Life and times of James B. Taylor

Introduction

It is stated by booksellers that in the present age biographies are overlooked and neglected. Well-written lives of great, good, and distinguished men encumber the shelves of publishers, while works of fiction, and indeed most other kinds of books, find a ready sale. If this statement is true — as doubtless it is — the fact is unfortunate for the age. History, it is said, is philosophy teaching by example. If this saying is true of history, it is specially true of biography. This presents, in a clear light, the results of the various principal motives and influences which give impulse to human life and guide its course. We are taught the value of this species of composition by the Bible. It is composed largely of the biographies, not formal and full, but fragmentary and graphic, both of good and of bad men. The four evangelists have furnished us biographies of the most wonderful Being whose dwelling has been on earth, and in a style of inimitable simplicity, faithfulness, and beauty. It would not be possible for didactic writing, however wise and authoritative, to impart such a charm and power to holiness as it has in the simple biography of Jesus of Nazareth. If the world has lost its taste for biography, this fact is a sad proof that its taste is vitiated, and the friends of a healthful literature should labor to correct the evil.

The life of the humblest and most obscure man, if it were plainly and faithfully written, would furnish many valuable

4 INTRODUCTION.

lessons for mankind. To a large extent, the thoughts, affections, passions, conflicts, hopes, sorrows, and enjoyments of one man are common to humanity. But the biography of every man need not and cannot be written. If the lives of all men were composed, then indeed " the world itself could not contain the books that should be written." It is not even proper that the biography of every good and useful man should be recorded. Many persons of great excellence and talents pass their lives in quietness and obscurity, and do not leave behind them materials for composing their biographies. The biographer, then, must select from the multitude of dwellers on earth those whose sayings and doings are worthy of record.

The life of the late James B. Taylor, D.D., is worthy of preservation. He set a lovely example before the world. He furnished a remarkable instance of what, under the lack of early educational advantages, may be accomplished by a good intellect, governed by religious principle, and diligently, through life, directing its energies to the dissemination of divine truth and the promotion of the kingdom of Christ. Few men of the present day have been more useful by their direct influence than was James B. Taylor. Every work to which he put his hand prospered. The churches under his pastoral charge were built up and established. In every agency in which he was employed he was successful. For more than forty-five years he was immediately connected with every general scheme and effort to promote the interests of the Baptist churches in Virginia. His brains, his hands, his time, his resources, and his influence were all laid on the altar of Christ. He had a large-hearted zeal in his Master's cause — a zeal confined by no sectional limits and restrained by no denominational bounds. He labored for the glory of Christ, but not exclusively in the South. He was from education and deep conviction a Baptist,

INTROBUCTION. 5

but he was a lover of good men, and rejoiced in the spread and triumph of divine truth by any and every agency. His life is inseparable from the history of the Southern Baptist Convention, and the one cannot be written without, to a large extent, recording the other.

Taylor left ample materials for the preparation of his life. The difficulty is not in finding, but in selecting them. His diary, his letters, the archives of the Foreign Mission Board, the columns of the Religious Herald, of the Some and Foreign Journal, and of other periodicals, together with the reminiscences of his friends, afford valuable stores of information concerning his labors, conflicts, and usefulness in every period of his Christian life. The scenes through which he passed were not thrilling, but interesting ; his labors were not brilliant, but useful ; and the record of his life is not amusing, but instructive and profitable.

The father of Dr. Taylor was a sensible, discreet, pious, and estimable man, who died in a ripe old age. The son furnished a beautiful and correct sketch of the life and character of the father, which was published and read with deep interest. This tribute of filial respect elicited from Dr. E. Kingsford, who had been for a short time the pastor of both the father and the son, a very hearty commendation, in which he expressed the wish that Dr. Taylor, when he should die, might have a son who could do such justice to his memory as he had done to the name of his father. That wish has been fulfilled. Kev. George B. Taylor is eminently fitted by his learning, his good taste, his reputation as an author, his intimate knowledge of his father, and his filial reverence, to write his biography. Due allowance, of course, will have to be made for the intimate relation which the writer sustains to the venerable subject of his memoir, and it must be remembered that delicacy may rel»

6 INTRODUCTION.

strain him from saying, or affection may prompt him to record, "what another might feel free to express or to conceal.

I have read a large part of the biography with great interest and pleasure. I do not suppose that it can afford the general reader such delight as it has yielded me. Much of it relates to events and scenes which, after the lapse of many years, were brought vividly to my mind. In reading it I seemed to be living over my life. Forgotten names and occurrences, with their pleasing associations, were revived in my memory, and fountains of emotion long since sealed were freshly opened in my heart. But while others cannot read the work with the interest and feeling with which it inspired me, all will find it a fresh, truthful, and well-written life of a noble, upright, earnest man, whose steps showed the path to heaven, and from whose usefulness no deductions had to be made for indiscretions, and whose character was marred by no eccentricities or shortcomings ; and none can read it with due consideration without profit. It can but impress the thoughtful mind with the truth, beauty, and excellence of Christianity.

J. B. Jeter,

EiCHMOND, May 22, 1872.

Life and Times of James B. Taylor.

CHAPTEE I.

THE Humber, in the north-eastern part of England, is a short but broad and deep stream, resembling in these respects the York river in Virginia. Once it was distinguished for its vast inundations, by which large tracts of country were submerged, and romantic were the scenes which sometimes occurred. On one of these is based Miss Martineau's most charming tale, " Settlers at Home."

The river empties into the North Sea, and near its mouth has something of the grandeur of the ocean itself. At this point on the northern bank, in Yorkshire, is Hull, remarkable for its large docks and extensive trade with the ports of the Baltic ; while on the southern bank, just opposite, in Lincolnshire, is the ancient and pleasant village of Barton, containing the second oldest church in England, and with Thornton Abbey, of the twelfth century, in its immediate vicinity.

In this village, generally spoken of as Barton-upon-Humber (to distinguish it from Barton-upon-Irwell in Lancashire), the subject of this memoir was born March 19, 1804, and the humble but rather picturesque cottage in which he first drew his breath still stands, with its well of water in the yard. It was in Barton, too, that his grandparents, on his father's side, long lived, and that his father, George Taylor, grew up, served his apprenticeship as a cabinetmaker, and commenced business for himself. Here George Taylor married Chrisanna

Barnett of the vicinity, and James Barnett Taylor was their first-born child and their only son. The father, as will be seen, was not yet a Christian, though his parents were devout Baptists, and as such suffered persecution and came near being ejected from their dwelling, at the instance of the parson, because they had used it for a conventicle. The mother also was entirely ignorant of experimental religion. She was, however, a devoted member of the Church of England, who would not for the world that her babe should die unbaptized. Accordingly, to gratify her, James was duly christened.

Running nearly to Barton, and stretching away for miles, are the lands of Lord Yarborough, constituting one of the largest estates in England. On this estate George Taylor was occasionally employed, and it was his delight to roam over those fields and wander in those grand forests. In his old age, he was wont to tell with enthusiasm to his grandchildren how he had been accustomed to walk out into the country with the breaking of the day, book in hand, and how, when the lark sprang up singing in its flight, he would throw himself upon his back and follow it with his eye till it was lost in the blue ether, and still listen eagerly to catch the distant strains of the invisible songster.

This seems a fitting place to refer somewhat particularly to the traits of the parents, since in these traits lay enfolded the subsequent achievements of the son.

George Taylor, mechanic though he was, had an insatiable thirst for knowledge and was passionately fond of books. In fact, he loved them too much, and through life was in danger of poring over some history, reveling in the creations of Milton, or declaiming passages from Shakespeare when either his shop or his accounts needed his attention. While he was - on the one hand by no means indolent, he was on the other singularly unworldly, as simple-hearted and guileless as a child, quite innocent of any feverish ambition, and amply content if, with a favorite poet for a companion, he might at early morn stroll into the quiet country, or during the long winter evening read some author with the aid of a lightwood torch when the luxury of candles could not be enjoyed. It is easy to see that from him the son derived some of those traits for which he is now affectionately remembered by thousands ; while it is equally clear that with only the traits derived from his father he never could have become the efficient pastor and secretary that he was. He had, however, as every remarkable man has, a remarkable mother. Not deficient in more womanly traits, she excelled in energy, method, and administrative ability ; and James richly inherited from her these qualities, which were also, in all probability, strengthened in him by seeing the evils of their absence in the misfortunes of his father's life, and by the necessity early laid upon him of supplementing his father's deficiencies in this respect, and becoming himself manager of his father's fiscal concerns. It is also not impossible that even through his father's family, though not from his father, he may have inherited some of the elements of his excellent business character. Traits do sometimes thus leap over a generation. It is certain that Barsabas Taylor, a brother of George Taylor, was one of the most successful men in the city of Nottingham.

So far, reference has been made merely to the original traits of the parents. What they subsequently became by the grace of God, will appear in the course of this narrative.

* In the year 1805, George Taylor, then in his twenty-seventh year, emigrated to America. Although he had received a religious education, yet in early life he had imbibed skeptical sentiments, and hesitated not to avow himself an unbeliever in the evangelical records. Having traveled extensively in England after leaving the paternal roof, and having mingled freely with the opposers of religion, and read the works of Paine, Voltaire, Hume, and other deistical authors, he had become exceedingly hostile to the gospel system. What had served to increase the tendency of his mind to infidelity was the sympathy he cherished for republican institutions in opposition to monarchy and national religious establishments. The radical

* This paragraph, with some others referring to George Taylor, is substantially from a sketch of him by the subject of this memoir.

sentiments which resulted in the overthrow of the French government, and which were becoming at that period widely prevalent in England, had been drunk in by him with avidity. This, together with the influence of a young man who had been intimate with him, and who, having come to America, had written back flattering accounts, had led him to the purpose of expatriating himself and seeking a resting-place in the New World, of which he indulged the most glowing conceptions as the home of the free. This purpose he had attempted to carry into execution even before his marriage, going to Liverpool with a view to embarkation, but he could not tear himself from her upon whom his afiections were centred and to whom his faith was plighted. After their marriage, however, he secured her consent to emigrate, and having bid farewell to parents and a large circle of friends, they, with the subject of this memoir, then an infant a year old, left their mothercountry to identify themselves with the fortunes of America. It may be added here that although his extreme views in favor of French liberalism were greatly modified, and although he ever retained a warm affection for the land of his nativity, he never regretted his emigration to the United States.

To many, doubtless, it seemed little short of madness thus to surrender a certain and comfortable subsistence and to tempt the treacherous ocean and the Western wilds, while the mother's heart feared even more the spiritual perils which her son would encounter. At the last moment she thrust a copy of Doddridge's " Rise and Progress " into his pocket, but her tongue refused to say farewell. But the painful leavetaking had been accomplished, and the party had set sail and had been several days at sea, when an event occurred which seemed likely to put a stop to the enterprise almost in its inception, and give quite a new direction to the life of the emigrant.

At this period war was in progress between France and England, and the navy of the latter was at the zenith of its glorious achievements. This, however, only made its need of men the greater, and consequently the impressment of English citizens, wherever found, for the naval service, was as common as it was dreaded. The sight of the hated press-gang, or even the cry that it was coming, struck the heart with an indefinable but exquisite terror.

No little consternation, therefore, was excited when a British man-ol-war hove in sight and bore right down upon the America-bound vessel which contained the party whose fortunes we are tracing. Several Englishmen besides George Taylor were on board. They all, with one consent, ignominiously hid themselves. This he scorned to do, but stood his ground and waited to see what course things would take. He did not have to wait long. The vessel was boarded, and he was pressed into the British service, and, with his wife and child, was taken on board the man-of-war. His wife was almost helpless from sea-sickness, and it must have been a pitiful sight as she was half carried by the rough sailors, while he bore the infant in his arms. How much were matters complicated, and what strange feelings must have been excited in his heart, when, in the course of the transfer to the ship, his sick wife fell into the ocean ! She was, however, rescued without serious harm, and in a few moments the merchant-vessel and the man-of-war parted company, the latter bearing our emigrants they knew not whither. Few things in romance have more of the romantic than this sudden forced change of destination on midocean. It is a theory of sailors that a plunge into salt water is a sovereign remedy for sea-sickness. It did not prove so in this case, and the poor wife continued ill and helpless. To nurse her and care for the child absorbed all the time and energies of the recruit, who, it soon appeared, was not likely to be of much use to His Majesty George the Third ; and those having command began rather to regret the imprisonment. They, however, could not help themselves, and moreover they must have pitied the poor fellow whom they had overhauled so unceremoniously, when they saw him nursing his sick wife and performing the mother's part for his little babe, nor could they blame him for being so unavailable, provoking as it must have been. Perhaps this disclosed to him a ray of hope. At all events, in a few days relief came in the shape of another America-bound craft, on which our trio were hustled with quite as much haste as they had been previously seized ; while there is no doubt that they resumed their voyage with new heartiness, feeling quite willing, after such deliverance, to meet uncomplainingly all the trials which the tedious passage might involve. It was well if they did feel so, for weary weeks were yet to elapse before they should again set foot on solid land.

Chapter II

BUT the troubles of our Emigrants at sea were quite equaled by those which met them when they neared the land. They had left war, and now pestilence was awaiting them. Arriving at the city of New York, they found the yellow fever raging. Their vessel was quarantined, though one might have supposed that a city already plague-stricken would hardly think such caution worth while. However, after wearisome waiting, they were permitted to land. Horrible were the scenes which they witnessed, sickening their hearts at the time, and making an ineffaceable impression upon their minds. Thousands of families, smitten with terror, moved from the infected district to the woods and fields, while a paralysis was upon every business but that of the undertaker, and even his duties were performed with that haste and want of solemnity peculiar to a period of epidemic. The young emigrant had no lack of work, for it was in his line to make coffins, and coffins were in demand, though not all who died were honored with such sepulture. His daily walk to and from the shop took him by the " Potter's Field," where the hideous sight presented itself of huge pits into which the dead were hastily thrown, and covered with a little earth till another load should arrive ; while day and night the wagons came and went on their melancholy errand.

All this surely was bad enough, but it was not the worst. One morning the fever seized him, and as he started home he heard the other workmen say, " He will never come back." On reaching home he took a hot bath, then got into bed and covered himself with blankets. The symptoms gave ocular evidence of the dread nature of his malady. But the treatment he had adopted worked like a charm, for the next morning he arose convalescent, though reduced and weakened as if by a

14 LIFE AND TLMES OF JAMES B. TAYLOR.

long spell of illness. He ever afterward believed that the course he pursued saved his life.

A dismal greeting this which the New Word gave him who had anticipated it as fondly as ever Ponce de Leon did the fountain of eternal youth ! In this young, fresh land, grim Death, it seemed, reigned despotic, as in the old country from which he had fled. Well, this would«at least lead him from infidelity to Christianity ? No, such is not usually the case. Epidemics harden rather than soften the heart ; scenes of horror are unfavorable to the conversion of the soul to God ; and accordingly he continued to seek, and for a season enjoy, society congenial to his taste as a skeptic. His boon companion was still the young man already referred to, and he drank deep draughts of infidelity, perhaps deriving from these sources a poor relief in the midst of the depressing sights which surrounded him. He soon found, however, that the system which he had embraced, and which he had supposed would deliver him from the thraldom of priestcraft, was about to introduce him into a servitude still more galling. Hitherto, his life had been strictly regular, but he now learned that infidelity of heart and impurity of life were likely to go hand in hand, and found that he himself was already standing upon the brink of a vortex from which he shrunk with horror. To plunge into the excesses of immorality he neither dared nor desired, and he resolved to abandon the companionship in which he had indulged. One Sunday morning his infidel associate came by for him as usual, and was no little surprised when he learned the state of the case. Henceforth, Mr. Taylor's leisure hours were devoted to his family and to reading. The Lord's day, which he had spent with his skeptical friends, was now 'differently enfployed. For months he avoided all society save that which was afforded by the home-circle. He was, however, far from being happy. Having cut himself loose from the moorings of scriptural truth, he was driven about upon the waves of uncertainty, without God and without hope. In this condition of mind he carefully avoided public worship, being afraid to come in contact with gospel influence.

But the time of God's merciful interposition at length arrived. One Sunday, having spent a part of the day in reading, he took his little boy by the hand and sauntered forth for an hour's walk. They had not wandered far, before, passing by a place of worship, the child, attracted by the songs of praise within, besought him with restless importunity to enter. He consented, and took a seat near the door. The preacher announced his text and commenced a sermon which immediately arrested the attention of this casual caller. Sentiments which he had been accustomed to hear in his childhood were presented, and deeply affected his heart. A new train of thought was started, and visions of former days were recalled. His life was reviewed and he resolved to change his course. The next Sunday he sought with his boy the same spot, and heard the gospel as he had never before heard it. He became a regular attendant, and soon found peace in believing in the oncedespised Jesus of Nazareth. Here, in the First Baptist Church, then worshiping in Gold street, he found a spiritual home. He and his wife were baptized in 1807 by Rev. William Parkinson, who was then and for years after the pastor of the First Church.

Thus he whose life we are to trace, and who subsequently led so many to Christ, was even in his earliest childhood the unconscious instrument in God's hands of the conversion of his own parents. Well did they repay the benefit. Henceforth, to ordinary parental care they added Christain training. Family worship was promptly commenced, and was ever afterward maintained.

Two other incidents may be mentioned of his very early childhood, as illustrating the providential care over one who was predestined for usefulness. On one occasion he was lost in the streets ; he was too young to tell where he lived, and after hours of anxiety his father found him about dark at some place where lost children were taken, quietly eating his supper with several other little ones in the same condition. An old gentleman, who was a neighbor and had taken great fancy to him, thereafter was at much pains to teach him to tell where he lived, in case he should be lost agaio. On another occasion he was run over, the horse's foot trampling his garment and leaving a mark upon it, but he himself was unhurt. Not vpry much more is known of the childhood of the subject of this memoir, but the little that is known is significant, and closely connects itself with his matured character and his life-work. His parents were poor, and struggling with all the difficulties which new settlers must encounter. Besides, times were hard and unpropitious. Specially during and soon aftei the war of 1812, work was scarce, and the means of support were precarious, and his mother, though energetic in spirit, was delicate in health and often an invalid, so that upon James was often devolved the care both of her and of the younger children. It was a necessity imposed upon him in the providence of God which he could not evade, but his filial love also prompted him cheerfully and patiently to do and bear all that was required.

It is not difficult to believe that in that humble home and in that sick chamber there was laid the foundation of much that was most lovable and useful in his character — that then and there were fostered that womanly tenderness of spirit and gentleness of manner which through life characterized him — that this early yoke-bearing, which inspired wisdom declares to be good, mellowed and purified him, and largely prepared him for the discharge of those public trusts which were subsequently committed to him. He himself took some such view of these early trials. In a letter written to his parents when he was at the height of his labors and usefulness, he says : " Yes, my dear father and mother, I believe I owe, so far as instruments are concerned, my present elevation to you. You have both been made to drink the bitter cup of affliction, and often perhaps you have been ready to give way to despondency, and to conclude that all waS' against you ; but you know not how far these disappointments may have contributed to the temporal and eternal good of your children. I am sure, when all the poverty and trials to which you were exposed are reviewed by me, for myself I should be unwilling to have them altered had I to retrace my steps." In perhaps the last letter that he ever wrote with his own hand, referring to the mercies which had crowned his whole life, he said : " In childhood and youth I was favored perhaps as much in being required 'to bear the yoke' as in anything else."

Parents may surely find a lesson here. It is indeed a matter of thankfulness when we are able to supply our children wuth whatever may be for their comfort, and to know that their early years are unmarred by care ; but it should console us, when this cannot be and we are compelled to see them enduring hardships, to remember that all this may be for their usefulness and happiness in after life. From this point of view the troubles of our Southern land are not to be regarded with unmixed regret. But even when poverty does not necessitate labor and self-denial on the part of children, it is nevertheless well to cultivate in them, from the earliest period, the habit and the spirit of serving, to make them "ministering children," and so imitators of "the Son of man, who came not to be ministered unto, but to minister." When the child is required to lay aside a pleasing story or forego a fascinating game, in order to wait upon a sick mother or care for a younger brother or sister, the self-denial and service may be worth far more, and be far more promotive of real happiness, even at the time, and certainly will be in the long run, than any amount of self-indulgence could be.

But while called on to endure the hardships to which reference has been made, my father was not without much to make his childhood happy, nor entirely destitute of what are generally and justly esteemed advantages. The literary tastes of his father have been already mentioned. It may be added that he was singularly artless and genial in his disposition, very interesting and instructive in conversation, and extremely fond of the society of the young. It was his habit to make his son the companion of his morning walks, and together they would stroll, often book in hand, to the Battery, and anon to localities now indeed occupied by blocks of massive buildings, but which were then fields and forests trodden only by occasional pedestrians like themselves. Even at this early period it is be- 2* B lieved that the youth stored his memory with passages of didactic poetry, which both formed his taste and were to him for a permanent possession, while the memory of those walks and communings was a joy to him as long as he lived. Despite its trials, his was a happy as well as a useful childhood.

Besides all this, for a limited time he enjoyed good educational advantages, being sent to a teacher who was then famous in New York, and who must have been not only competent, but faithful and strict even to a fault. At this school he made good use of his opportunities, acquiring the elements of an English education, learning to write a fair hand, and gaining some knowledge of spelling and arithmetic.

His father, genial and gentle as he was, was at the same time a very strict disciplinarian, and ready to enforce authority in a way that in this time and country is but little practiced. On one occasion the son returned from school complaining of punishment which he had received from his teacher, and asking for redress. " I will not do anything this time," was the father's reply, " but if you are punished again let me know, and I will repeat the correction myself." No more complaints were ever made, and it was not till long after that the father learned that his son had again come under the rod of the stern old master. He always regarded these punishments as unjust. He was of a timid disposition, and, overawed by the teacher's manner, was not able to express what he knew. He, however, received honors as well as punishment at his hands, a prize volume which was awarded him being still in existence.