The good elders.

The result.

rity of my motives. If you think it best for me not to accept the offer, you will please let me know.

"Under a sense of my obligations to you for the pains you have taken by me, I wish to be guided and directed solely by you in reference to the object in view. Fearing that you were making some provision for me, I would enter into no engagement until I hear from you. I still remain at Mr. Harper's, and board. at Mr. Kirk's. It is my prayer to the Almighty God that your useful labors may be long spared to His Church and to His people, and when the Lord of the harvest shall call you to render an account of your stewardship, that you may be found having your wedding garment on, with your lamp trimmed and brightly burning, ready to enter into the joy of our Lord. Amen. Believe me to be your prayerful servant, "NICHOLAS MURRAY."

The result of this application is evident in the fact that Mr. Murray was soon enabled to proceed with his studies under the auspices of benevolent individuals in the Brick Church. His success in the performance of religious exercises had already attracted their attention, and convinced them that he ought to be prepared for the sacred ministry. Two of the elders, Mr. Peter Hawes and Mr. Cunningham, communicated to him the wishes of his friends and their willingness to bear the expenses of his education.

Many long years afterward, in the year 1860, when the 50th anniversary of Dr. Spring's settlement in the Brick Church was celebrated, Dr. Murray was one of

A speech.

Reminiscences.

the distinguished speakers, and he then gave utterance to his own feelings in remembrance of his early relations to the venerable pastor and the people who were the friends of his youth. The whole speech is intensely interesting in this very place:

"MR. CHAIRMAN, -We may have a great many teachers, but we can have but one Father; so says the Sacred Record. We may be connected with many churches, but after all there is one church to which our affections always return, as the needle, which has been drawn from its true direction, trembles back to the pole. I have been, in the course of my ministry, acquainted with many ministers; but there is one minister who is associated with every thing that is precious in my youthful years. I have been connected with many churches, but there is one church, in the aisle of which I stood when I devoted myself to God, and that church is ever before me. I came to this city, a mere boy, in the year 1818. I was, through the providence of God, cast into a Presbyterian family that worshiped in the Murray Street Church, under the pastoral care of Rev. Dr. Mason, and I went there occasionally to church. Dr. Mason was soon removed to the presidency of Dickinson College; and on his removal, having no particular attachment there, save to hear the Gospel from the lips of that eloquent man, I passed over the Park to the old Brick Church. There I became acquainted with a few young men, one of whom still lives, a pillar of a church in Liverpool. We went into the Sabbath-school together. I

Hearing a sermon read.

Effect.

was not then a professor of religion, but my mind became deeply interested, and I had a private conversation with Dr. Spring in reference to my state of mind, which was then in a very doubting state-indeed, it was wavering as to the truth of Christianity itself; and he talked with me in the kindest manner. I called again; and I attended the lectures in that old white lecture-room in the evenings. At that time. this beloved man, who has just been carried out to the lecture-room (Mr. Holden*), was an elder. One evening Dr. Spring was unwell, and that man arose and read a sermon which I remember well. That sermon was from the text, 'His feet stand on slippery places; and in due time they shall slide'-a sermon in one of the volumes of the great Jonathan Edwards. It riveted my mind, and very deeply impressed my soul. I went again to see the pastor of the Church, and he invited me to meet with the Session, as it was my duty to become a communicant of the Church. I went on a certain evening to meet with the Session, and laid my hand upon the latch of the door in order to enter. But my heart failed me, and I turned away. And for three months I staid away. A notice was given again; I went to the same door and laid my finger upon the latch, but faltered, and was turning upon my heel to go away again, when that old and sainted man, Father Cunningham, came behind me, laid his hand upon the latch, opened the door, and said, 'Walk in, young man;' and, almost against my will, I was ushered into

* Alluding to the fact of Mr. Holden having fainted during the exercises.

Baptized.

The elders again.

the room, where I went through such an examination as was usually there given with a very faint heart. The following Sabbath I was received into the Church. I was baptized by Rev. Dr. Spring in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. By him I was led, in the private interviews to which I have alluded, to Christ; under his ministry I devoted myself to God; and by his hand I was baptized and received into the Church. I went about my business. Six or eight months had passed away, when, on a certain afternoon, two individuals came into the office in which I was employed: one was Father Cunningham, and the other was another sainted elder of this Church, years ago gone to rest - Peter Hawes. They asked me, after a little introduction, if I thought of devoting myself to the ministry. I told them, No; that the thought had not entered my mind, and that there were other courses marked out before me. They told me to consider the subject, and that they would call to see me again. They saw me again: on a certain evening I had another conversation with them in the lectureroom, and the result was that in a few months more I was in a course of preparation for the ministry, under the care of this Church, and by advice of its pastor; and from that day unto this day, the Lord has kept me. Therefore I ought and must feel a great veneration for this beloved man, and a great veneration for the old Brick Church. I look around me this evening, and I find that many whose names have been read by our beloved Holden are absent. John Adams is gone; Hawes, and Mr. Cun

and Mr. Lockwood, and Peter

The old men.

A minister of New York.

ningham, and Mr. Phelps, and Mr. De Forest-all gone! Mr. Fisher is yet living; Mr. Havens is gone; Mr. Couch yet lives; Mr. Holden has been here to-night; Halsey, too, is gone. Those men I knew as a boy; they were pillars of the Church—of the old house; they have fallen, but the main pillar remains.

"It is one thing, Mr. Chairman, to be a minister in New York, and quite another thing to be a minister of New York. Almost any body, with ordinary talent, could be a minister in New York: John Smith could be a minister in New York-why, I myself could be that; but it is a very different thing to be a minister of New York. A minister in New York may be a very small minister indeed, and his ministrations may be very limited; but a minister of New York must be every inch a man.. And this venerable man has been a minister of New York; his hand for fifty years has been upon every thing that has been good here. What great and good enterprise has arisen here in this city for fifty years with which his name has not been connected? Is it the Bible Society? Is it the American Tract Society? Is it any of our great missionary societies? And if we go from our Church to our national societies, is it the American Board? Is it our own Presbyterian Board? Pray tell me what it is that has arisen within the last fifty years in this city or in this land to bless the world, with which this beloved man has not been connected? He has been a minister, not only in and of New York, but he has been a minister of the world. His name is known in Ireland, and in Scotland, and in England, almost as