MEMOIRS

OF THE

REV. DR. MURRAY.

X711

CHAPTER I.

Birth, Parentage, and Early Associations.-Hardships of his Childhood and Youth.-Comes to this Country.-Enters the Harpers' Printing Establishment.—Religious Awakening.—What he saw of Popery when a Boy.--How he was disgusted with the System.

Coming to America.

The future.

THE ship Martha, from Dublin, about forty-five years ago, brought a crowd of Irish emigrants to our shores. Among them was a lad seventeen years old, who had come alone to seek his fortune in the western world. In the month of July, 1818, he set his foot in the streets of New York, with little money in his pocket, and no place to call his home. It would have been presumption to predict that this friendless, wandering Roman Catholic boy would become a distinguished Protestant divine, a champion of the faith, and win a name to go back on the wings of fame to the green isle he had left.

Such a lad was Nicholas Murray; such was his introduction to this country, and such was his future ca

reer.

His parents.

Clerk in a store.

He was born in Ballynaskea, in the County of Westmeath, Ireland, December 25, 1802. He was the son of Nicholas and Judith Mangum Murray, both of them being Irish Roman Catholics, though their Christian names are indicative of a different parentage. His father was a farmer of some property, and exerted considerable influence in the civil affairs of the neighborhood in which he lived. He died when his son Nicholas was only three years old.

The son remained at home under the care of his mother till he was about nine years old, when he went to live with an aunt, the sister of his mother, some ten or twelve miles distant, where he went to school till he reached the age of twelve. Now he was old enough to begin to earn something, and he was apprenticed as a merchant's clerk in a store in Grannard, near Edgeworthtown, where he remained three years. These were eventful years in his mental and moral history, as we shall see when he comes to speak of the first influences that the practices of the Roman Catholic Church made upon his mind.

He was sadly and badly used by his employer, but he bore it as well as he could for three long dreadful years, and then fled from the oppression to his mother's house. But his mother disapproved of this step, and entreated him to return to the service from which he had escaped. He steadily refused, and chose to embark on the wide world, and seek his fortune beyond the seas, in the land of the West. He told his brother that he would relinquish all right to any property that might hereafter be his from the estate of his

A mother's curse.

Finds the Harpers.

father if he would give him ready money enough to take him to America. His brother gave him the necessary aid, and he left his native land.

His mother was a woman of strong feelings, and bitterly opposed to his going away. She was grievously offended with him for leaving the store, and even more for going abroad, and in the spirit of her Church had him cursed from the altar. A few years afterward, when she heard that he had become a Protestant, she had masses said for the repose of his soul, and regarded him as dead. She died without, so far as he ever knew, breathing a word of forgiveness or regard for the boy who lived to be the crown of her house, and a rich blessing to the world.

The curses of a priest that followed the lad as he went to Dublin to embark for America did him no harm.

He had about twelve dollars in money when he came to New York. Finding lodgings, he began to search for business, going from place to place in the city, willing to work, and resolved to do any thing that was honest for the sake of support. It was a kind Providence that directed him to the printinghouse of the Messrs. Harper, who were then in business in Pearl Street.

Unlike many employers, these men felt a deep responsibility for those whom they employed, and the most of their apprentices at that time were boarded and lodged under their own roof. Young Murray was thus immediately introduced into a Protestant Christian family, into associations with young men of

An apprentice.

The mother of the Harpers.

his own age who had been religiously educated; and the influences were eminently favorable to his own moral improvement.

Few, if any, boys ever came into the establishment of the Harpers with less promise in their appearance and manner than Murray. His education and associations in the old country had not fitted him to fill any position that required culture; but he was ready to turn his hand to any thing useful. He worked at the printing business and at the press with a steady cheerfulness that won for him the favor of all around him. Even at this period in his history, a vein of humor, technically called Irish humor, ran through his conversation, making him a lively, genial companion.

The Harpers were and are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The partners were then the brothers James and John. Two younger brothers, Wesley and Fletcher Harper, who are now with them in the firm of Harper & Brothers, were then working at the business with Murray and others. They were also his companions by night and day, occupying the same room with him in their mother's house. This mother of the Harpers was a mother indeed: a woman full of faith and the Holy Spirit, a living witness and example of the power of that religion which she loved, and commended to all in her house. Dr. Murray has often said that the first misgivings that he felt after coming to this country as to the reality of the religion in which he was born and taught were caused by the holy life and conversation of this venerable and pious woman. She was then

Reminiscences by one who knew him.

making an impression upon the mind of one who was afterward to make his mark upon the mind of the world.

One of his fellow-apprentices is now the Rev. P. C. Oakley, of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He also lodged in the same room with him and the younger Harpers. Mr. Oakley says,

"I remember his fine ruddy countenance and hair as black as a raven. His voice and appearance clearly indicated that he came from the Emerald Isle. Being myself a Protestant, and associating with him constantly, we had frequent and earnest controversies on the subject of religion. He often became greatly excited. On one occasion, after I had gone to bed, he became so out of patience with me in one of our doctrinal controversies that he exclaimed, 'I would not be a Methodist or a Presbyterian if I knew they were right!' Of course that silenced me for that time. He, however, became modified in his views and feelings, and ultimately became first a Methodist, and then a Presbyterian. There was at this time a gracious revival of religion in progress in the John Street Methodist Church, then under the pastoral care of the Rev. Tobias Spicer. Young Murray attended the meetings, became deeply interested, and professed to be converted to God."

From the moment that his mind was awakened by the religious exercises in this Christian household, and by the discussions he had with the young men around him, he determined to look for himself into the truth of the system in which he had been trained in his