txbvary of Che Cheolocjicd £m\nwy 
 
 PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY 
 
 FROM THE LIBRARY OF 
 ROBERT ELLIOTT SPEER 
 
 BX 7260 .P675 A3 1883 I 
 Pond, Enoch, 1791-1882. 
 The autobiography of the 
 Rev. Enoch Pond, D.D. 
 

 Digitized by 
 
 the Internet Archive 
 
 
 
 
 in 2014 
 
 
 
 https://archive.org/details/autobiographyofrOOpond_0 
 
OF 
 
 OCT 2G1958 
 THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY ^ 
 
 Rev. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 FOR FIFTY YEARS 
 PROFESSOR IN BANGOR THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 
 
 OF HIS CHARACTER, WORK, AND LAST TEARS. 
 
 "WITH AN INTRODUCTION 
 BY THE 
 
 Rev. EDWIN POND PARKER, D.D. 
 
 What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he 
 may see good? 
 
 Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. 
 Depart from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. 
 
 — Psalm xxxiv, 12-14. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 {Congregational StmuagsSdjool ano ^ublisfjing Socutg, 
 
 CONGREGATIONAL HOUSE, 
 
 Corner Beacon and Somerset Streets. 
 
Copyright, 1883. 
 By Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing Society. 
 
TO THE 
 
 EARLY AND LATER FRIENDS AND PUPILS OF THE 
 
 Eev. ENOCH POND, 
 
 TO HIS CHILDREN AND CHILDREN'S CHILDREN, 
 
 ftfjts Memorial 
 
 OF OUR FATHER'S LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 IS DEDICATED BY HIS 
 DAUGHTER. 
 
 Bucksport, Maine: 1883. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Dr. Parker's Introduction v 
 
 Introduction to the Autobiography 1 
 
 Chap. L — Parentage. Early Life, and Studies . 3 
 II. — College Life and Theological Studies 15 
 III. — Preaching as a Candidate. — Settle- 
 ment and Carriage 28 
 
 ,. IV. — My Ministry in Ward 35 
 
 V. — Life as an Editor in Boston ... 54 
 „ VI. — Bangor and the Theological Semi- 
 nary 62 
 
 .. VII. — My Residence in Bangor .... 68 
 ..VIII. — Ministerial Labors in Bangor ... 95 
 
 IX.— TVork of Publication 109 
 
 X. — Social and Domestic Life in Bangor . 117 
 „ XL — Last Years, Death, and Burial . . .131 
 
 Address at the Funeral of Dr. Pond 142 
 
 Prayer 115 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 TTWOCH POND, minister of the Gospel. Doctor of 
 -1— ^ Divinity, Professor of Theology, writer of books, 
 indefatigable toiler in his chosen field of Christian work, 
 most venerable and benignant of men, was always and 
 always will be '■ Grandfather " to me ; so that it is im- 
 possible for me to make any critical study or impartial 
 analysis of him. I cannot remember when his head was 
 not white, snowy white, recalling the fine scripture 
 which says, u The hoary head is a crown of glory if it 
 be found in the way of righteousness." From my 
 earliest recollection his presence was portly and com- 
 manding, his voice seriously and sweetly toned, his 
 countenance grave and mild, his manner dignified and 
 winsome, and his entire appearance that of a veritable 
 patriarch, for whom we grandchildren had no sort of 
 fear; only an unbounded veneration and affection. 
 
 Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and the prophets of 
 whom he used to speak so freely and charmingly, were 
 all very well in their distant places, standing remote and 
 shadowy in the haze of a dawning history ; but Grand- 
 father Pond was a real and Xew-Testan>ent patriarch; 
 and, as regards beauty of holiness, not to be compared 
 with anybody far or near. 
 
 Partly because of my mother's adorable love for him, 
 and because of a kind of choral worship of him in the 
 whole family (of which he was quite oblivious), and 
 partly because no one coidd know him and not perceive 
 in him a very singular excellence, he stood in the niche 
 
vi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of human perfection for my boyhood. And I verily 
 believe that boyhood was far gone with me, before it 
 occurred to me that God could be as good as be. 
 
 It is safe to say that, during his long term of service 
 in Bangor Seminary, no student of that institution 
 failed to know and to love him. Gentle in counsels, 
 gentler in corrections, almost incomprehensibly patient, 
 fond of his joke, able to pour out his soul in a prayer 
 or in a laugh, full of tender and wise sympathy, strong 
 to bear his own burden and the burdens of otbers also, 
 he lived before our eyes as one who, like his namesake 
 of old, "walked with God." A simpler, sincerer man 
 could not be found. One would as soon have suspected 
 the sunlight. It never occurred to any one to question 
 his inward honesty. Of words and actions prompted 
 by envy, jealousy, or kindred passions, he seemed in- 
 capable. He was more than righteous : he was a good 
 man. Without acerbity, severity, or any of the dis- 
 agreeable qualities that taint much puritan piety, he 
 moved on, upright and steadfast and serene, in ways 
 of pleasantness and paths of peace, driving far from 
 him all thoughts and spirits of evil, not with scourges 
 and anathemas, but without effort and unconsciously, 
 by the simple bright-shining of his goodness. 
 
 In nothing was the unselfish and lovely spirit of the 
 man more manifest than in the manner in which he 
 received the unwelcome admonitions of increasing 
 infirmities, endured the inevitable deprivations of ad- 
 vancing age, and gave a cordial sympathy to his 
 successors and supplanters. As his term of service 
 lengthened in the Theological Seminary, and as the 
 necessities of the Seminary multiplied, he voluntarily 
 relinquished position after position in which he had 
 served with enthusiasm and success. Other men came 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 vii 
 
 in to fill these positions, — the chair of theology, the 
 chair of history. His cheerful acquiescence in the 
 necessity which decreed these successive contractions 
 in the circle of his service was in marked contrast with 
 the resistance sometimes offered in similar cases, and 
 with the resentment which makes the act of displace- 
 ment a painful, if not a forcible, one. 
 
 In marked contrast with the sad behavior of those 
 who linger about the scenes of their former service, only 
 by their interferences, criticisms, and fault-findings to 
 make their successors uncomfortable, to foment strife 
 and engender discord, was his most cordial, generous, 
 and paternal reception of those who came to teach and 
 rule in his stead. They might come bringing into use 
 text-books or methods hitherto unapproved by him ; but 
 no words of criticism escaped his lips, no hint or sign 
 of disapproval was given. The words he spake were 
 those of brotherly kindness, and all the signs he made 
 were those of a good man, who loved the Seminary, and 
 the brethren in its service, and the students under their 
 care, with a self-denying, self-forgetting affection. It 
 was not possible for discord to exist in the Faculty, while 
 he presided over them and his spirit dwelt with them. 
 
 The theology which he received and taught, to some 
 may have seemed severe; but the Christianity of his 
 life and character was attractive and incontrovertible. 
 He was one of those who go about doing good, whatever 
 they do, and whose influence for good goes on when they 
 can no more go about. 
 
 He was one of the few whose prayers are listened 
 to with heartfelt interest. He seemed to have been 
 taught to "pray in the Spirit." Out of a childlike heart 
 came forth his prayers in simple, childlike phrases, 
 becoming more impressive and of broader meaning as 
 
viii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 they became more familiar. Thus, all unconsciously, 
 he made for himself a beautiful liturgy, that could be 
 repeated and written down by his children and pupils. 
 He did not think it necessary to make a prayer each time 
 he would pray, but offered the prayer once made, with 
 some variations, repeatedly.- 
 
 Dr. Pond was a large-hearted man. His love for 
 humanity was broad and deep ; his charity for men was 
 an overflowing one. His kind thoughts of men and 
 motives recall to mind the legendary saint, who, when 
 put to the test if she would say a good word for the 
 Devil, quietly remarked: "He must be credited with 
 great industry." As regards injustice, or even abuse, 
 toward himself, he seemed indifferent, and evil deeds did 
 not stick in his memory. In short, he had that love 
 which " thinketh no evil, is not easily provoked, be- 
 lieveth all things, endureth all things." At the same 
 time he was a zealous and ardent controversialist, and 
 ever a courteous one. Having carefully formed his 
 opinions, and defined his beliefs, he was quick to meet 
 any denials or doubts thereof, or opposing errors, with 
 bristling weapons. He believed in the impregnability 
 of his theological j>ositions, and at the same time con- 
 ceived it to be his duty to battle against every move- 
 ment of those who had chosen other positions. He had 
 no faith in " new departures," and little patience with the 
 late departed. I think he cherished an especial con- 
 tempt for German philosophy and criticism, — " German 
 fog" he energetically pronounced it. He did his ut- 
 most to puff and blow that "fog" away. He deprecated 
 "letting down the bars," not always taking into 
 account by whom, and with what assumption, the same 
 "bars" had been put up. He deplored and resisted 
 the changes which have taken place during the last 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ix 
 
 twenty-five years in the practice of the religious 
 world. The change of posture from standing or kneeling 
 to sitting during public, prayer; the surrender of one 
 service on the Sabbath; the less rigid observance of the 
 Lord's day ; the disposition to allow more freedom 
 in recreation and amusements, — these, and similar con- 
 formities in the practical conduct of Christians, seemed 
 to him indicative and productive of worldliness and 
 irreligion. Loose views of inspiration, new speculations 
 regarding probation, doubts concerning eternal punish- 
 ment, and questionings of the expiatory nature of the 
 atonement, disturbed him, and provoked him to use his 
 pen against these errors. He sought and found comfort 
 for his vexed and righteous soul in the great thought 
 of "a reigning God," and died, as he had lived and 
 labored, in faith. 
 
 Now because he was so very zealous for his views 
 of divine truth and Christian duty, and because he was 
 ever alert, with great facility of plain speech, to utter his 
 warning, and to discover what he deemed erroneous and 
 noxious, it came to pass, I think, that those who knew 
 him by his writings mainly and merely, knew com- 
 parative^' but little of what was best and most beautiful 
 in him. I do not know that he was ever severe and 
 caustic in his controversial writings, but he was very 
 positive and unyielding, and did not exhibit great read- 
 iness or capacity to appreciate the possible force of new 
 suggestions and theories. In all these forthputtings 
 against views, opinions, speculations, and " German 
 fog" in particular, — in all these polemic raids and 
 controversial crusades, — the good man was tjaji&mned 
 with a zeal for the truth, which, for the time being, over- 
 laid his more generous and distinguishing character- 
 istics, as the helmet's grim visor hides the face of the 
 genial knight. 
 
X 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 When it came to men, his great heart took the heretics 
 in pretty generally. One would never suspect, from 
 reading his reviews of Dr. Bushnell's writings, his deep 
 interest and cordial faith in that man of God. He could 
 rarely make up his mind to assist in casting the 
 unbeliever out of the synagogue. He was boundlessly 
 tolerant and hopeful of men, and the more so as his 
 years increased. It may not be easy or important to 
 reconcile these diverse phases of Dr. Pond's religious 
 activity. But a partial explanation of them may be 
 found in the fact that his life was chiefly spent in 
 studious seclusion from the world, while his mental con- 
 stitution and habits of thought were such as to render him 
 somewhat unappreciative of other than " common-sense " 
 views and opinions. If he was not open to new con- 
 victions, it was partly owing to the fact that, at one 
 time of his life, he had been deeply convicted of the 
 truth. In the controversy with the Unitarians, all his 
 convictions had been fused into one glowing mass 
 of conviction, never more to be up for questioning. 
 Henceforth the truth was unconsciously identified in 
 his mind with the formulation in which it had taken 
 shape in the heats and under the pressures of con- 
 troversial discussion. 
 
 Moreover, between the separate and peaceful condi- 
 tions of life in which the old New England divines 
 thought out their systems of divinity, and the world as 
 one now finds it, there is a tremendous difference. The 
 ends of the earth are now brought into communication. 
 In the New England village one hears the roar of London 
 life. The bazaars of Cairo are not unfamiliar to him. 
 The old conditions of social life are completely changed. 
 Into all our quiet bays and creeks the great world has 
 come rushing and foaming, bringing with its tide a 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 revolution both literary and religious. A village the- 
 L ology no longer suffices. It is too small to meet the 
 f facts of the case. The systems and isms of a pr ovincia l 
 theology are as quaint as the costumes of a former age. 
 
 Dr. Pond was born, nurtured, and disciplined in tlie 
 old New England provincialism. His remote relation 
 with the world of affairs, and the environment which 
 habit and education and secluded residence combined 
 to make for him, rendered it difficult for him to take the 
 full measure and bearing of successive innovations in 
 practical and doctrinal theology. 
 
 According to popular notion, imagination is a sort 
 of decorative-art faculty, merely fictional and pictorial, 
 in pretty ways frescoing the otherwise plain things of 
 truth and fact. But imagination is a king faculty in 
 man, without which one may have great power of 
 logical reasoning and of lucid statement, but may not 
 mount as on wings, nor have "visions," nor either 
 prophetic or inspirational genius. 
 
 Of imagination, Dr. Pond was not in a great degree 
 possessed; and this fact seems to explain, in some 
 measure, why he was unable to take the largest and 
 most comprehensive views of the diversified landscape 
 of truth. He could not mount high enough to look afar 
 off in many directions. He could not understand the 
 mystic nor the transcendentalist, and was suspicious 
 of the genuineness of such creatures. His pleasure 
 in poetry and art, apart from religious associations there- 
 with, was probably not deep or great. Dr. Bushnell's 
 idea of "The Gospel a Gift to the Imagination," 
 would have seemed almost a conceit to Dr. Pond. In 
 this respect he was very much like his classmate and 
 friend, Dr. Joel Hawes, late of Hartford ; yes, very 
 much like the late Dr. Pusey, who thought German-ism 
 
xii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and neologism were the great out-standing perils of the 
 Christian church. 
 
 If one has not much imagination he will not get much 
 Gospel by that inlet. Taking it in ever so large quan- 
 tities by some other faculty, it will never take such 
 shape and color in his conceptions of it, as in his case 
 to whom it comes streaming through the glowing win- 
 dows of an illuminated imagination. 
 
 Not caring to rise much above literal interpretations, 
 obvious meanings, and scholastic definitions in the 
 domain of criticism and theology, Dr. Pond held by 
 his beliefs and opinions somewhat traditionally and 
 prosaically, but with unfaltering tenacity. He held 
 by them so as to be upheld by them above all doubts 
 or suspicions of their complete account of religious truth. 
 He never seemed to feel the force of the objections that 
 were set up and overthrown in his lectures and essays. 
 The victory of his logic seemed complete, and he could 
 not quite understand why the entire world was not 
 convinced. Thus it was with him in respect of his 
 opinions and views of truth. 
 
 But in respect of men the case was otherwise. Never 
 was there human charity sweeter or larger — human 
 kindness gentler or more catholic. Few holier lives 
 have been known in this age than his, — so wholly free 
 from cant, from pretension, from artificial emotion — 
 so sane, clear, simple, sincere, good, and loving. There 
 have been greater men in our age, but few, if any, better 
 men than he. 
 
 Such men are our everlasting supports. Theologies, 
 systems, speculations, have their day, and are, for the 
 most part, written in water. But on " Godlike men " 
 we build our trusts. Dr. Pond was " a living epistle," 
 "a burning and shining light," "a good man full of 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xiii 
 
 the Holy Ghost." He lives and works in hundreds 
 of men, who " took knowledge of him that he had been 
 with Jesus." 
 
 Of him it may fitly be said, "And Enoch walked 
 with God : and he was not, fob God took 
 
 HIM." 
 
 Hartford : May, 1SS3. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 'VERY man's personal history should be an 
 
 interesting one to himself. It may not be 
 of special interest to others. 
 
 Numerous biographies have been written and 
 pnl dished in which the community feels little 
 interest. But, as I said, every man's personal 
 history should be interesting to himself, and 
 should be pondered and reviewed. He will 
 learn from it his own weakness, depravity, 
 short-sightedness, and ignorance, and the treach- 
 ery of his heart. He will learn what are 
 his most exposed points of character, what 
 his easily besetting sins, and in what manner 
 the temptations and dangers to which he is 
 exposed may best be overcome. But especially 
 will he be impressed with the great goodness 
 and faithfulness and forbearance of God, and 
 while he feels his own weakness, and learns 
 more and more to distrust himself, he will cast 
 himself on the care and providence of God 
 with renewed confidence. 
 
 A review of one's personal history will also 
 lead him to admire the wonder-working provi- 
 dence of God. He will see how great events 
 have often turned upon slight contingencies; 
 
2 
 
 A MEMORIAL or 
 
 and how, if the scale, which seemed almost 
 evenly balanced, had turned differently from 
 what it did, a new turn would have been 
 given to the whole course of his life. 
 
 In short, a review of one's personal history, if 
 wisely conducted, will lead to increased penitence, 
 humility, and self-distrust ; to unfeigned gratitude 
 and confidence in God ; to renewed watchfulness, 
 resolution, and devotion in the divine life ; and 
 thus to continual growth in grace and meetness 
 for Heaven. 
 
 Impressed with such considerations, and urged 
 to it by some of my dearest friends, being now 
 in my usual health and vigor of body and mind, 
 though at the age of seventy-two, I sit down 
 this twenty-second of December, 1863, to write 
 out some account of my life and personal expe- 
 rience. How far it will proceed, and when it 
 will end, and where, the providence of God alone 
 can determine. 
 
HEY. ENOCH l'OND, D.D. 
 
 3 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PARENTAGE, EARLY LIFE, AND STUDIES. 
 
 " The sceils of that definite form which each individual life event- 
 ually assumes will he found to lie within its early history. I'sually 
 a man's early life and position will be found to contain the genu, and 
 to furnish the In t erp r etation, of his future character." 
 
 T WAS bom iii the town of Wrentham, Mass., 
 ± July 29, 1791. My father was of English and 
 puritan descent. His name was Elijah Pond, who 
 was the son of Jacob Pond, who was the son of 
 Jacob Pond, who was the son of Ephraim Pond, 
 who was the son of Ephraim Pond, who was 
 the son of Daniel Pond, who settled in the 
 town of Dedham in 1652. My ancestors, from 
 their first coming to this country, have all lived 
 within a few miles of the same spot. 
 
 M\* mother was Mary Smith, the eldest 
 daughter of James Smith, the only son of 
 Colonel John Smith, who came with his wife 
 from Donegal, in Ireland, about the middle of 
 the last century. They were prosperous, re- 
 spectable people of Scotch-Irish descent, and 
 they settled in Wrentham. My mother Avas an 
 energetic, strong-minded woman, devoted to her 
 family and eminent for piety, to whom her 
 children are under the greatest obligation. My 
 father and mother were not church members at 
 the time of my birth, but became such a few 
 
4 
 
 A MEMORIAL OE 
 
 years afterward. When my mother united with 
 the church Mr. Cleveland preached from the 
 text, " And Mary hath chosen the good part 
 which shall never he taken from her." My 
 mother was a fine singer, and for years led the 
 treble voices in the " singers' seats." I well 
 remember the day when we children were 
 baptized in the North Wrentham meeting- 
 house. It was then unfinished, and the occasion 
 was a solemn one to me and left an impression 
 which has never been effaced. We were bajrtized 
 by our excellent pastor Rev. John Cleveland. 
 My father became a deacon in this church, as 
 were his father and grandfather before him. 
 Many years after, on account of greater conven- 
 ience in attending meeting, our family worshiped 
 with the church at Wrentham Centre. 
 
 Of this old church, and the service of baptism, a sister of 
 my father writes : — 
 
 The meeting-house was built after the fashion of those 
 days, and was literally li set on a hill," so high. M steep. 
 I never remember seeing a carriage brought to the door. 
 You may be sure it required a good deal of strength to 
 ascend these " courts of the Lord." Why such tremendous 
 ( levations were chosen in those days is a marvel. The 
 building was rather small, painted light-yellow, and without 
 ornament. A double door in front opened directly into the 
 sanctuary. There were three aisles, and square pews like 
 little pens opening directly from them. A large pew at 
 the foot of the elevated pulpit was called the " deacon's 
 seat." Three galleries were built on high. In one of these 
 were the " singers' seats," and before the days when 
 '•stringed instruments " might be used in the worship of the 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 5 
 
 puritan saints, the twang of the pitch-pipe preceded the burst 
 of sacred song. In the deacon's seat might be seen, from 
 Sabbath to Sabbath, those elderly gentlemen, men of renown, 
 listening to the preached word; or with great reverence 
 rising up and standing when prayer was offered to that God 
 " before whom angels bow, and archangels veil their faces." 
 The railing of the stairs that led to the high pulpit was 
 of "carved work" and, with the pulpit and its suspended 
 • sounding-board,"' was painted sombre sea-green color. 
 There were two porches, one on each end of the house. 
 One was called the women's porch, the other the men's 
 porch. In these were the stairs leading to the three 
 galleries ; and the long, big bellrope was coiled in the men's 
 porch, an object of great curiosity to the little boys, who 
 longed to give it a pull. The good people worshiped in 
 this house long before it was finished; and it was during 
 this period that jour blessed father was baptized, from 
 a quart pewter-basin standing on a little table by Mr. 
 Cleveland's armchair. After the service, I do not doubt, 
 the one hundred and twenty-first hymn of the first book, 
 in the old " Watts and Select Hymns," was sung to the tune 
 of St. Martin's, as this hymn was invariably selected by Mr. 
 Cleveland when a baby was baptized. I seem now to hear 
 those long ago hushed voices singing : — 
 
 "Thus, later saints, Eternal King, 
 Thine ancient truth embrace, 
 To Thee their infant offspring bring, 
 Ami humbly claim Thy grace." 
 
 I was named Enoch for my uncle Enoch Pond, 
 who was graduated at Brown University in 1777, 
 and was for many years pastor of the Congrega- 
 tional church in Ashford, Conn. In my early 
 years I was called a thoughtful, steady boy. I had 
 a great taste for learning, and was particularly 
 desirous of being at the head of my class in 
 
6 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 school — a thing which I generally accomplished. 
 The schoolhouse is still standing. It is near 
 my old home. It was then painted red, on the 
 outside, and was rough enough within. About 
 three years ago, I saw a widow lady in Augusta, 
 Maine, who was nearly one hundred years old. 
 Her native place was Wrentham, and she claimed 
 to have taught me my letters. I think she did. 
 She told me of teaching school in my native 
 district, and of boarding at my father's house. 
 "Mr. Pond," said she, "had two little boys, 
 Enoch and Preston. Enoch was a very good 
 boy, but Preston was a great rogue." 
 
 " "Well," I said, " I suppose I am Enoch." She 
 looked at me with great interest, and I looked 
 upon her with feelings bordering on veneration. 
 The time passed uneventfully at my native 
 home, which was the home also of my grand- 
 parents, then living. My ancestors, on my 
 father's side, were all of them farmers, who 
 owned and worked their own farms, and lived 
 in a frugal, industrious way, almost independent 
 of the rest of the world. They received but 
 little money and needed but little, living chiefly 
 on the produce of their farms and the labor of 
 their hands. The spinning-wheel and the hand- 
 loom, in the busy hands of the mothers, wrought 
 the clothing ; the fruitful fields and broad forests 
 yielded food and fuel. There was no greed of 
 wealth, nor strife for fashion. They mingled but 
 little with the outside world, had few tempta- 
 tions, and trained their families to the fear and 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 7 
 
 service of the Lord. I deem it one of the 
 greatest blessings of my life, that I am able to 
 look back on a long line of industrious, upright, 
 and truly Christian ancestors. 
 
 We all went three miles to meeting on the 
 Sabbath. 
 
 The flood of juvenile books had not then burst 
 upon the country. We fed our minds on the 
 same intellectual food as did our parents, and it 
 stimulated our thoughts and enlarged our mental 
 powers. Except the three months of school in the 
 summer, and the three months in winter, I worked, 
 as I was able, on the farm. One of the best 
 things my father ever did for me and for his 
 other children was to keep us constantly em- 
 ployed. We never worked hard, but we had no 
 idle days. Each day brought with it something 
 to be done. In this way, habits of industry were 
 early formed, which I have never lost. I have 
 often said I would rather go to prison for six 
 months, with my books and papers, than be 
 doomed for the same length of time to do 
 nothing. 
 
 At the age of twelve I visited my uncle, the 
 minister of Ashford, and spent a year with him. 
 I had a great admiration for my uncle and aunt, 
 and hoped to enjoy a great deal in his family : 
 and I did. All my uncle's family were skilled 
 in music. I was most kindly treated by them ; 
 I was a favorite with them, and was introduced 
 to much young company. My manners were 
 improved, but I fear my heart was not. 1 
 
8 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 became idle, vain, and thoughtless. I learned to 
 sing while at Ashford, but do not remember that 
 I learned anything else of importance to me. 
 
 I returned to Wrentham in the summer of 
 1804, when I was thirteen years old. During 
 the preceding spring, there had been a revival 
 of religion in Wrentham, which was in progress 
 at the time of my return. Many of my young 
 friends were serious, and several had indulged a 
 hope in Christ, among whom was my elder sister 
 Harriet. I felt the importance of religion, sym- 
 pathized with those who had become interested 
 in it, associated with them, and erelong began 
 to think I was one of their number. 
 
 But the depravity of my heart had not been 
 discovered to me ; much less had it been broken 
 up. My serious impressions did not last long, 
 and, for the next three years of my life, I became 
 more wicked than I had ever been before. I 
 attended church as usual ; but was fond of gay 
 company, was restive under family restraints, 
 and even learned, when among my companions, 
 to use profane language. My watchful father 
 heard of this, and reproved me for it. His 
 remarks did not offend, but grieved me, and 
 were a blessing to me ; for the evil habit was 
 abandoned before it became confirmed. 
 
 I still loved learning, and improved all my 
 opportunities to acquire a good English educa- 
 tion. So successful was I in this pursuit, that, 
 in the winter of 1807-8, when I was only six- 
 teen years old, I was employed as teacher in one 
 
KEV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 9 
 
 of our district schools. For the next six winters 
 I continued this employment. In some winters 
 I taught two schools. And here let me say a 
 word as to this matter of teaching, especially as 
 the schools were then conducted in country towns. 
 As the schools were not graded, all the scholars 
 of the district, from four years old and upward, 
 came together, and must be classified by the 
 teacher as best he could. 
 
 Sometimes he would have more than a dozen 
 classes, from those learning the alphabet up- 
 ward, all of which must be attended to forenoon 
 and afternoon. He had a large class of writers, 
 for whom copies must be set and pens (goose- 
 quills) made and mended. He had many studying 
 arithmetic, and for these sums must be set, looked 
 over, and approved ; or, when puzzled, the pupils 
 must be helped over their difficulties. He had 
 several classes in English grammar, whose lessons 
 must be heard and explained ; and not unfre- 
 quently those studying the higher branches of 
 algebra, geometry, and Latin. And, hardest of 
 all, the teacher must prevent noise and whisper- 
 ing, quell disorder, and administer the govern- 
 ment of the school ; for which he needed eyes 
 all around him. I never sat down during school 
 hours, walking the room with a little switch 
 under my arm, and frequently administering 
 warning touches about the ears and fingers of 
 the unruly rogues. I speak from long and pain- 
 ful experience, and I must say that, if any poor 
 creature is ever to be pitied, it is the teacher of 
 
10 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 one of these large old-fashioned district schools. I 
 succeeded in teaching to the satisfaction of my 
 employers, and perhaps as well as young men 
 generally, who engage in it merely as a means 
 to an end ; but if ever there was a load imposed 
 on a feeble mortal sufficient to press the very life 
 out of him, the teaching of such a school as 1 
 have described was that load. Let us be thank; 
 ful that there has been so much improvement in 
 the books provided, the many helps to teachers, 
 and in the whole method of conducting schools, 
 especially in our cities and larger towns, since 
 the period of which I speak. 
 
 About six weeks before bis death; my father received a 
 letter from an old gentleman in Illinois, who was his pupil 
 in that first school, taught by him when he was sixteen 
 years old. The affectionate remembrance, and the kind 
 interest, expressed by this aged pupil for his aged teacher 
 touched my father deeply. 
 
 Though a youthful teacher, and though these schools 
 were largely made up of unrul}' boys, such was his prowess, 
 his prudence, and quick-sighted observation, that he gained 
 the respect and ready obedience of the greater part of his 
 pupils. Ho had a pleasing address and a winning playful- 
 ness which did not at all lower his dignity; but it was 
 suited to call forth the admiration of his school. His 
 scholars always progressed rapidly; and when trouble from 
 some of the overgrown evildoers threatened, without 
 appearing to know their plans, he pleasantly outwitted 
 them, and, with a graceful unconsciousness, set aside and 
 made impossible the execution of the plans of these 'sons 
 of Belial,' leaving them angry and defeated." 
 
 For the next two years I continued to teach 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 11 
 
 school in the winter, and work on the farm in 
 the summer ; and it was my father's plan that 
 I should continue to do so, and at length heeome 
 settled with him on the homestead. But my 
 desire for learning led me to think of a liberal 
 education. Besides, from my earliest years, I had 
 a desire to be a minister, and a kind of a prenenU 
 intent that I should be one. I made no preten- 
 sions to religion at this time, and gave no evidence 
 cf possessing it; yet I had a strong desire for 
 a liberal education, that I might become, if pre- 
 pared for it, a minister of the gospel. Thus 
 things went on within me and around me until 
 about midsummer of 1809. It was the haying 
 season, and there were several days of heavy, 
 rainy weather, when nothing could be done on 
 the farm. I improved this opportunity to get 
 a Latin grammar, and commenced studying it 
 in the Academy at Wrentham (" Day's Acad- 
 emy"), about two and a half miles from my 
 father's home. ~My father, finding I had taken 
 this decisive step, made no further objection, and 
 I was allowed to go on in my chosen pursuit. It 
 was now about six weeks to the end of the 
 term ; and in this ti:ne I had mastered the Latin 
 grammar and J'sop's Fables, and commenced 
 my recitations in Virgil. I allowed myself no 
 vacation, but pushed forward as fast as possible, 
 and before my winter school began, had finished 
 Virgil and commenced on the Orations of Cicero. 
 My circumstances made it necessary I should teach 
 school this winter, and it proved the longest and 
 
12 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 hardest I ever taught. Still I gave my evenings 
 to stud} r , and before the school ended I had 
 finished the Orations. 
 
 It was during this winter, and while teaching 
 this hard school, that I think my heart was 
 changed, and I became reconciled to God. My 
 pastor had been reading " Faber on the Prophe- 
 cies," and had preached several sermons on the 
 subject. I was impressed with the idea that 
 great changes were coming on the earth ; that 
 naught but destruction awaited the enemies of 
 God, and that it was quite time for me to take 
 my stand upon the Lord's side. The burden of 
 my school also oppressed me, and made me 
 feel more than ever that I needed strength and 
 support from on high; but I do not remember 
 that I was deeply convicted or disturbed for sin. 
 One evening, when the family in which I boarded 
 were absent and I sat alone, unable to study, 
 and absorbed in such thoughts as I have de- 
 scribed, a new feeling came over me, or a new 
 affection sprang up in my soul. It was one of 
 entire submission and cordial reconciliation to 
 the Will of God. I rejoiced to be in his hands 
 and under his government, and was willing he 
 should do with me as seemed good in his sight. 
 
 I expeiienced no high emotions of joy, but my 
 habitual feeling was one of entire submission to 
 the Divine Will. This was attended, of course, 
 with inward peace, and this peace was abiding. 
 It has been the predominant feature of my re- 
 ligious experience ever since. 
 
REV. ENOCH POXD, D. D. 
 
 13 
 
 '•Yield to the Lord with simple heart, 
 All that thou hast, and all thou art ; 
 Kenounee all strength but strength divine, 
 And peace forever shall be thine."' 
 
 My practice at this time was to go to my 
 schoolroom about eight o'clock in the morning, 
 ai id make a fire, that everything might be in 
 readiness when the scholars came. After build- 
 ing the fire, I usually had about half an hour 
 by myself. I well remember how pleasantly I 
 employed this little season in reading the Scrip- 
 tures, meditation, and prayer. I read over the 
 fourteenth chapter of John till I could say it 
 as well without the book as with it. " Let not 
 your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid ; 
 ye believe in God, believe also in me." M Peace 
 I leavje with you, my peace I give unto you: not 
 as the world giveth, give I unto you." I felt at 
 the time that this precious promise was verified 
 unto me. Still, I did not really believe I had 
 experienced a change of heart, and said nothing 
 about it to any one for some months. My studies 
 were the engrossing subject, and these occupied 
 my mind almost to the exclusion of everything 
 else. When my school was out, I returned to 
 the Academy and commenced the study of Greek. 
 I soon went through the Greek grammar, and 
 then read the Greek New Testament, and a 
 part of Xenophon. I also reviewed my Latin 
 studies, and read a considerable part of Horace. 
 In all but the classics, I had previously fitted 
 for college, and the result was, that at Com- 
 
14 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 mencement in Brown University, in September, 
 1810, I was examined for admission to the Sopho- 
 more class, and was received I have often 
 regretted that I went through the preparatory- 
 studies of college with such rapidity. To be 
 sure, I acquired readily and could read Latin 
 and Greek with fluency ; yet my preparation 
 lacked thoroughness ; and I formed the habit of 
 passing over my books and studies rapidly, which 
 has, in some instances, been a disadvantage to 
 me. I have often wondered, too, that my health 
 did not suffer. Exchanging the active labors of 
 the farm for such intense and constant applica- 
 tion to study, it is a wonder that my constitution 
 did not break down at once. Very often I used 
 to get uy> in the night, pore over my Latin and 
 Greek an hour or two, and then go to bed again 
 and fall asleep. I can think of but one thing 
 that saved me from utter prostration at this 
 period. I boarded at home, and was under the 
 necessity of walking some five miles every day 
 to and from the Academy. 
 
KEY. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 15 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 COLLEGE LIFE AND THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 
 
 TPON entering college a } r ear in advance, I 
 
 found myself surrounded by a large class, 
 the most of whom were mature and strong men, 
 and who, I knew, had the advantage over me of 
 having heen there through the Freshman year. 
 Still I was determined to stand up with them 
 as an equal, and my past success as a student 
 encouraged me to hope I should do so. 
 
 Indeed, I have often laughed at the views with 
 which I entered college ; at my self-conceits and 
 almost litter ignorance of what was hefore me. 
 I know not that any Sophomore ever felt as 
 I did ; it was really a wonder to me what my 
 teachers would find to set hefore me in addition 
 to what I then knew, to occupy my thoughts 
 for the long space of three years. It seemed 
 as though in that period I should be able to 
 master all the sciences, and even more. But it 
 was not long before my views began to be 
 sobered, and they have been growing more sober 
 and moderate ever since. I have now been 
 a constant and diligent student for more than 
 fifty years ; and so far from traversing the whole 
 circle of the sciences, I feel ashamed of know- 
 ing so little of any one of them. I feel now 
 
16 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 that my work as a student has but just begun; 
 and though it must soon terminate on the shores 
 of time, I hope to resume it, and carry it forward 
 indefinitely, in a future world. 
 
 To return to my college life. As I had hut 
 three years before me, I determined to make 
 the most of them. In order to do this, I resolved 
 that I would not be absent, when I could avoid 
 it, from college during term time. And this 
 resolution I was able to carry into effect. I was 
 under the necessity of teaching, during each 
 winter, one school ; but I taught only through 
 the eight weeks of college vacation. I was re- 
 solved, too,- not to be absent from any college 
 exercise or recitation where I was expected to 
 be present. And this resolution I accomplished. 
 While the names of other students were frequently 
 called over for absence, or other delinquencies, 
 mine was not called in a single instance. I 
 formed still another plan when I entered col- 
 lege, to which I adhered, and which I would 
 commend to the notice of students. I resolved 
 that the lesson for the time should first be mas- 
 tered, and then, if leisure remained, it might be 
 devoted to miscellaneous reading or writing, or 
 to recreation. But, first of all, the lesson must be 
 attended to, and due preparation made for the 
 recitation. My college life passed rapidly and 
 pleasantly away. For my classmates generally 
 I had a high regard, and they manifested the 
 same regard for me. For some of them I felt 
 a strong affection ; and attachments were formed 
 
REV. EXOCII POND, D. D. 
 
 IT 
 
 as lasting as life, — even more so; attachments that 
 reach over to another life, and will be renewed in 
 heaven. 
 
 In the winter after entering college, I made 
 known my religious feelings to my pastor and 
 to other Christian friends, and made a public 
 profession of religion. I joined the North 
 Church in Wrentham, the same in which I had 
 been baptized, and continued to be a member 
 of it till my settlement in the ministry. 
 
 The thoroughness and strength of our father's religious 
 convictions are shown in the relation of his experience, 
 prepared for the church when he asked to he received into 
 it. The very document lies before me. the paper yellow, 
 the ink faded, but the light of the Christian life there 
 recorded in its dawn " shone brighter and brighter, till the 
 perfect day." After recording with gratitude the blessing 
 of his Christian home, and regretting the earlier years of 
 life, when the instructions of parents and the strivings of 
 the Holy Spirit were stubbornly resisted, my father writes 
 thus : — 
 
 In the year 1805, I returned from my uncle's 
 house, in Ashford, Conn., to find new scenes in 
 my native "village. I found my old friends 
 very solemn, and much engaged in religious 
 concerns. I was disturbed ; and I was resolved, 
 at any cost, to be religious too. I resolved 
 to leave off evil habits and be a saint as well 
 as they. Accordingly, I professed to some of 
 my friends that I had a hope I was a Christian 
 and a friend of Jesus. They rejoiced at the 
 news, and my vain heart swelled with pride at 
 
18 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 the thought that I was esteemed as good as 
 they. I indulged these sentiments to such a 
 degree, that at last I believed myself a real 
 Christian, and began to talk of a profession of 
 religion. But temptation taught me a lesson I 
 could have learned in no other way, of the 
 weakness of human strength. I no sooner found 
 that, in order to sustain the character of a saint, 
 I must endure the scorn and derision of the 
 world, that I must take up the cross and follow 
 the Redeemer, than my heart fainted. I basely 
 deserted the cause I had espoused ; I was willing 
 to show the world that I was ashamed of my 
 religious professions, and that my serious impres- 
 sions were even less permanent than the " morn- 
 ing cloud and early dew." I now abandoned 
 all serious thought. I commenced a career of 
 sin and folly, and rejoiced in the awful liberty 
 I enjoyed. Thus I lived, though not without 
 some severe compunctions of conscience, till the 
 fall of the year 1809. At that time I tarried, 
 one noon, to witness the administration of the 
 Lord's Supper. After the sacrament was over, 
 the church sang, in the tune of Brookfield, the 
 first of Dr. Watts' hymns in the third book, 
 'T was on that dark and doleful night."' It was 
 to me a solemn occasion. It seemed to me as 
 if God and holy angels were looking down with 
 complacence on the small fraternal band who 
 were sitting around the table of their Master; 
 while I was shut out, and justly doomed to eternal 
 destruction. I was pricked to the heart, and 
 
KEY. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 19 
 
 found it extremely difficult to rid myself of my 
 convictions of sinfulness and ill desert. I had, 
 however, nearly succeeded in calming my mind, 
 when I again was roused more effectually than 
 before, by hearing a sermon preached on the 
 speedy approach of the millennium, and the 
 dreadful overthrow of the enemies of Christ. I 
 plainly saw, if the Bible were true, there was 
 nothing before me but trouble in this world, and 
 everlasting destruction in the world to come. I 
 was more sensible than ever before of my exceed- 
 ing sinfulness. Although I perfectly hated the 
 attributes and character of God, yet I was con- 
 vinced I must pronounce his sentence just, should 
 he immediately condemn me to eternal despair. I 
 was greatly distressed ; I knew not which way to 
 fly, for on either side I could see only horror and 
 woe. Thus, for a number of days, I continued 
 quarreling with the Almighty, and striving to 
 get myself out of his hands. One evening I was 
 alone in my room. I was more than usually 
 impressed with the concerns of my soul, and I 
 at last resolved to give myself up to my gloomy 
 reflections and no longer to strive and fight 
 against them. At that moment a volition, which 
 I had never before felt, arose evidently in ivy 
 mind. I was willing to lie at the feet of the 
 Saviour, and to be anything which the Almighty 
 was pleased to have me. I felt my heart acqui- 
 esce in his government, and I could from my 
 soul say, " Thy will be done." I was immedi- 
 ately sensible of a great change in my views 
 
20 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 and feelings, but I did not know whether it 
 would be termed conversion. As I had once 
 deceived my friends in this respect, I dared not 
 make any professions to them, lest I should be 
 again guilty of the same sin. Thus I lived, 
 generally in doubt with respect to the state of my 
 soul, until the last spring. I was then especially 
 favored with the light of God's countenance, and 
 enabled to sing of mercy as well as judgment. I 
 then, for the first time, communicated my feelings 
 to my Christian friends. Since that time I have 
 given myself much to the examination of my own 
 heart. I find I am a very sinful creature, but 1 
 hope I can rely on the merits of my Redeemer. 
 All the attributes of God appear beautiful and 
 glorious, and I humbly think I can acquiesce in 
 his dispensations. God's law appears just, and 
 exactty conformable to the rule of right ; and, 
 although I am continually committing offences 
 against it, I am sure I abhor myself for them. I 
 have a great desire to espouse the cause of the 
 Redeemer, and to side with him against an oppos- 
 ing world, and to obey all his divine commands. 
 I therefore offer myself to this church, begging 
 your acceptance of me as a member of your 
 Christian fraternity, and your earnest prayers for 
 me, that I may rely wholly on the arm of Jesus 
 for support ; that I may live a life of obedience to 
 God ; and especially that I may never be left to 
 dishonor the holy religion which I now profess. 
 
 ENOCH POND. 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 21 
 
 lie was propounded for admission to the church on 
 January 19, 1S12, and received to its communion February 
 2d, of the same year. 
 
 On my return to college, I disclosed to my 
 religious friends there the step I had taken, and 
 this introduced me to their " praying circle," and 
 the Theological Society, from both of which I 
 derived much satisfaction and improvement. In 
 the discussions of the Theological Society I took 
 an active part, and they proved a great advantage 
 to me, not only as a theologian, but as an extem- 
 poraneous speaker. During my residence in col- 
 lege I met with a great deal of goodness, and also 
 with a great deal of wickedness. I saw more of 
 vice in its grosser forms, intemperance, profane- 
 ness, and debauchery, than ever before in my life. 
 Temptations were everywhere ; but, by the grace 
 of God, I was enabled to avoid them and pass 
 unharmed through the ordeal. 
 
 During my whole college life I attended the 
 preaching of Rev. Thomas Williams, then a settled 
 minister, pastor of the Richmond Street Church, 
 Providence, R. I. And I may say here, what I 
 have often said before, that from no preaching 
 I have ever listened to have I derived so much 
 advantage. This was before he was visited by 
 those fits of insanity, with which he was affected 
 in later years. He was an eccentric character at 
 this time, but of sound mind. His preaching was 
 instructive, clear, methodical, earnest. I com- 
 menced, soon after I began to hear him, not 
 taking notes in the church, but writing down what 
 
22 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 I could recollect of the sermon on my return 
 home ; and I soon found I could remember nearly 
 the whole sermon, and could have written it out. 
 I would commend this method to the young as the 
 best. The taking of notes at the time of delivery, 
 and trusting to them, seems rather to weaken and 
 injure the memory. If scholars begin early to 
 trust to their memories, they will find them grow 
 more and more retentive. To return to my old 
 friend and pastor Mr. Williams. He was a special 
 friend of Dr. Emmons. Their meetings were 
 frequent and intimate. Dr. Emmons requested 
 Mr. Williams to preach his funeral sermon, if he 
 should outlive him. He gave his pledge that 
 he would do so, and after preparing the sermon, 
 at the request of Dr. Emmons, he read it to him. 
 
 Mr. Williams had no ability or taste for worldly 
 matters. He was generally in want ; and left his 
 family, I suppose, chiefly to the care of his ex- 
 cellent wife. His native talents were of a high 
 order: a clear and vigorous understanding, a warm 
 heart, a fine flow of natural sensibility pouring 
 itself forth in fluent speech, and often in sparkling 
 wit and humor. His numerous witticisms are 
 current in all the region where he lived. He would 
 have been a better minister could he have enjoyed 
 in early life a wider breadth of culture, and had 
 his mind been free from a tendency to disease. 
 As it is, he will be long and affectionately remem- 
 bered by a large circle of religious friends, many 
 of whom he has helped forward in the way to 
 heaven by his counsels. 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 23 
 
 My college life passed rapidly away ; so rapidly 
 that, before we were aware of it, our Senior year 
 was drawing to a close, and preparations making 
 for the final examinations and the exercises of 
 Commencement. A part was assigned to me, 
 which I did not expect, and which, at the time, 
 I did not think I deserved ; and I think so still. 
 It devolved on me to deliver the valedictory 
 address. My classmates, so far as I know, were 
 quite satisfied with the assignment, but / always 
 felt that this part should have been given to one 
 who had the salutatory addresses — my classmate 
 Hawes, now the venerable Dr. Joel Hawes, of 
 Hartford, Conn. A warm friendship continued 
 between this classmate and myself to the end of 
 his long life. We frequently exchanged visits. 
 His heart was full of Christian kindness. The 
 loss of his children gave a peculiar pathos to his 
 last days. He died, greatly lamented in connec- 
 tion with his first church and settlement, in Hart- 
 ford, Conn. 
 
 When the exercises of Commencement were 
 over, I returned to my father's house. It was no 
 longer a question with me whether I should study 
 divinity and attempt to become a minister of the 
 Gospel ; but it became a very serious question : 
 " Where shall my professional studies be prose- 
 cuted?" The Seminary at Andover had then 
 (1813) been several years in operation, and there 
 were many reasons why I should go there to pur- 
 sue my studies. But I was in a hurry to get into 
 the ministry, and, also, my health had been some- 
 
24 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 what impaired, by college life. Add to this, that 
 Dr. Emmons, of Franklin, Mass., lived but a few 
 miles from my father's house ; that his reputation 
 as a theological teacher was, in all that section of 
 country, pre-eminent ; that I had known him from 
 childhood, had often heard him preach, and re- 
 garded him with the highest veneration. My 
 family friends all advised me to resort to him, and 
 I concluded to put myself under his instructions. 
 
 This question was virtually settled, and I had 
 actually commenced my theological studies before 
 I graduated at Providence. I have been asked 
 whether I have not since regretted that I did not 
 take a full course at Andover. My answer has 
 been that, so far as theology is concerned, I have 
 seen no occasion of regret. As a teacher of the- 
 ology Dr. Emmons had no superior in the country. 
 Though I had studied Hebrew in college, I have 
 felt the need of the training I should have had in 
 Andover in sacred literature, homiletics, and eccle- 
 siastical history. I have no doubt I should have 
 made a more acceptable preacher, especially in the 
 earlier part of my ministry, if I had received 
 more instruction in these important branches. 
 
 Dr. Emmons's method of instruction was that 
 adopted by all the old teachers previous to the 
 establishment of theological seminaries. He de- 
 livered no lectures, properly so called, but fur- 
 nished his pupils with a long list of subjects, and 
 the books to be consulted under each subject, and 
 required them to read, rellect, and prepare essays 
 on the several subjects, to be read before him. 
 
REV. ENOCH POXD, D. D. 
 
 25 
 
 He was not accustomed to favor us with his 
 opinions before we had written on the doctrines 
 to be examined, preferring we should exercise our 
 own thougbts upon them, and investigate them 
 thoroughly and independently. But when the 
 time for reading came, he was very free in his 
 criticisms and remarks. The discussions which 
 took place in connection with the reading of these 
 essays were always interesting and sometimes 
 considerably protracted. This course of instruc- 
 tion was admirably adapted to put a young man 
 on his own resources, and, if he had anything in 
 him, to draw it out. The planning and preparing 
 of essays which were to pass the ordeal of Dr. 
 Emmons's criticism was a formidable affair, which 
 no one would be willing to pass lightly over. And 
 then this course of reading, thinking, writing, 
 and discussing upon a long train of connected 
 subjects — subjects involving questions of great 
 difficulty and importance — was adapted, more 
 than almost anything beside, to stir and quicken 
 the soul. Under such a process the mind was not 
 merely stored and furnished, but trained and dis- 
 ciplined, and prepared, in the best manner, for 
 future effort and usefulness. Dr. Emmons had 
 a peculiar faculty for attaching his students to 
 himself personally. The}' not only revered and 
 honored him, but loved him. He had also the 
 power of imbuing them with his own sentiments, 
 and of working out of them everything of an 
 opposite tendency ; and all this without any 
 artifice or force except the force of his invincible 
 
26 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 logic. The pupils of Dr. Emmons were so much 
 attracted to him that in many cases they tried to 
 imitate him, and, not unfrequently, to their own 
 hurt. I know that I fell into this habit of 
 imitating my instructor, not only as to style and 
 manner and structure of sermons, but in the 
 manner of delivery, and it was a long time before 
 I could be rid of it ; perhaps to this day I am 
 infected with it. 
 
 Dr. Emmons died September 23, 1840, in the 
 ninety-sixth year of his age, and in the sixty-eighth 
 year of his ministry in Franklin. He retired from 
 the labors of the pulpit in 1827, declaring his " de- 
 termination to retire while he had sense enough 
 to do it." He continued to instruct in theology 
 till too feeble and infirm from age. The whole 
 number of young ministers under his instruction 
 was eighty-six. But upon many more minds he 
 has left his theological likeness, and will claim 
 such as his spiritual children when we meet in our 
 Father's home above. 
 
 While under the instruction of Dr. Emmons, 
 I resided and studied at my father's house, and 
 rode over to see the Doctor and read my essays 
 to him about once a week, taking for it a whole 
 day. This arrangement, though attended with 
 some inconveniences, was, on the whole, a benefit 
 to me. It furnished me with a degree of relaxa- 
 tion and exercise, which I greatly needed, and 
 which I should not otherwise have taken ; for, 
 although my health admonished me that I was 
 driving too fast, I was not at all inclined to relax 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 27 
 
 my diligence. I went through Dr. Emmons's 
 course of theological instruction in less than a 
 year, besides keeping a school ten weeks in the 
 winter, and was prepared for license in June, 181-4. 
 At the recommendation of my instructor, I was 
 examined for the ministry by the Mendon Asso- 
 ciation, at the house of Rev. Mr. Holman, of 
 Douglas, and was commended by them, in the 
 usual form, as a candidate for the Gospel ministry, 
 June 11, 1811. 
 
28 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PREACHING AS A CANDIDATE. — SETTLEMENT 
 AND MARRIAGE. 
 
 ^PHK next Sabbath after my license I preached 
 
 my first sermon, in Franklin, in the pulpit 
 of Dr. Emmons. Happily, the doctor was absent 
 on a journey. As I had scarcely ever in my life 
 seen the inside of a pulpit, and never taken charge 
 of a religious meeting of any kind, my situation 
 at first was awkward enough. I found myself face 
 ,to face with Dr. Emmons's great congregation, 
 every one of whom was a critic in pulpit per- 
 formances, as well as in theology, and the most 
 of whom had come, no doubt, for the purpose of 
 criticising the new preacher. I got through the 
 day as well as I expected, and heard no complaint 
 of my performance afterward. 
 
 I was next employed to preach four Sabbaths in 
 West Medway, in the pulpit since that time so ably 
 • occupied for almost half a century by Dr. Jacob 
 Ide. This engagement finished, I was requested 
 to preach in my own church in North Wrentham, 
 the venerable pastor of which, Rev. John Cleve- 
 land, was now prostrated with his last sickness. 
 I preached here one Sabbath, and then my flagging 
 strength gave out. My health had been gradually 
 failing for some time ; my digestion was dis- 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 2!> 
 
 ordered, my nervous system enfeebled, and I 
 could do no more. I was prostrated by a slow 
 typhus fever, which confined me to the house, 
 and most of the time to the bed, for two months. 
 I was sick at my father's house, but my chief 
 nurse was the young lady who was soon to become 
 my wife — Miss Wealthy Hawes, daughter of Mr. 
 William Hawes, of North Wrentham. We had 
 been acquainted almost from childhood, had be- 
 come attached to each other, and, without any 
 formal betrothal or engagement, had felt, I sup- 
 pose, for years that neither of us could marry any 
 one else. My mother had the care and charge of 
 her large family ; my elder sister was married ; 
 and Miss Hawes was sent for to come and help in 
 the care of me. She came, and was a ministering 
 angel to me in all my illness. But for her watch- 
 ful care and kindness I might not have lived. 
 When I had recovered sufficiently to take the 
 journey which was recommended as necessary for 
 my restoration, it was thought indispensable that 
 she should accompany me. I could not go alone ; 
 no one could take care of me as she could ; and, if 
 she went, she must go as my wife. We were 
 accordingly married, and commenced our journey 
 together, to visit her uncle, the late Hon. David 
 Daggett, of New Haven, Conn. We made the 
 journey by easy stages, with our own horse and 
 carriage. It and the visit were successfully 
 accomplished, and resulted in my entire recovery 
 to health and strength. This fit of severe and 
 long-continued sickness proved of great advantage 
 
30 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 to me in the end. The fever seemed to burn out 
 and renovate my previously shattered constitution. 
 Previous to it I had frequent sick headaches, but 
 since I have hardly known what headache is. 
 Previously, I was a nervous and fidgetty young 
 man, often troubled and unable to sleep ; but from 
 the time of my recovery these annoying ailments 
 have entirely passed away. I have often said that 
 fever was worth to me all it cost, and I have known 
 many instances in which a fever in early life was 
 followed by like results. In the autumn of 1814 
 I had sufficiently recovered to think of preaching 
 again, and an invitation awaited me to visit Ward 
 (now Auburn), a small town in Worcester County, 
 lying between Worcester and Oxford. I found 
 here a small but attached people. They loved me 
 and I loved them; and, after preaching for them 
 several weeks, they gave me an unanimous call to 
 become their pastor. I took the matter into 
 serious consideration. I had no doubt but by 
 longer waiting I might secure a larger and more 
 inviting field of labor. But here I found an open 
 door; here was work to be done, and perhaps as 
 much work as I, in my enfeebled condition, should 
 be able to accomplish. The salary proposed was 
 not large, but it was liberal, considering the ability 
 of the people, and I concluded to cast in my lot 
 with them. I accepted the call, and though my 
 ordination did not take place till the March fol- 
 lowing (1815), I removed with my wife to Ward, 
 and we entered together on what we thought 
 would be the work of our lives. 
 
KEY. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 31 
 
 Thus my father went out from the home of his parents 
 with the paternal blessing resting upon him. But his early 
 home was very clear to him. Every year he went up to 
 refresh himself in the scenes of his youth, bringing his 
 offering to the home altar. For his coming the father and 
 mother, brothers and sisters, watched, and felt a reflected 
 glory in his honors. The favorite viands, the fairest fruit, 
 the seat of honor, the quiet guest-chamber, were prepared 
 by the loving mother when " Enoch was coming.*' After 
 the death of his father, in 1845. and his mother, in 184!), 
 father went up less frequently. His last visit was in 1870. 
 He felt it would be his last. The valley of the homestead 
 was a good deal changed. Two brothers and a sister were 
 dead, and their families grown up and scattered. One 
 brother, my uncle Lucas Pond, was feeble in body and in 
 mind, but the two brothers rode together hour after hour, 
 revisiting the haunts of their youth. Eveiy familiar spot 
 had its associations; and of the places and people so many 
 stories were told, so many jokes revived, so many " char- 
 acters " brought back to act again upon the stage of life, 
 that one, who sat listening in the back-seat of the carriage, 
 felt she was reading a new chapter in the " Stories of Old- 
 Town Folks." 
 
 Franklin, the scene of father's theological struggles 
 under Dr. Emmons, was visited. The road he so often 
 traveled then, had hardly lost a stone. North Wrentham, 
 to whose elevated meeting-house the brothers had climbed 
 every Sunday of their youth; Med way, where Dr. Ide and 
 his .wife still lived; "Wrentham village, where " Day's 
 Academy " yet remained, and the family burying-place, 
 where six generations of our family are represented, were 
 all revisited at this time. 
 
 " Pondville is a sweet spot,'' father said to me, as the visit 
 drew to a close. " I have gone over every step of the farm 
 hundreds of times; I know all the stones in the old walls, 
 for I helped to lay them. But nothing seems more natural 
 than the old Pearmain trees. There were nine set out by 
 
3:> 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 my grandfather, when lie was a young man, at least one 
 hundred and forty-three years ago; and they still bring 
 forth fruit in old age. I love the spot, but I shall never 
 conic again." 
 
 For my father's grandchildren, who know very little of 
 their pious ancestry, I beg leave to copy from a " Manuscript 
 of Reminiscences," preserved by an aunt who spent with 
 them the last fifty years of their lives : — 
 
 Deacon Elijali Pond and his wife were converted in the early 
 part of their married life, and, like Zacharias and Elizabeth 
 " they walked in all the commandments and ordinances of the 
 Lord blameless." The father and mother of Deacon Pond, 
 and the mother of Mrs. Pond (who lived to be nearly a 
 hundred years old), were in their declining years inmates of 
 their family and were ever treated with respect, tenderness, 
 and affection. And well was the faithfulness cf these 
 children to their parents repaid. Deacon Pond lived on the 
 homestead, in the quiet pursuit of agriculture. He was 
 puritan by descent, and puritan in practice. He was a 
 strictly honest man. He was not poor and he had no 
 ambition to be rich. 
 
 In dealing with others, he seemed to consult their interest 
 as much as his own. He was faithful in all the relations of 
 life. He trained up his large family, five sons and two 
 daughters, for positions of usefulness and honor. They all, 
 with their children and children's children did him honor, 
 and '-his days were long in the land." As a son, a father, 
 a neighbor, he was kind and helpful. The poor, sick, and 
 friendless ever found in him a friend, and often they were 
 taken into his household and cherished as those of his own 
 family. In his religious character he was even and uniform 
 in the discharge of his Christian duties. Naturally a timid 
 man, his voice was never heard in the prayer-meeting or 
 public assembly, but for more than fifty years the Bible was 
 read and prayer offered morning and evening in the family. 
 The Sabbath was observed with great care and strictness by 
 his whole household. He read the Bible several Limes a 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, I). D. 
 
 33 
 
 day, sitting down to read it, as if hungry for the word; 
 going through the Bible in course, once in three months. 
 His ki closet " was in the attic of his house, and there, in the 
 selfsame spot, he knelt for more than half a century, at the 
 dawn of each morning. On the morning of his death he 
 climbed those two flights of stairs and descended in perfect 
 safety, nor can we doubt that the " angels had charge 
 concerning him. and in their hands they did be;ir him op." 
 In February, 1S45, Mrs. Pond was visited with a severe sick- 
 ness which we all supposed would be her last. Deacon Pond 
 murmured not, but the sorrow of his heart was written on 
 his countenance. On Saturday morning he rose as usual, 
 went through all the round of accustomed duty; toward 
 noon lie complained of severe pain, and, as the usual 
 remedies failed, we were preparing to send for a physician, 
 when, as he was walking the room where Mrs. Pond was 
 sick, he fell dead in a moment. Our dear mother asked, 
 " Has pa fainted? " We told her, " Father is dead ! " She 
 lifted up her hands and exclaimed, ; ' It is the doing of 
 Infinite Wisdom." Not another word was spoken, and she 
 was the onl)- calm person in the room. 
 
 We kept our father's body nearly a week, thinking every 
 hour our mother must join him in death. At the last of the 
 week the doctor saw a change in her for the better, and 
 gave us hope of recovery for her. After father was 
 dressed for the grave, and laid in the coffin, she desired to 
 have him brought to her bedside. Her sons suppoi ted her 
 in their arms while she gazed on the husband of her long 
 life, and in a whisper repeated the lines : — 
 
 " To mourn and to sutler is mine, 
 While bound* in a prison I breathe, 
 And still for deliverance I pine, 
 And press to the issues of death. 
 
 " What now with my tears I bedew, 
 O, shall I not shortly become? 
 My spirit created anew, 
 Jly flesh be consigned to the tomb." 
 
34 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 In a few days she began to amend; she gained rapidly, 
 and remained four years longer to cheer us. 
 
 She was a woman of excellent understanding, prudent, 
 industrious, benevolent. Her disposition was pleasant and 
 cheerful. She had been in her youth a very fine singer, and. 
 though she had become wholly deaf, sometimes sang softly 
 to herself the songs of earlier days. In the spring of 1S49. 
 she was again visited with fever, which reduced her strength 
 rapidly. She had no pain, but great weariness. One day 
 as I was sitting by her chair, she said, " Oh, I am so tired ; 
 tired all the time." I said, >; Yes, mother, but you know 
 ' there remaineth a rest for the people of God." *' M Yes, yes, 
 I know it; " and then she began to talk about heaven. '"I 
 can see them all there. I can see Pa, and Deacon Hawes, 
 and Colonel Hawes, all singing and bowing before the 
 throne ; " and as though she caught the melody, she began 
 to sing an old anthem composed b}- Billings. It comprises 
 nine long verses from the fifth chapter of Revelation. At 
 one time her face beamed with pure rapture, and I verily 
 thought she would sing herself away to everlasting bliss. 
 Never did I hear such singing before. I felt I was listening 
 to the song of the redeemed in heaven. 
 
 In the late evening, a week from this time, she fell into a 
 sweet sleep, her cheek resting on her hand from which in 
 about twelve hours she awoke in heaven. " Mark ye the 
 perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that 
 man is peace.'" 
 
 In the family cemetery two white stones mark the graves 
 of this sainted pair. On one is engraved : — 
 
 DEACON ELIJAH POND, 
 " A Good Man and a Just. v 
 On the other, — 
 
 MARY POND, 
 "A Mother in Israel." 
 
EEV. ENOCH TON I), D. D. 
 
 35 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MY MINISTRY IN WARD. 
 
 "A gonial hearth, a hospitable board, 
 And a refined rusticity, belong 
 To the neat mansion, where his flock among 
 Their learned pastor dwells, their watchful lord ; 
 Though meek and patient as a sheathed sword." 
 
 |N the first of March, 1815, I was solemnly set 
 
 apart, by the imposition of hands, to the 
 work of the ministry, and constituted pastor of 
 the Congregational church and society in Ward. 
 The council was large and respectable. The more 
 prominent members were Rev. Dr. Austen, of 
 Worcester, Dr. Crane, of Northbridge, Mr. Mills, 
 of Sutton, Mr. Nelson, of Leicester, Mr. Goff, 
 of Millbury, and Mr. Fiske, of Wrentham, who 
 preached the sermon. They are all dead now. 
 Mr. Fiske, of Wrentham (Centre), died in 1851, 
 at an advanced age, while connected with the only 
 church of which he was ever pastor. He was a 
 wise, conservative, prudent man ; so prudent that 
 Miss Hannah Adams used to say: "If another 
 question should be added to the Child's Catechism 
 in the old New England Primer, ' Who was the 
 most prudent man ? ' the answer would be, ' Rev. 
 Mr. Fiske.'" Dr. Nelson lived till 1870, and died 
 full of years. Rev. Mr. Goff died in 1846, aged 
 seventy-six. 
 
 — Wordsworth. 
 
36 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 When I entered on my ministerial work in 
 Ward, religion was in a low, declining state. 
 My predecessor, Rev. Isaac Bailey, was a worthy 
 man, but very quiet, who suffered things to 
 proceed in their natural course without his 
 interference. None had been admitted to t he 
 church for years, and when I inquired for the 
 church covenant and records, they could not be 
 found. Weekly meetings had been neglected ; 
 and when I proposed to establish a meeting for 
 conference and prayer, many opposed it. They 
 thought we had more meetings already than were 
 fully attended, and that to have more would be 
 burdensome. However, their objections were 
 overcome, and such a meeting established. My 
 first year of labor in Ward was without visible 
 results. I preached regularly on the Sabbath ; 
 the people heard, but none were awakened. My 
 sermons were carefully prepared and written out 
 in full for some years. Many of my sermons were 
 double ; that is, there were two from the same 
 text : in the morning sermon setting forth the 
 doctrinal truth in its order, in the afternoon 
 making the practical application. This was Dr. 
 Emmons's custom, and it lias many advantages. 
 Pressing home the one form of truth for a whole 
 day can hardly fail to make an impression on the 
 heart. 
 
 In the second year of my ministry a revival 
 commenced, which continued many months, and 
 seemed to renovate the church. The manner in 
 which this revival commenced was unusual, and I 
 
KEY. ENOCH POND, T). D. 
 
 37 
 
 may call it the result of sanctified reproof. At 
 the time of my settlement I found the young 
 people of my flock, though kind, attentive, and 
 intelligent, yet much addieted to what I regarded 
 as vain and sinful amusements. Balls and dancing- 
 parties were of frequent recurrence ; they were 
 held at the houses of professors of religion, and 
 the children of church members, and church mem- 
 bers themselves, participated in them. I pretty 
 earl)- signified my disapprobation of such tilings, but 
 without effect. It was thought well enough for 
 ministers to disapprove of public balls and dances, 
 and even to express their disapproval of them, 
 provided they did it in a mild, respectful manner, 
 and were careful not to hurt anybody. I touched 
 lightly on the subject in my sermons more than 
 once, but I soon found that the evil was not to be 
 cured in this way. At length, after a ball in my 
 own immediate neighborhood, and in the house of 
 one of the principal members of 1113' church, at 
 which most of the young people of the town were 
 present, I thought it my duty to take up the 
 subject in good earnest. The time had come for 
 a decisive issue. Either vice and vanity must be 
 checked, or the truth must fall. After seeking 
 direction from God, I prepared a whole sermon 
 for the occasion. I preached, I can hardly tell 
 how, though not in anger, I am sure. Yet there 
 was a degree of point and pungency, not to say 
 personality, about the sermon, which, at the age 
 of fifty, I should hardly think it prudent to imitate. 
 The Sabbath passed quietly away, and so did two 
 
38 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 or three days of the week ; still I could see that 
 very strong feelings had been excited, and how 
 they were to be allayed, if allayed at all, was 
 quite a problem. One evening, near the close of 
 the Aveek, I perceived a collection of young men 
 in front of the tavern at which the ball was held, 
 before which they knew I would have to pass 
 before evening. The time of my passing was the 
 time they had agreed upon. They ran out from 
 the doors, shouted after me from the windows, 
 calling me opprobrious names. I took no notice 
 of their insolence, but walked quietly on my way. 
 Indeed I had no feeling toward one of them but 
 that of pity, and was led to pray for them with 
 greater earnestness. It soon appeared that the 
 malignant spirit, under Avhose promptings and 
 influence they had acted, had in this instance quite 
 overshot his mark. He had induced these young 
 men to take a burden on their consciences, which 
 they could not bear. They went home from this 
 riot heavy-hearted and ashamed. Their conduct 
 was disapproved by all the better part of the 
 community. In a few days they began to come 
 to me, one after another, without any concert 
 among themselves, to confess the fault and ask 
 forgiveness. It soon appeared that the Holy 
 Spirit was operating upon their hearts. 
 
 This was the commencement of that revival 
 which spread throughout the town, and continued 
 for two or three years. Probably as many as a 
 hundred were converted, and nearly that number 
 were added to the church. Many of these were 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. 1). 
 
 39 
 
 heads of families. They were of all ages, from the 
 old man of eighty to the child of twelve years. 
 Most of the young men before referred to became 
 Christians, and earnest Christians. Two or three 
 "ran well for a time," and then returned to their 
 old courses and became more abandoned than ever. 
 This revival was a great blessing to me personally. 
 It quickened and revived me. It taught me how 
 to preach and pray and visit among the people, 
 and converse with them upon their souls' concerns. 
 I learned in this revival to preach extempore, 
 which I had never dared attempt before. I found 
 no lack of subjects for preaching, though I held 
 meetings several times in the week. The Scrip- 
 tures were remarkably opened to me, and more 
 appropriate subjects were suggested than I had 
 time or occasion to discuss. This revival not only 
 doubled the number of members of the church, but 
 it brought a new spiritual element into it, by 
 which its power and influence were greatly in- 
 creased. 
 
 About five years after this first revival, the Lord 
 was pleased again to visit us with a great out- 
 pouring of his Spirit. The type of this second 
 revival was very different from the first, showing 
 that there are "diversities of operation, but the 
 same spirit." It commenced suddenly and unex- 
 pectedly. It passed over the town, and through 
 it, like a "rushing, mighty wind." All the con- 
 versions, and they were numerous, occurred within 
 six or eight weeks. Our public schools were at 
 that time in session, as it was the winter season. 
 
40 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 Prayer-meetings were held in the district school- 
 houses, and the scholars generally were under 
 religious impressions. One of these schools was 
 taught hy an intelligent young man, a professed 
 unbeliever of Christian truth. There had been 
 a religious meeting in the schoolhouse on Thursday 
 evening, attended with the ordinary degree of 
 interest. On Friday I received a message from 
 my friend the teacher, requesting me to come and 
 visit his school. I went at once to the place, 
 when a scene presented itself such as I had never 
 before witnessed and can never forget. The 
 ordinaiy business of the school was suspended, 
 and the pupils were sitting reading their Bibles 
 or religious books, many of them in tears, some 
 weeping aloud. I sat down in the midst of them 
 and commenced conversation much after the 
 manner of a religious inquiry-meeting. 
 
 Addressing myself to a little girl who sat near 
 me, and who seemed much affected, I said: "Mary, 
 what is the matter with you? Why do you 
 weep? 1 ' "O," said she, "I am a great sinner! 
 God has been very good to me, and I have done 
 nothing but forget him and sin against him all 
 my life." And this was the feeling that seemed 
 to pervade the school. There was no terror or 
 affright, but the prominent feeling was that of grief 
 and shame for past ingratitude. "God has been 
 very good to me, and I have forgotten and for- 
 saken him; I am a great sinner; what shall I do 
 to be saved?" 
 
 After conversing with the scholars, I turned 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 41 
 
 to the teacher and asked him what he thought 
 of these things ? I Ie replied : " I am not in a situa- 
 tion to speak freely with you now; but this I will 
 say: I as much believe God is here by the power 
 of his Spirit, as if I saw him with my bodily 
 eyes.*' Quite a number of these scholars were 
 in a few days converted, and have since proved 
 by Christian lives, or by triumphant deaths, that 
 their change of heart was a reality. More than 
 fifty were added to the church as fruits of this 
 revival. And some of them still live to testify 
 to the genuineness of this work of grace. 
 
 There was a family living near us, kind, social 
 friends, who attended a Unitarian church in 
 a neighboring town, and called themselves Uni- 
 tarians. Becoming somewhat dissatisfied with 
 the religious teachings of their Unitarian pastor, 
 the mother and daughters attended our evening 
 meetings, and listened with great interest to the 
 warnings and invitations of the Gospel, and before 
 long gave evidence of a change of heart. Now 
 the boasted liberality of the father was put to 
 a severe test. The wife, Mrs. H., was as good 
 a wife as she had ever been — kind, dutiful, and 
 respectful. The daughters also were affectionate 
 and obedient, willing to do anything for their 
 honored father except sin against God. They 
 thought, and their mother thought, that, as they 
 must answer for themselves before the bar of God, 
 they were entitled to act for themselves in the 
 all-important concerns of religion. They wished 
 to leave the Unitarian Society, and to worship 
 
42 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 with us. But the father peremptorily said no, and 
 forbade their attending any more of our meetings. 
 He cursed religion, which he thought had brought 
 all this disturbance into his family. His wife and 
 daughters did not yield their convictions to his 
 violence. After an absence of a few da}-s, he came 
 home one evening to find them away at the 
 prayer-meeting. He was so much enraged that bis 
 violence knew no bounds. His heart, as lie after- 
 wards expressed it, seemed literally to boil over 
 with hate and fuiy. He cursed the Orthodox, 
 their church, their religion, and their God. He 
 cursed his own wife and daughters. At length 
 he became affrighted at himself. He had not 
 thought he was capable of such dreadful wicked- 
 ness. The Spirit of God enlightened him to see 
 the terrible depravity of his heart. He was led, 
 without seeking it, into a train of reflections, such 
 as he never indulged in before; and before his 
 family returned he was, though he hardly knew 
 it, a deeply convicted sinner. Instead of meeting 
 them with reproaches, he met them with sighs and 
 tears. He humbly confessed the wrong he had 
 done them, and the greater injuries he had med- 
 itated, asked their forgiveness, and sought an 
 interest in their prayers. I was called to visit him 
 almost immediately, and had the happiness of 
 seeing him in a few days rejoicing in the hope 
 of the Gospel. Thus his home, which had been 
 for a time divided, was again united, and in purer 
 and holier ties than before. 
 
 My residence in Ward, of thirteen years, was 
 
KEY. ENOCH POND, D. I). 
 
 43 
 
 a season of mingled enjoyment and affliction. 
 I had myself almost uninterrupted health. I 
 enjoyed my work and was blessed in it. I had 
 a kind, affectionate people, who granted us every 
 indulgence we could desire of them. I was some- 
 times straitened for the means of living, but my 
 circumstances improved, and I acquired property 
 faster in Ward than at any other equal period of 
 my life. To help out my means of living in Ward, 
 and to help forward the education of my children, 
 I engaged in teaching, and the business became 
 greater than I desired. I began by receiving 
 a few scholars into my own family, that I might 
 fit them for college. I received also "rusticated " 
 collegians, and the work so grew upon me, that I 
 had at times some thirty or forty pupils. I fitted 
 up a schoolroom in my house, and used to sit 
 down there in the midst of them and hear their 
 recitations, and write my sermons or attend to 
 other matters connected with authorship. I 
 became so accustomed to this mode of life, that I 
 could write as well in my schoolroom as elsewhere. 
 Surrounded by my scholars, I could break off 
 from my writing to answer a question, or hear 
 a recitation, or direct a pupil's thoughts, and begin 
 again without any embarrassment. This habit I 
 have found of some advantage to me in subsequent 
 life. The constant teaching of Latin and Greek 
 classics also made me more thoroughly familiar 
 with them than otherwise I could have been. To 
 accommodate my scholars, I prepared a new 
 arrangement of Murray's English Grammar, which 
 
44 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 went through, several editions, and was for a time 
 much used in schools. While living in Ward, 
 heside my duty as pastor and as teacher, I engaged 
 pretty largely in writing for the press. In the 
 year 1815, I published a sermon on the " Divinity 
 of ( !hrist," of which a second edition was published 
 in 1828, in Boston. In the time of our revivals, 
 1816-18, when weekly religious meetings were 
 considerably multiplied, not only in Ward, but in 
 Worcester and adjoining towns, Rev. Dr. Ban- 
 croft, of Worcester, attacked them in a sermon, 
 which was published. He based his opposition to 
 them on a clause in the fourth commandment, 
 " Six days thou shalt labor and do all thy work," 
 etc. ; in this sermon the doctor insisted that we 
 are as much bound to labor six days, as we are to 
 keep the seventh day ; and that it is as gross a 
 violation of the fourth commandment to hold 
 religious meetings on a weekda}', as to perform 
 secular labor on the Sabbath. I replied to the 
 sermon in " An apology for religious conference 
 meetings," in 1817. The doctor published a reply 
 to this, and I published a " Rejoinder." The 
 doctor's opposition to weekly prayer and confer- 
 ence meetings gained him no credit among his 
 Unitarian fiiends. Mr. Hollis, then of Boston, is 
 reported to have said, " Brother Bancroft is a fool. 
 Are Ave obliged to work every hour of the ' six 
 days?' These religious people have just as good 
 a right to attend a conference meeting in the week, 
 as I have to go to a ball." During this year I 
 also examined and replied to Dr. Judson's " Letters 
 
T.EV. EXOCH POXD, D. D. 
 
 4:. 
 
 on Baptism." Of this reply two editions have 
 since been published. Dr. Samuel Nott, a former 
 missionary to India, had published some strictures 
 on my reply to Dr. Judson ; and to these I replied 
 in a published letter to Dr. Nott, in 1819. During 
 all the latter part of my pastorate in Ward, we 
 observed the " monthly concert of prayer for the 
 conversion of the world.*' There was not so 
 much religious intelligence diffused then as now ; 
 and as I had few to help me, I endeavored to give 
 interest to those meetings by delivering short 
 missionary lectures. A volume of these lectures 
 was published, in 1824, under the title " Monthly 
 Conceit Lectures." The volume was favorably 
 received, and has since been published by the 
 Massachusetts Sabbatli School Society, in 1845, 
 with the title " The World's Salvation." During 
 my residence in Ward, I published several articles 
 in the " Monthly Christian Spectator," issued at 
 New Haven, in the " Utica Christian Repository," 
 in the " Hopkinsian Magazine," and more in the 
 " Christian Magazine," a monthly periodical pub- 
 lished by the Mendon Association of Ministers. 
 In the " Christian Magazine " I commenced a 
 review of the Unitarian Tracts, and continued 
 it in a series of six essays, in the fourth volume- 
 of the magazine. These essays were afterward 
 published in pamphlet form, in Boston, and con- 
 tributed not a little toward my appointment as 
 editor of the "Spirit of the Pilgrims." 
 
 A few years after my settlement in Ward, 
 a controversy arose in the Congregational church 
 
46 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 in Worcester. In this controversy my feelings 
 were enlisted strongly for the party standing out 
 in opposition to the pastor, Rev. Mr. Goodrich, 
 a valued friend also of mine. After a course of 
 years, and of various persecutions and wrongs 
 inflicted on the party opposed to the church 
 power, a Second Congregational Church was 
 formed; and in it these offending members and 
 others were included. The pastor of the First 
 Church was dismissed, and harmony at length 
 restored. This was in 1820. This Second Church 
 has proved its right to be, by its growth, pros- 
 perity, and usefulness. This church was for a 
 long time under the pastoral care of Rev. Dr. 
 Sweetzer, lately deceased. My interest in this 
 controversy brought into my circle of friends the 
 family of the late Hon. Daniel Waldo. 
 
 This family became our father's firm friends ; and during 
 the time of sickness and trial, he received great comfort 
 and help from them. Many were the luxuries brought to 
 the sickbed of the declining wife and mother, and sub- 
 stantial aid to the afflicted husband. They were rich, 
 benevolent, generous. Their friendship continued till their 
 death. Their regard for my father was the motive which 
 led this family to give to the treasury of Bangor Seminary 
 those funds which instituted the l> Waldo Professorship." 
 
 Of the seven children born to us in Ward, four 
 lie buried there, and their mother beside them. 
 Our second child, Enoch, died in 1819, nearly 
 three years old. He was a dear little boy — 
 sprightly, intelligent, obedient, handsome, greatly 
 beloved by us all. His disease was whooping- 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 47 
 
 cough, which terminated in quick consumption. 
 He had his reason to the last, and seemed, near 
 the close of his life, to be truly converted. He 
 gave all the evidence of a change of heart which 
 such a child could give. He seemed for several 
 days to be full of love. He loved everybody he 
 could think of; and spoke particularly of loving 
 some persons no one else did love. I felt then, 
 and I believe now, that his heart was renewed, 
 and that he went directly from our embrace on 
 earth to the bosom of his Saviour in heaven. 
 Never was there a more sincere mourner than I 
 was then. I felt as if I could not give him up ; 
 and when he was gone I thought earth could 
 never more have any charms for me. Its joys 
 were all faded ; its blandishments spoiled. But 
 the grace of God, I trust, supported us, and time 
 — that universal healer — assuaged our grief. 
 
 My father's school commenced about 1S20. I have a 
 remembrance of him as a teacher, from the pen of Hon. 
 A. G. Wakefield, of Bangor : — 
 
 " I first knew your father in the spring of 1S23. when a 
 youth I came from the wilds of Xew York to reside in the 
 town where he was settled. It was a small agricultural 
 town. His parish embraced the whole population, except 
 a small Baptist Society. The people of his parish were 
 intelligent, church-going people, and his meetings were 
 well attended. He was indefatigably industrious. Besides 
 attending faithfully to his pastoral duties, lie kept a day- 
 school in a large room in the second story of his pleasantly 
 located house, where he received a select number of pupils. 
 They were mostly from the neighborhood and vicinity, 
 boarding at home and coming to him for instruc tion: yet 
 
48 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 some of them came from places more remote, and lived 
 in his family. He took a lively interest in the public 
 schools of the town and did much to elevate the standard of 
 education. The studies taught in his school were the 
 higher blanches of English education and the languages. 
 He conducted my preparatory studies, and I was a member 
 of his family a considerable part of the time. His good- 
 nature and suavity were as marked then as in later years. 
 It was not unusual in those days to ' rusticate ' a college 
 student for some delinquency. During my residence in 
 Ward, several students of this class were sent out to him 
 by his Alma Mater. By his good-nature he always gained 
 their respect, and exercised a beneficial influence over them. 
 His schoolroom was his study. There he wrote his sermons. 
 He had a large armchair with a leaf or form attached to it, 
 on which lie laid his paper and placed his inkstand. When 
 not interrupted to hear a lesson or make some explanation 
 about it, his pen was in his hand, and in active operation. 
 He had no school rules, nor wasted an}- time to govern. 
 His presence inspired order, and diligence in study. He 
 composed with great ease. He never seemed to stop to 
 think. His thoughts were spontaneous, flowing through his 
 pen as fast as he could put them on paper. Besides dis- 
 charging the varied duties of minister, pastor, and tea her. 
 Dr. Pond must have written a good deal for the press at 
 that time; fur he had acquired the reputation of being a 
 clear, acute, and forcible writer. Xot long since, 1 heard a 
 gentleman, who knew him in later life, speak of his innate 
 dignity. He had the same characteristic when young. It 
 was not assumed, nor the result of education; it was born 
 in him. It was not an asserting or obtrusive dignity, and 
 was never used for show. No one acquainted with him 
 would ever think him conscious of it. 
 
 '• Dr. Pond had a great deal of self-repose, the result of 
 the harmonious blending and balancing of all his faculties. 
 His equanimity was never disturbed. His broad, grand 
 curamun-sense would have made him conspicuous in any of 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 49 
 
 the professions, or in :iny avocation he had chosen to follow. 
 His influence was not confined to his church and society, 
 nor to education. lie took great interest in the poorer 
 class of people, that class who live 'from hand to mouth.' 
 and no class of persons mourned his resignation and 
 removal from Ward more than did these." 
 
 In May, 1824, my wife took a severe cold, which 
 fastened on her lungs, and defied the skill of 
 physicians and the power of medicine to remove. 
 While she lingered and suffered, two little children 
 were taken from us l>y death, — an infant hoy 
 Charles, and a dear little son, William Emmons 
 Pond. He was like the dear hoy whom we had 
 lost hefore, and seemed given to us in his place. 
 After a sickness of two weeks he died, aged two 
 years. "The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken 
 away." 
 
 Perhaps I felt this trial less hecause of the 
 greater one just before me. My wife lingered 
 among us, in a fatal consumption, till September 
 5th, of the same year, when she fell asleep. 
 
 She had been a most faithful friend and a de- 
 voted mother. She had done everything for me 
 and mine which a wife and mother could do. She 
 sought, above all things, the welfare of her family, 
 and the heart of her husband safely trusted in her. 
 She possessed, in an uncommon degree, tenderness 
 of conscience. She saw in herself no little sins. 
 Every neglect of duty, everything she saw in her- 
 self which was not in accordance with her high 
 sense of riyht^ was regarded as a great evil, and 
 she grieved over it. Religion was ever to her 
 
50 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 a matter of great and solemn concern. To be 
 a true Christian, an heir of God's great promises, 
 was an all-important tiling. She had such appre- 
 hension of the greatness of religion, and the 
 dcceitfulness of the heart, and the danger of un- 
 founded hopes, that she sometimes doubted the 
 genuineness of her own piety, and with the utmost 
 caution gave encouragement to the newly con- 
 verted. She loved the cause of missions, and in 
 spirit and feeling was for many years a missionary. 
 She valued greatly the institutions of religion. 
 She loved her Bible and made it her daily study. 
 She loved the place of public and of private 
 prayer. Those who knew her best knew that 
 not a day passed during all her Christian life, 
 (unless prevented by unusual circumstances), 
 when she did not more than once enter her closet 
 and lift her heart devoutly to him " who seeth in 
 secret." The loss of such a companion was a great 
 one to me, to my bereaved children (three of 
 whom survived), and to my people. Her influence 
 was always salutary and her labors abundant. 
 She had labored beyond her strength, and her 
 constitution had become enfeebled ; otherwise she 
 might have tin-own off the burden of disease which 
 at length overpowered her. She died universally 
 beloved and lamented, and has long been among 
 the shining ones who stand before "the throne 
 of God and the Lamb." 
 
 My house was now left to me desolate. My 
 wife's mother and one of her sisters were residing 
 with me, and were a great comfort to me in my 
 
REV. ENOCH I'OKD, D. D. 
 
 51 
 
 affliction. They continued with me several 
 months, and assisted in the care and business 
 of the family. I shall always remember them 
 with gratitude and love. But, as months passed 
 on, I found my children needed a watchful 
 mother, and I needed some one to take the place 
 in my heart and life so long occupied by the loved 
 one gone. I did not forget that beloved one of 
 my youth, now departed ; I shall never forget 
 her; but my feelings and my necessities led me 
 to ask of God for one to fill the vacant place 
 in my home, and the Lord was pleased to direct 
 me. Miss Julia Ann Maltby was then visiting 
 her uncle, Rev. L. Ives Hoadley, in Worcester. 
 I had met her before, and was pleased with her. 
 I now renewed the acquaintance, and in time I 
 offered her my heart and hand, which were 
 accepted. We were married the seventeenth of 
 June, 1825, and lived together most affection- 
 ately and happily for thirteen years. She was the 
 daughter of Lieutenant John Maltby, of North- 
 ford, Conn. 
 
 Only one of our father's children now lives who 
 remembers the life in Ward. She is his eldest child, Mrs. 
 W. A. Parker, of Belfast, Maine. She sa3's: "01 my 
 childhood in Ward I can remember but little; the large, 
 pleasant, and always well-filled house ; the aunts wbo were 
 frequently with us; some of the strange sayings of the 
 quaint old ministers who came on ' exchanges * ; how Mr. 
 Goft'e threatened to throw the big Bible at us from tbc 
 pulpit, if we were not good in church; how the young men 
 at school played off jokes on us and how we retaliated. 
 My love and reverence for my father was as early :is I can 
 
52 
 
 A MEMORIAL OP 
 
 think. My sense of safety with him, in times of fear or 
 grief, my confidence in all he said and did, that it was just 
 right, never failed. The second revival of religion, seven 
 years after his going to Ward, I remember (though I was 
 but six years old), from the fact that the prayer-meetings 
 wcie held in my father's large kitchen; and when not 
 permitted to sit up I could hear the voices of the singers 
 and the praying ones in the adjoining bedroom, where I 
 lay in my trundle-bed. For want of suitable hymn-books 
 for such seasons of revival, my father made some dozen or 
 more manuscript hymn-books, with the tunes also. Some 
 of these hymns I recall; as, 'Stop, poor sinner, stop and 
 think,' 'Ho! ye sinners, poor and wretched.' "When with 
 my mind devoutly pressed.' Perhaps twenty such hymns 
 were found in these books. These hymns so impressed me, 
 that I now recall them, and the tunes in which they were 
 sung. These hymns and meetings awakened an interest 
 that I never lost, always feeling that I ought to be a Chris- 
 tian. I, too, felt the dancing mania, already referred to. A 
 dancing-master came to town, and I remember asking my 
 father if I could not go to the school with my playmates who 
 went; but father took nie on his knee and talked with me 
 about it, describing the vanity and foolishness of it." and so 
 cooled my fever of excitement that to this day I feel the 
 influence of his description and a disgust at dancing. I can 
 remember only a few things before the death of my mother; 
 perhaps the death of my little brother William more distinctly 
 than any other. My mother sick in the bed ; my father sitting 
 by the cradle of his dying boy; my aunt, who took care of 
 us, walking the room nearly frantic with grief; we little 
 children, amazed at our first sight of death, made up the sad 
 picture. We three, Cornelia, Enoch, and I, left the village 
 school, and studied with my father in his school at home. 
 One Sabbath after the usual reading of the Bible together 
 and father's praying with us, he told us he was going away 
 for a few days and should bring home to us a new mother. 
 We found this mother tender and true. The children of 
 
KEY. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 53 
 
 these two mothers grew up and have lived together as 
 affectionately as it is possible for children to do. There 
 have been, to this day, no differences or jealousies. When 
 we left Ward, we left a pleasant home and kind friends, 
 whom 1 still remember with love and gratitude." 
 
54 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 LIFE AS AN EDITOR IN BOSTON. 
 
 T school at length became a burden to me 
 
 too heavy to be borne. I could not 
 continue it without wearing myself up too fast ; 
 and I hardly knew how to relinquish it. This was 
 one of the circumstances which made me more 
 willing to change my position. The reviews of 
 the Unitarian Tracts, which I had published in 
 the "Christian Magazine," had fallen under the 
 notice of certain ministers in Boston, and had been 
 published by them in pamphlet form. I had also 
 become interested in the " Legal rights of Congre- 
 gational churches," which had been invaded by 
 certain judicial decisions. I prepared an elaborate 
 article on the subject, which I sent to Boston in 
 the winter of 1828, just after the " Spirit of the 
 Pilgrims " had been established. The article 
 was published in the second and third numbers 
 of the new periodical. Shortly after, I received 
 a unanimous and pressing invitation to become 
 the editor of this periodical. The " Spirit of the 
 Pilgrims" was started, in Boston, in 1828, by 
 leading Trinitarians, as an organ through which 
 to carry on the controversy with the Unitarians, 
 who, as was thought, had in an unfair manner 
 secured possession of the high places of influence 
 in the State ; of Harvard College ; of the Legis- 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 55 
 
 lature and Judiciary of the Commonwealth ; and 
 of a large proportion of church property in 
 Eastern Massachusetts. This controversy, which 
 had already been going on for several years in the 
 State, had resulted in painful separations in 
 Trinitarian churches and among their ministers ; 
 and troublesome questions concerning church 
 property and the legal rights of churches had 
 arisen. The post of editor of this periodical was 
 a delicate and responsible one, and I held back 
 from a position which exposed me to such vigorous 
 assaults from the able defenders of the then new 
 heresy ; and only the urgency and encouragement 
 of Lyman Beecher, Dr. Edward Griffin, Dr. 
 Wisner, Leonard "Woods, and Samuel "Worcester, 
 prevailed. 
 
 Dr. Lyman Beecher and Dr. James Chaplin, of Cambridge- 
 port, were instructed, by the directors of the " Spirit of the 
 Pilgrims." to invite my father to occupy the chair of editor, 
 offering a sufficient salary, and assurances of influential 
 support from them. In a most fraternal letter, Dr. Beecher 
 'pledges his own aid and that of such men as Mr. Evarts, Mr. 
 Dana. Dr. Green, and Dr. Ed. Beecher. I do not find my 
 father's reply, but the directors having received and read it, 
 Dr. Wisner, one of their number, in a letter dated April 22, 
 182S. communicates the result of their consultation. " First, 
 we must have you at any rate. You have been educated by 
 Providence for the place. Your taste is formed for it. Your 
 loyalty to truth is unquestionable. Your self-control is your 
 strong defence. Your quickness to see points which need 
 attention fit you for the work, and you can, unmistakably, 
 do more good in this station than in the one you now 
 occupy, and probably more than in any to which you will 
 
56 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 ever be called." To the objection that the church in Ward 
 were unwilling to part with their pastor, that the event 
 might divide the society, etc., Dr. YVisncr replied: "It 
 is an argument in favor of a person's fitness for an 
 important position, that lie has been acceptable in positions 
 he has already filled. As to breaking up the church, would 
 not the same objection lie against God*s taking you away by 
 death? And may not God as really call you away by his 
 providence? And also, where is an instance of a minister's 
 leaving his people from a sense of duty, and in order to do 
 more for Christ, and his people being truly injured by it? 
 Even when they have behaved wickedly about it. the Lord 
 passes by their wickedness and makes up to them the 
 sacrifice to which he has called them." The letter is an 
 ingenious plea, and shows that what was once said of my 
 father, " If he had not been a minister of the gospel, he 
 might have been illustrious as a man of law," might also 
 have been said of Dr. Benjamin Wisncr. His advice as to 
 the selection of members of the Ecclesiastical Council to 
 be called for my father's dismissal, shows that there is wire- 
 pulling in clerical, as well as in political, strategy. In the 
 enthusiasm of the good doctor over the " Spirit of the 
 Pilgrims," he proves himself to be short-sighted as to the 
 breadth of my father's capabilities. 
 
 After a severe struggle, I decided it was 
 my duty to accept the invitation. I removed 
 from Ward, in May, and leased a house in 
 Cambridgeport, where I resided with my family, 
 my office, as editor, being in Boston. An arrange- 
 ment was happily made by which my people 
 were left without a minister but for a single 
 night. The Rev. Miner G. Pratt came among 
 them the day after I left, and was soon ordained 
 as my successor. 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 Some years before this I had been deeply 
 interested in the Unitarian controversy, and 
 was engaged with Drs. Moore, Wisner, Worces- 
 ter, Rev. S. O. Dwight, Mr. Huntingdon, and 
 others, in getting up the " Pastoral Association," 
 which met annually, in Boston, in election week. 
 With these noble men I was intimately ac- 
 quainted, and, in my connection with the peri- 
 odical of which I became the editor, I found all 
 the pledges they had made of championship and 
 moral support wholly met. I resided in Cam- 
 bridgeport four years. I was sole editor of the 
 " Spirit of the Pilgrims " for that time, and the 
 first five volumes were published. The sixth 
 and last volume was published after I left. Of 
 the manner in which this periodical was con- 
 ducted, it does not become me to speak. It has 
 long been before the public, and the opinion of 
 the public has long been formed and expressed 
 respecting it. Suffice it to say, that for its. influ- 
 ence for good or evil I am mainly responsible, as 
 I wrote nearly half its pages with my own hand. 
 
 The topics discussed in some of the articles 
 referred to as written for the " Spirit of the 
 Pilgrims " are the following : — 
 
 Objections to Revivals Considered. Christian Education. 
 Five Letters on the Introduction and Progress of Unitarian- 
 ism in New England. Rights of Congregational Churches. 
 Character and Prospects of the Heathen. Work of the 
 Holy Spirit. What Constitutes Infidelity? Hope of Future 
 Repentance. System in Religious Chanties. Unitarianism 
 in New England. Importance of a Correct Interpretation 
 
58 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 of Scripture. Errors in the Apostolic Churches. Wicked 
 Men do not Understand the Motives of Good Men. Uses 
 and Abuses of the Doctrine of God's Purposes. Introduction 
 of Sin. Sin not a Necessary Means of the Greatest Good. 
 God's Government of the Moral World. Selfishness of 
 Depravity. 
 
 These are the topics of about one sixth of the articles 
 prepared by the editor for his periodical. These topics arc 
 exciting discussion in the Christian world at the present 
 time, and will continue to do so probably to the end. 
 
 Many of the remaining articles are wholly controversial. 
 Many are reviews of religious publications. 
 
 Dr. Samuel Harris, of New Haven, in a memorial dis- 
 course, says of this magazine: k> This periodical was ably 
 and vigorously conducted, and was regarded as a powerful 
 agency in vindicating the truth; and it commanded the 
 respect even of its opponents. Whatever power it had was 
 mainly due to the editor. He contributed to it one hundred 
 and thirty-nine articles." 
 
 This controversy had not been long continued 
 before Unitarians became tired of it. They 
 mounted over its evils, and sighed fur the return 
 of that peace which had been so unhappily dis- 
 turbed. It became evident, as the controversy 
 continued, that Unitarians differed from us, not 
 only in regard to the doctrines of the Trinity, 
 and the person of Christ, but in the whole 
 system of Christian doctrine, and in respect even 
 to the Bible itself. Their views of the Bible 
 were, that it is not a revelation ; but the record 
 of a revelation ; and this record is not divinely 
 inspired. It has numerous mistakes and errors, 
 which require to be corrected, as in other books. 
 Indeed, many Unitarians do not believe as much 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 59 
 
 as this. The Bible is no supernatural revelation 
 at all, but rests on the same foundation with 
 the works of ancient sages — The Shastt&s, The 
 Zendavesta, The Dialogues of Plato, etc. They 
 have indeed no bond of union among themselves; 
 they have fallen off from the old LTnitarianism. 
 As a denomination, they have broken asunder, 
 and fallen from the Light into materialism, pan- 
 theism, free-religionism, and infidelity. " Clouds 
 without water, carried about of winds ; trees 
 whose fruit withereth ; without fruit, twice 
 dead, plucked up by the roots." 
 
 I was not merely an editor in Boston, but also 
 a preacher. The Evangelical Church in Cam- 
 bridgeport had just been formed, and I supplied 
 the pulpit for the greater part of two years, until 
 they obtained a pastor. During this time there 
 was one season of special religious interest, when 
 many young persons were hopefully converted, 
 'and among them one of my own children — my 
 daughter Cornelia. I was repeatedly solicited 
 by this church to resign my editorial chair 
 and become the pastor of the church ; but 
 I could not see it my duty to do so. I also 
 preached in many places beside Cambridgeport, 
 in the vicinity of Boston, where the orthodox 
 were leaving the old societies, now become Uni- 
 tarians, and forming churches by themselves. I 
 ministered to other churches, when, under the 
 decision of the courts, the Evangelical members 
 of the churches, though they constituted the major- 
 ity, were leaving the old societies, relinquishing 
 
60 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 church property, and going forth to organize 
 and build anew. This was the case in Quincy, 
 Acton, Canton, Scarborough, and Sherburne. In 
 Sherburne I preached the first sermon to the 
 Evangelical Society, in a hall over a grocery- 
 store. This was in April. Before winter they 
 had organized a church, built a house of worship, 
 and I was called to assist in the settlement of 
 their first pastor, Rev. Samuel Lee. 
 
 Among the pleasant things connected with my 
 residence in Cambridgeport was the acquaintance 
 formed with the clergymen of Boston and its 
 vicinity ; such men as Dr. Wisner, Dr. Skinner, 
 then of Pine Street Church, Dr. Edwards, then of 
 Salem Street Church, Dr. Samuel Green, of Essex 
 Street, were dear and intimate friends. Especially 
 I loved and admired Dr. Lyman Beecher. He was 
 then in the prime of his strength and good influence 
 in Boston. And he was, on the whole, the most 
 remarkable man I ever knew. With all his power 
 as a preacher, as a platform speaker, as a con- 
 troversialist, he united the simplicity and play- 
 fulness of a little child. He put on no airs of 
 superiority, and among his friends was willing to 
 be guided by their counsels, and often appealed to 
 them for help in practical matters ; and these last- 
 mentioned traits made him the most lovable man 
 I ever knew. Drs. Beecher and Wisner were 
 admirably adapted to work together. The former 
 was ardent, impulsive, and in danger in some cases 
 of going too. fast; the latter was inclined to 
 suggest difficulties and, when the case required it, 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 61 
 
 would hang on his wheels. Another acquaintance 
 formed ;it this time, one whom I can never forget, 
 was the late Jeremiah Evarts. Notwithstanding 
 his then declining health and feehle body, he was 
 one of the ablest men, most efficient workers, and 
 wisest counsellors, I ever knew. 
 
 The years I spent in Boston were very pleasant 
 years and very busy years. My whole soul was 
 interested in my work. My friendships, associa- 
 tions, and intellectual advantages enlarged my 
 views and quickened my mind. I had a degree of 
 success sufficient to encourage and animate me. 
 Our short residence in Cambridgeport was, on the 
 whole, I trust, one of peace, prosperity, and useful- 
 ness. We had many things to attach us to the 
 church, of which Ave became members, and to the 
 large circle of friend? and acquaintances in which 
 we moved. All are now gone ; but memory is 
 often busy among the events of those years. Here 
 we lost a sweet baby daughter by croup. Here 
 two sons were born to us, William C. and Jeremiah 
 Evarts, both of whom are in active service for the 
 Master, — William, a pastor in California, Evarts, 
 in Maine. The Unitarian controversy gradually 
 subsided. The object for which the " Spirit of 
 the Pilgrims " was established had been attained, 
 and I was induced to listen to invitations sent to 
 me to become professor of theology in the Semi- 
 nary in Bangor, Maine. 
 
62 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 BANGOR AND THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 
 
 THE first settlements in what is now the City of Bangor 
 were made in 1709. The eityis beautifully situated at 
 the head of navigation on Penobscot River. For many years 
 its growth was very slow. The earlier settlers came generally 
 from Massachusetts, possessed a strong religious element, 
 and were many of them members of churches in the old 
 homes from which they had come out into the untried wilder- 
 ness. Christian worship was begun nearly as soon as the 
 first pettier came; but the places of worship were very 
 rude — a grove of oaks, a barn, a log hut. The mission- 
 ary sent by the Christians of Massachusetts was always 
 welcomed by the scattered people. He attended to their 
 spiritual wants, administered baptism and the Lord's supper. 
 In 178G, the first minister, Rev. Seth Noble, from Westfleld, 
 Mass., was settled, though at that time there was no 
 organized cburch. Rev. Daniel Little, in his "Journal of 
 Missionary Work in the Eastern Districts," in 17SG, says: 
 "The people in the ' Kenduskeag Plantation ' privately gave 
 to Mr. Noble a call to the pastoral office, and, as the trouble 
 and expense of gathering an ecclesiastical council was great, 
 they voted that I should induct Mr. Noble into his pastoral 
 office as their minister." So Mr. Noble was s ttled on 
 a stipend of £100 a year, and the service took place in 
 a grove of ancient oaks, where the corner of Oak and 
 Washington Streets now is. Mr. Noble preached the 
 sermon, and Mr. Little did all the rest. This was the 
 beginning of the first church in Bangor. Mr. Noble proved 
 to be an ignoble character, and intemperate even in those 
 days; but he rendered the young city some valuable 
 service. He at least has the credit of saving Bangor 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 63 
 
 from the burden of bearing always the name of Sunbury. 
 The beginning of the nineteenth century saw a perceptible 
 start in the settlement towards growth and progress- 
 Lands in the eastern part of Maine rose in value, and 
 speculation became a fever. Streets were laid out, buildings 
 went up, and immigration increased. 
 
 As.Bangor Seminary has been, for fifty years and to the 
 end of life, the object of my father's care and interest, the 
 subject of his prayers and centre of his labors, it may be 
 well to turn back to the pages of its early history to see how 
 itgrewout of the necessity for it; how it struggled through 
 the first year of its existence; how it has gradually become 
 a centre of spiritual light to Maine and the adjacent 
 provinces. I find materials for this sketch in an historical 
 address delivered by my father, in 1870, on the fiftieth 
 anniversary of the Seminary. 
 
 As early as the year 1810, the need of well-instructed 
 religious teachers for the rapidly increasing population 
 of the eastern settlements had been felt. In that year 
 an association was formed in Portland, Maine, called 
 the "Society for Promoting Theological Education," 
 and was one of the first educational societies in the 
 country. 
 
 This Society, after extended correspondence with dis- 
 tinguished clergymen in this country and in England, 
 appointed a committee, and instructed them to establish, 
 as speedily as possible, the proposed Theological Sem- 
 inary. Through the efforts of this committee a charter 
 was obtained in 1814, from the Legislature of Massa- 
 chusetts (of which State Maine was then a district), 
 designating certain individuals as trustees of the Maine 
 Charity School; for this was then, and is now, the title 
 of the institution. The first meeting of these trustees 
 was held in Montvillc, Waldo County, when Rev. 
 Edward Payson, of Portland, was chosen President; 
 
G4 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 Samuel C. Dutton, of Bangor, Treasurer. The trustees 
 derided not to locate the proposed Theological Seminary 
 in the western and more thickly settled part of the 
 State, hut determined, in military phrase, to " march 
 to the front,'' and plant it in the midst of those spiritual 
 wastes which it was intended to build up. The Sem- 
 inary was opened, in Hampden, in 1816. It was 
 founded on the plan of the English dissenting colleges. 
 The course of study was literary and classical, as well 
 as theological, and occupied four years. Professors 
 Wines, Ashmun, and Cheever were the first instructors. 
 It does not appear that the Seminary ever owned any 
 buildings or land in Hampden. The students boarded 
 and studied in private families, and had recitations and 
 other exercises in some part of the academy building. 
 
 In 1819, a lot of land was given to the Seminary 
 by the late Isaac Davenport, Esq., of Milton, Mass. 
 The lot contained about seven acres, and was favorably 
 situated in the town of Bangor; hut it was then pretty 
 much in a state of nature and probably of little value. 
 This land, green and well graded, covered with trees, 
 gardens, walks, and Seminary buildings, is now of very 
 great value. In the autumn of this year the Seminary 
 was removed from Hampden to Bangor. In the same 
 year the three instructors, Wiui's, Ashmun, and Cheever, 
 resigned, and were no longer connected witli the school. 
 
 In 1820, Rev. John Smith was inaugurated as pro- 
 fessor of theology; Rev. Bancroft Fowler, of classical 
 literature. 
 
 The institution had in Bangor its valuable lot of 
 land, but no buildings of any kind until 1827, when one 
 large house. Berving for recitation-rooms, library, board- 
 ing-house, and dormitories, was erected on the south side 
 of the lot, and a smaller one, called a chapel, occupied 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 65 
 
 by the preparatory school. Professor Fowler was suc- 
 ceeded in 1827 by Rev. George E. Adams. The late 
 Dr. Smith continued to occupy the chair of theology till 
 his death in 1831. 
 
 It is painful to read the records of the trustees during 
 these years, and learn to what straits they were often 
 reduced. In December of 1830, the trustees voted, that 
 "unless means for the future support of the Seminary 
 be obtained before September of the following year, 
 it will be necessary to suspend instruction in the 
 theological department until such means be secured." 
 Nevertheless, theological instruction was not suspended. 
 The course was continued till the decease of Dr. Smith, 
 and up to that time more than sixty young men have 
 received diplomas. The greater part of these had 
 finished their course. The dying Professor Smith's 
 anxiety on leaving the world was only for his beloved 
 Seminary, and his last intelligible words were a prayer 
 in its behalf: "God bless the Seminary; Thou wilt bless 
 it and keep it, for I give it up to Thee. I can do no 
 more for it; Thou canst do all things." The death 
 of Dr. Smith, in the spring of 1831, left the Seminary 
 without an instructor, and for several months there was 
 (aside from the classical school) no instruction given. 
 In the autumn of 1831, Rev. Alvan Pond, of Sturbridge, 
 Mass., was elected professor of sacred literature; and 
 before winter he commenced giving instruction in that 
 department. In the following spring, Eev. Enoch Pond, 
 of Poston, was elected professor of theolog}'. 
 
 The letter of invitation was written by Rev. S. L. 
 Poinroy. Secretary of the Board of Trustees of the 11 Maine 
 Charity School." By this letter the choice of the trustees 
 is made known, its acceptance urged, and definite proposals 
 made. Mr. Pomroy assures Mr. Bond that "he will not 
 
66 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 find things in working order." " Indeed," he writes, 
 " almost everything is to be done, and the responsible task 
 will devolve on you, and your associate, of moulding things 
 into right shape and giving them a right direction." The 
 salary offered was §800 a year, and promise given of a house 
 " as soon as circumstances would permit." The importance 
 of this theological school to Maine is set forth as very 
 great. A determination on the part of the trustees to make 
 it a permanent institution is declared, and strengthened by 
 the assurance of the awakening of the religious community 
 in Maine to its importance. The only endowment was 
 §10,000 for the theological professorship. 
 
 In a second letter Mr. Poioroy expresses the fears of 
 some of the trustees, as to Mr. I'oud*s soundness on some 
 points of theological belief, at that time much discussed by 
 leading theologians; but concludes, if he will come, to 
 waive objections to " New Divinity," etc. Bangor, at that 
 time, was the headquarters of the speculation in eastern 
 lands, and was rapidly filling up and overflowing with 
 people. Mr. Pouiroy writes : " Our village is now inundated 
 with inhabitants, and it is difficult to procure a house for 
 love or money. The State seems destined to contain a 
 mighty mass of people, and the providence of God seems 
 to point out this institution as a permanent means of moral 
 and religious influence, at least within our own bounds." 
 
 In his reply to Mr. Tomroy's letters Mr. Pond says : — 
 " The case lias been to me an exceedingly trying one. 
 My duties, though arduous, are adapted to my taste 
 and habits: my present situation agreeable. I am 
 surrounded with literary and Christian friends, and 
 with books, and my means of living are much better 
 than those proposed by your board. 
 
 "On the other hand I can say I have felt a deep 
 interest in your Seminary from its establishment; I 
 seem to see an increasing importance attached to it, 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, 1). D. 
 
 67 
 
 growing out of recent developments in Maine. T have 
 been acquainted with your efforts and discouragements 
 in endeavoring to procure a successor to Dr. Smith, and 
 I have sometimes felt a strong inclination, and, I think, 
 a sense of duty (unworthy and incompetent as I feel 
 myself to be), to go down to Bangor and make the trial. 
 My friends here have been divided in opinion respecting 
 the course I ought to take ; some very strong against 
 my removal, others seeming to be convinced in con- 
 science that I ought to accede to your proposal; so 
 that in settling my mind I get little or no assistance 
 from them. I have regarded my case as emphatically 
 one of those referred to by the Apostle James when he 
 says: 'If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God.' 
 Under these impressions I have endeavored again and 
 again to commit the whole case to my Heavenly Father, 
 and to seek light and direction from him. I have said, 
 andean say with entire sincerity (if I am not deceived): 
 • Dispose of me as thou wilt; keep me here or send me 
 there; place me in that position where I can do most 
 for thy cause and the advancement of the Redeemer's 
 kingdom. If thy Spirit and presence go not with me, 
 take me not hence.' At length my mind has come 
 to a conclusion, in which it seems at present to rest. 
 I have made arrangements to leave the ' Spirit of the 
 Pilgrims ' in such hands that I think it may be suc- 
 cessfully continued, and have concluded, if certain 
 conditions are met by your board, to accept the appoint- 
 ment with which your trustees have honored me. If 
 these conditions are complied with, you may announce 
 my acceptance at any time or in any manner ; as quietly 
 as possihle will be the most agreeable to me." 
 
68 
 
 A MEMORIAL OE 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 MY RESIDENCE IN BANGOR IN CONNECTION 
 WITH THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 
 
 J~ CAME to Bangor from Boston in a schooner, 
 that being the only water communication ; 
 while the journey by land would have been by 
 stage-coach, wearisome and expensive. I came 
 with my wife and six children in the month of 
 June, 1832. Our voyage was pleasant and short. 
 We arrived on a Sabbath afternoon, and were 
 received as boarders by Mr. William Davenport, 
 who lived in a large two-story yellow house nearly 
 opposite to the present location of the " Bangor 
 House." We had never seen Bangor before ; and 
 it was Avell perhaps that we had not. I found 
 the Theological Seminary in a much weaker and 
 more dilapidated state than I had expected. The 
 Seminary grounds were here ; and on them one 
 solitary three-story building, containing all the 
 rooms which the institution offered for the accom- 
 modation of students, and public uses of the 
 school. There were seven students here : five 
 in the junior, two in the senior class. The 
 senior class was soon to graduate. The two 
 members of it were Wooster Parker and Cyril 
 Pearl. Professor Alvan Bond was here with 
 his family. The library consisted of a few hun- 
 dred books, many of which needed rebinding 
 
KEY. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 69 
 
 before they could be used. The Seminary had 
 no funds, and was considerably in debt. For 
 the payment of the professors' salaries, eight 
 hundred dollars each, the Seminary depended on 
 the contributions of the churches and benevolent 
 individuals. But the Seminary had a good char- 
 ter ; it was well located ; and the late Mrs. Phebe 
 Lord, of Kennebunkport, Maine, — a name never 
 to be spoken but with honor, — had just given one 
 thousand dollars for the library. As I was here, 
 with my family and household goods, I concluded 
 I would not turn about and go back. Brother 
 Bond and I hired a double house in Ohio Street, 
 .where lie lived until he left Bangor, and we 
 resided till 1837. 
 
 From this period the story of my life will be 
 continued under several divisions. First, my con- 
 nection with the Seminary. 
 
 About two weeks after my arrival in Bangor, 
 the General Conference of our churches met in 
 Wiscasset, and I went in company with Rev. 
 Mr. Pomroy to attend the meeting. It was the 
 first time I met the ministers and churches of 
 Maine. In 1827, the trustees invited the Con- 
 ference to send a committee, year by year, to 
 visit the institution, to look into its affairs, and 
 to make report as to its condition and prospects. 
 
 The invitation was accepted, and this arrange- 
 ment connects the Seminary with the churches, 
 and brings it under their supervision. If any- 
 thing wrong should be done at the Seminary, or 
 any error or irregularity allowed, the case at 
 
TO 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 once would be reported to the churches, where 
 it might be corrected. At the Conference of 1832, 
 the case of the Seminary was taken up, and it 
 was voted to raise the sum of $30,000, in four 
 annual payments, to relieve its wants. I was 
 greatly encouraged by this vote, and we com- 
 menced at once the getting up of the subscrip- 
 tion. The principal part of the labor of raising 
 the subscription devolved on me. The sum was 
 all subscribed and most of it paid, though not in 
 the precise manner at first contemplated. As our 
 new subscription became available, it was resolved 
 to erect a new Seminary building, and the large 
 brick dormitory was put up, and the northern 
 half finished in 1834. 
 
 In making up this subscription I went over the 
 State and visited many of the churches ; preached 
 and conversed, and wrote hundreds of letters. 
 In this effort to raise money, and in the man}' 
 subsequent labors of this kind, I never consid- 
 ered myself in the light of a beggar, nor allowed 
 in myself any personal feelings of gratification, 
 disappointment, or picpue. As earnestly as I 
 could, I urged the case in its true light, upon 
 those I addressed, and left results with God ; *and 
 the responsibility of giving or withholding, with 
 the consciences of my hearers. I can say, without 
 boasting, that I have been the means of securing 
 at least the larger half of the funds now in the 
 Seminary treasury. At the beginning of the year 
 1834, we had a class of eight enter, which in- 
 creased our number to sixteen. These all had 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 71 
 
 rooms in the new building. In this building also 
 were recitation-rooms, library, and a room fitted 
 up for the classical school, and used also as a 
 chapel ; and the same year the library was en- 
 riched by more than a thousand volumes. Thus 
 the prosperity, which has given to Bangor Theo- 
 logical Seminary adequate buildings, a good 
 library, and a considerable part of the needed 
 funds for the support of an able Faculty, was 
 planned and well begun. The accomplishment 
 has been the great labor of my best years. 
 
 Dr. Cyrus Hamlin communicates this letter, giving his 
 recollections of our father, as he was at this time : — 
 
 " I first saw Dr. Pond at Bowdoin College in the year 1832, 
 the same in which he entered on his work in the Seminary 
 in Bangor. He was then forty-one years old ; a man well 
 huilt, with a countenance of mingled mildness and firmness, 
 intelligent, thoughtful, and in his whole physique and 
 bearing answering well to the reputation which his able 
 editorship of the 1 Spirit of the Pilgrims ' had already 
 given him. He preached for Dr. Adams morning, after- 
 noon, and evening, of the Sabbath, to a full house. He 
 attracted the attention of the students to an anusual degree. 
 His sermons. were clear, cogent, and practical. He left an 
 impression that the Congregational interest in Maine had 
 received a most valuable accession to its strength. In the 
 religious revival of 1833-34, he visited Brunswick again to 
 assist Dr. Adams, and his word was with power. His 
 efficient weapon was the ' Sword of the Spirit, the Word of 
 God. 1 This he wielded with irresistible force and solemnity. 
 He left the hearer no chance to reply or object, except be- 
 coming in conflict with the Word of God. It was the 
 Biblical characteristic of his preaching that drew students 
 to him. His sermons were so well reasoned out of the 
 Bible, that they carried the weight and authority of Divine 
 
A MEMORIAL, OF 
 
 truth -with them. They were neve r based on one or two 
 proof texts, but they took the scope and trend of inspired 
 truth into view. His argument accumulated force as it 
 advanced, and at the close he could, as he sometimes did, 
 appeal to his hearers to admit his positions, or take the 
 alternative that the Bible is a lie. There was great power 
 in his earnest and perfect confidence in the Word of God, as 
 eternal truth. He preached as though he believed every 
 hearer would so regard it. 
 
 '•Anather attractive feature of his preaching was the 
 entire absence of all display, ornament, or mere rhetoric. 
 Students like all these in themselves, but not in the revival 
 preacher. Professor Newman had taught as wisel}' and 
 well the place and value of naturalness, — of being true to 
 nature in style and manner, and of having each part in 
 keeping with the rest. Dr. Po:id's style was an excellent 
 example of this. He was naturally, not artificially, earnest. 
 There was no affected solemnity of tone or manner. There 
 was often the hush and rapt silence of the great audience, 
 that evinced profound attention, but it was the cogency 
 of the reasoning, the power of truth forcibly stated, that 
 produced it. 
 
 He met quite a number of us students in a more private 
 way, to commend to our attention Bangor Seminary. We 
 liked the man, we thought him frank, genial, yet courageous 
 and strong. He was a man among men, a man who could 
 hold his own anywhere, and command respect. His frank- 
 ness and honesty were so manly and genuine as to disarm 
 roughness and malice, and make hypocrisy blush. We 
 liked moreover his earnest enthusiasm for the Theological 
 Seminary in Bangor. Up to that date, 1834, most of its 
 students had entered after a preparatory course of four or 
 five years in the classical school. But that year and the 
 next drew some fifteen and twenty college graduates, and 
 constituted an era in the history of the Seminary. They 
 were drawn thither by the character, ability, and scholar- 
 ship of the two professors, Pond and Bond.' - 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 73 
 
 The question of students was one which at 
 the first gave Brother Bond and myself great 
 anxiety. Under the previous administrations, no 
 college graduates had heen connected with the 
 Seminary, and it was feared they would turn 
 from it in the future. Our Theological School 
 was then young. Our location is farther to the 
 east than any of the colleges ; and to enter 
 Bangor Seminary, graduates must turn away 
 from long-settled and well-manned institutions. 
 This disadvantage still exists ; and to fill our 
 halls with liherally-educated students, constant 
 effort must he made, peculiar advantages offered, 
 and motives touching the piety and loyalty of the 
 Christian young men of Maine must he urged. 
 With this object in view, I visited Bowdoin College 
 in 1832 and 1834, and also visited Dartmouth and 
 some other colleges in New England. In 1833, 
 several college graduates entered the Seminary. 
 In the autumn of 1834, nineteen students 
 entered the junior class, eight of whom were 
 graduates of Bowdoin College. Among those 
 who entered in these years were Dr. Benjamin 
 Tappan, Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, Professor II. B. Smith, 
 Henry G. Storer, Franklin Yeaton, and others 
 well-known to us all. I have ever felt under 
 special obligations to the young men who came 
 to us at that time. They did it certainly under 
 some sacrifice of feeling. They did it from a 
 sense of duty, and for the public good, and I 
 trust it was never to them a cause of regret. 
 They actually did more to advance the interests 
 
74 
 
 A MEMORIAL. OF 
 
 of the Seminary than if they had given us thou- 
 sands of dollars. They set an example which 
 had influence ; they turned the tide in our favor ; 
 and from that time to this the question of 
 students has given us but little trouble. 
 
 The only circumstance in the next year which 
 cast a cloud over the prospects of the Seminary 
 was the failure of Professor Bond's health, which, 
 much to the sorrow of the trustees and himself, 
 constrained him to resign his post. This took 
 place in the spring of 1835. 
 
 He was afterward settled in the ministry at 
 Norwich, Conn., and has proved himself to be 
 a most faithful and devoted pastor. He still 
 lives to labor for Christ, though not now in 
 the active duties of the ministry. 
 
 Dr. Bond died about six months after my father, in 1882. 
 Says one who visited him a little while before his death: 
 " When I saw him in his serene, lovely old age, he spoke 
 with deep and tender emotion of those years in Bangor, and 
 with admiration of the 'heroic warfare of Brother Pond' 
 for the beloved Seminary. Thus have passed two noble 
 and beloved men, with whose names no sentiments but those 
 of love and reverence can ever be associated. Each did his 
 work in a different way from the other; each was excellent 
 in his own way." 
 
 The vacancy caused by Professor Bond's resig- 
 nation was soon happily filled. In June, 1835, 
 Rev. Leonard Woods, Jr., then of New York, 
 was elected professor of sacred literature, and 
 entered on his duties in the autumn ; " a 
 polished, accomplished, scholarly, and fascinating 
 man." 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 75 
 
 The year 1835 was the height of the M Eastern- 
 Lands" speculation, and everybody was growing, 
 or thought himself growing, rich, in the vicinity 
 of Bangor. In June of this year, the Conference 
 of Congregational Churches met in Bangor, 
 and a proposition was made that 8100,000 
 be raised, to be paid in four equal annual 
 payments, for the purpose of completing the 
 endowment of the Seminary. The proposition 
 was adopted, with the understanding that those 
 who had not paid on their previous subscription, 
 might merge their indebtedness in this. This 
 subscription was obtained chiefly by my efforts, 
 and the friends of the Seminary now supposed 
 that its pecuniary embarrassments were at an 
 end. But subsequent events proved the insta- 
 bility of human affairs, and how little dependence 
 can be placed on the brightest earthly prospects. 
 The subscription was raised in a time of specu- 
 lation, and of high fancied or seeming prosperity. 
 In the pecuniary reverses which followed, and 
 the consequent depreciation of almost all kinds 
 of property, many individuals who had sub- 
 scribed liberally, and in good faith, found 
 themselves unable to meet their engagements, 
 or even to pay their honest debts. An aged 
 Christian gentleman in Bangor, subscribed 616,- 
 000 to endow a professorship, but was never 
 able to pay a cent of it. These subscriptions 
 were paid irregularly, and not more than a third 
 of them were ever paid. Still the subscription 
 was a great blessing to the Seminary. It enabled 
 
76 
 
 A MEMORIAL Otf 
 
 the trustees to complete and furnish buildings, 
 meet current expenses, enlarge the library ; and 
 I hardly see how the Seminary could have been 
 kept in operation, during the years of revulsion 
 and distress which followed the expansion of 1835, 
 without it. 
 
 Until the year 1836, there had been but two 
 professors in the Seminary: one of theology and 
 one of sacred literature. Professor Woods dis- 
 charged the duties of the latter professorship, 
 and I did all the rest. In addition to theology, 
 I gave such instruction as I could in ecclesiastical 
 history, homiletics, and pastoral duties. My 
 method of teaching theology was, substantially, 
 that of Dr. Emmons and of the private teachers 
 in New England. I first gave out a subject with 
 a list of books to be consulted. I then read one 
 or more lectures on the subject, and had a full 
 and free discussion of it with the class. Then 
 each of the students was required to prepare an 
 essay on the subject, and these essays were 
 publicly (that is, before the whole class) read, 
 criticised, and discussed. Our sessions sometimes 
 continued for two or three hours. With the 
 reading and discussion of the essays, the consid- 
 eration of that particular subject closed ; to be 
 followed by another and then another, to be 
 treated in the same way. When all the 
 topics in the course had been thus gone over, 
 the whole was carefully reviewed, and prepa- 
 ration was made for the closing examination. 
 This method of teaching theology I decidedly 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. I . 
 
 77 
 
 prefer to that of teaching solely by lectures. It 
 furnishes a much better mental discipline, and 
 prepares the scholar to think and reason for 
 himself. In many instances I have been sur- 
 prised at the improvement students would make 
 in their modes of thinking, speaking, and writing, 
 while passing through the studies of our middle 
 year. The opinion here expressed as to the effect 
 of our method of teaching theolog}-, has been 
 confirmed by some of our best students. In a 
 letter from the late Rev. Nathan Dole, I find : ' 4 1 
 improved more during my middle year in the 
 Seminary than in any other year of my life ; and 
 your method of study for the young men seems 
 admirably adapted to its end. I have been on the 
 point of saying this to you several times of late, 
 as I have freely said it to others." Let me add, 
 however, that no course of study, however well- 
 adapted and complete in itself, can make a student 
 a theologian, without his own persevering efforts. 
 He must himself study ; he must study hard. 
 He must not only read and hear, but he must 
 think and write, and thus task and discipline 
 and strengthen his own powers. In the study 
 of theology, the student must not hold himself 
 in the attitude of a mere receiver, to drink 
 in and retain the thoughts of others; but 
 in the attitude of a thinker, who is thinking 
 for himself; who is actively comparing what 
 he reads and hears with the decisions of his 
 own consciousness and of the Word of God, 
 thus making his system of theology, in the best 
 sense of the term, his system. 
 
78 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 Eev. R. B. Thurston, one of my father's pupils in the 
 Seminary, gives this reminiscence of his theological 
 class : "As a theological instructor Dr. Pond had many ex- 
 cellences. He was not a system-builder. He had no ambi- 
 tion to found a new scbool of speculative divinity. It was a 
 small matter to him to overhang a pillow of sacred truth 
 with a network of human logic. But he had clear views and 
 solid convictions. He stated the results of his own reading 
 and meditation with discriminating and lucid expression. 
 His great desire was to have points of doctrine proved by 
 the Scripture, and proved in the essays of his classes. 
 After the readings of my own class, on the Divinity of 
 Christ, he said, pleasurably, ' I believe you have all proved 
 it.' The class was one of the largest ever graduated from 
 Bangor Seminary, and about equally divided between old- 
 school and new-school divinity. The wind of disputation 
 often blew hard, and positions were assailed on every side. 
 Dr. Pond never sought to suppress by dogmatism. He 
 preserved his dignity and power as a teacher without putting 
 constraint upon our thought. He was quick, bright, keen, as 
 well as kindly. I am sure that all held him in high esteem for 
 his quickening influence upon our minds, stimulating us to 
 the honest, earnest, reverent pursuit of truth. He was 
 orthodox, but would not imprison the sinner within the five 
 points of Calvinism, so that gospel offers become a paradox ; 
 nor let down the sovereignty of God, so that Deity is 
 subject to human will. His breadth, both of understanding 
 and of heart, was manifest in his expectation of meeting in 
 heaven those great men who, like Socrates, sought truth by 
 nature's light, and in his confidence in the piety of little 
 children, who, in the expression of their love, seemed to 
 him not to be in the Pauline sense 'in the flesh.'"' 
 
 In 1836, Rev. George Shepard, of Hallowell, 
 Maine, was elected professor of sacred rhetoric. 
 The supposed endowment, on which he was 
 appointed, failed, like many other expectations 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 T9 
 
 of that ill-fated time ; but Professor Shepard 
 did not fail us; he never failed us. He was, 
 from the first, of inestimable value to the 
 Seminary. 
 
 A man of massive form and majesty of movement; 
 strong, yet with the simplicity of a child; mighty in con' 
 densing thought, as the energies of a storm are sometimes 
 condensed into a single hurst of lightning, thunder, and 
 rain; his countenance becoming luminous in the moments 
 of intensest ardor in public speech. — Dr. ^^ff Harris. 
 
 This beloved brother continued with us thirty- 
 two years, residing with his family under the 
 same roof with me and mine. In the spring of 
 1868, he was suddenly removed from us by death. 
 For months he had shown marks of decrepitude, 
 and it had been evident to us that his work was 
 nearly done. I cannot here dwell on the character 
 of my beloved and honored friend. His works 
 remain ; and he has left a memorial in the hearts 
 of all who knew him, which can never be effaced. 
 
 Dr. Shepard's character showed a rare combination of 
 natural diffidence and consciousness of power, aroused by 
 sense of duty and responsibility. A diffident nature, when 
 mastered and wisely regulated, becomes itself an additional 
 element of power and of beauty of character. The reusing 
 of one's self, inevitable to the facing of dreaded duties, 
 moves the whole soul, keeps it exalted and intense, brings 
 out the full force of its faculties. A man naturally diffident, 
 whose diffidence is made to yield to principle, is usually the 
 bravest and boldest when there is need of it; and with a 
 bravery that has in it so little of self-assertion and so much 
 of modesty, that the blending of the opposite qualities lends 
 a peculiar fascination to the character. — Bev. G. W. Field. 
 
80 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 During the year 1836 a boarding-house was 
 erected ; and arrangements made for the board- 
 ing of students, which have worked admirably 
 and are still followed out. During this year the 
 Classical School connected with the Seminary was 
 closed. It had been sustained at considerable 
 expense, and had been very useful. Here stu- 
 dents had been prepared for the Seminary, who 
 had received no collegiate education ; but there 
 seemed to be no longer a necessity for it. The 
 large building devoted to its use was remodeled, 
 and made into a double house for two professors. 
 
 In August, 1839, Professor Woods resigned his 
 chair, to become President of Bowdoin College. 
 
 Of President Woods, Professor Alpheus Packard writes : 
 "A rare reputation for profound and elegant scholarship, 
 for power and beauty as a writer, and for great conver- 
 sational ability, brought him to Brunswick. He held the 
 office of President of Bowdoin College till 1866. and at that 
 time resigned, being in his sixtieth year, and his resignation 
 was accepted. He spent some time in Europe in the interests 
 of the Maine Historical Society. The results of this re- 
 search appeared in the first and second volumes of the Doc- 
 umentary History of Maine. In 1873, a fire consumed 
 nearly all his manuscripts and most of his beloved books, 
 destroying also a great part of the results of his literary 
 labor. He never recovered from the nervous shock which 
 this gave him. Eepeatcd attacks of paralysis resulted in 
 the utter decay of his brilliant powers, and in his death 
 December 24, 1878." — History of Bowdoin College. 
 
 On the same day of Professor Woods' resig- 
 nation, Rev. Daniel Smith Talcott, of Newbury- 
 port, was chosen his successor, and was inaugu- 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 81 
 
 rated at the anniversary in 1840. He still fills 
 the professorship of sacred literature with great 
 acceptance. 
 
 Of him Dr. Harris remarks, in his " Memorial of Dr. 
 Pond": "It was my good fortune that the junior class, 
 of which I was a member in Andover Theological School, 
 had Dr. Talcott, who had just completed his professional 
 studies, as their instructor in Hebrew; and a more efficient 
 and successful teacher I never knew. More than this his 
 presence with us to-day forbids me to say." 
 
 Again the endowment of our professorship of 
 sacred rhetoric failed. Owing to the celebrity 
 of our beloved Professor Shepard as a preacher, 
 and the charm of his character, he was repeatedly 
 assailed with invitations to remove to more 
 imposing and lucrative positions. The most 
 formidable of these assaults was made in the 
 spring of 1847, when he was urged by a united 
 people, and tempted by the offer of a large 
 salary, to become pastor of the Pilgrim Church 
 and Society, of Brooklyn, N. Y. Professor Shep- 
 ard had promised to go, unless his professor- 
 ship should be sufficiently and solidly endowed by 
 a stated time ; and a committee had come on 
 from the church to see that the separation was 
 effected. I felt that it was time for the friends 
 of the Seminary to bestir themselves. I went 
 first of all to that generous and reliable friend 
 of the Seminary, Hon. G. W. Pickering. As I 
 entered the room, Mr. Pickering welcomed me, 
 and said : " Dr. Pond, I know what you have 
 come for," and at once, almost without solicita- 
 
82 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 tion, pledged, and secured by mortgage of his 
 own dwelling-house, $5,000. I secured myself 
 the whole subscription, and that, too, in the space 
 of a week's time, and by the liberality chiefly of 
 Bangor Christians, and the endowment was 
 completed. These friends are entitled to the 
 credit of saving the Seminary ; for if Professor 
 She} ard had left, Professor Talcott and I should 
 have resigned, and the Seminary, to all human 
 appearance, would have been irrevocably ruined. 
 But the subscription was raised and the Seminary 
 saved. 
 
 In 1819, two legacies from the late Waldo 
 family of Worcester, Mass., amounting to $12,000, 
 were received ; $8,000 had already been given by 
 the family ; making in all $20,000. 
 
 I had been a special friend of the family before 
 I came to Bangor, and there was nothing in 
 particular to attract them to our Seminary except 
 my connection with it. The sum was used in 
 the endowment of the professorship of ecclesi- 
 astical history, which bears, and I hope may 
 always bear, the honored name of Waldo. 
 
 In the autumn of 1854, having discharged the 
 duties of two professorships (those of theology 
 and of history) for twenty-two years, I requested 
 to be released from one of them; and as I 
 earnestly desired, while I lived, to see the pro- 
 fessorship of theology satisfactorily provided for, 
 I proposed to relinquish that, and confine my 
 attention in future to the department of ecclesi- 
 astical history. 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 83 
 
 My proposition was acceded to, and, in the 
 spring of 1855, Rev. Samuel Harris, of Pittsfield, 
 Mass., was elected to the chair of theology. This 
 appointment was accepted, and at the following 
 anniversary Professor Harris was inaugurated; 
 I was formally transferred to the department of 
 history, and constituted President of the Faculty. 
 On being released from my duties in the the- 
 ological department by the appointment of 
 Professor Harris, I felt the importance of doing 
 more than I had before been able to do in the 
 department of church history. I had already 
 prepared a course of lectures on dogmatic history 
 (the history of Christian doctrines, institutions, 
 rites). I had also prepared a course of lectures 
 on the history of the church under former dis- 
 pensations, including the Old Testament history 
 and the history of the dark period intervening 
 between the close of sacred Old Testament history 
 and the coming of Christ. In teaching church 
 history I had, up to this time, used Murdock's 
 Mosheim as a text-book ; not because I entirely 
 approved of it, but because I could find nothing 
 I liked better. The modern German histories are 
 so contaminated with a false philosophy that 
 I could not think of adopting them. Mosheim's 
 History is a dull work, especially in its chapters 
 on the Middle Ages. I had always found it dif- 
 ficult to interest a class of scholars in it. At 
 length I thought of doing myself what I had long 
 waited for some one to do for me. I prepared 
 a full course of lectures on Christian church 
 
84 
 
 A MEMORIAL OP 
 
 history, commencing with the birth of Christ, and 
 tracing its history through to the present time. 
 I began teaching by lectures in 1862. My method 
 was to examine the class on each lecture, not 
 directly at the close of it, but at the commence- 
 ment of the following session ; directing them, in 
 the meanwhile, to a general course of reading on 
 the subject. At the conclusion of the course the 
 whole is reviewed by the help of a prepared list 
 of questions. Pursued in this manner, I have 
 found the study more interesting to scholars, and, 
 I think, more profitable than in the old manner 
 of reciting from a text-book. 
 
 In the summer of 1859, the chapel and library 
 building was dedicated. It had long been needed, 
 and has proved of inestimable value to the institu- 
 tion. Previously, four large rooms in the large 
 building were used for chapel purposes, and the 
 bell, presented by a gentleman of Massachusetts, 
 was hung in a frame resting on the ground. The 
 valuable library of the Seminary was kept in 
 a wing of the boarding-house, a wooden structure, 
 and every opportunity was offered for a conflagra- 
 tion. The lower story of the chapel was fitted up 
 as a handsome library ; the second story contained 
 a large audience-room, recitation-rooms, and a 
 museum of curiosities belonging to the Society 
 of Inquiry on Missions. The building cost more 
 than §12,000, and was erected through the efforts 
 of the " Corban," a society of ladies in Bangor. 
 In reporting to the General Conference the great 
 achievement of the ladies, the visiting committee 
 
KEV. ENOCH FOND, D. D. 
 
 85 
 
 for 1859 say: "God bless the ladies of Bangor, 
 who started this enterprise, and the ladies of this 
 State and elsewhere, who have helped move it on. 
 They have given to our institution ' a local habita- 
 tion and a name,' and are entitled to all the credit 
 of this noble result. The ' Corban ' Society shall 
 be held in loving remembrance wherever Bangor 
 Seminary is known. ' Many daughters have done 
 virtuously, but thou excellest.' " 
 
 The departments of instruction in the Seminary 
 were now satisfactorily filled, and things seemed 
 likely to move on without embarrassment. I must 
 here record, with gratitude to Him who holds the 
 hearts of all men in his hands, the donations and 
 legacies of friends of the Seminary during the 
 years 1863-G8. A legacy of 810,000 was re- 
 ceived from the estate of Deacon Jacob Hayes, 
 of Charlestown, Mass., which was appropriated to 
 the professorship of sacred literature. A legacy 
 of £3,000 was received from the estate of Hiram 
 Fogg, of New York, accompanied by a donation 
 of #10,000 from his brother, William Fogg, 
 both of which were appropriated to the professor- 
 ship of sacred rhetoric. The sum of -116,000 was 
 also received from Richard P. Buck, of Brook- 
 lyn, New York, which was appropriated to the 
 professorship of theology. In consequence of 
 these bequests and donations, it was decided that 
 these several professorships should in all future 
 time bear the names of those who had so largely 
 contributed to their endowment. From the late 
 Hon. Ichabod Washburn, of Worcester, Mass., 
 
86 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 $15,000 was received for a fund to help students 
 who needed assistance. 
 
 The pecuniary condition of the Seminary was 
 now favorable. Its debts were paid, its endow- 
 ments well begun, the number of students was 
 increasing, and its prospects encouraging. Other 
 forms of trial lay before us. In the spring of 
 
 1866, Professor Harris was appointed President 
 of Bowdoin College, and concluded, after a pro- 
 tracted struggle, to go. He continued his 
 instructions until the close of the Seminary year, 
 
 1867, and then left for Brunswick. It was a great 
 sorrow to the trustees and his colleagues to part 
 with him ; but his convictions of duty were clear, 
 and naught remained to us but to give him our 
 blessing and let him go. 
 
 Scarcely had we passed through this trial when 
 another and great affliction fell on us. In the 
 spring of 1868, Professor Shepard died. Of his 
 work here, and of his death, I have already 
 written. "Very pleasant hast thou been to me, 
 my brother ! " 
 
 The vacancy occasioned by Professor Harris's 
 removal was filled in the summer of 1867. Rev. 
 John R. Herrick, of Malone, N. Y., was elected, 
 and accepted the appointment, entering on his 
 duties at once. Professor Herrick was an able and 
 excellent man. He remained with us six years, 
 but the last two years was unable to do much for 
 the Seminary. During one of these he was absent 
 in Europe and the East, and through most of the 
 other he was confined to the house by sickness. 
 He resigned his position in 1873. 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 87 
 
 Dr. Ilerrick is now occupying the laborious and responsi- 
 ble post of President of Oregon College. 
 
 In 1868, Rev. William M. Barbour, of Peabody, 
 Mass., was appointed successor to Professor 
 Shepard in the chair of sacred rhetoric. Pie 
 accepted the appointment, and commenced his 
 labors here in the autumn of 1868. During the 
 absence and subsequent illness of Professor Her- 
 rick, Professor Barbour undertook the care of the 
 theological department, as well as his own ; and 
 when Professor Herrick resigned, was transferred 
 to the chair of theology, and Professor John S. 
 Sewall, of Bowdoin College, was elected to fill the 
 vacancy. Professor Sewall commenced his duties 
 as professor of sacred rhetoric, in the autumn of 
 1873. The number of students from 1835 to 1860 
 was remarkably uniform — rarely over fifty or 
 under forty. In 1863, we had on our catalogue 
 the names of sixty -four students ; the next year, 
 fifty-nine. Owing partly to the war, and partly 
 to the lack of revivals in our colleges and 
 churches, the number in the Seminary was, for 
 several years, diminished. Latterly, it has in- 
 creased again, and the rooms are full. In the 
 autumn of 1871, having "been connected with the 
 Seminary forty years, and being in the eightieth 
 year of my age, I felt called upon to resign my 
 office as professor of ecclesiastical history, and a 
 successor was .appointed, Rev. Leonard L. Paine, 
 of Farmington, Conn. He has proved himself 
 an acceptable teacher and worthy man. I still 
 
88 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 continue my connection with the Faculty as pre- 
 siding officer, and with the Seminary as " emeritus 
 professor." I reside at the Seminary, and do all 
 in my power to advance its interests in every 
 direction. This it is my purpose to do, so long 
 as God grants me ability and opportunity. 
 
 It may be thought inappropriate, in an auto- 
 biography, to incorporate so much of the history 
 of the Seminary; but I could not avoid it. My 
 life in Bangor has been so closely connected with 
 it, — so bound up in it and with it, — that it was 
 impossible to give an account of the former during 
 the last forty years unless by connecting it with 
 the latter. 
 
 Eleven years have elapsed since my father's resignation 
 of his professorship, and his death. During nine of these 
 years he met the students weekly at Monday evening 
 prayers, and frequently was present at the chapel prayer- 
 meetings. He was thoroughly acquainted with them; 
 they came to him as to a father, bringing their religious 
 doubts, their social troubles, their afflictions, bodily or 
 mental, their pecuniary difficulties; and they always met 
 sympathy, advice, and relief. He also presided during 
 these years at meetings of the Faculty. His interest in the 
 Seminary took practical form in the many letters written to 
 invite students, solicit donations, and welcome new comers 
 The last occasion of his presenting the diplomas to the 
 graduating class was in June, 1879. 
 
 His last formal meeting with the Trustees, Faculty, and 
 Alumni, was at the Alumni Dinner, in June, 1880. A local 
 paper cioses its report of the occasion in these words : — 
 
 " The festivities of the table were full of pathos when the 
 venerable President of the Faculty, Dr. Pond, nearly ninety 
 years of age, and connected with the Seminary since 1832, 
 spoke with trembling, yet sonorous voice, and flowing tears. 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, P. D. 
 
 89 
 
 With bowed heads and moistened eyes his pupils listened to 
 his fatherly counsels and tender farewells. He said: 'I 
 shall do what 1 can so long as my life is spared; but my 
 work is nearly done. I leave the Seminary, under God, to 
 you. Provide for it; carry it forward so long as it is 
 needed on the earth. It will be needed for a very long 
 time to come. Go back to j our homes, young ministers, 
 feeling that you are engaged in the noblest work on earth. 
 — the work of saving the souls of your fellow men. It is 
 not probable; that I shall meet you here again, but you will 
 still come. Come up in the Spirit and hope of the Gospel. 
 God will be your support in life and in death.' " 
 
 Dr. Pond had great patience with his pupils, and great 
 faith in them. If some of them were without classical 
 education, he recalled the great number of such men who 
 had adorned the ministry and the learned professions, and 
 he expected his young men would succeed ; he encouraged 
 them to the utmost. He scorned the idea of putting them 
 into what is called a " special course," and branding them 
 with a lower grade, as an inferior branch of the ministry. 
 He would give them the privilege of standing side by side 
 with the best educated men, and the support of it; he would 
 send them out together with the same diplomas, and bid 
 them surpass the college-trained men in power and useful- 
 ness if they could. — S. U. Hayes. 
 
 His intercourse with his students made him their trusted, 
 genial, and beloved friend. If he erred in his estimate of 
 them, it was on the side of a magnanimous expectation. 
 He idealized his pupils, and had large anticipations of 
 usefulness in the future exercise of their gifts. — Ii. B. T. 
 
 From a memorial address prepared by Dr. Samuel Harris. 
 I extract this sketch of Dr. Pond's theology and his stand- 
 ing as a scholar : — 
 
 Dr. Pond was a representative of the New England 
 theology on its conservative side. The New England 
 
90 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 theology is doubtless open to criticism as in some 
 respects superficial and inadequate. It has seemingly 
 assumed that by precise, definite, and satisfactory 
 formulas it had closed the whole circuit of thought on 
 the subjects treated, and by its nice distinctions bad 
 removed all occasion for doubt and difficulty, while pro- 
 founder thought sees that its formulas lack compre- 
 hensiveness, and its explanations do not explain ; by its 
 disproportionate insistence on individualism, by its 
 ethical theory of greatest happiness and general benev- 
 olence, by its theory of atonement as an expedient of 
 statecraft to prevent men from despising the law 
 because sin is forgiven, it has seemed to overlook the 
 solidarity of mankind, and the reach and power of sin; 
 to miss the essential idea of law and righteousness, and 
 to lead to the inference that the significance of the 
 humiliation of the Son of God in Christ, and of Christ's 
 obedience, suffering, and death, instead of being mani- 
 fold as the Scriptures represent it, is exhausted in its 
 moral influence on men to induce them to return to God. 
 But, whatever the imputations of the "New England 
 theology," it has at least made a great and abiding con- 
 tribution to the progress of theological knowledge. 
 It has set forth in clear light the personality of the 
 individual as distinguished from, and not submerged in, 
 the race or in the organization of church or State, and 
 therein has set forth the worth of a man and the sacred- 
 ness of his rights; and this is a truth which was 
 emphasized by Christ and his Apostles, and lias made 
 Christianity a power in advancing the political and social 
 rights and freedom of man. The New England the- 
 ology, in setting forth the personality of the individual, 
 has asserted and vindicated the freedom of the will ; has 
 shown the true idea of sin as the determination or 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, 1). ]>. 
 
 91 
 
 choice of the* free will in transgressing God's law and 
 refusing his redeeming grace; has cleared the fact and 
 nature of human responsibility; has thrown light on 
 the scriptural doctrine of regeneration by the Holy 
 Spirit and rescued it from misrepresentation, and has 
 made consistent and possible that type of preaching 
 which declares that 'whosoever will, may take the water 
 of life freely/' and which demonstrates to every man's 
 conscience his sinfulness and guilt in not accepting 
 Christ as he is fully offered in the Gospel. These great 
 truths Dr. Pond emphasized in his theological teaching 
 in his classroom and in his preaching. 
 
 It has been said that Dr. Pond was not a man of thor- 
 ough scholarship. I would not claim for him aught 
 which was not his. One man cannot he everything. 
 "Non omnes possunius omnia." His just reputation is 
 so high there is no need to enhance it by attributing to 
 him what he had not. His undeniable virtues, powers, 
 and resources must command admiration and esteem. 
 Let us try to form a just estimate of him in this particu- 
 lar. His positive and intractable antagonism to all 
 German philosophy and criticism is well known. But 
 in estimating this, we must remember he was born nearly 
 one hundred years ago. When he was receiving his 
 education few Americans knew any modern language 
 than their own. To Professor Henry W. Longfellow, 
 who in 1829 became professor of modern languages in 
 Bowdoin College (of which he was a graduate), more 
 perhaps than to anyone man, we owe the change in the 
 American idea of education, whereby it has come to pass 
 that acquaintance with one or more of these languages 
 and literatures is deemed essential to scholarship, and 
 has become common among cultivated people. But Dr. 
 Pond was in mature life before this change had 
 
92 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 developed itself. During his long life the standard 
 of scholarship changed; the very conception of what 
 constitutes a scholar was different in the later years 
 of his life from what had heen when he was receiving 
 his education. He was a man of extensive reading. 
 He was a scholar in the sense in which President 
 Edwards, Dr. Emmons, Dr. Leonard Woods, and other 
 leaders of theological thought in New England in the 
 last century and the heginning of the present, were 
 scholars. He belonged to that earlier period, anil his 
 scholarship must be judged by its standard and not 
 by that of the present time. The fact must also be con- 
 sidered that in his earlier years the predominant 
 influences from German philosophy and criticism were 
 pantheistic, rationalistic, or sceptical. The general 
 feeling was that familiarity with German theological 
 and philosophical studies was dangerous to Christian 
 faith. Professor Stuart never entirely outlived the 
 fears and suspicions of the influence of his German 
 reading. When I was a student at Andover, I remem- 
 ber the profound impression produced one day. when 
 Professor B. B. Edwards before the assembled school 
 announced the publication of Strauss's "Life of Jesus," 
 and described it as the most powerful assault that had 
 been made on Christianity in recent times, and told us 
 of the anxiety and alarm which its publication had 
 caused. But since then Strauss's theory of the New 
 Testament has been abandoned as inadequate by crit- 
 ical scholars and by its author himself. Then came the 
 Tubingen school, explaining the New Testament as the 
 product of factions in the churches, interpreting the 
 '•'enemy" who sowed tares, in the parable recorded 
 by Matthew, as being the Apostle Paul, the Gospel of 
 Matthew being written in the interest of the Apostle 
 
&EV. ENOCH POND, D.D. 
 
 93 
 
 Peter. Next came Renan's "Life of Jesus," explaining 
 the story partly by imposture and pious fraud, and 
 partly by fanaticism and self-illusion. Thus the whole 
 process of destructive criticism is a sort of reduction 
 to absurdity of all infidel attempts to explain the 
 acknowledged facts of the New Testament without 
 recognizing the supernatural Christ. We now look with 
 composure on all the attempts of rationalism and crit- 
 icism to destroy Christianity, and welcome all the 
 results of philosophical and critical knowledge which 
 enlarge, correct, clarify, or confirm our knowledge of the 
 truth. But it was not so easy fifty years ago. For 
 Dr. Pond he it said that he never doubted the Gospel 
 of Christ, nor feared that it would he overthrown. 
 And I submit that a theological teacher whose inward 
 spiritual life compels him to believe the Gospel and to 
 rejoice in the truth, is a better, wiser, and truer teacher 
 than one who fears for the truth, but does not rejoice 
 and be strong in it; who fears lest every new assault 
 will sweep the kingdom of Christ from the earth, and 
 whose teaching is a perpetual apologizing for Christ and 
 Christianity, as if the reality and right to be were sub- 
 mitted to the decision, and depended on the acceptance, 
 of the young men who hear him. A man who is to 
 teach theology must know in whom he has believed. 
 
 Another point must be noticed. Not only had the 
 standard of scholarship changed in Dr. Pond's late 
 years, not only had questions and objections been 
 answered which once seemed formidable, but new ques- 
 tions had arisen ; questions and objections springing 
 from new theories of physical science, from bold 
 assumptions respecting human knowledge, and from 
 philosophical speculations iinfainiliar to the English 
 mind and unadapted to English habits of thought. 
 
94 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 It was not to be expected that a man already entering 
 on old age should enter profoundly on these subjects. 
 Especially, it was not to be expected of Dr. Pond ; for 
 he was one of those happy persons whose spontaneous 
 belief, founded on spiritual need and spiritual ex- 
 2>erienee, was always fresh, always a sunshine strong 
 enough to burn away the mists of doubt; and he 
 imperfectly understood the great fight of afflicting 
 doubts and perplexities with which many struggle. 
 In his mental constitution he was practical rather 
 than speculative ; his thinking was on the practical side 
 of things, and he was not given to philosophical ques- 
 tioning as to their rationale. But his thinking, in its 
 own sphere, was not the less vigorous, his insight not 
 the less penetrating, than it would have been had he 
 studied things more naturally on their speculative 
 side. 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 95 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MINISTERIAL LABORS WHILE IN BANGOR. 
 
 IV/TY labors in connection with the Theological 
 *~ Seminary, though urgent and incessant, 
 have not engrossed my whole attention during the 
 year spent in Bangor. Two years after my arrival 
 
 — Hammond Street Church. 
 
 I assisted in its organization and, in a month 
 after, my wife and myself connected ourselves 
 with it. It was for some time without a pastor ; 
 and, with Professor Bond, I supplied the pulpit, 
 attended religious meetings, and performed much 
 pastoral work. It was a season of refreshing at 
 that time, and numbers were added to the church. 
 Our first pastor was Rev. John Maltby, my brother- 
 in-law, who removed from Sutton, Mass. During 
 frequent illnesses and absence from the pulpit, I 
 have preached to this beloved church hundreds of 
 times. I have always made it a point to attend 
 the religious meetings of the week, and to take a 
 part in them. I continued this habit until within 
 a few years, as long as I was able. In this way I 
 have found much enjoyment and spiritual profit, 
 and hope I have been the means of doing good. 
 Nor have my labors been confined to Hammond 
 Street Church. In other churches in Bangor I 
 
 a 
 
 Second Congregational Church 
 
 was organized 
 
96 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 was often called to labor. In several instances, 
 when Dr. Poniroy was sent out to collect mone} r 
 for the Seminary, I have taken charge of his pul- 
 pit. In the two Baptist churches in this city, I 
 have been called upon to preach occasionally, and 
 welcomed to their pulpits; and my labors as a 
 minister of the Gospel have extended into every 
 department and to every denomination. 
 
 It has been said of me that I had a very hard 
 theology, but were I gatekeeper at the court of 
 heaven I should not be able to refuse admittance 
 to any one. Perhaps it is all true. I have 
 preached much, not only in Bangor, but in the 
 neighboring towns, and in some of them statedly 
 for months, until their neglected Christian com- 
 munities acquired strength and numbers, when I 
 assisted in forming them into churches and sup- 
 plying ministers for them. In other instances I 
 think I have been instrumental in harmonizing 
 divided churches and reconciling individual mem- 
 bers, who were quarreling with each other and 
 bringing trouble into their churches 'and injury 
 and disgrace upon the Christian name. Many 
 instances I might mention, but fear I might be 
 thought personal. In some cases I labored sepa 
 rately with opposed parties, conversing with them, 
 and persuading them to peace. In a town but 
 eight miles from Bangor I had a meeting with a 
 church, which was long divided as to discipline 
 toward two members, a man and his wife, offend- 
 ing members. I continued with them one evening 
 as long as Paul continued his preaching at Troas 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 97 
 
 (Acts xx, 7), but with no similar results, for the 
 division was healed and peace restored. Nor were 
 such services -wholly uncalled for by the neces- 
 sities of the church to which I belonged. The 
 charity which " suffers long and is kind " some- 
 times failed there and bitter roots springing up 
 troubled us. I think I have generally succeeded 
 as peacemaker at such times, and have brought 
 about honorable and Christian adjustments. 
 
 At one time a disappointed man was seeking sympathy 
 from my father in view of a want of appreciation of labor 
 done for others. Father said, we must all be willing to do 
 a great deal of unappreciated labor; and in that connection 
 spoke of his having done much among the churches, which 
 resulted in good: yet in the event, his share of the work 
 was overlooked and unappreciated. This was said not in 
 the way of complaint, but as proof of the statement lie had 
 made. In strong Saxon, father expressed the same thought, 
 when a man who had spoken abusively of him, came on 
 Saturday night to solicit a gratuitous sermon for his 
 church, on the morrow: "for this work we must expect 
 more lacks than coppers.''' 
 
 My father's introduction to the churches in Maine was at 
 the meeting of the General Conference of Congregational 
 Churches, held in Wiscasset, in June, 1832. a few weeks 
 after coming to Bangor. He went by private carriage in 
 company with Dr. Poinroy, pastor of the First Congre- 
 gational Church, of Bangor. The route was on the West 
 shore of Penobscot River and Bay, througli Belfast, 
 Camden, and Thomaston. a hilly but most picturesque road, 
 and full of interest to the new comer. At Wiscasset he 
 met a noble band of ministers. Maine has never since 
 boasted a grander company of ministers than then filled 
 her Congregational pulpits, and presided over her halls of 
 learning. 
 
98 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 Rev. Seneca White was pastor of the rhnrch in Wiscasset 
 at that time. 
 
 Then Dr. Pond first met " Father Jotham Sewall, great- 
 hearted Christian and self-made man; Rev. • Stephen 
 Thurston, of Searsport, who just lingers on the threshold 
 of life; Dr. George E. Adams filling the important post of 
 pastor of the church in Brunswick, and preacher to the 
 college; Rev. Benjamin Tappan, courtly in manner, 
 sonorous in voice, childlike in heart ; Rev. George Shepard, 
 of Ilallowell, a brother beloved; Rev. David Thurston, 
 of Winthrop, venerable then ; Rev. David Shepley, of 
 Yarmouth ; Rev. Richard Woodhull, of Thomaston ; Rev. 
 J. Peet, of Norridgcwock ; Dr. William Dwight, of 
 Portland; Dr. Ellingvvood, of Bath; Rev. Carlton Kurd, 
 of Fryeburg; Rev. Asa Cummings, of Portland, for 
 many years editor of the ' Christian Mirror.' " 
 
 The fathers ! 'where are they? Every name of them but 
 one must be starred. 
 
 At this conference, sermons were preached by Drs. 
 Dwight and Tyler, of Portland; Rev. R. S. Storrs, of 
 Braintree, Mass., and Dr. Tappan. 
 
 Favorable resolutions wen; passed regarding the temper- 
 ance reform and the Education Society. Days of fasting 
 and prayer: July 12, recommended in view of the invasion 
 of the cholera on our coasts; and the first Monday in 
 January, for the conversion of the world. The favorable 
 resolutions with regard to Bangor Theological Seminary 
 were of special interest and encouragement to Dr. Pond. 
 
 Dr. Fond was a trustee of the Maine Missionary Society, 
 from 1847 to 1880. He was on terms of intimate friendship 
 with the secretaries of this Society, Dr. Tappan, Dr. 
 Thurston, Rev. Mr. Adams, anil fully understood the work 
 of the Society. He carried on a frerpient correspondence 
 with its secretaries, on the affairs of the Society, and, as 
 they believed, rendered them efficient help by his counsels. 
 Of this branch of Christian work he says : — 
 
i;kv. knocii pond, i>. i>. 
 
 99 
 
 I became, through this Society and my personal 
 relations with Maine ministers, many of whom are 
 graduates of the Seminary, pretty well acquainted 
 with the religious wants of Maine, and with the 
 feeble churches ; also with the sincerity and Christian 
 charity of the larger and more wealthy churches of 
 the State. I know something of the devotion of 
 Maine home missionaries, and of the sacrifices 
 made to obtain and promote the preaching of the 
 Gospel. Maine is a noble State, worth laboring for. 
 Her Christians are noble Christians. Her missionaries 
 are doing harder work and suffering greater privations 
 than many who labor in foreign fields. Unknown to 
 fame, and without the supporting sympathy of the 
 church at large, these ministers and their families are 
 wearing out their lives for the Gospel. God bless them ! 
 and bring them more into our prayers and thoughts. 
 
 At the time of my coming to Bangor, and for 
 a good many years after, "four-days meetings," 
 somewhat like the^' fellowship meetings" home 
 missionaries are now holding in the Western 
 districtSj^and which are doing so much good, were 
 frequent among the churches of the State. I have 
 often had the privilege of laboring in them, and 
 in protracted meetings and revivals of religion, 
 when m)- Seminary duties allowed. 
 
 Our students were sometimes sent out to labor 
 in such seasons, when the Holy Spirit was Teacher 
 and the work of an evangelist and pastor was 
 opened to them. Such teaching and experience 
 were invaluable to them as they stood at the 
 threshold of a life-work in the ministry. I pro- 
 
100 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 pared a series of sermons to be preached at pro- 
 tracted meetings and in times of revival, present- 
 ing, in close connection and as persuasively as 
 possible, the doctrines of grace. In years gone 
 by, I was frequently called to assist my good 
 brother, Dr. Benjamin Tappan, of Augusta, in 
 times of religious revival. Very precious seasons 
 have we enjoyed together in this work, and we 
 shall love to review them and trace their influence, 
 when we meet in heaven. 
 
 Dr. Tappan. of Norridgewoek, referring to these seasons, 
 writes: '-As to revival sermons, I never heard any that 
 seemed better adapted to their purpose than Dr. Pond's. 
 At Brunswick. I heard him preach the sermon on the text, 
 ' I thought upon my ways and turned my feet unto thy 
 testimonies," since published in a tract nam d 'Think and 
 Turn.' I have no doubt that the very interesting 
 conversions in Brunswick, in the revival of 1S34, were 
 largly owing to Dr. Ponds lucid and persuasive, as well II 
 deeply solemn, preaching of the Gospel in public, and his 
 skilful dealing with inquirers in private. I saw him 
 frequently about that time, at my father's, in Augusta. 
 I rode with him from Augusta to Brunswick. I was quite 
 charmed with his affable and instructive conversation, and 
 impressed with his wide range of knowledge and his 
 evident mental activity. I still think there are a few more 
 genial and entertaining than he was in private intercourse; 
 few theological teachers of more real goodness and 
 fraternal interest in the young men committed to their 
 charge. I need not say how highly my father esteemed 
 him ; how much he enjoyed his society, and how glad he 
 was of his assistance in times of religious interest, while 
 pastor of the church in Augusta; how gladly he availed 
 himself of his counsel, when secretary of the Maine 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 101 
 
 Missionary Society. Maine has few truer friends than Dr. 
 Pond lias been." 
 
 I remember a meeting of great interest I 
 attended with Brother Adams at Waterville ; and 
 another, when I assisted Brother McKeen at 
 Belfast. A protracted meeting in Hampden was 
 the means of bringing out a number who after- 
 ward became pillars in that church. We have 
 been greatly blessed in our churches in Bangor in 
 past years. The revivals of 1840 added to Ham- 
 mond Street Church about fort} r -five members by 
 profession. Another general revival occurred in 
 1852, in which the Sabbath School was greatly 
 blessed, and many of the children of the church 
 were gathered in, who have since proved by a holy 
 Christian profession and good service for God the 
 sincerity of their conversion. I think some fifty 
 members came into our church in that year, as 
 fruits of that revival. The most general revival 
 of religion which Ave have ever witnessed in 
 Bangor occurred in 1857. This was characterized 
 not so much by the results of preaching, as of 
 prayer-meetings and personal Christian work. 
 Union morning prayer-meetings commenced in 
 the large vestry of the Columbia Street Baptist 
 Church, and continued from eight till nine o'clock 
 A. M. The room was crowded every morning; 
 and two other like meetings were opened in other 
 parts of the city, — all filled with warm-hearted 
 Christians and earnest seekers after God. I 
 attended their meetings constantly for over three 
 months, and had the privilege of laboring in them. 
 
102 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 Several hundred persons were hopefully converted, 
 some of whom had previously been openly neglect- 
 ful of all religious principles. The churches were 
 all increased and strengthened, and for a time 
 "there was great joy in this city." 
 
 When I first came into the State, I was per- 
 mitted to engage in one of the most powerful 
 revivals I ever experienced. It was in 1834, in 
 Brunswick, in the spring of the year. I preached 
 there in connection with the pastor, Rev. George E. 
 Adams, Dr. Tappan, of Augusta, and the clergy- 
 men of the college faculty. It was during this 
 protracted meeting, at the time when Mr. Charles 
 Packard, Governor Dunlap, and other influential 
 men of Brunswick, and a number of college 
 students, were converted, who afterward became 
 members of our Seminary and went into the 
 ministry, that a remarkable spirit of prayer was 
 manifested, and God gave special evidences of his 
 power in answer to prayer. 
 
 Dr. Hamlin, of Middlebury College, referring to this 
 revival which occurred while he was in college, thus relates 
 his recollections of some of its scenes : — 
 
 " This revival commenced in the increased interest in the 
 ' praying circle 'in Bowdoin College. From being small 
 in numbers and cold in spirit, it rose to large numbers and 
 earnest zeal, so that it filled a large double hall where it 
 was held, and nearly all the students were present at it. 
 As we went out at the close of an early evening meeting. 
 Professor Longfellow passed by on the street. lie paused, 
 and asked : k What does this mean *? ' I told him it was a 
 gathering of the students for prayer, that had just closed 
 its services, lie seemed filled with surprise. 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 103 
 
 " I can never forget Dr. Tappan's remarkable prayers in 
 these revival meetings. On the evening referred to above, 
 I was late at the service in the church. The large audience- 
 room was full. I passed into a pew in the side aisle, not 
 very far up. Dr. Tappan had just begun to pray with the 
 fervor and unction we all remember. All stood in prayer : 
 just before me across the aisle rose the large erect figure of 
 Governor Dunlap. What on earth is he here for *? was my 
 thought. Only to mock and ridicule, or from a cariosity to 
 see how things go on. Soon Dr. Tappan b< gan to pray for 
 'our Chief Magistrate, now in the Divine Presence," with 
 great earnestness, as though he would move earth and 
 heaven in his behalf. lie prayed that he might have a view 
 of the sinfulness of his own heart ; that he might be afraid 
 before God; that he might be wholly humbled before his 
 Maker: that eternal things might become so real to him, 
 that, compared with a life of ease, power, and fame, irithout 
 God, he might heartily choose poverty, scorn, the loss of all 
 things, with God, with his favor and his peace. Dr. Tappan 
 continued with such earnest and personal petitions, that I 
 could only think: How mad the Governor will be! How 
 mistaken is the zeal of the good Doctor to break up, 
 perhaps, the revival by hurling such a firebrand against our 
 proud, unbelieving democratic Governor! But the prayer 
 ended. Your father preached. The arrow of Divine truth 
 •was forced home to many hearts. At the early prayer- 
 meeting, a brother gave thanks that 1 our Governor had 
 passed a sleepless night of conviction.' He soon came 
 out boldly on the Lord's side. Dr. Tappan's prayer was 
 answered." 
 
 My connection with the theological students has 
 made nie an eye-witness to the importance and 
 value of the American Education Society. I was 
 made vice-president of the Maine branch of this 
 Society in 1843, and I continued in that office 
 
104 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 until I was made president of it in 1868. I am 
 now one of the few remaining who remember the 
 origin of this Society and the venerable men by 
 whom it was instituted. I know the motives of 
 . these men and the deep sense of church necessity 
 by which they were actuated. They could not go 
 forward with their projected plans for the enlarge- 
 ment of Zion, in this and other lands, without such 
 an organization. The Society is fundamental and 
 most important, though, like all foundation-work, 
 it is most unseen. For forty-five years I have 
 been in a situation to watch its operations. I 
 have distributed over fifty thousand dollars of its 
 funds in these years; a very small per cent, may 
 have been misapplied or misused. 1 cannot agree 
 with those who discredit its importance. How 
 many useful and highly honored ministers in the 
 home and foreign fields have been fitted for their 
 work through the agency of this Society, who 
 might otherwise be yet following the plow, 
 handling the spade, or working at a trade ; use- 
 ful Christians, truly, but with the talent yielding 
 but fivefold, when now it yields a hundred-fold. 
 God bless the Education Society ! 
 
 Rev. William Jackson, d. d., of Dorset, Vermont, origi- 
 nated and set in operation the first Education Society, in 1S03, 
 for replenishing the ministiy. It was called "The Evan- 
 gelical Society for aiding needy and pious young men in 
 acquiring education for the Gospel ministry." This Society 
 continued its efforts till the formation of the American 
 Education Society and its auxiliaries; and more than fifty 
 young men were aided by it in preparing for the ministiy. 
 The American Education Society was organized, in Boston, 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 105 
 
 in 181"). The Maine branch of this Society was formed, in 
 Portland, in 1818. 
 
 My father's interest in the work of foreign missions 
 commenced soon after his conversion and was unflagging 
 till the end of li e. liis profession of religion was made 
 hut a few weeks before the departure of the first band of 
 missionaries, sent out as the first fruits of the American 
 Board of Missions, in 1S12. He soon after records, in an 
 early letter; " 1 seem to hear the voices of perishing heathen 
 calling to me." Among the books of his library given to 
 the Pacific Seminary was a complete set of the " Missionary 
 Herald. " from the " Panoplist," its first form.inlSOS. to the 
 last number of the " Missionary Herald,"' January, 1SS2. 
 These have all been read and prayed over, and bound for 
 preservation, up to the year 1SS0. Very early in my 
 father's pastorale in "Ward, he instkuted the monthly concert 
 of prayer for the conversion of the world; and to meet the 
 wants of the time, and the lack of missionary intelligence, 
 he prepared lectures on missionary topics. 
 
 He kept this branch cf Christian work before the minds 
 of his pupils. He often charged them, wherever they 
 might labor, "to love the cause of missions, and earnestly 
 endeavor with the least possible delay to spread the Gospel 
 throughout the world.*' With those who have gone from 
 the Seminary to the foreign work, he has maintained corre- 
 spondence, and followed with his thoughts and prayers. 
 News from mission fields always interested him. Since he 
 reached his eighty-fifth year, the labors of Livingstons, the 
 discoveries of Stanley, the reports from the new African 
 missions, were read with enthusiasm, anticipating the day 
 when the " Dark Continent " should be opened to Christian 
 laborers, bringing the Light of the World, and when slavery 
 and oppression should cease in all its borders. Dr. Pond 
 was a corporate member of the American Board of 
 Foreign Missions from 1832 to 1879. For years our father 
 closed his evening family-prayer with the words, so familiar 
 to many : — 
 
106 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 " Remember a world lying in wickedness, and hasten 
 the day of its complete redemption. Thou hast 
 promised, 0 God ! that thy Son shall have the heathen 
 for his inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth for 
 his possession ! 0, remember these words of promise, 
 on which Thou hast caused us to hope ; and hasten on 
 the happy time when they shall be gloriously fulfilled; 
 when ' the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth 
 as the waters fill the channels of the deep ! ' " 
 
 Dr. Pond*s interest was early awakened in the cause of 
 temperance; earlier than the formation of temperance 
 societies. In his youth, and for some years after he was 
 settled as a minister, intoxicating drinks were considered 
 as necessary; nourishing and strengthening when not taken 
 in excess. Neither weddings nor funerals were considered 
 successful without the punchbowl and toddy-stick. The 
 supply of these drinks in the cellar was considered a neces- 
 sary part of the yearly domestic outfit, and everybody 
 drank cider, wine, gin, and brandy, or New England rum. 
 This habit produced a vast amount of drunkenness. In 
 that country town in Massachusetts, where Dr. Pond's first 
 and only settlement was, cases of hopeless drunkenness 
 were frequent. Heads of families, sons, brothers, and 
 children were dropping into drunkard's graves. When 
 ministers of the Gospel met in associations and ecclesias- 
 tical councils, the large tray, covered with decanters and 
 rattling glasses, was invariably produced. Dr. Pond used 
 to tell a story of his entertainment at the house of a 
 neighboring minister, on an exchange. He was put into 
 Madam's best room, and the door was closed ; here he 
 spent his time while out of the church, the door opening at 
 intervals, when Madam looked in to ask: "Have some 
 rum ? " After he had declined the offer the third time with 
 thanks, she urged it no more. 
 
 From a " Bangor Courier," of 1839, I copy some remarks 
 
REV. ENOCH I'OND, D. I). 
 
 107 
 
 on the license system then existing in Maine, showing that 
 my father anticipated the passage of the " prohibitory 
 law." He makes the report of a committee of the Bangor 
 Temperance Union, disclaiming for that Society, formed 
 for promotion of temperance principles by moral means only, 
 any light or intention to interfere in the execution of laws, 
 referring this matter wholly to the civil magistrate, to 
 whom it officially belongs. He proceeds to state his views 
 of the existing laws; the moral support they should have 
 from the pulpit, the press, and public opinion ; the duty of 
 the magistrate to execute them, having bound himself by 
 his oath of office to that effect. 
 
 His views of the license system may be given in his own 
 words : — 
 
 Our laws provide that certain persons, under certain 
 restrictions, should be licensed to sell ardent spirits. 
 This law conferring the licensing power I consider as 
 wrong in principle and ruinous in tendency, and the 
 friends of temperance should not cease to show up its 
 absurdities and urge its repeal. 
 
 These licensing laws proceed on the principle that 
 ardent spirit, used in moderate quantities, is healthful 
 to the human system ; that it does a man good. 
 Nothing can he more certain than the fact that, taken 
 as a beverage, it is always hurtful. It contains no 
 nourishment, and of course can convey none. It can 
 only produce a momentary excitement, to he followed 
 by consequent lassitude and prostration. Ardent spirit 
 is now known to contain active poison, in respect to 
 which the only true temperance is total abstinence. 
 The licensing laws being thus based upon a false prin- 
 ciple, — in a mistaken view of the nature of the article 
 of which they treat, — it is not strange that they have 
 done no good, that their tendency and effects have been 
 almost wholly evil. It is sometimes objected to new 
 
108 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 attempts at legislation on the subject of intoxicating 
 drink, that past legislation has been so little efficacious ; 
 but does it follow that because legislation on a false 
 principle has done no good, legislation on a true basis 
 can accomplish none ; because licensing the trade in 
 such liquor has been productive of only evil, prohibiting 
 the trade can result in nothing better ? The absurd- 
 ities of this licensing system are palpable and 
 monstrous. We make laws for the punishment of 
 various crimes, and license that which we truly know 
 to be the prolific mother of almost every crime. We 
 prune the leaves and twigs of the poisonous upas-tree, 
 and water the roots. 
 
 In the " Christian Union," of August, 18S0, I find the 
 same views set forth, and the absurdities of the license 
 system shown up by vivacious and forcible comparisons. 
 I know not that for nearly fifty years lie had ceased to 
 feel the urgent necessity of a '"prohibitory law." 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 109 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 WORK OF PUBLICATION. 
 
 ,URING most of my life, I have been writing 
 
 occasionally for the press, and chiefly for the 
 periodical press. In giving a list of my piiblica- 
 tions, I can give only the principal ones. Of the 
 thousand short notices and fugitive articles which 
 have appeared from time to time, I can give no 
 account and have kept no record. My first pub- 
 lished article was a short one on " Church Disci- 
 pline," written while I was a student in divinity. 
 It grew out of a painful case of discipline in the 
 church in North Wrentham, in which I was inter- 
 ested. Before removing to Boston, where as an 
 editor I wrote a large proportion of the articles 
 published in the " Spirit of the Pilgrims," I sent 
 out in some form, two or three articles for the 
 press every year. In 1824, I published a volume 
 of " Monthly Concert Lectures," the history of 
 which I have already given. In the "National 
 Preacher," and in pamphlet or tract form, some 
 twenty-five sermons of mine have been published. 
 From 1830 to 1870, I prepared for the Sunday 
 School Union, Tract Society, and Congregational 
 Publishing House, about eighteen small works, on 
 topics biographical, or practical, or connected with 
 my studies in ecclesiastical history, — u Life and 
 Times of Wickliffe," "John Knox," "Count Zin- 
 
no 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 zendorf," "President Davies," "Sketches of the 
 Reformation," w Popery," " The Ancient Church," 
 and others of similar character. 
 
 In 1837, Dr. Pond prepared a volume on the subject of 
 M Probation." The subject is treated in the several chapters 
 entitled " This life a season of probation." " Subjects of 
 probation and its design." "Probation limited to the present 
 life," " Objections to this as in the case of infants, idiots, 
 and some heathen," " Consideration of 1 Peter, iii: 18-20." 
 It is a book of solemn truth and is influential in leading its 
 readers to realize that they are critically and solemnly 
 situated in the present life ; responsible for their opinions, 
 and with important duties to discharge one toward another. 
 
 In 1844, in connection with my instructions to 
 the classes under my charge in the Theological 
 Seminary, I prepared a course of " Lectures on 
 Pastoral Theology," which was published ; and in 
 1866 a second edition was brought out. These 
 instructions relate to the more private intercourse 
 of the young pastor with his people, including his 
 duties to them in the house and by the way ; in 
 times of sickness and affliction, in prosperity and 
 adversity ; duties to those rejoicing in hope, or 
 mourning in darkness; duties, the neglect of 
 which can never be supplied by any gifts of 
 learning or eloquence. 
 
 In 1S45. Dr. Pond carefully read and studied the works 
 of Emanuel Swedenborg. comprised in some thirty volumes. 
 The next, year he published a book which gave a statement 
 of Swedenborg's teachings and claims. It was not intended 
 as a controversial work, and was written rather to exhibit 
 to Evangelical Christians the dangerous tendencies of Swe- 
 
EEV. ENOCH TOND, D. I). 
 
 Ill 
 
 denborgian doctrines, which at that time were being 
 much pushed forward before the Christian public. 
 
 The preparation for the book was a great labor, and con- 
 stant application to it through two long vacations proved 
 nearly too much for him. As he playfully remarked, upon 
 the sudden attack of nervous prostration that followed, he 
 "'saw visions and dreamed dreams as wild as Swedenborg's 
 own." This book has had a wide circulation. It was 
 published in 1846. A second edition (revised) was pub- 
 lished in 1866; a third edition in 1874; and that is now 
 nearly exhausted, though the work is still called for. 
 
 In 1848. Dr. Pond, when a member of a committee of the 
 Maine Conference for such a purpose, prepared a " Manual 
 of Congregationalism," which has passed through two 
 editions, and has been of great service as a book of refer- 
 ence in congregation councils and churches. 
 
 When Dr. Bushnell. of Hartford, published his new views 
 of the atonement, Dr. Pond took up his pen to reply. He 
 had no personal acquaintance with Dr. Bushnell. He did 
 not question his sincerity, or the purity of his motives ; hut 
 the sentiments published in his " God in Christ " related to 
 the fundamental doctrines of our religion ; and it could not 
 be a matter of indifference to the Christian what opinions 
 were entertained in relation to them. In this " Review *' 
 Dr. Pond endeavored to hold forth beacon lights to those 
 who were in danger of making shipwreck of their faith. 
 The small volume entitled " Review of Bushnell's God in 
 Christ " was published in 1849. 
 
 In 1867, 1 published my " Theological Lectures," 
 one volume, octavo. This book was the result 
 of years of earnest thought, faithful study and 
 teaching of theological science. It has been 
 extensively used as a text-book in theological 
 seminaries, and I trust may prove valuable and 
 attractive to all thoughtful Christians. This work 
 
112 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 of my best j r ears I dedicated to the memory of my 
 reverend instructor in theology, Rev. Nathaniel 
 Emmons, D. D., of Franklin, Mass. It was first 
 published in 1867. Three editions have been since 
 published. At the time of the great fire in Boston, 
 the stereotype plates of the book were destroyed. 
 To encourage the publishers to print and stereotype 
 the work again, it was necessary to secure several 
 hundred subscribers. These were in a short time 
 procured, and the fourth edition, which is now 
 nearly exhausted, was issued. 
 
 From the many testimonials given to the value of these 
 lectures, I select but one, from ;t The New Englander " : — 
 
 "These lectures are characterized by remarkable per- 
 spicuity of thought and style, robust good sense, clear 
 appreciation of the practical bearings of doctrine, a catholic 
 and liberal spirit, simplicity and directness of argume.it. 
 and sound Scriptural truth. They are adapted to be read 
 and studied not by ministers only, but by all intelligent 
 Christians." 
 
 Dr. Pond published, in 1S70, in one large octavo volume, 
 his lectures on ecclesiastical history, under the title, 
 
 History of God's Church." This book contains his 
 lectures to the students of the Seminary, written since 
 1862; the thirty years during which he had taught church 
 history having given him time and opportunity for thorough 
 investigation and adaptation to the wants of pupils. It has 
 been highly commended by those qualified to judge of its 
 merits. His colleagues at the Seminary, at the time of its 
 publication, Professors Talcott, Herrick, and Barbour, say 
 of it: — 
 
 " This volume of Dr. Pond*s meets a want that has been 
 long and widely felt. Ecclesiastical histories in abundance 
 there are in the market ; but among them all is none that is 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 113 
 
 precisely adapted to general reading. The author has pre- 
 sented the leading facts connected with his subject with all 
 that clearness and simplicity of style for which he is dis- 
 tinguished, and has given us emphatically an ecclesiastical 
 history for the people. We anticipate for it an extensive 
 Circulation." Two editions of this work have been issued. 
 
 ••The Seals Opened; or, the Apocalypse Explained." 
 The volume with this title was published in 1871. In this 
 commentary on the book of Revelation, Dr. Pond agrees 
 more nearly with Dr. Barnes, than with Professor Stuart or 
 Professor Cowles, in ascribing the date of its writing to a 
 time subsequent to the destruction of Jerusalem, and near 
 the close of the first century of the Christian era; therefore 
 its revelations must have a wider sweep than that accorded 
 to them b}- these professors. The lessons of the Apocalypse 
 Dr. Pond understands to be these : To impress us with the 
 fact that heavenly beings feel a deep interest in all that 
 pertains to the present world, because redemption, God's 
 greatest work, is here going on : " much thought is spent on 
 us in heaven " ; to testify that whatever opposes itself to 
 God must ultimately fail; and that God's kingdom must 
 advance and stand eternally. One of the results of this 
 revelation is to excite hope in the hearts of God's people, 
 who are looking and longing lor the latter-day glory of the 
 church. What comfort also is afforded by it to the people 
 of God in darkest times ! To the imprisoned, persecuted, 
 martyred saints of the early church and later times, it 
 pointed out, in the darkness, where the dawn of a glorious 
 day would break. 
 
 in 1871, a work entitled '• Conversion" was prepared by 
 Dr. Pond, and published by the Congregational Publishing 
 Society. 12mo. 180 pp. 
 
 The nature and importance of conversion are stated, and 
 illustrations from real life given; as the marked conver- 
 sions of Paul, of Augustine, of Luther, of Willi an Cowper, 
 of Colonel Gardiner, of Edwards, and of others ; with the 
 design to show that, everywhere, in all circumstances, the 
 
114 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 great and needed change is substantially the same; while 
 the means by which God works in men, and the first holy 
 aftvetions produced and recognized by the subjects of this 
 change, may vary as widely as their individual natures and 
 surroundings. 
 
 The last volume published by Dr. Pond is an octavo of 
 six hundred and thirty pages entitled " Conversations on 
 the Bible," admirably printed and illustrated by the pub- 
 lishers, C. A. Nichols & Co., Springfield. Mass. To give 
 the plan and object of this book, I quote from the touching 
 preface : — 
 
 This work is the child of my old age. My reasons 
 for preparing it have been partly personal. I needed 
 something to do. I must have some steady congenial 
 employment, or I could not be happy. At the same 
 time, I could think of nothing on which I might more 
 appropriately employ my thoughts, at my period of life, 
 than on the Bible. I firmly believed it to be a revela- 
 tion from God to the world, "a light shining in a dark 
 place." I had made it, in one form or another, the 
 study of a long life ; my sentiments with regard to it 
 were matured and settled, and what better could I do 
 than to pass over its sacred contents, in the form 
 of question and answer, and set them forth for the 
 benefit of my fellow-men ? The conversational form 
 was adopted, as being the most familiar, and best 
 adapted, perhaps, to arrest and fix the attention. The 
 conversations are between a clerical father and his son : 
 not a mere child, but educated and about to enter on 
 studies preparatory to the ministry. The work is not 
 intended merely for children and young persons. It is 
 meant to be read in families, by Sunday-school teachers, 
 by persons of all ages and conditions of life. The son 
 does not always approach his father in the character 
 of a mere inquirer, but often as an interlocutor engaged 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. I>. 
 
 115 
 
 in carrying on a conversation, and proposing questions 
 for this very purpose. ... I commit this, my latest, 
 and perhaps last publication, to God and his people, 
 trusting that it may lead to a diligent study of the 
 Bible ; to a greater love for it and delight in it ; to 
 a firmer faith in its doctrines ; to a more strict con- 
 formity to its sacred precepts," and thus to a more perfect 
 preparation for the eternal rest that remaineth for the 
 people of God. 
 
 During the winter of his ninetieth year, he overlooked 
 the proof-sheets of this volume, often expressing the hope 
 that he might live to see its completion. This wish was 
 granted, and the pleasure of distributing with his own hand 
 the beautiful volumes to his children and many friends. 
 An excellent likeness of Dr. Pond is at the opening of this 
 book. 
 
 During the fifty years in connection with Bangor Semi- 
 nary, Dr. Pond's pen was never idle, and rarely a week 
 passed without some contribution to the press. The list of 
 articles published in prominent religious periodicals counts 
 over one hundred and fifty, and of contributions to news- 
 papers several hundred. 
 
 Dr. Pond carried on a large correspondence. He wrote 
 uncounted letters in behalf of the Seminary, and to those 
 inquiring about it, or seeking admission to it. H<? held 
 ever the pen of a ready writer towards a large circle of 
 friends and relatives, his scattered pupils and his own 
 family. 
 
 The limits we have set to this simple memorial, our 
 father's autobiography with its connecting links, and illus- 
 trations of a life so dear to all who participated in it, forbid 
 us to transcribe anything from these letters. But if this 
 great correspondence could be gathered in. what warnings 
 and encouragements, what helps over hard places, what 
 instructions, what pleadings for the right, what breathings 
 
116 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 of a submissive, trusting spirit, what words of consolation, 
 tenderness affection, would be revealed. Yet they are not 
 lost. No word for God or for humanity is ever lost. 
 
 " Writing is eternal ; 
 For therein the dead heart liveth, the clay-cold tongue is eloquent, 
 And the quick eye of the reader is cleared by the reed of the scribe; 
 And so, the mind that was among us, in its writings is embalmed." 
 
 Among original papers left by Dr. Pond are Lectures on 
 Dogmatic History, Lectures on Mental and Moral Philoso- 
 phy, under the title of k> The Christian Philosopher," a 
 volume of Sermons arranged for publication, a volume of 
 Miscellanies arranged for publication. 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 117 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE ENT BAXGOR. 
 
 T ARRIVED with my wife and six children in 
 Bangor, in June, 1832. We found it neces- 
 sary to board for two or three weeks, hut as soon 
 as possible went to housekeeping, occupying a 
 double house with the family of Professor Bond. 
 
 We had left dear friends and pleasant social 
 circles behind us, but we were cordially received 
 by new friends in Bangor. There was here a 
 choice, though small, society, kindred in religious 
 and intellectual interests. Such families as those 
 of Crosby, Adams, Coombs, Fisk, McGaw, Carr, 
 Barker, Hammond, Brown, laid beautiful founda- 
 tions of the structure of social life in Bangor. 
 
 Our domestic life in Bangor has been one of 
 mingled correction and mercy. In the spring of 
 1833, a son was born to us, Joseph. The little 
 fellow lived but three months. My eldest child 
 and daughter was married within the first year of 
 our residence in Bangor, to Rev. Wooster Parker, 
 then settled pastor of the Congregational Church 
 in Castine, Maine. A daughter, Mary Sophia, 
 was born in 1835, and a son, the Benjamin of 
 the family, in March, 1837. Besides giving my 
 daughters the best education in my power, I have 
 carried four sons through Bowdoin College and 
 the Theological Seminary. My eldest son, Enoch, 
 
118 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 entered college in 1835, when fifteen years old. 
 Until the year 1837, we had little to record in our 
 domestic life but joy. It is true we had our pri- 
 vations ; but we bore them bravely together. 
 There was plenty of hard work, and every expe- 
 dient used to make the small salary go as far as 
 possible ; but love made the work easy. Health, 
 harmony, and success bore us along smoothly ; and 
 I sometimes look back to those " days that are no 
 more " with actual longing. 
 
 But, in the spring of 1837, my dear wife, the 
 mother of my children, the one who had so sweetly 
 shared my changes, my joys, and my sorrows, was 
 attacked with disease of the lungs. Though 
 change of air, rest, and the best medical treat- 
 ment were tried it did not pass away as we hoped ; 
 but settled into pulmonary consumption. After 
 a lingering illness, she died on the ninth of Sep- 
 tember, 1838, forty-one years of age. She was a 
 noble woman ; a model wife and mother, a faith- 
 ful Christian and devoted friend. Quiet, contem- 
 plative, self-possessed, she was greatly admired by 
 all who saw her, and greatly beloved by all who 
 knew her best, to whom she was an example in all 
 the relations of social and domestic life. The loss 
 of a companion so loved and trusted seemed more 
 than I could bear. I knew not how to part with 
 her, or to live without her. In God alone I 
 sought and found consolation. 
 
 In November, 1838, my second daughter, Cor- 
 nelia, was married to Charles Proctor, M. D., of 
 Rowley, Mass. The marriage had been deferred 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 119 
 
 several months, on account of her mother's sick- 
 ness and death, to whom she was a most affection- 
 ate daughter and nurse. I could not longer re- 
 quest her to delay, though her leaving us so soon 
 after the death of my wife was a source of great 
 loneliness and anxiety. As the year rolled on, 
 I felt the need of some one to take the place of 
 her whom I had lost. My children, some of them 
 quite young, needed the watchful care and train- 
 ing of a mother. My time was filled with Semi- 
 nary, pulpit, and literary labors, and I could not 
 fill the places of both father and mother. I felt 
 the importance of the position, for which I sought 
 and obtained of God one whom I could make 
 a mother to these motherless ones. I became 
 acquainted with Mrs. Anne Mason Pearson, widow 
 of Captain John Pearson. We were married 
 in July, 1839, and she has been to us all Ave had 
 reason to expect. 
 
 We were a rather neglected set of children, and two of 
 us quite young. Left so long to ourselves, I fear we had 
 grown wilful and troublesome. But we were ready to wel- 
 come the new mother brought to us, and were attracted to 
 her by her affectionate and winning manners. As I look 
 back to that period of our family history, I wonder that a 
 lady could have been found with grace and love enough to 
 undertake the burden of such a family. She was admirably 
 fitted for her duties. We may have missed sometimes that 
 beautiful, unselfish love and indulgence which we saw 
 lavished on more fortunate companions. One can have but f 
 one mother, and home must be a shade less bright where 
 that one is wanting. 
 
 She was a woman of culture and power. Her influence 
 
120 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 was felt wherever she moved; in the household, in society, 
 in works of benevolence and public interest, she was 
 formed to be a leader. To her suggestion and efforts is 
 largely due the erection of the library and chapel building 
 of the Seminary. My father's house was always an open 
 one to old and new friends, and my mother presided hospi- 
 tably and elegantly at the well-spread board. My mother 
 was respected and beloved by the students of the Seminary, 
 and was always ready to attend to their wants, or receive 
 their confidences. Many, coming fresh from school, college, 
 or country life, were introduced by her to the influences of 
 a refining social life. The lonely were comforted, the diffi- 
 dent encouraged, the dyspeptic and the sick were nursed 
 and fed. 
 
 The years of 1846 - 47 were years of affliction 
 and bereavement to me. Two of my children 
 were settled in Massachusetts, — Cornelia, as wife 
 of a physician in Rowley, and Enoch, who gradu- 
 ated from the Theological Seminary in 1843. He 
 was married to Mary T. Blodget, of Bucksport, 
 Maine, and settled in Georgetown, Mass., six miles 
 from his sister in Rowley. Both continued useful, 
 happy, and healthy until the winter of 1846. Both 
 were seized about the same time with violent colds 
 and inflammation of the lungs. The disease in 
 both cases proved incurable. It ran into consump- 
 tion, that insatiable destroyer of the adult members 
 of my family, and took them both away. Cornelia 
 failed the faster of the two. She died on the first 
 of July, 1846. She had rare gifts of mind and 
 heart. She had in a remarkable degree the power 
 of adaptation. Though brilliant in conversation, 
 holding her place well in the society of the most 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 121 
 
 cultivated minds, ready in argument, of which she 
 was fond, and quick at repartee, she gained the 
 affection and confidence of the simplest of the 
 working-people about her, and there was uni- 
 versal mourning at her grave. She left a husband 
 and four little children. The ties that bound 
 her to life were strong, but her last hours 
 were peace. She retained her reason till the 
 last breath, and seemed wholly raised above the 
 world and absorbed in the visions of eternity. 
 
 In a letter to an absent child, my father at this time 
 wrote : — 
 
 Our dear Cornelia is no more with us. She has left 
 a dear circle of weeping friends, but she has gone to 
 join a glorious circle of friends in heaven. 
 
 Above all, she has gone to be with her Saviour, the 
 light, the sun, the joy, and glory of the upper world. 
 I feel that our loss is unspeakably great. A vacancy is 
 made which can never in this life be filled. But she, 
 the dear child, has gained more than we have lost. She 
 has the victory and gained the crown. It is dark and 
 distressing to us now, but it is all plain to God and he 
 will make it plain to us. Let us say then with the 
 Psalmist : " Though he slay me, yet will I trust in 
 him." 
 
 Enoch came home to Maine in the spring. As he parted 
 with his sister on leaving, she said, with a smile: "We 
 shall meet again soon," and so it was. Settled at the age 
 of twenty-two, his work and care were undoubtedly too 
 much for him. He could not be satisfied to labor without 
 results ; and, though possessed of the love and confidence 
 of his people, he sought most earnestly for a higher stand- 
 ard of piety for them, and for the wakening of their 
 
122 
 
 A MEMORIAL OE 
 
 consciences to see duty more clearly. A few words in an 
 early letter reveal his desire : — 
 
 " I long for more stability and active piety in the mem- 
 bers of my church." "A praying church is a minister's 
 greatest blessing. I hope the man at the helm is not 
 instrumeutally too weak for his post, but I sometimes fear 
 it. I know 1 must be humble and patient, and trust in 
 the Lord, and wait upon Him in the appointed way ; and I 
 try to do so, yet sometimes I fear my labor is in vain. I 
 earnestly desire your prayers, my dearest father, for my 
 greater faithfulness and success." 
 
 A neglected cold, over-confidence in a strong constitu- 
 tion, unwillingness to give up his chosen work, led on to 
 fixed disease. It was a painless sickness except that weari- 
 ness, fever, and chills are distressing. " There is nothing 
 the matter with me but this cough." he often said. There 
 was no dread or fear of death. He died at Bncksport, 
 December 17, 184G, aged twenty-six. He left one child, 
 a daughter; her beautiful life was cut oft" by tbe same dis- 
 ease, and at the same age with that of her father. 
 
 These losses were deeply felt. We who have lived to see 
 our father in his physical weakness unable to restrain his 
 emotions, can realize how very tender his affections were, 
 and how strong his feelings in times of bereavement. But 
 in his earlier years there was no outward sign of anguish; 
 only we noticed in the family prayers a more entire casting 
 of all care on God, and delighting in His will. " The will of 
 the Lord be done." >l God never makes a mistake." 
 
 My second son, William, was graduated at the 
 Theological Seminary, and was ordained as an 
 evangelist in August, 1852. At that time I was 
 laid up by a fit of sickness, and unable to take any 
 part or attend at his ordination. This was a great 
 trial, but T remembered "the Lord reigns," and 
 submitted to his holy will. My son left New York 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 123 
 
 in a clipper ship for San Francisco, with his bride, 
 Mrs. Caroline Woodhull Pond, in November, and 
 arrived in San Francisco the last of February, 
 1853. I little expected ever to see him again ; 
 but the good providence of God has restored him 
 to me twice, in the course of twenty years. 
 
 Our father had several seasons of sickness during the last 
 thirty years of his life, one of which w as very severe. But 
 when symptoms of great danger appeared he manifested 
 no surprise or anxiety; instead of these, there were quiet- 
 ness, self-possession, and cheerfulness even. " Have you 
 not yet exhausted your mercies, Dr. Pond ?" asked his 
 physician one day, when he had been some time in attend- 
 ance upon him. " You have a new one to recount every 
 morning." This unrepining, self-forgetting spirit, waiting 
 ever on the Lord, doubtless aided in his recovery. 
 
 My son Jeremiah Evarts became a minister, and 
 was first settled in Neenah, Wis. He was married 
 in 1857 to Miss Jeanie W. Baird, of Portsmouth, 
 Ohio; a daughter greatly beloved, who passed 
 early away, in 1871. My son, in 1874, married 
 Miss Lydia Hoadly. He has returned to preach 
 in Maine. 
 
 In 1859, my daughter Mary married George 
 Blodget, of Bucksport, Maine, where she still re- 
 sides ; and my youngest son, Benjamin Wisner, 
 was settled in Barton, Vt. He married Mary, 
 daughter of Professor Newman, of Brunswick. 
 He is now one of the examiners of patents, in 
 Washington, D. C. One daughter remains with 
 me to be a comfort and blessing. The Lord re- 
 ward and bless her. 
 
124 
 
 A MEMORIAL OP 
 
 My father was eminently social. His conversational 
 powers, his gift at story-telling, his native humor, his tact 
 in avoiding unpleasing topics, his fondness for young people, 
 made him a favorite iu every family of his acquaintance. 
 Said a daughter of one of those good deacons in Maine, who 
 in tiie old times kept a minister's home : " We used to have 
 a great many ministers stopping at our home for one or 
 more days and nights; some we liked, some we avoided, 
 some we were indifferent to. But when Professor Pond 
 came, we were always glad. There were stories and good 
 cheer, but no solemn words, no reproving looks; yet we 
 were always better and happier for his presence." My 
 father journeyed far and wide in Maine, presenting the 
 cause of the Seminary to individuals and churches, going 
 with his own horse usually, and returning on Monday, for 
 " Sabbath-day journeys " were not then so long as they are 
 now allowed to be. As I was the feeble one of the flock, 
 I was indulged in the ride with father. I was so small 
 he often threatened to put me in his pocket over Sunday, 
 yet I well understood the hearty welcome he everywhere 
 received, and how for his sake the puny child was cared for 
 also. 
 
 There was a certain dignity about him which prevented 
 great familiarity; and a gentleness and courtesy of manner 
 and speech which won the goodwill of the ignorant. His 
 sympathy and respect for the poor and unfortunate made 
 him a joyful giver, not only of money and immediate aid, 
 but of valuable time and good counsel, devising schemes 
 for better relief by making them able to help themselves. 
 He used to say : " Pity._costs nothing, money is_ easily given, 
 but to think for others is a gift indeed." He appreciated 
 the value of what was done for him very highly, and when 
 lie paid for labor done, his frequent criticism was : " 1 don't 
 Ihink you have asked enough." By all classes in society 
 my father was loved and honored. He once said, near the 
 close of life: "There is one command of our Lord's I can- 
 not obey: 'Forgive your enemies'; for 1 don't know that 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 125 
 
 I have an enemy in the world. If I have a secret enemy, 
 I freely forgive him." It was not my father's habit to talk 
 much on personal religion with the unconverted, unless they 
 sought for such conversation. lie never preached out of 
 the pulpit, and of his many stories I remember hardly one 
 which was used to -'point a moral." Even to his children 
 he rarely spoke on that subject, which we knew was nearest 
 his heart, — our own conversion. We knew, without his 
 speaking, what he most desired us to be. We were taught 
 by his life what a Christian life was. We heard his petitions 
 at the family altar. His silence and reserve on those solemn 
 themes — our own sinful state and our need of a Saviour — 
 were more eloquent than words could have been. The 
 never-to-be-forgotten words with which, two or three times, 
 he may have pressed upon us eternal truth and duty, are too 
 sacred to be revealed. They were unusual, effective, and 
 full of the Spirit. An absent son, writing to him on his 
 ninetieth birthday, expresses the same idea: 11 1 do not 
 remember the time, my dear father, in my earliest boyhood 
 when the impression was not made upon my heart, 'My 
 father is a good man, a man of God, and I must become 
 such a man as he is.' My life, I well know, did not show 
 then the power of such impressions; but that impression 
 was there, and it has borne fruit in later years. Your love 
 of study, and your patient and unremitting devotion to your 
 work, have been an incitement to me in my chosen work; 
 and I am glad I can point my children to your example of 
 industry, and of cheerful and earnest piety, as a model for 
 them." A friend who was in our family a great deal writes 
 thus of my father: " His facility in turning from one thing 
 to another as occasion required ; his passing from the study 
 to look after some domestic; affair, and then back to resume 
 his book or pen, was a rare trait. Was not his cheerful 
 meeting each event and each demand upon him evidence of 
 that faith in a constant ordering of all things by God? His 
 devotion to your mother, in those long years of her blind- 
 ness, declared the true gentleman and the true piety that 
 
126 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 is sure to show itself at home. The law of kindness was 
 on his lips ; and ' whatever his hand found to do he did it 
 with his might.' " 
 
 A long absent friend in Germany writes: "I suppose 
 infirmities may have dimmed for him the joys of earth; but 
 as his chief delight was to do the will of God, whatever 
 were the occupations of his last years, we may be sure 
 he rejoiced in them in spite of all privations and afflictions. 
 I have often recalled his sunny temper, and fondness for 
 work, and large trust in the wisdom and love of God, 
 with astonishment. It is so easy for most of us to fret, to 
 be anxious, to let an opportunity for doing good go by, 
 and to be lazy ! The thought of so much accomplished 
 brings with it the remembrance of his systematic industry 
 prompted by principle. Many lives that have been stim- 
 ulated by his teaching and example will testify, at the last, 
 to the rock-like type of his piety. He was never a builder 
 upon sand." 
 
 From another young friend, who had been much in our 
 family, and whose real heroism my father greatly admired, 
 came these words : — 
 
 " What a beautiful and blessed thing to have had all your 
 life a father to love and honor. And all the time it is run- 
 ning through my head, ' And he was not, for God took him.' 
 The kind words he spoke and the deeds which he did come 
 up one after another, through the many years I have known 
 him. Once he said to me : ' Well, Fannie, if you are not one 
 of the children, I don't know where the difference is.' I was 
 so pleased and proud at the time, and it has always been 
 a very tender memory, because I knew the affection was 
 sure to last, and I meant to be worthy of it." 
 
 One long associated with my father in the Seminary 
 writes: " I feel that I have lost a very dear friend. Whe.i 
 I first went to Bangor lie received us at his house; and his 
 kindness, magnanimity, and bright and cheerful spirit 
 endeared him to me at once, and my love for him grew, the 
 longer I knew him. 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 127 « 
 
 M He has been a man abundant in Christian work all his 
 life. The amount he has published has been very great, 
 and a very large proportion of his published volumes 
 have been widely circulated and much read. I have long 
 felt that the churches in Maine are indebted to him for 
 great services rendered them; and his influence has 
 reached far beyond that State. I am thankful to God 
 for his long, active, useful life. For him we can none 
 of us ever be sorry he is gone; for his work was done, and 
 he was so shut out, by his infirmities, from the active world, 
 that it must be with special delight he finds himself young 
 arid vigorous again, able to enter upon his Master's work. 
 What will that work be? How strange it all is!" 
 
 Iii 1874, my wife died. We had lived happily 
 together for thirty-five years, and though afflicted 
 with many infirmities, and for the last years of 
 her life totally blind, she was an affectionate wife, 
 an efficient helper in the training of the children, 
 in providing for them, and bearing with me the 
 cares and burdens of life. About six )-ears before 
 her death, we perceived cataract forming in both 
 eyes. She submitted to an operation, which was 
 unsuccessful, and she became entirely blind. She 
 suffered more or less through our whole married 
 life from neuralgia, moving from one part of the 
 body to another. At last it reached the heart. 
 She had several spasms from this- form of heart- 
 disease ; and from one, which occurred on the 
 morning of the fifth of September, she did not 
 recover. She had but a moment's knowledge that 
 she was dying and made a great effort to say 
 "Good-by, all." She was buried at Mt. Hope 
 Cemetery, on the eighth of September. There, 
 
128 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 with other loved ones, she rests, awaiting the 
 resurrection of the just. We shall never forget 
 her. I expect soon to follow her. 
 
 As we closed the long-sightless eyes, my father said: 
 " Thank God she did not live to find me dead ! " 
 
 " She has gone first, 
 Never to know ttie loneliness of parting 
 With him who was her earthly stay; 
 Who gently led her down even to the brink 
 Of the dark river, and there bade her 
 Farewell, and gave her hand to Jesus." 
 
 About the time I was seventy years old, I began 
 to be seriously troubled witli deafness. This deaf- 
 ness was partly an inherited disease, and came on 
 very gradually. It did not for years prevent my 
 attending to my recitations at the Seminary, nor 
 interfere with other duties. I wanted those who 
 addressed me to speak distinctly, but without rais- 
 ing the voice. The loss of hearing is indeed a 
 great loss, the greatest perhaps next to loss of 
 sight, yet not without its compensations. My 
 mother, who for years was afflicted with deafness 
 used to say to those who pitied her, " I get rid of 
 hearing avast amount of nonsense." Not only so, 
 but the deaf escape hearing many disagreeable 
 noises and sounds. Nature in its flitting course 
 has many unpleasant sounds. The noise of them 
 the deaf escape. It was this infirmity which 
 hastened my resignation of Church History, in 
 1881, being then in my eighty-fourth year. Since 
 the death of my two children Cornelia and Enoch, 
 there has been no death among them. They still 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 12<J 
 
 remain to me, with many grandchildren, and some 
 of the next generation. 
 
 As I look back over my past history as a hus- 
 band and father, though I have been often and 
 sorely smitten, I feel I have much occasion to 
 speak of the goodness and mercy of the Lord. 
 Few have been so much blessed in their matrimo- 
 nial connections. To have had three wives given 
 me in succession, each of whom I esteem as 
 among the loveliest and best of her sex, is a pre- 
 cious gift. My children, too, have all been, and 
 are, good and affectionate children. The departed 
 ones are, I fully believe, in Heaven. I love to 
 think of those who died in early childhood, as 
 away from me at school, — the best school in the 
 Universe, where they have the best teachers, and 
 are learning the best things in the best possible 
 manner. I expect erelong to go and see them — 
 see what progress they have made and to what 
 heights of glory they are ultimately destined. 
 For I think it not unlikely that, among the 
 brightest spirits that surround the throne, may be 
 found many, at the last, who have left this world 
 in infancy. 
 
 My six surviving children are an honor and 
 comfort to me. Some of them are filling respon- 
 sible positions in the church. Those of my grand- 
 children who have come to years of discretion 
 are, I trust, walking in the steps of their parents 
 and ancestors. The eldest (living), Dr. Edwin 
 Parker, of Hartford, Conn., is a distinguished 
 minister of the Gospel. With such a family as 
 
A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 this, part of it in Heaven, the other part a joy and 
 comfort to me on earth, who has more cause of 
 gratitude than I ? Who, with more reason, can 
 call upon his soul to bless and praise the name of 
 the Lord for all his goodness. 
 
 As to myself, having now passed my eighty- 
 fourth birthday, I feel my time that remains on 
 earth is short. Though I am now in very good 
 health, retaining most of my faculties of body and 
 mind, yet I know that I am Hearing a great crisis, 
 and should be in constant readiness for my final 
 change. I thank God that it has no terrors for 
 me. I can look forward to it without dismay. 
 Christ is the foundation of all my hopes, and, rest- 
 ing on Him, 1 know my building can never fall. 
 
 The last written of the Autobiography. September, 1875. 
 Bangor, Maine. 
 
REV. ENOCH. POND, D. D. 
 
 131 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 LAST YEARS, DEATH, AND BURIAL. 
 
 " Persons who have lived heroic Christian lives, often set in death as 
 silently as the stars set In the horizon; and they leave no testimony 
 whatever on the deathbed. Their lives are their testimony. They are 
 the best testimony any one can leave behind him. His life when he is 
 under temptation j when he is bearing burdens ; when the battle is high ; 
 how he acquits himself; what is his whole character, and what are the 
 fruits and results of his living; what these are, is a great deal better 
 testimony than any other." — II. W. Reecher. 
 
 Seven years of our father's life remain unrecorded by 
 his pen. They were prayerful, trusting, quiet, but not 
 idle years. "I cannot be happy to do nothing" was 
 a frequent remark. I think he expected and desired 
 a sudden death, but always, "as the Lord appoints. 
 If it be his will that I should be laid aside, useless and 
 a burden, for a long time, I hope I can bear it patiently, 
 but I would rather die with the harness on." Several 
 short journeys were made during these years. One 
 in the summer of 1877, to St. Stephen, N. B., which 
 he enjoyed very much. Two short visits were made 
 in Massachusetts, when he went to the old homestead 
 and looked upon the scenes of his childhood. At the 
 time of his last visit there, he prepared, and read to an 
 assembly of old friends, '-The Ecclesiastical Histoiy 
 of Wrentham," afterwards published in "The Congre- 
 gational Quarterly Review," 1878. His last visits were 
 made with his children in Warren, Belfast, and Bucks- 
 port, Maine, in the summer of 1879. His love of home 
 was very strong, and he was never quite happy away 
 from his accustomed place. He was almost severe in his 
 judgment of those who felt a change of air and place 
 
132 
 
 A MEMORIAL OP 
 
 necessary to them every season, insisting it was 
 "fashion," not health, they pursued; jet usually adding, 
 in an apologetic tone, "I don't care, however, if they 
 will let me stay at home." "Locality," as phrenology 
 terms it, was largely developed in our father's mental 
 constitution. His methodical tendencies made a routine 
 agreeable to him, and necessary to rapid work. Hit, 
 habits were formed when much was to be accomplished, 
 and when the time of work was over, these habits 
 remained fixed. He never attempted the achievement 
 of any work without a plan; and the plan, once care- 
 fully formed, was closely adhered to. A leading 
 characteristic of his mind was that, having examined 
 a subject thoroughly, and formed an opinion concerning 
 it, he could not admit of a doubt. This was frequently 
 an advantage; sometimes a disadvantage. 
 
 During the last years, our father's life varied little in 
 its routine. Those who were with him studied to con- 
 form to it as far as possible, and to prevent any pressure 
 of circumstances breaking in upon it. He never rose 
 before the sun, having as little faith in morning candles 
 as in midnight oil. The open fire, which burned on our 
 sitting-room hearth nearly twelve months in the year, 
 was his first care. This adjusted, breakfast followed; 
 a simple meal, but eaten always with good zest, having 
 the blessing of God on it. Cheerfulness sat at the table 
 with us, and often gayety; for we always had some 
 young folks there. Among our father's homely counsels 
 was this: "If you rise in the morning out of sorts, 
 melancholy, or cross, come to breakfast with a smile on 
 your face, even if it be forced, and make some one else 
 smile. Before you know it, your heart will be full of 
 good cheer, and care driven to the winds." The 
 morning prayers followed. Father read in course; 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 133 
 
 tlie Old Testament in the morning, the New Testament 
 at night. He used, generally, a form of prayer, slightly 
 varied; but the appropriate petitions and well-chosen 
 language did not grow cold or formal. There was 
 a good deal of thanksgiving in these prayers — and 
 confession, submission, dependence. The absent ones, 
 children, grandchildren, friends, were gathered in the 
 arms of faith and brought to the Lord for a blessing. 
 The kingdom of Christ, its increase and glory, was 
 always sought for, and in the name, and for the "dear 
 Redeemer's sake/* all was offered and asked. 
 
 The morning hours were often spent in the study, but 
 head and hand were frequently rested; in winter to 
 renew the fire, in summer to work in the garden. Our 
 father had a great love of gardening, and a pride in the 
 growth and perfection of his shrubs and vines. His 
 tulip-bed, where each flower vied with the others in 
 brilliant or delicate colors, was his pet in early summer. 
 His corn and small forest of bean-poles, his pride in the 
 later months. No " envious weed M was allowed to 
 reach mature growth. He used to say: "Weeds are 
 like sin in the human heart ; spontaneous of growth 
 and hard to kill out " ; and when his hoe was cutting 
 off chickweed and purslane, no doubt the inward con- 
 test was with pride and selfishness. 
 
 A refreshing nap in that easy chair, which had 
 "avast amount of sleep in it," prepared him to meet 
 and enjoy friends who might call ; or to walk out with 
 measured tread and leaning on his cane, as befitted his 
 more than fourscore years. A friend once remarked 
 on the evident pleasure with which he walked about our 
 beautiful Seminary grounds, u He remembers how David 
 said: 'Walk about Zion, and go round about her; tell 
 the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks ; con- 
 sider her palaces.'" 
 
134 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 Father sometimes said : " I have the hest pair of eyes 
 the Lord ever made," and the gift was faithfully used. 
 The morning and the evening were his times of reading. 
 Writing, either of letters or for the press, or revision 
 of previous writings, employed the time during the fore- 
 noon in the study ; but our father accomplished a vast 
 amount of reading. Increasing deafness removed him, 
 in a measure, from social life, and he found companion- 
 ship in books. Within these last years, he has selected 
 from the Seminary library a large array of well-chosen 
 books — books old and new. I should say largely his- 
 torical and biographical, — the lives and labors of the 
 fathers of tbe early church — of the early English 
 Church ; and of late biographies, which have been so 
 abundant and delightful, he has hardly missed one. 
 I used to think, as I saw him so absorbed in the story 
 of the lives of those hoty men who had jiassed on to the 
 other si lore, that he was preparing himself to join this 
 company, and meant to be no stranger to them ; just as 
 one going to a foreign land studies about the country 
 to which he journeys, and the history and character of 
 the illustrious people whom lie is to meet there. Father 
 was a great reader of religious newspapers and period- 
 icals, and wrote for them till the last year of bis life. 
 He never destroyed a religious paper. Early in each 
 week, six or eight were wrapped and directed by his 
 own band, and mailed, to do good service in other homes. 
 The last book that father read, except the Bible, was 
 a "Memoir of Dr. Joel Hawes." He had read it before, 
 but expressed fresh pleasure in this tribute to his life- 
 long friend and college classmate. My father enjoyed 
 his friends and their calls upon him very much. His 
 love of the young seemed to increase with his years, and 
 he appreciated their attentions and affection. He loved 
 
KEY. ENOCH POND, D.D. 
 
 135 
 
 to see their happy faces when he did not hear their 
 voices. "I like to see her talk, her eyes flash so, and 
 she is in such earnest," he used to say of a grand- 
 daughter. Two or three grandchildren -were always 
 with him, and he especially enjoyed them, having " all 
 the pleasure and none of the responsibility."' His 
 affectionate interest and generosity toward them was 
 unfailing, and they received more than any transient 
 gift, — the influence of his life and example. 
 
 But when some more mature friend sat near his "best 
 ear," speaking slowly and clearly, bringing out the 
 consonant sounds forcibly, and following out a train of 
 thought and conversation, the correctness of judgment 
 of men and tilings, the nice distinctions he was capable 
 of making, the quickness and originality of thought 
 shown in his replies, and the force of his expression, was 
 almost equal to his prime. 
 
 My father loved the house of God. Though for two 
 or three years unable to understand the -words of prayer 
 or sermon, he loved to see the faces of his brethren and 
 sisters, to feel that lie was still one of them, to exchange 
 greetings with them, and to unite, as far as possible, 
 with them in their worship. He felt it a duty thus to 
 honor the institution of public worship, which be 
 believed to be a divine institution. He felt his example 
 was worth something ; that perhaps a careless neighbor 
 seeing him, a deaf man, so much set on going to church, 
 might be influenced by curiosity or conscience to go 
 also. Sitting in the silence amid the swelling tones 
 of psalm or prayer, I doubt not his thoughts ascended 
 from these "lower courts" to that great congregation, 
 where, no longer a voiceless witness, he should be a 
 rejoicing hearer and singer among the alleluias of 
 heaven. The interests of the church, of which he had 
 
136 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 been a member forty-nine years, were very dear to him. 
 He gave liberally toward its support and to the benev- 
 olent causes there presented. He sought at all times 
 its peace and purity, and was faithful to his covenant 
 vows. What be was to his pastor, Rev. S. P. Fay, now 
 of Dorchester, Mass., who for tbirteen years stood in 
 that relation to him, will tell : — 
 
 He was so much to me in the thirteen years of my life 
 in Bangor ; I have come to esteem him so highly as a noble 
 Christian man and sincere friend, that were I still his pastor 
 I could find no words to express my sense of loss at his 
 death. Almost every week I saw him in his happy home. 
 Almost every Sabbath for thirteen years I looked upon his 
 devout and earnest face, as lie sat in that first pew, in his 
 sincere worship of Ins God. He was a model parishioner. 
 I never shall forget how wisely and kindly lie looked upon 
 my imperfections ; and how encouragingly he used to 
 speak to me; and how devoutly he used to pray for me; 
 how sincerely he rejoiced in every gain to his dear Lord, in 
 the church. In a word, he had all those virtues which 
 made him a rare treasure to any minister, and a rich bless- 
 ing to any church. 
 
 And then what a genial friend lie was ! How 3'oung he 
 kept his heart ! How he loved a good story ! What a merry 
 ring his laugh had ! It is rare to find so admirable a temper, 
 and so kind a heart, and so large a brain, and so devoted a 
 piety, in one and the same man. He never sent any one 
 away with a sad heart. To the poor lie was a benefactor; 
 to the rich an example. His piety went hand in hand with 
 his generosity, and he always thanked God for the oppor- 
 tunity to do good. He seemed to have gained a perfect 
 submission to the will of God; a serene and undisturbed 
 joy under afflictions and disappointments; a bright example 
 of Christian purity and growth. The last time I ever saw 
 the dear old man, he was in his ninetieth year, reading the 
 proof-sheets of lus last book. His piety, humility, and 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 137 
 
 love appeared most attractive in those last days of his 
 whitened locks. For him to live was Christ. To work for 
 his Master was his " loved employ," and he did this work 
 up to the time his Master called him. 
 
 The last Sabbath in November, 1881, was the last 
 time father filled his accustomed seat at the church. I 
 do not think he suj>posed it to be the last. It was no 
 more difficult for him to descend from his carriage or 
 ascend the stairs and walk to his pew, than it had been 
 for several weeks. But we saw the end was near ; even 
 those who only noted the increasing feebleness of his 
 handwriting took the alarm. This is evident in a 
 letter from his son in San Francisco. He writes to his 
 father : — 
 
 But your handwriting speaks to me far more forcibly 
 than the words it conveys. I feel as though your eldest 
 living son's strong arms ought now to be under you; and I 
 can hardly bear to be away so far. In heaven, it may be, 
 you will be nearer to me than you can be shut up close in 
 the house in Bangor. But to feel you were not there ; that 
 I could not write to you, — you cannot think what a void it 
 would make and the sense of privilege I should lose. It 
 comes to me, as never before, in your letter written, almost 
 for the first time, with a hand that told of enfeeblement and 
 old age. God bless you, dear father, and make each day a 
 little sunnier than the day before, till he shall take you 
 easily and sweetly to himself. Your loving son, 
 
 WILLIAM. 
 
 Father's last letter was written to his old friend Rev. 
 Stephen Thurston, of Searsport, who for a very long 
 time had been feeble in mind and body. It was written 
 with great difficulty, but from regard to Dr. Thurston's 
 earnest wish, lie attempted the task. It concludes thus: 
 "What the Lord means to do with me, I do not know, 
 nor am I anxious. I am in the best hands in the 
 
138 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 universe, and there I desire to lie submissive and happy. 
 I trust you feel and enjoy the same. I love you and 
 honor your memory. May you be faithful unto death, 
 and obtain the crown of life. I am tired. My work on 
 earth is done ; but I know I love God my Saviour, and 
 I expect to go and dwell forever with him." 
 
 The following description of the beautiful old age of Dr. 
 Hodge, of Princeton, is also an accurate delineation of our 
 father's life as it drew to a close : " Though he was gener- 
 ally well, he was weak and often weary. Though he was 
 beautiful, it was the wasting beauty of the autumn leaf. 
 Though he reclined with an unwavering mind and confidence 
 on a supernatural hope, his spirit and life were eminently 
 natural. Though he had no fear, he had no desire, to die. 
 He looked beyond the world, rather than rose entirely above 
 it. His interest in all human things was genuine and strong, 
 and his cheerfulness was never-failing, yet often tinged 
 with a pathetic wistfulness, arising from an habitual sense 
 of the imminence of his own departure." 
 
 After the thirtieth of December, 1882, father's failure 
 was rapid, but he was cheerful and entirely free from 
 suffering, except that which was caused by weariness. 
 Saturday afternoon, on the thirtieth of December, Pro- 
 fessor Sewall sat with him a short time, and he spoke 
 of the hopes of the future life. Father said, with a great 
 deal of emphasis : " I cannot have any doubts about the 
 future. I think I know I am a friend of God. I love 
 him. 1 submit to his will. I love his service and his 
 people." 
 
 Dr. Lyman Beecher, my father's dear and early 
 friend, said to his daughter, when he was eighty-five 
 years old : " Harriet, I have been reviewing my 
 evidences. I have been putting the question to myself 
 just as 1 would to a newly converted person, or press it 
 
KEY. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 139 
 
 on a sinner ; and I have come to the conclusion, I have 
 a right to hope." 
 
 January 8, 1882, was the Sabbath day. In the 
 morning, father conducted family worship. He read 
 from the fourteenth chapter of John, stopping at the 
 fifteenth verse. It was with difficulty he read, and it 
 was the last time. That morning he closed his Bible 
 forever. He was, through the day, more wakeful than 
 usual, and sat in his accustomed seat at the front 
 window watching the people going to and returning 
 from church. He talked very little, but was quiet and 
 sweet. Remarking his silence, one asked if he were 
 troubled about anything. "Nothing, nothing; don't 
 think I am unhappy because I don't talk," he replied. 
 He prayed with us on that evening, for the last time. 
 He retired early, but had a disturbed night. From this 
 time his days were wearisome and his nights broken ; 
 perplexed with dreams so vivid he could scarcely 
 believe they were dreams. One night he is settling 
 a church quarrel; another, discussing some difficult 
 theological points ; again, he is laboring in a season 
 of revival in some church, or offering a prayer at 
 a communion table. It seemed as if his mind, now 
 unrestrained by the feeble bod}-, returned in its 
 freedom to the old tracks of thought and action. At 
 times he lost his consciousness of place, and imagined 
 himself away from home. His appeals to us to take 
 him home wrung our hearts. But this passed soon, 
 and there came back to his bewildered soul a full 
 recognition of the beloved room where he had spent so 
 much of his life. One said to him : " You shall always 
 have this home till you go to your heavenly home. Do 
 you fear or dread that change ? " " Mo," he replied, 
 " no fear, no dread ! " The tide of life was flowing out. 
 
140 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 No filial love could detain him. As absent children 
 gathered about him, he recognized them and had a 
 pleasant word for all, but expressed no surprise. 
 
 On the evening of January 19 (Thursday), he had a 
 heavy chill. It was the beginning of the end. Though 
 he spoke to us Friday morning, he could only with 
 difficulty be roused from the sleep that had fallen upon 
 him. Friday night the sleep became heavier; there 
 was no pressure of recognition from his hand — no 
 response to the voice he heard best and loved most. 
 All night we watched him, as he lay asleep with no 
 sign of life, except the short hurried breathing, and till 
 noon on Saturday-) when, without awaking, the change 
 came, and the pure and happy spirit was in the presence 
 of God. 0, to follow it, and witness the joy of the 
 wakening ! But the door closed. It was but a going 
 to sleep and waking beyond — to be " forever with the 
 Lord." Death, so long anticipated, was left behind 
 forever ; mortality was swallowed up of life. 
 
 The tolling of the Seminary chapel bell made known 
 the death of Dr. Pond to his many friends all over the 
 city. Sorrow was mingled with thanksgiving, that to 
 their honored friend an entrance had been given to 
 that "city which hath foundations," whither through 
 the long pilgrim life his feet had been tending. 
 
 The funeral services were at the Hammond Street 
 Church, on Tuesday afternoon, January 21. The pulpit, 
 tin' organ, and Dr. Pond's pew in the church, were 
 draped in mourning. A beautiful bunch of calla-liliefl 
 in front of the pulpit, drooped over the casket, which 
 rested in front of the altar. On the right of the altar 
 was a cross, composed of tea-roses ; on the left a column 
 of ivy ; a sheaf of ripened wheat and a wreath of ivy 
 lay on the casket. Funeral services were opened by 
 
KEV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 141 
 
 the singing of the hymn, " Give me the wings of 
 faith to rise," by the Seminary quartette. Selections 
 of Scripture were read hy Professor Paine, after which 
 the hymn " Art thou weary ? " was sung. Professor 
 J. S. Sewall made an address, speaking of the life, 
 character, and death of the deceased, i>raising Qod for 
 having made our departed friend what he was. Rev. 
 G. W. Field offered a prayer of such fervency and 
 eloquence, that it seemed like an inspiration. A closing 
 hymn, " Father, rest from sin and sorrow," was sung, 
 and the benediction pronounced. Friends gathered 
 to take a farewell look at the face so well known and 
 beloved. 
 
 Iu the cemetery of Mount Hope his body was laid 
 under the snow, there to rest till the dawn of the morn- 
 ing of resurrection, when it shall come forth a glorious 
 body, fit dwelling for the purified spirit. 
 
 " It doth not yet appear what we shall be : but we 
 know when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for 
 we shall see Him as he is." 
 
142 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 ADDRESS AT THE FUNERAL OF DR. POND. 
 
 BY PROFESSOR JOHN S. SEWALL, D. D. 
 
 There are crises in our experience when life is measured 
 by events rather than by the flight of time. At such 
 periods we discover how near the visible and material 
 parts of life are to the unseen, and how in our common- 
 place duties we are treading on the verge of eternity. 
 Such a crisis has come to this family, who are to-day 
 called upon to bring forth their dead to the burial. 
 Such a crisis has come to our Seminary, to-day bereaved 
 of one whose history for a half a century is its history, 
 and every fibre of whose life lias been braided into its 
 progress, and struggles, and triumphs. 
 
 This is not the place for a eulogy upon our venerable 
 father who has gone up from us. We have gathered, 
 a company of friends, neighbors, and fellow-citizens, to 
 do homage to his memory ; and we instinctively feel 
 that the most fitting honor we can render is to praise, 
 not him, but God, who made him what he was. We 
 thank God, therefore, for that original endowment of 
 active mental energies which so well equipped our 
 revered instructor and friend for his laborious life. We 
 thank God for the courage, the patience, the hopeful 
 spirit, which carried him over so many obstacles, and 
 lighted his way through so many dark hours. We 
 thank God for the practical wisdom, the sagacity, the 
 cordial interest, and parental tenderness, which guided 
 the Seminary out of its early discouragements into a 
 position of honorable usefulness and assured success ; 
 which developed its inner life not into a sort of 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 143 
 
 monastic seclusion, but into the cordial relations of 
 family affection ; which made his pupils rely upon him 
 not simply for instruction, but for counsel and 
 sympathy ; and which widened his Christian philan- 
 thropy beyond the circle of his home, beyond the 
 Seminary, the city, or the State, and give him a keen 
 interest in all that might help forward the kingdom of 
 Christ in any part of the world. 
 
 It was given to this man to live two lives, each a 
 complete and well-rounded career in itself. If lie had 
 been taken away at the end of the first, men would 
 have said that his long pastorate and the years of 
 editorial toil which followed had already filled out the 
 measure of a useful life. But instead, the call of the 
 Lord transferred him to this other sphere, and here fifty 
 years more awaited him, of equal laboriousness, and of 
 still more signal usefulness. And during this busy 
 half century how deep his roots have gone down into 
 the life of the Seminary, into the community, into the 
 churches. We honor him for what he was ; hut we 
 honor Christanity more, which makes such a character 
 possible. 
 
 In such hours as this we stand in the presence of 
 realities: God, heaven, immortality, are real. Who can 
 stand by the dead, and, surrounded by those emblems 
 which show the true significance of life, deny that there 
 is a personal, loving Father in heaven? Who can 
 watch the steady maturing of a character in all that is 
 gObd and honest and true, and think for a momenl that 
 all that 'slow accumulation of the best and noblest in 
 tlie human soul is forever quenched in the grave? Our 
 logic may fail us. It is easy to doubt. But the 
 demonstration of a righteous life sweeps away our 
 sophisms, and we know in whom we have believed. 
 
144 
 
 A MEMORIAL OE 
 
 Young men of the Seminary, here is the true argument 
 of the preacher. 
 
 Our thoughts rise to-day to follow him who was risen 
 into the presence of his Saviour. What a welcome has 
 greeted him there ! While we on earth surround his 
 dust with these emblems of mourning, we can well 
 imagine the acclamations of joy with which the 
 immortal spirit is received into the shining ranks above. 
 I stood on the steps of the Court House in Boston, and 
 witnessed the return pf a Massachusetts regiment 
 from the war — a meagre fragment of it, coming 
 home travel-stained and battle-stained ; ami with the 
 thousands around me I too wept and cheered by turns. 
 But the welcome would have been just the same had I 
 not been there to share it, would have been the same 
 had I never known of it. So to-day, though we see it 
 not, I believe the welcome is just as certain which 
 greets the soldiers of the Lord's host on earth who arc 
 summoned to lay their armor by, and return home to 
 the courts of the great King. And we can dimly 
 imagine with what wondrous endearments this our 
 venerable father has already been received into the 
 company of the redeemed, and how the friends of his 
 youth and of his prime are gathering around to welcome 
 him to the joys of the Eternal City. The message which 
 came over the wires this morning from the distant son 
 in California, "Amen! The chariot of Israel and the 
 horsemen thereof ! " may well find an echo in all our 
 hearts ; and not in ours only, but in the hearts of all the 
 redeemed on earth, as they hear of one another of their 
 number returning home to heaven. Amen ! so be it ! 
 The Judge of all the earth doeth right. And the shoul 
 is caught up by the minstering spirits in the air, and 
 by the hosts of the saints above, and is echoed from 
 
REV. ENOCH POND, D. D. 145 
 
 company to company : Amen ! so be it ! Servant of God, 
 well done ! Rest now from thy labors, and enter thou 
 into the joy of thy Lord. 
 
 A request was made to the children of Dr. Pond, 
 that the pupils, friends, and fellow-citizens of their 
 revered and beloved father might share in the erection 
 of a suitable monument to mark his grave. " Thus we 
 wish to commemorate an honored life, which for half a 
 century was pre-eminent among us for piety, philan- 
 thropy, and useful service, not only to the Seminary but 
 also to the City of Bangor." 
 
 Such a monument has been erected in the family 
 burying-place in Mount Hope Cemetery. It bears this 
 inscription : — 
 
 ENOCH POND, d. D. 
 
 BORN IN WRENTHAM, MASS. 
 DIED IN BANGOR, ME. 
 
 January 21, 1881. Aged 91 years. 
 
 For Fifty Years Professor in Bangor Theological Seminary. 
 
 "My Father! My Father! The Chariot 
 Of Israel and the Horsemen Thereof." 
 
 Erected by the Alumni of the Seminary, and other friends. 
 
 My father used a form of prayer in the family worship 
 morning and evening. At our request he wrote out some 
 years ago his evening prayer. It is this : — 
 
 Our Father who art in heaven, we humbly bow 
 before thee this evening, that we may offer to thee 
 our evening sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise. 
 Thou hast mercifully spared us another day. 
 Thou hast added another day to our forfeited 
 lives. We thank thee for all the mercies of the 
 
146 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF 
 
 day. Thou hast supplied our wants ; thou hast 
 blessed us in our undertakings ; thou hast pre- 
 served us from accident and evil, from sickness 
 and death ; thou hast brought us to the close of 
 the day, rejoicing in the goodness and mercy of 
 the Lord. And now, O God, we implore thy 
 blessing and protection through the darkness and 
 silence of the night. May we lay ourselves down 
 and sleep in quiet ; may all danger and evil sleep 
 around us ; and in the morning may we awake 
 refreshed and invigorated to enter on the duties 
 of another day. And thus wilt thou be with us 
 through all the remaining days of our lives. 
 Whether many or few, may they all be spent in 
 thy service and to thy glory. May we do with 
 our might whatever our hands find to do in every 
 work of faith and labor of love, that when our 
 time on earth is spent, and we are called away, 
 having nothing more to do or suffer here below, 
 we may have an abundant entrance administered 
 to us into the everlasting kingdom and joy of our 
 Lord. 
 
 We look to thee, O Lord, for the pardon of our 
 many sins. We pray for an interest in thy favor 
 which is life, and thy loving kindness which is 
 better than life. May thy blessing rest upon this 
 household. May all the members of this family 
 belong to thine own family, and be heirs together 
 of the grace of life. 
 
 Wilt thou be gracious to all those who should 
 be remembered in our evening prayer — dear 
 absent relatives and friends ? wilt thou be near and 
 
KEY. ENOCH POND, D. D. 
 
 147 
 
 gracious unto them ? Watch over them in mercy 
 and bless them as they individually need. Bless 
 the church of which we are members, and pour 
 out thy Spirit upon it, and may many be added tu 
 it "of such as shall be saved." Remember a 
 world lying in wickedness, and hasten on the day 
 of its complete redemption. Thou hast promised, 
 O God, that thy Son shall have the " heathen for 
 his inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth 
 for his possession." O, remember these words of 
 promise on which thou hast caused us to hope, 
 and hasten on the happy time when they shall be 
 gloriously fulfilled — when the " knowledge of the 
 Lord shall cover the earth, as the waters fill the 
 channels of the deep." 
 
 And now we commit ourselves and all that is 
 dear to us to thee. Watch over us, provide for 
 us, and receive us at last to Thine Eternal King- 
 dom, — all which we humbly ask in the worthy 
 name of Christ out Saviour. Amen. 
 
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