The new life dawning

Front matter

J LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. J

* UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. |

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Contents

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Discourses.

I. The New Life Dawning 99

Introduction

IT is not more natural for man to yearn for immortality than it is for human affections to desire to keep alive forever the memory and influence of the departed, especially if their lives were beautiful and good. Though made invisible by death, they live perennially in our hearts, and still walk the journey of life with us. Both in our dreams and waking memories they keep ever coming to us as vividly as when they joined hands with us, and seem to be about us almost as really as if we could still behold them. We are filled with wonder, at times, that they do not take form and voice, and commune with us as in other days.

Dear Nadal — the generous friend, the genial colleague, the cultivated scholar, the tireless student, the tender-hearted, gentlemanly Christian — comes to me often, many times a day, just as he used to when we strolled the groves together : comes knocking at my door, as he was wont, in the evening and in the morning. At this moment his step is in the tessellated hall, and I am waiting to see him come with his pleasant smile through the open door. He does not come. May be it is that my dull eye of sense does not see him now.

Glad am I that one who knew him well and loved him reverently has been induced, at the promptings of affection, to give permanent form to some of the reminiscences of his beautiful character and life, as he went in and out among us.

As it is acted before us, a beautiful life is full of precious though often unconscious ministries, which keep on forever voicing themselves in our history and working themselves into the fiber and fashion of our character. Abel, though dead, is speaking still, and the unseen influence of his example goes on touching the shores of human thought and feeling over all the world. The connection is lost to our crude observation, but the Infinite, who is interested to pursue the stream through all its intricate windings, discerns each echo and vibration of the hushed voice and finished act, and will gather them all up at last, and place them, a crown of glory, on the head deserving to wear them.

It is often not until the vase is broken that we discover the precious ointment it contained, even though we were constantly breathing its delicious odors. We walk along the journey of life with a chosen friend, in a commonplace sort of way, in sweet content, without knowing exactly why, until death lets go a bolt, and our comrade falls ; then first we learn that it was an angel who had been walking by our side ; the ascending chariot reveals the Elijah. After the grass covers away his form, and the places where we met him are vacant, we remember the marvelous charm of his presence, and are surprised that, much as we loved him, we really never knew his worth until he had gone from us.

INTR OB UCTION. 7

The subject of this memoir was not, daring his life, without appreciation, nor did he occupy an obscure place, where his rare qualities were observed only by a few favored friends. For thirty years he filled a large and conspicuous place in the Church's eye and heart. The leading pulpits of several of the principal cities of the nation were the scenes of his successful ministry. Few have gathered about them more ardent or attached friends and admirers. Thousands, we may venture to say, still cherish with grateful love the memory of his instructive words and tender but manly sympathies. His co-laborers honored him with a high degree of confidence and esteem. His words, whether spoken or written, never failed to command attention. To rare beauty of mind he added the superior charm of perfect candor and unflinching bravery. He was no trimmer. The Church had in him a true and faithful son, always ready to do valiant service. But he was no bigot : his catholicity was broad and genial. Many of his most attached friends were found in other Churches than his own. He loved and cultivated the spirit of Christian unity, and was never more pleased than when serving the pulpits of other denominations, which he did with great frequency in all the places where he lived.

His death was recognized by the Church of Christ throughout the country as a calamity, and suitable mention was made of it by the pulpit and the press. In the hour of our country's peril she had no more dutiful son or eloquent defender, Resident at the time in the capital, he was the chosen counselor and spiritual adviser of some of the most eminent statesmen. His voice was ever one of courage and hope.

But, after all, it was not until death had claimed him that we realized how really rare and rich a jewel he was. The place he made vacant was broader than we knew.

The name of Nadal must forever be inseparably associated in my thought with that other kingly name — our beloved President — John M'Clintock. Scarcely a greater compliment could be paid the one than to say he was the life-long friend of the other. Near the same age, and becoming associated in the morning of their young manhood, their lives thenceforth blended in a beautiful confluence of love and just and admiring appreciation.

Never can I forget how, in the closer intimacies of a common interest, we went in and out together for the space of three years. Promenading the grove, visiting in the parlors of our homes, or sitting in the council chamber devising plans of usefulness, it was a union of unutterable friendship, springing from no common affinities and aims, that cemented us. There, as princes, not in position only, but in our hearts and judgment, sat M'Clintock, as great a soul as was ever shrined in flesh ; on his right, holding the place by preemption, sat Nadal ; on his left, the scholarly and affable Strong, the friend and co-laborer of years ; and so in my heart and memory they must forever continue to sit together in consecrated unity.

When the blow fell that laid M'Clintock low, it stunned us all, but shivered Nadal, like as when the lightning stroke rends some great tree. Not for the sad funereal days alone, but for the months following, when we walked and talked his voice and nerves were tremulous, and many times he wept and sobbed as he spoke of our loss. One of the most trusted friends of all his life had been suddenly taken from him. Dear Nadal ! I loved him more tenderly because he loved M'Clintock so much. Our bereavement was unabated in its force when duty called me away for some months from our stricken group. The evening before I was to sail Nadal sat with me to a late hour, and early in the morning, with a part of his own family, joined mine to attend me to the steamer. He was nervous with foreboding as to my health, which was not good, and I am quite sure he even then feared for himself.

When the final signal was given, he seized my hand, and with great emotion said, " Dear fellow, good-by, and don't you be leaving us over there in Europe," and, rushing down the gangway, stood waving his handkerchief until distance hid him from my view. I never saw him again. In ten brief days he had gone to join his dear friends in the realms of light. It was on a bright Sabbath morning, on my way to church, in the beautiful town of Leamington, England, six weeks after it had happened, that I received the news of his death. It fell upon me like a thunder-bolt from that cloudless sky. Shall I say that it amazed me, frightened me ? It would be but saying the truth ; but I must add that, following the immediate almost terror that came over me with the unexpected tidings, came a meditation of rich and blessed sweetness, worth a great agony to obtain. My comrades were gone. They had left me in the midst of the furrow, while their hands were full of labor ; when it seemed to me the Church wanted them, when their usefulness was at its growth, when love held them with its tightest grip. My faith followed them quickly as my affections. They grew upon me ; became more real than ever. Long robes were upon them, and they were crowned. I rested sweetly that night in an upper room of the Queen's Inn, and dreamed of heaven.

Since that darker days have come to me, and heaven has enriched itself by robbing me of yet dearer treasures. They are not lost, but only garnered. I cannot tell whether they are with us, but I know they are waiting for us.

On this side we are like shadows of a cloud that come and go ; and so we meet and part. On that side they are like the stars that shine for ever and ever.

The following brief memoir tells the story of a few of the many virtues of our beloved friend, and seeks to perpetuate for a time what we are not willing should ever die ; but there is another book written by angel fingers that will be more full and just, in which all his deeds and excellences are embalmed forever. R, S. Foster.

THE

NEW LIFE DAWNING.

MEMOIR OF B. H. NADAL, D.D.

PREFATORY.

The year 1870 will be long remembered among American Methodists on account of the death of so many of their representative men. During the first few months of that year, Thomson and Kingsley among the bishops ; M'Clintock, Nadal, and Foss among the educators and preachers ; and Cobb, Cornell, and Wesley Harper among the laymen ; with many others, whom, though less known, the Church could ill spare, were called away from earthly labor to heavenly reward.

The influence of their character and labors, however, did not cease at their death. Being dead, they yet speak ; for next to the influences exerted upon society by the contact of living men with their fellows, are the impressions which are left by those whose deeds, whose writings, and whose spirit men have appreciated and loved. They who have won a name among men by their conflict with opposing forces are the real teachers of humanity, and the memorials of their lives cannot fail to be useful to mankind.

Among those whose memory is embalmed in many hearts, and whose history deserves more than a passing notice, was the Rev. Bernard H. Nadal, D.D., who at the time of his death was Professor of Historical Theology in the Drew Theological Seminary at Madison, N. J. While living, he wielded a powerful influence for good over those whom he addressed from the pulpit and platform, or by means of his facile and instructive pen ; and now that his voice is no more heard on earth, and that the pen has fallen from his lifeless fingers, there are multitudes who will review the records of his life with interest, and who will gather inspiration from a knowledge of his struggles and successes. It is not the intention, however, in this connection, to write a formal biography of Dr. Nadal, nor even to give an outline of his life and character which will be satisfactory to those who knew him best ; but merely to prefix to his Discourses such a memoir of him as will gratify, in part, those who from reading them may desire to know something more of their author. It may also furnish the large circle of his friends, both among the ministry and laity, a small outline, which each may fill up in the points wherein it fails to do justice to the memory of this eminent servant of Christ. For this reason the writer has not called for facts from many sources to which he might have applied, but has contented himself with those within his reach, except in one or two instances. Errors both in fact and in the development of the character will perhaps be found which will be readily corrected by those who recognize them. And yet it is hoped they are so few that those who were unacquainted with Dr. Nadal may draw from this narrative a correct idea of his life, even if it be an inadequate one.

A large volume might have been made by calling for additional facts, and by publishing many of his interesting letters and writings ; but it is thought that the brief narrative of his career here given, accompanied by a few of his sermons, will prove a satisfactory memorial of one who for many years filled such a high position in the pulpit, the professor's chair, and in the literature of his Church and country. The editor of this cannot dare to hope that the portraiture here given by one whose acquaintance with the lamented one was so brief, can fill the measure of the appreciation of his dearest friends, and especially that it can express the full truth as known to that stricken circle upon the altar of whose heart the flowers of his memory will always be beautiful and fragrant.

I

DR. JSTADAL'S ANCESTRY.

Of Dr. Nadal's ancestry we know but little. That his father, who was a native of Bayonne, France, was both wayward and enterprising, is shown by the fact that when but twelve years of age he ran away from his parents and came to the United States. It is said that he was at that time studying for the Roman Catholic priesthood, and threw down his books in the street and ran away. A mere boy, without friends, and in a strange land, he grew up to man's estate, and, so far as we know, secured and retained an unblemished reputation and character. He was married twice. His second wife, whose maiden name was

Rachel Harrison, became the mother of three children — Bernard, the subject of this memoir, being the youngest.

Bernard was born in Talbot County, Maryland, on the 27th of March, 1812. Five months before his birth his father died, so that he was never permitted to enjoy paternal protection and counsel. After the death of her husband his mother lived with her father for two years until his death. A fact connected with her father is worthy of notice. At the time of her marriage he had a number of slaves on his farm on the eastern shore of Maryland. Before his death he freed them all, numbering about seventy-five, leaving to his large family only the moderate allotment resulting from the division of the farm.

This instance shows that the grandfather of young Nadal saw the dreadful blight and sin involved in human slavery, and was unwilling to transmit its curse to his children. Bernard's mother was a very pious woman, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church from childhood. She was also a woman of much intelligence and "force of character. Having been deprived of a home for the second time by the death of her father, she removed to St. Michael's, where she taught school to support her children. While she was thus teaching the children of others, no doubt she wisely instructed her own, and, by pointing out the dry wastes of ignorance, created that intense thirst for knowledge for which her youngest son Bernard was afterward so distinguished.

In 1 82 1 she went to reside with a brother in Hookstown, five miles from Baltimore, which continued to be her home until her death.

Two things are worthy of note in regard to the ancestry of Dr. Nadal, because they bear directly upon what he afterward became. The first is the emancipation of slaves by his grandfather, suggesting that young Nadal's hatred of slavery, which increased with, his years and influence, was to some extent at least inherited. He had no doubt heard the story in his boyhood, and the impressions thus made in favor of liberty were never effaced. The second is, that his mother was a thorough Christian, intelligent, and of great energy of character — qualities which were, in a marked degree, reproduced in her son Bernard, whose life we are about to trace.

II. His Childhood And Youth

The information we have respecting his childhood is quite meager, yet there is sufficient to show that his was not an exception to the maxim, " The child is father of the man." As the naturalist can take the bone of an animal and from it determine the size and kind of animal to which it belonged, so, were nothing left to us but the scant fragments of Dr. Nadal's early history, we could not fail to conclude that a marked manhood must have followed such a boyhood. As the vigor of the sapling foretells the grandeur of the oak, and the profusion of blossoms an abundant harvest, so his youth gave promise of abrilliant future.

His school life began when he was eight years of age. His mother discovered his aptitude for learning, and made great sacrifices to give him educational advantages for a few years. His school privileges could not have been very extended, however, for while quite young, he went to Baltimore, and was for several years in the employ of a chemist and liquor merchant of that place, into whose family he was received as one of the household. He soon gained their confidence, and was treated with marked kindness. This family was one of culture and refinement, and his connection with it proved very advantageous to him and also to them. They placed good books in his hands, and allowed him time to read them. These privileges he did not fail to improve. Whenever a little time was at his disposal he might have been found with a book in his hands ; and no doubt to the choice reading and refined surroundings of his boyhood days he was indebted very much for that fine taste, both in style and imagery, which marked his productions in his riper years. If style be, as it has been defined, " The man himself," then in these early years, when no doubt his refined manhood was developing, there was also growing that love of the beautiful which all who knew him intimately could not fail to notice.

It has been said that his connection with this family was also advantageous to them. The kindness of his employer did not fall upon an ungrateful heart. As the earth drinks in the gentle showers and returns fruits and flowers for the benefit of man, so the heart of young Nadal received thankfully the kind- • ness of his friend, and repaid it by a manifestation of gratitude as rare as it was beautiful. This gentleman failed in health and also in his business. The family was thus left without means of support. During the last winter of his employer's life, and while he was wasting with consumption, the family depended

MEMOIR OF B. H. NADAL, D.D. iy

chiefly for support on this boy of sixteen. Such was Bernard's affection for them, and such his anxiety to serve them, that he picked up the trade of a combmaker, from which he brought them seven dollars a week for some months. This fact in his early history reveals a nobility of character and a delicacy of appreciation rare even among those of mature years and greater advantages, and prepares us to expect that if the grace of the Gospel should operate on his heart and renew it, he would become the fit instrument of Divine Providence in the accomplishment of much good to men.

God, in his wise adaptation of means to ends, selects for his work those who are capable of it ; and in this case there seems to have been elements in Bernard precisely adapted to the ministry of the Gospel.

At the age of seventeen he was apprenticed to a man by the name of John Bear, in Hanover, Pennsylvania, for four years, to learn saddle-making. In this employment he does not seem to have succeeded with satisfaction to himself. He had no taste for it. As it is difficult to do that which is uncongenial, it is probable that while he employed his time faithfully, he did not devote himself to the acquisition of the trade with his accustomed energy. This view is confirmed by his own statement, that at the end of his apprenticeship he could not make a decent saddle. He secured, however, while here, that richest of blessings, the forgiveness of his sins and adoption into the family of God.

In this place he was converted at the age of twenty. No particulars of his conversion are accessible, so as

1 8 THE NEW LIFE DA WNHTG.

to be given here, but his future life is the best attestation of the radical change of heart which then took place.

While at Hanover he had a dream which left a deep impression on his mind. He was walking, so he dreamed, in a wood, when he came upon a young man whom he recognized as a fellow-townsman. This young man lived in Hanover, was somewhat older than himself, and was a person of considerable influence with the young men of the village. He was fond of display, and was considered rather a man of fashion. After the meeting they two walked on together. By and by they came to the edge of a precipice, and the young man suddenly disappeared. He too fell, but he caught upon the roots of a tree that hung over, and sustained himself. At that moment he awoke. He at once explained the dream to himself in this way : that the wood which he saw was the wilderness of life ; that this young man represented the gay world and the fate of all who trusted in it ; that the precipice was the abyss of endless death, and the tree to which he had clung was Christ. A few years before Dr. Nadal's death he was riding in an out-of-the-way place in Maryland to see his mother's grave. On his way back the stage stopped one morning early at a wayside tavern, and there got into the stage a man with a bundle of tools, who was very much in liquor. He naturally expected some annoyance from this unpromising passenger, and at first got further back in the stage. He began to converse with him, however, and learned that he was from Hanover, Pa., which aroused his curiosity. He asked him his name, and found that he was the same man whom he had known in his boyhood, and with whom he had walked in his dream. He found on inquiry about him that he was always drunk, and lived on the charity of his neighbors and on such small jobs as they could give him. Thus his dream was fulfilled.

After serving his four years' apprenticeship he returned to Baltimore, and not finding employment at his trade, and conscious, perhaps, that he had missed his calling, he accepted a clerkship in a store at Woodstock, Va. The agreeableness of his manners, his integrity, and his devotion to his business, rendered him a capital clerk, and his employer made him flattering offers to enter into partnership with him, but he declined them all.

The Holy Spirit, by yielding to whose influence he had been converted, now whispered to him that it was his duty to preach the Gospel. He was not disobedient to the heavenly call ; but having been duly licensed, he began at once to fit himself for his life-work. Those views of a thorough mental as well as spiritual preparation for the Christian ministry which in his raaturer years he so ably maintained, had their beginning in his early life, and found their first application in his own self-culture. Unfortunately the materials for a full account of his early struggles are very meager, but we know enough to convince us that his efforts were not spent in securing the minimum of preparation necessary to enter the conference, but in attaining that kind and degree of education which would enable him, with the Divine blessing, to become in its highest sense a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ. To appreciate his efforts in this regard,

20 THE NE W LIFE DA WfflNG.

his surroundings must be taken into consideration. At that time the so-called higher ideas of education did not prevail either among the ministry or laity of Methodism. Over the period covered by his youth, the heroic days of Methodism still cast their rays It was the age of orators and men of power. It was the age of matchless zeal and fervor. The men who then stood at the front of the Lord's hosts, while not depreciating classical and scientific scholarship, regarded the time spent in acquiring it as so much time subtracted from the great work while " the fields were white to the harvest." So pressing was the demand for men that it was usual to urge all who felt called of God to the work of the ministry, and who were certified by their brethren to possess the disciplinary requirements " of gifts, grace, and usefulness," to enter at once upon their evangelistic labors. These statements are not made to question the wisdom of the plan pursued in this respect by our fathers, (for it was doubtless wise and necessary,) nor to suggest a comparison between the old and the new methods of preparation for the ministry, but to show that with surroundings which did not serve as incentives to extended literary acquisitions, he yet devoted himself to a class of studies not required by the general usages of the time. He spent two years in intellectual preparation.

He began the study of Latin during his apprenticeship as a saddler. With his Latin grammar before him, in a little frame made by himself for the purpose, he committed the paradigms and rules while he was stitching saddles with his hands. Afterward he met a lawyer in the town who was interested in young men,

MEMOIR OF B. II. NADAL, D.D. 21

and who aided him in his mathematical studies, greatly to young Nadal's advantage. In further preparation for his first circuit, he made his own saddle and purchased a little black horse, which he called Doctor, and whose faithfulness he was accustomed in after life frequently to mention. The traces which have been seen of the choiceness of his early reading, and his voluntary devotion to Latin and mathematics, lead us to infer that while he was destitute of a systematic training such as can only be acquired in the schools, he had at the time of entering on the work of the ministry laid the foundations on which he afterward erected a beautiful and symmetrical structure of finished scholarship. His further studies properly belong to the history of his active life.

III. As A Preacher And Pastor

His ministerial life began with his admission into the old Baltimore Conference in the year 1835. He was twenty-three years of age, and entered upon his work with the hearty enthusiasm of a youth consecrated to God and to his Church, ready to serve the cause in whatever field Providence, through the appointed instrumentalities of the Church, might assign him. His first appointment was Luray Circuit, in Virginia, as a junior preacher.

His subsequent fields of labor were the following: 1836-37, St. Mary's Circuit, Md.; 1837-38, Bladensburgh, Md. ; 1838-40, City Station, Baltimore ; 1841- 42, Lewisburgh, Va. ; 1842-44, Lexington, Va. ; 1844- 46, Columbia-street, Baltimore; 1846-48, Carlisle, Pa. ; 1848-49, Agent of Baltimore Female College ;

1849-51, High-street, Baltimore; 1851-53, City Station, Baltimore ; 1853-54, supernumerary ; 1854-57, Professor in Indiana Asbury University; 1857-58, Presiding Elder of Roanoke District; 1858-60, Foundry Church, Washington ; 1860-62, Sands-street Church, Brooklyn; 1862-64, First Church, New Haven; 1864-66, Wesley Chapel, Washington; 1866, Trinity Church, Philadelphia; and in the fall of 1867 he accepted the professorship of Historical Theology in Drew Theological Seminary, where he remained until his death.

Dr. Crooks, who preached at his funeral, after recapitulating the responsible positions which Dr. Nadal had filled, added impressively, " This is not the record of a laggard." It would be needless to attempt here a full account of his pastoral life in his varied fields of labor even if the materials were at hand. There is so much of sameness in the preacher's work, that the presentation of a few salient points is all that will be attempted in this connection. In the years 1836-37 he traveled St. Mary's Circuit, Md., and in 1838 he was appointed to Bladensburgh Circuit, located between Washington and Baltimore. We know little of these years of his life, except that they were years of earnest and successful labors marked by intense devotion to self-improvement. In 1839 and 1840 he was one of the preachers of City Station, Baltimore. From Baltimore, at the close of his two years of service, which was the largest the Discipline then allowed, he was sent to Lewisburgh, Va.

During his second year on this charge he was married to Miss Jane Mays, daughter of John Mays, Esq., of Lewisburgh. While in this appointment he

worked hard both for the Church and for his own improvement. On his arrival he was disheartened somewhat when he saw the smallness of the society compared with the large membership and congregation to which he had been accustomed in Baltimore. He entered, however, heartily into the work, watching over each member with the most zealous care. He was in the habit of having sunrise prayer-meetings, and the interest in the subject of salvation increased so that during the first year of his ministry there, and only a few months after he came, a remarkable revival of religion took place. The Church was powerfully blessed, and a multitude of sinners brought to Christ. His preaching impressed the people very favorably, and he had large congregations.- The young took a special interest in his discourses and were greatly benefited by them. As this was the formative period of his life, it is interesting to know that he was accustomed at this time to write his sermons in full, and often delivered them verbatim. Occasionally he read his sermons. The week was divided for study purposes into two parts, except Monday, which was rest-day. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were devoted to general reading, and Friday and Saturday to the preparation of his sermons. These were years of hard study. He had formed the purpose, notwithstanding he was already in the active ministry, that he would go to college. He meant to make of himself a cultivated man and a scholar, and he allowed no obstacles to swerve him from his prescribed plan. He promised the Lord that he would press forward, using every means of improvement within his reach. Any body who knew what he did not know served him as a teacher. It is evident that he was a conscientious student. He loved knowledge for its own sake, and for the means of usefulness which it opened before him. It was to him an instrument of power for good among men, and hence he sought it. He showed his desire for knowledge by his willingness to pay the price which it demands, which is not genius, not opportunities merely, but hard work. An intimate friend said of him, that in his early circuit life he read his books from sunrise in the morning till late at night.