Biography of Rev. Leonidas L. Hamline : late one of the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church

Front matter

,v

BIOGRAPHY

OF

Chapter I

Ancestry — Early Life — Hopeful Conversion — Thoughts of the Ministry — Studies — Precocity — Health Fails — Goes South — Speaks in the Churches at Pittsburg — Goes to Zanesville, Ohio — Marries, Page 13

Chapter II

Unsatisfied with worldly Good — Doctrinal Education and Prejudice — Comes to Perrysburg, N. Y. — Methodist social Contact — Christian Women — Colloquy — Fletcher's Appeal — Argues with Mis. Maphet — Confusion — Game of Cliess — Baffled in Argument— Camp-meetings — Again Baffled — Attends Camp-meeting — Witnesses Prayer-meetings — Reads the Law — Unconscious Defense of Camp-meetings — Invited to Kneel at the Altar — Argues and Declines — Returns Convicted — Death — Alarmed and Submits — No Progress — Colloquy — Sees his Error — Despairs — Prayer-meeting — Goes forward for Prayers — Sore Conflict — Returns Home — With the Morning comes the Witness — Witnesses — Is established, .... 24

Chapter III

Mr. Hamline's activity after Conversion — Returns to Zanesville— Great Awakening — Not Satisfied with the Legal Profession — Gives up the Law — Called to Preach — Robert Hopkins — Monongahela District — Liberty and Ohio Circuits — Labors with Jacob Young — First Appearance — Success — Tribute to Hamline — Letter to Mrs. Hamline — Visit of Rev. Mr. Coston — Savor of his early Labors, 45

Chapter IV

Joins the Ohio Conference — Granville Circuit — H. L.. Farnandis — Heroic Real — Letter to Mrs. Hamline — Revival — Power in Preaching — Sickness — Athens Circuit — Jacob Young — Revival at Batemantown — A Rencounter — Desperate Adventure — Letter to Mrs. Hamline — To Jacob Young, 54

Chapter V

Appointed to Cincinnati— Opening of the Year— Affliction- Death of Mrs. Hamline— Habit of Preparing Sermons, Page 65

Chapter VI

Marriage — Appointed to Columbus — Appointed Assistant Editor of Western Christian Advocate — General Conference of 1836— Abolition Excitement — Thoughts of a Mission to France — Evangelical Labors— Hamline as an Exhorter — Varied Work, . . 74

Chapter IX

Election to General Conference — Sickness — Opening of Conference— Harding Case — Committee of Six — Bishop Andrew's Case — ■ Griffith's Resolution — Resolution of Finley and Trimble — Hamline's Speech — Speech of Dr. Smith — Hamline's Reply— Treatment of Hamline's Speech by the South — Vote on Finley's Resolution — Dr. Capers's Resolutions — First Committee of Nine — Declaration of fifty-one Southern Delegates. — Second Committee of Nine — J. B. M'Ferrin's Resolution of Instruction — Report of Second Committee of Nine — Committee on Reply to the Protest — Hamline's Election to the Episcopacy — His Explanations of Committee of Nine, . . .116

Chapter X

Mr. Hamline's Status in General Conference — His Ordination— His own Account — Conference Adjourns — Rev. Dr. Young's Letter — Visits New York Conference — Enters upon his Episcopal

Duties — Troy Conference — New Hampshire Conference Dr. Olin's

Preaching"— Oneida Conference — Genesee Conference — Michigan Conference — North Indiana Conference — Ends the Year 1844 January, 1845, Consecration — Evangelical Work — Pittsburg Conference—Erie Conference — North Ohio Conference— North Indiana Conference, , .0

Chapter XI

Difficulties of Administration — Initiatory Proceedings to Church Separation — Hamline's Letters on the State of Things — Malign Attacks upon him — Louisville Convention — Church Separation Accomplished — Settlement of the Border Line begins — Difficulties of Fraternal Union — Difficulties arising from Diverse Interpretations of the "Plan of Separation," PAGE 161

Chapter XII

Difficulties of Episcopal Administration, continued — Call for Meeting of the Episcopal Board — Bishop Hamline's Letter to the Board — Bishops' Meeting in New York — Momentous Events of the Hour — Embarrassing Attitudes of Bishops Soule and Andrew — The former Resigns his work in the North — Pittsburg Conference — Erie Conference — North Ohio Conference — Ohio Conference — Embarrassment at Bishop Soule's Presence — A Startling Conference Scene — Bishop Hamline's Adroitness and Firmness — The Explanation—Bishop Morris's Letter, 175

Chapter XIII

Difficulties of Episcopal Administration, continued — Embarrassments in fixing the Boundary Line — Letter of Dr. Crouch — Of Bishop Hedding — Of Bishop Morris — Institution of Slavery — Kanawha District — -Bishop Soule — Stewart's Report of Kanawha District — Severe Test of Constitutional Law of Methodist Episcopal Church— Bishop Morris's Letter — Bishop Hedding's Letter — Bishop Hamline's Instruction to Border Preachers — Letter of Bishop Morris on the Times — First General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South — Bishop Hamline's Remarks on their Spirit and Doings — Letter of Dr. Mitchell on Episopcal Administration, 190

Chapter XIV

Difficulties of Episcopal Administration, continued — Episcopal Board meets at Philadelphia — Their Published Principles of Administration, as Relating to the "Plan" — Bishop Hamline's Agency in the Board — Baltimore Conference — Cares and Conflicts — Philadelphia Conference, Border Troubles — Letter to Jacob Young — Disgraceful Doings on the Border — Mobs in Accomac and Northampton Counties — Christian Advocate, of New York, indicted — Western Christian Advocate indicted, 207

Chapter XV

North Indiana Conference— Closes the Annual Tour of Conferences—Visiting the Churches— Diary— Letter to Mrs. Palmer- Border life Hospitalities — Illinois Conference — Staten Island- Diary— Distress at the low state of Christian Experience — Letter to Dr. E. D. Roe— Philadelphia— Three Weeks' Tour— Newtown— Rev. Alfred Cookman— Entire Sanctification — Returns to Philadelphia — • Baltimore Conference — Stays at Washington, D. C. — Philadelphia Conference— Returns to Tarrytown — Sickness of his Son, Page 223

Chapter XVI

Proposes lo go to Liberia — Leaves Tarrytown for New York and Philadelphia— Religious concern for his Son — New Jersey Con. ference — Letter to his Son — New York Conference — Birth-day Reflections— Family sickness — Maine Conference — Oneida Conference— Four Weeks of Preaching and visitng Churches — Letter to Mrs* H. — Genesee Conference — Detroit Conference — Returns to Cincinnati — Evangelical work among the Churches — Mexican War — Visits Wilmington and Aurora, Ind., and returns to Cincinnati— -Visits Columbus, Zanesville, Putnam, Xenia, and returns to Cincinnati — Closes the Year with Dedication at Lexington, Ind., 241

Chapter XVII

Opening of the Year — Evangelical Labors — Social Religious Fidelity — Trials about popular preaching — Views of Millennium, 2gs

Chapter XVIII

General Conference of 1848— Arrives at Pittsburg — Meetinowith Dr. Herron — Opening of General Conference — Diary Conference Proceedings— Glance at the Preceding Four Years-^-Episcopal Accountability— Dr. Holdich piesents the Bishop's Plan of Settlement of the Property Question— Sequel shows They were right

Plan of Separation annulled— General Conference Action on the Louisville Convention— On the Southern Organization— Episcopal Administration approved— In the " Plan " they had trusted Others too far— Chinch Administration vindicated— Bishop Capers on the Plan— Letter of Bishops Waugh and Janes— Close of General

Conference,. .

?-77

Chapter XIX

Troy Conference — Zinzendorfism — Mesmerism — Church Trial — Address to the Conference on Mesmerism — Expulsion — Conference closes pleasantly — Pittsburg Conference — Erie Conference — North Ohio Conference — Frames and Feelings in Preaching — Sickness — ■ Triumph — Indiana Conference — Ohio Conference — Stops at Xenin, Going Abroad and Returning for Five Weeks — Visits Cincinnati — Conversion of Lawyer J. M. Leavitt — Visits Mrs. C. W. Sears in her last Sickness — Visits the Churches till the End of the Year — Death of Mrs. Sears — Letter to her Husband, Page 288

Chapter XX

New Year's Covenant — Three Months' visitation of Churches — Mercersburg — Carlisle — Lancaster — Letter to Rev. H. Hickok, Missionary to China — Philadelphia — New York — New Jersey — Providence Conference — Reading Sermons — New Hampshire Conference— Stage-coach Traveling — No Altar, No Revival — Pleasant Conference — Revision of Hymn Book — New York — -Sick and Weary — Secularizing Regular Ministers — Troy Conference — Vermont Conference — Visits Bishop Waugh at Ohio Conference — Impaired Health — Invitation to make his Home at Cincinnati — Anniversary of his Conversion — Retrospect of the Year, . . . 305 si

Chapter XXI

Failing Health — Advice of Physicians — Decides against it — Spiritual Review — Fraternal Letter of the Bishops — Advises with a Veteran — Begins his Conference Visits — Wisconsin Conference — Rock River Conference— Letter of his Physician — Iowa Conference— Health fails — Letter to the Missouri Conference — Illinois Conference — Retires to Peoria — Letter of his Physician — Letter of Bishop Janes — Works of Arminius — Joy in Affliction — The Two Gates — Journeys Eastward to the Maine Conference — Attends Maine Conference — Springs of Life gone — Residence Near Schenectady — • Letter of Dr. (now Bishop) J. T. Peck — Correspondence — Letter to E. A. G. — To Dr. Leavitt— Health — Tribute to Dr. Olin — Letter to Jacob Young — To Bishop Janes — To Bishop Morris — Judge Nelson's Decision on the Property Case — All Hope of Public Labor given up — Dissuasive to Locating, 319

IO CONTENTS.

Chapter XXII

General Con fer*nce— Necessity of Resigning the Episcopal Office and Care — Consecration — Letter to Rev. L. S. — To his Children—Resignation— -Letter to the Bishops — To Rev. J. Young— To the General Conference— Letter referred to a Committee— A Private Meditation— Report of Committee on Episcopacy — Discussion- Conference Action — Letter of the Bishops in Behalf of the Conference—Regrets of the Church — Letter of Dr. (afterward Bishop) Thomson — Letter of Dr. (now Bishop) J. T. Peck — Feelings of Bishop Hamline after resigning his Office— Letter of Bishop Morris, Page 344

Chapter XXIII

Bishop Hamline retires to Hillsdale — Letters of Comfort to Ministers — Thoughts of Europe — Of Palestine — The "Second Coming"— Letter to his Son — Returns to Rotterdam — Sharon Springs — Returns to near Schenectady — Diary — Management of Temporal Affairs — Letter to Judge Goodrich — Property appreciates — Letters to Agents — Donates to Colleges — Does not donate in Consideration of its Name — Habit of Giving — Just Rebuke — Giving from Conscience—Maine Seminary — Benevolent Institutions — Un charitableness— His Example Wesleyan, 371

Chapter XXIV

Bishop Hamline's Home and Occupation — Reviews his Life and renews his Covenant with God-Increase of Faith — A Wonderful Manifestation of Power — Visit from Friends— A Series of Meetings — A Powerful Exhortation — Beauty of Faith — Walking on the Sea with Christ — Trials of a Studious Young Minister — Advice to the same— Slavery and Political Excitement — Close of the Year l85°. 390

Chapter XXV

Removal to Mt. Pleasant, Iowa— Religious occupation and Enjoyment—Fidelity to Class-meeting and Church-order— Letter of Rev. P. P. Ingalls— Letter to C. W. Sears— Doctrinal Correspondence—Growing Old, and Sympathy with the Work Abroad- Losing Friends— Retrospect— Letter to Rev. L. Swormstedt— To Dr. Mitchell— Iowa Wesleyan University— Fraternal Letter of

Bishops,

1 ' 403

Chapter XXVI

Letter on the War — General Habit of Life — Rev. Dr. T. M. Eddy — Letters to Coston — Can Die away from Friends — Episcopal Fraternal Letter — Letter of Bishop Janes — To M. Brooks — Joyful Experience — Fraternal Letter of Bishops — Dying Advice — Rapid Decline — Death, Page 420

CHAPTER XXVII. General Retrospect, 438

BIOGRAPHY

OF

Rev Leonidas L. Hamline.

Chapter I. EARL Y H 1 STO R Y

HISTORY and biography stand related as genus and species, having" a common origin, and subject to the same laws of development and decay. The latter deals with individual character as its theme; the former with the growth and destiny of masses or nations of men. History, in its broadest sense, is little else than the record of the doings of individuals; that is, it is their biography so far as their acts affected the public welfare: while biography, on the other hand, is the record of a man's life and doings so far as it bears on his individual character and destiny. Thus the moral object of all human history and biography is the same, namely, to instruct, caution, and encourage men in that which is right, by showing how certain principles of ethics, in religion or polity, in individuals or nations, affect character and human happiness. All ethical principles are tested only by experience. When incorporated into either individual or national policy they develop after their kind in good or evil effects. The laws of material nature are not more certain .and uniform in their effects than are those of the moral government of God. Indeed, they are not so certain. It is more certain that the principles of ethics, founded in the nature of God, and developed in moral government and redemption, shall abide immutably, than that the material "heaven and earth " shall continue. The interest we have, therefore, in Christian biography and history is unspeakably great, inasmuch as they are crucial tests, an infallible demonstration of the verity, power, purity, and blessedness of divine moral truth. We see how certain causes lead to certain results by the most satisfactory and only certain test of all ethical philosophy, that of experience.

In the subject of the following memoir we see the working of divine truth and grace with uncommon clearness and fullness. His marked qualities and aptitudes of mind, his high positions of official responsibility, his great sufferings, his culture and tastes, the natural, and we may say of his early life, skeptical, cautiousness of his mental processes, the perfect humanity, and reasonableness of his acts, conspire to invest his life and experience with a wonderful force of evidence of the verity and power of that all-conquering grace which bore him so triumphantly to the end. Mr. Hamline was of French ancestry, of the Hugenot Protestant type. His grandfather, Ebenezer Hamline, was born in Burlington, Hartford County- Connecticut, about 1740. He was a lieutenant in the Revolutionary war, noted for his bravery; was at Fort Edwards, Ticonderoga, and other places, and died a Christian in 1810. He had six children, three

EARL Y BIS TOR Y. 1 5

sons and three daughters — Mark, Daniel, and Lent, and Rosa, Hannah, and Lois. His wife was a woman of character, possessing great energy and courage. The children were reputable and pious. Mark Hamline, the eldest, and father of the subject of this memoir, was born in 1764. He, too, served in the Revolution while yet but a boy. His wife was daughter of Captain Othniel Moses. They were pious, and settled in Burlington, Connecticut. He was a school-teacher, managing also a small farm; was of marked ability and a prominent man in the Congregational Church, and among his neighbors. His great decision of character, sound judgment, and unconquerable resolution caused his opinion to be much sought after in matters of special importance. A strict observance of the holy Sabbath marked his Puritanic integrity If he lent a horse on Saturday he strictly required that it should be returned the same night. While living some three miles from the church he was absent but one half day in ten years. He always took his children to church. Gentlemanly and dignified he blended kindness in all his social intercourse. The young loved him no less than the aged, and his appearance among the former in their moods of gayety and mirth would always command silence and respect. As a teacher of youth he was successful, and when in later life his daughter moved to a college in Ohio, men of distinction, in many instances, called on her, learning she was a daughter of Mark Hamline. He was the early instructor and friend of Rev. Heman Humphrey, afterward president of Amherst College. Character and courage ran in the blood. A granddaughter of Mark

Hamline, who had a son in the recent war sick at Washington, hastened there to attend him. She was withstood by the surgeon, and denied a permit to take him to a private residence to nurse him. Her remonstrances were in vain. "I have charge of the hospital," he said, "and shall exercise my power." Looking him full in the face, she replied, "Sir, you will find that I have more power in Washington than you have." She obtained that day an interview with President Lincoln, who gave permission for the removal of her son. That day, also, the surgeon was removed.

Leonidas L. Hamline, son of Mark Hamline, was born in Burlington, Connecticut, May io, 1797 His parents being of the Congregational order, and his father an admirer of the Hopkinsian phase of Calvinism, he was brought up after the genuine manner of the New England Congregationalism of the day. Little is preserved of his early life beyond the simple facts of his great reverence for religious doctrine and worship, his obedience and devotion to parents, his amiable deportment, his precocity, and his strong love of study. Impressed that his natural genius and religious bent suited him better for the pulpit than to secular callings, his father, in conformity to the custom of the times, early proposed to educate him for the sacred office. It was probably this that encouraged the ardent and ingenuous mind of Hamline, before his conversion, to turn the early current of his thoughts and study in this direction. When ten or twelve years old he wrote a sermon on the text "Why seek ye the living among the dead?" The ability and tact which it displayed surprised his

EARLY HISTORY. \J

parents and friends, and encouraged their hopes. At that age, when plowing in the field, his father "often found him resting his team while he sat on the plow so absorbed in his book as to have forgotten his work." His great reverence for the Sabbath, and his scrupulous observance of its sanctity, were marked features of his life in childhood, and not less in his last years. Before his conversion a Presbyterian ministerial friend used to say, "Some good will yet come to Hamline for his observance of the Sabbath."

Of his supposed early conversion he thus speaks in later life: "My parents designed me for the ministry, and I was partly educated for that purpose. When sixteen years old I was convicted of sin, and was thought to be converted ; but, probably from the want of evangelical instruction, I came short of it. But encouraged by friends, I joined the Congregational Church, and became a warm youthful advocate of religion. I found I was not born again, but judged I was much like others around me, and 'hoped.' In a few years I was satisfied that I had no religious fitness for the ministry, and ambitiously turned to the law."

When about seventeen he engaged in teaching portions of the year to enable him to pursue his education. At this time he introduced religious service in his school. The awakening was so strong that at times the school exercises were suspended. Many were hopefully converted. A Christian lady living in East Barrington, Massachusetts, informed Mrs. Hamline that there were elders in the Church in that village, who were then living, who had been converted through Mr. Hamline's labors, when he was a young man of seventeen or eighteen, teaching classical school, witH anticipations of the ministry. The pastor of the Congregational Church where Hamline, with his parents, worshiped was once asked what he thought of Leonidas. He replied, "How do you think I would feel to see my son standing on the spire of the church?" thus intimating the danger of young Hamline from the precocity of his genius. He early became popularly noted for his ability and tact in public speaking and debate. While at the Academy at Andover (not the Theological Seminary), he was so marked for classical taste in language and style that he was appointed censor of compositions. In New York, at one time, while staying a few weeks, he was urged to accept the challenge of a Universalist preacher which the latter was offering in his lectures from evening to evening. He at length consented, and after a few evenings, the interest of the debate rising and the audience increasing, the champion feeling the day was lost began to be rude and abusive. The chairman expressed his regret that the youth who had behaved with such decorum and propriety should receive such treatment. When the meeting broke up a lady said to Hamline, "You have saved my soul, sir. I am a member of the Presbyterian Church, and led on by the sophistry of that Universalist preacher was about to leave my own and join his Church."

At another time, a debating club had proposed as a question, "Is there a God?" Hamline was not on the programme, but was alarmed when he saw on the negative a member of the bar of known intellectual strength and power in debate. He knew,

EARLY HIS 7 OR Y. 1 9

also, those on the other side. When the debate closed the chairman announced, "If we take the vote now, we must vote there is no God." Hamline trembled for the effect on his friend, and said to a mutual friend sitting near, a Presbyterian gentleman, "If you will move to continue the debate and place me on the affirmative I will consent." The motion was immediately made and passed, and the debate continued through most of the night. When the vote on the question was finally taken, it was in the affirmative. Mr. Hamline remarked afterward that he did not take up the argument or meet objections on the ground commonly taken, knowing that his friend on the negative had thoroughly gone over that already, and had accordingly fortified himself. But he drew upon resources and modes of thought which were his own, and much of it extempore. He had feared that his noble opponent had been troubled with doubts, and hoped that his arguments had relieved them.

"Once when he was passing up the Ohio River the company in the gentlemen's saloon on the steamboat were engrossed for an hour or two by a noisy infidel, who had gathered a crowd around him, and was entertaining them with jeers at the Christian religion. Mr. Hamline was walking back and forth through the saloon, not seeming to notice what was passing, though he observed that the speaker was eying him, and evidently wished to attract his attention. As he turned from time to time he drew nearer the scene of discourse. At length the boaster said, 'When I die there will be no more of me than of my old white horse. Can you prove otherwise, stranger?' appealing to Mr. Hamline, who turned quickly, 'and said, 'If, when your old white horse is reposing under the shade in a hot Summer day, I should approach and whisper in his ear arguments to prove that he is immortal, would you not deem me a fool?' The company broke up in a roar of laughter, leaving the chagrined boaster to hide himself as best he could."

When about eighteen years of age, from hard study and continued strain upon the nerves, his health failed, which sympathetically affected his brain. The first symptom of mental aberration which was discovered was in the jovial relaxation of his characteristic and scrupulous observance of the holy Sabbath. It soon became plain enough that his habit of life must be suspended. A voyage South was determined on, hoping that sea air and change of climate would prove effectual. His nervous temperament had not been understood by his parents, and his amazing precocity had been imprudently stimulated by his admiring, but most imprudent, friends. He remained in South Carolina till his father's limited means forced his recall. While abroad, as at home, his mind was habitually calm and chiefly ran upon religious themes. Serious conversation and discourses which were called preaching mainly occupied his time. On his return home he came by land, in the care of a military gentleman, who was coming North for his health. On the way Hamline attracted attention and Avon good opinions by his conversation, and being ever ready to speak in public or any other place on relipious themes, his traveling companion very imprudently

EARL Y HISTOR Y. 2 1

and improperly represented him privately as a candidate for the ministry in the Presbyterian Church. For doing this he had no other authority than the facts that his parents were Congregationalists, and had designed him for the sacred office. Hamline himself had often spoken in public, and it was popularly considered he would be a preacher. But he was not a licentiate, and there is no evidence that he knew that his companion had thus informed concerning him.

On this ground, while in Pittsburg, he was invited by the Rev. Dr. Herron, of the First Presbyterian Clnrrch, to occupy his desk. Hamline did so. His services were so well accepted that other Presbyterian pulpits were opened for him. Without guile or thought of evil Hamline consented. His success was satisfactory and his popularity at Pittsburg unquestioned. What he had done was on his part sincere, and in ignorance of any impropriety. He himself, at that time, believed he had experienced a change of heart, and had the ministry in view. It is authentically stated that his senior traveling companion privately brought Hamline thus into notice at this time. The excitement of the effort, however, was unfavorable to his health. Some trifling symptoms in conversation indicated that his brain had been overdrawn. There is something- inimitably touching in all this. But as a proof of the good impression left upon the minds of the clergy of Pittsburg whom he had served, in later years, when Mr. Hamline entered the ministry and opened his itinerant life, Dr. Herron once and again sent him an invitation to visit him. But Hamline found.no time to turn aside from his work. When, however, in 1848 his duty as Bishop called him again to Pittsburg to General Conference, Dr. Herron, as will be noticed in its place, met him with great cordiality, and at once engaged him to preach in his pulpit. Other Presbyterian Churches did the same.

Mr. Hamline's convalescence was slow. He continued his studies as he was able. But in the lapse of time he became dissatisfied with the evidences of his conversion and changed his plan of life. He says of himself, "I gradually became convinced that I was not converted, and finally gave it all up and went to studying law." On his return from the South, or soon after, he went West, and, in 1824, we find him at Zanesville, Ohio. Here he became accquainted with Miss Eliza Price, an amiable, wellreported, and carefully educated young lady, an only child and an heiress. Her father, now a widower, came to this country from Ireland, when a young man, with high recommendations and experience in the mercantile profession. He was a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church. His promptness, probity, and ability soon gained him friends, and at Zanesville he rose to high repute and respectable wealth. To Miss Eliza Mr. Hamline was married. They lived together in much affection and harmony in the elegant paternal mansion, with an easy competence, but now without God. In 1827 he took licence as a lawyer, at Lancaster, Ohio, and returned to his profession. Four children were given them, two sons and two daughters, of whom three died in infancy, one only still surviving, Dr. L. P Hamline, of Evanston, Illinois. With In in-

EARLY HISTORY. 2$

come of respectable competency, an honorable profession which he entered with ambition and high qualifications, a social standing of the first quality, an sesthetical taste which drew from all sources the purest earthly enjoyment, a faultless human morality, a wife worthy of his affections, and a home like an earthly paradise, Mr. Hamline, to all worldly eyes, seemed the pet of fortune and the successful candidate for happiness.

"But mortal pleasure, wliat art lliou in truth? The torrent's smoothness ere it dash below."

CONVERSION.

NOTWITHSTANDING his uncommon resources for content and earthly happiness, Mr. Hamline was not happy. His own language afterward, in a letter to a friend, best describes his state: "I was," he says.. " unhappy. My days and nights were restive. I could not complain of my earthly lot. Neither poverty, sickness, nor solitude made me wretched, for I was removed from all these common occasions of sorrow. I knew no one around me whose means were more competent, whose home was more alluring, or whose intellectual tastes had larger means of gratification. My fireside was attractive, my friends were faithful, my library liberally supplied me the choicest entertainments, and my allotment was a life of easy leisure for the unalloyed fruitions of all these means of comfort. But with all these appliances which seemed to promise me a paradise, I was the prey of unaccountable heart dissatisfactions which I was sure grew upon me with the progress of time ; for though at first they were the mere ennui which almost passed unnoticed in my memory, they slowly grew into serious annoyances, which I found my outward advantages could neither heal nor assuage."

Mr. Hamline's education had been rigidly Calvinistic, yet, through the Edwardean and Hopkinsian channel of reasoning, he supposed he had found a harmony of predestination and free will which reconciled him to the system, while the doctrines of total depravity and effectual calling, as Calvinistically taught in those days, lulled him to sleep with the belief that he could do nothing till God had renewed his heart. He was at this time living a life of religious indifference, and at the same time of irreligious unrest. His love of metaphysics made him an easy disciple and admirer of Edwards, while his educational prejudice against, not to say his contempt for, the Methodists left him no do.ctrinal antidote to his pernicious speculations. But he was a child of Providence, and wonderful were the steps by which he was brought to Christ, in the personal assurance of his complete salvation.