First essay.

College papers.

CHAPTER XV.

Dr. Murray as an Author.-Early Efforts.-At Wilkesbarre.-Origin of the Kirwan Letters.-Sketch of Bishop Hughes.-Systematic Preparation for the Discussion.-Effect of it.-Popularity of the Letters.-Calls for more.-Other Series.-Oral Discussion.

THE first essay of Dr. Murray to write for the press, of which we have any knowledge, was made while he was a student in college. That his early employment in a printing-office had directed his attention to the field of authorship, and stimulated him to efforts in that line of distinction and usefulness, there can be little doubt. In that business he also acquired those habits of precision and method that marked his labors in future years.

Among his manuscripts we find copies of papers prepared while in college for the press, some of which we know were published, and others were, perhaps, never sent away for that purpose. It is certainly remarkable that a youth who had devoted less than a year to studies in preparation for college, having had but common education in boyhood, should so soon enter the lists as a writer for the press, and especially as a controversial writer. The first essay that we find as coming from his pen, and all the early pieces that he has left among his old manuscripts, are tinged with the caustic wit and satire, as well as the genial humor and sparkling vivacity, that grew with his growth, till they became the features of his composition which

Christian Advocate.

Newspapers.

made him so distinguished among the religious authors

of his age.

While he was settled at Wilkesbarre he wrote a series of articles on the measures and doctrines of the Methodists in the Valley of Wyoming. These were published in the monthly magazine, edited by the Rev. Dr. Green, in Philadelphia, and called the Christian Advocate. This periodical was a power in its day. Devoted primarily to the defense of the Calvinistic doctrine and the promotion of evangelical truth, it was supported by the best productions of the best minds in the Presbyterian Church, and it made its mark. The appearance in this periodical of the articles written by Mr. Murray to which we refer, immediately arrested the attention of leading men in the Methodist Church. A deputation waited upon Dr. Green, the editor, and demanded the name of the author. This the venerable editor declined to give, but he assured the gentlemen that his confidence in the correctness of all the facts alleged was such that he would assume the responsibility of the statements as his own, and they could deal with him and them accordingly. He then wrote to Mr. Murray to fortify himself with the most abundant proof of every thing he had or should set forth, and the series was continued with great vigor and effect.

Beyond occasional articles in the newspapers, secular and religious, we have no evidence that he made any contributions to the press until the appearance of his letters to Bishop Hughes. He had now been settled in Elizabethtown fourteen years, and had reached

Preparation.

Kirwan Letters.

the forty-seventh year of his age. In the maturity of his powers, and firmly established in his charge, he looked back with painful solicitude upon the Church of his fathers and his youth, and his soul yearned, as did the soul of the apostle for his brethren, his kinsmen according to the flesh, who were yet under the bondage of Rome. With an earnestness of purpose and intensity of zeal that few can understand and appreciate, he resolved to make one effort to open the eyes of his countrymen and his former brethren to the danger of the errors by which they were led captive, and, with God's good help, to deliver them. We have the means of knowing that he set himself at this work with prayerful deliberation, and pursued it through months and years of most laborious study. Before putting pen to paper, he unfolded to me the plan and purpose of his work, and the feelings with which he was impelled to its execution. I urged him to go forward, aided him in finding the books that he needed to substantiate his positions, and begged him not to allow any thing to divert him from the holy purpose he had formed.

It was soon determined that his work should take the form of a series of articles in the New York Observer, and for the purpose of more immediately securing attention, and giving them the additional zest of personal correspondence, that they should be addressed as letters to the Rt. Rev. John Hughes, D.D., Bishop of New York. His reasons for selecting this prelate as his correspondent are assigned in the first letter, which opens in these words:

M

To Bishop Hughes.

Reasons.

"MY DEAR SIR,-Although an entire stranger to you, I have felt for many years greatly interested in your history and doings, and for the following reasons:

"You are the chief pastor of a very important portion of the Roman Catholic Church in this country, and your ecclesiastical position makes you emphatically a public man. If a bishop in Mexico or Missouri, like many mitred priests, you might live unknown to fame; but as the papal bishop of the commercial metropolis of the Western World, and of the most populous and wealthy diocese of your Church in the United States, this could not be expected. Position, you know, has much to do with our public character. It sometimes gives, even to weak and bad men, an importance out of all proportion to their merits.

"But, in addition to your position, which is one of high influence, you possess the requisite qualifications to fill it. This is confessed by your most ardent opponents. By your genius, tact, and eloquence-by your sleepless devotion to the duties of your calling, you have obtained a position in the very first rank of the ecclesiastics of your Church; and, without saying very much, this is saying considerable.

"Besides, at whatever odds, you have fought like a man with all your opponents. In controversies, religious and political, you have not shunned the hall of debate, nor discussion through the press. You have taken your positions adroitly, and you have defended them with remarkable skill; and even when convinced of the utter fallacy of your positions and defenses, I have yet sympathized with your manly firmness. It

Self-made.

Intelligent.

is in human nature to respect the man that, with an earnest soul, contends for what he esteems right; and I must confess that, as to some things, when the public voice was against you, your course met with my approbation.

เ

"Besides, if public rumor is worthy of belief, you have raised yourself into your present position by the force of your talents and character, from a social position comparatively humble. To me this is not the least of the reasons why I have felt interested in your career. The men of our race have been what is commonly called self-made men. The Heroes in History' have been nearly all such. It requires high attributes, both of mind and soul, to rise above the disadvantages of family and fortune, and to take precedence of those who would fain believe that birth and wealth give a patent-right to the high places of influence. Your past history, unless I misunderstand it, must have had a liberalizing influence upon you. You must look at things on a larger and wider scale, and through a clearer medium, than if you had been cradled in crimson and educated in a convent. You know the distinction between prejudice and principle-between what is entitled to belief and what we have been educated to believe-between what is truly reasonable and what is ecclesiastically so; and I therefore address myself to you with a confidence far stronger, that what I shall say kindly and truly will be kindly and truly weighed, than if I addressed myself to a priest from Maynooth or Saint Omer, educated merely in the literature of legends and liturgies, and whose mind only pos