88 THE CORNER-STONE. garden, and spoken of the variety and fragrance of its shrubs, flowers, trees, and fruit, and then applied the subject to the state of the Christian Church; as he descended from the pulpit, one of the deacons said to him—" Well, Brother Stanford, you have laid out the garden in due form, and you have described the variety and excellencies of its productions, but where is your fence?” With his usual promptness he replied—“ O, I left that for you deacons to put up; and see that you keep it in good order.” March 15. This was a day of peculiar trial to his faith. The workmen were, during the morning, employed in removing part of the foundation on which had rested his former place of worship, and when they came to the corner-stone, which, with prayer to the God of Israel, he had once deposited, the tear of submission trembled in his eye, as he thought upon the vicissitudes of human life; but, so far was he from repining, that he was heard to say, as he cheerfully wiped away the falling drop-“ Father, not my will, but thine be done." In the month of June he met the Baptist Association, convened at Mount-Pleasant, and closed the session with a discourse from Judges viii. 4-" Faint, yet pursuing." On the 10th of July he visited Warwick, to assist in the ordination of Mr. Thomas Stevens. The congregation assembled on the occasion was large; and unusual solemnity is said to have attended the service. The sermon, which was from Colossians i. 7-"A faithful minister of Christ," was delivered by Mr. Stanford, and subsequently printed. In August he took a journey through the states of New-Jersey and Pennsylvania, chiefly for the benefit of his health. When the stage stopped at Plainfield, the driver informed the company that, a short distance further on the road, an intoxicated man had, on the preceding night, murdered his two sons, his wife, and CONSEQUENCE OF INTEMPERANCE. 89 himself. As the stage had to pass by the door, the passengers insisted on stopping at the house, and requested Mr. Stanford to accompany them. It was one of those "neat little cottages" which now and then attracts the admiring gaze of the traveller, and seemed, from the silence that prevailed, to be an abode of blessedness and of peace. But, alas! it was the silence of death that reigned within its blood stained walls. On entering the front room upon the lower floor, they found a table plentifully spread on the previous evening for the family repast. Here was every thing to secure contentment and domestic comfort; but the demon of intemperance had entered the enclosure. As they ascended to the room immediately above, they beheld one of those awful spectacles, from which, with instinctive horror, the heart unsteeled by crime, involuntarily recoils. In the cradle lay a lovely little boy, about eight years old, murdered in a shocking manner; and on the floor at a short distance from him, and covered with wounds and blood, lay his brother, about ten years of age. The hapless mother of these victims of a brutal father's rage, was found in the back parlour, to which it is probable she had fled for safety, but was there stabbed to the heart, by the hand of him who had vowed at the altar to love and protect her. Near the gory bosom of the martyred woman was seen the ghastly corpse of the sanguinary monster. After perpetrating the diabolical crime of murdering his unoffending family, it is supposed that he loaded his rifle, and receiving the muzzle into his mouth, deliberately discharged its contents, by which one half of his head was entirely blown away, and the barrel of the gun severed from the stock. The apartments were literally a human slaughter-house, where death reigned in undisturbed dominion. This tragic scene closed the lips of the beholders in silence-astonishment seemed to have paralyzed them. No one was 90 SUPERIOR CHURCH MUSIC, A BLESSING. able to give utterance to the deep and oppressive feelings of the heart, and the company retired, increasingly convinced, that great indeed is the depravity of man. During this journey Mr. Stanford visited many of his old friends, and preached at Southampton, LowerDublin, Burlington, and several other places. At Bordentown, a Mrs. Day was introduced to him, who said that many years ago, when she was a girl of about fifteen, she was induced to attend his lectures in New-York, "particularly to hear the singing," when it pleased God to convey the word of salvation to her heart, and that the Lord from that time had enabled her to walk in the paths of righteousness. This to Mr. Stanford was indeed a cause of thanksgiving, and an incitement to future perseverance in the work of the Lord. His diary for the last day in the year closes with the following pious reflections :-"Oh! what great reason have I to be humble and thankful for the Lord's dealings with me this year! Many signal deliverances have I received, and ten thousand mercies have surrounded my paths. Let my soul for ever praise my God for his unspeakable goodness to me and my family; and may I ever cherish an ardent desire to be devoted to the honour of his blessed name! If I can say nothing else on this last day of the year, I can most assuredly declare, that I can and do resign myself, body, soul, and spirit, into the hand of the blessed Saviour, to be transformed into his holy image, and to serve, honour, and glorify him, until the days of my pilgrimage on earth shall end; then I hope, through grace, with him in heaven, to spend an eternity in pleasure and in praise!" As the last hours of the departed year had been employed in acknowledging the mercies of God, so he began the year 1803 with fervent prayer, that every future dispensation of Providence towards him might HIS SERVICES MULTIPLIED. 91 be subservient to the glory of God, and the benefit of his fellow-creatures. On New-Year's day he heard a sermon on 1 Cor. vii. 31-" The fashion of this world passeth away." Upon this he remarks:-"O how true in regard to every thing sublunary. It has been so with me; and under this discourse I was assisted to bring to recollection the many variegated scenes through which I had passed; surely my life has been like Joseph's coat of divers colours. May Joseph's God be mine! Then, though the cup of affliction be found in my sack, it will the better speed my way, to see his face with joy!" During the greater part of this year his health was extremely feeble, and his mind seems to have experienced, alternate light and shade. Two new services were commenced and continued this year. One, at the then upper end of Greenwich-street, for the afternoon, there being no place of worship in that vicinity; the other, a lecture for the evening, in Barclay-street; both of which were well attended, and the Lord graciously blessed his word preached to saints and to sinners. In May he visited Brookfield, as a delegate to the Warwick Association. Agreeably to previous appointment, he opened the religious services of the meeting with a discourse from John xxi. 15-17"So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord: thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lumbs. He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord: thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep."-Three days were employed in the harmonious transaction of public business, and the session closed under circumstances calculated to convince all present, that God was in the assembly. In the month of August a very destructive fever again made its appearance, and the citizens fled to the country for safety. Mr. Stanford retired with his family to Mount-Pleasant, and there he endeavoured to devote himself to the service of God, by preaching in the village, and in visiting Peekskill, Salem, Bedford, and some few towns on the borders of Connecticut, teaching and preaching Jesus Christ, wherever he went. It was not until the last of October that the health of the city would permit him to return, and even at that late part of the season, many, by imprudently neglecting to ventilate their houses, fell victims to the disease. As soon as circumstances would allow, he reopened his academy, and also resumed his evening lectures; but it was not until December that either of them were even moderately attended. This year he published another sermon, and also a "Circular Letter," addressed to the churches composing the Association with which he stood connected. The pages of his diary for 1804, are not unlike the mariner's log-book. One part filled with the account of storms and calms, pirates, rocks, and shoals; while other parts record the mercies of God in granting prosperous breezes, and a safe return to port. Throughout the whole, whether " amid rocks and quicksands deep," driven onward by the rolling tide, or quiet in "the treacherous calm," his constant prayer seems to have been "Come Holy Ghost! and blow, A prosp'rous gale of grace; To heaven-my destin'd place! |