Dr. Edgar's letter.

Kirwan Letters.

CHAPTER XXI.

Letter from Rev. Dr. Edgar. -Rev. Prof. Gibson. - Mrs. Duncan.Rev. Mr. Reinhart. Rev. Dr. Chickering. — Rev. Dr. Childs.-Rev. Dr. Janeway.-Rev. Dr. Schenck. — Rev. Dr.

Mrs. Jones.

Gray.

Rev. Dr. Edgar to Geo. H. Stuart, Esq.

66

'Belfast, June 27th, 1861. "MY DEAR MR. STUART,-In furnishing for Dr. Prime's work reminiscences of our dear departed friend, Dr. Murray, I desire to associate them with you, not only because his love for you was enthusiastic, but be-cause I am anxious that he should be in death, as he was in life, a bond of union between me and one for whom my love can never die.

"One of my first links of connection with him was my republishing the Kirwan Letters, which first made him eminently great. Having written a preface, and added notes by the late Dr. Samuel O. Edgar, I issued, in 1850, an edition of five thousand copies of the first series, one thousand of which were purchased by an eminent lawyer; and the good effected by them verified a statement of the preface, that they were republished in unhappy Ireland, not chiefly because of the talent and eloquence which distinguished them, but because, being brief, clear, practical, and characterized by genuine good-nature and politeness, they are well qualified to be a useful manual for all, especially the ignorant and young.

"When, next year, I issued the second series, my

Popery.

Visit to Ireland.

distinguished fellow-helper, author of Edgar's Variations of Popery, was no more; and in a preface I said, 'Had his life been a little prolonged, he might have formed a personal acquaintance with him whom he had favorably known by his writings; for the Rev. Dr. Murray has visited the Old World, and been enthusiastically received by many who had formed a high estimate of the convert from Romanism, who had done as much as any other in the Western World to breathe Protestant life and spirit into the masses of the people. His Letters have commanded in America an enormous circulation. A chief feature of their popularity here is the eagerness with which they are read and circulated by Roman Catholics in districts blessed with scriptural schools.'

"Of his visit on that occasion he has published an account in his work, 'Men and Things as I saw them in Europe.' He accompanied me in a part of my annual missionary tour, visiting our schools, preaching in our missionary stations, received as an honored guest at the houses of landed gentry-every where delighted by interesting scenes and society, awakening the liveliest sympathies, making happy friendships, and leaving impressions never to be forgotten.

"Some time after he sent to this country a loved and cherished representative, who, first for her father's sake, and then for her own, was received with extreme kindness. She was one of the most intensely interesting of beings in female form I ever saw. So fascinating, so talented, so full of activity, genius, wisdom, kindness and beautiful withal; but, alas! so delicate,

Daughter.

Irish deputation.

tiny, worn-the victim of many a disease, and yet with an elasticity, buoyancy, and a large-hearted scriptural piety and devotedness rising above all, and throwing over all a soft and heavenly radiance. Her likeness is here with me now; her spirit is with her God. He who loved her best could keep her from His fond bosom no longer. 'Come up hither,' He said, and she was not, for God took her. Her dying expressions of gratitude and love endeared to the heart of her father and mother some, like our friends the Moores, of Dublin, and Miss Holmes, of Clogher, for whose noble missionary institution in Connaught both raised munificent contributions.

"The effects of missionary effort shown him by Miss Holmes and others gave deep intensity to his zeal for our Presbyterian mission to Roman Catholics; and I need not say how often or earnestly he and you pressed me to undertake a deputation to the United States to obtain support for that mission. The time was when I would have gladly accepted the invitation, but that time was past then; and though I labored to secure a deputation, I had resolved not to be on it, when a letter from an influential quarter in America changed my plan; for that letter, in contradiction to the statements of yourself and Dr. Murray, asserted that America would give no welcome and no money to Irish Presbyterian missions, and assigned reasons unfounded and provoking. I wrote to you both, and your answers determined me to go, no matter what the sacrifice. Some, on whom I depended, declined; but if I did too, it would have been

Results.

Farewell meeting.

a personal insult to friends who showed exceeding kindness, and who were so able to realize the hopes they raised.

"With my brethren I went, and prospered beyond all precedent, upward of six thousand pounds sterling for our mission being only part of the large and varied fruit of that most effective delegation.

"Of our obligations to Dr. Murray and you for our success we spoke truly at our farewell meeting, but far from the sum total of the truth when we said, 'Among the many of highest name and worth who have laid us under deep obligations, we are bound in gratitude to give a distinguished place to Dr. Murray and George Hay Stuart, Esq., not merely because it was chiefly on their invitation and by their advice that we visited your country, but because their time, and talents, and influence, and unceasing anxious labor have been devoted to promote the objects of our mission with an earnestness, wisdom, and success which we have never seen equaled, and which we can neither fully estimate nor describe. To these noble sons of old Ireland, and the influence which their name and character wield in the great new world of their adoption, we chiefly owe the large and triumphant success which has crowned our enterprise.'

"Little did I think, while reading this, amid the splendid hospitalities of Dr. Prime, how soon a precious gem of that shining circle would drop away. Oh! what melancholy would have filled the inmost heart of that great meeting had we known how soon would be verified, in the prophet himself, the predic

Fulton Street meeting.

The Irish boy.

tion uttered by Dr. Murray at the Fulton Street farewell meeting, when, pointing to me, he said, 'You will come to our shores no more. These junior brethren may come to this country again, but we shall not be here. We shall see your faces no more.'

"In the young land of his wife and his children, he shall see their faces no more; but in the old land of his father's and mother's grave he did see them, to rejoice with them, and over them, and to be received by their exulting families with ecstasy and triumph.

"You were our inseparable companion through all our long and most enchanting and successful missionary tour in the centre, south, and west of dear old Ireland, and you can tell how, with open arms, we were every where received-how private carriages were waiting for us every where we stopped-how we were ministered to by the fair, the fascinating, and the good-how crowds flocked from far to welcome and to hear how the fame of our venerable companion traveled before him-how highly his religious services were prized—how joyous the greetings, and the partings how sad-how deeply he felt poor Ireland's degradation and how, as at Allan Pollok's and other places, he gloried in her regeneration; and with what hearty, exulting good-will he welcomed and answered genuine Irish wit and humor, even when playing on lips pale and thin with hunger, or flashing in the dark hovels of sordid poverty. You knew him long and well, but you never knew Nicholas Murray, the Romish Irish boy, the eminent Protestant divine, so thoroughly himself, in the length and breadth of his char