 
their part, disciplinary. His wife belonged to an Episcopal 
family; and they were married by a clergyman who was 



HIS LEGAL PRACTICE. 27 

willing to receive a wedding fee. For these things he was, 
in due process of time and form, read out of meeting ; and 
thus, though not immediately, yet ultimately became a 
member and a muiister of the Protestant Episcopal church 
In later years, when he came to have some, however inade- 
quately serious thoughts, he thus aUudes to this penal con- 
sequence of liis marriage : 

" On the subject of religion I have thought much, but 
not profitably. Born of parents connected with the society 
of (oluakers, in my youth I attended their places of public 
worship ; but my education was little conformed to the 
strictness of their religious discipline ; and, with the utmost 
respect for the society, I could not but beheve that there 
was, among its members, much of enthusiasm, and a degree 
of useless rigor in the non-essential articles of dress and ad- 
dress. My marriage to a lady not a member of the society 
of Friends, occasioned my disownment ; and since that 
event, which happened in the year 1799, I have seldom 
gone to their meetmgs." 

The form of liis disowiiment has been preserved, and is 
here inserted. 

" At a monthly meeting of Friends of Philadelphia, held 
29th of eleventh month, 1799, the following testimony was 
agreed to, and a copy directed to be given to the party : 
namely, 

" James Melnor, of this city, attorney at law, who had 
a birthright among us the people called Quakers, disregard- 
ing the order of our discipline, hath accomplished liis mar- 
riage, with the assistance of a hireling minister, to a woman 
not professing with us ; and, in his dress and address, devi- 
ated from that plainness and moderation consistent with 
our religious profession ; for wliich deviations he hath been 
treated with, but without the desired elTect. We therefore 
no longer consider him a member of our rehgious society ; 
nevertheless, desire he may become duly sensible of his er- 
rors and seek to be restored." 



28 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

How sincerely they desired his restoration we may judge 
from the fact, that a committee, prohably that which was 
appointed to "treat" with him, made a proposal, when they 
called, to reinstate him on some slight acknowledgment of 
error. They were evidently very unwilling to lose a man 
whose general life was so irreproachable, and who was so 
rapidly risuig to mfluence in his native city. He received 
^eir proposal kmdly, but facetiously replied to it, that it 
was " rather too much to ask of a man whose honeymoon 
was scarcely ended, and that he must decline." 

In August, 1799, the yellow-fever made its third entry 
into Philadelphia. Mr. Milnor therefore removed his family 
to the country, where they took up their residence with his 
father-in-law. By the 20th of October, however, they had 
returned to the city ; the pestilence having, on this occasion, 
assumed a milder type than on either of its preceding visits. 

It is now time to look at Mr. Mihior's character and 
standing as a lawyer ; for he had already given decisive 
proofs of what, in this capacity, he was to become. 

An entry in his diary, made so late as June 6, 1800, be 
ing a retrospect for the purpose of noting his success or his 
failure in realizing and investing pecuniary results, has a 
paragraph which throws some light upon his Norristown 
life ; while at the same time it illustrates the modesty with 
which he entered on legal practice. 

" I commenced my career with nothing but a small 
stock, say eighty pounds' worth of books, the very moderate 
abilities bestowed on me by nature, and an education which 
gave me no more reason to boast of my acqidrements than. 
I before had with regard to natural ejidoicments. My out- 
set in practice was made under heavy disadvantages. Re- 
m.oving, immediately after my admission, into Montgomery 
county, before I had quite attamed the age of twenty-one 
years ; unacquainted with the world, and unknown to all 
the inhabitants of the county except two or three persons ; 
possessed of very httle of that great requisite, assurance ; 



HIS LEaAL PUACTICE. 29 

and totally inexperienced in the practice of my profession, it 
is not surprising that I did not make greater progress in 
business during my residence there. Indeed, the progress 
which I did make was beyond my own expectations ; and 
though I feel no disposition to eulogize my subsequent efforts, 
vet I cannot say that, smce my return to the city, my advan- 
ces have been slower than I had been led to anticipate." 

The views which prompted him to commence the diary 
from which the foregoing extracts have been made, are per- 
haps of sufficient interest to justify their msertion. 

"June 15, 1798. — The practice of making and preserv- 
mg notes of a man's daily transactions, connected with such 
occurrences as are happening around him, as well in the pri- 
vate as in the public departments of society, with such reflec- 
tions as liis observation may suggest, has, by many very 
respectable men in the literary world, been declared to be 
profitable and pleasing. 

" Their opinion of its utility has been founded upon actual 
experience, and is therefore entitled to the highest credit. It 
detracts not from the solidity of this opinion, when I acknow- 
ledge that the usefulness of a diary is diminished as the ca- 
pacity of the man who keeps it is narrower, and as liis means 
of information and observation are more confined. Or per- 
haps it would place the matter in a juster point of light to 
say, that the journal of a man of understanding and science 
is highly useful to himself and to all tvho enjoy the privilege 
of its iwrusal ; while that of a man who can lay no great 
claim to either understanding or science, is profitable only 
to himself. And its usefulness to himself depends not on the 
intrinsic value of his reflections, or the extent of his obser- 
vations. It serves principally to recall to his recollection 
events which, from the feebleness of his retentive powers, 
would otherwise be lost to him. It may be an amusement 
to revive in his own mind the remembrance of circumstances 
which are utterly unimportant to all the rest of the world. 
It may, in. various contingences, be essentially serviceable to 



30 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

liim. to be able to ascertain when events happened, which, in 
themselves, or in relation to other events either closely or 
remotely connected with them, it is of great importance to 
ascertain. We know what Hume and other writers have 
said of the association of ideas ; and every one's own expe- 
rience will supply him with numerous instances, in which 
tilings have been brought to his recollection by the remem- 
brance of circumstances trivial in themselves, and apparently 
unconnected with what they bring to mind. 

" To these advantages, which a person of indifferent abil- 
ities may derive from a diary, it should be added, that the 
human mind is never in so degraded a state as to be incapable 
of improvement. The custom of noting down reflections 
and observations may mduce a liabit of reflecting and observ- 
ing. This habit, no doubt, is the discoverer of faults ; and, 
in a mind possessed of the least ingenuousness, the discovery 
of a fault is accompanied by regret that it should exist, and 
followed by resolutions of a corrective nature. Here, then, 
is a benefit amply compensating the trouble, a reward over- 
paying the labor of half an hour's clerkship each day. 

"How important are the inquiries which it satisfies. 
How have I spent my time ? What have I been domg ? 
Have I any knowledge of past times, except the ability of 
numbering the years and months that have rolled unimprov- 
ed away ? If I remember incidents that have occurred, 
did those incidents suggest profitable reflections ? If they 
did, have I retained the impressions which they made at the 
time ; or have they since been the foundation of advance- 
ment in intellectual improvement ? 

*' If I find myself obliged to answer these inquiries in a 
way of which I am ashamed, it produces regrets and anxi- 
eties, wliich I shall not be willing agam to experience. New 
resolutions are formed, and another self-examination results' 
in emotions of a very diflerent nature. 

" There is, in truth, no happiness, this side of the grave 
superior to that of having done one's duty ; and present 



HIS LEGAL PRACTICE. 31 

otjectfe are often of so delusive a kind, that it is not until 
they have passed by, and their images are retraced on the 
inmd, that we form notions m any way just respecting them. 
I do an act which, from present feeling, I believe innocent, 
perhaps praiscAvorthy. Let me note it down, and some time 
hence review it; I may discover that, so far from being 
praiseworthy, it was not even innocent. It cannot be re- 
called, but the discovery wliich I have made will prevent its 
repetition. 

" If the weakness of our nature produces self-satisfaction 
in the performance of our own actions, so it not unfrequently 
leads us into unjust censures upon those of other persons. 
A good man will feel happy, in these cases, to find liimseif 
mistaken ; and liis diary may be the means of afibrding him 
this happiness. 

" While on this subject, it might be added, that as no 
one likes another as well as himself, why should not conver- 
sation with one's self be more gratifying than with another ? 
Happy, indeed, is he whose stores of intellectual acquirement 
afibrd a constant source fromi which that gratification may at 
all times be derived. To such a man no hour is vacant or 
heavy. He complains not of the leaden wmgs of Time ; he 
looks not anxiously forward to the hour of rest ; but, when 
it arrives, regrets that nature should require this temporary 
suspension of his faculties. The prospect of a visit in his 
slumbers from the airy goddess Fancy, and of his awaking 
with redoubled vigor and strength for new exertions, is his 
only consolation. 

" Reflections like the foregoing have induced me to at- 
tempt a diary, and I mean to include in it all such matters 
of business, amusement, observation, sentiment, and reflec- 
tion, as occasion and the routine of daily transactions may 
suggest. I do not mean to make it a minute or formal aflair, 
nor altogether uninterrupted ; but as it is intended solely for 
my own perusal, its irregularity and want of order will be 
unimportant." 



32 MEMOm OF DR. MILNOE.. 

From this opening of his diary, it is evident that nothing 
of religious motive or principle entered into the combmation 
of views by which, at the outset of active life, he was influ- 
enced. And yet, we perceive m it a disposition thoroughly 
to inspect, and honestly to judge himself, and a purpose prac- 
tically to disciplme, and really to improve his mind, from 
wliich self-knowledge and self-culture might reasonably have 
been anticipated ; and wliich, if ever brought under the con- 
trol of religious motive and principle, would be highly prom 
issory of a thorough and eminent Christian character. 

The first entry in his diary illustrates a prominent trait 
in his habits as a man of business. 

"June 15, 1798. — Is there a greater evil than that of 
being in debt, without the means of getting out of debt ? 
There may be greater evils than this, and my imagmatiou 
may give it a coloring which it does not deserve ; but what- 
ever foundation there may be for the belief, that it is not so 
great an evil as I suppose it to be, it would require some 
argument to alter my conceptions on the subject. 

*' My next door neighbor is in debt. Upwards of two 
years ago he borrowed from me about two hundred dollars, 
and immediately afterwards one hundred and ten more. 
The latter sum he engaged to return in twenty-four hours. 
I have never received a sliilling of these sums in money ; but 
as he is a bookseller, I have, at liis earnest sohcitation, taken 
books of him to the amount of nearly two-tliirds of the 
demand. His note for the balance is now due, and he urges 
me to take books m payment. I have agreed to take Viner's 
Abridgment, which satisfies the debt, except thirty or forty 
dollars. 

" During the whole of the time since the loan, he has 
persevered in a system of cringing prevarication and prom- 
ises, which he must have known at the time he dealt them 
out, he never would fulfil. Various artifices, false tales, 
shifts, and pretences, has he made use of; and I have been 
the dupe of them. I cannot believe him to be so destitute 



HIS leCtAL practice. 33 

of feeling as not to be mortilied and degraded in his own 
estimation, by the imagined necessity of resorting to them. 
But in the one case, or the other, I am unable to paint to 
myself a more humiliating situation for a human being to 
stand in. 

" I have derived from this transaction two pieces of 
instruction, which are, in my view, an adequate compensa- 
tion for the loss of the whole sum, had such an event hap- 
pened. 

"1. To be cautious of hastily and unadvisedly lending 
money to a man of whose ability and punctuality I am not 
well assured, unless it be accompanied with adequate se- 
curity. 

" 2. To adhere religiously to a determination which I 
formed at the moment of my commencing busmess, never to 
incur a debt which I have the remotest apprehension of being 
unable, or even finding it inconvenient to discharge. And, 
in order constantly to possess the means of keeping this 
resolution, whatever my income may be, always to live 
within it." 

Tliis extract shows with what feelings of high integrity 
Mr. Milnor entered on the business of life. The rules which 
he adopted from the outset, never to get i7ito debt without 
the most reliable means of getting out of debt ; always to 
live within his income ; and never to lend money without 
adequate security, are unspeakably important to every man 
of business. To these rules Mr. Milnor was faithful, and to 
his fidelity he owed, under Providence, his uniformly increas- 
ing prosperity. Plis annual income always exceeded his 
annual expenditure, and so far as it can be ascertained from 
liis diary, that income sustained a steady increase. He gives 
an occasional inventory of his effects, and a frequent state- 
raicnt of liis income and expenses ; and the result uniformly 
shows that he was steadily, and not only so, but more and 
more rapidly, rising in wealth. 

He was peculiarly strict with himself touching funds 

2* 



34 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

collected for his clients, never allowing himself to have on 
deposit to their credit less than the full amount of liis col 
lections for them. Once, indeed, on settlmg his accounts at 
banl^, he discovered that he had dravi^n a small amount be- 
yond what belonged to him ; or had less left on deposit than 
the amount then due his clients. The discovery was dis- 
turbing, and he mstantly took measures for putting his 
accounts in their proper state. " I have made it an invari- 
able rule," he writes, in liis diary, " since I have been in 
business, never to intrench upon clients' money, and although 
I am well persuaded that this first deviation will not subject 
me to any inconvenience, yet I have made a memorandum 
of it for two purposes : 

" 1. That I may with all diligence replace this $101 83 
m bank. 

" 2. That I may be more careful in future, and not sub- 
ject myself to the possibility of inconvenience or anxiety." 

His horror of debt, and of an unfaithful management of 
trusts, gained him universal confidence, and won for him the 
distinction of " the honest lawyer." A pleasing illustra- 
tion of the confidence reposed in his honesty was furnished 
at a later period, when he had been prevailed on to stand 
candidate for a seat in Congress. On the day of the elec- 
tion he walked to the polls, in company with his friend 
Bradford. As they approached they saw a gentleman busily- 
engaged in distributing votes among the crowd. This gen- 
tleman was a warm personal friend of Mr, Milnor, a brother 
Freemason, and one of his clients, and yet opposed to him 
in political views. They saluted each other kindly, when 
the following brief colloquy ensued. "Well, Right- Worship- 
ful," said the vote-distributer, " here am I, working against 
you hard as I can. I tell you, and our mutual friend Brad- 
ford, I would trust you with all my business, my prope^'ty, 
and even my wife and children; but I cannot trust you 
with my politics!'' " I thank you," replied Mr. Milnor, " 1 
thank you, my brother, for your confidence. Do your duty, 



HIS LEGAL PE,ACTICE. 35 

and let the result be what it may, it shall never break our 
friendship." Justly, indeed, might such a tribute to his 
honesty mitigate, though it doubtless failed to extinguish his 
regret at finding in a personal friend a political enemy. 

As an honest lawyer, he would not undertake a case in 
which, so far as his judgment was clear, he saw that he 
would be obliged to argue and to act against truth, justice, 
and equity. Doubtless he judged not so rigorously in these 
respects as he did in later years ; but judging as an honest 
man of the world, he was faithful to his conscience. What 
this told him was clearly wrong, he would not undertake. 
But then, acting on this principle, he was all the more ear- 
nest, thorough, and persevering in the prosecution of a cause, 
when once undertaken — all the more faithful, zealous, and 
devoted to a client, when he had once allowed hmiself to be 
retamed as counsel, or engaged as advocate. He never 
winked at the remissness of a brother law}'-er by consenting 
to postpone a trial, especially when he would thereby jeopard 
the cause, or compromise the interests of his client. Nor 
did he withhold aught wliich untiring dihgence and unslum- 
bering vigilance could contribute, towards defeating the sin- 
ister arts and the embarrassing influence of his opponent, 
however powerful. His zeal in the causes which he under- 
took, was true and long-lived. Being fed with the good oil 
of an approving conscience, its flame never went out, nor 
even flickered. He was not like the man whose zeal is 
quickly extmguished by external difhculties, because it has 
first died at his own consciously hollow and dishonest heart. 

As illustrative of this remark, he had, in a certain case, 
for several years been prosecutmg a. claim against the cele- 
brated Stephen Girard. This gentleman, meanwhile, had 
been throwing in the way of a settlement every possible 
obstacle which immense wealth, and its accompanymg in- 
fluences, could raise. But finding that Mr. Milnor was de- 
termined to establish the claim, and that he could not be 
wearied out by " the law's delay," nor circumvented by any 



36 MEMOIfL OF DR. MILNOR. 

other of the arts of practice, he finally consented to abide 
the result of an arbitration. This result was in favor of Mr. 
Milnor's client, and when Mr. Girard handed Mr. Milnor a 
check for the amount awarded, he observed, " You have 
proved yourself, sir, a lawyer who will 7iever desert a client. 
If I had not an attorney whom I very much respect, you 
v'ould be my man." The observation shows that true fidel- 
ity to a client is not lost even on an opponent. 

Based on the foundation of such a character for honesty 
and fidelity, the structure of his influence as a lawyer was 
reared by a variety of causes. As his honesty gave him an 
unfainting constancy to the interests of his clients, so his 
prudent caution and sound judgment in forming an opinion, 
ministered to a decided promptness and energy of action 
when that opinion was formed. Great amiableness of dis- 
position, and suavity of manners, won him hosts of friends. 
And then, he was distinguished for habits of diligence, and 
application both to bvisiness and to study. His industry was, 
in truth, as untiring as his zeal. By early rising, strict 
punctuality, and the closest economy of time, while he gen- 
erally had an hour for a friend, he contrived to dispatch a 
great amount of business, and no small amount of legal and 
general reading. He was a strict adherent to method ui all 
things. His habits, in this respect, cleaved to him like an 
inseparable garment ; he wore them through life, and they 
proved of immense value to himself and to others. The 
following entry in his diary shows what these habits led him, 
in a moderate way, to attempt ; and though he was often 
prevented from closely following the plan here sketched, yet 
it marks, on the wh(Jle, the general order of liis life while 
he contmued in the practice of the law. 

" June 20, 1798. — How mconsistent is the conduct of 
man ! How frequently variant are his practices from his 
precepts I How much easier to conceive than to execute 
what is right ! In one point, more particularly than in any 
other, I feel myself to be this inconsistent being. I have 



HIS LEGAL PRACTICE. 37 

always been persuaded of the utility and indispensableness 
of METHOD, in business and in study. It has always been 
the subject of my encomiums, and I have believed it to be 
equally useful to the man of genius and talents, and to the 
man of plain common-sense. In my professional practice, 
although I cannot pique myself on my regularity, yet has it 
not been totally neglected. But in my studies I have, on 
this head, been careless to a very blamable degree. "When 
I have chalked it out, sometliing invariably intervenes to 
obliterate my plan. 

" What if I were now to begin upon a tnoderate scale, 
and without venturing hastily upon rash resolutions, limit 
myself to a certain system for a month to come ? Suppose 
that system were something hke the following : 

"1. To rise early — say, at least, by five — take up Bur- 
rows' Reports, and apply myself to it till about a quarter of 
an hour before breakfast ; this quarter of an hour to be spent 
m dressing. 

"2. After breakfast, on entering my office, to attend to 
the most prominent and urgent business of the day, and de- 
vote the forenoon to matters of practice. This will com- 
prise attention to the calls of clients, occasional out-of-door 
errands, keeping up docket, drawing declarations, preparing 
for trials and arguments, and attendance at courts, which, 
for a few days from this time, will engross part of the after- 
noon also. 

"3. After dinner, some historical, classical, or miscella- 
neous book may occupy an hour ; say, for the ensuing month, 
Smith's Wealth of Nations. The remainder of the after- 
noon may be devoted to" — perhaps, had he finished the 
sentence, he would have added, " lighter kinds of reading." 

"4. The evenmgs during this month are short and warm, 
and may therefore be given to exercise, or to conversation. 

" I confess I like my scheme, and will endeavor to sum- 
mon to my aid resolution enough strictly to adhere to it." 

He liked it none the less when, his set month having 



38 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

expired, he found himself, from various interfering causes, 
constrained to make the following record : 

" July 23. — I ought to note, on this day, that the plan 
which I marked out for my observance on the 20 th of last 
month, has not been strictly, nor even tolerably observed. 
Shame, shame I" 

His reflections, four days later, appertam to the point in 
hand. 

"July 27. — Buffon once observed to one of his friends, 
that * genius is only a greater aptitude to patience ; but 
observe,' added he, ' that patience must be applied to every 
thmg : patience in finding out one's line ; patience in resist- 
ing the motives that divert, and patience in bearing w^hat 
would discourage a common man.' This is a very striking 
observation. It is one of those sayings which may be the 
future making of a great man. Indeed, Buffon liimself was 
a strong witness in favor of the remark, that he who pas- 
sionately desires glory, is sure in the end to obtain it. This 
desire, however, must not be a momentary one. It must 
be an every-day passion. 

" Glory and fame are things beyond my expectations, 
perhaps my wishes. I do not permit myself, for a moment, 
to indulge in such fantastically delusive hopes. I trust I 
have a better knowledge of the extent of my capacities, than 
thus to deceive myself I cannot, then, entirely accord with 
the sentiment of the great Buffon. Perhaps it may be prej- 
udice that induces me still to feel a reluctance in surrender- 
ing the old opinion, that there is a natural diversity in the 
understandings and genius of men. I am convmced, how- 
ever, that this notion has been carried too far. Daily in- 
stances present themselves, in all professions, of the won- 
derful efficacy of this ' aptitude to patience.' "Would to God 
I possessed, or could acquire it. I might then be occasion- 
ally cheered by the modest hope of attaining a share of that 
reputation in my profession, which I sometimes fear will only 
be the reward of an application, an industry, and a patience. 



HIS LEGAL PRACTICE. 39 

whicli I feel, very sensibly, do not constitute my character 
Whatever may be the result, I find myself obliged to go 
on. Perchance good-luck, which has favored some of my 
forerunners, may light also on me. Who knows ?" 

These passages were written, it will be remembered, 
when Mr. Milnor was no more than twenty-five years old. 
He was still a very young laAvyer. At that early period, he 
seems to intimate that he had not, as an ingredient in his 
nature, Bufibn's "aptitude to patience." However this may 
have been, he was, ere long, able to acquire somewhat very 
like it, and thus to prove that if he were not born to the 
philosopher's idea of genius, he could yet rise by eHbrt to 
what perhaps served his purpose quite as well. But, whether 
patient, persevering industry were with him an element of 
nature, or a result of effort, the foregoing extracts make one 
thing manifest : that, as yet, what was really elementary 
in his character was far from including any thing of relig- 
ious principle, motive, or feeling. If he w^ere already an 
honest, faithful, devoted, and rising lawyer, he had not yet, 
even in apparent tendency, any thing of the true Christian. 

In his practice as a lawyer, cases of great interest often 
presented themselves, calling for his offices both as a lawyer 
and as a friend. He has placed several on record, even at 
this early period of his life ; one of which, as it illustrates 
the remark now made, while at the same time it gives us a 
good insight into his character, and a look back upon the 
political and moral aspect of the times, may be here advan- 
tageously inserted. 

*' Saturday, July 14, 1798. — An incident yesterday af- 
ternoon much affocted me. W. D. — a person for whom I 
some time since commenced an action against Mr. B. for 
arrearage of wages due the former as editor of a newspaper, 
of which the latter is proprietor — called upon me. ITever 
did I behold a picture of more perfect wretchedness. With 
a countenance expressive of the most agonizing sensations, 
and with a voice faltering from emotion, he informed me that 



40 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

his wife was then lying dead, having departed about an hour 
and a half before ; that he was destitute of the means of 
providing a coffin, or any other of the requisites for inter- 
ment ; and that his only resource was to sacrifice a part of 
the debt due him from Mr. B., ui order to obtain an imme- 
diate payment of the remainder. I advanced him as much 
as his present most pressing necessities required, and pro- 
ceeded at once to make arrangements with Mr. B. The lat- 
ter is what may be termed, in an old phrase, ' a hard onan.^ 
To be sure, D. has behaved towards him in an indecorous 
manner ; but it is not a recent transaction, and there would 
have been a generosity in forgiving him. 

" My eloquence yesterday, to which I vainly thought 
my feelings had given an unusual glow, was well-nigh lost 
upon B. To-day, however, he has sent me an ofier of twenty 
dollars in cash, a note at sixty days for fifty dollars, and an- 
other at forty-five days for thirty-three dollars ; making one 
hundred and three, which he alleges to be Mr. D.'s right. 
D. claimed one hundred and thirty-eight ; but all consider- 
ations are lost, in circumstances hke Iris, except that of pres- 
ent succor. He is obliged to accept the ofier. And how 
does it relieve him ? He has twenty dollars in cash. The 
great humanity of church establishments calls for only six- 
teen of this, as compensation for a piece of ground six feet 
by two. Will the remaining four pay for the poor creature's 
colhn ? No. How heart-rending, then, the situation of this 
husband ! I can supply him with twenty dollars ; and op- 
portunely he steps in to receive it. I wish to do more ; but 
am at present without the means, consistently with the 
punctuality which I must observe in the discharge of a little 
engagement of my own. 

" The poverty of tliis man suggests very strongly the 
dismal effects of a misappHcation of talents. In possession 
of abilities much above mediocrity, and with acquirements 
of an extraordinary kind, this man might, one would sup- 
pose, be an ornament to literature and a useful member of 



HIS LEQAL PRACTICE. 41 

society. But, unfortunately, he has heen deeply infected 
with the mania of the day. His principles are of the most 
Jacobinical sort. Blindly attached to the French Revolu- 
tion, even now that its object is so obviously changed, he 
can see nothing that merits censure in the conduct of it. 
On the contraiy, it is still with him the cause of hberty and 
repubhcanism ; while, at the same time, he believes our 
own government to be on the high road, and advancing 
with rapid strides, towards monarchy. This man, had he 
but possessed moderation and temper, and given a proper 
direction to his talents, would have made a truly meritorious 
character. For, however I disapprove of the violence of liis 
politics, I am not so far in the opposite extreme as to imj)ute 
to him the worst intentions. I see too much of this spirit 
of intolerance not to deprecate it heartily. I feel dreadful 
anticipations as to its effects in this country. The concil- 
iatory spirit, a disposition for mutual indulgence and for- 
bearance, once gone, whither may not the storms of party 
drive us ? It is the part of a rational man to convince by 
argument, not convert by force. But, from what we daily 
see, can we accuse the poet of injustice when he says, 

" 'Amid the wood the leopard knows his kind ; 
The tiger preys not on the tiger brood. 
Man only is the common foe of man.' " 

The details thus given will enable the reader to form a 
sufficiently clear idea of Mr. Milnor, as a law^^er. His whole 
course of practice, a period of about nineteen years, was 
such, in its character and results, as might be expected from 
a man peculiarly mild and gentle in his ordinary disposi- 
tions, strong and ardent in attachments, affable and cour- 
teous in manners, and possessed, to an uncommon degree, of 
a sound judgment and a wise prudence, which rendered 
liim, at all times, and in all situations, an invaluable friend, 
a safe counsellor, and a useful man. With too much genuine 
modesty to overestimate liis actual abilities, there was, m 
his mind, so much of those rare endowments — more directly 



42 * MEMOIR OF DE,. MILNOR. 

valuable, perhaps, than the gifts of genius — practical com- 
mon-sense, great industry, and a sprightly activity of facul- 
ties, that he was able, m addition to what he effected in 
connection with the various pohtical, benevolent, and literary 
associations of the day, to accomphsh an unusual amount of 
results in his strictly professional engagements. He was, 
besides, a man of undoubted and undaunted moral and physi 
cal courage ; a courage, however, trained uito strict subor- 
duiation to the good-breeding of a gentleman. He was never 
double-faced, either in pubhc or in private ; never offended 
any by an abrupt or obtrusive expression of liis opinion ; and 
yet never slirunk, when occasion required it, from a sincere, 
frank, and fearless utterance of his views. All these traits 
of character were remarked, and are well remembered by the 
few surviving friends of his early life, and will be readily 
recognized by those famihar with liim in later periods. 

The habits of business which he acquired in his legal 
practice were of great permanent value, as they rendered 
him useful in the management of pecuniary trusts, as well 
as safe ui that of his own affairs. When he first began 
practice, he was more successful m "tnaking than in saving 
money ; and tliis led him early to study this latter branch 
of economy. His good judgment soon made him as judicious 
m the investmejit as he was skilful hi the accimiulatioii of 
funds. From the begiiming of 1795, the year when liis 
practice commenced, to the close of 1799, that in which his 
marriage took place, his yearly receipts increased from about 
$530 to nearly $3,000. They sustamed a corresponding 
increase so long as he continued his practice ; and as his 
expenses were uniformly moderate, and for eight years after 
his marriage his family sustamed no mcrease, he must have 
reahzed a rate of prosperity quite sufficient to satisfy the 
reasonable desires of any reasonable man. In short, he 
closed this part of his career an accompHshed, respected, 
and moderately wealthy lawyer. 

But we shall not understand the first half of Mr. Mil 



HIS LEGAL PRACTICE. 43 

nor's life unless we are made aware that, notwithstanding 
the peculiarities which marked liim as a prudent and pros- 
perous man of business, rismg constantly and rapidly towards 
wealth, he was yet, from the beginning to the close of his 
legal practice, a fashionable man of tlie ivorld. Tasteful 
and liberal in his provisions for liis family, generously hos- 
pitable in his entertainment of friends, and careful to main- 
tain his standing in the ranks of fashionable society, he was 
in truth cordially fond of all but its foohsli and ruinous 
extravagances. This appears luminously in his occasional 
letters to his wife ; who, it seems, though bred an Episco- 
paUan, was yet, as to the gayeties of the world, more of a 
(Quakeress than he desired. Constitutionally of a quiet, re- 
tiring, and gentle spirit, she would gladly have persevered 
in the simple plamness of her earher life in the country. 
But he had marked out for himself a different course ; and 
hence, in his letters, occasionally exhorts her to more of 
sympathy in liis tastes and to more of conformity with his 
views. In a word, " He was a man of the world ; fond of 
its amusements, and, to a great extent, governed by its 
maxims ; and he considered a mingling with fashionable 
society, provided it did not conflict with his moral and pro- 
fessional duties, as itself a duty and a means of advance- 
ment." He was a man of too much honesty and principle 
to be either dissipated or extravagant ; was always strictly 
moral in his conduct, and safe in his expenditures ; but 
within these limits, he was fitted to enjoy and permitted to 
have whatever the gay Avorld could furnish for his gratifi- 
cation. He was fond of the theatre, and a frequent attend- 
ant at the play. 

As a man of the world, he was well fitted to rise and 
sliine by the very combination which he presented, of gay, 
lively, social, conversational qualities, with sterling good- 
sense and principle. The former made him popular ; the 
latter kept him from being ridiculous. He was far above 
the absurd littleness of those who hve for the gay world ; 



44 MEMOIE, OF DR. MILNOR. 

as a sensible gentleman, lie at least tried to make tlie gay 
world live for liim. In other words, the amusements and 
pleasures of the world were of importance to him only so 
far as he saw, or believed, that he could make them minis- 
ter to some useful end. 



SECTION II. 

"We come now to view Mr. Milnor as a political man. 

His political opinions seem to have been early formed. 
Com.ing to the study and the practice of the law during the 
administrations of Washmgton and the elder Adams, he was 
prepared by previous training for a manful support of the 
American doctrines on which those administrations were 
based. From boyhood he was a Washington-federalist, and 
his prmciples cleaved to him unchangingly through life. As 
early as 1798 he began, in his diary, to insert notices of 
political events, and of his own views respecting them. 
After a jaunt into the country, which, with a few friends, 
he had taken on the 15th of July of that year, while some 
of the measures of the elder Adams were agitating the na- 
tion, he inserted in his diary the following note — furnishing, 
indeed, no index to the nature of his political opinions, but 
illustrating the truly generous spirit in which he maintained 
them. 

" July 16. — In the afternoon of yesterday, the 'Squire, 
(Mr. Summers,) Mr. Swift, Mr. Jones, and myself, had a 
dish of politics. We found each other, notwithstanding the 
temper of the times and the great variance in sentiment 
between us, little inclined for loggerheads. When men hold 
each other in estimation, what a pity that a difference of 
opinion in politics should disunite them. There is only one 
case in which I would despise a man for his opinions, and 
that is, when he makes pretensions to them from motives 



HIS POLITICAL CAREER. 45 

of self-iiiterest ; and this, whether it be iii a pecuniary way, 
or in any other incompatible with honor and the real amor 
^mtrice." 

Upon the death of the model President, he entered the 
following- simple, but touching note. 

"February 22, 1800.— This is the birthday of Wash- 
uigton. It was once a day of festivity and rejoicmg ; but 
alas, it is now spent in the most mournful dejection. Every 
face bears lines of deep«grief strongly marked. Every voice 
sighs, ' AYasliington is no more.' The man 'first in war, 
first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen,' de- 
scended to the tomb of his ancestors on the 15th of Decem- 
ber, 1799 ; and Congress have recommended that, on this 
day, the people of the United States should assemble in 
their respective neighborhoods, and pay honor to his memory 
by suitable eulogies, orations, etc." 

And then, after alludmg to the three orations which were 
to be pronounced m the city of Philadelphia, he adds, in 
reference to that which he attended, " The church was 
exceedingly crowded, but without confusion. A suitable 
awe and solemnity were generally observed, and every party 
consideration seemed merged in universal mourning for the 
irreparable loss which our country has sustamed. 

"0, Washuigton, when will mankind have another friend 
hke thee ?" 

From a note m his diary, it appears that during the year 
1800, Mr. Milnor held, by election, a place m the city coun- 
cil, wliich, if municipal rather than political, was yet a dis- 
ciplme for public fife on a wider stage. He says, 

"March 24, 1800. — This evening I spent at Common 
Council. Not a quorum. How blamable it is in men to 
accept of pubhc trusts, and yet neglect the discharge of the 
duties wliich those trusts involve. I find my seat in this 
body very inconvenient to me. So much of my time is en- 
grossed by the business of the council — though I do far less 
than many of my worthy fellow-members — that, unless I 



46 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

alter my mind, I sliall certainly avoid a reelection next year. 
And yet I think it incumbent on me, while I retain the 
place, to contribute my small endeavors towards the welfare 
and good government of the city." 

From 1800 to 1810, the notices of Mr. Mihior's life are 
scanty. During that period there is no diary extant, nor 
any correspondence preserved or recoverable. The most 
that is known, relates to his j^oliiical career ; and even of 
that only naked facts remain. 

On the 8th of October, 1805, he was elected a member 
of the Select Council of Philadelphia, for two years ; on the 
13th of October, 1807, he was reelected for three years to 
the same body; and on the 14th of October, 1808, he was 
raised to the presidoicy of the council for one year ; at the 
close of which, October,* 1809, in consequence of a change 
in the political majority of the constituency, he was suc- 
ceeded in that office by a member of the Democratic party ; 
although it is inferable that he continued a member of the 
council till the close of the three years for which he was 
elected, or till October, 1810. 

These naked facts are all that can, with certainty, be 
stated of his public pohtical course until the year 1810. 
This date, however, brings us to the period at which he be- 
came more widely known to the world, and after which 
there is less lack of documents wherewith to illustrate his 
character and the principal events of his life. 

In October, 1810, took place his election to the Congress 
of the United States, as a member of the House of Repre- 
sentatives from the city and county of Philadelphia. On 
this event it will be interesting to pause a moment ; for 
when we remember, that although politics and religion 
have no affinities, by wliich the former generate the latter, 
their most frequent relations being those of contrast and 
of conflict, yet it was in Congress he became, in a sense be- 
fore unknown to himself, a subject of divine teachings and 
of heavenly grace, the devout mind will be pleased to trace 



HIS POLITICAL CAREER. 47 

the hand of God in the circumstances which attended his 
election to a seat in the great council of the nation. 

The city and county of Philadelphia had, in 1809, given 
token of a readiness to follow other parts of the state and 
nation in adoptmg the political opinions of Jefferson and 
Madison. And it was very natural to infer, that, at the 
riext general election, they would succeed in sending a 
representative, of the same opinions, to the halls of the na- 
tional legislature. It was under these circumstances, that 
in October, 1810, a committee waited on Mr. Milnor to 
learn whether he would permit liis name to be used, as a 
candidate to represent — ^if elected — his native city in the 
Congress of the nation. This was, to his m^ind, a new and 
important question ; and he could not at once give his an- 
swer. As soon as the committee had retired, he sent for his 
confidential friend and brother lawyer, Thomas Bradford, Jr., 
desiring him to call immediately, on business of great im- 
portance. His friend instantly obeyed his call ; when, after 
mentioning the visit and object of the committee, he thus ad- 
dressed him : " Knowing as you do all my concerns, private 
and pubhc, I want you to give me your opinion whether I 
ought to accept the proposed nomination." " Tliis is a seri- 
ous question," replied his friend ; " and I must have time to 
consider before I can make up an opinion." Mr. Milnor 
gave liim till thre*^ o'clock P. M. of the same day. " I left 
liim," says Mr. Bradford m his " Reminiscences," " and ex- 
amined the matter m all its bearmgs upon his professional 
business, his private comforts, and the situation of his fami- 
ly durmg his absence ; and came to the clear and settled 
opinion that he ought not to accept. At the time appointed, 
I went to make my statement and to give my opinion ; when, 
to my surprise, he informed me, that during my absence, the 
committee had called again, and he had accepted the nomi- 
nation. He did not perceive it, but the footsteps of Provi- 
dence were already leading him towards his conversion. He 
was elected, and went to Washington" in the fall of 1810, 



48 'MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

or early in January, 1811. Says his son in his "Recol- 
lections," "He consented" to become a candidate, "with 
the expectation, and almost the hope of being defeated ;" so 
strong was the probability against liis election, and so " fear 
ful was he that his success would prove a serious detriment 
to his business. His election was a proof how much he had 
won upon the respect and love of his fellow-citizens ; for he- 
was the only federal candidate who succeeded." 

And had he waited an hour for his friend's advice, he 
probably would never have been even a candidate ; and thus, 
to human view, all the coloring which the work of the Spirit 
gave to liis religious character during liis congressional life, 
might never have appeared. 

His letters from Washington to Mrs. Mihior, show that 
he took liis seat m Congress almost immediately after his 
election in 1810. The first of these letters which has been 
preserved, is dated January 6, 1811, and merely informs 
her of his safe arrival. On the 9th of the same month he 
writes again, and says that he had been to dure at the 
French ambassador's, had attended Mrs. Madison's levee, 
and had received an invitation to the British minister's. 
And on the 14th, he forwards a communication, from which 
some extracts may be given as illustrative of his manner of 
life at Washington, and as evidence that he went thither to 
do the business of his country, rather than to engage m the 
dissipations of the gay capital. 

To Mrs. Eleanor Milnor. 

"Washington, January 14, 1811. 
" My dear Ellen — I was much pleased \vith the receipt 
of your very acceptable letter by Capt. Kerr, who arrived 
here this day. Mr. Wihiam Bethell and William Newbold 
dmed with me yesterday. The arrival of my friends will 
give me a good deal of occupation, so long as they remain, 
as it will be my duty and pleasure to attend them so far as 
my duties in Congress wiU permit. To-morrow I dine with 



HIS POLITICAL CAREER. 40 

them at Mr. Bowie's, in Georgetown, and in the evening 
accompany them to the drawing-room. 

" Yesterday, I made the longest and most animated 
si^eech which I have yet delivered ; it was against a project 
of some of the wise admmistration folks of sending the mili- 
tia to take possession of Canada. But why do I trouhle yoi 
on subjects ui wliich you feel so little concern '^ My friends 
who do take an interest in them, will see my remarks, such 
as they were, in the newspapers in a few oays. 

*' Public busmess progresses so slowly and unsatisfacto- 
rily, and my family and business at home are so constantly 
present to my thoughts, that I cannot boast of the happiness 
of my situation. 

" You have m my letters the whole extent of my dis- 
sipation, wliich I would willingly forego for those more 
pleasing, because less formal associations with my friends, of 
which I partake when at home. We have had, however, 
fine weather — and here, even tliat's a comfort ; but visiting 
in the daytime is so incompatible with attention to my public 
duties ui Congress, our sessions are generally so protracted, 
and our dinners are consequently so late, that there is no 
visiting of families till after nightfall ; and then the distan- 
ces are so great, and the walking so disagreeable, or car- 
riages so difficult to be liad, that we hardly ever attempt it. 
I have never yet been at an evening loarty, except Mrs. 
Madison's; and when I have made calh^ it has been only 
at some of the lodging-houses of the members tolerably near 
our own. 

" I often think it a little curious, that after so much talk 
about the dissipation of this place, I should not have seen a 
card played since I have been here. It is an amusement 
for wliich I have not the slightest desire. 

" I forget whether I told you that Saturday next is the 
birthnight of the queen of England, and there is to be a 
great entertainment at the British minister's, to which I am 
invited, where all the fashion of the place will be displayed 

Mem. Milnor. o 



50 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

to the best advantage; preferable to all which rareeshow 
would be the salutation of my aflectionate partner and sweet 
little innocents, in the old fashion of the times that are past. 
" Ever your faithful and affectionate husband, 

"JAMES MILNOR.'' 

One other letter, dated "Monday, 25th, 1811," but 
whether in January or in February it is uncertain, is all 
that remains of the correspondence of tliis his first winter 
in Washington. In this, besides a little pleasantry about 
family matters and other things, he says, 

" My anxiety respecting my family and business is often 
very oppressive to my feelings, and I do not by any means 
enjoy my accustomed rest. The want of exercise, I think, 
makes me fleshier ; and although I uniformly avoid taking 
supper, yet I am always disturbed by an oppression and un- 
easiness at my breast, long before the mornmg light. I ac- 
custom myself to rise with the sun, who gladdens my room 
the moment he is above the horizon. In other respects than 
the circumstances alluded to, I have my usual health, and 
sometimes my usual spirits, but often fall considerably be- 
'low par." 

Although,, however, these are all that remain of Mr. 
Mihior's first winter's correspondence from Washington, yet 
they show that he was there at the opening of 1811 ; that 
he consequently spent three winters at the seat of govern- 
ment ; that, even during the first, he was not an idle man 
in tho business of the nation ; and that, though he entered 
into the gayeties of the capital, it was yet with moderation, 
and with an evident deadening of his mind towards the at- 
tractions of the world of pleasure. 

In the fall of 1811, he took his second departure for the 
seat of government, accompanied by a number of his poUti- 
cal friends as far as the " Blue Bell Tavern," on the Chester 
road ; at which place they paid him the compliment of a 
public dinner. He reached Washington the 1st of Novem- 
ber, and took lodgings at the house of Capt. Coyle, with 



HIS POLITICAL CAREER. 51 

Messrs, Chaimcey Goodrich and Samuel "W, Dana, of the 
senate, and Josiali Q,uincy and Timothy Pitkin, Jr., of the 
house, as his fellow-inmates. Here, as he states in his 
diary, he " remamed during an eventful session of eight 
months' continuance, which resulted in a most calamitous 
declaration of war against Great Britain." 

For the benefit of our memoir, this session was as pro- 
lific m letters from liira as in events to the nation. It is 
from these letters chiefly, that illustrations of this important 
period of his political life will be drawn. The complexion 
of his political views we have already seen ; and it is suffi- 
ciently well known what was our attitude towards Great 
Britam, and what an incubus of anxiety pressed on the bos- 
om of our nation, while, for eight months, in the halls of 
Congress, the grim Spirit of War was slowly, but sternly 
and relentlessly dragging forth his materiel of passion and 
prejudice and fierce debate, in preparation, once more, for 
his bloody work of death. On these points, therefore, we 
need not touch, but may proceed, at once, to look at the 
part which Mr. Milnor took in reference to them, and to 
see how his course afiected him in his personal, pohtical, 
and domestic relations. For hght on these topics, we shall 
draw from his letters. The formahty of address, at the be- 
ginnmg and close of each letter, will be omitted, and the ex- 
tracts be arranged according to their dates, giving them the 
form of occasional entries ui a diary for the eye of his wife. 
Unhappily, none of his contemporaneous letters to political 
correspondents have been preserved : had they been recov- 
erable, this portion of his life would have been much more 
strikingly illustrated. 

"Oct. 30, 1811. — Baltimore. In the confusion of this 
immense establishment of Gadsby's, I assume my pen to 
give you the first information of my progress. My good 
friends, three or four and twenty in number, who accom- 
panied me to the ' Blue Bell,' parted with me without de- 
scending into the frolic which you had anticipated. It was 



52 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

indeed a ' feast of friendship ;' but the feehngs excited in 
every breast at this parting evidence of regard, were calcu- 
lated to prevent the slightest tendency towards the extreme 
of festal indulgence. Capt. Kerr, with his w^onted good- 
ness, offered his carriage to relieve my next day's ride, by 
taking me on to Chester, and my friend Bradford could not 
avoid adding to the many evidences already given of his 
friendsliip, by going with us." 

"Nov. 2, 1811. — Wasliington. I arrived in this place 
yesterday, in time for dinner. I lose no time in acquainting 
you that I have procured lodgings at Capt. Coyle's, near the 
capitol. Mr. duincy is, at present, my only fellow-inmate ; 
but Mr. Dana and Mr. Goodrich are expected. The mess 
will not consist of more than four or five gentlemen ; and 
choice could not have done more for me than chance has 
done in the persons of whom it is to consist." 

"Nov. 3, 1811. — I had scarcely uttered my complaint 
of the insufficiency of my writing accoutrements, when I 
found my table covered with ready-made pens, inkstand, 
sand-box, wafers, paper, and every other convenience of the 
sort ; with which, I find, it is made the duty of an attend- 
ant of the House to supply each member at liis lodgings. 
Tliis evening we have Mr-. Dana of Connecticut added to 
our mess ; whom, from his well-known character, we con- 
sider a valuable acquisition." 

" Nov. 5, 1811. — We have at length had our first meet- 
ing, formed a quorum, and elected our speaker and other 
officers. To-day the committees will be appointed, the 
message of the President received, and general business pro- 
ceeded in. Brother William's reputation here has helped 
me wonderfully," in making calls of ceremony on a few pub- 
lic characters and some private famiUes. " Greatly as I 
knew him to be esteemed, I had no idea that his influence 
extended so far as I find it to have done. Gentlemen of 
the first respectability for talents speak of hun as a man of 
great strength of mind, and as a pleasing and sensible 



HIS POLITICAL CAREER. 53 

speaker in the House : they regret exceedingly that he was 
not reelected." 

" Nov. 7, 1811. — Yesterday, I wrote you a scolding let- 
ter ; and if the one received from "William had not relieved 
my mind of its anxiety lest some untoward circumstance 
should have occurred, I should either in dudgeon have given 
over writing, or scolded more severely than ever. And 
even now, were I not confident that this evening's mail will 
bring me evidence under your own hand corroborative of his, 
railing would be my only employment. But I forbear, and 
only hope, in a few days, to fmd you galloping along in your 
writing-gears, as if you had aU your life been devoted to 
the service. I wish the little cherubs, over whose slumbers 
vou are this moment watching with a mother's kindness 
and affection, were old enough to scribble to their absent 
father ; and I'll answer for it, the mail to this great city in 
the desert would come heavier freighted." 

"Nov. 11, 1811. — I hope you will not seclude yourself 
from society. Remember, the character of the family for 
attention to social intercourse is already almost below par. 
It depends on you to prevent it from entirely sinking during 
my absence." In Congress, "We make slow progress, sitting* 
not more than two hours a day, and even then doing very 
little business. For myself, I feel a very languid degree of 
interest in the passing scene, and fear I shall never be able to 
excite in myself a relish for public duties sufficient to secure 
for their discharge the application of what little talent it 
may be my lot to possess." 

" Nov. 16, 1811. — A long letter, with which I was grati- 
fied last evening, from my friend T. Bradford, informs me of 
the continued welfare of yourself and our family. When the 
mail arrives, the letters for each family of lodgers are made 
into several packages. A bystander would be amused to see 
the eagerness Avith which each of our family looks for his 
letters, and the long faces of those who happen to be dis- 
appointed. I hope you will not let your husband be often 



54 MEMOm OF DR. MILNOR. 

laughed at on tliis account." [With all his efforts he nev- 
er succeeded in making his wife a frequent letter-writer.] 
" Yesterday I made my first appearance on the floor of Con- 
gress, except that once before I rose merely to present a 
petition. The few observations which I made were on an 
interestmg subject ; and probably I owe to that, rather than 
to any thing of my own, a compliment which few speakers 
have obtained this session — a most profound attention from 
the House." 

By his "first appearance on the floor of Congress," he 
means the first this session, for as we have already seen, the 
year before he rose repeatedly to the discussion of topics before 
the House. 

"Nov. 18, 1811, — Having written to you several times 
since I have had the pleasure of receiving any communica- 
tion from you, I have now only to advise you of my contin- 
ued good health, and the enjoyment of good spirits without 
recourse to any of that dissipation, wliich, I have reason to 
beheve, was so causelessly apprehended as the inevitable 
concomitant of a residence in this place. We find at our 
quarters, at those moments when business or study requires 
•intermission, ample gratification in each other's conversation, 
without resorting to any of the too customary expedients for 
passing away time." 

"Nov. 18, 1811. — Evening. I fully intended to leave 
this place to-morrow morning for my desired home ; but the 
question on the apportionment bill, which has been taken 
tliis afternoon, and decided in favor of the ratio which I advo- 
cate" — he has been speaking again — " is left in such a situ- 
ation as to make it doubtful whether it may not, in another 
shape, be brought up again to-morrow morning. I shall, 
therefore, be reluctantly obhged to wait till Friday mornmg ; 
but I shall still, if no accident occur, reach home at the 
time proposed." 

"Nov. 24, 1811. — I had the happiness to receive, by 
the mail of last evenmg, your kind and affectionate letter of 



HIS POLITICAL CAREER. (Jo 

the 21st. The practice of letter- writing is, in my opinion, 
one of" the best means of expanding the mind, and eliciting 
those latent powers, which in most individuals only want 
cultivation to exhibit them to advantage. Facility in this 
employment is, ui a good degree, the result of habit ; and 
there are few persons, to whom habit does not render it both 
easy and agreeable. The poets talk of happy moments of 
mspiration, but tliis exercise is adapted to all occasions, and 
a flow of easy composition will never be wanting, if indolence 
do not prevent the beginnmg of the work ; provided the best 
aflections of the heart prompt the assumption of the willmg 
and obedient pen. For my own part, I boast of no elegance 
in tliis delightful employment ; but it is agreeable to me, 
and my language, such as it is, is the spontaneous flow of 
natural feeling, without any labored effort after the beauties 
of a polished and ornamented style. I speak now of my let- 
ters generally ; but with reference to those more particularly, 
which I write to the proprietor of all my thoughts, I should 
disdain giving them an artificial dress, or obscuring, by the 
tinsel decorations of language, the overflowings of a fond and 
faithful attachment, reciprocated, as I know it is, by as fond 
and faithful a return. Insulated as I am in a place so little 
like that whose enjoyments surround you, separated from 
my best friends, deprived of all the endearments that sweet- 
en the bitter cup of human existence, my chiefest happiness 
consists in pouring into your ear the effusions of an undimin- 
ished love, and in cherishing the sweet evidences, which you 
will, I hope, almost daily transmit me, of its being repaid 
with a full measure of that regard on your part, which I 
prize much more highly 'than gold, yea, than fine gold.'" 
[An argument which might have emboldened a more timid 
pen than even Mrs. Milnor's.] 

After having attended Mrs. Madison's levee, where he 
met a splendid crowd of one hundred and fifty ladies and 
gentlemen, he says, in a letter dated, 

"Nov. 27, 1811. — ^Wednesday night. Looking at the 



5G MEMOIE. OF BR. MILNOR. 

dreary aspect of this wilderness of a city, I could not have 
anticipated a collection of so much elegance and fashion ; 
and I must say, that Madam performed the graces of her 
drawing-room with great dignity, aflahility, and ease. At 
several times during the course of the evening, I had a fcAV 
minutes' conversation with her. She had heard of my 
Q,uaker extraction, and observed that neither of us were 
very faithful representatives of that respectable society." 

" Friday Evening, Nov. 29, 181 1. — I have dined to-day 
with the President. The party consisted of about five and 
twenty. Mr. Munroe and his lady, Mr. Hamilton, Secre- 
tary of the Navy, and other grandees were among the 
number." 

"Dec. 16, 1811. — ^We are making slow progress with 
the resolutions relating to preparations for the war with 
Great Britain. I begin to fear that the resolutions will not 
be disposed of before the time fixed for my return home. 
My friends make great objections to my leaving before they 
are disposed of; but I shall make every effort to get away. 
This suggestion is merely in order, if I should be delayed a 
day or two longer than I expect, that you should not attrib- 
ute it to indisposition, or any other cause than the unavoid- 
able detention of public business." 

He visited Philadelphia during the Christmas holidays ; 
and, in his first letter after his return to AYashuigton, dated 
" January 8, 1812," after describing a cold, perilous, mland 
winter journey, via Lancaster, and across the Susquehannah 
on the ice, in a black night, against furious winds, and 
obhged to walk, with gentlemen and lady passengers, by 
the aid of guides and lanterns, a mile and a quarter from 
shore to shore, amidst broken fragments of ice, and many 
involuntary prostrations, he adds, 

*' I arrived here before the House had adjourned, and in 
time to vote on the army bill. My friends received me with 
the most affectionate welcome, and I am now reinstated in 
my old lodgings. If well enough, I shall attend my friends 



HIS POLITICAL CAREER. 57 

Dana, Pitkin, and duincy, to-day, to a dinner given "by the 
French ambassador, M. Serrurier." 

"Jan. 13, 1812. — I am quite recovered from the cold 
and fever" — caused by his wdntry journey — " and was able, 
to-day, to make a speech of some length on the volunteer 
bill." 

The gay season at Washington had now set in ; and we 
accordingly find, in his letter of " Jan. 19, 1812," the follow- 
ing reference to what was expected at the British minister's. 

" All the fashionables, I am told, are on the tiptoe of 
expectation for Mr. Foster's ball and supper to-morrow night. 
Two hundred people are expected there ; but so far from 
anticipating it Avith pleasure, I wish it were over ; for, 
although etiquette obliges me to go, yet, as I know very 
few of the company, as I cannot dance and ivill not game, I 
do not look forward to the gala with any pleasure." 

"Jan. 23, 1812. — We are here, hstening day after day 
to debates, which, from their prolixity, have become tire- 
some, on the subject of making an addition to the navy ; in 
which, besides the mortification of being sentenced to the 
punishment of listening so long to so many dull speeches, we 
shall have that of being completely defeated in our views." 

"Jan. 25, 1812. — The long pendency of the question 
respecting an increase of the navy, makes our day's work 
drag heavily ; but I presume it is now near a determination. 
I fully intended to have made a speech upon this subject, as 
it is one in which the commercial interests of our city are so 
deeply involved ; but our party concluded it was best to 
leave the debate in the hands of the majority until near the 
close, as there are several able advocates of the navy among 
themselves ; and it was thought our interference would only 
be calculated to inflame the minds of the more violent of 
their party against the bdl as a federal measure. Two of 
our members submitted a few observations yesterday and the 
day before ; and to-day, Mr. Q.uiiicy made the best speech 
vrliich has been delivered on either side of the question. I 



58 MEMOIR OF DU. MILNOR. 

have not positively concluded on my own course on Monday, 
when the debate is to be renewed. .Every possible argu- 
ment has been so forcibly urged, and so fully illustrated, 
that I can hardly think of taking the floor only to travel over 
the same ground which others have travelled before me. I 
am mortified at not having had an earlier opportunity of 
coming forward on a question of so much importance ; but 
in deference to gentlemen of older standing in the house, I 
was uiduced to acquiesce in the silence agreed upon in the 
first part of the discussion, as well as to give precedence to 
the gentlemen of our party who have already spoken. And 
now, the subject is so worn out, that even the masterly dis- 
play of it by Mr. Q,uincy, in a form of as much novelty as 
the nature of the case would admit, could scarcely secure the 
attention of the House. If brother William, or my friend 
T. B., or any other, should inquire whether I have spoken 
on the navy question, and my reason for not doing so, you 
will give that which I have stated. An apprehension of 
censure for holding back, as it would seem, on a question in 
which the mercantile part of the community feel a great 
interest, gives me uneasiness ; but it arose from the circum- 
stances above mentioned ; and the busmess, I am satisfied, 
has been better managed by others than it would have 
been by me. Besides, I am by no means alone in my dis- 
appomtment." 

" Jan. 28, 1812." — Speaking of the entertainments 
which he had attended, he says, " The pleasure which I 
have at these parties is, to meet and converse, in the course 
of the evening, with many intelligent persons, from whom 
much information of a general nature, as well as m relation 
to the pubhc busmess wliich from time to time occupies our 
attention, may be derived. It serves also to relieve the 
oppressive tedium, arising from the continued sameness of 
our daily routine of engagements, whoUy destitute as these 
are of that exhilarating variety and interest wliich my pro- 
fessional business and other avocations at home supply." 



HIS POLITICAL CAREEE. 59 

It is true, that by his presence he patronized the dancing 
and the gaming, of which he says he did not partake ; yet, 
from the above extract, we must give him at least the credit 
of being, in the midst of his gayeties, a sensible Avorldly 
man. 

"Jan. 30, 1812. — The account of my political career, 
and the small part which I take in the aliairs of the nation, 
it would be uninteresting to detail to you. These things I 
reserve for those of my own sex, who ieel an hiterest in the 
passing events of the world's politics, and are always anxious 
to hear of the scenes acted m the councils of the country, at 
tliis critical and eventful period. Indeed, I feel less interest 
in them myself, than perhaps an actor should ; rnucli less 
than many mere spectators of the comic-tragedy peribrm- 
ances which are daily exhibited at the capitol. It is sicken- 
ing to hear the eternal brawhngs of clamorous demagogues 
for war, while a pitiful love of office, or fear of displacement, 
prevents their putting forth courage enough to provide the 
proper means for so awful a state of things. This considera- 
tion will, of itself, be sufficient to prevent war" — his proph- 
ecy was not fulfilled — " though it may prolong the session, 
in order to give full time and scope for the oratory of the 
heroes who like to talk about it." 

But, if wives felt little interest in mere political details, 
he concluded they were not indifferent to the mamier in 
which their husbands passed their time ; and therefore, after 
a few farther paragraphs, he proceeded to give a short 
account of himself under this head. 

" The forepart of each day, that is, from my time of ris- 
ing till eleven or twelve o'clock, I spend in my chamber, 
chiefly in answering the numerous letters which I receive ; 
but when that duty does not require the whole time, the 
residue I devote to useful reading. My public duty then 
requires my attendance at the capitol, and there I remain till 
the hour of adjournment, which is frequently as late as four 
or half-past four o'clock. If not invited out to dine, tho 



GO MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

dessert to every day^s dinner at home is the letters and news- 
papers which the mail brings to the diflerent gentlemen of 
our mess ; and a great regale they very often furnish. Our 
evenings at home are generally in great part spent in our 
respective chambers ; though sometimes we step into one of 
the neighboring boarding-houses, or receive calls from some 
of our friends. The frequent visits of gentlemen from Phila- 
delpliia tend to give a little variety to the scene." 

"Feb. 1, 1812. — I went with Mr. Astley yesterday, at 
twelve o'clock, to the President's, in fulfilmient of a promise 
he had made to Miss M., to wait upon her for letters to her 
father and friends in Philadelphia ; but the day being fine, 
she had gone out visiting with Mrs. Madison. The call, 
however, enabled me to see the President upon some con- 
gressional business about which I was appomted to wait 
upon him. I have been much neglected by my friends in the 
way of letter- writing, since my return to this place. Except 
yours, I know not that I have received one letter of mere 
friendship. The diminution of the number of those on con- 
gressional affairs I do n-ot so much regret as I do the increase 
of those of another description ; I mean, applications for 
office, particularly for appointments in the new army. If I 
were, as I thank God I am not, of the ruling party, I could 
not be more importuned. This is disagreeable, because it 
involves the alternative either of disobliging the applicants, 
or of condescending to ask favors of people against whose 
doings, as the servants of the public, I am often compelled 
to be opposed. 

" We make progress in our war measures, having the 
militia bill now before us ; but the war-fever seems every 
day to decline. Our valiant warriors begin to count the 
cost ; and they tremble for their places when the people 
begin to feel the pecuniary burdens wliich war will render 
inevitable." 

As the following illustrates his domestic feelings as wel{ 
as any other of the numerous paragraphs of a hke character 



HIS POLITICAL CAREER. Gl 

Avitli Avliich his letters abound, it is inserted in its place. 
The husband and the father were stronger in him than the 
politician was likely ever to become. 

"Feb. 3, 1812. — Your last letter was written ten days 
ago, and Henry was then confined by illness to the nursery. 
Shice then no one has written me a single line. My fore- 
bodings are awful beyond measure. I went to bed last niglit 
at an early hour, to drown in the forgetfulness of sleep my 
gloomy, harassing reflections. But the bed was no bed of 
rest to me. This morning I was up with the dawn. I saw 
the glorious sun rise in resplendent lustre, and hailed liis 
welcome return. I wandered abroad, and rambled for two 
hours before breakfast. Nothing but the verdure of spring 
was wanting to give tliis charmmg morning all the exhila- 
rating delights of that charming season. My contemplations 
have resulted in more serenity of mind, and a confidence m 
the goodness of divine Providence inspires me with hope. 
Yet why tliis unaccountable silence ? God grant it may 
have arisen from your irremovable dislike to writing, or from 
neglect, or even forgetfulness of me, rather than from the 
dreadful cause which I have anticipated. If trouble has 
assailed our peaceful mansion, let me become, I charge you, 
an early sharer of it. It is my right ; duty as well as affec- 
tion entitles me to claim tliis at your hands. No public 
responsibihty shall detain me here, if home demands my 
presence. If another visitation of Almighty God has fallen 
upon us, let me come and alleviate your griefs." 

" Feb. 7, 1812." — Having received a letter which reliev- 
ed his fears for his son, he proceeds with his usual topics ; 
alluding among other things, to a great entertainment which 
Avas expected to come off at the British minister's, and add- 
ing, " The policy of the minister is evident. His course has 
a tendency to allay a little the heat of party animosity 
against his country, and keep the folks in good-humor. Ho. 
must take care not to overdo the business, and thereby excite 
the jealousy and resentment of those in power." 



02 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

"Feb. 22, 1812. — "We go upon the new taxes on Mon- 
day next, and expect to see icar in the wigwam. They still 
talk of a long session, but some think it will be impossible to 
keep as many members here as will be requisite to do the 
public business, throughout all April. Several have already 
gone home sick, and others begin to complam — the northern 
men of its being too hot, and the southern of its being too 
cold. For my own part, though I groan a little, now and 
then, for want of exercise, yet I never felt better than I 
now do ; so, for the present, I have no excuse of that kind to 
make." 

"March 1, 1812." — Speaking of his purpose " not to 
mdulge his wife with another line tiU encouraged to it by 
her," he adds, " I believe, upon the whole, I have punished 
myself more severely than the flagrant little offender for 
whom it was intended. This is the kind of folly which 
many wise persons, m the world's estimation, run into, 
when, in order to gratify their passions to the injury of others, 
they inflict severer wounds upon themselves. You and I 
know a memorable instance of this in the only man who 
ever, to my knowledge, cherished towards me a personal 
enmity. In the indulgence of an unhappy temper of mind 
towards all around him, the effects of his ill-nature are contin- 
ually recoiling upon himself, and every one sees that, in all 
his purposes of vengeance, he is himself the severest sufferer. 
I bless God, that with a thousand of the frailties of human 
nature, this is not a * sin that easily besets' me. There is 
not a human being in existence, upon whom I would will- 
ingly and knowingly inflict a mementos suffermg ; and the 
greatest pleasure I have ever enjoyed, has been in heahng 
the strifes of others, and in being — in a very inconsiderable 
degree, to be sfce, yet as far as I could — mstrumental iu 
adding to the sum of human happiness. You see, my love, 
how good sometimes flows out of evil. I began to chide a 
little — well, that you will agree was wrong ; but I have 
ended with a moral reflection, and that, were it not for the 



HIS POLITICAL CAREEH. G3 

egotism which it involves, you will equally agree is very 
right, and altogether suitable as a matin employment of" the 
sacred day." IMore suitable than what he jiresently adds. 1 
" During the past week, the business of the house has excited 
more than usual interest, by the discussion of the new taxes 
proposed to be raised for carrying on their project of war 
agamst Great Britain. In these debates, the federalists have, 
by an understanding among themselves, from motives of 
policy, taken no part. Our only employment in this depart- 
ment of the public business is, to listen and vote." 

"April 3, 1812. — I have the pleasure to inform you 
that I arrived in Washington about tv»'o o'clock to-day, quite 
well, though under the pressure of great bodily fatigue." 
[He had been on a visit to Philadelpliia.J " I UTimediately 
went to the House, where my appearance was hailed with 
a joy and affection from my political friends much beyond 
any merits of mine, or any service which I can render by 
being here. Already, however, I have been warmly at work, 
though, owing to the secrecy enjoined, I can give no account 
beyond what is already known, either to my poUtical friends 
or to you." 

" April 17, 1812." — A disposition to grant a short recess 
of Congress, as a rehef to the weary members, had recently 
been manifested by the majority, who held the reins of pow- 
er ; but under this date, he says, " The majority, with whom 
the proposal originated, have changed their minds, and now 
evince a determination to continue the session until the 
question of war with England shall have been decided. This 
is greatly to be lamented, because it will equally violate my 
sense of duty, and the expectation of my friends in Philadel- 
phia, to be absent at so interesting a crisis. Lideed, that is 
absolutely out of the question." 

Almost immediately after the last date, a severe fit of the 
gout, of which he writes many amusing accounts to his wife, 
detained him from the House, except that he once hobbled 
down by the aid of a friend and a staff', in order to give his 



64 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

vote, in vain, in favor of the proposed temporary adjourn- 
ment of Congress. At length, however, on the 1st of May, 
he wrote from his seat in the House, that he had so far recov- 
ered as to be able to attend again to business, by wearing a 
very easy slipper. But his health had suffered so much, 
that after a few days' hard service, in which, as we shall see, 
he made one eventful speech, he obtained leave of absence, 
and remained at home till near the 20th of May. Hence 
he writes, 

"May 21, 1812, — I have the pleasure to inform you of 
my safe arrival at this place, yesterday afternoon. Congress 
have had no session for two days, owing to the Speaker, Mr. 
Clay, having received an injury by a fall from his horse ; but 
I am told he is sufficiently recovered to attend in his place 
to-day." 

" May 26, 1812, — You used often to wish for the arrival 
of the Hornet, because that event promised to put an end to 
this tedious session. Well, the Hornet has at length ar- 
rived, and disappointed the hopes of Napoleon's friends. 
They had fondly expected from the universal robber a degree 
of justice and even of affection towards this country, which 
a knowledge of his character ought to have told them was 
impossible. What effect this will have upon the continuance 
of our session is uncertam. The ruling party are quite chop- 
fallen, and as yet undetermined upon the course which they 
are to take : whether to continue their project of war against 
England only, or to wage it against both England and 
France ; or to stop short, and let the session end as it began. 
This state of incertitude may continue for some time ; and if 
either of the first two plans which I have mentioned should 
be adopted, more time, I presume, will be frittered away ia 
making further preparations of a warlike nature." 

"June 6, 1812. — Whatever claims my greater age and 
longer close attention to business, and acquisitions of prop- 
erty, may have given me upon the suflrage of my fellow- 
citizens, and however these things may have justified me in 



HIS POLITICAL CAREER. 65 

yielding to their request to leave my own concerns and attend 
to theirs, I shall never be unvv^illing to acknowledgii the 
indiscretion of my decision, and its prejudicial consequences. 
It is true, I neither contemplated the event of my election 
as probable, nor anticipated, in case of so unexpected an 
occurrence, such a wearying session as this has been. Had 
the latter circumstance been expected, I would, even after 
the commencement of the session, have made arrangements 
for having my family here ; in which case the loss of per- 
sonal comfort would not have been added to the ruinous loss 
of business, which I now fear will be the efl'ect of my con- 
tinued absence from it." 

As to the close of the session, " The war people, in whose 
hands our fate is held, talk of the beginnuig of July, of the 
middle of that month, or of the first of August, as the whim 
of the moment, their own information, or their want of infor- 
mation suggests. My fears, I confess, make me look at the 
most remote of the above periods as that most likely to dis- 
perse us. Congress is now fuller than it has been at any 
time during the session, our House wanting but nine of its 
full complement : and of these nine, one has died and another 
resigned; so that only seven actual members are absent. 

*' The imDortant discussions, in which we have been 
engaged during this week within closed doors, lead to results 
that will greatly prolong the session. New duties, direct 
taxes, and all the machinery necessary for carrying on the 
war, which these mad people are determined to wage against 
Great Britain, must necessarily consume much time in their 
consideration. Whether we shall be shut up from public 
view when these measures come under discussion, I know 
not. If we are, though our minds may be vexed, yet our 
bodies will be comforted ; for our hall is abundantly cooler 
when strangers are excluded, than when we sit with crowd- 
ed galleries. I can't say that our gentlemen-commoners are 
influenced by this consideration to close the doors against 
their fellow-citizens, yet I believe their whole detail of rea- 



CG MEMOIR OF DR. MIXNOR. 

sons for this anti-republican proceeding does not furnish a 
better." 

" June 17, 1812. — The interesting question, to which all 
the proceedmgs of this long session have tended, still remains 
undecided in the Senate" — the House, it seems, had settled 
it — " though it may probably receive its final decision in 
that body to-day. Whether war be, or be not the result, I 
trust the necessity of our remaining together cannot last 
much longer." 

" June 20, 1812. — Were it not that several matters are 
still depending in which my constituents are much inter- 
ested, I would, for myself, break loose the latter end of this 
week. On one of these measures, the question of double 
duties on imported goods, I spoke yesterday ; and if another, 
the relaxation of the non-importation law, were disposed of, 
I should feel myself at liberty to go. A few days more will 
give me a clearer prospect, both as to the probable duration 
of the session, and as to my own duty, in either remaming 
till the end, or breaking loose a little soc»ier." 

Two days after the last date, he asked, and obtained leave 
of absence for the remainder of the session, and yet the priv- 
ilege thus granted remained unused. The following extract 
explains the reasons. 

" June 26, 1812. — It is a great disappointment not to be 
able to leave Washington to-day, as I had promised myself 
I should do. Two reasons have detained me. In the first 
place, we"— a committee of which he was one — '* are about 
publishing a pamplilet, containing the reasons of the federal- 
ists in Congress for voting against the war ; and I wish to 
be here when it is ready for circulation, in order to use my 
franking privilege in senduig copies" — he had subscribed for 
one hundred — "to gentlemen in various places. In the 
second place, it is expected that within a few days some 
interesting questions may arise, in which a single vote will 
be of consequence ; and I should be much censured by my 
friends, as well as by my own feelings, were I, without 



HIS POLITICAL CAREER. 67 

the most pressing necessity, to leave my post at such a 
time." 

The pamphlet mentioned in this extract, is an able docu- 
ment of twenty-four closely printed octavo pages, entitled, 
" An Address of Members of the House of Representatives 
of the Congress of the United States to their Constituent?, 
on the subject of the War with Great Britain ;" entering at 
length into the argument on the war question, and signed 
by tliirty-four federal members of the House, of whom Mr. 
Milnor was one. As a public document, further reference 
to it in this place may be considered needless. 

At length, the early part of July, the great session closed, 
and Mr. Milnor was again at home and at his business ; 
while the wuir, which with others he had vainly striven to 
avert, was preparing to blaze over the breadth and length 
of our land. The extracts thus far made, give but an im- 
perfect idea of his activity in Congress during the ripening 
of our hostile preparations. The letters to his political friends, 
in which that activity was more fully detailed, have been 
lost. "VVe can therefore only say, in general, that, through 
the session, he was truly a U'orkinginerabeT, in committees 
and on the floor of the House ; and a man of influence, so 
far as influence from his side was practicable, both within 
and without the halls of Congress. 

But one thing remains to be noticed, before we pass to a 
brief review of his last session, which was also the close of 
his political career. To that one thing we have already 
alluded, when speakmg of a certam "■eventful speech'' which 
he delivered on the last day of April, wliile as yet but im- 
perfectly recovered from his severe lit of the gout. To the 
circumstance which made that speech eventful, the follow- 
ing extract from one of liis letters refers. 

" June 20, 1812. — I am very much pained to hear that 
a report, calculated to increase the anxiety unavoidably at- 
tending our unhappy separation, should have reached you. 
Whether there were any truth in it or not, I am vexed be- 



G8 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

yond measure at the want of common-sense as well as of 
common feeling manifested by the person who so injudiciously 
and unfeelingly communicated that report to you. It is a 
matter which need not give you a moment's uneasiness. 
The report arose out of some dissatisfaction manifested by a 
certain gentleman at the publication of a certain debate, in 
which I took a prominent part ; but nothing has occurred, 
and nothing tvill occur, which need excite any fears for the 
safety either of my person or of my reputation — both of 
which, I am sure, are precious in the estimation of my 
affectionate partner," 

This extract will be rendered intelligible to the reader 
by stating, that the report which had reached Mrs. Milnor, 
was to the effect that her husband had been on the eve of a 
duel with the Speaker of the House, Henry Clay. The cir- 
cumstances which had led to a challenge from this gentle- 
man were briefly these. 

On the 30th of April, the Hon. WilHam Eeed, of Massa- 
chusetts, " presented a petition, signed by upwards of 470 
merchants of Boston, setting forth that they had an immense 
amount of property in the dominions of Great Britain, the 
safety of which was jeoparded by the state of the relations 
between the two countries ; and praying permission to draw 
their said property from Great Britain and her dependencies, 
under such provisions as shall be reasonable and just." 

The reading of this petition was ordered, but had not 
proceeded far, when it was earnestly objected to by one ol 
the majority, on the ground that the petition was an insult 
to the House, inasmuch as it declared that the famous Ber- 
lin and Milan decrees were still in operation ; whereas the 
executive had declared them repealed. The Speaker, how- 
ever, decided that the reading must proceed. After it was 
ended, Mr. Reed moved that the petition be referred to a 
select committee, while Mr, R-hea moved that it be post- 
poned till after the 4th of the ensuing July. Upon these 
motions arose the debate in which Mr. Milnor took such ** a 



HIS POLITICAL CAREER. 69 

prominent part." Some days after the debate had been 
terminated by a reference of the petition to the committee 
of the whole, a sketch of the day's proceedings, containing a 
report of Mr. Milnor's speech, was sent to the Philadelphia 
"Political and Commercial Register hij a friend in Wash- 
i?igfon." It was at this report that Mr. Clay took offence, 
and for it that he called Mr. Milnor to account. Or, more 
correctly, the alleged ground of his challenge was, Mr. Mil- 
nor's refusal to answer his question touching the autlwrskip 
of the report. 

It will not be necessary to give Mr. Milnor's speech at 
length. It was a fearless and manly effort ; and during its 
dehvery, he was repeatedly interrupted for saying things 
unpalatable to the ruling majority. His soul seemed fired 
at tlie evident disposition of that majority to embarrass the 
freedom of debate ; particularly at the passionate warmth 
of manner with which the Speaker twice called him to order 
for saying, and repeating the assertion, that Mr. Rhea's mo- 
tion to postpone the consideration of the petition to so late a 
day as after the 4th of July was, " iri effect, to trifle with 
the sufferings of the petitioners." After the Speaker's second 
interruption, the report represents Mr. Milnor as thus con- 
tinuing his speech. 

" I have scrupulously avoided arraigning the motives of 
the proposer of this resolution, or of any other member. I 
have spoken of the effect of the course proposed. I know, 
however, sir, your powers, and those of the majority, too 
weU not to feel the necessity of acquiescing in this interpo- 
sition of your authority ; and therefore, although perfectly 
satisfied that I have made no observation inconsistent with 
a just freedom of debate, the rules of decorum, or parlia- 
mentary usage, I bow m submission to the mandate of the 
chair. I hope, however, I may be permitted to repeat, as 
an impressive reason for looking into the subject of this peti- 
tion nxno, and an argument against its postponement, that 
the recent burnings of our vessels upon the ocean furnish an 



70 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

evidence of the existence of the French decrees, which, hav- 
ing happened since the President's assertion of their repeal, 
could not have entered into his consideration of the question ; 
and, of course, it can involve no possible disrespect towards 
him to examine it with this additional evidence." After 
some further observations, Mr. Milnor concluded by express- 
ing his " hope, that the House would consent to the reference 
of the petition, as proposed by the gentleman from Massa- 
chusetts." 

When the Philadelphia report of his speech reached 
Washington, Mr. Milnor was on a visit to his family ; and 
just before his return to Washington, the House was for two 
days prevented from sitting by Mr. Clay's accident in falling 
from his horse. At the moment of his return, however, Mr. 
Clay had sufficiently recovered to be able to resume the chair. 
The two gentlemen, therefore, reappeared in the House on the 
same day, May 21. On that very day, the Speaker opened 
the following correspondence, which will be sufficient for 
a further elucidation of the difficulty between them. The 
point in the Philadelphia report of the speech, and its con- 
nected proceedings, at which Mr. Clay took umbrage, seems 
to have been the charge contained in that report, of intem- 
perate warmth in the manner in which, as Speaker of the 
House, he repeatedly interrupted Mr. Milnor' s remarks. 

(No. 1.) 

"House of Representatives, 21st May, 1812. 

" To THE Honorable Mr. Milnor : 

"Sir — Your return to the city of Washington affords me 
an opportiuiity of inquiring of you, if the sketch of the debate 
on Mr. Reed's motion, upon presenting the petition of the 
Boston merchants, which appears in the Political and Com- 
mercial Register of the 6th instant, was furnished by you ? 
The place and mamier of the appearance, for the first time, 
of this sketch, will apologize for the trouble I give you on 

this occasion. Yours, 

"H. CLAY." 



HIS POLITICAL CAREER. 71 

Answer. 

(No. 2.) 

"Coyle's, 21st May, 1812. 

" To THE Honorable Mr. Clay : 

" Sir — Your note of this day was delivered to me in my 
place by the Sergeant-at-arms, during the sitting of the 
House of Representatives. However willing, under other 
circumstances, I might have been to give any information in 
my power on the subject to which you refer, yet, as an im- 
portant principle, as it respects both my representative and 
personal mdependence, might be affected by an acknowledg- 
ment, on my part, of the right to make, and the obligation 
to answer, an inquiry of such a nature, I trust that my now 
declining it wlU not be attributed to any intention of per- 
sonal disrespect. Yours, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

(No. 3.) 

"Mrs. Donson's, 21st May, 1812. 
" The Honorable Mr. Milnor : 

" Sir — Finding from your answer to my note of this 
morning, that you have misconstrued the circumstances 
attending the place where it was delivered to you, and the 
mode of conveyance I employed, I tliink it due no less to 
myself than to you to declare, that there existed no inten- 
tion to violate your independence in any respect. As you 
have attached some degree of importance to these circum- 
stances, altogether accidental, I have to request that, if they 
constitute the only bar to the information sohcited, you will 
consider tliis as a renewal of my inquiry. 

"Yours, 

"H. CLAY." 

Answer. 
(No. 4.) 

" Coyne's, 22d May, 1812., 
" The Honorable Mr. Clay : 

" Sir — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of 
your second note last evening by the Honorable Mr. Bibb, 
of the Senate. 



72 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

" 111 my answer to the one previously received, the ex- 
pressions, according to my apprehension, did not impute to 
you an intention of violating my personal independence, nor 
represent the place where your note was delivered, and the 
mode of conveyance, as constituting the only bar to my fur- 
nishing you with the information asked for; at the same 
time I appreciate, as I ought, the frankness with wliich you 
have disavowed the mtention alluded to. I am oblio-ed, 
however, to repeat, that confirmed impressions of duty, as 
they respect the preservation of the privileges both of my 
public and private character, do not admit of my conceding 
the principle, under circumstances like the present, of your 
right to make, or of my obligation to answer, the inquiry 
which I understand to be renewed by your last note. 
" Yours, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

(No. 5.) 

"Mrs. Donson's, 22d May, 1812. 

" The Honorable James Milnor : 

" Sir — I am gratified to learn by your note of to-day, 

delivered to me by Mr. Goldsborough, that you have placed 

a proper construction upon the circumstances attending the 

delivery of my note to you yesterday morning. I have, at 

the same time, to regret that the sense entertained by you 

of your duty will not allow you to communicate the uifor- 

mation sought for by me. Your determination leaves to my 

choice a single mode of reparation for an injury of which I 

conceive I have cause to complain ; and my friend Mr. Bibb 

is authorized by me to make the requisite arrangements. 

*' Yours, 

"H.CLAY." 



(No. 6.) 



Answer. 

"Capt. Coyle's, 23d May, 1812. 



" Honorable Mr. Clay 

" Sir — Being utterly unconscious of having ever offered 
or intended you any injury, and having received from you 



HIS POLITICAL CAREER. 73 

no information of any part of my conduct against Avliich you 
consider yourself as possessing cause of complaint, the same 
leading principle in reference to public and private duty that 
has hitherto regulated my course, obliges me to deem it im- 
proper to comply with the intimation of your note of tliis 
day. For such a compliance, the most deliberate reflection 
that I have been able to give the subject suggests no justi 
fication, on my part, in any tiling that has occurred between 
us, either before or since the commencement of the present 
correspondence. Yours, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

By thus declining Mr. Clay's call to the field, Mr. Mil- 
nor gave good proof both of personal and of moral courage. 
Those were times, emphatically, when the mere sending of 
a challenge was deemed reason enough for its acceptance. 
Gentlemen of honor, so called, would ordinarily have been 
afraid to refuse the call, though given in the spirit of angry 
and reasonless caprice. They would have been likely to rea- 
son thus m their heart : " My opponent calls ; that ia enough 
for me ; I must meet liim." So reasoned not James Mil- 
nor, though yet in his unconverted state. He saw a inin- 
ci'ple, which his decision was either to support or to sacrifice, 
for others as well as for himself; and even if we may sup- 
pose that, as a man of the world, he had then no conscien- 
tious scruples against the barbarous and wicked practice of 
duellhig, still, as a man of miNcirLE, he would not permit 
the most distmguished opponent to demand and enforce from 
him what was not /as ri^^Jit. He had the highest kind of 
courage — that which stands to the right, and sets arbitrary 
and senseless, yet all but omnipotent custom at defiance. 

Years after the occurrences which wc have now been 
reviewing, when Mr. Milnor had been long in the church, 
and Mr. Clay had risen higher than ever in the political 
world, these two gentlemen met again in Wasliington on 
terms of mutual respect and amity. Tlieir meeting was at 

Mem. Milnor. 4 



74 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

a dimier, to which Mr. Clay had invited Dr. Milnor. Dur- 
ing the interview, their manner towards each other was that 
of the utmost frankness and high hearing. Not a word was 
said, not the shadow of a look passed over the countenance 
of either, to indicate that the past was rememhered. The 
manner of Mr. Clay showed that the highest respect for Dr. 
Milnor had buried that past away from his feelings ; while 
that of Dr. Milnor made it perfectly evident that he knew 
how to meet the advances of Mr. Clay. He was not a man 
to say, by either his actions or his looks, " Sir, as a Chris- 
tian, I am bound to forgive what, as a gentleman, I do but 
civilly forget." On the part of both there was a warm 
openheartedness which put the past, in effect, where each 
wished it might have been in fact — out of existence. 

We pass now to a brief review of the closing scenes of 
Mr. Milnor' s political life. Early in November, 1812, he 
left Philadelphia for his third winter in Congress, and after 
" a most tedious and irksome passage," reached Washington 
on the 5th of the month. He was soon settled in his old 
quarters at Coyle's, and as soon engaged in the business of 
the session. But a great change, dimly shadowed as yet to 
his own perceptions, was already beginning to come over his 
mind ; and it is here mentioned, not because this is the time 
to trace its progress, bu.t because a knowledge of the fact 
will help us to understand why he took so much less part in 
politics than during the previous session, and why his letters 
say so little of the part which he did take. The following 
extracts contain his only notices of what was passing in the 
great world of war and politics. 

" Nov. 10, 1812. — The weather has been so bad, and the 
walking so dreadful, that I have been barely able to get from 
my lodgings to the capitol since my arrival. To-day, how- 
ever, I took a carriage, and paid the usual visit of compli- 
ment to the President, with whom I had about half an hour's 
conversation. He was communicative and pleasant, but 
Mrs. Madison did not make her appearance. Business makes 



HIS POLITICAL CAREER. 75 

ver}'^ quiet progress. No manifestations of heat or violence 
have yet appeared, and I sincerely hope they may not." 

"Nov, 20, 1812. — I have had much more leisure since 
my arrival than I had last session. Going less abroad, and 
being upon but one important committee, together with an 
unusual exemption from letters of either politics or business, 
Mith only two fellow-boarders, of retired and quiet habits, 
and, added to all this, with but short daily sittings of the 
House, have altogether contributed to give me retiremeiit 
without wearmess, and the luxuries of reading and reflec- 
tion without the bustle and anxiety of public or professional 
concerns." 

"Nov. 21, 1812. — Yesterday, very unexpectedly to my- 
self, I felt constrained to take the floor upon two interesting 
questions, arismg out of the needless and calamitous war in 
which our rulers have unfortunately plunged us. The sub- 
ject was, an act for increasing the facility of raismg troops 
by enlistment. One of its objectionable provisions was, an 
authority to enlist boys from eighteen to twenty-one years 
of age, without regard to the claims, interests, or feelings of 
parents, guardians, or masters ; thus authorizing a bribe to 
profligate young men to violate every duty of obedience tow- 
ards those who have charge of them, and ruining their pros- 
pects in life by taking them from the acquisition of a useful 
calling into all the profligacy and vice of a camp. The 
other provision wliich excited my feelings, was an exemption 
to debtors from being arrested by their creditors, after en 
listing as soldiers, whatever be the amount of their debts, 
and whether contracted before or after enlistment. Two 
more scandalous violations of true policy, the civil rights of 
the citizen, and the principles of religion and morality, can- 
not be conceived. May a merciful Providence shield oui 
country against participating in the ruin which must await 
fcuch shameful means for bolstering up a wicked and unnec- 
essary war. Pray excuse this diversion to the rugged and 
unpleasant path of politics. I shall soon be permitted to 



76 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

leave their management to others. But, while my term of 
public service continues, they claim and must unavoidably 
receive a portion of my attention." 

"Nov. 24, 1812. — You will not think me very deeply 
engaged in the aflairs of the nation, when I tell you, that 
instead of preparing speeches, and studymg the intricacies of 
political controversy, my hours, when not spent at the capi- 
tol, or in social converse, or in writing to you, are chiefly 
passed near my chamber-fire in the perusal of books, such 
as I meet with here, and find adapted to the feelings of my 
mind," 

" Dec. 3, 1812. — The discussion of the question of releas- 
ing the merchants from the penalties incurred by them in 
bringing in British goods, was commenced in our House this 
day, and is likely to continue for some time. I am prepared 
to speak in their favor, if it should be deemed expedient. 

" I shall not make my letter more of an olla 'podrida by 
adding any tiling of a serious cast to the foregoing details. 
My allotted term of ceremony and of public business must 
be filled ; and then for the moments of domestic comfort, 
the endearments of wife and children, and a regular but not 
morose attention to duties of the most pleasing and impor- 
tant nature, because they are fitted to gild with cheerfuhiess 
the passage through life, and to brighten the prospects of a 
future world." 

"Dec. 9, 1812." — Having been compelled, as ♦a member 
of the naval committee, to attend a ball given to Captain 
Hull and others, as officers of the navy, he thus describes a 
scene which took place in the course of the evening 

" The Secretary of the Navy, his wife, and two daugh- 
ters were of the company. About 9 o'clock m the evening, 
it was announced that the son of the Secretary, Mr. Hamil- 
ton, had arrived with official dispatches for his father, an- 
nouncing the victory gained by Commodore Decatur, of the 
Ixigate United States, over the British frigate Macedonian ; 
and that he brought with him the colors of the captured ves- 



HIS POLITICAL CAREER. 77 

sel. A few moments afterwards, the ingenuous youth was 
ushered mto the ballroom, and fell upon the necks of his 
overjoyed mother and sisters. They had not seen liim for 
more than a twelvemonth, nor since he had miraculously 
escaped from the dreadful conflagration of the theatre at 
Richmond, where he happened to be at the time of that 
calamitous event, on his way to Norfolk to take his station 
on board the United States. He had now returned, flushed 
with victory, and found the city universally illuminated on 
account of the gallant action in which he had shared ; his 
family engaged in doing honor to the brave men M'ho had 
gone before him in the career of glory ; and himself — happy 
man — ^bearer of tlie ensigns of another conquered foe. Soon 
after the scene I have described, the colors of the Macedo- 
nian were introduced, borne by Captams Hull, Stewart, and 
Morris, with other naval officers, amid the loud acclamations 
of the company. Tliis was a part of the entertainment so 
unexpected and so much in consonance with the feelings of 
patriotism, that I confess it very much diminished the senti- 
ment of disgust at all around me, in which I had been indulg- 
ing. I glory in the evidences we have had of the prowess 
of our little navy, and am convinced that it is the only true 
method of defending our national rights." 

Though opposed to the war, he was not blmd to the 
ability with which it was conducted — at least, so far as it 
made the broad ocean its field. 

"Diic. 18, 1812. — The interesting question with respect 
to the relief of our merchants from the forfeitures and penal- 
ties incurred under the non-importation act, which aflects 
individuals in our city alone to the amount of four and a 
half millions of dollars, is not yet decided ; and the division 
111 the House is so nearly equal, that a single vote may turn 
the decision one way or the other. Under these circum- 
stances, I deem it a conscientious duty to submit to the ne- 
cessity of remaumig here till the question is settled, wliich 
I hope will be m the course of the ensuing week." 



78 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

The debates on the merchants' reUef bill detained him 
till about Christmas. The moment he could with safety 
leave, he visited" Philadelphia, and was in his place again 
after the close of the holidays. Hence he writes, from the 
House, 

"Jan. 13, 1813. — I have arrived here, in good health 
and without accident, just in time, as upon one or two for- 
mer occasions, to give a vote upon the army bill. Randolph 
is now making a very long speech ; and we have before us 
the prospect of a night-session, as the majority are deter- 
mined to take the final question to-day." 

" Jan. 16, 1813. — ^^^hile I was absent, I find the politi- 
cal asperity of parties has risen to its highest pitch. Mr. 
dumcy's severe attack on the admuiistration brought upon 
him an abundance of abuse. I found Mrs. Madison, to 
whose drawing-room entertainments Mr. Gluincy — improp- 
erly, I thmk — made some allusion, by no means unaffected 
by the passing scene. She spoke freely and feelingly to me 
on the subject, though without anger ; and I confess, between 
ourselves, I cannot but deem it a departure from the prin- 
ciples of decorum in a member of Congress, to make such 
reflections as fell from Mr. Gluincy. I hope he will see the 
propriety of omitting them, or of assuaging their severity, in 
the publication of liis speech which he is about to make ; 
and which, barring this and some other parts of it unneces- 
sarily severe, our friends all concur in saying was an aston- 
ishing display of genius and eloquence." , 

This severely brilliant assault on the admuiistration may 
have been what Mr. Mihior refers to, in a letter some days 
before his visit to Philadelphia, m which he says, " I write 
in the House with a speech from Mr. Q^uincy thundering in 
my ear." 

His political course was now drawing to a close. His 
letters to Mrs. Milnor all breathe of the diviner themes 
which have filled his soul, and his allusions to the busmess 
of Congress disappear from their pages. On the 27th of 



HIS POLITICAL CAREER. 79 

February, he names the day of his intended final departure 
lor PhLladel2)hia ; his last being one of the short sessions, 
which terminate the 4th of March. Unexpectedly, how 
ever, a gentle visit from his ancestral friend the gout, de- 
tained liim for several days after the adjournment ; and 
" while all Washington was crowding to the capitol on the 
4th, to witness Mr. Madison's re-mauguration, he had more 
pleasure ui sitting down in the solitude of his chamber to 
relieve any anxiety wliich liis wife might have suffered" by 
his previous day's announcement of his expected detention. 
He was well enough to leave Washington on the 6th of 
March, but for safety's sake preferred taking his seat in the 
coach on the 8th. On that day, the coach, when it came 
along, was too full to receive him, and he did not fmally 
leave till the 9th. 

Thus close all the notices which remaui of Mr. Milnor's 
political life durmg his last session in Congress. He faith- 
fully did liis work ibr his country, but said little about it m 
his letters. He had other thmgs on his heart, and other 
tlihigs for Ids j)en, even while busily occupied in public duty. 
His letters to Mrs. Milnor and others were more frequent 
than ever ; but they were almost undividedly filled with 
concerns mightier than those of nations. They will come 
into view as we proceed to trace tliat work of the Spirit 
wliich transformed him from a man of the law to a disciple 
of the Gospel, and from a political servant of his country to 
an eminent minister of Christ. 



80 MEMOIR OF DU. MILNOE. 



PAET II. 

HISTORY OF MR. MILNOU'S RELIGIOUS CHANGE. 



SECTION I. 

In proceeding to trace the formation of Mr. Milnor's 
Christian character, we have the advantage of a previous 
knowledge of what he was as a fully developed and maturely 
ripened man : unstained from boyhood with the too frequent 
vices of life, yet formed to the fashion and the manners, and 
governed by the spirit and the maxims of the world ; warm 
and generous in his friendships, especially in his domestic 
attachments ; scrupulously honest and upright in his deal- 
ings ; industrious and methodical in his business ; active and 
influential in the benevolent and literary institutions of his 
age ; a peacemaker, who yet, for the sake of peace, would 
never sacrifice truth and right ; incorruptibly pure and high- 
minded in liis social and poHtical principles ; peculiarly pop- 
ular with all the associations into wliich he entered, and in 
all the relations which he sustained ; an able and successful 
lawyer, of that order who seem formed to sit with grace, 
dignity, and reputation, on the bench of justice; and a leg- 
islator, animated with the truest patriotism, and gifted with 
no little insight and sagacity in the philosophy of politics. 
In short, had he been constitutionally as much in love with 
legal and political life as he was practically successful in 
both, he might have risen — such was liis popularity in his 
native state — to her highest posts of trust and honor. At 
the time when he was about to disappear from the scenes of 
civil life, he was akeady talked of as next governor of Peim- 
sylvania. 



RELIGIOUS CHANG-E. 81 

But amid all this, and even to the close of his second 
session in Congress, he was without any real experience, and 
even without any just perceptions, of the true nature of the 
religion of Christ. He was, indeed, far from thoughtlessness 
about religion ; yet his thoughts were any thing but true to 
the interior power and spirituality of the gospel. Of this, 
the intelligent religious reader will have already seen evi- 
dence ; and evidence more satisfying to such will appear in 
what we have further to examine. 

In school-boy days, and in legal studies, James Milnor 
had a playmate and a friend in Aquila Massey Bolton. Mr. 
Bolton was evidently, in mature years, a man of handsome 
talents ; gay, volatile, and witty ; the soul of social parties ; 
but, withal, loose, and in secret not merely sceptical, but 
utterly infidel in his views of religion. Amid the vicissitudes 
of life, however, it pleased God to make him, if we may 
judge from his letters, a monument of awakening grace, if 
not of recovering mercy ; and m the faithful dealings which 
he at once opened with the conscience of his friend James, 
we have our first glimpse into the earlier religious notions 
of the latter. 

As early as the 3d of March, 1800, somewhat more than 
a year after Mr. Milnor's marriage, Mr. Bolton addressed to 
him a letter, from which the following are excerpts. Ex- 
plaining a ''something,"" of which he says his mind had, 
"for a considerable time, been full," he proceeds : 

" Know, then, my dear friend — for I think you nearer to 
me than ever — that, hke the Prodigal Son, I am seeking to 
be restored to the favor of my heavenly Father, through the 
mediation of his Son Jesus Christ, whom I have so long 
turned from and crucified in my heart. This confession, I 
doubt not, will subject me to even your mockery, as I know 
it will to that of the world. The latter is a matter of indif- 
ference ; and even the former I think I could bear, if it 
would not be an evidence to your own condemnation. You 
may well say, ' Is Saul also among the prophets V for I have 



82 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

been a cruel persecutor of Christianity" — [by the way, that 
is not the first time that the Saul of the Old Testament has 
been put in the place of Saul in the Neiv] — " to a greater 
degree, I believe, than any but the Holy Spirit has had 
knowledge of Few of my friends, I think, have known to 
what monstrous lengths I had gone from the faith which is 
in Jesus. Thanks be to the Lord, I was arrested on the 
high road to destruction, and have been taught, as Saul 
liimself was, that it was Jesus whom I persecuted." 

" If you knew how much I have your welfare at heart, 
and notwithstanding our past friendship, you cannot know, 
you would be disposed to believe one who, to his sorrow, 
avows that he was carried by a speculative philosophy far, 
very far beyond Deism. Indeed, I think I was never more 
fixed in any one opinion than in a total disbelief of all 
divine revelation ; and for a long time I valued myself upon 
having overcome every kind of superstition and prejudice, 
which I thought had their origin from the Old and New 
Testaments. But, notwithstandmg I was as firmly fixed 
in my opinion as Voltaire himself ever was, I can now de- 
clare, that I have no more doubt of the Scriptures having 
been dictated by the Supreme Being, than I have of my 
own existence. 

" Oh that I could commmiicate to you a full sense of 
what I have been taught in the school of Christ. Your eyes 
would then be opened indeed. You will remember, and I 
have not forgotten, the time when we used to laugh at seri- 
ous people affecting to know sometliing, which we. in our 
vain imaginations, could not believe to be of any importance. 
You have now an opportunity to renew the laugh at my 
expense. But, for your own sake, not mine, beware ; de- 
ceive not yourself: be assured there is a God to whom every 
knee shall bow, and whom every tongue shall confess ; and 
no man can come unto the Father but by that Son, whom I 
fear you have long ago disclaimed. 

" Bearing in mind how ineflectual were remonstrances 



RELIG-IOUS CHANaE. 83 

upon my own mind when in a state of apostasy — ^the reason 
of wliich inefficacy I can now discern — I am indeed without 
much hope of being able to arouse you to a sense of your 
condition. Yet, when I reflect upon the great, the important 
cha)is^e in my mind, and upon the friendsliip wliich has sub- 
sisted between us, I am tempted, and I trust permitted, at 
least by that Holy Spirit under whose awful influence I hope 
ever to continue, to sound an alarm, wliich I fervently pray 
may not be disregarded. 

" This conversion I can only call strange, ' passing 
strange.' Oh, could you Joww the gratitude which I feel 
towards that Redeemer whom I have so long and so fla- 
grantly oflended, for having' opened my eyes to see my con- 
dition when upon the very precipice of hell, you would feel 
very little concerned about the trash of this world. And 
this change, beheve me, you must experience, or you will be 
lost to all eternity. Flatter not yourself that the Lord con- 
forms himself to man's wisdom, or that you can save yourseK' 
from perdition in any other way than by reliance upon Clirist 
Jesus. BeHeve me, I am in my perfect senses, when I tell 
you, that I know these truths as plainly as I know that two 
and two make four. 

" I thought I could do no less than write you as I have 
done, although it may be the means of breaking our friend- 
ship ; for you must not expect to find me, in future, the 
same as you have found me in the past ; and I am afraid 
that you will not relish any thing from one who wishes not 
to violate the covenant he has made with his God. Our 
future intercourse depends upon yourself. If you think that 
I am not too gloomy a correspondent, I will gladly ret i.in 
my place in your aflbction. As to mine for you, be assured 
it is increased most wonderfully : for, once I supposed our 
friendship would end in death; now I cannot but hope it 
will be eternal.'' 

And if, friend Aquila, thy own faith was steadfast to the 
end, thy hope is already certainty. 



84 MEMOIIl OF DR. MILNOR. 

On the fifth of April, he wrote again to Mr. Mihior as 
follows : 

"Deau Jai\ies — I feel fearful that I may have said some- 
tlung in my last at wliich you have taken umbrage ; for 
several weeks are now elapsed, and I have not received a 
line from you. Indeed, my dear friend, notwithstanding the 
resolution I have most seriously made, to have less converse 
with the world, yet I cannot consent to give up your friend- 
ship. Perhaps, however, this is not as I please ; and you 
being willing to give up mine, the continuance of a mutual 
fellowship is not to be expected, I am not ignorant how it is 
with the general run of mankind ; and how, in some instan- 
ces, it has been with myself When I have seen some one 
of my acquaintances dravv'n, as if by the hand of God, from 
the circles of mirth, to deliver him from temptation, I have 
felt a kind of contemptuous pity, that he should wish to be 
no longer cheerful ; and, by seeking solitude, should fall into 
a state of melancholy, not to say sullenness. If you should 
feel this kind of contempt for me, what could I say or do to 
prove that I know I act rationally, and that you — yes, you, 
gay and wanton as you now are — must come to a like state 
of seriousness and solemn stillness, m order to commune with 
your own heart, and thus discover its deceitfulness ; or else — 
the alternative is dreadful, but not more dreadful than true — 
or else lose your salvation. This may not appear to you, at 
this time, a necessary truth ; but I pray that a merciful God 
will ere long open your eyes, as he has been graciously 
pleased to open mine. Be assured, that the unconcerned 
and wicked among men — and I fear they are the major 
part — walk in darkness ; but, believe me, there is a day of 
visitation to every son and daughter of Adam, in which, if 
they resist not the monitor of truth in their own bosoms, 
they may come to know how they are entangled in sin. I 
know that my zeal to convince you would be in vain, use 
what arguments I might,^unless the Spirit of God disposed 



TtELiaiOUS CHANaE. 85 

your heart to believe. If, however, you have any regard for 
me, as an old friend, you will not slight the advice I oiler, 
Avhich I will comprise in two words — be serious. 
" Believe me your friend, 

"AQUILAM. BOLTON." 

To both these letters Mr. Milnor thus refers in his ear- 
lier diary : 

"April 7, 1800. — How singularly astonishing are some 
of the incidents of this life ! I received, some time since, a 
letter from my old friend Aquila M. Bolton, that really sur- 
prised and affected me exceedingly. The gay, the volatile, 
the facetious Bolton, has become a zealous convert to relig- 
ion ; and his letter, wliich is handsomely written, is an ap- 
peal to my feelings, and a solemn warning of the danger of 
my present state, as he calls it, of apostasy and unbelief. 
He reprobates, in the strongest terms, his former opinions, 
discards all philosophy and reasoning on the subject of relig- 
ion, declares his present belief to be produced by a clear and 
solid co7iviction, and concludes with a warm and affectionate 
call to embrace the truths, of which he says he is as clearly 
satisfied as that two and two make four. 

" My acquaintance with Bolton has been of longer stand- 
ing than any which I at present know. It commenced when 
we were children, and grew into a friendship of the warmest 
kind when we both began the study of the law. Bolton, 
soon after his admission, became disgusted with the practice ; 
and Mr, Anthony Butler offering him his patronage, he de- 
termined to enter into commercial life. Whether his re- 
verses in business have depressed and weakened my friend's 
nerves, and produced a habit of melancholy calculated to lay 
him open to the attacks of enthusiasm, or whether his state 
of mind is the result of sober inquiry and real conversion, I 
camiot pretend to determine. 

" I have received another letter from him to-day, mucli 
in the same strain with the former, and it tends to increase 



86 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

my belief iii the sincerity of his professions ; but I have seen 
so many changes of this sort efiected by the despondency of 
the moment, which have been only coeval with that condi- 
tion of the mind, and have given way at the dawn of better 
prospects, that I cannot give full credence to the solidity and 
mialterableness of his present resolutions. 

*' In the usual style of young and enthusiastic converts, 
my friend speaks in terms of perfect carelessness as to the 
reflections and contempt of the world. He even fears he 
shall be obliged to bear my reproaches ; for he looks on me 
as an absolute apostate from the faith, and ui a state nigh 
unto destruction. He observes that he does not expect suc- 
cess to attend his persuasions, unless it be the allotted mo- 
ment of visitation ; but he repeats the most fervent strains 
of eulogy on his own, and the most earnest declarations of 
anxiety for my conversion. 

" Bolton is wrong in supposmg that I would ridicule or 
contemn his senthnents. I believe religion to be the grand 
bulwark of society ; and I have long deemed it unjustifiable 
to insult its professors, even though I may believe their no- 
tions, in some particulars, absurd, or themselves too enthu- 
siastically devout. I confess, the religion which I wish to 
see prevalent, is that which is comprised m a monition not 
likely to be too often repeated, to do to others as we would 
be willing they should do to us. I have never been able to 
persuade myself that one-half of mankind can, under any 
circumstances, be sentenced to eternal perdition ; especially, 
as zealots say, though they have fulfilled all the requisitions 
of the moral and social law. But I respect even this zeal 
in those whom I tliink unnecessarily devout, because I think 
they intend well ; and I believe that enthusiasm itself has 
been productive of good effects among a numerous class, 
whom it has led from destructive habits of irregularity and 
intemperance to a sober, orderly, and quiet deportment. 

" "Whatever doubts and difficulties may envelope my con- 
ceptions of certain doctrinal tenets, and mysteries in refigion 



RELIGIOUS CHANGE. 87 

which I cannot understand, God forbid that I should ever 
attempt to shake the faith of any man." 

From the foregoing extracts it is easy to see what were 
Mr. Mihior's religious notions at the time when the extracts 
were written. ' They were what, many years later, when 
rector of St. George's, he thus describes, in a long letter to 
one of his female parishioners. This parishioner had written 
him a mmute account of her sceptical doubts and difficulties 
on the subject of the Christian scheme, with an evidently 
sincere desire to be relieved of her embarrassments, and to 
reach a settled faith ; and he was about to advise a particu- 
lar course of uiquiry with a view to her relief He intro- 
duces his advice by sayhig, 

" Now, the recommendation with wliich I am encour- 
aged to follow this suggestion, is warranted by my own ex- 
perience of its benefits. I acknowledge to you, that I was 
once a subject of like temptations with yourself; and that, 
for a time, I pacified my conscience by avoiding an absolute 
rejection of revelation, and substituting an unhitelligent 
acquiescence in that miserable scheme of universal salva- 
timi, which I am happy to find you have been enabled more 
promptly to reject. So many rational, as well as scriptural 
arguments, however, continually arose against those which 
seemed to support that specious plan, that I was determined 
to satisfy myself, by abandoning all conjectures on the sub- 
ject, and betaking myself exclusively to the plain declara- 
tions of Scripture. But before I took this step, I began to 
question whether I was a real behever in the Volume of 
Inspiration. It occurred to me that I could not so contin- 
ually find fault with the providential arrangements of God, 
and with the declarations of his word, if I were certainly 
convinced of the truth of this sacred book. I therefore con- 
cluded to examine the evidences of its pretensions. I did 
so. My rational understanding was convinced. I had no 
more doubt of the genuineness and authenticity of the Scrrip- 
tures than of my own existence ; nor have I now. Still, I 



88 MEMOIR OF DU. MILNOR. 

was staggered at some of its parts ; and as I now dared not 
reject them, I was disjiosed to put my own interpretation on 
tlieir import. My views erred principally in the reception 
of unevangelical notions of the doctrines of the New Testa- 
ment. These led me to an undue ajopreciation of human 
effort, and to a mischievous conceit of the merit of works. 
I was disposed neither to sink myself, nor to exalt the Sav- 
iour. But, thanks be to God, this state of things was not 
to last. I became concerned for a deeper acquaintance with 
the fundamental doctrines of the gospel. I read my Bible 
more — more too in the spirit of a learner, I ventured to 
pray. By the light of God's word, and, as I trust, by the 
help of his Spirit, I discerned the character of man. I saw 
my own character in its proj)er colors. I perceived, on the 
ground of an authority to Avhich my understanding unhesi- 
tatingly assented, that I was a sinner — ^by the sentence of 
the law, a condemned sinner — and had no hope of mercy 
but through a Saviour. I was convinced that such a being 
as I was, never could be admitted to the presence of a holy 
God, but through the atonement and mediation of the Re- 
deemer ; that a change, also, in my heart and affections was 
indispensable ; and that God's Spirit alone could bestow the 
needed blessing. As I firmly believed my eternal salvation 
depended on an experience of ' a death unto sin, and a new 
birth unto righteousness,' I sought it in deep repentance and 
in vigorous exercises of faith in Christ, in earnest supplica- 
tion, and in the prayerful study of sacred writ, and when 
emboldened to do so, in the ordmances of religion. I hope 
I was careful to take no merit to myself for any of these 
exercises, but to give the glory of my salvation wholly to 
my God and Saviour." 

Thus ran his early experience. It appears, therefore, 
that friend Aquila, though he evidently underrated his *' dear 
James's" high-mindedness and generosity, by supposing him 
capable of treating his friend's vieAVS with ridicule or con- 
tempt, was yet, after all, not far in the wrong in considering 



RELIGIOUS CHANCtE. 89 

liim the subject of a pretty thorough scepticism in regard to 
the true system of the gospel, at the time when he addressed 
to him those two faithful and searching letters. The state 
of Mr. Milnor's mind was then evidently what he describes 
in i\\Q former part of the extract above given from the letter 
to his doubting parishioner. He supposed himself to have 
avoided an absolute rejection of revelation by adopting, un- 
intelligently, the theory of a universal salvation ; and yet he 
found, upon afterwards looking into liis mind, that he had 
all along had too little reason for regarding himself as really 
a believer in the inspiration of the sacred Scriptures. 

At what period he began his prayerful study of the Bible 
and of the evidences of its truth and divme inspiration, as 
described in the latter part of that extract, we have no means 
of ascertaining ; but it was probably soon after the receipt 
of his friend Bolton's letters. We know, however, very 
well, when the resulting state of a thorough rational convic- 
tion of the truth and inspiration of the Bible passed into those 
deeper convictions of the hea?'t wliich he mentions, and 
which, by revealing him to himself as a condemned sinner, 
drove him, in vigorous faith, to the Lord Jesus Christ, as 
his only hope of pardon and eternal hfe. That state, then, 
of mere rational conviction, attended, for a series of years, 
with an " overvaluation of human effort and a mischievous 
conceit of the merit of works," continued, with a te?idenci/ 
perhaps towards juster views, till after the close of his second 
session in Congress. It was, then, more especially during 
his third winter in Washington, that it unequivocally passed 
into those interior experiences in which his true religious 
life took its beginning. This general course of his mind on 
the subject of rehgion we shall see marked with sufficient 
distinctness when we proceed to look further at his diary, 
and at his letters to Mrs. Milnor, and to his friend Thomas 
Bradford, Jr. 

His diary broke off in the year 1800, and was not resum- 
ed until 1809. After that period, it consists almost wholly 



90 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

of a series of reports or abstracts written from memory, of 
the various sermons which he heard chiefly in one of the 
three associated churches in Philadelphia, of which Bishop 
"White was rector. Tliis part of his diary, however, is val- 
uable to us in exploring an earlier period of liis life than any 
included in its dates, from the circumstance that, on several 
occasions, he pauses from his homiletic reports and indulges 
in serious retrospects, which enable us to see along what 
track liis mind had been moving. Sometimes, too, he inter- 
sperses his reports with remarks of his own, wliich reveal to 
us the tone and spirit of his religious, views during the years 
in which those reports were written. 

His diary was again mterrupted by his election to Con- 
gress ; but was for a short time resumed, with more of inter- 
spersed journalizing, in the year 1813, after he had left 
Washington and political life together, and had resolved to 
devote liimself to the work of the Christian ministry. Upon 
this temporary resumption, he thus laments the efiects of his 
election, under date of March 25, 1813. 

Early in October, 1810, "I was elected a member of the 
12th Congress ; and my mind bemg soon very much occu- 
pied with arrangements preparatory to leavmg home, was 
most prejudicially drawn from that attention to religion 
which I had previously found increasing upon me in a most 
encouraging manner." 

His weekly exercise in writmg out sermons, was design- 
ed to assist him in reaping better fruits than he had been 
wont to realize from his religious instructions. He was in 
fact, even then, darkly feeling his way towards a light in 
wliich he was yet to walk rejoicingly, as one who could see 
his Leader. On Sunday, the 17th of September, 1809, he 
records the following reflections. 

" If I did not know the inconstancy of my resolutions, 
and even doubt the possibility of my adhering to so good an 
one, I would propose to note occasionally the text and sub- 
ject of such sermons as I may hear. It is astonishing how 



RELIGIOUS CHANGE. 91 

evanescent has been the impression made by those to which 
I have heretofore Hstened, I have supposed myself atten- 
tive, have been pleased, mstructed, sometimes feelingly 
ailected ; but the impression has passed away like ' the 
mornmg cloud and the early dew,' and the lapse of a few 
days has eflaced all memory of the text and the commen- 
tary. To what is this owing? In a great degree to the 
want of a retentive memor}% though such a memory is so 
necessary in my professional pursuits ; but conscience tells 
me it arises principally from the want of a feeling of real 
interest and concern in the business of religion. The heart 
must be engaged : it will then enlist all the powers of mem- 
ory on its side. I listen to sermons as to a speech at the 
bar, or a recitation at the theatre. I listen for amusement, 
and from habit. I go to church because I have been used 
to go tliither at statedly recurring periods. I do not reflect 
afterwards on what has been said, nor ask myself, ' Am I 
wiser, am I better for what I have heard V 

" A knowledge of one's faults is said to be the first step 
^towards amendment. I wish it were so Avith me ; but I have 
long known my errors and inattentions, yet they are not 
removed nor lessened. I would still hope for a change, if I 
dared rely on any determinatioii of my own, or dared to 
ask for a superior influeiice to effect it^ 

This is one of those pomts already mentioned, at which 
he pauses from liis weekly work of writing out abstracts of 
sermons, and throws his mind back into thoughtful retro- 
spect. Accordingly, he proceeds to some remarks on the 
preaching to which he was m the habit of listening, espec- 
ially on the oflensiveness to Ids mind of certain doctrinal 
discussions which he could not rehsh, and to which, in his 
keen pursuit of wealth and pleasure, and in his self-righteous 
" conceit of the merit of works," it may fairly be assumed he 
was not qualified to do justice. He writes, 

" The Rev. John Blair Limi was pastor of the first 
Presbyterian church in Philadelpliia, and incited by a great 



92 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

fondness for his style of preacliing, wliicli was liberal and 
unsectarian, though at once evangelical and moral, I took 
part of a pew in that church. In a few years death de- 
prived the congregation of this valuable minister, and he 
was succeeded by the Rev. James P. Wilson, a man of 
great learning and most exemplary piety, but so devoted to 
the peculiar doctrines of the Calvinists, and the discussion of 
intricate points of theology, and though amiable in an emi- 
nent degree in private life, yet so austere in the pulpit, that 
I could not, with satisfaction or profit, continue my attend- 
ance on his administration. My aversion to many of the 
dogmas of the Presbyterians, and to Mr. Wilson's style of 
preaching, induced me to take a pew in the neiv cliurch of 
St. James, where I now attend." 

Although this was written in 1809, yet its retrospect 
goes back to at least the beginning of 1800, and therefore to 
the time when friend Aquila's letters were written. And 
yet a passage in his diary, too long for insertion here, clearly 
implies, that while Mr. Milnor attended the Presbyterian 
church, he admitted the truth and mspiration of the Bible, 
and even agreed with his preachers, Mr. Lmn and Mr. 
AVilson, if not in all points of speculative faith, at least in 
what he deemed the essential doctrines of revelation. His 
study of the Bible and its evidences, therefore, and his ra- 
tional conviction of its divine origin, must have been very 
soon after the receipt of Mr. Bolton's letters. They could 
not have had an earlier date, because, as we have seen, his 
contemporaneous comments on those letters show him to 
have been at that time, however unintelligently, yet practi- 
cally a believer in the notion of an universal salvation ; while 
liis own subsequent letter to his doubting parishioner proves, 
on his own acknowledgment, that so long as that notion con- 
tinued to occupy his mind, he was virtually without faith 
in a revelation. It was, in fact, his discovery of this that 
impelled him to his investigations, and thus led to that 
mere rational faith — that assent of the reason tD the truth 



RELIGIOUS CHANaE. 93 

of the Scriptures, without the heart's experience of their 
power, of which we have akeady spoken. The conversion 
of his reason took place very soon after he received his friend 
Bolton's letters ; while that of his heart was deferred to a 
long subsequent period. 

From this comparison of dates and circumstances, we 
gather increasing evidence, that the letters of Mr. Bolton, 
which so " exceedingly surprised and affected'' the mind of 
his friend, lay at the very beginning of that series of provi- 
dential means by which he was led away from his earlier 
cold, practical unbehef, first to inquiry, then to intellectual 
tissent, and finally, after long years of self-righteous trustings, 
to that " belief of the Jieart which, is unto righteousness, and 
that confession of the mouth which is unto salvation." So 
late as the autumn of 1809, he was not only unstable as 
water " in any determinations of liis own," but without 
lyrayer for divine aid. He '"'■dared not to ask for superior 
injluence to effect a cliangeT In truth, during the whole 
period from 1802 down to 1812, he was evidently strivmg 
to confirm himself m those " unevangelical views of the doc- 
trines of the New Testament," which "led him to an undue 
appreciation of hmiian effort, and to a miscliievous conceit of 
the merit of works ;" and his fighting, meanwhile, with the 
dogmas of Calvinism, be the truth or error of that system 
what it may, was just a convenient shield against deeper 
self-knowledge, used to protect himself yet longer in his over- 
estimate of mere outward morality. 

His friend T. Bradford, Jr., has a paragraph m liis " Rem- 
iniscences" which touches a portion of the above period. 
" He was for several years a worshipper m the First Presby- 
terian church m Market-street, under the pastoral care of 
the Rev. James P. Wilson, D. D. The acuteness, discrimi- 
nation, and learning of the doctor, who had been for many 
years an eminent lawyer in the state of Delaware, and 
whose sermons were peculiarly marked by the characteristics 
of a legal mind, w^re highly interesting to hun, though lie 



94 MEMOIE, OF DR. MILNOR. 

could not then accord with the stiictness of their theology. 
The subject of religion became frequently the topic of con- 
versation in our daily walks, and we often discoursed on the 
Calvinistic system — he opposing, and I, according to my 
view of the Bible, maintaining its correctness ; while neither 
of us, at the time, had any spiritual light or knowledge." 

In the last extract from Mr. Milnor's later diary is stated 
the fact, with the reason for it, of his leaving the Presbyte- 
rian, and beginnmg to attend the Episcopal church. That 
change, whatever we may think of the reason for it, may 
have been favorable to his religious hopes, inasmuch as his 
dislike of Calvuiistic doctrines was no longer irritated and 
kept open, like a frequently fretted sore ; while his mind, 
freed from such a source of armoyance, was the more likely 
to reflect calmly and seriously upon those uncontroverted 
truths of the gospel, to which he listened both before and 
after the transfer was made. This inference seems support- 
ed by his diary, so far as it sheds any light on the progress 
of his religious views ; for although he continued three years 
longer to cherish unevangelical notions of the doctrines of 
the New Testament, yet there is evidence that he was all 
that while feeling after something to which he knew he had 
never attained. The very fact, that he was so earnest in 
taking careful and often copious notes of the sermons which 
he heard, shows that he was resolved, so far as his weak 
resolutions were of any worth, to press on from the mere 
rational belief which he had reached, to something which he 
might regard as a corresponding experience of the heart. 
And besides this, his notes of sermons are occasionally inter- 
spersed with remarks of his own, which indicate at least a 
growing tenderness of feeling, and reflectiveness of habit ; 
however little they, as yet, show of the true light biealdng 
on his spirit. Some of these remarks occur at the opening 
of 1810. He began the new year with this sober record : 

" January, 1810. — Various reasons, which it is unneces- 
sary to enumerate, because, when combined, they furnish no 



RELIGIOUS CHANaE. 95 

sufficient apology for the neglect, have occasioned a breach of 
my resolution to note very briefly the substance of the relig- 
ious discourses to which I attend ; not that my attendance 
on the devotional exercises of the Sabbath has been inter- 
rupted, but that causes, sometimes of more weight than at 
others, have induced a yielding to my habitual indolence of 
disposition. This I have contmually to lament, as * the sin 
which does most easily beset me.' It produces its effects on 
all my habits, as well professional as others ; and although 
I cannot deem myself at all times and in all respects its 
victim, yet I am so in a degree injurious to my concerns and 
oppressive to my feelings. It is easier to resolve to shake it 
oil", than to do so — to form resolutions of industry, than to 
adhere to them. 

" The close of the old year, and the commencement of 
the new, have given birth to many sermons on the value of 
time and the brevity of life ; the uncertainty of terrestrial 
enjoyments, and the certainty of irrespective death, and of a 
future accountability at the bar of an almighty Judge, for 
our negligences and omissions of duty, as well as for the 
transgressions of this life ; and yet, how many, like myself, 
listen to these solemn truths and awful warnings as to ' a 
twice-told tale I' We hear — we assent ; but where is to be 
seen the beneficial result ? Seldom in our secular concerns ; 
much more seldom in those of our immortal souls." 

Thus entered he on the year 1810 — questionmg solemn- 
ly, yet coming to no decision. He had not yet looked far 
enough, if at all, into the hidden cause of his deep prejudice 
against the truth, and of his long and frequent failures to 
make progress in a better hfe. A sight into the dark deeps 
of sin in his o^A^l heart was yet to be vouchsaled him, before 
he could do more than run round a circle of oft-formed and 
as oft broken purposes — ^before he could start on a really on- 
ward and. upward movement in the divine life of the soul. 

" Sunday, Jan. 27, 1810. — In the evening went to hear 
Dr. Pilmorc, at St. Paul's church. 



96 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

" This gentleman, in his mode of preaching, departs from 
the general practice of Episcopal clergymen in two respects. 
He does not wiite his sermons, but speaks from short notes ; 
and he is much more evangehcal in the treatment of his sub- 
ject, and much more fervent in his delivery. This, as may 
be expected, increases the admiration of the more pious mem- 
bers of liis flock, while it diminishes his popularity with 
others. For my part, as he is a man of undoubted talents, 
and, from liis long service in the office of a public minister, 
is fluent in his style, and sufficiently methodical and perspic- 
uous in the distribution of the heads of his discourses, and 
very ready in his scriptural quotations and allusions, I feel 
no great repugnance to the circumstance of liis sermons 
being, in a considerable degree, extempore. 

"As to the evangelical character of his discourses, it is, 
in my opinion, unobjectionable, because he allies it with, and 
makes it auxiliary to the inculcation of morals ; and he sets 
forth the atonement of our Saviour, ui the general way ui 
wliich it is viewed by most Christians, without proposing 
the perplexing, intricate, and dark theology which the strict- 
er Calvinists deduce from it. He enters upon no critical 
disquisitions upon nice and disputable doctrinal points, but 
endeavors to fix the faith and the afiections of his hearers 
upon the blessed Redeemer, as the alone means of salvation, 
as the great propitiation for sin, as the divine Inculcator of 
morality, as the glorious Intercessor for his people at the 
right hand of God, and as the everlasting Judge of all the 
earth, who, in the great day of final retribution, will give to 
every man accorduig to his works." 

This extract is interesting, not so much from the fact 
which it records — that Mr. Milnor went to hear Dr. Pil- 
more — as from the allusion which it contains, to the differ- 
ence between Dr. Pilmore's preaching, and that of the Epis- 
copal clergy generall)'- in his day. That holy man of God 
was, after the times of Devereux Jarratt, among the first of 
those whom God raised up, when the efl'ects of the war of 



RELiaiOUS CHANGE. 97 

our Revolution had, iii the mam, passed away, to he his 
mstruments in quickening a churcli which had been left all 
but spiritually dead, not only under the rutliless and iron 
hoof of war, but also under the chilling and deadening influ- 
ences — worse than those of war — exerted by long years of 
most " unevangelical" teachings. The obloquy which .such 
men as Jarratt and Pilmore were compelled to endure, has 
been fruitful of precious results. They have successors to 
their spirit, and, God favoring, shall continue to have, till the 
church in wliich they served becomes, as nearly as the lot of 
man admits, all life, and full of "the fruits of the Spirit." 

But, not to anticipate too largely a topic which may 
again pass under our notice, it is evident from the above 
extract, that Mr. Mihior was not only growing in orthodoxy 
of faith, but also examining for himself all points, as they 
came along, of practical interest ; and that, bo far as his 
exammations were carried, he Avas quietly tending towards 
more serious views, and even losing his repugnance to evan- 
gelical doctrines — provided, always, they stopped short of the 
much-dreaded Calvinism of the stricter sort, against which 
he had so long warred. The moderate Calvinism, if so it 
may be termed, of the evangelical preacher did not oflend 
him, because he saw how it included and produced the mo- 
ralities of life. The doctrine of atonement was not unac- 
ceptable, because he heard deduced from it no decree of " un- 
conditional reprobation." 

Soon after liis connection with the Episcopal church, as 
an attendant on its worship, he was elected one of the ves- 
trymen of the parish to which he belonged ; and, for several 
months after the new-year of 1810, continued, with increas- 
ing interest, his weekly exercise of writing out sermons from 
memory. In the summer of that year, however, this exorcise 
was again interrupted ; not now from indolence, but from 
other causes. Hence, when he resumed this exercise, it was 
after leaving a blank page of his diary, on which are written 
simply these words : 

Mrm. Milnor. O 



98 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

"Hiatus, valde, valde deflendus" — 
expressive of the deep regret which he felt at the interrup- 
tion ; and followed by this short note : 

" Sept. 1, 1810. — Frequent absence from the city during 
the summer months, has prevented a regular attendance on 
public worship. I shall, on the morrow, resume the duty 
with real pleasure ; for, after all, Sunday is to me not only 
a day of rest from the vexatious cares of Hfe, but a much 
greater source of real enjoyment, when employed as religion 
and conscience enjoin, than when devoted to recreations of a 
lighter kiaid." 

Once, had he written as he felt, he would have said, that 
recreations of a lighter kind were more pleasing to him than 
a Sunday spent as religion and conscience enjoin. Thus 
far, then, had he been led. Habit, and perhaps the secret 
teachmgs of the Spirit, had made liis mode of spending the 
Lord's day a source of more real enjoyment than he could 
find in worldly amusements on the Sabbath. 

"Sunday, Sejjt. 16, 1810, A. M." — Touching the same 
subjects, he writes again, " The return of this day of devo- 
tion and rest is grateful to my feelmgs. The abstraction, for 
a time, from the pursuits and cares of business ; the leisure 
for contemplating the character and perfections of the Most 
High, and the opportunity for humble endeavors to offer ac- 
ceptable worship in sanctuaries dedicated to his service ; for 
perusing the oracles of a divine and infallible revelation ; for 
reflection on past errors and offences, and for using the 
means of future caution and improvement which the season 
furnishes, as well in silent meditation as in an attendance 
on the advices of those appointed to minister in holy thmgs, 
all contribute to render this a blessed holiday. 

" Alas, how is it abused by the mconsiderate and thought- 
less ! How have I abused it I Let me endeavor, in tliis re- 
spect, to ' sin no more.' Let me, God, reverence this day 
as I ought, but preserve me from those errors of superstition, 
or fanaticism, which would exclude from its enjoyments the 



RELIGIOUS CHANaE. 99- 

deliiilits of social converse and innocent association with tlie 
friendly circle. Let revelry and intemperance be kept far 
away ; let no trifling occasion induce an omission of attend- 
ance at the house of prayer; let a season for private rcad- 
insf and meditation be alibrded ; but let the heart remain 
open for the cheering emotions of friendship and regard to 
those we love, and let not a narrow and contracted disposi- 
tion be induced by a mistaken apprehension of the true du- 
ties of thy holy religion. Next to thee, we are taught by 
the lessons of a blessed Saviour, to ' love our neighbor as 
ourselves.' May we riglitly appreciate this teaching as call- 
ing for the performance of the duties of our various allot- 
ments in life, ' visiting the widow and the fatherless in their 
allhction, and keeping ourselves unspotted ' — not removing — 
' from the world.' " 

This is the first of Mr. Milnor's recorded prayers ; and it 
is indeed the prayer of a beginner : not so much a supplica- 
tion for grace to keep the Sabbath holy, as a petition to be 
preserved from keepmg it too rigidly. how was he strug- 
gling in the dark I laboring for a better life, yet laboruig in 
bondage, with little or nothing of the freedom of a son ; the 
Spirit, it may be, teaclihig him, but leading to success at 
last, through the suffering of failure at first. 

Sunday, Oct. 7, 1810, gives us the last of the " annota- 
tions" which Mr. Milnor made on the sermons preached at 
St. James' before his election to Congress, and the conse- 
quent unfavorable cliange m his habits of spending the Lord's 
day, wliich have already been noticed. His principal notes 
that day were on a sermon by Bishop White, upon the par- 
able of the prodigal son — a sermon, which apparently struck 
liim with much force, and which he wrote out at ahnost its 
full length. 

This change is termed " unfavorable ;" and such we must 
admit it to have been ; for, although the opening, of his con- 
gressional life found him still unevangelical in his views of 
Cliristian doctrine — in feelmg, if not in theory, opposed to 



100 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

salvation by grace ; yet is it past dispute, that on religious 
subjects, there had been progress in his mind, and that this 
progress was distinctly away from that loose freethinking, 
and its accompanying enmity against the gospel, which 
characterized his early life. He was educated in the freer 
and more liberal notions of the people to whom from child- 
hood he belonged. "With those notions he passed, at the 
time of his marriage, from his fellowship with the Quakers, 
through his supposed adoption of the tenets of Universalism, 
which was, after all, but another name with him for real 
scepticism on the subject of revelation, into an outward at- 
tendance on the ministry of the Presbyterian and Episcopal 
churches. Soon after he left the Q,uakers, and probably 
under the influence of his friend Bolton's faithful appeals, 
examination made him, in his rational understanding, a be- 
liever ; though it left him still amid the natural wilderings 
of " an evil heart of unbelief" But as years rolled by, and 
as he approached the openmg of his congressional career, it 
is too plain for concealment, that, like "the scribe" whom 
Christ addressed, he was, though still out of it, yet "not far 
from the kingdom of God." Legal practice had already be- 
come distasteful ; the spirit and maxims of the world held a 
far less undisputed sway over his mind ; the general subject 
of religion had become interesting to his thoughts ; he Avas, 
as his Sabbath annotations show, giving it much reflection ; 
the cast of his mind had grown theological ; on some pouits 
he seemed " wiser than his teachers ;" and what is more, 
though he still continued to fight with Calvinism, and was 
by no means evangelical in his doctrines, yet his prejudices 
agamst stricter views were much softened, and he could lis- 
ten dispassionately, and with some satisfaction, to one of the 
leaders among that little band of despised ones, who had 
already begun to constitute a portion of our church. 

This may probably be regarded as a fair view of his 
religious, progress and state of mind, up to the period of 
which we are now speaking. His election to Congress 



RELIGIOUS CHANGE. 101 

checked that progress, though it seems not materially to 
have aflected this state. As he was, at his election in Octo- 
ber, 1810, such he appears to have been at the opening of 
his third Congi-essional term, in October, 1812. The most 
distinct notices, in the interim, of his iimer being, relate to 
his ever-growing distaste for pohtics and for legal practice. 
Letters, yet to be examined, are strong on this point, and 
show, that if he had not become a Cliristian indeed, still, he 
was not likely to have remamed either a politician in his 
pursuits, or a lawyer in liis practice. 

Passing, with these remarks, over his first two years in 
Congress, we are ready for an advance to liis own account 
of the grand turning-point, the gi'eat crisis of his whole life. 
We have viewed him in eveiy important hght m which liis 
natural character needs to be placed. "We have traced him 
from his parentage ; through his education ; into his profes- 
sional studies ; among his social, civil, hterary, and benevo- 
lent relations and pursuits ; and along liis legal and his 
pohtical career : and, amid all these, we have followed him 
through that darkly winding way which he tracked, from 
the blank wastes of scepticism, through secret strugglings 
with the shadowy forms of Universahsm ; through more 
open, manly, and intense toils among the records and the 
evidences of the Bible as a revelation ; through barren years 
of cold, unproductive belief, and of unsatisfying, unevangeh- 
cal theory; and through fierce fightings with the Genevan 
giant and his oflspring ; till finally, we find him — with 
much of the hght of truth in his head, and that light ap- 
parently beginning to beam downwards into his heart — 
walking earnestly, and standing, amid raised hopes and ex- 
pectations, " not far from the kingdom of God ; though, as 
yet, wantuig that one thing, without which he might have 
stood at the gate for ever, incapable of entering among the 
wonders which he within, 

"What this one thuig was, he soon learned by the mani- 
fest teaclmigs of God ; and the brief account wliich he gives 



^(2 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

of it, is contained in his diary, once more resumed when he 
had taken his final leave of Washington and politics. Writ- 
ing in Philadelphia, after he reached home, he prefaces this 
accomit with a few ordinary particulars, which, as they be- 
long to this period in the history of his religious life, may be 
here introduced. Under date of March 25, 1813, he says, 

" In my relation as a vestryman of the United Episcopal 
churches in the city of Philadelphia, I was considerably en- 
gaged in the secular aflairs of the parish. I also served as 
a lay delegate in the State Convention of 1811 ; and in May 
of that year was sent, in the same capacity, to the " Trien- 
nial" (or General) " Convention of the Episcopal Church at 
New Haven," 

On his way to New Haven, he spent a Sunday in New 
York, where he met and had a pleasant interview with 
Dr. Hobart, whom, in a letter to liis wife, written m New 
Haven, he styles " one of my earhest and most intimate 
friends." Dr. Hobart was then bishop elect of the diocese 
of New York, " They had been school-boys together." 
When they met in New York, " how little did either of them 
thmk of the relations wliich they would bear towards each 
other in after-years," 



SECTION II. 

We proceed now to Mr. Milnor's brief account of the 
change which gave a new course and color to his whole life. 
Writing under date of March 25, 1813, he says, 

" During the past fall and winter," that is, through the 
whole of his last session in Congress, " the interesting con- 
cerns of religion pressed themselves upon me with renewed 
force. The immense importance of the soul's salvation ; tlic 
inefficacy of mere human exertion in eflccting it ; the abom- 
inable nature of sin ; my own character as a sinner ; the 



RELIG-IOUS CHANGE. lOo 

riches of grace in Christ Jesus ; and the necessity of em- 
bracing his precious merits, as alone calculated to redeem 
me from hell, renovate my nature, and fit me for * an inheri- 
tance among the saints in light' — all these considerations 
agitated my feelings for many weeks in their successive op- 
erations, until, by God's grace, I experienced some sense of 
his pardoning mercy, and was made willing to assume liis 
yoke. 

" My friend Thomas Bradford, Jr., bemg at the same 
time engaged in similar exercises, we exchanged sundry let- 
ters, Avliich I have thought proper to transcribe, as contain- 
mg a faitliful record of my spiritual engagements during the 
time alluded to, and of the nature and result of my religious 
experience." 

Such is the ''brief account^' wliich he gives of his 
change. He wrote contemporaneous letters to his wife, and 
others, full of the same theme ; and they, with those to his 
friend Bradford, may be taken as containing his more pro- 
longed account of the process so briefly sketched in the 
above extract from liis diary. A few comiected incidents, of 
pecuhar mterest, will properly mtroduce such extracts as it 
may be necessary to make from the series. 

In his letters to his wife, during his second session ui 
Congress, he makes repeated reference to the sudden and 
strange neglect of liis friend Bradford, with whom he had 
been in habits of most intimate correspondence as a political 
associate, but from whom he had all at once ceased to re- 
ceive any letters. He wondered and was even offended at the 
silence, and determined to write him no more till its cause 
should be explained, and the correspondence be resumed 
by his friend. That cause, he soon after learned, was his 
friend's decided conversion. The suspension of their corre- 
epondence, however, continued till after Mr. Milnor's lliird 
and last departure for Washington. Mr. Bradford's " Rem- 
iniscences" give the following fuller account of these in- 
cidents. 



104 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

In a season of affliction, during the year 1812, Mr. Brad- 
ford was made more than usually reflective and considerate ; 
and the consequence was, a decided change in his whole 
character and course of life. For his own comfort, he found 
it necessary to withdraw from all intimate friendships and 
associations of a worldly nature. But when he came to the 
pomt of giving up the society of his friend Milnor, he found 
it the severest of duties. He says that friend was as closely 
knit to him as was ever the soul of Jonathan to that of 
David. Nevertheless, he resolved on the sacrifice : their 
correspondence ceased ; and when Mr. Milnor was in Phila- 
delphia, even their personal mterviews became less frequent. 
Mrs. Bradford, by birth and education an Episcopalian, and 
up to the period of their domestic affliction, an essentially 
worldly lady, sympathized with her husband in his change, 
and thenceforward became a devoted Christian. 

In this state of their relations, and just before the open- 
ing of his third session in Congress, Mr. Milnor called on his 
old friends, to give them his farewell. He found Mr. Brad- 
ford in his office, and on inquking for Mrs. Bradford, was 
shown into the parlor ; whence, after saying his adieus, he 
returned to liis friend. "Why," said he, "you have made 
your wife a Calvinist. I found her readmg Scott's Force of 
Truth. I don't relish your spoiling a good Episcopalian. 
You Presbyterians are always talking about Paul, Paul. 
You never talk of what the gospel says, but always of what 
Paul says." His friend made no reply: they exchanged 
their farewells ; and Mr. Milnor was soon again in Congress, 
engrossed, as Mr. Bradford supposed, with his usual zeal, in 
the politics and the pleasures of the capital. 

Meanwhile, the short session was passing rapidly away. 
Early in January, 1813, Mr. Bradford was absent from Phil- 
adelphia, having received no letter from his friend, and not 
caring to receive any, as he could look for nothing but the 
usual budget about politics, or the customary triflmgs about 
fashion, of both wliich his soul had grown weary. Upon 



RELiaiOUS CHANGE. 105 

his return to the city, however, on the 2oth of January, he 
found on liis table an evidently long communication, directed 
in the well-known hand of his friend. Supposing it to be a 
tedious talk about political affairs, his first impulse was not 
to open it. On reflection, however, he concluded to look 
into it. He did so ; and, to his wonder and delight, before 
he fuiished the first page, he learned that his beloved Milnor 
was, if not a Christian indeed, yet absorbed in those deep, 
inward strugglings with sin, and strivings after Christ, 
which plainly foretokened that the day of his deliverance 
"from darlaicss to light, and from the power of Satan unto 
God," was at hand. He read on, and soon came to that 
part of the letter in wliich Mr. Milnor says, " In the expres- 
sive language of St. Paul, ' I know that in me, that is, in 
my flesh, dwelleth no good thing ; for to will is present with 
me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not.' * I 
delight in the law of God, after the imier man ; but I see 
another law in my members warring against the law of my 
mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin 
which is in my members. wretched man that I am; 
who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?' I em- 
brace cordially, and pray the aids of the Holy Spirit to do 
it eflectually, the answer of that eminent miruster, ' Thanlts 
be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.'" The reading 
of this passage constrained Mr. Bradford to break out in joy- 
ous rapture, exclaiming to his wife, " Brother Milnor has 
found Paul to be as precious as we did." 

It is needless to say that Mr. Bradford entered eagerly 
into the reopened correspondence ; doubly thankful to God 
for giving him back not ordy his old friend, but more, his 
now dear friend ui Christ — not only his brother in the law, 
but better, his brother beloved in the gosjyel. 

The opening of tliis interesting correspondence between 
the two friends was in the latter part of the month of Jan- 
uary. But, for more than two months before that time 
Mr. Milnor's mind had been engrossed with the subject of 

5^ 



106 MEMOIU OF DR. MILNOR. 

religion as a personal concern ; and he had, meanwhile, 
written several letters to his wife, which, as they mark the 
opening of his views and feelings, it will be proper to ex- 
amine before taking up those which passed between himself 
and Mr. Bradford. Extracts, arranged according to their 
dates, are all that need be given. 

To Mrs. Milnor. 

" Nov. 10, 1812." — The letter of this date is a long one 
of two full sheets. The first part dwells seriously on the 
near approach of the time when he was cheerfully to lay 
down the honors of civil and pohtical life, and return to the 
bosorai of his family ; and on the deep peril to all his hopes 
and prospects as a Christian man, of the scenes in winch he 
had been acting his part. It is a sweet, beautiful letter. 
The following are some of its passages. 

" You will, no doubt, be surprised at the seriousness of 
this letter. But my mind always recurring, at some sea- 
sons, to religious contemplations, and never, I hope, wholly 
without religious impressions, has, ever since I left hame, 
been much engaged in the duty of self-examination, the only 
means of discovering the truth of that awful confession, 
which we so often make with our lips without realizing in 
our hearts, that 'We have left undone those things which 
we ought to have done ; and we have done those thmgs 
which we ought not to have done ; and there is no health in 
us.' I have recurred to my baptismal vows,* and find much 
more care necessary, on my part, in their future, as there 
has been much neglect in their past observance ; and I have 
had deeper impressions than heretofore of the necessity of 
acquiring that temper of mind, and of pursuing that course 
of conduct, which will prepare us for conforming to all the 
duties incumbent on us as members of the Christian church, 

* Having been educated a Quaker, he was not baptized in infancy, 
but received adult baptism after his connection with the Episcopal 
church. 



RELiaiOUS CHANG-E. 107 

especially for a participation in. the sacrament of the Lord's 
supper ; a duty so strongly enjoined, that whenever iny mind 
has been drawn to the subject, I have felt much self-con- 
demnation for havmg so long neglected to make suitable 
preparation for becoming a communicant. This, with God's 
help, I am now resolved to do. The reception of this ordi- 
nance, I am persuaded, is ' our bounden duty' as Christians. 
If we are not prepared for it, we ought to become so ; and 
our unpreparedness will, in the great day of account, be no 
apology for the omission. It is one of the tnean?, for making 
us what we ought to be, and tiiuzt be, if we purpose becom- 
ing candidates for a heavenly uiheritance. If some ill- 
natured or misjudging people should deride, or censure our 
conformity to what they cannot deny to be legitimate and 
momentous ceremonials of the Christian Church, instituted 
and commanded to be observed by our Saviour himself, it is 
no more than has fallen to the lot of all professors of reUgion, 
in a greater or less degree ; and it will cease, when more of 
those who are far removed from the character of fanatics 
and enthusiasts, have courage to avoAv openly, yet not with 
vanity, ostentation, or illiberality towards others, ^full union 
with the Church in all her rites, and to pursue a course of con- 
duct answerable to their Christian profession, yet comporting 
with a full discharge of professional and civil duties, a cheer- 
ful intercourse with virtuous society, and a moderate induh 
gence in the innocent relaxations and amusements of life." 

Both the date of this letter, and its style of remark, indi- 
cate its place at the very commencement of his new experi- 
ences, and show that he Avas, in truth, but just beginning 
to feel his way out of darkness. The next extract indicates, 
among other things, as deep a sensibility to the perils of h'gal 
practice, as the last had expressed in regard to those of ^x?//^- 
ical pursuits. 

"Nov. 18, 1812. — I intend, so far as I can without 
unnecessary singularity, to keep myself at home, where I 
fmd a satisfaction, which increases by habit, m the labor of 



108 MEMOIE- OF DR. MILNOIl. 

study, and the varieties of miscellaneous reading, writing, 
and serious contemplation. It is only by inuring one's self 
to retirement, that we can learn fully to appreciate the value 
of that injunction, ' Commune with your own heart and in 
your chamber, and be still.' I am far from being an advo- 
cate for entire seclusion from society. It is a scriptural posi- 
tion, that religion does not call a person out of the ivorld^ 
but teaches him how to live in it. Particular situations 
and pursuits, however, are particularly exceptionable on 
account of being attended with more pain to a tender con- 
science, more distraction, more occasions of irritation than 
others. Such I have long deemed a laivyer's life. He is 
often obliged to advocate one side, when his own understand- 
ing and sense of justice would, if freely exercised, induce him 
to espouse the other. He Uves in a crowd, and witnesses a 
scene of perpetual strife. Yet his is a necessary and useful 
occupation ; onay be pursued by an honest man with advan- 
tage to the community ; and is highly honorable in the esti- 
mation of society. As a mode of life, preferable to others, I 
have never, from the beginning, been attached to it. I now 
sigh for retirement. I am haunted by a perpetual feeling of 
disgust at the prospect of reentering the scene of contention, 
and of enduring the pertnesses of that tribe of young com- 
petitors, every day increasing in number and diminishing in 
respectability and worth. And yet, many difficulties lie in 
the way of any scheme for retirement ; and this has prevent- 
ed my saying more to you in conversation on the plan sug- 
gested to you in my letter last winter. I wish not idleness : 
it is the parent of discontent, and of many vices. My desire 
is for a situation attended with tranquilhty, with intervals of 
abstraction from general intercourse, and with consequent 
opportunities for varied reading, embracing the improvement 
of the understanding, the innocent amusement of occasional 
leisure, but, above all, what I am at times aufiiUy afraid 
of neglecting till it be too late, a solid preparation for 

ETERNITY." 



RELIGIOUS CHANGE. 109 

" My next leisure shall be devoted to an attempt at solv- 
ing the difficulty so pathetically stated in your letter, where 
you say, 'I know not what to do.' Your difficulty is pre- 
cisely that which ought to be felt at the beginni7ig of a 
change of life. Oh how sensibly do I feel it at this very 
moment I So did one in the earliest days of the Church, 
when he exclaimed, ' What shall I do to be saved V I wish 
I felt more experimentally the weight of the answer which 
was given. Read the Scriptures ; pray humbly and fer- 
vently ; lay aside dependence on self; embrace the merits 
of a crucified Redeemer, as your deliverer from sin ; rely on 
liim and his grace for humility, contrition of soul for past 
offences, and strength to maintain resolutions of future 
amendment ; use all the means Avhich his goodness has pro- 
vided, and which, next to the gosjoel, are to be found in our 
excellent forms of devotion, and in the ordinances of our holy 
rehgion. 

" You see that a train of serious thought, which I be- 
lieve it to be my duty to encourage, has, in a few words, 
given you the answer wliich I meant to reserve for a future 
letter. God forbid, that while I thus attempt to mstruct 
you, * I should myself become a castaway.' " 

The thoughtful reader will mark in the above passages, 
as striking encouragements, the writer's awful fear of miss- 
ing a sohd preparation for eternity ; his deep sense of his 
own ignorance of the way of life, as being a mere beginner 
in the search ; and his impressive dread of becoming himself 
a castaway, while engaged in teaching others how to be 
saved. 

The next letter exhibits a scene not often witnessed amid 
the influences of political life — a praying congressman, be- 
ginning to seek his Saviour, with a readiness to take up his 
cross and follow Christ. 

'* Nov. 21, 1812. — Whenever accident or choice throws 
me into solitude, the interesting concerns of the soul and of 
a future state press upon my thoughts and feelings in a man- 



110 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

ner calculated to produce the best eficcts ; wliile much for- 
getiuhiess of these things is always the result of extreme 
engagedness in the perplexities of politics and business. My 
desire is to become so grounded in the duties of faith and 
obedience, and so strengthened in a religious course, by habit- 
ual study of the Bible, and a sincere and lively performance 
of all the public and private, external and internal require- 
ments of religion, that I may go into the world and take a 
moderate share in its affairs, while I escape its. pollutions 
and vices. I speak of my desire only, for I tremble at the 
prospect of my weakness and deficiency in the performance. 
God will do his part, but I have little confidence in my own 
perseverance and fidelity in the performance of mine. A 
sad experience of past defections alarms me for the future. 
From infancy to the present moment, a sense of religious 
obligation, of its violation in my conduct through life, and of 
the necessity of a change, has occasionally impressed me very 
forcibly, and prompted resolutions of amendment, and a tem- 
porary adherence to them. But too much mixture in gen- 
eral society, excessive involvement in the affairs of the world, 
and neglect of the means provided in the gospel and in the 
institutions of the Christian Church, have conspired with 
the infirmities of human nature, and mduced deplorable 
relapses. 

*' Thanks be to God, a proud spirit has latterly yielded 
to one of lowly prostration at the footstool of divine mercy. 
I am not ashamed, in the privacy of my chamber, to bend 
my knees and implore a blessing on my feeble endeavors ; to 
supplicate divine assistance ui the duties of the day, and to 
implore a heavenly covering of protection from the dangers 
of the night ; and with the aid of divme grace, I ivill not be 
ashamed nor afraid to assume the cross, and make a public 
profession by a union with the church in the solemn service 
of the sacramental supper." 

From the close of this extract, as well as from other 
expressions in his letters, it would seem that he had been 



RELiaiOUS CHANG-E. HI 

the subject of a strong feeling of shame, keeping him from 
what he had regarded as the weakness of conforming to the 
outward rites of the church. Perhaps hngering influences 
from his early Gluaker education, so unfriendly to all extenml 
ordinances, may have kept alive this strong sentiment, and 
rendered what is to others, when brought to Christ, an easy 
duty, to him one of the severest of trials. 

His next letter is chiefly an account of some books which 
he had purchased, and had been reading — The Apostolical 
Fathers, and the Life of Sir William Jones, From the Ifitter 
he quotes, as specially interesting to him, " Sir "William's 
translation of four beautiful Persian lines." 

" On parent knees, a naked new-born child, 
Weeping thou sat'st, while all around thee smiled; 
So Zu'c, that, sinking in thy last long sleep, 
Calm thou may'st smile, while all around thee weep." 

At this period he was evidently much engaged in read- 
ing, and in one of his letters describes his manner of reading 
good books to good account, having been recently much 
delighted with " the inimitable, saintlike Cowper." But 
with " the best of books" he was most concerned to make 
himself familiar. As a statesman, devoutly studying liis 
Bible, he was, to the best eflect, learning how to do liis 
country good ; while, at the same time, his own soul was 
most effectually growing " wise unto salvation." He writes, 
under date of 

" Nov. 25, 1812. — I mean to read the best of all books, 
accompanied by the use of the pen, in extracting or nothig 
remarkable passages ; for my ignorance of its blessed con- 
tents is a perpetual source of self-condemnation, which can- 
not be diminished but by ' letting the time past sutiice lor 
havmg wrought the will of the Gentiles,' and by endeavor- 
ing in future to find some other use for this invaluable book 
than that of making its blank leaves a record of family bless- 
mgs and family misfortunes. Join heartily with me, my 
best friend, in so good a purpose. God will give the aid of 



112 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

liis Holy Spirit in our sincere obedience to his own injunction 

to ' search the Scriptures,' as the fountain of ' eternal hfe,' 

and as the oracles * which testify of him.' Then may we 

expect to find, what 

" ' too many do not know, 

That Scripture is the only cure of woe. 
That field of promise — how it flings abroad 
Its odor o'er the Christian's thorny road ! 
The soul, reposing on assured relief, 
Feels herself happy amidst all her grief, 
Forgets her labor as she toils along, 
Weeps tears of joy, and bursts into a song.' " 

" Through thy commandments I get luiderstanding ; 
therefore I hate all evil ways." Such was the experience 
of the Psalmist ; and that of Mr. Milnor was coincident. 
The study of the Bible gave him understanding, especially 
of himself ; therefore he hated all evil ways, particularly 
those of his oivn heart. Accordingly, in the next letter to 
his wife which comes under our notice, he goes deeply into 
self-examination^ with special reference to those sins and 
faults which had occasionally overcast, with a fleetly pass- 
ins: cloud, the otherwise clear sunshine of their domestic 
happiness. After using, with a faithful hand, the moral 
probe which divine truth had furnished him, he adds : 

"Dec. 7, 1812. — Forgive me for recurring to these un- 
pleasant topics. In looking forward to a closer union with 
our God, in the blessed sacrament of the body and blood of 
his dear Son, a primary duty is selfeocamination. In this 
work, a review of one's past life is indispensable ; and, as I 
write now under the inspection of the all-seeing eye, one of 
the sins which I have felt it peculiarly necessary to confess, 
and, by divine grace, to abandon, has been that of giving 
way to improper feelings induced by trivial occurrences, of 
not curbing a temper too quickly excited, and of falling into 
a consequent indulgence of language and conduct from which 
a real Christian ought ever to abstain." 

In reply to the inquiry why he pressed this subject upon 



RELIGIOUS CHANGE. 113 

his wife as well as upon himself, he adds, " Because I wish 
to make you the depositary of all my thoughts ; because I 
wish you to begin with me a new life ; and because a sense 
of mutual folly, and united resolutions of future amendment, 
are necessary to that happy passage through the residue of 
our span of life, which I have a confident persuasion God 
will afford us, if, by uprightness of heart and holiness of life, 
we merit it at his hands. Do not misunderstand me in the 
use of this term, ' merit.' I am more and more convinced " — 
[we have seen the reason why he needed to be so, in his ac- 
knowledged ", mischievous conceit of the merit of works"] — 
"as I give the important subject of religion deeper and more 
solid consideration, that our performances are no otherwise 
acceptable in the sight of God than as they are produced by 
the spirit of the gospel ; and that, with respect to our ulti- 
mate hopes of eternal happiness, these hopes are worse than 
vain, if they have any other ground to rest upon than the 
atonement of the blessed Saviour, whose all-siijficient merits 
have given that satisfaction to offended justice, which our 
hnperfect obedience never could have done." 

On the day next after the date of the last extract, Mr. 
Milnor wrote to Bishop White a statement of his views 
touching the Lord's supper, and proposed to become a com- 
municant so soon as propriety and the good bishop's consent 
would permit. But as those views are identical with what 
w^e find in the letters to liis wife, extracts are needless. 

Perhaps, however, the reader will be surprised to learn, 
that in the evening of the very day on which he thus wrote 
to his bishop, he attended a ball. But it should be remem- 
bered, that he was not yet wholly in the light on the subject 
of his former worldly amusements, although he had light 
enough to make him go reluctantly, and only in obedience 
to what he supposed a call of duty. " It was the ball given 
by naval officers to Captain Hull and others then in Wash- 
ington ; and his position as a member of the naval commit- 
tee, seemed to render it necessary that he should attend and 



114 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

participate in the compliment. He went late, came away 
early, and enjoyed little satisfaction in his reluctant compli- 
ance with the call." His comments on what he saw further 
illustrate the state of his feelings, and show that, if his views 
of Christian duty were not yet perfectly clear, at least the 
tendency of his religious tastes was in the direction of what 
is thoroughly right. 

" The crowd was great, and no Parisian assembly of 
equal numbers ever exhibited a greater proportion of ex- 
travagantly painted women. The people of this place 

" ' Still sacrifice to dress, till liouseliold joys 

And comforts cease. Dress drains their cellars dry, 
And keeps their larders lean ; puts out their fii-es ; 
And introduces hunger, frost, and woe, 
Where peace and hospitality might reign.' 

Never was satire more just than this of Cowper, applied to 
the people of this place, clerks and others, depending on the 
public for support, and receiving salaries abundant for do- 
mestic comfort, but insufficient for the purposes of extrava- 
gance and show. Every deprivation is submitted to in pri- 
vate, in order to be able to mingle, with some display of 
brilliancy, in the fashionable throng. Happy would it be 
for their infant families, if they better accommodated them- 
selves to their situation in life, and if they could be convmced 
before they verify, in their own experience, how truly the 
same delightful moralist describes the nature and end of 
these amusements : 

" ' The rout is Folly's circle, which she draws 
With magic wand. So potent is the spell, " 
That none, decoyed into that fatal rmg — 
Unless by Heaven's peculiar grace — escape. 
There we grow early gray, but never wise ; 
There, form connections, but acquire no friend , 
Solicit pleasure, hopeless of success; 
Waste youth in occupations only fit 
For second childhood, and devote old age 
To sports which only childhood could excuse. 



RELiaiOUS CHANaE. 115 

They are the happiest who dissemble best 
Their weariness ; and they the most polite, 
"Who squander time and treasm-e with a smile.' 

" I believe I did not play my part so well as to dissem- 
ble my weariness ; but I think that, with a view of so much 
frippery and folly, I gained one advantage, and that is, a 
confirmation of my resolution to mix as little as I can in 
these extensive scenes of gayety, and to cherish the society 
of a few chosen friends. I am not satisfied with myself fov 
having done otherwise in this instance ; but I hope my heart 
is free from the uifluence of any of the poisons of this perni- 
cious, unsatisfactory intercourse," 

On the 14th of December, he had received a kind letter 
from Bishop "White, encouraging liim to visit Philadelphia, 
with a view to communion on the 25th of the month. He 
determined to accept the invitation ; and so anxious was he 
that his wife should accompany him, that his letters, at this 
period, are fuU of the one labor of persuading her to the duty. 
The thought seems to have occurred to him, that possibly 
she might be influenced to delay, by the supposition that his 
feelings were but temporary excitement, and would soon pass 
away and be forgotten. To meet this supposition, he wrote 
as follows : 

" Dec. 1G, 1812. — I fear you little rehsh the style of my 
late letters, and that you probably consider it the result of a 
momentary depression of spirits, arising from my lonely situ- 
ation, and my dissatisfaction with public life. If you should 
have entertained such an idea, I hope it is a mistaken one. 
I say ' hojJC,' for God knows, considering the opportunities 
which I have had for religious improvement, and the lui- 
questionable goodness of my heavenly Benefactor, in tlie 
uucca.sing tender of the aids of his Holy Spirit, through the 
medium of the gospel and other appointed channels of grace ; 
considering also the many secret purposes of a better life 
which I have heretofore unavailingly formed, and the con- 
tinual deviations to which I am daily yielding in thought, 



116 MEMOIR OF DU. MILNOE. 

word, and action, that I dare not too confidently anticipate 
a firm and undaunted perseverance in a religious course. 
As to my retired situation, it need not be so if I desired oth- 
erwise ; for a man here has only to put himself in the way 
of fashionable dissipation, and he would be engaged in it 
almost every day. I avoid it as much as a decent conform- 
ity to custom will admit, both from a present sense of duty, 
and from a feeling of dislike to it, which every day increases. 
As to dissatisfaction with public life, I plead guilty to the 
charge ; but this mode of life does not depress my spirits, 
because the period of its termination is so near at hand. 
No, my love, the reading of the Scriptures, a perusal of the 
writings of good men, attendance upon public worship, and 
silent meditation and reflection, have long ago convinced me 
of the truths of our holy religion, and of the necessity of our 
observing punctually its sacred ordinances." 

The remamder of the letter is devoted to his usual theme, 
urging seriously and solemnly on Mrs. Milnor the duty of 
immediate preparation for the Lord's supper. 

The business of Congress, however, soon became so ur- 
gent that he was unable to visit Philadelpliia in time for 
communion on the Christmas festival. He felt the disap- 
pointment severely, but without a murmur ; and it may, 
perhaps, be regarded as a kindly wise providence, that kept 
him yet a while in Washington, amid the dealings of God in 
the secrecy of his chamber. For it is almost mipossible not 
to see from his letters, that as yet he had not looked deeply 
enough into himself, nor felt with sufficient power the work- 
ings of the Holy Spirit, convincing him of sin, and throwing 
him, as his^rs^ step, not on outward ordmances, but upon 
Christ alone for pardon, peace, and life. Had he gone to 
Philadelphia at the time proposed, there was danger, after 
all, of his resting on outward ordinances as the way to Christ, 
instead of finding in Christ, first, the life, and power, and 
significancy of all subsequent ordmances. 

In a letter, written about a week after the last extract, 



RELIGIOUS CHANGE. 117 

the truth of the above remarks appears to be confirmed. 
Ptisiiig with the early sim, and commencmg his morning- 
walk with a repining feeling in his heart, as the memory of 
his recent disappointment was revived, he seems to have 
been led hito higher views of God, and mto deeper views of 
himself than any before described. 

"Dec. 22, 1812. — It is now between eight and nine 
o'clock in the morning, and I have just returned from a long, 
solitary walk. The morning is unusvially serene for the 
season, the roads dry, and eyery tiling propitious to travel- 
ling either in carriage or on foot. I could not help repining 
a little, though I know it was wrong, at the untoward cir- 
cumstances that have intervened to prevent the execution 
of my purpose to avail myself of such pleasant weather lor 
my journey home. Reflections of this kind, hoAvever, quickly 
gave way to contemplations of a very diflerent character. 
T\\Qi immensity of that Being who form.ed the scenery around 
me, which even winter had not robbed of its charms ; his 
goodness, in making such rich provision for his creatures ; 
liis kind providence, in preserving, sustaining, and super- 
intending all the works of his hands; and, above all, his 
imsjoeakable love, in the redeiliption from eternal death of a 
rebellious world, that had, by sin, forfeited every claim to his 
favor, broke in upon my mind with unusual force , and ex- 
cited a rapturous feeling of thankful gratitude, which I am un- 
able to describe. But alas, when, from such high-wrought, 
glowing contemplations, my thoughts were turned upon 
myself, how different the sight presented to the mental view : 
a poor, frail child of the dust, * conceived in sin, and shapcn 
in iniquity ;' * prone to sin as the sparks fly iipwards ;' and 
daily offending, in thought, word, and action, the glorious 
Being to whom my reflections had ventured to ascend : en- 
dowed with reason, blessed with the light of revelation, fiu'- 
nished with all ' the means of grace,' and encouraged, in llie 
use of them, to indulge ' the hope of glory ;' yet still cleaving 
to the earth, yielding to unsubdued appetites, the victim of 



118 MEMOIR OF DH. MILNOR. 

every surrounding temptation, and, in short, a rebc\ against 
the sovereig7ity of heaven. Surely, said I within myself, 
$>uch a transgressor cannot look for pardon to that God whom 
he has offended ; he cannot claim the benefit of that sacri- 
fice for sin which he has so often shghted ; he cannot be 
again supplied with the aids of that Holy Spirit, to whom 
he ' ha^ done despite,' and whom he is continually grievmg 
by his sins. These harrowing reflections were, however, 
relieved by suggestions of the most soothing kind, derived 
from the long-suilering goodness of our heavenly Father, and 
from the comforting 'promis,es> held forth in the gospel of his , 
blessed Son. I felt new force and beauty in the penitential 
confession at the beginning of our service, and let it flow 
from my lips with heartfelt sincerity and humility. 

" Such is the result of a morning's walk in Washington. 
I came into my chamber with humble confidence m God, 
but stripped of all reliance upon myself ; being firmly per- 
suaded, that He alone can fit us for every good word and 
work, and that it is by his gracious assistance only that we 
can accomplish our best purposes, or persevere to the end ia 
a course of living well-pleasmg in his sight." 

How plainly does this passage tell of the strong onward 
movement of the divine Spirit in liis work of new- creating 
grace. How does it show the great character of God 
jising on the view of his servant with more power than a 
imiverse of splendors ; and influxes therefrom, pouring in as 
from a full-coming tide of blessedness ; and then the soul, 
driven down from her unwonted elevation, into deep inward 
searchings ; self, detected as a rebel against the divine sov- 
ereignty ; and the sinner stripped, as by an almighty hand, 
of all self-confidence I It is true, the references to Christ 
are yet but incidental. He occupies not the foreground of 
■.he viev/. The chief objects which fill the field of vision, 
are, God in his glory, stirring a heart that yearns to be 
reconciled ; and the si7iner i?i his ruin, knov/ing no salva- 
tion but in 1hat God upon whom he has been looking. But 



RELiaiOUS CHANGE. 119 

then, glimpses at least of Christ are had, as though the cross 
were in sight, however dim in the distance ; and light from 
the Sun of righteousness is filling the soul's firmament, as if 
that Sun were himself about to mount above his horizon. 

As might be expected, his next letter to Mrs. Milnor 
touching the subject of rehgion, under date of January 26, 
1813, expresses stronger dislike than ever both of the poli- 
tics and of the fashions of Washmgton, as having a most 
unfriendly influence on his religious progress, and keeping 
liim from those full comforts of hope in Christ, for wliich his 
recent experience made him thirst with all the earnestness 
of a new-born soul. In truth, one of the greatest wonders 
presented in his case, is the fact, that such a work as that 
in his heart, was begun under such hostile influences, and 
carried on against such accumulated opposition as met him 
in the circumstances amid which he was placed. But that 
work was of God, and not of man ; and the divine power 
was the more manifest in his behalf, inasmuch as from every 
other quarter the prospect was so unusually, so absolutely 
hopeless. 

His next letter is so full of Clirist, the Cross, and the 
work of the Spirit, and alludes so distmctly to a possible 
change of profession, that it may well be given, with shght 
omissions, entire. 

"Washington, January 27, 1813. 

"My deaPc Ellen — I wrote you yesterday, and know 
not why I should again trouble you to-day ; having nothiiig 
amushig to communicate, and having already sufficiently 
fatigued you on subjects in which you cannot feel an interest 
until your mmd is awakened, in a more hvely manner than 
it has yet been, to the realities of rehgion, and the mdispens- 
able necessity of receiving the Saviour through the exercise 
of faith in his atonement, and the sanctifying influences of the 
Holy Spirit. Suppose not, my beloved, that I mean unkindly 
to reproach you. It would ill become me to do so. My 
own attainments little qualify me for the duties of a censor, 



120 MEMOm OF DR. MILNOR. 

or a counsellor. I feel too forcibly, as applied to myself, the 
■weight of that injunction, to take the beam out of one's own 
eye, before we nicely discern the mote in the eye of another. 
/ think I see the better ivay, and would fain walk ui it. I 
believe my happiness, both here and hereafter, depends on 
my doing so. Natural pride has so far been brought into 
subjection to the Cross, that I dare humbly venture, before 
I close my eyelids, and when permitted again to awake from 
the death of sleep, to address ray thanksgivings and praises 
to the great Creator and Preserver of my existence, confess 
my unworthiness of the blessings with which I am favored, 
implore better dispositions for his service, and, above all, 
solicit an interest in the all-prevailing intercessions of a once 
crucified, but noiv risen Redeemer. 

" Yet, though a rebellious spirit has, I trust, through 
God's grace, been subdued within me, so far as to compel 
me to repent in dust and ashes for my multiplied transgres- 
sions, and to seek divine aid in the maintenance of a bet- 
ter life, I see futurity beset with a thousand difficulties. I 
laiow not how I can avoid those smaller follies, as the world 
would call them, arising out of the manners and customs, 
the fashions and associations of a large city ; and yet con- 
science tells me, in a voice of solemn warning, many of them 
must be abandoned. Abstmence from glaring and proffigate 
wickedness, wliicli a regard to the decencies of life and to 
personal character prevents in many who are destitute of a 
principle of Christian piety, will not satisfy the requisitions 
of the gospel. Many even of the lawful pleasures of social 
intercourse must be abridged in their frequency and degree ; 
and levity and thoughtlessness must more frequently give 
place to solid reflection and seriousness of mind and deport- 
ment. In this respect, I solemnly believe it is mdispensa- 
bly necessary to assume the cross, and to subject natural 
inclination to an implicit obedience to the precepts and 
spirit of the gospel. How hard the task is to the begimier, 
is evident to me from my own daily struggles ; and it was 



RELiaiOUS CHANOE. 12i 

evident to you, when, on my last visit, I gave you such im- 
perfect testimony to my stabihty in a course of practice con- 
formable to the profession which, in my preceding letters, I 
had avowed. 

" A still more formidable difficulty lies in my professional 
pursuits. In the conduct of them heretofore, I have endeav' 
ored to maintain fidelity towards my clients, and integrity 
towards all. But I have often advocated causes against 
which, as a judge, I would have pronounced ; and some- 
times have been obliged to make myself the organ of the 
passions and feelings of others in a way that it would not bo 
possible for me to do hereafter, and yet preserve that consis- 
tency of character, and "that peace of mind, at which it is 
my settled purpose, with divine help, to aim. 

" On what to determine, I am utterly at a loss. 1 wish 
to consult your happiness and wishes, and the welfare of our 
dear children, in whatever course I may adopt. But I tliink 
their chance of respectability and happiness will not be 
much increased, by my continumg to toil in a dangerous 
profession to acquire for them a large estate ; nor do I 
believe, that with a continuance of unremitted industry on 
my part — in the present state of business and of competition 
for profits, with the loss of a great proportion of my share in 
business during my engagements m public life, and with the 
feelings which I shall carry back when I resume it — if I 
were ever so desirous of accumulation, I could count upon 
success. I am persuaded, however, that no duty towards 
our beloved children requires me to give them more than, if 
they survive me, will be their portion ; and that I shall ren- 
der them a better service by giving them a good education, 
and endeavoring to instil mto their minds early principles of 
piety, than if I could heap upon them the riches of G olconda 
or Peru. 

" These are the unpleasant views presented to my mind 
by the prospect of entering again upon my former track of 
business and social intercourse. But in abandoning the 

Mem. Miliior. () 



122 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

former, and in some degree the latter, I am aware that dep- 
rivations not very pleasant to the natural feelings, must be 
submitted to ; and that there is still very great difficulty m 
fixing upon some other occupation by way of substitute. 
Idleness is the root of all evil, and I do not mean to encoun- 
ter its dangers. If, therefore, I quit my present business, it 
will be to engage in some other. What that shall be, is a 
question to be solved before an abandonment of present occu- 
pation takes place. A small farm for some bodily exercise, 
and a library for the employment of the mind, together with 
a close application to interests of much more importance than 
all the perishing concerns of this world, are what present 
themselves to my mind as the mosrlikely means for insuring 
tranquillity during the residue of our stay in this probationary 
part of our existence, and a title to happiness when called to 
our final and unchangeable lot in the world to come. 
" Ever yours, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 



SECTION III. 

We have now fully reached the time when the interest- 
ing correspondence between Mr. Mihior and his friend Brad- 
ford commenced. It must be evident to the careful reader, 
that ever since his " long, solitary walk," on the fine winter 
morning of December 22, which he began with repinings 
under disappointment, and ended with enlarged views of 
God and of himself, the style of his letters to. his wife has 
been diiTerent from that of his previous communications. 
He has talked less of the outward, and more of the inward 
things of the Christian life. His main themes have been, 
sin and the Saviour, the merits of the Cross and the work 
of the Spirit, a growing weariness of the ways of the world, 
and a growmg conviction of the necessity of a change in the 
business of his future profession. At the time, however, 



RELiaiOUS CHANG-E. 123 

when he wrote his first letter to Mr. Bradford, although he 
may be considered as having become " a new creature in 
Christ," yet his religious views wanted something of that 
clearness and fulness which were desirable, and which they 
finally reached. 

It would be interesting to publish the whole correspond- 
ence with Mr. Bradford, just as it passed ; but this would 
swell too largely the size of the Memoir. Although, there- 
fore, Mr. Bradford's letters abound in remarkably clear views 
of the new-birth of the Spirit, and of the course of life which 
the new-born Christian is required to pursue, yet, with tho 
exception of one or two passages, they will be reluctantly 
omitted ; and even when we take up the letters of Mr. Mil- 
nor liimself, only the most important parts will be inserted 

To Thomas Bradford, Jr. 

"Washington, 22d. January, 1S13. 

"My dear Friend — Ever since my return to this place, 
I have contemplated writing you a long letter, but have been 
prevented by a succession of engagements, wliich occupy 
much of my time. I ought not, however, in candor and fair 
dealing, to deny that I have been a little discouraged from 
recommencing a correspondence Avith you, by the abruptness 
with wliich that of last year terminated. Yet, I neither 
doubt your friendship, nor believe that you doubt mine ; 
and I feel as if a more intimate and profitable intercourse 
than ever were about to take place between us. We have, 
I trust, entered on a course in wliich, whatever may be the 
diflerence of our views on minor points, being agreed in the 
grand way-marks of our journey, and designing, by God's 
help, to reach the same destination, we may travel harmo- 
niously together, and lend one another a helping-hand, in 
surmountmg the impediments which we may expect to find 
in our way. 

" My best resolutions arc frustrated, or interfered with, 
by surrounding temptations, and I seem to experience in- 



124 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

creased occasion for the penitent acknowledgment of having 
renewedly ' erred and strayed from God's ways Hke a lost 
sheep ;' of having ' left undone those things wliich I ought 
to have done, and done those thhigs which I ought not to 
have done',' Or, in the expressive language of St. Paul, ' I 
know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good 
thing ; for to tvill is present with me, but how to ^;er/br?72. 
that which is good, I fhid not. I delight in the law of 
God, after the inner man; but I see another law in my 
members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing 
me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 
wretched man that I am ! Who shall deliver me from 
the body of this death ?' I embrace cordially, and pray the 
aids of the Holy Spirit to do it effectually, the answer of 
that eminent minister of God : ' Thanks be to God, through 
Jesus Christ our Lord.^ Let us look to Him, as ' the au- 
thor and finisher of our faith ;' be persuaded that ' other 
foundation hath no man laid;' rely upon his all-sufhcient 
atonement ; receive him as our Prophet, Priest, and King ; 
and depend upon the sanctifying influences of the blessed 
Spirit to prepare us for maintaining our present conflicts 
with the world, the flesh, and the devil, and for obtaining 
ultimately a place among the saints in glory. Since my 
mind has become more seriously impressed, experience has 
convinced me, that when deep conviction of sin has seized 
upon the heart, when penitence and prayer have become its 
daily employment, and the soul is panting after righteous- 
ness, worldly engagements, both of business and of pleasure, 
slacken and impede its progress in grace, and hourly suggest 
fearful apprehensions of losing all that has been gained. 
how dreadful is the thought, that when called by God's 
Spirit to a view of one's lost, oindone condition, when en- 
couraged to lay hold of the hope set before us hi the gospel, 
and feeling with humility and thankfulness some advance- 
ment in the work of piety, we should relapse into our first 
estate. Truly, ' the latter end of such is worse than the 



RELiaiOUS CHANaE. 126 

beginning.' God preserve you and me fronn such an event 
His power alone is sullicient for the purpose. 

" After a long profession of religion" — sacramental com- 
munion in the church is not here intended — " accompanied 
by vain attempts to accommodate it to the fashion and folly 
of the world, it has pleased God — in the midst of gayety 
and pleasure, and without that pressure of calamity wliich 
is so often made the means of turning the thoughts to the 
only sure Refuge, and while, too, the opportunity of public 
waiting upon him in his ordinances was, in a great measure, 
denied — to arrest me in my course, convince me of the ex- 
ceeding sinfuhiess of sin, arraign me at the bar of my own 
conscience as a heinous partaker in it, and then, in mercy, to 
open to my view the way of escape, provided I no longer 
neglected the great salvation. 

" By a smgular coincidence it has happened, that with- 
out a mutual knowledge of the fact, you and I have been 
suuilarly engaged. To Avhom, therefore, with more propri- 
ety than to yourself could I impart my feelings ? Let me 
hear from you. Disclose fully your religious views, for it 
Mill be done to a friend. Fellow-travellers on the road to 
Zion, I rejoice to wish you 'God speed' on your journey, 
and sliall not cease to pray for strength to accompany you, 
though it should be — ' Jiand pcissihus cBcjuis ' — at an unequal 

pace. Affectionately yours, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

"To James Mil nor, Esq. 

"Philadelphia, January 26, 1813. 
"My dear Friend — Never did I read a letter with more 
delight and joy than yours, received yesterday. I had been 
absent from the city for ten days, and just rctnrned from the 
gayeties of a weeding at Dover, with a mind diseased and 
corrupted by the intercourse into which I had been obliged 
to enter with a gay and fashionable world. TJie contents 
of your letter warmed my soul, and enlivened all my aflec- 



126 MEMOIR OF DE.. MILNOR. 

tions. For, my dear friend, among the crosses which I fore- 
saw I must bear in my Christian course, was that of sepa- 
rating, in a great degree, from you and many others whose 
pursuits and pleasures were different from those wliich I 
was following. The goodness of God in awakening your 
mind to a sense of its true condition, while it has excited, 
and should continue to excite in you a holy zeal and grati- 
tude, has produced no less emotion in my own mind. A. 
dear friend, in whose society I have ever delighted, and with 
whom I have so often controverted points of religion, when 
we were both strangers to God, has been taught of Him, 
and is restored to me m the bonds of a covenant, which, I. 
trust, will never be broken. How delightful is that friend- 
ship, whose basis is religion, and whose object is the promo- 
tion of our eternal welfare. Thanks be to God for restoring 
to me one so beloved. 

" With you, I am every day constrained to bemoan the 
little progress which I make ' in grace and the knowledge of 
my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,' and almost to fear that 
I have no interest in his atoning sacrifice ; so cold and life- 
less, so hard and flinty is my poor wicked heart. This body 
of sin weighs me down to the dust. ' Take from me, my 
God, this heart of stone, and give me a heart of flesh.' 
Truly, my friend, St. Paul was never more correct than when 
he said, ' The carnal mind is enmity against God ; for it is 
not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.' 
how precious does the bleeding Lamb of God appear to a 
soul, sinking under the conviction of its guilt and ill-desert ; 
and how all-attractive and endearing are the promises of this 
blessed Saviour : ' Come unto me, all ye that labor and are 
heavy laden, and I will give you rest ;' ' Come, buy wine and 
milk, without money and without price.' ^liat, nothing 
to do to obtain this great salvation ? Nothmg. Not a rag 
of self-righteousness will be accepted here. ' It is for my 
name's sake,' saith the great Jehovah, 'that I do this thing.' 
How constantly ought we to pray, ' For thy name's sake, 



RELiaiOUS CHANGE. 127 

Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great.' * Examine 
me, Lord, and prove me ; try my reins and my heart.' 

" Persevere, my dear friend, in beseeching God to have 
mercy on you ; fight the good fight of faith ; put on the ar- 
mor of the Christian warrior, for we have to contend with 
most wicked and powerful enemies ; trust in the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and he will give you victory over them all. 

" How pleasant will be our future correspondence. Leav- 
ing a jarrmg world and its concerns to those who love them 
more, we will tell each other what the Lord hath done for 
our souls, how we travel along the Christian path, what new 
beauties strike our view, what snares and perils we have 
escaped, what trials and conflicts we have endured, and 
what crosses we have borne. Thus animating and coun- 
selling each other, we shall find an epistolary intercourse 
more interestmg and instructive than ever. How different 
will this be from that which we kept up for a part of the 
last session. Instead of the affairs of tliis world, we shall 
converse about a world higher and better : instead of ' AVho 
shall rise to honor and distuiction here ?' our question will 
be, * How shall we attain to that unfading honor, in the 
mansions of eternal rest, reserved for the people of God?' 
But, my friend, in all things be watcliful, guarduig yourself 
from the deceitfulness of your own heart ; for saith our 
blessed Lord, ' Watch and pray, lest ye enter into tempta- 
tion.' The terms of discipleship are plainly proposed to us 
by Him. ' If any man will come after me, let him deny 
himself, and take up liis cross daily, and follow me.' May 
God bless and preserve you, my dear friend ; and may we, 
like David and Jonathan of old, be united in a sure cove- 
nant, and say, that, as for others, they may do as seemeth 
meet unto them ; but, in the language of Joshua, ' as for us 
and our house, we will serve the Lord.' 

" Write to me, and believe me, more than ever, 
"■ Your friend, 

"T. BRADFORD, JR." 



123 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

To this letter Mr. Milnor replied in the following, among 
other passages of his second letter, dated, 

"Washington, 29th Jan., 1813 

" My dear Friend — Your aflectionate letter of the 26th 
has afforded me much satisfaction on every account but one. 
I fear I am to infer from your kind expressions, that you 
unduly appreciate my progress in religion, and that I have 
myself occasioned the mistake by using language ui reference 
to the state of my mind, calculated to give you an idea of 
its subjection to the influence of divine grace which the real 
fact does not warrant. If I have done so, ascribe it to any 
cause rather than a deliberate intention to deceive either you 
or myself : a greater than either, I know I cannot deceive ; 
for although I trust I may say, with the pious Job, ' I have 
heard of thee by the hearing of the ear ; but now mine eye 
seeth thee ' — in faith and mental vision is my meaning — yet 
the glorious view does but excite in me the humbling senti- 
ment with wliich he followed this declaration, ' Wherefore, I 
abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.' Truly, my 
friend, I should falsify every hour's experience, if I denied 
the enmity of the carnal mind against God ; the mgratitude 
of a corrupted heart for innumerable external and internal 
benefactions ; and its guilty murmurings at every parental 
chastisement for multiplied transgressions. The reason why 
we do not discern its rebellion against the Almighty, and its 
tyranny over ourselves, is because we have been so long 
willing slaves to its dominion, and have so often aided its 
struggles against the Spirit of God, that we love its corrup- 
tions and defilements better than all the graces of purity and 
holiness. This I have dej)lorably experienced m my past 
life ; and now that I perceive with a clearer light than here- 
tofore, a heavenly index pointing to the right road, with the 
emphatic direction, ' This is the way ; walk thou in it ;' an 
' evil heart of unbeHef,' still inhabiting this miserable bosom, 
would dissuade me from my course with the beguiling sug 
gestion, that ' the ways of wisdom are 7iot ways of pleasant 



RELIG-IOUS CHANGE. 129 

ness, nor her paths peace.' * Yes,' suggests this rebellious 
spirit, ' you are entering on a rugged and impracticable jour- 
ney ; it is beset with briars and thorns ; few of" those whom 
you most love will be your companions, and all from Avhom 
you separate will pronounce you a fool, a hypocrite, or an 
enthusiast, for your pains. You must assume new habits 
and manners, and on many topics, new opinions, that will 
be the ridicule of your acquaintance, and will unfit you for 
the duties of your station ; and after all, having made trial 
of your undertaking, you will only come back into the world 
with its scorn and derision for your folly and fickle-muided- 
ness.' Thus is it that the arch-adversary — who dared pre- 
sumptuously, though in vain, to assail the sinless purity of 
our Redeemer at his entrance upon the duties of his blessed 
mission, by tempting his supposed vanity, and love of power, 
and cupidity of wealth, with an offer of * all the kingdoms of 
the world and the glory of them ' — more successfully spreads 
his snares for the souls of weak, irresolute, and guilty men. 
Thus has he heretofore induced you and me to stifle convic- 
tions ; permitted us in some general way to acknowledge 
the truths of religion, and join in its public duties ; and 
allowed us to avoid open profligacy and direct opposition to 
many even of the stricter rules of life observed by others ; 
while he has prevented our following the good example of 
the truly pious, and made us content ourselves with a decent 
system of morality, mixed with some of the semblance of 
religion and the exercise of a disposition of charity and good- 
will to our fellow-men ; and then has assured us that these 
would carry us as successfully to heaven as godly sorrow foi 
sin, repentance, faith m the atoning sacrifice of the Son of 
God, regeneration by the Holy Ghost, and newness of life 
produced by the spirit and regulated by the precepts and the 
example of Christ. 

" As to myself, it pleases God at times to obscure my 
views, and to allow my corrupt heart to fear the dilliculties 
wliich I have mentioned ; and thus am I threatened with 

6*- 



130 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

the dangers of backsliding, if not tlie perils of apostasy from 
the faith of Christ. My religious strength is very weakness, 
yet I will not despair ; because, blessed be the Author and 
finisher of my faith, my salvation either from sin here, or 
from eternal death hereafter, depends not on my unassisted 
efforts. My help is laid on One who is mighty to save, and 
who will save, to the uttermost, all that come to God 
through hinm. 

" I sometimes think, that were I some years younger, 
and yet favored with my present views, my course of duty 
would be pretty obvious. But the want of capacity, and of 
religious and other knowledge, and the diminution of that 
aptitude to new acquirements which belongs to the youthful 
mind, with other obstacles that need not be mentioned, banish 
every hope of being useful in the profession to which you will 
easily understand me as intending an allusion," 

This is the first distinct reference, with which we have 
met, to the new direction of his thoughts towards the work 
of the ministry, and it shows how little qualified he then was 
to judge of what God was designing for him in the future. 

" Farewell, my friend," he concludes ; '" duench not the 
Spirit ;' ' prove all things ; hold fast that which is good ; 
abstain from all appearance of evil ; and the very God of 
peace sanctify you wholly ; and I pray God your whole spirit, 
and soul, and body, be preserved blameless unto the coming 
of our Lord Jesus Christ.' This is heavenly advice, not 
mine. May we both adopt and pursue it in all time to 
come." 

" Jan. 31, 1813. — Thanks to my heavenly Father, that 
he has been graciously pleased in some measure to prepare 
me for waiting upon him, on this his holy day, in that way 
which is alone acceptable, 'in spirit and in truth.' I say, in 
S07ne measure ; but 0, how small a dispensation of divine 
grace is yet my portion I Lord, ' take not the word of 
thy truth utterly out of my mouth ; for my hope is in thy 
judgments.' My desire to avoid the scene of political dis 



RELIGIOUS CHANGE. Ifjl 

cussion, which, in this city, is everywhere, save at church 
and in the chamber, induces me very often to seek a retreat 
in the latter, where, I thank God, I may undisturbedly 
' commune with my own heart, and be still.' " 

He closes the letter in which the foregoing brief passages 
occur, with a Sabbath evening's " song of ardent praise ;" 
and then, as if feeling a slight r(;turn of his once strong 
dread and distrust of all high- wrought feelmg in religion, 
adds in a postscript, 

*' Excuse the foregoing transcript of my feelings. The 
full heart must speak out, or it will burst. I would place a 
wholesome restraint upon any tendency of my religious affec- 
tions towards enthusiasm. This spirit is often more lioncat 
than the pharisaical formality of mere outside-professors ; 
but it obscures those clear perceptions of divine truth at 
which we ought to aim, and brings disrepute upon religion. 
Let the Scriptures be our 07ily, as they will prove themselves 
our infallible guide. Let us never submit to the strange 
persuasion that the affections are not to be engaged — warm- 
ly, feelingly engaged, m the work of religion ; but let us 
avoid the evil of yielding them an ascendency over the word 
of God. ' To the law and to the testimony.' " 

After tliis characteristic caution to himself, he subjoins, 
" Farewell, my dear friend. God is teaching me to pray 
aright. I am a stubborn and backward scholar ; but in liis 
good time, he will enable Tne, as I hope he has already ena- 
bled yoic, to mount boldly, though not presumptuously, that 
' true ladder,' as Lord Bacon expresses it, ' which he has 
fixed in the person of a Mediator, whereby God descends to 
his creatures, and his creatures ascend to God.' " 

"Feb. 5, 1813. — Since I last wrote you I can pretend 
to but little progress in that work, the root of which, I hum- 
bly trust, is laid in my heart. The necessity of circum- 
stances, or rather the seeming necessity, carried me yesterday 
to an entertainment at the Russian minister's, from which I 
returned in the evening with a heart less prepared for com- 



132 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

muiiion with itself, or with its God, than if I had been 
drinking at the fountain of his blessed word, or employed in 
the duty of private meditation. To-day, your w^orthy broth- 
er, and a party from Philadelphia, have claimed my atten- 
tion, and the offices of friendship, pleasing as they are to the 
natural disposition, have made me partaker of conviviality, 
on which by any austerity on my part, I feared to throw a 
damp ; but which the retirement of this chamber, where my 
best affections have had their birth and nurture, reminds me 
must be abandoned, or I myself ^all be abandoned by the 
Spirit of the Most High." 

After quoting some sentiments from Lord Bacon, who 
seems to have been a favorite author with liim, he adds, 

" You see how a mixture with gay society disqualifies me 
for resorting to higher authority. I am more and more con- 
vinced, in respect to myself, that these occasions and tempt- 
ations must be avoided ; and that the limits of propriety 
assume so equivocal a character to the mind, and may be so 
easily exceeded in companionable intercourse, that the tyro 
in religion must beware how he exposes himself to the dan- 
ger of losing, by his own folly and indiscretion, all that he 
has gained. May the time soon arrive when I shall be less 
ashamed of the gospel of Christ, better practise his blessed 
precepts, and have more courage and success in subduing 
inveterate habits, and in devoting myself, as a consistent 
disciple of the Cross, to the promotion of the Redeemer's 
kingdom." 

His next letter contains an account of a visit to Wash- 
ington of a young Presbyterian preacher, the Rev. Mr. (now 
Dr.) Skinner, who brought him a letter of introduction from. 
Mr. Bradford, and v«diose eloquent and faithful preaching at 
the capital left a deep and most salutary impression. Mr. 
Milnor thus narrates two incidents connected with this visit. 

"Feb. 8, 1813. — An amiable friend of mine," appar- 
ently a fellow-member of Congress, " who would have been 
much oifended to be told he was not a believer, was frank 



RELIGIOUS CHANG-E. 133 

enough to acknowledge to me, that he went home after 
morning service, retired to his chamber, and wept bitterly 
at the reflection, that, at the age of fifty, this young strip- 
ling should have so laid open his deformities, and set before 
him truths to wliich he had so long been experimentally a 
stranger. A conversation held with him to-day, induces me 
to believe that an abiding impression has been made on his 
mind. 

" On Sunday afternoon, at the close of the service, a lady, 
who had been much affected, went to speak to Mr. Skinner ; 
but her tears choked her utterance, and she withdrew." 

The occasion was blessed to himself likewise, for he soon 
after subjoins : 

" My mind becomes more stayed upon God. The reah- 
ties of religion begin to fasten more steadfastly on my un- 
derstanding and my heart. The Holy Spirit gra.ciously as- 
sists my infirmities in making prayer and supplication at the 
throne of grace, and I patiently wait for an answer to my 
petitions in God's own time, confiding in the unchangeable 
faithfulness of his gracious promises. How dare we distrust 
that God who has promised to be ' rich m mercy to all who 
call upon him ? ' " 

"Feb. 11, 1813. — You ask, 'Is it painful and injurious 
to me to mingle with the world, and to partake of its pleas- 
ures?' Yes. Nothing so much disqualifies me for all relig- 
ious duties as promiscuous company, especially if it be of 
such a cast as that in which you and I have been accus- 
tomed to delight. Whenever a seeming necessity has drawn 
me reluctantly into it, I have returned to my chamber with 
heaviness of heart and the keenest stings of remorse ; so true 
is the observation, as to the effect of such associations, which 
Solomon applies to the excessive use of one of their ordinar)' 
accompaniments : ' At the last, it biteth like a serpent, and 
stingeth like an adder;' or, as he elsewhere says, 'Even in 
laughter the heart is sorrow^ful, and the end of that mirth is 
heaviness.' For any real delight which these thmgs have 



134 MEMOIR, OF DR. MILNOH. 

given me, their loss is as notliuig. Tlie cross lies in subject- 
mg one's self to the imputation of a hundred motives for a 
new course of life different from the true ones, and in offend- 
ing many amiable friends, who cannot, unless enlightened 
by divine grace, discern any just reason for an alteration hi 
our conduct. 

" Hospitality and friendliness towards all who have claims 
on us, may be lawfully indulged, but revelling and carousal 
must be avoided ; and, for 77iyself, I add, all tlwse 'places of 
public amusement ivliere God is insulted or forgotten, and 
religion a7id morals are set at open defiance. If religious 
convictions had not already divorced me from that fascinating 
syren the theatre, I should have been completely satisfied by 
the conclusive arguments of Dr. Miller, in his sermon preach- 
ed on the occasion of the conflagration at Richmond. 

" Many thanks for your clear, experimental views of 
* the truth as it is in Jesus.' On the fundamentals of his 
blessed, glorious religion, we shall never disagree. If on any 
obscure, controverted point we should happen to differ, we 
will follow the conscientious dictates of our respective minds, 
appealing to the Searcher of hearts for the honesty of our 
views, and exercising charity towards each other. My feel- 
ings must indeed be changed much for the worse, before I 
can refuse Christian charity to every sincere follower of the 
Lamb, whatever be the denomination under wliich chance 
or choice may have thrown hhn ; fully believing that, as ' in 
every nation,' so in every body of Christians, ' he that fear- 
eth God and worketh righteousness, is accepted of him.' " 

To this part of his letter is appended a note,, beginning 
with the folio whig passage : " Chance — allow me to recall 
this hateful expression. How careful ought we to be, ever 
to bear in mind the all-pervading providence of God. The 
language, as well as the thoughts of the days of our carnal- 
ity, is an effective means in the hands of the tempter, of 
sullying our Christian purity, and of annoying us in the 
warfare in which we are now engaged." 



i^ELIaIOUS CHANaE. 135 

" Fek. 12, 1813. — I know not whether I am to consider 
my residence in this place, with all its privations, as an evil. 
Perhaps it has been a blessing in disguise. It engaged me 
in politics till my heart sickened with disgust at the conten- 
tious scene around me. It mvolved me in the frippery; and 
parade, and foolery of fashionable life, till I was surfeited 
with their wretched insipidity, and alarmed at the dangers 
lurking beneath their tasteless sweets. Deprivmg me of the 
enjoyment of a regular attendance on public worship, it 
taught me to prize that blessing more highly than ever. 
Abstracted from my professional pursuits, and the many 
engagements which the cares of a family bring with them, 
and findmg little satisfaction in the passmg scene, the solitude 
of my chamber has aflbrded me precious opportunities for 
meditation, self-examination, communion with my own heart, 
and finally, by God's grace, intercourse with heaven. This 
work has been in progress for many years." [It evidently 
began the moment when examination had convinced liis 
"rational understanding" of the divine inspiration of the 
Scriptures, and had driven this belief of the head into what 
proved its long conflict with the self-righteousness of the 
heart : a conflict in which nature stoutly withstood grace, 
and made disputes about religion and an exterior semblance 
of it a shield against inward conviction, and an opiate to 
conscience ; till, finally, the very excess of this world's 
noises — God speakmg through them — awoke him from his 
dream of saving himself, and drove him for eternal life to 
the only immovable rock, Christ Jesus.] " In the midst of 
much worldly business, pohtical anxiety, and pleasurable 
occupation, the ' still small voice ' has unceasingly whispered 
in my ear, that these could never constitute my rest ; that 
there was an awful eternity before me, and a work of grace 
to be efi^ected in my heart, if I wished for final happiness. 
You say, in one of your letters, that you and I used to dispute 
about religious doctrines, when we were wholly ignorant of 
the power of religion upon our souls. The observation is 



136 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

most true ; but do you not believe that God's Spirit was 
then at work upon us, and that, though the obduracy of our 
hearts would not then yield to liis requisitions, but we dar- 
ingly sent him away till a more convenient season, yet he 
has been pleased, in matchless goodness, still to strive with 
us to the present day ? Such is my persuasion ; and the 
desire of my soul now is, to ascribe to him praises too exalted 
for my jiolluted lips to express, for his long-suffering mercy 
and goodness ; and fervently and constantly do I implore that 
I may be preserved, by a power superior to my own, from 
all manner of sin and wickedness, and be, one day, presented 
blameless by my dear Redeemer before the throne of his 
Father." 

Alluding soon after to Christ's " gracious promise of mak- 
ing us partakers of ' the kingdom prepared for us from the 
foundation of the world,' " and to the assurance that " so 
shall we ever be with the Lord," he breaks forth in the fol- 
lowing strain : 

" transporting, rapturous contemplation ! Inspired by 
Buch hopes, founded on the unchangeable faithfulness of the 
God of truth, vain pomp and glory of the world, we hate 
you. Honor, fame, riches, become empty sounds ; and our 
whole happiness consists in the fulfilment of the noble pur- 
pose which you have intimated, of knowing ' only Christ 
Jesus and him crucified.' " 

He proceeds to advise the preservation of their letters, in 
order that, if their hearts should ever grow cold, and lose 
the sweet sense which they then enjoyed, of " heavenly mo- 
ments, unseen by any but their Father," a recurrence to 
what they had once written might be blessed to the rekin- 
dling of their fires, and the reviving of their unearthly joys. 
This again put in movement the balance-wheel of his cau- 
tion, and therefore he adds, 

" But let us avoid enthusiastic delusions, and test all our 
emotions by the written word of God. Let our ecstasies, if 
haply God inspire us with some portion of the spirit that 



RELiaiOUS CHANaE. 137 

animated them, bo such as were felt by David, and Job, 
and regenerated Paul. Then Ave need not fear that our 
afiections will run into enthusiasm and rant. At least, 
though a gainsaying, ignorant world might pronounce it such, 
yet such will not be the judgment of the redeemed of God. 
They have felt the transports of a soul emancipated from the 
slavery of sin, and favored, in mental vision, with a ghmpse 
of the glories of the heavenly world. my friend, may your 
heart be as light as mine is to-day. Last night was a happy 
night. Dare I be so presumptuous as to say, that God was 
present with me in my ardent supplications, and vouchsafed 
me an answer of peace ? Knowing, as I do, my ignorance 
and blindness, I could not, of myself, have so poured out my 
soul unto him. Thanks be to his adorable name, the Spirit 
gave me utterance, and I feel a humble hope that I have 
not Avrestled for naught." 

The farther we advance in these transcripts, the more 
are we struck with what must have been the uncommon 
depth and strength of Mr. Milnor's early antipathy to Cal- 
vinism. Even with those who allow that his objections 
against that system were just, there can be no doubt that 
his antipathy was so excessively sensitive as to render him, 
for a long period, all but incapable of the true and full com- 
forts of a Christian hope. For no sooner was he brought to 
something like the dawnings of that hope, and to an expres- 
sion of the holy joys to which it naturally gives birth, than 
he was seized with an uncomfortable fear, lest his friend 
should understand him as admitting the doctrine of ^'assur- 
ance,'' or as professing to have become one of "the elect." 
Hence, immediately after writing the letter from which the 
last extracts are taken, he sent forward another to set him- 
self right on this point. 

"Feb, 13, 1813. — I did not intend so soon to trouble you 
with another letter ; but I fear lest, in the warmth of my 
feelings when I last wrote, I have expressed myself pre- 
sumptuously and unadvisedly. I would by no means ' lav 



138 MEMOIE- OF DR. MILNOR. 

the flatterinj^ unction to my soul,' that my spiritual warfare 
is accomplished. God forbid that I should take up a false 
rest, and cry, ' Peace, peace, when there is no peace.' 
There is no danger so great, in my eyes, as a false security 
in present attainments. It stops the progress of piety in the 
heart ; shuts out those affusions of divine grace, which would 
cop-tinue to be dispensed, were the mind kept in a meek and 
humble state ; and is, I believe, not infrequently a road 
which imperceptibly carries an awakened sinner back to the 
world, and makes liis latter end worse than the beginning." 

These thoughts are just ; but what was there in his 
previous letter to justify the " fear " which prompted them? 
That " God was present with him," and heard his prayer 
with " an answer of peace ;" that " the Spirit gave him. 
utterance," and filled him with the " humble hope that he 
had not wrestled in vain ;" and that the night should have 
been made " happy " amid the refreshings thus kindly vouch- 
safed him ; were surely no reasons why he should distress 
himself with the fear that he had " taken up a false rest." 
JSTor, it is presumed, would he have felt this fear, had he 
not once filled his mind so crowdedly with the theory that 
all strong hope borders somewhere on presumption ; and 
that enthusiasm, though often " honest," is yet, almost nec- 
essarily, mischievous. From some passages in liis next let- 
ter, he seems to have been already thrown far back mto 
darkness and discomfort. 

"Feb. 17, 1813. — Except when I seek .the privacy of 
my chamber, I am in the m^idst of a continued whirl of poli- 
tics and fashion ; and after subjecting myself to much cen- 
sure for the languid interest which I take both in the one 
and in the other, I find my owii conscience, in my closet, up- 
braiding me with mixing too much in their contaminations. 
With respect to politics, my heart loathes their corrupting 
and uncharitable dissonances ; and as for the parade of 
drawmg-rooms, it can afford little pleasure to a mind bowed 
down under a conviction of sin, and humbly seeking the 



RELiaiOUS CHANaE. 139 

regenerating and sanctifying influences of the Spirit of God. 
Solitude and retirement, during some part of each day, can 
on ro account be dispensed with. If secular occupations 
deprive us of them during the hours usually allotted to the 
world, let us abridge the unnecessary quantum of sleep in 
which our sluggish natures too often invite us to indulge. 
My rehgious impressions have induced me to consider this 
useless waste of time as a sin to be abandoned ; and I find 
a late retirement to the pillow, and an earlier desertion of it, 
by no means injurious to health. 

"I am but at the threshold of this great undertaking of 
' worldng out my salvation with fear and trembling.' My 
course is much less successful than you suppose. If ' the 
Day-spring from on high ' seem now and then to shine into 
my corrupt and darkened mind, its rays are ever and anon 
obscured by more than midnight gloom. The very ' black' 
ness of darkness ' appears sometimes to blot out all my hopes, 
and my only solace is the still continued promises of the 
gospel, which the combined efibrts of the world, the flesh, 
and the devil, will never, I trust, be able to defeat." 

He had recently attended, in Alexandria, the preaching 
of a charity sermon by the Rev. Mr. Wihner, in the Meth- 
odist church. Of this he remarks, 

" Judge Washington since observed to me — not with a 
view to censure, for he afterwards highly applauded both 
the preacher and the sermon — that he had seen me in Alex- 
andria * hstening to a Presbyteriaii sermon from an Ejyis- 
capal minister in a Methodist meeting-house.' that ali 
Christians agreeing in the fundamentals of religion, would 
feel that glowing love towards one another, enjoined by 
that commandment of our Lord, which he does not hesitate 
to assimilate in dignity and importance to the first and 
greatest." 

"Feb. 18, 1813. — What a precious privilege is it to 
such worms of the dust as we, to have such a door of access 
opened to us into the holiest I My heart burns with rap- 



140 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

turous gratitude and praise at this wonderful condescension 
in that infinitely exalted Being of beings, v/ho dwells in light 
inaccessible and full of glory, and before whom even angels 
veil their faces." 

" You see I keep on with my letters, destitute as they 
are of novelty, and, except to minds exercised as ours are, of 
interest too. Do not criticise their language, or their method ; 
for I attend to neither. Such as it is, you have my heart 
laid open to your view, with all its obliquities and alterna- 
tions : now tossed on an ocean of fears and doubts almost at 
the will of the tempter ; and now, with the impetus from 
that -heaverdy Wind which ' bloweth where it listeth,' and 
under the pilotage of that unerring guide, the revelation of 
God, gently steering towards ' the haven where it would be.'" 

A large part of his next letter, which is very long, is 
occupied on a theme to which he often recurs — the difficul- 
ties thrown in the way of his religious progress by his pro- 
fessional pursuits, and his former entanglements amid the 
pleasures of the world. After dwelling on the subject at 
length, he proceeds, under date of 

"Feb. 20, 1813. — Accept, my friend, these Saturday 
night effusions. They come from a heart more and more 
convinced of its innate and obstinate depravity, yet excited 
by divine grace to pant after that ' laver of regeneration' 
spoken of by the pious Cyprian ; and though moving with a 
faltering and unsteady pace in the appointed way, yet having 
no dependence on itself, but looking towards a bleeding Sav- 
iour as its only hope and stay, and consoling itself with an 
assurance, that what it could never have accomplished for 
itself, has been freely done by an adorable act of unmerited 
mercy on the part of the Son of God. amazing conde- 
scension ! Love unparalleled I Well might the apostle so 
feelingly declare, ' Scarcely for a righteous man will one die ; 
yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to 
die : but God commendeth his love to us, in that while we 
were yet sin?iers, Christ died for tts.' " 



RELIGIOUS CIIAXaE. 141 

Alluding to the danger of " expecting, too soon, conclu- 
sive evidence of God's favor," in what he calls, though with- 
out theological accuracy, " the complete regeneration of our 
hearts" — language which seems to confound our original 
new-hirth of the Spirit with final, perfect sanctification — he 
proceeds : 

" His own time is the best time. Let us beware of the 
suggestions of the tempter, who would have us outrun the 
openmgs of divine light upon our souls, and upbraid the 
Almighty with the tardiness of liis operations. Hearts, so 
lately at enmity with God, and even now constantly prone 
to forget that ' his ways are not our ways, nor his thoughts 
our thoughts,' should be bowed down in humility, and pa- 
tiently wait for God to be further gracious to us, by giving us 
a sensible assurance of our being wholly his. If this be 
withheld, a scriptural caution should silence every murmur : 
'Who art thou, man, that repliest against God?' 'He 
that reproveth God, let him answer it.' " 

After he began this letter, he received one from his friend, 
mourmng under an unusual darkness, wliich had come over 
his soul. Among other comforting suggestions, therefore, he 
offers the following in a postscript : 

"Feb. 21, 1813. — It is good for us, my friend, and an 
evidence of God's love, that he chastens us, and does not per- 
mit us to relinquish our warfare by a false security of its 
having been already accomplished. Talk not of ' delusion.' 
It is the suggestion of the Evil One to shake your faith in the 
Redeemer. The Holy Spirit has begun a work, which he 
will assuredly accomplish, if you and I do not wilfully resist 
his strivings. What though our prayers are weak and lan- 
guid ? We have a prevaiUng ' Advocate with the Father — 
Jesus Christ the righteous ; and he is the propitiation lor 
our sins.' Into his hands let us resign our cause ; let his 
blood and merits plead for us ; and let us not dare to doubt 
but his intercession Avill procure for us a full discharge of all 
our sins, and a renewal of our hearts unto holiness and new- 



142 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

ness of life. If our desires and prayers have ever wandered 
from the ground on which they must rest to be prevalent 
with God, let us apply to ourselves the Redeemer's rebuke, 
obey his divine injunction, and rely, yes, boldly and confi- 
dently rely on his faithfulness to the amiexed promise : 
* Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name. Ask, that ye 
may receive, and that your joy may be full.' ' If ye abide 
in me, and my word abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, 
and it shall be done unto you.' The Psalmist, too, assures 
us that ' God forgetteth not the cry of the humble :' and 
again, ' This poor man cried ; the Lord heard, and dehvered 
him out of all his distresses.' 

" My confidence in the Lord is strong this morning : I 
fervently beseech him to make yours so." 

He was learning to " comfort one who was in trouble, 
by the comfort wherewith he himself was comforted of 
God;" and so experienced the truth of the divine assurance, 
" He that watereth" others, " shall be watered also himself." 

"Feb. 25, 1813. — I have need of an apology for the 
length of my last letter, rather than so soon to trouble you 
with another ; but I hope it is one evidence of my contmued 
love to the blessed Saviour, that I delight to hold converse 
with one of his acknowledged disciples, and to be employed 
in so often speakmg forth the praises of his holy name. If 
there be one sentiment at this time predominant in my mind, 
it is that of gratitude for his long-sufTering goodness and 
merciful loving-kindness to sinners, especially to me, who am 
the chief of sumers. He has been pleased to call me out of 
darkness into some degree of his marvellous light ; and thanks 
be to the adorable faithfulness of his character, no doubt 
dares intrude into my mind of his perfectly fulfilling towards 
me every promise of his gracious word to penitent ofl'enders. 
My prospects are, it is true, sometimes most lamentably 
darkened. Since I last wrote to you, I have, at times, been 
greatly discouraged. My devotional exercises have more 
than once been destitute of the life and power of religion, 



RELiaiOUS CHANCtE. 143 

and, of course, have been followed by none of the cheering 
consolations, expected on the ground of a gospel assurance, 
from communion Avith heaven. I accept these evidences of 
God's displeasure with humility, as chastenings due my 
transgressions ; and pray afresh that they may be efficacious 
in bringmg down every vain imagination, and in teaching 
me to rate still lower every performance of my own — to for- 
sake, more and more, evil ways and evil thoughts, and to 
rely wholly on the grace of God for ability to do so, as well 
as to offer up acceptable sacrifices of praise and thanksgiv- 
ings for his numerous mercies, and humble supplications for 
a continuance of his unmerited favor. The world, the world, 
ray friend, is the great obstacle. We must take a firm stand, 
and tread it under our feet." 

" I have received a most pleasing letter from the Rev. 
Mr. Kemper, written in the true spirit of a gospel minister. 
No man more earnestly desires to see the church rise out of 
the cold and lifeless state in which she now lies, or more 
fervently rejoices at the prospect of these days of coldness 
fleeing away. ' My heart,' says he, ' is indeed cheered at 
the prospect ; my spirits revive. When the hands of those 
who are appointed to minister in holy tilings are upheld by 
their lay brethren, victory in the E.edeemer's cause is certain. 
I anticipate the time when we shall take sweet counsel 
together, for the purpose of promotmg tliis best of causes. 
Nor will we be long alone. Many have become sensible of 
the vast importance of their immortal souls, who, if they 
contiime seeking, will soon glory in the Cross of Christ.' 

" I will show you the whole of this letter when I see you, 
because I am persuaded you view the church as I do : not 
;is confined to any sect bearing the Christian name, but as 
embracmg, in its wide-spread arms, the redeemed of God 
through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, in whatever branch 
of the great family Providence may have cast their lot. 
Gospel charity, like gospel faith, working by love upon the 
heart, breaks down that unhappy wall of separation, wliich 



144 MEMOIR OF DE.. MI.LNOR. 

too much divides bretliren of the same household ; who, 
however they may differ about forms of worship and of gov- 
ernment, or even on some controverted doctrines, unite in 
cordially embracing the great fundamental and peculiar doc- 
trmes of our holy religion. I thank God for favoring me 
with an expansion of heart towards all the members of the 
mystical body of Christ, to which I desire to be united as one 
of the humblest and the least." 

Perhaps we have met with no evidence of his own adop- 
tion into the true family of Christ more convincing than that 
contained in this last passage : the expansion of his heart's 
love to the limit of embracing all who are in Christ by faith. 
"We laioiv that we have passed from death unto life, be- 
cause we love THE BRETHREN," the entire Christian broth- 
erhood. 

By this time he had received Mr. Bradford's reply to his 
long letter of consolation, dated, February 20, 21, and 22. 
The following passage will show that his offered comforts 
had not proved like waters poured on the desert, wliich can- 
not be gathered up again. 

"Feb. 26, 1813. — Independently of the happiness which 
it gives me at all times to hear from you, I have, in this 
mstance, a special happiness, from the assurance that you 
have been favored with those consolations which were denied 
you at the time of writing your previous letter. I am indeed 
rejoiced, if, under God, the counsel of one who so much needs 
it as I do, has been of any service in this good work ; and 
yet I would not claim the smallest portion of merit, for I am 
a debtor for all things myself to the inexhaustible treasury 
of the blessed word of God. I trust the time will arrive, 
when, instead of the buffetings which the noviciate in religion 
experiences, we shall be raised above them ; and although 
we may have to ' call to remembrance the former days, in 
which, after we were' partially ' illuminated, we endured a 
great fight of afflictions,' we shall yet have the full assur- 
ance in our hearts, that ' there remaineth a rest to the people 



RELIGIOUS CHANGE. 145 

of God,' and that we are of the happy number of those who 
ar3 entitled to claim it." 

In the letter which Mr. Milnor is here answering, his 
friend, having been comforted, found his heart courageous 
and his tongue loosed ; so that, m advertmg to the best 
means of counteracting the evil' tendencies of legal practice 
and other necessary mtercourse with a wicked world, he was 
led to make the foUowmg quotation from Watts. 

"As to our duty on such occasions, I have been struck 
with these stanzas as peculiarly apt. 

" ' Whene'er constrained a while to stay 

With men of life profane, 
I'll set a double guard that day, 

Nor let my talk be vain. 
I'll scarce allow my lips to speak 

The pious thoughts I feel, 
Lest scoffers should occasion take 

To mock my holy zeal. 
Yet, if some proper hour appear, 

I'll not be overawed, 
But let the scoffing sinner hear 

That we can speak for God.' " 

In his remarks on this quotation, Mr. Milnor lets us look 
into one of the constitutional peculiarities, perhaps we may 
say faults of his mind — a peculiarity, indeed, in which he has 
many followers : we refer to his great caution, tending to 
reserve, in making religion the subject of direct personal 
appeal to sinners. Some talk to these too much, because 
they talk indiscreetly ; others talk too little, because, when 
they do open their mouth, it speaketh right things. The 
former need a bridle on their tongues ; the latter should pray 
against bemg tonguetied. But to the remarks. 

" I concur with you in your views of the danger not only 
of business pursued, and of pleasure indulged as heretofore, 
but also of the vain and trifling intercourse to which we 
must every day be unavoidably subjected" — [supposing the 
continuance of their legal practice.] " Your poet's advice is 

Mem. Milnor. 7 



1,4G MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

excellent, but a man must be well grounded in religion to 
make it safe for him, in general, to introduce topics connected 
with it into ordinary conversation. There are undoubtedly 
times when it may be expedient and profitable to do so ; but 
commonly so sacred a subject should be reserved for the pri- 
vate intercourse of kindred minds, shut out from a giddy and 
thoughtless world, to commune with each other on God's 
dealmgs with their souls, and to build each other up in 
their most holy faith. This, I trust, will often be ou?- sweet 
employ." 

" Feb. 28, 1813. — ' The race is not to the swift, nor the 
battle to the strong.' Thou, Lord, art the only giver of 
victory, and vain are the efforts of men who rely upon their 
own strength, and call not upon thee for aid. be pleased 
to teach us every day our entire dependence upon thee. 
Give us true repentance, saving faith, willing obedience, 
enlarged love, perfect humility ; so that, having exercised all 
the graces with which thy Holy Spirit may endow us, we 
may still avow ourselves ' unprofitable servants,' and thank- 
fully acknowledge that it is of thy free mercy only we are 
saved : — 

" Such have been the aspirations of my heart this day, 
both in the house of God and on my knees in this chamber. 
The gratitude which I feel towards this gracious Giver of 
every good and perfect gift, for his infinite condescension in 
invituig us to these approaches to his throne, burns at this 
moment in my bosom with an ardor not to be described. ^ 
Let holy David supply the song of thankful praise. * I will 
praise thee, Lord ; even thy truth, my God. Unto thee 
wiU I sing upon the harp, thou Holy One of Israel. My 
lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto thee, and my soul 
whioh thou hast redeemed. I will hope continually, and 
will yet praise thee more and more. My mouth shall show 
forth thy righteousness, and thy salvation all the day. I 
will go in the strength of the Lord God ; I will make meii» 
tion of THY righteousness, even of thine only.' 



KELIGIOUS CHANGE. M7 

" How greatly am I astonished when I look back at my 
former misconceptions of religious truth. I refer not merely 
to its practical influence on the life and conversation, but to 
a theoretical view of it as a system. Those doctrines of the 
gospel, on which, if I know my own feehngs now, I consider 
all my hopes of eternal happiness as resting, were, to my 
understanding, so repulsive, that my constant effort was, not 
daring utterly to reject them, to qualify them so as to suit 
my own dark, limited, and perverted views. Forgetting that 
the great Supreme ' will never give his glory to another,' my 
endeavor was, to make poor, finite, feeble, and depraved 
man, the efhcient cause of his own salvation ; in this delu- 
sion losing sight, in a very great degree, of the glorious and 
complete atonement of Christ, and evadmg the agency of 
the Holy Spirit in appropriating its benefits to the soul of the 
believer. Then did I employ myself in hewmg out broken 
cisterns, and in amusing myself with many inventions calcu- 
lated to strip the blessed gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ of 
all that I noio see in it as most estimable and important. 
That ' it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps,' but 
that his deliverance from the thraldom of sin, and his hopes 
of everlasting happiness, rest wholly upon the offering made 
by ' the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the 
world,' and upon the regenerating, converting, and sanctify- 
ing influences of the Holy Spirit upon the heart, are now th© 
pillars which support the whole fabric of my religious faith. 
Without these fundamental doctrines, the word of God desren 
erates into a mere system of ethics ; and the only surprising 
thing is, that such a mission as that of our Saviour's, hia 
sufferings, and ignominious death, should have seemed neces- 
sary for so trifling an effect as that ascribed to them by those 
who thus depress His glorious merits, sacrilegiously, shall 1 
say. to exalt their own. Such, once, were you and L Such 
was the burden of our unprofitable, unsanctified discussions 
Let our prayer to God be, that ' we may obtain mercy, 
because we did it ignorantly, and in unbelief For my part, 



148 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

I humble myself before God for this and all my multiplied 
transgressions ; and confess, that were he strict to mark 
iniquity, I could not abide it. But with him there is mercy 
and plenteous redemption. Let us not despair of their exten- 
sion even to us. He will yet give us to ' rejoice in the Lord 
and to joy' even abundantly 'in the God of our salvation.'" 

"March 2, 1813. — I hope there is not an undue spice 
of self-complacency in the gratification which it gives me to 
hear from you, arising out of the kind things you are pleased 
to say of me ; for although I will not be so fastidious as to 
deny the value which I set upon your good opinion, yet the 
insight which it has pleased God to give me into my heart, 
and the hostility which it daily and hourly evinces to the 
operations of the Holy Comforter, will, I trust, sufficiently 
warn and guard me against spiritual pride, and the too 
favorable opinions of friends so partial as yourself." 

Yet self-complacency, or something else, " seemed to have 
obliterated the impressions of the Sabbath, and to have pros- 
trated all his religious affections." He says, 

. " At an early hour in the evening, I retired to my cham- 
ber, and opened the sacred volume. It seemed to have no 
word of comfort for me, and I laid it aside, disposed to retire 
to my slumbers without this their usual prelude. Happily, 
however, I have not latterly dared to go to my rest without 
a previous prostration at the footstool of the throne of grace. 
I wept bitterly at the necessity of entering on this solemn 
exercise with icy feelings ; nay, I fear, wdth almost a dispo- 
sition to evade the duty. I am sure, I should have been 
glad to have a Christian friend with me, whose tongue might 
have relieved my own from a service for which I felt utterly 
unfit. But it was best for me to be deprived of this seeming 
blessing, this praying friend. Our heavenly Father did not 
suffer my apathy and torpor to continue long. The humble 
petition, that he would be pleased * not to cast me away from 
his presence, nor take his Holy Spirit from me,' but that he 
would ' give me the comfort of his help again, and stablish 



RELIGIOUS CHANaE. 149 

me with his free Spirit,' was not unanswered. My soul, 
before full of heaviness, and disquieted within me, ready to 
cry out unto the God of my strength, 'Why hast thou for- 
gotten me ?' received new life from the warming, animating 
beams of divine love. My praises rose into rapture, and [ 
left my requests with the God of all grace, with a renewed 
confidence in his unchangeable goodness and truth ; exclaim- 
ing with holy David, I will ' put my trust in God ; I will 
yet thank him, who is the help of my countenance and my 
God.' I will only add, that thus prepared, the sacred vol- 
ume gave me sweet employment until the lateness of the 
hour obliged me to retire to rest. To no one but yourself 
would I be thus particular. I am so to you, because the 
result of this conflict furnishes a consoling assurance of the 
efficacy of humble, fervent prayer ; a privilege and blessing 
so little prized, so much neglected." 

He goes on to say, " To-morrow is the last day of my 
public life," and to take a sort of review of his political prin- 
ciples and conduct during his membership in Congress, under 
the light of his new and higher views ; and then he adds, 

"But how I fatigue you with this endless talk about 
myself. Let me turn to the more grateful duty of congratu- 
lating you on your increased composure of mind, your con- 
sequent determination to unite with the people of God in the 
holy comnmnion, the gratifying circumstances of Mrs. Brad- 
ford's association with you in this solemn profession, and the 
consolations which you derive from your stated family ob- 
servances. All these sources of happiness will, I hope, be 
one day mine. How long some of them may be postponed, 
I cannot tell. Some appeals to my nearest earthly friend 
are not answered as I could wish. But conversation and 
prayer may, with higher aid, make more impression. My 
appeals are not rejected or negatived, but passed over slightly 
with a sort of acquiescence bordering on indifierence. But 
perhaps I am mistaken in my opinion. Mrs. Mihior is too 
kind and affectionate, if it were for tny sake only, to let me 



150 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

travel on alone. The heavenly Teacher will, I hope, make 
her, for her own sake, my companion m this, as m all the 
other duties of life." 

His next letter was written on the 4th of March, the day 
of President Madison's re-mauguration, while the writer was 
confined to his chamber by his old enemy the gout. It turns 
chiefly on the event of the day, and the character of the 
war in which the country was involved ; and has, therefore, 
little or nothing to the purpose of these extracts. But, two 
days later, bemg still confined, he wrote again ; and his letter 
was full of interest. 

"March 6, 1813. — I sit down, my worthy friend, to 
write you, in all probability, for the last time from tliis 
place. 

" In the series of letters already transmitted, I have en- 
deavored to give you a faithful transcript of my feelings on 
the all-important subject of religion. Unless I have been 
under a great delusion, they describe to you a work of God 
upon my soul, produced by the free and unmerited dispen- 
sation of his Spirit, for which I desire ever to be most thank- 
ful, and to manifest my gratitude by devoting, as he may 
enable me to do, the residue of my life to his holy service. 
Not that I expect to pay, by any imperfect labors of my 
own, the incalculable amount of obligation wliich I owe my 
• heavenly Benefactor. My blessed Surety has done for me 
what I never should have been able to do for myself, though 
an angel's powers had been mine. But although my ran- 
som has been offered and accepted, and I would not dare 
presumptuously to claim the merit of having contributed any 
thing towards it, yet, does not this astonishing goodness call 
upon me, by God's help, to ' walk in all the commandments 
of the Lord blameless ?' And although Christian humility 
must make every redeemed sinner acknowledge, that after 
his best performances, he is ' an unprofitable servant,' yet, 
does it exempt him from exertion, and entitle him to ' stand 
all the day idle ?' My former bhndness on this plain and 



RELIGIOUS CKANOE. 151 

easy doctrine of our religion amazes me. The inseparable 
union of saving faith and good works, as cause and efiect, 
wliilst no reliance is placed on the latter as the efficient 
means of our salvation — this depends wholly on the atone- 
ment of our Lord Jesus Christ, the benefits of which are 
appropriated to ourselves by a Hvely faith, the gift of God's 
Holy Spirit working ui us — is at this moment as clear to my 
apprehension as the simplest proposition of which I can con- 
ceive," though it were friend Aquila's " Two and two make 
four."] " liowever I appreciate — and I do most highly — 
the labors of pious men employed in the investigation of 
religious truth, it is a cause of rejoicmg with me, that my 
hearty reception of tliis doctrine is derived from a higher 
authority, the fountainhead of knowledge, the unerring word 
of God, My heart bounds within me, that I can add, the 
doctrine is sealed upon my conscience m answer to fervent, 
importunate supplication at the throne of grace ; and every 
day gives me new evidence of its being the basis of every 
system of doctrme that can rightfully claim the gospel of 
Clirist for its support." 

All this is not unlilve friend Aquila's ^^ solid conviction'' 
of the truths which he found so precious ; and if this letter 
had been addressed to him, he might well have exclamied, 
with thankful surprise, " The gay, the popular, the worldly 
Mdnor has become a zealous convert to religion," 

" how comfortless would be our situation, how dismal 
our prospect for the future, had we to depend on any tlnng 
short of the right arm of God to bring us salvation I Yes, 
thou self-righteous, presumptuous Pharisee, who art vaunt- 
ing thy own performances before tliy fellow-men, tell me, 
durst thou do so in the retirement of thy closet, and to thy 
Goi ? Dost thou ever pray ? If so, wherefore this unne- 
cessary trouble ? But dost thou in secret acknowledge thy 
infirmities, and ask divine assistance ; while, before men, 
thou disclaimest both ? Strange inconsistency ! Tremen- 
dous infatuation I Verily, unless thou art brought down 



lo2 MEMOIR OF DH. MILNOR. 

from thy towering imaginations, and liumbled at the feet of 
Jesus, and unless thou aclaiowledge to the world that thy 
help is laid upon One that is mighty, the most daring profli- 
gate might refuse to exchange his situation for thine. Divine 
truth may, at some moment, reach his heart, and subdue his 
love of sensuality and pleasure. But tliou art wise above 
knowledge ; thou art wrapped in an impenetrable cloud of 
arrogance and self-conceit. Thou hast darkened counsel, 
rejected the Saviour's plan, and made a system for thyself; 
forgetting, that ' other foundation can no man lay than that 
is laid,' without sinking into ruin with the tottering, base- 
less fabric of his own invention. Yet, the mercy of God is 
infinite, and a timely resort to it may prevent even thee 
from feeling how ' fearful a thing it is to fall into the hands 
of the living God.' 

" Such, I have thought, were I a commissioned officer 
of God, Avould be my address to those self-worshipping men 

* who, professing themselves to be wise, have become ' such 

* fools ' as to subtract from the all-sufficiency of the gospel 
plan of redemption, and supply ' a cunningly devised fable ' 
of their own : to reject virtually, if not confessedly, the 
merits of an almighty Saviour, even an incarnate God, by 
the substitution, or at least addition of some fancied merits 
of their own as necessary to salvation. Ah, it is cursed infi- 
delity, however disguised ; it is the enmity of the carnal 
mind against God, that produces such delusions. In the 
work of repentance, wrought by God upon my heart, this 
' root of bitterness ' has, I humbly trust, been extracted for 
ever ; and now my prayer to God is, that every high thought 
and vain imagination may be laid low, and that, as the only 
fit preparation for an entrance into that ' rest which remain- 
eth for the people of God,' I may be ' washed in the blood 
of the Lamb,' be ' sanctified ' by divine grace, and be 'jus- 
tified in the name of our Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of 
our God.' 

*' It is a great source of humble praise and thankfuhiesa 



RELIGIOUS CHANOE. 153 

to Almighty God, that he has led me to love and obey him, 
or to attempt, in some sort, to do so ; that he has endeared 
to me the word of truth ; that he has opened to me a door 
of access, in prayer and supplication, through the blessed 
Mediator ; that he has revealed to my mind, by his Holy 
Spirit, some sense of pardoning grace for past transgressions ; 
and that he has given me a humble, but firm hope in the 
promises of the gospel." 

The remainder of the letter is occupied with considera- 
tions calculated to guard his friend and himself from the 
entanglements of business, and from the beguilings of pleas- 
ure ; accommodating to these dangers the language of Solo- 
mon, when speaking of a peculiar class of perils, " Can a 
man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned ? 
Can a man go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned ?" 
and closing with this reference to a future improvement of 
the means of Christian steadfastness : 

" "VYe shall find, in their daily use, a comfort and security, 
that will minister to our souls' peace, and arm us against 
the fiery darts of the Evil One, and against all the efforts 
of his followers to seduce us from the love of God which is 
in Christ Jesus our Lord." 

Although he supposed that the above would be his last 
letter from "VYashmgton, yet, on the evening of the same and 
the morning of the next day he wrote another, a few ex- 
tracts from which will close the account, furnished by this 
correspondence, of the development of liis religious views 
and character. 

"March 6 and 7, 1813.— What, another letter? Yes, 
my friend ; but, with more truth than the announcements 
of our theatrical gentry import, ' positively the last perform- 
ance in this city.' 

" My lameness, thank God, nearly removed, my accounts 
settled, and my passage taken in the close coach for Balti- 
more on Monday next, I shall, with divine permission, be 
then on my homeward way. What pleasure have I in the 



154 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

prospect of a permanent reunion with my family and friends 
during the residue of such term on earth as God, in his wis- 
dom, may be pleased to allow me. may he grant to you 
and me, when we are ' ready to be offered, and the time of 
our departure is at hand,' that complete and glorious assur 
ance which enabled the great apostle, in view of death, 
exultingly to exclaim, ' I have fought a good fight ; I have 
finished my course ; I have kept the faith : henceforth there 
is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, 
the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day ; and not to 
me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing,' 
Let us avail ourselves of the last encouraging assurance, and 
seek, devoutly, perseveringly seek to be of the number of 
those who love the Lord's appearing." 

" Li my former communications I have said but little on 
the awful subject of death ; but much, I hope, having a 
relation to the requisite preparation for that event. The 
truth is, that without meaning to undervalue the solemn 
incitements to duty, arising out of the denunciations of the 
gospel against the finally impenitent, which often affect me 
with deep and afflicting anxiety, I have to praise God that 
he has brought my mind to a realizing sense of religion 
rather by the soothing and inviting 2^'0'>nises than by the 
soul-awakening terrors of his word. I feel as if I must love 
my Saviour for himself, for his own mtrinsic excellence of 
character, independently of his love to me, undeserving as 
I know myself to be of the smallest of his many favors. 
But when I look into miy past life, and view myself the slave 
of sin and the bond-servant of iniquity ; living at the full 
meridian of gospel light, yet choosing darkness because my 
deeds were evil ; being almost without a sense of God's 
righteous government, and of my accountability to him ; and 
offering him external worship, the service of the lips, while 
my heart was far from him ; when I consider that, in so 
hopeless a condition, his love should have reached even me, 
* the chief of sinners,' and given me a comfortable prospect 



RELIGIOUS CHANaE. 155 

of pardon and acceptance ; I find abundant cause for cleav- 
ing to him, even if an eternity of punishment did not — as 
assuredly it does — await a contrary course. So fully do I 
feel a Saviour's love shed abroad in my heart, that nietlmilvs, 
though a dreadful hell did not await my desertion of him, 
I could never leave or forsake him. In this view of the 
* constraining love of Christ,' the terrors of the law seem 
absorbed and lost, and the soul contemplates the great Je- 
hovah only as ' the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long- 
sufieruig, and abundant m goodness and truth, keej)ing mercy 
for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin.' 
Although I would not take from this sublime description of 
his character the remaining essential attribute of justice, 
exhibited in the concludhig clause, that he ' will by no means 
clear the guilty,' yet the idea wliich I wish to convey is, that 
the drawings of his love, rather than the threatenhigs of his 
law, have been the means of turning my heart to God. 

" Under such feelings, how do an attachment to life and 
a fear of death diminish I This it is that destroys the come- 
liness of all created things, and disrobes the tyrant of liis 
terrors whenever he may approach. Tliis it is that makes 
us see the mercy of God m all our earthly afflictions, and 
death itself to be but the passage to ever-endurmg happiness 
The love of God in Christ disarms him of his sting, and robs 
the dark valley of the shadow of death of all its horrors. It 
was this that could make the great apostle say, ' For me to 
live is Clirist, and to die is gain ;' and with all liis desire of 
usefulness to the Church on earth, and of some prolongation 
of his life for that purpose, yet to acknowledge his * desire 
to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.' " 

He had recently been reading Lindley Murray's " little 
book, called * The Power of Religion on the Mind in allliction 
and retirement, and at the approach of death ;' " and had 
been much affected by its contents. He had also been study- 
ing "the eloquent and impassioned sermons of the ]ate Pres- 
ident Davies, of Princeton college ;" and gives a striking 



156 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

extract from one of the president's letters to a friend, descrip 
live of liis happy feeUngs on a supposed near approach of 
death. He adds, further, some extracts from the sermons, 
of great interest ; with one of which, and a few remarks 
thereon, he closes the correspondence with Mr. Bradford. 
This last extract from President Davies' sermons, with Mr. 
Milnor's remarks thereon, is as follows : 

"Finally," says the President, "let me congratulate my 
reverend brethren on their bemg made ministers of the New 
Testament, which reveals that glorious and delightful sub- 
ject — ' Christ crucified' — in full light, and diffuses it through 
all their studies and discourses. ' The Lamb that was slain,^ 
is the theme that animates the songs of angels and saints 
above ; and even our unhallowed lips are allowed to touch 
it without profanation. Let us therefore delight to dwell 
upon it. Let us do full justice to the refined morality of 
the gospel ; let us often explain and enforce the precepts, 
the graces, and the virtues of Christianity, and teach men 
to ' live soberly, righteously, and godly in this world ;' hut 
let us do this in an evangelical strain, as ministers of the 
crucified Jesus, and not as the scholars of Epictetus or Sen- 
eca. Let us labor to bring men to a hearty compliance with 
the method of salvation through Christ, and then we shall 
find it comparatively an easy matter to make them good 
moralists. Then, a short hint of their duty to God and man 
will be more forcible than whole volumes of ethics wliile 
their spirits are not cast in the gospel mould." 

" I have little prospect," adds Mr. Milnor, " that I can 
be useful hi the way suggested ; and yet I wish I could be, 
for I think I always loved my fellow-men ; arid never sc 
much as since I have convincingly felt the love of Christ on 
my own soul. The thought of being instrumental in saving 
one soul out of hell besides my own, would be more to me 
than the wealth of the Indies." 

This letter, as a whole, furnishes a fit close of the series 
o which it belongs. His experience in being drawn to Christ 



RELIGIOUS CHANaE. 157 

by love rather than driven to him by terror, furnished the 
key-note to the harmony of his subsequent preaching of llie 
gospel. He dehghted in winning souls to heaven by the love 
of Christ, more than m terrifying them from hell by the 
thunders of wrath. And it is probable that every faithful 
preacher of Christ, when he comes to proclaim the Saviour 
to others, unstudyingly follows the course of his own experi- 
ence under the work of conversion. John's preaching was 
fullest of love; Paul's, of light; James's, oi iwactice ; and 
Peter's, oi learning and conjirm-ation hx the brethren. His 
last extract, moreover, from President Davies, shows that a 
radical change had taken place in his omii theological sys- 
tem, as well as in the temper of his heart. Formerly, he 
used to put morals before the gospel, and even as a substi- 
tute for it, while yet he never reached a morality which was 
more than superficial and earthly ; but now, he had learned 
to put the gospel before morals, not because morality is use- 
less, but because he had found in the gospel the power of 
God for producing such morals as live in heaven. And 
finally, his closing remarks on that extract prove that his 
mind was already ripe for the work of the mmistry of recon- 
ciliation. His last words breathe the true spirit of Christ 
and of Paul, and of every largely successful preacher of the 
Cross : " The thought of being instrumental in saving one 
soul out of hell besides my own, would be more to me than 
the wealth of the Indies." 

Allusion M'^as made, some time since, to several letters to 
Mrs. Mihior and others, written during the progress of the 
foregoing correspondence, and containing passages of interest 
in their bearing on this period of Mr. Milnor's life. Those to 
Mrs. Milnor in particular, as breathing intense desires for 
her salvation, furnish the best evidence of the genuineness of 
his conversion. A few of these passages, therefore, will now 
be given ; and with them will close the view, proposed to be 
taken, of the work of grace in his heart, as presented in his 
own prolonged account. The letters to his wife, from which 



158 MEMOIU OF DR. MILNOll. 

extracts have already been given, spoke mainly of external 
conformity to the ordinances of the church. Those from 
which passages are now to be furnished, say little on those 
subjects, but abound in thoughts calculated to awaken her 
mind, and to lead her to an immediate turning unto God. 

"Jan. 30, 1813. — Do you begin to feel the power of 
religion upon the heart ? Do you ever dare to hold commun- 
ion with your Saviour in the privacy and stillness of your 
chamber ? Do you find pleasure and consolation in reading 
the sacred book of God ? Oh, it is to the true Christian a 
most invaluable treasure of knowledge and of comfort ; and 
if my heavenly Father enables me to overcome the seduc- 
tions and temptations of a wicked world, I will regulate my 
faith and my practice by its blessed doctrines and precepts. 
I am covered with shame and remorse at my past inexcu- 
sable folly and neglect. Boundless riches of grace before me, 
and I *so poor, and needy, and miserable, and naked ! A 
garden, abounding in every variety of spiritual pleasure, so 
near me, and I roaming in pursuit of the gilded but perish- 
ing vanities of this world ! What madness ! What infatu- 
ation ! But, thanks be to God, through our Lord Jesus 
Christ, this winter has been to me a precious winter ; and, 
since I left you, almost every day has given me new cause 
to adore and magnify the goodness of God in opening my 
eyes to a view of the exceeding sinfulness of sin ; of the abso- 
lute want of personal merit in myself, and of any ability to 
save myself; of the astonishing display of divine mercy in 
the gospel scheme of salvation ; and of my duty reverently 
and gratefully to accept its beneficent terms." 

" Give your mind to the contemplation of this all-impor- 
tant subject. I will pray daily for you, as for myself, that 
we may each receive the openings of divine illumination. 
Only remember one thing, God requires the heart, the wlwle 
heart, to be surrendered to him ; and when this is done, he 
will change it, regenerate it, wash it from every defilement, 
and prepare it for its final state of perfect happiness." 



RELiaiOUS CHANGE. 159 

*' Feb. 12, 1813. — From the brevity, infrequency, and 
reserve of your letters to me this winter, I conclude that 
those with which I occasionally trouble you, aflbrd you but 
little pleasure." [They had not, like those of the previous 
winter, abounded in pleasant details of gay life in Washing- 
ton. The truth was, as he goes on to say,l " The experi- 
ment has been long tried of making a compromise between 
religion and the world. I find it will not do ; and if I am 
strengthened by divme grace to maintain my resolution, I 
am determined to abstract myself as much as possible from 
the haunts of pleasure. All associations inconsistent with 
the innocence and purity at which I desire to aim, must by 
me be laid aside, because the book of God and the teachings 
of his Holy Spirit direct such a course of self-denial as abso- 
lutely necessary to a soul resolutely bent on the cultivation 
of the Christian life. 0, my dear Ellen, can you not be my 
companion and ' help-meet' on the way to heaven ? Thith- 
erward all my desires and wishes tend. Come with me, my 
best earthly friend. 

" I doubt not your willingness to renounce the gayeties 
of life. In these you have hitherto Httle mixed. In this 
respect, I have abundantly more to answer for than you. 
But, my love, you must do more than this. You must not 
talk of intending to be serious. Consider the brevity and 
uncertainty of hfe, and the awful consequences of dying m an 
unconverted state. ' Now is the accepted time ; noiv is the 
day of salvation.' Now,- if we call on the blessed Saviour, 
he will hear our voice, and grant our humble supplications. 
let us see in its proper light the deformity of sm. It was 
that which nailed our bleeding Lord to the accursed tree. 
It is that which now separates us from him, and prevents 
these cold and flinty hearts from breakmg out in rapturous 
strains of love and praise for such an astonisliing display of 
grace and mercy to a perishing world. Shall he have bled 
and died for us in vain ? Assuredly this will be the case, if 
we refuse to accept the terms proffered in the gospel. What 



160 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

are they? A turning unto God by faith in Christ, and 
repentance for past transgressions ; and even these things 
are not expected to be done by us in our own natural 
strength : divine assistance is promised to every humble 
penitent. Christ's all-sufficient grace will never be with- 
held in time of need. No matter what have been our offen- 
ces, though they be red like scarlet or crimson, he will make 
them white as snow. He requires nothing on our part but 
the surrender of ourselves into his hands, as a faithful Shep- 
herd, who never abandons his flock. Neither does he expect 
us to come to him in a state of holiness : he knows our infirm- 
ities, and the natural depravity of our hearts. "We are to 
approach the footstool of sovereign mercy just as we are^ 
owning ourselves sinners by nature, and sinners by practice ; 
giving up every claim of self-righteousness or self-dependence, 
and relying wholly upon him to make us what he would 
have us to be. Be persuaded, my Ellen, to read the Scrip- 
tures, especially the New Testament ; and try to lay hold, 
by faith, of the gracious promises which there abound. 
Doubt not the love of the adorable Saviour. By his Spirit, 
he will fan the fading embers of piety in your heart into a 
flame of glowing devotion ; and you will find a pleasure, and 
take an interest in the exercises of pubhc and private wor- 
ship, such as you never before experienced. I am awfully 
convinced, that if we are not finally saved, it will be our 
own fault ; for God has put all the means immediately 
within our reach. Let us cordially, and with full purpose 
of heart, make use of them. Neither let us be ashamed of 
assuming the Cross of Christ. I mean not by. putting on 
any affectation of extraordinary sanctity — that was the vice 
of the Pharisees, which Christ so severely reprehended — no, 
let our faith and piety be evinced by the holiness of our lives ; 
by attending regularly on public worship ; by joining in the 
ordinances of the church ; by reading attentively the word 
of God, which contains the message of eternal life ; by 
charity and kindness to our fellow-men ; by a renunciation 



RELiaiOUS CHANaE. 161 

of all sinful pleasures ; and, dare I venture to suggest it ? by 
family prayer. These things will recommend us to the favor 
of our heavenly Father" — [a remnant of his olden phraseol- 
ogy still cleaving to him, which, a month later, he would 
have cast away as a filthy rag of self- righteousness ] — " and 
though a gainsaying world may sneer at our course, we 
shall yet have inward peace, and the hope that * we may 
die the death of the righteous, and that our last end may be 
like his.' 

" do not give me a cold answer, in a single sentence, 
to these well-meant suggestions. Lay them to heart. Take 
up this letter a second and a third time, and then tell me 
unreservedly your feelings. If I did not love you most sin- 
cerely, I would not write thus to you. If I had not, in a 
measure, felt the grace of God on my own heart, I should 
not dare to invite you to seek after a change of yours. My 
attainments are infinitely small, but I have ' laid my help 
upon One who is mighty to save,' and who ivill ' save, to 
the uttermost, all who come unto God through him.' I 
solicit you to do the same ; and then there is no danger but 
that, persevering in the ways of his appointment, we shall 
spend a happy life, so far as it is attainable in this vale of 
tears, and a happier eternal life in the Paradise of God." 

The only remaining letter to Mrs. Milnor from which we 
shall quote, was dated, 

"Feb. 27, 1813.— If," says he, "the cause of your 
increased reluctance" to write " arises from a secret dishke 
to the serious tenor of my letters this winter, it would grieve 
me much more" than if it were found in your mere want of 
fondness for the pen. " For, as I wish you to be a partaker 
with me in every earthly enjoyment, so do I most ardently 
desire that we may be joint participants in that happiness 
which is laid up for the righteous in the world to come. 
Every day enamours me more and more with the beauties 
and consolations of religion. It has been the pleasure of God 
to turn my heart to it with increased ardor, and to cheer me 



162 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

with the prospect of that great 'recompense of reward,' 
which has been purchased for us by the atoning blood of the 
dear Redeemer, on whose merits only do I desire to rely for 
every hope of future blessedness. There is no enthusiasm, 
no delusion, in these enlivening prospects. They are found- 
ed on the immutable promises of God in the word of truth, 
and are of more value than all the riches, and honors, and 
pleasures of an unsatisfying world. My future life must, 
therefore, be conformed, so far as weak and wavermg human 
nature will permit, to the rules of the blessed gospel. All 
other things must be held subordinate to this ; and you too, 
my endeared partner, must arouse your slumbering affections, 
take up your cross, and follow after Christ." 

Perhaps God was then teaching her to do what her hus- 
band so earnestly urged, and thus her neglect of writmg may 
have had no other than its old cause. 

The other contemporaneous letters, to which allusion has 
been made, were addressed to Bishop White and the Rev. 
Jackson Kemper, the latter an assistant minister m the par- 
ish of which the bishop was rector. From those to the lat- 
ter a few extracts are subjoined. 

" February, 1813. — Rev. and dear sir, I write to you con- 
fidentially as a friend, and most seriously and respectfully as 
an ambassador of God, and one of those appointed to minis- 
ter among us in holy things. It is on a subject upon which, 
though, in the Laodicean state of too many among us, it may 
be unusual for individuals to make their feelings known to 
you, yet, if I rightly apprehend the measure of your zeal in 
the cause of religion and the salvation of souls, a disclosure, 
whenever made ui sincerity and from right motives, will be 
properly appreciated, and receive its merited attention. 
Religion has, in a vague and unsettled manner, affected my 
m.ind occasionally from my earliest recollection. Sometimes 
it has warmed and animated my heart. Sometimes I have 
been involved in speculations calculated to lessen its effect 
as the governing principle and rule of life and conduct ; and 



HELIG-IOUS CHANaE. 163 

sometimes, by subtracting from the peculiar doctrines of 
Christianity, I have weakened its divine authority, and made 
it a mere system of morahty, wliich the human mind, limited 
as it is, might have been competent to frame without the 
intervention of the wisdom of the Most High, or the suffer- 
ings and death of liis blessed Son. 

" In the providence of God, I have had my mmd drawn 
to this interesting subject m a way which I have never before 
experienced." 

He then proceeds to a brief accomit of the progress of his 
change, coincident with that already laid before the reader 
in the extracts from his letters to Mrs. Milnor and his friend 
Bradford ; after which he adds, 

" I do not state these thmgs to you boastingly. ' God 
forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord 
Jesus Christ.' My heart tells me that I have nothing to 
boast of It is of the goodness of my heavenly Father that 
my eyes have been partially opened, and I rely wholly upon 
his all-sufficient grace to enable me, ' forgetting those things 
which are behind, to press towards those things which are 
before — towards the mark for the prize of the high calling 
of God in Christ Jesus.' " 

Then follows a proposal to present himself for confirma- 
tion and the Lord's supper, at the first convenient opportu- 
nity after his return to Philadelphia ; to which he subjoins, 

" I am suitably aware of the awful responsibility of such 
a measure ; but entering upon it, as I trust, under the direc- 
tion of God's word impressed by his Spirit upon my heart, 
with a confirmed faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, in his atone- 
ment for the sins of a lost and ruined world, and m the gra- 
cious promises of his gospel, on them will I depend for the 
performance of the duty, and for aid to foUow it by a corre- 
sponding obedience to the commandments of God in my sub- 
sequent life and deportment. 

" I am sure you will pardon this egotism. It is an ob- 
» rvation of the great Lord Bacon, that ' the communicating 



164 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

of a man's self to his friend, worketh two contrary effects ; 
for it redoubleth joys, and cutteth griefs in half; and there 
is no man that imparteth his joys to his friend, but he joyeth 
the more ; and no man imparteth his griefs to his friend, but 
he grieveth the less.' Such is the only apology I now offer 
for opening my mind to you, whom I desire to consider not 
merely in the formal relation of my spiritual instructor, but 
in the still more tender one of a friend and brother in 
Christ." 

To this letter, Mr. Kemper returned the answer formerly 
noticed in the correspondence with Mr. Bradford, after which 
Mr. Milnor addressed him a second, dated, 

"Feb. 27, 1813. — I thank you sincerely, my dear sir, 
for your kind and affectionate letter, and cordially accept it 
as a pledge of our union in the cause of Christ. For myself, 
I can promise but little. Every day furnishes new evidence 
to my mind of the necessity of abandoning self-confidence, 
and of placing my reliance upon Him only who is ' mighty 
to save.' Since my attention has been turned with more 
closeness than heretofore to the interesting concerns of relig- 
ion, the dangerous hinderances with which I meet to the 
Christian's progress in holiness have filled me Avith appre- 
hensions, such as, in my recent state of self-security, were 
wholly unknown to me." " I entreat your prayers that I 
may be succored by the aids of divine grace, so that I may 
fall ' into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger.' 

" I rejoice at the intimations given in your letter, of an 
increased concern in some of our members about their im- 
mortal souls, and pray God that it may manifest, itself in an 
open profession of religion on the part of many. How strange, 
that we should be ashamed to be known as Christ's real dis- 
ciples ! Yet I speak both from observation and from expe- 
rience, when I say, that a fear of this world's censure and 
criticisms, and of an abridgment of its pleasures, deters many, 
who are not without a respect for religion, nor without oc- 
casional alarms in their consciences for their want of '>ox\- 



RELIGIOUS CHANG-E. 165 

formity to it, from openly acknowledging themselves the 
followers of Christ. Even at this moment, with all my 
strong desires after a saving interest in his merits, and reso- 
lutions to embrace every means of grace which his goodness 
has provided, the tempter often assails me with such sug- 
gestions. A loss of business, arising from more scrupulous- 
ness in its selection ; a loss of acquaintance, proceeding from 
the same cause ; a relinquishment of some long-established 
schemes of pleasure ; the world's scorn, and evil imputa- 
tions ; a dread of singularity, and a numerous train of simi- 
lar difficulties, are powerful ui weakening good determina- 
tions, and in diverting the mind from ' the one thing needful.' 
And yet, when rightly viewed, s,oine of these have no foun- 
dation ; and with respect to others, religion would be valua- 
ble, mdependently of its holier ends, if its only effect were to 
destroy an ill-judged fondness for many things alike unprofit- 
able both for this world and for that which is to come. But 
when considered in relation to our duties to God, as the great 
author of our existence, and in relation to ourselves as rebels 
against his divine authority, yet reconciled to him and freely 
pardoned through the sacrifice of his Son, how insignificant 
appear all other thmgs compared with ' the excellency of the 
knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord,' and an assurance of an 
interest in liis blessed atonement ! Here, by his gracious 
aid, WILL I TAKE UP MY REST ; in all my wealaiess relying 
upon his strength, and in the midst of trials and tempta- 
tions depending wholly upon him, who has promised that 
he ' will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are able 
to bear.' " 

Such, then, viewed in the light of his private journals 
and of liis own letters at the time and since, was that emi- 
nent work of grace in liis heart which — after long years of 
indulgence in the dream of a universal salvation, in "a inis- 
cliievous conceit of the merit of human works," or of man's 
vutual sufficiency to save himself, and in a strenuous warfare 
against evangelical truth in general and Calvinism in par- 



166 MEMOIR OF DE,. MILNOR. 

ticular — ^the Holy Spirit accomplished in the once unbelieving 
and worldly subject of this memoir. It has been supposed 
that the process had its beginning during his congressional 
career, and that it might be traced to particular incidents 
lying within that period of his life ; but our researches have 
shown that, in reality, it dates from a point much farther 
back in his history.* It is plain that his first step towards 

"* His son's "Recollections" give the following remarks : "There 
have been many reports respecting the instrumental cause of his con- 
version ; none of them, I believe, entirely correct. Some of the cir- 
cumstances related very probably promoted the change ; but none, I 
think, originated it. One incident doubtless made a powerful impres 
sion: On one of his visits to Philadelphia, during his term in Congress, 
his little daughter Anna met him, as he entered the house, with the 
exclamation, 'Papa, do you know I can read?' 'No,' said he; 'let 
me hear you.' ' Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,' 
were the words which she happened to select. A chord in his heart 
vibrated in harmony. It seemed to come as a solemn adinonition. 
Out of the mouth of babes God was teaching him. Still, human 
agency had little to do with his change. The Spirit of God was mov- 
ing within him, and gradually drawing him from worldly thoughts and 
scenes to the retirement of his closet, where he could cominune with 
his own heart and be still." 

His friend Bradford also, in his "Pteminiscences," mentions tho 
following incident. "Religious subjects were evidently interesting to 
Mm for a long time before his conversion, though he was not distinctly 
aware of it. I well remember calling upon him one evening at his 
house in Walnut-street, when he remarked, that he had just read 'The 
Dairyman's Daughter,' and had wept over it; and that his wife had 
read it, and Patty the cook had read it, with similar feelings." 

The following also may throw a ray of light on the progress of his 
mind in religious knowledge. Some years before his death, Dr. Milnor 
was conversing with a friend in New York about events which occurred 
while he was in Congress. He stated, that while walking, one day, 
with the eccentric John Puandolph, their conversation turned on moral 
subjects ; and, in proof of some sentiment which he had advanced, he 
quoted a text from the Bible. Randolph, thinking the passage misap- 
plied, turned on him suddenly and severely with the exclamation, 
" You quote Scripture, Milnor ? Why do you quote Scripture ? You 
know nothing of tho Bible. Go home and study it." The doctor 
added, to his New York friend, " I felt the justice of the rebuke, and 



RELiaiOUS CHANGE. 167 

the truth, under the divine leadings, was taken soon after 
the receipt of liis friend Bolton's pungent letters, during the 
second year of his married life. He began his course by 
resolving to search the Scriptures, that he might see whether 
they taught his creed of a universal salvation. This, how- 
ever, drove him, as a preparatory step, to examine the evi- 
dences of revelation, the claims of the Bible to divine inspi- 
ration. In this search, he seems to have acted like a law}'"er 
only, in the weighing and sifting of testimony ; and he ac- 
cordingly came to no more than a lawyer's conclusion, a mere 
faith of the rational understanding, that the Bible is God's 
word. He now proceeded to the reading of its contents, and, 
in doing so, soon found that they do not teach his then favor- 
ite theory of the salvation of all men. Still, he was not 
prepared to receive theu' plain, obvious meaning ; he there- 
fore set himself to his protracted labor of interpreting them 
in accordance with what now became liis equally favorite 
theoiy of -the merit of works, of man's supposed ability to 
save himself Thus he entered his long warfare agamst the 
truth — at first under the Presbyterian ministry of Linn and 
Wilson, and afterwards under the Episcopal teacliings of 
AYhite and Abercrombie, Kemper and Pilmore. In that 
warfare, evidently, he was now and then hit by the arrows 
of light, shot by the hand of some evangelical archer ; so 
that, when he finally entered the strife of the political arena, 
he went with a strange mixture of fight and darkness, and 
with the risings of a mysterious interest in religion, which, 
as yet, he did not comprehend. His political career lay amid 
scenes agitated by the awakening of the savage demon of 
war ; at first stirring the blood of the nation for fight, and 
then maddening that blood with the hot passions of conflict. 
Against all this, his spirit and his principles, derived perhaps 

resolved that I would no longer continue in practical ignorance of the 
word of God. I at once entered on a more serious study of it, and 
thus far through life have continued that study with increasing 
pleasure." 



168 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

from early association with the peace-loving Friends, and. 
fostered by his own peace-making dispositions, led him, with 
unusual vehemence, to protest on the floor of Congress. Pol- 
itics, as embodied in war-making and war-waging measures, 
became more and more the loathing of his soul. His heart 
sickened at the exhibitions wliich he beheld, of strife, intrigaie, 
and party bitterness. His difficulty with Mr. Clay, though 
met and averted with firmness and dignity, may well be 
supposed to have deepened the sentiment, already settling 
down into his nature, of utter aversion to political life, as 
distinguished from political science. In the longings of his 
spirit, he turned away towards something quieter and more 
loving, as better fitted to a right discipline of mmd and a 
rational enjoyment of life. His first thoughts seem to have 
been of union with the Church by compliance with its out- 
ward forms, in connection, it is true, with some creditable 
measure of his former habits of easy conformity with the 
world. Even these thoughts, however, brought him, more 
directly than ever, into secret intercourse with himself ; and, 
ere he was aware of it, the Holy Spirit was leading him 
down, below outward, visible forms, into deep, inner expe- 
riences. 

Doubtless, there was much in his condition favorable to 
some new development of character. A man in Congress, 
who cannot grow fond of its business and excitements, will 
very likely be driven into himself, or towards some form of 
life different from those around him. This tendency in Mr. 
Milnor's case was even pecuharly strong. Peacefully arid 
domestically attempered as he was, he was yet compelled to 
hear war thundering almost at the gates of the capitol, and 
poUtics filling every place with its dm of angry words. Home, 
too, with its endearments, to him peculiarly dear, was far 
away ; and even the fashionable amusements of Washington, 
however agreeable in themselves to his old, long-cherished 
tastes, were so identified with the actors and the actings of 
the strifeful scene around him, that he grew more and more 



HELiaiOUS CHANaE. 169 

sated and incapable of finding in them what his earnest long- 
ings asked. Hence, his own private chamher became the 
place of his frequentest resort, and books and thought his 
pleasantest entertainments. The very wearisomeness of the 
outer world drove him into the home of his own mind, and 
to the company of his own reflections ; and, considering the 
current of his thoughts before he entered Congress, it is not 
surprising, that the influences by which he was now sur- 
rounded, led him into meditation on those aspects of rehgion 
which had hitherto lain nearest liis view, its outivard histi- 
tutions. But there the train of tendencies must have istopped, 
or turned, had there not been a higher impelling and guiding 
power. That power was not absent. Far back m his soul, 
behind the disgusts and longmgs wliich he felt ; deep ui liis 
heart, underneath the movements and tendencies to which 
he yielded, the Holy Spirit was doing his own proper work. 
While the weary congressman was tliinkmg of union with 
the outward Church, that divine Agent opened liis heart to 
a sight and a sense of his sins ; uncovered and touched the 
sore which self-delusion had so long been hiding ; stripped 
liim of every remnant of his old self- righteousness ; showed 
him his utter inability to save liimself by any work or merit 
of his own ; opened, as though at his left hand, a door into 
the world of woe, through which, for a moment, came up 
low but deep whisperings of the wrath and misery which he 
had deserved ; and then, closing the dismal pit, and oj)ening 
golden portals at the right, led liim gently on, till he stood 
more and more fully m the hght of the love of Christ, 
and felt his whole soul drawn and bound to the glorious Re- 
deemer by responsive gratitude and praise : in a word, till 
he learned to Jove Jesus for liis own sake and lovehness ; 
and religion, because he saw m it the spirit of Jesus, and 
found in it so deep a spring of pure and heavenly joy. 

This, doubtless, by those who have read the foregoing 
pages, will be recognized as, though a condensed, yet a true 
history of the process by which the mind of Milnor was led 

Mem. Milnor. 8 



170 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

from its earlier darkness and hostility to the truth, to its later 
light and love for Him who is the truth. He knew well 
what is meant by deep convictions of sin and of his own de- 
servings of everlasting death ; and yet he was, in an eminent 
sense, drawn to Christ by the power of love. He felt the 
terrors of wrath ; but he yielded to " the attraction^ of 
THE Cross." In his case, the most powerful teachings of 
the Father were given in the light of love ; and in the light 
of love the offices of the Son stood most winningly manifest. 
Hence, the character into which he was formed, was one of 
ardent love for Christ, and of realized loYQfrom Christ. He 
felt much, because he had received much, of that love which 
is unspeakable, in that it " passeth knoAvledge." These were 
the earlier rudiments of his Christian character ; and they 
came out in all its after-growth and combinations, amid the 
changes and the trials of life. He was from the first a lov- 
ing disciple ; and all his further activities were truly the 
"labor of love." 



HIS MINISTRY. 171 

PAET III. 

DE. MILNOH'S MINISTRY FROM 1814 TO 1830. 



SECTION I. 

Mr. Milnor's ultimate dislike of legal practice was more 
a principle than a sentiment, as his distaste for political life 
was rather feeling than judgment. He loathed political life, 
because he saw it steeped in so much strife and corruption 
on the part of others : he dreaded the practice of the law, 
because he saw it would be dangerous to his own new-born 
faith and hope. He abandoned political life, because his 
soul was sick of its unprincipled demagoguism : he shrunk 
frorai the renewed practice of the law, because his conscience 
was afraid of what seemed its almost necessary dishonesty. 
He could have loved politics, had politicians been all fair 
men and true ; he could not have been satisfied with the 
practice of the law, unless the very principles of that prac- 
tice, as too generally held, had been reformed. Hence, so 
soon as he found, clustering in his heart, evidences that he 
was mdeed become a new-born child of God, he came to the 
simultaneous conclusions, that he would not continue in 
poHtical life if he Could, and that he could not resume the 
practice of the law if he would. His heart leaped to get 
away from Congress ; his judgment dreaded a return to the 
bar. No sooner, therefore, was the great question for eter- 
nity settled, than uprose a subordinate question for time : 
How should he spend the remainder of his life ? Upon what 
new course of action and of usefulness did duty now call him 
to enter? Durmg his last weeks in Washington, a dimly 
traced shadow from his future profession seemed to fall upon 



172 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

his niind, but it soon passed off; and it was not till after Ins 
return to Philadelpliia that it reappeared. There, however, 
its reaj)pearance was in clear and distinct outlines, because 
he stood in stronger light and nearer the reality from which 
the shadow fell. A thought, that he might be called to 
preach the gospel, glided, for a moment, into his mind while 
at the capital, and then flitted out again ; but when he 
reached home, it came back and settled with him, and grew 
into a big conviction, and got to be imperative, and finally 
ordered him, as by a voice from God, to go his way, put his 
hand to the plough, and never look back, till he should have 
sowed and reaped — till, from the harvest in eternity, he 
could remember and rejoice over his going forth to the work 
m time. Upon that portion of his life, spent in obedience 
to this divine behest, we are now to enter. It commenced 
when he was about closing his fortieth year. 

His decision in favor of the work of the ministry as his 
future profession, seems to have followed very closely his 
return to Pliiladelphia. He left Washington the 9th of 
March, 1813, and on the 3d of April "waited on Bishop 
White, and acquainted him with his determination to relin- 
quish the profession of the law, and with the views which 
he entertamed of entering on the study of divinity." On 
the 5th, he announced the same determination to his friend 
and pastor the Rev. Mr. Kemper, and on the 7th applied, 
through Bishop White, to the standing committee of the 
diocese, for admission as a candidate for orders ; having al- 
ready, as he remarks in his communication, *' entered upon 
the course of studies preparatory thereto, as directed by the 
House of Bishops." 

Hlustrative of his period of study, from the spring of 
1813 to the summer of 1814, several passages in his diary 
and letters will here be inserted. The first will show by 
what feelings his mind was agitated when he came, amid 
old friends and associates in Philadelphia, amid the scenes 
of his former gayeties and the clustering of his former inter- 



HIS MINISTRY. 173 

ests, to the practical task of publicly announcing liis total 
change of religious views, and his proposed change of pro- 
fessional pursuits. The hold of fixed habits m gay society 
upon one of its cherished votaries, and of flattering prospects 
of honor and emolument upon one of their favorite candi- 
dates, was seldom stronger, or called for greater firmness of 
soul in order to their breaking, than in the case of him 
whose character and course we have been tracing. He felt 
deeply tlie power of the associations by wliich he was be- 
girt. There was a sacrifice to be made, a cross to be taken 
up, and he realized how heavy, to mere nature, they were 
to prove ; but he also found how hght, to the power of 
grace, they may be made, and rejoiced in giving up, for 
Christ's sake, all that forty years of intense existence had 
made most attractive to his heart. ^., He writes, in his diary, 
under date of 

" April 2, 1813. — It is some time since distant prospects 
of entering the ministry have glanced across my mental vis- 
ion. A sense of my unworthiness of so high a calling, in 
respect to the qualifications both of head and of heart, has, 
however, soon obscured them ; until, more recently, an 
abiding impression of duty has pointed me to the assump- 
tion of tliis cross as on my part indispensable. My decision, 
therefore, can be no longer delayed. I resign, I trust cheer- 
fully, all prospects of fame, fortune, and w^orldly pleasure, to 
enlist myself as a soldier under the Captain of my salvation ; 
and trust in his support to aid me in every trial and conflict 
to which this measure, so strange and unexpected to my 
friends, will expose me. It were idle, however, to conceal 
either from myself or from others, the conflicts through 
which my mmd has passed in reaching tliis result. The 
natural man assents not readily to sacrifices of wealth, am- 
bition, style of living, acquaintances, and a thousand other 
ligaments which tie him to the world and its enjoyments. 
But through God's grace, I hope to overcome the world, and 
willingly to relinquish every thing that may come in con- 



174 MEMOm OF DR. MiLNOR. 

fiict with the work of reHgion in my own heart, or the 
improvement of such humble means as the Lord may vouch- 
safe me of being useful to others. 

" Nevertheless, God, let me presume on nothing in 
my own strength. Grant me the all-sufficient aids of thy 
Holy Spirit ; and enable me thereby, when I shall have laid 
my hand to the plough, to look not back, but to follow the 
leadings of the heavenly Guide, and become, if not a highly 
useful, at least a truly faithful laborer in the vineyard of 
Christ. I ask it in his name, and for his blessed merit's 
sake. Amen." 

He evidently felt that now, of a truth, he was at the 
great turning-pomt of his life ; and every step wliich he took 
was with much pondering of his way, and with much prayer 
for guidance. 

" I have," he writes, " crosses and trials to meet in ful- 
filling my intentions ; but the Lord, in whom I trust, and 
whom I desire to serve, will support me in them all, if I 
steadily maintain my faithfulness towards him. Yes, blessed 
God, my confidence is in thee only. enable me to perse- 
vere manfully in the work which thou hast assigned me. 
Enhghten my mind with a knowledge of thy truth, and en- 
due it with ability, when the time shall come, to communi- 
cate that truth to others ; and 0, gracious Father, grant 
that, if it should be thy will to prolong my hfe until the al- 
lotted term of preparation for the ministry of thy word shall 
elapse, I may be enabled to preach thy gospel in its own 
purity ; and that, while I warn others, I may not myself 
become a castaway. Give me solemn views of the immense 
importance and responsibility of the office on which I pur 
pose to enter. Grant me the refreshings of thy Spirit from 
day to day. Open to me more and more the mysteries of 
thy word ; and forbid, merciful God, that I should either 
hold the truth in unrighteousness, or in any manner mistake 
the meaning and intention of the divine oracles. Grant me 
mental activity and persevering diligence in the acquisition 



HIS MINISTRY. 175 

of religious knowledge ; ability profitably to digest whatever 
I may read or hear ; and both the disposition of heaii; and 
the capacity of mind to render all my attainments beneficial 
to myself and others. But, God, in a more special man- 
ner keep me constantly and fervently affected with love for 
thee and thy dear Son ; fill me with brighter and more evan- 
gelical views of the greatness of that salvation, wrought out 
by Him for perishing sinners ; and fix indelibly on my mind 
the determination to know only Jesus Christ and him cruci- 
fied. May the great atonement, and the divine character of 
the blessed Saviour, be prominent objects of my daily con- 
templations ; and may I count all things but loss for the 
excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. 
Strengthen my faith m the all-sufficiency of his blood and 
cross for the salvation of sinners ; and when utterance shall 
be given in his righteous cause, enable me to hold him 
forth as a propitiation for the sms of the world, in such a 
manner as may induce many to accept his merits, to exer- 
cise a lively faith in him as a Saviour, and to renounce for 
ever the filthy rags of their own righteousness for that wed- 
ding-garment of the Lam.b, which can alone qualify them to 
be guests at the marriage-supper provided for the redeemed 
of God in the blood of Christ." 

A truly appropriate prayer to be left lying on record 
amid the trials of the period in which he broke from the 
entanglements of human law, and sought seclusion for the 
study of the divine counsels. Meditating the work of the 
Christian ministry with such views and aspirations, and under 
the pressure of those all-constraining motives which his 
spirit felt, his subsequent abounding usefulness was but a 
result of God's faithfulness to his gracious promises. 

At the time of his entry, April 5, we find liim engaged 
"in secular concerns," but not without mingling therewith 

an effort to do good to his friend J S , whom he 

found to be "feelmg somewhat after religion." He also 
records an account, "as singular as it was pleasing," of "Uie 



176 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

conversion of L M — — , " an eminent lawyer in Balti- 
more^ advanced in years, who had been equally celebrated 
for his powerful eloquence at the bar, and for his notorious 
sacrifices at the shrme of Bacchus." After noticing this 
man's appearance at a public religious meeting, where he 
engaged in exhortation and prayer, in a mamier " which for 
fervor and sublimity astonished all who heard him," the 
adormg diarist exclaims, " Thanks be to God, his power is 
infniite. He shows mercy where he will show mercy, and 
can as easily convert the flmty heart of the oldest and most 
obdurate ofiender, as the soft and tender one of the most 
willing and yielding suppliant at the throne of grace. Grlory 
be to God for the riches of his grace iii Christ Jesus." 

Amid the incessant activities which now engrossed him, 
we hear nothing further from him till, in the settlement of 
his temporal afiairs, he was ready to leave Philadelphia for 
Norristown, where he purposed to pursue his studies. He 
then felt that his severance from the world, so far as out- 
ward associations were concerned, was complete, and was 
enabled to look back upon what he was leaving without a 
sigh. "The separation," says his diary for June 1, "from 
so many objects of attachment, I am thankful to God, has 
not cost me many pangs. To my beloved partner, it has 
been a more severe trial ; but her mind at length acquiesces 
more cheerfully than I could have expected ; and when once 
we shall be quietly seated in our new abode, I have no doubt 
she will be better pleased, than she has been with the gayety 
and frivolity of a city life." 

Having taken possession of their new abode, he proceeded 
to record a suitable act of dedication, in wliich, amid the 
hallowing strams of prayer, he consecrated himself, his house- 
hold, and his little study, to Him whom he had covenanted 
to serve. Bendmg in that quiet retreat which was to witness 
his sacred toils, we may easily conceive Avith what fervor he 
poured forth liis heart's dedicatory act, in the following fer- 
vent but chastened stram. 



HIS MINISTRY. 177 

" Vouchsafe, God, thy special presence and direction in 
all the exercises in which I may here from time to time be 
occupied. Afford the aids of thy Holy Spirit in every act of 
devotion, that so I may learn to pray aright, and offer thee 
the unadulterated homage of the heart. Open thou my 
understanding, that I may understand the Scriptures. Chase 
away every rising doubt incited by the subtlety of the 
Tempter. Banish error, unbelief, and every unhallowed 
thought from this place. Teach me to knov/, and reverence, 
and love thee with all the faculties of my heart and nund, 
and to hate sm and all its defilements with a perfect hatred. 
Cleanse me from all my impurities, keep down rebellious 
passions, and arm me with strength effectually to resist every 
temptation from without and from within. I desire, mer' 
ciful God, to consecrate myself unreservedly to thee and thy 
service. But I am humbled and abased at my own unwor- 
thuiess of the least of thy favors, and my mability to make 
thee any adequate return. Yet, through Christ, my weak- 
ness may be made strength, and the imperfect performances 
of an imbecile and sinful creature may be accepted for the 
infinite merit's sake of .the blessed Redeemer. For his sake, 
then, merciful Father, accept of me and mine ; make us 
happy in the smiles of thy countenance here, and elevate us 
hereafter to the joys of thy heavenly kingdom." 

Having thus appropriately set in order both his outer and 
his inner house, he proceeded, on the following day, to settle 
the course in which his daily duties should proceed. Though 
constitutionally inclined to system, he had yet found it diffi- 
cult to reduce either the labors of legal practice, or the pur- 
suits of legal study, to any thmg like mvariable rule. He 
felt that his mind needed stricter discipline, and resolved, at 
this important crisis of liis life, to make an effort to bring it 
under the power of fixed habits of thought and appHcation ; 
knowing that if he were ever to feel the benefits of such a 
discipline, now was his best, if not his only time to insure 
them 

8* 



178 MEMOIR OF DU. MILNOR. 

But systematic study, in connection with necessary busi- 
ness, was not the only occupation of his retired life. He 
endeavored to gain some practical acquaintance with pastoral 
duty. Hence, he not only engaged as lay-reader and cate- 
chist in St. John's, Norristown, but also availed himself of 
liis vicinity to the parish church of the Rev. Levi Bull, a 
cousin of Mrs. Milnor, to become familiar with other forms 
of parochial usefulness. He writes, under date of 

"June 21, 1813. — I have just returned from a visit to 
Mr. Bull, with whom I spent the evening of Saturday, and 
the whole of Sunday. Sunday morning, at 8 o'clock, we 
went to St. Mary's church, in the vicinity of Mr. Bull's resi- 
dence ; and found a considerable number of people assembled 
to attend a 2yrayer-meeting, which is held during the summer 
season for one hour before the regular service of the morning 
begins. The exercises consist of prayers by the pastor and 
different members of the church, offered extemporaneously, 
and accompanied with singing and a short exhortation. For 
the first time in public, I was induced, at Mr. Bull's solici- 
tation, to address the throne of grace. I felt the presence of 
thojt God who, when two or three are assembled in his name, 
has promised to be in the midst of them ; and was much 
refreshed in the inner man by the various serAdces of the fore- 
noon, as well as by those of the afternoon at Churchtown, to 
which place, distant eight miles, I rode with Mr. Bull." 

His services as catechist and lay-reader were soon inter- 
rupted by a dangerous illness. Having taken a journey into 
"Virginia, and returned, first to Norristown and then to Phil- 
adelphia, he thus writes, under date of 

"Nov. 17, 1813. — The sedentary life which I had passed 
at Norristown, had unfitted me for exercise of so constant 
and severe a kind as that which I used during my fortnight's 
absence ; and the consequence was, that I became indisposed 
on my way home, and the night of my arrival I was taken 
seriously ill. My complamt at first appeared to be a nervous 
debility without fever, and so continued for a fortnight, when 



HIS MINISTRY. 179 

it assumed the type of an intermittent, and after some time 
was accompanied with a most distressmg bowel-complaint, 
which lasted for eight weeks, and brought me to the verge 
of the grave. Soon after I became convalescent, Mrs. Milnor 
was attacked with the same complaints ; and when appar- 
ently recovering, relapsed mto so low a state as to be despair- 
ed of by her physician and friends. Her illness lasted about 
the same time as my own. But, for ever praised be the 
adorable Giver of every good and perfect gift — the God of 
our lives, and the Saviour of our souls — ' though he has 
chastened us, yet he hath not given us over unto death. We 
shall yet live to praise the name of the Lord.' 

'* In a review of this providence of Almighty God, I desire 
to be humbled under a deeper sense of his justice as well as 
mercy. That my sins deserved such an infliction of divme 
correction, I submissively acknowledge ; that I am wholly 
undeserving of the sparing mercy which has continued my 
life and that of my beloved partner, I most sensibly feel ; 
■and that our dear children have been preserved in life and 
health, is a cause of unceasing thankfulness. ' What shall 
I render unto the Lord for aU his benefits towards me ? I 
will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of 
the Lord.' 

" Since the recovery of Mrs. Milnor and myself, in conse- 
quence of a great desire on her part to return to the city, 
and a belief on my own, that it would tend to the advance- 
ment of my studies and to my growth in spiritual improve- 
ment, I have taken a house in Tenth-street, near Arch, into 
which I have now removed my family. The afflicting dis- 
pensation through which I have passed, and my beloved 
Ellen's long and dangerous illness since, have interrupted 
my regular plan of study ; and I am now only about to 
resume it. God grant that I may do so in his fear, and with 
a sincere desire to proceed under the guidance of the Holy 
Spirit ; to be preserved from all false doctrmes ; to advance 
in piety towards God, and in love to my fellow-men ; and 



l60 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

steadily to keep in view the blessed Jesus, as ' the Author 
and Finisher of the faith' set forth in the gospel." 

During his journey into Virgmia, letters reached his resi- 
dence at Norristown, earnestly soliciting his acceptance, or 
his promise to accept, of two important parishes ; the one at 
Baltimore, the other at Richmond. He embraced what he 
supposed to be " the first tnoment of returning stre^igtW — 
though it proved to be but an intermission of his disease, and 
was followed by all its most perilous stages — to return the 
following answers. 

To Mr. Coales, Baltimore. 

" NoREisTowisr, August 4, 1813. 

" My dear Sir — I returned yesterday week from a long 
journey, so miuch indisposed as to compel me to keep my bed 
almost continually since, and to disable me from either read- 
ing or writmg. I embrace the first moment of returning 
strength, though with a feeble hand, to answer your kind 
letter of the 2oth ult., and sincerely to thank you and th& 
other gentlemen of our communion in Baltimore, for the very 
flattering offer of so respectable a situation as that which the 
Kev. Mr. Beasley's removal to Philadelphia has left vacant. 

" On a subject of so much importance, I shall be glad of 
an opportunity of consulting with our venerable diocesan, to 
whose friendsliip I am greatly indebted, and without confer- 
ring with whom I should hesitate, at this stage of my prog- 
ress towards ordination, to take any decisive step in regard 
to a settlement. He has more than once intimated, in the 
most affectionate manner, that he calculated on my remain- 
ing in his diocese ; and many of my friends in Philadelphia 
speak in very determmate terms, of the expectation there that 
my labors should be commenced among them. With respect 
to myself, as my views in proposing to enter the ministry 
have, so far as I know my own heart, no selfish considera- 
tions mingled with them, I am willing to render my little 
portion of service to the cause of religion wherever the prov- 



HIS MINISTRY. 181 

idence of God may seem to direct. My present impressions, 
however, are, that it would conduce neither to the good of 
the church, nor to my future usefulness, to undertake the 
duties of a reader and continue them for so long a period as 
will elapse before, according to the canon, I can expect ordi- 
nation. A year from my annunciation as a candidate will 
not have expired till the middle of April next. For the 
intermediate time, I have removed to this pleasant little 
village, among Mrs. Milnor's friends, where I" am retired from 
all bustle, and have very much the uninterrupted command 
of my own time, except as my attention is, now and then, 
unavoidably engaged in the wmdmg up of my professional 
and other concerns in the city ; which, mdeed, for some time 
to come, require me to be within convenient distance of my 
successor ui the law. I have also, at the request of the 
vestry of a new parish in this place, consented, under a 
license from the bishop, to officiate as a lay-reader for them 
during the time of my stay ; so that, all thmgs considered, a 
change of my situation, at present, would be attended with 
considerable inconvenience. 

" Another very important consideration affects my mind : 
and that is, the apparently unbecoming presumption of a 
candidate for orders, in anticipating his duties in a place of 
so much unportance as your city, and perhaps standing in the 
way of a regular clergyman, who would be more acceptable, 
and to whom the situation might be very desirable. In 
short, after repeatmg my thanks for your kuid intentions, I 
have to express my wish that you may be successful in find- 
ing a faithful pastor, of better qualifications than myself, to 
take at once full charge of the church, and prevent the incon- 
veniences of such a plan as that which you have suggested. 
I think it, however, due to so unexpected and friendly an 
intimation to say, that I will avail myself of the first oppor- 
tunity, after God shall be pleased to restore my health, to 
speak with Dr. White and one or two other friends upon the 
subject ; but beg that I may not, in the meantime, stand in 



182 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

the way of any arrangement for the welfare of your church, 
that Providence may offer to your acceptance. 
" With affectionate regard, yours sincerely, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

The letter which he next answered, was from a clergy- 
man of Alexandria, who appears to have written in behalf 
and by the authority of the congregation in Richmond, over 
which Mr. Milnor was urged to think of a settlement. 

To the Rev. Oliver Norris. 

" NoRRiSTowN, August, 1813. 

** My dear Sir — I thank you very sincerely for your 
affectionate letter of the 14th ult., to which I should have 
made an earlier answer ; but, at the time of its arrival here, 
I was absent on a journey of a fortnight, from which I re- 
turned about twelve days ago, so much indisposed as, for the 
greater part of the time since, to have been confined to my 
bed. My sickness is still such as will oblige me to write this 
short letter with many intervals of rest. 

" You appreciate justly my motives in venturing, as I 
humbly trust under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to take 
upon me a portion of the ministry of reconciliation. ' I am 
as a wonder unto many,' who, unacquainted either with the 
duty of submission to the manifested will of God, or with the 
operations of divine grace upon the renewed mind, whereby 
alone true Christian obedience can be produced, are aston- 
ished at my voluntary surrender of a lucrative practice, of 
associations of the most varied and attractive kind, and of 
encouraging prospects of public honor and distinction. Yet, 
strange as it seems to them, to me not one relinquished object 
of former attachment occasions the smallest regret. But it 
is a source of painful reflection to me, that so much of a short 
lifetime has been so unprofitably spent, and that I am now 
able to make an offering to God of the small remnant only 
of my days, when the whole ought to have been his. 

*' With respect to the future sphere of my labors, my best 



HIS MINISTRY. 183 

reflections and the advice of friends have led me to postpone, 
for the present, any decisive determination. My probation- 
ary year will not expire till the middle of April next ; and 
there seems a want of delicacy towards the proper authorities 
of the church, in anticipating their decision upon my quali- 
fications, of which every day's experience opens a humbler 
view to miyself ; or in entering into engagements at present 
which circumstances hereafter may render it difficult, per- 
haps impracticable, to fulfil. 

" I trust I shall not be so misunderstood as to be supposed 
to set a light value upon so very respectable a proposition as 
that of a settlement at Richmond, if, besides the general 
reason above stated for now withholding a decision, I were 
to add, that, honorable as the post will be, and extensive 
as may be the good to be done by him who fills it, I doubt 
whether it is adapted to my opinions or habits. My im- 
pressions against slavery were early and deep ; and, with 
my present views of the universality of divine love, they are 
strengthened and rendered unalterable. I do not think I 
ought to go voluntarily into the midst of it, and perhaps 
become, from necessity, a partaker in it. 

" There is also, I understand, at Richmond, a fashiona- 
ble gayety of manners and disposition, far exceeding the 
general style of those to which I have been accustomed in 
Philadelphia, in which it would be painful for a Christian 
minister to be compelled to participate, and which, perhaps, 
it would be useless, nay, destructive of even partial useful- 
ness, to oppose. 

" To these suggestions I might, as a subordmate consid- 
eration, add, that the heats of summer are extremely unfa- 
vorable to my health ; and that, even in this cooler climate, 
I scarcely ever pass through July and August without an 
attack of sickness : and, as a more important item, might 
again add, a friendly wish, more than once expressed by our 
venerable diocesan, that I would not leave this state ; and 
the kind and earnest requests of my Episcopalian friends in 



184 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR 

Philadelphia, that I would remain in that city, where many 
circumstances lead to the belief that my poor exertions may 
be so directed as to be profitable to many. 

" To every thing now said, I should be unjust to my own 
feelings if I did not add, still further, that considering the 
grand scale on which the church in Richmond has been 
commenced, and the expectations raised with respect to the 
services to be performed in it, the moderate estimate which 
I am taught to make of my talents and acquirements would 
render me apprehensive of falling very far below the standard 
which has been set up. To the gay and volatile, ' Christ 
Jesus and him crucified ' is but a dull and simple theme, 
poorly supplying the place of those flowers of rhetoric and 
charms of diction with wliich genius delights to embellish 
the merely moral theme. Yet it is my determination, through 
grace, to preach nothing else to the people whom God, in his 
providence, may allot to my charge, than the gospel of Christ ; 
for ' I count all things but loss for the excellency of the know- 
ledge of Christ Jesus my Lord ;' I believe it to be ' the power 
of God unto salvation to every one that believeth ;' and that 
there is great danger of preachuig in such * wisdom of words 
as to make the Cross of Christ of none efTect.' 

" In all that I have said, it is far from my intention to 
give ofience. The friendly nature of your communication, 
required that I should detail some of my reasons for doubting 
whether Richmond were an eligible situation for me ; and I 
have done so. I leave you to judge of their weight. 
"With sentiments of sincere afiection, 

" Your faithful friend and brother in the truth, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

These letters are interesting, both as the productions of 
a sick man, scarcely able to hold his pen, and as proofs that 
the good work of the Spirit in his heart was in progress, 
shaping him more and more perfectly according to the pat- 
tern of the true minister of Christ. To this latter point, all 
the traces which he has left of his feehngs at the close of his 



HIS MINISTPwY. 185 

long and perilous illness, bear a decided testimony. It is 
particularly manifest, that at this time the spirit oi prayer m. 
him was actively alive. It mingled in all his engagements, 
and breathed through no small part of his diary. Thus : 

"Nov. 18, 1813. — The unsettled state of my family," 
he writes, " for some time past, has prevented attention to 
the interestmg duty of family worship. My dear Ellen's 
state of health now admitting of her attendance, and our 
arrangements in a new residence being made, I this morning 
commenced prayers, and hope to continue them every day, 
morning and evenmg. May God give us the aids of his 
heavenly grace to perform this duty with cheerfulness and 
regularity ; to enter upon it, at all times, with prepared 
hearts and with engaged minds ; and to profit by our daily 
communion with him on the throne of his mercy. Grant, 

Almighty Father, to ■ thy servant, a spirit of prayer and 
supplication ; enable him to pray with the heart and with 
the understandmg ; put thou, Holy Spirit, right words into 
his mouth, and grant that we may never be found offering 
the sacrifice of fools. may every member of this family 
rejoice in the privilege of access by prayer to God, through 
the blood and intercession of the Redeemer, and pay their 
daily vows, with unvarying fervency and zeal, to the blessed 
and triune God, to whom, be ascribed never-ending praises. 
Amen." 

His return to the city enabled liim, with increased expe- 
dition, to close the settlement of his temporal affairs, and at 
an earher period to give his mind to uninterrupted study. 
He writes, 

" Saturday, Nov. 27, 1813. — My beloved partner's bodily 
health being restored, her strength ui some measure regained, 
and many temporal cares being either removed or lessened, 

1 hope, hereafter, to be more closely and methodically en- 
gaged in theological studies. My prayer to Almighty God 
is, that I may be enabled to pursue them with a zeal and 
industry proportioned to their importance ; but that, while 



18G MEMOIR OF DR. MILKOR. 

the head is acquiring knowledge, the heart may not lose the 
ardor of its affections ; its love to God and the Saviour ; its 
desires after more grace and inward holiness ; its unceasing 
gratitude for countless mercies and undeserved blessings ; its 
wrestling with God for their continuance, unworthy as I am, 
for the Redeemer's sake ; and its faith and hope in his pre- 
cious sacrifice and intercession. Let me not lose, merciful 
God, my convictions of sin, my hatred of its contaminations, 
my sense of unremitting dependence on thee for ability to 
resist its baneful influence, and my continual applications to 
thee for thy support. Be thou, ' Lord, a shield for me, my 
glory, and the lifter up of my head.' 

The following letter, found among Dr. Milnor's papers, 
though without name or date, yet leaves no room for doubt 
on the question to whom it was addressed. It was probably 
written, whether earlier or later, about this period, and is 
therefore here introduced. It excites a somewhat sad fore- 
boding as to the close of the religious, life of his old friend, 
Aquila M. Bolton. And yet, who knows but that tliis later 
remonstrance from one whom that friend so early warned of 
the peril of impenitency, may have proved the means of re- 
awakening his own soul, and of saving him from the peril 
of apostasy ? The letter was as follows : 

" My dear Friend — I have received the first number of 
a miscellany, of which the well-known letters on the cover 
apprise me you are the editor. Has the long interruption of 
epistolary intercourse so far deadened our sensibilities to one 
another's interests, and so completely estranged us from each 
other, as to preclude a free and candid intercommunication 
of sentiments ? I trust not. The evidence which you have 
just given me that I still live in your remembrance, and the 
throbbings of my own bosom as I am now communing with 
you, convince me that our friendship is not dead, though it 
has slept ; and it is this persuasion that encourages me to 
unburden my mind with the most unbounded frankness. 

" For several years past I have heard but little of you 



^ HIS MINISTRY. 187 

for we had ceased to interchange letters, and I seldom met 
with any of your friends who could tell me any thing ahout 
you. You have now suddenly risen to my view in a shape 
so new and unexpected as greatly to surprise me, without 
affording any of that delight which those precious commu- 
nications — still preserved and frequently recurred to — from 
Jersey, from Spain, and from Wheeling, have afforded. 0, 
my valued, my earliest friend, has your relish for divine 
things deserted you ? Has the love of God in Christ Jesus, 
once, as I believed, so liberally shed abroad in your heart, 
waxed cold ? Does religion no longer court your feelings by 
those sweet endearments in which you once so much delight- 
ed ? Can you have become willing to relinquish the solid 
and durable pleasures of piety for the light and frivolous 
amusements of the day, even though they court you under 
the mask of literature and taste ? Beheve me, when I look 
at those awful admonitions with which you once addressed 
me, and in which your whole concern was to induce me, 
like yourself, to take up the cross of the Redeemer, and to 
' count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge 
of Christ Jesus our Lord ;' when I recollect my being told, 
by one of your friends, that you had become a public cham- 
pion of his glorious cause, and when I look at the title and 
contemplated plan of your miscellany — useful as some of its 
proposed objects may, no doubt, be — I am at a loss to decide 
whether astonishment or grief be the predominant feeling of 
my mind. Not one word in your prospectus, or in your first 
number, of Christ or liis blessed religion ; and but a trivial 
glance towards even morality, good as the product of the 
Spirit, but a mean and barren substitute for genuine religion. 
Ah, this, I fear, evinces too plainly,- that you have become 
satiated with the fountains of ' livmg ^\^ater,' of whose de- 
lightful streams you once partook, and have betaken yourself 
to * cisterns, broken cisterns, that will hold no water.' 

" With such apprehensions', permit an old friend, who has 
abandoned the pursuit of the wealth, and honor, and pleasures 



188 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOil. ^ 

of this world, for tlie riches of eternity, the unfading honor 
of his Redeemer's crown of righteousness, and the enjoyment 
of the hght of his divine countenance, to soHcit you to pause 
and consider the awful danger of apostasy from the faith of 
Jesus. Can it he possible that he who once, with so much 
feeling, admonished the friend — who now sincerely thanks 
him for, while he reciprocates the kindness — of the necessity 
of closing with the offers of mercy, is willing to become a 
castaway ? beware, my friend, I entreat you, that the 
evil spirit which has gone out from you, do not ' return into 
his house, and fmd it empty, swept, and garnished,' for the 
reception of himself and ' seven other spirits more Avicked 
than himself,' and so make your ' last state Avorse than the 
first.' I shall probably hereafter write you more fully, and 
give you some account of the Lord's dealings with my soul ; 
but in the meantime will conclude with an apposite quota- 
tion from an author with whose style you are well ac- 
quainted." 

The manuscript closes without the quotation, and our 
notices of his friend Bolton's religious life must be dismissed 
without any certain light as to its issue. 

From the close of the year 1813, Mr. Milnor continued 
his theological studies until August, 1814, four months after 
his required term of candidateship had expired — apparently 
m consequence of the long mterruption of those studies by 
his own illness and that of his wife, in the summer and fall 
of 1513. He would have continued them for a still longer 
period, but for a circumstance which hastened his ordination, 
and which he thus records m his last entry in his diary : 

" August 9, 1814. — Once more I resume my brief anno- 
tations. Since my last entries, my life has been that of a 
studen|, much abstracted from the world, and laboriously 
engaged in the acquisition of theological knowledge. My 
prospect has been to apply for orders in October next ; but 
circumstances of an unexpected nature have hastened the 
m.easure. The Rev. Mr. Kemper having been invited by 



HIS MINISTRY. 189 

the Society for the Advancement of Christianity to go upon 
a mission through the state, the vestry have requested me 
to anticipate the time of my ordination, that I may supply 
his place during his absence. The desire of the bishop and 
of all my friends concurring in tliis arrangement, I have 
consented. My ordination, with God's permission, is to take 
place on Sunday morning next, in St. James' church." 

In a record which he soon after opened, for the simple 
purpose of "preserving a note of each sermon preached by 
him during his ministry," he adds, " I was ordained deacon 
by the Rt. Rev. William "White, in St. James' church, Phil- 
adelphia, on Sunday morning, August 14, 1814." 

So brief was his notice of that interesting event, which 
lay between all his past hfe of pleasure and of politics in the 
great world of men, and all his coming life of labor and of 
usefulness in the sweet service of Christ ! His first sermon 
was preached in St. Peter's, the afternoon of the same day 
on which he was ordained. The text, chosen with peculiar 
appropriateness, was Rom. 1:16: "I am not ashamed of 
the gospel of Christ ; for it is the power of God mito salva- 
tion to every one that belie veth : to the Jew first, and also 
to the Greek." We can well conceive the interest with 
which a sermon before such an audience, from such a text, 
and by such a man, must have been received ; preached, as 
it was, in the very centre of that round of fashion in which, 
for so many years, he had been moving ; before many of his 
former companions in gayety and business ; and on a text 
wliich called him to exhibit the gospel of the lowly Jesus 
in all its humblmg peculiarity, and with modest boldness to 
take up the cross of proclaiming Christ crucified among men. 
That he was, for once, " a prophet not wdthout honor in his 
own country, and among his own kin," may be inferred from 
the fact, that on the 21st of December next after his orduia- 
tion, he was " unanimously elected by the vestry a muiister 
of the united churches." 

The three churches being now furnished with a rector 



190 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

and three assistants, each had one " leisure" Sunday out of 
every four. This leisure each seems to have spent in preach- 
ing in the neighboring parishes and destitute places. Such 
was the use which Mr. Milnor, at least, made of his leisure 
Sundays, as appears from his record of the times and places 
of his labors. The first fruit of this arrangement was the 
organization of St. John's church, Northern Liberties. Mr. 
Milnor commenced this enterprise by preaching, Sunday 
evening, February 19, 1815, "in the Commissioners' Hall," 
or town-house, in that dense suburb. The service was in 
" a large and crowded room," and the sermon to " a deeply 
attentive people." 

On Sunday morning, August 27, 1815, he was admitted 
by Bishop White, in St. James' church, to the order of pres- 
byters ; and on the next Sunday morning, September 3, in 
Qhrist church, he " for the first time administered the holy 
communion." 

The two following letters, written durmg this period, in- 
dicate very distinctly the acceptableness of his labors ; the 
stand which he at once took as an evangelical preacher ; his 
temper in regard to ecclesiastical dissensions ; and the man- 
ner in which he sought to do good " in season, and out of 
season." The former was addressed 

To the Rev. Levi Bull. 

"Philadelphia, January 16, 1815. 
" Rev. and dear Brother — I thank you for your kind 
communication of the 10th ult. The good opinion of so ex- 
perienced a fellow- Christian as yourself is confessedly grate- 
lul to my feelings ; whilst I desire that neither that, nor any 
other expression of human approbation may seduce me into 
those ' vain imaginations and high thoughts,' which are so 
destructive of true religion in the soul. Every day's expe- 
rience tends to lower me in my own estimation ; for I know 
the inadequacy of^my talents and attainments, and that I 
am neither so ardent and laborious in my external labors, 



" HIS MINISTRY. 191 

nor so devout and spiritual in my inward exercises, as Le- 
comes the sincere follower of Jesus, more especially a worm 
who has taken upon himself to speak to others in his holy 
name. My prayer to God is, for daily supplies of his all- 
sufficient grace, to strengthen me in his work, and to enable 
me to press forward with a steady aim to the promotion of 
his glory, and the good of souls. 

' ' In relation to the character and conduct of others, asso- 
ciated in the same duties, I think myself hound to act, where 
I believe error to exist, with much moderation. Many such 
act honestly, accordmg to the conclusions, however wrong, 
of their own judgments ; and give no offence to religion in 
their lives and conversations. Others let religion sit more 
loosely upon them; and the injury, which their errors in doc- 
trine might otherwise occasion, is prevented by the ill ap- 
pearance which its practical influence exhibits m their con- 
duct. * To their own Master they stand or fall.' The course 
of those who profess deeper views in divine things, and 
endeavor after a closer conformity to the requisitions of the 
gospel, is, in my opinion, to remain firm to their principles ; 
to adhere to that strictness of life which conscience and the 
word of God exact ; and to proclaim the evangelical truths 
of rehgion with holy boldness, but without useless ofTensive- 
ness of language. Parties in the Church, my dear friend, 
should not be countenanced. If an upright and consistent 
discharge of duty invite odium or persecution from others, 
let us receive with meekness and resignation any consequen- 
ces to which it may lead. But opposition to the persons of 
men, the distinction of names, and the array of each other 
into conflicting ranks, must produce, whatever be the sin- 
cerity of intention, disastrous consequences to the interests 
of our Zion. My views lead me to shrinlt from any situation 
that may excite in my mind those turbulent and unruly pas- 
sions which divine grace has yet so partially subdued ; and 
religious controversies, of all others, do excite them in the 
most lamentable and pernicious degree. Forgive the ego- 



192 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. * 

tism into which your suggestions unavoidably led me, when 
I declare my persuasion that God has not formed me for an 
agency in any such scenes. 

" But, whilst I wish to meddle little with others, God 
has clearly pointed out to me my own line of duty. For 
myself, I am ' determined to laiow nothing,' in my ministe- 
rial labors, ' save Jesus Christ and him crucified ;' to preach 
nothing but his precious gospel to perishing sinners ; and, 
according to my poor measure of ability, to call men from a 
reliance on their own works to an entire dependence upon 
the free grace and mercy of God in Christ. The native 
depravity of man, liis utter helplessness, the necessity of 
repentance and conversion, the agency of the Holy Spirit in 
these evangehcal exercises, and the manifestation of the 
blessed fruit of a change of heart in the work of holy obedi- 
ence to the revealed will and word of God, are themes which 
fill my mind, and upon which, both publicly and privately, 
I shall continue to dwell. If others preach differently, may 
God forgive them, and bestow upon them better views. I 
trust the Spirit of God will illuminate the minds of many, 
to discern where the truth rests ; and that he will not leave 
his faithful servants ^vithout the reward of their labors. 
Without finding an apology in this trust for any negligence 
on my part, I feel, my friend, more and more deeply con- 
vinced that we do not sufficiently refer to the faithfuhiess 
and the omnipotence of God, in our estimate of the effects 
to be produced by the labors of the ministry. Let us rely 
upon his promises and his power, and we shall feel less de- 
sponding as to the success which in his own time will attend 
his preached word. Although the pleasing occurrence has 
not taken place within the pale of our own communion, yet 
the late revival of religion in the college at Princeton is a 
just evidence of the truth of this position, and a cause of 
pious felicitation among Christians of every denomination. 
I have heard the letters of Dr. Green on the subject read 
with astonishment and delight. One of them contains fifty- 



HIS MINISTRY. 193 

two names of young men, a part of whom, it was believed, 
had ' passed from death unto life ;' wliile another part were 
' not far fi'om the kingdom of God,' and the remauider were 
under strong convictions of sin. Surely, ' this is the Lord's 
doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.' May the dews of 
his heavenly grace descend more copiously on that part of 
bis vineyard, in wliich his providence has called you and me 
to labor. "VYe have, it is true, very great discouragements ; 
and latterly not many appearances here of a contrary descrip-. 
tion. But, * as the husbandman waiteth for the precious 
fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it until he 
receive the early and the latter rain,' so let us also ' be pa- 
tient.' Let us ' establish our hearts ; for the coming of the 
Lord draweth nigh,' 

" Believe me, in the bonds of that everlasting covenant, 
ordered in all thmgs and sure, wherein we desire ever to 
abide, 

*' Your faithful brother in Christ, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

The latter of the two communications was addressed to 
a young gentleman — ^possibly one of the "Jifty'tzuo,'' to 
whose case reference was made in the former. 

"Philadelphia, Aug. 3, 1815. • 
" My deau Sir — I aclmowledge, with great pleasure, the 
receipt of your letter of the 15th ult. How sorry am I that 
a communication which encourages me to tliink so favor- 
ably of your religious steadfastness, should give so disheart- 
ening a prospect of that of some of your associates. This is 
lamentable, indeed, as it respects the individuals, for it is a 
tenfold increase of their guilt and condemnation, to have 
been placed, by the grace of Almighty God, in the road to 
eternal happiness, and then wilfully to forsake it ; and the 
shockmg sin of ingratitude for ^;<2S^ mercies lessens awfully 
the hope of those mercies being renewed. Surely, these in- 
fatuated youth are sinning agauist the clearest light, against 

Mem. Mitaior. 9 



194 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

the convictions of conscience, and have abundantly more 
reason than its author to adopt the language of the heathen 
poet — and to fear the righteous vengeance of Almighty God 
for its presumptuous truth — who declared of himself, 
' Video meliora proboque ; 
Deteriora sequor.' 

Jjet us not, however, cease to pray for them, and remon- 
Btrate with them. ; and let us beware how we ourselves, by 
the indulgence of sloth, by exposure to temptation, or by 
any of that infinite variety of means which Satan and our 
own evil hearts are so ready to suggest, fall into the like 
condemnation. 

" But if the effect of these secessions from the truth as it 
is in Jesus be thus deplorable upon the individuals them- 
selves, it is equally injurious to the general interests of re- 
hgion. Already the enemies of evangelical righteousness 
begin to take great credit to themselves for the truth of 
their predictions as to the instability of the subjects of the 
late revival ; infidels find in these events excitements to 
blasphemous merriment, and cold moralists plume them- 
selves on the superiority of their unfeeling system of reason 
and expediency over one which they allege to have no foun- 
dation but in the effervescence of animal excitement. 

" But let none of these things, my dear young friend, 
move you. However ignorant blasphemers may revile, or 
lukewarm Christians undervalue the work of grace begun by 
the good Spirit of our God in your seminary, I trust that m 
the hearts of many it will be carried on unto perfection, and 
that you, who have, in some good degree, * tasted and seen 
how good and gracious the Lord is,' will mamtain your .con- 
fidence, ' knowing in whom you have believed, and that he 
is able to keep that which you have committed unto him 
against that day.' Never, however, expose yourself to the 
seductions of temptation, and the arts of the adversary of 
souls ; never yield to the suggestions of that remahider of a 
corrupt nature, which you will find still luring you back to 



HIS MIl^ISTRY. 190 

former habits, or lulling you into indifference about holy 
things, or beguiling you into self-security and satisfaction 
with your present measure of attainments : strive to ' forget 
those things that are behuid, and to reach towards those that 
are before ; pressing daily towards the mark for the prize of 
your high callmg of God in Christ Jesus.' How anxiously 
should we aim at that glorious assurance which, after the 
most trying conflicts, crowned the religious experience ot 
the great apostle, and enabled him to say, ' I am persuaded 
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, 
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor 
height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to 
separate us from the love of God, wliich is in Christ Jesus 
our Lord.' 

"Accept, my Christian brother, the humble prayers ol 
an unworthy aspirer after these blessings, for your attain- 
ment of so happy an advancement in the divine life ; give 
him an interest in your approaches to God, and beheve him 
to be, with that love which the true Christian only knows 
how to feel and to cherish, 

" Your fellow-traveller to Zion, and faithful friend, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

From the former of these two letters it is evident, that 
liis early ministry was received with such flattering com- 
mendations as made him feel the need of a strong guard 
agamst high thoughts of himself; and that he found that 
guard hi those teachings of the Spirit, which filled him with 
lowly self-esteem. It is also evident, that he was early 
urged to assume the attitude of a controversial leader of the 
newly rising evangehcal interest in the Episcopal church ; 
and that, from the first, he took the stand, which he ever 
afterwards maintained, of avoiding religious controversy, 
and especially jparty names, except as he was forced to bear 
them in his adherence to what he considered matters oJ 
principle. His temper in this respect was beautiful. Where 
his views of truth and duty required, he took his stand fear 



19G MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

lessly and firmly, and then calmly met the consequences of 
his stand. His position often drew upon him violent as- 
saults ; but he always contented himself with the dignified 
defence which self-respect demanded. Assaults upon others 
he never made. The eyes of thousands were early and long 
turned upon him as one of the most prominent men, if not 
the most prominent, among the evangehcal portion of the 
A.merican Episcopal Church ; but no one was ever able 
to look upon him and say, ^^ Mihior is the leader of our 
party. '^ The letter on which these comments are made, 
*^ay be taken as an index, not less true than early, to his 
Avhcle :c.iirse as an evangelical minister ui the church. 

The latter of >he two letters, while it shows his aptness 
to do good as occasion was offered, exhibits also the interest 
with which he ever regarded the great question of revivals 
of religion. He never doubted that such revivals are in full 
harmony with the genius of the gospel, and with the prom 
ised influences of the Spirit ; although he never shut his eye 
to the perils attendant on remarkable seasons of revival, 
through the wiles of Satan, the frailty of man, and the de- 
ceitfulness of the sinful heart. He was disposed neither to 
overrate the good found in revivals as the work of God, nor 
to be blind to that good because of sometimes attendant 
evils as the work of man. He prayed for God's blessings 
through revivals, and he labored to avert man's abuses, 
when they came. 

From the period of his admission to the order of presby- 
ters, in August, 1815, he contmued to labor ui Philadelphia, 
as one of the ministers of the united churches, until his 
removal to New York, m September, 1816. During tliis 
early period of his ministry, the only recorded incident of im- 
portance out of the line of his uniform and diligent labors, 
was the part which he took, in the winter of 1816, in the 
action of the Philadelphia Bible Society. This Society under- 
took, at that time, to extend its operations by the formation 
of Bible associations throughout the city and its populous 



HIS MINISTRY. 197 

suburbs, and for this purpose appointed a committee to carry 
its resolutions into eflect. Of this committee Mr. Mihior 
was a member, and at its first meeting was appointed secre- 
tary. The committee detailed itself into four subcommit- 
tees, and under this distribution, carried out the work with 
wliich they were intrusted. In doing so, they incidentally 
took measures for organizing a " Marine Bible Society." 
They also ordered the circulars, which were intended to 
accompany the Society's report when published in the news- 
papers, to be sent to each of the presidents of the Bible Soci- 
eties of Boston, Hartford, Providence, New York, Albany, 
Baltimore, Charleston, Richmond, Savannah, and Lexington, 
as well as to the presidents of the Auxiliary Bible Society, 
and of the Female Bible Society, of Philadelphia. 

These proceedings were had in January, 1816, and it is 
worthy of remark, that on the 11th of May of the same year, 
the American Bible Society was organized in the city of New 
York ; an organization Avhich brought nearly all the discon- 
nected Bible Societies of the country into union with one 
central agency for the dissemination of the word of God 
among all the families of the earth ; a fit associate in this 
work, with the British and Foreign Bible Society of London. 
How far this grand central movement in New York grew 
out of the measures adopted ui Philadelphia the preceding 
January, it is not intended to inquire ; but it is pleasing to 
know, that Mr. Milnor not only became most actively en- 
gaged in the American Bible Society immediately after his 
removal to New York, but was similarly engaged in the Bible 
cause before its central organization had a beino*. 

Early in the month of May, 1816, Mr. Milnor became 
aware of a movement in St. George's church. New York, 
tending towards his future rectorship of that parish. After 
a preparatory correspondence, the way was open for decisive 
steps. Accordingly, on the 6th of June the vestry of St. 
George's met, and made out their official call, accompanying 
it with the following brief, but interesting letter. 



193 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

V 

To the Rev. James Milnor. 
"St. George's Church, New York, June 6, 1816. 

" Kev. Sir — It is with feelings of great satisfaction, that 
we present you the resolution inclosed. Convinced we can 
offer you no motive for accepting this call but the prospect 
of more extended usefulness in the cause to which you have 
so disinterestedly dedicated your future life, permit us to 
observe, that our congregation, now large, is capable, under 
the blessing of God, of being very greatly increased ; and 
considering the anxiety prevailing among us to hear the 
tidings of salvation, we cherish the confident hope, that under 
your ministrations, our Zion may be brought to rejoice in 
the strength of her Lord. We believe the harvest may be 
great, but the laborers are wanting ; and we trust you will 
not decline what we hope you and all of us may be led by ■ 
the Spirit of God to consider the summons of the Lord of the 
harvest. 

" "We are not conscious that any circumstance can exist, 
to induce a doubt in your mind of this being a call of duty ; 
but, anxious to omit no proper means of securing to our con- 
gregation your useful labors, if any such circumstance exist, 
we trust you will give us an opportunity to explain ; which 
we believe can be done, on all points, in a manner entirely 
satisfactory. 

" Requesting your communications may be addressed to 
either of the undersigned, we remain, with sentiments of 
great respect, reverend sir, 
" Your friends, 

" GERRIT H. VAN WAGENEN, ) „ 

"HARRY PETERS, ^wardens. 

The following was his first reply 

To G-errit H. Van Wagenen and, Harry Peters, Wardens. 

"Philadelphia, June 10, 1816. 
" Gentlemen — I have to acknowledge the receipt of your 
favor of the 6th inst., and to return you my thanks for the 



HIS MINISTHY. 199 

friendly and obliging terms in which you have, been good 
enough to communicate the call of the wardens and vestry 
of St. George's, to the rectorship of that church. 

" Flattering as I consider an invitation to that respect- 
able charge, I trust that on a subject so interesting as that 
of a permanent removal from the place of my birth, to which 
so many attachments, relative, social, and religious, bind my 
affections, you will not be surprised at any hesitation wliich 
has been manifested on my part, in encouraging the measure, 
or that may now be evinced in regard to a compliance with 
your offer. 

" Of one thing I assure you, gentlemen, that if, after 
proper consideration, duty appears to require of me the sur- 
render of personal convenience, it shall be made ; and that, 
should divine Providence direct my course to New York, as 
a measure of respect towards the congregation of St. George's, 
and with a view to a better determination of a point of so 
much importance both to them and to myself, I propose to 
visit New York the latter part of the present week, and if it 
be agreeable, preach in your church on the ensuing Sunday, 

" In the meantime, the subject vdll be deeply reflected 
on by me ; and I trust I shall have your prayers associated 
with my own, imploring such a result as shall be for the glory 
of God, and the promotion of the kingdom of his Son. 
" I am, with sentiments of great respect, 
" Your obedient servant, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

In pursuance of the intimation thus given, Mr. Milnor 
was in New York on Saturday, the 15th of June ; and on 
Sunday, officiated all day at St. George's. His first sermon 
there was that wliich he first preached after the event of his 
ordination — from Rom. 1:16: "I am not ashamed of the 
gospel of Christ ;" and it was received, as were all his ser- 
vices there, with the greatest satisfaction. Assiduous atten- 
tions gathered round liim from all parts of the congregation ; 
and before the close of the visit, it became evident to his own 



200 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOll. 

mind, that he could not, consistently with duty, decline the 
call which he had received. He intimated as much in his 
letters to Mrs. Milnor ; and in Philadelphia, before his return, 
it was known to be a settled matter, that they were to lose 
him from among them. 

His official acceptance of the call was signified to the 
vestry while he was in New York. He wrote thus : 

"To the "Wardens and Yestrymen of St. G-eorge's." 

"New York, June 20, 1816. 

" Gentlemen — Having suspended my decision upon your 
obliging call to the rectorsliip of St. George's, until I had an 
opportunity of visiting the congregation, and they of hearing 
me perform divine service and preach, the unanimity which, 
I am since assured, prevails both in your body and amongst 
the people, leaves no doubt m my mind of its being my duty 
to comply with your wishes. 

" I accordingly accept the call, and implore the great 
Head of the church to accompany with his blessing the con- 
nection thus formed between us. 

" Some time will be requisite for procuring a dissolution 
of my present engagement in Philadelphia, and for settling 
my concerns there. Any accommodation, therefore, in regard 
to the time of commencing my labors, that may be found 
convenient to you, will be acceptable. 

" I remain, gentlemen, with gratitude and respect, 
" Your obedient servant, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

He had prepared a longer form of reply, in which he pro- 
posed to place the call again in the power of the vestry, to 
be renewed or sufiered to expire, as they and the people 
might feel disposed, after having heard liim in their desk and 
pulpit ; but, upon second thought, he laid aside the letter 
which he had written, and trusting to the evidences which 
he saw around him, of a unanimous desire for his acceptance, 
pemied and sent the brief letter just given! His institution 




, OF WM. thOICOTT ftr CO - 



59 BEEKMAN St N, Y. 



JLlZIi nECTDF.Y, 
BEEKMAN St. NEW YOR K. 



HIS MINISTRY. 201 

by Bishop Hobart, as rector of the parish, took place on Mon- 
day, September 30. 

The severance of one of the last links in the chain of his 
connection with Philadelphia, was effected by his receipt of 
a check from the accounting warden of the united churches 
for the balance of his salary ; accompanied by a kind note, hi 
which the writer signified that his brother wardens in New 
York might send Mr. Milnor bigger checks, but could not give 
him better love. 



SECTION II. 

Mr. Milnor now entered on that long and uniform period 
of his ministerial career, which closed but with his life. 
With the hearts of his people from the first united in him, 
and kindly yielding to his wise and gentle sway, his labors 
were not long in assuming that direction which, with little 
variation, they held to the end of his ministry. To his reg- 
^ular services ui the pulpit, were soon added those of his favor- 
ite Tuesday and Friday evening lectures ; of his unceasing 
attention to parochial Sunday-schools ; of his management 
of the parish organization for the promotion of missionary 
and other benevolent operations ; and of his watchful care 
of the social meetings of his communicants for prayer and 
exhortation. 

Within his own parish, the stream of his muiisterial life 
ran ever smooth. His preaching was always most favorably 
received, and encouragmgly blessed. His Sunday-schools 
became large, prosperous, and, in a short time, several in 
number. His Friday evening lectures, which, when given 
in the lecture-room, were always (ypened with forms from the 
prayer-book, but usually closed with extemporaneous prayer, 
were uniformly to large audiences, and often scenes of deep 
and powerful interest through the evident presence of God's 



202 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

Holy Spirit. The benevolent operations of his parish, con- 
ducted with wise reference to system, and sustained by con- 
stant manifestations of liberality, were steadily prosperous 
and increasingly productive. And the weekly meetings of 
his communicants for social prayer and conversation, some- 
times attended by himself, but more frequently without his 
presence, were seldom if ever omitted, and not often destitute 
of truly pleasing tokens of the divine favor. 

Out of his parish, however, his course of labor lay through 
niuch opposition, and his day of action was often stormy. 
The extemporaneous close of his lecture-room exercises, and 
the meetings which he countenanced among his communi- 
cants for social prayer without forrns, encountered the con- 
stant and earnest displeasure of his bishop ; while the pubhc 
stand which he felt it liis duty to take, in cooperating with 
Christians of other denommations in distributing the Bible 
without note or comment, and in circulatmg religious tracts 
of an unsectarian character, drew upon him reiterated ex- 
pressions of disapprobation, not only from liis bishop, but 
also from a large portion of the Episcopal church. The 
maimer, however, in which he met all this opposition, stand- 
ing as he always did, mildly firm to his principles, his rights, 
and his sense of duty, displayed at once the strength of liis 
character .and the beauty of his religion. Offensively or 
officiously, he urged his peculiarities upon none : from the 
ground wliich he'felt constrained to take, he was moved by 
the reproaches of none. He blamed none for the different 
views of ministerial duty to which they chose to adhere : he 
suffered the interference of none to disturb him in those which 
he was led deliberately to adopt. He sought no party dis- 
tmctions and no personal ends, either for liimself or for others : 
he suffered not the stigma of offensive names, by whomsoever 
fastened on him, to withdraw his eye for a moment from the 
one great cause of Christ in which he was enlisted for life, 
and in which he sought to enlist his fellow-creatures ; but 
true to the line of duty by which a scripturally enlightened 



HIS MINISTHY. 203 

conscience bade him walk, and intelligent of the rights with 
which the laws of his church and of his country invested 
both himself and his brethren, he quietly took his course, and 
neither turned from it, nor faltered in it, until death. 

His interest in the cause of the Bible before he left Phil- 
adelj)hia, has already been noted. It has also been seen 
that the American Bible Society was organized May 11, 
1816 ; at the very time when he was in correspondence 
with the vestry of St. George's. At his settlement in New 
York, therefore, in September, this central organization was 
but just begimiing to put its machinery m motion ; and as 
he lost no tune, after his removal to this city, in identifying 
liimself with its friends, and had been previously engaged in 
those expandmg activities of the Philadelphia Bible Society, 
wliich, if they did not originate the general institution in 
New York, were at least in close connection and full sympa- 
thy with its originating causes, he may be considered, if not 
one of the first founders of that blessed mstitution, yet one of 
that noble band of Christian spirits of various name, but of 
harmonious views, and of united hearts, through whose influ- 
ence its earhest foundations were laid. 

The history of his valuable labors ui tliis Society belongs 
properly to a later page in tliis memoir. The mere fact of 
his early connection with its operations, is all that it is here 
necessary to state. For the present we have nothing to do 
but to trace the course of his labors and his life as well as 
we may, by the help of those few letters which have been 
recovered, and which he either wrote or received in the 
course of his prolonged and very varied correspondence. 

The following from a doubtmg parishioner, together with 
its answer, presents us with an interior view of liis parocliial 
life. 

To the Rev. Mr. Milnor. 

"New York, July 31, 1817. 
" Uev. Sir — Emboldened by the permission wliich you 
gave me, of statmg to you some of the impediments which 



204 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

prevent ine from joining the company of travellefs to Zion, 
I have taken the hberty of enclosing a few thoughts. I hope 
I have not written with too much boldness and disrespect, 
on a subject of which I wish to tliink and speak with rever- 
ence ; and that you will favor me with your opinion of them, 
and say whether you do not think that one so faithless and 
wavering had better abstain from the table, lest, partaking 
with an unbelieving heart, she eat and drink condemnation 
to herself Your candid sentiments on this subject will much 
oblige, 

" Hev. sir, your friend, 

" C P . 

"I am much pressed by those interested in my spiritual 
welfare to come forward as a public professor, and join the 
number of those who seal their faith and love by partaking 
of an ordinance recommended by the Saviour as a memorial 
of himself My not doing so is, I fear, misunderstood as 
obstinacy or indifierence. But it proceeds from neither. 
Indeed, I feel sincerely sorry that I cannot go up with the 
assembly of saints, and feed upon those precious memorials 
with true faith and a thankful heart. But v/hile I feel no 
assurance of faith ; while I Imow I do not experience the 
power of rehgion in my soul ; while I do not embrace the 
whole gospel plan with all my heart ; while I cannot place 
such dependence on it as to say, ' Here is firm footing, here is 
solid rock' — would it not be acting the hypocrite to substitute 
appearance for reality, the shadow for the substance ? 

" Let it not be said I indulge a sceptical mind. Oh, I 
lament the disposition. I would fain believe with all the 
simplicity of a little child. But, alas, the evil spirit of unbe- 
lief is continually rising and starting objections. Some 
stumbling-block is ever in the way. Some doubt that can- 
not be solved constantly impedes my progress in the Christian 
course, and renders me cold and indifferent. Am I asked to 
mention some of these doubts ? They are not always pres- 
ent ; but often show themselves in many differing forms 



HIS MINISTRY. 205 

One of the most besetting and hardest to answer, is, that the 
gospel plan of salvation appears a confined one, allowing its 
utmost latitude, except as explained by the UniversaHsts, 
and theirs is a creed which I dare not adopt. The Predes- 
tinarians say, that Christ's blood was not shed in 'vaiii; 
that human nature is so depraved, so averse to good, so far 
gone out of the right way, that, although a remedy is pro- 
vided for them, they will never turn and embrace it ; but 
that Christ, by his sufferings, purchased the redemption of 
all that shall be saved ; that they are bought with a price * 
that they are his ; and that therefore none of them shall be 
lost, but his Spirit will operate so powerfully on their minds, 
as to transform them, and make them, willing to accept his 
offered grace. This is generally rejected as a cold, contract- 
ed thought ; as derogatmg from the generous motive that 
brought the Son of God from the abode of unceasing happi- 
ness to suffer and die, that guilty man might be fitted to par- 
take of his endless glory. 

" 'He left his radiant throne on high, 
Left the bright realms of bliss, 
And came to earth to bleed and die ; 
Was ever love like this ?' 

" 'Tis, indeed, a proof of love and mercy enough to thaw 
the frozen heart of apathy itself into feeling and devotion. 
Why, then, is tnine so refractory ? Why will it not beHeve 
and accept ? Alas, because I am a doubtmg Thomas. I 
have not faith, even as a grain of mustard seed. When I am 
about to stretch out the withered arm, and make a feeble 
attempt to lay hold on the hope presented in the gospel, this 
thought arrests it : Can it be that those transactions have 
taken place, and were necessary for the salvation of men ? 
And is it also necessary that they should believe and depend 
on them to be saved ? Then, why is the knowledge of them 
so confined? If Christ came to save the world, and the 
world cannot be saved but by faith in him, what is to be- 
come of the greatest part of its inhabitants, who cannot exer- 



206 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

else faith for want of knowledge ? How many of the ancients, 
who were endowed with great capacities, and seemed illu- 
mined by a light divine, have died without faith ! They 
could not believe what they had never heard. How many 
good men have died ignorant of the contents of the Bible ! 
Nay, how many in modern times have been sceptical, who 
have appeared to be sincere searchers after truth, and who 
have possessed capacious minds ! Are we not taught to 
believe this to be the first stage of being, that we are now 
fitting for the stations which we are hereafter to fill ? Does 
it not seem probable, then, that a comprehensive mind^ 
which here just began to unfold, will expand and enlarge 
when it enters that world where faith shall be SAvallowed up 
in vision ? And if so, was it — with powers superior, in the 
order of being, to common mmds — created for no purpose ? 
Does it not appear to have some part to act hereafter, and 
that its powers of perception will increase, when, freed from 
its dark prison-house, it can soar and view what mortal eye 
hath not seen, ear heard, or heart of man conceived ? Yet 
many of these have died unbelievers, and we are told, that 
' without faith it is impossible to please God.' 

" There are other difficulties, not so formidable, indeed, 
which still create doubts. One is, the want of charity among 
professors. If the fruit of the Spirit be love and gentleness, 
if Christ said, ' By this shall all men know ye are my disci- 
ples, if ye love one another,' what testimony to the fulfilling 
of this command do difi^erent sects exhibit in their charity 
for each other ? Although travelling to the same place, they 
yet obey not the injunction, ' Fall not out by the way ;' but 
because they understand not all the directions alike, a spirit 
of acrimony and contention usurps the place of brotherly 
kindness. Forgetting that they are all equally sincere in 
their interpretations of their Master's commands, and that 
he alone can judge who has best understood his orders, they 
* snatch from his hand the balance and the rod,' and are 
often more inveterate against their fellow- Christians that 



HIS MINISTHY. ^ 207 

differ from them, than they are against infidels. Wliere, 
says unbelief, is the transforming uifluence, in all this, of a 
religion that changes a sinner into a saint ; or if so many 
paths lead astray from the right one, why are we left, blind 
as we are, to grope our way with such obscure directions ? 

" I do not encourage these difficulties ; they force them- 
selves upon me : they weaken my confidence in revelation ; 
take from me that prop on which my hopes, my affections, 
would fain lean, and leave, instead, a cold, insensible, doubt- 
ng heart. Would such a sacrifice be acceptable ? Or can 
t possibly be brought to the table of the Lord?" 

Answer. — To Mrs. C P . 

"New York, Aug. — , 1817. 

" My dear Madam — To the question with which you 
close your communication, I answer, without hesitation, in 
the negative. With your present feelings, it would be wrong 
in your friends to press you on the subject of communion. 
But the circumstances wliich now restrain your approach to 
the table of the Lord, are of vastly more importance when 
viewed in reference to eternity, than when considered in ref- 
erence to tliis preliminary ordinance. They form a most 
alarmmg barrier to those hopes which its participation is 
designed not to create, but to strengthen and confirm ; and 
therefore, in regard not to tliis measure alone, but to that 
heavenly happuiess after which its faithful recipients aspire, 
it is of infinite interest to you that the doubts with wliicli 
you are harassed should be removed. Nothing, indeed, but 
a superior Power can do this ; but if he be appealed to with 
earnestness and sincerity, and if fervent prayer be accompa- 
nied by the use of all those means of knowledge with which 
we are favored, I have no doubt that the truths of revelation 
will shine into your mind with a radiance that shall dispel 
from it every cloud of unbelief. 

" Your letter, though leading to a fear that your mind is 
disturbed on other points, yet appears to me to embrace, sub- 



208 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

stantially, but two difficulties ; the latter of which, as the 
less important, I will notice first. This is, the want of char- 
ity among professing Christians. The existence of this evil, 
to a lamentable extent, cannot be denied ; yet perhaps it is 
not so generally prevalent as you imagine. Where the errors 
of some sects afl'ect the vital truths of religion, those on 
which salvation is deemed to depend, they are assailed by 
others with a vehemence and even intemperance of lan- 
guage, which the maintenance of truth, important as it is, 
will not justify. And yet, where this is the case, so far from 
hostility to individuals bemg felt, the unhappy persons who 
are believed to be in error are often borne on the hearts of 
their opponents in secret prayer to God, and in sincere sup- 
plication presented in their behalf Acrimony, violent and 
unpardonable, it is admitted, is sometimes indulged, and not 
unfrequently on points of muior importance. But may not 
much sincerity in these persons, though so improperly man- 
ifested, really exist ? And even where blamable motives 
prompt contending parties, does this affect the truth of that 
religion, all whose principles and precepts are directed to the 
rectification or removal of those motives ? It proves the deep 
and radical corruption of human nature. It furnishes ground 
for apprehendmg, that the persons in question have not ex- 
perienced the transforming mfluence of that religion whose 
very basis is love, or that it has but partially operated its 
efiects on their minds. If, on a recurrence to the system in 
which they profess to believe, that is found to justify, even 
towards enemies, hatred and animosity, then reject it as 
inconsistent with the nature and attributes of Deity ; but if, 
on the contrary, it is seen exacting of all its professors the 
cultivation of love to God and man ; if its great object of 
conscientious pursuit, as there delineated, be that * wisdom 
which is from above,' and which is characterized as being 
* first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, 
full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and with- 
out hypocrisy ;' then, surely, it is wrong to transfer the 



HIS MINISTRY. 209 

blarne, to which false or mistaken professors are justly liable, 
to a system which condemns their conduct. ' All are not 
Israel that are of Israel.' Hypocrites and self-deceivers have 
ever infested the Church of Christ, and on other minds than 
yours have produced prejudices against the religion which 
they disgraced. Might we not as well condemn the eleven 
apostles, because their remaining associate was a traitor ; or 
the blessed Jesus and his instructions, because they failed 
in producing the same benign effect on the heart of Judas, 
which we know they did produce on those of the others ; as 
to say that, because hypocrites obtrude themselves among 
. the sincere, or because the inveterate depravity of the human 
heart has, in many professors, been but partially subdued, 
therefore that system which stamps condemnation and pro- 
nounces the most fearful threatenings on their misconduct, 
is false and unfounded ? 

" But is the spirit of which you speak of universal prev- 
alence ? Are all, or the greater portion of Christians, charge- 
able with a want of charity ? If it were so, this would 
justly excite doubts of the power of Christianity to trans- 
form even its sincere adherents. Do the various methods by 
which the hostility of Christian sects has, in our day, been 
so much lessened, furnish no answer to your objection ? Is 
there no proof that this acrimonious disposition is every day 
yielding to the bland affections which swayed the soul of the 
Hedeemer, and which his precepts and example are calcu- 
lated to infuse mto all his true disciples ? Do Bible socie- 
ties, composed of all religious sects ; missionary associations, 
unitmg several denominations heretofore deemed hostile to 
each other ; charitable institutions for the succor of the 
miserable and the instruction of the indigent, embracing a 
ha-rmonious union of almost eveiy department of the Chris- 
tian world : nay, does the intercourse of private Hfe afford 
no testimony that, if not in all, yet m many hearts the doc- 
trimss of the gospel have produced the happiest, most glori- 
ous effects ? I really think, that on consideration, you will 



210 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

perceive there is, in your suggestion, some indication of the 
very fault in yourself wliich you condemn in Christians ; and 
that, in fact, one of the strongest evidences of the truth of 
our blessed religion is the obvious effects which it has pro- 
duced in ameliorating the manners and feelings of society, 
and m its begetting a love among its professors, which we 
may in vain look for m any country where it has not obtained 
an entrance. 

" The other difficulty which besets you, you state to be 
the confined character of the gospel plan, ' allowing the 
utmost latitude, except as explained by the UniversaHsts ; 
and theirs,' you say, ' is a creed which you dare not adopt.' 
I am glad of this latter remark, because this, as well as other 
expressions of your letter, shows that your mental embar- 
rassments have not only failed to prepare you for rejecting 
wholly the system of revealed truth, on which our immor 
tal happiness depends, but also left yo-u sufficient discern- 
ment to see the iniquity of a plan that, with a fair show of 
benevolence, would prostrate all distinctions between good 
and evil, and consequently between the opposite results, 
which reason, even without revelation, teaches us ought 
severally to follow. 

" You allude to the confined aspect of the predestinarian 
scheme. Except under modifications which its strict adhe- 
rents will not admit, my past reflections have not led me into 
this view of the gospel plan. Of course I am not obliged to 
defend Christianity attended by this incumbrance. Reject- 
ing, then, this view of it, where is the ground for your ob- 
jection ? So far from being liable to it in its own nature, 
the whole system is predicated on the purest and most exten- 
sive principles of universal benevolence. 

" The race of mankind lose their integrity and become 
rebels against God. A restoration to purity and a title to 
forgiveness are, by human means, unattainable. Mere mercy, 
under the direction of infinite wisdom, in accordance, too, 
with the principles of justice, provides a method whereby 



HIS MINISTRY. 211 

both may be procured. This is offered to all, urged upon 
all. Not one of the human family is excluded from a right 
to its participation on the terms prescribed. A church, a 
ministry, and ordinances, are established for the promulga- 
tion of this expanded scheme of beneficence to all the nations 
of the world. Through the agency of these, with the writ- 
ten word and the accompanying influences of the Spirit, it 
is making progress over the earth, is now daily accelerating 
its march, and will not stop till all ' tlie kingdoms of the 
earth become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.' 

" But ' it has not been made known everywhere at once. 
Why,' you ask, ' is the knowledge of it still so confined ? 
"What is to become of those who, for want of knowledge, 
cannot exercise faith?' Might not the question be as well 
settled, first. Why does not God conduct all the operations 
of his providence by miracle ? Wliy does he operate at all 
by human means ? As to the gradual progress of Chris- 
tianity, though it would be easy to advance many conjec- 
tural reasons for it, I find the difficulty, if it be one, answered 
in my own mind by a reflection, which, I believe, ought to 
satisfy yours. Not only according to the declarations of 
Scripture, but necessarily, it is of the very essence of Deity, 
that his ways should be inscrutable. If our finite appre- 
hensions could fathom all liis plans, then indeed would be 
realized the fallacious promise of the tempter to our first 
parents : we should 'become as God.' If we could under- 
stand, or reconcile liis transactions in a thousand other par- 
ticulars, on which we are equally blind ; if we could, for 
instance, without falling into Atheism, account in any other 
manner than that in which Scripture accounts for the origui 
and continued prevalence of evil ; if we could tell why Om- 
nipotence has made the circumstances of nations, and the 
lots of individuals, and their grades of happiness so unequal — 
one nation free and happy, another enslaved and miserable ; 
one individual born in a climate mild and genial as Eden^ 
another freezing near the poles or burning under the line ; 



2li MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

one almost uninterruptedly prosperous and happy, another 
ever unsuccessful and wretched ; and if, in innumerable other 
instances, we could see the reason of circumstances and events 
wliich, if we believe in a God, we must certainly admit to be 
under his control, then we might, perhaps, be able to say 
why, by an instantaneous and of course miraculous opera- 
tion, he does not communicate the light of the gospel to 
every portion of the globe. I forbear, therefore, to assign 
reasons for the Almighty, which it has not been his pleasure 
to reveal. I bow in silent submission. ' Even so. Father, 
for so it seemed good in thy sight.' ' We know not the 
thoughts of the Lord; neither understand we his counsels.' 
It is a presumptuous arraignment of his providence in me to 
doubt, though I camiot by searching find out the reason of 
his ways, that they are ordered in infinite wisdom and good- 
ness, and will issue in those results that shall most promote 
his glory. 

"As to the condemnation of those to whom the gospel 
has not been revealed, your difficulty is founded on an as- 
sumption, to which, I apprehend, but few enlightened Chris- 
tians would accede ; that is, that the heathen will be con- 
demned for not exercising that faith which his want of 
knowledge makes it impossible for him to feel. This is not 
my creed. St. Paul says, ' When the Gentiles, which have 
not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, 
these having not the law, are a law unto themselves, which 
show the work of the law written in their hearts ; their 
conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean- 
while accusmg, or else excusing one another.' The heatheu 
world are certainly in a deplorable state of ignorance and 
wickedness, and every endeavor should be made for their 
illumination and conversion ; but my mind rejects with ab- 
horrence the sentiment which involves them indiscriminately 
in a sentence of condemnation. Notwithstanding the pas- 
sage which you quote, that ' without faith it is impossible to 
please God' — which I thmk should be restricted to those 



HIS MINISTRY. 213 

"wlio are capable of its exercise — there are many considera- 
tions furnished by the Bible in support of the rational con- 
clusion, that God, who is ' no respecter of persons,' will not 
condemn, for the want of this grace, those who, without 
fault of their own, are incompetent to its attainment. Tliis 
opinion is advanced and supported by Drs. Macknight, Whit- 
by, Clarke, and many other writers of unquestionable piety 
and learning. It is assumed in an approved body of Calvin- 
istic divinity now before me ; and if many of a persuasion 
deemed so rigid are wilhng to allow, as the author declares, 
that ' the heathen will not be condemned for 7iot believins 
in Christ, whom they never heard of, or for not complying 
with the gospel overture, that was never made to them ; and 
that invmcible ignorance, though it be an unhappiness and 
a consequence of our fallen state, is not a crime ;' I see not 
why we should perplex ourselves with a difficulty wliich is 
of our own creation, and which arises not out of any just 
view of the declarations of God's v/ord. 

" But if we were constrained to leave the question of the 
possible salvation of unconverted heathen undecided, to me 
it seems not to affect that of solicitude about our oMai. We 
have the light of the gospel ; and whatever may be the doom 
of those who have it not, if we remain heathen amid the 
blaze of divine light with which we are surrounded, we can- 
not doubt our own. And this remark contams my answer 
to your difficulty about those modern sceptics, who appear 
to you to have been sincere inquirers after truth, and who, 
with emment talents for its discovery, have yet continued 
unbehevers. If you are acquainted with the writings of 
these persons, I ask you whether they seem to have ever 
sought after truth in a disposition suited to its attainment, 
or in a manner that will excuse an ignorance which I can- 
not but believe to be wilful ? I declare that my knowledge 
of their writings convinces me, that their only search was 
after fresh food for scepticism ; that the depravity of their 
hearts is manifest in the manner as well as in the substance 



214 MEirom OF DR. MILNOR. 

of their assaults upon religion ; and that there is no evidence 
of any of them having availed themselves of the assistances 
with which God is ever ready to supply real inquirers after 
truth. As a believer in the Bible, I give full credence to 
its declarations, that ' the world by wisdom knows not God,' 
or his ways ; that ' the natural man receiveth not the things 
of the Spirit of God, for they are foohshness unto him ; nei- 
ther can he know them, because they are spiritually dis- 
cerned.' These men were strangers to prayer, deniers of 
the supernatural light which we Christians believe to be 
reqiiisite and attainable, and presumptuous admirers of their 
own natural and acquired powers. Can it be wondered that 
they were left in spiritual blindness, and destined to endure 
the consequences of wilful unbelief? 

" And now, madam, will you allow me, with a frankness 
which the candor of your communication justifies and calls 
for, to make an encouraging suggestion, and to follow it by 
a recommendation of that course which I believe it to be 
your duty and interest to pursue ? Many of your expres- 
sions mdicate a sensibility that would seem inconsistent with 
actual unbelief; especially that desire which you say you 
feel for the attamment of a true faith, and your aversion to 
entertain doubts, which, nevertheless, mvoluntarily obtrude 
themselves, and appear to be the causes of much mental 
uneasiness and distress. On these favorable circumstances 
do I rest my hope — what pleasure will it give me to see it 
realized — that God's blessmg' will attend your endeavors to 
come to a better mind. 

" Now the recommendation, with which I am encouraged 
to follow this suggestion, is warranted by my own experi- 
ence of its benefits." [Here follows the account of his own 
experience, given in a former extract, vide pp. 87, 88 ; after 
which he thus proceeds : ] 

" I know the charge of egotism, to which this plain nar- 
rative would, in many muids, subject me. But I hope I shall 
be ac(|uitted of any desire to boast when I declare, that my 



HIS MINISTRY. 215 

only view is to incite you to pursue a course which, from a 
persuasion of its efficacy, I can safely recommend ; and tliis, 
not on the ground of any very elevated personal confidence 
to which it has raised me, but on that of its having dismissed 
from my mmd every shadow of doubt as to the true way of 
salvation, and of its having excited in my heart fervent 
desires and a humble hope of an ultimate attainment of that 
happiness to which it leads. 

" No exertions of our own, unblessed by the great Su- 
preme, can give us genuine faith, or qualify us to brmg forth 
the fruits of righteousness. After all that we have done, we 
shall, if properly enlightened, be brought to a simple rehance 
on the merits and atonement of the Saviour for acceptance 
vnih God, Still, we are called upon to strive ; and we are 
encouraged to do so by many great and precious promises. 
But if, instead of ' working out our own salvation with fear 
and trembling,' and imploring God to ' work in us to will 
and to do of his good pleasure ;' that is, if instead of uniting 
laborious effort with implicit faith, we neglect our own uiter- 
ests, and are cavilhng at the revealed declarations, or the 
providential arrangements of God ; if we entertain every 
phantasy which the enemy of our souls or our own wicked 
hearts may raise ; if we neglect prayer, and uistead of attend- 
ing to our own souls, and ' striving to enter in at the strait 
gate,' we are impatiently askuig whether there be 'few that 
be saved,' or involving ourselves in other matters too high 
for us to reach, we shall probably be left to the delusions of 
our own hearts, and fail of our hopes of heaven. 0, madam, 
as you value your soul, let me entreat you to turn your 
thoughts inward ; and mstead of employing yourself on sub- 
jects wliich the wisest heads have never been able fully to 
unfold, go to Christ with the simplicity of a little child, and 
be willing to learn of him. You will find one evidence of 
his favor an ample substitute for a thousand conjectures ; 
and he will succeed it by tokens of love, that shall fill you 
with joy unspeakable and 'full of glory.' For 'they sJiall 



216 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

know, who follow on to know the Lord.' ' If any man will 
do his will, he shall know of the doctrme, whether it he of 
God.' • Wait on the Lord : be of good courage ; he will 
strengthen thy heart.' Persevering in your endeavors, you 
wiU be made ' free from sin ;' and becommg the ' servant of 
Goi, you will have your fruit unto holiness, and the end 
everlastuig life.' 

" I pray God to give you his blessing ; and remain, 
" Your obedient servant, and affectionate pastor, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

This may be called a wise as well as faithful piece of 
Christian teachmg and advice ; and if she to whom it was 
addressed be not finally found one of the gems in Milnor's 
crown of rejoicing, it will not be because liis letter failed of 
the duty which he owed as her spiritual guide. 

The next two letters also give us an ulterior view of his 
parochial hfe. 

To the Rev. James Milnor. 

"New York, August 18, 1817. 

" Sir — You will, I hope, excuse the liberty I take in 
troubling you with the perusal of these lines ; but the 
urgency I have to be informed respectmg many points in 
religion, has prompted me to this method of being satisfied, 
and must furnish my excuse ; while the high ground on 
which you stand as an ecclesiastic, pomted you out as one 
fully competent to satisfy my inquiries. 

*' I have, withm this last year, imbibed — how, I scarcely 
know — ideas that vary very little, if any, from the princi- 
ples of Deism. I have lately commenced an acquaintance 
with a young man, who has advanced many things to stag- 
ger my faith in the authenticity of the Bible, and, of course, 
in the being of a Saviour. You will probably start at a 
young person's avowing so much ; for I am but nineteen, 
and was brought up with strictness in the Episcopal per- 
suasion. His chief argument is the contradictions which 



HIS MINISTRY. 217 

appear in the Bible, and which would not be found had it 
been written by inspiration of God." 

The letter then proceeds with a catalogue of these alleged 
contradictions from the pentateuch ; after which it thus con- 
clades : 

" I have, as yet, proceeded no farther in conning the dif- 
ferent parts of the Scriptures ; but a satisfactory explanation 
of the preceding passages will go far, if not entirely, to re- 
move my doubts, as I am open to conviction. I hope you 
will think me right in proclaiming my doubts, that I may 
have them, if possible, removed. I shall wait with impa- 
tience till I receive an answer. ^ 

" I remain yours, etc. 



"P. S. Please direct Charles H. Fitz Edmond, to be left 
at the post-office till called for." 

This anonymous young sceptic seems to have been one of 
those sincere inquirers after truth, who boast of their open- 
ness to conviction, while evidently deeming their objections 
against the Bible irremovable. He had an answer probably 
different from what he expected. 

To Charles R. Fitz Edmond. 

" Beekman-street, No. 27, Aug. 20, 1817. 
" Sir — ^With the sincerest disposition, I trust, to assist, 
so far as I am able, any sincere inquirer after truth, it wiU 
afford me very great pleasure, should such be your pursuit, 
to be serviceable to you. But it comports neither with my 
sense of propriety, nor with my personal convenience, to do 
this through the medium of an epistolary correspondence, 
which may run into much length, and in which, for want of 
explanations too minute to be put on paper, misunderstand- 
ing may take place. If you have been seduced into a con- 
nection with a person who has hardened his heart into Deism, 
and, with Ihe malignant disposition which characterizes the 
infidel, is not content to destroy his own soul, but seeks to 

Mem. Milnor. 1 



218 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

make you liis companion in misery, I beseech you, my young 
friend, break off your intercourse with him ; seek the estab- 
lishment of your mind in the most interesting of all con- 
cerns ; and when God has enlightened you to a clear discov- 
ery and reception of religious truth, he may make you a 
means of converting the unhappy young man. He has my 
prayers that he may not, by cold unbelief, experience a fate 
as calamitous as that of the Egyptian prince, whose bemg 
mven over to the delusions of his own heart, instead of ex- 
citing a cavil against the Bible, should be a warning to us, 
lest we also fall into the same condemnation. 

" Every objection stated in your letter has been succes- 
sively urged by all the infidel writers who have, in turn, 
opposed their puny efforts to the truth of God, and as often 
been with readiness refuted. They constitute but a small 
part of the trivial weapons by which a system has been 
assailed, whose foundations are as eternal as the heavens, 
and by no exertions of mortal man can be overthrown, or 
even shaken. On them, as well as other difficulties, I shall 
be happy to converse with you at any time, m my own 
house, provided you are disposed with seriousness and sin- 
cerity to seek satisfaction on points that have unhappily dis- 
turbed your belief in the Scriptures. 

"I have myself known the evil of an unbelieving heart. 
I bless God that I have been brought by his mercy into a 
steadfastness of faith that men and devils cannot shake. It 
is m.y daily happiness to enjoy a confidence that smooths 
every difficulty in life, mspires a serenity and peace which 
the infidel camiot know, and directs my view to an eternity 
of happiness wliich God has reserved for those who believe 
his promises, and devote themselves to his service. Such, 
my dear sir, will be your experience, if you use those means 
which a merciful God has given us for attaining his forgive- 
ness and favor. 

*' I am your sincere well-wisher, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 



HIS MINISTRY. 219 

Judiciously diHering responses to sceptical inquirers, ac- 
cording as their appeals were prompted by a serious solicitude 
to know and obey the truth, or by the spirit of precocious 
and self-complacent cavil. It is evident from both appeals, 
that the first year of Mr. Mihior's ministry in St. George's 
had given liim. a deep reach hito minds of various habits ; 
and that his teachings were working with power among the 
surrounding elements of scepticism and unbelief, as well as 
among those of humble honesty and earnestness in the con- 
cerns of our higher life. 

The summer of 1817 was occupied by the vestry of St. 
George's m erecting the Sunday-school and lecture rooms, 
which have long stood on the rear of the church-grounds : 
rooms consecrated by better forms than those of man's de- 
vice — the overshadowing presence and the inworkmg power 
of God's ever-gracious Spirit — rooms in which some of Mr. 
Milnor's best labors were performed, and many of his best 
fruits gathered. 

The building in which these rooms are contained being 
finished and ready for use, it was first opened for religious 
services on the evening of Sunday, November 9, 1817. The 
occasion was one of abiding interest. It was an evidence to 
Mr. Mihior of his first year's prosperity in his work ; and it 
opened means by which, for nearly thirty years longer, his 
labors were rendered increasingly effective and fruitful. 
Many plants of his heavenly Father's planting, are now 
growing in heaven, w^hose roots first struck into the good 
soil of graciously prepared hearts in old St. George's Sun- 
day-school and lecture room. 

From the summer of 1817, a period of almost four years 
is, so far as letters and other documentary traces of his course 
are concerned, an almost total blank ; but little, touching 
that period, having been recovered from the absorbing gulf 
ol' the past. Of his life, however, during that period, a 
sufficiently distinct idea may be formed from the following 
letter. 



220 MEMOIK, OF DR. MILKOR. 

To the Rev. C. P. Mcllvaine. 

"New York, April 9, 1821. 

" Rev. and dear Brother — I am happy to have it in 
my power to reciprocate your kindness in making known to 
me your friend, Mr. Robinson, by presenting to you one of 
mine, the Rev. Mr. Tyng, a recent pupil of Bishop Griswold, 
who is anxious to be employed without delay in the work of 
an evangelist. I have thought, my dear friend, that God 
has given me an opportunity in him of gratifying all Mr. 
Robinson's wishes. He is a young gentleman of good talents 
and acquirements ; of personal piety and agreeable manners ; 
of decidedly evangelical views ; a moderate churchman, who 
loves his o"wt.i communion, but does not exclude from his aflec- 
tions any who love the Lord Jesus Christ m sincerity, and a 
pleasing speaker. I am persuaded that Mr. Tyng's heart is so 
much in the work as to promise great success to his exertions , 
and that, should he become an inmate of our friend's family, 
he will commend himself to their friendship and esteem. 

" Although I feel myself very much to blame in delaying 
so long to write to you, yet I hope you are prepared to receive 
an apology which will piitigate in some degree the severity 
of your censure. Smce last fall, I have had two lectures in 
the week, besides my services on Sunday ; catechetical exer- 
cises ; superintendence oifive Sunday-schools ; various agen- 
cies in public institutions ; and from my peculiar situation 
here, a greater amount of parochial and extra duty than 
usually falls to the lot of a single presbyter. I do not men- 
tion these things boastingly. Alas, I am afflictingly sensible 
how little I do for Him who has done so much for me. A 
better qualified man would, no doubt, with much greater 
facility get through such a course of duty as that in which I 
am engaged. But for me, the situation which I fill is an 
arduous one, and requires my unremitted and laborious at- 
tention to go through its exactions with any tolerable satis- 
faction to my own mind. 

*' I wish I could give you more favorable accounts than 



HIS MINISTRY. 221 

I honestly can of the state of spiritual things amongst us. 
Lulfewarmness and formality, error in doctrine and latitu- 
dinarianism in practice, deform, in a greater or less degree, 
all our churches. In all of them are to be found a few who 
have not bowed the knee to Baal ; but I am afraid our city, 
large as it is, would not, out of the Episcopal churches, fur- 
nish the prophet's number. In St. George's, we continue 
to have a goodly number of devoted, praying people ; our 
Sunday-schools are flourisliing ; and every season of com- 
munion exliibits some addition to the number of Christ's true 
disciples. The congregation have now, for near five years, 
been proof agamst ever)'- atternpt to sow dissension among 
them ; and those who haA^e not experimentally felt its power, 
are still willing to hear the truth. But what cause of grief 
is it to any minister, whose heart's desire and prayer is the 
salvation of liis people, to see so many, young and old, still 
strangers to a crucified Saviour ; still living to the world ; 
still unmindful of the interests of their never-dying souls. It 
is a ground of unspeakable gratitude that any should, through 
the divine blessing on our labors, be plucked as brands from 
the burning ; but when we are filled with a sense of the 
value of the souls committed to our charge, how feelingly 
alive should we be to the consideration of the immense dan- 
ger to ourselves, if one be lost through our negligence or 
remissness I God grant, my endeared fellow-laborer, that 
neither you no» I may be the subject of tliis awful guilt. - 

" If much more serious consequences than I have occasion 
to apprehend, were to follow my adherence to that ministerial 
course Avhich the finger of God marked out for me at its 
beginning, and to which, by divine grace, I have been ena- 
bled hitherto to keep, I trust nothing would terrify or allure 
me from it ; unless, which may God prevent, I should merit 
the withdrawing of those influences from above, which ale no 
can enable any of us to persevere to the end. 
" Your affectionate brother, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 



222 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

As to the account, contained in the foregoing letter, of 
the engrossing character of his avocations, it might be taken 
and spread over his entire life in New York, and be found a 
sufficiently accurate description of the whole. His thorough 
business habits before he entered the ministry, made him a 
thorough business man after his entrance. Wherever eccle- 
siastical interests called for business talents, he was sure to 
be called ; except, indeed, in those quarters where opposition 
to his theological views and liis ministerial course kept him, 
to some extent, out of posts of labor which he might other- 
wise have filled with profit. Tliis, however, only left him a 
more available man in the general religious institutions of 
the city, with many of which he became, as years rolled by, 
more and more closely identified, and through which he be- 
came more and more widely useful. In consequence of his 
rare qualifications for business, he became emphatically a 
busy man, not in the select world of letters and of author- 
ship, but in the great world of action and of live results. 
He became embodied in the living Christianity of his age, 
and his memoirs will be found best written, not on the pages 
of any book, but in the eflects of the many institutions which 
he served — in the souls of those multitudes whose salvation 
he has been, and yet will be, one of the instruments of se- 
curing. 

During the period which we have seen so blank of let 
ters and other documentary traces of his couBce, he received 
from the University of Pennsylvania the degree of doctor of 
divinity. 

Passing, now, with the current of time, we meet an event 
which suggests a reflection. No m.an is perfect. Perhaps 
he is most perfect, or most likely to become perfect, who 
cannot sleep well, till in the ear of a wronged fellow-man, 
he has acknowledged his infirmity, and any act of injustice 
into which it may have betrayed him. Miserable sinners 
that we are, we can confess our trespasses to God with ten- 
fold more courage than that with which we can acknowledge 



HIS MINISTRY. 223 

a wrong to ^fellow-sinner. Dr. Milnor was not perfect, but 
he was perfect enough to do this difficult tiling. Witness 
th<5 following interchange of letters, which are to the credit 
of both the parties concerned. The individual whom Dr. 
Miinor addressed, is still living ; his name, therefore, is 
withheld. 

To the E-ev. Dr. . 

" Beeeman-street, Wedivesday Evening, Nov. 13, 1822. 

" My dear Sir — ^I have felt concerned, suice I left you 
this afternoon, lest, under a momentary warmth of feehng, 
excited by the expression of opinions on your part, in refer- 
ence to Bible societies, for which I was wholly unprepared, 
I may have made a remark or two calculated to wound you. 
The mstitutions which you condemned, have a stronger hold 
on my afiections than any in existence of merely human ori- 
gin ; and to their support I have devoted, and shall contmue 
to devote my best exertions, under the impression that, next 
to my immediate duties as the pastor of a congregation, I 
can in no other way so efficiently subserve the cause of 
Christ. But on this subject you have a right to your opin- 
ion, as I have to mine ; and therefore, though I lament the 
change of sentiment which you professed, yet I also regret 
that any allusion to it should have been made, in the rapid 
conversation which passed between us, that might interfere 
with our future good understandmg upon the many subjects 
in which, as ministers and Christians, we no doubt agree. 

''Although I acknowledge myself as tenacious as any 
man of opinions formed after as long consideration as I have 
given to the Bible cause, and shall not shrink, on all proper 
occasions, from their maintenance ; yet I wish to hold these, 
and all others, in a spirit of rneekness, and if at any time 
betrayed into improper warmth of expression, it will give me 
as great pleasure as it now does, to own my sorrow. I write 
to you in Christian confidence, being, with much regard, 

" Your brother in the Lord, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 



224 MEMOIPu OF DFo. MILNOR. 

To the E,ev. Dr. Milnor. 

"New York, Nov. 18, 1822. 

"E.EV. AND DEAR SiR — I liavc beeii prevented, by xn 
engagement which completely occupied my thoughts, from 
replying to your note of the 13th inst., and beg you vill 
excuse the delay. 

" My feelings, it is true, were somewhat wounded by 
your remarks, particularly in imputing to me unworthy mo- 
tives for changing my opinion on the subject upon which we 
formerly agreed, but now differ. But attributing those le- 
marks to a momentary excitement, which it was very natural 
to expect, I did not suffer the unpleasant impression to remain 
on my mind ; and I most cordially reciprocate your desire, 
that, though we may continue to disagree in opinion on a 
particular mode of dissemmatmg religious knowledge, yet 
nothing that has passed should mterrupt the harmony and 
brotherly love which ought to subsist between us as ministers 
of the same church and disciples of the same Lord. 

" In haste, but with great respect and esteem, I remain, 
" Yours, 



Here, again, another period, of more than two years, 
must be passed over, with no other notices of his life than 
those which lie on the silent records, and live in the spirit- 
ual results of his ceaseless activities. 

At the beginning of 1825, traces of his course again be 
come visible. He was then suddenly seized Avith gout in 
the stomach ; and the attack proved so severe that, at last, 
he seemed to be yielding up his spirit. His family, his 
physician, himself, believed, on Sunday morning, that while 
his parishioners were mournfully entering the doors of their 
sanctuary, he was in articulo mo7'tis, passing through the 
very gates of death. Indeed, it was reported through the 
city that his decease had actually taken place ; and the^ 
writer of this, who was then a member of the General The- 
ological Seminary, remembers with great distinctness, the 



HIS MINISTRY. 225 

sensation wliich ran through the hearts, making itself visi- 
ble in the saddened countenances, and audible in the lo\v 
siorhs of his fellow-students, when the announcement came 
that morning that Dr. Milnor was dead. The afflictive in- 
telligence, however, was soon contradicted ; and it was found 
that, at the time when he was pronounced m a dying state, 
he was passing a critical point in his disease, after which he 
began sensibly to recover. In the rapid progress of liis dis- 
ease, he sunk, lower and lower, till his feet touched the earth' 
at the very brink of the grave ; but at that point, as if the 
touch had brought liim where the power of God v/as wait- 
ing to arrest his descent into the dark chambers of the dead, 
he at once rebounded, and by slow but steady degrees sprang 
up again to the cheerful day of health and duty. His first 
sermon after his illness was preached the 13th of March. 

The peril through which he thus passed, made the public 
aware of the great value of his character and mfluence ; and 
showed, in the most touching manner, the depth and strength 
of the hold which he had obtained upon the respect, the love, 
the veneration, of his fellow-citizens. For weeks, the whole 
rehgious community of New York, without distinction of 
name, were laboring in prayer for him unto God. From 
Sabbath to Sabbath scarcely a sanctuary was open in which 
the throne of mercy was not besieged with most earnest sup- 
plications in his behalf. The lecture-room and prayer-meet 
ings of his own dear flock, in particular, became almost daily 
scenes of solemn, tearful, trembling wrestlings with the angel 
of the covenant, that yet a little while he might be spared. 
Faith, hope, pleading faith, humble hope, were there ; bowed 
down, mdeed, and almost awed to silence ; but laboring all 
the more intensely and strugglingly, from the very pressure 
und 3r which they bent ; and seeming to say, though in words 
it came not, " Lord, we camiot give him up ; his work is not 
done : we cannot give him up." And the Lord heard and 
spared ; and many were the adoring disciples, who thence- 
forth went on their way, and still go on their way, strong in 

10* 



226 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

the feeling and the faith that the twenty added years of their 
pastor's life were the gracious gift of a Father in heaven to 
those unwontedly earnest and persevering prayers. 

But it will be asked, what were his oivn views while 
passing through the scenes now described ? His own pen 
and those of his nearest observers shall answer. Here is a 
letter, which he wrote from his chamber after he had re- 
gained strength to write. 

To the Rev. C. P. Mcllvaine. 

"New York, Feb. 22, 1825. 

•' My dear Brother — I thank you for your kind favor 
of the 15th. In the eighth week of confinement to my 
chamber, it is refreshing to my spirits to hear from my 
Christian friends ; and among them I can name no one 
whose letters are more acceptable than yours. 

" On the evening of the 3d ult. I was suddenly attacked 
in the street with the gout in my chest, and soon became so 
ill as to be obliged to take shelter m the house of a friend 
until I could be conveyed home in a carriage. The com- 
plaint contmued to resist every efibrt for its removal, and 
daily to increase in violence until the Sunday following its 
commencement, although four of our firstrate physicians 
were in attendance upon me, and their exertions unremit- 
ted. On the day just mentioned, the impression of all 
around me was, that a few moments must termmate my 
existence. Such was my own persuasion ; and, blessed be 
God, the prospect was unaccompanied by the least alarm. 
There was given mc not only a spirit of calm submission 
and quiet resignation to the divine will, but a hope full of 
immortality. how precious was the Saviour to my re- 
joicing soul in that never-to-be-forgotten hour. With what 
an unshaken faith, as a helpless, hell- deserving sinner, was 
I enabled to rest my assurance of pardon and expectations 
of approaching glory on his righteousness and blood. Al- 
though drenched with medicines, which, under other cir- 



HIS MINISTRY. 227 

cumstances, would not only have taken away my reason, 
but been destructive of life itself, yet my understanding was 
unimpaired, and my speech articulate and clear ; so that 
I was permitted to bear testimony before my surrounding 
friends to the unspeakable consolations of the Holy Spirit, to 
the unfailing faithfulness of God, and to the abundant love 
of the Redeemer, of all which I had the joyful experience. 

" After an awful season of bodily sufiering, durmg the 
whole of which faith m a crucified Saviour was triumphant, 
my pains were, for a short tiine, alleviated ; but it proved 
to be merely a transfer of the disease from the chest to the 
bowels, which by no means lessened the prospect of dissolu- 
tion ; and when it again returned to its original seat, every 
hope seemed to vanish from the minds of my mourning rel- 
atives and friends. But God was pleased to answer the 
prayers of his believing people, and to spare me, 2^erhap8 for 
some further usefulness in the church. A long life of the 
utmost devotion to his service, if allowed me, will very in- 
adequately repay the manifestations of his loving kindness, 
with which, durmg tliis providential visitation, I have been 
favored. 

" I am now quite well as it regards my general health ; 
but have had several shght attacks of gout in my feet during 
my convalescence, which, added to the excoriations occa- 
sioned by blisters and mustard applications, disable me from 
walking more than a turn or two at a time across my cham- 
ber. I endeavor to be patient under this long suspension of 
the delightful duties of the ministry ; but it is somewhat ot 
a trial. 

*' Kind regards to Mrs. Mcllvaine, and to all our brethren. 
" Afiectionately yours, 

" JAMES MILNOH." 

Here is another document, from his family physician Dr. 
Steams, who, after the year 1821, attended him through all 
his sufferings from repeated attacks of the gout. 

"■ These attacks," says Dr. Stearns, " however painful, 



228 MEilOIE. OF DR. MILNOR. 

never disturbed that placid equanimity which so remarkably 
characterized his whole deportment in every condition of 
life. Always cheerful, always communicative while strength 
remained, he improved every opportunity for producing recip- 
rocal feelings in others. In 1825, the gout, for the first 
time, was translated from his feet to his chest. This hap- 
pened while he was walking in the street. He was imme- 
diately taken into an adjoining house, and thence conveyed 
home. A few minutes after his arrival, I found him labor- 
ing under a great oppression in his chest, a great difficulty 
of breathing, and intense agony. His symptoms were of 
the most dangerous character ; and the paroxysms continued 
to increase until the following Sunday, when the disease 
assumed its most critical form. So violent were the parox- 
ysms, and so short the intervals, that, upon every succeed- 
ing attack, it seemed impossible for him to survive. Con- 
scious that every breath might be his last, he improved every 
interval of relief in expressing his resignation and his reli- 
ance upon divine grace. Never did I hear such impressive 
words from a dyihg man. The solemnity of the scene, the 
anguish of his countenance, now and then yielding to smiles, 
an index to the peace within, like the occasional brilliancy 
of the sun shining through a dark cloud, his great efforts to 
speak, and his deep-toned utterances, made impressions never 
to be effaced, melted every heart, sufflised every eye, and 
palsied every tongue. The solemn silence was never broken, 
save when he spoke. Often and impressively did he bear 
witness to the great truths which he had preached, and often 
and fervently did he repeat his love for his congregation. 
Addressing me, he said, ' Tell them how I love them ; and 
that, if God spare my life, I will improve it in doing more 
good than I have done. Tell them, also, to call a successor 
who will preach the same evangelical doctrines which I have 
preached, and not a formahst.' And then he exclaimed, 'O 
my precious Jesus. How I love my God. How I love the 
Son of his love. How I love the Holy Comforter.' 



HIS MINISTRY. 229 

" At another interval, addressing the Rev. Dr. Lyell, he 
gave him the following message for Bishop Hobart, who was 
then in Europe. ' Tell the hishop I have always loved him 
from our earliest acquaintance ; that, although I have been 
obliged to difler in opinion with liim- on some points, partic- 
ularly in reference to Bible societies, yet I have always loved 
and respected him. I did think he had done wrong in intro- 
ducing my name into the controversy with Mr. Jay ; but 1 
freely forgive him. Tell him, also, that I have never been 
the author of any publication against him. Although I have 
been often urged by some of my friends to do so, yet I have 
never, in opposition to him, put pen to paper.' 

" Such was our beloved rector, and such the evidence 
which he exhibited of the true Christian character, during 
that dangerous illness when he and all around him supposed 
that he was on the verge of death. 

"JOHN STEAUNS." 

Here, finally, is another, though a briefer note, from one 
who bore to him a still nearer relation, and who was his 
medical attendant for several of the last years of liis life. 
The note is from the " Recollections" of his son. 

" How often have I seen his Christian faith and hope 
tested, when suffering excruciating torture, which, appar- 
ently, death only could relieve ! That faith never wavered, 
that hope never sunk ; but steadily the Christian soldier bore 
himself through the conflict. The infidel may smile at the 
assertion, but it is certainly evident, that the efficacy of 
prayer was strikingly manifested, when, in his most dreadful 
attack — his case surrendered as hopeless by the ablest phy- 
sicians — the united prayers, not only of his own church, but 
of Christians of other denominations, went up to the mercy- 
seat, and the hand of the destroyer was suddenly stayed. I 
remember, that on the Sunday when his death was momen- 
tarily expected, it was proposed to stop the ringing of his 
church-bell," (the parsonage being closely alongside of St. 
George's tower :) " ' No, no,' he murmured ; ' let it ring on . 



230 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

to me there is no sweeter sound on earth. I shall soon listen 
to the harmonies of heaven.' " [Not so soon, dear saint : 
even then prayer was entering into the ear of the Lord of 
Sabaoth, and he was yet to live.] " Like good old Heze- 
kiah," continues the " Recollections," " he was spared for 
longer years. His measure of usefuhiess was not yet full." 

Dr. Milnor soon preached his first sermon in St. George's 
after his long confinement. The interest of the occasion may 
possibly be conceived, though not easily described. His affec- 
tionate congregation received him as a messenger from heav- 
en, come back to speak to them of things which he had all 
but seen and heard ; while he, on his own part, looked like 
one new-born into the world. His face shone with a heav- 
enly radiance ; so freshly beautiful was the glow of new 
health, and so joyous, so divinely peaceful the expression 
which the inner man sent out, to talk silently through his 
transparent countenance with his devoutly listening flock 
And then, from the fulness of the heart the mouth spake ; 
and his words had, plainly, the same secret with his looks. 
Twenty-two years ago that scene was present, and that 
sermon preached. During that time coords have passed 
away ; but the messenger from the borders of the grave ; 
the face which looked as if it had just come, not from Sinai, 
but from Zion ; the feelings, which rose fresh and pure from 
their spring, as thou§[h they flowed, not through a defiling 
world, but from a heaven close by — thes,e are still like things 
of yesterday, not only to the writer, but also to multitudes 
besides. 

It was, while yet in his chamber, though able to attend 
to various affairs, that he received a visit from some of those 
who were most active in the steps which its friends were 
then taking towards the formation of the American Tract 
Society. As this truly great institution is founded on the 
principle of publishing those religious works only, in the cir- 
culation of which all evangelical Christians may unite, the 
object of this visit was to enlist Dr. Milnor m its organiza- 



HIS MINISTRY. 231 

tion and support, as a suitable representative of the Episco- 
pal church. Weak as he still was, he entered with zeal into 
the proposed measure, and became, from the first, one of the 
founders, and to the end of his life, one of the most active 
officers of the Society. 

The following account of the visit just mentioned, from 
the pen of one of the visitors, with a few other notices con- 
nected with the same period, will be read with interest. 

" When I came to this city," says the E,ev. Mr. Hallock, 
Corresponding Secretary of the Society, " as a medium of 
communication between the Tract Societies then existing in 
New York and Boston, Dr. Milnor lay apparently at death's 
door ; and the hope of his recovery seemed to rest much in 
the unceasing prayer, offered by Christians of different name, 
that he might yet be spared to the Church of God. When 
he had so far recovered that he could be seen in his chamber, 
we had drafted a Constitution of the proposed Society ; and 
I called on him with Mr. Arthur Tappan, to lay the subject 
before him. From the pubHc reports of liis relations to insti- 
tutions already existmg, I had imagined that he was a very 
grave and aged father in the Church, whose aspect and 
manners might indicate him as belonging rather to the past 
than to the present age. Judge of my surprise, when, as 
health was rapidly returning, and the delicate flush on his 
cheek was perhaps increased by his late confinement, I be- 
held all the bloom of youth, and one of the most bland, 
buoyant, and attractive countenances, I had ever seen ; with 
manners correspondent, and breathing out a heart full of 
benevolence. He entered at once into the design ; took the 
draft of the proposed Constitution ; examined carefully every 
item ; suggested a few verbal improvements, which yet re- 
main in it ; and, while he intimated a fear that Christians 
might not be ready to engage in such a union, expressed his 
strong and decided wish that, seeking direction from God, 
the enterprise might go forward, and his own willingness to 
do whatever he could to promote so excellent a design." 



232 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

A feeling in favor of organizing a national institution at 
New York, awoke so early as tlie preceding August, in the 
summer of 1824. At that time, important and flourishing, 
but separate Tract Societies existed both at Boston and at 
New York ; and the question at first was, which of the two 
should become auxiliary to the 6ther, This question, how- 
ever, was ultimately decided by a determination to organize 
a national institution at New York, independent of both ; 
and that to it both should be invited to become auxiliary. 
Negotiation was somewhere near this point when Mr. Hal- 
lock and his friend made their visit to Dr. Milnor's chamber. 
Thenceforward, progress in the formation of a national Tract 
Society was rapid. On the 1 1th of March, a public meeting 
of the friends of the cause from New York and its vicinity, 
prelimmary to the organization of such a Society, was held 
at the City Hotel ; at which a temporary Executive Com- 
mittee, and officers for the receipt and management of funds, 
were appointed ; and twelve thousand five hundred dollars, 
soon after raised to about twenty- five thousand, towards the 
building of a Tract House, were subscribed. On the 15th 
of March, the first meeting of the temporary Executive Com- 
mittee was held at Dr. Milnor's study, apparently in accom- 
modation to the still tender state of his health, when he was 
requested to act as their chairman. 

On the 10th of the following May, delegates from various 
Tract Societies throughout the United States met in New 
York, at the call of the Corresponding Secretary. Of this 
meeting, also. Dr. Milnor was appointed chairman, and the 
Constitution of the proposed Society was calmly considered 
and matured. The next day. May 11, 1825, at a large 
public meeting in the City Hotel, the Society was solemnly 
organized, by the adoption of the Constitution, and the elec- 
tion of officers ; and immediately afterwards the corner-stone 
of the Society's house was laid. Dr. Milnor was placed on 
the Executive Committee ; was made chairman of that and 
also of the Pubhshing Committee, and held both places till 



HIS MINISTRY. 233 

the day of his death : places, too, of the highest importance, 
and filled with large and most fully accredited ability. 

Very soon after this, the first anniversary meeting of the 
Society, a delegation from the national institution in New 
York was appointed, and proceeded to Boston, to meet a 
delegation from that city, for the purpose of finally settling 
the deeply interesting question, whether the American Tract 
Society, located in Boston, would identify itself A^dth the na- 
tional society m New York, which had taken the same name. 
Of this delegation also. Dr. Milnor was made chairman. The 
joint action of the two delegations was completed before the 
30th of May ; and Dr. Milnor's influence on the happy result 
which followed, was felt and acknowledged. Twenty years 
after this. Dr. Woods, of Andover Theological Seminary, one 
of the vice-pi'esidents of the Society, writing to apologize for 
his absence from the anniversary meeting in 1845, thus al- 
ludes to the doings of tliis delegation in 1825 : 

" I take this occasion to express my increasing conviction 
of the usefulness of the Society, and my entire confidence in 
the wisdom, integrity, and untiring diligence of those who 
manage its concerns. It is one of my comforts, that I had 
a part in the first planning and early labors of the Tract So- 
ciety. I remember with unutterable satisfaction the time 
when we met, in Boston, a committee from Ncav York to 
deliberate on the best way of promoting the Tract cause, 
and when we knelt together in the parlor to seek wisdom 
from above, and our dearly beloved Dr. Milnor led us in 
prayer. The Lord be praised that that excellent man was 
continued to us so long ; and that, by his labors and prayers, 
and holy example, he did so much to promote the prosperity 
of the American Tract Society." 



234 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 



SECTION III. 

We approach now that part of Dr. Mihior's mmisterial 
life which will be somewhat more copiously illustrated by 
his own letters. The first wliich occur shed a beautiful 
Hght on that trait in his character which presents him as 
the generous and fatherly patron of those young brethren in 
the ministry, and in their studies for the ministry, whom 
Providence brought within the sphere of his influence and 
kind offices. These letters, indeed, were addressed to a sin 
gle student ; but his was a case by no means solitary. Oth- 
ers, as well as the individual alluded to, have had occasion 
to take grateful knowledge of the lovely trait about to be 
exhibited. 

To a Theological Student. 

"St. George's, June 20, 1825. 

"My dear Brother — The object of the present brief 
comramiication is to assure you of the lively mterest and 
sincere sympathy which have been awakened in my breast 
towards you by our interview on Saturday evening, and to 
proffer you, along with my earnest prayers in your behalf at 
the throne of grace, any personal service that may be helpful 
to you in your future course. 

"With all the difficulties that may arise out of your 
happy change of views on the most interesting of all con- 
cerns, I am persuaded you will find that you have chosen 
the path of true wisdom ; and that God, who has called you 
by liis grace from darkness to light, will fulfil, in your re- 
joicing experience, all the encouraging promises of his word 
to his faithful servants. How thankful will you have rea- 
son to be, if besides filling your own heart with a hope that 
maketh not ashamed, he should honor you, even before the 
commencement of your public ministry, by making you an 
instrument of good to some of your present associates. How 



HIS MINISTRY. 235 

delightful a hope to indulge, that holy example, and a word 
fitly dropped, and fervent prayer — means which I trust a 
gracious God will enable you to use — may, with his bless- 
ing, be rendered effectual in bringing to right views of divine 
truth even one of your fellow-students. How animating the 
thought, that the consequence of so happy an occurrence 
may be the salvation of multitudes, whom, instead of helping 
onward, by liis own errors m doctrine, to their everlasting 
ruin, he may, by his work of faith and labor of love in the 
ministry of reconciliation, conduct to eternal blessedness ia 
heaven. 

" I am well aware of the delicacy of your situation, and 
how much religious prudence and discretion will be requisite 
in union with the desire winch, as a disciple of Christ, I 
know you must feel for his honor and the truths of his glo- 
rious gospel. My counsel is, that you should ever act in the 
spirit of meekness ; that, by your deportment, you convince 
your young friends that you are influenced by feelings of love 
only in connection with deep convictions of truth ; that you 
avoid every thing which might bear the aspect of dictation, 
or of assumed superiority ; and above all, that you give them 
a large share of your intercessory supphcations in the closet, 
and in. those social prayers which I rejoice to hear a few of 
you daily have in your chambers. 

"Be of good courage, my dear friend : I pray God that 
your faith fail not ; and if it be the product of God's Holy 
Spirit, I know it will not. His providential dealings with 
you will be as propitious to your success in the work which 
he has for you to do, as his grace has been in calling you to 
enter upon it. Make the promises of his word your constant 
dependence, and believing prayer will not fail to supply 
you with contmual evidences of the truth and faithfulness 
of God. 

" In our conversation, you intimated, I think, a prefer- 
ence, of which I approve, for the completion of your theo- 
logical course, by remainmg another year in the seminary ; 



236 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

but intimated that circumstances, which you did not explain, 
might render it impracticable for you to do so. I believe I 
am not a stranger to those circumstances ; and trust that I 
shall not offend you by the intimation, that, if they be such 
as I suppose, they will be remedied in a way that shall not 
be offensive to your feelings. To be quite plain on the sub- 
ject, whatever reasonable addition to your present pecuniary 
resources may be necessary to your continuance in the semi- 
nary, wdll be made by the agency- of 

" Your faithful and affectionate brother in Christ, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

The generous offer with which tliis letter closes, it did 
not become necessary to accept. The student addressed 
received an unexpected appointment to a tutorship m col- 
lege, and therefore did not return for his closing term of 
study in the seminar)^ The following letter was addressed 
to him about the time of liis entrance on his new duties. 

"New York, September 17, 1825. 

*' Dear Sir — I have been gratified by the receipt of your 
favor of the 12th inst., to which it would have been con- 
venient, on some accounts, to have delayed a little my an- 
swer. But you mention a circumstance, in which I presume 
it may be m my power to render you a small service ; and 
that is my motive for writing so soon. The books Avhich 
have a relation to the department assigned you in the col- 
lege, you must, as soon as possible, be supplied with ; and 
you must allow me to assist you in their purchase, and to 
make the necessary advances in your behalf. Let me, there- 
fore, be forthwith furnished Avith a list, and every exertion 
shall be made to obtain the best editions with as little delay 
as possible ; and if besides this there be any other particular, 
in which it may be in my power to assist you, I pray you 
not to be reserved in your communications, but frankly tell 
me how I can oblige one to whom I rejoice m bearing the 
relation of a brother. 



HIS MINISTRY. 237 

" Oh, how sweet and. endearing that tie which unites 
fellow- Christians in the bonds of the gospel I Among the 
other evidences of our being real disciples of Christ, how 
delightful that of our loving one another. It is one of the 
most gratifying circumstances of my earthly pilgrimage, to 
hve in affection for my spiritual kindred in Christ, and to 
believe that I also live in their love for me ; and that we 
mutually bear each other in our thoughts, when approach- 
ing the throne of grace in the grateful duty of nitercessory 
supplication. 

" While I heartily congratulate you, my beloved brother, 
on your accession to a situation which, while you occupy it, 
may, with God's blessing, enable you to prepare for a differ- 
ent and more extensive field of usefulness, I sympathize with 
you in your anticipation" of some difficulties in the way of 
spiritual improvement, with which it will certainly be at- 
tended. It is good, however, to foresee evil, because it will 
excite to watchfulness, and set invention to work in the con- 
trivance of the best means for averting the effects of expo- 
sure to that most awful of calamities to a renewed Chris- 
tian, spiritual declension. Set out, my friend, with the 
resolute determination, that, by the help of divine grace, you 
■will daily redeem sufficient time from your secular studies 
and employments to attend to ' the 07ie thing needful ;' and 
often revolve in your mind the solemn inquiry suggested by 
Him who died for our redemption, ' What shall it profit a 
man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul ?' 
There is no such help to our growth in grace as frequent 
retirement to the closet, there to investigate, with no eye 
upon us but that of the Omniscient, our true character and 
condition ; to look back impartially on our outward walk ; 
to dive into the secret springs and motives of our actions ; 
and, with fervency, to pray to the Author of all our mercies 
for those which we especially need. It is good, too, in our 
seasons of devotional retirement, to open our Bible, not for 
criticism — let that employ some other moments than those 



238 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

of secret communion with God — but to warm our hearts, 
and elevate our desires, and strengthen our resolution, and 
increase the ardor of our love. 

" In reference to your time of life, and your recent expc' 
rience of the goodness of God, allow me to suggest to you a 
thing, which I have made multiplied duties and cares an 
apology in my ov^ai case for too much neglecting — the keep- 
ing of a religious diary. It will bo a wholesome as well as 
pleasing exercise ; and it will be hereafter cheering and en- 
couraging to look back upon all the way in which God has 
led you ; to see the dangers from which he has delivered you ; 
and to be able, from past evidences of divine benignity and 
power, to maintain the persuasion, that you will be ' kept 
by his power through faith unto salvation.' 

" But pleasing as it is to me thus to converse with one 
in whose present happiness and future usefuhiess I think I 
feel a most affectionate interest, I ami so near the hmits of 
my paper, that I must defer to future occasions m.uch 'of 
what my feelings of attachment would lead me to add. 

" On your part, my dear friend, you need not hesitate to 
communicate with the greatest freedom to him who rejoices 
to have a place in your affections, and to subscribe himself, 
" Your faithful brother in the Lord, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

To the same Student. 

" New York, October 15, 1825. 
"My dear Friend — Before this reaches you, you will 
probably have heard of the return of Bishop Hobart from 
Europe. The clergy attended him yesterday at St. John's, 
to return thanks for the goodness of Almighty God in restor- 
ing him to his diocese and family. I never saw him when 
he looked better, though he says he is still subject to attacks 
cf dyspepsia. He made a very feeling address to us in the 
vestry-room ; in which he declared that he came home with 
tlie liveliest feelings of affection towards all his brethren , 
that he was sensible of his infiinmities, and besought for them 



HIS MINISTRY. 239 

the indulgence of his friends ; that he would at all times be 
ready to receive counsel from them ; and that, whatever 
might have been, or might still be, his errors, he trusted 
those who most differed from liim would not impute to him 
other than pure and disinterested motives. Notlihig could 
loe more concihatory or affectionate than his demeanor 
towards myself; nor could congratulations be warmer than 
those wliich he expressed on my merciful preservation last 
winter. I am to dine with liim on Monday next, and he 
with me on the following Thursday. 

" I mention these things as a source of gratification, 
because indicative of an enlargement of views on the part of 
Bishop Hobart, which he has acquired by his general inter- 
course during the last two years, and which, if maintained, 
will greatly contribute to his own peace of mind and the 
prosperity of the Church. I have ever entertained a warm 
personal friendship for the bishop, with whom I have been 
intimate for at least five and thirty years ; but I have ever 
regretted his intolerant views, and determined, at all haz- 
ards, to maintain my own convictions upon religion and 
church politics, until convinced of their error. I do trust in 
God, he will see the necessity of allowing to others a liberty 
wliich he so largely claims for liimself ; and then, with a 
very considerable diversity of opinion, harmony and Chris- 
tian love may be maintained. I am persuaded that firmness, 
united with moderation and meekness, on the part of those 
who wish to see our church not only advancing in outward 
prosperity, but growing in evangelical purity and attachment 
to the distinguishing doctrines of Christianity, will, in the 
end, be blessed of God ; and that, when our opponents shall 
be convinced that we have no personal objects in view, and 
are under the influence neither of fanaticism nor of party 
spirit, they will feel more charitably disposed towards us, 
and approximate more nearly that course of sentiment and 
of action wliich the providence of God is now so manifestly 
forwarding within the hmits of our church. 



240 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

" God bless you, my beloved brother. Every letter you 
write me gives you a deeper seat iii the affections of your 

faithful 

"JAMES ]\fILNOR." 

The next letter was mainly in reply to one in which its 
writer had stated some difficulties on the subject of inter- 
course with the world ; and it shows how thorough, on this 
point, had become the change in Dr. Milnor's views, in pass- 
ing from liis natural to his religious life. 

To the same. 

"New York, Nov. 29, 1825. 

" My dear Friend — I thank you for addressing me by 
a title to which I hope you will always allow me to main- 
tain a claim. And I pray God, that when we are both 
removed from our terrestrial conflicts, the friendship now 
begun may be continued with more purity and fervor in that 
better state to which, I trust, we are lookmg forward with 
delight. If there be one thought which, more than others, 
fills my mind with sweet anticipations m hours of retired 
meditation, it is that of the renewal of those cherished inti- 
macies which a common love of our dear Redeemer has led 
me to form with kindred minds on earth, and which, I verily 
believe, will be cemented and made eternal in the paradise 
of God. Let us deport ourselves so as to insure that bless- 
edness, and find an alleviation of all the difficulties and trials 
of life in the delightful prospect of the peaceful enjoyments 
of the heavenly state. 

" The steady contemplation of that state will, I think, 
remove every embarrassment in regard to the extent in which 
we should mingle in the pleasures of this. I am free to say 
to you, my dear brother, that I feel every day growing ap- 
prehensions of worldly conformity, and that I find my peace 
of mind requiring an unequivocal renunciation of amuse- 
ments such as you have mentioned. Since I consecrated 
myself to God, it has been no cross to me to reject them. 



HIS MINISTRY. 241 

Wlien I acquired a taste for religious enjoyments, I lost, in 
a good degree, my relish for such trifling. But the censure 
of the world it was, for a time, unpleasant to encounter ; 
until I feund — as I believe, by a mild but firm perseverance 
in duty, you also will find — that it is better, if need be, to 
incur the world's displeasure, than that of God ; and that, 
in truth, he is pleased so to regard liis faithful servants as to 
constraui even that world secretly to admire what it affects 
to disapprove. I never yet knew a minister, whom a con- 
duct inconsistent with his profession did not bring into con- 
tempt, not merely with the pious, but even with the ungodly 
themselves ; nor one, whom unaffected, earnest piety has 
ever permanently injured. Let the manner of rejecting or 
evaduig the calls of fashionable pleasure be discreet and tem- 
perate, and the general tenor of conduct show the hallowed 
motives by which abstinence from the gayeties of Hfe is in- 
duced, and you will find, as I have done, that you will be 
left to pursue your course with no more of censure than, as 
a good Christian, for Christ and conscience' sake, you can, 
by the help of your divine Master, very easily bear. Nor 
does this required sacrifice imply, that cheerfulness is in itself 
sinful, or that our dispositions are to become sour and mo- 
rose, or that intercourse with those who live not by our rule, 
is to be entirely withheld. But I would say, that it should 
not be more frequent than circumstances render necessary ; 
that, when allowed, it should not be long continued ; that, 
if practicable, it should always be improved to some religious 
end ; and that, on no account, should the world be permitted 
to entrap us into scenes where we can receive no benefit, 
but must return to our closets with minds unfitted for com- 
munion with God, less inclined to all our spiritual duties, 
and harassed with intimations from the mward monitor of 
vows forgotten, character lowered, and usefulness hinpaired, 
and with the apprehension not only of having wounded the 
feelings of the pious, but also of being sneered at and de- 
spised by the very persons who have delighted to find us, 

Mem. Milnor. 1 1 



242 MEMOIU OF DR. MILNOR. 

with all our professions, so much like themselves. There is 
a clergyman, not many days' ride from your present residence, 
whom I have heard mentioned by the very persons whose 
worldly pleasures he habitually shares, in terms corrobora- 
tive of what I have said as to the estimate which such peo- 
ple form of Cliristians, especially ministers, who thus dese 
crate their characters and destroy their usefulness. I know 
onany similar instances. But I never knew a real man of 
God, who did not ultimately, by forbearance and moderation 
in the article of pleasurable intercourse, where he united 
with them suavity and kindness of feelmg and demeanor 
towards all men, command the respect and esteem of all 
whose opinions were worthy of regard. A bishop of our 
church once said to me on this subject, 'Let a 'minister of 
God begin his course by marking out for himself a strict line 
of conduct, and then take care to keep a great way within 
it.' ' The tongue of the wise is health :' ' A word spoken 
in due season, how good it is I' But I am fatiguing you with 
remarks which, I trust, your own feelings have anticipated, 
and at present will say no more on the subject. 

" On the proceedings at our late Convention, I wish to 
say but little. My conscience acquits me of any ill design ; 
and as I wish, in no unnecessary way, to incur censure, I am 
glad, in this matter, to have been involved in none, on the 
part of either the bishop or his friends. By the latter, if I 
desired the praise of men, I was abundantly complimented. 
The former remarked to me, after the rising of the Conven- 
tion, ' You behaved towards me personally, in that instance, 
as you have always done, like a gentleman and a Christian.' 
I would not mention this but to allay any fears which per- 
sons of our acquaintance might excite in your mind, lest 
some new offence had arisen between the bishop and myself. 
He is more cordial than I ever knew liim ; and as I have 
not a tittle of animosity against him, so long as I am allowed 
to pursue the ministerial and religious course which I believe 
duty requires, I will endeavor not to make his cordiality less. 



HIS MINISTRY. 243 

But I will never sacrifice principle for the sake of retaining 
any man's regards. That I very partially concur m the 
church politics of this diocese, I am obliged to avow. But 
as I cannot alter a course of which I am obliged to disap- 
prove, I am content to be put out of the question in every 
thing but what relates to my immediate duties. With these, 
I will allow no man, except in the way of counsel, to inter- 
fere. While I walk according to the law of God and the 
written rules of the church, and continue to discharge my 
duties in the fear of God, I feel no inward disquietude, noi 
any apprehensions of what man can do unto me. And all 
tliis I hope to find consistent w^ith the avoidance of schism, 
and of any improper disrespect towards those who are set 
over us in the Lord. 

" I have many more things to say to you ; but though 
you see how I have husbanded my paper, yet it is run out. 
I have still room, however, to invoke on you and your pur- 
suits the blessing of God, and to reiterate that I am 
" Your faitliful and affectionate brother, 

"JAMES MILNOH." 

In order to understand the allusion to Bishop Hobart and 
the Convention, towards the close of this letter, it will be 
necessary to give a short explanation. Soon after the bishop's 
return from Europe, and upon the assembling of the Annual 
Convention of his diocese, it was deemed highly proper to 
pass resolutions expressive of the feelings of the clergy and 
laity upon again receiving their diocesan in health and safety ; 
and responsive to the affectionate, unbosoming salutations, 
with which he had just greeted them in his annual address. 
In doing this, a strong desire was felt to frame the resolutions 
in such language as should msure their unanimous adoption ; 
and as there were known points in the bishop's course of 
church policy which could not be unanimously approved, it 
was determined, in reference to those points, to avoid any 
expression of opinion, and to construct one of the resolutions 
in the shape of a simple pledge of devoted, personal confi- 



244 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

dence, friendsliip, and aflection. Accordingly, the bishop 
having temporarily retired from the Convention, the com- 
mittee to whom the subject was referred, mtroduced a series 
of resolutions, which were received with unanimous appro- 
bation. But on presenting them to the bishop, he expressed 
liis djecided dissatisfaction with that which referred personally 
to himself; and declared, that if the resolution were to stop 
short of an approval of his whole episcopal course, he must 
decline receiving it. This unexpected stand threw on the 
majority of the Convention the necessity of either abandon- 
ing their complimentary measure, or withdrawing the un- 
satisfactory resolution for a substitute framed in accordance 
with the bishop's wishes. Of course, the latter part of the 
unpleasant alternative was adopted ; and a resolution, ex- 
pressing the confidence of the Convention in " the sound7iess 
of his policij," was introduced, in company with those which 
greeted his late return and responded to his pathetic address. 
This movement raised a debate on the passage of the reso- 
lutions ; and this debate brought Dr. Milnor upon the floor 
in a speech, which, for ability and Christian courtesy, pre- 
sented him in a most attractive light as an accomplished 
debater and as a Christian gentleman, and raised him high 
in the esteem even of those who most differed from him in 
his views of church polity. While he did full justice to the 
personal and Christian excellence of his bishop, and to the 
known friendship subsisting between them, he did not hesi- 
tate freely and frankly to avow his dissent from some of the 
opinions of his diocesan, and" openly and manfully to vindi- 
cate liis own resistance to measures calculated to bring odi- 
um upon him for the exercise of what he felt to be his Chris- 
tian liberty. The scene which this debate presented, has 
long since faded from general remembrance ; but it was 
thrilling, and constituted a beautiful triumph to one who, 
although he moved in a little minority, was yet able to com- 
mand admiring approbation from an overwhelming ma- 
jority. 



HIS MINISTRY. 245 

The letters which date next in order, are part of a cor- 
respondence with the E.ev. C. P. Mcllvaine, then profes- 
sor at West Point. His labors as chaplain of the Military 
Academy had already been largely blessed ; and before the 
summer of 1826 the academy was agitated with the move- 
ments of that great awakening, from the fruits of which our 
church has selected several of her bishops and other clergy. 
About the first of June, Dr. Milnor Vv^as induced to visit West 
Point, for the purpose of spending a Sunday with his friend, 
and assisting him in the arduous labors to wliich he was 
then specially called. It was about the same time, that the 
correspondence, of which a portion has been preserved, was 
opened. The first of the series from Dr. Milnor is wanting. 
The second is as follows : 

I To the Hev. C. P. Mcllvaine.* 

"New York, June 8, 1826. 
"My dear Brother — My mind dwells with inexpressi- 
ble delight on the transactions of the last Sabbath. Espe- 
cially -when I reflect on our evening interview with those 
dear youth who had given themselves to the Lord, and with 
their anxious companions, I cannot be sufficiently thankful 
that, in the kind providence of God. I was permitted to wit- 
ness such a scene. The Lord God Almighty be with you, 
direct you to the best means of prosecuting a work so mani- 
festly the product of his Spirit, and be your ' refuge and 
strength, a very present help in trouble,' should persecution 
assail you on account of the unexpected reward bestowed 
on your labors in liis service. In the fulness of my grati- 
tude to God, of my love to you, and of the deep interest 
which I feel in the mcrease of this wonderful instance of the 
Spirit's power on the heart, I have hesitated whether I 
should say a word to you that might operate as a discour- 
agement. Perhaps some things in my former letter are 
calculated to have that efiect, and what I am about to add 
may increase it ; but, on the whole, I tliink it best to ac- 



246 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

quaint you with any thing commg to my ear that may have 
a bearing on the subject ; trusting that it may be the means 
of preparing you for those difficulties which some are plot- 
ting to throw in your way, and of enabling you, by prayer- 
ful meditation, to determine on the best method either of 
evading or of removing those difficulties. The enemies of 
truth are busy in spreading here the grossest misrepresenta- 
tions of the character of the revival, of your manner of con- 
ducting it, and of its ' unhappy' effects on its subjects. From 
various quarters, since my return, I have heard it declared 
to be a mere burst of enthusiasm, a sudden excitement of 
the animal jpassions of the young men, produced by your 
eloquence : as having led to actual insanity in one, and, ac- 
cording to the comforting prognostications of these sagacious 
opponents, beiii^ likely to have the same effect on many 
others ; and as having disgusted the officers, and so alien- 
ated them from you as to make them forsake public worship 
on Sundays : in short, it has been said that measures would 
be taken either to stop these disorderly proceedings, or to 
effect your removal, 

" Yesterday I met a gentleman m Broadway, who wears 
the title of major in our nailitia, which, of course, makes 
him, in his own opinion, a competent judge of all matters 
connected with military life. He began his remarks by say- 
ing he had been disappointed in his hope of hearing me 
last Sunday ; but understood that I was at West Point. 
He then made some complimentary remarks on your talents 
as a preacher ; but soon followed them by an expression of 
his deep regret at your fanatical proceedings. . ' You were,' 
he said, ' turning a military academy into a theological semi- 
nary, and aiming to make yomig men soldiers in the Church 
militant' — he meant ministers — ' whom the government in- 
tended to train for its army ; he understood that you met 
them for prayer every morning at daylight, and encouraged 
them to neglect other studies for that of religion ; that the 
most serious apprehensions were entertained of the conse- 



HIS MINISTRY. 247 

quent degradation, if not ruin of the institution ; and that 
the subject would be brought before the board of visitors, 
with a view to an expression of a disapprobatory kind to the 
Secretary of War.' Some of his representations I contradict- 
ed, others I explamed ; and left liim with a declaration of 
my belief that no investigation would result to your preju- 
dice in the estimation of the wise and good ; and that every 
subject of God's grace at West Point would, by his deport- 
ment, prove himself faithful to every duty incumbent on him 
as a member of the academy, without abandoning his enlist- 
ment under the bamier of the Captain of his salvation. 

" ISTow, my endeared brother, let not these things alarm 
you. It is right that you should know the machinations 
of the enemies of truth, that you may be prepared to meet 
them ; but to you, and the precious seals of your ministry, I 
would say, ' Be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled ; 
but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts ; and be ready 
alv/ays to give an answer to every man that asketh you a 
reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear : 
having a good conscience, that whereas they speak evil of you 
as of evil-doers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse j^our 
good conversation in Christ ;' and then, ' if the will of God 
be so, it is better that you suffer for well-doing than for evil- 
doing.' Yet it must be admitted, that your situation is in- 
expressibly trying, and that you have much need of prayer, 
and patience, and self-denial, and forbearance towards op- 
posers. May God give you the wisdom of the serpent, and the 
harmlessness of the dove, and overrule all for his own glory. 
" Your affectionate, 

"JAMES MILNOE,." 

After an answer to this letter, he wrote again. 

To the Rev. C. P. Mcllvaine. 

"New York, June 14, 1826. 
" My very dear Brother — ^You have rightly understood 
every intimation which I have ventured, on the subject of 



248 MEMOm OF DIl. MILNOR. 

prudence and discretion in conducting what belongs to hu- 
man agency in the work of grace at West Point. I would 
do nothing from mere motives of regard to self, nothing from 
the fear of man ; but I would, so far as may be consistent 
with the paramount duty which you owe to God and the 
souls of men, avoid all that would furnish a ground of objec- 
tion to the world, with whose opposition you will be sure 
to see associated that of nominal, lukewarm, unevangelical 
professors. I would put no weapon in the hands of enemies, 
nor furnish them with even a pretence for objection. Espe- 
cially would I have our dear young brethren confute, by 
practical arguments of the most conclusive kind, that which 
I now hear from many quarters, of the deleterious effects of 
this revival on the immediate duties of the students — its 
interference with the proper objects of the institution at 
West Point. I feel a most intense interest in the uninter- 
rupted progress and propitious result of tliis work of God, 
and every day wish to know whether more are added to the 
awakened, whether the inquiring are advancing to the con- 
summation of their desires, and whether the dear brethren 
who have assumed Christ's yoke bear it as they ought, and 
enjoy the sweet comforts of their calling. 

"When does your examination close? How will mat- 
ters stand next Sunday week ? That is the day of our next 
communion, and if all tilings suited, the company of as many 
of our young disciples as could come would be gratifying. 
I dare not say a word of the delight which it would give 
me to have him present who, under God, has been made 
an instrument of good to their souls, because such an event 
is not, I presume, within the compass of probability. 

"Last Sunday, hot as it was, I preached three times, 
besides preaching the previous evening. I am looking as 
anxiously for the descent of the dews of divine grace on my 
thirsty spiritual vineyard, as the husbandman is now desiring^ 
that of the rain upon liis parched fields. The Lord gratify 
the expectations and desires of both. On Sunday night a 



HIS MINISTRY. 249 

crowd of believers joined me in supplications which, I hope, 
reached the mercy-seat, for a rich blessing on you, and all 
interested in your present trying labors. Give my warmest 
Christian salutations to the dear cadets, to Mrs. Mcllvaine, 
to your amiable sisters, and to all whom we salute as breth- 
ren in Christ, and accept for yourself the assurance of my 
undiminished affection. 

"JAIklES MILNOR." 

To the Eev. C. P. Mcllvaine. 

"New York, June 17, 1826. 

"Mydeae. Be-gther — Your letter of the 15th, just re- 
ceived, has relieved my mind of some distressing apprehen- 
sions in regard to the character and influence of the opposi- 
tion which I found was rising to the work of divine grace at 
"West Pomt. I pray God that the only retribution awarded 
the enemies of truth, may be the conquest of their own hearts, 
and their introduction into the ranks of the soldiers of the 
Cross. Tell our dear young friends, each of them, to make, 
in his private devotions, every inveterate opponent the sub- 
ject of special prayer ; to forgive from the heart every inju- 
rious expression which that opponent may have used, and 
to manifest, m necessary intercourse with them all, feelings 
not of resentment, but of love. 

" I think the course which you have resolved to pursue 
in regard to the Wednesday evening meeting a very proper 
one, and have no doubt your much-respected superintendent 
will find ui the ivritten assurance of the cadets a solid pledge 
of the most dutiful and exemplary behavior on their part. 
What can even unbelievers object to the operation of inward 
rehgion on the minds of these young men, when its practical 
effects are seen, not in the deterioration, but in the improve- 
ment of their character as members of your very excellent 
and useful institution ? To the mind of your colonel, hap- 
pily not given over to the delusions in which some others 
are enveloped, it will give a confidence in the mamtenance 

11* 



250 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

of his present course, which I am sure all your personal 
agency in the aftair will strengthen and confirm. 

" I thank you for the explanation of that ominous ^amen;^ 
and hope that every Christian cadet, whatever prudence 
may direct in regard to the utterance of the lips, will al- 
ways be ready, with the feelmgs of his inmost soul, to make 
this response to such a desire as that which you expressed 
at the conclusion of your sermon in behalf of the beloved 
youth whom you had baptized mto the name of Christ, and 
the open profession of his gospel, 

" I have just finished a discourse for to-morrow morning, 
from Rom. 15 : 13 : "Now the God of hope fill you with 
all joy and pecae in beheving, that ye may abound in hope, 
through the power of the Holy Ghost.' The object of the 
discourse, as you may suppose, is to explain, and as ex- 
plained, to defend the doctrine of assurance. ' The God of 
hope ' be praised, that some of our dear young brethren have 
experimentally realized its truth by the witness of God's 
Sphit with theirs, that they are his children. The Lord 
keej) them by his power through faith unto salvation. 
Though ' it doth not yet appear what they shall be,' yet 
may every day's advance in the divme hfe enable them 
more assuredly to ' hww, that when he shall appear, they 
shall be like him, for they shall see him as he is.' 

" My family having removed to Flushing* last Thursday, 
I am left without the means of inviting our young friends to 
domicile with me during their stay in New York. But I 
shall rejoice in giving them all the aid I can in facilitating 
their acquaintance with our reUgious institutions, and hope 
they will attend the Tuesday evening prayer-meeting of the 
brethren of my congregation. It will particularly delight 
me to find you their fellow-traveller. Tell dear little Bled- 

* For several years, during his rectorship of St. George's, Dr. Mil- 
nor owned a farm and a summer residence at Flushing, L. I.; but 
finding considerable inconvenience in the arrangement, it was subse- 
quently abandoned, and his residence confined wholly to the city. 



HIS MINISTRY. 251 

soe," a very serious young cadet, " that that declaration and 
promise, ' I love them that love me ; and they that seek me 
early shall, find me,' are assuredly his, if he persevere. Sa- 
lute all your beloved flock with the truest afTection. God 
bless them, and keep them, and make them ministers of 
good to all with whom, in his gracious providence, they may 
be called to associate. My kindest regards await Capt. D. 
and your own dear family. Let me continue to occupy a 
corner of your heart, and an mterest in your prayers. 
" Your brother in the best of bonds, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

Some of the cadets, with Mr. Mcllvaine himself, having 
paid their desired visit to St. George's, and to the religious 
institutions of the city, especially the newly erected Tract 
Society's house, whence they carried back large supplies of 
the Society's publications. Dr. Milnor, after their return, 
writes thus : 

To the Eev. C. P. Mcllvaine. 

"New York, June 28, 1826. 
"My dear Brother — The refreshing intercourse with 
which we were lately favored, has left so sweet a savor in 
my mind, that I feel as if I wanted, every now and then, a 
few minutes' converse with you. And yet, I do not know 
that you require a word of encouragement or of counsel from, 
one so incompetent as myself to offer either ; for your heart 
is fixed on your Master's work : you are as fully aware as 
any of my suggestions can make you, of the difficulties 
which you have to encounter ; and you see the necessity of 
uniting, in the required conflict with them, the wisdom of 
the serpent with the harmlessness of the dove. Still, I feel 
an anxiety, greater than words can express, in regard to the 
progress and issue of this manifest visitation of the Spirit to 
the dear youth at West Point. I wish it to proceed in a 
Way which, if it fail to convince infidel gainsayers, will les- 
een the apprehensions of its running into enthusiasm, which 



252 MEMOIE, OF DH. MILNOR. 

many professors who have inadequate views of such matters, 
are beginning to express. for that wise, discriminating 
spirit wliich may enable them to distinguish between the 
extravagances sometimes exhibited in revivals, and the 
deep, silent work of grace now in progress with you. I 
fear that the accounts, given by a clergyman of our church 

from , of the revival in that place, will have the effect 

of increasing among our brethren their opposition to every 
thing of the kind. Allov/ing for some exaggerations in the 
statements of this clergyman, there are many circumstances, 
which he narrates as facts positively known to him, which 
certainly prove a great want of sound wisdom, and no in- 
considerable religious error, on the part of the leaders in. 
that revival. And yet, while we lament these aberrations, 
which, I doubt not, too much of what Bishop Hobart calls 
' animal excitement ' has produced, I have as little doubt 
that signal interpositions of divine mercy have occurred ; 
and that, while some have mistaken the workings of their 
own imaginations for those of the Spirit, many have been 
truly born of God, and will look back to this revival with 
rejoicing through eternity. 

" I have hesitated, but upon the whole think it best to 
state to you, that I have conversed with one of the visiting 
committee,=^ who has left West Point with strong prejudices, 
which I hope I have somewhat diminished. He stated to 
me that a very general impression in the academic staff was, 
that your proceedings were fanatical, had a tendency to in- 
terrupt attention to study, and made it indispensable that 
there should be some interference ; and that the subject 
was discussed by the board of visitors, and an attempt made 
to express a very mifavorable feeling towards you and your 
doings. But it was at length concluded that it should not 
be done in their official document, though my informant 
regretted that your removal would probably be the result 

* A committee annually sent by government to conduct the ex 
amination of the cadets in their studies at the national academy. 



HIS MINISTRY. 253 

of a less formal exhibition of the matter to the war depart- 
ment. 

" What he expressed as a matter of regret, Ifeel; for if 
your removal should take place, though I am sure the Lord 
would give you the ability to suffer patiently in his cause, 
yet the effect would be disastrous as it respects West Point, 
and injurious in a vast variety of ways, which will as readily 
suggest themselves to your mind as they have to my own. 
One thing, my very dear friend, I do desire you to bear in 
memory, and that is, that the peculiar circumstances in 
which you are placed require a course of conduct very dif- 
ferent from that followed in ordinary revivals, and that, as 
far as duty will permit, those circumstances should be con- 
stantly regarded. 

'' We are full here of ecclesiastical builders, busily en- 
gaged in the construction of the external temple. that 
every heart were the place of His hallowed residence, for 
whom that temple is designed. Christian regards to aU our 
dear brethren in the Lord. 

" Your faithful brother, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

Here close the letters touching the West Point revival. 
If more were written — and this is probable — they have not 
been preserved. Those which have been given are charac- 
teristic of their author, full of love and zeal for his Master's 
work, and equally full of sanctified wisdom and prudence in 
guarding that work from danger. His fears of the removal 
of his friend from his professorship were not realized. The 
work of grace at the mihtary school was fruitful in blessed 
results ; and our church herself has reason to rejoice in 
what God there wrought among the youth of our national 
institute. 

We have next another letter to the theological student, 
by this time in orders. By a committee of his fellow-citi- 
zens of different religious denominations, he had been invited 
to deliver a Fourth of July address in a Presbyterian meet- 



254 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

ing-lwusc, at a religious celebration of the first semi-ceiiteu- 
nial anniversary of our national independence ; and, though 
opposed by his clerical brethren in the college and neighbor- 
hood, yet, on account of the superior size of the building, he 
had accepted the invitation. It is to his conduct on tliis 
occasion that a part of Dr. Milnor's letter alludes. 

To the Rev. . 



"New York, July 13, 1826. 
*' My DEAR Friend and Brother — I was actually mus- 
ing, with feelings of pauiful regret, on the interruption of our 
correspondence, when your very welcome letter of the 7th 
was handed me ; and my feelings were probably a little 
more excited than they would have been, by having just 
read, j)erhaps for the twentieth time, the first letter wliich 
you ever wrote me. The ingenuous statement which that 
contained of an experience so correspondent with the course 
through which the Lord led me between thirteen and four- 
teen years ago, has always deeply affected my heart ; and 
its undoubted sincerity has inspired me with a personal af- 
fection for you, which I can allow no trammels of ceremony 
to prevent my expressing in a manner the most hearty and 
unreserved. And I cherish the grateful sensations with 
which it fills my bosom the more ardently, because I do be- 
lieve that affection to be reciprocal ; wliile I long to see you 
freed from the shackles which I know hold you back from 
the formation of such aUiances, and from the direction of 
your talents in such a way, as your love for Christ and his 
dear people would render gratifying to yourself and most use- 
ful to his blood-bought Church. I want to see you neither a 
fanatic nor a disorganizer ; but I do want to see you where 
you can give free scope to those animated conceptions of 
your high and holy calling, with which, I trust, the Spirit 
of our divine Master has filled your heart ; and where, with 
every required attention to matters of form, the grand pur- 
poses of the gospel ministry can be kept steadily in view, 



HIS MINISTE,!'. 255 

and prosecuted by you without the fear of man. Your con- 
duct on the Fourth was exactly such as became you, and 
wall commend itself to the approbation of God and of good 
men as it does to your own conscience. I am more and 
more persuaded, that while we should not forget the meek- 
ness which becomes us as the followers of our lowly Sav- 
iour, we gain nothing, even in the estimation of our opposers, 
by a want of firmness in maintaining that ground which 
duty to God and love for the souls of men require us to take. 
Notwithstandmg my apparent difficulties, I find more peace 
of mind, more free communication mth a throne of grace, 
rnore respect from my opposers as well as from my friends, 
and more animation in my various duties, when I can rise 
above the fear of man, and go straight forward in the path 
which I believe the providence of God has marked out for 
me, and which his grace directs me to pursue. Do not 
understand me, my endeared brother, as recommendmg in- 
civility of demeanor, or an unrequired obstinacy in things 
mdifferent, or a hasty self-determmation, taken without 
cautious mquiry and earnest prayer. But where we know 
we are right by the best of tests, the outward word and the 
inward witness, let us beware how we make shipwreck of 
faith and a good conscience, in accommodation to the views 
of ungodly men, or of misjudging Christians. 

" You see how I open all my heart to you, and I want 
to open it stiU wider ; expecting in return just as much of 
your confidence as you are pleased to give. 

" Ever yours, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

About this time an incident occurred, which, coming in 
silently along the track of his customary labors, must have 
greatly gladdened the heart of tliis faithful minister of Christ. 
One of the Episcopal churches in the city of New York hav- 
ing been closed for two months during the summer, a mem- 
ber of its congregation who had been a wretched backslider, 
attended, during that period. Dr. Mihior's ministry, both on 



256 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

Sundays and at his weekly lectures. While thus engaged; 
the Spirit of God fell upon him, reached him as he lay in 
the blood and guilt of his fall, and reawakened him to the 
trembling but blessed hope, that he might yet be embraced 
in the love of his all-gracious Redeemer. Upon the reopen- 
ing of the closed church, and his return to its regular minis- 
trations, he addressed a letter of warm and glowing thanks 
to Dr. Milnor, as the instrument, in God's hands, of the new 
life which he felt stirring within himself, and of deep and 
humble supplication that they might meet in glory at the last 
great day. The fact is mentioned as one among a multitude 
of instances in which the labors of Dr. Milnor were blessed 
to others besides the members of his immediate charge. 

He had now passed another of the annual conventions 
of the diocese of New York, and soon after wrote again to 
his friend, the theological student m college. Parts of his 
letter furnish perhaps as strong a view as was ever exhibited 
of those points in his character and opinions in wliich he dif- 
fered from his distinguished diocesan. 

To the Eev. 



" New York, Oct. 25, 1826. 

*'My valued Brother — Your esteemed letters of Au- 
gust and September are before me. 

" The bishop's charge at the late Convention was an 
official array of the leading parties in our chui-ch, and a for- 
mal vindication of that denominated, ' jHzg/t Church,'' against 
the imputation of bigotry, fondness of power, formalism, and 
non-evangelism. I heard the substance of it more than two 
years ago, in a sermon delivered by Bishop Hobart on a Sun- 
day evening in St. Paul's. Every division of it abounded 
with language not to be misunderstood against those whom 
I indignantly refuse to call, in the sense intended, ' Low 
Churchonen,' the pious, devoted, and liberal members of oui 
Zion. In the bishop's subsequent address to the Conven 
tion, he denounced, in unqualified terms, our associating 



HIS MINISTRY. 257 

with other denominations in Tract Societies and Sunday- 
school Unions. Personally, to me the bishop is as kind as 
ever ; but he designs to wound me, and all who thmk with 
me, in every ojficial communication which he makes. Be 
it so. If persecution unto death were the penalty of my 
persevering dissent from what I deem his most exception- 
able system, I feel confident that God would enable me to 
sustain the trial ; and I have no apprehension that my con- 
stancy will fail under any less fearful expressions of that 
spirit which only Avants power to make it issue in acts of 
unqualified oppression. I mourn over this spirit, as I do 
over the daily proofs which I see of greater and greater op- 
position to the truth. More hereafter. At present, I have 
room to say but that I am, 

" Yery affectionately, yours, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

The language of this paragraph has no little strength ; 
perhaps it may be thought to carry somewhat of severe ear- 
nestness. But when the circumstances of the writer are 
considered — placed, as he was, at the centre of an opposi- 
tion more easily felt than counteracted, and the more irritat- 
ing in proportion as it was irresponsible — his expressions, 
perhaps, will not be deemed too strong. The letter is im- 
portant in its place, as disclosing more plainly than any yet 
presented, the relation m which he stood to the ruling influ- 
ences of the diocese — a relation coeval in its origin with his 
rectorship of St. George's, and encompassing him with its 
more or less painful pressure to the end of his days. 

To the same. 

"New York, Feb. 20, 1827. 
" My deae. Friend and Brother — It is with great pleas- 
ure that I now congratulate you on your emancipation from 
the drudgery of teaching as a secular instructor, and the 
assumption of your more appropriate work of teaching men 
how they may become ' wise unto salvation.' Now that you 



258 MEMOIE, OF DR. MILNOR. 

are settled down in a new parish and a new diocese, I want 
a long letter from you to tell me all your feelings and doings, 
with all your prospects and hopes of usefulness. I hope, my 
dear brother, you will excuse the mterest which I feel in 
whatever relates to you ; for I have lost none of that cor- 
diality of attachment which I have so often had occasion to 
express, and which, I trust, will be continued beyond the 
little time we shall be allowed to converse together this side 
of eternity. There is a hallowed character in Christian 
friendship, which gives it a stability as well as a warmth 
unknown to the friendships of the world. It is this cher- 
ished enjoyment, that fills my breast wdth some of its most 
delightful emotions. Next to the love of Christ, hoAV sweet 
to love his disciples, to mingle our sympathies with theirs, 
to interchange evidences of affection, to repose in each other's 
faithful counsels, and to pray for spiritual blessings on each 
other's behalf. I bless God, that while I am compelled to 
mourn over the coldness of feeling among our clerical breth- 
ren, and am obliged, here, to look for what seems lacking in 
them, to those of other names but of kindred minds, I am 
still solaced by the correspondence wliich it is my privilege 
to hold from week to week with distant brethren of more 
congenial sentiments and views. 

" It will give you pleasure to hear, that Christians in 
St. George's have become more alive to the necessity of com- 
bined prayer and effort in behalf of the unconverted. Though 
a few only of encouraging indications have appeared among 
the latter, yet there is evidently more intense interest mani- 
fested both in the services of the church, and in my weekly 
lecture ; which latter I continue to find profitable to myself 
and to those who hear me. How stand matters with you ? 
"Will your people bear the truth ? I am sure you will preach 
it, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear. 
The Lord bless and prosper you in all things. 
" Affectionately yours, 

" JAMES MILNOR." 



HIS MINISTRY. 259 

To the same. 

"New York, May 28, 1827. 

" My dear Brother — I feel ashamed, on recurring to a 
large bundle of unanswered letters, to find two from you, for 
which I believe no return has been made. I will not waste 
my paper and your precious time in long apologies ; but only 
beg you to beheve, that I do not intend to forego the pleasure 
and advantage of your friendship, nor, little as is its value, 
to withhold from you mine, until the one or the other of us 
shall have severed that bond of union which connects us — 
our common love of the Redeemer — or have received his 
summons to that blest abode, M^here I pray God we may be 
permitted to dwell together for ever. That faith which J 
find the great support of all my hopes and exertions, encour 
ages the persuasion that the former event is not likely to 
occur. The latter we will unite ui leaving to the disposal 
of Him who doeth all things well. 

" I was much interested by your account of the state of 
religion in your parish. What with the prevalence of im- 
morality in some, and of formahsm and cold-heartedness in 
others, your difficulties are no doubt great ; but God can 
magnify his grace ui overcoming all these obstacles to the 
spread of his own truth ; and I trust the encouraging symp- 
toms of awakening, noticed in your letter of last month, have 
already strengthened your faith and animated your exertions. 
I am not opposed to such a prudential regard to circumstan- 
ces as may consist with a faithful discharge of duty ; and I 
feel confident that it will be your study to combine wisdom 
with harmlessness. While we should not flatter the wicked, 
nor withhold, either in public or in private, needful and 
timely reproof, it is both lawful and expedient to temper 
all our communications with Christian suavity, and thus 
convince those Avho would oppose themselves, that we really 
love them, and seek to do them good. It has been my aim 
to withhold no part of the comisel of God ; to give no coun- 
tenance to either error in opinion or viciousness in life ; and 



260 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

to let all my views on every point, wlietlier of doctrine or of 
duty, be fully known. But I have never thought that there 
was no hope of a sinner's conversion but by making him 
angry. Our best intended communications may have that 
efiect ; and, in such a case, Avhether they harden or convert, 
we must be satisfied with having done our duty. Certainly, 
however, we should not study to offend ; and ever should 
we keep a most prayerful and watchful guard upon our own 
spirits, and be well assured that our motives are such as will 
commend themselves to the great Searcher of hearts. So 
doing, we may confidently leave our labors to the disposal 
of his providence and grace. 

" I have much to write you on various topics ; but I 
have now only room to solicit your prayers, and to assure 
you that, so long as you will allow me, I will remain, 
" Your affectionate friend and brother, 

" JAMES MILNOR." 

About this time he met with an accident, which came 
near proving instantly fatal. In passing to the city from 
his summer residence, he was thrown upon the pavement, 
his head striking the curbstone, with a violence which for 
some days rendered his recovery very doubtful. To this he 
refers in his next letter. 

To the same. 

"New York, Aug. 21, 1827. 

"My dear Friend and Brother — I have before me 
your letter of the 26th of June ; and if it were not that I 
presume you to have heard of my calamity in falling from 
the Flushing stage the early part of July, I should deem it 
necessary to apologize for my long silence. This is the first 
day since the 11th ult. that I have taken a seat at my desk ; 
and I wish you to consider it as one evidence of my con- 
tinued and warm affection, that one of the first hours of my 
recovered strength is devoted to you. 

" During my confinement, I have often looked for the 



HIS MINISTRY. 261 

letter which you ought to have written me ; but if tlds be 
the means of drawing from you an early communication, I 
will not complain. Indeed, I fear you will not discover much 
of any other object in my writing to you ; for a prisoner, just 
released from a protracted seclusion from the world, is much 
better fitted for receiving than for communicating infor- 
mation. 

"I have, however, some melancholy tidings to transmit. 
Our friend and brother, Mr. Duffie," the originator and 
first rector of St. Thomas's church. New York, " died last 
night ; and, if my strength permit, I am to assist as a pall- 
bearer at his funeral this afternoon. A few wrecks a^o he 

D 

was at my house, and had much more reason then to antici- 
pate his being called to such a service for me, than that I 
should be called to assist in the last respects to his remauis. 
Thus mysterious are the ways of God's providence. how 
unutterably important to be prepared for the most sudden 
call I The Lord grant that all these visitations may have 
their due eflect upon all our minds. No reflections should 
be more abiding with us of the ministry, than the importance 
of a fixed and continued assurance, that while we preach to 
others, we do not ourselves become castaways. My personal 
warnings have impressively taught me the value of personal 
rehgion, and the absolute necessity, in the midst of all our 
complicated duties to others, to see that matters stand right 
between God and our own souls. 

" Your ever affectionate 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

To the same. 

"New York, Nov. 30, 1827. 
-■" My deaPo Fe-iend and Brothw>. — I have abundant 
cause for discouragement in the little fruit which results 
from my own labors, and in the opposition of the enemies of 
truth within our church. But, so long as God allows me, I 
v/ill strive to do something in his service ; and will pray for 



262 MEMOIR OF BR. MILNOR. 

grace to enable me to meet the difficulties which will ever, 
more or less, attend the faithful laborer in his vineyard. We 
have need of much firmness, in union with great meekness 
of temper, in the present state of things. By divine aid, I 
will not barter the hopes of eternity for the approbation of 
man ; nor swerve from a course of clearly indicated duty, 
whatever offence it may give. At the same time, I am 
willing, and do desire to put my feelings under proper re- 
straint, where undeserved injuries are offered ; and therefore 
I have refrained, though much incited to it by my friends, 
from answering the partial and unfair representation of a 
conversation between the assistant-bishop of Pennsylvania 
and myself, which has been appended to the reasons pub- 
lished by the Episcopal college for the consecration of that 
most strenuous of high churchmen. I hope you have read 
the well-considered, moderate, and able pamphlet of dear 
brother Mcllvaine. Though I felt averse to his writing, yet 
I am satisfied that what he has done will not only vindicate 
his character — that was unnecessary — ^but give information 
to the pubhc, which was much wanted, as to the sentiments 
and opinions of the evangelical clergy. Every minister and 
layman on the moderate side, from whom I have heard any 
expression of opinion respecting it, has given it his unquah- 
fied approbation. 

" Farewell, my very dear brother. I love your letters, 
and I love them to be long — not in coming, but in compass. 
" With the warmest affection, 

" Ever yours, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

To the same. 

^ "New York, April 21, 1828. 

" My dear Brother — The Lord be thanked, that you 

are still able to work, and that he is pleased to give you souls 

for your hire. Should the encouraging account which you 

give me of the state of things in your congregation be fol- 



HIS MINISTRY. ^ 263 

lowed by the result of a manifest revival, you must avoid a 
name so ofiensive to many, and call it ' an increased atten- 
tion to religion.' All will then be well. It is a pity, when 
the Lord has of late years been so evidently pleased to ac- 
comphsh the work of his grace by special effusions of his 
Spirit, that in such a church as ours, the operations of that 
Spirit should be denied, though proved by the very evidence 
to which Christ himself refers as decisive — ' their fruits* 
That there have been alleged revivals which deservedly lost 
all credit with considerate Christians for want of this evi- 
dence, none of the best friends of those merciful visitations 
w^ill deny ; and it cannot be questioned, that many enthusi- 
astic excesses and censurable circumstances of various kinds, 
have accompanied true revivals. But with every needed 
abatement, I have not the least doubt of their having been, 
in countless instances, the means of salvation to multitudes ; 
and that they are, and will be among the means of hasten- 
ing the latter-day glory of the church. Let us pray ear- 
nestly that an anxious concern for the best interests of our 
fellow-men may be revived in our own hearts, and in those 
of our lay-brethren ; peradventure the covenant-keeping God 
whom we serve, may grant us a more signal blessing, in 
pouring out his Spirit upon our people, than we have yet 
known. 

" Our increase of communicants in St. George's has not, 
of late, been very rapid ; and yet my Sunday and week-day 
services were never better attended, nor the prayer-meetings 
more regularly held and fervently conducted, nor the six 
Sunday-schools of my church better supphed with teachers 
and pupils. Nor does God leave himself without Avitness 
among us, in the ingathering of souls. Since the last Con- 
vention, I have received to communion about twenty. We 
have now some earnest inquirers ; but still, I mourn the 
coldness of my own heart, the feebleness of my labors, and 
their inadequate results, and would hail with unspeakable 
gratitude such an evidence of the divine favor as has been 



264 MEMOIR OF DE. MILNOH. 

afforded to many congregations in our land, to whatever odi- 
um it might subject me in the minds of many around me. 

"Can you tell me whom I ought to appoint to the Mil- 
nor professorship in Kenyon college ? If I had dared to hope 
that a certain friend of mine, not a hundred miles from you, 
would have accepted it, he would have been promptly named. 
But I have had no hope. What tliuik you he would have 
said to such a proposal ? 

" "With unabated affection, ever yours, 

"JAMES MILNOE." 

At the close of the year 1828, and the beginning of 1829, 
Dr. Milnor passed through one of the most trying scenes of 
his ministerial course. It was the part which he took in the 
organization and dissolution of " The Protestant Episcopal 
Clerical Association of New York." 

During the summer of 1828, a feeling, which had for 
some years been rising ui the church, began to express itself 
in a half-audible call for some association of a specially cler- 
ical character, " for the purposes of prayer, religious conver- 
sation, expounding the Scriptures, and other similar exer- 
cises." One of the first utterances of this feelmg was in the 
ear of Bishop Hobart, by " the rector of one of the principal 
congregations of the city." Tliis address to the bishop Avas 
evidently prompted by a desire to engage him as the head 
and leader of the movement, it being well known that what- 
ever of a religious character he should either favor or oppose, 
would be either favored or opposed by the great majority of 
the clergy and laity of the diocese. Unfortunately, although 
the suggestion came to him from one with whom he had 
" the happiness to agree substantially as to principles and 
policy," yet, while he " approved the contemplated object," 
he had " various objections to the proposed plan of accom- 
plishing it." But as the interview Avas friendly and unoffi- 
cial, the subject being " kindly discussed" between the par- 
ties, it was not supposed that the bishop's objections would 
lead him openly and officially to oppose the movement. 



HIS MINlSTHiT. 265 

Accordingly, when the Annual Convention assembled, in 
October, 1828, it was determined by the clergy who were 
favorable, to proceed to the contemplated organization, A 
preparatory meeting was held, and a second appointed for 
' ' consummating ' ' it. 

In these steps, no further consultation with the bishop 
was had, because it was thoroughly felt that all such con- 
sultation would be unavailing, and because it had been deter- 
mined to proceed in the prosecution of an object, Avhich the 
movers considered of great importance, and from the prosecu- 
tion of wliich no eartlily power had a right to restrain them. 

A few hours, however, before the meeting for " consum- 
mating" the organization, the bishop "accidentally heard" 
of what was passing, and "immediately resolved on seeing 
two of the four oi; five clergy of the city who, as far as he 
could learn, were as yet engaged in this measure, in order 
to a frank and friendly communication with them." These 
two clergymen were the Rev. Drs. Wainwright and Milnor. 
" To them he stated earnestly and solicitously the reasons 
wliich convinced him that the plan which they proposed for 
accomplishing their object, was inexpedient and unneces- 
sary." Still, as in these interviews, especially in that between 
Bishop Hobart and Dr. Milnor, the former expressly disclaim- 
ed addressing the latter in an official capacity, and more than 
once desired to be considered as conversing with him " liot 
as his bishop, but as a friend," it was not deemed either 
necessary or advisable to desist from the work upon which 
they had so seriously entered. They therefore persevered, 
and on the evening of that day completed the organization 
of " The Protestant Episco]Dal Clerical Association of the 
City of New York," havmg " for its object the promotion of 
the personal piety and the official usefulness of its members, 
by devotional exercises and by conversation on missionary 
and such other religious subjects as might conduce to mutual 
edification." 

From its inception, this society was composed of clergy- 

Mem. Milnor. 1 2 



266 MEMOIR OF DE.. MILNOE. 

men representing the various shades of opinion in the church, 
and was otherwise guarded against the danger of abuse. Its 
meetings were opened and closed with approved forms of 
devotion ; any clergyman of our church in New York and its 
vicinity, of whatever shade of opinion, might become a mem- 
ber by signifying his wish to the secretary in writing, with 
his approbation of the nature and object of the association ; 
and any member might invite any other cler^man of our 
church, not resident in either New York or its vicinity, to 
attend any of the regular meetings of the society. Besides, 
by mutual consent, the ordinary topics of theological and 
ecclesiastical controversy were excluded from the discussions 
of the members, and their exercises directed to "the promo- 
tion of harmony of feeling and of character," and not to that 
of " perfect uniformity of opinion." This latter result they 
professed to consider "just about as feasible as to regulate 
-the proportions of the waves of some mighty river." 

Thus organized, constituted, and designed, this most 
-praiseworthy association commenced its regular meetings. 
It was some months, however, before the printed constitu- 
tion and forms of devotion could be furnished for the use of 
the members. The pamphlet containing these documents, 
printed, not published, came from the press at the close of 
the year 1828 ; but being " at first inaccurately printed," 
"many corrections were necessary," and it was not ready 
for distribution until several weeks later. At length a copy 
of the corrected impression, bearing the imprint of 1829, fell 
into the bishop's hands. Indeed, " it had been intended to 
send a copy to each Protestant Episcopal clergyman in the 
city." Before this could be done, however, and even " before 
the members received their copies," one " accidentally" met 
the bishop's eye. He immediately issued his memorable 
" Pastoral Letter," addressed " to the clergy and laity" of 
the di9cese. This document appeared the 21st of February, 
1829, " before the first meeting of the association" after the 
correction of their constitution and forms of devotion : so that 



HIS MINISTRY. 267 

the members received the Pastoral, in all its formidableness, 
before they were favored with a sight of their own simple 
regulations and ritual in print. It came " not merely to the 
surprise, but to the utter astonishment of every member, 
some of whom would not believe the rumor of its publication, 
when it reached them." To rumor, however, quickly suc- 
ceeded ocular demonstration, and they were left with nothuig 
to do but to gather up their scattered powers of reflection, 
and forthwith consider the question, whether they would 
dissolve the association, or continue it against the officially 
expressed disapprobation of their bishop. 

Meanwhile, they published to the world their constitu- 
tion and forms of devotion, with "Prefatory Remarks," 
explaining, and mildly defending their course, and taking a 
brief but respectful notice of the " Pastoral Letter." This 
drew forth a "Vindication" of the "Letter," anonymous in 
form, but evidently from the pen of the bishop. This, in its 
turn, was followed by a full " Account of the true Nature 
AND Object of the Association," with "A Defence" of 
the same from objections which had been urged agamst it. 
And this, finally, was succeeded by a "Brief Notice" of 
the Account and Defence, probably from the same pen with 
the "YiNDiCATioN." The public papers, too, took up the 
doings of the bishop and the association ; the noise was heard 
from end to end of the land ; even from beyond the eastern 
limits of the states came back an echo of the sound ; and 
various movings in the atmosphere of feeling disturbed the 
quiet of the church. 

In the midst of this controversy, the fate of the associa- 
tion was decided by the movement of one of its members, 
who had been the first actor in the business. He withdrew, 
and m a pubhshed letter to his brethren of the association, 
assigned his reasons for the step. Immediately after the 
receipt of his letter, the remaining members decided upon 
dissolving the organization. Their " Account and Defence'''' 
was accordingly accompanied with a statement of reasons 



268 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

for the dissolution. The feehng of the association had pre- 
viously been in favor of its continuation, but the withdraw- 
nient of one of its leading members changed the aspect of the 
question before it, inasmuch as its continuation after that 
event, would have seemed to justify the charge of partisan 
design. The members, therefore, no longer deliberated, and 
the dissolution was publicly announced in their very able 
"Account and Defence" of the organization. 

Such is the history of the brief-lived " Protestant Episco- 
pal Clerical Association of New York." It has been given 
because Dr. Milnor was one of the two leading presbyters 
under whose auspices it was organized, and that one emphat- 
ically on whom the heaviest weight of odium fell, in conse- 
quence of the hostile position assumed and of the arbitrary 
course pursued by Bishop Hobart. 

His next letter, on the list of those which have been 
recovered, was on a subject deeply interesting to its writer, 
that of a school for traming colored missionaries to Africa. 

To the Eev. J. P. K. Henshaw. 

"New York, Jan. 27, 1830. 
" Rev. and dear Brother — I sympathize sincerely with 
your young friend, whom I presume to be Mr. Cleveland, in 
the anxiety wliich he has so long felt to direct his efforts 
into a channel of usefuhiess, for which there has yet appear- 
ed no opening. The school attempted some years ago in 
New Jersey, for the instruction of colored youth having a 
view to the ministry of the Presbyterian church, fell through, 
partly for want of support, and partly in consequence of the 
licentious conduct of some of the pupils. A subsequent 
attempt, principally by gentlemen in Newark, and, on their 
invitation, a few from other states, who consulted together at 
a meeting in that place which I attended, was followed by 
no beneficial results. It was then hoped that a considerable 
sum left by General Kosciusko, might be secured for this 
purpose ; and Mr. Lear of Washington, who is administrator, 



HIS MINISTEY. 269 

cum testamento annexo, and who has the funds m his 
hands, gave encouragement for such a hope. Afterwards, 
however, General Kosciusko's will was contested hy his 
relatives ; and whether it is still in litigation or not, I do 
not know. 

" In the African mission-school at Hartford, there are 
four young men, and the wife of one of them, receiving 
instruction preparatory^ to a removal to Africa. Three of 
these young men Bishop Brownell intends to ordain. One is 
not expected to have all the qualifications requisite to a 
clergyman, but is to go out as catechist and schoolmaster. 
The woman, it is hoped, will make a good schoolmistress. 
That school is ready to receive other pupils of piety and 
promise, who, like those already there, will be taught by a 
suitable instructor in secular learning, and by Bishop Brow- 
nell and Mr. Wheaton in theology. The bishop allows them 
to hold a weekly religious meeting for colored persons, and 
to exercise themselves in extemporaneous preaching. 

" 'But what are these among so many?' If the wants 
of Africa received the sympathy and commiseration to which 
they are entitled, a large seminary, with a special view to 
their supply, would be at once established. But the variety 
of other calls, the distance of the object, the supposed diffi- 
culty of obtainmg well-disposed pupils having a view to emi- 
gration to that country, the prevalent denominational distinc- 
tions, and the monies required to accomplish any thing on an 
extended scale, all seem to be barriers in the way. If we 
had, I will not say a Wilberforce, but an Anthony Benezet 
among us, who would arouse public attention to this inter- 
esting object, something perhaps might be done. But tal- 
ents, exertion, and what must be their associate influence, 
are required ; and our young friend, with all his zeal and 
abilities, could effect nothing until some master-spirit should 
arise among the class of more advanced Christians, whose 
hold upon the pubhc mmd would enable him to rally in his 
cause not only those who wish well to Africa, but also those 



270 MEMOIE- OF DR. MILNOR. 

who would prove the sincerity of their feeUngs by Hberal 
contributions to her spiritual relief. Unhappily, almost all 
our colored population in this city are opposed to colonization, 
and of course look with jealousy on all attempts that may 
seem to favor it ; and many of their white friends partake of 
their feelings. The result of the whole is an entire inability 
on my part to suggest any thing that would assist the benev- 
olent aims of your young friend. 

" I wish I had room for more than the assurance that I 

remain 

'* Your affectionate brother, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

The letters which have filled so many pages of this me- 
moir, though they furnish no connected view of the incidents 
in the outer life of Dr. Milnor, yet, as revelations of his inner 
life, are peculiarly valuable. They show how various cur- 
rent events affected him ; and illustrate the position in which 
he was providentially placed in relation to his own church, 
and to various religious institutions in our country. Pro- 
foundly actuated by convictions so different from those wliich 
governed the majority of Episcopalians, particularly in tho 
diocese to which he belonged, he was, for many years, called 
to few posts of action and of influence among them. With 
the fewer engrossing cares, therefore, was he left to devote 
whatever of time and of talent he could command to the 
working of those great Christian associations, with which 
our country was beguimng to abound, which were designed 
to embody the mfluence of all truly evangelical denomina- 
tions, and of which both his judgment and his heart con- 
strained him to approve. Originally, it is true, he engaged 
in the service of those noble mstitutions because he loved 
their spirit and their objects, without stopping to inquire 
whether there were not other channels through which he 
might pour the resources of his influence into the general 
stream of Christian benevolence. But it is likewise true, 
that the mere withholding of his cooperation from those 



HIS MINISTRY. 271 

institutions would not have opened to liim, as substitutes, 
any important places of trust and influence in liis own 
church. Under a system of ecclesiastical tactics which 
efiectually excluded him, those places were always care- 
fully, or at least controllingly, filled by others of very dif- 
ferent religious views ; and never would have been opened 
for any effective exertion of his influence, save on an aban- 
ctonment of those Christian principles and sympathies which 
he cherished, and which constituted an indestructible part 
of his character and experience as a disciple of Christ. Vir- / 
tually, therefore, the question with him was, whether he 
would throw his main strength into such institutions as the 
American Bible and Tract Societies, or be content with those 
narrow limits of a parish, which v/ould practically shut him 
out of the great world of Christian action and movement. 
Such a question, proposed to such a mind, could not remain an 
hour undecided. He knew, indeed, that his decision would 
expose him to opposition ; he knew the quarter from which, 
mainly, that opposition would come ; and he • knew that it 
would be an opposition all the more formidable because 
backed by the forces of an early and still sincere friendship. 
Yet all this could not move him from his course. Many, 
now living, know well the peculiar pain which it gave him 
to differ from his early friend, especially when appearing in 
the later character of his bishop. Still, he felt that, so long 
as he walked with scrupulous care according to all the pre- 
scriptions of his own church, he had a Christian man's lib- 
erty to walk, in other tilings, accordmg to liis own best judg- 
ment of duty. It was, doubtless, a difficult path to tread ; 
and if, while following it, his private correspondence shows, 
that in alluding to the measures of his diocesan, he expressed 
himself, though never with discourtesy, yet sometimes with 
warmth, it must be ascribed to the peculiar shaping and 
power of that influence in which early friendship and later 
office were brought to bear against liim. For it must be 
confessed, that if any thing can excite a Christian to bpeak 



272 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

with an earnestness beyond what his own calmer thoughts 
would prompt, it is that influence with which office arms 
itself, when it attempts, through the tenderness of friendship, 
to enforce what authority may not enjoin, or to prevent what 
authority may not forbid. Precisely this sort of influence 
was Dr. Milnor repeatedly compelled to encounter. It can- 
not, therefore, be a matter of wonder if his letters sometimes 
show, that the sensibilities both of the Christian and of the 
friend had been somewhat disturbingly touched. The dis- 
turbance was always momentary ; for his nature was of the 
kindlier sort, that 

" carries anger as the flint bears fire — 



Which, much enforced, doth show a hasty spark, 
And straight is cold again." 



MISSION TO ENaLAND. 273 

PAET IV. 

MISSION TO ENGLAND. 



SECTION I. 

We have now reached the period at which Dr. Milnor 
was called to undertake an important agency — that of dele- 
gate from the American Bible Society and other religious 
institutions in this country, to those noble kindred associa- 
tions in England, which the month of May annually brings 
together in the city of London. These societies, though 
originating in different lands, yet have the same parentage. 
They were all boril of the active benevolence of Protestant 
Christianity. The same spiritual blood flows in all their 
veins. No wonder, then, that they desired to know one 
another face to face ; and it is much to the credit of the 
American sisterhood, that they were the first to propose and 
bring about the meeting. The idea of sending Dr. Milnor 
as a delegate from the American to the British and Foreign 
Bible Society, had for some time been entertained, but never 
till now could those who conceived the idea bring it into 
realization. 

The feelings with which he undertook this enterprise, 
were characteristic at once of his usual modest estimate of 
himself, of his pious devotion to the cause of his Master, and 
of his heartfelt interest in the societies which he was to rep- 
resent. Illustrative of this is the following extract from a 
letter to the present writer. 

"New York, Feb. 20, 1830. 

"Rev. and deak. Brother — You will be surprised to 
learn, that I shall not have the pleasure of seeing you as you 
pass through New York, and still more so when you know 

12* 



274 MEMOIR OF DU. MILNOR. 

the cause. I have yielded to the importunity of my friends, 
and with the unanimous consent of my vestry, have agreed 
to sail for England on the 16th of the ensuing month. Per- 
hajDS it might, by some, be considered affectation in me to 
say, that I have acceded to this measure with reluctance, 
and that nothing but a sense of duty would have led me to 
consent to so long an absence from my family and flock. But 
I am sure you will believe me when I say, that with ad- 
vanced age, much of the curiosity that would have made 
such a proposal delightful in my earlier years, has subsided, 
and that, besides other feelings of repugnance to crossing the 
ocean, a conviction of my incompetency for many duties 
which will probably be consequent on my arrival in England, 
has oppressively increased it. I shall, if God permit, attend 
the principal anniversaries in London, and perhaps may be 
called to take some part in their proceedings ; and much as 
I have spoken in public in my own land, I do shrink at the 
thought of doing so before such assemblages as those occa- 
sions bring together. But if God enable me to become an 
instrument in opening a more effectual communication, and 
of exciting a more feeling interest between the evangelical 
clergy of England and those of this country, and between 
the great benevolent institutions there and here, it will be 
no imbittering reflection, durmg the residue of my brief term 
of existence, that I have been so honored, and to God shall 
be all the glory and the praise. Let me ask of you your 
earnest supplications in my behalf, for divine preservation 
and support in the enterprise to which his providence ap- 
pears to direct me. 

" Your faitliful and sincere brother in Christ, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

So soon as it was- pubhcly known that Dr. Milnor was 
going to England in a public capacity, and for purposes of 
business, commissions of various kinds flowed in upon him 
in an overwhelming stream. A more striking proof could 
not well have been given of the high estimate in which he 



MISSION TO ENGLAND. 275 

was held, and of the thorough confidence which he enjoyed, 
as an able and faithful Christian man of business, than that 
furnished by the number and variety of the trusts which he 
was urged to assume, and of the commissions which he was 
called to execute. He had enough to load a minister plen- 
ipotentiary to a foreign sovereign ; and to discharge them 
all, seemed to require the assistance of a secretary of lega- 
tion. And yet he midertook them all alone, and discharged 
them all alone. By his uncommon quickness and skill in 
reducing matters of business to system, and in doing every 
thing in its proper time, place, and order, he left nothing 
uncared for, and few if any trusts midischarged. Some idea 
of the force of these remarks may be had from a simple 
enumeration of the formal commissions which he bore, and 
of the informal matters of business with which he was 
intrusted. * 

He was clothed, then, with more or less formal commis- 
sions and instructions from the American Bible and Tract 
Societies, the American Sunday-school Union, the American 
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, the American 
Education Society, the American Temperance Society, the 
American Seamen's Friend Society, the Prison Discipline 
Society, the General Union for Promoting the Observance of 
the Christian Sabbath, and the Domestic and Foreign Mis- 
sionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church ; all of 
which operate throughout the broad bounds of our political 
union, while some of them aim to throw their blessed influ- 
ence over all the earth. Most of them, likewise, accompa- 
nied their commissions with masses of docunjents, reports, 
and other pamphlets, for his examination and use in man- 
aging their interests abroad. 

■ Besides these, he was intrusted with hiformal, though 
important business commissions from the Deaf and Dumb 
Asylum, Bishop Chase and Kenyon College, the Savings- 
bank in New York, and the patrons of the Episcopal E.e- 
corder, Philadelphia ; while private commissions also were 



276 MEMOIE. OF Dll. MILNOIL 

numerous, and involved, some of them, no small amount of 
attention to business details, and td topics for inquiry. 

Charged with matters of such grave public import, and 
already known in the best religious circles of Europe through 
liis long connection with our great benevolent institutions. 
Dr. Mihior stood in little need of letters of introduction, or 
of " epistles of commendation ;" yet, with such he was most 
amply furnished from the best sources at home to many of 
the best characters in the Christian community of Great 
Britain and of the continent, assuring him of a cordial re- 
ception from all the gTeat and choice Christian spirits in 
those noble lands of zeal, benevolence, and enterprise in the 
cause of Christ. 

But besides all these, the letters which poured in upon 
him from all quarters, expressive of warm affection for him- 
self, of devout aspiration for his welfare, an^ of a high ap- 
preciation of the importance of his mission, were numerous 
and gratifying. 

" Had it been in my power," writes Dr. Bedell, " I should 
have made a journey to New York on purpose to express my 
pleasure, and to bid you farewell ; but duties, and roads, and 
imperfect health, all combined to forbid me. I wish, indeed, 
that I could even go with you to England, just to enjoy one 
such feast as that which must be spread out before the spir- 
itual appetite during the month of May in the British me- 
tropolis." 

"While earthly kings," remarks the president of the 
Tract Society, "with their views confined to things of time 
and sense, are sending their ambassadors from one nation to 
another, you, sir, are about to occupy a more important sta- 
tion. You go as an ambassador from the King of kings ; 
and when the transactions of princes shall have dwindled 
into insignificance, your mission, if you find grace to be faith- 
ful in its discharge, will tell on the sacred records of eter- 
nity." 

Thus qualified, accredited, and cheered, Dr. Milnor took 



MISSION TO ENaLAND. 277 

his departure from New York on the promised day, March 
16, 1830, in the packet-ship Florida, Capt. Tinkham, He 
took leave of his i'amily and a number of friends at the par- 
sonage, about 9 o'clock, A. M., and on proceeding to the 
steamer which was to convey him to the Quarantine ground, 
whither the day before the ship had dropped down, he met 
a much larger number, both of parishioners and of other 
Christian friends, who had assembled there to bid him fare- 
well. Some of them " accompanied liim to the ship," and 
there, with every expression of Christian kindness, bade him 
adieu. By half past four, he was at sea ; and before the 
pilot, on his return to the harbor, was out of sight, he had 
entered systematically on the business of his mission. In a 
brief note which he sent by the pilot to his wife, he says, 
" I have begun my journal, and if preserved from sea-sick- 
ness, intend to keep it regularly." 

The following paragraph shows what he had to accom- 
plish, as a mian of business. 

" I propose, now that my health will admit of my read- 
ing and writing" — he had had the usual experience of sea- 
sickness — " to employ myself in the examination of various 
documents referring to my mission, and in making such notes 
as may be useful on my arrival in England." 

And the following shows what he delighted to do as a 
Christian man. 

"Saturday, March 20. — Rose at six o'clock this morn- 
ing in health, after a good night's rest. I trust I was ena- 
bled to appropriate those lines of the poet, which came with 
feeling to my mind soon after I awoke : 

" Arise, my soul, with rapture rise, 

And, filled with love and fear, adore 
The awful Sovereign of the skies, 

Whose mercy lends thee one day more. 
And may this day, indulgent Power ! 

Not idly pass, nor fruitless be ; 
But may each swiftly passing hour 

Still nearer bring my soul to thee." 



278 MEMOIR OF DH. MILNOH. 

" I propose to let no day pass without connecting with 
my devotional duties the reading and meditating upon a por- 
tion of the sacred Scriptures. Of these duties I do not 
contemplate noting m general the character in my journal. 
Sometimes, however, it may be expedient to do so. Tliis 
morning I commenced reading St. Paul's epistle to the Ho- 
m.ans. In contemplating the awfully wicked character of 
the heathen of his day, as described in the first chapter, and 
comparing it with the present state of most of the uncon- 
verted nations of the earth, we are at once struck with their 
similarity. And what a powerful incentive does the melan- 
choly comparison furnish to enlarged efforts on the part of 
the Christian Church for their conversion. 

" Shall we, whose souls are lighted 

With wisdom from on high — 
Shall we, to men benighted, 

The lamp of life deny? 
Salvation, Salvation ! 

The joyful sound proclaim; 
Till earth's remotest nation 

Has learned Messiah's name." 

He was accompanied on his way, by the usual mcidents 
of a voyage : fierce storms, and dead calms ; fair winds, and 
head wmds ; beautiful scenes, and appalling sublimities ; 
swift sailing, and sudden perils. The first and last Sabbaths 
of the passage were fine, and admitted of worship and preach- 
ing aboard ship ; but the two intermediate were so tempest- 
uous as to render the enjoyment of those privileges impossi- 
ble. The ship reached Liverpool the 14th day of April. 

In our notices of Dr. Milnor's visit to England, we shall 
simply follow his steps by giving some of the most impor- 
tant passages from his journal. 

" Before we reached the dock," he observes, " a gentle- 
man came off in a boat, offering to convey me to the pier, 
and bringing me a very kind letter from Mr. Augustus W. 
Gillet, of Birmingham, requestmg me to accept the hospi- 



MISSION TO ENGLAND. 27S 

talities of his house on my way fo London. I found, on the 
wharf, waiting to receive me, my friend Mr. Thomas Sands, 
who gave me a hearty welcome, and insisted on conveying 
me, in a carriage wliich he had ready, to his house in Ever- 
ton. I went with him ; and the evening being wet, I re- 
mained till the following morning within doors. Mr. Sands 
had invited two pious and intelligent friends to spend the 
evening and sup with him. After a month's separation from 
my religious friends in New York, it was gratifying to meet 
with kindred spirits immediately on my arrival in Eng- 
land." 

After recording some brief visits which he made the 
next day, he went with Mr. Cromy, a member of the Meth- 
odist persuasion, to visit the Liverpool institution for the 
instruction of the deaf and dumb. " I asked his opinion," 
he observes, "as to the advantage of teaching this unfor- 
tunate class to articulate. He was decidedly in favor of its 
constituting a part of their instruction. I stated, as objec- 
tions to the plan, the labor and difficulty attending it, the 
limited extent to which it can be carried, and the imperfect, 
disagreeable, guttural enunciation, painful to the hearer and 
apparently so to the speaker, which I had observed m our 
country in all with whom the experiment had been tried ; 
for which reasons, I presumed, it had not formed a part of 
the system of the Abbes De L'Epee and Sicard. To con- 
vince me that our failure must have been owing to the 
want of proper instruction, he proposed that we should visit 
a family of his acquaintance, in which there were a young 
gentleman and his sister, both deaf mutes, the former of 
whom had learned to speak in a mamier free from the ob- 
jections which I had urged. We found them at home with 
their mother, a lady in independent circumstances ; and 
were favored with an interview of some length, m which I 
was much gratified by the talent exhibited, and the im- 
provement made by them in various branches of their edu- 
cation. Both produced a variety of drawuigs and paintings 



280 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

copied by them, and beautiful specimens of ornamental writ- 
ing-, to which the young lady added some ingenious work in 
worsted, which she had just completed. The latter had 
made very little proficiency in speaking ; and the young 
gentleman's attempt, instead of removing my objections, 
was calculated to increase them. His voice was so weak, 
and his articulation so indistinct, that, when he addressed 
himself to his sisters, I could distinguish scarcely a single 
word ; and when he addressed himself immediately to me it 
was little better. He repeated the Lord's prayer in a tone 
by no means pleasant, and m an articulation far from dis- 
tinct. My unfavorable impressions in regard to this branch 
of instruction were rather confirmed than removed by this 
instance of its failure." 

His " expected engagements in London obliging him to 
hasten on to that m^tropohs without delay," he was not able 
" to wait upon the gentlemen to whom he had letters of in- 
troduction" in Liverpool, "or to see more than the exterior 
of the pubhc buildings" of that city. He started for Bir- 
mingham the morning of Friday, April 16, and arrived at 
8 o'clock in the evening. 

On reaching Birmingham, he adds, " I found Mr. Gillet 
waiting my arrival, with a carriage to. take me to his house 
at Edgbaston, a pleasant situation, just beyond the limits of 
Birmingham.* Mrs. Gillet was deeply affected on my ar- 
rival ; and the eldest of her little boys, who had been much 
attached to me in New York, clung to me and cried for 
joy. After talking about friends and afTahs m New York, 
and conducting family worship, I retired to rest about 11 
o'clock." 

On Saturday, the 17th of April, he received calls from 
the principal clergy of Birmingham and an invitation to 
dinner with the high-bailiff. He observes, " In the course 
of our conversation at dinner, a curious fact was developed 
in relatioii to Dr. Kewley, my predecessor in St. George's. 
Mr. Mayer, a Christian Jew, said that he had seen him in 



MISSION TO ENaLAND, 281 

Italy, and was well acquainted with him. He passes there 
hy the name of ' Father Kewley ;' hut Mi Mayer says he 
knows his true name to he Lawson, and that he has a 
brother of the latter name, now livmg in Liverpool, with 
whom also he is acquainted. He heheves that Dr. Kewley 
was a Jesuit during the whole time of his residence in 
America." 

Sunday, April 18, he spent in attending worship with 
the family of his friend Mr. Gillet. The parish church of 
St. Martin includes "the whole of Birmingham, except two 
churches, which form another of small extent. With the 
exception of one clergyman, the Rev. E. Burn, now far 
advanced in age, there were, a few years ago, no clergymen 
of decidedly evangehcal views in Birmingham. At present, 
full one half of the whole number are of that character." 
He speaks in terms of high commendation of all the sermons 
which he heard during the day, especially of that by Mr. 
James. This he calls " one of the finest discourses to which 
he ever listened ;" and adds, " After family worship, I re- 
tired to rest with, I trust, a heart full of gratitude to God, 
for enablmg me to spend, both agreeably and profitably, this 
my first Sabbath in England." 

On Monday, April 19, Dr. Milnor started for London, 
intending to spend one day ui Oxford ; but when he reached 
that city, he found that so short a time would give him but 
little acquahitance there ; and as, vdth the exception of two 
slight showers, the weather was fine, he determined to pro- 
ceed at once to the metropoHs. Accordingly, he arrived in 
London about 10 o'clock at night, and took lodgings till 
morning at " The "White Horse, Fetter-lane." 

" Tuesday, April 20," Dr. Milnor thus continues his 
journal, " This morning I proceeded to the Bible Society's 
house, Earl-street, Blackfriars. I found there the Rev. 
Mr. Brandram, the principal secretary, who conducted me 
through the whole estabhshment, in wliich there are now 
not less than 700,000 volumes of the sacred Scriptures in 



282 MEMOIIl OF BR.. MiLNOR. 

various languages. The house is in a narrow street, and its 
interior aspect is rather gloomy; but blessed be God, there 
is light emitted from it which will one day enlighten all, as 
it has already enlightened many, of the dark corners of the 
earth. Mr. Brandram. detained me with the expectation of 
introducing me to Lord Teignmouth, the president, who was 
to be there, by appointment, to make some arrangements 
for the approaching anniversary ; but exactly at the desig- 
nated hour, a servant came with a note from his lordship, 
stating that the unpleasantness of the weather and the state 
of his health would prevent his fulfilling the appointment. 

The next day he had the delightful satisfaction of receiv- 
ing a letter from, home, and the pleasure of a visit from a 
New York acquaintance. In a letter to Mrs. Milnor, after 
the rambles of the day, he says, " You may well suppose, 
that in this wilderness of houses, I feel myself very much 
a stranger ; and if I did not anticipate a change, should 
scarcely be able, separated from all I hold most dear on 
earth, to keep up my spirits. But to-morrow I shall begin 
to deliver my letters of uatroduction, and I trust that, ere 
long, I shall have some with whom I may converse. My 
thoughts tend continually towards home, and the happiest 
day I shall know, if Providence permit me to see it, will be 
that in which I shall rejom my beloved family and congre- 
gation." 

" Thursday, April 22. — Keceived a note from the Rev. 
Mr. Brandram, inviting me to accompany him in Ins gig to 
the anniversary meeting of the Bromley and Beckenham 
Auxiliary Church Missionary Society. On account of my 
desire to deliver some of my letters of introduction to-day, I 
waited on Mr. Brandram, and endeavored to excuse myself; 
but he was urgent, and I concluded to acquiesce in his 
wishes. We reached the village of Bromley, in Kent, about 
12 o'clock, where I was introduced to Mr. Cater, the presi- 
dent of the society, the Rev. Mr. Bickersteth, one of the 
principal secretaries of the parent institution, and the com- 



MISSION TO ENaLAND. 283 

mittee of the society. The meeting was opened with prayer, 
and a concise but appropriate address by the president." 

After giving an account of the exercises, in which he 
took part, Dr. Mihior thus adverts to one of the charitable 
institutions of the place. 

" I was shown, at Bromley, an establishment for the 
support of forty clergymen's widows. The object is excel- 
lent, but there are many reasons for believingf that the 
money annually expended m this way would be better laid 
out in annuities to the objects of the charity, leaving their 
places of residence to their ov\^n option. What I had seen 
of an institution for the support of poor widows in America, 
convinced me of the inexj^ediency of congregating them into 
one family ; and on inquiry, I found that this widows' 
house was not free from, the same jealousies, slanders, and 
strife, which I knew to have existed ui the one referred to 
at home." 

" In the evenmg, Mr. Brandram, Mr. Cater, and two or 
three other gentlemen, with myself, dined by invitation at 
the seat of Mr. Inglis. The situation is beautiful, the man- 
sion spacious and elegant, the furniture in the first fashion, 
the grounds finely improved, and the whole establishment 
excelled by few in the country. It may be supposed that 
the entertainment was in correspondence with the place. 
It was indeed far too sumptuous. Mr. Inglis had been taken 
ill the day before, and was unable either to attend the meet- 
ing, or to join us at dmner ; but his partner, a lady of veiy 
affable and unassuming manners, manifested a great desire 
for the happiness of his guests, which, besides those already 
mentioned, consisted of ten ladies, most of whom had at- 
tended the meeting, and as Mr. Brandram informed me, 
were 4ecidedly pious. It was pleasant to find the conversa- 
tion taking very easily a religious turn, and the sentiments 
of the company harmonizing so agreeably on the several 
subjects which were mtroduced. 

" I accompanied Mr. Brandram to his house at Black- 



284 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

heath, four miles from Bromley, where I lodged ; and in the 
morning, we returned to London in the Blaekheath coach." 

"Friday, April 23. — Went out and delivered princi- 
pally such sealed letters as I had brought with me from 
New York." 

" Saturday, April 24. — I was employed till eleven o'clock 
this morning in business connected with the objects of my 
visit to England. At that hour, I for the first time mounted 
the top of a coach, and proceeded to visit my friends Dr. and 
Mrs. Parker, at Woolwich. On our arrival we received a 
hearty welcome. They proposed to me a walk through the 
grounds enclosed within the barracks. Some of the scenery 
is very pleasing, being m sight of the Thames, on which a 
great number of vessels are constantly moving, and the build- 
ings and walls being so disposed as, united with a stream of 
water here formed into a lake, to give a fine effect to the 
whole landscape. Within tliis enclosure are many curious 
things — among them, an immense gun, taken from one of 
the conquered nabobs in India ; the hearse, brought from St. 
Helena, on which Napoleon was conveyed to his grave ; and 
A^arious trophies of victories gained over the French in the 
last war of Great Britain with that country. On the plain, 
in a peculiarly fine situation, stands the marquee under which 
the Prince Regent gave a banquet to Alexander, Emperor of 
Russia, the Emperor of Austria, etc., when on their visit to 
England. It was removed to this place from the grounds ui 
the rear of the palace of St. James', London, where the enter- 
tainment was given ; and, having had its sides enclosed, 
forms a large and beautiful circular room for models of mili- 
tary implements, curious armor, etc. There was not time 
tp visit half the curiosities of this canvas-covered room ; for 
such is the material of which its roof is composed. • This 
apparently slight structure is rendered entirely impervious to 
the rain, and beautifully ornamented within by ribs of heavy 
gilded cord. On my return to London, I found I had been 
called upon by the secretary of the Wesley ah Missionary 



MISSION TO ENaLAND. 285 

Society, and the secretary of the British and Foreign Seamen 
and Soldiers' Friend Society ; who had severally left docu- 
ments of their respective institutions. 

" Sunday, April 25. — Tliis m.orning, when I awoke, the 
sun shone brilliantly mto my chamber, and my heart was at 
once raised to my heavenly Protector m thanksgiving for the 
sweet refreshment wliich I felt from my night's repose, and 
for his mercy in sparing me to awake in health to the light 
of my second Sabbath in England, and my first in this great 
city ; with earnest entreaty that I may be enabled suitably 
to improve its privileges, and that it may be made a day of 
special blessing to my dear people of St. George's. 

"11, A. M. — Attended the church of St. Mary-le-bow, 
commonly called the Bow church, Cheapside, where the 
anniversary sermon for the benefit of ' The City of London 
National Schools,' was preached by the E-t. E,ev. Charles 
James Blomfield, bishop of London, The lord-mayor, a ven- 
erable-looking old gentleman, very much resembhng Col. 
Fish, of New York, with the recorder, the two sherifis, etc., 
etc., attended in full costume. The bishop is a pleasing, but 
not very forcible preacher. He uses no action whatever, 
but his enunciation is very clear and correct, his manner 
solemn, and his whole delivery without the least ostentation. 
His sermon was without division, destitute of all figure, plain, 
practical, and evangehcal. 

" In the afternoon, I went to St. Stephen's, Wallbrook, 
and heard the Rev. Mr. Brandram preach in this beautiful 
church to a congregation of not more than a hundred persons 
besides Sunday-school children. A principal cause of this 
smalhiess of the congregation, is the situation of the church 
in a parish filled with merchants' counting and ware houses, 
whose residences are generally in the country. The church 
is one of the works of Sir Christopher Wren, and is said to be 
his masterpiece. 

•' At half past 6, I went to the evening services of the 
church of St. Bride's, Fleet-street, another of the works of 



286 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

the same architect. All the pews and aisles were filled witk 
a congregation attracted by the preaching of the evening 
lecturer, the Rev. Mr. Denharn, a young man of great piety 
and very engaging elocution, who was appointed to the office 
by the present bishop of London. His lordship, since liis 
accession to the see, has done essential service to the cause 
of evangelical piety in the city, by bestowing three lecture- 
ships upon able, spiritual young ministers. Mr. Denham's 
tones and cadences are very pleasing ; his diction little orna- 
mented, but perspicuous and impressive ; and his thoughts 
those of a mind apparently holdmg habitual intercourse with 
heaven. More energy and warmth in the delivery of his 
sermons ivould, I think, be looked for in our country, in order 
to give a preacher so large a measure of popularity as Mr. 
Denham here enjoys. 

" This has been the first day entirely without rain since 
my arrival in England." 

" Monday, April 26. — Arose before 5 o'clock. An old 
drone of a watchman is crying the hour under my window, 
while I am shaving, by the light, not of a candle, but of the 
broad day." 

" Passed a portion of the morning in reading and writing ; 
and then employed myself in delivering sealed packages and 
letters committed to my charge. Was able this morning to 
complete the delivery of all the communications brought with 
me for public institutions. I attended at noon the stated 
meeting of the committee of the British and Foreign Bible 
Society. I was introduced by Mr. Brandram, and received 
in the most cordial and affectionate manner. I made a com- 
munication of the objects of my mission ; my credentials 
were then read ; and after some remarks from Mr. J. Wilson, 
chairman pro tem., expressive of the feelings of the com- 
mittee at this mark of affection and respect from the Amer- 
ican society, they proceeded to the reading and consideration 
of their annual report. I remained till near two o'clock, 
when I was conducted to the stated meeting of the com- 



MISSION TO ENG-LAND. 28'J 

mittee of the Churcli Missionary Society in Salisbury-square, 
by whom I was very kindly received. With this committee, 
who were also occupied on their annual report, I remained 
until the close of their session. 

"At 5 o'clock I dined, by invitation, with Counsellor 
Harriot, Glueen's-square, Bloomsbury, who was and still is 
one of Bishop Chase's warmest English friends, and one of 
the trustees of the fund raised in this country for the benefit 
of Kenyon College, Ohio. The college, and the interests of 
rehgion and learning in the western parts of the United 
States, formed prominent subjects of conversation. Among 
other topics, however, Mr. Marriot himself introduced that 
of temperance ; with the measures for promoting wliich im- 
portant object he was considerably acquainted. He thought 
them very intimately connected with the well-being of soci- 
ety, not mierely through the moral reformation at which they 
immediately aim, but through the increased influence of true 
religion, which they promote by the removal of one of the 
principal hinderances to its advancement. On my mention- 
ing that I had found the subject in some instances, since my 
arrival m England, rather coldly received even by serious 
people, I was pleased to learn from Mr. Heap, that a society 
had actually been formed in his neighborhood at Bradford, 
under encouraging auspices ; and that already, under the 
influence of its proceedings, they were enabled to rejoice in 
the apparent reformation of several habitual drunkards. 

''Tuesday, April 27. — At 8 o'clock this morning, I 
attended by invitation the weekly meeting of the committee 
of ' The Religious Tract Society ' m Paternoster-row, and 
breakfasted with them. At the request of the chairman, I 
oflered prayer ; after which a blessing was asked, and busi- 
ness immediately proceeded simultaneously Avith their simple 
meal, consisting of a cup of black tea only, with bread and 
butter, I communicated to the committee the resolutions of 
the American Tract Society appointing me their delegate to 
London ; and made a short address on the subject. Nothing 



288 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

could be more satisfactory than the maimer in which these 
were received, or more kind than the expressions of the 
chairman and of several of the members of this respectable 
board. 

"At 11 o'clock, I went to St. Bartholomew's church, 
near the Exchange, for the purpose of hearing the stated 
weekly lecture of an aged minister, the Rev. Mr. Wilkinson, 
who has preached this Tuesday morning lecture for the last 
twenty-seven years. He is a man of small stature, of very 
venerable appearance, and near eighty years of age. His 
voice is rather weak; but the deep silence observed by a 
crowded congregation during the delivery of his sermon, 
enabled me, though seated near the entrance of the church, 
to hear him distinctly. He read his text from a small Bible, 
and without spectacles ; and preached with great vivacity of 
mamier for three-quarters of an hour, and entirely without 
notes. The sermon was for the benefit of the charity-school 
of the parish, in which are instructed fifty boys and thirty 
girls. These are clothed, and furnished with books ; taught 
the elements of English, with needlework, etc., to the girls ; 
and when of proper age, bound apprentices to trades or to 
service. A handbill stated that between two and three 
thousand children had received the benefit of this charity. 
The pupils sat in the capacious chancel of the church ; were 
very clean, and neat, and healthful in their appearance ; and 
sang very sweetly an appropriate hymn." 

" Mr. Wilkinson is a very thorough-going Calvinist. He 
is, I am told, one of the few remaining pupils of old Mr. 
Romaine, who, in the early part of his ministry, was said to 
be the only living and avowedly Calvinistic minister in the 
Church of England. It would seem that many of its pres- 
ent members in London do not disrelish the system of the 
Genevan reformer ; for not only were all the pews of St. 
Bartholomew's to-day completely filled, but the aisles also 
were crowded ; and I understand this is constantly the case, 
though the church stands in the very throng of business, and 



MISSION TO ENaLAND. 289 

the hours of service are those of its greatest press. The 
occupants of the pews were of very respectable appearance ; 
those m the aisles, of the poorer class ; and the whole exhib- 
ited the aspect of great seriousness and devotion. 

" At the close of the service, I conversed with Mr. Poyn- 
der, one of the committee of the Bible Society, and an emi- 
nent solicitor, v/ho told me that, whenever it was possible 
for him to leave his business, he did not fail to be one of Mr. 
Wilkinson's hearers at this lecture ; and that he always found 
himself edified and comforted by his instructions." 

Having been waited on "by two of the secretaries of the 
Wesleyan Missionary Society," with a request from their 
committee that he would make one of the addresses at their 
anniversary on the Monday following, and also breakfast 
with the committee at the Mission house, Hatton Garden, 
on Friday ; he " spent the remauider of the evening in 
making some preparation for his expected engagements next 
week." 

He spent the next day in busmess engagements at his 
lodgings, and at the Bible Society's house ; ui visiting the 
Rev. Samuel Charles Wilks, editor of the Christian Observer ; 
and in dining with the E-ev. Mr. Woodruffe, of Cumberland 
TerrEice, Regent's Park. In speaking of the dinner at Mr. 
Woodruffe' s, he characterizes the hostess as " a pious Vv-oman 
of fine mmd," who, " in the course of some religious discus- 
sion, displayed much acquamtance with the sacred Scrip- 
tures, and an intimate laiowledge of the doctrines of Christi- 
anity." He adds, " After tea, at the request of Mr. and Mrs. 
Woodruffe, I rea,d and expounded a portion of Scripture, and 
prayed ; the servants of the family being first called into the 
dming-room." This mode of closing social entertainments 
presents a feature in the liighest religious circles of England, 
ivhich is almost as common as it is interesting. Society in 
this country is highly imitative of that hi Europe, but un- 
happily we copy its worst, more frequently than its best 
peculiarities. 

Meui. MUnor. ] 3 



290 MEMOm OF DR. MILNOR. 

The next day, till a late hour, he spent in business, and 
closes his note for the day by saying, 

" I was surprised to-day by the receipt of a letter from 
my dear friend and brother, the Rev. C. P. Mcllvaine, of 
Brooklyn, informing me, that on account of indisposition, he 
was to sail for England on the 8th of the present month. 
While I lament the cause that brmgs him from home, I shall 
rejoice to have with me such a friend and coadjutor in my 
mission, and such a companion in my travels. I shall now 
be looking for him daily. The Lord send him safely to my 
embraces." 

Friday, April 30. — At breakfast this morning at the 
Methodist Missionary house, Hatton-garden, he met several 
of the leading ministers of the Methodist church, and " spent 
nearly two hours very agreeably and profitably with those 
intelligent and pious men ;" during which, after the reading 
of the Scriptures by one of the company, and prayer by him- 
self, " an interesting conversation ensued, in which many 
inquiries were made respecting the state of religion in the 
United States, especially m regard to the progress of Popery 
and of TJnitarianism, of wliich," he adds, "I think they had 
received exaggerated accounts." 

After breakfast, he " attended the stated meeting of the 
committee of the Prayer-book and Homily Society. The 
committee," he says, " received me with great respect and 
kindness. Mr. Pritchett, secretary of the Society, then went 
with me to Freemasons' Hall, where the Irish Society of 
London were holding their anniversary. The object of this 
society is the education of the Irish through the medium of 
their own language. 

" The Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, Dr. Ryder, was 
in the chair, supported by the Bishop of Chester and by Lord 
Harrowby. I staid until I had heard two long and impas- 
sioned speeches from the Rev. Messrs. Daly and Beamish, 
two of the clergy of the established church m Ireland. 

" In the evening I went to Poultry chapel, Cheapside, to 



MISSION TO ENaLAND. 291 

hear an anniversary sermon for the Hibernian Society for 
estabhshing schools and circulating the holy Scriptures in 
Ireland. The society supports at present 950 day-schools 
and 400 Sunday-schools, containing together upwards of 
76,000 scholars, at an expense each of about three sliillings 
sterlmg per annum. It distributed last year 22,966 Bibles 
and Testaments ; and, since its institution in 1806, has cir- 
culated 230,000. It also employed 67 persons as scripture 
readers. With such claims to public patronage, I was sur- 
prised to see a very thin congregation." 

The next day, Saturday, May 1, Dr. Milnor spent in 
sight-seeing ; but, as he indulged sparingly in this amuse- 
ment, and gave but slight accounts of what he saw, his 
record for the day may be omitted, savmg its concluding 
paragraph : " Spent the evening in the retirement of my 
little parlor, in duties preparatory to those of the sanctuary 
to-morrow." 



SECTION II. 

"We now come to the week of the principal anniversaries 
in London ; and will give a condensed outline of the engage 
ments which it brought upon Dr. Milnor. He had already 
attended the preparatory meetings of the committees of all 
the leading societies, and was favorably known to most of 
the actors in the stirring scenes on which he was about to 
enter : scenes in which are brought together larger and 
denser masses of Christian life, where is felt a more vitally 
organized and intensely beating heart of Christian faith and 
feeling, and whence are sent forth more powerful and far- 
reacliing pulsations of Christian benevolence and activity, 
than are to be found elsewhere within the sphere of evangel- 
ical operations. 

The first anniversary, Monday, May 3, was that of the 



292 MEMOIE, OF DR. MILNOR. - 

VYesleyan Missionary Society. " The Rt. Hon. the Earl of 
Mountcashel presided. As I went to the vestry-room," 
fays Dr. Mihior, " half an hour before the commencement of 
the exercises, and his lordship arrived soon after, I was intro- 
duced to him, and was much pleased with the pious charac- 
ter of his conversation. He was plainly dressed, with no 
decoration to distinguish him frorh a commoner. His man- 
ner was perfectly friendly and familiar, and his sentiments 
those of an experimental Christian. In the course of the 
conversation, he spoke of a motion which he intended to bring 
forward to-morrow in the House- of Lords, of which he had 
given notice, for an inquiry into the income of the bishops. 
He stated that his object was, not the abduction of any part 
of its property from the church, but the ascertainment of the 
actual revenues of the bishops, with which none but them 
selves were acquainted ; and, where the amount was unrea- 
sonably large, its reduction to a more moderate but still gen- 
erous support ; the surplus to be appropriated to the increase 
of the salaries of the poorly provided, hard-working clergy. 
He seemed not to expect present success, but hoped to 
awaken parliamentary attention to the subject, and event- 
ually to get something done. He expected opposition both 
from the bishops and from the radicals : from the bishops, 
because they wanted nothing done, and from the radicals, 
because they wished to do more than he proposed." 

When the hour for the exercises arrived, he " opened the 
meeting with an address of a very catholic spirit, and evm- 
cive of a mind imbued with much spiritual feelmg. His 
manner was by no means graceful, and his utterance very 
hesitating ; yet his sentiments were so eiithely consonant 
with the object of the meeting, and the whole address so 
replete with frank and unafiected Christian kindness, that it 
was followed by a universal burst of applause." 

After a glowing account of the various speeches delivered 
on the occasion, and a very modest allusion to his own, he 
thus concludes his narrative for the day : 



MISSION TO ENGLAND. k,93 

" I was never present at so animated a public meeting 
But the cries of ' hear him, hear him,' the clapping of hands^ 
and knockmof of the floor with umbrellas and canes, within 
a place of worship, sounded rather oddly to ears unaccustom- 
ed to such expressions of feeling. 

" At the close of the meeting, I went to dine with Mr. 
Haslope, treasurer of the society, at Highbury Lodge, Ishng- 
ton. His residence is in the most beautiful part of the environs 
of London which I have yet seen. His lodge, as it is termed, 
is a spacious three-story house, of four rooms on a floor, situ- 
ated within an enclosure of eight or ten acres, with gardens, 
lawns, hot-house, etc. The arrangements of the house and 
table, and the dress of the females of the family, are some- 
what beyond the style common among the members of the 
Methodist society in America. Mr. Haslope, however, bears 
an excellent religious character, and his family attend in part 
the established church, having accommodations in the parish 
church of Islington, of which that distinguished mmister, the 
Rev. Daniel Wilson, is vicar. 

"Tuesday, May 4. — Attended the anniversary of 'The 
Church Missionary Society,' at Freemasons' Hall. It was 
full to overflowing ; and the assemblage of ladies and gentle- 
men presented a very imposmg appearance. The Rt. Hon. 
Lord Ganibier in the chair. 

" His lordship opened the meeting with a short address, 
and then read from the Bible one of the psalms, as peculiarly 
expressive of the feehngs of gratitude which should now 
animate every heart. Mr. Bickersteth followed by oflering 
a prayer, copies of which had been distributed through the 
meeting." 

Various resolutions were, as usual, oflered and seconded. 
Dr. Milncr's speech was in seconding the resolution offered 
by the Bishop of "Winchester. The following is his modest 
allusion to it : 

" I was honored with an invitation to second the resolu- 
tion. My reception was umiieritedly kuid ; and though I so 



294 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

far transgressed as to extend my remarks to three-quarters 
of an hour, yet I was constantly encouraged to proceed ; and 
when I concluded with an apology for their length, it was 
answered by a cry, ' No, no, not too long,' and an alarming 
volley of applause. I received it as a strong evidence of 
English courtesy towards a stranger, and of respect towards 
the country from which I came." 

At the close of this day's account, he remarks, " This 
was to me a very interesting meeting. I confess I liked the 
sober dignity and comparative silence by which it was char- 
acterized, better than the more violent expression of feeling 
witnessed yesterday." 

We may judge of the deep interest of the meeting by the 
feeUng which, even at this later day, arises in the mind at 
the mention of the great fact in the history of English mis- 
sions, referred to in the following paragraphs of Dr. Milnor's 
account : a fact then for the first time proclaimed, with all 
its newly thrilling power, in the ear of Christian England. 

The Bishop of Chester "was followed by Thos. Fowell 
Buxton, Esq., M. P., a large, fine-looking man, of command- 
ing eloquence. The recent abolition of the Suttee, or 
burning of widows in India, formed a princip^il topic of his 
speech ; in the course of which he paid a compliment to Mr, 
Solicitor Poynder, as a chief instrument in effecting that 
humane and excellent measure, for which the labors of mis- 
sionaries had previously prepared the way. It was, he said, 
Mr. Poynder's persevering and able exertions with the Board 
of Directors (of the East India Company,) that led to the 
final abolition of a practice so abominable as to have been an 
increasing disgrace to the government which allowed it, every 
day that its existence had continued. 

" As soon as Mr. Buxton sat down, Mr. Poynder arose 
for the purpose, he said, of disclaiming all personal merit in 
the pleasing transaction referred to, and of making a public 
acknowledgment to Almighty God for the support of his 
Holy Spirit, in the discharge of an incumbent duty ; and ho 



MISSION TO ENGLAND. 295 

called upon all present to give glory to God for the singular 
and unexpected success with wliich that discharge of duty- 
had been attended." 

After the exercises of the day, he went, at six o'clock, to 
dine with Mr. Solicitor Forster, at his house, Cumberland 
Terrace, Regent's Park. " The evening," he says, " was 
passed very agreeably, the conversation being entirely of a 
religious character, and the ladies sustaining their part in it 
in a way alike evmcive of deep interest in the various topics 
which it embraced, and of much acquaintance with them. 
I like exceedingly the practice which I find prevalent at these 
late dinners, of the gentlemen, soon after the retirement of 
the ladies, leaving the dinner-table for the drawing-room ; 
and still more, that of closing the evening, before the separa- 
tion of the company, by religious exercises." 

We reach now the most important of the great London 
anniversaries, to attend which had been the moving-spring 
of Dr. Milnor's mission to England ; we therefore give his 
account of it entire. 

"Wednesday, May o. — This day was held the amiiver- 
sary of the British and Foreign Bible Society, m Freema- 
sons' Hall. 

" No ladies are admitted at this meeting. The room 
was exceedmgly crowded with gentlemen, including a very 
large body of clergy, with many noblemen and persons of 
distinction in society. The president, Lord Teignmouth, 
was prevented by indisposition from attending. Lord Bex- 
ley occupied his place, and opened the meeting with a short 
address, m wliich he felicitated the meetmg on the continued 
prosperity of this great institution, and on the spiritual bless- 
ings which it was shedding on the world. 

" The Bishop of Winchester moved the adoption of the 
report, after an abstract of it had been read by the secretary, 
Mr. Brandram. He spoke about ten minutes, and was fol- 
lowed by Lord Calthorpe for about the same space of time. 

" The Bishop of Chester moved the second resolution 



296 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

His address occupied a quarter of an hour, and was seconded 
by Mr. Wilberforce, in a speech of great interest, delivered 
with as much animation as hLs wasted frame and now feeble 
voice would admit. 

" I was then introduced to the meeting as a delegate 
from the American Bible Society, and was received Vv^ith 
greetings of a kind that almost overpowered me. I made 
my communication, however, as well as I could, in an ad- 
dress of thirty-five minutes ; and had reason to be very 
grateful for the aflectionate manner in which it was received, 
and for the many kind notices of the society which I repre- 
sented, and of our beloved country, which several of the 
subsequent speakers took occasion to introduce. The prev- 
alent sentiment seemed to be, that a friendly communication 
and harmonious cooperation between the great national relig- 
ious institutions of the two countries, besides the effect upon 
their immediate objects, would have a most salutary influ- 
ence in preserving that friendship, wliich it was so much 
the political as well as the moral interest of both to preserve 
and cherish. 

" The Hon. Charles Grant, M. P., whose standing in the 
national legislature is of the highest order, and whose pat- 
ronage of religious institutions has been so able and long 
continued, seconded the motion of thanks to Lord Teign- 
mouth, with which I had been charged. He is a charming 
speaker, and merits my grateful acknowledgments for the 
obliging manner in which he adverted to my mission. 

" The E,ev. Daniel Wilson, who had been to Paris and 
attended the anniversary of ' The Protestant Bible Society,' 
gave an account of the meeting, and of the state of religion 
in France. 

" The Hon. Charles G. Shore, son of Lord Teignmouth, 
in a short address, acknowledged the society's vote of thanks 
to his venerable father. 

" The E-ev. Mr. Dixon, a Wesleyan Methodist minister 
from Ireland, next addressed the meeting in a speech of sin- 



MISSION TO ENOLAND. 297 

gular vehemence of manner and of great originality and 
point, 

" I should have mentioned, that after Mr. Grant, that 
aged minister of Christ, Rowland Hill, who, if he has been 
noted for singularity, will be remembered and respected by 
posterity for liis long-contmued and useful services to religion, 
made what he expected would be his last speech before this 
society. It partook of the peculiar manner by which his 
public communications have been distinguished, and was 
received with great applause. 

" The treasurer, Mr. Thornton; the Dean of Salisbury; 
Mr. Newman, a lay gentleman from Ireland ; and Sir Thomas 
Bloomfield, each made a short address. The motion of the 
last was a vote of thanks to Lord Bexley, wliich was sup- 
ported by an address from the Bishop of Lichfield and Cov- 
entry. The latter had been prevented by indisposition from 
coming to the meeting till near its close. With scarcely an 
exception, the whole audience remained without the least 
evidence of impatience, until it broke up, near five o'clock, 
P.M. 

" Lord Bexley, in acknowledging the vote of thanks to 
himself, just before the meeting was dismissed, referred, in 
a manner exceedingly respectful and kmd, to America, to its 
Bible Society, and to my mission and address. Immediately 
afterwards, he approached me with eagerness, seized my 
hand, and observing that he needed no introduction, for my 
address had made us friends already, invited me to dine with 
him on Wednesday next. I was then introduced to each of 
the bishops who had been speakers on the occasion, and to 
a large number of clergy and laity ; and amid a hundred 
English hands stretched out to greet me as a visitor to their 
country, I felt deeply thankful for the favor which the cause 
I came to advocate procured me. Never will the scenes of 
this day fade from my memory. 

" At half past six, dined with Mr. Williams, M. P. for 
the county of Devon, where he has a splendid seat. He is 



% 



298 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

a banker, and his town residence is one of the most elegant 
in Grosvenor-square, and the most richly embelhshed and 
furnished of any house which I have entered since my arrival 
in London. There were eight liveried servants in attendance 
on a dinner-party, which consisted of about twenty, one-half 
at least ladies. In this respect, I observe a diflerence be- 
tween New York and London ; the females, on such an oc- 
casion as this, bearing a much greater proportion to the 
gentlemen, on this side of the Atlantic. Mr. and Mrs. Will- 
iams are professors of religion in the established church ; 
and Mrs. Williams bears the c^iaracter of a deeply spiritual 
Christian, to whom a less splendid style of living would be 
far more agreeable. Her manners are very courteous, though 
unassuming, and wholly free from all fasliionable aflectation ; 
and the company, Mr. Phillips assured me, were all profess- 
edly pious. The only clergj^men present, besides myself, 
were Mr. Phillips, and Mr. Grimshawe, author of the life of 
the lamented Legh Richmond, with whom I had previously 
become acquainted, and whose character and conversation 
are in consonance with the spirit which pervades liis inter- 
esting miemoir. 

" The conversation at dinner sUd very easily into a rehg- 
ious channel, and was agreeably maintained durmg the even- 
ing. Soon after the ladies had retired to the drawing-room, 
we were mvited to follow them, and found there some acces- 
sion to their number. After tea and coffee, the servants 
placed on a large circular table in the centre of the room a 
Bible and a number of hymn-books, sufficient to supply the 
company. A hymn was then sung, accompanied by Miss 
Williams on the piano ; after which Mr. Phillips read a 
chapter, expounded, and prayed. This was a pleasant sequel 
to the enlivening duties of the day ; and if I retired under 
Siome fatigue of body to my rest — the walk to my lodgings 
being long — it was with a grateful sense of the kindness 
shown me by the friends of religion, to whose acquaintance 
this visit to England has already introduced me, and with 






MISSION TO ENaLAND. 290 

prayer for God's continued support in the duties still be- 
fore me." 

At 8 o'clock on Thursday morning, Dr. Milnor attended 
by invitation a clerical breakfast in Sackville-street, in one 
of the large rooms of an edifice used for business offices by 
several of the benevolent societies. Near one hundred of 
the clergy of the established church were present, besides 
several laymen of distinction : Lord Mount Sandford, Sir 
Thomas Baring, Col. Phipps, Capt. Gambler, and others. 
The brealdast was as usual a plain meal, and was followed 
by the customary reHgious exercises, the Rev. Daniel Wilson 
presiding. In the religious exercises, parts were borne by 
the Rev. Mr. Stewart of Liverpool, the Rev. President, the 
Dean of Salisbury, the Rev. Mr. Beamish, and Dr. Milnor. 
"At the conclusion of this very solemn and interestmg ser- 
vice, the hour had arrived for the assembhng of two anni- 
versary meetings : that of ' The Religious Tract Society's 
General Western Meeting,' and that of ' The Prayer-Book 
and Homily Society.' " 

By appointment, Dr. Milnor went first to the Tract So- 
ciety's anniversary, where the Marquis of Cholmondeley pre- 
sided ; and where the exercises partook of the customary 
interest of the occasion. In an address of five and twenty 
minutes, Dr. Milnor " endeavored to comply with an intima- 
tion given by the committee of tliis society, as had been done 
by most of the others, by furnishing all the mformation in 
his power as to the operations, and their results, of Idndred 
institutions in the United States." 

"Soon after I sat down," he proceeds, "I received a 
message from the committee of the Prayer-Book and Homily 
Society, urgently requesting my attendance at Freemasons' 
Hall. Accordingly, I stepped into a coach, which they had 
sent for me ; and on my arrival, found the president, Lord 
Bexley, in the chair, supported by the Bishops of Chester 
and Winchester, and several pious noblemen. Several speak- 
ers had addressed the meeting before I entered. Captain. 



300 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOE. 

Gambler and the Uev. Daniel Wilson spoke immediately 
afterwards. 

" I was then called up, and was graciously supported in 
an address, in a great degree unpremeditated ; wherein I 
dAvelt on the value of the liturgy as a vehicle of devotion, 
and as a bulwark against error ; and upon tlie homilies, as 
an admirable illustration of the evangelical doctrines of the 
articles of our church. I noticed also the attachment of the 
American Episcopal church to the liturgy, as evinced in the 
recent general disapprobation of certain alterations which 
had been proposed ; while at the same time I paid the re- 
spect justly due to the motives of the very distinguished 
prelate with whom those proposed alterations originated. 
The Bishop of Winchester was pleased to express himself 
very kindly towards me and the remarks which I had made ; 
and supposing my address to have been written and com- 
mitted to memory, he afterwards sent me a message by the 
Rev. Mr. E-aikes, requesting me to allow of its separate 
publication in a pamphlet form, which I very respectfully 
declmed." 

This reference to his address before the Prayer-Book and 
Homily Society is important, as we shall hereafter see, in con- 
sequence of the unhappy controversy to which the report ol 
his remarks led, between Bishop Hobart and himself. 

Dr. Milnor dined to-day with Mr. Bickersteth, at Isling- 
ton, in company with . several pious and literary men. Of 
his host and some of the guests on this occasion, he thus 
writes : " Mr. Bickersteth, who has rendered such essential 
service to the Church Missionary Society, is about resigning 
his secretaryship, having accepted the rectorship of the par- 
ish of Watton, in Hertfordsliire. He is one of the most 
excellent of men, uniting respectable talents with a truly 
Christian spirit. It is only necessary to know him in order 
to admire and love him. Mr. Pratt, son of the Rev. Josiah 
Pratt, is curate to his father, a modest and unassuming young 
man, of disposition and feeling entirely in harmony with those 



MISSION TO ENGLAND. 301 

of his estimable parent. Mr. F. Cunningham, brother of the 
author of The Yelvet Cushion, is a man of talents, and one 
of the most exemplary ministers of the establishment in the 
laborious discharge of all the duties of his station. He is 
among those whose acquaintance I have considered one of 
"the most pleasing gratifications of my visit to London." 

On Friday, Dr. Milnor's engagements were at another 
clerical breakfast, given at Freemasons' Tavern, the Rev. 
Mr. Hawtrey presiding ; at the anniversary of " The London 
Society for promoting Christianity among the Jews," Sir 
Thomas Baring m the chair ; and at dinner with Mr. Hatcli- 
ard the bookseller, at Clapham. The evening was spent 
and closed in the usual Christian way ; after which Dr. 
Milnor went with his friends Mr. and Mrs. Gilhat, and spent 
the night at their house, about a mile from. Clapham. 

How delightful must it have been, after so many days of 
incessant and intense mental excitement amid the crowded 
throngs of the city, to awake, as he did, on the morning of 
Saturday, May 8, between five and six o'clock, and find 
himself in the sweet, still country, with " the weather de- 
lightfully balmy and refreshing, the birds gayly carolluig 
their matins, and the whole landscape covered with the 
greenest verdure of spring." " I took a walk," he writes, 
" through Mr. Gilliat's beautiful grounds ; and being soon 
joined by him, our conversation took a direction in conso- 
nance with the evidences of divine beneficence exhibited in 
the charming scene before us. I found Mr. GilHat's senti- 
ments on spiritual subjects such as, under the blessing of 
God, are usually produced on minds having the advantage 
of so faithful a ministry as that on which he has from his 
youth attended. Our conversation was reluctantly ended 
by the amiouncement of breakfast ; before which, however, 
I read and commented on one of the Psalms, and prayed 
with the assembled family." 

Returning to the city after brealdast, he learned that his 
friend Mcllvaine had reached London, and taken lodgings at 



302 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

the same hotel with himself. But as his friend was out on 
a morning walk, and as he was himself under an engage- 
ment to be at Blackheath, six miles distant, to attend, at 
12 o'clock, the anniversary of the Branch Bible Society of 
that eastern suburb, he was compelled to defer, till his re- 
turn, a meeting with one so recently from home. 

At the Blackheath anniversary, Lord Bexley presided ; 
and after the reading of the report, " several addresses were 
delivered," among which Avas one by Dr. Milnor. His anx- 
iety to see his friend Mcllvaine led him to solicit and obtain 
a release from an engagement to spend the night with Dr. 
Parker at Woolwich, and the Sabbath following with Mr. 
Symonds, at Paul's-Cray. He was therefore soon in London 
again, rejoicing in the safe arrival of his friend, and in the 
"many letters of a cheering character from family and 
friends" which he had brought from home ; though grieved 
to find the health of that friend so much impaired by the 
complaint which induced him to visit England. 

" Sunday, May 9. — My breakfast this mornmg was taken 
with increased thankfulness, being enlivened by the company 
of my beloved brother, who is, blessed be God, better in 
health than he was last night. After breakfast, we united 
in rendering praise to God for his goodness, and in suppli- 
cating his continued favor ; and just before going to public 
worship, we again knelt to ask a blessing on the duties of 
the day, and the special favor of Almighty God upon our 
respective families and congregations." 

They attended morning service at St. Stephen's, Cole- 
man-street, and heard a charity sermon by Dr. Ryder, 
Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry ; and evening service at 
the venerable church of St. Ann's, Blackfriars, " where 
Mr. E-omaine so long endured the opprobrium of faithfully 
and ably teaching and enforcmg, as the sine qua non of a 
right behef of the gospel of Jesus Christ," that very doctrine 
of justification by faith which formed the subject of this 
afternoon's disco\irse. Dr. Milnor remarks, in his journal, 



MISSION TO ENGLAND. 303 

that Mr. Clemenson, the afternoon lecturer, " prayed ex- 
temporaneously both before and after sermon." 

At night they walked to " St. Martm's-in-the-Fields" — 
the fields having now become a wilderness of houses — 
where they heard an excellent discourse from a young cler- 
gyman, the E.ev. Mr. Harnage, who was evening lecturer 
there at that time. And then " they returned home, read 
together a portion of the word of God, prayed, and retired 
to rest." 

So ended with Dr. Milnor the first week of the London 
amiiversaries for the year 1830 ; a week which brought 
him into personal and profitable acquaintance with many 
of the noblest citizens of Christ's true kingdom upon earth, 
and set the buds of many a holy friendship, which will be 
bloommg and fragrant for ever amid the better airs of that 
kingdom in heaven. 

During the week, on the active engagements of wliich 
he now entered, he attended the following anniversaries : 
that of " The Port of London and Bethel Union Society," 
Monday, May 10, the Rt. Hon. Lord Gambier presiding; 
that of " The Sunday-school Union" on Tuesday, George 
Bennet, Esq., in the chair; that of "The Naval and Mili- 
tary Bible Society," the same day. Lord Lorton in the chair ; 
that of "The London Missionary Society" on Thursday; 
that of " The Religious Tract Society" on Friday, the Hon. 
Mr. Erskine presiding; that of " The Society for promoting 
the principles of the Ueformation," the same day. Lord Vis- 
count Mandeville ui the chair ; and that of " The Anti- 
Slavery Society" on Saturday, Mr. Wilberforce in the chair. 
Dr. Milnor was among, the speakers on Monday, before the 
Port of London and Bethel Union ; on Tuesday, before the 
Sunday-school Union ; on Thursday, before the London 
Missionary Society ; and on Friday before the Society for 
promoting the principles of the Reformation. During the 
week, he also attended public breakfasts, accompanied by 
rehgious exercises, on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and 



304 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

Saturday ; while his dinner engagements were with Mr. 
Purvis, at Nottmgham Place, on Monday ; Hon. and Rev 
B. W. Noel, Walthamstow, on Tuesday ; Lord Bexley, at 
his city residence, on "Wednesday ; the Bishop of "Winches- 
ter, St. James' square, on Friday ; and Mr. Ewbank, of 
Peckham, on Saturday. 

It is needless to follow liim closely through these numer- 
ous engagements, so similar to those already noticed. A 
few extracts from his journal, however, may furnish an 
uiteresting illustration of his course through this busy week. 
Alluding to the religious exercises Avith which he was called 
to close the evening, after dinner at Mr. Purvis', he says, 

*' This manner of sanctifying social intercourse is both 
pleasing and profitable. Although I would always prefer 
being a hearer, yet the circumstance of my being a stranger 
often devolves on me the duty of conducting these rehgious 
exercises. My prayer is, that my unstudied and unpre- 
tending communications may be accompanied with a divine 
blessing ; so that, while unable publicly to preach the gos- 
pel, I may be an instrument of some good in tliis more pri- 
vate way." 

Of the anniversary of " The Naval and MiUtary Bible 
Society," he writes, " This was, on several accounts, one of 
the most interesting Bible society anniversaries which I 
have attended. It is a much older institution than the 
British and Foreign Bible Society itself; and a great pro- 
portion of its supporters are naval and military men. 

" I was urgently solicited to make an address at this meet- 
ing ; and consented to do so, provided my friend Mcllvaine 
did not previously arrive. In case of his seasonable arrival, 
I had a particular desire to devolve the duty on liim, from 
the circumstance more especially of his having held a pro- 
fessorship and chaplaincy at the military academy at "West 
Point. I was happy both in his arrival, and in his being 
well enough to speak. In his address, he gave an account, 
as far as was suitable for the occasion, of the work of grace 



MISSION TO ENaLAND. 305 

among the cadets wliich took place under his mmistry at 
West Pomt ; and the effect of his solemn and interesting 
narrative was very striking." 

The Hev. Baptist W. JSToel also made " a most eloquent 
address. A fine effect was produced hy so powerful a speech 
from a young clergyman, who justly enjoys a large portion 
of popular favor, and possesses talents admirably adapted to 
such a duty. Mr. Noel has the singular felicity of having 
associated with him in Christian feeUng four brothers, three 
of whom are in the ministry, and the fourth an officer in 
the navy, who made one of the previous addresses." 

" I can scarcely conceive of a more interesting spectacle 
than that of so large a body of gentlemen of the army and 
navy, associated with so much zeal in the benevolent and 
pious work of circulating the Bible among their destitute fel- 
low soldiers and seamen. An unusual spirit of evangelical 
piety distinguished their addresses. No faintheartedness oi 
equivocation was manifested in the avowal of their religious 
sentiments. Several expressly adverted to affecting circum- 
stances in their own religious experience, and declared their 
firm adherence to their beloved Saviour, and their determi- 
nation, through evil report and good report, to five to his 
glory. Every speech was full of fervor ; and several, alike 
excellent for display of fine talents, and a manifestation of 
ardent piety. That of Lieut. Rhind was characterized by 
a flow of delightful Christian thought, which his spirited 
delivery sent home with powerful interest to every heart." 

It is a sign of the importance attached to the army 
and navy in Great Britam, that at this anniversary, " notes 
were read from the Duke of Gloucester, and from the 
Archbishop of Canterbury, apologizing for unavoidable ab- 
sence." 

Dr. Milnor and his brother Mcllvaine " were much grat- 
ified with their visit" to the Rev. Mr. Noel at " his charm- 
ing residence at Walthamstow, seven miles from London, 
where they dined and spent the night" of Tuesday. Mr 



30G MEMOIE. OF DR. MILNOR. 

Noel's church in London, "St. John's chapel, Bedford- 
row," is the place where the celebrated Cecil and the 
present Bishop of Calcutta, Daniel "Wilson, formerly officia- 
ted. Alluding to Mr. Noel's residence in the country, Dr. 
Milnor writes, 

" I cannot but remark on the very inconvenient arrange- 
ment to which so many London clergymen subject them- 
selves, of having their family residences in the country at 
distances from three to ten miles. Mr. Noel's duties call 
him to the city almost every day ; and yet he subjects him- 
self to the trouble and loss of time unavoidably attendant 
on the arrangement, and that throughout the whole year. 
But the practice is more objectionable in another view, and 
that is, its injurious effect on the pastoral relation. This 
I found to be a frequent complamt among the laity. "Where 
they are perfectly satisfied with the public services of their 
ministers, they charge them with remissness in visiting, and 
express regret that they have so little religious intercourse 
with their pastors. In this respect, curates are less cen- 
sured than rectors ; but it certamly is one of the evils of the 
establishment, that the pastoral office is so feebly sustained 
by a great portion of its clergy, whose independence of their 
congregations allows them a license in neglecting their flocks 
which with us would soon lead to a separation. This cen- 
sure, however, by no means attaches, in all its extent, to 
those ministers whose hearts are in their work ; though 
many of these are apt to depend upon their assistants for 
the principal performance of the duty in question." 

The public "clerical breakfast" of Wednesday morning 
was "given by the Uev. Daniel Wilson, at the vicarage" of 
Islington, to " a party of about thirty clergj^men, and half 
that number of ladies ;" and the religious service which fol- 
lowed was in Mr. Wilson's " study," " a spacious room, with 
an uncommonly lofty ceiling, and having its walls lined with 
ranges of neatly constructed bookcases, containing a library 
of 6,000 volumes." The repast was closed by Mr. Wilson's 



MISSlOiNT TO EIsG-LA^^D. 307 

" giving- out a verse of thanksgiving, which was sung by 
the company standing. He then proposed that they should 
amuse themselves for fifteen minutes in his garden — a beau- 
tiful spot, and kept in the neatest order — and reassemble in 
his study" at the expiration of that time. 

The exercises m the study were opened with prayer ; 
continued in the discussion of certain topics suggested by 
the vicar, "with intervals for prayer and private medita- 
tion;" and closed as they opened — leaving an "impression 
on the minds of all, that their coming together had been for 
the better, and not for the worse." 

Mr. Wilson "proposed, as the first topic" for discussion, 
" The best means of obtaining correct views of the oniiid 
of the Sinrit^ as revealed in the sacred Scriptures ;'' and, 
" after a few explanatory remarks," called on Dr. Milnor, 
" wdthout any previous notice, to give his views upon the 
subject." " In the presence of so many gentlemen more 
competent than myself," he remarks, " I would willingly 
have been excused from this duty ; but understanding that 
it was not usual, at meetings such as this, to decline any 
required service, I proceeded to give such an answer to the 
inquiry as I was enabled to do on so sudden a request. 
Reading, as the basis of my remarks, a part of the second 
chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians, I suggested, 
and in an address of fifteen or twenty minutes, a little 
.enlarged upon the following means of obtaining the pro- 
posed end : 

"1. A competency of human learning. 

"2 A renewed heart. 

" 3. Close and patient study, ' comparing spiritual things 
with spiritual.' 

^* 4. Implicit submission of our imperfect reason to the 
clear discoveries of God in his holy word. 

"5. Reliance on the influences of the Holy Spirit. 

" 6. Continual prayer for the dispensation of that Spirit. 

" The want of attention to one or more of these particu- 



308 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOil. 

lars I considered as the main cause of the heresies, supersti- 
tions, and errors, which have deformed and distracted the 
Christian church." 

After prayer and secret meditation, Mr. Wilson proposed, 
as the second topic for discussion, " The mind of the Spirit, 
as revealed in the sacred Scriptures, in regard to the person 
and grace of Christ ;" and called on the Rev. J. Haldane 
Stewart to speak to the point. He obeyed ui a discussion 
of some length, evincing familiarly deep acquaintance with 
his theme. 

Another interval for prayer and secret meditation ensued, 
and then Mr. Wilson proposed, as the third topic for discus- 
sion, " That depravity of heart in the unregenerate, and that 
remainder of evil in the regenerate, which obstruct right 
apprehensions of the person and grace of Christ,''^ and 
called on the E,ev. Mr. Darby for his views in illustration 
of the same ; and they were given in a way which showed, 
that like the preceding speakers, he was " a scribe well 
mstructed unto the kingdom of heaven." 

Need it be doubted, that after discussion, by Christians 
of such heavenly ripeness, of topics like these, sprinkled with 
so much of the incense of holy prayer and silent musing, 
many of the members of that favored circle went forth and 
preached Christ with a clearness and an unction which 
had never before marked their teachings on this great 
theme ? 

At the anniversary, on Friday, of the Society for j)ro- 
moting the principles of the Reformation, Dr. Milnor's feel- 
ings were not a little disturbed by an untimely. and "vehe- 
ment" discussion, by the Rev. Hugh McNeile and the Rev. 
Mr. Dalton, of " the prophetical question;" exhibiting their 
"views of the coming of the Messiah," and urging "the 
high doctrines of Calvin as among the purest principles oi 
the Reformation." They " reflected severely on the evan- 
gelical clergy" in general, as not coming up to their stand- 
ard, and at the same time, " in very severe terms denounced 



MISSION TO ENaLAND. 309 

dissent, and seemed to rest the claims of the estabhshed 
church, as a true church of Christ, upon its connection 
with the state." "Nothing," adds Dr. Mihior, "so appar- 
ently out of place as the remarks of these gentlemen, had 
occurred ui all my attendance upon the pubhc meetings. 
They are both talented men, and Mr. McNeile, who is son- 
in-law to Dr. Magee, archbishop of Dublin, is a fine-looking 
man, and a remarkably fluent and powerful speaker." 

The dumer-party, this evening, at the Bishop of Win- 
chester's, was one of great interest. Much conversation 
was had on the subjects of prison discipline, the progress of 
the temperance reformation in the United States, and the 
violation of the Sabbath, especially in London. " The 
Bishop of Winchester also mentioned a singular custom 
which prevails in the island of Guernsey, a part of his dio- 
cese." In that httle by-place, of which so httle is gener- 
ally known, it seems that "they \vdNQ iJoj)ular electiom for 
several officers, occurring several times in the course of the 
year. These are held on Sunday, after service m the par- 
ish church, and are often accompanied with brawls and bat- 
tles. He said he was assured by the rector of one of the 
churches, that at a recent Sunday election, he was the only 
sober person present. The bishop has been laboring to get 
the time and place of these elections changed ; but it seems 
to be claimed as a matter of internal arrangement, by the 
authorities of the island, where the assent of three estates 
is necessary to brmg about this salutary measure. I am 
not certam," says Dr. Milnor, "that I remember their sev- 
eral denominations, but I think they were the clergy, the 
magistrates, and the constables. The first two orders have 
met and deliberated, and are in favor cf the proposed 
change ; but the constables are for adhering to this odious 
desecration of the Sabbath, and therefore absent themselves 
from the meetings, to prevent the accomphshment " of the 
bishop's measure, " their presence being necessary to form 
a quorum." 



310 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

The evening being thus agreeably spent, " after tea m 
the drawing-room, the company were invited into an ad- 
joining parlor, when Mrs. Sumner seated herself at a grand 
piano, and accompanied by the chaplain, played and sung a 
fine piece of sacred music. We were then provided with 
hymn-books, and sung, standing, the hymn, 

' How sweet the name of Jesus sounds 
In a believer's ear ;' 

after which the bishop gave out the Doxology, 

' Praise God. from whom all blessings flow,' 

which was sung to the tune of Old Hundred, and we took 
our leave." 

Dr. Milnor's account of the breakfast on Saturday morn- 
ing, also has much interest. 

" Having been invited to breakfast this morning with 
Capt. Gordon, in St. James' Place, for the purpose of meet- 
ing Dr. Chalmers, I proceeded thither at the appointed hour. 
I found the doctor there, and was introduced to him ; but 
regretted that he could stay but a few minutes, being under 
a previous engagement to breakfast elsewhere. In the short 
conversation which I had with him, he observed, that he 
was very happy to hear of the rapid progress of learning 
and religion in the United States. He had read with 
great satisfaction the writmgs of several of our American 
divines, and referred especially to those of Dr. Stuart of 
Andover ; addmg, that he had lately read and much admired 
the work of Dr. Alexander of Princeton, on the canon of 
Scripture. The doctor kmdly said, he hoped he should 
meet with me before he left London ; but if not, would 
expect me to call on him if I went to Edinburgh. I was 
sorry that my friend Mcllvaine, who had spent the night 
out of town, arrived with the Rev. B. W. Noel too late to 
see a man whose writings have so much instructed and 
delighted us at home. 

" Captain Gordon, our host, is a countryman of Dr. 



MISSION TO ENGLAND. 311 

Chalmers ; a man of great muscular strength, and of a 
proportionably vigorous and sturdy mmd. He is the great 
champion of the Reformation Society, a thoroughly informed 
evangelical Christian, and particularly vi^ell acquainted with 
the whole merits of the controversy between Protestants and 
Roman Catholics. The Rev. Mr. Dalton was also of our 
company at breakfast ; and we did not fail to express to 
him our regret, that the current of good feeling at the 
meeting yesterday, should have been in any degree inter- 
rupted by the introduction of topics on which a difference 
of opinion prevailed, and which had no connection with 
the object of the meeting ; more especially, considering 
that the opinions introduced had been received by so small 
a portion of the audience, and that the doctrine of the 
almost immediate coming of Christ was known to have 
had the effect of leading many of its advocates to abandon 
most of the great rehgious institutions. Mr. Dalton, how 
ever, was unconvinced of the impropriety of his course. 
He considered the doctrines which he had promulged to be 
true and very imiportant ; and bemg so, it behooved him on 
all occasions to urge them. Millenarianism and supralap- 
sarian Calvinism were, in his view, such fundamental doc- 
trines, and their rejection had such a tendency to lead the 
mind into the corruptions of popery, that he considered his 
duty to God and the souls of his fellow-men required him, 
yesterday particularly, to dwell upon them. It was in vain 
to argue with a man under such feelings and impressions 
of personal duty. In answer to an intimation from me, 
that his views of Christian doctrine might lead to antino- 
mianism, it is due to Mr. Dalton to say, that he utterly dis- 
claimed the right to draw such inferences from his doctrine 
as should lead to the least allowance of sin. He admitted 
that, in due proportion, the whole gospel scheme should be 
developed ; and its duties and obligations, both religious 
and moral, urged upon men. Mr. Dalton himself bears the 
character of a man who walks strictly according to godli- 



312 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

ness. Our conversation was spirited, but in good temper, 
and was concluded with prayer." 

The anniversary meeting of the Antislavery Society, after 
breakfast, was a scene of most intense excitement. Free- 
masons' Hall was crowded with an almost impenetrable 
mass ; so that when " the committee, headed by Mr. Wil- 
berforce, the veteran advocate" of the oppressed African, 
entered, they were obliged to " force their way through the 
dense crowd. Every one seemed to feel for the distinguished 
champion of African liberty, whose appearance was now 
that of a shadow of a man, and who was quite exhausted 
after accomplishing the labor of getting to his place. In 
a few words of address from liis colleague, the venerable 
Thomas Clarkson, he was proposed as chairman ; and his 
appomtment to that office was carried by an astounding 
acclamation. 

" On taking the chair," continues Dr. Milnor, " he made 
an address of some length, with much energy of manner, but 
in so feeble a voice, that I presumed those at the greatest 
distance, notwithstanding the profound attention of the audi- 
ence, could scarcely hear him. He was repeatedly cheered 
with loud applause, and at the close, with a long reiteration 
of it, in which several well-dressed sons of Africa on the 
platform most heartily joined." 

A scene of the most animated and stormily sublime ex- 
citement was produced at this anniversary by an attempt of 
Mr. Hunt the radical, though not a member of the society, 
to introduce his peculiar views, and to bring odium on the 
society for expending all its sympathy on the suffering slave 
of the West Indies, to the neglect of the more suffering oper- 
ative of England ; and the strong spirit of eloquence being 
thus stirred, a discussion subsequently sprung up, wliich 
brought out some of the most powerful speakers of the day. 
Mr. Hunt, after being received at first with fierce English 
defiance, finally obtained the floor through the mtercession 
of Mr. Brougham ; but "his language became at length so 



MISSION TO ENaLAND. OlJ 

offensive," that by a unanimous vote of the society, he was 
compelled " reluctantly to take his seat ;" and when it came 
to be Mr. Brougham's turn to speak, he '' honored Mr. Hunt 
with a severe answer to his animadversion on the support- 
ers of this institution," and showed that the friends of the 
West India slave " were, with very few exceptions, the very 
men who manifested most anxiety for the moral and social 
welfare of the poorer classes at home." 

"When Dr. Milnor and his friend Mcllvaine left the meet 
ing, " it was past five o'clock, and others were still to speak." 
"With some difficulty," he writes, we "made our way out, 
being under an engagement to dine with Mr. Ewbank, of 
Pecldiam. We were so delayed in findmg a conveyance, 
that it was near seven o'clock when we arrived at Mr. Ew- 
bank's. Dimier, however, had been delayed. Before the 
company rose from table, I regretted that my friend found 
himself so fatigued by the length and excitement of the anti- 
slavery meeting, that he was obliged to retire for the night. 

" Before the company retired, I was called upon to read, 
expound, and pray ; and, being under an engagement to 
spend to-morrow with this hospitable family, I went to bed, 
not like my friend, sick, but uncommonly weary with the 
exercises of the day." 



SECTION III. 

The great London anniversaries were now at an end ; 
and it only remained for Dr. Milnor, during his stay in Eng- 
land, to cultivate and perfect the many delightful and valu- 
able friendships, which, during their progress, he had formed, 
and to dispose of the numerous subordinate details of busi- 
ness with which he had come ch?a'ged from his native land. 
His Sunday at Peckham, May 16, was spent in attending 
service, with his hospitable entertainers, morning and even- 
Mem. Milnor. 1 4 



314 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

ing, at Camden cliapel, in the suburb of Camberwell, where 
the R,ev. Mr. Melvill preached ; and, in the afternoon, at a 
neighboring chapel, where the Rev, Mr. Springett offici- 
ated. 

Mr. Melvill came to breakfast the next morning at Mr. 
Ewbank's, and they enjoyed his " pleasing conversation until 
near 11 o'clock;" when Dr. Milnor and Mr. Mcllvaine went 
with Mrs. Ewbank and her three sisters to " Dulwich col- 
lege, a delightful establishment about four miles distant," to 
see " the Bourgeois collection of pictures," so called from the 
donor, Sir Francis Bourgeois. " The institution, though 
called a college, is so only in name. It has a considerable 
endowment, which supports a few old people, pays the sala- 
ries of certain officers, and maintains the exhibition of these 
pictures." 

After spending about two hours at this charming place, 
they proceeded " through a very pleasant range of country, 
including the fine town of Deptford, on the Thames, to 
Greenwich," "to dine with Mr. Locker, one of the commis- 
sioners of Greenwich Hospital, and secretary to that institu- 
tion." Before dinner they took a view of " this magnificent 
establishment ;" the apartments of the veteran tars ; the 
schools for the children, boys and girls ; the gymnasium, 
where the lads are trained to wonderful strength and expert- 
ness in all the exercises of nautical athletsB ; the cooking and 
washing establishments, and the dormitories, all worthy of 
this vast palace of England's scarred and superannuated 
sailors and their families. They visited also its " beautiful 
park, two and a half miles in circumference," and stocked 
with two hundred of the kmg's deer ; the Royal Observatory 
on the eminence, overlooking walks made shady by " elms 
more than two hundred years old ;" and the chapel, with its 
altar-piece by West, representing " St. Paul's preservation 
from shipwreck," an idea most appropriate to the leading 
design of this grand naval hospital. " How lamentable," 
writes Dr. Milnor, " that, in an institution containing such a 



MISSION TO ENGLAND. 3l5 

number of inmates, there should be, as we understood, a 
great want of sohd spiritual instruction ; especially when 
the further fact is added, that two hundred of the aged ten- 
ants of Greenwich annually sink into the grave." 

At dinner, they found their host to be "a scholar ol 
Eton, a gentleman of great intelUgence, and a decidedly 
pious man ;" who informed them " that this great institution 
is supported by funds of its own;" and that, of its "board 
of five commissioners, all, except Mr, Locker, were at that 
lime titled persons, who paid great attention to its affairs." 

At 8 o'clock, they " took a row-boat to convey them to 
London ;" and as they reached " the steps leading down to 
the Thames, in front of the hospital, they had a fine view 
of the whole from the water," with its terrace on the river, 
nine hundred feet long ; the grand square between the wings, 
more than two hundred feet broad ; the statue of George 
II., which ornaments the centre ; and the entire mass of 
building, " of wliite stone, richly wrought, and forming a 
pile of palaces far too gorgeous for the purpose to which 
they are now applied." 

Dr. Milnor's first engagement on Tuesday morning, May 
18, was to attend a public breakfast at the Rev. J. Haldane 
Stewart's, very similar in character to that at Islington, of 
which an account has been given. The principal pomt of 
difference was, that mstead of three separate topics for dis- 
cussion, Mr. Stewart proposed but one, on which he invited 
different speakers to give their own favorite views. The 
interest of the discussion may be inferred from the theme 
proposed, " What part of the character and offices of Christ 
had any of us found most serviceable to our own souls, and 
to the souls of those committed to our charge?" and from 
the names of those who were invited to discuss it, Daniel 
"VYilson, Dr. Milnor, and the author of " The Velvet Cushion," 
J. W. Cunningham. Mr. Mcllvaine, who had been too ill 
to be present at breakfast, "joined them m the course ot 
their morning duties." " At their termination," says th« 



31G MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

journal, " we agreed that it was, to eacli of us, a season of 
'peculiar sjnritual enjoyment ; and humbly did we trust 
that we had with us the divine presence and blessing." 

Such are the entertainments which true British Chris- 
tians prepare for their foreign brethren of kindred soul ; and 
which draw from noble ranks guests who are not ashamed 
to sit openly at the feet of Jesus, amid the offerings of prayer, 
and spiritual song, and holy teaching. 

Wednesday morning, May 19, he "rose early, and was 
busily engaged in various matters relating to the religious 
objects committed to his charge." 

At twelve o'clock he " went to the Caledonian chapel," 
Mr. Irving's, " to hear Dr. Chalmers preach a sermon for 
the benefit of the Society for the support of Schools in the 
Highlands and Islands of Scotland. His subject was, Popu- 
lar Education ; and his discourse, written in his usual ele- 
vated style, occupied an hour in the delivery." Says the 
journal, " Nothing but the sterling good-sense and piety that 
pervaded this discourse, and the fine language in which the 
thoughts of the preacher were clothed, could, for so long a 
time, have so enchained the attention of a crowded audience. 
For though the doctor's manner is very earnest, yet in other 
respects his delivery is very unpleasant. His pronunciation 
is strongly Scottish ; so much so, that some of his words, 
though loudly uttered, were lost upon my ear. His voice 
appeared to be so painfully exerted, as at times to become 
almost a scream. His gesture was confined to an awkward 
up and down motion of his right hand ; and his eyes were 
pretty closely confined to his notes. And yet the distin- 
guished talents of Dr. Chalmers, liis loftiness of thought, 
and grandeur of expression, together with the practical util- 
ity of his discourses, raise liira so far above his contempora- 
ries, that you are willing to excuse all the disadvantageous 
circumstances of voice, and accent, and manner in their 
delivery." 

Much of his time for several days was now spent in a 



MISSION TO ENaLAND. 317 

social manner, and in visiting and describing the sights of 
great London, too famiUar to readers of foreign travel to need 
a place in this work ; and too briefly described by Dr. Milnor 
to increase the interest of liis memoir. 

On Thursday, May 20, he dined again with his friend 
Mr. Gilliat of Clapham, where, among others, he met the 
E.ev. Mr. Hughes, one of the secretaries of " the British and 
Foreign Bible Society, a man of learning as well as of sound 
understanding and eminent piety ; a minister of the Baptist 
denomination ; and the mail tvith tvhom originated the idea 
of forming a grand national society for the distribution of 
the Bihhr 

Friday afternoon he went to Woolwich " to dine with Dr. 
Olinthus Gregory, principally known to us in America by his 
excellent Letters on the Evidences of the Christian religion. 
Unhappily," he writes, " we found Dr. Gregory in his cham- 
ber, having been ill for several weeks past. He came down, 
stairs for about an hour after dmner ; and while he was able 
to remain, conversed with great vivacity and interest. He 
is a man of very pleasing manners, as well as great talents, 
and learning, and piety." 

Li the evening he met, at his friend Dr. Parker's, a com- 
pany of ladies and gentlemen. The occasion of this assem- 
blage was a custom which, " for twenty years past," had 
prevailed among " a few pious families in Woolwich, to meet 
at each others' houses in rotation every Friday evening, for 
the readmg of the Scriptures, religious conversation, and 
prayer." After the close of the exercises. Dr. Milnor ob- 
serves, " How rational and charming a way of increasing the 
delights of social intercourse, and of making our very pleas- 
ures conduce to our growth in religious knowledge and prac- 
tical piety." 

Havmg spent the night ^vith Dr. Parker, he went on 
Saturday to view " the AVoolwich arsenal, one of the grand- 
est establishments of the kind in the world ; covering a plot 
immediately on the Thames of more than two hundred acres," 



318 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

and filled with " all the munitions of war ;" in looking upon 
which, a Frenchman, with a customary national expletive, 
exclaimed, " Here are oceans of guns, and mountains of shot." 

Sunday, May 23, he rode "to Paul's Cray, seven miles 
distant," to spend the day with " the Rev, John Symonds, 
the rector of the parish." His friend Mcllvaine accompa- 
nied him. Of tliis visit the journal gives the following 
account. 

*' Mr. Symonds is now seventy-five years old, and has 
been for fifty years rector of this parish. He is a tall, spare, 
pale-faced old gentleman ; but of an amiable countenance, 
aflectionate manners, and great piety. He has the reputa- 
tion, along with his many excellent quahties, of bemg not a 
little eccentric. 

" Though his curate was present, yet the old gentleman 
read the morning service and preached extemporaneously 
for nearly an hour. His manner was very lively and ener- 
getic for a man of such advanced age," His text being Heb. 
2 : 6-11, " he dwelt earnestly on two topics, of which he is 
said to be peculiarly fond : full assurance, which he seemed 
to consider a necessary evidence of true faith, and claimed 
as the undoubted privilege of every real believer ; and the 
spiritual union of Christ with the believer, which, as he con- 
siders, is not maintained, in its just extent, by even the evan- 
gelical clergy of the church, 

"After morning service, a loaf of bread was given to 
each of a crowd of thirty or forty poor persons ; a custom 
which the aged rector has long observed every Lord's-day 
morning. He says it relieves their bodily wants and brings 
them to church, where, peradventure, they may find a sup- 
ply' of their spiritual." The journal questions the expediency 
of such a motive to attend church, but adds, " The rector 
stood at the door to give a word of religious counsel to his 
beneficiaries, and pronounced upon them his pastoral bene- 
diction." 

In the afternoon the curate read prayers and preached ; 



MISSION TO ENG-LAND. 319 

and in the evening, after tea, the company engaged in a re- 
ligious service, to which the servants were not uivited. " I 
w^as surprised," says Dr. Mihior, " that at this, which I sup- 
posed to he the family service, the domestics were not called 
in ; but I found my mistake, when, later in the evening, Mr. 
Symonds intimated that the hour had arrived for his stated 
family devotions. Six or seven servants were then called 
in, and a second service of a similar kind took place. The 
benevolence of the old gentleman was particularly exhibited 
m his expositions of Scripture, and in his land addresses to 
his domestics. About an hour was afterwards spent in con- 
versation, in wliich Mr. Symonds recurred to his favorite 
topics, full assurance as inseparably connected with a vital 
faith, and the indissoluble union of the believer with Christ. 
To these doctrines he adds a firm persuasion of the speedy 
personal coming of Christ to reign with his saints upon the 
earth. He does not, lilie Mr. Irvnig and his associates, dog- 
matize as to the place in which his throne is to be established, 
or as to the period of his reign, and many other circumstan- 
ces, which are expected to attend that gi-eat event. But by 
calculations, founded on the prophecies of the Old Testament 
and the book of the Revelation, he is persuaded that, about the 
year 1836, Christ will appear, the saints will awake from 
the dead, and the hving behevers be changed. He expressed 
a confident belief, that if he should hve six years from the 
present date, Jolin Symonds would never die." 

Uetuming to London Monday morning, Dr. Milnor at- 
tended " by appointment the Institution for the instruction 
of the Deaf and Dumb in Surrey," where he witnessed a 
much more favorable result of the experiment of teachmg 
this class of pupils to articulate, than that which he had 
witnessed at Liverpool. " I conversed some time," says he, 
" with a deaf mute, who is a tutor in the school, of consid- 
erable intelligence. He spoke plamly, grammatically, and 
agreeably ; and, with now and then a repetition of my words, 
understood me by the motion of my lips. I was allowed to 



320 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

see several of his compositions, which e\'inced a finely culti- 
vated mind, an accurate acquaintance with the construction 
of sentences, and, what to me was most pleasing of all,^ an 
evident knowledge of the truths of religion, and a practical 
impression of them upon his own heart. 

"But an exhibition, by wliich I was particularly de- 
hghted and surprised, was by a beautiful boy twelve or thir- 
teen years of age, who, standing on a form, recited in a sweet, 
pensive voice, with good accent and emphasis, and without 
the smallest error, an address, which he is to deliver at the 
annual meeting of the patrons of the institution, shortly to 
be held, at which the Duke of Gloucester is expected to pre- 
side. I held the printed address in my hand while he de- 
livered it, and am persuaded that no one not apprized of the 
fact, would have imagined this mteresting child to be an 
object for the care of such an institution as this." 

After visiting " the model school of the British and For- 
eign School Society," Dr. Milnor "proceeded to a meeting 
of the committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society. 
I respectfully intimated," he writes, " the anxious desire oi 
our board of managers, that this committee would send a 
delegate, or delegates, to represent the British and Foreign 
Bible Society at the anniversary of the American Bible So- 
ciety in May next. The suggestion was kmdly received ; 
but I did not urge, in reference to it, immediate action." 

On Tuesday, May 25, Dr. Milnor and his friend dined 
with the E-ev. Mr. Raikes, examining chaplain to the bishop 
of Chester. " A young Cantabrigian," he says, " made many 
inquiries about America, indicating a singular unacquaintance 
with every thing in our country. I was not more surprised 
at this in him, than I have been at the same thing in many 
others, especially the clergy. The merchants are the best 
informed persons respecting American affairs." 

On Wednesday he dined "with Zachary Macauley, Esq., 
first editor of the Christian Observer, one of the excellent of 
the earth." Dr. Milnor remarks, " As the company consisted 



MISSION TO ENG-LAND. 321 

almost entirely of ladies and gentlemen of his own family 
and connections, I had the privilege of the evening's conver- 
sation with him almost without interruption. He is well 
acquainted with America, and has for our country a great 
regard. It supplied many topics of conversation. 

" Mr. Macauley expressed great regret at the dissensions 
arising out of the existing controversies in regard to proph- 
ecy. Though by no means concurring in opinion with the 
Millenarians, as to the speedy personal coming of Christ to 
reign upon the earth, yet he Avas willing to allow them the 
credit of a conscientious persuasion of the truth of their 
views, and was not, therefore, disposed to break friendship 
with them on account of their diflerence on this point. But 
it unhappily occurs, that most of the Millenarians adopt 
novel opinions upon other subjects of more vital importance ; 
Mr. Irving and Mr. McNeile insisting on the peccability of 
Christ ; and both, with many of their friends, separating 
from the Bible Society and other benevolent mstitutions. 
Mr. McNeile also claims exclusive jure divino right for the 
established church, principally on account of the kmg being 
its head. Of course, he would unchurch altogether our 
American Episcopacy. He also pretty strongly intimates 
the superiority of Jewish faith to that of those imperfect 
beHevers in Christ, who do not concur in his Millenarian 
views ; his mind inclining to the position, that their firm 
persuasion of a coming Messiah, who is to reign at Jerusa- 
lem, will more avail to their salvation as Jews, than that 
of antimillenarians will to them as Christians." 

Between the 26th of May and the 16th of June, the 
remainder of his residence in London, Dr. Milnor transacted 
various matters of business with the different religious bodies 
to which he had brought commissions ; continuing, at the 
same time, to cultivate and extend his social and friendly 
relations with those accomplished and estimable Christian 
men, who are to be found at that great centre of Enghsh 

society. 

14# 



322 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

Among the many gentlemen in London to whom he be- 
came warmly attached, was that eminent man of God, 
Daniel Wilson, " than whom," says he, "no one in England 
has been more anxious to show me kind attention. He cal- 
culates on my spendhig a week at his dehghtful residence in 
Islington ; but that will not be practicable." Nevertheless, 
he spent there the afternoon and night of Thursday, and 
from that time until Tuesday morning, June 1, in the en- 
joyment of the peaceful aiid blessed family scenes amid 
which that faithful servant of Christ was then moving. At 
the Thursday evening diimer he met Mr. Bickersteth agam, 
and the Rev. Mr. Natt, "the latter of whom had just been 
presented to the hving of St. Sepulclire's, Newgate-street. 
He is," says the journal, " a decidedly evangelical man, and 
succeeds a drone in a parish of 15,000 souls, within the 
limits of which, in the very heart of the old city, there is 
not another place of worsliip, except the adjacent chapel in 
Newgate prison. And this important station has for forty 
years been occupied by a man who has left no fruits of his 
ministry for a blessing on his memory. Mr. Natt's first 
measure was, to dismiss a useless young curate, and appoint 
hi liis place one who is able and wilhng to work where the 
required labor will be immense." 

The same evening, after dinner, he attended a meetmg 
of the committee of the Islmgton Church Missionary Society, 
in Mr. "Wilson's study ; and, after the transaction of the reg- 
ular business, gave, at the request of the members, important 
information touching " the origin, design, proceedings, and 
success of temperance societies in the United States." He 
adds, " The impression produced on the minds of the gentle- 
men present, was quite favorable to the idea of attemptmg 
something of the same kind here. Mr. Wilson invited two 
or three gentlemen, most likely to take up this busmess in 
Islington, to meet me at dimier to-morrow for further con- 
versation." 

" Our family devotions this evening were peculiarly inter- 



MISSION TO ENGLAND. 323 

esting. Two young female relatives read the Scriptures by 
alternate verses ; Mr. Wilson, and I at his request, inter- 
spersing remarks from time to time. Miss Wilson, an elderly 
sister of the vicar, then read a hymn, and I concluded w^ith 
prayer. The intelligence and piety of Mr. Wilson, m his 
explicatory and practical remarks, v^^ere delightfully mani- 
fested, and his manner was exceedingly edifying ; it was 
plain and unpretending, yet full of interest and instruc- 
tion." 

Between breakfast and dinner, the next morning, he 
visited the house of the Society for the promotion of Chris- 
tian Knowledo:e, and transacted business involving the mu- 
tual relations of the English and American churches, and 
the interests of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society 
of the latter. At dinner, he writes, " The Kev. Mr. Sandys, 
minister of a newly erected chapel in IsHngton, was, besides 
myself, the only guest ; and he stated his impressions from 
my address last evening in regard to temperance societies, 
to be such that he was persuaded it was his duty to attempt 
something next week towards the commencement of a society 
in a portion of this parish. I promised to do what I could 
to assist him. 

"After dinner, I accompanied Mr. and Miss Wilson to 
druik tea with Mrs. Fowler, at Stoke-Newmgton. Besides 
meeting a very sensible and devoutly pious woman, the visit 
was rendered interestuig from the circumstance, that the 
house in which Mrs. Fowler resides was, for thirty-five years 
of his life, the residence of that excellent man. Dr. Watts. 
We went into his study, and saw a portrait of him which 
hung there in his lifetime, and has come down as a sort of 
heirloom with the house. We walked through the beautiful 
grounds in the rear of the dwelling, and especially a shady 
avenue of considerable length, terminating in an arbor, 
which was his favorite resort. I can hardly conceive of a 
retreat more suited to the feelings of such a man as Dr. 
Watts. The house is spacious, with every convenience usual 



324 MEMOIR OF Dll. MILNOU. 

in the country residences of the wealthy ; and though I sup- 
pose it to be one hundred and fifty years old, it is yet in per- 
fect repair. In the hall are chairs of a very antique appear- 
ance, which were there in Dr. "Watts' time, and which are 
said to have belonged to the stadtholder of Holland." 

He spent the next evening at Barnsbury Park, with the 
vicar and the clergy of his parish, at their stated weekly 
meeting. From the fact that the parish of St. Mary's, Isling- 
ton, is very large, and that the building of chapels for its 
population has been a favored measure, "Mr. "Wilson had 
the control of five churches, holding from 1,500 to 2,000 
persons each, the ministers of which were all men of senti- 
ments congenial with his own, united in the closest bonds of 
Christian affection, and ' striving together for the faith of 
the gospel' and the good of souls." It' was with propriety, 
therefore, that Dr. Milnor added, " The situation of the vicar 
of Islington is one of arduous duty, and great responsibility, 
and yet it is truly enviable. In connection with his own 
private means, it supplies him with a large fund for chari- 
table eflbrt, which he most faithfully apphes. Universally 
respected and beloved, his influence within his important 
sphere is unbounded. Besides, his writings are extensively 
read, and his agency in useful public institutions is emi- 
nently beneficial." 

The religious exercises which followed tea were concluded 
by Mr. "Wilson "with a prayer, in which he poured out his 
soul in fervent supplications, not only for the Church in 
England, but also for the Church in America, for the con- 
gregation of St. George's, and in a most touchuig manner, 
for myself and the object of my mission. May the Lord 
make this sweet opportunity of brotherly communion pro- 
motive of the best results." 

So passed, till Tuesday morning, his time with the be- 
loved vicar of Islington, during his sojourn with whom, in 
addition to numerous other engagements, he took part in 
measures for organizing in that important portion of London 



MISSION TO ENGLANi.. 325 

a society for promoting the better observance of the Lord's 
day. 

" Tuesday, June 1. — Mr. Wilson brought me to town in 
his carriage this morning, and we attended together a meet- 
mg of the committee of the Church Missionary Society. An 
opportunity was offered me of making a full exposition of the 
views of the directors of the American Episcopal Domestic 
and Foreign Missionary Society, in relation to intercourse 
with this excellent institution. It was received with the 
utmost kindness, and a resolution was passed expressive of 
their regards towards our society, and another directing 
copies of their publications to be presented to it." 

We pass to his account of " the amiiversary meeting of 
the children of the charity schools, held on Thursday, June 3, 
in the cathedral church of St. Paul's. 

" There Avere in attendance," he observes, " about 6,000 
children ; and every part of the church, from which any 
view could be had, was crowded with spectators. The 
spectacle was most imposing. The children were ranged in 
seats elevated one above another around the circumference 
of the pavement under the grand dome, and clothed in 
dresses of various forms and colors, according to the costume 
used in the several schools. The girls were all in close caps, 
some plain, others ornamented with bows of ribbons. The 
boys were ui new clothes, of many fashions ; and some of 
them looked awkward enough in their long, broad-backed 
coats, and short breeches, the latter of which I observed, in 
one of the schools, to be of leather. The cloth and the cut 
are, in most of the schools, what they were at their first 
institution. 

" The exercises commenced a little after twelve o'clock, 
by the children singing, accompanied by the organ, the hun- 
dredth psalm. Morning service was partly read and partly 
sung by the cathedral choir, the children joining, whenever 
it occurred, in the Gloria Patri. In that part of the service 
where prayer is made for the king, the choir and the children 



326 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

euiig the coronation anthem with astonishing power and 
efiect. By invitation, we occupied seats ui the pew erected 
for the members of the ' Society for the promotion of Chris- 
tian knowledge,' one of the most favorable positions for see- 
ing and hearing ; but the pulpit being placed immediately 
under the great dome, the preacher's words were so drowned 
in reverberations that much of the sermon was lost upon me, 
and I presume that in some parts of this vast building, not 
even a sound of liis voice was heard. The sermon, by the 
Rev. Dr. Monk, dean of Peterborough — a professed eulogy 
on the Christian Knowledge society — was about forty mui- 
utes Ions:, and the whole service lasted from twelve till near 
three. To secure places, we were obliged to be in church a 
little after ten. 

*' There are few circumstances which I should have re- 
gretted more than absence on this occasion ; and I was much 
indebted to Mr. Wilson for his kindness in attendmg us, and 
lending me gown and bands for the purpose of obtaining an 
entrance at the clerical door, which led to the comfortable 
situation with which we were favored. The children kept 
good time, and their voices, made loud by the multitude from 
which they ascended, were at the same time thrillingly de- 
lightful. The whole scene was in a high degree affectmg to 
every one present, who loved the rising generation and the 
improvement of their minds and hearts in the duties of re- 
ligion and morality." 

His engagement next day led to a very pleasing acquaint- 
ance with that distinguished member of the society of Friends, 
Joseph John Gurney. Calling at the counting-room of his 
brother, Mr. S. Gurney, Dr. Milnor learned that the former, 
who resided near Norwich, was then in London, and would 
dine with the latter at his residence in Upton, five miles 
from town. He accordingly accepted a very urgent invita- 
tion, and accompanied the brother to dinner. 

" Mr. J. J. Gurney had been detained in town, at a 
meeting, which lasted several hours, of members of the com- 



MISSION TO ENG-LAND. 327 

rnittee of the British and Foreign Bible Society and their 
friends ; the object of which was, to confer in a friendly 
manner on a proposition wliich has been made, for openmg 
the meetings of the society and its committee with 'prayer. 
He, of course, as a Friend, was opposed to the measure, and 
lamented its being brought forward, as likely to lead to un- 
happy divisions. He is, himself, president of an auxiliary 
society, a situation which he must resign if the measure 
should be adopted, because he cannot, consistently with his 
principles, either make a prayer at a fixed time or call on 
another person to perform the duty. The gentlemen of dis- 
sentmg churches who were present, though opposed to the 
measure, yet put their opposition wholly on the ground of 
regard for the feelings of the Friends. It was evident, how- 
ever, that they apprehended difficulty to themselves, in the 
event of the adoption of prayer, from a claim to precedence 
in the performance of the duty which would probably be 
urged by the clergy of the establishment. In fact, before 
the discussion closed, it was directly stated by a clergyman, 
that such precedence would be claimed, and also the use of 
a prescribed form. Mr. Guniey bore an affectionate testi- 
mony to the good spirit in which the discussion was con- 
ducted, and declared that if it should be decided against liim, 
he would not withdraw from the society liimself, and would 
use his influence to prevent others from withdrawing. 

" The question is evidently a very embarrassing one ; 
and if, as Mr. Gurney anticipates, it should be carried af- 
firmatively, it is greatly to be apprehended that it will dis- 
afTect many Gluakers and others towards the society ; while, 
if it should be negatived, great offence will be given to those 
who very conscientiously msist on the introduction of prayer. 
And whatever be the result, as to the adoption or rejection 
of the measure, I much fear that the harmony of this noble 
institution will be interrupted ; a result, in my view, much 
rnore to be deprecated than the neglect of an outward ex- 
pression of that sentiment of gratitude to God, and of depend- 



328 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

ence on him, which I have no doubt is felt by the function 
aries of Bible societies at all their meetings. 

" ' Prayer is the soul's sincere desire, 
Uttered, or unexpressed ; 
The motion of a hidden fire, 
That trembles in the breast. 

Prayer is the burden of a sigh, 

The falling of a tear ; 
The upward glancing of an eye. 

When none but God is near.' 

" I felt so much interest in the conversation of this mtel- 
ligent and amiable man, that I acceded to an urgent request 
to pass the night at Upton. Our evening was spent m con- 
versation on the unhappy dissensions among the Friends in 
America, excited by Elias Hicks, whose heresy, it was stated, 
had found no entrance among the Friends in England, the 
late yearly raieeting having been perfectly unanunous in 
maintaining the doctrines which Hicks and his partisans 
have opposed. The conversation also turned on the subject 
of Unitarianism generally ; on the effects, in various partic- 
ulars, of our rej)ublican institutions in America ; on the bene- 
fits derived from our rejection of any established religion; 
and on the progress of infidelity, slavery, etc," 

" Saturday, June 5. — Mr. S. Gurney's family were con- 
vened this morning, mcludmg seven female-servants, several 
men-servants, and seven children, two others being absent, 
Mr. Gurney read a chapter, the company sitting a few min- 
utes in silence both before and after the reading. 

" This place was the residence of the late Dr. Fothergill, 
and is as beautiful as a perfectly level plain of seventeen 
acres can be made. It is a place of perfect silence and se- 
clusion in the midst of a dense population, affording both in 
its buildings and in its grounds a delightful retreat from the 
noise and smoke of London, and every comfort that wealth, 
family union, love, and Christian piety, can yield." 

"Sunday, June 6. — In the rehgious exercises with which 



MISSION TO ENG-LAND. 329 

I, with my fellow-lodg-er, E,ev. Geo. A. Smith" — lately ar- 
rived from the United States — " began our preparation for 
the public duties of the day, my thoughts were turned with 
mtensity of interest to my dear family and flock m New 
York. They are indeed daily with me in my contempla- 
tions and prayers ; and it is the frequency with which my 
mind dwells upon every thing connected with their temporal 
and spiritual well-being, that prevents my speaking often on 
the subject in my journal ; for it Avouldfill all its pages if I 
were to note the various thoughts — sometimes full of hope, 
at others checked by fear — which, from time to time, cheer 
or depress me. The Lord grant that a special blessing may 
descend upon them in the duties of this day." 

After this note, he attended morning service and the 
Lord's supper at St. John's chapel, Bedford-row, and en- 
joyed a precious season under the ministry of his friend and 
brother the Rev. B. AV. Noel. In the evening, he went to 
Longacre chapel, and heard its minister, the Rev. Mr. How- 
ell, a preacher of such strong Welsh accent and tone as to 
render it somewhat difficult to apprehend the scope of liis 
discourse. 

One of his entries in the journal for Tuesday, June 8, 
shows the stamp of his morals in matters of business, as well 
as in matters of religion. " Received a letter to-day," he 

writes, " from a Mr. , dated Derby, June 7, in which 

he states, that a benevolent gentleman in his neighborhood 
was about to send out to our Tract Society a set of stere- 
otype plates of a work about which he had corresponded 
with Mr. Hallock," our secretary, " and inquires whether I 
could take them with me as passenger's baggage, in order to 
avoid the heavy duty chargeable upon them in the United 
States. If I could do so, he requests me to return an imme- 
diate answer. If not, he says I need not write. As these 
plates are unquestionably dutiable, and as passengers' bag- 
gage undergoes the official inspection of the custom-house, 
and I understand the passenger also makes oath that he haa 



330 MEMOni OF DR. MILNOR. 

110 dutiable articles among his baggage, even if tlie act pro- 
posed were not morally wrong, I could not accede to the 
proposal. But I hold any contravention or evasion of the 
revenue-laws of my country to be morally wrong ; and 
therefore, if I could by stealth get these plates to their desti- 
nation free of duty, I would not : so I returned no answer 
to the letter." 

His dimier on Friday, was again with his beloved -brother 
of Islington, in company with such men as Dr. Ryder, 
Bishop of Liclifield and Coventry ; Dr. Sumner, of Chester ; 
Lord Bexley ; Sir George Grey ; the Hon. Mr. Ryder, brother 
to the bishop ; Zachary Macauley ; the Rev. Mr. Pearson, 
author of the Life of Archbishop Leighton ; and Mr. Mcll- 
vaine. After dmner, the company proceeded to attend the 
anniversary of the Islington Auxiliary Church Missionary 
Society, which drew together a crowded assemblage of the 
inhabitants, to listen to several truly interesting addresses. 
The spirit which pervaded the whole proceedings of the 
afternoon and evening, was so sweetly Christian as to prompt, 
at the close of his journal for the day, the brief, but emphatic 
entry, " This was a day of as much pure, rational, and relig- 
ious enjoyment, as any that I have spent in England. God's 
name be praised." 

Mr. Wilson's influence at Islington must uideed have 
been as blessed as it was "unbounded." On Saturday 
morning, after having spent another night with his kind 
entertamer. Dr. Milnor went through the buildings of the 
Church Missionary Institution at Islington, of which he 
says, " There are now under instruction in this school twenty- 
seven students — the buildings will accommodate forty-five — 
taught by Mr. Pearson, professor of divinity ; Mr. Ayre, son- 
in-law of Legh Richmond, professor of classical learning ; 
and, for four months in each year, by Mr. Lee of Cambridge, 
as professor of oriental languages. The object of this estab- 
lishment is, the preparation of pious young men of good 
talents, who consider it their duty to devote themselves to 



MISSION TO ENQLAND. 331 

the work of preaching the gospel to the heathen. It has 
already sent out some excellent missionaries ; and I pray God 
that it may become a mighty engine in the destruction of 
idolatry, and in the extension of Christ's kuigdom, especially 
in the East. 

" Besides a short but pleasant interview with Mr. Pear- 
son, we had the pleasure of being introduced to the amiable 
and pious daughter of the late Mr. Richmond, whose letter 
in the memoir of her father's life has excited so much inter- 
est. She informed us that the family have it in contempla- 
tion to publish a volume of liis papers, and a memoir of his 
little son Wilberforce which he had not completed at the 
time of his death. 

" We were desirous of knowing the present state of Mr. 
Richmond's late parish. Mr. Ayre told us that the parish 
church, which used to overflow with worshippers, had not 
now in general a congregation of more than thirty persons ; 
the bulk of the population attending at two dissenting chap- 
els. The religious views of the new rector are directly oppo- 
site to those of Mr. Richmond ; and he consequently not only 
dissatisfies them with his preacliing, but refuses to give them. 
a curate of evangelical feelings and views. Yet he treats 
Mr. Ayre, when he goes to Turvey, with complaisance ; 
mvites him to preach ; expresses approbation of his sermons ; 
and evinces particular pleasure at the large congregations, 
which, on such occasions, assemble ; and when the last 
chapel was dedicated, he insisted on entertaining the dissent- 
ing ministers in attendance, and expressed a hope that the 
blessing of God would attend their undertaking." 

"At two o'clock," he proceeds, " I took coach for Stoke- 
Newington, where I was engaged to dine with AVilliani 
Allen, that leading member of the society of Friends, so 
well known both as a man of science and as a philanthropist. 
He has a beautiful retreat ; the ' New river' running in front 
of his house, and the rear being adorned with a fine velvet 
lawn, a dehghtful garden, a spacious hot-house for liis large 



332 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

collection of exotics, and an observatory, with a telescope for 
his astronomical observations. 

"I was glad, to meet there that singularly benevolent 
female, Hannah Kilham, who has compiled several books on 
an original plan, for the mstruction, in their own language, 
of the Wolloff, or JoUoff tribe of negroes, at and near Sierra 
Leone. She acquired a knowledge of the language from 
natives brought to England ; and then embodied her infor- 
mation in several elementary works, designed to teach the 
Jollofls both their own and the English language." Hannah 
Kilham had visited Sierra Leone twice ; and though she had 
nearly fallen a victim to the climate, intended to make a 
third visit, and if possible, extend her travels to Liberia, with 
a view to prepare herself for writing similar books in the 
Bassa language. 

" In the course of the afternoon, besides presenting me 
with several pamphlets, of which he is the author, Mr. Allen 
communicated to me his plan of domestic colonies^ by the 
establishment of which he would supersede the necessity of 
emigration among the poorer classes. His plan is, to give 
them agricultural employment, by assigning to each family 
a small portion of land at a moderate rent ; they undertaking 
to cultivate it according to a prescribed method, insurmg the 
largest product at the smallest expense. Besides the little 
book which he has published, entitled, ' Colonies at Home,' 
he has exemplified his system on a farm of his own, at Lind- 
field, forty miles from London, This he has divided into 
little farms of five acres each, and smaller lots of an acre 
and a quarter, on which are erected small cottages ; and in 
the vicinity a common school for. the education of the chil- 
dren of the cottagers, who, if I remember rightly, pay each 
a small sum per week for the instruction of each cliild. Mr. 
Allen urged me to visit his establishment, which I regret it 
will not be in my power to do before I leave England for the 
continent." 

This visit to the philanthropist of Stoke-Newington had 



MISSIOIT TO ENGLAND. 333 

wellnigh proved fatal to the rector of St. George's ; for, 
immediately after the foregoing entry in his journal, he writes 
thus : 

" I have reason to be very thankful to the special provi- 
dence of a gracious God, by which my life was preserved this 
evening under circumstances which put me in the utmost 
peril of its loss. A servant was sent to take places in the 
London coach for Dr. Pennock of Philadelphia and myself, at 
seven o'clock ; but he returned with an answ^er that all the 
inside seats were taken. We therefore concluded to r; le out- 
side. When the coach came to the door, it appeared that 
one inside seat was still vacant, but I declined taking it, as 
that would separate me from Dr. Pennock. While he was 
taking leave of Mr. Allen I attempted to mount the rear out- 
side seat, which accommodates two, and is conveniently sep- 
arated from the other passengers. When I reached the 
entrance to the seat, I found it too confined for me to pass 
through without turning sideways. In attempting this, I 
was obliged to let go my right hand hold ; as I did so, my 
left hand gave way, and I fell immediately to the ground on 
my back, a distance often feet. I was unable to rise with- 
out assistance, and was conveyed into the house, when it was 
ascertained that I had broken no limb, nor received any ma- 
terial contusion. I was, however, most dreadfully strained 
in my back and chest. I resisted the importmiity of the 
kind family to remain during the night ; and, getting into 
the coach, rode in great pain to town. On my arrival, I sent 
for a physician m the neighborhood, who took from my arm 
twenty-two ounces of blood, prescribed some medicine, and 
recommended that my back and chest be rubbed with opo- 
deldoc. With the assistance of my friend Mr. Smith, this 
was done ; but I passed a most painful night." 

"Sunday, June 13. — Found myself unable to rise with- 
out assistance, my back and chest being in such a state as 
obliged me to keep as still as possible. I was to have taken 
a family dinner to-day with our ambassador, Mr. McLane ; 



334 MEMOIE, OF DR. MILNOR. 

but I sent an apolog}% and endeavored to improve my soli- 
tude by reading, meditation, and prayer." 

"Monday, June 14. — I have passed an almost sleepless 
night, and am this morning in much pam. We had intend- 
ed to leave London tliis morning for Brighton, and thence 
proceed to the continent ; but my situation has compelled us 
to abandon that intention. Endeavored, though with much 
difficulty, to prepare some dispatches for America. Last 
evening had been unavoidably employed until a late hour in 
correcting proofs of very brief sketches of my addresses at 
several armiversaries, to be inserted in the Christian Regis- 
ter, an annual publication of the proceedings of the public 
religious meetings. Went to bed, worn out with fatigue, 
and sufiering exceedingly with bodily pain. Slept only three 
or four hours during the night ; but hope I had no feelings 
but those of gratitude to God that matters, after such a fall, 
were not far worse." 

" Tuesday, June 15. — Hose in considerable pain, and so 
stiff as to be unable to walk but with great uneasiness. 
Wrote notes of apology to the Rev. Henry Raikes, and Joshua 
Bates, Esq.," excusing himself from engagements ; "it being 
our design, if I am able to go by coach to the steamer to- 
morrow morning, to take our leave of London for Calais. 
This change of route is induced by the hope that rest on 
board the steamer will so far recruit my health as to enable 
me to bear the subsequent journey to Paris. Was laboriously 
engaged in various matters necessary to be attended to, before 
taking my departure from London, and went to bed again 
perfectly worn down by fatigue." 

' Wednesday, June 16. — Contrary to my expectation, 
God has graciously favored me with a comfortable night's 
rest ; and though still very stiff and sore, I have ventured to 
take coach to the steamer for Calais." 



VISIT TO FRANCE. 335 



SECTION lY. 

Dr. Milnor's chief object iii visiting Paris, was to engage 
an instructor for the New York Asylum for the Deaf and 
Dumb ; but his passage to Calais came as near putting an 
end to this and all his other designs, as his late Saturday 
evening's attempt to mount the rear outside seat of Stoke- 
Newington coach for London. The first note in his journal 
after entering the steamer, is as follows : 

" The Thames was crowded with vessels of all descrip- 
tions ; so that if the habit, for weeks past, of passing in 
coaches and cabs through defiles not much broader than the 
carriage itself, had not familiarized me with the seeming 
danger, I should have wondered how a steamer could possi- 
bly make her way in safety through such a throng. This, 
however, she would have done, had not a collier vessel, some 
distance ahead, unexpectedly veered round so as to bring her 
bowsprit directly across our narrow passage. The captain 
of our boat immediately reversed the engine, at the same 
time hailing the collier to turn his bowsprit out of our way. 
He did not, however, and it carried away the shrouds of our 
hind-mast ; when, very unexpectedly, as soon as the bow- 
sprit came in contact with it, the mast itself gave way, and 
fell across the after-deck. Messrs. Mcllvaine and Smith and 
myself were, at the moment, standing within a foot or two 
of the mast. They sprang to the right far enough to escape 
it, and it fell to the left of me. As it fell, I turned round, 
and saw it crush several of the passengers, and knock one 
boatman overboard and several hats into the water. The 
boatman knocked overboard was saved without much injuiy ; 
but another, on whom the end of the mast fell, was killed, 
and the wife of Admiral House was taken up senseless. She 
bled excessively, and at length revived sufficiently to be i)ut 
into a boat and taken ashore. The agony of her husband, 
and that of a brother of the deceased boatman, were inde- 



33G MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

scribable. One other lady was mucli injured; but several 
of the passengers, who I thought were crushed beneath the 
mast, were in fact uninjured, having merely crouched be- 
neath its descent, which was arrested by the companion-way. 
Thus the result, melancholy as it was, proved more favor- 
able than we anticipated. Melancholy indeed was it for the 
poor man so suddenly called into eternity, if unprepared for 
the awful change. It was a consideration of most serious 
import, as well as of grateful acknowledgment, that within 
a very few days, I should have been twice exposed to immi- 
nent peril of death, and yet have been — I pray God it may 
be for some good purpose — twice preserved." 

They had a smooth passage across the channel, and reach- 
ed Calais about eight o'clock in the evening of the same day 
on which they left London, and Paris at ten o'clock the Fri- 
day evening following ; noticing only the ordinary features of 
the country as they passed, and the mendicity which to such 
a great extent prevails. Dr. Milnor writes, " Whenever the 
diligence stopped, even at night, we were assailed by beggars. 
The cry everywhere was, ' Ah I pauvre miserable ! Mon- 
sieur, quelque chose ! tres miserable I' At every liill, where 
the slow progress of the vehicle admitted importunity, we 
were followed by old men, women, and children. This arises 
from the fact, that m this country no public provision is made 
for the poor." 

On Saturday, June 19, the travellers took an exterior 
view of Paris, Dr. Milnor closing his brief journal for the day 
with the following note : "I do not think it necessary to 
describe particularly all the public places which we have 
seen, as this is already done by so many travellers, and far 
better than I can do it from such casual observation." The 
spirit of this remark will apply to most of his journal while 
in France. We shall not therefore attempt minutely to fol- 
low his course in this country. A few of his notes, however, 
are worth preserving. 

Returning from a third Protestant service on Sunday, 



VISIT TO FRANCE. 337 

June 20, he passed the Catholic church of St. Hoch ; and as 
it was still open, evidently for some public service, he enter- 
ed, and had an opportunity of Avitnessing a most gorgeous 
exliibition of the ritual'of the Romish church, in " the Fete 
Dieu." After describing a scene in which at least sixty 
performers were engaged, and which was closed by a well- 
dressed lady going round and soliciting from each an offering 
" pour repose " — or for redeeming souls out of purgatory — he 
gives utterance to his feelmgs in the followmg strain : 

"Now, in all this parade of worship, in this superb 
church maintaining such a retinue of ecclesiastical function- 
aries, and lasting from an early hour ui the morning till after 
nightfall, not one word of edification was addressed to the 
assembled multitude ; but the whole was conducted in a 
language unknown to by far the greater part, and with all 
the idle pageantry of heathenism. when shall ' Babylon 
the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the 
earth,' be destroyed? Hasten this event, Lord, in thy 
time." 

In his many wanderings about Paris, he once found him- 
self in the vaults beneath the Pantheon, where he observed 
a remarkable phenomenon. " There is," says he, " in these 
vaults, a most wonderful echo. Standing at the end of one 
of the passages, it responded, not as usual the last word of a 
sentence, but the whole, as articulately as we ourselves 
uttered it. Our attendant, strikmg the skirt of his coat with 
a ratan, produced a sound hke near and very loud thunder, 
and by some variation of his strokes, the effect of the loud 
firing of cannon. A part of us remaining at this spot, and 
the remainder going off in the windings of the passage to a 
distance of one hundred and seventy feet, we could converse 
together in a wliisper, and even the rubbing of the hand on 
the coat-sleeve could be heard at the same distance." A part 
of this description reminds us of such worship as he had 
before witnessed at the church of St. Roch. So far as the 
effect of such worship on the multitude is concerned, it is but 

Mem. Milnor. \ Q 



338 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

echo ill dark vaults artificially lighted, and imposingly rever- 
berating upon wondering ears the rattle of ratans and the 
rustling of coat-sleeves. 

On Tuesday, June 22, Dr. Milnor called on several gen- 
tlemen for the purpose of delivering letters of introduction, 
most of w^hom were at home and received him courteously. 

"Professor Kieffer," he remarks, "received me in his 
library with great kindness, and tendered me any service in 
his power during my stay in Paris. My valet acted as inter- 
preter, the professor, though able to read Enghsh, not ven 
turing to speak it. He handed me the last monthly extracts 
of the British and Foreign Bible Society ; pointed to my 
address, which he was so kind as to say he had read with 
great pleasure, and added, he was delighted to hear of the 
resolution of the American Bible Society, pledging a general 
supply of the sacred Scriptures — a measure which they find 
it difficult to accomplish among the scattered Protestants of 
France. I was very favorably impressed with the piety and 
meekness of tliis distinguished scholar and Christian," 

Wednesday, June 23d, after walking till his feet were 
sore, he says, " Both my friend Mcllvaine and myself find 
a great vacuum here, wliich we did not feel in London. 
There; though we occupied a part of the time in seeing what 
was curious and novel, we yet had, almost daily, the associ- 
ation and converse of the pious ; something to relieve that 
secularity of feeling to which the mind is prone. But here, 
we are deprived of that enjoyment. We endeavor to supply 
its place as well as we can, by uniting regularly, every morn- 
ing and evening, in reading the Scriptures, rehgious conver- 
sation, and prayer, in our little parlor." 

■ On Sunday, he heard Bishop Luscomb preach in the 
morning ; and in the afternoon preached for him, in the 
church of the Oratoire. At five o'clock, he dined with the 
bishop, " whose easy, unconstrained hospitality, and inter- 
esting conversation, detained his guests till between nine and 
ten." " He is," says Dr. Milnor, " a very high churchman, 



VISIT TO FRANCE. 339 

but — though to be tolerated in England for the present, as a 
necessary evil — strongly opposed to the union of church and 
state. He has had considerable epistolary discussion with 
the bishop of London, respecting the claims of. the latter to 
jurisdiction over all English Episcopal churches in foreign 
countries. The claim he deems to be, as it certainly is, pre- 
posterous, when applied to churches not situated in British 
colonies or provinces ; but for peace' sake, and to secure a 
certain pecuniary aid which the government affords these 
churches, he has so far acquiesced in the claims of the bishop 
of London as to grant licenses to ministers, subject to his 
approbation, which is always, as a matter of course, accord- 
ed. Almost all the Episcopal churches in France and the 
Netherlands, have acknowledged the episcopal superintend- 
ence of Bishop Luscomb. Mr. Way's chapel, in the Hotel 
MarboBuf, which is his private property, forms a somewhat 
galling exception, as his congregation embraces some of the 
most respectable Episcopalians in Paris. Our American 
ambassador's family attend that chapel, because they prefer 
the more evangelical style of preaching which prevails there, 
as well as its more agreeable situation. Perhaps, too, eti- 
quette may uiterpose some objection to an attendance on the 
.morning service at the British embassy ; and the Oratoire is 
neither a pleasant church, nor, for the EngUsh and American 
population, conveniently situated." 

Having recently suffered from a slight access of gout, he 
indiscreetly took a pedestrian excursion on Monday to the 
celebrated cemetery Pere la Chaise. *' The state of my foot," 
he observes, " was not improved by our protracted walk 
through those beautiful grounds. We returned very much 
fatigued ; but being under an engagement to spend the even- 
ing at the house of our ambassador, Mr. K-ives, we repaired 
thither, and were very kindly and unostentatiously received 
and entertained by him and his excellent lady. I met there 
M. Serrurier and his lady, whom I had known in Washing- 
ton as the ambassador of the Emperor Napoleon to the gov- 



340 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

eminent of the United States. Madame Serrurier was then 
only seventeen years of age. She is still a beautiful woman, 
in the bloom of hfe ; but he is so much altered that I should 
not have known him. It seemed to be agreeable to him to 
have met, thus incidentally, with an American acquamtance ; 
for he professed to remember me, though so many years had 
passed. He made numerous inquiries about men and things 
in Washington, and our country generally ; with which, by 
the by, he showed himself more familiar than most of the 
gentlemen with whom I conversed in England. I suffered, 
the whole evening, violent pain in my foot, but made no 
complaint ; though, upon taking my leave, I was unable to 
get to the carriage without assistance." 

"Tuesday Morning, June 29. — I am, this morning, in a 
state of complete disability for locomotion, and consequently 
have to remain at home, and that in much pain." Of his 
sufferings in the evening he writes, the next day, " My foot 
was so exceedingly painful and sore, that I was compelled to 
resort to laudanum ; and though I took, in three doses, 150 
drops, yet I obtained no sleep, nor abatement of pain, till 
near daylight of "Wednesday, June 30th." When he awoke, 
however, he was " greatly relieved," although his foot was 
excessively swollen and tender. 

The next three days he spent in the quiet of his room, 
receiving a few visitors, writing letters, and on Sunday, July 
4th, penning reflections on American freedom, and on the lib- 
erty wherewith the Son makes free. 

On Monday, after receiving various visitors, and trans- 
mitting sundry documents of business to institutions in Amer- 
ica, from which he had brought commissions. Dr. Milnor 
dined with Mr. Vaysse, whose son had engaged to go out as 
instructor in the New York Institution for the Deaf and 
Dumb. Five French gentlemen, none of whom understood 
English, dined with him. Through his amiable interpreter 
Miss Vaysse, however, he collected the substance of their 
conversation, wliich was principally on the " very critical 



VISIT TO FRANCE. 341 

state of the country." " The elections," says his journal, 
"which are now going on, it is generally agreed, will termi- 
nate in the choice of a majority of deputies of the liberal 
party. This will compel the king to change his ministry, 
or come to an open rupture with the lower house ; for it is 
said, they will withhold supplies, unless their wishes are 
complied with. The gentlemen of our circle at dinner, pro- 
fess to be inclined, in general, to the views of the liberal 
party, at least so far as to wish a change of ministers, as 
the best means of quieting the feelings of the nation. But 
they lament the violence of some of the journals, and also 
the excesses that have taken place in some of the depart- 
ments ; and deprecate any direct opposition to the executive 
government, as likely to bring back the horrors of the Revo- 
lution. An old gentleman present, recently one of the edi- 
tors of the Journal des Debats, was twice condemned to be 
guillotined, and once an actual account of his decapitation 
was published." 

In truth, they were, without knowing it, on the eve of 
the historic " three days" of July, 1830 — a convulsion which 
heaved Charles X. from his throne, and placed upon the 
brow of Louis of Orleans the crown, not of France, but of 
*'the French." 

Having described the pursuits and productions of his five 
fellow-guests, " for all the company were hterary men," Dr. 
Milnor adds, "I had a specimen of a real French dinner; 
and while I was surprised at the needless variety of unknown 
condiments, and the protracted use of them, I was much 
more astonished at the immense quantity of food which each 
guest devoured, and at their copious libations of various light 
wines. Our dinner — the eating part of it, I mean — lasted 
from, seven till after nine o'clock ; and when the eating was 
over, all was over : for the gentlemen and ladies immediately 
retired together to the drawing-room, where a cup of coffee and 
a small glass of eau de vie — of the latter, of course, as a tem- 
perance man, I did not partake — closed the evening's repast." 



342 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

On Tuesday he visited that monument of the splendid 
extravagance of the grand Monarque, the palace of Ver- 
sailles ; despatched various business matters ; and, with 
regrets at bemg unable, in consequence of his long confine- 
ment, to return the many civilities which he had received, 
addressed notes of apology to those who had paid them. 
Thus prepared, he took his departure from Paris. His re- 
turn course lay through Rouen, and by way of Dieppe to 
Brighton, on the south coast of England. He left Paris, 
Wednesday the 7th, and reached Brighton early m the morn- 
ing of Saturday, the 10th of July. 



SECTION Y. 

With his companions in travel, Mcllvaine and Smith, he 
passed directly from Brighton, through Portsmouth, to the 
Isle of Wight, and spent the Sabbath of the next day at 
Eyde. 

" It was cheering," he says, " on this beautiful morning, 
after the bad weather, and miserable roads, and half-starved 
horses, and craz}'^ carriages, and dirty villages, of France, to 
find ourselves in a well-constructed stage-coach, drawn by 
elegant horses, as neatly caparisoned as those of a noble- 
man's private carriage, over roads perfectly dry and smooth, 
through towns neatly built, and a country richly variegated 
with delightful scenery, and studded with buildings, some of 
beautiful, and almost all of comfortable appearance. The 
comparison certainly places France far behind England in 
the career of improvement." 

After reaching the Isle of Wight, he spent one of his 
most comfortable and heavenly Sabbaths, under the ministry 
of the Rev. Mr. Sibthorpe, and in company with the Rev. 
Mr. Hatchard, vicar of Plymouth ; and he gave, in his jour- 
nal, very full notes of the two sermoiis which the former 



1 



MISSION TO ENaLAND. 343 

preached, and which demonstrated him to have been at that 
time as far as any man living from the views of Dr. Pusey 
and the church of Rome. His subsequent lapse into those 
views forms one of the most m:elancholy chapters in the 
history of the evangelical men of England. 

Speaking of his Sabbath in ilyde, Dr. Mihior remarks, 
" This was a delightful day to myself and my friends. What 
a contrast to the business, and bustle, and noise of Paris, the 
quiet of this pleasant town and peaceful isle ; to the defilmg 
superstitions of popery, the chaste worship of our church ; 
and to the senseless pomp and pageantry of their corrupt 
and miserable forms, the pure gospel as preached by a gifted 
minister of God I" 

It is well known that one of the very important princi- 
ples adopted for its guidance by the American Tract Society, 
is that of publishmg no narrative tract which is not sub- 
stantial truth. One of Dr. Milnor's objects, therefore, in 
visiting the Isle of Wight, was to verify, if it admitted of 
verification, the descriptive part in the narrative of that in- 
comparably useful tract, the Dairyman's Daughter, by Legh 
Kiclimond ; as well as that of the Young Cottager and the 
African Servant, by the same "almost hallowed" pen. To 
the Christian reader, therefore, this part of his journal as- 
sumes more than its usual interest, and will, for this reason, 
be more closely followed. 

"Monday, July 12. — The Eev. Mr. Sibthorpe and the 
Rev. Mr. Hulme kmdly proposed to accompany us to-day on 
a part of our ride through the island. They went in a one- 
horse vehicle, and we with a fine pair of horses and an ex- 
cellent coach, immediately after breakfasting with Mr. Sib- 
*thorpe. And now, at the close of our journey, I find myself 
utterly incompetent to describe the scenes of natural gran- 
deur and beauty through which we have this day passed. I 
had often read and heard of them ; but the reality every 
way surpassed the expectation which I had formed. 

" The town of Ryde, where we spent the last two nights, 



344 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOIl. 

and enjoyed so sweet a Sabbath, is opposite Portsmouth. It 
is situated on the side of a liill of considerable elevation, and 
affords a fine view of Portsmouth, its celebrated harbor, and 
several other important naval stations in its neighborhood. 
Some of the houses of Ryde are elegant, and present a neat 
appearance, with great attention, on the part of their occu- 
jiants, to the cultivation in front and around them of trees 
and shrubbery ; a species of ornament so easy, and affording 
so great an addition to the beauty of a dwelling, that one 
is surprised it should be anywhere neglected. Yet, in all 
the villages which we saw in France, the odor of filth and 
mud seemed more agreeable to their inhabitants than that 
of flowers ; and a glaring sunshine, when it could be had, 
than the relief which the English think is afforded by over- 
shadowing foliage, 

" At the commencement of our ride, the weather looked 
a little inauspicious ; but it soon cleared off^ and became 
very pleasant, though the temperature is exceedingly cool 
for the season. Our road was not very broad, but it was 
smooth and winding, bordered on each side by luxuriant 
hedges, and often by lofty trees. Its serpentine course was 
produced by its conforming, in a considerable degree, to that 
of the beach, along which, until we passed the village of 
Bonchurch, and turned more inland towards Arreton and 
Newport, it principally lay. The circuitous course of the 
road over hill and dale sometimes conducted us close to the 
water's side, and gave us a full view of the noble harbor of 
Portsmouth, in the first part of our ride, and subsequently 
of the great Atlantic ; and at other times, receding a little, 
and causmg a temporary interruption of our prospect by 
intervening hills, it only increased our delight at emerging 
again to some more extensive view. Every one knows how 
a change of position will alter the appearance of a landscape, 
and disclose at every turn new beauties. Here we enjoyed 
this pleasure in a high degree ; and besides seeing every 
object in a variety of views, new scenery, which the pen of 



MISSION TO ENQLAND. 345 

a Richmond could describe, though mine cannot, was con- 
tinually bursting on our sight. We noticed a beautiful build- 
ing in the form of a castle, and of recent erection, the seat 
of Lord Vernon ; and another on a lofty hill, belonging to 
Sir Richard Simeon ; and witliin three miles of Ryde, six 
or eight other country-seats of various architecture, yet all 
seeming to harmonize with the delightful and enchanting 
scene around. 

" Soon after passing Helen's Green, a small village of 
neat cottages, we saw the tower of its old church, on which 
the sea encroached till it was abandoned to ruin, and an- 
other was built in a safer position. "VVe soon came to Brad- 
ing harbor, which, at high tide, forms a lake of several miles 
in extent ; but at low water, is an uncovered flat. The 
tide flows in through a narrow inlet, which we crossed in a 
small boat, our carriage being taken over in a larger. We 
walked up the hill on the side opposite to Bembridge chapel, 
recently built by a Mr. Wise, and m which an excellent 
clergyman. Sir Henry Thompson, officiates. We regretted 
our disappointment m not seeing the incumbent, to whom 
Mr. Sibthorpe was desirous of introducing us. 

" We were now approaching Brading,^ where Legh 
Riclmaond commenced his ministry ; were passing through 
the rich and delightful scenery which he so tastefully de- 
scribes ; and v/ere about to behold, and in some instances to 
press with our footsteps, those almost hallowed spots, where 
occurred the events, the memory of wliich he has perpetu- 
ated in those admirable tracts, the Young Cottager, the 
African Servant, and the Dairyman's Daughter. 

"We had these invaluable narratives with us, and em- 
ployed ourselves in reading such parts of them as were 
specially calculated to direct our attention to the several 
places which he does not name, but describes with such 

* The journal, from this point till the travellers reached NeAvport, 
was, soon after Dr. Milnor's return, presented to the American Tract 
Society as a part of his report to that institution. 

15* 



346 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

fidelity to nature that the observant traveller needs no othei 
gxiide to point them out. 

" I am glad that we can bear our testimony to the ac- 
curacy of his descriptions, because many have supposed them 
to be principally fancy ; and on this account, much that 
adds greatly to the interest of the narrative, and is highly 
instructive in showing the Christian with what religious 
feelings the works of the great Creator should be viewed, 
and to what profitable use their contemplation may be ap- 
phed, has, in many editions of them, been omitted. Though 
not so intended by the curtailers of these tracts, the retrench- 
ment is yet, in my opinion, an injustice to their lamented 
author, and an injury to the narratives themselves. 

" On arrivmg at Brading, we drove directly to the church- 
yard, where are interred the remains of ' Little Jane,' the 
young cottager. Several children were playmg near the 
gate ; and I asked a fine-looking little girl if she could show 
us the grave of Jane. ' yes,' she said, and advanced be- 
fore us as our guide. After conducting us to the grave, 
over which we stood for some time in silent but affecting 
meditation, she said she would ' show us the verses on Mr. 
and Mrs. Berry's tombstone, ivhat Jane had got by heart 
and repeated to Mr. Uichmond.' 'Well, my dear,' said I, 
' the reading of these verses helped Jane to become a good 
girl and to die happy, did it not?' She answered, 'Yes, 
sir,' as she did my next inquiry, whether s/^e would try to 
be as good a girl, and die as happy as little Jane. 

" The epitaphs which little Jane committed to memory, 
especially that on Mr. Berry's tombstone, which was proba- 
bly, under God, the means of her first serious impressions, 
are both pious and affecting ; and their influence on the 
mind of this youthful candidate for heaven, shows what sim- 
ple instruments the Holy Spirit often employs to accompUsh 
the conversion of the soul to God. 

" From the graveyard we went hito the church, a very 
ancient structure, not Jess, the sexton assured us, than eleven 



MISSION TO ENaLAND. 347 

hundred years old. It has been enlarged smce its first erec- 
tion, and is remarkable for nothing in its interior but two 
Buigular tombs with wooden effigies of the deceased ; several 
plainer, but apparently very old monuments of stone ; and 
a most helter-skelter and mconvenient arrangement of the 
pews. Its location, however, is at once sequestered, and 
near the village, above which it is slightly elevated. The 
parsonage, a comfortable-looking abode, is immediately ad- 
jacent to the churchyard. From the church, the view of 
Brading Haven, the bay beyond, the elevated hill on the 
right, and the sloping bank on the left, with the other sce- 
nery described by Mr. Richmond in * The Young Cottager,' 
as seen from this spot, are all just as there represented. 

*' On our way from Brading to Sandown Bay, the pros- 
pects were variegated and pleasing ; and as we passed the 
fort, we emerged upon one of the grandest views of the 
ocean through the bay, that we had yet seen. Here was 
pointed out to us the liigh down which Mr. Riclmaond de- 
scribes in ' The African Servant,' the perpendicular cliiF in 
which it termmates, and the jutting rock, under which he 
discovered and so interestingly conversed with liis sable com- 
panion. Nothing can be more true to nature than his de- 
scriptions, in that tract, of the surrounding scenery. "We 
saw the cottage of the celebrated John Wilkes, in the gar- 
den of which are flourishuig several rosebushes said to have 
been planted by his own hands. 

" We then proceeded to the village of Shanklin, consist- 
ing of a few neat cottages, and stopped at a residence bearing 
nothing of a tavern aspect, but afibrding us the refreshment 
which we needed — some excellent cold roast beef and lob- 
sters. After lunch, we walked down to what is called 
Shanklin Chine, a large, romantic fissure, or chasm, m the 
chfF that fronts upon the sea. The descent to the beach is 
by an ordinary road ; and then you return through the chine 
to the village. No description extant of this singular spot 
is either so beautiful or so minutely accurate, as that given 



348 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

by Mr. Richmond in ' The Young Cottager,' as one of his 
places of solitary, religious meditation. We occupied the 
same * little hollow recess in the cliff,' from which he sur- 
veyed and delineated the surrounding scenery. We there 
read deliberately his graphic description of the various inter- 
esting objects that lay before him, and could discern no dif- 
ference between it and the noble scene in actual view, save 
that a mist hid from us the * towermg spire' of Chichester 
cathedral ; that in these peaceful times, we beheld no ' frigate 
standing into the bay ;' and that but a few vessels of any size 
happened, at that moment, to enliven the prospect. We 
lingered long upon and near the beach, and then proceeded 
up the chine, along the side of which the fishermen have 
cut a convenient footpath, with a resting-place or two by the 
way, where an interesting point of observation happened to 
present itself. Several neat cottages, with small gardens, 
have been built witliin the fissure, each of which, while shel- 
tered from the weather by its lofty sides, and embowered 
amid the rich, foliage of shrubs and overhanging trees, en- 
joys at the.same time an extensive prospect of the sea. 

" K-eturning to the village, we resumed our carriage, and 
passing by the neat old churcli of Shanklin, came to Bon- 
church, village, quietly seated on what is called ' the under- 
clifT.' " This, as its name implies, is a cHfT under a cliff. 
For a considerable distance, the road runs along the top^ 
and at times near the brink of one cliff which rises directly 
above the sea ; while, for the same distance, it runs along 
the ha2,e of another cliff, which rises, a few rods inland, per- 
pendicularly above the traveller's head. The singular wild- 
ness of this scene may be judged from the circumstance, that 
the upper cliff towers, at some points, near a thousand feet 
above the level of the ocean. " We got out of the carriage, 
and proceeded along the brink, for the sake of the view 
which it presented of some exquisite scenery not before dis- 
closed. Below the village, we threaded our way down a 
footpath to the road, and got into our carriage ; our course 



MISSrON TO ENQLAND. 349 

HOW lying up an inland valley, between gently sloping but 
lofty hills on either side. Landscapes of peculiar beauty 
and variety, exhibiting numberless fields of grain, nearly 
ripe for the harvest ; herds of cattle, and flocks of sheep, 
with here and there a company of haymakers, busily em- 
ployed, presented themselves in ever-changing aspects, as 
■we ascended or descended the successive slopes of this de- 
lightful valley. 

" We had long in sight, and at length passed, at some 
distance, the splendid seat and extensive park-grounds of 
Lord Yarborough, called Appuldercomb. Travellers have 
given rapturous descriptions of the interior, and its rich collec- 
tions of pauitings and sculpture. Of these, we shall proba- 
bly never have a sight ; but it was commended to our notice 
by circumstances of a very different kind. It was there that 
the sister of 'the dairyman's daughter' died, whose funeral 
Mr. Richmond attended, at the request of the latter ; and it 
was there, that about a week after, he had his first conversa- 
tion with her whose religious experience, as narrated by that 
faithful minister, has had a more extensive influence in the 
world than ever attended any similar publication. 

" He gives, in ' The Dairyman's Daughter,' a correct 
account of the situation and appearance of Appuldercomb, 
and of the surrounding scenery. We saw ' the summit of 
the hill adjoining' the venerable mansion, to which he as- 
cended after the visit just referred to ; and the triangular 
pyramid of stones, near which he sat down to meditate ; and 
the magnificent prospect which lay around him. In full 
view of this elevated spot, we read his extended description, 
and turned southward and southeastward, and northward 
and westward, and admired, as he had done, the unequalled 
beauty of the scene. Certainly neither of us had ever read 
the descriptive part of ' The Dairyman's Daughter ' with the 
like mterest and emotion. My feelings obliged me to resign 
the book to my companions ; and under the various emo- 
tions excited by the narrative and the scene, it was difficult 



350 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

for any of us to prosecute our reading ; but with an intensity 
of interest, we gazed upon the lovely prospect until it could 
be no longer seen. 

" "We now approached Arreton, the village, in the church- 
yard of which lie interred the mortal remains of Elizabeth 
Wallbridge, the sainted daughter of the dairyman. About 
a mile from it, we stopped before the cottage from which 
her soul ascended to its rest, and were kindly received by 
her surviving brother, a man now advanced in years, and 
still a resident in the cot of his birth. He showed us Eliza- 
beth's Bible, in which was simply written, * Elizabeth Wall- 
bridge, daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Wallbridge ; born 
1771, died 1801.' He also took us up stairs into the room 
in which she expired. We added our names to a long list, 
in a book kept by her brother for the purpose, and then 
took our leave, Mr. Wallbridge in a very respectful manner 
thanking us for our visit. 

" Our simphcity in finding satisfaction in such a visit, 
would be a fruitful subject of derision to men of the world ; 
but if they will indulge our simplicity, and we can enjoy 
feelings such as these scenes excited, let them laugh : we 
will delight in every thmg calculated to cherish the memory 
of the pious dead. 

" On leaving the cottage, our path was the same with 
that over which moved the funeral procession of the dairy- 
man's daughter, in the manner so afTectingly described by 
Mr. Richmond. It lay along a narrow but excellent road, 
winding between high, green hedges, and sometimes under 
an arch formed by the trees on either side ; a lofty culti- 
vated hill on the right, and a charming view of the luxuri- 
ant valley now and then breaking upon us to the left. As 
we read the account of the solemn passage of the mournmg, 
yet rejoicing relatives and friends of the deceased, we were 
almost ready to realize its actual vision, and to hear the 
pious strains of melody, as they filled the air and ascended 
to the skies. 



MISSION TO ENG-LAND. 351 

" Thus prepared, we reached Arreton church ; and leav- 
ing our carriage to ascend the hill without us, we went to 
the grave of Elizabeth ; read the beautiful lines, which love 
of her character and the recollection of her triumphant 
death have caused to be inscribed on her simple monument ; 
meditated a while on her present glorious state ; dropped a 
tear of sympathy but not of sorrow, and silently retired. 

" From this to Newport, our resting-place for the night, 
we could talk on none but things connected with the scenes, 
and incidents, and reflections of the day; uniting in the 
sentiment that Paris, with all its palaces, and gardens, and 
paintings, and statues, had afforded no such gratification 
to our eyes as the glorious works of God, on which they 
had dwelt in this enchanting island ; and none of its multi- 
phed attractions, such an inward feast as the religious asso- 
ciations of this day's travel had supphed." 

A sudden and unexpected return of Mr. Mcllvaine's illness 
prevented the party, for a few days, from prosecuting their 
tour round the island. In the meantime. Dr. Milnor visited 
old Carisbrook castle, in the neighborhood of Newport, with 
its ancient Roman weU, and the ruins of the chamber in 
which the ill-fated Charles I. was a prisoner ; and spent a 
day in crossing over from Cowes to Southampton, for the 
purpose of visiting his friend Mrs. Gilliat, and of obtaining 
letters from home, which he had ordered to be sent thither 
from London. After a pleasant l^sit with liis friend and her 
family, though without finding the letters which he expect- 
ed, he returned to Newport on Thursday, July 15, the day 
appointed for the funeral of George IV. As his fellow-trav- 
eller, Mr. Mcllvaine, was stiU too sick for journeying, Dr. 
Milnor and his remaining companion, Mr. Smith, resolved 
upon the western tour of the Isle of Wight. Accordingly, 
on Friday morning, immediately after breakfast, they took a 
carriage, and favored with a beautifully cool summer's day, 
set forth on their pleasant jaunt. 

*' Our road," says the journal, "lay through Catisbrook, 



352 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

a village adjacent to Newport, and remarkable for little save 
the pleasantness of its situation, the neatness and rural dec- 
orations of its dwellings, and the fine view which it presents 
of the venerable ruin, Carisbrook castle, already described. 
As seen in passing along the road, one has a much higher 
idea of the ancient importance of this castle as a pla.je of 
military defence, as well as a much more interesting view 
of its ivy-mantled gateway, its lofty round towers, the frag- 
ments of its gray walls, in great part buried in foliage, and 
the elevated keep, from which we had enjoyed so delightful 
a survey of the beautiful country around it. Our host at 
Newport informed us that the mayor of that city is, by im- 
memorial usage, sworn into office in the chapel of the castle. 
The 'pre2,ent mayor is the clergyman of the church in New- 
port, and I presume a good officer, from the fact of our host's 
complaining of him as * ruling the publicans of the city with 
a rod of iron.' One thing is certain, during the time which 
we have spent in his jurisdiction, there has been every ap- 
pearance of the utmost quiet and order. We have seen no 
drunken men, or mendicants ; have heard no profane lan- 
guage ; nor witnessed the least disorder of any kind. The 
stillness of the place has been very propitious to the recov- 
ery of my sick friend. 

" We continued our ride through the village of Shorwell, 
which has a pretty, antique church, and near which we 
passed a cottage of the m'ger size, literally buried in ivy, 
no part of the building being visible, save the doors and win- 
dows. It is astonishing with what luxuriance this plant 
grows in England ; how it seems to love stone walls ; and 
how greatly it adds to the picturesque appearance of the 
buildings which it invests. 

" Soon afterwards, a magnificent view of the ocean broke 
suddenly upon us, as we cleared a high verdant bank by 
which it had hitherto been intercepted. We passed through 
the village of Brixton, in which, as in Shorwell, the princi- 
pal objects of interest were its antique httle church and its 



MISSION TO ENGLAND. 353 

comfortable cottages imbedded in the greenest foliage. Again 
the sea was hidden from view, and again it appeared in all 
its grandeur, as we passed over hill and dale in tliis enchant- 
ing ride. A little way from Brixton, we passed through the 
hamlet of Mattisone, lying at the foot of a liigh down, and 
then through another, called Brooke, quietly recessed in a 
deep valley between tivo lofty downs, its church being hon- 
ored with a more elevated site just without the cluster of 
cottages which shelter the worshippers. 

" After leaving Brooke, our road, in its continual wind- 
ings, conducted us over several very elevated tracts, called 
Shalcombe, Compton, and Afton dowais, on which are nu- 
merous flocks of sheep, apparently thriving on the short pas- 
turage which these tracts afford. Except such parts of them 
as have been gradually brought under cultivation, they are 
generally without tree or shrub, the soil being a hght loam 
on a substratum of chalk. They are, no doubt, generally 
susceptible of cultivation ; but until thus improved, they 
serve principally for sheep-pastures, and for gratifying trav- 
ellers with uninterrupted prospects of the most varied and 
extensive character. 

" Our ride over Afton down brought us to Freshwater- 
gate, the inappropriate name of a very interesting spot, 
which forms one of the great objects of attraction to this part 
of the island. We stopped at an inn upon the beach, and 
the tide being down, were able at once to enter a large cav- 
ern, a few hundred yards off, in the face of a very high cliff. 
Its principal opening towards the sea is under a natural 
archway thirty feet high, and about the same width; and it 
extends into the rock above a hundred feet. There are other 
chasms in the vicinity, of smaller dimensions. 

" To the north from this place, lies a range of chalky 
cliffs of great height, often exactly perpendicular, and some- 
times overhanging the ocean with a terrific frown. After 
viewing the caves at Freshwater-gate, we resumed our car- 
riage, and by a circuitous road of about three miles, reached 



354 MEMOIR OF DE. MILNOR. 

the lighthouse on Needles'-point. This is a singular prom- 
ontory, extending from the main body of the island into the 
sea, and lashed on either side by its waves. The whole of 
the scenery here presented is truly grand and impressive. 
After a full enjoyment of it, we returned to our carriage, and 
proceeded back to the mn at Freshwater-gate, and then re- 
turned to Newport by a different road from that travelled in 
the morning. On this road, we passed through a finely cul- 
tivated country, and in view of many elegant mansions, the 
seats of the nobility or gentry who spend part of their time 
on this fascinatmg island." 



SECTION YI. 

The party left Newport on Saturday, the 17th of July, 
and proceeded to Southampton ; passing that exquisitely 
beautiful ruin, Netley Abbey, standing near the right shore 
of Southampton Water, about three miles below the town. 
That day, and the succeedmg Sunday, were cold, blustering, 
and stormy. In his room, Sunday morning, while the storm 
was raging without. Dr. Milnor thus writes : 

" May the Lord give me peace within, by renewed evi- 
dences of his pardoning love, and by the communication of 
larger measures of his sanctifying grace. May he graciously 
accept my prayers for the dear family and the beloved flock 
at home, and make this his hallowed day a blessing to their 
souls ; and may he, by his Holy Spirit, prepare me and my 
companions for a right engagement in the solemn duties of 
the sanctuary, and, to use the language of this day's collect, 
* pour into our hearts such love towards him, that we, loving 
him above all things, may obtam his promises, wliich exceed 
all that we can desire, through Jesus Christ our Lord.' " 

Monday, 19th, the party rode to Winchester, and after 
viewing, and confessmg his inabihty to describe its ancient 



MISSION TO ENGLAND. 355 

cathedral, Dr. Milnor remarks, " We attended the evening 
service at three o'clock, and heard the choir chant the hymns 
and the psalter. The prayers were read in recitative. On 
the whole, we plain American Episcopalians found but little 
to admire, either in the music or in the worship of this 
splendid church. An anthem, sung in the course of the 
prayers, might, so far as the music was concerned, be con- 
sidered an exception." 

From the cathedral, they went to visit the famous Win- 
chester school, founded by William of Wykeham, and still 
kept under the iron rule of its founder's times. It dates 
from the close of the fourteenth century. 

" The school-room," says Dr. Mihior, " which holds two 
hundred pupils, has a lofty ceiling, but is not only destitute 
of all ornament, but mean and mconvenient in its arrange- 
ments. Only a few have the accommodation of a desk for 
writing. The rest straddle their rude benches, and write on 
little chests, brought from their chambers and placed on the 
bench before them. The attention of the tyro, on entering 
this school, will soon be attracted to the ominous capitals on 
the wall, ornamented with the likeness of a hand- whip, 

'"aut disce, aut discede : 
Manet sors tertia — C/edi.'* 

" The play-ground is not large, and neither there, nor 
anywhere within the close, are the boys allowed to wear 
their hats. In the open yard is a reservoir of spring water 
with half a dozen cocks, where the junior pupils perform 
their ablutions, and then carry water in their basins into the 
chambers of their seniors, to whom they are fags, ; in other 
words, menial servants. It is astonishing, that so brutal 
and unnecessary a practice should be continued ; or that 
parents of respectability should be willing to place their 
children under the tyranny of the older pupils, who may 
chastise them with stripes, if they disobey. 

* " Either learn, or leave : 

A third lot remains — ^be flogged." 



356 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

" We were shown the dormitories. Several boys occupy 
the same chamber. They have but little of the appearance 
of comfort. The boys are not allowed tea or cofiee, their 
breakfast being bread and beer. Their dining-room is a 
spacious apartment, Avith a very narrow table placed around 
the sides ; and they eat off of small boards or trenchers, each 
about eight inches square. The prefects — some of the senior 
pupils having that title — are allowed plates, unless when 
the official visitors are present, and then the trenchers sup- 
ply their place. The guide told us that the pupils sometimes 
by stealth make tea and coffee, and provide other comforts 
at their own expense, in their rooms ; and he thought the 
practice Avas rather winked at ; but if these superfluities 
came under the notice of their teachers, they were taken 
away," Admirable discipline for a false theology, breeding 
in the young bone and sinew those inseparable concomitants, 
abject submissiveness and Jesuitical secrecy. 

From Winchester, they passed through Salisbury to Ex- 
eter. Of this city, the journal remarks, " Being the empo- 
rium of this part of England, it is a lively place, and rendered 
more so at present by one of those nuisances and nurseries 
of vice, a fair. We went this morning (Wednesday, July 
21) to the cathedral service, which, like that at Winchester, 
was attended by only two or three persons of respectable 
appearance, and a few of the poor brethren and sisters, be- 
sides the persons actually engaged in the services. These 
were two clergymen, who divided the duty, six men-singers, 
and ten boys. 

" It is to me a matter of surprise that so much should 
be thought of cathedral chanting, on the score of its music. 
There is such a sameness, such a long reiteration of the same 
cadences, that it tires the ear, and becomes fatiguing to the 
spirit. The fact, too, that these are paid performers, and 
that there is, in most of them, an absence of devotional feel- 
ing, gives the whole an air of formality and lip-service, which, 
notwithstanding the solemnity of the place, very much di- 



MISSION TO ENGLAND. 357 

minishes its effect. I suppose the thought will, by some, be 
considered quite puritanical. But I could not help wishing 
that such nobM structures as these English cathedrals might 
be devoted to more practical purposes, and rendered more 
subservient to the great end of the gospel of Christ — the 
salvation of perishing sinners. As these daily services are 
conducted, they approximate much too nearly the pageantry 
and formality of the Romish church, and have but httle in 
connection with the interests of evangelical piety." 

" The monuments, ancient and modern, spread through- 
out this edifice, are numerous. There is one of a prelate, 
who attempted to fast during the whole of Lent, and, it is 
said, actually did so until the thirty-eighth day, when he 
died. An effigy on his tomb exhibits his appearance after 
death. It is the ghastly figure of a skeleton I A similar 
instance of fatal superstition is commemorated in the same 
manner on a tomb in Salisbury cathedral, though that dev- 
otee died on the thirty-first day. Q-uery : Will piety of in- 
tention in such cases acquit the victims of the guilt of sui- 
cide ? Scit Dcus, 71011 ego" — [God knows, not I.] 

On Thursday, July 22, the travellers left Exeter, via 
Tiverton, Barnstaple, and Ilfracombe, and along the south 
shore of Bristol channel, to Bristol city. We give a few of 
Dr. Milnor's notes on his passage through this picturesque 
region. 

" The road between Barnstaple and Ilfracombe is a turn- 
pike, cut at an immense expense, along the side of a hill, 
and requiring a wall for its support, on the lower side, almost 
the whole distance. It passes along a deep valley between 
high hills, though at a considerable height above the bottom 
of the valley, following on a perfect level, all the windings, 
some of them very short, of the hill along the side of which 
it pursues its devious course. In some instances, the steep 
and lofty hills on the opposite side of the valley were culti- 
vated to their very summits ; but for many miles they were 
covered with fine plantations of forest-trees, thickly set, and 



358 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOE. 

their tops often so uniform in height as to resemble the sur- 
face of a field of grass." 

•' In passing through the English villages, one is some- 
times amused with the signs which they exhibit. A tailor, 
for instance, informs the public, that he ' makes all sorts of 
ready-made clothing,' and a grocer, that he is ' licensed to 
brew and sell beer, spirituous liquors, and tobacco^ " 

" The situation of Ilfracombe is singular. It lies on the 
Bristol channel, embosomed on all sides by lofty hills, except 
a narrow opening to the water, which affords an entrance 
into a sheltered and commodious harbor for vessels of 250 
tons burden. It is a natural basin, the only artificial im- 
provement being a stone pier, on one side of the entrance, 
running a short distance into the channel, principally to pre- 
vent the accumulation of sand at the mouth of the harbor. 
At low tide, as we saw it, the recession of the water leaves 
the vessels high and dry on the sand. 

" In the circle of hills around Ilfracombe, those lying 
inland are loftier than those which rise from the beach, and 
afford delightful sites for dwelling-houses, commanding a full 
view of the whole interesting scenery, and of the channel 
and ocean beyond. Along the summit of the chain of hills 
which rise immediately from the water, a path has been 
made which forms a charming promenade in fine weather 
for the visitors who resort to Ilfracombe — for Ilfracombe is 
a watering-place of some note, and the number of taverns 
and lodgmg-houses indicates that it is not a little frequented. 
Some of the private residences on the heights have a fine 
appearance, and few finer than that which was pointed out 
as the residence of Mr. Bowen, the rector of the parish. 

" The church, as might be expected, occupies a very ro- 
mantic spot. It is on a hill, rather difficult of access to the 
aged and infirm, yet surrounded by hills still higher than its 
own, Tf-'hich protect it from storms and tempests. The safety 
of its position cannot be questioned, for it is said to have 
stood already for 1,200 years. It is a truly venerable struct- 



MISSION TO ENaLAND. 359 

ure, carefully kept in repair, and of late greatly improved in 
its interior. 

" We left Ilfracombe in a postcliaise about mid-day. As 
we advanced, we were enveloped in a thick fog, until we 
approached Linton, the scenery around which we were par- 
ticularly desirous of seeing. It now broke away, and per* 
mitted us, as we descended without intermission a wind- 
ing slope of at least two miles, to survey a most romantic 
succession of ever-varymg views. Immense hills, some af 
fording pasturage for innumerable sheep, others cultivated 
to the very tops ; vales of enchantmg beauty, and occasion- 
ally the most picturesque clusters of buildings at the bottom 
of the deepest glens, or on the steep sides of the adjacent 
acchvities, as our road turned, now in one direction, now in 
another, attracted our admiration. Suddenly, a full view 
of the channel, presenting here the appearance of a sea, 
broke upon us through a deep valley on our right, at the 
termination of which, and close to the beach, is seated the 
little town of Lynemouth. Its appearance, from the vast 
height which we occupied above it, was pleasing as it was 
singular. Several of its white houses, being new and of 
very tasteful construction, added to its beauty. A turn to 
the left brought us, by a short ascent, to the town of Lin- 
ton ; the position of which, notwithstanding our long descent 
towards it, was still high above the water, and commanded 
an almost boundless prospect. It has a small church : and 
from the churchyard, the view of Lynemouth beneath ; the 
wide expanse of water in front ; the hills and vales, with 
their various appendages, on either side ; and the stupen- 
dous elevations in the rear, formed an aggregate of beau- 
ties and subhmities such as is rarely found concentrated at 
the same spot. 

" We dined at Linton, and then, with fresh postchafse 
and horses, proceeded to Minehead, where we had arranged 
to spend the night. After travelling over a good road, across 
an elevated tract, at one of our turns the village of PorlocV 



360 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

was unexpectedly seen reposing at the very bottom of an 
exceedingly deep valley before us, amid fields of the most 
flourishing grass and grain. They reminded me of the gar- 
den at Versailles. It seemed at so small a distance from us 
as to make it impossible to reach it, save by an almost per- 
pendicular descent. And steep enough it was ; but the road, 
winding as the surface of the hill allowed, first in one direc- 
tion and then in another, proved to be five or six times as 
long as one would have imagined, and brought us in safety 
to the village. This, however, on entering its narrow street 
of low and mean habitations, lost all the beauty which it 
appeared to have from the heights above. We stopped a 
moment at its best, though, at the best, its miserable inn. 
I asked the landlord if the church, at some distance from 
his house, was a handsome one. ' Why, much like the 
town,' he rephed; 'it's very old: they say how it's three 
hundred years old, but I can't believe any house would 
stand that long.' 'Why, my friend,' I observed, 'they say 
the church at Ilfracombe is twelve hmidred years old.' 
'Ah,' he answered, 'I was burn (born) at Ilfracombe, but 
not so long ago as that.' I inquired about the minister of 
Porlock. ' Why, he sarves another parish about two miles 
off^, and the church has a tower and a bell ; but they're a 
queer sort of people. In the winter it's too co-aid to ring, 
and in the soomer it's too warm ; and so they don't often 
have sarvice.' Finding my host so intelligent and commu- 
nicative, I inquired of him about a tower on one of the hills 
in the vicinity of Porlock, which is said to be of great height, 
but was hid from our view by the clouds and mists around 
it. ' He had never measured it,' he said, ' but he was told 
it was as high as I had stated.' I asked if it was built of 
stone ; to which he sagely answered, ' He believed it ivas, 
bujlt of stone, and such like combustibles' 

" Saturday, July 24. — As we approached Bristol, the 
embellished residences of the wealthy multiplied, and pre- 
sented a constant succession of objects deservmg of notice 



MISSION TO ENGLAND. 361 

We came in sight of Bristol while it was yet six miles dis- 
tant, lymg m a valley far below the eminence from which 
we beheld it ; our road being one almost continuous descent 
until we entered its crowded streets. The election of mem- 
bers to Parliament being at hand, the city was in a great 
bustle, owing to the canvassing of the candidates. One of 
the streets was rendered impassable by a throng of people 
listening to a speech from one of these solicitors of popular 
favor. We concluded that a residence at Clifton, two miles 
from Bristol, would be more pleasant, during our short stay, 
than at so noisy a place ; and therefore, after we had dined 
at the 'White Lion,' and inquired for letters at the post- 
office, we took a coach and made our quarters at the Bath 
Hotel, Clifton. Mr. Mcllvaine and I having each a letter 
of introduction to Mr. Prust, a pious dissenting merchant, 
whose family residence was at Clifton, we sent them to him, 
and he soon called upon us, sat the evening with us, and 
kindly ofiered us any service in his power. It was agreed 
that we would accompany him to-morrow morning to the 
chapel of the Rev. Robert Hall, whose celebrity as a preach- 
er, as well as his evangelical piety and Christian cathoH- 
cism, have made him so well known and so much admired 
in this country and in ours. 

" Sunday, July 25. — On going with Mr. Prust to Mr. 
Hall's chapel, we found he»was not to preach until evening ; 
we therefore went with our guide to that of Mr. Leifchild, 
an Independent minister. The service of the Episcopal 
church commencing at a later hour in the morning, we 
then went to St. Mary's, RedcliiTe, and heard its rector, the 
Rev. Mr. Whish. The church is so spacious, having in fact 
the aspect of a cathedral, that the voice of the preacher was 
too indistinctly heard to allow my mind to go along with 
his discourse. After service, we were introduced to him, 
and walked through the church to survey its monuments, 
some of which are very ancient. The whole interior of this 
venerable Gothic edifice is uncommonly beautiful. Against 

Mem. Milner. 1 D 



362 MEMOIR OF DH. MILNOR. 

one of its pillars hangs the armor of Admiral Penn, father 
of the founder of Pemisylvania, and two of the now ragged 
colors of his ship. His tomb is in the adjacent aisle. 

" At half past six P. M., we rode down to Mr. Hall's 
chapel. He did not come from the vestry until the conclu- 
sion of the preliminary services, being much indisposed. He 
appeared feeble as he ascended the pulpit, and delivered his 
sermon extemporaneously, in a low voice, and entirely with- 
out action." 

According to his custom, Dr. Milnor took full notes of 
both the discourses which he heard to-day ; and those of 
Mr. Hall's show it to have been, m richness of thought at 
least, one of his ablest efforts. " We had the pleasure," adds 
Dr. Milnor, " of being introduced to Mr. Hall, and went into 
his vestry. This distinguished man appears to be in declin- 
ing health. He has for many years been afflicted with the 
* tic douloureux ' in his back, which obliges him to take large 
quantities of opium, and to keep as much as possible in a 
reclining posture. A sitting posture and the labor of writ- 
ing are very irkspme to him. He is now also distressed with 
a determination of blood to the lungs. After a few moments' 
conversation, we took our leave, promising our endeavors 
to comply with a kind invitation to visit him at his o^vn 
house. 

"Monday, July 26, — Clifton is about two miles from 
the centre of Bristol. In fact, however, it is but an exten- 
sion of the city from the valley up a steep acchvity, on the 
sides and top of which merchants and gentlemen retired 
from business have planted their residences. The ascent is 
continual, till the eminence is reached. Tliis overhangs the 
river, the frequent windings of which, and its high banks, 
covered on the opposite side with lofty forest-trees, give great 
interest to the scene. Much of the summit of the hill is 
left open for a promenade ; and is greatly frequented by the 
inhabitants, and by strangers, who resort to Clifton for the 
benefit of the hot wells, or for cool air in their morning and 



MISSION TO ENGLAND. 363 

evening walks. On the open space in front of our inn, are 
constantly standing little carriages, on two hind wheels and 
one fore, each drawn by a stout man, for the accommodation 
of invalid females ; many of whom may be seen, from time 
to time, taking their airing m that way. A dozen little 
donkeys also stand ready saddled, the saddle of each cov- 
ered with a clean linen cloth, for hire to the numerous 
children of the gentry, who ride about the grounds for 
exercise. 

"At half past two o'clock, we visited, by appointment, 
Mrs. Haiuiah More, now in her eighty-sixth year, and for 
two or three years past a resident at Chfton. Her house is 
very agreeably situated, having a pleasant prospect both in 
front and in rear from the apartments which she occu- 
pies. She has no inmates except her servants and Miss 
Frowd, a niece of Lord Exmouth, who is her constant com- 
panion, and devotes to her, with all the affection of a daugli- 
ter, the most assiduous attentions. Mrs. More rose, and 
received us in the kindest and most courteous maimer ; offer- 
ing her hand to each of us, with an expression of the pleas- 
ure which it gave her to receive our visit. On inquiring 
the state of her health, she said, ' It was as good as usual ; 
she j;iever had enjoyed perfect health ; and yet, through the 
mercy of God, she had attained her present advanced age, 
having survived her six healthy sisters. Her removal from 
Barley- Wood had been a trial, being much attached to the 
place, and having expected to end her days there. Her 
trial, too, had been aggravated by the cause which led to 
her removal — great dishonesty discovered in servants who 
had lived with her twenty years. God, however,' she said, 
' had overruled it for good, especially in one particular. The 
minister of the parish at Barley-Wood, unhappily, did not 
prize the peculiar doctrines of the gospel ; and an attend- 
ance on his ministry was, in fact, lost time, from the utterly 
unprofitable character of his instructions. But here she 
had the comfort of being visited by three evangehcal clergy- 



364 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

men, who were always ready to assist her with their coiui- 
sels and their prayers.' 

" I adverted, in the course of conversation, to the cur- 
rency which her works had obtained in our country. With 
great humihty of manner, she said she was thankful for any 
good which, under God's blessing, they might accomplish. 
The Bible Society and Sunday-schools were spoken of She 
mentioned that she had engaged in the work of the latter 
immediately after its commencement by Mr. Raikes ; and 
that, in Shipham and two other parishes adjacent to her 
late residence, her schools had ever since been continued ; 
that she regretted her inabiUty now to visit them personally, 
but that her friend Miss Frowd went occasionally in her 
behalf; that the people were very poor and ignorant ; but 
she hoped that the four or five hundred of their children, 
who were constantly receiving religious instruction in those 
schools, would be profited by them. She said she had been 
much pleased with learnmg that one of the worst pupils 
they ever had had been converted, and was now a mission- 
ary among the negroes of Cafiraria. 

" The welfare of the African seemed much to engross 
her thoughts ; and she expressed an anxious hope that Mr. 
Protheroe, her favorite candidate for Bristol, might suaiieed 
in his election. He had called on her, she said, yesterday ; 
but she never received visitors on the Sabbath, and had 
therefore declined seeing him, but requested he would call 
at another time. 

" She asked if we had seen the last volume of her pub- 
lications, consistmg of short pieces, written at difierent pe- 
riods of her life ; and requesting Miss Frowd to hand her 
the volume, she turned to ' The negro boy's petition to his 
master to be allowed to learn to read the Bible,' and put- 
ting the book into my hand, asked me to read the piece 
aloud, which I did. She subsequently turned to another, 
and requested Mr. Mcllvaine to read a part which she point- 
ed out ; and again, at her request, I read another beautiful 



MISSION TO ENaLAND. 365 

passage — all on the same subject :" [Mrs. More remarking, 
that his enunciation was so purely English, that it would 
never have occurred to her that he was from a foreign 
land. ] 

" The name of Robert Hall being mentioned, she spoke 
in high terras of his piety and talents, and mentioned that, 
many years ago, her dear friend Bishop Porteus had request- 
ed her to use her influence with Mr. Hall to enter the estab- 
Hshed church ; declaring, if he would do so, he should have 
any preferment in the bishop's power to bestow ; and that 
she had conferred with Mr. Hall on the subject, who said 
that he would have no difficulty in subscribing to the thirty- 
nine articles of the church of England, but that he was con- 
scientiously opposed to infant baptism; besides, that his 
entering the church would be ascribed to motives of self- 
interest ; that liis usefulness would be impaired by such an 
imputation ; and that therefore he declined. 

" Mrs. More expressed a great interest in America, and 
much pleasure in the prospect of every family there being 
supplied with a copy of the sacred Scriptures. She adverted 
to the late Mr. Bethune, and to Mr. Eastburn," father of 
the present Bishop Eastburn, " and spoke of them in terms 
of high regard. 

" I cannot mention more particularly the various topics 
that occupied our visit of an hour to this estimable lady ; 
but her conversation was such as elevated her in our esteem, 
and made us regret, so far as we dare, that a life so useful 
should be drawing to a close. For herself, peacefully as her 
days may have glided away in the practical duties of rehg- 
ion, in offices of benevolence, in literary employments, and 
in refined as well as pious social intercourse and correspond- 
ence, and much as her works have contributed to give hex 
a well-earned fam.e, her approaching departure can be a sub- 
ject of no regret ; for her faith in the Redeemer, attested by 
her whole life, has fully prepared her for the change. She 
saidj in the course of our conversation, that God had been 



366 , MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

very gracious in prolonging her days, and thus giving her 
time for lamenting her past sins and preparing to meet him 
in judgment. She said she had not been out of her apart- 
ments since her removal from her former residence, and 
added, with calm resignation, ' she did not expect to leave 
them till she was carried to her tomb.' When we were 
leaving she rose again, and extending her hand to each of 
us, said she considered our visit to her a favor, and desired 
an interest in our prayers at the throne of grace ; adding, 
' No one has more need of them.' 

" I pray God that the remaining days of his venerable 
servant may be full of hvely faith and cheerful hope ; and 
that, with an aged scripture-saint, when the hour for her 
transition to glory shall arrive, she may be enabled, in tran- 
quil confidence, to say, ' Lord, now lettest thou thy servant 
depart in peace, accordmg to thy word : for mine eyes have 
seen thy salvation.' 

" Tuesday, July 27. — This morning we took a carriage 
and called at the house of Mr. Hall ; but he was so much 
indisposed after his last Sunday's service, that his friends 
had prevailed on him to seek the relaxation of a journey to 
Weston." 

At the close of the day he made the following entry in 
his journal : 

" I received, to-day, a neM''spaper from New York, con- 
taining a letter addressed to me by Bishop Hobart, under 
his signature, complaining of my address before the Prayer- 
book and Homily Society, as reflecting improperly on him, 
in relation to his proposition for altering the Liturgy. No 
improper reflection was intended by me ; nor would he have 
thought so, had it not been for the miserable manner in 
which the speech has been reported. It will require con- 
sideration and prayer to enable me to adopt a proper course 
in relation to this unexpected attack. The bishop's letter, 
though it contains some kind expressions, is yet evidently 
designed to injure me, by conveying the impression of a mis- 



MISSION TO ENGLAND. 367 

statement of facts on my part, and of an intention to make 
the British public believe that he was unfriendly to the Lit- 
urgy. I thank God, that whatever may be the efiect of 
this publication of the bishop on the minds of others, my 
own conscience acquits me on both these points. I stated 
nothing but the truth on the occasion referred to ; and my 
manner of domg it was neither designed nor calculated to 
produce any such unfavorable impression as to the bishop. 
If he had himself exercised the judgment of charity in the 
case, he would have drawn no such false inferences, even 
from the mcorrect newspaper report Avhicli he has made 
the basis of his letter. But had what I said been stated as 
delivered, it would have been impossible for him to do so." 

" Wednesday, July 28, 1830. — I left Clifton this morn- 
ing in the coach for Bath, fifteen miles distant. In passing 
through Bristol, we found ' the Bush inn' sheltered by a high 
board fence m front, put up in consequence of the windows 
having been broken by a mob in the interest of Mr. Bailly, 
the candidate for the House of Commons opposed to Mr. 
Protheroe, whose committee sat at ' the Bush.' We were 
told thirty-seven wounded persons had been carried to the 
infirmary, ratost of them struck down by bludgeons in the 
hands of drunken sailors. These disgraceful scenes, it is said, 
cannot be prevented by the police. I was glad to see a hand- 
bill from Mr. Protheroe's committee, earnestly entreating his 
friends to abstain not only from violence, but from all irritat- 
mg language and conduct towards liis opponents. I tliink 
our English friends m,ust cease to abuse the democracy of our 
country. Such excesses as have disgraced the contest in 
Bristol rarely there occur." 

In passing from Worcester to Birmingham, he witnessed 
a pleasant sight, of wliich he thus writes. 

'* Near the town of Droitwich, a fellow-passenger told 
me that between twelve and thirteen years ago, a. poor 
woman had four daughters at a birth, all of whom were still 
living ; and that the event had brought the parents about 



368 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

£1,000 in presents from visitors. It was a little extraordi- 
nary, that as he pointed out to me the house, the children 
actually appeared, two of them without, and two of them 
just within the front door. They were comely girls, and 
decently dressed ; and the apparel of the four being exactly 
aHke, increased their resemblance to each other." 

"Saturday, July 31. — This morning I took the mail- 
coach for Holyhead. My only fellow-passenger inside was 
a gentleman of the bar, who left us at "Wolverhampton, being 
engaged to attend the election for members of Parliament in 
the borough of Bridgenorth, as counsel for Mr. Arkwright, a 
new candidate, opposing a wealthy family, under whose influ- 
ence the members have for many years been returned. He 
told me the expense on both sides would be enormous ; the 
voters being about 1,200 in number, and 900 of them out- 
voters, that is, residents in other parts of the kingdom. 
These are to be hunted up and coaxed — in many instances, 
no doubt, bribed — into the interests of one or the other of the 
combatants, and their expenses borne to, and at, and from 
the place of election. "With all its corruptions, the populai 
branch of the national legislature is, doubtless, a valuable- 
part of the British Constitution ; but, if it could be accom- 
plished peaceably, a reform is very desirable to equalize the 
representation, and impart more purity to the exercise of the 
elective franchise. A large number of the members of the 
House of Commons are returned by small boroughs, over the 
few voters of which some nobleman or other rich individual 
has the entire and absolute control. Mr. Brougham lately 
asserted, that peers had actually received so large a sum as 
X 10,000, for returning a member to the lower house ; and 
this, while by a strange anomaly many very considerable 
places, such as Manchester and Birmingham, are not repre- 
sented at aU." [ True ; but was not "WiUiarri IV., surnamed, 
some time. The Reform Bill, already on his throne ?] 

" We soon crossed * the lovely Dee,' whose praises I 
learned; when a child, to recite in a pensive ballad of that 



MISSION TO ENG-LAND. 369 

day. After feasting my eyes with a succession of scenery of 
most surpassing beauty throughout the whole length of this 
sweet vale, as we approached its termination the views va- 
ried from unbroken verdure and fertihty to smiling meadows 
overtopped by uncultivated hills ; the road now and then 
diverging from the river to avoid a hill so close upon its mar- 
gm as not to admit the passage of the road, and then return- 
ing to its bank in view of fresh objects of attraction." 

"A few miles from Corwen," having left the source of 
the Dee, "we entered another vale," through which flows, 
in an opposite direction, one of the head- waters of the Con- 
way, " only inferior in point of interest to that which we had 
left. Among a thousand objects deserving of notice, a beau- 
tiful cascade of the river presented itself in a deep glen by 
the road-side ; and further on, at a place, the name of which 
I dare not attempt to spell, a small, old church, which I 
should not have noticed but for its parsonage of uncommon 
statelmess, leading me, perhaps not in the most charitable 
temper, to some practical meditations on the rebuke of the 
prophet Haggai, 1:4: ' Is it time for you, ye, to dwell in 
your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste ?' 

" Other evidences than the language of the coachman 
and hostlers, now convinced me that I was in the midst of 
Wales. Beyond the inn just mentioned, we crossed the Con- 
way on an iron bridge, and the country at once completely 
changed its aspect. Below us ran the river, at an amazing 
depth, the view downwards being at times perpendicular 
to the bottom of the glen through which it rolled ; and on 
each side, rose craggy, naked mountains, of most formidable 
aspect. It was now night, but the nearly full moon shone 
brightly ; so that, but for the unpleasant sharpness of the air, 
I should have found still greater pleasure than in the day- 
time, from thus beholding the wonderful works of God in this 
wild region. 

" At Bettws, besides a singular bridge over a ravine 
among the rocks, there is an iron bridge over the Conway of 



370 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

105 feet span, to which, from its having been built about the 
time of the battle of Waterloo, the name of that bloody field 
has been given. Our passage through the mountains was a 
distance of sixteen miles. Snowden is the highest. Down 
the shaggy side of this mountain, my fellow-passenger to 
England, the elder Mr. Thomas, precipitated into the valley 
beneath a large portion of rock, which he detached by push- 
ing against it. This rugged scenery, from its contrast with 
that through which we had so lately passed, increased 
greatly the interest of this day's journey, without making 
any difference in the smoothness of the road, over which our 
horses conveyed us at the uniform speed of ten miles the 
hour. By winding along the side of the mountain, curving 
and recurving, with scarce a hundred yards of straight road 
in any place, its builders have been able to keep it almost on 
a perfect level, though often at a great expense for its secu- 
rity, arising from the necessity of laying the foundation of 
its wall far down almost precipitous declivities on the side 
next the narrow valley beneath. In the midst of this im- 
mense range, we passed Onwig lake, a beautiful httle trout- 
water, about a mile long and half as wide." 

As this was at night, Dr. Milnor little reahzed the gran- 
deur of the scene by day ; the awfully shaggy cliff, which at 
one moment beetles above the traveller's head as he rides 
along the shore of that lovely water, and the suddenly fright- 
ful chasm which, at the next, yawns beneath the roadside ; 
while the outlet of the little lake leaps, from under the bridge 
that crosses it, into lower air, and reaching at last the bot- 
tom of the gulf, sends its waters away in a fine, silvery 
thread, distant and noiseless, through the narrow, green 
meadow-vale hundreds of feet below. 

" The last town of any importance that we passed, was 
Bangor, in Csernarvonshire, situated between two high 
ridges of rock at the head of Beaumaris bay. On leaving it, 
one of the most curious objects is the chain-bridge across the 
Menai strait, an arm of the sea, that separates the Isle of 



MISSION TO EKaLAND. 371 

Anglesea from Wales, and adds much to the beauty of Ban- 
gor. This bridge is 30 feet wide, 560 feet long, and 100 
feet above high- water. As you approach, its appearance is 
very fanciful and light, and you can scarcely realize that it 
is a structure of sufficient soHdity to admit the passage over 
:t of vehicles so heavy as that on which I was mounted. Its 
great height above the water, also, is sufficient to inspire a 
momentary apprehension of danger ; but when you are once 
upon it, tliis entirely vanishes, from the evident strength of 
its supports, and the security against accidents of the de- 
fences on its sides. My moonlight view of this beautiful 
object, and of the scenery visible from it, probably presented 
them in a more interesting aspect than they would have 
borne, had I seen them by the light of day. 

" I have so extended my note of this day's gratifying, 
though long and fatiguing ride, that I will mention none of 
the objects of remark between Bangor and Holyhead, except 
the lighthouse of the latter, alternately seen and hidden for 
several miles before reaching it, as our motion changed the 
apparent position of intervening hills. 

" Holyhead is on a small island at the northwest point 
of Anglesea, and is considered the best point of embarkation 
for Dublin, the distance across the channel being only twenty 
leagues. We arrived a quarter past one o'clock A. M., hav- 
ing travelled, since eight the previous morning, 151 miles, 
with only one meal on the road, 

" Though I felt Httle or no fatigue during my ride, yet I 
found myself sufficiently weary at its termination, to solicit 
a berth immediately on going aboard the packet, which I 
took, and in a few minutes fell into a profound sleep. I did 
not awake till aroused by the captain, with the information 
that we had arrived at our destination ; not Dublin, indeed, 
but nine miles below the city, where the packet stops. 
During the night there had been a severe storm, and our 
vessel had encountered an exceedingly rough sea — of all 
which I had been entirely unconscious. 



372 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

" In consequence of my late sleep, all the seats in and on 
the mail-coach were occupied before I was ready for the start. 
I was, therefore, obliged to put up with one of those elegant 
vehicles called a * jaunting-car,' with a miserable-looking 
horse and driver, and went forward at a pace — which, for 
want of a whip, poor Patrick was unable to quicken — of 
about four miles the hour." 

Dr. Milnor's visit to Ireland was so short, and his notes 
so few, that extracts from the latter would be of little inter- 
est to the reader. We give, however, a single incident and 
a single paragraph. At Dublin, he unexpectedly met his 
interesting fellow-passenger across the Atlantic, Captahi 
O'Connor, who was of great service in introducing him to 
valuable acquaintance, and in pointing out to him interesting 
objects in that beautiful city. From Dublin to Belfast, his 
ride was of the most unpleasant kind. " Yesterday," he 
says, " being a fine day, and hoping for a continuance of fair 
weather, I took an outside seat. This I had reason, soon 
after our departure, to regret. "When the coach started, at 
half past six, the morning was lowering, and we had not 
proceeded far before it began to rain ; and in a httle while 
we were driving through a most furious tempest. Unfor- 
tunately, too, I had the windward seat, and it seemed, at 
times, as if my umbrella would be torn into shreds. Besides, 
the rain soon penetrated through, so that it afforded but little 
protection, while those of other passengers poured their drip- 
pings upon me, and in a short time wet me to the skin. 
When we arrived at Drogheda, our breakfasting-place, I had 
a violent ague, which disquahfied me not only for taking my 
brealdast, but also for changing my clothes, 1 would have 
stopped, but the inn was a shabby one, and crowded to 
overflowing by people attending the election. I swallowed, 
however, some hot tea ; and, in consequence of the vacation 
of an inside seat, rode the rest of this stormy day, upwards of 
one hundred miles, to Belfast, under shelter, but in my wet 
clothes. My landlord at Belfast was very kind. A warm 



MISSION TO ENaLAND. 373 

fire, a comfortable supper, a hot bath for my feet, and a good 
bed, procm-ed for me a delightful night's rest ; and I awoke 
in the morning with a heart grateful to God for my preser- 
vation from the anticipated bad effects of such an unusual 
exposure to cold," 



SECTION YII. 

At twelve o'clock, Friday, August 6, Dr. Milnor was in 
the steamer Fingal, for Glasgow, where, after a tranquil 
passage, he arrived the next raiorning at four, and remained 
till Tuesday afternoon, August 10 ; making himself acquaint- 
ed with the principal religious and benevolent institutions of 
that beautiful and flourishing mistress of the Clyde, and with 
several worthy families, to whom he had letters. He paid 
particular attention to the tract operations of the city, and 
to the institution for the education of the deaf and dumb. 
Speaking of the religious operations of Glasgow, he says, 

" The building called ' The Rehgious Institution,' is the 
property of all the societies bearing that character in the city ; 
no less than twenty-five holding their meetings within the 
commodious building, which they own. They have a secre- 
tary of the institution, with a clerk to assist him ; and he 
issues all the notices for the meetings of the several societies, 
or of their committees. Each society has also its own secre- 
tary, to record its proceedings ; but this united arrangement 
saves the proper officers of the societies considerable mechan- 
ical labor." [Why is not the plan of such an institution 
worthy of adoption in all our large cities ?1 

In reference to the general condition of the country, he 
remarks, " In one particular, I see a great difference between 
Scotland and either England or Ireland, and I may add 
France. It relates to the practice of mendicity. "When I 
left the steamer this morning, I was assailed by no beggars ; 



374 MEMOIR OF UK. MILNOR. 

and I have traversed the streets of Glasgovi^ all day without 
a single application. The appearance of the lower orders 
here, with few exceptions, is much more decent than in any- 
large town I have seen on this side of the Atlantic. Yet I 
was astonished to learn, that respectable as is the appearance 
of the town, so far as I have seen it, and decent as is that of 
its inhabitants, there is, in fact, a great deal of poverty ; and 
the reduction of the means of living has had a very delete- 
rious efiect upon the poorer classes, in point of morals and 
religion. The population of Glasgow, [this was in 1830,] 
approaches 200,000. Mr. Heugh, a clergyman of credit, 
told me that the church accommodation afforded 75,0U0 
sittings ; but that of these not more than 35,000 were actu- 
ally occupied," 

It would be wrong to infer, from this mode of calculation, 
that the means of grace in Glasgow reached no more than 
35,000 of its inhabitants ; yet, with even this caution, the 
testimony of the above paragraph to that great truth in polit- 
ical economy, that the want of comfortable bodily sustenance 
among the lower orders is peculiarly injurious to good morals, 
and therefore to good government, is sufficiently striking. 

" Sunday, Aug. 8. — I desire," writes Dr. Milnor, " grate- 
fully to acknowledge the goodness of God in my preservation 
to see another sacred day of rest. May my heart be deeply 
impressed with a sense of the unmerited mercies which I am 
daily receiving at his hands. As the only return which I 
can make, and make it I cannot without thy aid, grant to 
me, Lord, I beseech thee, the spirit to think and do always 
such things as be rightful ; that I, who cannot do any thing 
that is good without thee, may by thee be enabled to live 
according to thy will, through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
Amen." 

This morning he attended worship at St. Mary's chapel. 
St. Mary's, he says, " is one of the two E-phcopal chapeU in 
Glasgow — our brethren being dissenters in Scotland, are not 
privileged to call their houses of worship churches. The 



MISSION TO ENQLAND. 375 

rector being absent in consequence of a family bereavement, 
a young clergyman in deacon's orders supplied his place. 
His sermon excited a very favorable opinion of the piety and 
doctrinal views of the preacher, but not a very high one of 
his talents. It is to me astonishing, that the young clergy 
of our church should be so regardless of delivery. The efl'ect 
of all that was valuable m this sermon was, in great meas- 
ure, lost, by the close and monotonous manner in which it 
was read : not a hand raised ; scarcely a look towards the 
congregation from beginning to end, and not even such a 
regard to emphasis and cadence as at all times to convey 
clearly the meaning of the speaker ; and yet, the sentiments 
good, and of such practical importance to the hearers as 
would have justified their enforcement by the utmost energy 
of manner." 

In the afternoon, he attended " Blackfriars' chapel, and 
heard the Rev. Dr. Dick." 

"At four o'clock, on Monday, Mr. Wardlaw, a lay 
nephew of the Rev. Dr. Wardlaw, and a very efficient la- 
borer in works of benevolence and piety, called for him," and 
took him in his carriage " to dinner at his country residence, 
three miles from the city ;" and in the evening to a temiier- 
ance-meeting " in the httle parish church of the village of 
Govan on the Clyde ; a beautiful building, and as beauti- 
fully situated as any which he had seen." Of this temper- 
ance-meeting Dr. Mihior thus writes : 

" The church was full ; and a most silent and respectful 
attention was given to the addresses on the subject from the 
Rev. Mr. Strothers, Mr. Wardlaw, and myself I occupied 
about fifty minutes, and communicated many facts in rela- 
tion to the success of the cause in America, which were 
new to the people whom I addressed. The poor of Govan 
are principally weavers, and many of them given to intoxi- 
cation ; while few, until temperance measures were intro- 
duced, wholly abstained from the use of spirituous hquors. 
It is confidently believed, that these measures will be at- 



376 . MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

tended with most happy effects. The cause is looking np 
most encouragmgly in Scotland, though, as yet, many even 
of the clergy withhold their countenance ; and on the pres- 
ent occasion, though the minister of Govan granted the soci- 
ety the use of his church, yet he declined personal attend- 
ance, * not havmg made up his mind on the subject.' " 

After a parting breakfast with his friends on Tuesday, 
Dr. Milnor had time, before the coach left Glasgow, to visit 
the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, inspect its system of instruc- 
tion, and examine some of the productions of the pupils. He 
found that here, as in other similar institutions, articulation 
was taught, though in a few cases only in which the pros- 
pect of success was flattering. Among the productions of 
the pupils, he saw "several copies of rich engraving?, made 
with a -pen, and scarcely to be distinguished from the orig- 
inals T One of these was " a copy of the full-length por- 
trait of Napoleon in his imperial robes, by a hoy ttvelve years 
old. The lad observed that * the engraving did not give a 
correct representation of Napoleon' sy«ce, and he thought he 
could improve it.' And," adds Dr. Milnor, "judging from 
the best likenesses, and the bust of that distinguished man, 
he has certainly made a manifest improvement on the orig- 
inal." 

At four o'clock, Tuesday afternoon, he took coach for 
Edinburgh. " The Rev. Dr. Byrne, of the kirk, was his 
agreeable fellow-traveller," being on liis way to " attend a 
meeting of the Commission of the General Assembly of the 
Established Church of Scotland." By his invitation, Dr 
Milnor attended the sittings of the commission. " This is 
a kind of standing committee, possessing the powers of the 
general assembly, and holding quarterly meetings for the 
transaction of its business, especially its judicial concerns, 
during the recess of that body." 

When Dr. Milnor entered the Tron church in Edinburgh, 
the place where the commission held their sittings, "they 
were engaged in the consideration of addresses to King 



MISSION TO ENGLAND. 377 

William and Q,ueen Adelaide, on the occasion of their recent 
accession to the throne. 

*' A discussion then came on, which, in one shape or 
another, had been depending for four years, respecting the 
settlement of a minister in the parish of Inverness, whose 
orthodoxy had been questioned. A preliminary objection to 
the jurisdiction, arising out of some peculiarities in the forma 
of the church, and of the previous proceedings in the case, 
gave Dr. Milnor " an opportunity of hearing two eminent 
barristers, Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Patrick Robertson, who 
were employed as counsel on opposite sides of the question. 
Both spoke with ability, and the latter with animation. The 
Rev. Dr. Cook, Dr. Byrne, and others, spoke with great 
energy and warmth ; and the objection to the jurisdiction 
was almost unanimously overruled." 

Thus introduced to Edinburgh, Dr. Milnor remained in 
that renowned capital of Scotland from the 10th to the 17th 
of August, cultivating the acquaintance, and enjoying the 
hospitalities of its religious circles. The evening of the 11th 
was a " dismal" close to what had been a stormy afternoon ; 
but " Dr. Walker of London, and his travelling companion, 
an intelhgent student of the Imier Temple, dined with him 
at liis hotel, and by their conversation relieved the solitari- 
ness" of his hours. And he adds, at the close of his jour- 
nal for the day, " Besides the respectable gentlemen above 
mentioned, I have had the pleasure of becoming acquainted 
with John Sheppard, Esq., author of ' Thoughts on Private 
Devotion' and some other works, who transmitted to Lord 
Byron a prayer composed for his lordship by Mrs. Sheppard. 
Lord Byron returned the reply which, since his death, has 
been pubhshed, and which, as coming from such a man, con- 
tains so singular an acknowledgment of the excellence of 
Christianity in communicating happiness to its true subjects. 
Mr. Sheppard studied medicine in Edinburgh, several years 
ago ; but bemg a man of independent fortune, and having 
determined not to practise the medical profession, he never 



378 MEMOIli OF DR. MILNOR. 

took his degree. His pursuits have since been hterary, re- 
lio-ious, and benevolent ; for usefulness in which, he sustains 
the highest reputation in Frome-Selwood, Somersetshire, 
England, where he resides. He has lately published, in two 
volumes, a work on the evidences of Christianity." 

"Thursday Morning, August 12. — Mr. Sheppard pro- 
posed to accompany me on a long walk. Accordingly, we 
started for Holyrood House ; and after surveying the exterior 
of this venerable and celebrated building, we ascended the 
circular, and in some places steep road, which winds round 
Salisbury Craig and Arthur's Seat, stopping at various points 
of the ascent, to view the inimitable panorama of Edin- 
burgh, as presented in various aspects all the way up this 
lofty eminence. The striking terminations of the old town 
in those massy ancient structures, Holyrood House on the 
east, in the valley beneath our feet, and the castle on the 
west, upon its lofty rock ; the many intervening churches, 
with turrets, domes, and steeples ; the splendid column m 
memory of Nelson ; the elegant specimens of modern archi- 
tecture, presented in the unfinished temple and other struc- 
tures on Calton Hill ; the high-school, the ^ail, the bride- 
well, etc. ; the singular valley between the old town and 
the new, and the immense mass of fine buildings in the lat- 
ter ; the charming view of the Frith of Forth on the one 
hand, and of the Pentland Hills on the other, with country- 
seats of the nobility and gentry in the distance, altogether, 
present a scene of unrivalled grandeur. As we mounted 
the height, especially as we rounded the elevated summit of 
Arthur's Seat, the wind was so strong as almost to make 
our position unsafe. We persevered, however, in our course, 
and descended on the opposite side." 

But, while in Edinburgh, Dr. Milnor's object was less to 
see things, than to become acquainted with men and with 
religious institutions. He spent most of his time in social 
and religious intercourse with such men as have already 
been named, and with the aged and veteran Dr. Peddie, of 



'mission to ENGLAND. 379 

the Secession church ; the Rev. Mr. Imies, of the Baptist ; 
the Rev. John Brown, grandson of the Rev. John Brown of 
Haddington ; the Rev. Messrs. Ramsay, Sinclair, and Craig, 
of the Episcopal church ; Dr. Chalmers, and Mr. Thomas 
Miller, brother to several of that name in Philadelphia — all 
men of piety and talents, and several of them, besides Dr. 
Chalmers, authors of no mean distmction. His social and 
religious mtercourse with these gentlemen, on various break- 
fast and duuier occasions — similar to those on which he met 
so many noble ones of the church in London — was full of 
satisfaction and of profit, and made his memories of " the 
heart of Mid Lothian" more fragrant than they could have 
been if gathered from the festivities of wealth and the splen- 
dors of fashion. Dr. Chalmers was of the company at din- 
ner both on Friday and on Saturday, and had the circle of 
friends at liis own house to breakfast on Monday morning. 
Intercourse with this great, good man served to elevate him 
still higher in the estimation of those who had previously 
known him only in his loftmess as a preacher and an author. 
The character of the social, religious entertainments to Avhich 
Dr. Milnor was admitted in Edinburgh, may be judged from 
the brief account which he gives of the breakfast at Dr. 
Chalmers' on Monday morning. 

" He received me with great affability and kindness, and 
Mrs. Chalmers, with all that frankness and ease of manner 
which distinguishes the Scottish ladies. Before breakfast. 
Dr. Chalmers read a chapter to the family ; and at liis re- 
quest, I offered prayer. 

" The topics of conversation were various. Dr. Chalmers, 
being a member of the established church of Scotland, is evi- 
dently much attached to the union of church and state. It 
is true, that, like all the members of the Kirk, he utterly 
disclaims the idea of the king's being, in any sense, its spir- 
itiiol head, or of the government's having any right to in- 
terfere with the most entire liberty of conscience in its sub- 
jects. On this latter ground it was, that he advocated so 



380 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

strenuously tlie cause of Catholic emancipation. But he fa- 
vors the union of church and state simply because he thinks 
it is of advantage to Christianity to be formally recognized 
as the religion of the country, and to receive the protection 
of government, and in various ways its pecuniary aid in 
maintaining its muiistry and institutions. He inquired par- 
ticularly as to numerous difficulties which he supposed must 
in our country attend the absence of an establishment ; espe- 
cially in regard to the erection of churches, and the exten- 
sion of religion coordinately with the rapid mcrease of our 
population. He thought that, if left entirely to the volun- 
tary contributions of the people, religion must decline for 
want of pecuniary support. 

" On the contrary, I argued, that besides the utter incon- 
sistency of an establishment with the genius of our free in- 
stitutions, and with the character and opinions of our people, 
it would be inexpedient to adopt such a measure ; that relig- 
ion would be more cheerfully supported under a voluntary, 
than under a compulsory system ; that unhappy jealousies 
between different denominations would be avoided, as well 
as those numerous corruptions and incumbrances which we 
saw appertaining to all long-continued connections of relig- 
ion with government, even to those best in the world, the 
English and Scotch establishments ; that although, in the 
peculiar circumstances of the United States, the increase of 
the population exceeded that of the means of grace, yet this 
was an evil which, in the existing divided state of religious 
opinion, would find no remedy in the established dominance 
of one denomination ; that, in point of fact — allowance being 
made for the youth of our country — our religious statistics 
would bear a respectable comparison with those of either 
England or Scotland ; and that in both of the latter coun- 
tries, the great proportion of dissenters was a proof of the 
unpopularity of establishments, as the number of the dissent- 
ing churches, the talent and learning of their ministers, and 
the piety of many of their peo])le, were, of the truth, more 



MISSION TO ENGLAND. 381 

fully demonstrated in America, that religion could be sup- 
ported by the unconstrained liberality of its friends, and would 
lose none of its purity by refusing all secular reliances what- 
soever. I adverted to some of our religious statistics, and 
compared them with the information which I had received 
in Glasgow as to the proportion of attendants on public wor- 
Bhip in that respectable city ; and contended that our coun- 
try did not suffer in the comparison. 

" Dr. Chalmers listened with much attention to my argu- 
ment and statements, and avowed a deep uiterest in Amer- 
ica — especially in her connection vdth the cause of Christ 
throughout the world. He spoke in terms of respect of sev- 
eral of our religious writers ; and in answer to an inquiry 
whether we might hope for a visit from him, said that he 
feared his engagements in the university would prevent such 
a step ; and that extreme aversion to a sea-voyage was with 
him another formidable difficulty in the way." 

On Tuesday morning, August 17, he left Edinburgh for 
Carlisle, saddened by two considerations — the shortness of 
his visit, and the state of the weather ; for it was " what 
the Scotch call 'a soft morning;'' that is, it rained hard." 
His course lay through Selkirk and among the Cheviot hills ; 
along the Tweed and the Esk, and across the border grounds 
of olden fame. He reached Carlisle about dark, where he 
would have stopped, but for the wish that had come over 
him to see th§ English lakes, and the circumstance that the 
town was overflowing with attendants on the assizes, to such 
a degree as to make it difficult for him to obtain lodgings. 
Influenced by these considerations, he changed his mind, and 
in spite of a long day's ride, intense cold weather, and an 
outside seat, rode on to Penrith, eighteen miles further, be- 
fore he found a resting for the night. 

" The tediousness of this night-travelling," he observes, 
" was somewhat beguiled by a talkative fellow-traveller by 
my side, who had been attending the assize court. Mr. 
Brougham and several other of the most eminent counsel 



382 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

had been several days employed in trying a cause, in which 
the question between the litigants related to a right of way, 
which the one claimed, by prescription, from time ' whereof 
the memory of man runneth not to the contrary ;' while the 
other contended that the claim was a reccrit invasion of his 
own rights. Fifty witnesses on each side had already been 
examined, and yet the battle remained undecided. The 
xnatter is of but small real importance, and the contest is 
clearly for victory between two angry combatants, who, to 
gratify their resentments, will expend each several thousand 
pounds." 

Dr. Milnor's visit to the lakes of Cumberland and West- 
moreland, on his devious route between Penrith and Kendal, 
was a source to him of unmingled delight, as such a visit 
must be to every true lover of nature. The scenery is some 
of the most lovely ever spread by the hand of God before the 
eye of man. With no great height of mountains, the loftiest 
being little over 3,000 feet, there are still such a grouping of 
almost innumerable summits ; such a cleaving of each from 
all the rest, down to its very base ; such a sombre rugged- 
ness and grotesqueness in many of their forms, yet such a 
kind, and genial, and sunny embosoming of green fields and 
glassy " waters " among their deep vallies ; such a sprmkling 
of quiet villages, and of guileless villagers among the glens, 
and round the lakes below ; and such worship-moving views 
of God's glory from the pinnacles above, that no traveller 
who, with a poet's eye, has looked upon the whole, will 
deem it hyperbole to call this region, as a tourist of former 
days has named it, " the pageantry of creation." 

Hanging round, and hovering over those deep-sheltered 
lakes, Bassenthwaite, Derwentwater, and Tliirlmere ; Ulls- 
water, Wastwater, and Winandermere ; and even little E-y- 
dalwater and Grasmere ; about Keswick and Rydalmount, 
Bowness and Ambleside, with the various lesser hamlets of 
their train ; in narrow Grisdale, deep Borrowdale, and name- 
less sister dales around ; and finallv, in the dark chasms and 



MISSION TO ENaLAND. 383 

the dim caves which now and then yawn around the feet of 
the mountains, as well as in the dashing cascades which 
here and there leap from their rough foreheads and rush 
down their rocky faces — hanging round, and hovering over 
all these, there is a silent or a speaking, a profound and an 
almost living soul of nature, which could hardly have failed 
to draw amid their charmed abidmg-places such spirits as 
those of Watson and of Arnold, or those of Wordswortl|^ 
Southey, and Hemans. The retreats of Westmoreland and 
Cumberland are the sacred summer homes both of devotion 
and of poetry. Nor even m ivinter do they furnish less, 
though it be a rougher nurture to the soul that loves to look 
on God as seen m all the moods of his ever-various works. 
"Beaumont-street in Oxford," may please the learned lec- 
turer on history ; " nevertheless," says the proprietor of Fox 
How, penning a letter on the 17th of January, "I prefer 
writing from the delicious calm of this place, where the 
mountains raise their snowy tops into the clear sky, by tliis 
dim twilight, with a most ghostlike solemnity, and nothing 
is heard, far or near, except the sound of the stream through 
the valley. I have been walking to-day to Windermere, 
and went out on a little rude pier of stones into the lake, to 
watch what is to me one of the most beautiful objects in 
nature, the life of blue ivater amidst a dead laiuhcape of 
snoiv. The sky was bright, and the wind fresh, and the 
lake was dancing and singing, as it were ; while all along 
its margin lay the dead snow covering every thing but the 
lake." [Life of Arnold, p. 435. Appleton, New York, 
1845.] 

After this day of rare pleasure, Dr. Milnor reached busy 
old Kendal a little after dark, and the next morning, Thurs- 
day, Aug. 19, pursued his way to busier young Manchester. 
He spent Friday in taking an exterior view of the latter, 
and in delivering his letters of introduction. Unfortunately 
for liim, however, the good folks of Manchester were too 
busy to wait at home for visitors, and he therefore, for this 



384 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

day, failed of making any acquaintances, except with Mr. 
Thomas Smith, who subsequently called upon him, and took 
liim to his countryrhouse to spend the evening. 

On Saturday he visited the school for the deaf and dumb, 
and examined its system of instruction, particularly as ap- 
plied to the teaching of articulation. Institutions of this 
class he evidently made a subject of more than ordinary at- 
tention ; and one of his chief objects was, as evidently, to 
obtain some distinct and well-founded views touching the 
question whether the attempts to teach articulation to deaf 
mutes were Hkely to prove generally successful. His jour- 
nal shows that his original doubts on this point were, on the 
whole, confirmed rather than removed, by what he saw in 
the various European institutions which he visited. 

He also inspected some magnificent cotton-factories dur- 
ing the day ; and, at dinner with Mr. Smith, became ac- 
quainted with the Rev. Mr. Stowell, an able evangelical 
preacher of the estabUshed church, for whose use " a hand- 
some new chapel" was nearly in readiness. 

His Sabbath in Manchester was a day of more than 
usual spiritual refreshment. He attended Mr. Stowell's ser- 
vices morning and afternoon, and in the evening went to 
hear the Rev. Mr. McCall, minister of an Independent 
chapel. Of the three sermons he took copious notes, which 
'evince that they were as full of the marrow of the gospel 
as they were distinguished for earnestness and abihty. 

In his journal for Monday he has the following entry : 
" Breakfasted with the Rev. Mr. Stowell, and found him, as 
I had anticipated, a deeply experienced Christian and a de- 
voted minister of Christ. Nominally, he occupies the situa- 
tion of an assistant minister ; but in fact, he is the only 
officiating clergyman in the chapel where I heard him yes- 
terday. This chapel is the property of the Rev. Mr. , 

whose misconduct obliged him to leave Manchester, and 
who was glad to put his building in charge of a man the 
very opposite of himself in religious views and in moral con- 



MISSION TO ENGLAND. 385 

duct, but whose faithful ministry would fill the chapel and 
bring him a handsome revenue. All the seats being rented, 
he receives an interest, after paying Mr. Stowell's salar}% 
far beyond Avhat any other investment of his money woul 
produce. He is so sensible of the benefits of evangelicc 
preaching, in this point of view, that he has given Mr. 
Stowell the privilege of appointmg his successor. I was 
sorry to learn that Manchester is not so liighly favofed id 
the established church as among the dissenters, with minis- 
ters of eminent talent ; and that the clergy of the former 
are considerably disunited by doctrinal varieties ; some be- 
ing low Arminians, and others Calvinists of the highest 
grade. Much coolness in their intercourse with each other 
is the result." 

**' Afler breakfast, I went with Mr. Stowell to an infant- 
school supported by his congregation. It is under the charge 
of a male teacher, assisted by his wife, and contams 150 
pupils. The teacher is a man of ordinary education, but of 
superior natural abilities, which he has certainly applied in 
a very effectual, though, in some respects, novel maimer, to 
the business of infant-school instruction. His method of en- 
gaging and sustaining the attention of liis little scholars is 
quite peculiar ; and I ha v<j seen no establishment of the kind 
in which a better result has followed the teacher's efforts. 
The history of this successful teacher of infants, as shortly 
given me by Mr. Stowell, would form an interesting biog- 
raphy ; one of the most instructive features of which would 
be, an exhibition of the power of divine grace in reclaiming, 
after a life of singular wanderings, infidelity, and vice, ac- 
companied with much suffering and misery, this object of 
the divine mercy, and transforming him into a meek and 
pious disciple of Christ, and a useful member of society. 

" After dinner I left Manchester, with an unpression 
alike of its immense importance as a manufacturing town, 
and of its uninviting character as a place of residence, except 
for those interested in its business. It has some handsome 

M«ia. Hiloer. 1 7 



386 MEMOIU OF DR. MILNOR. 

public buildings ; but, with the exception of the exchange, 
they are situated in narrow streets, where they appear to 
no advantage, A few of the streets are wide and airy, and 
a portion of the environs very pleasant ; but the interior of 
the town is in general disagreeable and gloomy. As to all 
business objects, however, it is one of the most flourishing 
places m the kmgdom ; and those who are making fortunes 
in the town, have no difficulty in rendering their families 
comfortable in rural villas or terraced rows of genteel houses, 
which are every year increasing in the neighborhood. 

" With one thing I was much grieved. In returning 
from Mr. Smith's, in the Crescent, to Albion hotel, Picca- 
dilly, on Saturday evening, I saw more drunken men, 
women, and boys, than I ever before beheld ui the same 
space of time. Temperance societies will, I hope, remedy 
this deplorable state of tilings ; and I am happy that they 
have been commenced with encouraging prospects of success. 
Intemperance is becoming increasingly prevalent among the 
lower orders in England ; but I everywhere find it asserted, 
that among the middle and higher orders, no increase of the 
evil is perceptible. It is therefore difficult to convince these 
classes of the utility of temperance societies, except for the 
reformation of the lower. I am, however, persuaded that 
there is enough of the evil among all ranks to make the 
universal establishment of these societies useful ; and I have 
consequently everywhere urged them upon the attention of 
those with whom I have had an opportunity of communi- 
cating on this important subject." 

In passing from Manchester to Sheffield, Dr. Milnor 
traversed, though without leisure to examine, the singularly 
fine scenery of Derbyshire, with its peak, castle, and cav- 
erns, and with its lovely vales succeeded by lone moorlands ; 
reaching Sheffield about nine o'clock in the evening of Mon- 
day, August 23. 

Here his letters soon made him acquainted with the 
Sandersons and Mr. Ibbotson of the busy world, with Mr. 



MISSION TO ENaLAND. 387 

Bronson and Mr. Brookfield of the law, and with Montgomery 
of the Christian Lyre. Of the last, his journal speaks thus: 

" I found him, as I had been led to expect, Hving in a 
retired way, with two maiden ladies, the Misses Gale«, sis- 
ters to Mr. Gales of North Carolina, and aunts to Joseph 
Gales of the National Intelligencer of Washington. During 
his nonage, Mr. Montgomery left the Moravian seminary 
near Leeds, at which he was receiving his education, and 
came to Sheffield, where he apprenticed himself to the elder 
Mr. Gales. Some years later, Mr. Gales, having encoun- 
tered some difficulties with the government as publisher oi 
a newspaper, left England for America ; and Mr. Mont- 
gomery took charge of the Iris as its printer and editor. 
While in this employment, he also offended the administra- 
tion by republishing a patriotic song, although it had ap- 
peared in several other papers, and was sentenced to nine 
months' imprisonment in the jail at York. He endured his 
sentence with becoming fortitude ; wrote, during his con- 
finement, a little volume of poems, now very scarce, called 
* Prison Amusements,' and came out with the result which 
generally attends unrighteous persecution — the sympathy ot 
his friends, and renewed patronage for his paper." 

" He received his rehgious impressions under the minis- 
try of the Methodist church, but continues a member of the 
Moravian. His piety is deep-toned and decided, though 
cheerful as it is ardent. Its practical exhibition is seen in 
liis engagement in all the works of piety and beneficence for 
which Sheffield is distinguished. No man can be more 
beloved and respected for his unassummg devotion to the 
interests of religion, morals, and science, or for the varied 
talent which he has exhibited. My first interview afi^cted 
me with the most favorable impressions of his character, 
and all my subsequent intercourse with him, and all the in- 
formation which I received from his neighbors, confirmed 
and deepened them. 

" Immediately after I left Mr. Montgomery," at the close 



388 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

of this first interview, " I called on the Rev. Mr. Best, of 
St. James' Episcopal chapel. But vv^hen he called in return, 
I had gone to visit my friend Mr. Congreve, a worthy dis- 
ciple of Christ, who first obtained a hope of mercy in St 
George's, while on a temporary visit of business at New 
York. I was delighted to find him an established, happy, 
working Christian, with as single a dependence as I could 
desire, upon the unmerited mercy of his reconciled Father 
in Christ Jesus." 

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Dr. Milnor rapidly ex- 
tended his acquaintance with the interesting religious society 
of Sheffield. On Tuesday evening he lectured for Mr. Best, 
in the room of one of the " eleven districts," into which the 
Episcopal clergy of Sheffield have divided the town, for the 
purpose of accommodating " the working classes, as well as 
many of a higher grade," with stated weekly instruction ; 
and much of Wednesday was spent in visiting the room of 
the Philosophical Society, of which Mr. Montgomery was 
the first president ; together with the various and vast iron 
and steel manufactures of Sheffield. 

" Thursday, August 26. — Dined with Mr. Ibbotson at 
the Globe works. Mr. Montgomery, and Mr. Holland, 
author of the Life of Summerfield, were of the party. The 
company being all professedly religious, the conversation also 
was of that character. Mr. Montgomery was in one of his 
best moods, and rarely have I heard a more pleasing and 
earnest advocate of experimental religion. No controversial 
differences were allowed to give asperity to our intercourse ; 
and with the intellects and feelmgs of such men as Mont- 
gomery and Holland employed on so delightful a theme as 
that of genuine Christianity, its character, state, and glori- 
ous prospects, I could only regret the arrival of the hour of 
our separation, Mr. Holland is a layman, the present editor 
of the Iris, the intimate friend of Montgomery, and like him, 
a poet." 

At eleven o'clock Friday morning, Dr. Milnor went with 



MISSION TO ENQLAND. 389 

Mr. Best to the stated monthly meeting of the Female 
Church Missionary Association, composed of pious ladies of 
all the Episcopal congregations of Sheffield, and lectured 
before them for an hour from Romans 10 ; after which, he 
dined with a small party of friends at Mr. Congreve's. Mr. 
Montgomery was detained by business from, the dinner, "but 
came in immediately afterwards," says Dr. Milnor, " and 
again gratified us with the exhibition of high intellect, united 
with deep spirituality, and a most ardent interest in all the 
means which, in our favored day, the providence of God has 
put in action for the advancement of Christ's kingdom in 
the world and ui the hearts of men." 

From dinner they all adjourned to the pubhc meeting, 
which had been called, of all the Bible associations of Shef- 
field. At this meeting also Dr. Milnor made an address. 
He occupied an hour in " giving some account of the state 
of religion and of religious institutions in America, especially 
in relation to the circulation of the Scriptures and of Tracts ; 
and in considering what was the duty of every Christian 
under the peculiar circumstances of the present times." 
" Mr. Montgomery made the closing speech, with a warm 
glow of religious feeling, and an afiectionate importunity of 
expression. His only difficulty seemed to lie in finding vent 
for the flood of ideas that constantly rushed into liis mind. 
This made liim occasionally stammer for a moment ; but a 
short pause always restored his self-possession ; and his plain 
but forcible delivery riveted the attention of his hearers. 
His acknowledgments to myself," adds Dr. Milnor, "were 
full of Christian warmth and affection ; and his allusions to 
my country of most toucliing interest." 

On Saturday, he accompanied Mr. John Sanderson to his 
fine old country-mansion. Darnel Hall, surrounded by grounds 
of the most perfect neatness, and covered with the richest 
verdure. At this charming retreat he remained till the- 
Monday following, attending service Sunday moridng at St. 
James', where he heard an impressive discourse from Mr, 



390 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

Best ; at the parish church in the afternoon, where the vicar, 
the Rev. Mr. Sutton, preached ; and at St. George's chapel 
in the evening, where the Rev. Mr. Langston officiated. He 
adds the following note touching the good vicar : 

" Mr. Sutton was, some years ago, of very different sen- 
timents and feelings from those which he expressed in tliis 
day's pious discourse. As vicar, he has the appointment, 
not only of his own curates, but of the ministers of the chap- 
els, three new ones having been recently built with the aid 
of the Parliamentary commissioners, making the whole num- 
ber in the parish six. These, with the parish church, are 
all supplied with evangelical pastors ; men who see eye to 
eye, are universally beloved by all denominations, and are 
giving a more powerful impulse, moral and religious, to this 
populous town, than is, perhaps, found in any other manu- 
facturing centre in the kingdom. Happy are the people who 
have such a man as Mr. Sutton to preside over their spiritual 
concerns, and happy is Mr. Sutton in being surrounded by 
men of consentaneous views, whose only strife is, who shall 
most earnestly contend for the faith of the gospel, and most 
industriously labor, under God, to bring souls to Christ." 

On Monday morning, he took leave of Sheffield and its 
loved circle of Christian spirits ; adding, in his journal, 
this reference to one whose memory is dear to other hearts 
than his. 

" I had parted with Mr. Montgomery at his own house, 
just before evening service yesterday, when I took tea and 
passed an hour and a half in delightful communion of feeling 
with this gifted poet and most devoted Christian. I experi- 
enced, in parting from him, much of that painful emotion, 
which I am now, towards the close of my visit to Eng- 
land, so often obliged to suffer, and which is excited by the 
thoughts of taking my last leave, in this world, of some of 
the most estimable men who tread its surface. May it be 
my blessed privilege to meet them in inseparable union in a 
better world." 



MISSION TO ENG-LAND. 39L 

According to his wish it has already happened. Teign- 
mouth and Ryder, Gregory and Gurney, Wilberforce and 
Clarkson, Zachary Macauley and Bishop Burgess, Rowland 
Hill and Robert Hall, Simeon and Chalmers, William Allen 
and Hannah More, are gone : Milnor is with them, and oth- 
ers of the good and noble throng with which he mingled a 
while on earth, are on the way : great spirits, all ; elders 
and saints in the one holy church universal ; citizens ever 
of the one great kingdom of Christ. 

Upon his return to London, whither he went directly 
from Sheffield, Dr. Milnor's engagements were almost wholly 
of a busmess character. He found himself loaded with letters 
and papers from New York, wliich developed, to his surprise, 
an anonymous controversy wliich had followed the appear- 
ence of Bishop Hobart's public letter, but of which, until that 
moment, he had been utterly ignorant. He reflected upon 
these developments like a man writing under a strong sense 
of injured feelings ; and filled page after page with proofs of 
what he had stated in his journal, and of the profound as- 
tonishment of the London rehgious public at the manner m 
which his address before the Prayer-Book and Homily Society 
had been misapprehended. 

There would be little interest in following him through 
the various details of business which now occupied his time 
in London. He attended faithfully to all the more private 
commissions with which he had come charged, but gave 
special attention to that which he bore from " The Domestic 
and Foreign Missionary Society " of his own church. In this 
duty he spent much time, makmg himself familiar with the 
internal arrangements and the external operations of " The 
Church Missionary Society," and of " The Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," and furnishing 
himself with all the information and documents, which could 
be of service to our church in the infancy of her missionary 
institutions. In these engagements he amply qualified hun- 
self for the important position which he was subsequently 



392 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

called to occupy in the practical direction of our own rnis» 
sionary work, both domestic and foreign. 

He also devoted some time to perfecting his acquaintance 
with the topography of London and its environs, in cultivat- 
mg the Cliristian friendships which he had already formed, 
an 1 in taking formal leave of the public bodies to wliich he 
had been a delegate. The ceremonies which marked his 
adieus to the British and Foreign Bible Society, were of suf- 
ficient interest to justify in this place a fuller notice. We 
give it in his own words. 

"Monday, Sept. 6. — At twelve o'clock, attended a stated 
meetinsr of the committee of the British and Foreign Bible 
Society ; Lord Bexley in the chair. 

" When I was introduced by the secretary, Mr. Bran- 
dram, the committee had been some time in session. Soon 
after I entered, his lordship rose, and addressed me to the 
following purport. 

" ' It is my pleasing duty, reverend sir, to commumuate 
to you the result of the deliberations in which the committee 
.lave just been engaged. They are informed that you are 
about to return to your native land ; and the committee 
cannot sufler you to depart without signifying to you the 
high gratification which your visit has afforded them, and 
the great utility with which it has been attended. The 
resolutions themselves, however, express the feelings of the 
committee better than I can in any verbal communication. 
I will read them,' Here his lordship read the resolutions, 
and then continued : ' I will add to what is here said, my 
personal persuasion of the importance of uniting our most 
strenuous eflbrts for the universal diffusion of the sacred 
Scriptures ; and particularly of maintauiing, between your 
great society and ours, a constant intercourse and coopera- 
tion in this great work. Tliis is a most important crisis. 
There seems to be a mighty conflict, just now, between the 
powers of light and darkness. God is on our side, and will 
give us the victory ; but the battle must be fought, and it 



MISSION TO ENaLAND. 393 

■will require our most diligent and united exertions to secure 
success. I hope, sir, your respected society will be persuaded 
of the obligations under which we lie to them for sending 
you to us as their representative, and of our grateful sense of 
the acceptable manner in which you have fulfilled the hon- 
orable trust committed to your charge. Be assured, reverend 
sir, we shall retain a grateful remembrance of your public 
services, and of the personal intercourse which we have had 
with you. You carry with you our high respect and esteem, 
our Christian affection and regard. Our earnest prayers will 
attend you, that you may be favored Math a safe and pros- 
perous voyage ; that you may meet your beloved family in 
health and hapf)iness ; that your multiplied labors may be 
prolonged to your congregation, and to this and other useful 
operations of our day in which you are engaged ; and that 
we may at last meet j^ou in God's heavenly kingdom.' 

" This address was entirely unexpected, and a little embar- 
rassed me. I stood during its delivery, and then answered in 
the same extemporaneous manner, nearly in these terms : 

" ' My Lord — I am much affected by this unlooked-for 
evidence of the kindness of yourself and the committee. In 
behalf of the American Society, I return you my thanks for 
the obliging manner m which you have expressed your ap- 
probation of their act in sending a delegate to your interest- 
ing anniversary, and to confer with you on the interests ot 
that great work in which we are engaged. 

" ' For your approbation of the manner in which I have 
fulfilled the duties of my appointment, I beg to make my 
personal acknowledgments, though sensible how little I de- 
serve the eulogy which your lordship and the committee 
have passed upon my feeble services. I shall return to my 
country with many delightful remembrances of my visit to 
England ; and among them the most pleasing will be, that 
of my intercourse with the officers of this society, and th& 
members of its committee. 

" ' In taking my final leave of them, will your lordship 

17* 



394 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

and the committee excuse me for reiterating the anxious 
wish which I have heretofore expressed, that one or more 
delegates from this society may be sent to the anniversary 
of ours next spring ? Nothing, I am convinced, will be 
found more promotive of union and cooperation between the 
two institutions, than this imterchange of friendly gratula- 
tions and mutual aid at our yearly commemorations. I 
venture to assure your lordship, that your delegates will be 
received with Christian kindness and respect in our ruder 
land ; and perhaps, while they are profiting us, and assisting 
the cause of Christ in the western world, they may find 
some gratification in the scenery of our country, and in a 
personal acquaintance with our institutions and people. 

" ' Your lordship and the committee will allow me to say 
with what grateful emotions I receive your kind wishes for 
my safe return to my beloved family and flock. I will de- 
tain you from your important duties no longer than to add, 
that I sincerely reciprocate the feelings which you have been 
pleased to express towards me, by imploring a blessing on 
your labors in our glorious cause, and praying that health 
and happiness may attend you individually here, and that 
the felicity of heaven may be your everlasting portion.' 

" His lordship replied, that the committee were fully 
impressed with the duty and advantage of sending one or 
more delegates to America, as proposed by me ; but the dif- 
ficulty of finding gentlemen who were fitted for the office, 
and at the same time willing to assume it, had hitherto 
prevented any positive measure on the subject. 'I am per- 
suaded,' he added, ' there is not one of us who would not 
consider himself highly honored by such a commission, 
though many obstacles might lie in the way of its accept- 
ance. "We shall, however, keep the matter before us ; and 
if it can be accomplished, it will afford us, reverend sir, the 
greatest pleasure to comply with your suggestions.' 

" After remaining with the committee a short time 
longer, other engagements obliged me to withdraw." 



MISSION TO ENOLAND. 395 

After this meeting, Dr. Milnor went to dine again with 
Zachary Macauley, of Christian Observer memory ; and his 
account of the occasion is worthy of preservation. 

** Mr. Macauley's personal appearance," says he, "is 
that of a heavy, dull man ; but in reality he is entirely the 
opposite of this. One of his friends observed to me, * He is 
a library of knowledge ; and it is quite a common thing 
among us, on almost all subjects, if a question is asked 
which we are unable to answer, to say, Well, we'll ask 
Macauley ; he can tell us.' He is full of conversation, but 
glad to hear that of others ; and when it depends on him to 
give it a direction, it is uniformly to serious and important 
subjects. He is a man of decided, cheerful piety, and of 
great usefulness in many of the national institutions estab- 
lished for its promotion. Of the committee of the British 
and Foreign Bible Society he is a very active member, as 
well as of several other societies. 

"Mr. Macauley is well acquainted with Robert Owen, 
who is giving public lectures in London, on his plans for the 
reformation of the world by the substitution of reason for 
revelation. He considers Owen, as do many others, to be 
partially deranged ; of which there can be no stronger evi- 
dence than the delusion under which his mind continually 
labors, that his abstruse disquisitions before his, for the most 
part, illiterate audiences, are actually producing a great rev- 
olution in public sentiment ; and that, in a short time, gov- 
ernment itself will openly espouse his Utopian schemes. 
Some years ago, before his mfidelity was so well known, he 
had a conference, at his own request, with a number of dis- 
tinguished gentlemen, including several who then belonged 
to the administration. They listened to his strange devel- 
opments, and there the matter ended ; but he told Mr. Ma- 
cauley he was confident he had made the whole company 
converts to his scheme. On another occasion, he fancied 
that the bishops and clergy were begimiing to see their 
errors, and would embrace his views. He called on tho 



396 MEMOIE, OF DR. MILNOR. 

Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishop of London, who 
treated him civilly, and as Macauley expressed it, bowed 
him out of the house. Their silence in relation to his com- 
munications was to him conclusive evidence of entire coinci- 
dence in his views ; and he reported to Macauley, very ex- 
ultmgly, his success with these dignitaries of the clmrch. 
Mr. Macauley told him perhaps he was mistaken in this ; 
and that the right way to test the matter would be to engage 
them to bring before Parliament some proposition on the 
subject. He took the hint, and actually called upon them 
again, and made the suggestion recommended ; when they 
soon gave him to understand; what courtesy had before pre- 
vented, that they considered him a visionary, and his plans 
downright nonsense. 

" The community, as he termed it, at Lanai'k, in Scot- 
land, owes any success that has attended it as a large man 
ufacturing establishment, to his having as his associates, 
religious men. "William Allen, the distinguished Q/Uaker, 
was captivated with some parts of his scheme, and united 
with him ; but at once departed from so much of it as went 
to exclude the services and influences of religion ; and their 
determination to lay aside many other of his whims led to 
the necessity of finally dismissing liim from all agency in 
the concern. 

" Mr. Macauley is on terms of friendship and intercourse 
with Mr. Drummond, Mr. McNeile, and others of the pro- 
phetical school, and speaks liighly of the talents and piety ol 
many of them ; but he has not the slightest tincture of their 
errors, and thinks the absurdities into wliich those of them 
who are churchmen are now running, of uniting ultra-high- 
churchmanship with excessive Calvinism, rigid views of 
election with baptismal regeneration, full assurance as a 
necessary part of true faith, with declamations agamst obe- 
dience as any evidence of its being warrantably asserted ; the 
persuasion of the speedy advent of Christ, with opposition to 
Bible societies and other religious efforts : these, with other 



MISSION TO ENGLAND. 397 

strange views about the continuance of the power of miracles, 
the universal pardon of sin, the justification of the elect before 
their actual conversion, etc., will be likely to prevent the 
general sjDread of their main error, that of looking for the 
coming of Christ to establish a temporal kingdom upon earth, 
instead of his coming into the hearts of men by the enlight- 
ening and sanctifymg influences of his Spirit ; and, after the 
millennium, appearing with power and great glory in the 
heavens, as the final Judge of quick and dead." 

It would be pleasing to read Dr. MUnor's account of his 
dinner on Saturday, Sept. 11, with that unostentatious Chris- 
tian nobleman, Lord Bexley, at his beautiful seat. Foot's 
Cray, in Kent, twelve miles from London ; but his jounia] 
has already occupied more space than was intended in his 
memoirs^ and the reader must therefore hasten with us to the 
period of his return to America. 

Before his final departure from London he made an ex- 
cursion to Cambridge, for the purpose of becoming acquamt- 
ed at the university. Unfortunately most of the professors 
had availed themselves of the privilege of vacation, and were 
absent, but he found delightful intercourse with one whom 
he styles " an Israelite indeed," Professor Farish, " a man of 
learning and piety, and of most unassuming and amiable 
manners." Nor did he miss an opportunity for further 
acquaintance with " the venerable Simeon, who for fifty 
years had been a blessmg to the university and town of 
Cambridge." 

Having despatched all matters of business, and taken all 
his other adieus, his closing visit in London was to the truly 
noble president of the British and Foreign Bible Society, 
Lord Teignmouth, in Portman Square. 

"We found his lordship," he remarks, " in his library. 
He is now eighty-six years of age, and experiences many of 
the infirmities of a man of such advanced years. He receiv- 
ed me with great affability of manner, and expressed much 
regret, that his indisposition had prevented his attending the 



398 MEMOIll OF DR. MILNOR. 

anniversary of the Bible Society, and deprived him of the 
pleasure of paying me personal attentions during my stay in 
England. His memory of recent transactions has become 
very imperfect ; and that, more than any other circumstance, 
has latterly unfitted him for the active duties of president, 
wliich he has chiefly devolved on Lord Bexley. 

** We spent an hour with his lordship, and the interview 
left a strong impression on my mind in favor of his piety and 
benevolence. His literary talents will be as highly estimated 
by those who have read his excellent biography of Sir Will- 
iam Jones. He conducted us to the door, and desired me to 
present his best respects to the managers of the American 
Bible Society ; to assure them of the benefits, in his opin- 
ion, attendant on missions such as mine ; and to commu- 
nicate his particular regards to Col. Varick, our venerable 
president." 

Dr. Milnor left London on Wednesday, Sept. 15, in com- 
pany with Mr. Brandram, on his way to Liverpool, taking 
Oxford in his route, and stopped the first night at Henley- 
upon-Thames, The inn at this place is a rare one, and 
tempts us to pause long enough to give Dr. Milnor's short 
account of his evening there. 

" We arrived at Henley about dark, and took lodgings at 
the house of Mrs. Dixon, an inn immediately on the bank of 
the Thames, and at the entrance of the town. Mrs. Dixon 
is a singularly pious member of the established church, has 
a son associated with her who is like-minded, and endeavors 
to make all around her partakers of the happiness which she 
enjoys as a consistent disciple of Christ. Her establishment 
is large, and it is impracticable for her whole household to 
attend on religious duties at any one time. She therefore has 
reading of the Scriptures and prayers three times a day, and 
makes her arrangements so that every servant attends 07ie, 
and most of them two services daily. Mr. Brandram being 
au old acquaintance, Mrs. Dixon proposed, soon after our 
arrival, that we should allow her to invite some of her neigh- 



MISSION TO ENGLAND. 399 

bors to Scripture exposition and prayer in the evening, and 
also the following morning. Accordingly, Mr. Brandrani 
read and expounded at nine o'clock, and I prayed ; and the 
next morning, at nine, I conducted lecture and prayer before 
a company which filled a large room. Our good landlady 
and her son expressed much gratitude, and we took our leave 
of them for Oxford about ten o'clock." 

We have now done with Dr. Milnor's journal of his visit 
to England. For, though, as at Cambridge, he saw all that 
was worthy of examination at Oxford, yet he found the lat- 
ter university still more effectually vacated than the former — 
not a professor, nor more than here and there a straggling 
student, within the shades of those venerable halls. He 
reached Liverpool the 20th of September, and embarked on 
the 27th. He kept no journal on his return-voyage to New 
York, had a safe, though long passage, and reached home on 
Saturday, the 30th of October. When she approached the 
harbor, the ship received her pilot, and as he stepped upon 
her deck and recognized Dr. Milnor among the eager crowd 
of listeners for news, his first words to him conveyed the start- 
ling intelligence, " Bishop Hohart is dead /" 

Thus ended every discord between those early friends. 
Their course ran not always smoothly through this jarring 
world ; but we may beheve it is peaceful now, not only in 
their union of heart, but also in their oneness of views, as 
they look together on unshadowed truth, and, seeing eye to 
eye, admire the eternal things of God. 

To the American societies which he had represented in 
England, Dr. Milnor, after his return, made careful reports 
of his doings, and from them received expressions of heart- 
felt thanks. 

To himself, personally. Dr. Milnor's intercourse in Eng- 
land, and in the other countries which he visited, was a 
source of abundant pleasure, and of real profit. Not igno- 
rant previously of public men, and public life, he greatly 
extended his familiarity and intercourse with both, and re- 



400 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

turned laden with profitable stores for thought and reflection 
as well as with delightful memories of men and things. 
Nor did he bring away blessings without leaving blessings 
behind. His elevated Christian character, and his ready 
practical talents, secured him a facile and useful currency in 
the highest and best religious circles, and left in his pathway 
many precious and abiding impressions of an active benevo- 
lence. Four years after his return the present writer was 
in England, and found himself, at almost every step, meeting 
with traces of Dr. Milnor's influence, and with proofs of the 
high consideration in which he Avas everywhere held. There 
was a sweet savor to his name in Great Britain, and a letter 
of commendation from him was itself a quick and suflicient 
passport both to confidence and to kindness, wherever kind- 
ness and confidence were most to be desired. 

In prefacing the introduction of his journal into these 
pages, an intimation was given that more would be said of 
the RESULTS of Dr. Milnor's mission. What those results 
were, as to the details of business actually transacted, the 
reader has had some opportunity of judging. These, how- 
ever, were the least important that followed in the train. 
The influence of his mission upon the relations of our own 
Episcopal missionary organizations and operations with those 
of the mother country, has been most beneficial. He brought 
home an amount of practical knowledge in the management 
of missions, which we had not before possessed ; and he 
opened channels of full and free sympathy and intercourse, 
between ourselves and our brethren abroad, where there 
had previously been but little of the flux and reflux of living 
activities. 

His mission, moreover, gave him an interest and a stand- 
ing in the cause of education for the deaf and dumb, which 
he carried through life, and which made his subsequent ser- 
vices so important in the New York institution for that inter- 
esting class of his fellow-men. He obtained, too, a know- 
ledge of the posture of the affairs of Kenyon college in Eng- 



MISSION TO ENCtLAND. 401 

land, which was afterwards of great value to the interests of 
that young and imperilled seat of learning at the West. 

But without dwellmg upon particulars like these, one of 
the happiest results of his mission is seen in the new rela- 
tions which have since arisen between the noble brother- 
hood of Christian societies in Great Britain, and their equally 
noble fraternity in the United States ; especially in those 
mutual delegations to represent each other at their anni- 
versary celebrations, which have become of such frequent 
occurrence. 

It is needless to say, unless to such as have not reflected 
on tiiis subject, that these great religious associations in the 
two countries, exhibit one of the most remarkable features of 
our age ; not merely in the vast amounts of money wliich 
they collect and apply to the diffusion, through the world, of 
correspondingly vast amounts of religious truth, and hght, 
and living labors, but also in the immense influence which 
they exert upon society ; in the rich treasures of knowledge, 
facts, and statistics, geographical, historical, and scientific, 
which they are gathermg home from all lands ; and in their 
practical action upon even the governments both of barbarian 
and of civilized countries. These institutions have already 
a history and a literature, which are yearly growing richer 
and richer, and which will be known and felt, not only 
through all coming periods of the divine kingdom upon earth, 
but also on the pages of those who, with an enlightened and 
adequate after-thought, shall undertake to sketch the for- 
tunes of the lower kingdoms of this world. 

It will be remembered, then, that in relation to these 
grand institutions, Dr. Mihior's mission stands first in the 
series of delegations and interchanges, which have since 
characterized and given such mtensity of hfe to their mutual 
intercourse, and which have contributed so largely to quicken 
and deepen the circulations of Christian truth and influence 
through the earth. Doubtless, the idea of this mission did 
not originate with aim ; and it may not be possible to say 



402 MEMOIR OF DE,. MILNOR. 

with wliom it did originate. The truth is, hke many other 
great things, it seems to have originated with no one in par- 
ticular, but with multitudes in common. It was the asking 
of the religious age. There was, in the mind of the religious 
public, a deep feeling of the need of such a system of living 
intercourse — a silent shaping of events towards an open and 
sensible issue ; and it was the position which God, in his 
providence, had assigned to Dr. Milnor, in the affairs of 
active American Christianity, that pointed him out as the 
first, and perhaps the fittest embodiment of the idea thus 
distinctly conceived in the inner sense of the age, and sent 
him forth to be its first living, speaking, and acting expo- 
nent before men. 

Others have since followed him, from both sides of the 
waters, who may have possessed higher powers of personal 
display, and for immediate popular impression ; but few, if 
any, in the series, have equalled him in the prestige of name, 
and standing, and well-earned, well-settled influence : while 
none have surpassed him in qualifications for the busmess of 
such an agency ; and none have left behind them more hal- 
lowed and unstained memorials as a Christian, gentleman, 
and friend. 



HIS MINISTRY. 403 

PART V. 

DR. MILNOH'S MINISTRY FROM 1830 TO 1845. 



SECTION I. 

In entering on an account of that portion of Dr. Milnor's 
ministry which followed his return from England, it will be 
proper to take a brief notice of his interest in the welfare of 
Kenyon college. 

Among the various efforts for the endowment of that 
institution, one resulted in founding " The Milnor Professor- 
ship of Divinity." This professorship was endowed chiefly 
by members of St. George's, and the endowment was pre- 
sented to Kenyon college, subject to the condition that the 
nomination of the incumbent should reside in Dr. Milnor 
during his natural life. In this professorship he of course 
felt a deep interest, and this interest very naturally extended 
itself to the welfare of the whole institution. Hence, when 
he went to England, he went commissioned by Bishop Chase 
to have a friendly eye to the interests of the college in that 
country. 

About this period arose Bishop Chase's troubles with the 
trustees, ending in the resignation of his jurisdiction of the 
diocese of Ohio, and, as mvolved in that, his presidency of 
Kenyon college. During these developments and changes, 
the troubles of the college thickened, and days of darkness 
passed over its history. The Milnor professorship, the en- 
dowment of which was not yet quite full, was in danger of 
being lost ; and the college itself seemed almost sinking under 
its embarrassments. 

Through all these trials, Dr. Milnor's knowledge of the 
affairs of the institution in this country and in England, and 



404 MEMOIR, OF DR. MILNOR. 

his strong interest in them, enabled and prompted him to be 
of great service to the bishop and his enterprise. He pledged 
himself to make up, out of his own private purse if neces- 
sary, the somewhat large deficiency in the endowment of 
the Milnor professorship; and as a means of relieving the 
general embarrassments of the college, counselled the sale 
of the northern section of the valuable college domain. His 
nomination of Dr. Sparrow as the first incumbent of the 
Milnor professorship, placed an able and learned man at the 
head of the divinity department ; and when Dr. Sparrow 
accepted the professorship of systematic theology in the Vir- 
ginia Theological Seminary, the nomination of Dr. Fuller as 
his successor placed another sound instructor in the same 
important post of influence to our church at the West. In- 
deed, next to those who have been invested with the direct 
responsibility of founding and managing Kenyon college, few, 
it is believed, have rendered it such valuable services as Dr. 
Milnor ; and it is to be hoped, that through the professorship 
which bears his name, and which he did so much to estab- 
lish, preserve, and perpetuate, his influence will be felt, ages 
to come, in the dissemination of a sound theology and an 
uncorrupted piety throughout the most important portion of 
our country. To proceed now with matters more properly 
connected with this memoir. 

It is a long time since any reference in these pages has 
been made to the spiritual condition of St. George's parish. 
The following extract from a letter to one of his clerical cor- 
respondents will show that but a few months passed, after 
his return from Europe, before he was permitted to gather 
some rich fruits from his labors. 



To 



"New York, April 8, 1831. 

" Rev. and dear Brother — You have, of course, heard 
of the encouraging state of religious aflairs in New York. 
A time of deeper solemnity, in many congregations, hag 



HIS MINISTHY. 405 

never been known. Among Presbyterians, Methodists, Re- 
formed Dutch, and Baptists, conversions have been very 
numerous, and new cases are every day occurring — the 
greater part from among the youth, but many from the ranks 
of aged and apparently incorrigible sinners. In Dr. Lyell's 
congregation there is more attention than usual. In Mr. 
Mcllvaine's," in Brooklyn, " much interest prevails ; and he 
has the prospect of a large addition to the number of his 
communicants. To my own list, thirty-five were added on 
Easter Sunday ; and the whole number who comnmnicated 
on that delightful day exceeded four hundred — the largest 
number to whom I have ever been permitted to administer 
the symbols of a dying Saviour's love. The interest still 
continues ; and I am looking, alas, with too small a measure 
of faith, for its increase. 

" Will you please to accept a little token of my affec- 
tion, 'Bridges on the Christian Ministry,' republished by Mr. 
Leavitt on myrecommendation ? When shall we have the 
privilege of meeting ? I have not an absent friend on earth 
whom I am more desirous of seeing than yourself Let me 
say, my endeared brother, that few things will be more grati- 
fying to me, during the remainder of my rapidly passing 
days, than to know that I occupy a place in your heart, and 
to cherish you as one having a most near and intimate in 
terest in my own. Let us speak oftener with each other, 
and strengthen one another's zeal and ardor in the cause of 
Him whose we are and whom we serve. The Lord bless 
und keep you and yours. Commend me to your beloved 
partner, and believe me to be, m eternal bonds, 
" Your ever affectionate 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

The following letter to the same correspondent is given 
because it contains advice, and expresses vicAvs, on the sub- 
ject of removals from one parish to another, which ought, 
perhaps, in our day, to be more widely regarded. 



406 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

"New York, Sept. 8, 1831. 

" My dear Friend — Your letter of the 5th I have just 
received. That I answer it thus promptly you are to 
ascribe, not to my preparedness to do so, but to my desire 
to comply as far as I can with your wishes, and to the 
fear that, in this respect, I should gain no advantage by 
delay. 

" You will not suspect me of affecting an interest in your 
concerns which I do not feel, when I say that I have thought 
much of you and Kentucky, since we conversed together at 
your own house ; and that I have never been able to think 
more favorably of the project than I did at that time. By 
information from various quarters, I am confirmed in the 
persuasion that you occupy a sphere of great and growing 
usefulness. So far as the objects of the Christian ministry 
are concerned, I can scarcely conceive of a more desirable 
position for the exercise of your office, whether it regard 
your immediate or your collateral influence. Now it ap- 
pears to me, that the influence which divine Providence has 
from the beginning assigned you, is of a religious character ; 
and this, it does not seem to me, will be increased by a re- 
moval to L : on the contrary, it may be impaired by its 

association with secular pursuits. As to the assistant-min- 
istership, that will not be required, unless a new election for 
bishop should, a year hence, have a more favorable result 
than the late mismanaged attempt ; and I fear, that if the 

principal object for removal be an association with Mr. 's 

laudable undertaking " — a promismg literary institution — 
" the opprobrium will be cast upon you of being biased by the 
pecuniary advantages which it offers, as well as of fickleness 
and a desire of change. Ought it not to be a principle with 
every clergyman, not to leave a situation of undoubted use 
fulness for any other, until he has evidence, of the most sat- 
isfactory kind, that his usefulness will be enlarged in that 
to which he is invited ? Is there such evidence in the pres- 
ent case ? After making due allowances for very natural 



HIS MINISTRY. 407 

feelings on the part of Mr. and Mr. , I do exceed- 
ingly question whether there is any real preponderance in. 

favor of L . So far as emolument is concerned, the 

latter place would seem, from the statements of Mr. , 

to present a powerful inducement to become his associate ; 
but it is pulpit-teaching, and not literary instruction, which 
I take to be the province assigned you by our common Mas- 
ter ; and just in proportion as a minister's situation calls 
him from the former to the latter, I have ever seen his char- 
acter and influence, as an ambassador of Christ, deteriorate. 
There is, indeed, an apology for a partial and even an entire 
transition from the pulpit to the school, in the incompatibil- 
ity with health of the incessant discharge of the duties of 
the mhiistry. But I hope this is not your case. Your tem- 
porary weakness has been produced by circumstances of a 
special character, only now and then occurring in any con- 
gregation. Something also is due to the feelings of an at- 
tached people, who have a right to expect the minister of 
their choice and affection not to leave them but upon grounds 
of duty the most unquestioned. 

" You will probably tliink there is more of decision in 
this conclusion, than you had reason to expect at the begin- 
ning of this letter ; and I do confess, that the more I think 
upon the question which it discusses, the more averse I feel 
to say one word that might lead to the sundering of your 
present connection. 

" But after all, my dear brother, I have no such partial- 
ity for my own leanings on this subject, as not to acquiesce 
ill any conclusion to wliich your deeper reflection and better 
judgment may conduct you. I feel quite confident that you 
will not decide upon it without a reference to that great 
Being, from whom ' all good counsels do proceed ;' and what- 
ever may be your conclusion, you will remain very dear to 
me, and I trust will esteem me 

" Your faithful friend and Christian brother, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 



408 MEMOIR OF DH. MILNOR. 

In the year 1830, a "Literary Convention" was held m 
the city of New York, at which a committee was appointed 
to consider and report, at a future meeting, on " the propri- 
ety of studying the Bible, as a classic, in the institutions of 
a Christian country." About the first of November, 1831, 
the convention reassembled, and the committee presented 
their report. " After an extensive correspondence with gen- 
tlemen of various religious opinions," they " recommended 
in their report, that the Bible should receive the respect and 
attention due to a classic in our liter: v institutions." To 
carry this recommendation into effect, the convention, at 
their session in 1831, appointed a second committee "to pre- 
pare and report a plan of biblical instruction, especially m 
reference to the academical and collegiate course." This 
important committee was composed of Dr. Milnor as chair- 
man, Dr. Maclay, W. C. Woodbridge, Professor Vethake, and 
Professor Woolsey ; and was instructed to report its plan at 
a meeting of the convention in October, 1832. Preparatory 
to this final report, the committee, through their chairman, 
issued a circular, addressed to all the heads of colleges and 
academies, and to other gentlemen of religious influence in 
the country, asking such information as might be useful to 
the committee m devising the contemplated plan for the 
general study of the Bible as an academic and college clas- 
sic. This great measure, however, failed of success. Sev- 
eral letters, among the papers of Dr. Milnor, in reply to the 
circular of the committee, show that it met with apparently 
insuperable difficulties. Yet the conception was noble ; and 
the place assigned to Dr. Milnor, in the attempt to realize 
it, shows the estimation in which he was held, and the 
relation which he bore to the great religious and philan- 
thropic movements of his age. 

It was not long after his return from Europe before his 
life assumed its wonted channel, and continued to fio^v on 
year after year in quiet but ceaseless activity. In io-low- 
ing him, therefore, the rest of his way, we shall have little 



HIS MINISTRY. 409 

to do but to give such letters as have been preserved, 
illustrative of his character and course, notice some of the 
more important events in which he was yet to be an ac- 
tor, and add some general views of his position and influ- 
ence. 

The following extracts from letters to his son, revive 
remembrances of the gloomy times which passed over New 
York in the summer of 1832, when *' the cholera" swept so 
many thousands to the grave. At the same time they arc 
interesting, inasmuch as they show, that during all the hor- 
rors of that wasting plague. Dr. Milnor deserted not his post, 
but contmued his ministries among both the living and the 
dead. 

"Nev/ York, July 21, 1832. 

** Dear Henry — The daily reports of the board of health 
will inform you of the general state of things here in regard 
to the prevailmg disease. Yesterday's report was the most 
unfavorable : two hundred and two new cases, and upwards 
of eighty deaths. I myself awoke yesterday mornmg with 
a diarrhoea, but under Dr. Stearns' advice, took five pills of 
his preparing, and this morning find myself entirely relieved. 
I have lost but one parishioner, old Mr. Mitchell of James- 
street. He was at church on Sunday, sickened on Tuesday, 
and died Wednesday, Many die in from one to three hours 
after the attack. Hitherto, a very large majority of the cases, 
especially of those that prove mortal, are of persons of dis- 
solute or irregular habits ; and from the great number of 
drunken people seen in the streets, it would seem as if they 
were bent on their own destruction. There is no sickness 

in our immediate neighborhood. M and his bar-keeper, 

who kept an abominable dram-shop, were taken ill at nearly 
the same time, and died in a few hours, I continue my ser- 
vices as usual. This afternoon at six o'clock I have my 
lecture in the church, preparatory to communion on Sunday 
next. The congregation is very much diminished, but on 
Sunday last there were more than I could have expected. 

Meui. Milnor. 1 S 



410 MEMOIK OP DR. MILNOH. 

This week, however, has been one of considerable anxiety, 
and many have removed. 

" Your affectionate father, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 
To the same. 

"New York, Aug. 6, 183-2. 

** My dear Henry — ^We have heard, with great regret, 
of the indisposition of your cousin William, and some other 
members of the family whose kindnesses you are receiving ; 
and, with much sorrow, that the cholera has begun its work 
in Philadelpliia." 

[This letter reached his son while he was resident-phy- 
sician in the Southwark cholera hospital, to which the first 
case of the disease in Philadelphia was brought. He had 
not informed his father of his position, lest he should occa 
sion alarm.] 

" With us it continues its ravages among the intemper- 
ate, and in some, but comparatively few instances, among 
those who are temperate. It is the remark of every physi- 
cian with whom I have conversed, that in the course of their 
practice, they could, with few exceptions, trace every severe 
case of cholera to mtemperance in drinking, improper food, 
or some other manifestly exciting cause. The B,ev. Mr. H.'& 
case was lamentable. He and his wife and child, Dr. A. 
who attended them, and a colored nurse, all fell victims to 
this terrible disease. In Broad-street, Mrs. T., and seven of 
her family besides, were cut off in a few days. It is be- 
lieved, that in both these sad cases, local causes of a noxious 
character had a principal share in their production and 
fatahty. 

" Yesterday I officiated twice in St. George's, and, with 
the advice of my vestry, gave notice that the church Mdll 
be closed for the remainder of the month. Probably two- 
thirds or three-fourths of the congregation are absent from 
the city ; and as this is about the time of our annual clean- 
ing, it was thought best to close for that purpose. 



HIS MINISTRY. 411 

" I would now willingly give the family a little country 
air, but there is great difficulty in knowing where to go with 
safety, and at the same time have a favorable reception. 
We must inquire and determine, in the course of a few days, 
whether to remain or go. I m^ust be principally at my post. 
With our best regards to all our dear friends, I remain, 
" Your affectionate father, 

"JAMES MILNOPt." 

After the removal of the scourge of pestilence. Dr. Mil 
nor vras left to spend a long lonely season at home, in conse 
quence of the illness of his younger daughter Eleanor. She 
had become the subject of a nervous debility, which com- 
pelled her to travel ; and to enable her to do this with com- 
fort and a hope of benefit, Mrs. Milnor and Henry were 
obliged to accompany her. They accordingly took a voyage 
to Charleston and Savannah, with the prospect of remaining 
at the south till the spring of 1833. In the meantime, his 
elder daughter Anna fell sick at home, and was for several 
weeks confined to her room by an attack which threatened 
a result in pulmonary disease. This season, however, ol 
domestic gloom at length passed away, and the whole fam.- 
ily were again reunited in customary happmess, though not 
at once in their customary health. 

The following extract from a letter which his son re- 
ceived soon after his settlement in Philadelphia, touches a 
subject not yet introduced into these pages, but without a 
notice of wliich our view of Dr. Milnor's inner life would be 
incomplete. He had as m.uch happiness as any father in 
the respect and afiection of his children ; but, for long years, 
he had not the comfort of knowing that any of them were 
partakers of his own "good hope through grace." Many 
of his letters evmce how deep were his fatherly sohcitudes 
for their salvation, and how profound liis Christian sorrows 
over the protracted delay to which the realization of his 
hopes in their behalf was subjected. Of this the extract 
alluded to furnishes an affecting illustration. 



412 MEMOIR OF UK. MILNOR. 

"New York, April 15, 1833. 

" Dear Henry — I received your letter, written imme- 
diately on your arrival in Philadelphia, as did your mother 
the one written to her. I know not that any thing mate- 
rial has occurred, since you left us, within the circle of our 
acquaintance. Our Easter election for vestrymen was peace- 
ful and satisfactory ; and every thing is as I could wish it in 
my congregation, except that my desires are not fully grati- 
fied in the increase of the number of those who are willing 
to devote themselves to a religious life. No one circum- 
stance preys more upon my spirits, and more imbitters my 
private meditations, than that neither of my dear children 
has done so. The unhappiness is twofold : first, on their 
account, for I know that without religion they cannot be 
truly happy in this life, and must be miserable in eternity ; 
and second, because I fear I have not done my duty in their 
education, and that, should they be lost, their guilt and con- 
demnation will lie at my door. Heflections on these sub- 
jects sometimes agonize my heart, and almost unfit me for 
miy necessary duties. One thing, my dear son, is certain ; if 
you have really listened to my preaching with the attention 
which your appearance from Sunday to Sunday has seemed 
to indicate, you must be theoretically acquainted with all 
the great truths of the gospel, and especially with the means 
by which a sinner must be saved from eternal ruin. Why 
have not those means produced the desired effect ? 

" You are the subject of my contmual prayers ; and I 
will hope that you will not be content with avoiding evil 
associations, but will ' seek the Lord while he may be found, 
and call upon him while he is near.' It would give me 
more pleasure than your accession to a large estate, to know 
that you had the same interests, objects, and attachments, 
which I trust will engross my heart till I am called to my 
account. I was rejoiced to hear of the manner in which 
you spent your first Sunday in Philadelphia, and sincerely 
hope that you will uniformly observe the Sabbath-day ; and 



HIS MINISTRY. 413 

may the Lord, who has not made the ministry of a parent 
effectual to your conversion, give that honor to some more 
devoted minister of Christ. Accept the assurance of an im- 
ceasing parental anxiety for you, on the part of your dear 
mother, and of 

" Your affectionate father, 

"JAMES MILNOU." 

The following was written soon after his return from an 
eastern journey. 

To the E-ev. 



"New York, July 1, 1833. 

" My deap^ Friend — I have the pleasure to inform you, 
that we reached home in safety on Saturday evening, and 
with our dear daughter's health evidently much improved ; 
and that I was able to preach to my beloved people on the 
following day in the forenoon ; while, in the afternoon, they 
were gratified with a discourse from our friend the Bishop 
of Ohio, the last to be expected from him before his depart- 
ure for his labors in the West." [After his consecration, 
the previous autumn. Bishop Mcllvaine had spent several 
months in a finally successful attempt to raise, in various 
cities at the East, the sum of $30,000, to relieve the embar- 
rassments of Kenyon college, before entering on the duties 
of its presidency.] " He collected enough, before he left 
Philadelphia, to make his subscriptions amount to $28,000. 
Could he have gone to Baltimore, I have no doubt he would 
have completed his desired sum. 

" AU accounts concur in giving a very favorable repre- 
sentation of the seminary proceedings last week. The dis- 
sertations of the graduates, it is said, were excellent in spirit 
and in style. Indeed, my acquaintance with most of them, 
and with many others of the students, inspires me with a 
very pleasing hope of an increasing tendency, in that impor- 
tant institution of our church, towards moderate church 
views, and evangelical doctrines. 



414 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

" Yoii will see, by the Recorder of last week, the de 
lightfui promise of the collegiate institution at Bristol, Penn- 
sylvania : I verily believe no attempt in the church, by 
those of our views, has ever been made, from which more 
good will result, provided the energies of the pious are 
promptly put forth in its establishment and support. Let 
us pray earnestly for our dear brother C. and his associates, 
and for the complete success of this hallowed work. 
" Your affectionate friend and brother, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

This letter, placed in the light of subsequent events, 
shows that Dr. Milnor was disappointed in two of his most 
pleasing anticipations : his hope, that the tendency of our 
General Seminary would be increasingly towards moderate 
church views, and evangelical doctrines ; and his hope, that 
Bristol college would live to fulfil its first " delightful prom- 
ise" of good to the cause of scriptural truth and godliness. 
The star of Bristol college has long since fallen from our 
ecclesiastical firmament, into the darkness of utter extinc- 
tion ; while that of our General Seminary is suflering an 
occultation, which threatens to be gloomier than the dark- 
ness even of extinction itself. There is blessed light within 
it yet ; but baleful shadows have fallen between it and our 
eyes, portending " trouble and darkness," and the " dimness 
of anguish," to those who look for the breaking forth of the 
true brightness. 

In a letter to Bishop Mcllvaine, dated January 22, 1834, 
soon after the bishop's full entrance on his official duties, 
having congratulated him on the encouraging prospects which 
had greeted his settlement in Ohio, and spoken of disturb- 
ances in the New York University — a new institution, in 
founding and organizmg which, Dr. Milnor had taken a 
prominent part — he inserts the following paragraph, touch- 
ing another of the topics of the day. It shows the stead- 
fastness of the grasp by which he held his OAvn original 
iVwious convictions and principles 



HIS MINISTRY. 415 

'' Your brother of , (whom I do not cease sincerely 

to love, ) under the auspices of a confessedly powerful advo- 
cate of the claims of the church, is, I think, fast ascending 
towards the topmost step of the Episcopal ladder. I am 
sorry for it, on the score both of propriety and of expediency. 
What does that beloved brother mean, in the address to his 
Convention, where, in reference to Christians of other denom- 
inations, he speaks of ' tvithdrawmg ourselves, in a great 
•measure, from their plans and movements for doing good ?' 
If he refer to ultra new-light measures m revivals, etc., it is 
well. But we have never been associated with, and there- 
fore cannot ' withdraw from,' these things. If he mean 
Bible and Tract operations, his course will be disapproved 
by all his old friends ; and will, I am persuaded, greatly 
impede the progress and prosperity of the church in his 
diocese." 

As an index to some of the movements of the day, the 
following may be interestmg : 

To the Pi-t. Rev. C. P. Mcllvaine. 

"New York, April 21, 1834. 

" Rt. Hev. and deae. Sir — I cannot let my young friend, 
Mr. W. H. Moore, set out on his journey to Gambier with- 
out a short line, as well to commend him to your kind re- 
gards as to assure you of the affectionate interest which I 
constantly feel in all that concerns your personal happiness, 
and the interesting charge which divine Providence has 
throv/n upon you. You have many prayers offered for j^ou 
in this eastern region ; and I trust our gracious Lord is ren- 
dering answers in the acceptance and prosperity with which 
he is rewarding your self-denying and assiduous exertions. 
All the accounts are favorable to the hope, that the great 
loss which we have sustained in your separation from us, 
will prove, through the divine blessing, an immense gain to 
Ohio and the neighboring states. 

" A few days since, I received a very kind letter from Dr. 



416 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

Gregory, who speaks of you in the most affectionate terms, 
and ot' the gratification which it afforded him to have been 
instrumental in the publication of an English edition of your 
Lectures on the Evidences — a work which, he says, ' is 
liighly esteemed by Lord Bexley, the Bishop of Winchester, 
Dr. Dealtry, and other competent judges, and is getting into 
very good circulation in England.' He speaks also in terms 
of eulogy of your * faithfully simple and touching farewell 
sermon,' which he would have had printed for private cir? 
culation, had he not lost the copy which you sent him. 

" You have doubtless heard that the Bristol institutioia 
has been chartered as a college, and has expectations of a 
larger accession of students than it can accommodate. But 

you will probably be surprised to hear that our brother 

endeavored to defeat the application for a charter, on the 
ground that it was not connected with the church, and did 
not place the bishop at the head of its direction. A few 
months ago he deprecated such a measure. The views of 
our good brother are, to all appearance, changing. 

" I am happy to say, that in our theological seminary 
here, there is an increasing spirit of evangelical piety among 
the students, and much more liberality of conduct than for- 
merly, on the part of its directors, towards those who profess 
themselves of the moderate school. 

" The Lord have you all in his holy keeping, in time and 
in eternity. I remain, truly, 

"Your affectionate friend, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

The letters and extracts thus given, bring us to a period 
in the life of Dr. Milnor, at which he was called to under- 
take another important mission. The operations of our Do- 
mestic and Foreign Missionary Society among the Indians 
at their Green Bay station, had become seriously embar- 
lassed, and it was necessary either to reduce the mission, 
or to place it on a more secure basis. With a view to the 
decision of this alternative, it was at length resolved, at a 



HIS MINISTRY. 417 

meeting of the Board of Directors in May, 1834, " to appoint 
a suitable person to visit the missionary station at Green 
Bay, as agent, to examine and report on the state of its 
affairs." The appointment fell upon Dr. Milnor, and though 
the resolution, of the board contemplated but a single agent, 
yet, apparently at his suggestion, two other gentlemen, Drs, 
Hawks and Kemper, were nominated as his associates. The 
former was prevented by illness in his family from accepting 
the nomination, but the latter consented to engage with 
Dr. Milnor in the proposed visit. Accordingly, after much 
time, in the month of June, spent in making the necessary 
arrangements and provisions, and in furnishing the requisite 
instructions and documents for their guidance, the two agents 
left New York on Thursday, July 3, in time to take the 
steamer of the 10th from Buffalo. 

The documents with which they were furnished were 
numerous and important, involving the internal affairs of 
the mission, and its external relations to the government of 
the United States ; and the instructions with which they 
were supplied clothed them with all needful powers. 

The two agents reached Green Bay at the time proposed, 
and Dr. Milnor at once forwarded to liis wife the following 
letter. 

"Mission-House, Green Bay, Michigan, > 
July 17, 1834. I 

" My dear Ellen — I have great pleasure in now writ- 
ing to you from the place of our destination, which Dr. 
Kemper and I reached last evening in perfect health. Con- 
sidering that we spent our first Sabbath at Auburn, and a 
whole day in visiting the falls ; and that we were detained 
a day at Detroit, while the steamer was taking in wood, and 
another at Mackinaw for the same purpose, besides stoppages 
of a few hours each at two other places, it is considered by 
our friends here that we have made an uncommonly rapid 
journey ; and when we compare it with the month or six 
weeks, or even two months, during which some, in former 

18* 



418 MEMOIR OF 1)R. MILNOT.. 

times, have been employed in its accomplishment, we have 
great cause of thankfulness to God, both for the expedition, 
and the pleasure with wliich we have been permitted to 
complete thus far our arduous undertaking. Of our return 
we cannot anticipate so favorably. We are likely to be dis- 
appointed in obtaining a passage back through the lakes by 
steamers, none being expected here until long after the time 
when we shall have fulfilled the purpose of our visit, and be 
desirous of returning. Hopes are held out that our passage 
in a good schooner may be obtained ; but it is possible that 
even in this we may be disappointed. Our steamer, ' the 
Michigan,' leaves this afternoon ; and when she is gone, the 
port of Navarino will not contain a single vessel larger than 
a barge or a canoe. 

" AVe were pleased to find the missionary family and their 
interesting pupils all in good health, and the mission-house 
spacious and convenient, and very pleasantly located on the 
Fox river. The E,ev. Mr. Cadle, though no longer connect- 
ed with the mission, having removed to the settlement of the 
Oneida Indians about nine miles off, was yet fortunately here, 
and will remain for the purpose of assisting us in our inqui- 
ries, which will be industriously prosecuted, so that we may 
be ready for the first opportunity of turning our faces east- 
ward. 

" I have many things to say, but my time is so occupied 

this morning, that I can only conclude with the customary 

salutations to all the family, and assure you that I remain, 

unalterably, 

*' Your faithful husband, 

"JAMES MILNOH." 

The following is a summary view of the objects and 
results of the agency. 

In their report to the Executive Committee, which is a 
document of considerable length from the pen of Dr. Milnor, 
the agents state, that their " residence at the mission-house 
was continued from the evening of their arrival until the 



HIS MINISTRY. 419 

4th of August," full eighteen days. Of these, "ten days oi 
assiduous application were devoted to their inquiries and 
observations. Their subsequent detention, for want of any 
means of return, supplied them with a further opportunity 
of maturing their reflections, and preparing their statement 
for the perusal of the committee." This statement, drawn 
up in a minute and business-like manner, embraced the fol- 
lowing general heads: "Mission buildings and farm; mis- 
sion family ; supplies ; mission schools ; reduction of schools ; 
past benefits of the mission ; Oneidas ; the Menominees ; mm- 
isterial labors of the agents ; conclusion." For the particu- 
lars of this report, reference may be had to the October and 
November numbers of "the Missionary Record," for the year 
1834, The account of their visit to the Oneidas is peculiarly 
interesting ; and their labors as preachers during their ab- 
sence, were of frequent occurrence. The "conclusion" of 
their report, and the "instructions" given immediately after- 
wards to the new superintendent by the Executive Commit- 
tee, will sufiiciently indicate the results of their mission. 
The agents say, 

" We cannot conclude without repeating our conviction, 
that under the auspices of an enlightened, economical, and 
pious administration, this mission may be continued with 
great literary and religious benefit to its unmediate benefi- 
ciaries ; with a happy influence upon society at Green Bay, 
and with credit and advantage to the church. 

" AYith the proposed reasonable limitation of its numbers, 
and suitable guards against improvident expenditure, we 
think that there are abundant motives for persevering in this 
work of Christian beneficence ; and that no thought should 
be entertained of its present abandonment. 

" On the contrary, with the rising missionary spirit of 
our church, we would fain anticipate a new impulse in favor 
of its maintenance and improvement. And if, at some future 
period, in the changing circumstances of our Indian popula- 
tion, its relinquishment should be judged expedient, we have 



420 MEMOIE. OF DR. MILNOR. 

no doubt the reasons for such a measure would then com- 
mend themselves to all ; while its premature adoption would 
find a sufficient sanction, neither in the past history, nor in 
the present situation, nor yet in the future prospects of the 
mission. A certain good, of no inconsiderable extent, would 
be surrendered, before substitutes of unquestioned value were 
prepared to take its place, and a character of uncalled-for 
fickleness be stamped upon our operations. 

" The weight of these considerations is increased by the 
high estimation in which our mission is held by the respect- 
able and good in the West. It has the regard, we believe, 
of the whole Protestant population there, who are acquainted 
with its character and doings, and whose moral dispositions 
qualify them to estimate aright its value. 

" We have done, and will still seek to do the Indians 
good. Our mission will continue to be conducted with ' the 
meekness of wisdom,' and so long as the less prejudiced shall 
continue their children under its care, they will be prepared 
by wholesome instruction to fulfil with propriety their duties 
to God and man ; and some of them, we hope, be invested, 
through faith in the Redeemer of mankmd, with the most 
elevated expectations of his true disciples. 

"JAMES MILNOR." 
"JACKSON KEMPER." 

The instructions given by the Executive Committee to 
the new superintendent, so far as they grew out of the 
report of the agents, were the followmg : 

"1. To reduce the number of boarding pupils to fifty, 
and to give preference to full-blood Indian children, espe- 
cially Menominees. 

" 2. To make arrangements for having the pupils in- 
structed in the different trades suggested in the report of 
the Rev. Drs, Milnor and Kemper. 

" 3, Whenever practicable, to have the candidates for 
admission into the school bound for as long a term as the 



HIS MINISTRY. 421 

law "will allow ; and whenever it is unavoidably lessened. 
to abridge it as little as possible. 

"4. To receive no children into the establishment over 
twelve, nor under five years of age. 

"5. To take such measures as are calculated to give a 
decidedly religious character to the duties of the schools, by 
the formation of Bible and catechetical classes, and by hav- 
ing, on the first day of the week, the usual exercises of Sun- 
day-schools. 

"6. To have cleared and prepared annually, for tillage 
or pasture, a portion of the land belonging to the society ; 
to increase, from time to time, the number of milch-cows, 
and to purchase a pair of horses, a wagon, and a sled for the 
use of the farm, and a low-priced vehicle for the accommo- 
dation of the mission family." 

The results, then, of the agency to Green Bay were the 
reduction of the mission to the measure of the society's means 
for its support, and the maturing of a judicious plan for its 
future more efiective management. In reaching these results, 
however, extensive investigations were necessary, involving 
intercourse with agents and officers of the United States 
government ; interviews, through interpreters, with Indian 
tribes ; and careful examinations of the domestic economy 
of the mission family, of the schools, and of their books and 
system of instruction — work for which few men in our church 
could be found more happily qualified than Dr. Milnor and 
his associate. 

After their return and report, and under the new and 
somewhat reduced system of operations wliich they recom- 
mended, confidence in the mission revived, and its operations 
were successfully maintained until changes in the Indian 
population of its neighborhood rendered its final abandon- 
ment a measure of no longer doubtful expediency. 

Upon their return, the agents proceeded together, by the 
lakes, until they reached Huron, upon lake Erie, in Ohio. 
At this point they separated, Dr. Kemper continuing by the 



422 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

lake to Buflalo and New York ; while Dr. Milnor passed 
down through Ohio, to Kenyon college at Gambler, and 
thence home by the way of Baltimore and Philadelphia. 

We return now to letters and extracts from Dr. Milnor's 
correspondence. 

In the month of June, 1835, Dr. Milnor attended the 
annual convention of out church in Massachusetts, which 
met at Pittsfield. His object in attending was, informally, 
to represent the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society at 
a missionary meeting for which arrangements had been made 
in connection with the occasion. "With this reference, the 
following letter explains itself. 

To the Rev. John S. Stone. 

"New York, June 24, 1835. 

" My dear Brother — On the importunate request of 
several of the brethren at Pittsfield, I agreed to endeavor, by 
the help of memory and the little memorandum from which 
I spoke at the missionary meeting, to recall and note for 
publication in * the Witness ' the substance of what I de- 
livered. 

" I reached home on Monday evening, and at eight 
o'clock yesterday morning was obliged to attend the annual 
meeting of the trustees of the General Theological Seminary, 
the business of which will occupy us until the Commence- 
ment on Friday next. I mention this as my apology for 
sending you such a scrawl, and for asking of you the favor 
of examining and correcting whatever you may see to be 
amiss, before you send it to the printer. I leave it to your- 
self to call it a speech, or an address, or the substance of 
either, or what you please, and to introduce it in such a way 
as you may think proper. I hope you have reduced your 
speech to writing, and will also publish it. 

" I am suddenly called to a funeral, and remain, in haste, 
" Yours, most affectionately, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 



HIS MINISTRY. 423 

The following exhibits the interest which, until it be- 
came inextricably involved by the management of others, 
Dr. Milnor continued to feel in the concerns of Bristol 
college. 

To the Rev. J. P. K. Henshaw, D. D. 

"New York, Aug. 5, 1835. 

" E.EV, AND DEAR Brothep*. — You havc, no doubt, before 
this, received official information of your appointment as an 
agent for Bristol college. The president was led to belioye 
you might be prevailed on to undertake a six months' en- 
gagement in this interesting service, and that it would be 
practicable for you to make arrangements with your congre- 
gation for an entire devotion of your attention to it for that 
period. I sincerely hope this may be the case, as the cir- 
cumstances of the college are now pecuHarly trying ; the 
press for admission being very great, and our accommoda- 
tions quite inadequate even to the comfortable living of the 
present students, and the board of trustees entirely without 
the means of their extension ; while the debt incurred in 
building the new hall, is, to a considerable extent, unpaid. 
If the institution should continue long in its present condi- 
tioil, its friends who are disappointed in obtaining admission 
for their children will be discouraged, and much patronage 
be lost. It would be a subject of great regret, if an enter- 
prise so popular should either fail or falter in its course, for 
want of those timely exertions which might place it on a 
footing of permanency and respectability of the highest order. 
It wants a man just like yourself to go forth as its advocate, 
and gather for it present means, and the assurance of con- 
tinued aid, until it is placed on the basis of independence 
enjoyed by other literary institutions of our country. 

" Allow me, as a friend of the college, to hope you will 
accept the appointment ; and, as your personal friend, to 
wish you the honor of being, under Providence, the in- 
strument of insuring the stability and success of such a 



424 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

promising means of usefulness to the church and to the 
country. 

" Yours, very faithfully and truly, 

"JAMES MILNOE,." 

The next shows where he was, and intimates in what 
he was employed during the remainder of the month, and 
for a part of September. 

To Mrs. Milnor. 
"Philadelphia, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 1835. 

" My dear Ellen — I was much disappointed on Satur- 
day by Mr. Cairns' omission to call, as he promised he would 
on his way to the steamer, for a letter which I had written 
to explain to you the necessity under which I was unexpect- 
edly laid, of remaining here until the close of the Convention. 
Had I not expected to see Mr. Cairns, I should have gone 
down to Dr. Klapp's to give Henry the letter, and explain, 
to him personally the reason of my not returning on Satur- 
day. I did not write yesterday, because I was fully per- 
suaded that the Convention would have closed its session 
last evening. That was not the case. If it had been, I 
should this morning have been on my way home. It is now 
uncertain whether we shall get through to-day. If we do, I 
shall certainly. Providence permitting, be at home to-morrow 
evening ; but you must not be disappointed if I should be 
delayed yet one day longer. 

" It will give you pleasure to be informed, that all is 
harmony and peace. Never has there been a meeting of 
the great council of our church, at which so much has been 
done, and so well and satisfactorily done ; and there is every 
prospect that this state of things will continue to the end. 
We have had many interesting public meetings in the even- 
ing ; one last night at St, Stephen's, of pecuhar interest. — 
Love to every member of the fiimily. 

" Afiectionately yours, 

"JAMES MILNOR 



HIS MINISTRY. 425 

The references in this letter are to the well-known Gen- 
eral Convention of our church in 1835, and the simultaneous 
triennial meeting of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary 
Society, at which the new constitution of the latter was 
adopted — proclaiming for our Zion the truth, that in her 
missionary operations, " the field is the world ;" and 
placing the two departments of this field, the domestic and 
the foreign, under the supervision of two distinct executive 
committees, with each its o^ii secretary and general agent. 
The history of this important change, and of its results in 
our missionary operations, it is not necessary in this place to 
write. That history Hes on our public records, and lives in 
our public domgs. The first meeting of " The Board of 
Missions," the new body " intrusted with the supervision of 
the general missionary operations of the church," was held 
hi Philadelphia, Sept. 1, 1835, when the two executive com- 
mittees were elected. The second meeting of the board was 
held in the same city on the 23d of the same month, when 
the two secretaries and general agents of those committees 
were elected. This election fell upon the Rev. Mr. Dorr, for 
the domestic, and upon Dr. Milnor, for the foreign committee. 
Both committees were ultimately located in New York. 

The question now presented itself for Dr. Milnor's con- 
sideration, whether he was in duty bound to accept the im- 
portant office to which he had been thus called. That it 
would, at first, be a laborious office, there could be no doubt. 
The whole internal economy of our general missionary society 
must necessarily undergo essential modification. Not only 
were new missions to be projected, but also a new system 
of management to be devised and matured. Every thing 
was to start upon a plan so new in the office of each secre- 
tary, as to require nothing less than the undivided attention 
of each for at least the first year of operation. Was it, then, 
Dr. Milnor's duty to undertake his part of the task ? The 
thought of resignmg his rectorship, and retiring from his 
parish, was not for a moment to be entertained. To dear 



426 MiiMOIll OF DR. MILNOR. - 

St. George's he felt himself wedded for life. And yet there 
was a manifest suitableness in the choice which had called 
him to the head of the foreign department. There was not 
a clerical man in our church, north, south, east, or west, so 
well qualified for the post as himself; whether by general 
and accurate business habits and experience, or by particular 
familiarity with the foreign missionary work. The whole 
previous course of his life had been fitting him, though with- 
out apparent design, yet with thorough effect, for this very 
office. The pressure of the question upon his mind at length 
determined him to throw the whole upon the responsibility 
of his vestry, and to abide their decision of the case. He 
had repeatedly before called upon them for sacrifices of paro- 
chial to public good, and doubted not, that if duty seemed to 
them to point distinctly in the new direction, they would be 
found capable of their customary magnanimity, and without 
hesitation give their advice in accordance with right, though 
against the leanmgs of inclination. Accordingly, a meeting 
of his vestry was called, and the case submitted to their 
consideration. It should be stated, that the annual salary 
of each of the two secretaries had been fixed by the board at 
$2,300. The statement which he laid before his vestry in- 
cluded the following particulars. 

" That it should be proposed to the foreign committee to 
receive Dr. Milnor's acceptance of the oflfiice, with an under- 
standing that he should be at liberty to relinquish it at the 
next meeting of the Board of Missions : that in the mean- 
time he should decline all personal emolument from the 
office ; but that, to enable him to detach himself as much 
as his agency should require from, the duties of the parish, 
a parochial assistant should be appointed for one year, with 
an adequate salary, say $1,000 ; this sum to be paid out of 
the salary appropriated by the Board of Missions to the agent 
of the foreign committee, the residue of the stipend of the 
agent to be at the disposal of that committee. 

" At the same time he apprized the vestry, that in the 



HIS MINISTRY. 427 

event of tlieir acceding to this arrangement, the duties of his 
agency might be expected to be of a very absorbing nature. 
The office for the transaction of business must be arranged 
and put in order ; the minutes and papers of the late commit- 
tee be examined ; an extensive correspondence be forthwith 
entered upon ; plans be projected for widenmg the sphere of 
missionary operations, and means be proposed for an increase 
of pecuniary resources, proportioned to the noble views of the 
church in reference to the great work of which she had now 
assumed the charge. Added to these duties, frequent ab- 
sences from the city on missionary business would be indis- 
pensable ; and when at home, personal attendance at the 
missionary rooms would be a daily duty. 

" Under these circumstances, he desired them seriously 
to consider whether, as the representatives of the congrega- 
tion, they could make such a sacrifice to the interests of the 
mission cause ; declaring, that if they should be adverse to 
the plan, he would decline the appointment, and content 
himself with fulfilling the ordinary duties of a member of 
the comraiittee. But if, on the contrary, they should assent 
to his engagement in the duties of the agency in the way 
suggested, though he felt an humble sense of his insufficiency 
for the work, yet he would enter upon it in reliance upon 
the help of God, and with the assistance of his brethren ; 
calculating upon a more laborious course of bodily and men- 
tal service than he had yet known, and earnestly hoping that 
the result might redound to the glory of God and the exten- 
sion of the kmgdom of the Redeemer." 

The action of his vestry on these generous and Christian 
proposals was affirmative ; they consented to, and advised 
the acceptance of the office ; while the foreign committee, 
on their part, at their first meeting, October 12, 1835, readily 
acceded to the terms on which his acceptance was offered. 
The parochial assistant appointed by his vestry was the 
Rev. James W. Cooke, who subsequently became one of our 
higlily esteemed foreign secretaries. 



428 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

The expectations raised by Dr. Milnor's acceptance of the 
office were not disappointed. He impressed on his depart- 
ment his own thorough habits of business, and imparted to 
our whole missionary development a before unattained sys- 
tem and efficiency. It is presumed that few if any will 
deny, that in its practical details and workings, our general 
missionary organization, especially in its foreign branch, 
owes more to him than to any other single individual. The 
year which he spent in the office, proved indeed one of his 
most laborious ; for it must be remembered, that he held at 
the same time his post of great toil both in the American 
Bible and in the American Tract Societies, besides various 
other places of responsibility and care in connection with our 
own church and with the cause of general benevolence. So 
severe, in fact, were his labors during tliis year, and so pro- 
foundly interested, as well as engrossed, did he become in the 
missionary department, that some of his immediate friends, 
learful that he might be induced to continue his agency be- 
yond the year for which he engaged, and apprehensive of 
dangerous consequences to his health from such continuance, 
felt constrained to expostulate with him, and to insist upon 
his resignation at the close of the specified term. Accord- 
ingly, at the first annual meeting of the Board of Missions, 
held in the month of June, 1836, his resignation was ten- 
dered, and by the following action of the board, accepted. 

''Resolved, That the Rev. Dr. Milnor be requested to 
continue in the discharge of the official duties of Secretary 
and General Agent, until a successor be appointed and ready 
to enter on the duties of his appointment ; provided, that 
the services of Dr. Milnor are not understood to be required 
beyond the expiration of a year from the time when he com- 
menced his duties. 

" Resolved, That in accepting the resignation of the 
Rev. Dr. Milnor, as Secretary and General Agent of the 
Committee for Foreign Missions, the Board deeply regret the 
necessity which dictates that measure ; and would, by this 



HIS MINISTRY. 429 

resolution, express their grateful sense of the eminent ability, 
zeal, industry, and success, with which, under divine Provi- 
dence, he has been permitted to labor so faitlifully in this 
holy cause." 

" The Eev. John A. Yaughan, of Salem, Mass., was 
elected to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of 
Dr. Milnor." The latter, however, continued in the labors 
of the office until the 4th of October, 1836 ; about which 
time Dr. Vaughan took his place, and with distinguished 
ability conducted the affairs of his department. The final 
report of his doings, which Dr. Milnor presented on retiring 
from his labors, and which recounts his various journeyings 
through difierent states, on the business of his agency, may 
be found in the "Spirit of Missions" for JSTovember, 1836, 
pp. 328-333. 

Nor was it in the business alone of our missionary organ- 
ization, that his influence was benignly felt, but in the s^yirit 
also, which began increasingly to pervade the missionary life 
of our church. The different diocesan conventions, and their 
simultaneous missionary meetings, which he attended for the 
purpose of addressing their assembled clergy and laity, be- 
came, in no poor sense, scenes of missionary revival ; and the 
sermons which he preached at many other places on his way, 
were the blessed means of diffusing among our people some 
portion of his own pure and ardent missionary zeal. In 
short, the year of his secretaryship and general agency, while 
it was doubtless the culminating point of his ascent along 
the path of active duty, was also to our church a season of 
rich and lasting benefit, from the holy influence which he 
carried with him and shed along his course. 

His correspondence during this year had more or less 
direct reference to the work in which he was engaged. 
Much of it has been lost, and much more might be obtained 
by searching the papers which he left in the office of the 
foreign committee. Being chiefly of a business nature, 
however, it is not important to the memoir ; we therefore 



430 MEMOm OF Dll. MILNOR. 

content ourselves with some of the letters which lie within 
reach. 

The following bears the same date with his resignation, 
to the Board of Missions, of his office as secretary and gen- 
eral agent. 

To the E-t. Rev. C. P. Mcllvaine. 

"New York, June 28, 1836. 

"Right Hev. and dear Sir — I return you many thanks 
for your very kind and interesting letter of the 10th inst., 
of which I had great pleasure in laying so much as was offi- 
cial before the foreign committee on the day of its receipt, 
the 16th. 

" Few circumstances were better calculated to fill my 
mind with pleasing anticipations, than your invitation to be 
present at your next diocesan convention ; and if divine Provi- 
dence should favor me with health, and I should then be in 
the exercise of my present functions as secretary and general 
agent of the foreign committee, I entertain the hope that I 
may be allowed the privilege of meetmg you at Cleveland, 
ready to sow as God may give the ability, a portion of mission- 
ary seed in what I trust will prove the prolific soil of Ohio. 

" But I have been constrained by a sense of duty to pre- 
sent to the Board of Missions my resignation of the office of 
secretary and general agent ; consenting to act, should it be 
necessary, until the middle of October next, when my full year 
of service will expire. The board have, in very kind terms, 
accepted my resignation, and elected the Rev. Mr. Vaughan, 
of Salem, my successor. "Whether he will accept the station 
is not yet known. From all that I have heard of his charac- 
ter and qualifications, I sincerely hope he may. If he should 
not, a special meeting of the Board of Missions will be neces- 
sary to fill the vacancy, as no provision is made in the con- 
stitution for any other method of eflecting that object, and as 
it would be almost ruinous to the cause of our foreign mis- 
sions for the committee to be without a secretary and general 
agent until the regular meeting of the board next year. 



HIS MINISTRY. 431 

" From my great love to the missionary cause, and espe- 
cially the extension of our efforts into foreign lands, and from 
the gratification which the absorbing duties of my office have 
afforded me for the last eight montlis, I lamented the neces- 
sity of my resignation. But it was impossible to contmue 
my services without abandoning my connection with St. 
George's ; and of this, neitlier my own feelings nor those 
of miy beloved people would allow. In the missionary office, 
my time of life warned me that I could not for many years 
render efficient and satisfactory service. In my parish, with 
such aid as they are willing to allow me if I require it, I 
might, by the blessmg of God, be much longer useful. Re- 
linquishing, a few years hence, my present office, I should 
be left without the opportunity for ministerial usefulness 
during the remainder of my life. Retaining my parochial 
charge, there are many ways m which I might much longer 
serve my gracious Master, and promote the spiritual interests 
of an attached and most indulgent people. 

" My course, though professedly regretted by my friends, 
yet has generally been considered that which duty required 
me to pursue ; and I shaU be happy to have the approval 
of one with whom it has been my delight to ' take sweet 
counsel' for so many years. 

" Your faithful friend and servant, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

The next letter was preparatory to his projected tour — 
a hint of which is contained in his last letter to Bishop 
Mcllvaine — to meet the diocesan convention of the church 
in Oliio, at Cleveland. 

To the Ht. Rev. C. P. Mcllvaine. 

"New York, Aug. 11, 1836. 
" Right Rev. and deap^ Sir — Agreeably to your kind 
invitation, I am endeavoring to make aU practicable ar- 
rangements for being present at your convention at Cleve- 



432 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

land, intending to make that tour the close of my year's 
service in the cause of foreign missions. 

" I should have returned an earlier answer to your last 
obliging favor, but the amount of business in hand, and the 
little prospect of obtaining the services of the Rev. Mr. 
Yaughan until the middle of September, threw so much 
discouragement in the way of my leavmg home, that I was 
afraid of holding out any decisive prospect. Now, however, 
I have better hopes. In conjunction with my friend, or 
rather his substitute, of the domestic agency, I have got 
through the editing of the sixth, seventh, and eighth num- 
bers of the ' Spirit of Missions,' and the publication of the 
proceedings of the Board of Missions — which last will make 
quite a large pamphlet. I have also finished the required 
arrangements in regard to several new missions. By de- 
clining your suggestion, which I do very unwillingly, in 
regard to the Commencement at Gambier, and proceeding 
directly, by way of Buffalo, to Cleveland, I can accomplish 
much that will relieve the labors of my successor. 

" I shall be able to make many needful arrangements 
with Dr. Robertson, who is now here on a visit of business; 
finish all our transactions in reference to the mission at 
A-thens, before Mrs. Hill's departure, which will be on the 
24th inst., and before Mr. Benton's for Crete, which will be 
a few days sooner ; assist, in their preparations, our two 
heroic young missionaries for Africa, Messrs. Minor and 
Payne, of the Virginia seminary, and tranquillize the feel- 
ings of two or three other anxious expectants of missionary 
appointments ; and finally, shall find it possible to spend a 
few days with Mr. Vaughan, to initiate him into the business 
of the office, he having just informed me, that under the 
circumstances which I have stated, he will come on about 
the 20th of this month. If, therefore, Providence permit, I 
hope to see you at Cleveland on the 8th of next month. 
" I am, very truly and respectfully, yours, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 



HIS MINISTRY. 433 

He left home on Monday, August 29 ; and upon reachino- 
Buflalo, addressed to Mrs. Milnor the following almost amus- 
ingly afflictive account of the manner in which he had been 
unexpectedly thrown upon his extemporaneous resources in 
gpeakmg. 

To Mrs. Milnor. 

"Buffalo, Sept. 4, 1836. 
" My deaf. Ellen — My last was dated at Auburn. I 
left there on Thursday, about one o'clock^ for Canandaigua, 
which we did not reach till ten o'clock at night. At four 
the next morning, I proceeded in the stage for Batavia, 
where I arrived about five in the afternoon. Having caused 
notice to be given that I would preach in the evening, I was 
no sooner fixed at my lodgings with the rector, the Rev. Mr. 
Bolles, than I went to my chamber to change my clothes ; 
which, having accomplished, as the hour for service was at 
hand, I went to the bottom of my trunk in search for my 
package of sermons, when behold, it was not to be found. 
How you could have omitted to put it into my trunk, I can- 
not divine. I am certain I sent it up to the chamber — I 
think, by James ; and now I can only blame myself that I 
did not ascertain the fact of your having put them into the 
trunk by inquiry or personal examination. Under such un- 
fortunate circumstances, I would willingly have decHned all 
service, and have returned home ; but I thought myself 
condemned to the mortification of addressing the congrega- 
tion at Batavia wholly without preparation, for the time 
admitted of none. I did so ; and although my young friend 
BoUcs was pleased to solace my feelings when I had done, 
by spying that ' my loss was their gain,' yet I was enough 
chagrined and dissatisfied with my performance to rob me 
of the comfort of sleep." [An evidence, by the Avay, of the 
manner in which the severity of his late la^bors for the com- 
mittee were . known to have afiected his whole nervous 
system.] 

" Yesterday, I came to this plaee in the afternoon, and 

Mem. liilnor. 19 



434 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

found that notice had been given last Sunday, that I would 
preach to-day, and that Mr. Shelton, depending on me for 
the whole day, had prepared no discourse. It happened, 
providentially, that I had with me one sermon, that which 
I preached last Sunday morning in St. George's, and which, 
on account of its being in the velvet cover, I threw mto the 
top of my trunk, just before it was closed. 

" To-morrow, or next day, I take the steamer for Cleve- 
land. You may judge with what unhappy feelings I go 
among a large body of respectable clergy and laity, wholly 
unprepared to meet the expectations which have been raised. 
I pray God he may enable me, however imperfectly, to do 
something in the cause on which, in his name, I am sent. 

" Immediately on my arrival in Buffalo, I went to the 
post-office, with the hope of at least receiving a letter, writ- 
ten after your discovery of the omission ; and I even hoped 
that you might have found, through the agency of Mr. 
Cooke or Henry, some opportunity, by a merchant coming 
immediately to this place, to send on the sermons. But not 
a letter was there for me. I think I shall delay going to 
Cleveland till Tuesday, under the hope that the mail of to- 
day or to-morrow may relieve my anxiety. 

" But it is useless to say more on the subject. No 
doubt, I merit the mortification which I feel. All I fear is, 
its uijury to the cause committed to my charge. I shall, of 
course, so soon as the convention at Cleveland is over, hast- 
en back, making no appointments to preach on the way 
home, and probably, God willing, reacliing you the latter 
end of next week. 

" Give my love to all the family, and beheve me 
" Affectionately yours, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

From a subsequent letter to Mrs. Milnor, from Cleve- 
land, it appears that he preached at Buffalo Sunday morn- 
ino-, and delivered a missionary address in the afternoon, 
followed by a collection ; and that he started for Cleveland 



HIS MINISTRY. 435 

at nine o'clock Monday morning, in a steamer, not of the 
largest class, loaded with " more than eight hundred pas- 
sengers." 

" Our machinery," he says, " gave way several times, 
and made it necessary to stop for repairs ; but no serious 
difficulty occurred. I feel extremely at a loss for my ser- 
mons, considering the expectations which have been enter- 
tained of the part I was to take in the religious exercises of 
the convention. I shall do, however, as well as I can ; and 
as there is a prospect of a large assemblage of clergy, and 
among them Bishop McCoskry, the want of m.y services will 
not be felt. We hope to have an mteresting missionary 
meeting to-morrow or next day," 

Such, so far as it is at present accessible, is all the 
account that can be given of this, the last missionary tour 
undertaken during his agency. From his known talents as 
an extemporaneous speaker, and from the freshness in his 
mind of our current missionary statistics, he probably spoke 
as much and as well without his " sermons," as he would 
have done with them ; and possibly with more popular ef- 
fect, from the greater freedom of his manner. 



SECTION II. 

With the close of his missionary agency we are already 
acquainted ; and as Mr. Cooke continued most acceptably to 
labor in St. George's as his assistant, for some time after his 
reengagement exclusively in the duties of his parish and in 
his ordinary devotion to the cause of general benevolence, 
he speedily recovered the customary tone of his health, and 
the current of his life began again to flow in its wonted 
channel. 

The following brief but interesting letters from across the 
waters, were received during the summer and fall of 1836. 



436 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

To the Rev. Dr. Milnor. 

" Foot's Cray Place, June 9, 1836. 

"Dear Sir — I had the pleasure to receive your letter of 
the 8th March, by the hands of Mr. Jackson" — the late 
Rev. Wilham Jackson — " and of hearing one of his able and 
valuable statements in Exeter Hall. I had also once the 
honor of receiving him at dinner ; but the hospitality which 
I should have been happy to show him, as well as my at- 
tendance at religious meetings this year, has been checked 
by the pressure of a heavy domestic affliction. 

*' I was hapj)y to receive from his conversation, as well 
as from other accounts, so favorable a statement of the 
progress of the Episcopal church in the United States. 
God grant that it may rapidly extend its limits still fur- 
ther, and obtain increasing success against infidehty and 
false doctrine. The consecration of missionary bishops not 
having a specific diocese, is, I think, new in the church ; 
but, in the circumstances of your country, it seems to me a 
happy novelty. The ministry of the apostles must neces- 
sarily have been of that character. It has also much of 
what Dr. Chalmers recommends in what he calls ' the ag- 
gressive character f and such I hope it will prove, against 
ignorance, error, and unbelief. Perhaps we may consider 
our new colonial bishops of Madras, Bombay, and Australia, 
though each fixed to a particular diocese, yet, considering 
the vast extent and peculiar nature of those dioceses, as 
having a very similar character in respect to duty and juris- 
diction. 

" I hope you will not think any apology necessary when 
you may give another friend a letter of introduction to me, 
as it will always give me pleasure to receive any communi- 
cation from you, but especially when it affords, at the same 
time, an opportunity of forming so valuable an acquaintance 
as Mr, Jackson's. Believe me, dear sir, 

" Very faithfully, yours, 

"BEXLEY." 



HIS MINISTRY. 437 

To the Rev. Dr. Milnor. 

"The Mount, near Sheffield, Oct. 15, 1836. 

"Rev. and dear Sir — I have unexpectedly caught a 
minute on the wing, after I had lost, as I supposed, all op- 
portunity of doing it, to shake hands with you across the 
Atlantic, to thank you for your kind note of remembrance 
by Dr. Fisk, and to assure you of my sincere respect and es- 
teem, associated with pleasant recollections of the brief but 
lucid moments of Christian intercourse which we had to- 
gether, when you were in this country. There is * another 
country,' of which all of every land on earth, that are horn 
of God, become by that very fact natives, — even a lieavenly 
country : there may we, and all whom we have known in 
the flesh as of one spirit with us hi the Lord, find ourselves 
at home and for ever with liim, at the end of our pilgrim- 
age. Meanwhile, I am truly 

" Your friend, in great haste, 

"J. MONTGOMERY." 

In the first line of this letter we see the 2^oet ; m every 
other, the Christian — synonyms, severally and together, of 
the beloved name subscribed. 

In entering on the year 1837, we find little to mark 
the course of Dr. Milnor, save in the quiet steps which he 
took on his well-known rounds of parochial duty, and in 
his various engagements with benevolent institutions. He 
continued, indeed, till the day of his death, an actmg mem- 
ber of the Foreign Executive Committee, whose first secre- 
tary he had been ; and his interest in our foreign "missions 
remamed unabated while his life was spared ; but his ac- 
tion in this capacity presents nothing distmctive from that 
of his fellow-members, as it lies on the records of the com- 
mittee. The few letters, therefore, which have survived for 
our use, still furnish us with the principal vestiges of his 
remaining life. Soon after the opening of the year he wrote 
as follows : 



438 MEMOm OF DR. MILNOIl. 

To Bishop Mcllvaine. 

" New York, January 31, 1837. 

" Right Rev. and dear Sir — I exceedingly lament the 
revival of controversy in the church." [The tractarian 
movement in the United States begins its development.] 
*' I fear a new comer among us has been a very active agent 

in inciting to his present course. I have no hesitation 

in saying, that I believe the reputed author of ' Protestant 
Jesuitism,' who is his constant companion, has been instru- 
mental in prompting him to his attack on Temperance, 
Bible, and Tract societies. For my own part, I purpose, at 
the close of the year, to drop his paper, the influence of 
which, as for some time past conducted, is decidedly irrelig- 
ious ; and not a number of which, for the last twelvemonth, 
has been without some article, editorial or communicated, 
offensive to the feelmgs of moderate churchmen and evan- 
gelical Christians. It is much to be regretted, that the very 
superior talents of the editor should be so employed. His 
influence on the students ui the seminary is of the most 
unhappy kind, because liis communication with them affords 
him the opportunity of orally impressing on them the lead- 
ing doctrines of his paper, and of filling their minds with 
prejudices against all who do not subscribe to his exclusive 
and ultra-high tenets. The bishop told me, to-day, that 

Mr. had been advised to cease from his assaults on the 

Recorder and Dr. Tyng ; and that he beheved there would 
be no more matter of that sort in the paper. I have written 
to the editor of the Recorder, advising him to take no notice 
whatever of his attacks, should they be continued. 

"For my own part, having now reached my 'grand 
climacteric,' it is my sincere desire to be ' at peace with all 
men,' and much more intent on strengthening my assurance 
of an interest in the Saviour's love, and living from day to 
day in the pleasing contemplation of the enjoyment, ere long, 
of his presence in glory, than on mingling in the ' strifes of 
words,' in which some appear so keenly to delight. The 



HIS MINISTRY. 439 

principles with which I set out in my ministry, are those 
which I still cherish ; and fully believing them to be scrip- 
tural and true, I hope to carry them with me to the grave 
But even for them I will not angrily, though I will ' ear- 
nestly contend,' as for ' the faith once delivered to the saints/ 
I do heartily wish to adopt into my daily experience the feel- 
ings intimated in the latter part of your letter ; and pray 
God that his Holy Spirit may enable me to be like-minded 
with one whose labors he has so eminently blessed, and 
whose exaltation to a high rank he will, I trust, make the 
means of enlarged usefulness to his church. 

" You)- externalism, I am persuaded, will never be allow- 
ed to usurp the place of spiritual affections and ardent devo- 
tion to God, love to his children of every name, and a supreme 
regard to the doctrines of the cross. ' O si sic o??iiies.' But 
alas, with us, formalism, a love for externalism, which de- 
stroys every feeling of vital piety, a dislike of those who place 
inward religion above outward show, and an apparently 
positive repugnance to those who do not walk with us, are 
such offensive features in the character of many, that I am 
compelled, in view of the disastrous consequences, to cling 
to my old preferences, and most sedulously to avoid those 
evils wliich are prostrating, in so many souls, every thing- 
most dear to the hearts of evangelical Christians. 

"With earnest prayers for your personal happiness and 
official success, I remain, 

" Respectfully and affectionately, yours, 

"JAMES MILNOE." 

To the Et. Eev. B. B. Smith, D. D. 

"New York, April 7, 1837. 
" E-iGHT E-Ev. AND DEAR BisHOP — You wiU, I am sure, 
prefer that I should atone for my long-continued neglect of 
your kuid letters, by now writing you a long one, to my 
wasting time in apologies, the character of which your good- 
ness and your knowledge of my daily occupations have already 
anticipated. I proceed, therefore, to notice a topic to which 



440 MEMOIR OF Dll. MILNOR. 

your favors of last winter require me to advert : the report 

made to you by Mr. of our conversation about your 

essay in 'the Literary and Theological Review.' It is more 
than probable, that he has given it an unwarrantable color- 
ing. Certainly he did so, if he represented me as expressing 
any thing more than deep regret that you should have given 
publicity to sentiments, in regard to admission to the Lord's 
supper, which were apparently at variance with the univer- 
sal practice of the evangelical clergy of our church, with 
^vllat we had understood to be your own, and with what I 
considered a course of bounden duty on the part of every 
rector of a church of our communion. At that time, it will 
be remembered, we were without any explanation from you 
of an article of which every clergyman of our views had 
expressed strong disapprobation ; which had occasioned severe 
animadversions in some pulpits, on the inadequacy and error 
of views entertained by even the best portion of our Zion ; 
and which had caused our high-churchmen to exult at the 
gain they had acquired, in an evangelical bishop's advocacy 
of principles to which they boasted of having ever adhered. 
And now, my dear bishop, though I feel bound gratefully to 
acknowledge the frankness with which you have disavowed 
the latitudinarian views of Christian communion supposed to 
be maintained in your essay, yet I am sure your candor wili 
excuse my continuing to regret that it should have exhibited 
the subject in such a light as to have impressed all, both 
friends and foes, with a like understanding of its import. As 
the matter now stands, the demand of a reasonable satisfac- 
tion, on the part of every pastor, with the sufficiency of the 
religious qualifications exjoressly required by the church, in 
all who partake of the Lord's supper, I understand as having 
your decided approval. This is all I desire. I would not 
have the exercise of this judgment placed in other hands. I 
would not, even by the proper officer, have what I consider 
an undoubted right, in the overseer of every flock, harshly or 
inquisitorially used ; and I would be very careful that no 



HIS MINISTUY. 441 

other terms of communion be exacted than such as are strictly 
authorized by the gospel and the church. Of the duty of 
antecedent family and parochial instruction, you have not 
spoken in terms too strong. Of its effect, under God's bless- 
ing, we ought to entertain much hope. And yet, facts but 
too strongly prove, that education, even when best conduct- 
ed, will not always make our children Christians ; and we 
should beware of trusting to any other power than that of 
God to change their hearts and qualify them for spiritual 
communion in the ordinances of the church. I am sure there 
can be no essential difference of views on this subject among 
evangelical Christians. Let no means be omitted. Let a 
just confidence in God accompany their use. But let the 
final reference be wholly to the omnipotence of his grace. 
" Your faithful brother in Christ, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

The next shows that, though no longer secretary and 
general agent, he was yet busy in our missionary affairs as 
an ordinary member of the board. 

To Mrs. Milnor. 

"Baltimore, June 12, 1837. 
" My dear Ellen — The session of our Board of Missions 
closed on Friday evening, in time for me to make an address 
at the anniversary meeting of the Bible Society of this state. 
On Saturday I was favored with a ride round the precincts 
of the city, which are ornamented with many handsome coun- 
try-seats. Yesterday I preached in three different chuches ; 
and to-day, I have been prevailed on to remain for a httle 
repose before I start on my journey homeward, 

" I have received a message from General Sewell and 
his lady, of Elkton, pressing me to pay them a short visit on 
my way. I have not yet made up my mind whether I shall 
do so or not. If I should, I will write you from that placo, 
and let you know what day you may expect me home. 
"Affectionately yours, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 
19* 



442 MEMOIR OF Dll. MILNOR. 

About this time, the fever of excitement in our churcli, 
produced by the development of theological tendencies in our 
General Theological Semmary, began to run high. To this 
state of thmgs some passages in the following letter refer 

To Bishop Mcllvaine. 

"New York, June 30, 1838. 

"Right E-ev. and dear. Sir — When I received your 
favor of the 21st instant, the board of trustees of the General 
Theological Seminary were in session, and had already pass- 
ed upon the question, whether they would appoint to the 
temporary occupation of the two vacant professorships — 
Evidences and Pastoral Theology — or, as heretofore, refer 
the business to the standing committee. The determination 
of the question was in favor of the reference ; and of course, 
not a word was said about the present incumbents. In this 
state of things, I thought it would be best not to lay your 
communication before the board, but reserve it for the stand- 
ing committee, provided you deem it expedient, and will 
authorize me either to alter the direction, or to submit it as 
it is, after stating the reason above-mentioned for its not 
having been submitted to the board. 

"Dr. 's extraordinary course is a subject of gen- 
eral conversation, and — so far as I have conversed with our 
clerical brethren, v/ithout distinction of party — of pretty gen- 
eral condemnation. A few either justify his views, or give 
them such a gloss as to lessen their apparent heterodoxy. 

*' I have spent three days with the committee of exami- 
nation for the seminary ; the result of which has been satis- 
factory. About twenty received testimonials. The disserta- 
tions read at the commencement yesterday, were all respect- 
able, and some of them excellent ; no ' progressive justifica- 
tion' or Universalism being apparent. Every student with 
whom I have conversed, has expressed decided opposition to 

the views of Dr. . A very few, I understand, are his 

advocates. I sincerely hope, that the injury which he maj 



HIS MINISTRY. 443 

do them, will be prevented by the refusal of the standing 
committee to reappoint him. 

" Last week I attended the meeting of the Board of Mis- 
sions, at Boston. It was not so large as could have been 
wished, but was conducted in a good spirit, and with perfect 
harmony, 

" My assistant has become disabled for duty, by a rush 
of blood to the head ; so that I expect to have the whole 
charge of pulpit and parochial duty, for the remainder of the 
summer. 

" Yours, most truly, 

"JAMES MILNOPt." 

To Mrs. Milnor. 

"Philadelphia, September 9, 1838. 

" My dear Ellen- — On the principle that no news is 
good news, I presume you will take it for granted that all 
has been well with me since I left home. We have a full 
convention, all the bishops being now present. At the open- 
ing of the convention, v/e had an excellent sermon from 
Bishop Meade ; on Thursday evening, an interesting dis- 
course from Bishop Otey, at St. Stephen's, before the Board 
of Missions ; and on Friday evening, a missionary meeting at 
St. Andrews, at wliich six of the bishops made addresses. 

" The convention sit every day from nine till three, and 
at five the Board of Missions hold their sittings ; so that, 
with meetings of important committees as they can find op- 
portunity, our time is fully occupied ; and, with long walks 
occasioned by the distance of my residence from the place of 
meeting, I go to bed every night thoroughly fatigued. 

" Please tell Mr. Cooke, that the business of dividing our 
diocese has gone on well. The amendments to the consti- 
tution, authorizing that measure, have passed with great 
unanimity ; and Bishop Onderdonk will, I presume, leave 
this city on Tuesday morning, in order to be present at the 
special convention which is to sit in New York at five o'clock 
on the evening of that day. He will immediately return, 



444 MEMOm OF DR. MILNOR. 

with their final action on the suhject ; when the ratification 
by the General Convention will take place, and all will be 
complete. Believe me 

" Your affectionate husband, 

"JAMES MILNOU." 

Almost a year intervenes between the date of this letter 
and the next — the time being spent in his usually numer- 
ous engagements — ^but no letters of importance having sur- 
vived to mark any special incidents on its passage. The 
summer vacation of 1839 Dr. Milnor spent on a tour with 
Bishop Meade to Niagara and through the Canadas. The 
following marks a portion of their progress. 

To Mrs. Milnor. 
" Schenectady, Friday, Aug. 9, 1839. 

" My dear Ellen — I drop you a line, just to give you an 
account of our progress thus far. We had a delightful pas- 
sage up the river to Albany ; and, on our arrival, concluded 
to proceed immediately to Troy, the owners of the boat send- 
ing us and others thither in a small steamer free of expense. 
After tea at Troy, we walked, under the guidance of a Mr. 
Cannon, who introduced himself to me as an old parishioner, 
to Mr. Walker's institute for boys, which Bishop Meade was 
desirous of seeing. There we spent the evening, attending 
the chapel worship of the school, and then went back to our 
inn in the town. In the morning we saw the Episcopal 
clergy of the place, visited Judge Buel and Mrs. Willard's 
semmary, and about eleven o'clock went back by coach to 
Albany, where we dined, and left for this place at half-past 
two o'clock, P. M. Here we visited the Episcopal church, 
took a general survey of the place, went to Union college 
and drank tea with Professor Potter, walked through the 
beautiful gardens of the college, and then returned ; Dr. Pot- 
ter accompanying us to our lodgings. 

" This morning we intend to proceed, at half-past nine, 
in the cars for the West, expecting to sleep to-night at Au- 



HIS MINISTRY. 445 

burn. I never felt better in my life, and anticipate a pleas- 
ant day in passing up the valley of the Mohawk. 
" Affectionately yours, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

To the same. 
" Steamer Uniteb States, Aug. 13, 1839. 
" My dear Ellen — I write in the cabin of the steamer 
in which we left Lewiston about five o'clock this afternoon, 
bound down lake Ontario to Ogdensburg, whence we propose 
to cross into Canada and visit Montreal, and probably due- 
bee. We have prosecuted our journey by every species of 
conveyance — steam-boats, railroads, canals, and coaches — 
and have met wdth no unpleasant circumstances on our way. 
Except a little rain on Sunday, the weather has been clear 
and pleasant, though uncommonly cool for the season. After 
leaving Schenectady, we passed through Utica and Syracuse, 
and spent our Sunday in Rochester, where Bishop Meade 
preached three times, and I twice, in the two beautiful 
churches of that delightful city. Rochester far exceeds my 
anticipations, both in elegance and extent. Yesterday we 
proceeded by railroad to Batavia, and thence in post-coaches 
to Buffalo. After breakfast to-day we proceeded, by the 
cars, to the Falls of Niagara, and spent several hours — not 
so long as we could have wished — in surveying those stu- 
pendous cataracts. In viewing them, Bishop Meade antici- 
pated disappointment, but found them far exceeding his 
expectations. We were compelled reluctantly to leave them, 
at half past two, for Lewiston, in order to secure our passage 
this evening down the lake. Our expectation is to be in 
Gluebec on Sunday, and on the next day to return to Mon- 
treal, taking lake George and Burlington, Vt., on our home- 
ward way. I will, however, write you again when I can 
more exactly ascertain how we shall stand for time. 
" Your faithful and affectionate 

"JAMES MILNOR." 



446 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

If, however, he wrote agam during his absence, his letter 
is lost, and the above is all we know of this summer's north- 
em tour. Tlirough what part of the Canadas the two friends 
passed during this interesting excursion, or whether they 
visited any part of those provmces but the cities of Gluebec 
and Montreal, we have no means of ascertaininir. Indeed, 
it is to be regretted that Dr. Milnor either kept no journal or 
has preserved none ; for it cannot be doubted that he formed 
many new and interestmg acquaintances, and met with many 
new and interesting incidents, in the course of his journey ; 
or that, if we had but some of the sweet communings of the 
two friends by the way, they would make a pleasant and a 
profitable chapter in the present memoir. 



SECTION III. 

The Oxford Tract controversy had now made an open 
entry into our church through the republication, in New 
York, of the " Tracts for the Times." Dr. Milnor's letters, 
therefore, to his principal correspondents may be expected 
distinctly to define his position in relation to the agitating 
questions thus introduced. It is needless to say that position, 
was not left doubtful. 

To Bishop Mcllvaine. 

"New York, Jan. 31, 1840. 
*' My dear Bishop — I should sooner have answered your 
kind favors of the I7th of December, and the 6th instant, 
but that I hoped before this time to have read joui anx- 
iously expected charge on 'justification,' and to have com- 
municated to you some information of the manner in which 
it had been here received, and of the efTects which it had 
produced. The delay in its appearance is a little provoking ; 



HIS MINISTRY. 447 

but no doubt we shall be amply compensated whenever it 
arrives. 

" I am glad my little protest against one of the many 
errors of the school at Oxford, meets your approbation. It 
has excited the disapprobation of a few ; and among them, 
of the editor of ' the New York Review,' who, as I presume 
you have seen, entirely approves of the new divinity, and 
charges me, without quoting a line of my sermon in proof, 
with advancing a view of the nature and design of the eu- 
charist which is positively Sociniaii ! It was, I fear, in a 
wrong spirit that the doctor put on record this unfounded 
charge. Some time since, I dined in his company ; and 
after dmner the subject of the Oxford tracts was brought 
upon the carpet. At that time he had evidently made him- 
self but little acquainted with them ; yet with very imper- 
fect second-hand information, he undertook to become their 
defender ; endeavoring, however, to controvert my represen- 
tations of some of their views, and to give a plausible gloss 
to such as he could not deny. I had just risen from a fort- 
night's study of the whole series of ' the Tracts,' and was 
therefore prepared to exhibit them in their true colors. Sev- 
eral clergymen of our church were present, and the Hon. 
Mr. Frelinghuysen, chancellor of the university. One intel- 
ligent clergyman remarked, that I had ' floored Dr. on 

every point ;' and several confessed the impression which my 
argument made on their minds against the tracts. The 
doctor, however, is much abler with his pen than with liis 
tongue. He has since, no doubt, studied the tracts atten- 
tively ; and I am ready, his spirit towards me notwithstand- 
ing, to acknowledge the talent displayed in his review, though 
I regret its employment in such a cause. 

" And now, in reference to this dangerous system, I fear 
that it is to obtain an influence in our church quite equal to 
that which it is exerting across the water. In our diocese, 
the bishop expresses his entire approval of its doctrines. In 
mswer to a clergyman who said that he could go half way 



448 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

with the authors of the tracts, the bishop told him to read 
and study them more attentively, and ho would be prepared, 
like himself, to go the whole. He inquires of all the can- 
didates for orders, whether they have read them ; and if not, 
urges them to do so : and many of the students m the semi- 
nary — though few have read more than the numbers repub- 
lished in New York — are yet their loud eulogists, and con* 
sider the promulgation of these ' primitive views ' as consti- 
tuting a more propitious era to the Church than that of the 
Reformation, the fanaticism of whose conductors carried 
them so far ultra niediam viam, in their correction of a few 
acknowledged errors in the Roman church I We thought 
we had achieved somewhat, when we prevented the return 

of to his temporary professorship ; but, unhappily, the 

seminary contains a man of more influence, one too who 
constantly exerts that influence in favor of Puseyism, and 
whose reputation for learning and piety enables him to exer- 
cise a powerful control over the students. A few of them 
come to me to unburden their griefs, and especially to deplore 
the sad eflects of the Oxford divinity on the spirituality of 
some of their associates, of whose evangelical tendency they 
had, some time ago, the brightest hopes. I verily believe, 
that when about half a dozen precious souls shall have left 
the institution, there will remain scarcely an advocate for 
the scriptural doctrines of our articles and homilies in their 
plain, unsophisticated sense. And then, when we consider 
the advanced age of one or two of our evangelical bishops, 
which will prevent their efTective opposition, the balancing 
state of mind in some of their juniors, and the reluctance ol 
others among them to engage in controversy, my fears grow 
still more serious, and my only confidence is, that ' when the 
enemy cometh in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift 
up a standard against him.' 

" I regret that I cannot send you a copy of the very excel 
lent charge of the Bishop of Calcutta. One was lent to me ; 
and so far as I know, it is the only one in the city. Please 



HIS MINISTRY. 449 

remember me, my dear bishop, in your daily prayers, and 
believe me 

" Yours, most truly and affectionately, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

To the same. 

"New York, Feb. 8, 1840. 

" Right Uev. and dear Brother — I regret that it is 
not in my power to send you, in the way proposed, any of 
my numbers of the Christian Observer, as they are all bound 
in volumes to the close of the past year. But although the 
numbers for the last two years and upwards contain much 
matter in relation to the Oxford tracts, and all their various 
errors are, more or less, the subject of remark, yet you will 
perceive their examination to be of less importance to you, 
when I mention that neither Newman's Lectures on Justifi- 
cation, nor Dr. Pusey's Letter to the Bishop of Oxford, is the 
subject of a specific review. The lectures of the former on 
Romcmism are briefly reviewed, but without any material 
reference to the subject oijiistijicatioji; but neither of the 
other Avorks is more than incidentally noticed. I doubt 
whether, from any of the animadversions, scattered in brief 
notices throughout the period referred to, you w^ould derive 
much information beyond what you already possess, in rela- 
tion to their avowed doctrine of justification by baptism, 
further justification by self-mortifying observances, etc., and 
final justification at the day of judgment : the same system 
so broadly avowed in the correspondence between Bishop 
Jebb and Mr. Knox, the inadequacy of which to afford true 
comfort to the dying Christian, there is reason to believe, was 
so powerfully realized by the latter in liis last sickness. 

" I have made inquiry of booksellers, ui hope of being 
able to obtain for you such numbers of the Christian Ob- 
server as contain the most valuable matter in relation to the 
doctrine which is the subject of your charge ; but they are 
not to be had. The Recorder has, I tlhnk, made a pretty 



450 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

good use of them in the numerous extracts which it has pub- 
lished. The talents of Mr. "VYilks as a controversialist, are 
far greater than I supposed him to possess ; and he enters 
into the battle with the altitudinarians at Oxford con ainore. 
He is, I thmk, about the most annoying assailant with whom 

they have to contend. Here, next to Dr. , perhaps even 

before huii, ranks Dr. , as an earnest defender of the 

Oxford tracts. His review of them — to which, in my last 
letter, I referred, and which, no doubt, you have ere now 
seen — is, in some instances, a direct defence of their anti- 
protestant doctrines, and in others an attempt, by subtle 
casuistry, to disguise their enormities. The bishop's influ- 
ence also is very injurious ; and yet, while he is recommend- 
ing the study of these tracts to candidates for orders, with a 
decided expression of opinion in their favor, I have very 
recently attended examinations at which both his questions 
and the answers of the candidates were any thing but in 
accordance with their doctrines. He has never yet intro- 
duced the subject to me, nor to any one in my presence ; 
but students have, in several instances, informed raie of his 
high eulogy of the Oxford divinity, as being the same with 
that which he has taught for many years, even long before 
the movement in Great Britain. In that country. Dr. Wolff 
has avowed himself an adherent of most of the Oxford pecu- 
liarities. The Wilberforces are said to be coworkers with 
the school, and even our friend Melvill is suspected." [ Since 
that time, some of the suspected ones have cleared them- 
selves.] " God be thanked, we have yet some bishops, and 
I trust a goodly number of presbyters, who will have moral 
courage enough to stick to the Bible as the only rule of faith, 
and to our articles and homilies, not merely on the ground 
of their ecclesiastical authority, but because they are so 
delightfully accordant with God's precious book. We are 
beyond measure anxious for your charge. Pray do not delay 
its publication. If any tiling is wanting in the first, it can 
be supplied in a second edition. I hope your bookseller wU. 



HIS MINISTRY. 451 

send a considerable number for sale at the eastward, where, 
I assure you, it is awaited with much impatience. 
" Truly, yours, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

^^Tiatever of correspondence may have passed between 
Dr. Milnor and his friends during the spring, summer, and 
autumn of 1840, all that was valuable in it has been lost, or 
proved irrecoverable. He spent his summer vacation on a 
visit to lake George and its neighborhood ; but no trace of 
his tour remams, with the exception of one brief note to Mrs. 
Milnor, mforming her of his arrival at the Springs, and of 
liis intention to proceed to the lake the next afternoon. At 
the close of the year he received notice that he would soon 
be called to make another nomination to the Milnor profes- 
sorship in Kenyon college. The letter containing this notice 
is pertinent to these memoirs. 

From the Rev. Dr. Sparrow. 

"Gambier, Dec. 17, 1840. 

** Rev. and deaf.. Sir — Having concluded to remove from 
this diocese to that of Virginia, and accept a situation oflered 
me in their theological seminary, it seems proper that I 
should apprize you of my intention. 

" Years ago, when I was much younger in age, and much 
younger still in health and strength, you very unexpectedly 
nominated me to the Milnor professorship. That so much 
confidence should be reposed in one so young and so little 
known, was a wonder to me ; and I can truly say, helped, 
with higher considerations, to make me solicitous to discharge 
my duty faithfully. The value of truth, pure truth, ' the 
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,' in mat- 
ters of religion even more than in the affairs of the judg- 
ment-hall, I have always felt to be important ; and the inci- 
dent referred to was a stimulus, additional to every other, to 
'give heed to my doctrine.' How far I have succeeded is 
certainly known to none but the uifallible Judge in heaven. 



452 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

This, however, I think I may say to you, that during eleven 
years' duty in this station, I have never seen occasion to 
depart in the least from the spirit of those instructions which, 
when a lonely student in New York, I used to seek in the 
lecture-room of St. George's on week-day evenings. May 
they as certainly carry me, through infinite grace and mercy, 
to the inheritance which I seek above, as I have endeavored 
to inculcate them on the minds committed to my care. 

" I regret exceedingly, that when I was last in New York 
I was not able to enjoy more of your society, and have some 
free conversation with you about the state of religion in our 
church. Your long and careful study of events as they have 
arisen among us, would naturally give weight to your judg- 
ment upon such matters, and not least with me. How you 
interpret some of the ' signs of the times ' I cannot conjec- 
ture. In reference to some things, there is more obscurity, 
vacillancy, and ambiguity about the doings of some portions 
of our church, than I like to see. I think the declaration 

of the , whose ability and honesty I respect — that 

the only difierence between the high and the low church 
portions of our communion, is one oi feeling — a question 
simply of more or less zeal — one of the severest satires ever 
inflicted on a respectable and intelligent body of ecclesias- 
tics. Were I near you, I should like to canvass with you m 
person the truth of this assertion. 

" But you wdll excuse all this irrelevancy. My only 
object in writing w^as to announce to you, as the person who 
nominated me and will have the nomination of my successor 
to the Mihior professorship, that I expect to retire from my 
present position about the end of the next spring vacation j 
that is, about the first of May. 

" Present my respects to Mrs. Milnor, and believe me, 
" Rev. and dear sir, most truly, 

" Your obliged friend and servant, 

"WILLIAM SPAREOW." 

" The Rev. Lvmes Milnor, D. D.. New York." 



HIS MINISTE.Y. 453 

About this period the onsets of the upon Bishop 

Mcllvaine appear, from his letters to Dr. Mihior, to have 
become marked both for frequency and for violence. To this 
state of things allusions are made in the following letters to 
the bishop. 

"New York, January 15, 1841. 

" My dear Bishop — Immediately on the receipt of your 
letter, I sent the accompanying communication to Bishop 

, and have no doubt it was on his suggestion that the 

editor of the has tried to make his peace with you 

by personal correspondence. I am glad you have insisted 
on the publication of all the letters ; though I should not 
wonder if, encouraged by the bishop's unqualified patronage, 
he should exclude your vindication from his jDaper, and sub- 
stitute some half-way, unintelligible apology of his own. 

" I have read, with great delight, your interesting and 
elaborate examination of the principles of the Oxford divin- 
ity, and earnestly hope it may have a wide-extended circula- 
tion. But when this edition is disposed of, I shall look with 
anxiety for one of less magnitude and price ; so that it may 
go into the hands of many more of the clergy and laity than 
will buy it in its present more expensive form. I observed 
with pleasure the notice of its intended publication in Lon- 
don, and anticipate for it a most favorable reception from 
the friends of evangelical religion both in and out of the 
church. 

" I had at my house, last evening, a young clergyman 
who has spent some time in England. He was introduced 
to Mr. Newman, with whose personal conversation, which 
he says was not at all polemical, he was much pleased ; as 
he was with that also of one or two others of the party. 
He says, the great majority at Oxford are decided jejecters 
of Puseyism, and feel indignant that his system should any- 
where be supposed to meet the approval of the university, 
whose stamp it is, by seme, thought to bear. 

*' I had been apprized of the subject of your letter of the 



454 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

4th instant, by one received some time before from Dr. Spar- 
row, and have in vain been looking round for some one w^ho 
could satisfactorily fill his place. You may be assured that 
I shall have a very high regard to your approval, and shall 
never propose to the board of trustees one whom I do not 
previously know to be agreeable to you ; harmony of views 
between the head of the theological seminary and its pro- 
fessors being of the utmost importance. The portraiture 
which you have drawn of the man whom you Avould prefer, 
I very much hke ; while I have great fears lest, in our lim- 
ited circle of candidates, we shall not be able to find one in 
whom all its lineaments are blended. I shall at all times 
be glad to receive from you any intimation as to your washes ; 
being, as ever, 

" Your affectionate brother in Christ, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

"New York, March 16, 1841. 

" Right E,ev. and dear Bishop — Immediately on receiv- 
ing your request m relation to the republication here of youi 

work on the Oxford divinity, I called on the Messrs. , 

but found they had just completed an arrangement for be- 
coming the agents of others for publishing, or to publish on 
their own account, the various books issued at Oxford. I 
then called on another firm, but they also declined on the 
score of their present responsibilities. I have since conversed 
with one or two others ; but the fact is, that the disastrous 
state of the times creates, for the present, insuperable diffi- 
culties in the way of almost every enterprise. A cheap 
edition of your book, however, ought to be out soon ; and I 
hope you will be able to fall on some plan by which it may 
be accomplished. 

" May I ask what you think of the * Bishop of the Prot- 
estant Episcopal church in the diocese of Maryland,' laying 
aside this his appropriate title, and styling himself in his 
official papers, ' Bishop of Maryland/ and certifying the 
adiTunistration of confirmation * conformably with the godly 



HIS MINISTRY. 455 

order and administration of the Catholic Church of Christ 
in these United States of America V Though I well under- 
stand the grounds on which this change of title is defended, 
and though somethuig- of the same kuid has been attempted 
in the convention of our own diocese, yet I lament it as, in 
truth, another attempt to get rid of the idea, so odious to 
Oxfordism, of protesting against the Romish church. It is 
another branch of the vine of Puseyism. 

" I have never been able to obtain the number of the 

to which you have referred me, and of course am unacquaint- 
ed with the exact nature of its assault upon you, though 1 
readily infer from your letters that it was of a most ofiensive 
character. The position in which the editor has placed you, 
by a singular disregard of common courtesy between man 
and man, independent of your official claims on his respect, 
together with the waiver of responsibility on the part of his 
diocesan, after what I think should be considered its official 
assumption, makes the case not a little difficult. As to the 
suggested appeal to the New York Standing Committee, I 
am persuaded it would be worse than useless. They would, 
I have no doubt, either declme mterference, or decide the 
matter entirely on party grounds. I am also sorry, in refer- 
ence to another suggestion, to express a very repugnant feel- 
ing towards any interference whatever with the religious 
press on the part of the General Convention. It could as- 
sume no shape that would not be alarming to the minds of 
many. I confess, I should m.yself feel as sensitive in regard 
to any prescribed restrictions on the religious, as I would 
with regard to the same course, on the part of the general 
or state government, with the liberty of the political press. 
In both cases I think the principle should be — unfettered 
freedom, with responsibility for its abuse. Editors of polit- 
ical and religious papers should be alike liable for hbels on 
personal character ; and your assailant should be presented, 
tried, and punished for any unfounded aspersions, whether 
the offensive article be editorial, or published from a corre- 



456 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

spondent M-ith his sanction, especially after refusing redress 
to the injured party. But the times are out of joint when 
such an assailant is able to take shelter under the wing of 
a bishop, and when the appeal for justice must be made to 
one who is a copartner in the offence, or will at least be 
found to have prejudged its merits in favor of his friend and 
favorite. Under such circumstances, I can conceive of no 
course more judicious than that which you proposed, of pub- 
lishing the whole correspondence, though I tliink it might 
be best done in a pamphlet form. 

" Your friend Dr. Gregory has gone to his rest. I scarcely 
thought, when we saw him at Woolwich, in 1830, that he 
would be detained so long from its enjoyment. 

" We are passing, at St. George's, a very pleasant, and 
I hope, profitable Lent. We have among us several exercised 
minds, and an unusual interest in our extra services. We 
have three every Sunday, and four during the week. After 
prayers on Wednesday and Friday mornings, we read a por- 
tion of our venerable homilies, and have a lecture on the 
evening of each of those days ; besides a domestic religious 
meeting in the families of our parishioners, every Monday 
evening. Mr. Cooke, who is indefatigable in his labors, has 
also a Bible class every Saturday evening. Thus, by the 
blessing of God, we hope to have some special evidence 
among us of the wisdom of the church, in appointing this 
season of 'protracted 77ieeti7ig^' in which our members may 
be called, in our peculiarly solemn services, to an awakened 
attention to the things that belong to their eternal peace. 

" I have now said enough, my dear bishop, to weary your 
patience, with but little that can apply to any practical use ; 
but I trust in your goodness to excuse the garrulity of an 
old man, and to believe me, with undiminished regard, 
" Your a flection ate friend, 

" And faithful brother in Christ, 

"JAMES MILNOK'' 



HIS MINISTRY. 457 

To the same. 

" New York, July 14, 1841. 
*' My d:eae. Bishop — I have been in great perplexity in 
regard to the professorship. Dr. Vaughan has insuperable 
objections to its acceptance. What think you of Dr. May ? 
I believe him admirably qualified for the office, in point of 
talents, acquirements, piety, and soundness of principles. 
His health, too, seems to be, in a considerable degree, re- 
stored. His voice is excellent. I heard him make one of 
the best missionary addresses to which I e-^er listened, at the 
late Virginia convention. He is now at Wilkesbarre, and can 
be readily consulted ; or, if you approve of him, and should 
think it best to elect him without previous consultation, you 
may consider this as my nomination of him to the office. 

" I send you Tract Ninety, in the Oxford series. You 
will not wonder at its drawing down the official mterference 
of which we have heard. 

" Yours, afiectionately and faithfully, 

"JAMES MILNOE." 

The foregoing letters are introduced together, because 
they were addressed to the same correspondent, and apper- 
tained to the same set of subjects. It will be sufficient to 
add, so far as the Milnor professorship was concerned, that 
Dr. May was compelled, by the serious and protracted iUness 
of his wife, to decline the nomination wliich he received ; 
and that Dr. Milnor subsequently nominated the E,ev. Dr. 
Fuller, then of Christ church, Andover, Mass., who was 
afterwards elected, and became Dr. Sparrow's successor. 

Some further letters for the year 1841, now require 
insertion. 

To the E,ev. Dr. Beasley. 

"New York, March 17, 1841. 

" Hev. and dear Sir — I am glad you are so well pleased 
with the Christian Observer, for which my own fondness is 
such, that I have long been in possession of all the volumes 
in the series, from its commencement in 1802. I had seen 

Mem. Milnor. 20 



458 MEMOIR OF DE,. MILNOR. 

it for several years before the beginning of my ministry. 
About that time, I haj)pened to have a conversation with 
the venerable Dr. "Wharton, of Burlington, N. J., w^ho spoke 
of it as a work which he exceedingly admired, and con- 
stantly read, both on account of the orthodoxy of its views 
on the doctrines of the church, and for the talent with 
which it was then conducted by Zachary Macauley, Esq. 
Mr. Macauley was its editor for the first fifteen years of its 
career ; since which time, it has been conducted by the Rev. 
Samuel Charles Wilks. I had the pleasure of becoming 
acquainted with both these excellent men, when in London, 
in the year 1830. Mr. Macauley has since deceased. He 
was the father of the present distinguished member of the 
House of Commons of that name ; and from the extensive- 
ness of his reading and acquirements, was called 'the walk- 
ing-library.' I think it was Lord Bexley who spoke to me 
of his astonishing readiness in giving information on almost 
every subject of inquiry, and said nothmg was more common, 
in the circle of their acquaintance, when all others were posed 
on any subject, than to say, ' We'll ask Zachary Macauley ; 
he can tell us.' He was a remarkably plain, unpromising 
man in his appearance ; but I can truly say, I derived no 
such benefit from any individual in England as from him, in 
the frequent interviews with which he was kind enough to 
favor me. Mr. Wilks was one of the most intelligent and 
pious of the clergy, with whom it was my privilege to be- 
come acquainted ; and I have few more pleasing volumes in 
my library than his sermons, with which he presented me, 
when he called to take leave of me, the day I left London. 

"It is astonishing to what an extent high-church prin- 
ciples are now carried. It was remarked to me, by the late 
Bishop of duebec," Bishop Stewart, " on one of his passages 
through this city, on his way to England, that he heard 
more about them in a three days' sojourn in Now York, than 
in a year's residence in London ; and the late venerable 
Bishop of Pennsylvania, though a strict churchman, often 



HIS MINISTRY. 459 

spoke to me, in terms of still stronger disapprobation, of the 
extravagant views of some with whom he acted, than he 
has done in his published works. The effects of certain 
influences in our General Seminary are very deleterious on 
the unformed minds of its students. The disapproval of 
extreme ^dews, by two of the resident professors, has but 
little effect in preventing those views from being embraced 
by the young men, under the more direct instruction of 
others ; and our ecclesiastical paper, by flattering them with 
the reception of their productions, and with compliments 
from its editor, has a most injurious effect on their minds. 
Narrowness of feeling, and illiberality of opinion, in relation 
to Christians of other names, are not its only bad effects. 
Its influence in inducing, if not in some instances the rejec- 
tion, at least a diminished esteem of those evangelical doc- 
trines wliich are now the continual subjects of assault from 
the Oxford divines, and the substitution of the new system 
exhibited in the ' Tracts for the Times,' is calculated to give 
a most dangerous character to the ministry of these the 
future standard-bearers of our church. For one, I sincerely 
rejoice that your veteran pen has been so successfully em- 
ployed in exposing the true character of the new divinity ; 
and I am encouraged to hope, that though the enemy is 
coming in like a flood, yet the Spirit of the Lord will con- 
tinue to lift up a standard against him. 

" What the expectations of Rome are, may be inferred 
from the oft-repeated expressions of approval of the Oxford 
measures, with which the E-omish publications teem. In 
the English Catholic Magazine for 1839, its editors thus 
express themselves : ' Most sincerely and unaffectingly do we 
tender our congratulations to our brethren of Oxford, that 
their eyes have been opened to the evils of private judg- 
ment, and the consequent necessity of curbing its multiform 
extravagance. It has been given them to see the dangers 
of the ever-shifting sands of the desert, in which they were 
lately dwelling, and to strike their tents and flee the perilfi 



460 MEMOIR OF DR. MILl^^OR. 

of the wilderness. They have already advanced a great 
way on their return towards that church within whose walls 
the wildest imagination is struck with awe, and sobered 
down into a holy calm, in the enjoyment of which it gladly 
folds its wearied wings. They have found the clue which, 
if they have perseverance to follow it, will lead them safely 
through the labyrinth of error into the clear day of truth. 
Some of the brightest ornaments of their church have advo- 
cated a reunion with the church of all times and all lands ; 
and the accomplishment of the design, if we have read 
aright ' the signs of the times,' is fast ripening. Her mater- 
nal arms are ever open to receive back repentant children ; 
and, as when the prodigal son returned to his father's house, 
the fatted calf was killed and a great feast of joy made, even 
so will the whole of Christendom rejoice greatly, when so 
bright a body of learned and j)ious men as the authors of 
the ' Tracts for the Times ' shall have made the one step 
necessary to place them again within that sanctuary, where 
alone they can be safe from the moving sands, beneath which 
they dread being overwhelmed. The consideration of thi? 
step will soon inevitably come on ; and it is with the utmost 
confidence that we predict the accession to our ranks of the 
entire mass.' 

" I trust, my dear sir, that though your impaired health 
may continue to abstract you from much engagement in the 
public duties of the ministry, yet you may realize to better 
effect than he did by whom the acknowledgment was utter- 
ed, * Deus nobis hcBc otia fecit ;' a leisure given, in your 
case, not for the purpose of indolence or self-indulgence, but 
to enable you, from the stores of a matured and weH-culti- 
vated mind, to assist in healing some of the wounds which 
religion and the church are now receiving from those who 
profess to be the chief, if not the exclusive friends of both. 
" I am, with great respect, 

" Your faithful friend and brother, 

"JAMES MILNGR." 



HIS MINISTRY. 461 

During the spring of this year, he visited Alexandria to 
attend the meeting of the Virginia convention ; intending to 
return to New York in company with his friend Bishop 
Meade, who had made arrangements for a voyage to Eng- 
land by the steamer from Boston of the first of June. The 
following is an extract from a letter to Mrs. Milnor, written 
while he was at Alexandria, and dated May 21, 1841. 

" Yesterday morning, Thursday, I preached before the 
bishops and convention to an overflowing audience, and last 
night, in the Second Presbyterian church, kindly ofiered for 
the use of the Episcopalians ; the two churches of our order 
being insufficient to accommodate the immense crowds that 
fill the city. The hospitality of the citizens is unbounded. 
Every house of Episcopahans, and those of many others, are 
filled with strangers." [Such, at that period, were Virginia 
conventions.! 

The following, from his "old friend" Daniel Wilson, re- 
minds us how much these memoirs have sufiered from the 
elevation of that faithful servant of Christ to the see of Cal- 
cutta. Many of Dr. Milnor's most valuable letters were 
addressed to him, but their removal, Avith his other papers, 
to India, has rendered their recovery for our purpose impos- 
sible. 

To the Puev. Dr. Milnor. 

"Eisnop's Palace, Calcutta, Sept. 16, 1841. 
" My dearest old Friend — I see an old letter of yours 
on my table which does not appear to have been answered, 
I suppose from a dread of your again letting parts of the 
answer slip into the newspapers. I am, however, unwill- 
ing longer to delay inquiring after you and yours and the 
church of Christ in the United States. Your Episcopal 
church has produced one of the most splendid and valuable 
works in divinity that I have ever read. Nothing since your 
Jonathan Edwards on Justification and Dean Milner's His- 
tory of Luther, has at all come near Bishop McIlvaine. I 
have read his masterly treatise with unmixed admiration, 



462 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

and shall write to him, I hope by this very mail, to thank 
him most cordially. A twilight sermon of my own happened 
to come out just before the bishop's book, but was lost in his 
brilliancy. I want very much to see your Episcopal alma- 
nacs, convention papers, and chief works in divinity. If you 
produce a few such theological refutations as Bishop Mcll- 
vaine's, your country will rise most rapidly in religious influ- 
ence. I hope our mad traditionists are not corrupting the 
simplicity of the faith among you, as they are at home, and 
in some degree in India. I have an instinctive dread of this 
MAN OF SIN under the guise of an angel of light, and his 
mystic piety makes no impression on my heart. I have 
again and again wished to know why you inundate India 
with Presbyterian missionaries, but do not refresh us with 
even a sprinkling of Episcopalians. There is nothmg I 
should so rejoice in as^o welcome such staid, learned, well- 
read, evangelical laborers as your church would furnish. 

" Well, and how are you yourself, my dear friend ? How 
well do I remember the pleasant times we spent together 
at Islington. My son is laboring there still, with twenty 
helpers, amid 56,000 souls. I continue, thank God, in good 
health for my years. The cause of Christ, as I hope, is 
making progress. The events of the world are conspiring to 
widen the British territory and influence. Soon will the end 
come ; and may we stand in our lot at the end of the days. 
" I am yours, aflectionately, 

"D. CALCUTTA." 

The year 1842 will not furnish us with so many letters 
as its immediate predecessor. From three brief communica- 
tions addressed to Dr. Milnor, we learn that he was during 
the year elected one of the Counsellors of the Board of the 
New York Lyceum ; a member of the Council of the Uni- 
versity of New York ; and President of the New York City 
Tract Society, one of the efficient auxiharies of the American 
Tract Society. The first and only letter from him, for 1842, 
is a cojjy of his answer to that just given from the Bishop ol 



HIS MINISTRY. 463 

Calcutta ; and this the only copy found among his papers, 
of all his letters to that mteresting correspondent. 

" New Yore, July 2, 1842. 

" Right Rev. and Beloved — In the recent receipt of 
your esteemed letter of Sej)tember last, I was much delight- 
ed to be once more favored with a token of your continued 
remembrance and regard. That your valuable life should 
have been preserved for a period so much longer than that 
of any of your revered predecessors in the Calcutta episco- 
pate, and that your health should be continued in a climate 
which so often proves unfavorable to Englishmen, are causes 
of devout thankfulness to God, and should be gratefully rec- 
ognized as a pledge, that he has large blessings in store for 
his church in those distant regions. We have heard, with 
great joy, of the mighty work of grace which the Holy Spirit 
is accomplishing through British agency in some places under 
your jurisdiction. May the Lord encourage your labors, by 
many such cheering evidences of his favor. 

"You inquire, my E-t. E.ev. friend, why we do not send 
some Episcopal missionaries to India. The answer is as easily 
given as the fact furnishuig that answer is by many of us feel- 
ingly regretted. All the efforts of such of our highly esteemed 
bishops as are favorable to the cause of foreign missions — and 
they are a large proportion of the whole — and of such of our 
clergy as have like feehngs, have not yet been successful ui 
awakening such a spirit among us as adequately to supply our 
treasury for so desirable an extension of our missionary work. 
I have been laboring in this cause for five or six and twenty 
years, and though, God be praised, there has been much im- 
provement in our church, especially during the last six or 
seven years, under our new plan of operation, yet we have 
still to encounter much opposition from certain influential 
quarters, to the foreign work ; and our means, partly from 
this cause, and partly from the sad state of the monetary con- 
cerns of our country, have allowed us to extend but little the 



464 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

existing missions, and compelled us to withhold the establish- 
ment of any entirely new. One missionary at Constantino- 
ple, having in prospect some endeavors in favor of the Syrian 
church ; our schools in Athens, and a small establishment in 
Crete ; a single but excellent missionary in China ; four or five 
clergymen and their families at Cape Palmas, on the western 
coast of Africa ; and two missionaries in Texas, comprise a J 
the heralds of salvation that our church has given us the 
means of sending forth, either for the renovation of corrupt 
Christian communities, or for the conversion of the heathen. 
Several of the other denominations around us have far out- 
stripped us in obedience to the Saviour's command. 

" There is undoubtedly, as you are aware, a vast extent 
of missionary ground in our own country, which many — I 
thmk mistakingly — consider a sufficient reason for confining 
ourselves exclusively to its cultivation. I say ' mistakingly,' 
for I have invariably observed, that those who advocate this 
principle are, even in their contributions to the domestic de- 
partment, far behind those who consider the field marked out 
for our exertions by the great Head of the Church, to be the 
whole world. Just in proportion to the prevalence of vital 
piety in our congregations, is the missionary spirit seen to 
take this wide-extended scope ; and an amount of contribu- 
tions of a corresponding character, to be poured into the treas- 
ury of the Lord. While the increase of this spirit among 
us is a contmual subject for ardent prayer and supplication, 
I do exceedingly rejoice in the hope that the noble Church 
Missionary Society of your country, under its new auspices, 
may be favored with such an increase of means as will sup- 
ply our lack of service in the foreign field, so many parts of 
which have been already blessed by the evangelical labors 
of that inestimable institution. 

"Your warm approval of the work of our dear friend 
Bishop Mcllvaine, is exceedingly grateful to my feelings, as 
it will be to his. I am quite confident, there is no one whose 
favorable opinion he would more higlily appreciate than your 



HIS MINISTRY. 465 

own. His public testimony against Oxfordism, supported 
as it has been by a large proportion of his Episcopal breth- 
ren in this country, has had a very propitious influence on 
the public mind. 

"It is an evidence of the limited circulation of the 
'Tracts' among our churches, that there has been but one 
American edition of them, and that this resulted in the ruin 
of its publisher. Out of ten or eleven Episcopal periodicals, 
the Churchman is the only one that has advocated the prin- 
ciples of the authors of those pernicious publications. May 
the Spirit of the Lord lift up a standard everywhere against 
the errors of these misguided and misguiding teachers, and 
lead even themselves, at length, into the way of truth. 

" In regard to the general state of the church in our 
country, I thank God that I am enabled to say, it is, in its 
external circumstances, prosperous ; and, in doctrinal views 
and evangelical feeling, improving. With our rapidly grow- 
ing population, its extension keeps tolerably equal pace ; and 
the divisions in some Protestant denominations have tended 
to add to our numbers. To a much greater extent than 
formerly, the great doctrines of the Reformation are preached 
to our congregations ; and though in some places, what are 
called the distinctive principles of the church are, in my 
view, suffered to occupy too much attention, yet, for the 
most part, I believe the latter are allowed only their just 
place in the communications of the pulpit. A few of our 
ministers are disposed to keep up a spirit of controversy, and 
to decry what they call low-churchmanship ; but on the 
whole, there is a preference for the things that make for 
peace. None are disposed unduly to compromise our pecu- 
liarities by inadmissible mixtures with others in the services 
of the sanctuary ; and our church commends herself to the 
regards of those who are without, by maintaining towards 
them ' the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.' " [Very 
serious would have been his modifications of tliis portion of 
his letter, had he lived till the present day.] 

20*^ 



466 MEMOIR OF Dll. MILNOH. 

" Romanism, however, among us is making rapid strides. 
Immense numbers of immigrants are almost daily landing on 
our shores. Of these the major part are from Ireland, and 
almost all of that church ; as are also multitudes from the 
German states. Large importations of priests are constantly 
arriving ; and the popish missionary societies of Italy, Austria, 
and France, are pouring their thousands annually into the 
country for the building of churches and the support of the 
priesthood. ' "When I came to my present charge in 1816, 
there were but tM^o Homan Catholic churches in New York. 
Now there are many, and several in a course of erection. 
There is evidently a grand effort also to acquire a foothold in 
our great western country, throughout which popish semina- 
ries of learning abound, and are continually increasing in num- 
ber. Many Protestant children are improperly sent to them. 

"And now, to answer your kind inquiries in relation to 
myself : I can only say, that I continue, at the age of nearly 
three-score years and ten, through the blessing of my heav- 
enly Father, to enjoy excellent health. My duties are the 
same as heretofore. I enjoy the continued affections of a 
large congregation ; and my labors among them are, from 
time to time, followed by pleasing fruits. I find time, in 
the midst of arduous parochial duties, for an engagement in. 
the missionary, educational, and other institutions of our 
church ; and am still actively employed in the Bible, Tract, 
and Missionary causes, and in various other means of public 
usefulness. I have five children ; a son and a daughter 
married ; and with two sweet grandchildren, these are all 
residing with me in St. George's parsonage. 

" I have the pleasure of transmitting to you a package, 
c:)ntaining such publications as I supposed might interest 
jfDU ; and beg you to accept the assurance of that high 
respect and sincere affection with which I remain, 
** Your faithful friend, 

" And obedient servant in the Lord, 

"JAMES MILNOE." 



HIS MINISTRY. 467 

At the opening of the year 1843, Dr. Mihior received 
from his friend Bishop Meade a letter, the following extract 
from which will serve to introduce a remark touching a part 
of his course as one of the members of the Foreign Com- 
mittee of our Board of Missions. 

To the Rev. Dr. Milnor. 

"Millwood, Jan. 30, 1843. 

" Rev. and dear Brother — Besides the sincere pleasure, 
which I take in communicating with you on all subjects per- 
taining to the affairs of God's church, I have a particular 
object in addressing you at this time. I perceive there have 
been letters, pro and con., as to our missionary establishments 
in Greece and Asia, especially the latter ; and fears have 
been expressed, that w^e are not presenting there, as we ought, 
the pure gospel, but are concedmg too much to prevalent 
corruptions. I am told that the cause has suflered in this 
country by reason of such apprehension ; and that the com- 
mittee have not been altogether satisfied for some time. 
How is it ? I have always thought that the attempt to 
introduce our missionaries into those old, decayed churches, 
was so delicate and difficult a task, that we must be slow 
to condemn those missionaries for any cautious movements 
which they might make. But have they erred ? And if 
so, how far ? And have the doubts on tliis subject seriously 
injured our collections for these missions ? I should be glad 
to hear from you on this subject, and on any others in which 
you know I am interested. 

"If it be permitted to descend from such a height to 
speak a w^ord about myself and my poor body, and you feel 
any interest in it, I would say that God has been very good 
in giving me a more comfortable state of health than I have 
had for nine years. My cliief defect, that of voice, still re- 
mains ; but it is in some measure relieved by preaching very 
seldom, and contenting myself with official duties and short 
addresses from the chancel. My mind also is much reheved 



468 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

by having so valuable an assistant as Dr. Johns, who is 

giving great satisfaction. 

" Let me hear from you as soon as convenient. 

" Affectionately, 

"W. MEADE." 

What answer Dr. Milnor gave to the former part of the 
above extract is unknown. Not so, however, his opinion on 
the subject involved. In common with his fellow-members 
of the Foreign Committee, he inclined to that judgment 
which finally expressed itself in the well-known unwilling- 
ness of the committee to sustain the Asiatic, or Constanti- 
nopolitan mission of our church. He advocated, as long as 
he could, the continuance of that mission ; and acquiesced 
in its continuance as long as he could, even after his judg- 
ment began to lean to the side of its inexpediency. But 
the views which the missionary himself advanced, and the 
measures which he adopted, at length settled the mind of 
Dr. Milnor, and he gave his influence to that action of the 
committee wliich, since he left the stage, has resulted in 
placing the mission on a separate basis of its own. It is 
true, that the want of funds was the reason at first assigned 
for the proposed abandonment of the mission ; but it is no 
less true, that this want of funds was, by multitudes, be- 
lieved to be the consequence of a want of confidence in the 
views which actuated the movement at Constantinople ; and 
in this belief the Foreign Committee almost unanimously 
concurred. 

To Bishop Mcllvaine. 

"New York, March 10, 1843. 
"My dear Bishop — I am under the impression that I 
have answered your two favors of last year ; or rather, I 
Jiave been under that impression. But I am startled, on 
laying my hand upon them to-day , to find no endorsement 
to that effect ; and therefore I now fear that I have been 
mistaken, and that I must submit to the charge of inexcusa- 
ble negligence. In regard to all that relates to the profes- 



HIS MINISTRY. 469 

sorship, I am glad to learn, by a letter from Dr. Fuller, that 
he has accepted the appointment. I enth'ely approve of 
your choice, and hope you and he may have much happi- 
ness in the connection. 

" Of the prosperity of the college in its ' students, study, 
order, and reputation,' I am glad to hear, but regret the 
pecuniary difficulties in which it is involved. I wish it were 
in New York as in times past, so that you might receive 
help from your old partial means of supply ; but every thing 
here, m the way of business, seems at a stand ; and many 
of the friends of Kenyon, I am sorry to say, have just 
emerged from the painful process of bankruptcy, while 
others are, as to means, in quite a different position from 
that which they once occupied. Almost all my rich men 
have gone to the court end of the city, or remain with us 
in cramped and impaired circumstances. I exceedingly 
regret that among your Brooklyn friends, too, so many have 
fallen under the weight of the pressure which has come 
upon them. On both sides of the river, however, some still 
hold their own. 

"It is intended to hold a semi-annual meeting of the 
American Bible Society at Cmcinnati, in October next. We 
shall be glad to have your approval of the measure, and 
your important assistance at the meeting. 

" Respectfully, affectionately, and truly, yours, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

To the Rev. Dr. Milnor. 

•'Gambier, April 6, 1343. 

" Dear Doctor — I have no letter-paper, and cannot get 
any till somebody brings some from New York ; but I shall 
aot impose on you a whole sheet of foolscap. So you re- 
membered, at last, to answer my letters, after I had forgot- 
ten they had been written. Better late than never. 

" You speak of a semi-annual Bible Society meeting at 
Cincinnati. I shall be very happy to do what I can to pro- 
mote its usefulness. It is a good idea. The Episcopal clergy 



470 MEMOm OF DR. MILNOE.. 

in Cincinnati, and, so far as I know, all in the diocese, with 
one or two exceptions, will unite in heart, if not in personal 
attendance. The more the Romish doctrine of tradition 
lifts up its head, the more we must lift up our standard 
against it in the shape of the Bible, distributed as Bible 
societies do their work. It is David against Goliath — the 
sling against the helmet, and shield, and spear of a giant. 
But the difference is, that God is on one side, and not on the 
other ; and the truth shall make men free, no matter whose 
servants they may have been. 

" Yours, very affectionately, 

"CHAS. P. McILVAINE." 

The spring of 1843 found Dr. Milnor again at the an- 
nual convention of the diocese of our church in Virginia, in 
the city of Richmond, and as usual, abundant in his pulpit- 
labors during his absence. Like all his visits of this kind, 
however, it has no record, save in the customary brief letter 
to Mrs. Milnor, informing her of his movements, his engage- 
ments, and the day of his expected return. The only addi- 
tional reference to the period is in a letter from Mr. Brigham, 
of the American Bible Society, from which it appears that 
Dr. Milnor was duly appointed to represent that institution 
before the Bible-meeting in Richmond, held concurrently 
with that of the Virginia convention. 

During this same spring was most deeply felt the alarm 
which the measures of the Maryland State Colonization 
Society, in enforcing military duty, or military fines,, on all 
within their colony, had previously spread through those 
churches at home which had established missionary stations 
on that part of the African coast — an alarm which, for a 
time, threatened to set the Christian community of the free 
elates in hostile array against the whole cause of African 
colonization. 

Fears were entertained, that it would become necessary 
to remove our mission from Cape Palmas. Our Board of 
Missions therefore instructed its foreign committee to propose 



HIS MINISTRY. 471 

conferences with the Maryland State Colonization Society at 
Baltimore, with a view to the possible settlement of ami- 
cable relations between that society and the board. In pur- 
suance of this policy, the foreign committee referred the 
instructions of the board to a special committee of two of 
its members, who, after a previous conference, conducted on 
our part by the secretary, the Rev. Dr. Yaughan, and one 
of the missionaries, the E.ev. Mr. Payne, were directed to 
proceed to Baltimore for the purpose of a further interview 
and a more satisfactory understanding with the agent of the 
State Colonization Society. This special committee was 
composed of the Rev. Drs. Milnor and Turner ; and from a 
letter which the former received at Baltimore, it would 
seem that they held the further conference required during 
his spring excursion to the South. The main results of these 
negotiations was, the undisturbed continuance of our Cape 
Palmas mission. 

The summer of this year was rendered memorable in the 
annals of our church by the occurrence, soon after the annual 
Commencement of our General Theological Seminary, of the 
famous " Carey ordination," an event at which Drs. Anthon 
and Smith protested against the admission to deacon's orders 
of a recent graduate from the seminary, who had exposed 
himself to the charge of holding the Tridentine doctrines of 
the church of Rome. The convulsion which shook our 
church upon the announcement of this ordination, was alto- 
gether unprecedented. Dr. Milnor's letters to his corre- 
spondents on this occasion, have mostly perished ; but one, 
from his old friend Bishop Meade, will serve as an early 
expression of those feehngs, among the evangehcal portion of 
the church, in which Dr. Milnor fully shared. 

To the Rev. Dr. Milnor. 

" Millwood, Aug. 1, 1843. 
" Rev, and dear Brother — We have fallen upon strange 
times. We have reached a fearful crisis in the church. I 



472 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

had not supposed it possible that Romanism had so far 
regained its power among us, as recent events in your city 
and the language of some of our religious papers would indi- 
cate. A general and distressing contest throughout our 
whole church, in England and America, seems now inevi- 
table. May God give us all grace to perform our several 
parts faithfully and wisely. I should like to hear from you, 
who are on the spot, how matters stand. I trust our breth- 
ren Anthon and Smith find strong supporters, not only 
among the laity, but also among the clergy in your city 
From some New York papers which have been sent me, 
probably by yourself, I perceive the laity are coming out 
boldly. I hope the pamphlet of Drs. Anthon and Smith will 
be circulated far and wide, to every clergyman, at least, a 
copy ; and I wish the laity also could be well suppHed. 

" I saw, a few days since, a talented, zealous layman of 
a neighboring diocese, who has been very active in support- 
ing ultra views, who said, after reading the pamplilet, he 
was truly surprised at it ; and unless it could be answered 
and disproved — and he did not see how it could — it showed 
a state of things which he had never supposed. The card of 
the six presbyters will, I presume, satisfy him that an answer 
and refutation are not very probable. I suppose your ap- 
proaching convention will, m some way or other, let us know 
its opinion on the subject. Our next General Convention 
can scarcely avoid some agitation on the questions involved. 

" We have been too much elated by our prosperity. 
Looking at the dissensions of other denominations, boasting 
of our unity, and proud of our advantages, we calculated on 
uninterrupted and unbounded success, without relying hum- 
bly on God's blessing. The result has been, that while the 
dissensions of others are, in a good measure, healing, and we 
have contrived, by our exclusive claims, very greatly to 
increase and combine the opposition of all others, we are in 
a most divided state among ourselves, and are under the 
strongest temptation to neglect the more important spiritual 



HIS MINISTili^ 473 

matters for controversy about externals. This is to me a 
most distressing thought — that bitter controversy is, in many 
of us, about to eat out the soul of religion. God have mercy 
on us, and avert the evil. 

" I do not see that any question was put to Mr. Carey 
about justification, sacramental grace, etc. ; on which points 
I can scarce think that one, holding his views on other points, 
could be received. Let me hear from you soon and fully. 
" Yours, very truly, 

"W. MEADE." 

Another, a month later, from Bishop Smith, contains a 
characteristic allusion to the same subject. 

"Kalorama, near Louisville, Sept. 1, 1843. 

" Dear Friend of my early Ministry — Brother Jack- 
son tells me that you are to be in Cincinnati about the 1st 
of November. God willing, so am I. He also says, that he 
invited you to come and see me as well as him. I thank 
him for it ; and I now write specially to urge this request, 
and that you will accompany me as far as Shelbyville, where 
I will take you in our little carriage, in order that the early 
friend of Christian and church education at the West may 
see what God has enabled us to begin in Kentucky. So dark 
a cloud has long brooded over this horizon, that I want such 
a friend as you to come and have it in your power to say 
that, through the divine clemency, daylight again dawns 
upon us. Besides, your presence will give a new impulse to 
all our affairs. Do come, kind doctor, do ; and may God's 
presence come with you. 

" I was present with you in spirit in blessed old St. 
John's, Providence, on that day." [An allusion, probably, 
to the day of Bishop Henshaw's consecration.] " 0, by how 
many cherished memories is that temple sacred to me ! I 
was witness of the first revival of religion there, and in Bris- 
tol. The stripling Henshaw was instrumental in the revival, 
during which — chiefly however among the Congregational- 



474 MEMOIR OF DIl. MILNOE,. 

ists — the mere boy, Ben Smith, was brought to serious reflec- 
tion. Our venerable father," Bishop Griswold, "is gone ; but 
we his sons are left to toil and suffer : Bishop Henshaw in the 
very field which witnessed his prayers and his victories, and 
Bishop Smith in a far-off field, where unheard-of trials have 
awaited him. So God works. ' Even so, Father ; for so it 
seemeth good in thy sight I' 

" I am not worthy to unloose the latchet of Bishop Gris- 
wold's shoes ; but, thank God, I am still most thoroughly of 
his school. We have strange wonders in our days. Some 
of our Episcopalians are half Romanists ; and some of our 
high-churchmen are low, while some of the low are high. 
Of all sorts, however, find 'ine out a consistent Bishop Gris- 
wold, and an unchangeable rector of old St. George's. 

" These are storms, the flashes of which we see afar off, 

and the roar whereof faintly reaches us, but of which we 

know almost nothing. Our comfort is, that Christ changes 

not ; that his truth never changes ; and that he is Prince of 

the kings of the earth, be the people never so micj[uiet. The 

church is safe ! Ever, as of old, 

" Your true friend "and brother, 

'•B. B.SMITH." 
"The Rev. Dr. Milnor." 

Dr. Milnor' s answer to this affectionate epistle contams 
the only reference to " the Carey ordination^'' and its con- 
sequences, to be met with in his recovered letters. It also 
intimates his inability to attend the semi-annual Bible Soci- 
ety meeting at Cincinnati, to Avhich former letters refer, and 
at which he had been appointed to read an essay on " The 
Rule of Faith ;" the design of the essay being to advocate 
the Protestant doctrine on that subject, in opposition to the 
Romish views of Tradition. 

To Bishop Smith. 

"New York, October 2, 1843. 
*' Rt. Rev. and dear Sir — I thank you sincerely for 
v^our kind favor of the 1st ult., and wish it were in my power 



HIS MINISTRY. 475 



to accept your obliging invitation. But I lind I am unable 
to comply with the wishes of our Bible friends, in making 
the proposed visit to Cincinnati ; and consequently must 
defer, to some future period, the pleasure of meethig you at 
your pleasant residence in the neighborhood of Louisville. 
An unexpected and indispensable journey of business to Buf- 
falo, from which I returned a few days since, forms one dif- 
ficulty in the way of my leaving home again this fall. But 
added to this, I fear, at my time of life, taking so long a trip 
at such an advanced season of the year. Besides, were I 
younger and better fitted for it, there is another great imped- 
iment, arising out of the pressingly heavy duties of my 
parochial charge, in which, for the last nine months, I have 
been wholly without assistance. My prayers and best wishes 
will attend our beloved brethren who go on to the expected 
meetmg. I pray God the occasion may be one of signal ben- 
efit to our great cause. 

" We live in eventful times. The changes in opinion — 
in too many instances, as I think, for the worse — that are 
continually occurring around us, are not a little alarming. 
Recent developments here aflbrd reason to believe, that to a 
greater extent than we had imagined, the Oxford heresy has 

invaded this diocese. The noxious influence of the 

has exceedingly corrupted the minds of our younger clergy 
and candidates for orders ; and indeed I am grieved to the 
heart, to find such a tendency to E-omanism as prevails 
among some of the more advanced in years and standing. 
When I speak thus, I do not mean that any are prepared to 
go over to the 'mother of abominations.' To remove such a 
suspicion, they call her hard names, and speak strongly 
against some of her doctrines. But the danger lies in their 
exaltation of the church above Christ, the great Head ; mak- 
ing her, and not Him, the dispenser of renewing and sancti- 
fying grace, and giving to external sacraments and ordinances 
the inherent efficacy which constitutes so much of the super- 
stition of the papacy. They do not mean — until a great 



476 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

many impediments' are removed — to unite with Rome ; but 
on the principles of Tract No. Ninety, they adopt, as the 
means of allaying such a desire, the expedient of giving an 
aspect to our doctrines and observances, that shall approxi- 
mate them as nearly as possible to hers. The evangelical 
doctrines Avhich some of us have supposed were plainly 
taught in our articles, more fully explicated in our homilies, 
and embodied in their life-giving spirit in our liturgy, are 
now to be superseded by the dogmas of the school at Oxford. 
The great principle of justification by faith is by many virtu- 
ally abandoned, and that of baptismal justification adopted 
in its stead. God is impiously confined, in his communica 
tion of grace, to the channel of the sacraments ; and a most 
unwarrantable denial of covenanted mercy to all but the 
members of a church enjoying the Episcopal succession, is 
insisted on. The Reformation is now found to have been 
fraught with evils ; and instead of adhering to its great prin- 
ciples, we are to condemn its authors for having taken dan- 
gerous liberties, and, as far as possible, to unprotestantize 
the church. Such, among us, has been the baneful influ- 
ence of Tractarianism, as upheld and taught by too many in 
this most unevangelical portion of the church. God grant 
that they may find successful opponents in other and better 
instructed dioceses, I confess I am grieved and alarmed 
beyond measure, and especially since our convention, which 
has just adjourned, and in which the proceedings in the case 
of young Carey have been sustained by a large majority of 
the clergy, and by an unexpectedly large number of the laity. 
You will, no doubt, in the secular papers of the past Aveek, 
see the full details of our stormy session ; particularly the 
melancholy exhibition of passion on the part of our bishop, 
near its close. I was not present at the disgraceful scene, 
being engaged in a quiet lecture to the good people of my 
charge ; nor have I, save by a silent vote, taken any part in 
the proceedings of the convention : the speakers on the side 
of Messrs, Smith and Anthon, being all of them eminent 



HIS MINISTRY. ' 477 

law}^ers, and men who have not hitherto sustained any other 
character than that of avowedly high-churchmen, 

" Though much cast down in spirit by the opposition, so 
extensively prevalent, to what the Lord has taught me to 
believe to be Bible-truth, yet I still have faith in the ulti-- 
mate triumph of correct principles. For one, I will still 
pray, and labor, and hope ; and amidst all discouragements, 
rejoice that the Lord reigneth. I feel my mind greatly 
soothed and comforted by the blessed. communion which we 
yesterday enjoyed in ' old St. George's ;' where, at least, for 
the few remaining years of the ministiy of its rector, Christ 
and him crucified will, I trust, continue to be preached. 
Believe m.e, 

" Affectionately, yours, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

The following is Dr. Milnor's letter to the secretary, an- 
nouncing his inability to attend the meeting at Cincinnati, 
and expressive of his views on the occasion. It will be read 
with interest. 

To the Rev. Dr. Brigham. 
"St. George's Puectory, New York, Oct. 20, 1843. 
" Rev. and dear Sir — You may be assured that the im- 
practicability of my accompanying you to Cincinnati is to 
me a subject of most sincere regret. Concurring, as I did, 
heartily in the expediency of the interesting measure of hold- 
ing a special meeting of our noble institution in that region, 
and havings been honored as one of its delegates, in connec- 
tion with a particular duty of an important character, my 
disappointment is only alleviated by the persuasion that 
there will be no want of far better counsellors than myself 
in the general transactions of your meeting, and that the 
performance of the special duty referred to, by my learned 
and respected alternate, will afford the assemblage no reason 
to regret my absence, which I trust will, by none, be attrib- 
uted either to any diminution of interest in the cause, or re 



478 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

luctance in the most public manner to avow my most ear- 
nest desires for its promotion. 

"However small the measure of my past efforts, the 
retrospect of thirty years' engagement in the work, twenty- 
seven of them in immediate connection with the American 
Bible Society, is among the highest satisfactions of my now 
declining years. 

"It was under the auspices and at the solicitation of my 
late venerable friend Bishop White, of Pennsylvania, that I 
first united, in my native city, with the Bible Society, over 
which he presided with so much dignity and devotion until 
his lamented death. On my removal to New York, a few 
months after the formation of the national institution, one 
of the earliest duties of my new residence was to tender my 
humble aid in the advancement of the glorious cause through 
this great instrumentality. 

" I now bless God that he has allowed me for so long a 
period to be a witness of the delightful harmony with which 
its proceedings have been conducted, and the ever- widening 
scope of its salutary influence ; and to unite in the inspiring 
hopes of its friends for its becoming in future years a still 
greater blessing to our beloved country and to the destitute 
in foreign lands. 

" If there were sufficient reasons for the organization, of 
this plan by the parent Society in England — and the great 
Author of the Bible, by vouchsafing a most abundant bless- 
ing upon its measures, I feel assured, has sanctioned such a 
conclusion — we have the like reason to believe, that his 
providence and Spirit led to our following their good exam- 
ple ; and that in contributing the most vigorous efforts for 
continuing and extending the work, we are acting in con- 
formity to his holy will, and acceptably promoting his de- 
signs of mercy to our fallen world. Never were the signs of 
the times more indicative of the necessity of more labor, and 
prayer, and pecuniary means for carrying forward our hal- 
lowed undertaking. The dishonor done to the book of God 



HIS MINISTP.Y. 479 

by putting an uncertain tradition upon a level with it as a 
rule of faith, is no longer confined to the corrupt church 
which has so long been guilty of that crying sin ; individuals 
of other communions not hesitating to embrace the same 
ruinous error. 

" One of the most effectual methods of counteracting this 
impious treatment of God's merciful revelation, wherever it 
may obtam, is the universal circulation of that blessed book 
which is its own best witness, and wherever read, with 
prayer for the light of the Holy Spirit in its perusal, will 
establish its claim as the only and exclusive test of Chris- 
tian faith and practice. 

" May the Lord be with you in your coming delibera- 
tions, and shed on all your minds the enlightening influences 
of his grace. 

" With my earnest prayers for the happiest results to 
your meeting, I am, reverend and dear sir, your faithful 
friend and brother in Christ, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

To the Rev. Dr. Milnor. 

"Woodward College, Cincinnati, Nov. 29, 1843. 

*'Deae. Brother — ^We were all much disappointed by 
your not coming to the late meeting of the Bible Society in 
this city. But from Dr. Brigham's account, I suppose it 
would have been imprudent for you to venture upon so long 
a journey during this peculiarly inclement fall. Your alter- 
nate. Dr. Spring, did nobly. His essay was learned, logical, 
and to my mind, conclusive : clothed in a style perfectly 
clear and neat, and breathing throughout a spirit eminently 
Christian. I hope it will be speedily published, and widely 
circulated ; as it cannot fail, with the divine blessing, of do- 
ing much good. Still, I would rather have had a paper from 
you ; because, besides its general argument, you could have 
given it a most salutary bearing upon the particular state 
of our church. Why, indeed, can you not let your essay, 



'ISO MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

which I suppose you prepared, go out to the world ? Cer- 
tauily there is great need of argument and information on 
the subject of ' the rule of faith,' in these days of nascent 
Tractarianism and reviving Romanism. There is a straight- 
forward, candid, common-sense way of handUng subjects, 
which preeminently belongs to you, and which is peculiarly 
adapted to engage the popular mind, and carry conviction 
to the popular judgment. I should anticipate the best re- 
sults from such an effort on your part. 

" Your affectionate brother, 

" And servant in Christ, 

"B. P. AYDELOTT." 

During the fall of this year, the Rev. Mr. Irving, our 
foreign secretary and general agent, was mvited to assist Dr. 
Milnor in the labors of St. George's, and continued, more or 
less constantly, his valuable services durmg the remainder 
of the rector's life. The remark ought not to be omitted, 
that to both the brethren who, for a considerable part of 
the last ten years of his life, acted as his assistants in St. 
George's — the Rev. J. W. Cooke and Mr. Irving — Dr. Mil- 
nor was most truly attached. "With none, perhaps, could 
he have held more cordial, or more brotherly intercourse ; 
and from few, if any, could he and his flock have received 
more acceptable auxiliary labors. 



SECTION IV. 

The opening of the year 1844 was signalized, in the life 
of Dr. Milnor, by an attack oY his old complaint, which, like 
that of the year 1825, brought him to the verge of the 
grave. For weeks, his friends and the church stood trem- 
bling with solicitude, as life and death seemed to hang again 
in uncertain balance ; leaving it doubtful, from day to day, 



HIS MINISTHY. 481 

which would preponderate. Agahi, therefore, as in former 
days, prayer was made unceasingly for him, by individuals 
and in the churches ; and agam, as ui that memorable crisjs, 
prayer prevailed with God, and life was once more prolonged 
to this his faithful servant. A few extracts from letters 
which he received soon after his recovery, furnish pleasing 
evidences of the strength and tenderness of the feeling which 
his peril had inspired. 

From Bishop Eastburn. 

"Boston, March 6, 1844. 
"My dear Friend — An intention, long cherished, to 
address a few lines to you from tliis my new home and field 
of labor, is now quickened by the desire which I feel to con- 
gratulate you on your recent recovery from severe and dan- 
gerous illness. I am filled, as I humbly trust, with gratitude 
to God that he has spared you for yet further services to his 
church, at this period of her searchuig trials. Little can we 
afibrd to lose at such a time, if ever, those of God's mmis- 
tering servants who are true to the grand essentials of the 
gospel, and to those standards of our church which so un- 
equivocally set forth the gospel. May you live, my dear 
friend, to see the present cloud passing away, and to wit- 
ness the triumph of our scriptural communion over princi- 
ples which, if generally prevalent, would reduce us to a 
condition little different from that of the dark ages : to a 
body without a soul, a shell without the kernel." 

From the Rev. Mr. Irving. 

"New Orleans, 14tli March, 1844. 

"Rev. and dear Sir — A very long time had elapsed 
without any intelligence from New York ; and as my last 
advices spoke of your very serious illness, I was suffering 
great disquietude on your account. But I have this mo- 
ment been put in possession of a letter from Mr. Denison, 
of the 4th inst., in which he delights me by saying, that 

Mem. Miloor. 2 1 



482 MEMOIE, OF DR. MILNOE. 

he had that day seen you in your study ' quite yourself 
agam.' I hardly know how to express the emotions of 
joy and gratitude with which I have read this letter. I 
had been filled with sad forebodings of mournful intelli- 
gence. I had been thinkmg of all that we should lose in 
the church, and especially in our foreign committee, should 
it please God to take you to himself. And now, my joy 
is in proportion to the depression under which I had been 
laboring. My heart instinctively blessed God that he has 
seen good to spare you yet a while to his church. ' To 
depart and be with Christ ' would, indeed, for you, be ' far 
better;' yet, I am persuaded, that for tcs, it is 'more need- 
ful' that you should 'abide in the flesh.' . And so think 
many, very many of God's people. Everywhere have I 
found men inquiring about you with the greatest solici- 
tude ; and this moment, while on my return from the post- 
office with Mr. Denison's letter open in my hand, I met one 
who, hearing the news, thanked God aloud for this mercy 
to his church. 

" To me, my venerable friend, it is a matter of deep per 
sonal gratitude. "When I came to New York last summer, 
as my place of abode, I returned to the home of my youth , 
yet, alas, I felt myself almost a stranger. Spiritually I 
seemed to be alone. But your kindness reheved me from 
the loneliness ; while I every day felt thankful that God 
had brought me into such frequent intercourse with you, to 
be cheered and refreshed by your society." 

From Bishop Mcllvaine. 

" Gambier, Jmae 20, 1844. 

"My dear Doctor — I have often intended writing to 
you to express my joy at your recovery from your dangerous 
illness ; but almost constant absence from home on visita- 
tions, for three months, has prevented. For a long while I 
could not hear how you were ; and only judged you were 
better, because not hearing that you were worse. I have 



HIS MINISTRY. 483 

no doubt you experienced the same sweet support and peace 
in your danger as when, many years ago, you lay expecting 
to depart. The Lord has raised you up to witness and share 
still more of the trials of his church. How we are beset 
on all sides I Our heresies within ; the universal crusade 
against us from without ; and then, the fuel to the zeal of 
that crusade, which is given by such tribulations as that in 
Philadelphia, and the less public but quite understood case 
of greater evil m I^ew York. These are trials I" 

While Dr. Milnor was recovering from his dangerous ill- 
ness, his old friend the Bishop of Calcutta was penning the 
following letter ; which, of course, could not have been re- 
ceived till a considerably later period. 

To the Hev. Dr. Milnor. 
"MoRADABAD, NEAR Meerutt, March 19, 1844. 

" My dear, deau Friend — I received your esteemed let- 
ter of July 8, 1842, just before I left Calcutta last October; 
and it has been accompanying me for nearly one thousand 
nine hundred miles of my circuitous route, waiting to be 
answered, month after month. At length a delay of two 
days from indisposition, at this small station, has determined 
me to thank you for your most valuable letter, which was 
as cold water to a thirsty soul. It must, I fancy, have been 
brought by a private hand. The pamphlets also, which 
accompanied your letter, were most welcome ; and any rep- 
etitions of such favors will be equally so. 

" Your statement of the narrow means of your church 
missions is but too satisfactory as an answer to my request 
for Episcopal missionaries. But I cannot help lamenting 
that although there are nineteen Presbyterians, yet there is 
not one Churchman, in our sense of the word, in British 
India. We are so much in want of national clergy also, 
that I have lately formed a ' Calcutta Diocesan Additional 
Clergy Society,' for the support, by subscriptions, of a cer- 



484 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOH. 

tain number of clergy, aided by the stations where they are 
intended to labor. 

" Tractarianism is on the Avane, thank God, both in 
England and in India ; but it smothers still in the live ashes 
of our corrupt and superstitious nature, and will break out 
again unless extinguished, embers and all, by floods of graco 
on the dry ground, rivers opening in the wilderness itself 

" I rejoice to hear that so many of your bishops and 
clergy are alive and sound in the faith, I bless God espec- 
ially for the talent and rare faithfulness of Bishop Mcllvaine. 
His protest is admirable, and his late charge the very best 
thing that has appeared in so small a compass. Our Bishop 
of Ossory has also done incomparably well in another style 
of thought and argument ; cool, dispassionate, candid, labo- 
rious, mild, and yet forcible and convincuig. 

" The tiduigs of yourself, my beloved friend, are most 
grateful to me. My own family mercies are also remarka- 
ble. I have but a son and a daughter : the former at Isling- 
ton, with near sixty thousand souls, and twenty-four clergy ; 
the latter married to the Vicar of Huddersfield, with forty 
thousand souls, twelve churches, and fifteen or more clergy. 
Bless the Lord, my soul. Soon, dear brother, we must 
put off, each of us, tliis our tabernacle, even as our Lord 
Jesus Christ hath showed us. May we endeavor that, -after 
our decease, our people may have the truths of the gospel 
still in remembrance. 

" Write to me, love me, pray for me. 

" I am your affectionate 

"D. CALCUTTA." 

"W'ith his accustomed assiduity, Dr. Milnor now devoted 
his ncAvly recovered health and strength to the performance 
of his parochial duties ; withdrawing, as much as he con- 
sistently could, from the strifes of the church, and spending 
what he felt to be emphatically his last days in still and 
sacred fellowship with his God and Saviour. How long he 
was to live, he knew not ; but he knew, that though many 



HIS MINISTRY. 485 

years should be added to his course on earth, they might 
yet be justly regarded as an addition to be spent, not in 
reassimilating his tastes and feelings to the acerbities and 
contentiousness of men, but in further ripening the temper 
of liis spirit for the sweet and peaceful employments of 
heaven. He passed a part of his usual summer vacation 
with his friend and former parishioner, Mr. Jeremiah H. 
Taylor, at his quiet retirement on the banks of the Con- 
necticut. 

But, notwithstanding his growing fondness for a calm 
and meditative life, he was compelled to close the year 1844 
amid two of perhaps the severest trials of his pilgrimage. 
To the one of these trials reference is made in the following 
note : 

To the Hev. Dr. Stone. 

" New York, Dec. 7, 1844 

*' Rev. and dear Brother — My heavy domestic afflic- 
tion. m.ust be my apology for not remembering my promise 

to Mr. , to return an earlier answer to your note of the 

2d inst." After briefly disposing of the business to which 
the note related, he proceeds : 

"Our dear Ellen had an awful day yesterday, and as 
bad a night. Dr. Delafield, who was called in for consulta- 
tion yesterday, gives us some encouragement from the fact, 
verified in his practice, that few patients die of these ner- 
vous diseases. But her debility is extreme, and her stomach 
in so irritable a state as to reject all food ; so that I confess 
I entertain but little hope. Give us your prayers. I have 
more than once realized, hi my own experience, the availa- 
bleness of fervent intercession ; and I know much is now 
oficred for our poor afflicted daughter. 

" With our kind regards to Mrs. Stone, 

" Afiectionately yours, 

"JAMES MILNOR." 

This return of his younger daughter's former malady, 
from which she had now enjoyed several years of apparently 



48G MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

full exemption, was attended with uncommon aggravations 
in the violence of the disease, and in the disappointment of 
fond young hopes by the sudden death of a friend. To her 
parents, both the malady, and the disappointment by which 
it was precipitated and made so dreadful, were inexpressibly 
afflictive ; and for months they hung in painful solicitude, 
as over a frail and delicate flower, which threatened every 
moment to drop from the parent stem. 

And then, in the very midst of this bitterness came that 
other trial to which we have alluded. Immediately after 
the rising of our General Convention, in the autumn of 

1844, the bishop of the diocese of New York was presented 
for trial on those grave charges, the investigation of which 
resulted in his suspension from office on the 3d of January, 

1845. Of this ecclesiastical trial no account is here needed, 
or would be proper. All into whose hands these pages will 
come, know what facts were charged ; all know how long 
the bishop's trial, on those charges, continued to agitate the 
Episcopal church throughout the Union ; and all know how 
deeply this church has been humbled under the result to 
which that trial led. All that it will be necessary to add in 
this place, is to say, that during the trial, Dr. Milnor was 
called on to testify to an important transaction which the 
case involved ; that he consented to bear his testimony with 
the most unfeigned reluctance ; that he felt himself dragged 
from his loved retirement and meditations into the most 
painful contact possible with the convulsions which were 
heaving our church ; that he bore his testimony at the bid- 
ding of simple duty, but with all the directness, candor, and 
solemnity of a Christian man ; and that the character of his 
testimony had a manifest weight in deciding the minds of 
many who were sitting in judgment on the case. The most 
profound attention was given to his statement, and the most 
strenuous effort made to invalidate it. But this effort was 
in vain. He had himself once been an examining lawyer ; 
and now, as a Christian witness, he understood too well the 



HIS MINISTllY. 487 

nature of his duty and of his position, to be either disturbed, 
or driven from the coohiess of conscious rectitude, or from 
the course of constant truth. He did his duty and retired, 
leaving results with Hhn in whose hand are all times and 
all events. 

To his conduct throughout this agitating crisis, Bishop 
Smith thus refers, in a recent letter. Alluding to two things 
in the life of Dr. Milnor which had deeply hiterested him, 
the bishop says, after disposing of one of them, 

" The other relates to the impression made upon me by 
his singular forethought, wisdom, kindliness, and firmness, 
in those last sad acts of his life wliich dragged Mm near, 
and almost into the vortex, during the memorable ecclesias- 
tical trial in New York. 

*'I thought I already knew him thoroughly, and that 1 
duly appreciated that smgular statesmanlike combination of 
boldness and firmness of principle with a just and tender 
regard for the rights and feelings of others, and a most scru- 
pulous care to preserve iiis character and influence intact 
and unimpaired. But liis whole course durmg our General 
Convention, pendmg the question of presentment and trial, 
and during liis own long and vexatious cross-exam.ination, 
gave m.e so m.uch higher an idea than I had ever before en- 
tertauied of his wisdom and his worth, that I could not but 
devoutly give thanks for the grace of God which was in him, 
and also greatly wonder, that he had not long before insured 
the suffrages of his brethren somewhere for the office of a 
bishop, for which I then felt, and nov/ feel, that he was pre- 
eminently better fitted, in all such the highest respects, than 
many, liis juniors, on the bench of bishops." 

In reference to the same period, his son, in his " Recol- 
lections," has the folio wmg par'agraph : 

" One of the most unpleasant, nay, painful passages in 
the hfe of Dr. Milnor, was the part which he felt it his duty 
to take on the trial of his own diocesan. While he deeply 
deplored the necessity which called him forth, he shrunk not 



488 ' MEMOIR OF DE,. MILNOR. 

from the obligation which Christian duty imposed. Many 
different opinions have heen expressed, and many unkind 
reflections made, on the course which he took. Those, how- 
ever, who attributed it to other motives than a deep sense 
of the duty which he owed his church and his office as a 
minister of God, little understood the individual whom they 
assumed to judge. His diocesan and himself had long been 
on terms of friendly intercourse. He had carefully refrained, 
even in the bosom of his own family, from speaking of for- 
mer delinquencies ; trusting, with his wonted unsuspecting 
generosity, to professed penitence and promised reformation. 
But when he fully believed that he had been disappointed, 
and that the probation had been abused, his resolution was 
taken. All personal considerations were merged in regard 
for the welfare of the church and the cause of religion. The 
evidence which he gave on the trial was clear and consist- 
ent ; and the attempts which were made to shake his credi- 
bility as a witness, on the score of failing memory, or on 
that of intentional misrepresentation, alike failed, and re- 
coiled on their authors. His memory was but too retentive, 
and his tale too truthful for many who listened ; while the 
doubting minds of some on the bench were settled by it in 
coincidence with the verdict which was rendered. Dr. Mil-, 
nor, I know, felt deeply the exceedingly unkind remarks of 
one of the bishops respecting his testimony. He repeatedly 
spoke of them to me, and mentioned that he had been 
strongly advised to notice them. No difference of opinion, 
he thought, should have induced a man so completely to 
forget Christian kindness and the respect due to age." 

As soon as, the verdict and sentence with wliich the 
trial closed had been pronounced, and even Avhile the 
church throughout the land was rocking amid the agita- 
tions which followed. Dr. Milnor again withdrew, as much 
as possible, into the retirement of his own parish and liis 
own thoughts ; composed and peaceful in the approbation 
of his conscience, and desirous above all things of cultiva* 



ills MINISTRY. 489 

ino- closeness of communion with God and heaven. Nor 
was it lonjr ere the state of mind to which he was brouijht 
by his ilhiess of the previous winter, was again comfortingly- 
regained. To each period the following remarks of his son, 
m the " Recollections," are equally appropriate. 

" The dangers which threatened the church and the 
cause of evangelical religion, from the controversies and 
convulsions of the day, he dreaded much, and constantly 
deplored. But amid them all, he strove to live m a calm 
and sacred self-possession. I heard a conversation between, 
him and the Rev. Mr. Walter, while the latter was tempo- 
rarily supplying his pulpit during his dangerous illness, in 
which he very feehngly alluded to those controversies and 
convulsions, and remarked that he had long tried to keep 
himself aloof from all contentions, and to devote himself, 
with redoubled vigilance, to his own parish. Years were 
creeping upon him, the fire of youth was abated, and the 
holy calm of eternity was settling on liis spirit." 

It would be wrong, however, to infer from what has 
been said, that the calm of his ripened age was spent in the 
contemplations of solitude. He was still a hard-working 
man in the cause of general benevolence, as w^ell as in the 
rounds of parochial duty; and, during the winter of 1845, 
became deeply interested in a contemplated movement which 
had for its object the accommodation of many in the upper 
part of New York, especially of those of his parishioners who 
were led, by the pressure of a growing city, to remove to an 
inconvenient distance from St. George's. Such were the 
constantly increasing demands of business for space in which 
to operate, that the dwellmgs of the wealthy and of the poor 
in the old and lower parts of the, city, were more and more 
rapidly transformed into shops and stores, and their occu- 
pants compelled to seek their residences in other and more 
distant neighborhoods. The regular worshippers at St. 
George's were, indeed, drawn towards tlieu* old place by the 
strong bond of personal affection and veneration for him 'W ho 

2i# 



490 MEMOIR OF LR. MILNOR. 

had so long been their chosen spiritual guide ; and not a few 
of them, disregarding distance, were still constant attendants 
on his ministry. Nevertheless, general tendencies were too 
manifest and too strong to be either disregarded or resisted ; 
and Dr. Milnor and his vestry became, during the winter of 
1845, earnestly engaged in considering the question which 
was thus brought home to their minds. Having an ample 
parish-endowment, and an endowment more ample still in 
the liberality of the parishioners, the plan upon which they 
fell was that of building a chapel in the upper part of the 
city, which should be appropriated to free sittings. The 
Avriter of the " Recollections " ascribes to his father the 
following views on the subject of the contemplated move- 
ment. 

"He long mourned over the changes which every spring 
brought among his parishioners. His congregation had be- 
come a shiftmg one, and he could not stem the current. It 
was setting resistlessly upwards. Still, no new edifice, how- 
ever splendid, could ever have taken the place, in his affec- 
tions, of old St. George's. It had been, for nearly thirty 
years, the field, fruitful and extensive, of his labors ; and to 
no other could he ever have transferred the feelmgs of home 
and the interests of life. His views in relation to the pro- 
posed edifice were in strict accordance with the lovely sim- 
plicity of his character. He desired a plain, modest building, 
in which the rich and the poor could worship God together. 
For the sake of the latter, the -sittings were to be free. He 
loved the poor. He never forgot the Saviour's words, * To 
the poor the gospel is preached.' Throughout his ministry, 
they received a large portion of his care." 

After his recovery in the winter of 1844, he enjoyed his 
usual health and vigor, both of body and of mind, insomuch 
that but for his thin white locks, he might well have been 
mistaken for a man of sixty, instead of one near the opening 
of his seventy-third year. His form was still unbent, and 
his step quick and firm ; his voice was strong and free from 



HIS MINISTRY. 491 

tremulousness, and his eye bright and full of expression ; his 
complexion, too, wore its usual unwrinlded and ruddy fresh- 
ness, and all his faculties of mind seemed as quick and un 
dimmed as ever. In short, the approaches of age manifested 
themselves in little more than his grovi^ing fondness for repose 
and quiet meditation, and an increasing aversion to the strifes 
and noises of the age ; and even these feelings- seemed, in a 
good degree, the promptings of a consciousness, never absent, 
that his years could not be many, and that his constitutional 
tendency exposed him every day to a sudden arrest and sum- 
mons to depart. Under this consciousness, he may be said 
to have been now living and laboring hy the day. 

On Sunday, the 6th of April, he preached an admirable 
discourse on the subject of " « charitable judgment of the 
opinions and conduct of other s^ in which, without profess- 
ing to do so, he yet really and ably illustrated and defended 
his own principles and life in all his past intercourse with 
Christians of different names. And on the evening of Tues- 
day, the 8th of the same month, he presided in his own 
study at a meeting of the Directors of the Deaf and Dumb 
Institution, of which he was one of the founders, and had 
long been a beneficent patron. It was at the close of this 
meeting, that one of the directors congratulated liim on liis 
appearance of good health, and that in reply to the congrat- 
ulation, he laid his hand upon his breast, and said, " I have 
something here^ sir, that warns me to expect death at any 
moment." The warning was not causeless. In five hours 
from the adjourmnent of the du'ectors, his body lay — a life- 
lessform! 

What an appropriate gathering of incidents I His last 
deed for the cause of Christ was amid labors of benevolence ; 
his last sermon to his flock was an elucidation of his whole 
Christian life;^ and one of his last words showed, that 

* The last sermon which he ever preached was to the inmates of 
the "Asylum for Respectable Aged and Indigent Females," on the 
afternoon of Sunday, April 6, two days before his death. Those in- 



492 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

though in apparently perfect health, he was yet waiting 
to die. 

Thus suddenly, and with little note of preparation, have 
we reached the event to which these pages have been tend- 
ing. But not more suddenly, nor with less note of prepara- 
tion, lias it now come upon the reader, than it actually broke 
upon the family, on that sad night of the 8th of April, 1845, 
and upon the public ear, on the sorrowful morning of the fol- 
lowing day. The particulars of his death are furnished in 
the following letter from his son, who was his only medical 
attendant and nurse, and who wrote to Mr. Winston soon 
after the event. 

" Dear Sir — At your, request, I will give you a brief 
account of the closing scene of my dear father's life. For 
some days previous to his death, his general health appeared 
to be improved. There seemed to be a rallying of the pow- 
ers of nature for a last effort. You will recollect with what 
strength of voice and energy of manner his last sermon in 
our church was delivered. At home, he was cheerful and 
happy ; engaging with all the animation and spirit of earlier 
years, in the new arrangements which were in contemplation. 
On the morning of Tuesday, the day which was to close liis 
career, he appeared at family prayer and breakfast as well as 
usual. At noon, I saw him writing at the very desk from 
which these lines to you will issue, complaining of no ail- 
ment. I cautioned him respecting the change of weather, 
and left him. 

" On our reunion at the dinner-table, he informed me 
that during his walk that morning, his oppression and diffi- 
culty of breathing had been much worse than usual. 
what a pang shot through my own heart on listening to these 
words. For a year past, I had been confident that he labor- 
mates were much attached to him, and at the close of the service, 
crowded around to bid hira, what they little thought was to be, a 
last farewell. 



HIS MINISTRY. 493 

• 
ed under a disease of the heart, which was incurable, and 

would, in all probability, terminate instantly. Although I 
never distinctly told him my own opinion of his situation, 
and though to me the end seemed to be slowly, but surely 
approaching, and once that very day I had avoided a direct 
answer to his question, whether he had not a disease of the 
heart ; yet for a long time he was convinced that such M^as 
the case, and was unquestionably expecting a sudden termi- 
nation of life. I advised him to keep quiet at home for the 
remainder of the day ; and he did so" — presiding, however, 
as we have seen, at the meeting in his study of the Direc- 
tors of the Deaf and Dumb Institution, and uttering the im- 
pressive words which have already been quoted. 

" At tea I saw no change. I sat with him until eight, 
and then left him r^.ding. At half past nine, I visited him 
again ; he was still reading, and said he felt comfortable. 
At ten, I heard him pass my room door on his way to bed. 
He called loudly on my younger brother, who slept with him, 
to come to bed, and then retired to his own room. I was 
waiting until sufficient time had elapsed for his undressing 
before I made him my usual final visit for the night, when 
my brother entered, and bade me come immediately. On 
reaching his room, I found him sitting upon his bed in great 
distress, and gasping for breath ; not worse, however, than 
I had often seen him before, when, by the blessing of God, I 
had been able to relieve him. I immediately administered 
the usual draught. He complained of great coldness, and 
said, 'Henry, I am dying — / mn dying' I prepared a 
still stronger remedy, and while mixing it heard him calmly 
'praying, ' God have mercy ; have mercy — ' " [Something 
scarcely audible, the writer says, was added ; but whether it 
was a prayer for himself, his family, or his flock, he could 
not distinguish. This only could he perceive, that it was 
the prayer of a soul at peace, and sweetly breathing out its 
desires to God ] " On my presenting him the mixture, he 
doubted his ability to swallow. I begged him to make the 



494 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

attempt. He did so, and succeeded. In a few moments lie 
became insensible ; his breath grew softer ; and his spirit 
passed so quietly away, that I knew not the exact moment 
of its passing. 

" So went to his gracious reward this best of fathers, full 
of years and of honors in his Saviour's cause. He died with 
his harness on. He had long stood watching at the portals 
of eternity, listening for the Spirit's song to call him home. 
That strain was sounding in his ears when I reached his 
bedside. It was not for human voice to call him back when 
the heavenly Harper was bidding him away. 
" Yours, very truly, 

"WM. H. MILNOR." 

To show how deliberately and habitually, though in 
silence and by himself, he had for some time been "setting 
his house in order," in expectation of a sudden death, the fol- 
lowing extract from the " Recollections" is given : 

" The last sermon which he began to write, was from 
Psalm 16 : 8 : ' I have set the Lord ahvays before me : be- 
cause he is at my right hand, I shall not he onoved.^ The 
manuscript is now before me. Only one page is finished, 
and that page closes with the following sentence, the last he 
'ever wrote for his people : ' The faithful servant of God 
desires not only to cultivate an habitual regard to his pres- 
ence, as a matter of duty^ but also to enjoy a constant &en%e 
of that presence, as a sipecial privilege.' How soon was he 
permitted to enjoy, not a mere foretasting sense, but the act- 
ual presence of God himself! 

"As he had for some time evidently been looking for a 
sudden call, so all his actions seemed to have a reference to 
it. Thus, all his accounts were carefully made up, and use- 
ful memoranda were placed where they could easily be found. 
He had indeed 'set his house in order.' 

" A few days before his death, liis daughter Ellen's health 
required a change of climate, and her mother accompanied 
her to the South. He yielded to the necessity of the case, 



HIS MINISTRY. 496 

but parted from them with great reluctance. He doubtless 
felt, that so far as earth is concerned, the parting would be 
final. He stood on the wharf with me gazing after them till 
they were lost in the distance, and then, with an attempt at 
cheerfulness which I saw he did not feel, turned away." 

The reference in this extract to his sad parting with his 
wife, explains an allusion in the foregoing letter, to the fact 
that a " younger brother" slept with his father. There was 
a sort of unacknowledged recognition of the truth, that it 
had become unsafe for him to sleep alone. Nor was Elea 
nor's afflictive and protracted illness, with the consequent 
absence of her mother and herself, the only circumstance 
which, at that moment, tended to make the rectory of St. 
George's more than usually lonely. The youngest son was 
at the same time on his way to Europe, in the prosecution 
of the business m which he had engaged. Thus almost alone 
did the master of the mansion pass away. And yet he was 
not alone, for, besides the hand of filial tenderness that minis- 
tered to his case, God was with him ; and with that presence 
his departing soul was doubtless satisfied. He felt the Lord 
^^ at his right ha7id/^ and therefore he was "not moved.^^ 
In the calmness of prayer he communed with his Father even 
while passing the gate of death ; and therefore breathed his 
soul away so softly, even as it had been a babe falling quietly 
asleep on its mother's bosom. 

From this brief notice of the good man's death, of the 
circumstances under which it occurred, and of his prepara- 
tion for the event, we naust pass to dwell a few moments on 
the impression which it made on the public mind, and on the 
regards which were paid to his memory. 

It may be said with truth, that seldom, if ever, have 
simultaneous and wide-spread expressions of public grief tes- 
tified more loudly or more touchingly to the worth of a de- 
parted man of God, than those which were poured forth upon 
the announcement of Dr. Milnor's sudden demise. He had 
not been living m his closet alone, nor in his study chiefly, 



496 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

perusing or producing those volumes wliich elicit the world's 
loud praises or louder strictures, to soothe or to torture the 
living author's ear. " Fruitur suafama'' could indeed be 
said of him, if not as a living scholar, at least as a living 
actor, moving among the multitudes whom his beneficent 
life had blessed, and enjoying the secret consciousness of a 
well-earned fame. Still, it was not during life that even as 
an actor in its busy scenes, his worth was fully proclaimed, 
and his praises fully uttered. Towards the living philanthro- 
pist, the living man of beneficent activity, the world often 
behaves not only with something of fitting modesty, lest its 
praises should seem like flattery, but also with something of 
apparent indifTerence, because not fully conscious of the bless- 
ings which it is receiving. In such cases, it is only when 
the instrument of those blessings is removed, that men awake 
to a true sense of their indebtedness, or give free vent to the 
emotions which had been silently growing into strength 
within them. It was so in the present case. Although he 
was* a well-read divine, yet he was most emphatically a man 
of action. In this character, 'too, the Christian world knew 
him widely, and widely appreciated the great value of his 
services ; yet it was not till he was gone, that it was pre- 
pared fully to express its appreciatiwr, or even fully to realize 
the value of what it appreciated. But when death came, 
and he no longer walked among living men, then his true 
worth was felt in the distressful void produced : grief burst 
forth on every hand ; and deep acknowledgments to God 
were made for the rare blessing so long enjoyed, so late 
removed. The religious press, of every Christian denom- 
ination, and in every part of the country, spoke forth the 
strength and fervor of the common sentiment ; nor was even 
the secular press either less prompt or less emphatic in its 
utterances. The various societies, greater and smaller, of 
which he had been a member, met and mourned, and gave 
published expressions of their sorrows and their sense of loss. 
The clergy of his own church, of all orders and of all opin- 



HIS MINISTRY. 497 

ions, united in heart-felt tributes to his memory and his 
worth. The great anniversaries in New York, which oc- 
curred soon after his death, spread throughout Protestant 
Christendom the loud wail of sorrow for the dead, and the 
equally loud note of gratitude to God that the dead had lived. 
The pulpit, especially of the Episcopal church, gave voice in 
cities and in villages to the universal feeling ; and m many 
of the religious periodicals of the country, obituaries of vari- 
ous length swelled the testimony of the day to the truth, 
that a greatly good and a greatly useful Christian had gone 
to his rest. And finally, private letters and official commu 
nications, from individuals and from societies, poured into 
the bosom of the bereaved household, in unstinted measure, 
the healing balms of sympathy and of a just appreciation of 
the character and services of its departed head. 

The attempt to collect what was thus, in various forms, 
done and said and published, would of itself require a vol 
ume ; and therefore will not here be made. For this place 
the foregoing allusions will suffice. 

The funeral took place on Friday, at four o'clock, P. M., 
and was a most affecting and solemn ceremony. "So in- 
tense," says one of the published notices of the event, " was 
the desire on the part of the public to pay the last tribute of 
respect to his memory, that the galleries of St. George's 
church were filled some hours before the time announced for 
the interment ; and so soon as the doors were opened, and 
the coffin was carried into the church, the spacious building 
was filled to overflowmg. Among those present, were clergy- 
men of nearly every denomination, including most of those 
belonging to the Episcopal church, the respective Boards 
of the American and New York Bible Societies, the Tract 
Society, the Deaf and Dumb Institution, and all the pupils." 
" The church was apparelled in deep mourning, and the chan- 
deliers were veiled in black crape." " The choir sung the 
anthem, ' Vital spark of heavenly flame ;' and the E,ev. Dr. 
Tyng delivered the funeral address — often laboring under 



498 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

deep emotion, only repressed with great effort ; and many of 
both sexes wept nearly the whole time of its delivery." 

A similar scene was presented the next Sunday morning-, 
when the funeral sermon was delivered. In that scene, it 
is true, there were no public representatives of either eccle- 
siastical or benevolent organizations, and the sentiment 
which prevailed was somewhat sobered in its tone by the 
fact that ''the narroiv liouse" of the dead was no longer 
visible to the eye. But the house of God was similarly 
crowded, and a sacredly tender solemnity breathed over the 
great congregation, and through the affecting services of the 
mornmg ; as if it were a consciousness, that though the 
form of the holy dead was sleeping beneath, yet his spirit 
was still hovering above, and holding, deep-felt, with his sor- 
rowing friends, the mystic " communion of saints." 

His remains repose beneath the chancel from w^hich he 
so often delighted to dispense the symbols of his Saviour's 
love ; while in the recess, on a lofty base, rises a beautiful 
marble bust, which by its faithful likeness, speaks continu- 
ally to long-lived feelings of love and veneration in the hearts 
of his surviving and affectionate flock. 



RETROSPECT OF HIS LIFE. 499 



PAET VI. 

RETROSPECT OF DR. MILNOR'S LIFE AND 
CHARACTER. 



All that now remains to be done, in giving to the world 
the life of this faithful servant of Christ, is to present some 
general views of his position, influence, and character, upon 
which, during the progress of the work, it has not been con- 
venient to dwell. Upon several pouits, little could be said 
with effect before reaching the termination of liis course. 
They are seen to better advantage in looking back, and 
regarding them as fixed points, than in looldng at them by 
the way, and regarding them as raioving points. There are 
several thino^s which run throuo:h his Christian and ministe- 
rial life, and being chiefly of uniform tenor, present few occa- 
sions for special remark ; but which, when seen m their com 
pleteness, as each a whole, well deserve particular considera- 
tion. Whatever was special in the matters to which refer- 
ence is here made, has received sufficiently special notice in 
passing. Hence, to general views only is the reader's atten- 
tion now to be directed. 

I. DR. MILNOR'S CONNECTION WITH THE AMERICAN 
BIBLE SOCIETY. 

This connection was formed almost contemporaneously 
with his entrance upon the ministry, was based on principle,- 
and was therefore consistently and perseveringly maintain- 
ed. The principle on which he acted. in his early and con- 
tinued comiection with that great institution, maybe thus 
unfolded. 

"^ He regarded all bodies, professedly Christl^jst, who hold 
the Bible as their rule of faith, on the ground of its divine 
inspiration and authority, as, in some valid sense, parts of 



500 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

the visible Church of Christ. He was not of the number 
of those who hmit the boundaries of this Church, so as to 
include those millions only which are covered by an episco- 
pally constituted ministry and government, and who conse- 
quently regard the remainmg millions of Christians, so called, 
as neither churches, nor parts of the Church, but as, in their 
collective states, certain nameless monstrosities, engendered, 
amid the outer darkness of the world, by the few. rays of 
light which have happened to straggle beyond the favored 
pale of privilege. On the contrary, he looked upon these 
niillions*as lying within that pale ; as in the Church, and of 
the Church ; as being, many of them, highly illuminated, 
and as animated with much of the best life and power of the 
gospel of Christ. Taking this view, he held that there is a 
UNITY which reaches and includes all who are thus distui- 
guished — a unity which holds in one visible whole all the 
particular members of Christ on earth. Of this unity, there- 
fore, he held that there ought to be, especially among Prot- 
estants, some visible exiDression, some recognized badge. 
This visible expression, this recognized badge, so far as our 
,| country is concerned, he could find nowhere more appropri- 
y ately than in the union of Christians of different names in 
THE AmefwIcan Bible Society, an institution whose sole 
work is to prepare and circulate through the world the simple 
standard of their common faith, hope, and practice. The 
question with him was not so much whether such a union 
were at present literally practicable and harmoniously main- 
tainable, as whether it were not desirable, and ought not, as 
far and as fast as possible, to be realized : whether it were 
not, in the highest sense, important to the efficiency, the 
growth, the best interests of the Church of Christ. Answer- 
ing this question as his soberest Christian judgment con- 
strained him to answer it, the decision left nothing in him 
for doubt, wavering, or hesitation. He gave to such a union 
his unqualified allegiance ; and it Avas one of the great 
works of his Christian life to embody, illustrate, and extend 



HETROSPECT OF HIS LIFE. 501 

the practicability, the benefits, and the blessedness of living- 
in so divine a bond. 

Entermg this union, then, with such views, the question 
naturally arises. What were the position wliich he held, the 
influence which he exerted, and the labors which he perform- 
ed, in connection with the American Bible Society ? To 
this question, an answer in part may be drawn from the fore- 
going narrative of his muiisterial life. But an answer in full 
requires a farther statement. And, happily, with the mate- 
rials for such a statement we have been furnished by the 
excellent Corresponding Secretary of the Society, the Rev. 
Dr. Brigham, so long one of the worthy associates of Dr. 
Milnor in the conduct of the institution. The materials fur- 
nished by Dr. Brigham are, indeed, but a summary. In the 
following statement, therefore, they will be used without 
strict confinement to the language in which they have been 
communicated. They are valuable for the dates and facts 
which they certify, and for the views of character which, as 
the result of long and familiar intercourse, they express. 

"This distinguished man became interested in the cause 
of the Bible before his removal from Pennsylvania ; and his 
interest there was strongly favored by the well-known views 
of his beloved diocesan. Bishop White. Upon his settlement 
in New York, in the summer and fall of 1816, the Ameri- 
can Bible Society had been but a few months in existence. 
He lost no time in connecting himself with it as an active 
member ; and continued to labor in its service until the very 
week of liis decease. 

"In 1819 he was appomted Domestic Secretary; an 
office which involved an active correspondence with the 
various branches, auxiliaries, and agents of the institution 
throughout the United States. In this capacity too, he pre- 
pared and presented the fourth annual report of the society, 
at its amiiversary in May, 1820; an able and interesting 
document of forty- five octavo pages. In 1 820 he was ap- 



502 MEMOIE, OF DR. MILNOH. 

pointed Foreign Secretary, as successor to the Rev. Dr. Ma- 
son ; and in this cajmcity he maintained, for many years, an 
active correspondence with the British and Foreign Bible 
Society ; thus bringing the experience and counsels of that 
great institution to the aid of the younger organization which 
he represented. It was in his capacity as Foreign Secretary, 
that Dr. Milnor represented the American Bible Society in 
London, during the great -anniversaries in the spring of 1830. 

" But his most important services in this cause were 
rendered, in connection with committees, and the board, in 
the transaction of business. For many years he was chan'- 
man of the committee on versions ; a committee whose 
duty it was to examine and certify the correctness of all the 
Scriptures published and circulated in various languages, at 
home and abroad. After the publication of the facsimile 
copy of ' King James' Bible' in 1837, he and his associates 
on the committee, aided by a skilful proof-reader, compared 
that issued by the society with the copy referred to, and 
carefully noted every instance of change which in the course 
of two centuries had occurred. This, of itself, was a labor 
of no ordinary magnitude, and resulted in giving to the soci- 
ety a STANDARD, for wliicli all its members and friends should 
be grateful. 

" For the last ten years of his life. Dr. Milnor was also 
chairman of the committee charged with the duty of making 
arrangements for the successive anniversaries of the society ; 
and it was on business with this committee that he made 
"his last visit to the Bible-house. At this meeting the 
arrangements for the twenty-nmth anniversary were com- 
pleted ; the speakers were engaged, the place of meeting for 
the anniversary was secured, and all things were ready. 
But when, a few days afterwards, the anticipated gathering 
of the friends of the Bible took place, he, who had done so 
much towards giving shape and order to the proceedings, 
was not there. He had been called from his willing labors, 
and had entered on his gracious reward.'' 



RETROSPECT OF HIS LIFE. 503 

The following is the notice of his character and services 
which the Board of Managers took in their twenty-ninth 
report : 

" Within a few days, one who had been a devoted fel- 
low-laborer, and was chairman of the committee to make 
arrangements for this anniversary, has been called in a mo- 
ment from his associates, leaving a vacancy in the society 
which few or none can fill. It may not be improper to 
record, with more minuteness, some of the qualities which 
rendered Dr. Milnor so peculiarly useful in this institution. 

" One quality v/as his familiarity ivith business. Hav- 
ing been trained, in early life, to the legal profession, and 
for many years engaged in it, as well as occupied, to some 
extent, in legislative proceedings, he was prepared often- 
times to render a service here which ordinary clergymen 
could not. On questions connected with finance, making of 
contracts, charitable bequests, and rules of order, his coun- 
sels were often of great service. 

" Another quality was his candor, or freedom from 'prej- 
udice. In a body like this, composed of men educated and 
trained under very differing circumstances, it might be ex- 
pected that questions difficult of adjustment would some- 
times arise. Occasionally they did arise. But the deceased 
approached all such questions with a frankness, sincerity, 
and kindness of manner which secured the confidence of his 
associates, making them feel that truth and right were the 
only objects of his aim. All listened with candor to what 
he proposed. His open and courteous demeanor in tliis body, 
for more than a quarter of a century, has had much to do 
in promoting that harmony and mutual confidence which so 
generally prevail in its deliberations. 

" Another, and a crowning quality, was his scriptural 
and catholic piety. While he was sincerely and avowedly 
attached to the peculiarities of his own denomination, he 
could rejoice in discovering the image of Christ under any 
outward form ; and where he could consistently, he united 



604 MEMOIR OF DH. MILNOR. 

with those who bore that image, ui diffusing, among the 
ignorant and perishing, the blessings of a common Chris- 
tianity. In the Bible cause, this noble, fraternal spirit had 
ample scope. Having one common book to prepare and cir- 
culate — and that the divine book — and receiving it heartily 
as the only infallible rule of faith and practice, he could 
labor with his might for its diffusion ; and, to enlarge the 
measure of success, could unite with all who held it in like 
estimation, and thus aim, if possible, to impart its light to 
every benighted creature. 

" (Qualities like these, united with a rare cheeo'fulness 
and urbanity of manners^ not only rendered the deceased 
of great service to this institution, but made him, at the 
same time, one of the most endeared of friends. There is 
no one of his associates but feels that he has sustained a per- 
sonal loss, and all will cherish in sweet remembrance the 
bright example which has been so long before them." 

Thus far the annual report. The following remarks by 
Dr. Brigham are m the same spirit : "I became connected, 
with the society in 1826, young and inexperienced. I felt 
the need of much counsel, and sought it from those who 
had been long connected with the board. As Dr. Milnor 
still performed many of the duties of foreign secretary, and 
was chairman of one, and sometimes of two standmg com- 
mittees, I was led, as a matter of necessity, to seek his 
advice. I was, at times, obhged to call on him when he 
was pressed with business, and more than once or twice to 
see him in his sick room, and in more or less pain. Yet in 
all my interviews with him, I never found him irritable or 
repulsive, but ever kind, affable, and ready to do all in his 
power to solve my doiibts, and help on the good cause in 
which we were engaged. 

" On committees he was ever punctual, courteous, intel- 
ligent, and of course influential; and it was always felt, by 
his associates, to be a pleasure thus to labor with him in 
their great common cause. 



RETROSPECT OF HIS LIFE. 505 

" One noble trait in his cliaracter I early noticed, and 
have often had occasion to admire ; I mean his candor, his 
readiness to recognize and follow truth, wherever and when- 
ever discerned, without inquiring what this or that man or 
party would say. I have seen him, after earnestly defend- 
ing one side of a question, find, on presentation of evidence, 
that he had been mistaken ; and then, with a disinterested 
frankness, say that he saw reason to change his views and 
his vote. I have seen him do this 'when very few would 
have done so, although all were constrained to admire his 
course. This smcere, catholic spirit of his has had much to 
do in giving harmony to the operations of the board ; and 
my hope is, that a remembrance of his example will long 
exert a salutary influence." 

It is of course impossible, from so brief a statement as 
the foregoing, even with the aid of what has been said in 
earher pages of the Memoir, to estimate truly the amount 
of labor which, in the course of nine and twenty years, must 
have been performed by so active and ever-punctual a mem- 
ber of the Bible Society. But although the amount of his 
labors may not be easily estimated, yet the importance of 
his position, and the dignity with which he maintamed liim- 
self in it, may without difficulty be apprehended. In that 
position, indeed, he was strongly assailed by influences which 
it was most difficult to resist. But he stood firm till the 
«torm of opposition and obloquy had spent its force, and 
then for long years calmly maintained his standing amid the 
sunshine of general favor ; Christians of all Protestant names 
admiring his consistency and his constancy, and multitudes 
of his own denomination in particular, rallying round him 
m the heavenly cause of union for the dissemination of the 
pure word of God. In this latter respect liis influence was 
precious. To his quiet perseverance the Episcopal church 
owes much of its present interest in the cause of the Ameri- 
can Bible Society. Had he quailed before the stern frown 

Mem. MUnor. 22 



506 MEMOlit OF DIl. MILNOE. 

of opposition, spirits of feebler nerve would never have ven- 
tured to meet the intimidation. But he lived long enough 
to see that frown die of self-exhaustion ; and now the cause 
has a hold on our church which cannot easily be broken. 
Henceforth, it is opposition that will be afraid to take its 
stand in public. It may murmur in private, but it is too 
feeble for overt acts. The cause of union, the union of 
Christian hearts and labors, without any sacrifice of essential 
principles, is incalculably indebted to the dignified stand so 
firmly taken and so calmly held by the late rector of St. 
George's. 

II. DR. MILNOR'S CONNECTION WITH THE AMERI- 
CAN TRACT SOCIETY. 

This was but the consistent carrying out of the principle 
involved in his connection with the American Bible Society. 
If the Bible contain the whole of a common Christianity, 
and be the only infallible standard of its truths, so as to 
render a union of Christians for the distribution of the Bible 
desirable and practicable, and at the same time a suitable 
visible expression of the unity wliich reaches and includes 
all really Bible Christians, then certainly there must be a 
unity which extends to a still further point. A unity which 
includes those who recognize the Bible as their only standard 
of infallible authority, clearly supposes that there is, in the 
Bible, a body of truths or doctrines which are held and cher- 
ished, if not by all who call themselves Christians, yet by 
all who really are Christians ; that these truths, or doctrines, 
however men may difler about other things in the Bible, are 
certainly discoverable ; that the unity of true Christians, in 
holding them, is not a vision of something that ought to be, 
but a verity that actually exists ; and that, therefore, of this 
unity also there ought to be some visible expression, some 
recognized badge. This expression and badge, then, of the 
unity of all true Christians in holding the essential and vital 
truths or doctrines of a common Christianity, are what the 
organization of the American Tract Society was designed tp 



RETROSPECT OF HIS LIFE. 507* 

furnish. This institution is organized on the principle of 
publishing and circulating those truths only which all evan- 
gelical Christians agree in regarding as vital ; that is, e^&en- 
tial to salvation, or sufficient, when blessed by the Spirit, 
and received into the faith of the heart, to msure the salva- 
tion of all who thus receive them. The institution is based 
on t\vo great axioms in Christian ethics : 1 . That it is idle 
to expect that all true Christians will think exactly alike, 
or adopt precisely the same opinions on all external, or even 
all subordinate internal points of the Christian system. 2. 
That it is worse than idle, it is disastrous to the best hopes 
of the gospel, to allow the divisions which have taken place 
upon external, or upon subordinate internal points of Chris- 
tianity, to run into total and hostile separations, so as to 
leave no visible sign or badge of the unity which really 
exists in matters both internal and essential, marking aU 
true Christians as one saved body in Christ. Such is the 
standing point of the American Tract Society. It leaves all 
Christians unmolested in their opinions, and support of opin- 
ions, on points not fundamental, and seeks the union of all 
true Christians under at least one outward sign and badge 
of their real unity in whatever is essential or sufficient to 
salvation. In dignity and value, beauty and lovehness, it is 
twin sister to the Bible Society ; second in birth, and only 
second in its claims to profound affection and regard. 

Dr. Milnor felt all this in the deepest sensibihties of his 
renewed nature. He saw Christians of various names ac- 
knowledging one Bible, yet wanting somethmg visible and 
tangible to show that they all belonged to one and the same 
body of Christ. The moment, therefore, the plan of the 
American Tract Society was submitted to him in his sick 
room, in the winter of 1825, just after he began his return 
from the brink of the grave, he adopted it with the freest. 
fuUest action of his feelings and his judgment, inserted per- 
manent modifications into its constitution, and identified 
himself for hfe with its founders, its history, and its fortunes. 



,508 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

All account of these incidents has ah'eady been given, but of 
all that followed little or nothing has yet been said. Dr. 
Milnor's labors in the Tract Society were even more abun- 
dant than those in the Bible cause. Its faithful Secretary, 
however, the Rev. Mr. Hallock, who laid the plan of the 
society before Dr. Milnor in his sick room, and who contin- 
ued to labor with him until his death, has furnished us with 
the materials for su-ch a statement as is needed to bring out 
this part of the Memoir into proper distinctness. 

"New York, Jan. 29, 184G. 
« REV. DR. STONE : 

"K-ESPECTED AND DEAR SiR — I prcscut you herewith cop- 
ies of letters and documents written by Dr. Milnor, to which 
you may wish to refer in preparing his Memoir. They may 
serve as way-marks of his labors for twenty years in connec- 
tion with the American Tract Society. But what he did 
and desired for this institution better appears in its nearly 
twelve hundred publications, stereotyped under his sanction, 
together with two thousand approved for circulation in for- 
eign lands ; in the spread of the Society's influence in this 
and other countries ; and in the multitudes already, by these 
means, brought into the kingdom of Christ, and estabhshed 
in the hope of their eternal salvation. It is more fully 
written in the hearts of those who so long and so happily 
cooperated with him in these works of Christian beneficence. 
But it is fully known to God only, who saw every impulse 
of his benevolent heart, listened to every prayer which he 
offered for divine direction, and watched every hour of the 
consecration of his active and finely balanced mind to the 
great results already achieved, and destined, as we trust, 
long to bless our revolted world. In reference to this object, 
his course was one and the same from the hour when it was 
first proposed to him, to that in which God called liim to 
rest with his Hedeemer above. • 

" The impressions made on my mind, at my first inter- 
view during his illness, were but deepened by his uniform 



RETROSPECT OF HIS LIFE. 509 

course through twenty years. Knowing the pressure of his 
pubhc duties, I felt bound not needlessly to engross a mo- 
ment of his time. But his ear was ever open. If the cause 
of Christ demanded either counsel or labor, he was ready to 
give it ; and I can truly say, that m all he counselled and 
all he did, a supreme desire to honor the Redeemer by the 
advancement of his kingdom in the eternal welfare of men, 
and a desire cordially to unite evangelical Christians of every 
name in the work of God, seemed the predominant motives 
of his heart. I think it no disparagement to any other man, 
living or dead, to say, that I know of no one who exceeded 
Dr. Milnor m genuine catholic feehng. Perhaps few, if any, 
ever did so much to bind together truly evangelical Chris- 
tians. He himself was a bond that united thousands. His 
piety towards God and his love towards man were deep and 
enduring ; and his affection for the great foundation-truths of 
the gospel, of vital godliness, of the religion that humbles man, 
exalts God, and trusts in nothing but atoning blood and the 
power of the Holy Spirit, was stronger than death. 

" Every important measure adopted by the Society pre- 
vious to liis demise, passed under his sanction, and received 
his cordial concurrence. Every annual report was prepared 
under his supervision, and every anniversary was honored by 
his presence, except the report and the anniversary for 1830, 
when he went a delegate to the London Tract Society. His 
public addresses had a pow^erful interest ; and if any new 
modes of operation or other subjects of importance were to 
be presented, the duty was usually devolved on him, and was 
in all cases most acceptably and successfully performed. His 
talents for business, and for presiding, whether at large de- 
liberative meetings, or in the small committee; liis intuitive 
discernment of propriety ; his promptness in decisions ; his 
facihty and despatch in reaching desired results ; his dignity, 
mingled with sweetness, and sometimes almost playfulness 
of manner ; his uniform kindness and courtesy, and far- 
reachmg benevolence, rendered his presence always attrac- 



DlO MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

tive, and won him the love and the confidence of all who 
cooperated with him. 

"As an illustration of the reference to his 'sweetness 
and almost playfulness of manner,' when presiding on com- 
mittees, the following incident occurs to memory. At a 
meeting of the Executive Committee, when a letter from the 
Hon. Peter Browne, her majesty's charge d'affaires at Co- 
penhagen, had been read, expressing the most evangelical 
and catholic sentiments, ' I presume,' said the chairman, 
' that the writer of that letter must be an E'lnscojoalian ; 
first, from his orthodoxy, and second, from his love of Chris- 
tian union!' There was a mingled gravity and pleasantry 
perfectly mtelligible ui his manner, which very happily re- 
minded the circle of the confidence and Christian union 
which they were themselves enjoying. 

" He manifested to the last a growing attachment to the 
Society; and perhaps no man ever presided so long over 
committees so unanimous, and united by so sacred a bond. 
I think it is a fact, that he never heard 'nay' but in one 
single instance, to any question which, as chairman of the 
Tract Society's committees, he put, during the whole course 
of his twenty years' connection with them ; and in that in- 
stance the resolutions were reconsidered, and a unanimous 
result reached. 

" As chairman of the Executive Committee, his counsel 
was sought on all important questions coming before them ; 
and as chairman of the Publishing Committee, residing near 
the Society's house, and with the promptness and facility 
in business alluded to, almost every publication examined, 
went to him first ; and as those which he judged unworthy 
of further examination were not sent to the other members, 
he had a larger share of reading than the rest. Generally, 
he completed the examinations at the earliest practicable 
hour ; wrote his decisions in neat notes, that might be at 
hand when the committee should meet for final action, or 
that would be available in case of his sudden death, or 



ilETEOSPECT OF HIS LIFE. 511 

providential absence ; and promptly returned the books or 
manuscripts, that those which were to be read by others 
might be transmitted without needless delay. At the hour 
of his death, two such notes were actually in the Society's 
house, prepared for meetings which he did not live to at- 
tend ; and one of the two was a renewed and noble expres- 
sion of liis catholic feeling. 

" Near the close of his life, occurred an incident as in- 
teresting and as tender as any thing in the incipient stages 
of the Society's existence. 

"A highly respectable delegation from the committee of 
the branch American Tract Society at Boston, spent three 
days with the Executive Committee of the Society in New 
York, carefully considering the facts of its history, and the 
principles on which its operations had been conducted. Al- 
most the first murmur of complaint against the Society had 
recently been heard ; and it seemed to assume the form, of 
a question whether the Society's publications and aims were 
thorouglily and soundly spiritual and evangelical. This led 
to a review of the principal facts in the Society's history, 
and of the aims and motives by wliich the members of the 
committee had been governed ; and called up the most ten- 
der recollections of what God had done for the Society, 
while one and another gave a narrative of the past as it had 
affected his own mind. A large number of the original offi- 
cers were present ; and all the scenes of twenty years pre- 
senting themselves at a glance to the tender heart of our 
beloved chairman, more than once excited emotions which 
found relief in tears, and more than once prompted him to 
call on some one to address the throne of grace. On the 
morning of the third and last day, the first president of the 
Society unexpectedly entered ; and addressing the chairman, 
adverted to the prayer, and hope, and ties of Christian love, 
in which the institution was founded, and to the evident 
smiles of God which had attended all its course. The 
chairman commenced a reply ; but overcome by tender recol- 



512 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

lections, was obliged to sit down and compose himself before 
proceeding. On that occasion, he reminded the circle around 
him, that he had often thought his other and arduous du- 
ties might compel him to relinquish his labors on the Pub- 
lishing Committee ; but he now assured them, that while 
those labors should be needed, and while God spared his 
life, they should not be witliheld. 

" But I will not add. His record is on high. It cannot 
be fully given here. It is ever pleasant to dwell on his 
memory. God be praised for what he was. Thousands 
love the Society the better for all he did in it ; and the 
thought makes heaven the sweeter to our hope, that we 
shall there join our beloved chairman in praising our Re- 
deemer with perfect hearts and unfaltering tongues. The 
official documents of the Society bespeak the preciousness ol 
his memory ; and God hath said of such as he, ' They that 
be wise, shall shine as the brightness of the firmament ; and 
they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever 
and ever ' 

" "With great respect and esteem, 

'' Your brother in Christ, 

"WILLIAM A. HALLOCK." 

The letters and documents which accompanied the above 
valuable and acceptable paper, are of themselves, as illus- 
trative of Dr. Milnor's connection with the Tract Society, 
almost enough for a volume. Considering, therefore, the 
size which the Memoir has already reached, it must suffice 
to add a small selection as a sample of the whole. 

In obedience to the following mstructions, Dr. Milnor per- 
formed very important labors during his visit to London. 

"At a meeting of the Executive Committee, March 11, 
1830, it was 

" Resolved, That the Hev. Dr. Milnor be requested, in 
his contemplated visit to London, to ascertain, as far as 
practicable, the origin and history of such of the publications 
of the Heligious Tract Society in that city, as have been re- 



RETROSPECT OF HIS LIFE. 513 

printed by the American Tract Society ; especially how far 
such of them as are narratives, are a record o{ facts; and 
also the principles on which the London Tract Society have 
proceeded, in relation to the subject oi i^^niwg fictitious pub- 
lications." It was also 

" Resolved, That Dr. Mihior be requested, during his 
travels abroad, to obtain all such information, and to pro- 
cure a copy of such publications as, in his opinion, will be 
useful in the future labors of this committee." 

These instructions, it may be proper to remark, were 
founded on the principle, early adopted by the American 
Tract Society, that religious fiction concurs with ordinary 
novels ui vitiating the taste and morals of the age ; the fic- 
tion being read less for the valuable truths which it teaches, 
than for the unhealthy excitement which it supplies. On 
this ground, the narrative tracts of our Society are believed 
to be well-ascertained facts ; and in this respect, the institu- 
tion differs from many of the religious authors and institu- 
tions of the age, who have not scrupled to employ fiction as 
a vehicle of religious truth. The only apology for religious 
fiction lies in the plea, that as novel-reading is an almost 
universal indulgence of our times, it is better that children 
should read those fictions which may possibly communicate 
truth, than that they should devour those which will proba- 
bly instil error. This, however, leaves out of view the all- 
important considerations, that religious fictions, early placed 
in the hands of children, ordinarily generate a passion for 
the mischievous and more exciting novels of the day ; that 
they thus become the prime springs of corruption to their 
hterary tastes, unfitting their minds to feed on more solid 
and wholesome nutriment, and stimulating them till they 
become obese, or bloated by the masses of trash which they 
devour ; and that it is the duty of the Christian j)^'ess to 
counteract, instead of cooperating with, one of the most seri- 
ous evils that threaten the Christian Church. 

The following notes, a few only of the many wliich might 

22* 



614 MEMOiR OF DR. MILNOR. 

be given, present* a view of Dr. Milnor's position and action 
as chairman of the PubUshing Committee, and are valuable 
as embodying some of liis opmions both of authors and of 
doctrines, 

"New York, April 8, 1839. 

" Rev. Mr. Hallock — I have given the tract of Dr. 
Alexander, No. 393, on Justification by Faith, an attentive 
reading in its revised form. I believe it to be a coriect, 
scriptural, and clear view of the important doctrine of which 
it treats. It forms a compendium of what I have been 
preaching for more than twenty years, and presents, as I 
believe, the true and only method of a sinner's acceptance 
with God. What countless contentions would have been 
avoided, if this precious doctrine had been adhered to in all 
the definiteness of the apostle's teachings on the subject ; 
and if the pride of men had not led to so many contrivances 
to find some other way of salvation than that which the Holy 
Ghost has so clearly revealed in the sacred Scriptures. 

" Your affectionate brother in the hopes of a free and un- 
adulterated gospel, 

"J. MILNOR." 

DR. MILNOR'S JUDGMENT OF LAW'S SERIOUS CALL. 

"New York, April 8, 1839. 
"REV. MR. HALLOCK: 

" Dear Brother — I very much question the expediency 
of paying, as proposed, for the abridgment of this work. 
There are, besides this, three other abridgments : one by I 
know not whom ; a second by John Wesley ; and a third 
anonymous, published by Hatchard, London, in 1814. I do 
not know whether they are to be procured : but perhaps 
they may, and may be found preferable to this ; in which 
case,* if it is deemed ex2Jedie?it for zis to 2>ublish it at all, 
one of them might be used without expense to us. 

" Law was undoubtedly a most devout man ; and as 
this work was written before he run into the mysticism of 
Jacob Boehmen, it is free from the peculiarities of that sin- 



RETROSPECT OF HIS LIFE. 515 

gular man, and is, in truth, in one view a very useful book. 
As an exhibition of the folly, sin, and danger of a worldly 
life, and of the superior wisdom, excellence, and happiness 
of a life of piety and devotion, it is calculated to be practi- 
cally useful in a high degree. But I am not satisfied with 
the reason given, in. the preface to the abridgment, for his 
not laying aright the foundation of his intended superstruc- 
ture. He is deficient in not beginnmg with ' repentance 
towards God, faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ,' and the 
renewal of the heart by divine grace, as the spring of all 
true religion and all practical holuiess. Hannah More, in 
her ' Strictures on Female Education,' assigns Law the merit 
of deep insight into the human heart, and skill in probing its 
corruptions ; but she adds, ' Yet on points of doctrine, liis 
views do not seem to be just ; so that a general perusal of 
his works would neither be profitable or intelligible.' She 
adds, * Even in the Serious Call, Law is not a safe guide to 
evangelical light. As the mortified apostle, the holy, self- 
denying Baptist, preaching repentance because the kingdom 
of heaven is at hand, Mr. Law has no superior. As a 
preacher of salvation on scriptural grounds, I would follow 
other guides.' 

" As a dissuasive from a worldly, and an exhortation to 
a religious life ; as recommending fervent and unwearied de- 
votion, the consecration of ourselves and all we have to God, 
humihty, love, resignation to the divine will, etc., no work 
is superior. But the want of the foundation to which I 
have referred, gives a self-righteous aspect to the v/hole, 
wliich, though lessened by the expunging of numerous par- 
ticular expressions of the most exceptionable character, still 
leaves it without that evangelical basis which I wish all 
our publications prominently to display. 

"With so much to admire in a production which Dr. 
Johnson characterized as ' the first piece of hortatory the- 
ology in any language,' I am far from proscribing it, or 
denouncing it as a work not to be profitably read ; but con- 



516 MEMOIE, OF DU. MILNOH. 

sidering that there is m it scarcely an allusion of a distinct 
and decided character to the great subject of Dr. Alexander's 
tract" — which he had just approved — "I would say we 
might find other volumes better suited to our eva?igelical 

library than this. 

" Yours, affectionately, 

"JAMES MILNOU." 

The next note refers to one of the Tract Society's vol- 
umes, entitled " Bible Thoughts, bi/ Melvill.'" The volume 
consists of selections, by Dr. Milnor, from Melvill's pubhshed 
discourses. 

"New York, Sept. 14, 1839. 
" Rev. and dear Brother — I have read over all the 
sheets of Melvill ; and I think, corrected a number of errors 
that had been overlooked. With a good margin, it will 
make a beautiful volume ; and I am more convinced than 
ever, by a reperusal, that our labor has been well employed, 
and by its fruits will be well rewarded, in getting up this 
delightful work in its present form. I am persuaded, that 
from the compactness of views on the several topics embod- 
ied under each head, and the direction of the mind to each 
point by its title, it is destined to be more useful than the 
"whole volume, of which it contains the pith and substance. 

" Yours, truly, 

"J. MILNOR.'^ 
"Eev. Mr. Hallo CK." 

ON PUBLISHING VENN'S COMPLETE DUTY OF MAN. 

"New York, Aug. 16, 1841. 
** Hev. and dear Sir — ^It is several years since I read 
Venn's Complete Duty of Man ; but it was at a very inter- 
esting time in my religious course, and has ever since left an 
impression on my mind of the great value of the work. I 
have refreshed my recollection now by turning to some of its 
delightful chapters ; but do not think it necessary to detain 
the book from the perusal of our colleagues. If it commends 



RETROSPECT OF HIS LIFE. 517 

itself to their approval as it does to yours and mine, no un- 
necessary time will be lost in enriching our volume series 
with it. 

" I think it right to add, that this work — as well as the 
evangelical preaching of its author — contributed largely to 
reintroduce into the established church, or rather to revive, 
the slumbering spirit of the Reformation. Simeon, and Par- 
ish, and Cecil, and Scott, and the Milners, and Wilson, and 
a host of others, have in succession maintained the same 
principles. The Christian Observer and other Episcopal 
publications of the same spirit, are walking in Vemi's loot- 
steps, and under God will, I trust, form an effectual barrier 
to the assaults on spiritual religion, which are now made 
by the more than semi-popish Tractarians at Oxford. 

" J. MILNOR." 
"Rev. Mr. Hallock." 

In October, 1842, a public deliberative meeting of the 
board and friends of the American Tract Society was held 
during most of three days in the Broadway Tabernacle, New 
York, at the call of the Executive Committee, of which Dr. 
Milnor was chairman. This call was influenced by a belief, 
" that careful attention to its several spheres of labor, and 
discussion of the principles involved, would give definiteness 
to the conceptions of many as to its character and objects, 
and thus awaken prayer, liberality, and persevering effort, 
to bless the world with these means of grace." Among the 
many valuable documents presented at this meeting, was the 
following from Dr. Milnor ; and most fully does it breathe 
the spirit which characterized and governed his hfe. 

"THE HARMONY OF THE SOCIETY'S PROCEEDINGS. 

" ' Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell to- 
gether in unity.' 

" Among the many interesting topics deserving of notice 
on this extraordinary assemblage of friends of the American 
Tract Society, may be eminently ranked that of the very 



518 MEMOIR OP DR. MILNOR, 

remarkable harmony of feeling and action by which its past 
history has been distinguished. It would be ungrateful to 
that divine Being whose direction, in the management of its 
affairs, has been so constantly sought by its conductors, not 
to recognize, thankfully and devoutly, his special providence, 
and the benignant guidance of his Holy Spirit in all the way 
in which he has hitherto brought us. 

" The institution had its basis in the principle of broth- 
erly love. It was deemed possible for the disciples of a 
common Saviour, honestly divided from each other on some 
points of doctrine, discipline, and worship, and separated into 
different communities, cordially to unite in the dissemination 
of those great truths of their religion in which they harmo- 
niously concur, and which are indissolubly connected with 
the eternal well-being of the soul. It was not entirely a 
new experiment. Several small associations had been pro- 
ductive of much good. In Great Britain a similar effort, on 
a large scale, had been attended with an astonishing measure 
of success ; and it may be added, the great Society by which 
it has been prosecuted still mamtains its harmony, and con- 
tinues to bless that country and the world, through its nu- 
merous publications, with invaluable treasures of spiritual 
knowledge and practical instruction. Tract societies, both 
here and there, owe much of their prosperity, under the di- 
vine favor, to those well-considered principles of action which 
were adopted at the outset of these undertakings, as the basis 
of Christian union. 

" With whatever delight the Clmstian mind may con- 
template the happy period, how distant none can tell but He 
Avho ' knows the end from the beginning,' when on all points 
the followers of Christ shall see eye to eye, be * perfectly 
joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgment,' 
and all unite under one congenial banner, it was apparent to 
every considerate mind, that there were existing differences 
of opinion and practice among evangehcal Christians, which 
in such a combination must be left untouched. It was to 



UETROSPECT OF HIS LIFE. 519 

be ascertained in what doctrines of faith all of this character 
were agreed ; and an honest understanding was to be had, 
that to such their united endeavors were to be implicitly 
confined. Happily, little difficulty occurred in settling these. 
' Man's native sinfulness ; the purity and obligation of the 
law of God ; the true and proper divinity of our Lord Jesus 
Christ ; the necessity and reality of his atonement and sac- 
rifice ; the efficiency of the Holy Spirit in the work of reno- 
vation ; the free and full offers of the gospel, and the duty 
of men to accept it ; the necessity of personal holiness, and 
an everlasting state of rewards and punishments beyond the 
grave ' — doctrines dear to the hearts of all evangehcal Chris- 
tians, were the declared basis of our union. They were 
adopted with much deliberation and fervent prayer, and they 
have continued to form the inspiring topics of more than a 
thousand different publications, including upwards of one 
hundred bound volumes, wliich it has been our privilege to 
issue. By a faithful adherence to these original terms of 
association, has harmony been uninterruptedly preserved for 
the nineteen years and more through which the labors of tliis 
institution have been so happily conducted. 

" During this period, no tract or book has been issued but 
with the unanimous approval of all the members of the Pub- 
lishing Committee, consisting of a representative from each 
of the six evangelical denominations of Christians. To 
whatever extent any denomination may have thought it a 
duty to spread abroad a knowledge of its own peculiarities, 
this has been its own separate and exclusive work : we have 
scrupulously adhered to the principles on which our union is 
based, and on which its continuance depends. 

" One great object, however, it is believed, has been effect- 
ed by this exhibition of harmonious action. Multitudes have 
\)ecome disposed to look more at the great principles of their 
blessed religion, in which they are all able conscientiously 
to concur, and less on those in which they unhappily difier. 
The discovery has been satisfactorily made of the inferiority 



520 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

in number and magnitude of the latter, compared with the 
former. The beneficial example of its divine Author has 
become more an object of assiduous imitation. Where dis- 
cussion has been had on subjects which are still in dispute 
among Christians, less of asperity has been seen in the pages 
of controversy, and the failure to convince an adversary has 
not often been followed by the language of bitterness and 
denunciation. It has been seen by Protestant churches, that 
just in proportion as they present a united front to the as- 
saults of infidelity and error, and the machinations of the 
Man of Sin, will the citadel of their hopes stand firm and 
uninjured : just as they spend their strength in mutual con- 
tention, will their common enemies gain advantage over 
them. It was a happy step towards that union, over the 
continued subsistence and increase of which the present oc- 
casion calls upon us so gratefully to rejoice, when that grand 
association the British and Foreign Bible Society originated, 
whose labors have given to the world more than fourteen 
million copies of the volume of inspiration, and multiplied 
the means of conveying its blessed truths to the nations of 
the earth, by translations into more than one hundred and 
fifty of the languages into which they are divided. 

"The establishment of Tract Societies by Christians of 
difierent denominations, was a further advance in the way 
to that blessed consummation when all discord shall cease ; 
when the principles, and objects, and modes of action among 
Christians shall universally coalesce ; when the genius and 
spirit of the gospel shall unite their hearts in Christian love ; 
when God shall be adored as the universal Father, the world 
become one vast family of brethen, united to him and one 
another by the blood of Christ, regenerated by his Spirit, 
and prepared to cast their crowns before the same Lord, 
and rend the concave of heaven with one harmonious shout 
of praise. 

" In the retrospect of the past doings of this institution 
and their results, they who have been most intimately con- 



RETROSPECT OF HIS LIFE. 521 

nected with its transactions, have reason, with a deep sense 
of the imperfections of their own agency therein, to exult in 
multipHed evident manifestations of divine favor towards it. 
Especially do they rejoice iii the delightful fact to which 
these remarks are intended to have especial reference — the 
preservation, thus far, of perfect unity and concord among 
its officers and members, and the confirmation which this 
affords of every glowing anticipation of its friends as to its 
future progress. 

" For the promotion of this end let us improve our pres- 
ent assemblage. For this let our united prayers ascend to 
heaven, and our best endeavors be exerted. A dutiful spirit 
should delight to recur to the precepts, and a living faith to 
lay hold of the promises of God. Where is one to be found 
among the former which gives countenance to disunion and 
discord ? Where is there one among the latter that assures 
any recompense of blessing to a contentious and litigious 
spirit ? The rehgion of Jesus is a religion of love. It was 
this hallowed principle m which the gospel originated, and 
its too partial prevalence has been the cliief obstacle to its 
predicted universal sway. Its final success can never obtain, 
until the same mind is possessed by his people that was ui 
Christ their divine Head, and their combined and unembar- 
rassed efforts are united for his glory and the salvation of 
mankind. A wide field lies open before us. Millions of 
heathen implore, in their destitution, the exercise of our be- 
nevolence towards them. Other millions of nominal Chris- 
tians, if in their blindness they ask not, we know need our 
interposition, to pour into their minds the light of heavenly 
truth, and recall them, to the simplicity that is in Christ. 
Still many a waste place of our own land reproaches the 
narrowness and lassitude of our exertions; while grateful 
multitudes, in regions which our efforts have availably 
reached, bless God for that concentrated union of action 
which has sent them our publications to light them on their 
way to heaven. Experience has proved that our plan of 



522 MEMOIE- OF DR. MILNOR. 

union in this work of benevolence is not visionary or Utopian. 
It contemplates no improper interference w^ith any of the de- 
partments into which the family of Christ is divided. 

" Let no means employed by individual churches for the 
glory of the Redeemer and the salvation of those for whom 
Christ has died, be disregarded or esteemed of light impor- 
tance. Let the living ministry be respected as a most hon- 
ored institution, a divine appointment, having the promise 
of the Church's Head to the end of time. Let each distinct 
branch of the vast household of faith employ the means en- 
trusted to it by a gracious Providence, to promote the great 
ends contemplated by divme mercy and goodness to our fallen 
race. But let the broader principle of united action, so sanc- 
tioned of God, so blessed in its past results, so in accordance 
"with the long cherished expectation of Christian faith and the 
opening prospects of millennial glory, never be abandoned. 
0, it would grieve the soul of charity, and throw a gloom 
over the brightening prospects of futurity, were the sacred 
union of Christians, thus happily begun, and thus success- 
fully pursued, to be dissolved, or in any measure lessened or 
impaired. But it may not be. The sacred bond must not 
be broken. Withered be the hand that would attempt its 
severance. While any portion of six hundred millions of 
unenlightened heathen remain to be brought into submission 
to the Prmce of peace ; while darkness broods over the su- 
perstitious churches of the East; while papal Rome is seek- 
ing to extend her despotic sway over the minds of men ; 
and while multitudes, not utterly beyond the influence of 
gospel light and truth, are seen crowding the broad road 
that leadeth to destruction, let Christian union be made the 
means of counteracting these mighty evils. We ask object- 
ors to a plan so consonant with the spirit of the gospel, what 
would have been the number of Bibles circulated witliin the 
last thirty-eight years, if sectarian jealousy and rivalship had 
been successful in preventing the establishment of that mag- 
nificent monument of religious enterprise, with the thousands 



RETROSPECT OF HIS LIFE 523 

of its progeny, of the vast extent of whose most laudable 
exertions w^e have already spoken ; and how many precious 
souls would have gone unblessed to their great account, had 
not the great Tract association of Great Britain, with our 
own and other kindred unions, disseminated through mnu- 
merable channels the words of life and salvation m the little 
pamphlet or the more enlarged volume ? 

" When we look at the details of spiritual good effected 
by this joint cooperation which stand authenticated and re- 
corded in the annals of our Tract Society alone, and form the 
most moderate conjecture of cases which have never met the 
public eye, we are compelled to exclaim, ' What hath God 
wrought I' And when we are mourning over the remaining 
bitterness of party spirit in the Church or in the world, and 
are filled with grief that union is not the watchword wdth 
all that love their Saviour and their fellow-men ; and while 
we also join ui the lamentations of our associates, that the 
means of such extensive good as lies before us are, by so 
many who profess highly to appreciate our object, injuriously 
withheld ; we may perceive, amid all our discouragements, 
sources of pious gratulation for the past, and of inspiring hope 
for the future, that should silence our complamts, and lead 
us to trust in God for an issue to our labors for which we 
shall have reason to praise him through eternal ages." 

The foregoing document may be regarded as among the 
last of Dr. Milnor's public words for the Tract cause. They 
are glowing words ; and they show that to the end his heart 
was as full as ever of what, at the outset, filled its affections 
to overflowing. The Tract Society still holds its course. Its 
operations have become wider than ever, and still more be- 
neficent ; and in all that it is through the mstrumentaUty 
of wise counsel, and in all that it is doing by the labors of 
industrious toil, it doubtless owes as much to Dr. Milnor as 
to any other man. 

The present writer having been appointed to succeed Dr. 



524 MEMOIR OF DU. MILNOR. 

Milnor on the Executive and Publisliing Committees of tiie 
American Tract Society, has some grounds for knowing 
whereof he affirms. His predecessor's name needs but to be 
mentioned among the band of brethren whom he has left, to 
show that it is still, ii\ some sweet respect, like his Master's, 
" as ointment poured forth," giving a precious perfume. He 
can also well appreciate the importance of Dr. Milnor's posi- 
tion, and the value of his services, in an institution whose re- 
ceipts, equalled by its expenditures, had become, at the time 
of his decease, more than $150,000 per annum; and whose 
hallowed influence in the cause of Christian union and of 
man's salvation, is increasingly felt in the speech of differing 
nations, and almost literally from end to end of the earth. 

III. DU. MILNOR'S CONNECTION WITH THE CAUSE 
OF EDUCATION. 

Allusions to this have from time to time been made ; 
and yet an adequate impression of the interest which he felt, 
and of the time which he spent in this cause, might not be 
received without directing a more special attention to the 
point. The additional remarks needed, however, are not 
many. 

His interest in the cause of education was all-compre- 
hending. It started with the application of Sunday schools 
to the mstruction of the most ignorant and needy classes ; 
and from this passed up through a care for schools of every 
grade, till it reached the supervision of theological institu- 
tions designed to train men for high service m the kingdom 
of heaven. 

The parish church of St. George being in one of the 
most densely populated district's of the city, and there being 
always a large number in his congregation, both male and 
female, who were willing to become teachers, several dis- 
tinct Sunday-schools — at one time no less than six — were 
sustained in his parish : a body of from four to six hundred 
pupils, regularly instructed, and much of his own time de- 



RETROSPECT OF HIS LIFE. ' 525 

voted to a general supervision of the schools. These schools 
were usually very flourishing. He was fond of addressing 
children ; and his facility m extempore speaking fitted him 
admirably for the task, while his winning manners never 
failed to interest the subjects of his care. The first Sunday 
afternoon in each month he devoted to the examination of 
the schools in church. On these occasions, the regular 
evening service was read, and then the examination was 
begun. Many a child, through a long life, and peradven- 
ture to his soul's saving, will remember the mild blue eye, 
the silvery locks, and the white robes of his old pastor, as 
he stood before the young assembly, and with kind and gen- 
tle yet earnest tones, bid each one think upon his Creator 
while he was yet young, and before the winter of life should 
scatter its snows upon his head. Beautiful sights were 
those : fathers and mothers bringing forward the firstlings 
of their little flocks to be set apart and nurtured for the 
Lord. The fidelity of this view to truth is guaranteed by 
his son's " E.ecollections," who was for many years one of 
his father's Sunday-scholars, and for thirty years an ob- 
server of his father's interest in Sunday-schools. 

The common-schools of the state of New York also 
shared his solicitudes. In behalf of the American Tract 
Society, in particular, he applied, in the year 1842, to the 
Hon. Samuel Young, then Secretary of State, for his sanc- 
tion, as " Superintendent of common-schools," to the meas- 
ure of introducing into the common-school libraries of the 
state, so far as the trustees of each school-district should 
consent, that portion of the Tract Society's publications 
called " the Youth's Christian Library ;" believing that such 
an introduction would be "found of incalculable benefit to 
the young." 

To the higher educational institutions of the country he 
was an earnest friend. To Kenyon college his services were 
invaluable. From Bristol college, Pennsylvania, he hoped 
gi'eat thmgs, and labored zealously to realize his hopes, until 



526 MEMOIU OF Dli. MILNOIi. 

measures, over which he had no control, resulted in the totaJ 
loss of that once-cherished and favorite institute. Of the 
University in the city of New York he was one of the foun- 
ders, and for years, a member of the council. And when the 
chapel in the new university buildings was opened and ded- 
icated to the religious services for which it was designed, he 
officiated in the devotional exercises of the occasion, by the 
offering of a prayer, which, in its humble fervor, and its 
comprehensive requests, told how deeply his soul felt the 
importance of education in its classical and scientific, legal 
and medical departments, as well as in those which involve 
more immediately the interests of religion. 

And finally, with all the leading theological seminaries 
of the Episcopal church he was more or less closely con- 
nected, in the capacity either of a trustee, or of a patron ; 
though it need not be disguised, that the diocesan school of 
Virginia was that in which his interest arose from sympathy, 
while that in New York, though a general institution of our 
church, awoke in him mainly the interest of solicitude. 

In short, under whatever aspect the cause of learning 
presented itself before his mind, he was its enlightened, effi- 
cient, and true friend : enligJitejied, because he saw and 
felt its immeasurable importance to the opening a,nd onward 
destinies of the world ; efficient, because he cheerfully de- 
voted time and substance to its support ; and true, because 
he realized most profoundly the necessity of baptizing all 
learning into the spirit of Christ and Christianity, in order 
to make it a real and an unfailing blessing to the human 
race. 

IV. DR. MILNOR'S POSITION IN THE EPISCOPAL 

CHURCH. 

Under this head an interesting history might be written, 
for Dr. Milnor's relation to the cause and the progress of 
evangelical truth and piety in the church of which he was 
a minister, was second in importance to that of no other 



EETROSPECT OF HIS LIFE. 527 

man. But for the present, history must be left unwritten. 
We must content ourselves with something less than even 
annaU of the time through which we have been passuig. 
Dr. Milnor's position must be seen, but we must be content 
with saying no more than may be necessary to make that 
position evident. 

After Devereux Jarratt and liis few evangehcal fellow- 
laborers left the scene of their earthly labors, successors to 
his spirit and in his work appeared on the stage. Almost 
simultaneously, Pilmore, Griswold, and Richard Chamiing 
Moore began to dispense the true Hght ; the first in Phila 
delphia, the second in Bristol, R. L, and the third in New 
York. Pilmore's light seemed to radiate in lucid words, 
gathered into a divme order, from the sacred page ; Gris- 
wold's was like that wliicli shone in his own calm, clear 
eye — as calm and clear as ever unto the end ; and Moore's 
beamed through many tears, and amid much vehement 
pleading. As we have already seen, Pilmore's light fell, 
with other influences, on the mmd of Milnor. From their 
times, it would not be easy to recall the names of all who, 
like Meade', and Bedell, and Mcllvaine, and Clark, and 
Johns, and Elliott, have arisen to swell the evangelic bright- 
ness, and to deepen, throughout our church, her evangelic 
hfe. But all these have been Milnor's juniors ; and all, or 
at least all the leading n'ames upon the list, have been ac- 
customed to look to him, not as their farty champion, but 
as their more experienced friend and counsellor. He was, 
by common consent, not the most highly gifted man in all 
their ranks — for in learning and mental endowments, some 
were his equals, possibly his superiors — ^but, from various 
causes, the most widely known and the most largely influ- 
ential. He stood most m the eye of the world. For tliirty 
years he was at the very point of convergence and radiation 
of all our great influences and movements. He was at the 
centre of conflict between the evangelical and the anti-evan- 
geUcal portions of our church. Nay, for years he was, in his 



528 MEMOIR OF DE,. MILNOR. 

own person, the one point against wliicli the most strenu- 
ons assaults of the latter were directed ; and had he fallen, 
many others would have been unable to stand. From sym- 
pathy, as well as from respect and veneration, there was a 
rallying around him, as a sort of evangelic centre. He 
touched a greater number than others could touch, of relig- 
ious and theological minds in their forming state. He 
touched more of the causes which, under God, generate 
evangelical results. In a word, through the early training 
of his mind, the practical character of his pursuits, the fin- 
ished amenity of his manners, the peculiar post of labor 
assigned him, and above all, the eminently intelligent and 
elevated character of his piety, the providence of God gave 
him A POSITION which, durmg his life, was, on the whole, 
more commanding than that of any other evangelical clergy- 
man of our church. A bishopric might have added to him 
somewhat of official weight, but it would not have enlarged, 
perhaps it would, in some respects, have lessened, the sphere 
of his influence. 

Under this last remark, there happens to lie before the 
writer an apposite illustration. One of the most highly re- 
spected of our bishops, having spent some days with Dr. 
Milnor, and observing how often his counsel was sought, 
and how active was the agency which he exerted in further- 
ing the various efforts for the spread of the gospel, and for 
the good of men, just as the secretary of one of the benevo- 
lent societies had left his door, pleasantly observed, " I see 
how it is. Dr. Milnor ; you have all the responsibilities and 
duties of the office of a bishop, but without its crown of 
thorns." 

He lived to witness great changes, and to contribute to . 
a wonderful progress in the spiritual life of our church. 
Some of his letters show that there were times when he 
was filled with the most gladdening hopes, that the evan- 
gelical spirit would speedily penetrate and enliven every 
part of our Episcopal confederation. Long before he left 



RETROSPECT OF HIS LIFE. 529 

the stage of life, the terms evangelical and anti- evangelical 
had ceased to be exactly synonymous with loM^-church and 
high-church. The Imes vv^hieh divide the former, were 
found not to be the same with those which separate the 
latter. He saw no reason, therefore, why evangelical doc- 
trine and 'piety should not become universal among us, 
however differences about church-tlieory might continue to 
perpetuate themselves. He loved to contemplate that doc- 
trine and piety in the character of a sacred leaven, which, 
having by the hand of the Spirit been " 7wVZ" in the midst 
of us, would silently, yet speedily " leaven the whole lump." 
He saw, indeed, that in several instances it became mixed 
with soraie measure of human elements, and was diverted 
from its silent working and leavening of the mass, and 
placed in the attitude of a competitor for the honors and 
the influence of office and authority. But, as his letters at 
such times indicate, he saw this with grief, and felt that 
the evangelical spirit had left its true vocation, and was in 
peril of losing its true end. As to the doctrine and piety 
which were the life of his soul, he felt, that as they came 
from Christ, so their true place was that which Christ liim- 
self assumed, to be among the disciples " as he that serv- 
eth'' and to leave it for others to " strive among themselves 
which of them should be accounted the greatest." This 
feehng governed him through hfe. Though he seldom, if 
ever, refused a post which called him to labor, yet, it is be- 
lieved, he never sought an office for the sake of honor, or 
even of increased usefulness. He saw that usefulness does 
not depend on office, but upon a God-given hea.rt and will, 
and power to live, and act, and suffer for Christ. To this 
great end, therefore, he desired to see the evangelical spirit 
in our church wholly consecrated : if God, in liis providence, 
tlimst it into office, not to refuse to serve liim even there ; 
but like Christ, to make this its one great aim, to mmister, 
and not to be m.inistered unto ; to serve, and not to be served. 
He knew that neither offices nor officers can make a church 

Mam. MUnoP. 23 



530 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

living and holy ; while, at the same time, a church made 
living and holy by the Spirit of God, sought in prayer and 
by the word, will be least likely to fill its offices with spirit- 
ually dead and unholy men. 

It is needless to say, that when the movement from 
Oxford began to reach this country and to affect powerfully 
the mind of our church. Dr. Milnor first saw reason to 
apprehend the disappointment of his hopes as to the per- 
vading spread of the evangelical spirit through every part 
of our communion. His intelligent and discriminating piety 
saw too clearly the utter antagonism of the evangelical and 
the Tractarian theologies, and of their respective tendencies, 
to hope that, in a church which so eagerly and so exten- 
sively embraced the latter, the former could continue to 
spread towards a universal prevalence. Nay, he seemed at 
times opj)ressed with heavy forebodings, lest the long coex- 
istence of the two should be found impracticable ; lest the 
evangelical spirit should be doomed, amid the temporarily 
dark ways of Heaven, either to die on its own field, or to 
flee away where it could Hve and labor without mixture 
and without conflict. 

The foregoing remarks, it is believed, exhibit with suffi- 
cient distinctness Dr. Milnor's position in our church. He 
belongs strictly to its evangelical history. He was one of 
the most eminent, luminous, and unchanging embodiments 
of its evangelical spirit. His was always one light, shining 
from ONE PLACE, and shining fairer and farther than any of 
its contemporaries. It may be succeeded by other lights as 
clear and as far difiused ; but while he lived, there was 
probably no other among us, upon which so many eyes were 
turned, which was so nearly central in our evangehc firma- 
ment. 

Before finally dismissmg this topic, however, it will be 
proper to remark, that in one respect, Dr. Milnor held a dif* 
ferent, or rather an additional position in our church. In the 
general counsels of our body, those which find their expres- 



liETROSPECT OF HIS LIF-E. 531 

fiion through our triennial convention, the value of his ser- 
vices was in some measure appreciated. As we have already 
seen, he was to the last one of the trustees of our General 
Theological Seminary, and in that body labored as unceas- 
ingly, and we hesitate not to add as beneficently, as any other 
of its members. In our general Board of Missions, likewise, 
both under its earlier and under its later constitution, his 
labors were of the highest value ; not only as secretary and 
general agent, but also as a more permanently working mem- 
ber of its Foreign Executive Committee. But, in the coun- 
sels of the particular diocese to which he belonged, those 
which find expression through our annual New York conven- 
tion, he held virtually no 'position. It will doubtless by many 
be regarded as a lasting reproach to that body, that, influ- 
enced apparently by a fear of giving him influence, it studi- 
ously " kept such a man," to use the language of one of his 
correspondents, "out of those chief places, where prudence, 
and wisdom, and business habits were wanted, and only put 
him where he would seem to be ho7iored, but where he had 
no chance of being /e/^." To all this, indeed, he found no 
difficulty in submitting. Place was not peculiarly the object 
of his ambition. Besides, he knew that he ivas felt, and that 
it was not in the power of others to keep him in the dark 
or under bonds. Still, theirs was an unwise policy. It de- 
prived the diocese of some useful service. And, so far as it 
was intended as a censure upon his course in the Bible and 
Tract Societies, and in his lecture-room and prayer-meet- 
ings, it was weaker than mere hrutuin fidmen ; or rather, 
it defeated itself: it probably gave him more sympathy and 
companionship in that course than he would have otherwise 
enjoyed. Upon liimself, it was simply powerless. Con- 
scious of a sincere and warm attachment to the church in 
which he was a minister — an attachment based, not on 
mere sympathy, but on firm principle — he yet discerned the 
compatibility of this attachment, and of his proper obhga- 
tions as an Episcopalian, with that sentiment of enlarged 



/532 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

Christian affection and brotherhood which he cherished, and 
with that course of cooperation which he adopted, in what- 
ever involved the common interests only of our common 
Christianity. And, believing such cooperation to be not 
merely consistent with principle, but also important to the 
best interests of religion, he could well afford to meet, with 
undisturbed serenity, all the opposition which he encoun- 
tered, whether from honest prejudice or from illiberal hos- 
tihty. 

As to his course in the lecture-room and prayer-meeting, 
he felt that that was his own concern ; and with it, there- 
fore, he allowed no man to mterfere, except, as he remarks 
in one of his letters, in the way of friendly advice. The 
maimer in which he met opposition on this ground may 
be illustrated by the following incidents : the former rest- 
ing for its truth on the " Recollections" of his son, and the 
latter certified by a clerical friend, who had it from his own 
lips. 

His Friday-evening lecture, preceded always by the 
shorter service from our liturgy, and concluded by extempo- 
raneous prayer, was at first, says the *' Recollections," " a 
source of much difficulty. The bishop made strong objec- 
tions to it, callmg it an irregular meeting, and using every 
effort to effect its discontinuance. But Dr. Milnor was un- 
moved. He had not adopted liis course without prayerful 
consideration. He felt that he was in the path of duty, and 
nothing could make him swerve to the right or to the left," 
He finally ended the matter, after sufficient listening to objec- 
tions, by telling the bishop, in that kind but peculiarly firm 
and decided manner which he was capable of assuming, that 
" his only proper and effectual course would be, that pre- 
scribed by the canons in case of their violation by a presbyter, 
specific charges and a trial; that his duty as bishop was 
plain ; and that, as the presbyter whom the charges would 
affect, he was ready to meet them on their trial." But, as 
no violation of the canons had taken place, no charges could 



EETROSPECT OF HIS LIFE. Oo3 

be preferred ; the matter therefore was dropped, and Dr 
Milnor thenceforward pursued this part of his course without 
further open molestation. 

At the prayer-meetings in his parish, he was not always> 
nor even generally, present. But he countenanced them, xnd 
was occasionally in attendance. One evening, while the 
prayer-meeting was in session, the bishop came to his house ; 
and after the usual statement of objections, desired Dr. Mil- 
nor to go and dismiss the assembly. The answer which he 
returned was, in substance, this : " Bishop, I dare not pre- 
vent my parishioners from meeting for prayer ; but if you 
are willing to take the responsibility of dismissing them, you 
have my permission." Of course, the praying members of 
k5t. George's remained undisturbed. 

Such, then, on the whole, was Dr. Milnor's position in 
the Episcopal church : one of the most prominent of all her 
evangelical clergy, yet in nothing wanting as one of her most 
loyal sons ; less active than he ought to have been made in 
her public counsels, but probably not more active in the cause 
of general benevolence than he would have been, had his ser- 
vices m our church been ever so encouragingly invited. 

V. TE.AITS OF CHARACTEE,, WITH ILLUSTRATIVE 
ANECDOTES AND VIEWS. 

Let a few notices under this head close the Memoirs, in 
which we have so long been engaged. They may not amount 
to an adequate analysis of the character of Dr. Milnor ; cer- 
tainly they do not contain all that fond affection would say 
of him ; but they are, it is believed, on the points which they 
mvolve, a truthful picture of what he was. 

Intellectually, then, the subject of this notice was distin- 
guished for great quickness of perception, and activity of 
mind ; for uncommon correctness of judgment, and as uncom- 
mon firmness of purpose. He took at a glance a clear view 
of every subject presented to his examination, and rarely 
found it necessary to change the opinion first formed ; al- 



534 MEMOIE, OF DR. MILNOR. - 

though, when convinced of mistake or error, no man more 
cheerfully or more gracefully acknowledged it than himself. 
Bishop Hobart once remarked, " I had rather deal with Dr. 
Milnor than with some who in church views agree with me, 
because I always know where to find him." His mind was 
eminently i^^'O'Ciical. For imagination, considered as one of 
the loftier attributes of genius, he was not particularly dis- 
tinguished ; though in a certain quick and agreeable humor 
he was very happy. He had a relish for true poetry and 
the higher classes of literature, yet he had nothing like a 
passion lor either poetry or music, or, indeed, any of the sis- 
ter arts. He greatly enjoyed their beauties, but made no 
pretensions to the genius which produces them. He was a 
rapid and very correct writer. His sermons are remarkably 
free from erasures and corrections ; and he had a talent 
which made him always a ready and most agreeable cor- 
respondent. 

Theologically it is scarcely necessary to characterize 
him. His doctrines were determined by the standing point 
which he finally assumed, and from which, for thirty years, 
he looked upon the Christian scheme. Originally a stout 
anti-Calvinist, grace at length made him neither a disciple 
nor an opponent of the Genevan doctor, but emphatically a 
disciple of Christ. The point to which he was thus brought, 
formed and fixed his whole character, both as a Christian 
and as a churchman ; and it is upon this point alone that 
any thing further need be said as illustrative of the theology 
which he cultivated. 

His theology, then, was not speculative, but practical. It 
was a light which he received, and which he made to shine. 
It was not a cold, but a warm light ; and therefore diffusive. 
He was not spiritually born amid the dimness of supersti- 
tion ; he did not theologically live amid the depths of abstrac- 
tion. If the illustration may be allowed, his soul was, in an 
eminent sense, born of the Sun ; amid the light that shineth 
most immediately from Christ, His new birth was indeed 



RETROSPECT OF HIS LIFE. 535 

the work of the Spirit ; but it was wrought at the feet of 
Jesus, amid diviner teachings than fall from human lips, and 
under a higher sacrament than is administered 'by human 
hands ; amid the teachmgs of God's perfect word, and under 
the mystery of His mighty love in Christ. This, doubtless, 
was the secret of all the subsequent "burnmg" of liis light. 
It was a light fed daily and directly from the Sun. He lived 
habitually vi'ith his Saviour, and was surrounded contmually 
by the intense shining of those glorious truths which meet 
and mmgle most closely in the halo round the Saviour's head, 
and burn and beam forth most immediately from the myste- 
ries of the Saviour's work. He did not undervalue those 
external and formal arrangements which Christ left on earth 
for the conservation, the purity, and the spread of his wor- 
ship and his truth. On the contrary, he ardently loved the 
Church and her order, and was ever ready for such services 
as he could render, and for such sacrifices as he could make, 
either for her welfare, or in her defence. But as these things 
of the Church were not the original fountains whence he drew 
his light, so they never afterwards became more than the 
divinely contrived and beautifully arranged glasses, through 
which that light came tempered to his vision. 

The order m which he viewed the parts of the great 
Christian system, seems to have been not only pecuharly 
scriptural, but also essentially important in accountuig for 
the strong and steady burning of liis light. In looking at 
this system, his point of view was not from the earth. His 
soul was not down here, enveloped in the visibilities of ser- 
vice, and looking up through a dim or a gorgeous cloud of 
architecture and shadows, intercessors and semi-propitiators 
in the Church, till finally it caught a distant glimpse of a 
diminished and almost liidden Saviour — a httle babe, half 
folded in the ample robes of a resplendent and queenly 
mother ; but his soul was ii]) there, with the Saviour him- 
self — with the Saviour, clearly and fully revealed — with the 
SaviDur, shuiing in the unobscured greatness and efiulgence 



536 MEMOIE- OF DR. MILNOH. 

of his own unsliared glory on the adoring mind of his ser- 
vant — with the Saviour, looking down on the Church and all 
her decent offices and order, as a great body of instruments 
to be used in the conversion of a lost world to God. 

Or, to give a diilerent expression to the idea, this was 
the order of his view in looking at the Christian system : 
Christ first, " the brightness of the Father's glory, and the 
express image of his person ;" then his Cross and its work of 
sacrifice for sin; then "justification by his blood," "the 
righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ;" next, the 
work of the Spirit, receiving these things of Christ, and 
showing them unto men to glorify him ; next, the deep, dark 
sinfulness of raian, as rendering that wondrous work of Christ 
and that glorifying work of the Spirit necessary to our renew- 
al, sanctification, and eternal life ; next, the "lively oracles" 
of God, the word of inspiration, revealing the whole body of 
divine truth, and speaking with the only infallible authority 
beneath the sun ; and finally, as making up the externals of 
this dispensation of mercy, the Church, with its ministry of 
the word, its worship, and its ordinances — the Church, a 
witness divinely appointed to keep those "lively oracles" 
pure, and to attest their origin from God — the Church, a 
great golden candlestick, to bear up and send forth light for 
the world — the Church, a trumpet from the Lord, to blow 
the enhvening sound of his salvation to the ends of the earth. 
Tills was the order in which he viewed the connected parts 
of the grand Christian system : Christ first, its sun and cen- 
tre ; then all those truths that lie closest round him and are 
in a manner his outgoing life and power ; and finally, those 
outward defences and helps of the Church which God hath 
set for carrying on his saving work among men. Hence, 
we see what it was that kept his light so steadily and so 
brightly " burning'' Originally lit from the Sun, that light 
was ever after fed from the Sun. He kept his light close 
by Christ; among the luminous truths which lie nearest 
Christ. 



EETROSPECT OF HIS LIFE. 537 

And are not all those truths which have been named, 
most divmely luminous ? Or if one alone in the circle, the 
smfulness of man, seem a dark and gloomy radiance from the 
shadow of death, yet doth not even this, if not itself lumi- 
nous, reflect upwards the light of all the rest ? Doth it not 
urge, yea, hurry the repenting sinner upwards, till, in the 
actings of his lively faith, his once-defiled soul is bathed in 
the clean light of hfe and truth, as it shines around the Son 
of God ? Accordingly, does not this account for the fact, 
that even Avhen Dr. Milnor dwelt on the sad ruin of the fall, 
and meditated on his own sinfulness in the sight of God, the 
exercise brought no stain of darkness, and cast no shade of 
gloom upon his spirit ; that it did but raise liim the nearer to 
his Saviour, and cover him more beauteously with the light 
of those other shming truths which lie around the Cross, and 
sti-eam forth from Him who was " lifted up" to be " the light 
of the world?" 

Yes, we see here the true secret of what we are now 
studying in the character of this man of God. He lived 
habitually with Christ, and among the truths which shine 
forth of his unconcealable Godhead, and of his gloriously 
redeeming work. This it v/as which made his own Ught 
" burn'' so steadily and so strongly. He could not be other 
than " a burning hght," when he hved in the midst of such 
burning brightness, and shone down upon the world from 
such a watch-tower of living hght. It is only when the 
Christian minister wanders away from Christ, and from the 
central truths which burn around him ; only when he o-ets 
lost or bewildered among the mazes of the many lesser or 
subordinate truths, opinions, and externals, which he more or 
less in the distance : only then that his light burns dim, or 
shines into darkness, or goes altogether out. Let his " life 
be ever hid with Christ m God," and his light shall ever 
sliine beyond the power of being hid. 

The theological system, then, indicated by the standing 
point from which Dr. Milnor looked on Christianity, though 

23=* 



538 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

it may, in the judgment of some, mark him as a low- 
churchman, yet exhibits him to the eye of all as a high- 
CHRiSTiAN ; it may not identify his creed with Calvinism, 
but it does distinguish his doctrines from Tractarianism. 
Perhaps his best description, so far as this particular is con- 
cerned, may be thus given : he was eminently a Christian 
THEOLOGiST ; Sufficiently well read in books, but still more 
deeply taught by the Sjoirit, and therefore belonging less to 
any human school of divinity than to the one great body of 
Christ's true disciples : more and more an evangelical divine ; 
less and less a doctrinal disputant : an Episcopalian by con- 
scientious preference, but in his highest birthright and aspi- 
rations, a member of "the general assembly and church of 
the first-born." 

As a 'preacher, he was as bold m opposing error as he 
was zealous in defending truth. Yet he was always more 
ready to win the wandering to the path of holiness by kind 
invitings and gentle expostulation, than to terrify him by 
fierce threatenings and harsh upbraiding. Perhaps to an 
uncommon degree, his style of preaching was conciliatory. 
Though he failed not to exhibit the terrors of the law, yet 
above them he always displayed the love of the gospel. He 
was ever careful that the Saviour should appear in his teach- 
ing, as the winning Messenger of peace ; one to whom the 
weary and heavy laden might come and find rest. The 
power of his ministry lay in the word love. As a preacher, 
he was impressive rather than strictly eloquent. His enun- 
ciation was remarkably distinct ; and his manner, without 
being violent, was earnest. You hstened, and became con- 
vinced that the speaker felt, in the recesses of his own heart, 
all that he uttered ; and that his love for his flock was deep 
and overflowing. 

Such being the grand theme and the prevailing spirit of 
his ministry — Christ's truth spoken in love — it is but reason- 
able to infer that his labors were largely successful. The 
inference is sustained by facts. Many " times of refreshing 



RETROSPECT OF HIS LIFE. 539 

from the presence of the Lord" passed over his congregation, 
and dropped upon them regenerating dews from the over- 
shadowing Spirit ; and silent blessings were generally found 
waiting on his steps. From his densely populous, and lat- 
terly, changing parish, multitudes have gone forth, through 
the city and through the country, bearing the impress of his 
doctrine and of the mind of Christ which was in him, to 
be church-members, and church-officers, and preachers of 
Christ — some of them unto the ends of the earth. Even his 
occasional labors, as he journeyed round the land, were often 
richly blessed. How many — like the Rev. Richardson Gra- 
ham, late one of our missionaries to China, who refers his 
conversion to a sermon on James 5:9, " Behold, the Judge 
standeth. before the door," which he incidentally heard Dr. 
Milnor preach at St. Paul's, on one of his visits to Philadel- 
phia — have been the fruits of his seed-sowing as he passed 
from place to place, the great day only can reveal. 

So, in truth, may we say of his whole ministerial life. 
Dr. Cutler, in a sermon delivered soon after the death of 
his old friend, on the text, 1 Cor. 4:15," Though ye have 
ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many 
fathers,'^ uses the following truthful language : "To multi- 
tudes, he was a father in a higher sense than any of which 
we have yet spoken. He it was by whom, their eyes were 
first opened to see their perishing condition by nature, and 
their only hope of salvation in Christ. God made him a 
father unto them by a tie more lastmg than any which earth 
can originate. how many such will rise up ui the day of 
God, and call him blessed I His paternal anxieties and 
patient labors will be amply rewarded when, with a multi- 
tude of sons and daughters, he shall say before God, ' Here 
am I, and the children whom thou hast given me.' Like 
the blessed Master, he even now ' sees the travail of his soul, 
and is satisfied.' And when God shall have answered all 
the prayers which he put up, and brought forward into fruit 
all the seed which he sowed, then both he that hath sowed, 



540 . MEMOm OF DR. MILNOR. 

and he that shall hereafter reap, will abundantly rejoice 
together." 

In domestic life — the bosom of his own family — the beau- 
ties 01 his character shone with peculiar lustre. 

Liberal in his household arrangements, he nevertheless 
discouraged extravagance and disallowed waste. His domes- 
tics loved him, and looked up to him as a friend. He was 
very regular m his habits. An early riser from youth, he 
preferred the morning hours for study, and always accom- 
plished much before breakfast. In domestic worship he took 
peculiar delight, and was peculiarly happy. He was strict 
in requiring all the members of his household to be present, 
and nothing pained him more than the unnecessary absence 
of any. The most tender and devoted of husbands, the kind- 
est and most indulgent of fathers, he was ever seeking the 
happiness, temporal and eternal, of those whom he loved. 
He never used harshness in reproving an erring cliild, yet he 
never overlooked a fault, nor failed firmly to reprove the 
offender. 

He was very regular at meals, and very temperate. For 
a large portion of his life, he had been in the habit — such 
was the custom of the times — of taking an occasional glass 
of wine at dinner. But many years before his death, the 
habit was discontinued. His medical advisers opposed the 
change, from an apprehension that it might prove injurious 
to his peculiar constitution under advancmg years ; but he 
was firm, and afterwards used stimulants only when pre- 
scribed as medicine. He remained to the end a warm friend 
of the temperance cause. 

As he was an early riser, so he retired early to rest, never, 
save when necessity obliged him, consuming the midnight 
oil. As for himself, so to all about him, he successfully 
endeavored to make his dwelling the home of wise modera- 
tion, cheerful content, holy peace, and Christian hosjyitality. 
His house was always open to his brethren, and the prophet's 
chamber on the wall ever ready for a guest. One of his 



RETROSPECT OF HIS LIFE. 541 

clerical friends, the Rev. E. "VV. Peet, long in habits of famil- 
iar and frequent intercourse with him, in a discourse preach- 
ed the Sunday after his death, thus embodies his impressions 
of Dr. Milnor's domestic life, with a special view to illustrate 
its social and hospitable character. 

" Who that was accustomed to step over the threshold 
of the blessed rectory of St. George's, was not at once con- 
scious of bemg under the roof of a godly man, whose name 
and character were as a sweet savor among the intelligent, 
and wise, and good ? What forms and features are well 
remembered there I What zealous ministers of Jesus gath- 
ered round his board I How familiarly all approached him 
as a father and a friend I The missionary of the far West, 
the diligent country rector, the student of theology, the man 
of benevolent enterprise, the young man just entering on the 
trials of city life, all found there a welcome. And there, 
too, gathered good men of every name and denomination. 
There was no need, in his case, of a mitre or a crozier. An 
episcopate would have added nothing to the savor of his 
character, or the sacredness of his mfluence. There is no 
bishop in all our wide-extended country who might not well 
have deemed himself peculiarly favored m the cheerful, vol- 
untary, irrepressible love and attachment which Dr. Mihior 
excited and secured in the hearts of such multitudes of good 
and intelligent men. This homage no official station can 
ever purchase. Such station may secure an outward exhi- 
bition of respect, but the hearts of men are beyond its 
reach." 

It is important, in estimating Dr. Milnor's character, to 
note more specially the sweet cheerfulness, of temper which 
his religion favored and produced. The impression that such 
strict views as he was known to take must make men 
gloomy, is one of tho^e subtle and lurking errors of a falsely 
reasoning world which ought to be met at every step, and 
exposed in all its falseness. Of this error. Dr. Milnor was 
a living refutation. His religion, instead of destroying, 



542 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

heightened and perfected his natural cheerfulness of disposi- 
tion. Many who for a time knew him only by the public 
estimate of his views, were astonished, upon subsequent 
personal acquaintance, to find in him nothing of the gloom 
and austerity which they expected, and with which their in- 
ferences from his self- humbling doctrines had invested him. 
Indeed, he abounded in cheerfulness and even in humor, 
though his cheerfuhiess was always becoming, and his hu- 
mor ever delicate and chaste. In its indulgence he never 
forgot who he was, and whom he professed to serve. His 
peculiarities in this respect, made him a truly delightful 
friend. Says Bishop Kemper, in a letter to Dr. William H. 
Milnor, written after the father's death, " He was, in every 
respect, a charming companion, abounding in anecdotes, 
which he told exceedingly well, and often with much humor. 
You doubtless remember many of his admirable stories about 
the Rev. Dr. Colm, the old rector of the Swedish churches 
in Pennsylvania, and the Rev. William Ayres, an ancienl 
clergyman of New Jersey, who resided two or three years 
in the Pennsylvania hospital with his daughter, while she 
was nurse in that institution. I have known Bishop White, 
when we have been dining with him, turn to your father, 
and ask him to relate some interesting event, knowing that 
the company would be delighted with the narrative from 
his manner of telling it." 

His flow of spirits, and his fund of anecdote, made him 
truly agreeable in society. He always retained the easy but 
dignified deportment which early mingling in the society of 
the world had made familiar to him. The Christian gen- 
tleman shone in every word and action. " L have before 
me," says his son, "memory's daguerreotj^pe of his beaming 
face and laughing eye, when enjoying some fine sally of wit ; 
a.:d of his earnest countenance, when discussing some favor- 
ite topic." In argument he never lost his temper. Though 
he expressed himself with animation, and sometimes with 
warmth, yet he never lost sight of the respect due to liis 



RETROSPECT OF HIS LIFE. 543 

opponent. His naturally hasty temper was subjected to a 
gracious and complete control. He would meekly bear re- 
proach for a season, rather than harshly resent an injur}^ 

The henevolence also of his character should receive its 
meed. It was, indeed, his crowning grace. Drawn to his 
Saviour by love, instead of being driven by terror, love 
was the life of his religion ; and his religion was, in a high 
sense, but love in activity. His whole Christian life was 
enlarged philanthropy — sanctified benevolence. How much 
he gave from his moderately ample income, we have no 
means of definitely ascertaining. His contributions to all 
good objects were liberal, and in the aggregate large. His 
pledge towards the building of a free chapel, made near the 
close of his life, was, for one of his means, munificent. But 
in general we find no record of his gifts. His left hand 
knew not what his right hand was doing. This only is 
certain, that, according to his ability, he gave much. But 
his giving, in the ordinary sense of money contributed, was 
not the true measure of his real benevolence. His life was 
one great expression of this heavenly spirit. And it will not 
be forgotten, that his really abounding labors in the Bible 
and Tract Societies, and in the general agency of our Foreign 
Executive Committee, were all gratuitous. So, in part, was 
his visit to Europe, as their first and most laborious dele- 
gate ; and it would have been wholly so, had not the vestry 
of his parish generously relieved him of a portion of the 
expense. Much of his benevolence expressed itself in behalf 
of objects of which, ordinarily, the wealthy world knows as 
little as it may. 

His ear was always open to the tale of woe, and his hand 
never shut against the friendless and needy. And as his 
private resources were inadequate to all the calls on his 
purse, he took peculiar pleasure m carefully cherishing and 
wisely applying the charity-fund of his parish. This con- 
sisted of the revenues of the offertory at communion sea- 
sons, and amounted to a considerable sum per annum. His 



544 MEMOIK- OF DR. MILNOR. 

regular pensioners, the old, the sick, the needy, and the help- 
less, received each quarter-day their allotted portions. If he 
was obliged on that day to be absent from home, he invari- 
ably left neat little parcels for them in charge with some 
member of his family. He furnished them with wood, and 
coal, and other necessaries during the inclemencies of winter; 
his own purse supplying any deficiency which unusual calls 
might create. Bitter were the tears which these poor old 
people shed, when they came, one by one, to look for the last 
time upon the face of their old pastor. 

It was the lovely benevolence of Dr. Milnor's character 
which gave their most touching pathos to the scenes at St. 
George's and its rectory, immediately after his decease was 
announced, and on the day of his funeral. 

" The moment this event was known," says Mr. Peet 
in his discourse, "the throng around the well-known rectory, 
the groups of lingering parishioners, the eyes strained ivith 
tveeping, the old friends from distant parishes, whom the 
growth of the great metropolis had separated from his min- 
istry, proved the depth and sincerity of the feeling which 
prevailed, and bespoke the pressure of some great calamity. 
And on the day of the funeral, men of all ranks and profes- 
sions, and clergymen of various denominations, gathered 
around the house of mourning ; and as his inanimate re- 
mains were borne sadly and solemnly into the sanctuary, 
which for so many years had reechoed to his voice, the vast 
multitude crowded every niche and corner, from floor to roof; 
and there, in the passages and open vestibules, closely and 
densely thronged, were seen men of high degree, judges and 
senators, and doctors of divinity, ojimgled with the poor 
daughters of Africa, whose tearful faces, if apology for 
tl 3ir presence were needed, told the story of those emotions 
which had brought them thither." 

" To some," Mr. Peet adds, "it may seem that his death 
was painfully sudden. They may feel surprised, that God's 
faithful ones should be denied the privilege of testifying, in 



RETROSPECT OF HIS LIFE. 545 

their last hours, of the grace and mercy which they have 
received. But not thus ought we to reason. The death of 
the good man is never sudden. He dies daily. He converses 
often with death and the judgment. He has all things in 
readiness, and he prefers that his whole life should testify 
of the grace and mercy which his Saviour has bestowed." 
This language is appropriate. Dr. Milnor had no dread of 
sudden death, and it was his special desire to make his life 
speak to the last. " He had a great dread," says his son, 
" of being obliged to give up duty, and earnestly desired that 
he might be enabled to work to the very end of the day. 
A sudden death was to him a visitation of mercy." He 
had his wdsh ; for almost literally, 

" He ceased at once to labor and to live." 

It is true, that when he fell asleep there was no song 
upon his lips. But, twenty years before, those who w^ere 
near him, heard him sing in the very spirit of the great 
apostle, when " ready to be offered." At that time he sup- 
posed himself to be actually in the passage of the straits of 
death ; dying, not with the suddenness which finally snatched 
him away, but with a distinct perception of the gradual yet 
apparently inevitable approach of his end. That was the 
hour of his triumph. Then he sung the song of the apostle. 
Then the grave opened before him a lighted passage to glory. 
Can we then suppose, that after so long an added course of 
ever-increasing faithfulness in labor, and of ever-mcreasing 
ripeness in grace, the scene at last proved a dark one ? No, 
Had not death chained his tongue in almost instant silence, 
Ave cannot doubt it would again have sung the song of tri- 
umph — would again have spoken of the preciousness of 
Christ — would again have testified to the power of that faith 
which can make the dark dwelling of the grave itself a land 
of light. Had his passing away been ordered according to 
human wish, he might, indeed, have been too humble to 
make his last song in the precise words of the apostle ; and 



546 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

yet, now that he is gone, there can be neither presumption 
nor impropriety in our putting those words into his mouth, 
and conceiving the silence of his death-bed as having been 
made vocal to the ear that " heareth in secret," with tliis 
animating strain : "I have fought a good fight, I have fin- 
ish 3d my course, I have kept the faith : henceforth there is 
laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, 
the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day ; and not to 
me only, but to all them also that love his appearing." Nor 
can there be any presumption or any impropriety in believ- 
ing that the same silence in which this was heard, brought 
back to his own inner ear the cheering response, " Well done, 
good and faithful servant ; enter thou into the joy of thy 
Lord." 

A very few of the many anecdotes and illustrations of 
his character and habits, which might have been collected, 
remain to be added. They might have been inserted in 
other and more appropriate places, but having escaped no- 
tice till now, they are given here, by way of taking our last 
look of the man. • 

HIS HABITS OF SERMON- WRITING AND PASTORAL DUTY. 

He made it a practice, says his son, every Sunday even- 
ing, to select a text for the ensuing Lord's day ; and on 
Monday morning, he always commenced the writing of his 
sermon. 

A portion of every fair day, generally the latter part, he 
spent in visiting his parishioners, both sick and well. He 
loved to be among his flock ; and considered parochial vis- 
itation as among a pastor's most important duties. 

HIS FAVORITE ALLEGORY OF THE CHURCH. 

This was suggested by one of the Saviour's well-known 
parables. He loved to view the Church of Christ as an 
extensive vineyard. Here and there difierent classes of la- 
borers are engaged in cultivating the same great vine ; their 



RETROSPECT OF HIS LIFE. 547 

difibrent modes of training it being determined by diversities 
of taste, judgment, and skill. The roots strike deep into the 
same soil. The branches climb aloft towards the same 
heaven. Its fruitfulness is dependent on the same divine 
influences. And one and all who labor faithfully their 
allotted season, receive at its close, from the same Master^ 
the saine ^' pe7iny a dayT 

HIS IDEA OF TRUE CATHOLICISM. 

*' Between Dr. Milnor and the sectarian bigot there was 
no fellowship of feeling." In illustration of this remark, his 
son relates the following : " I remember, though at the tune 
a mere boy, listening to a conversation between him and a 
brother clergyman who was then his guest. This gentleman 
advocated extreme high-church views ; shutting the gate of 
heaven against all without the pale of the Episcopal church, 
save as the uncovenanted mercy of God might perhaps 
grant them admittance. After long argument on the sub- 
ject, my father's face glowing Avith animation, he exclaimed, 
' Why, my good sir, if I held such views as you have ex- 
pressed, I could not rest to-night on my pillow. I have 
beloved relatives and dear friends, who are without the pale, 
as you define it. Their hopes and mine rest on the same 
Jesus. Are they to be excluded from the covenanted bene- 
fits of his atonement, simply because they have not been 
baptized in an Episcopal church, and do not worship accord- 
ing to a particular form V 

" When recovering from a violent attack of gout, and 
unable to read from an affection of the eyes, I read to him 
one afternoon the controversy between Drs. Wainwright and 
Potts on the question whether there can be a church with- 
out a bishop. When I had finished, he mildly observed, 
* The difference between high-churchmen and myself is this : 
they magnify into essentials what I consider non-essentials^ 
At another time, when reading to him an advertisement 
of a course of lectures on the distinctive prmciples of the 



>• 

548 MEMOIR OF DR. MILNOR. 

Church, ' I should prefer,' said he, ' a course on the dis- 
tinctive principles of the Gospel.' " 

HIS INDIFFERENCE TO OFFICIAL ELEVATION. 

It is well known to many, that he was more than once 
solicited to consent to a nomination as candidate for the 
Episcopal office. He sometimes, in his vein of serious hu- 
mor, refused his appiicant by saying, " No ; I have long since 
made up my mind to accept no mitre lower than that of the 
diocese of New York I" 

At a meeting of clergy of different denominations, the 
subject of an election of an assistant bishop for the diocese 
of Pennsylvania was introduced. A friend playfully re- 
marked to him, " Dr. Milnor, I understand there is danger 
that a mitre will fall upon your head." " Not the least," 
he as playfully replied. " If my Presbyterian brethren made 
bishops, I might possibly have some chance. But, indeed," 
he more seriously continued, " I have no aspirations on the 
subject. I have seldom known a presbyter made bishop 
whose piety was not, more or less, a sufferer from the ele- 
vation. I have little enough, as it is." 

By this, he doubtless meant, that, to the true usefulness 
and the true dignity of a minister of Christ, personal inety 
is more important than ojjicial rank ; and that, although 
the latter is not necessarily incompatible with the former in 
even its highest grade, yet, considering the weakness of our 
nature, there is, in all elevated official distinction, a peril to 
Christian character, which should deter the faithful and 
humble servant of Christ from coveting the exposure. To 
use one of his own quotations, " O si sic omnesT^ The 
Church would have more peace, and the world more profit. 

"We now leave the subject of our Memoir to his rest in 
Christ, to the affectionate regards of Christ's people, and to 
the blessing of God on his beneficent example. In this 
world are many kinds of greatness. There is a greatness 



RETROSPECT OF HIS LIFE. 549 

which is terrible, and a greatness which is splendid, and a 
greatness which is profound. Perhaps the best idea of a 
great man is this : one who has enough perspicacity to dis- 
cern truth, though it has become enveloped in a fog ; and 
enough love for truth discerned, to follow it, though it lead 
into a fire. This is the real martyr for Christ, as distin- 
guished from the man who fancies himself " persecuted for 
righteousness' sake," when he is merely punished for self- 
righteousness. Of this true greatness Dr. Milnor had more 
than a common share. Certainly his greatness was neither 
terrible nor splendid ; but it was, if not in the fullest sense 
profound, at least in the truest sense lovely. It wants not 
that which commends him to our respect ; but it has most 
of that which wins our affection. His was the greatness of 
beneficent action, of a living benevolence, and of an enlarged 
Christian sympathy. If he astonished not by deep discov- 
eries in science, by brilliant displays of genius, or by pro- 
digious acquisitions in learning, he nevertheless blessed by a 
noble example, by a beneficent life, and by yielding freely 

AND BEING READY TO SUBMIT PRACTICALLY TO THE HIGHEST 

CLAIMS OF THE GREATEST TRUTHS. He penetrated greatly 
into the depths of Christian experience. He felt with great 
power the sinfulness of his nature and the imperfections of 
his life ; and, with great ingenuousness and self-abasement, 
carried all his sins and all his imperfections to the Cross of 
Christ, and gave to his Saviour alone all the glory of his 
great salvation. He took a great grasp on eternal things, 
and lived greatly by seeking, as the one high aim of his 
studies, his labors, and his prayers, the supreme glory of 
God in the everlasting welfare of man. May such samples 
of Christian character be multiplied, till all the world has 
learned how great is God, and how great is goodness. 



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