EARLY IMPRESSIONS -1832 -1851 521 



church when a &quot;revival&quot; was going on. As I entered, a 

 very unspiritual-looking preacher was laying down the 

 most severe doctrines of divine retribution. In front of 

 him were several of our neighbors 7 daughters, many of 

 them my schoolmates, whom I regarded as thoroughly 

 sweet and good; and they were in tears, apparently 

 broken-hearted under the storm of wrath which poured 

 over them from the mouth of the revival preacher. At 

 this I revolted entirely, and from that moment I disbe 

 lieved in the whole doctrine, utterly and totally. I felt 

 that these kindly girls, to whom I had looked with so much 

 admiration in the classes at school and in our various little 

 gatherings, were infinitely more worthy of the divine fa 

 vor than was the big, fleshly creature storming and raging 

 and claiming to announce a divine message. 



Some influence on my youthful thinking had also been 

 exercised by sundry occurrences in our own parish. Our 

 good rector was especially fond of preaching upon &quot; bap 

 tismal regeneration ; taking the extreme high-church 

 view and thereby driving out some of the best &quot; evangeli 

 cals &quot; from his congregation. One of these I remember 

 especially a serene, dignified old man, Mr. John Durn- 

 f ord. After he left our church he took his place among the 

 Presbyterians, and I remember, despite my broad-church 

 tendencies, thinking that he was incurring serious danger 

 by such apostasy ; but as I noted him, year after year, de 

 voting himself to the newly founded orphan-asylum, giv 

 ing all his spare time to the care of the children gathered 

 there, even going into the market and thence bearing pro 

 visions to them in a basket, I began to feel that perhaps 

 his soul was safe, after all. I bethought myself that, with 

 all my reading of the Bible, I had never found any text 

 which required a man to believe in the doctrines of the 

 Protestant Episcopal Church; but that I had found, in 

 the words of Jesus himself, as well as in the text of St. 

 James regarding &quot;pure religion and undefiled,&quot; declara 

 tions which seemed to commend, especially, labors for the 

 poor, fatherless, and afflicted, like those of Mr. Durnford. 



