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MEMOIRS 
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 OP THE 
 
 REV. MATTHIAS BRUEN, 
 
 \v\ 
 
 L AT 
 
 PASTOR OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 IN BLEECKER-STREET, NEW-iTORK. 
 
 NEW-YORK; 
 
 JOHN P. HAVEN, AND C. G AND H. CAHVIL : 
 
 CAREY AND LEA, AND TO WAR AND HOGAN, P'IILADELPHIA: 
 
 AND PIERCE AND PARKER, JbOSTON. 
 
 1831. 
 

 
 Hnteret) according to the ^ct of (KOHfircss in the year one thousand 
 eight hundred and thirty-one, by Williaini F. Geddes, in the Clerk's 
 Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 There is no study more interesting than that 
 of the mind of man, whether regarded in its 
 original dignity — the pure off- spring of God; 
 or as perverted by alienation from its Source, 
 or as recovered through the incarnation of 
 Christ. 
 
 In each of these views human character va- 
 ries indefinitely and will vary forever. Dr John 
 Pye Smith,* says of Mr Bruen, in a letter 
 occasioned by his death, — ^^ My dear and never 
 
 ♦Author of "Scripture Testimony to the Divinity of Clirist," &e. 
 
IV ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 to be forgotten friend Avas an extraordinary 
 man. In him were found qualities which we 
 think ourselves very happy to discover dwell- 
 ing apart^ each having a separate bosom for its 
 temple.'' That the image of one so peculiarly 
 beautiful in his moral and intellectual structure^ 
 might for a while be kept from forgetfulness, 
 led to the request which this publication has 
 fulfilled. 
 
TNTRODUCTTON. 
 
 The consciousness of possessing some ma- 
 terials for a memoir, which no other person 
 could possess, induced the compiler to yield 
 to an urgency which in any circumstances it 
 would have been very painful to disappoint. 
 Now however, that the attempt has been made, 
 a still more painful sentiment arises — the fear 
 of causing disappointment by the imperfect 
 execution of a task which is worthy of the 
 exertion of a more skilful hand. 
 
 It has been difficult to attain some informa- 
 tion which ought to have found a place in this 
 
VI INTRODUCTIOJf. 
 
 little work, relative to the earlier years of 
 Mr Bruen. This however is not much to 
 be regretted. In most memoirs the juvenile 
 period of life furnisiies but little that is in- 
 structive 5 nor is it till the moral character 
 becomes developed, and the active period of 
 manhood arrives, that we desire more minute 
 details. It is therefore in the years which con- 
 cluded a life daily increasing in its useful 
 influence, that the lack of materials is to 
 be lamented ; and it is with feelings of pro- 
 found regret, that in this case a sketchy de- 
 lineation of the last few years is presented, 
 instead of a finished picture. Passages of 
 many letters which would have come home to 
 the bosom of the reader, have been for obvious 
 reasons suppressed. While others, of no great 
 interest except to those who received them, 
 have been inserted, for the mere lack of other 
 details referring to the period of their dates. — 
 If literary fame had been an object very im- 
 
INTRODUCTIOX. VII 
 
 portant in his sights it would be unjust to bis 
 memory to publisb familiar letters, witb only 
 slight verbal alterations, Avritten with amaz- 
 ing rapidity, often at the close of toilsome days, 
 and with tlie indifierence to style, which con- 
 fiding friendship alloAvs. It is certainly im- 
 portant that they should bear the stamp of 
 genuine productions, and not lose their indi- 
 viduality by the improvement of the style. 
 
 To that country which he more than any 
 man, has taught us to love ; — To that church 
 in whose prosperity he has taught us to feel an 
 animated interest ; — To those friends who, in 
 common with us, deplore his early loss — this 
 imperfect Memorial is presented, accompanied 
 by the fervent wish that it may be enlivening 
 and instructive to some of its readers. 
 
LIFE OF 
 
 MATTHIAS BRUEN 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 When any arrangement of the Supreme Ruler 
 baffles our calculations and our wishes, how readily 
 do we exclaim — " It is a mysterious dispensation — It 
 is an untimely event" — Blind, yet unwitting of his 
 blindness, the Jiiiite sets about measuring the con- 
 duct of the Infinite, and having formed his own petty 
 plan of what ought to be, he terms the plan of the 
 Eternal mysterious, and marvels that He should act 
 differently. When we see a man eminently quali- 
 jfied for important services, who has gone through 
 long and arduous preparatory discipline, and is now 
 entered on a course of successful exertion, suddenly 
 smitten by disease, and cut off in the midst of his 
 days , before the circle of which he was the centre, 
 has had time to adjust itself to the new and unlook- 
 ed for event, the voice of feeling, as well as of 
 disappointed expectation, exclaims, " mysterious dis- 
 
 B 
 
2 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 pensation — untimely event!" And so it is an untimely- 
 event to us, if we can cast our eyes no further than 
 the boundary of our ov^rn httle circle. Sad ruin of 
 a rare machine of intellectual and moral power — 
 Sad devastation of those means which are fitted to 
 elevate the tone of human character — Sad frustration 
 of those anticipations on which the Holy One himself 
 looks with complacency! 
 
 The disappointed mourner must however re- 
 member, that as no man was ever created solely 
 for the profit of others; so was no man ever re- 
 moved from this our living scene, solely for their 
 privation, or punishment He is still in the universe 
 of God, still a member of the great system of things 
 that shall shew forth his glory. We have lost him. 
 His philanthropic exertions shall no longer aid in 
 subduing the oppressions, and alleviating the mis- 
 eries of his fellows. No longer shall his tender 
 sympathy soften our cares. No longer shall his 
 sage counsel aid our perplexities. No longer shall 
 his prayers call down blessings on our spirits. But 
 he! Is he lost? Have his thoughts perished with 
 him? Is his experience all unavaihng? Are his 
 generous affections, his melting sympathies all swal- 
 lowed up by the devouring grave ? Or are they all 
 merged in a mere negative passive enjoyment in 
 heaven, a region with which we are acquainted 
 only by name? No — His Lord had need of him in 
 another country. We thought he was fit to live, 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 8 
 
 and would fain have detained him. God saw that 
 he was fit to die, and called him hence. How far 
 are we mistaken when we regard death as having 
 quenched the mental activity which has excited our 
 admiration and love. As surely as the struggle 
 which introduces a human being into this suffering 
 dying world, is the fore-runner of a series of voli- 
 tions and exertions ; — so surely is the struggle which 
 dismisses the faithful soul, an introduction to that 
 unsuffering kingdom where plans are formed with- 
 out selfish solicitude, and action exists without toil ; 
 and where all that in this world is accompanied 
 with perplexity and perturbation, shall be met by a 
 perfect acquiescence in the will, and a perfect con- 
 fidence in the power and goodness of God. 
 
 The scriptures furnish us not so much with a 
 description of what heaven is, as of what it is 
 not. We have therefore nothing to encourage us 
 to minute conceptions of what its positive occupa- 
 tions consist in. But knowing as we do, that benevo- 
 lence even in this sinful world leads to strenuous ex- 
 ertion, can we suppose that the benevolence of the 
 land of glory is slothful or drowsy ? Or that where 
 God the centre of love dwells, there is no occupa- 
 tion for those emotions in which He delights, and 
 which He must delight to see producing all their 
 heavenly fruits. 
 
 The very events which most we deplore, must 
 on consideration teach us, that there is another and 
 
4 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 a nobler scene of usefulness for man. He has been 
 but a pupil on earth, and when we see him carried 
 from us just when he has attained something of that 
 for which he strove, we cannot suppose that the 
 Being who makes nothing in vain, has cut him off 
 from the exercise of those powers so calculated to 
 give glory to their Creator. 
 
 "This excellent mechanism of matter and mind 
 which beyond any other of His works, declares the 
 wisdom of the Creator, and which, under His guid- 
 ance is now passing the season of its first prepara- 
 tion, shall stand up anew from the dust of dissolution, 
 and then, with freshened powers, and with a store 
 of hard-earned and practical wisdom for its guid- 
 ance, shall essay new labours, in the service of God 
 who by such instruments chooses to accomplish His 
 designs of beneficence. That so prodigious a waste 
 of the highest qualities should take place, as is implied 
 in the notions which many christians entertain of the 
 future state, is indeed hard to imagine. The mind 
 of man, formed as it is, to be more tenacious of its 
 active habits, than even of its moral dispositions, is, 
 in the present state, trained often at an immense 
 cost of suffering, to the exercise of skill, of fore- 
 thought, of courage, of patience ; and ought it not 
 to be inferred, unless positive evidence contradicts 
 the supposition, that this system of education bears 
 some relation of fitness to the state for which it is 
 an initiation? Shall not the very same qualities 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 5 
 
 which here arc so sedulously fashioned and finished, 
 be actually needed and used in that future world of 
 perfection ? Surely the idea is inadmissible that an 
 instrument wrought up at so much expense to a 
 polished fitness for service, is destined to be sus- 
 pended for ever on the palace walls of heaven, as 
 a glittering bauble, no more to make proof of its 
 temper!"*' 
 
 Such thoughts put to silence our regrets for an 
 "untimely" removal, and enable us to trace with 
 chastened admiration, the wisdom of the divine 
 guidance, which has led the departed soul from its 
 first entrance into the spiritual life, through all the 
 intermediate stages of learning, suffering, and act- 
 ing, up to its entrance on life Eternal ! 
 
 In that blessed region on which the just enter, all 
 things must be new, surprising, overwhelming, to 
 the soul ; a style of existence strange to the spirit ; 
 a dwelling place whose modes are untried; society 
 all pure, all energetic, all overflowing with felicity ; 
 one Presence, whose Holy Majesty, we of this scene 
 cannot, and if we could, we dare not realize. But 
 mighty as is the change, trying as appears to us the 
 introduction, the spirit is encouraged to enter; for 
 it is to the presence of a reconciled Father, and of 
 a gracious and exalted Redeemer. 
 
 How different, may we not without presumption 
 believe; — were the emotions of our removed brother, 
 
 * Natural History of Enthusiasm, p. 153. 
 
6 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 when guided and welcomed by divine compassion, 
 to the courts of heaven, from those experienced by 
 his sensitive modesty, on making his way in foreign 
 countries, into the society of his fellows ! The deli- 
 cacy, the painful sensibility betrayed by him, on 
 first seeking the hospitality of those with whom his 
 affectionate heart found a home on the other side 
 of the Atlantic, is still present to me. The conflict 
 between the desire to act the frank and practised 
 traveller, and that natively retiring temper, which 
 would rather hnger under the cheering influences 
 of friendship, than roam adventurously amid the 
 conflicting hurry of a heartless world; the heart 
 charged with all the melting charities, yet looking 
 out with caution, yielding itself warily, and ex- 
 panding at last under the confiding sympathies of 
 christian sentiments; all these are before me now, 
 vivid as they were in the summer of 1817, when 
 first he crossed the threshold of his "Scottish 
 home." Those who knew our lamented friend, 
 know how attractive was his appearance; but those 
 only who received him, knowing nothing beyond 
 his name and country, could experience the ani- 
 mated interest of developing his sentiments by 
 slow degrees, and discovering after some solici- 
 tude on the subject, that he was a lively and watch- 
 ful Christian. He afterwards described the process 
 of his own mind, in reference to his new friends, as 
 nearly similar; and in after days of unchecked 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 7 
 
 frankness of communion, wc have mutually re- 
 ferred to a conversation on caring for the souls of 
 relatives, in vi^hich he had alluded to his private 
 conferences and prayers v^^ith the juniors of his 
 own family, as the point at which each of us be- 
 came sure of a heavenly bond of union. It was at 
 this point that we learned, not to dread the forma- 
 tion of a friendship, which must soon experience 
 the pang of having a wide ocean to divide us. It 
 was here that we felt we were acquiring treasures 
 for Eternity. In twelve years of the closest inti- 
 macy, and the minutest sympathy, the bond has 
 been but the more closely knitted; and now though 
 severed by a darker gulph than the Atlantic, we 
 are still friends, and look back on those broken 
 bonds, not with helpless sorrow, but with chastened 
 gratitude. 
 
 When he entered his Eternal abode, he knew 
 that he should meet none who did not honor his 
 Lord; when he entered the abodes of strangers on 
 earth, he had reason to tremble lest he should meet 
 with none who recognised his authority. In pro- 
 portion to his fear was his joy, when he discovered 
 those who were no strangers to his experience, and 
 with whom he could participate his joys and fears. 
 He complained of the unsettled state of traveUing, 
 as being very adverse to spiritual advancement, 
 and rejoiced to pause and collect himself, and em- 
 brace a cessation from long continued action, for 
 
MEMOIRS OF 
 
 inward meditation, and communion with his God 
 If he rejoiced, no less did his new friends rejoice 
 to hear the language of their adopted country, 
 from lips from a foreign land, and to find their 
 confessions and petitions poured out at the family 
 altar by a stranger, with a union of sympathies, 
 familiar as if they had been reared and educated 
 together. The heart is in such circumstances quick- 
 ly unlocked. The language of fellow pilgrims is 
 the language of our Father's house; and that at- 
 traction which made our lamented brother quickly 
 feel himself at home on earth, has doubtless, in a 
 far superior degree, familiarized his now glorified 
 spirit to the blessed dwelling place where there is 
 no alloy of evil in the friendship he is forming, and 
 where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. 
 
 This solicitude about spiritual improvement was 
 a convincing evidence that he had chosen the hea- 
 venly country for his country, and the God of 
 heaven for his portion. How often is the period 
 spent in foreign travel, regarded by the young as 
 a period of license, when they may cast off* the 
 restraint of early training, and under the plea of 
 improving by seeing every thing, participate in 
 scenes of folly, and plunge into enjoyments, which 
 in presence of their christian friends, and their 
 church, they would think sinful. In this respect 
 Mr Bruen was a pattern of singleness of view, 
 and oneness of purpose. The observer to whom 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 9 
 
 his conscience gave account, is every where pre- 
 sent. The purity after which he aspired admitted 
 of no stolen indulgence, of no secret stain. With 
 a mind whose expanded observation might have 
 found an apology for examining man under all his 
 varied phases; with purposes of usefulness in future 
 life, which might have led him to imagine that 
 mingling with the lighter part of society would 
 teach him how to influence it, he still walked cir- 
 cumspectly, and kept himself unspotted from the 
 world, justly believing that the surest way to have 
 a salutary moral influence on others, was to keep 
 himself pure. 
 
 Such was the character of Mr Bruen, and such 
 the impression made by him in his twenty-fourth 
 year. It was left for protracted and confiding in- 
 tercourse to dovelope the course of his past life. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Rev. Matthias Bruen was descended from 
 John Bruen Esquire, of Bruen Stapleford, in the 
 County of Chester, a man highly distinguished 
 among the early puritans, as an example of evan- 
 geUcal religion. One of his younger sons, Obadiah 
 Bruen, the direct ancestor of the subject of these 
 memoirs was among the earliest of the puritan emi- 
 grants to New England; his family having been 
 much persecuted in the reign of Charles I for their 
 friendship to the celebrated Mr Prynne, at the 
 time of his imprisonment in the Castle of Chester. 
 
 He was patentee of the Colony of Connecticut 
 from Charles II in 1662, and was Recorder of 
 New London, until the year 1667, when he and 
 Mr Abraham Pierson, the pastor, and Mr Stephen 
 Kitchell, bought of the Indians, for themselves and 
 their associates, the now flourishing town of New- 
 ark, then called New-work, in New Jersey. In 
 this place his descendants have continued to reside 
 until the present day. It may not be out of place 
 to mention, that although the hill side of the Pas- 
 saic was at times the battle-field of hostile tribes, 
 after their purchase, no event ever occurred to dis- 
 
12 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 turb the firm concord between them and the In- 
 dians. These puritanical pilgrims laid the foun- 
 dation of the Presbyterian Church in Newark, and 
 the following original letter, preserved among the 
 records of New London, as the evidence of a title 
 to a piece of land in that place, makes interesting 
 mention of the first pastor of that little church, and 
 gives some insight into the character of one of its 
 members. 
 
 ** Dear and laving Sonne and Daughter ^ 
 
 " Hoping of your health with yours ag we are at 
 present, praise to our God. It hath pleased God 
 hitherto to continue our lives and liberties, though 
 it hath pleased him to imbitter our comforts by 
 taking to himself our reverend pastor, Aug. the 9, 
 1678, Mr Pierson. Yet hath he not left us desti- 
 tute of spiritual enjoyments, but hath given us a 
 faithful dispenser of the word of God, a young 
 Timothy — a man after God's own heart, well root- 
 ed and grounded in the faith, one with whom we 
 can comfortably walk in the doctrines of the faith. 
 Praise to our God. Upon good experience of him 
 he was called and ordained to be our teacher, Mr. 
 Abraham Pierson, who follows in the steps of his 
 ancient father in godlinesse — praise to our God. 
 
 Loving Sonne I would intreat you when your 
 own occasion serves going to New London, that 
 you would make some inquiry for me about some 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEIf. IS 
 
 land I have in the General Neck — 13 acres and 6 
 acres — and two parcells — both lying near to Good- 
 man Rogers his farm, — I am informed one of 
 Goodman Rogers his sons, hath made improve- 
 ment of it — before I heard any thing of it, being 
 far off. I know not what course to take in it— it 
 is an uncivil part, and an ill precedent — yet for 
 peace and quietness sake, if he will purchase both 
 parcells, I adheare thereunto. I estimate both par- 
 cells at 10 pounds. When you know which of his 
 sons it is — I pray know of him how long he hath 
 improved it, and why he would deal so unworthily 
 to occasion discord among friends. Know of him 
 what he intends to do, and whether he means to 
 hold it in such an unrighteous way, or come to 
 some composition. — When I hear from you and 
 understand the state of things rightly, I will ac- 
 cordingly apply myself to make some issue. — It 
 would much rejoice us to see you face to face, 
 but Providence otherwise disposing I desire to 
 heare from you as opportunity will permit. — Your 
 brother John Bruen and his wife, desire remem- 
 brance of their dear love to you, also your Sister 
 Hannah and her husband desire the same, all in 
 health — Praise to our God — with their children. 
 Our dear love to you both. Will you remember 
 our respects to Mr and Mrs Fitch, and love to 
 all Christian friends as your opportunity will per- 
 mit. So praying for you that your spiritual and 
 
14 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 temporal comforts may be continued to you and 
 yours — I rest your loving Father, 
 
 Obadiah Bruen, 
 and Mother, 
 
 Sarah Bruen." 
 Extracted out of the original under Mr. Bruen's 
 hand writing per Ebenezer Hile — Recorder. 
 July 2, 1681. 
 
 Mr Bruen's family had resided for several gen- 
 erations in Nev^rark, N. J.; his father being Mr 
 Matthias Bruen, now of Perth Amboy, and his 
 mother Hannah, daughter of Mr Benjamin Coe. 
 
 The subject of these memoirs was born in Newark, 
 April 11th, 1793; and was not dedicated to God in 
 baptism until he had passed the age of infancy, and 
 his understanding had attained such a degree of 
 strength, that the pastor who administered that or- 
 dinance, spoke solemnly to himself on the occasion, 
 and took considerable pains to impress his mind. 
 From the pecuHarly reflecting turn of character 
 which he evinced from early childhood, he was 
 more likely to receive such impression than most of 
 his age. His fondness for reading, even at six 
 years old was such, that he would often lock him- 
 self into a room that he might enjoy his book undis- 
 turbed. At eight years old he was separated from 
 the other members of his family, and resided during 
 the succeeding seven years alone with his paternal 
 
MATTfflAS BRUEN. 15 
 
 grandfather. From his winter evening narratives, 
 his young companion obtained much historical in- 
 formation, and he often quoted his grandfather as 
 his authority for detnils of the state of parties, and 
 the distresses of the revolutionary v^ar. Mr Bruen's 
 school-boy days were thus passed till his fifteenth 
 year. 
 
 In 1808 he entered Columbia College, and in 
 1812 he obtained an academical degree. Concern 
 about his spiritual state seems to have begun with 
 him about his tenth year, and he generally referred 
 to the period of his school and college life with dis- 
 comfort, as during that time he mourned under the 
 pressure of the Law. He did not attain a clear 
 view of the salvation which is in Jesus Christ till his 
 eighteenth year. From first to last during his ac- 
 ademical studies, he held an honorable pre-eminence 
 among his class-mates; and shortly after having 
 graduated with much credit to himself, he entered 
 the Theological Seminary at New York, under the 
 superintendence of Dr John M. Mason; as it was 
 his purpose to devote himself to the sacred office of 
 the Ministry. Of his College life it is subject of re- 
 gret that we can relate so little. His early associ- 
 ates being those of proximity not of selection, it 
 seems probable that his habits were retired, and 
 that the reserve which arose from superior refine- 
 ment of taste, from the most shrinking delicacy of 
 moral perception, and from a love of study, may 
 
16 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 have passed with some for a lofty estimate of him- 
 self, and his own attainments. In after life he spoke 
 with strong regard of some of his companions, 
 who had like himself, entered the ministry, and the 
 notice of their success and usefuhiess, was often 
 referred to, both in his conversation and correspon- 
 dence. 
 
 In the year 1812, he was visited by a severe fit 
 of sickness, which gave his constitution a shock 
 that was not likely to be readily overcome, by a 
 person of his sedentary and studious habits. In tho 
 year 1816, though health was far from being the 
 sole object of his voyage to Europe, it formed cer- 
 tainly one of the most prominent reasons for his 
 quitting his country, at the moment when having 
 fulfilled all the terms of study, and become licensed 
 to preach the Gospel, he seemed more likely to have 
 formed an engagement at home. 
 
 He left New York in the society of his distinguish- 
 ed and much honored preceptor, Dr Mason, in the 
 summer of 1816. They passed hastily through 
 England and Scotland ; Dr Mason leaving his son, 
 a youth, under the guidance of relatives in Edin- 
 burg to prosecute his education. Mr Bruen trans- 
 mitted his letters of introduction to the clergyman 
 in Scotland, who was afterwards enriched by his 
 friendship, with an expression of concern that he 
 could not quit Dr Mason to deliver them, and a 
 hope that next year he might be enabled to come in 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. X7 
 
 person. The two friends then went ^to France, 
 passed some time at Paris, and proceeded as far 
 south as Switzerland. The only letter we are able 
 to present in this year, is one from Paris addressed 
 to his parents. 
 
 Paris, December 1st, 1816. 
 My dear Father and Mother, 
 
 We arrived here on the 29th, having left Lon- 
 don on the monday (25th) preceding; and I sit 
 down to employ part of the sabbath evening in let- 
 ting you know where, and how I am. This is the 
 first sabbath, except those on board the ship, in 
 which I am obliged to feel myself altogether from 
 home. In England and Scotland, the day brought 
 with it, christian communion. The society of those 
 whose hearts we knew were possessed with the 
 same powerful desires, while it strongly recalled to 
 our recollection, friends and enjoyments far away, 
 at the same time gave us an equivalent, to a certain 
 degree, for what our affection felt to be wanting. 
 We have each sabbath united our hearts and voice 
 in prayer and praise, with the people of Christ, scat- 
 tered up and down in this world of sin and misery. 
 But on this sabbath we are excluded from our priv- 
 ileges. It brings with it here no holy public exer- 
 cises ; we are shut up to our own meditations ; we 
 sigh for home. — " that I had the wings of a dove." 
 My heart throbs and melts at the remembrance of 
 
18 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 this day's occupation there. How can we, without 
 sin, doubt whether there be access, even into the 
 Holiest, through the blood of Jesus, to the most mis- 
 erable or depraved or ignorant of those whom a 
 sense of their own sinfulness excites to cry mightily 
 unto God, that they may be saved. I look at the spec- 
 tacle, present to my imagination, of our fireside at 
 this hour ; I look at the situation — the face, — and ev- 
 ery feature of each one there. May the blessing of 
 the Holy One richly descend into the hearts of them 
 all. This city, above all others, perhaps Rome alone 
 excepted, is destitute of true religion. Here the 
 sabbath never comes. Sunday indeed they have ; they 
 greet its return — but it is with such festivities as exhi- 
 bit a most entire want of the fear of God. The 
 streets here on this day are exactly as ours on the 
 4th of July, except that our 4th, looks more like a 
 Sabbath, since nobody pretends to work. But here 
 the black-smith is at his forge, and the other mechan- 
 ics at their labour ; and the streets crowded by an 
 immense multitude of people, with bell-men hawking 
 about their things for sale, and show-men consuming 
 the time selected by the Creator as holy to himself, 
 every hour of which brings those myriads of immor- 
 tals nearer their eternal immutable condition. Poor 
 Paris ! what are splendid palaces to the want of the 
 church of the living God. Of what value these gew- 
 gaws of an hour, in comparison of the glorious con- 
 dition of that city or nation whose God is the Lord. 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. IQ 
 
 Oh ! how miserable is the spectacle if we throw 
 upon it the light of eternity. But you will ask where 
 are the Protestants ? Alas ! the infection of sin has 
 operated most fearfully, and though I hope to find 
 some of them good men, for the most part they are 
 mere frozen pretenders to Christianity. Great will 
 be my guilt, if the lesson I am now receiving does 
 not sink deep into my soul, and fill me with resolu- 
 tions, to spend and be spent, in the most honorable 
 service, with tenfold zeal and constancy beyond 
 what I might have hoped from myself, if I had 
 never seen any thing out of my own country. 
 " Strengthen thou me " in them " according to thy 
 word." This is the great benefit that I hope for 
 from this journey ; that it will fit me with more utility 
 and fervour to pursue what it is my heart's desire and 
 prayer may be the business of my life. And while I 
 shall rejoice to return, whenever the good providence 
 of God may please to lead me back ; I have no doubt 
 that it will always be to me reason of thankfulness 
 that I was sent here. I frequently make the trial of 
 my faith ; and my conscience answers — I esteem 
 nothing so much as an interest "in the purchased 
 inheritance:" — it answers, that love to that divine 
 Master " who so loved us as to give himself" to such 
 a death in all its sanctifying and enlivening influ- 
 ences, is what I most wish to fill my heart, that so 
 earthly things may lose their power over my affec- 
 tions, and I have that spiritual-mindedness which is 
 
^ MEMOIRS OP 
 
 life and peace. But shall I be guilty of the folly of 
 attempting to express the thoughts that rush into 
 the mind when we think of the force of the expres- 
 sions — parents — brothers — sisters — for eternity ? — 
 Oh may each of us bear that relation in very deed 
 and truth. We will pray for it. And while our 
 grand-parents move onward, and cross that line of 
 separation between the two worlds, (fearful line 
 when unbelief rises — joyful and glorious when faith 
 triumphs,) may each of us children, be walking with 
 God towards heaven. No one who has not been in 
 a foreign land, out of the restraints of habit and 
 character and friends, can tell what measure of 
 grace is required for a christian walk. I would 
 pray continually to be enabled " to walk not as a 
 fool," not as a sinner, "but as wise;" and surely 
 the reason that follows is a reason that must be felt 
 in all its force here, "because the days are evil." 
 I am ever, with respect 
 
 And tender affection. 
 
 Your M. 
 
 Let those who, under the sanction of the specious 
 proverb, "do at Rome as they do at Rome," change 
 their habits as they change their sky, observe the 
 steadfastness, not only of the experienced divine, 
 but of his juvenile associate. The latter described 
 their first sabbath at Paris, as a day of unmingled 
 pain, when they attended a Protestant place of wor- 
 
MATTHIA3 BRUEN. 2t 
 
 ship, with a handful of people, under a cheerless 
 ministry, then strayed with sinking spirits, into two 
 or three of the churches, where there was the recital 
 of prayers in an unknown tongue, and no auditors, 
 and at last took refuge in their own apartment, to 
 pass the evening in tears and prayers, for the thought- 
 less and prayerloss multitudes around them. During 
 his prolonged residence in that city, so full of seduc- 
 tion for the young heart, he did not enter one of its 
 much lauded theatres, nor use any pretence for ex- 
 amining more closely the evils which he disapprov- 
 ed. When interrogated on this subject he remarked 
 that he could imagine such vanities too readily, that 
 he could not see any positive good likely to arise 
 from his sacrificing time to the personal inspection 
 of such things, and that if any one individual on 
 whom he might exercise a salutary spiritual influ- 
 ence, were to be stumbled by hearing that he had 
 mingled in follies which he disapproved, he would 
 pay a price, which no enlargement of views, no 
 deepened impression of the w^ay in which such pur- 
 suits delude the heart, could compensate. 
 
 This is one evidence among a multitude which 
 suggest themselves to the minds of his familiar 
 friends, of his strenuous devotedness to his own 
 mental progress, and the improvement of his fellow 
 men. It cannot fail to be interesting to those as- 
 sociates who lost sight of him, during the years he 
 spent in Europe, to know that wherever he was, he 
 
29 MEMOIRS or 
 
 was ready for every good word and work; that 
 the sick in foreign lands were visited, and instructed 
 by him, and that prayer and praise were his de- 
 light The subjects on which he dilated with true 
 enjoyment, were his past intercourse with christian 
 friends at home, and his hopes of being made useful 
 especially to his beloved kindred on his return. 
 Surely it may awaken to new self-inspection, those 
 of his father's house, when they learn, that at the 
 distance of thousands of miles, they were on his 
 heart, and in his intercessions ; and that in convers- 
 ing of them, to those in a foreign land who were so 
 happy as to count him a brother, his eyes were 
 often dimmed with the tears of solicitous affection. 
 
 The two following fragments of letters addressed 
 to his brother afford a glimpse of his occupations in 
 Paris. 
 
 Paris, January 13th, 1817. 
 
 * * « » I -vvas at a public sitting of the Abbe 
 Sicard's Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, a few 
 weeks ago, when our nation received one of the 
 most heart-felt expressions of respect that could be 
 uttered; the more valuable because it originated in 
 the occurrence of the moment. The word which 
 was given out to Massieu, the oldest scholar, to 
 analyse happened to be navigation ; which he divid- 
 ed thus, navi-ga-tion ; from the first, wari, comes 
 navire, naviguer, navigant, naval, &lc. To show 
 that he understood it, he was desired to write some- 
 
MATTHIAS BRUE5. 98 
 
 thing about naval conflicts — he wrote, "les Anglais 
 sont les plus grands vainqueurs dans Ics combats 
 navals." The room was crowded, a great many 
 English there; he saw a smile and added immedi- 
 ately, " de tous les peuples de 1' Europe." I turned to 
 Mr King, who happened to be near, to ask if ho 
 thought he had introduced the hmitation designedly, 
 but he did not leave us long in doubt, for, while the 
 applauses were proceeding vigorously, he added, 
 "Mais ils ne peuvent pas vaincre les Americo- 
 Anglais, qui ont secoue le joug du roi leur maitre." 
 There were enough of Americans there, with the 
 French, to keep up the applause in the most striking 
 manner, for all feet, canes and hands were in mo- 
 tion. To see a deaf and dumb man feel so lively an 
 interest, and exhibit such just information concern- 
 ing the events of our late war, was very interest- 
 ing. We were numerous enough to express our 
 reconnaissance to Massieu, in due form and mea- 
 sure, after the sitting was over, Mr. King being the 
 orator of the day. **#*«, 
 
 It appears that the writer, had in the interval be- 
 tween these two letters, visited Switzerland and 
 stayed some time in Geneva. 
 
 Paris, March 26th, 1817. 
 * * * * It is greatly to be lamented that so 
 many of Calvin's successors should be unworthy of 
 that honor. The cruel heresy, socinianism, has in 
 
24 MEMOIRS OP 
 
 a great measure taken the place of the truth of our 
 God and Saviour. But it gave us great pleasure 
 to find, that the worst time has gone by ; especially 
 among the young ministers and students, there is a 
 strong disposition towards the truth. So little real 
 knowledge does the course of lectures given by the 
 professors afford them, that they are anxious to 
 seize every opportunity of instruction. A Scotch 
 gentleman, who has been there some time, has a 
 number who visit him regularly to study the Scrip- 
 tures, a subject to which most of the professors do 
 not think of turning their attention. One of the 
 things which made my time ghde by so rapidly, was 
 the number who came continually to have their 
 difficulties explained, and the doctrines of grace illus- 
 trated. The evening before we came away, at one 
 time, Dr Mason had I think fourteen. There is 
 now every appearance, that things will return to 
 their old condition. It is almost impossible to con- 
 ceive with what anxiety they inquire, and the influ- 
 ence it has when they find persons from remote 
 regions, answering immediately the current objec- 
 tions to these doctrines, for the depravity of man, 
 which excites them, is the same every where. It 
 could not fail to strike me as very remarkable that 
 we should have arrived there just at this time, when 
 the line is becoming marked, and it is very evident 
 that Dr Mason's character and instructions will not 
 be without effect. This visit then may prove of 
 
klATTHIAS BRUEX. !M 
 
 high consequence to the best interests of the Churcli. 
 * * * # There is in Switzerland the most en- 
 thusiastic admiration of our country. We see the 
 proof of it in the numbers who are leaving for it, 
 their native land. Their natural character is cer- 
 tainly more like our own, perhaps without except 
 ing the English, than any people in Europe. With 
 a great deal of industry and perseverance, they 
 combine intelligence and morality. 
 
 Since I have seen the vineyards of France and 
 Switzerland, it seems quite evident that no country 
 is better suited to the culture of the grape than our 
 own ; and particularly, the land along the Rhone, 
 from Lyons to Avignon, where some of the best 
 wine in France is produced, has a very great 
 resemblance to some parts of Virginia. I have 
 seen hills, which w^ere so steep as to be ex- 
 ceedingly difficult to ascend, cultivated to the tops 
 with vines. But what surprised me more than all, 
 was to see some of the best champaigne vines grow- 
 ing out of land almost entirely covered with stones, 
 a soil from which the rain runs off almost immedi- 
 ately. In Switzerland too, the vineyards are in like 
 manner on very broken ground, all which seems to 
 justify the idea that it will not be many years before 
 the attention of our agriculturalists will be turned to 
 this subject, and it will be a happy change from 
 whiskey to wine. *#*##* 
 
26 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Mr Bruen and his reverend friend, Dr Mason, did 
 not return to England, till the following spring, when 
 they passed the weeks of religious anniversaries in 
 London, partaking and communicating those refresh- 
 ments of spirit, which are peculiarly the privilege of 
 christians in their mutual intercourse. Dr Mason 
 being detained in London by his medical advisers, 
 Mr Bruen travelled leisurely northward, enjoying as 
 he reached their abodes, the society of the Rev R. Hall 
 then of Leicester, Foster the Essayist, and other dis- 
 tinguished persons. He lingered among the natural 
 curiosities of Derbyshire, and we are enabled to pre- 
 sent a portion of a letter to his mother written from 
 Matlock. 
 
 Matlock, July 13th, 1817. 
 My dear Mother, 
 
 "This sabbath just completes the year since we suf- 
 fered the pain of separation. The first emotion which 
 this recollection produces, is to fix upon this day the 
 mark, "hitherto hath the Lord helped." Through many 
 dangerous situations, through many temptations has 
 his mercy carried me, and notwithstanding very great 
 and sinful forgetfulness of his presence and hoHness, 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 9lf 
 
 his commands and promises, still he has led me for- 
 ward from mercy to mercy. I surely have reason to 
 look back as the Psalmist did in his hours of despond- 
 ence, to the several places v^^here I hope I have enjoy- 
 ed something like peculiar grace, and as he says in 
 the 42d Psalm, " O my God my soul is cast down 
 within me — therefore^* — as one of the means thou hast 
 appointed for the encouragement of thy people, is 
 their own experience of thy former goodness, — " will 
 I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the 
 Hermonites, and from the hill Mizar." I have stay- 
 ed here longer than I otherwise should have done, 
 that I might enjoy a quiet retired sabbath, and have 
 had the gratification of hearing from a young clergy- 
 man of the Church of England, of great christian ex- 
 perience, a sermon which will mark one of the places 
 to which my recollection will recur, " I will run the 
 way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge 
 my heart." /, a miserable sinner, will run, not merely 
 walk, but will put forth all my strength, to follow in the 
 broad path of thy precepts, which are so minute and 
 so important. But these resolutions are made upon 
 one single condition, — that thy grace and spirit be 
 present to " enlarge my heart." # # # 
 
 He stopped for the second time at the ancient city 
 of York, of whose magnificent Minster, which has 
 since been scathed by the hand of a maniac incendi- 
 ary, he spoke in terms of the highest admiration, 
 even after visiting the Vatican. 
 
28 MATTHIAS BRUKJf. 
 
 It was on the last day of July, after having crossed 
 the Tweed during an awful thunder storm, on the top 
 of a stage coach, that he presented himself for the 
 first time at his "Scottish home," and claimed the 
 recognition to which his letters of the previous year 
 entitled him. And it was in the succeeding six weeks 
 while he waited to be overtaken by his travelling 
 companion, and was prevailed on from day to day to 
 tarry, that the basis of that friendship was laid, which 
 though death has broken, it cannot destroy. Little 
 can be detailed of the privacy of domestic life. It 
 may be interesting, however, to mention that in the 
 course of this time Mr Bruen visited Sir Walter 
 Scott whose house was then thronged as it still is, 
 by the intelligent and curious of many lands. 
 
 Dr Mason overtook Mr Bruen in the second week 
 of September, when they passed a few days in Edin- 
 burgh together, during which time they visited Profes- 
 sor Leslie, Francis Jeffrey, and Dr Brewster, Editor 
 of the Edinburg Encyclopedia. They had previously 
 formed acquaintance with the Rev Sir Henry Mon- 
 creifF, Dr Chalmers, Dr Hall, and most of the respec- 
 table clergymen of various denominations in the city. 
 After passing a short time in those adieus which to 
 hearts like theirs are always touching, they returned 
 to Kelso, where they together lingered their last days 
 in Scotland; — days fraught w4th spiritual improve- 
 ment, and affecting because they included the prayers 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEIf. 2fl( 
 
 and parting blessings of Dr Mason, on the family 
 whom he honoured with his regard. 
 
 To his Brother. 
 New Castle-upon-Tyne, Sept. 22d, 1817. 
 
 "I cannot permit Dr Mason to leave me without 
 sending you a line later than any I have written, 
 therefore, though it be past midnight, I snatch a min- 
 ute to tell you that I am in very good health, in very 
 bad spirits, with a heart desolated more perhaps than 
 is right by the farewells which have been crowded 
 into this day. Dr Mason came from Edinburgh last 
 Saturday and spent the sabbath with me at my home 
 — the Manse, which we left this morning. I have ac- 
 quired at Kelso at least one of the kindest friends, which, 
 so long as sin is in this world, we can hope God will 
 give us to comfort us in our state of pilgrimage. The 
 current of my feelings at leaving Kelso has been rous- 
 ed and driven forward with an impetuosity similar to 
 that which fixed the 14th of July, 1816, forever in my 
 remembrance ; and now a few hours will leave me 
 utterly alone, yet not alone. Oh, that I may by faith 
 perceive the continual presence of the Mediator, the 
 Advocate, the Comforter. 
 
 There are pleasures to be found in travelling which 
 cannot be enjoyed at home, but there are pungent 
 sorrows too. ****## 
 
 I have a new pledge my dear Brother, that He in- 
 tends good to me, that the prayers of my friends at 
 
30 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Kelso are added to those at New York, for my pre- 
 servation — preservation not only from temporal, but 
 from spiritual and eternal dangers. Oh, if we believed 
 God's promise, how should we prize above the gold of 
 Ophir, the prayer of one soul which has been cleansed 
 by the blood of Jesus Christ to offer up an acceptable 
 offering. I do prize those prayers. The Lord bless 
 and keep you all, and make the light of his countenance 
 to shine upon you, and give you peace always." 
 
 We introduce here also his first letter to Scotland 
 after quitting it, which was addressed to the friend 
 with whom he had recently resided. 
 
 To the Rev. Mr L . 
 
 Gainsborough, Sept. 24th, 1817. 
 My very dear friend, 
 "Now that I have fairly seated myself, I begin to fear 
 that you will think your kindness has treasured up 
 trials for your patience, since I begin to write when 
 it is only Wednesday evening. But in truth I have 
 lived so much within these last two days and a 
 half, that it seems as if a week at least had gone 
 by. My very mournful adieus, were crowded into 
 the day that I left my home at the Manse, for Dr M. 
 set out from Newcastle the next morning for Leeds, 
 (not by York.) I happily had no more formal parting 
 with him, as when he went to bed, I thought to have 
 seen him in the morning, but afterwards most wisely 
 sent him my farewell by E . The ideas of home, of 
 
MATTHIAS nRUEX. 31 
 
 the solitariness of my situation after his departure, and 
 of the multitude of unknown circumstances before me, 
 completely overpowered me, and after writing a hasty 
 letter to my brother, I fairly yielded to their influence. 
 I found the bed a better rehef than the precepts of 
 stoical philosophy, and a second nap after the coach 
 rolled aw^ay with my friends towards my home and 
 country and kindred, restored the tone of my feelings 
 sufficiently to enable me to hasten away by the Sun- 
 derland coach. Thence I took the mail to York, there 
 being none to Hull. I then resolved not to go to Hull 
 at all, and I find myself to have been very fortunate, 
 for it would have taken me quite out of the way, as 
 there is not even a conveyance from Hull to Lincoln. 
 In remuneration for the tragedy of monday, my good 
 or evil genius threw in my way what is comedy to 
 many persons, even the far-famed Doncaster Races. I 
 arrived from York at half past tw^elve, an hour before 
 they began, and proceeded forthwith to represent 
 " Les Etats Unis et ses proposans,"* upon the Turf. 
 Since it is necessary for a philosophical traveller to 
 journey w4th his eyes open, I would not let such an 
 opportunity escape of seeing so fair a specimen of 
 English manners. The whole business interested and 
 gratified me far less than I had expected. There were 
 many very splendid equipages on the ground, and the 
 
 ♦ When Mr Bruen was at Geneva in the spring, he dined with the Consistory 
 there, and they to do him honor as a candidate for the Church in America gave 
 aa a toast "Lea Etata Unis et scs proposans." 
 
32 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 town was amazingly full of " legs " of all sorts and 
 colours. It would interest you less in the hearing 
 than it did me in the seeing that " Duchess " took one 
 of the plates without competition, or that Whitelocke 
 the favourite has lamentably disappointed all the 
 knowing ones. The thing which struck me most was 
 the earnest buzz of anxious expectation, which proceed- 
 ed from the many thousands as the horses approach- 
 ed the winning post. Oh, how little does it take to set 
 the world agape. The appearance of Alexander or 
 Bonaparte could have done no more than " my lady 
 Duchess" effected by showing herself. Surely we 
 might learn to despise this world. Was it the ambition 
 to be objects of such admiration that caused the battles 
 of the Granicus or Waterloo ? But I do not intend 
 to moralize upon a race course, else I should take a 
 higher tone with those who pretend to believe that 
 Whitelocke's soul is more perishable than his rider's. 
 I have now only to see an election and a boxing match 
 to be aufait in respect to the pastimes of this " most 
 thinking nation." 
 
 " I am here for the night on my way to Lincoln's 
 Cathedral, (twenty two miles) whence I go to Newark, 
 which place I must examine in honor of my birth place 
 in New Jersey. The grounds about Belvoir Castle 
 must be worth seeing ; after which Burleigh House, 
 and Hatfield House, and whatever else be on the road, 
 will not detain me long in my way to London. You 
 see me safely so far, with only the common events of 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEIf. 
 
 travelling, such as being driven at full gallop round 
 quick turns by a coachman most obstreperously drunk 
 in honor of his having gained a wager at the Races, 
 though more than fifty miles from the scene of moral 
 amusement, — or being obliged to dress while the 
 coach, ready to start ten minutes after the hour fixed, 
 waits the presence of a sleepy passenger, or — but 
 you are not making a catalogue of miseries. 
 
 " After half a sheet of nonsense, I ought to give you 
 something better if I can. There was mainly one 
 idea which operated on my mind during what I have 
 seen to-day ; it was, how is this to fit me for the 
 peculiar duties of my sacred profession? How 
 many circumstances of temptation, how many situa- 
 tions calculated to make me forget God and my duty 
 are necessarily before me ! What if I shall become 
 hardened through the deceitfulness of sin? You, my 
 dear friend, can imagine how my soul is burdened 
 with such fears, not unreasonable fears. Truly God 
 knoweth the time of our necessity, and if he had not 
 provided for me a refuge in your most kind family, 
 I know not what sevenfold hardness might have 
 gathered round my heart. With my most sincere 
 thanksgiving to Him for it, I pray continually that He 
 would pour into your bosoms his abundant blessings. 
 " I cannot doubt but that in present circumstances 
 I am in the way of my duty in seeing what I can, 
 and my ruminations as to a place, have led me 
 with a good deal of force to the idea that I shall 
 
34 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 go into Italy this winter for a little time ; but I will 
 resolve on nothing definitely until 1 get to Geneva. 
 As I have several acquaintances whom I must see, 
 I shall not be able to leave London before three or 
 four days, but I hope I shall not be longer there. 
 May I expect a letter from you and one from my 
 dear sister Mary, to whom I would seize every oppor- 
 tunity of offering the assurance of my most respectful 
 and kindest recollections. 
 
 Remember me especially upon the occasions on 
 which you promised more particularly to seek for me 
 what is so needful for us all, and believe me, with the 
 
 most affectionate respect. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 M. Bruen. 
 Was the poet of the Border at the Ednam 
 festivities'?" 
 
 From the multiplied instances of Mr Bruen*s con- 
 scientious solicitude to ascertain the line of duty and 
 to pursue it scrupulously, the following is selected. It 
 is taken from a letter which forms one of the earliest 
 productions of a correspondence which was sustained 
 with confiding sincerity and undeviating perseverance, 
 till the last week of his precious time on earth. 
 
 London, September 30th, 1817. 
 " The tone of my feelings has been lowered by an 
 innocent remark of a friend here. " He came from 
 home just when he had collected all the instruments of 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. li 
 
 usefulness, and now goes to let them rust in France 
 and Italy." Am I in the path of duty? That is the one 
 great question. In that day when God shall judge the 
 world by Jesus Christ, will it be answer sufficient for 
 the use of my time ? " He left ofTpreaching the gospel 
 to go and see St. Peters', and the place where satan's 
 seat is." Oh, I had rather be with you at the sick 
 man's couch — but this cannot be. I am now in a 
 course which I cannot decide not to be the course of 
 duty. We shall know in that day. Meanwhile if I 
 have erred, pray for me that my sins may be pardon- 
 ed, and while I suffer loss, I be not lost." 
 
 Hatcham House, October 5th, 1817. 
 My dear Father, 
 
 "I would occupy what remains of the sabbath in 
 writing to you. It is probably the last I shall for some 
 time enjoy in England, and I was glad that the most 
 affecting and solemn of all our sabbath employments 
 should fall to the lot of this day. Having had an op- 
 portunity of commemorating that great event by 
 which sinners obtain pardon and life and peace, 1 
 hope to go on my way with more strength to resist 
 temptation, more faith in the divine promise, and to 
 be more in prayer for the divine blessing. If the res- 
 olutions which we are apt to make in such solemn 
 circumstances were made less in our own strength, 
 we might expect more of the influence of the Holy 
 Spirit to quicken within us what is sluggish, to destroy 
 
36 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 what is perverse, and evil, and to make us to shoot 
 upward in a rapid growth towards heaven. Far from 
 home, I often find myself very deeply affected when I 
 join with brethren who have the same hopes and fears, 
 joys and sorrows, in duties which cannot fail to recall 
 to my mind former times, when with my dear parents, 
 and brothers, and sisters, I went up to the house of 
 God in company. It would prove me very much 
 hardened indeed, if I were insensible to the many evil 
 effects of travelling, especially as it breaks in upon 
 our habits of devotion, and by presenting a multiplici- 
 ty of novel objects, weakens our sense of the Divine 
 Presence. But by the abundant kindness of our mer- 
 ciful Father, I hope that this will be counteracted by 
 times of refreshing from his own presence. Among 
 many things which excite my feehngs there is nothing 
 which does it so effectually as the song of praise. Is 
 it so with you my Father ? I scarcely ever hear 
 it without emotion, and often it affects me quite 
 to tears. This effect is increased when I sit down in 
 the foreign churches. When I was first present at 
 Paris at the protestant worship, and heard those sing 
 God's praises whose ancestors in that profane city 
 bled for his truth, I could not fail to experience it. In 
 Geneva when I worshipped where Calvin, with divine 
 eloquence, had spoken of the wondrous things of God, 
 the sound of so many voices ascribing salvation, and 
 honor, and glory, unto Him that sitteth on the throne 
 and to the Lamb, struck my heart with new, and high 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEX. W 
 
 sentiments. I cannot but know that I shall derive 
 from my foreign travels much less benefit than my 
 advantages authorize you to expect. * * * 
 
 I have enjoyed many moments of exquisite feeling 
 which I could not have known elsewhere. But lest I 
 fill up this sheet with things about myself, I must 
 express my hope that you are continually aspiring, 
 myTather after a settled, calm and, elevating convic- 
 tion of an interest in the inheritance on high. To 
 those who are reconciled to God through the blood of 
 his Son is the word of God given, " rejoice always, 
 and again I say rejoice." We ought not to let our 
 efforts be paralyzed by unbelief, but should feed on the 
 divine, inexhaustible promises of eternal riches and 
 heavenly consolations, and having been once enabled 
 to say, I know in whom I have believed, to stand firm 
 at that point, and not to let Satan push off our feet 
 from the rock of our salvation. Though they are but 
 now and then, I have had some sweet views of that 
 heavenly country towards which every hour brings 
 us nearer. My hopes are nurtured with more delight 
 from the idea of meeting you there ; and I sometimes 
 exclaim. Yes, my dear parents, though we shall leave 
 our bodies in the earth we shall walk together in the 
 regions above the stars, and together enjoy the pure 
 worship and presence of our heavenly Father. Our 
 feet shall stand within thy walls, Jerusalem. I pray 
 that the richest blessings of divine consolation may be 
 poured into your's and my mother's bosom." 
 
38 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Paris, October 12th, 1817. 
 ** One week has elapsed from this date, since I en- 
 joyed what may be the last occasion for many months 
 of setting my seal to the voluntary promise of being 
 for the Lord and none else. I came to the place with 
 a heart surcharged with feeling. How much of it 
 was genuine, how much induced by Him who seeth 
 not as man seeth, I know not. But I was to hear one 
 whose voice had often dwelt upon your ear, and whose 
 instructions had reached to your soul ; I was to hear 
 him upon the eve of my pilgrimage, while my feet 
 were very near in the mire where there is no standing. 
 With my previous meditations it required very little 
 to excite me. I heard Mr Clayton with the greatest 
 pleasure. A sincere servant of Jesus Christ, he knows, 
 loves, and preaches the truth. Except at Kelso I 
 have seldom enjoyed a season of so much apparently 
 pious feehng ; but how little of my best feelings are 
 sound at the root ! I could use scripture language, 
 and the phrases of believers, and all with truth ; but 
 yet you would misunderstand me and give me credit 
 as you always do, far beyond my deservings. I will 
 leave the history of what was, and speak of what is. 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. SO 
 
 From such society one week has removed me to 
 Paris. To this city enveloped in profound midnight, 
 where the mass of immortal spirits so lie in the death 
 of sin, that the voice heard in her streets is that of 
 blasphemy or of profane exultation. And is there a 
 God who sees this, and are these men or brutes? 
 Must not the christian's heart exclaim, — * that my 
 eyes were fountains of tears, that I might weep for 
 the sins of my people!' Alas poor human nature! 
 *How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer son of 
 the morning ! ' " 
 
 Mr Bruen at one time purposed to have passed the 
 winter in study at Utrecht. The succeeding sentence 
 shows the reason of his changing that plan. " I am 
 thoroughly satisfied that I am right in going to Italy. 
 Though health has been but a secondary, it is still an 
 important object of my journey, and I am convinced 
 that a winter in Holland would have been highly dan- 
 gerous." # # * 
 
 " For the amusement of this kingdom, and the in- 
 struction of all vile revolutionists, we had played yes- 
 terday, October 17th — through the realm, the farce of 
 a service solemn and annual for the repose of the soul 
 of Marie Antoinette, of doubtful memory. The get 
 ting up of this show has the double effect of expiating 
 the sin which rests on the French nation, and of pour- 
 ing cold water on her suilcrings in purgatory. The 
 several churches were dressed in black. In Notre 
 Dame it was rather grand, for the whole of the back 
 
40 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 of the church, having the windows closed, was darkly 
 illuminated, and the pomp of high mass, combined 
 with the music in such a place, could not fail to pro- 
 duce some little effect on my infidel imagination. A 
 perverse ingenuity seems to be exercised to keep up 
 these things which had better be forgotten, since the 
 remembrance of them only serves to irritate. As to 
 compunction no human being feels it. Paris pleases 
 and displeases me just as it used to do ; that is to say, 
 there is no one thing on which my heart rests with 
 satisfaction. Sometimes je suis un peu egare by its 
 magnificence, but there are too many abominable 
 things in the very spot of the enchantment, to permit 
 it to last." 
 
 October 20th. 
 " In carrying on the history of myself, 1 have to tell 
 
 you that my friend H had the virtue to propose, 
 
 and I had the virtue not to resist, but to carry into 
 effect, the design of having public worship here in our 
 apartments last night. We accordingly sent out our 
 invitations among the few American families and 
 young men here. I read the scriptures, prayed, and 
 preached a sermon, which my friend as well as myself 
 thinks applicable to the poor sinners who are found 
 wandering here. The text " Israel thou hast de- 
 stroyed thyself, but in me is thy help." Madame 
 PAmbassadrice, her son and the Secretary of 
 Legation, were among my hearers. This was like a 
 
MEMOIRS or 4^1^ 
 
 christian sabbath even in Paris. Next day after dinner 
 Mr G. accused us of holding a conventicle without per- 
 mission of the Police, and not only drawing his lady 
 thither, which, as she is not officially known to the gov- 
 ernment, is no great matter, but actually bringing in 
 the Secretary, whose commission has been recognised 
 by the King. Since he took it up in that w^ay, we got 
 promise from him that the American Eagle should 
 protect religion if persecuted, upon condition, how- 
 ever, that we should hold our conventicles in his house, 
 as his authority extends no further. We hope to have 
 a similar meeting next sabbath evening, and I set out 
 on monday." 
 
 London, October Gth, 1817. 
 "I have not yet heard from Dr Brewster* nor receiv- 
 ed his letters for Geneva, which I should be glad to 
 have. Though exceedingly well introduced there 
 from Mr Gallatin's acquaintance and others, yet it 
 might a little affirm my interest at Professor Pictet's, 
 the first man there. These connections are valuable, 
 as I rather seek to throw off a mere theological air ; 
 not as you know, because I am ashamed of the cross 
 of Christ, but because it gives great additional force 
 when a man gets a fair opportunity of expressing his 
 opinion, as the opinion of a person not pledged to it by 
 his profession." 
 
 • Dr Brewster, well known for his scientific research, and as editor of the 
 Edinburg Encyclopedia. 
 
42 MEMOIRS OP 
 
 The letters of Mr Bruen during his journey through 
 Switzerland, Italy, the Tyrol, and a part of Germany 
 and Holland, were very interesting to his friends, but 
 as they are descriptive chiefly of a beaten track, which 
 is delineated in a multitude of tours, and as he himself 
 published some brief sketches from his Journal three 
 years after ; it is more valuable to trace his individual 
 character and pursuits than his descriptions. The 
 young heart, which in the leisure of early life swells 
 with classical enthusiasm, and dreams of Elysian joys 
 in treading the site of the Forum, and measuring the 
 solitudes of the CoHseum, calculates not the long and 
 lonely hours of journeying, the keen disappointments 
 arising from the failure of the post, the pining for the 
 sight of a responsive countenance, the maladie du pays 
 which will assail him, in the very moment of accom- 
 pUshing his wishes. What is man? "A pendulum 
 between a smile and a tear " — "A being of large anti- 
 cipations, and small achievements — of insatiable de- 
 sires and limited capacities." Such were the thoughts 
 often suggested by the emotions depicted by our be- 
 loved friend during his progress, as, for example, his 
 first letter from Rome. 
 
 Rome, December 18th, 1817. 
 
 " And this is Rome ! the birth place of the greatest 
 
 orators, statesmen, poets and warriors of antiquity! 
 
 I find myself at length within the circuit of the seven 
 
 hills, and the walls of the imperial city. And this is 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. W 
 
 Rome ! — ^whose soil was coloured with the blood of the 
 saints of the most high God. Here Paul preached and 
 made converts even in Ca)sar's household. And this 
 is Rome ! the mother of a degrading superstition, &c. 
 
 Still, my impatience to receive my letters before I 
 got here arose almost to a passion, for I had had none 
 from home since I left London : so that I was often 
 tempted to leave bridges, aqueducts, statues, triumphal 
 arches, temples and paintings, to take the Courier and 
 travel day and night to Rome. I am now very glad 
 I did not ; I have seen every thing, and when I turn 
 my face once more to the north, it will be with the 
 prospect of presently reaching my home." 
 
 The following letter evinces Mr B's fraternal love 
 and his close sympathy with feelings, which distance 
 seem.ed rather to strengthen than enfeeble. 
 
 Rome, December 20th, 1817. 
 
 My Dear A , 
 
 "Our sister will explain to you why you have so 
 small a letter. Among the many other things which 
 I want to say to you, this is the principal, to urge you 
 to be very industrious in your studies. I often think 
 of you, and sometimes very much fear that when I 
 return I shall be disappointed in yoiu' progress. What 
 do you think of my sitting down at table at my friend's 
 house in Geneva, with his little son six years old, who 
 not only knew the name of every thing he wanted in 
 
44 MEMOIRS OP 
 
 Latin, but could sustain a conversation in that lan- 
 guage ? Now as I know you have as good talents as 
 any boy, it is a crime against Him who has given 
 them, not to use them. Though you are not very old 
 you can understand the force of this reasoning. I ex- 
 pect that you will be very studious, and as you have 
 begun Latin late, that you will get on so much the 
 faster. Of the little boy of whom i have just spoken, 
 it may amuse you to hear that when Dr Mason and 
 myself had engaged to dine with his father, he was 
 told, as of something extraordinary, that two Ameri- 
 cans were to be there. His first exclamation upon 
 seeing us was — " Americani ? — non sunt cum plumis.** 
 He had no other idea of Americans than what he had 
 derived from some prints, and therefore very natural- 
 ly expected to see us in the feathers and fantastic 
 garb of the Indians. 
 
 You know that Latin was the language of the peo- 
 ple who formerly inhabited the country from whence 
 I write to you — that in the history of that people, 
 which you will soon begin to read and study, are re- 
 corded the noblest actions in the most eloquent man- 
 ner. To read of these actions will give you the high- 
 est pleasure, and to be acquainted with their historians 
 will cultivate your understanding and be a continual 
 source of enjoyment through your life. You can- 
 not at present comprehend the full value of this study, 
 but a few years will open it to you ; and it is not out 
 of place,-— though you are young, for me to en- 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 45 
 
 courage you to it, since I am very near the spot 
 where the fable says that the wolf suckled Romulus 
 and Remus, and but a few hundred yards from the 
 Quirinal mount whence they pretended the former 
 ascended to heaven. But what is much better, here 
 our true religion obtained some of its noblest victories, 
 and after many holy men had been thrown into dens 
 as food for wild beasts, or had been burned in the fire, 
 the inhabitants of this city and the Emperor of Rome 
 became christians and sent out those missionaries 
 who spread the light of the gospel to the furthest 
 bounds of Britain. We have now this light. Among 
 all your studies it is my sincere prayer, that as your 
 faculties advance, you may understand more and more 
 of this divine religion, — live by its commands, and 
 be prepared to die in its consolations, whether that 
 happen when you are very young or in more mature 
 age. Nothing can make you truly happy but religion. 
 You read in your Bible " them that honor me I will 
 honor," "they that seek me early shall find me." — 
 There are many gracious encouragements to early 
 piety. I hope you attend to your stated prayers 
 night and morning, and are not wanting in religious 
 impressions and feelings, and that you may by 
 their influence be enabled to escape the sins into 
 which you must see many of your school-fellows fall. 
 Remember God looks into the heart, and knows all 
 our thoughts — all our desires. We ought then to be 
 deeply affected when we observe how many bad wish- 
 
46 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 es pass through our minds. This my dear Brother 
 should be one of your first ideas, that you may be 
 sensible you are a sinner, and young as you are, in 
 great need of a Saviour. Take great care of your 
 associates and do not choose as your friends the boys 
 you see guilty of misconduct. Be very dutiful and 
 affectionate to our parents, and do not forget 
 Your dear brother, 
 
 Matthias." 
 
 Rome, March 2d, 1818. 
 
 My dear Father, 
 
 , "I arrived here yesterday morning from Naples, and 
 received to-day your letters. By the kindness of our 
 God you were all well on the 25th of November. 
 While my heart in all its solitary musings rests on the 
 idea of home, every message from that source of kind 
 affections is most grateful to me. You look forvirard 
 with pleasure to the period of my return and "begin 
 to measure the time." I too consider with delight the 
 hour when I shall embrace those who are dearer to 
 me than all the world beside. You are reconciled 
 to the separation by the behef that it will "redound 
 to my future usefulness." I believe it will, but if I 
 have learnt any thing more of myself than I 
 formerly knew, it must make me look forward 
 with deep anxiety also ; for, am I, who know so little 
 what it is to live in the world as not of the world, 
 to be called to direct the footsteps of others in the way 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 4V 
 
 of eternal life ! Am I indeed to deliver a message, 
 upon the reception or rejection of which depend end- 
 less consequences ! Am I to minister within that sa- 
 cred circle which is the peculiar object of the divine 
 regard! — That which predominates in my natural 
 character is indolence, the deadly enemy of all that is 
 great and good, destructive alike of what might benefit 
 men or glorify God. There is but one cure for this, 
 an active energetic faith, which convinces by the pow- 
 er of its motives, that to give way to this sinful dis- 
 position is to resist the grace of God, and to treasure 
 up years of anguish. ***** 
 
 I am not so far mortified to the world that I 
 could tamely submit to be passed by with indifTercncc, 
 or when fairly in competition to have others preferred 
 before me; yet it is a point of christian duty and 
 attainment, not to be satisfied with our own medioc- 
 rity, but to be willing that others should surpass us 
 in talent or usefulness, " according to the measure of 
 the gift of God." While there are, in that employment 
 which I hope will be the occupation of my life, hopes 
 of indefinite improvement and usefulness, enough to 
 keep any man upon the stretch of continual exertion, 
 yet as to the point which I may attain, it would be 
 foolish arrogance to mark it high. I shall ever care- 
 fully avoid the idea of competition. That man's soul 
 must indeed be possessed by base motives who can 
 turn the pulpit into a theatre of display, or an arena 
 for attracting admiration; this is as contemptible as 
 
48 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 it is profane. My prayer is that I may speak publicly 
 the truth, with all sincerity, according as grace may 
 be given unto me, without the most remote thought or 
 care of how this may merely please or gain the good 
 opinion of men. But others will make comparisons, 
 and I cannot fail to be the subject of them, according 
 to the manner in which our churches are governed, 
 which I believe to be the scriptural manner. These 
 comparisons must often be disparaging and not a little 
 likely to touch my feelings. But I must exert myself 
 to reach that point of which I spoke before — to settle 
 it that I am in the way of duty, and to be so occupied 
 with a sense of His presence who filleth heaven and 
 earth, and with the danger of men who have sinned 
 against Him, as shall make me to work continually, 
 and leave me no time or desire to consider whether 
 my petty vanity has been mortified, or whether others 
 are esteemed more than myself." 
 
 He went so far south as to look into the horrible 
 crater of Vesuvius, the most sublime natural object he 
 saw in Europe. — "Went to Passtum," and was, as he 
 says "neither murdered nor maimed between Naples 
 and Rome." On his return he says "there is nothing 
 like the delights or rather the enchantments of Tivoli 
 in the world." "His Holiness is in good health, and 
 though his Eminence the Secretary of State, the 
 Cardinal Gonsalvo sent me his card, (he is a man 
 of discernment you see,) yet I do not intend to seek 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. W 
 
 to be presented to the Pope, for I hope that Mr 
 
 L does not so much wish to hear what he says, 
 
 as to make that necessary; we therefore only salute 
 each other when we meet in our evening walks near 
 the Coliseum." Thus cheerfully did he write from 
 Rome on the 3d of March, 1818, under the double 
 influence of having turned his face homeward, and of 
 having received a large packet of letters on his re- 
 turn from Naples. 
 
 Florence, March 26th, 1818. 
 My dear Brother, 
 
 "I have taken my last farewell of Rome and all 
 its magnificence, and am now fairly hastening to- 
 wards the termination of my wanderings. I left it 
 on the evening of the 23d, and except a delay of a 
 few hours, have been in the carriage ever since 
 until this morning before day-break, when I arrived 
 here. I may therefore be indulged the privilege of 
 being very thoroughly tired; and in much need of 
 a long night's sleep. A vessel sails the day after to- 
 morrow from Leghorn, and I have an opportunity 
 of sending this letter to-night. Though I had seen 
 every thing in Rome and was heartily glad to leave 
 it, yet with the pleasure there is mingled a sort of 
 feeUng I never experienced in bidding adieu to any 
 other city. There is so much more to leave than is 
 to be found collected in any one other place, so many 
 sources of intellectual gratification, so many recoUec- 
 
50 MEMOIRS OP 
 
 tions continually excited, that it requires the delight- 
 ful thoughts of my own country to overcome my re- 
 gret. It is not easy at any time to forsake forever 
 what has given us pleasure, and the melancholy feel- 
 ing is increased when we know that the objects which 
 have delighted us, have not lost the power of contin- 
 ually renewing our enjoyment. It was with a very 
 mingled sort of feehng that I took my last view of the 
 walls of Rome, — ^with delight at the prospect before 
 me, and the melancholy recollection of hours of en- 
 joyment never to be renewed. It was on an evening 
 such as we have sometimes in the beginning of spring, 
 that I passed the Porta del Popolo and the Fonte Mil- 
 vio, while the moon rose in a cloudless sky to illumine 
 the deserted campagna. The dome of St Peter's was 
 for many miles a superb object, being illuminated, as 
 it was the anniversary of the Pope's coronation. We 
 had this, one of the most magnificent spectacles in the 
 world, the evening before also. For this year we 
 have seen all the shows combined in the Holy week, 
 which are usually exhibited in detail at intervals of 
 several months, much to the annoyance of curious 
 travellers. The illumination of the dome of St Peter's 
 and the fire-works at the Castle of St Angelo, did not 
 use to take place until St Peter's day, in June; but there 
 were so many strangers this year collected from all 
 parts of the world, that for the first time this rule was 
 broken through, so that I have the satisfaction of hav- 
 ing seen every thing that the Roman Calendar pre- 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 91 
 
 scribes for the year. The interior illuminations of 
 St Peter's much disappointed me ; they call it a mag- 
 nificent idea of Michael Angelo, with whom it seems 
 every thing stupendous must originate ; but a name 
 of much less magnitude might as well be affixed to it. 
 The sight is well enough, but the effect is not worth 
 all that is said about it. But the exterior illumination 
 no description can give an idea of — beautiful beyond 
 conception — so were the fire-works at the Castle. 
 The whole of this moles Adriani burst forth in one 
 volcano of rockets, and the intermixture of the roaring 
 of heavy cannon, gave a feeling of sublimity which 
 mere fire-works never produce. But I am writing in 
 too great haste to tell you any thing about the cere- 
 monies — I have seen some imposing — some, if the dig- 
 nity of the persons who acted, be separated from them, 
 contemptible — and some contemptible at any rate. It 
 is a satisfaction to have seen what all the world says 
 is the finest thing in the world, and it is not a less sat- 
 isfaction to be on the road towards the place where 
 we have together enjoyed hours of affection, such as 
 my fancy in her kindliest moments pictures as about 
 to be renewed with increased happiness.'* 
 
 He passed the Holy week at Rome, at the close of 
 which he went to Venice. While there, by means of 
 a letter of introduction, he received from Lord Byron 
 a card, inviting him to visit him. Always touched 
 by Lord Byron's poetry, and mourning over his great 
 but unhappy mind, Mr Bruen had found in him an ob- 
 
52 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 ject of lively interest, and his correspondent was on 
 the tip-toe of expectation to receive his description of 
 this visit. It is rather disappointing therefore, to find 
 this the brief but pithy expression of his feelings — 
 " The long agony is over, the eventful crisis is past, 
 and I may quietly continue my travels." After writ- 
 ing this, his letter describes his previous journey from 
 Rome to Florence, and thence to Venice. The scene 
 displayed in ascending the Appenines being pecuHar, 
 and not often described by travellers, may be inter- 
 esting. "From Taragona we* took horses to ascend 
 from the lovely bay of Spezia. There is this grand 
 peculiarity in the physiognomy of the country, that 
 the mountains extend often in all their height out into 
 the ocean, so that you have the boldest scenery pos- 
 sible. The road was at times excessively bad, the 
 ascents and descents very steep, the mules sometimes 
 not good, and the journey very fatiguing ; but we had 
 a continual source of admiration in the scenes by 
 which we were surrounded. From a very high point 
 of the Appenines amidst the most desolate solitude, as 
 we came within view of the ocean, I treasure its 
 recollections as that, the memory of which, is fre- 
 quently to give me delight. We were so elevated 
 that the clouds floated below us. Some were trans- 
 parent, some black and heavy, through which the 
 
 * This part of the Journey was made in company with some of his intelligent 
 and inquisitive countrymen. 
 
MATTHIAS DRUEiV. 58 
 
 sun could not pierce. I never before saw the upper 
 part of a cloud illuminated. A great number of 
 vessels were sailing in every direction, the distant 
 ones seemed as if suspended in the clouds. A lovely 
 valley was at our feet, with a few small villages upon 
 the rocky shore, so situated that if picturesque 
 position alone could confer happiness, I am certain 
 that Abyssinia could not furnish such another. 
 
 Although nothing so grand offered itself afterwards, 
 the country increased in romantic loveliness, and we 
 came down upon the sea shore, at the bay of Sestis, 
 the beauties of which exceed tenfold the famed Baiae. 
 I cannot pretend to describe to you the ravishing 
 dehghts of the spot; do not think me mad, though 
 you may believe the view transported me. I must 
 seem to talk absurdly to you, who look calmly at a 
 distance upon my journeyings, but you must pardon 
 me, as I shall never again have such reason for being 
 extravagant. The road continued all the way to 
 Genoa across the ridges of the mountains, which 
 are every where covered with the most luxuriant 
 vegetation, and whether upon their summits or down 
 in the vallies, we were surrounded by little white 
 habitations, all as clean and neat as those of England, 
 and looking as if they were made on purpose for such 
 a gala-day as it was when we passed, the sun shining 
 out in the first of the spring with all his splendour, 
 the singing of the birds, and the magnificent ocean 
 expanded before us. I am apt to think that the 
 
54 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 measure of human happiness is not only more equal 
 than is generally believed, but also that there are 
 such reverses in our lot as make us pay for our 
 enjoyments ; and I am never happy without feeling, 
 perhaps sinfully, that this must in future be my case. 
 If this be true, and if an equilibrium must be kep- 
 up, I shall sometime or other in my life suffer acutely. 
 Genoa is well styled the magnificent; there ar< 
 parts of it that exceed any other city of Italy. T 
 prove how far the season is advanced, we had fin 
 strawberries there. Another more important fact 
 still for the world at large is, that my first day at 
 Genoa was my birth-day, the llth of April. Oh ! the 
 world of contradictions that are contained in this our 
 little being." 
 
 Schaffhausen, May 7th, 1818. 
 My dear Brother, 
 
 "Once more I write you from the land of Tell, and 
 what is better, yourself being judge, the land of 
 Zwingle and Calvin. I entered Switzerland with joy, 
 for now that it is past I may tell you, that when I 
 was last within its Hmits in my passage to Italy, I felt 
 that I had a long and troublesome journey before me, 
 in which I expected to find much to gratify me, but 
 nothing to love. There is I know a strong besoin 
 d^airner in my constitution. I never could live 
 happily without friends. It was no pleasant prospect 
 then to consider, that in the whole course of my 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEJf. 55 
 
 journey, there was not one human being I was to see 
 who would think it worth his while to care, whether 
 having once seen me, he should ever see me again. 
 In this, as in most other cases when I take a notion 
 to look on the dark side of a picture, I exaggerated 
 the circumstances, and I found many in my course, 
 who would much rather hear of my good than evil 
 fortune. But the journey is done, I have seen all 
 and more than I could have hoped for, with great- 
 er pleasure and less pain. I have given some 
 account of my journey to Inspruck, in a letter to my 
 father, which accompanies this. The salt mines in 
 Italy are not so considerable, though of the same 
 sort as those so famous at Saltzburgh, which is about 
 forty leagues to the east. There you know the en- 
 trance is at the summit of the mountain, and the sortie 
 at the foot. I felt anxious to get what information I 
 could upon this subject, for if you should ever execute 
 
 your plan of going to K , the getting an interest 
 
 in the works there and improving their state, or 
 forming new ones is no chimerical notion for the 
 obtaining of what all the world is chasing, many at 
 the expense of their necks, and more at the expense 
 of their souls — money. The utility of it, however, 
 I shall not be suspected of decrying, as long as my 
 expense book is by me. It is a good thing if we do 
 not pay too dear for it. But " gold may be bought 
 too dear," and health and friends and religion are 
 better than money. # # # * * 
 
6G MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Now that my morale is done I will continue my 
 history. 
 
 The travelling in most parts of the Tyrolese Alps 
 is very interesting, the country exceedingly romantic, 
 and the people different from any other in Europe. 
 They are the most picturesque people I have ever seen. 
 I thought to have arrived in Switzerland without pas- 
 sing any very high mountains, but we crossed the 
 verge of the Adlerberg with a great deal of trouble. 
 In many places the snow was ten feet deep, and the 
 passage was more dangerous than that of the Simplon 
 in November. I arrived in the morning at Briquenty, 
 and came forward that day to Constance, by the 
 road on the borders of the lake. The lake and the 
 country around are very beautiful, but are far ex- 
 ceeded by the lake of Geneva. Constance is an 
 ancient ugly city, with very little commerce or 
 activity. It is well that a city which was curst by 
 the sitting of a council that burnt John Huss, should 
 not prosper. I went to the council chamber where 
 the chairs remain in statu quo, as they were occupied 
 by the Emperor Sigismund, the Pope's legate, and the 
 cardinals. I went also to the field where the great 
 christian martyr received his crown. Nothing so 
 rouses my sensibilities as the remembrance of such 
 heroism, for here there is not a shadow of doubt on 
 the history, to take from our emotions while we con- 
 template the sublime picture of a man worn down 
 by chains and imprisonment, without a friend to 
 
MATTHIAS BRUKN. 57 
 
 encourage him, save that One who is in heaven, 
 daring to avow before Prelates and an Emperor, the 
 faith which he had received. Now that the world 
 has undergone its revolution, and that the high 
 reverence for authority has gone by, we cannot feel 
 what force of mind it must have required for a man 
 to dare to decide for himself, and to speak it before 
 his superiors. But it was not mere human courage, 
 but divine faith that met and subdued such obstacles. 
 Yesterday afternoon I left Constance, having for- 
 warded my baggage to Zurich, and came partly on 
 foot to this place. The banks of the Rhine are very 
 beautiful, and excepting the difference which cultiva- 
 tion, chateaux, towers, and spires, make in scenery, a 
 good deal like what we saw on the Ohio. And now 
 you want to know about the famous falls of the 
 Rhine, which I have just come from seeing. To begin 
 then, and to be just. It is a fine cataract. The country 
 around is very beautiful and I see it at a season of 
 the year, and in such weather as must make any 
 scene interesting. But then on the other hand, its 
 grandeur is excessively exaggerated. The fall is 
 eighty feet, they say — it ceitainly does not appear 
 so much. As you know in comparison of Niagara, 
 it is paltry; the fall not half as great, the river not 
 half as wide. If there w^ere no fall at Niagara, but 
 only those rapids between the island and the shore 
 as far as the edge of the falls, it would be grander 
 than this. I go to Zurich to-morrow, either on foot 
 or a part of the way on the river, as there is a boat 
 
58 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 to Eglisau. Since I have turned my face homeward 
 I cannot tell you with what delight I have travelled. 
 The weather is generally very fine, the fruit trees all 
 in flower, every thing in its vernal beauty, and to 
 crown all, I am going home. I have thought it 
 would be wrong not to give three or four days to 
 Switzerland, though I am exceedingly anxious to 
 get your letters which must be at Strasbourg. It 
 frightens me to think how long it is since I have 
 heard from you, though I have counted the days 
 that have passed. My intention is to go from 
 Zurich to Lucerne, and thence to Basle, whence 
 in a day I am at Strasbourg. My dear brother, I 
 cannot tell you how my heart opens when I think 
 of you all, still so far away. You will smile when 
 I tell you that I sometimes wrap myself in your 
 great coat, which still serves me, and feel the 
 warmer because it has served you also. Continue 
 to write; if this letter has a good passage, I may 
 yet get its answer. It is better that the letters should 
 be returned, than that I be kept anxiously expecting 
 them. My standing P. S. therefore is, write often. 
 My tenderest affection to my parents, and to all of 
 you. In a few days I hope to write you again 
 from Strasbourg. The protection of the Almighty 
 has hitherto been our safeguard, for the future may 
 I pray with more fervency, that he will continue to 
 be our shield and help. 
 
 Love, as you have ever done, 
 
 Your affectionate M. B. 
 
MATTHlAi imUliJX. 51) 
 
 Strasbourg, May 15th, 1818. 
 
 "I catch a moment before dinner to write this 
 scrawl, for if it does not rain, I wish to go five miles 
 or more to see a Christian of Lissignol's * recom- 
 mendation. * * # May 16 — I succeeded after a 
 good deal of trouble, in seeing the person I spoke of. 
 You may imagine that it was not easy to find a 
 house in the country, two leagues off", where all the 
 people talk German. But such is my wonderful 
 talent, that in my course from Inspruck hither, I 
 have gathered as many as four German words, and 
 I sport my nach, and von, and ja, and nein, with as 
 much confidence, and listen to a long answer, when 
 I only comprehend the gesture, with as much gravity 
 as Prof. Sleusinehtingius himself. Though I did not 
 get a great deal of information, I considered myself 
 well paid for my trouble, for I found an Israelite in- 
 deed ; and though my time was very short, the visit 
 did me good." 
 
 Mr. Bruen proceeded northward by Cologne to 
 Utrecht, where he designed to have paused for a 
 time; but that purpose was changed by a petition 
 from the Scots Presbyterian Church at Amsterdam, 
 who requested him to supply their church, during 
 the absence of their pastor in Scotland. This he did 
 for three sabbaths, with his usual anxiety to be useful, 
 and characteristic diffidence of his own success. He 
 
 • A protcstanl pastor in Languedoc, visited the year before by Dr Mason 
 and Mr Bruen. 
 
;60 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 often alluded with pleasure to the intercourse he had 
 while resident at Amsterdam, with the Rev Charles 
 Simeon, of Cambridge, a man well known in the 
 Church of England, for his devotional spirit, and 
 for his happiness in turning souls to true repentance. 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 61 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 In July he returned to London, where he was 
 again welcomed by those Christian friends, whose 
 society he had first enjoyed in company with Dr 
 Mason. To these friends he had made some im- 
 portant additions during his solitary travels. We 
 find him, in particular, expressing with gratitude 
 his enjoyment in the christian conversation of Mr 
 Drummond, and Lady Harriet, whom he had met 
 at Rome. In August he left London, as appears 
 from the following letter to his father. 
 
 Gloucester, August 16th, 1818. 
 My very dear Father, 
 
 " It is sabbath evening — another week has passed, 
 and I have in so much nearer prospect the long 
 desired meeting with you, and the return of those 
 peaceful hours at home, where I have more per- 
 fectly than elsewhere shut out the world from my 
 thoughts, and enjoyed sacred and bright visions of 
 immortality. But then as now, I have found my- 
 self slow of heart to believe, sluggish in the cxcr- 
 
62 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 cise of christian graces, and reluctant to draw off 
 my affections from earth and its perishing trea- 
 sures, though commanded to do so by Him who 
 offers heaven and its unfading joys in their place. 
 How little experience of our own weakness and 
 wickedness does it require, to oblige us to testify 
 that we serve a most kind and long-suffering Master, 
 who does not punish us as we deserve, who though 
 we forget him, does not forget to load us with his 
 benefits, nor permit us to fulfil the evil that is in 
 our hearts. With what earnestness should we pray 
 that our affections may be raised to so high a point 
 and concentered in so holy an object, that God may 
 have all our love. Alas ! we profess this ; we profess 
 that his glory is our aim ; how does a moment's 
 thought convict us of hollow-heartedness in our 
 professions. But it is better to turn from lamenta- 
 tions over ourselves, to earnest devotion and prayer 
 to God, that we may be made what we ought to 
 be; not forgetting, also, thankfulness to him who 
 has wrought it in us, if we are willing and desirous 
 to have our feet guided into the paths of self-denial, 
 holiness, and peace. 
 
 God seems for many years back to have but par- 
 tially blessed — at least the dignitaries — of the estab- 
 lished church of this Kingdom, and piety has been 
 the least essential article in the character of a Bishop. 
 But I am now in the diocese of one whose elevation 
 is an omen of peculiar good from the divine Provi- 
 
MATTHIAS BRUE?f. 63. 
 
 dence. His labors, apart from his official duties, ex- 
 ceed those of most pastors ; there are few sabbaths 
 on which he does not preach three times, and it is 
 not his sole care to bring the gospel to the rich, 
 but in work-houses, alms-houses, and prisons, and 
 wherever there is opportunity, he proclaims the un- 
 searchable riches of Christ. He labors not only on 
 the sabbath, but in the week, from village to village; 
 and besides his own immediate exertions, is careful 
 to get young men who are evangeHcal, and who will 
 perform their duty conscientiously, to fill the vacant 
 churches. You know something already of his name 
 and character ; the Bishop of Gloucester is brother to 
 the Earl of Harrowby, whose speech, seconding the 
 motion made by our minister Mr Rush, at the B. and 
 F. Bible Society, you have no doubt read. 
 
 I had a very agreeable visit on friday last to Barley 
 Wood, the seat of Mrs Hannah More. It is eleven 
 miles from Bristol, in a beautiful country, and one of 
 the prettiest places I ever saw, being situated on the 
 side of a hill in the midst of much rich and varied 
 scenery. I sent up my letter from Mr Simeon, and 
 was immediately received with much attention. Mrs 
 More is now about seventy two years of age and in 
 better health than could be reasonably expected. She 
 was kind enough to seem anxious that I should stay to 
 dinner, and I was yielding enough to remain at her 
 solicitation. No writer except Mr Wilberforce has 
 had so great an cficct upon the higher orders of so- 
 
64 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 ciety. It is principally by means of her works, that 
 it has become not a flagrant breach of all fashion 
 even to think a little seriously upon religion. Nor 
 have her exertions been confined to this rank; for her 
 cheap repository tracts are v^orthy of all commen- 
 dation. Her conversation was sufficiently spirited 
 and lively, without any thing to astonish or over- 
 whelm one, which is just what conversation ought to 
 be. She has too much acknowledged talent to make 
 it necessary for her to exert herself to show off." 
 
 Mr B. made a short tour in Ireland, and returning 
 to Scotland, was joyfully met in Dumfrieshire by his 
 friends, who conducted him once more to his home 
 in Roxburghshire. 
 
 Affection lingers with fond regret over those pre- 
 cious weeks, when Mr B. once more reposed from 
 the hurry of the world; — weeks rich in intellectual 
 and christian enjoyment — enjoyment rendered deeply 
 affecting because each hour was tinctured with the 
 not to be suppressed thought, that it was passing, and 
 might never have its fellow in this vale of tears. 
 How chastened is that friendship which must transfer 
 its hopes of future personal intercourse to another 
 state of being. How sure the penalty paid in such 
 circumstances, even for the highest moral delights. 
 How vainly during the last days, did we endeavour 
 to interest ourselves in subjects of general philanthro- 
 py, or in our own future plans of usefulness. They 
 were not to be accomplished, if ever accomplished, 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 65 
 
 but in stations far remote from each other. We 
 exclaimed with Klopstock in sadness of heart — 
 
 "Alas, they find not each the other; they 
 
 Whose hearts for friendship, and for love were made; 
 
 Now far dividing claims forbid to meet, 
 
 And now long ages roll their course between." 
 
 Though we strove to sustain our separation by the 
 idea that we should meet again even in this world, 
 yet it was only by an act of resignation that we could 
 part with any composure; and while we sorrowed 
 most of all lest we should "see his face no more," we 
 transferred our hopes with thankfulness to the Eternal 
 abode, "where no enemy can ever enter, and whence 
 no friend shall ever depart." 
 
 Manchester, September 19th. 
 
 "Alas! my dear friend, and am I already so far 
 from you? I could hardly believe this painful fact, 
 that on thursday evening I slept at the distance of 
 seventy miles from my Scottish home. 
 
 It happened a little strangely that four of my coun- 
 trymen had dropped from the clouds on the same 
 coach top that bore me from you, one of whom was 
 an acquaintance from New York, so that I was 
 obliged to talk, and perhaps that was as good as 
 musing. I marked the road, however, and remem- 
 bered when we travelled it together, and recognised 
 the lake where we saw the seafowl, though they have 
 now taken their flight — so one generation passeth 
 
66 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 away after another — the birds return and go in their 
 seasons. Let us learn wisdom from the fowls of 
 heaven, and know that if the good providence of our 
 Heavenly Father permit us to build our nests in qui- 
 etness, we are yet upon our passage and must soon 
 forsake them. I saw the smoke curl from the chim- 
 nies of your brother's mansion, and marked the 
 spot which is the farthest that we have been together, 
 and bade you as it were a second farewell. — And is 
 it possible that after to-morrow, there is to be but 
 one more sabbath spent in the same land with you? 
 Till time has dulled my feelings I had better keep 
 the notion that made me leave you so valiantly — that 
 I shall see you again. I will not let this melancholy 
 invade me. Now indeed we should find the benefit 
 of thoughts of the " better land." Lift up our faith, 
 and hope, and love, O thou most High! 
 
 I am to preach for Mr Roby to-morrow. May 
 our Master strengthen me." 
 
 Liverpool, September 25th, 1818. 
 "Next thursday morning we take our departure, 
 and I bid farewell to the shores of England. I have 
 more regrets to feel than most persons, for I have 
 experienced more kindness than happens commonly 
 to travellers: and with whatever delight I may con- 
 template my return home, it can never be any thing 
 but a pain to reflect that the wide ocean separates me 
 from friends whom I love. But it is no proper way 
 
MATTHIAS DRUEN. 611 
 
 to show our gratitude for friends, to complain that 
 providence has been pleased to separate us, I cer- 
 tainly shall 'never cease to be grateful peculiarly for 
 my friends on Twecdsidc, which have given body 
 and spirit as well as local residence to what my 
 imagination had sometimes pictured, and my cool 
 reason believed impossible. If I live I must have 
 many hours of sohtary musing; what I have seen I 
 hope often with pleasure to bring up to my view. 
 But of what value are the recollections of the streets 
 of a splendid city, or the walls of a rich gallery, in 
 comparison with walks which w^e can tread, in fancy 
 at least, in company and know each other so well, 
 that we can imagine not only their words but 
 thoughts. When fatigued then with the business of 
 future life, or made unhappy for a time by an absurd 
 sensibility, which however I may attempt to ridicule 
 or resist I yet foster, and shall never overcome, I 
 shall take refuge in the alleys of your garden, or in 
 our walks on the banks of the Tiviot, and forget my 
 foolish sorrows and remember you. * * * 
 But I hope to raise those recollections a little higher. 
 If our materialized souls could seize the sacred idea 
 of converse in heaven, and imagine, from the plea- 
 sure which our intellects receive now, when a noble 
 thought but flits through our minds, or a tender, pure 
 gleam of affection rests but a moment in our bosoms 
 — what must be the delight of uninterrupted growing 
 affection for God and all his creatures : an afiection 
 
68 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 not the result of mere feeling, but of the soundest 
 understanding — then we should not so often be in 
 base slavery to the things around us." 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 After his letter of the 25th, the reader will partici- 
 pate the astonishment with which the following was 
 received. 
 
 Liverpool, September 27th, 1818. 
 
 "I have no time to express to you the delight 
 which yours of the 22d gave me, for it was handed 
 to me on sabbath morning, with one from Paris, 
 which has entirely altered my plans, and forced 
 me to a decision which must have an influence on 
 all my future life. Briefly, — I am not going home 
 but to France, to reside for six months, perhaps a 
 year." 
 
 Fortunately it is in our power to give the nar- 
 rative of circumstances, and the overflowing of his 
 dutiful heart to his parents, in his own words, 
 which will make his history better understood. 
 
 Liverpool, September 27th, 1818. 
 "Alas ! my very dear Father and Mother, and am 1 to 
 send this lifeless memorial to you, instead of throw- 
 
70 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 ing myself into your arms ? Are you to be disap- 
 pointed just at the moment in which you expect 
 me at home? Am I to put aside all my hopes of 
 seeing you for another six months, and to stop the 
 warm current of my affections, which have been so 
 much indulged by this tender hope 1 Even now that 
 I have made the resolution, I tremble at it, and am 
 only supported by the deep sense of its necessity, and 
 the immense responsibility of deciding otherwise. 
 To give you the history briefly, I had arrived here, 
 and taken my passage, when I received a letter from 
 Paris, in which I am told that they have formed a 
 church there, principally of Americans, and that there 
 is no other than myself, to whom they can look as their 
 minister. I cannot tell you how much I have been 
 startled by this. I knew in London that they were 
 making the attempt, but I was far too desirous of 
 seeing you to think of prolonging my absence. But 
 now just at the moment of embarkation, I find myself 
 arrested. I have far too little devotion, and faith, 
 and zeal to fit me for a missionary, and least of all, 
 in such an important station as Paris. I have no 
 spirits for giving you the history to-night — but to 
 finish; the question just came to this — ^whether I 
 dared to go home where there is no special call, and 
 turn my back on this field of usefulness, where no 
 one else can so well labour. Whether I could settle 
 it with my conscience to let this opening for good, be 
 closed again, and the exertions of these few chris- 
 
MATTHIAS RRUEJT. 7t 
 
 tians, die for want of being fostered. Whether such 
 an opportunity of promoting real religion in France, 
 and doing something for its destitute population in 
 the way of encouraging our countrymen and others 
 to spread bibles and tracts there, is to be lost ? Do 
 I profess to have a hope that I am purchased by the 
 blood of the Son of God, and to be devoted to his 
 service, and shall I prefer kindred and father's house 
 to obedience to so manifest a call of his Providence ? 
 I dare not refuse. However much pain the decision 
 has cost, and will yet cost me, I would pray for di- 
 vine assistance, that I may be made to live to God's 
 glory, and be led in the path of duty, and usefulness 
 to my fellow men. May you be strengthened, my 
 dear parents, in this trial, and let not hope deferred 
 make the heart sick. But since this absence has 
 originated in this cause, may the consolations of Him 
 who loves us unto the end, lift up your hearts in the 
 joy of his salvation, and recompense you for this 
 temporary privation. Love and pray for your weak 
 and anxious son, who can bear any thing better than 
 the idea of giving pain to you. I am oppressed with 
 a thousand thoughts, and can write no more to-night. 
 
 Monday — Here is a copy of the letter which I re- 
 ceived. 
 
 Paris, September 20th, 1818. 
 
 " We have formed a little church in this place and 
 as wc are destitute of a pastor, we pray you to come 
 
72 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 over and help us. During the summer we have as- 
 sembled every Lord's day in a private house, but are 
 on the point of getting one of the protestant temples. 
 Consider, my dear friend, (the letter [is from Mr H. 
 son of the senator from Connecticut,) whether you 
 could spend the winter in a manner more useful 
 to the cause of your Lord, or more honorable to 
 yourself, than by residing in Paris in this character. 
 Would you not acquire more boldness in the faith, 
 more influence in the christian world, and more in- 
 tellectual improvement, than by studying and preach- 
 ing at home ? Perhaps we shall be unable to pay 
 you, but it is doubly important you should accede to 
 our proposal, because you can afford to do it for 
 nothing. The request is made on behalf of all our 
 countrymen, and of many Scotch Presbyterians, and 
 English Dissenters. If you should accede to our 
 wishes, become ordained in England. It will not be 
 necessary for you to write more than one sermon a 
 week. I shall be disappointed, dear M. if you do not 
 yield to so manifest a call of Providence. The field 
 of christian usefulness here is as large as the most 
 expansive charity, and it promises no scanty harvest 
 to the christian labourer." * * # * 
 
 I wrote to you last year while in Paris, that I 
 preached twice, but I did not then know that such 
 meetings are illegal. Mr Drummond, the banker in 
 London, who has had so much connection with Ge- 
 neva, and with whom I became acquainted at Rome, 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 78 
 
 has since told me, that by the Code Napoleon, there 
 are very heavy penalties upon all persons who lead 
 in such meetings, or in whoso houses they arc held. 
 But if the Americans^ as such, apply for permission to 
 meet for public worship, it will of course be granted, 
 and one of the Protestant churches can be obtained. 
 It is of great importance that it be known distinct- 
 ively as an American institution, because one great 
 benefit proposed is, the facilities it will give for circu- 
 lating bibles and tracts among the French, who re- 
 gard very favorably every thing done by us, and 
 very jealously every thing done by the English. 
 Besides by this means it may become a permanent 
 institution. A war is never likely to happen between 
 the United States and France ; but the present peace 
 of Europe is probably quite temporary. An English 
 Chapel then might be shut up, but here will be a 
 channel of christian communication, through which 
 all christians of whatever nation, may employ their 
 means of spreading true religion ; and besides, how 
 great an influence may such a society have upon 
 the Protestants, now in so general a state of irreli- 
 gion. There is English service in the Oratoire every 
 sabbath, but the Gospel is not preached by the Church 
 of England man who ofliciates there. Now consi- 
 dering the vast numbers of English in Paris ; the 
 many good people who are there at times, the many 
 who have a respect for religion, and would attend 
 divine worship, and that general fcchng of serious- 
 
74 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 ness which is produced in most minds by an absence 
 from their native country, I cannot but think this may 
 become one of the most important stations in the world. 
 Paris is the great centre from which an influence goes 
 out to the extremes of Europe, and if any good, how- 
 ever small could be done, we might hope for the divine 
 blessing, and the most important results. But I have 
 a little lost the point with which I set out. It was to 
 show the extreme importance of having this at first 
 an American institution, and for this purpose they 
 ought to have at the outset an American minister. 
 Afterwards when it is a little organised, they may 
 have whom they please, though it will be always 
 desirable to have one from the U. States. Yet all 
 who love the gospel, of whatever nation, who un- 
 derstand EngUsh, will attend. It has not been with- 
 out trembling anxiety that I have made up my mind. 
 There is no other person to apply to but myself, else 
 I should have ceded so high an honour. I am well 
 aware of the immense difficulty, and the very severe 
 temptations of the station, but I would throw myself 
 upon His faithfulness who has promised to sustain 
 those who trust in Him. If I know my own self, it 
 is only because I believe it to be for the promotion of 
 His kingdom, that I have come to this purpose. It 
 has not been a providence or call of my own seeking, 
 but rather of my avoiding; but I now find myself 
 straitened so that in conscience I dare not leave it. 
 And I should have felt that I deserved your re- 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEX. 75 
 
 proaches if I had come home in such circumstances. 
 My idea is that I should go there for the winter, col- 
 lect such a congregation as I can, get them organ- 
 ised, and by that time we can look round for some 
 person to take the place. One thing is not to be for- 
 gotten. Some personal sacrifice is necessary; they 
 are not yet so in a body as to be able to support a 
 minister. I may by the divine blessing bring them to 
 this point. 
 
 Most of the religious people in England and Scot- 
 land will be much interested in this subject. I now 
 come to those reasons which make it less a sacrifice 
 to myself than it may at first seem to be. The first 
 is the intellectual cultivation; I shall often find many 
 of the first English and other authors, and learned 
 men, whose society may be of great advantage to me. 
 The opportunities of study are excellent, and I shall 
 live very retired. One sermon a week is as much as 
 I could w^rite well, and the audience will generally 
 be of that character which will keep my mind vigor- 
 ous and active. This preliminary exercise may be 
 very useful in preparing me for the full labours of 
 a charge at home. 
 
 On the other hand I am going into banishment 
 from general christian intercourse, and that sort of 
 society which is most necessary to me — to a place 
 where Satan's throne is, and where temptations are 
 not presented in the grossness of vice, but with all 
 the attractiveness of which they are capable. I know 
 
76 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Paris too well not to be aware of the loneliness and 
 sorrow of heart which must sometimes come over 
 me. However those may enjoy themselves who 
 drown reflection in giddy dissipation or criminal 
 enjoyment, Paris has not to me the charm of much 
 pleasurable recollection. Least of all does the pros- 
 pect of a residence there give me that enjoyment 
 which those who know it not may think it deserves. 
 I go where the sabbath is constantly profaned, 
 where the idea of eternity is discarded, and heaven 
 and hell laughed at as a notion. 
 
 Tuesday — I awake in the morning and can 
 scarcely beheve that I am not going home, — this 
 change of purpose seems like a dream. Yet the 
 more deliberately I weigh it, the more satisfied do I 
 feel that it is right. I have too much prudence and 
 calculation about me not to look at consequences, 
 and have not an extreme confidence in my own 
 judgment. Yet here have I, alone, with no one to 
 advise with, taken the most important step in my life, 
 and feel satisfied with it. It seems as if my faith 
 were stronger, and my religious feeling more devo- 
 tional since than before. If in the end nothing come 
 of this design and it quite fail, yet I think I shall be 
 satisfied as I am now, that I have done my duty." 
 
 The concluding sentences of a letter of the same 
 date addressed to his friends at Kelso, may give some 
 additional shades to the varied beauties of the charac- 
 ter which it is an object to depict. 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 77 
 
 " I dare not resist ; I am sorry that I should be less 
 attracted than driven to so noble a field of missionary 
 labour. I have not the devotion of faith and zeal 
 which become the station ; yet the design must not 
 be permitted to fall through, and it is important that 
 in the first establishment of such an institution it 
 should be distinctly American. # # # 
 
 There is but one thing that afiects me, and that 
 gives me great pain. It is the acute disappointment 
 of my parents and sisters and brothers. They have 
 calculated to the hour — the moment the vessel is 
 announced, they v^^ill expect to see me. I can only 
 send a lifeless letter." 
 
 Thus did our young friend verify Paul's descrip- 
 tion of real christian character, "No man liveth to 
 himself." Already had his sensitive nature endured 
 the martyrdom of separation from all those friends 
 whom he had learned to prize in a foreign country. 
 Already was his passage taken, his foot was almost 
 planted on American planks. Already w^as the full 
 tide of feeling setting towards home. Home! there 
 is a magic in that sound which none but aliens know. 
 But a petition, almost I had said a demand is made 
 upon him, holding out as one of its unusual induce- 
 ments, that he cannot be paid ; but that he can aflford 
 to grant it without remuneration. So powerful is the 
 sense of duty in his mind, that he receives the agitat- 
 ing proposal in the morning, and decides before 
 night on foregoing all that he must forego, and en- 
 
78 MEMOIRS OP 
 
 countering all that he must encounter. Nor can we 
 duly estimate the value of the sacrifice without con- 
 sidering his keen regret on inflicting severe pain on 
 his family. It requires to have seen him as we have, 
 expanding in affectionate description of each brother, 
 and each sister, explaining his hopes and fears for 
 each, with almost parental solicitude; before it can 
 be comprehended how pungent must have been his 
 emotions on turning his back on the native vessel, 
 and his fellow citizens who were to sail in it, and 
 those western waves which were to have borne him. — 
 But his faith and patience were equal to his day of 
 trial, and I cannot recollect that any circumstances 
 ever elicited one expression of regret. 
 
 Mr Bruen wrote on the 2d of October, 1818. 
 
 Liverpool. 
 "Yesterday the vessel sailed, which carried my 
 letters, the poor representatives of myself, and here 
 am I this evening in one of those lonely not unhappy 
 moods, which unfit me for any thing except commun- 
 ing with a dear friend. My mind was rather in a 
 good state after my great decision, for I felt more 
 faith and devotion; more courage and intellectual 
 power. But I am not made to hold on the even tenor 
 of my ways. Pray for me that in this great conflict 
 with the powers of darkness, I may receive assistance 
 from our King and Master, may be really and wholly 
 on his side, and be prepared for any sacrifice in his 
 cause. * * # 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 79 
 
 I hesitate as to the business of ordination. I am 
 sometimes incHned to think that I should do as much 
 good by going there, and only preaching and pre- 
 paring for some other person. But then on the other 
 hand, are the christians there to be deprived of the 
 sacred ordinances ? The answer to this is that there 
 may be dissenting ministers who pass through Paris, 
 who may officiate, and I shall be relieved from the 
 most heavy responsibility of forming a church, ad- 
 mitting members, and electing officers; a business 
 which you will agree with me, may well frighten my 
 inexperience." 
 
 London, October 22d, 1818. 
 " It is now just a week, my dear Father, since I 
 arrived once more in this capital, and it is still impos- 
 sible for me to fix exactly the day of my ordination, 
 though it must now be very soon. I am anxious for 
 it, for my time is spending to comparatively little 
 profit, and I ought to be at my post, and at work. 
 Yet I have great reason to look foi-ward to that 
 period with much solemnity, as to the most eventful 
 hour of my life. I desire to feel that no act can be 
 so important as that in which a sinner dedicates him- 
 self to the service of his fellow sinners in teaching 
 them from the word of life according to God's com- 
 mandment. J cannot get my soul half deeply enough 
 impressed with the endless responsibility of the office. 
 Chained to earth with earthly things to look at and to 
 
80 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 love, I am far too worldly-minded to be " put in trust 
 of the gospel." But there is consolation in the thought 
 that our most merciful High Priest looks upon our 
 infirmities with compassion, and bestows the Holy 
 Spirit to give energy in his service and devotion to 
 His cause, and love to Himself and to His people. 
 Merciful Jesus, hear my prayer, may my petition 
 come with acceptance before thy throne, may the 
 Spirit of grace be sent into my heart to mortify 
 the corruptions which flourish there, to crucify the 
 power of sin, to transform me into thine image, that 
 my faith may discern those things beyond the vail, 
 that they may fix my affections, so that I shall despise 
 all earthy things, and take up my cross and follow 
 Thee whithersoever Thou goest. 
 
 I entered London with I cannot tell you what sad- 
 ness of heart, wearied at the close of a long journey, 
 coming here for such an object, about to enter upon 
 such new and important duties. I could have de- 
 lighted myself if any thing better had awaited me, 
 than the solitude of an inn, in imagining the pleasure 
 of again seeing friends to whose bosom I could have 
 confided all my sorrows and fears. But it is no 
 doubt well that I have no person with me, w^ho has 
 my confidence, so that I could ask his sympathy, for 
 we are often enfeebled by those feelings, rather than 
 prepared for duty. Instead then, of sitting down and 
 giving way to these things, I went about my work, to 
 see those persons whose assistance will be necessary 
 
MATTHLLS DRUKIf. 81 
 
 in my ordination. I ought never to omit expressing- 
 my gratitude to my Heavenly Father, that I do not 
 feel myself that lone stranger in a strange land, 
 which I may seem to be, for there are many persons 
 who take a christian interest in me, and from whom 
 I should receive much advice and assistance in any 
 case of necessity. You will be anxious to hear what 
 is to be the manner of my ordination. There are 
 five or six presbyterian ministers here, who will 
 unite in it. The necessity is so strong that I do not 
 doubt our Classis when I come home will approve 
 the measure, though it has not passed through the 
 usual presbyterian forms. The main difference be- 
 tween ourselves and the Congregationahsts or Inde- 
 pendents is, that we hold what I believe was the 
 apostolical manner, that the right to administer the 
 ordinances depends, not on the choice of a congrega- 
 tion but upon the judgment of a certain number of 
 ministers, who may before, or are at the time of their 
 meeting, to judge of the fitness of the candidate — a 
 presbytery. The provision for the christian hberty 
 of the people is in the fact that the minister so or- 
 dained cannot labor in any particular charge without 
 their choice. It is upon the ground of the letter of 
 license which the Classis gave me, that the proceed- 
 ings are founded. 
 
 They are about instituting here at present, a Conti- 
 nental Society ; I send you one of the circulars ; the 
 officers are not yet fixed on. # * * * The first 
 
82 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 object is to support and encourage all native ministers 
 every where over the continent, in preaching the 
 gospel, of whatever sect, whether lutheran or cal- 
 vinist, and also to induce zealous persons, who could 
 not themselves bear the expense to itinerate in every 
 direction, and scatter the good seed. The translation 
 of tracts also, and circulation of religious books, is 
 one of their immediate objects. The thing they 
 chiefly aim at, and indeed the principal difficulty is 
 to bring all the religious sects here to co-operate in 
 the business ; — there is great appearance of success, 
 however. I was at the meeting last night of the 
 principal persons, at which the affair was discussed 
 in a way that augurs well. If it should become popu- 
 lar, it will indeed be highly beneficial. But you 
 readily see that it is not so easy for all sects to unite 
 in this, as in the British and Foreign Bible Society, 
 or indeed in some others. A short time, however, 
 will show what can be done, and it will not fail for 
 want of zeal in the movers of it. Mr Drummond 
 told me a very important fact, which I perfectly be- 
 lieve, as JMr Leo told him. Mr Leo, whose endeav- 
 ours to spread the New Testament in France, you 
 are well acquainted with, sent a message requesting 
 an audience with M. Laine, the French Minister of 
 the Interior ; he received an immediate answer telling 
 him to come that evening. At this he was much sur- 
 prised, as it is contrary to the etiquette of persons in 
 the Minister's official station, to grant an immediate 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEX. 83 
 
 •audience. He went, and when he was beginning to 
 detail what he had done, and the opposition he was 
 meeting with, the Minister interrupted him with the 
 assurance that he knew all he could narrate upon 
 that subject, but that lie must go on as lie liad begun, 
 that whatever was done in the circulation of the 
 Bible in France must be by individual effort ; that he 
 must especially guard against attempting to establish 
 a Bible Society, for if that were done they would 
 meet organised systematic opposition; but the go- 
 vernment wished every success to his exertions, and 
 would protect him, for they knew that irrcligion was 
 the source of the miseries of France. Mr Leo was 
 dismissed with a thousand francs, and M. Laine sent 
 for a large number of Testaments to distribute in his 
 own family. Now if the French government be sin- 
 cere in their desire to spread religion of whatever 
 sort in the country, as the people are entirely with- 
 out rehgion, and therefore without prejudices, other 
 than what the natural heart must always have, and 
 as the sentiment is really very general, that a religion 
 of some sort is necessary, and that the doctrine of 
 the revolution on that point is destructive of all so- 
 ciety, the best consequences may speedily ensue, and 
 a rapid change be produced. While we must not 
 permit our expectations to run as fast as our wishes, 
 yet if the word of God have free circulation, the seed 
 will be sown, where it never has been. In connec- 
 tion with these things, it is one of the remarkable 
 
84 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 signs of the times, that elementary instruction is 
 spreading in France with unexampled rapidity, so 
 that every body is learning to read, and so far as 
 the literal understanding of it goes, the Bible will 
 soon not be a sealed book to those of the very lowest 
 class ; and if they can read for themselves, the revo- 
 lution has too far shaken their old confidence in their 
 priests and traditions to permit their minds to be 
 shackled. They will think for themselves. Let us 
 pray ardently then, for such influences of the Divine 
 Spirit, as may raise up light in the midst of darkness, 
 may convert the solitary place into the garden of 
 God, and those that sit in the shadow of death, into 
 the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. 
 
 " You cannot yet have heard of the recent renun- 
 ciation of their religion by three thousand Catholics 
 in the vallies of the Pyrenees. I will tell you of the 
 details when I learn them. There is a great deal of 
 religious information here of an important sort, in 
 correspondence between Mr Drummond and many 
 persons on the continent, which now forms part of 
 the documents upon which the new- society has acted. 
 To this I have access. — I have myself from M. Les- 
 signol some very interesting letters. 
 
 " Upon my own business in partic«hr I must not 
 
 forget to tell you that Mr G , who has been 
 
 here to form a commercial treaty, left town to-day 
 for Paris. He received the idea of forming a church 
 in Paris very favourably, and offered to look over 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 85 
 
 the Code Napoleon with me when I came to Paris, 
 to see what the law requires, and to modify the 
 application to the government as circumstances ren- 
 der most proper. So in one form or another the 
 thing is not likely to fail. 
 
 "And now you are ready to ask how my own 
 courage stands at the sight of all this preparation 
 for labour, and what I think will be my own part in 
 it. I am surprised myself, my dear father, at my 
 own resolution, — that I, who used so to tremble at 
 responsibility, can now go forward, without an ad- 
 viser so confidently. I hope it is not a vain, and will 
 not prove a delusive confidence. But I feel as if I 
 had information and powers which may prevent my 
 acting unworthily of the station ; though out of the 
 habit of writing, I feel certain I can prepare myself, 
 and I only need a little more faith, or a good deal, if 
 it please our Heavenly Father to give it me, in the 
 fact that God sees me, that I am surrounded by 
 perishing sinners, myself a sinner, and that there is 
 revealed for them and me a way of salvation in 
 Christ Jesus the Lord — to rouse me into vigorous 
 action. Oh! that we believed this — that we could 
 feel in any degree as we ought at the idea of an 
 eternal world. Eternal? is it — can it be true, that 
 when that sun and those stars shall no longer shine 
 on us, when the worms shall be the companions of 
 the bodies that we now nourish with so much care, 
 that then our souls shall be conscious in an eternal 
 
86 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 world ? The word of God says so — and it may be 
 that then our souls shall be enjoying the Divine Pres- 
 ence, and our nature filled with perfect delight, and 
 then in our flesh we may see God our Redeemer; 
 when the trumpet shall sound and we be raised in- 
 corruptible, and brought into the possession of 
 heavenly mansions. Nothing is more com.mon among 
 christians than expressions of surprise at the little 
 effect produced on their own minds by the truths 
 they profess to believe, and so long as we are sinful 
 men there will no doubt be reason for this surprise. 
 " I cannot even stop for the night without saying 
 what I shall say more of — that I dare hardly trust 
 myself to think of your disappointment at my not 
 coming home. For myself to make a sacrifice, to 
 sit in solitude, is nothing ; but I cannot bear that you 
 should suffer pain, especially that it should come 
 through me whom you love, and for whom you would 
 sacrifice so much. But I would bow before a provi- 
 dence which I did not conjecture could happen, and 
 of which, therefore, I could not forewarn you. 
 
 " I pray now and ever that the Almighty may set 
 his angels as a watch around you all, and that you 
 may enjoy abundantly of his consolations. May the 
 fear of God and the love of God dwell richly in your 
 hearts, so that we may love each other the more for 
 our common love to the one Redeemer, and may 
 this love increase until together we " enter into the 
 rest that remaineth to the people of God." 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 87 
 
 To Mrs , 
 
 London, October 20lh, 1818. 
 
 " You know the importance which I am inclined 
 to give to this soi-disant American — really christian 
 establishment in Paris. It is a quixotic attempt, if 
 we have not confidence in a divine blessing and pro- 
 tection. May my motives be purified, and I made 
 to understand my duty, and receive strength to per- 
 form it. Pray for me my beloved sister. What 
 dehght is there in the idea that you can pray for me 
 and for the prosperity of Zion at the same time. But 
 is this not presumption ? Am I to be an instrument 
 in building the walls of Jerusalem 1 The idea is too 
 great. I am ready to put my hand on my forehead, 
 and muse half stupid and half melancholy, under so 
 solemn a consideration. We are much the creatures 
 of circumstances, and I may be brought to exhibit 
 more energy and knowledge in the service of God 
 than I ever thought I possessed — Oh that it may be, 
 then, now, and ever, " yet not I, but Christ working 
 in me." 
 
 " I was at the communion service at Mr Fletcher's 
 last sabbath. Dr Waugh opened the service by a 
 most affecting address. I had more overwhelming 
 feelings than often come over me ; indeed I was so 
 exhausted by them that my bodily frame was more 
 weakened in an hour than it would have been by 
 preaching three times. I have much of the high and 
 low in my anticipations of my winter labours." 
 
88 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 All the solemn responsibility he was about to as- 
 sume in his ordination, could not fail to come with 
 commanding power over the mind of a person of so 
 enlightened and true a conscience as Mr B. It 
 seems a remarkable dispensation, that one so formed 
 for the pure enjoyments of friendship, and one so 
 disposed to seek counsel and solace in the bosom of 
 a friend, should have approached to one of the most 
 affecting and interesting stages of his life, alone. 
 The disposer of his lot, whose loving-kindness and 
 wisdom were always borne witness to by Mr B. — 
 had seen fit to leave no intermediate alleviation for 
 all his varied anxieties and emotions, in order, it may 
 be supposed, that he might bring them directly to the 
 sympathies of a High Priest touched with the feeling 
 of his infirmities. 
 
 Previous to his ordination he thus describes his 
 condition. 
 
 London, October 26th, 1818. 
 " It has been with no pleasant thoughts that I ar- 
 rived again in London, and sadness of heart predomi- 
 nates now in all my feelings. This strange alteration 
 of purpose, which sometimes seems almost quixotic 
 to myself, the novel circumstances into which I shall 
 soon be thrown, and above all the disquietude which 
 the idea of being ordained while I am yet in the 
 turmoil of travelhng, with my confused feelings, and 
 hfeless religion, put me altogether sometimes in no 
 
MATTHIAS BRUExV. 89 
 
 enviable state of mind. How unprepared am I to 
 enter on the most solemn of all offices, and to bind 
 myself by the most awful of vows. At such a period, 
 when I have looked forward to it, I have planned for 
 myself deep retirement, and many heart-searching ex- 
 aminations of my own exercises, and many heart-felt 
 petitions to the throne of the heavenly grace. God, 
 art thou the God of my salvation? O Lord Jesus, 
 am I to declare thine unsearchable riches ? * * 
 
 What can ever be made out of me? — with 
 abilities above contempt, there seems a nervelessness 
 in my whole constitution which will unfit me for any 
 matter of practical utility. I fear I shall never have 
 any thing at command at the moment it is required ; 
 and that a creature of impulse, I shall now and then 
 do a good and useful thing, but oftener disappoint 
 and grieve myself and friends." 
 
 Those who have since witnessed his active and ef- 
 ficient energy in the station which he filled, will read- 
 ily impute these fears in part to his unpractised youth, 
 but chiefly to the conceptions of a mind which plan- 
 ned more than it could accomplish, and grasped in 
 imagination more than it could attain. It is ever 
 thus with the noblest souls ; and He who made man's 
 heart, knows that we are fated to pine in this world 
 under unfulfilled hopes, — not, however, to pine in 
 vain. Those conceptions, ever unfulfilled, ever dis- 
 appointed ©n earth, are the harbingers of heavenly 
 aspirations, and the precursors of that complete state 
 
90 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 of being which awaits all who arc made perfect in 
 Christ Jesus. 
 
 London, October 80th, 1818. 
 " I cannot tell you with what emotion I read your 
 last letter, and thank you for all your good advice, 
 and for your prayers, which I assure you I recipro- 
 cate. You anticipate an effect from my change of 
 plan that it will effectually answ^er all questions of 
 doubt, as to my personal religion. But it will not do 
 so, and to show you this, I will add to what I pre- 
 viously said on secret motives. This sacrifice of 
 home, (and it is a great one,) promises recompense 
 in the way of worldly consideration, and in the way 
 of literary culture. And as I am fairly embarked in 
 the profession, it was not strange that I should em- 
 brace it. You may not remember, once, when I 
 spoke of being encouraged by the fact that I had 
 abandoned worldly expectations in other professions, 
 by my choice of the ministry, that you told me there 
 would have been no such thing for me, and that this 
 is the only thing I could be fit for. There is truth in 
 it, and if I am ever fit for it, it is all I ask. I write 
 after returning from preaching for Dr Winter, pre- 
 paratory to the first sabbath of the month. I preach- 
 ed for Dr Pye Smith on w^ednesday night. My 
 ordination is to take place at his place of meeting 
 at eleven o'clock next Wednesday. The ministers 
 agreed with me in thinking that it ought to be rather 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEPT. 91 
 
 private. Dr Waugh, Mr Fletcher, and Mr Wilson from 
 Greenock arc to assist, with Dr Winter, and Dr 
 Smith. O that I had a month or two now, or a 
 week of most entire solitude. It pains me to think of 
 this ordination ; going from the coach to the hotel, 
 and from the hotel to the church. But we are al- 
 ways placing too much confidence in means, and if I 
 had all the means I desire, no doubt I should be as 
 much disinclined to make the best use of them, as I am 
 of those I have. I am invited with great kindness to 
 a house where I may be as much alone as I wish that 
 day. I think you do not know Mr Hale. I consider 
 it a personal favour done to myself, while he does not 
 so count it, that he invites the ministers, and begged 
 me to bring any friends I have. But as I have none — 
 yes, friendless and homeless ! — this last kindness will 
 not fill his hospitable table. I am grateful, very much 
 so, for the christian kindness I have experienced in 
 many places, and shall ever remember and love Dr 
 Smith for his attention to me at this time. So 
 all the mechanical details are settled. It remains to 
 look to Him who has the residue of the Spirit." 
 
 Dover, Monday night, 
 November 9th, 1818. 
 
 " So far as externals were concerned, last Wednes- 
 day passed over most comfortably. Mr Fletcher made 
 the first prayer ; Dr Winter gave the address to the 
 people; Dr Waugh an address, and proposed the 
 
92 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 questions to me, to which I answered monosyllabical- 
 ly. He came down, and made the ordination prayer, 
 and Dr Smith gave the charge, a thing perfect 
 in its kind for affectionateness, judiciousness and pi- 
 ety. Mr Wilson, of Greenock, made the concluding 
 prayer. And now you have the account of what met 
 the eye of flesh. But what did the eye of the searcher 
 of hearts see ? My mind was deeply solemn. Dr 
 Waugh, you know, has always much nearness of ac- 
 cess to the throne of grace; but in the ordination 
 prayer all his soul poured itself out in the deepest de- 
 votion, and most holy ardour ; there was indeed in it 
 unction from on high, it seemed the very breath of 
 heaven. They were not earthly thoughts or feelings. 
 For myself, I thank our heavenly Father, that I was 
 at that moment enabled to give myself away in every 
 power of my body, and faculty of my soul, and I 
 thought that I could spend and be spent for Christ, 
 and leave friends and country for ever in this life, if 
 we could meet in the life eternal. But alas — when 
 he spoke of the blood of souls being found in the skirts 
 of ministers of the gospel — Oh, I have had moments 
 of anguish, — Oh God, my God, art thou my God, and 
 wilt thou be my refuge and strength and very present 
 help in trouble ? You may suppose that I was very 
 much exhausted by the feelings of the day. But I 
 awoke next morning before it was light, in a state of 
 mind such as I never before experienced — I am 
 earthly, and I wanted the bosom of an earthly father 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEI^. 93 
 
 to weep Upon. It was anguish — its essence is all 
 contained in two w^ords — eternal responsibility. I 
 could not look unto Jesus, I could not enjoy the con- 
 solations of his promises. But why trouble you ? or 
 rather, "why art thou cast down, O my soul, and 
 why art thou disquieted within me, — Hope thou in 
 God, for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of 
 my countenance and my God. 
 
 You would yourself be surprised at the vast im- 
 portance every body attaches to my mission. I have 
 one great comfort in it, — I should never have been 
 satisfied to labour where a better person could have 
 been ; but here, as the Apostle Paul says, I do not la- 
 bour within another man's line, nor prevent a more 
 efficient workman. May our Master give me grace 
 to be faithful. 
 
 I received a letter on friday which tells me that 
 the application for liberty of worship was considered 
 a matter of sufficient importance to be handed by the 
 minister of police, to whom it was addressed by the 
 consistory of the protestant church to the minister 
 of the Interior, who has returned a favourable answer. 
 I am glad, however, that they have dignified it so 
 much, since by this means wc have the highest au- 
 thority. 
 
 I am a little pale, and not very strong from all 
 that Lhavc gone through." 
 
94 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Paris, November 28, 1818. 
 * # * "I was deeply affected, and am still to a 
 certain degree, with the responsibilities of another 
 world, and the simple fact is, I may tell you, since it 
 is now over, that I came to Paris, pale and w^orn 
 out, and with no more bodily strength than I had 
 before I left New York. I arrived here on a thurs- 
 day night; the service for which I was not fit, 
 was continued by M. Mejancl in a private house. I 
 prepared my first sermon as w^ell as I could, from 
 " The Son of man is come to seek and to save that 
 which was lost." The notice was published in the 
 English papers here of a regular service in the Chapel 
 of the Oratoire. We had a great many more people 
 than could have been expected. Among the hearers 
 were numbered the Ambassador's family. Lord Cal- 
 thorpe, &c. &c. &c. The beginning was very auspi- 
 cious, — the attention very profound, and the effect of 
 the sermon such I hope, as, if it do nothing more, 
 will get me another hearing. I would here solemnly 
 express my gratitude to Him who has given such a 
 beginning. The Americans w^ere much pleased to 
 see so many of themselves together, yet there were 
 many absent. There were present also st)me English 
 and French. After a great deal of search, w^e had 
 given up the idea of being able to find any one to 
 lead in singing the psalms, when a person came int(? 
 our house an hour before service, who did it. How- 
 ever, the evening service is so inconvenient, that we 
 
MATTHIAS BRUE?f. 95 
 
 havo resolved to change it, and have it at two o'clock, 
 as the French service ends, and before the English 
 begins — still in the little chapel. M. Marron, and the 
 French consistory have shown us every attention. 
 I shall make every exertion to be on as friendly terms 
 with them as possible ; it may be of service to the 
 good cause. We keep up the morning service at a 
 private house. 
 
 On sabbath morning I selected a text and got my 
 mind so full of the subject, that on monday I wrote 
 almost all my new sermon (Luke 9, 26) so that you 
 see I was determined not to be behind hand. I hope 
 it will not engender sinful pride, but I have found out 
 that I have more understanding and imagination than 
 I thought, and can write with a certain eloquence of 
 feehng. Think of the drawback then of reading it; 
 and notwithstanding that I muster Dr Chalmers and 
 Andrew Thomson, and all the ministers of New 
 England as examples, yet I am not satisfied, and hope 
 to rid myself of this method, so destructive to all forco 
 of manner.* You will believe that I, who had not 
 written a sermon for two years and a half, find 
 occupation enough. 
 
 ^.You will be surprised after what has been done, 
 to know that there are but three or four christian 
 people here ; that nothing would have been done at 
 
 all if it had not been for H , who is a treasure 
 
 to me of genius and intellect and imagination and 
 
 • This was not his matuier judgment. 
 
96 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 christian principle, so based and combined as it 
 never was in any other mind. I have been looking 
 about to try and get a weekly prayer meeting, which 
 I need also — we will see. 
 
 I go out to make a call or two now and then, but 
 when I am not forced to that, I sit and write till two 
 or three, and then take a ride on horseback, and see 
 all the mountebanks on the boulevards, and all the 
 gentry of all qualities in the Champs Elysees, and 
 shake off the vapours, and sigh over the vanity of 
 the world, and rejoice that I am alone, that I may 
 laugh or cry as I please. — Now you have my manner 
 of life. As to my locale, I am in a very agreeable 
 neighborhood, near the most frequented boulevard 
 in the Rue de I'Echiquier. * * * * 
 
 In brief, I have every thing I want, and am as 
 happy as a lark, only when I like to be otherwise, 
 just for variety, and ought to esteem myself the most 
 fortunate of mortals. — And now I have room for 
 no more in this style. — 
 
 Are you much given to mark anniversaries 1 So 
 far as I can remember, and so far as sabbaths can 
 come round on the same day, I believe the first day 
 of my preaching was the anniversary of the first sab- 
 bath which Dr Mason and I passed in Paris, a day, 
 as I remember I once told you, of strange sadness of 
 heart, and tears. Who hath led me ! 
 
 And now of the news. The French government 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEfT. 97 
 
 has given permission to the Consistory of Paris to 
 form a protestant Bible Society, those of the confes- 
 sion of Augsburg as well as the calvinists. All the 
 pastors are engaged in it, and it promises great 
 things. One very encouraging circumstance is, that 
 how^ever much the preaching here falls short of that 
 full exposition of christian doctrine and application 
 to the conscience which we need, yet there is a man- 
 ifest improvement since I was first here, and I never 
 heard M. Marron at all so explicit as he was, as to 
 the doctrines of Christianity, in a sermon styled the 
 inauguration sermon for the Bible Society. The 
 Duchess de Broglic, Mad. de Stael's daughter, and 
 other protestants of rank, take great interest in it. 
 
 I met with Mr Owen* at dinner at Lord Cal- 
 throp's the other day with great pleasure, though we 
 did have some talk as to the ultraism of the Ameri- 
 cans at the Popish ceremonies, such as not taking off 
 one's hat to the Host, even at Rome, &c. He has 
 gathered a vast deal of interesting information where 
 he has been. I like to see such a man as he, who 
 as a member of the Church of England, is a little 
 ultra too, and observe how every vestige of prejudice 
 yields, when the question is about preferring the 
 essence of Christianity to any of its forms. He is 
 ndeed an excellent christian man, and I should love 
 lim if it were for nothing else but his deportment at 
 Jeneva. He conducted himself with the greatest 
 
 * Secretary of the B, and F. Bible Society. 
 O 
 
98 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 wisdom; kept always in view that he represented 
 the B. and F. B. Society, and took no side. He re- 
 fused a fraternal dinner, as it was styled, to which 
 the company of Pasteurs invited him, because of their 
 divisions,* and declined afterwards to see them to- 
 gether. He expressed his religious opinions most 
 decidedly, especially at Mad. Vernet's in a very large 
 company. His whole influence has been on the right 
 side, and I know from what I heard when there, how 
 great that was. 
 
 I beg above all things that our w^ell meaning 
 friends in England will let us alone. When I see 
 what a small undertaking this is in reality, and what 
 the imaginations of persons at a distance make of it, 
 it seems as if we had published falsehoods. It can do 
 us no good, and it is painful to any candid mind to 
 be the object of such overrated notions. If any per- 
 manent good is done, it will be known in due time ; 
 it is not necessary to celebrate the triumph before 
 the battle." 
 
 Paris, December 29th, 1818. 
 " Last Sunday w^eek I made my first extemporane- 
 ous preaching, at our little morning meeting in a 
 room,f and there seemed to be a special providence 
 
 * The divisions in the church of Geneva, are so well known that it has not 
 been thought right to print any of the details given by Mr Bruen, though they 
 were very minute; especially as subsequent events, had they been known to him 
 might have modified his views in some degree. 
 
 t The Chapel of the Oratoire was occupied in the morning by French pro- 
 t«6tants and therefore only at liberty for Americans in the afternoon. 
 
MATTmAS BRUEX. 00 
 
 in it, for an amorican lady here, who has been the 
 most active, and who was in great distress of mind 
 which I did not know of, found it a word of great 
 comfort. We have a little prayer meeting from 
 house to house in the week, in which I explain a 
 small portion of scripture, and the others pray, but 
 so weak are we that three men are all we can have 
 to lead in it. The good people are very liberal of 
 their money for tracts and testaments and all char- 
 itable works. 
 
 The course of my mind strikes me as being ex- 
 tremely curious ; here, when I have become an old 
 man, my fancy has got a little start, and I am read- 
 ing Milton with infinite delight — with a new, pure and 
 unaffected pleasure. * * # a^d I have 
 enjoyment in composition, altogether independent of 
 religious pleasure, from the number of vivid images 
 which strike me. How sweet to myself is this ego- 
 tism." 
 
100 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 CHAPTER Vli. 
 
 Paris, January 2d, 181^* 
 " I was very solicitous to write to you on the last 
 night of the year, but the necessity of preparing my 
 sermon prevented me, but I thought much of you be- 
 fore and after midnight. One complete year has 
 rolled by, and I have still that in possession (in mind 
 and feeling) which marks an era in my life. How 
 strange that I should come to Kelso to find a pure, 
 disinterested friend, and not be forgotten, whether at 
 Rome or Paris, — come back to Scotland to see you, — 
 and be here enjoying one of the most vivid of my 
 pleasures in your correspondence. I have by its 
 means come to have a more independent being in re- 
 ference to a multitude of objects. And I am sure it 
 has been, and will be, of essential service to me in 
 the most important matters. It has indeed been a pe- 
 culiar allotment in providence. We are fairly em- 
 barked on the stream of a new year. I feel myself 
 more than a year older, at the full point of life, with 
 more than life half gone, and yet so inconsequent are 
 we in our feelings, I cannot comprehend that, if that 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEIT. 101 
 
 bo true, I am more than half way to the house of 
 silence, and to the period when these eyes shall not 
 behold the sun, nor this heart beat with any emotion. 
 Yet death advances. He will soon do that for me 
 which he has done for so many others. He will soon 
 stop my pulsations, and cast all of me that my friends 
 look upon, into the grave for worms to feed on, 
 and holding my soul with a firm grasp, carry it to the 
 judgment of God. It is true that there is one who 
 makes death the messenger of peace, the harbinger 
 of heavenly life. * * * 
 
 It is now almost one o'clock ; Saturday night, then, 
 is past; the first of 1819. So we travel on toward 
 eternity. Farewell — I will leave the rest of my paper 
 for another night, if I live so long. May your rest be 
 grateful, and your hopes buoyant, and your faith firm. 
 It takes my letter many days to go to you — my 
 thoughts are more rapid, and my prayers. The 
 moon shines brightly here. It also throws its silver 
 light upon the ruined Abbey, upon the old holly, and 
 on the Tweed." * * * 
 
 January 3d. — " I have lived so long and come to 
 the termination of another sabbath. Once more I 
 have delivered my Master's message, and told my 
 hearers, that our dust must return to the dust as it 
 was, and the spirit return to God who gave it ; that 
 the reason of our mortality is our sin, and that Jesus 
 Christ alone can save our souls from wrath, our 
 whole persons from perdition. * * * 
 
103 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Many of our young men, and of my personal ac- 
 quaintances who hate, no doubt, to hear of death in 
 Paris, never come to church. If there were nothing 
 more in it than the loss of all the habits of home, 
 which, though they have become estranged, they 
 must return to, or lose the respect of those they most 
 value. It is a sad concern. But there is more in it, 
 and the angel of destruction can mark out a grave 
 for them, as well at the cemetery of Pere La Chaise 
 as at the family burial ground. 
 
 I do not know my dear friend, if ever I made the 
 request, but I wish very much, if by any of those oc- 
 currences which are called accidents, I should not 
 reach home, or should not live long afterwards, that 
 you would make a few extracts from my letters to 
 you, of such parts as you think would show them 
 most of their brother, and send to my sisters. I 
 never put so much of myself on paper before, and 
 they would be sorry as well as I, that I should quite 
 fade from their recollection." 
 
 To his Brother. 
 
 Paris, February 4, 1819. 
 *****" Except that I am in the main 
 stronger, I am for health very much as when I left 
 home, and I think that perhaps, I shall never lay my 
 hand firmly on my work, and work forward and 
 through, like an honest man. We may assure our- 
 selves of one thing, that however we may adorn our 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEX. 103 
 
 weaknesses with the glitter of sentiment, or palaver 
 them over with fine names ; yet that man is the most 
 respectable who does the plain, useful work of life, 
 and he will have something substantial in the eflcct 
 he has produced upon society, when the wind has 
 carried away our bubbles, and the sun melted our 
 frost-work. 
 
 Many reflections of this sort, and others which 
 would produce more pain, if self-love did not take off 
 their edge, that letter of my friend, George Duffield's, 
 naturally produces. The present civil interests of his 
 country have been benefited by his exertions, and 
 then the fruit of his labours extends to eternity. But 
 this is a reflection I dare not examine now. 
 
 Although since the receipt of my last letters from 
 home, there are other grounds on which to decide to 
 return soon, the main point to which I direct my 
 view is, that the sphere of usefulness is greater there 
 than here. The subject of being settled when I re- 
 turn will doubtless give me anxiety. I confess that a 
 small congregation in a country place would better 
 suit my frame of body and mind, than the bustle and 
 heavy labour of the city. I am very sorry if the 
 
 people of have kept their church vacant 
 
 any longer than they would of necessity have done, 
 from thinking of me. Still that place strikes my 
 fancy, for a great deal of good might be done 
 there with less difficulty than in many other situa- 
 tions. There are congregations in New York and 
 
104 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 other cities, to which even if I should be called, I 
 should think it would oficnd all the sense of fitness 
 that is in my nature, to attempt the guidance of. 
 Happily, circumstances do not require me to vex my 
 mind with cares for the morrow. 
 
 You must have admired the quantum of philosophy 
 which my last letter to my Father contained. A 
 friend told me some time ago, that the country minis- 
 ter with whom he was brought up, in a fine summer 
 evening when the labours of the day were over, and 
 he had taken his tea, used to place himself at the par- 
 lour window, with his pipe, and discourse most affect- 
 ingly, while thus in the plenitude of happiness, on the 
 pains of life and all its vanities," * # * * 
 
 Paris, February 8th, 1819. 
 " I have spoken to you of my grandfather with 
 whom I w^as left in the country, and to whom in my 
 childishness, I was a companion and friend. He 
 used to take more pleasure in our little discussions, 
 than in conversing with most of his neighbours. He 
 was a man of strong native sense, great practical 
 judgment and knowledge of men. I delight to turn 
 back to the recollections of my childhood, and I shall 
 never forget him who occupied so large a place in 
 them. Day followed day in the round of our em- 
 ployments, and in the evening he took his place at 
 the fire, and I at his right hand, and settled all the 
 affairs of state. I illustrated all my arguments from 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEX. 105 
 
 the history of the Roman Senate, and we sometimes 
 descended from these high topics to the approaching 
 examination, or the state of the skating pond. I 
 shall never forget the feelings with which we have 
 spent the sabbath evenings, when the deep blue hea- 
 vens, such as we often have of a winter night, were 
 studded with stars, and he has told me the popular 
 names of them, and we have talked of their distances, 
 and of His almightiness w^ho wheels them in their 
 courses. — In fine, we parted. He dined at my 
 uncle's with me, but his great age did not permit 
 him to come to hear me preach in my native town, 
 the day before I bade it farew^ell. And now, he lies 
 fast by where he placed a stone over the remains of 
 my grandmother. I scarcely dared to anticipate the 
 delight with which w^e should have met again ; and 
 it has been as well not to dwell upon it, for now we 
 shall not meet again here." 
 
 February 9th. 
 "One reason why I could not finish my letter 
 yesterday was, because I was engaged to make a 
 visit in which your hand could be traced. Madame 
 Vernet has sent me, besides a letter of introduction 
 from Prof. Pictet, one from herself to the Countess 
 
 of . In default of a better, you may see 
 
 a character of her in Lady Morgan's France. 
 What I had heard of her, had given me a desire to 
 know a woman of the great world, and of great 
 literature. And Madame Vernct's letter spoke of a 
 
106 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 quality that I dare say Lady Morgan would not 
 inquire about, her religion. After going through all 
 the forms, of leaving my card, being sent for, invited 
 to dine, &c. — last night w^hen I made a visit I was quite 
 enchanted; I never before had an idea of the true 
 spirituel in French conversation. You must know 
 that Madame La Marquise, for that is her title, — 
 what horror to my republican ears ! — occupies her- 
 self all the day in public charitable establishments, 
 never goes out in the evening, and instead of once 
 or twice, "receives " every night in the week. The 
 consequence is that the mere people of rank come 
 seldom, but there are always a few of the m.ost 
 considerable persons who come for sensible purposes. 
 Some ladies were there last night, and as I heard 
 them announced I made the same mistake into which 
 Byron's title of Lord, led the Edinburgh Reviewer 
 in his first critique. But when we talked of M'ln- 
 tosh's review of Mad. de Stael, in the last Edin- 
 burgh, I soon found that they were vastly well 
 informed, and what is more rare, thought for them- 
 selves. We had afterwards a scientific discussion on 
 the art of talking, which was the more amusing be- 
 cause it was clear that they were all professors ex- 
 posing the rules. The Countess began with the prin- 
 ciple that the speaker is, in almost all circumstances, 
 the one the best pleased in the company, and that the 
 main pleasure in hearing is, that we shall have our 
 turn next. Then came the different species of pro- 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 107 
 
 fessed talkers, with the benefits and evils belonging 
 to the race, all spiced with anecdotes of great authors, 
 which was quite a treat to me, and I swallowed it 
 with great voracity. We had also present a General 
 officer who told us of the campaign of Russia, and 
 how he saw 500,000 men cross one bridge over the 
 Niemen, and saw all that remained of the army, in- 
 fantry, artillery and cavalry, stand on the same bridge 
 on their return, while the king of Naples said to him 
 "voila tout." The bridge about the size of the Pont 
 Royal, or a little larger than yours over the Tweed. 
 
 The religious tracts which we have printed take 
 greatly wath the Countess, and she will distribute 
 them. She seems to be a very sincere woman, reads 
 a great deal of the bible, though a catholic, and is 
 anxious to get some plain sermons for the common 
 people. She says that the priests will have nothing 
 to do with the schools for mutual instruction. So 
 much the better if it stirs up others to give religious 
 knowledge. She does a great deal of good. I 
 'brought over that tract wdiich affected me much; 
 Cowper's brother's death by Cowper; it is translated, 
 and will, I have no doubt, be popular. We have dis- 
 tributed many of the life of Wm. Kelly, which I sup- 
 pose you know. Most of the English French 
 tracts are shockingly done, but this the Countess says 
 does not contain a single English idiom. The Shep- 
 herd of Salisbury plain, is translated, and half a vol- 
 ume of the cheap repository tracts will soon be fin- 
 
108 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 ished. These things are owing to H- . Our 
 
 numbers at the church are rather increasing, but the 
 sphere of usefulness is much larger at home. There 
 is to be a new vessel at Havre on the^lst of April, 
 when it is my present purpose to embark. Think of 
 
 it a little more than six weeks ! I have given what 
 
 seems to be my duty here. # * # * 
 
 Paris, March 1st, 1819. 
 My dear Father, 
 * # * * " As to my occupations here, I 
 have very little to add to what I have before written. 
 The encouragement is not so great as to make me 
 feel obliged in conscience to stay, nor yet so little as 
 to leave me altogether wilHng to go. A short time 
 will decide. 
 
 I have peculiar need of your prayers, that my faith 
 fail not; that my confidence in the truth of God's 
 word be not shaken, by seeing so many neglect the 
 way of salvation. Mine is a far different case from 
 that in which the doctrines of the gospel are preach- 
 ed among a people accustomed to the sound, and to 
 consider the things as true, even when they have no 
 practical experience of them, — there each one sup- 
 ports the other, but here I am comparatively solitary. 
 I am as sensible as any one can be, that it is in vain 
 to muse about the future world ; that all speculations 
 on futurity are worthless ; that nothing but a strong 
 faith can sustain us ; that a simple rehance upon what 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 109 
 
 the scripture reveals, is tlie only wise' course. There 
 is but one way which is to give up our sinful hearts, 
 with all that wo have of evil, to the Lord Jesus who 
 is the Sanctificr as well as Redeemer, and who will 
 receive all that come unto him, and purify all that he 
 receives. The life of faith is a continual going out of 
 ourselves to him who is the faithful and true witness 
 to receive the grace that is needful, the influences of 
 the spirit that sanctify, and the hope that flourishes 
 through eternity. " What I would that I do not," but 
 I would live this life, and practice this dependence, 
 and Hve from the treasures which He dispenses, eat of 
 the heavenly manna that he gives, and drink abun- 
 dantly of the waters that never fail. 
 
 While we live from day to day, the end of our 
 earthly existence approaches. What are all other 
 concerns, compared to the making sure of a blessed 
 immortality. We must live in faith ; we must con- 
 fide the regulation of our future interest unto Him 
 to whom we commit our soul. He who rules our 
 lot in this world, rules the world of spirits. In short, 
 in all our meditations we must come to the con- 
 clusion, that faith is the all-important matter, and 
 vital Christianity ends where it begins, believe, and 
 thou shalt be saved. 
 
 The number of my hearers is small, but they are 
 very attentive. They change perpetually, for most 
 persons make a very short residence here, so I have 
 little opportunity of judging how much good I 
 
110 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 do ; less than would be done if I had more faith and 
 zeal. May there be a reviving of things that remain 
 that are ready to perish." 
 
 Paris, March 9th, 1819. 
 "I have just come from dinner at Lord Calthorpe's 
 and have seen there in Mr Pinkerton's character, a 
 specimen of christian principle, which I reverence 
 with all my soul. When I last wrote, I thought it 
 perfectly certain that I should return home this 
 spring, and yet latterly without any change of cir- 
 cumstances or reason, I have come to balance and 
 doubt in a strange manner. I can certainly go 
 Tvith a most safe conscience, I give you full credit for 
 an affectionate wish to keep me on this side the At- 
 lantic, else I suspect you would feel obhged to urge 
 me to go and enlarge my field of labour. There is 
 no influence exercised on the French, as it seems im- 
 possible there should be. All, religious and irreli- 
 gious, are very anxious I should not return. But, 
 in summer there will be frequently strangers to min- 
 ister to the people ; and there is some expectation 
 that a clergyman will come from London, who 
 will be able to preach, though his health is not good. 
 If he does, I shall consider it as a permission in 
 providence that I may go. * * * * # 
 Among my hearers there has been a lady of a cer- 
 tain literary reputation, Helen Maria WilHams. * 
 * * As to Madame La Marquise, she spoke 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEiV 111 
 
 in the most affecting manner the other day about how 
 utterly the world was spoiled to her by the death of 
 her son. For two years she has occupied herself ex- 
 clusively in religion. You cannot conjecture how a 
 thousand things that seem plain to us, trouble one 
 brought up in Catholicism. She wonders very much 
 how the general circulation of the Bible can be very 
 useful, when so many parts of the Old Testament are 
 so very obscure, and unintelligible in any evangelical 
 manner to common readers. She exerts herself to 
 give what religious instruction she can to the 
 children. There is no getting at truth. Now con- 
 trary to all report, she says that the Duchesse 
 d'Angouleme is very tolerant, and on a committee in 
 which they were together, ordered relief to be given 
 to the sick of whatever religion. 
 
 I have been visiting a lady to-day who was very 
 much in the fashionable world, who is within a few 
 days, apparently, of death, God has been pleased to 
 change her heart when the consumption seized her, 
 and she is now a joyful christian. It was the 
 greatest comfort to witness such a scene. She said 
 that she is far happier now on the sick bed, suffering 
 all sorts of bodily pain, with her bones coming almost 
 through her skin, (her very words) than she had ever 
 been in the gaieties of the world. What a testimony ! 
 This is a matter of sense and experience ; there is no 
 mistaking such effects of Christianity. She said 
 she did not wish to hve, and that God would support 
 
112 MEMOIRS OP 
 
 her husband in the trial, and it might have the effect 
 of bringing him nearer to the rock of salvation. 
 
 I put my concluding petition in the formula of dear 
 Lissignol's last letter, " pensez toujours au pauvre so- 
 htaire de Paris, qui vous aime en Jesus Christ." 
 
 Paris, March 26th, 1819. 
 " In fine — my resolution is taken, and the vessel has 
 arrived to which your brother is to confide his for- 
 tunes. # * I have been supposing that I must 
 remain till May, for want of a conveyance, but this is 
 an excellent opportunity, a new vessel, fine accommo- 
 dations, and a trusty captain, the very best season of 
 the year, in short the very best prospect every way. 
 By this time you wish to ask, " and what prospects 
 does conscience give ?" On this important point it is 
 necessary to satisfy you. If our institution here in 
 any way took root among the French, though it were 
 ever so small in the beginning, it would be vastly im- 
 portant, and I should feel myself ready, I beHeve, for 
 any sacrifice. But it does no more touch them than 
 if it were in California. It depends for its hearers on 
 the few american families here, and perishes at their 
 removal. It is essentially foreign, and without any 
 influence in the country. ***** 
 
 I received a note from Mr Hankey,* begging me 
 to stay another year. The people who are not on 
 
 • Allen Hankey, Esq., Banker, London. 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN^. 113 
 
 the spot cannot judge of the circumstances; they 
 have all along attributed too much importance to 
 it, and will likely enough think I was attracted home, 
 when it was my duty to stay. My good friends here, 
 the most earnest for my stay, are wiser. They say, 
 if I thought it my duty to remain, they would think 
 so, — as it is, they cannot oppose me. I had a note 
 
 from H this morning, in which he says, before 
 
 I decided he would say nothing, but now that it is 
 fixed he may speak, and he would not have listened 
 a moment to my going, if he did not feel that in my 
 circumstances he should unhesitatingly do the same. 
 I could not be at our little prayer meeting last night, 
 being with a sick person ; but it was the entreaty of 
 all, that I might be guided in the way of duty. 
 * i^ ^ * % % % 
 
 Every spare moment has been taken up with a lady 
 who has hung between life and death in a wonderful 
 manner for more than a fortnight, in whom I have 
 seen the force and triumph of faith, the peace of God, 
 the preciousness of His promises, and of the blood of 
 Jesus, and the darkness and horror into which we 
 may fall, when we see the shadows that are near 
 the valley of death. Ah! there is sadness in that 
 hour. It is in vain to be told that Jesus is ever the 
 faithful and true witness, whether we see the light of 
 his countenance or walk in darkness, if we feel not 
 the preciousness of the word of life. May the good 
 shepherd lead us by the fountains of water, and wipe 
 
114 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 away all tears from our eyes, * * * I must 
 tell you that Madame La Marquise lent me Fene- 
 lon, and I have been much affected by some 
 pencil marks on it. She never will recover from 
 her grief at the loss of her son. In a treatise on 
 prayer Fenelon quotes St Augustin who says that " it 
 is good to pray, when we seek God only, and bad 
 when we seek by his means other good things," — 
 upon which she remarks, " Est il permis de le prier 
 pour qu'il vous reunisse dans son sein avec 1' object 
 de votre amour, et de votre regret?" Fenelon con- 
 tains a remark very important from Augustin — "Do 
 not pretend to make God the protector of your self- 
 love, and your ambition, but the executor of your 
 good designs ; go not to God to satisfy your passions, 
 nor as you do sometimes to save yourself from the 
 cross that he knows you need." Speaking elsewhere 
 that it is love for Jesus Christ which should induce 
 us to desire death, she remarks — "J' ai confondu 
 dans mon amour, et mon Dieu et le vertueux enfant 
 qu'il a repris dans son sein ; c'est vers tous deux que 
 mon ame s'elance. Est-ce bien? Est-ce-mal?" In the 
 conclusion of one of his essays, Fenelon says, O 
 Dieu, donnez votre amour aux vivants, et votre paix 
 aux morts ; " — and she adds, — "et la mort aux deso- 
 Us ! " Let us my dear sister pray together for peace 
 and consolation for one who most earnestly desires 
 to be led into all truth. 
 
 I remember you were struck in my journal, with a 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 115 
 
 little account of my going out of Geneva, the only- 
 sabbath I was in the Canton, to Satigny to hear M. 
 Sarpin preach. The first words I heard him say 
 were " Cclle-ci n'cst pas notrc veritable patric." He 
 was then just married. I Iiave now a letter from 
 him in which he says, "Depuis que Jc no vous ai vu, 
 notre Maitrc a juge a propos de me retircr les joyes 
 de la vie, et de me frappcr du plus terrible coup qui 
 puisse atteindre un ca3ur aimant sur cette terre de 
 deuil. II I'a fait parceque je le mcritois sans doutc, 
 mais aussi parce qu'il m'aimoit. Puisse-je ne plus re- 
 garder qu' aux choses invisibles, et m' attachcr de 
 plus en plus a son avenemcnt. J' ignore si je re- 
 verrai votre visage sur cette terre de combats, mon 
 cher ami, mais je ne cesserai de demander pour 
 vous dans mes prieres cette grace qui est meilleure 
 que la vie. C est-ce-que J' ai fait bien souvent depuis 
 les momens trop courts que nous avons passe ensem- 
 ble. Votre souvenir rapclle un temps trop heureux 
 pour moi. Adieu done mon cher frere. Que Dieu 
 vous ramene dans le scin de votre famille, qu'il vous 
 donne la joie de la retrouver selon votre souhait, 
 qu'il rende vos travaux fructueux pour bien des 
 ames, et qu'il vous donne enfin la couronne incor- 
 ruptible dans ce beau jour oii se reportent avcc tant 
 de consolation mes pensees, trop souvent abattues. 
 Votre frere en Christ notre unique sauveur." 
 Now my dear sister farewell. 
 
116 MEMOIRS OP 
 
 Havre, April nth, 1819. 
 " You perceive my dear friend, that I am upon the 
 edge of the shore, and can "lay my hand on the 
 mane of ocean." The vessel is but a {ew steps 
 off, in which I go. Your letter arrived on the Satur- 
 day, but I did not receive it mitil sunday noon, having 
 been all the preceding night watching at the house 
 of the lady of whom I spoke to you, nor could I leave 
 it till near midnight, as I only went home in time to 
 dress for church, and was only absent during the 
 service. I w^as there three nights successively, and 
 saw all the horrors and all the consolations of death. 
 Oh my dear sister, he is the king of terrors, but that 
 there is one mightier than he* — * * # 
 
 I left Paris on the 9th at evening with feehngs dif- 
 ferent from any I ever before experienced. I conclud- 
 ed my ministry in a sermon from 1st Thessalonians 
 5 and 23, on the last sabbath at the Oratoire. They 
 to whom I had been made the instrument of advan- 
 tage, and they to whom I had not, all expressed re- 
 gret at my departure, although they admitted the 
 force of my reasonings. We had our little missionary 
 prayer meeting on monday, and I concluded all my 
 ministrations on thursday evening, in a familiar ex- 
 planation of Ephesians 6th chapter from the 10th verse 
 to the end. I felt it more than I did my pubUc fare- 
 
 * He attended the remains of this interesting lady to the grave, and a part of 
 his address on that affecting occasion forms the concluding chapter of his little 
 volume of Essays. The chapter is entitled "Cemetery of P^re la Chaise." 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 117 
 
 well, I had utterance given me, and a deep impres- 
 sion that the circumstances were affecting." * 
 
 * *■ * * * * # 
 
 On the 23d of April Mr Bruen sailed from Havre, 
 and reached home in June. His letters, while he was 
 wind bound at Havre contain many precious records 
 of a grateful heart; but delicacy to those friends 
 V^hose society at Paris he so highly valued, forbids 
 quotation. Those friends who survive to lament his 
 early departure, will readily unite to say, that his 
 piety so sincere, his mind so polished, his manners 
 so engaging, led them to feel themselves the indebted, 
 in all their intercourse. The following letter was 
 presented to him the evening before he left Paris. 
 
 " To the Rev Mr Bruen. 
 "Sir, 
 
 "Notwithstanding our regret at being deprived 
 of your pastoral care, we are compelled by the same 
 considerations which induce you to leave us to acqui- 
 esce in your departure. We cannot bid you farewell 
 without acknowledging the obligations under which 
 you have laid us. That you should have come at 
 our request when on the eve of returning, after a 
 long absence, into the bosom of your family, to la- 
 bour among us, declining all reward but the satisfac- 
 tion of serving the cause of religion, entitles you to 
 our esteem and gratitude. The manner in which 
 you have accompUshed this evangelical mission, has 
 
118 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 left an indelible impression on our hearts. We beg 
 of you to take with you, the assurance of our sincere 
 respect, of our affectionate remembrance, and of our 
 cordial wishes for your happiness, and for the success 
 of your ministry." 
 
 His last lines written in Europe at that time, are 
 characteristic of the affection, the piety, and the hope 
 which animated the whole of his character. 
 
 Paris, April 9th, 1819. 
 "Adieu my dear sister ; christian adieus are always 
 in some way, au revoir. II n'y a rien pour jamais 
 dans ce monde-ci, mais tout est pour jamais dans 
 notre veritable patrie. May your dear husband be 
 blessed abundantly with blessings for his own soul, 
 and strength to feed the flock until the Chief Shepherd 
 shall appear. His word is, * Watch — behold I come 
 quickly.* Ever, in every circumstance. 
 
 Your friend and brother, M. B." 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEI^. 119 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Thus terminated Mr Bruen's connection with 
 France, and for the time, with Europe. His minis- 
 terial diligence may be inferred from extracts which 
 have already been given purposely to exhibit it. We 
 may refer to a prayer meeting which he could not at- 
 tend, because he was with a sick person ; and his leav- 
 ing the dying bed of a friend to go to the pulpit, and 
 thence returning without respite, to watch a second 
 and a third night by that friend. These are occupa- 
 tions in which none but a devoted christian can find 
 satisfaction. He often accused himself of indolence. 
 Those who observed him minutely, might be disposed 
 to impute what he called indolence to lack of physical 
 strength. Certainly if he were naturally indolent, 
 grace had an honourable triumph in overcoming na- 
 ture, for luxurious ease had no power over him when 
 duty called. In Scotland he walked eight miles alone 
 to re-visit a dying person, whom he had previously 
 seen but once in company with a friend. In Paris he 
 searched with trouble and vexation through various 
 streets and up to squalid garrets, to find out the truth 
 
120 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 of the story of a mendicant ; not of a countryman, 
 whose claim would have been stronger, but of a 
 frenchman, who was at home, and had no claim on 
 an alien save that of humanity. His heart was always 
 bent towards the spiritual good of those with whom 
 he conversed, and many were his watchful anticipa- 
 tions in his little flock at Paris, the record of which 
 remains on earth only in his letters. His heart was 
 often humbled, and he grieved that he was so Httle 
 able to turn his opportunities to good account by 
 pressing more home the concerns of their souls upon 
 his friends. 
 
 Besides many literary characters already named 
 whose acquaintance Mr B. formed in Europe, we 
 may mention Gifford, editor of the Quarterly Re- 
 view in London; Helen Maria Williams in Paris; and 
 a long train of philanthropists, among whom the ami- 
 able Sir Thomas Bernard, then suffering under in- 
 firmity, was one. Proofs of his kindly reception, and 
 subsequent correspondence with several of these re- 
 main. John Foster and Mrs More, in particular, 
 were interesting to him. It is not a breach of delica- 
 cy to insert here a portion of a letter from Mrs More, 
 whose pubHshed works have rendered her private 
 feeHngs peculiarly interesting, and whose frank un- 
 bosoming of her grief on the death of a sister, to a 
 person so much younger than herself, and so far di- 
 vided from her, is one among many specimens of the 
 interest his character excited even where he was but 
 little known. 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN^. 121 
 
 FROM MRS H. MORE, BARLEY AVOOD, NEAR BRISTOL. 
 
 November 30th, 1820. 
 " I have particularly to return you my cordial 
 thanks for the gratification I derived from the perusal 
 of your truly excellent sermon. I cannot say how 
 much I was pleased with it. I admire the good taste 
 in which it is written, but still more the devout, and 
 holy, and pious spirit which pervades it. But the pas- 
 sages which more directly refer to the blessedness of 
 the heavenly state, find their way in a peculiar man- 
 ner to my heart, and not the less so for the personal 
 circumstances under which it found me. I have had 
 the unspeakable affliction of losing my beloved and 
 only sister, the last of four. I may say with the pro- 
 phet, * My house is left unto me desolate.' Her death 
 was edifying, as her life had been exemplary. Her 
 sufferings were exquisite. When some one pitied her 
 for them, she replied, ' Oh, I love my sulTerings, they 
 come from God, and I love every thing that comes 
 from him.' In her agonies, she continually declared 
 her entire reliance on a crucified Saviour, and en- 
 treated every friend and servant individually, to cling 
 to the Cross of Christ as their sole hope. She was 
 taken in mercy to herself, from a w^orld of sin and sor- 
 row, and in mercy to me, by a gracious God, who 
 intended by her removal to draw me nearer to Him- 
 self." *■**.-* * * * * 
 
 On this affecting letter, Mr B. remarks, " Ah how 
 
122 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 changed is Barley Wood now, from what I saw it 
 when its mistress seemed placed in an earthly para- 
 dise, as a temporal reward for having been the means 
 of communicating spiritual blessings; how hard a 
 separation, after a seventy years' relationship, and 
 friendship !" 
 
 The sermon to which Mrs More alludes, was one 
 which Mr B. left in manuscript in Paris, and which 
 his friend H — took the charge of bringing through the 
 press. It was designed as a valedictory mark of af- 
 fection for his friends there, and is exactly what Mrs 
 More calls it. About the reception of this sermon, 
 his friends naturally inquired and felt solicitous, as it 
 was his first printed effort, written as he said currente 
 calamo, and left behind him unpublished. Such inqui- 
 ries produced from him the following little statement, 
 which would not otherwise have been made : — " I 
 lately received from Madame La Marquise, a MS. 
 translation of my sermon into French, and you will 
 believe that I have sentiment enough to value it the 
 more, that it is in her own hand-writing. It is done 
 with great taste and judgment. Though this be a flat- 
 tering mark of her attention, yet in reality I have re- 
 ceived it much more as a mark of kindness ; and as I 
 remember her telling me, not without emotion, that 
 she had continually remarked my anxiety for her ad- 
 vancement in religious knowledge, I w^ould hope that 
 evangelical principles are not so far sacrificed to ele- 
 gant diction, in these few pages, but that the examina- 
 tion of them may have been of benefit to her." 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 123 
 
 His delight on revisiting his native land, and meet- 
 ing again with those who were ever on his heart 
 during his absence, was exquisite. For the first few 
 months, his letters were filled with affectionate delinea- 
 tions of the character and appearance of each dear 
 friend ; with descriptions of the grandeur and beau- 
 ty of the natural scenery, and with remarks on 
 the manners of his countrymen, which exhibited a 
 degree of drollery, the fruit, probably, of his hap- 
 piness, which was not one of his general character- 
 istics. But in the midst of this, he never lost sight 
 of the leading object of his life, that of preaching the 
 everlasting gospel to a thoughtless world. Thus, 
 shortly after his return, he expresses a strong wish to 
 be employed entirely in ministerial work, and a fear 
 that his present leisure is not improved as it might be. 
 He was much employed in desultory preaching to 
 assist friends in the vicinity, and sometimes, when he 
 could assemble a few people in a school-house, near 
 his father's country residence, he addressed them oc- 
 casionally on a week-day evening. One of his de- 
 scriptions of himself will give a specimen of his occu- 
 pations at this time. 
 
 Brighton House, October 12th, 1819. 
 
 " I was so suddenly obliged to close my last, that I 
 
 could not tell you of my special religious occupations, 
 
 nor of the primitive figure I have cut across the river, 
 
 here, among the sands of South Amboy, with my coat 
 
124 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 off, traversing the hills of a sultry morning. I had a 
 deserted Baptist nneeting house to preach in the other 
 Sunday, the monument of desolation itself, a barn- 
 looking edifice, without a single pane of glass remain- 
 ing, each corner filled with ruined benches, all painted 
 gray by the hand of time, for man never thought it 
 worth while to colour any part of it. There was a 
 window in the north to enlighten the preacher, and as 
 it blew furiously from the north west, no two hairs of 
 my head lay together, and when I caught hold of the 
 pulpit to prevent my being blown away, I found it so 
 frail as to require prudent handling. But to come to 
 better things; I preached extemporaneously for forty 
 minutes, with more satisfaction than I ever did in like 
 way, and in spite of my manner, succeeded by the 
 matter in gaining fixed attention." 
 
 In other letters, he mentions preaching twice in a 
 sultry day at Woodbridge, and then in the evening in 
 the school house at Amboy, and sometimes in farm- 
 houses in the vicinity. His judgment of his own pub- 
 lic appearances, seems always to have been severe, — 
 so much so, as to discourage him. His own mind, 
 alive in a remarkable degree, to the animating power 
 of eloquence, formed an ideal excellence which he 
 could never attain. His soul, jealous of its own sin- 
 cerity, with a godly jealousy, could not take any plea- 
 sure from reciting words to his auditors, along with 
 which his own feelings did not go with a truthful sym- 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 135 
 
 pathy. Therefore he was often dejected wlien he 
 found himself delivering from the pulpit with con- 
 straint, what in his closet had been composed under 
 the most solemn impressions, and in the spirit of pray- 
 er. It is a mark of a superior mind, to form great 
 conceptions, and aim at realizing them; and it is a fruit 
 of the Holy Spirit's work in such a mind, to be con- 
 tinually " reaching forw^ard to the things that arc be- 
 fore." Thus, when a soul has fixed its aim, either in 
 devotional exercises or useful knowledge, far beyond 
 its attainments ; it is in a state of perpetual self-disap- 
 pointment ; of ceaseless thirst He exclaims in grief, 
 " Ah, my religion is always future, my usefulness is 
 always in prospect." Yet it is very obvious to the 
 looker on, that this state of mind, if not carried so far 
 as to depress the spirit, is of all others the most salu- 
 tary. To have greatly designed, is well — To have 
 greatly dared is noble — To be disappointed is human 
 — and out of these designs, these darings, and these 
 disappointments, hath God wrought the very spirit 
 that cannot rest till it is carried on unto perfection. 
 Under the pressure of casual deadness of spirit, or dis- 
 appointment on falling short of his aims, Mr B. often 
 wrote mournfully; and anticipated trials, which he 
 supposed would have a sanctifying and quickening 
 effect on him. Little did those who saw him sur- 
 rounded by all the luxuries of life, all the blandish- 
 ments of friendship, and all the appliances of the study 
 that he delighted in, ween of the bitter thinf^s that he 
 
126 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 wrote against himseir — as thus : — " I have fatigued 
 myself with arranging my old letters and papers, and 
 my head is full of recollections, and my heart a little 
 touched, when I look over Dr Waugh's notes about 
 my ordination, and the excellent, dear Dr Pye Smith's. 
 What a period was that in my history ! How have I 
 fulfilled the expectations of such devoted men. How 
 do I now waste the time of a consecrated man ! Sure- 
 ly no lonely stranger ever received so much personal 
 kindness." 
 
 Brighton House, July 20th, 1820. 
 "Last sabbath after preaching twice at Wood- 
 bridge, I returned to address a full school room here, 
 with [some soul and comfort. But last night I had 
 no freedom even upon such a topic as Jesus the bread 
 of life. Oh, if I live, I know I shall have afflictions to 
 rend my heart, hands lopped off and eyes plucked 
 out, to make me speak from the experience of soul- 
 rending sorrow, about the fulness of consolation 
 which is in the shepherd of Israel." Now that his 
 pilgrimage is closed, it is a subject of heart-felt thank- 
 fulness to those who knew all his griefs and disap- 
 pointments, to be convinced that he was spared such 
 anguish as his thoughts of his own need of chastise- 
 ment led him to anticipate ; and to know that while 
 he had his share of the bitter herb that ever mingles 
 in the cup of humanity, he had also his share of those 
 sweet and supporting consolations which spring from 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN-. 127 
 
 the fountain of life. Now his sorrows are all swal- 
 lowed up ni joy. O that those for whom he prayed, 
 on whose account he grieved that his attainments were 
 not more equal to his ideas of what they ought to have 
 been, may derive the teaching from his loss, which 
 even in heaven will add to his felicity, and cause joy 
 amoniT the ansrcls of God. 
 
 Mr B. was now at that period of a young minister's 
 life, which is most trying to many of his graces. — 
 The period when he waited until the head of the 
 church should fix his field of labour. It is exciting 
 to the pride of a youth who has just begun to call his 
 talents into exercise, after passing years in prepara- 
 tion, to see himself placed as a competitor with 
 others who may outstrip him. It is trying to his in- 
 tegrity to preach before those whose favour he may 
 secure by adopting some peculiar strain of preaching, 
 — or who may be propitiated and influenced by 
 private and flattering attentions. It is trying to his 
 faith, to leave this matter so important to him, entirely 
 in the hands of God. 
 
 Among many details of that interesting period, one 
 must not be passed over, which is probably unknown 
 even to the individual whose future lot was materially 
 influenced by it. Mr B. was invited to preach in a 
 city in the south, with a view to his being appointed 
 pastor of a congregation of the first respectability 
 there. In the steam packet by which he travelled, 
 he met with a young clergyman whom he estimated 
 
128 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 highly, and who was proceeding to a still more south- 
 ern station. Mr B. with that scriptural lowliness of 
 mind wdiich disposes each to esteem other better than 
 himself, procured this gentleman to be invited to 
 preach in passing, in that church where he himself 
 came as a candidate ; on the principle that it was his 
 earnest prayer, that if any other man could do more 
 good in that congregation, he should be called. The 
 result of this invitation was, that his young friend 
 came in character of his rival, and was elected pastor, 
 an event which the generous spirit of our friend 
 hailed with entire satisfaction. 
 
 Circumstances led Mr Bruen to re-visit Great Bri- 
 tain in January, 1821. Never was long absent 
 brother welcomed with a purer joy, than was Mr B. 
 when he again, as he said, " took refuge in his Scot- 
 tish home." The February, March, and April of 
 1821, stand marked in the calendar of memory, as a 
 period of many pleasing conferences and spiritual 
 exercises, and also as a period when mutual sympa- 
 thy, bestowed and reflected its much needed consola- 
 tions on us all. During that time he was destined 
 to learn the afl!licting event of the death of a beloved 
 sister, whom he had left in the bloom of youth and 
 health. His dutiful regrets that he was not there to 
 soothe his parents, almost swallowed up at first the 
 blessed consolation that was oflfered to him, by the 
 hope that was in his sister's death. The anguish of 
 his spirit arising from this cause was tranquilized by 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 129 
 
 the submission wliich reposes on the Divine wisdom 
 and goodness. " If," said he, " this blow has fallen 
 at this juncture, specially to rebuke my selfishness 
 in leaving my home when I did, even so. Father, I 
 am chastised. I bow beneath the rod ; only let not 
 any of my beloved kindred suffer for my fault" 
 What a source of reconciliation to the lighter and se- 
 verer dispensations of providence is found, in first 
 believing and afterwards experiencing, that all these 
 things arc certainly and infallibly portions of the dis- 
 cipline which tends to form the character for its use- 
 fulness on earth, and, as he once beautifully wrote, 
 " to work the die, which moulds our eternity." Dur- 
 ing this visit we saw continually new developments 
 of christian principle, and the force and energy of a 
 spirit, which in his later years, brought him forth a 
 good soldier of Christ, without diminishing the tender- 
 ness or injuring the refinement of his character. His 
 conscience became more intelligent and more enlight- 
 ened as he trod the paths of life, and tliough his soul 
 had found refuge in the finished work of his Saviour, 
 there was none of that benumbing kind of security, 
 which is sometimes too apparent in the lives of be- 
 lievers. His refuge was not that of a slothful, luxuri- 
 ous repose, but of a lively, observant, watchful duti- 
 fulness. He was the more solicitous to purify himself 
 and to be conformed to the will of his Father, in pro- 
 portion as he felt in himself the witness of the Spirit, 
 that he was indeed born of God. 
 
130 MEMOIRS OP 
 
 During that period also, were his Scottish friends 
 visited by a trying dispensation, in the sickness, not 
 unto death, but to the very verge of the grave, of their 
 eldest born. If Mr Brucn thought himself at all a 
 debtor to them for their regard, now was the time 
 that it was overpaid, for now was he exhibited in the 
 double character of the tenderest nurse, and the most 
 soothing and encouraging christian pastor. Whether it 
 were to watch out the midnight hours by the sick bed, 
 to lave the burning temples, or to moisten the parched 
 lips ; — whether it were to whisper reasons of hope, or 
 motives to submission unto the trembling hearts of the 
 parents ; or whether it were to pour out those peti- 
 tions which their choaked voices could not utter, he 
 was every thing that a brother in adversity can be. 
 He despised fatigue, he forgot his own griefs ; he was 
 in those protracted days and nights of sorrow, all that 
 he has since been at home to those now bereaved 
 ones, with whom they share a kindred and domestic 
 anguish in the thought that he can minister to none of 
 them any more. 
 
 Let it not be thought too minute to dwell on such 
 incidents as these. They exhibit the less conspicuous 
 points of a character, beautiful for its harmony ; and 
 he must be a very defective christian, who is only 
 energetic in his public duties, only edifying and sooth- 
 ing in his professional visits to the sick. The gentle- 
 ness and sympathy of the follower of Christ, are best 
 exercised in that retirement which is sacred from the 
 inspection of the world. 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN 131 
 
 • CHAPTER IX. 
 
 On the 26th of April our brother quitted Scotland 
 for the last time. Among the relics of that affecting 
 period is a copy of " Guthrie's Trial of a Saving In- 
 terest in Christ," which he says, " first made me hope I 
 was converted to the faith of the gospel. Every page 
 is consecrated by sacred recollections." Ilis name is 
 written in it in a school-boy hand; the date is 1813, 
 so that we may conclude he experienced some strong 
 exercises of mind about that time. On the first of 
 May he sailed from Liverpool, sending his parting 
 blessings on shore by the pilot. A few extracts from 
 what he wrote at sea, may be interesting, as exhibit- 
 ing the continual bent of his mind, and the improving 
 reflections which suggested themselves to him, even 
 on subjects apparently remote from spiritual con- 
 cerns. 
 
 The Albion at head, May 26th, 1821. 
 
 "When I commenced writing this sheet, we were 
 in a dead calm, the sea smoother than I ever saw it 
 before, like the surface of one measureless lake, re- 
 flecting the clouds and sunshine Hkc a sheet of 
 
 r^rSr 
 
132 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 molten glass. We then had occasion to perceive 
 how the ocean is peopled, and amused ourselves with 
 taking the strange varieties"of living matter and shell- 
 fish, which floated by. After two days of this strange 
 weather, the sky grew dark and every thing betoken- 
 ed a change of some sort. I, who have been very 
 much in the habit of turning night into day, past mid- 
 night enjoyed* the magnificent scene of the moon 
 peering out of the dark clouds, piled up like castles 
 to the very zenith, the opposite side of the heavens 
 being filled with electric clouds flashing continually. 
 Being then under close sail, with a good stiff* breeze, 
 it was indeed a sublime scene. One who has not 
 been at sea, can scarcely imagine the uncertainty of 
 this most fickle of all elements — the wind. The fol- 
 lowing night, for the first time, I was alarmed ; I had 
 been on deck, and found it raining, and that we were 
 enveloped in Egyptian darkness, and not a breath of 
 wind stirring. It was indeed more frightful than the 
 loudest roar of a tempest. Just as I got into bed, a 
 peal of thunder was heard, and a vivid burst of 
 lightning illuminated the cabin. The captain ran 
 down to tell the amateurs of the "sublime, that a me- 
 teor had lighted on the mizen top mast. Before I 
 could get up, however, it had exploded and vanished. 
 For twelve hours or more after, we had a fine fair 
 wind, by the favour of which we ran ofl^ ten or twelve 
 knots an hour with great satisfaction. But no human 
 comfort is lasting ; there tame a calm, during which 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEPf. 133 
 
 I thought,' what must now be our condition, if lie 
 who holds the winds in his fist, were just to let us 
 alone. Ah ! we need no more than to be left to our- 
 selves in many ways besides physically, to come 
 speedily to misery and death. We are here, ninety 
 six souls, a cow, pigs, sheep and poultry to consume 
 the water, without which, we cannot exist. 
 
 For some days we were suflbring from excessive 
 heat ; we are now freezing cold. This morning has 
 shown us the cause, which we imagined before. We 
 are now sailing with majestic mountains of ice iloat- 
 inff on each side of us." 
 
 *& 
 
 Albion, at Sea, June 4th. 
 " We seem to have gathered all sorts of wonders 
 into this voyage, and as our captain says, need only a 
 gale of wind to complete our cabinet of curiosities. 
 We saw fifty or sixty mountains of ice, and approach- 
 ed so near some of them as lo sec the waves dash into 
 the little cavities and coves, which the action of the 
 sea had made. There are miseries attached to all 
 sorts of people. If you wish to learn a seaman's mis- 
 eries, imagine that you have been twenty-three days 
 m the western ocean, baffled by the most contrary 
 winds. When, just as the wind changes, and you pre- 
 pare to run off ten miles an hour, you fall in with the 
 ice-bergs, which force you to take in sail and lay to, 
 for the night, fearing each moment, that the wind come 
 round ahead again." * * * * 
 
134 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 " I must not stop till I tell you of my dreams of 
 home, and of future life, if there be much of my life that 
 is future. I cannot express to you, what a resource 
 I feel in the affection of my friends. I have few wish- 
 es, or hopes, for myself, and not one that does not con- 
 sist with instant and perfect sanctification, as I think 
 I could consent with joy to be stript of every earthly 
 affection and delight, if I could be made an able min- 
 ister of the New Testament. And yet, doubtless, my 
 safety is only in the absence of temptation. * ♦ 
 * * * May God fill my heart with grief,* 
 and my mouth with arguments ; and may I expose all 
 the evil of sin, all its deceitfulness, all its vileness ; and 
 from my own experience too, may I show the fulness 
 of pardoning mercy in Jesus Christ." 
 
 On the 11th of June Mr Bruen once more reached 
 his native soil, and left the friendly Albion. How like 
 a knell did it go to our hearts, when after a few more 
 voyages, that good ship went down on the southern 
 coast of Ireland, with his friend Professor Fisher on 
 board. How did we remember with gratitude that 
 a few months before, when she had tossed for days 
 within view of Waterford and Wexford, she still was 
 kept afloat, and our friend restored to his home in 
 safety. Yet, but eight years more have w^e lived to 
 lose him. But how important an eight years ; — years 
 spent in labours of love, in preaching the everlasting 
 
 * Meaning penitent grief. 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEY. 135 
 
 gospel ; in breaking up the high ways for the ^lad ti- 
 dings to the remoter regions of his own beloved coun- 
 try ; in forming plans for introducing the gospel of 
 peace to countries which he never saw. Plow pre- 
 cious is time ! When spent in God's service, how may 
 a year, a month, a day, added to life, be the means of 
 making some soul bless us for eternity. When mis- 
 spent — dreadful thought! — no one sins alone. We 
 may be the instruments of plunging others into that 
 doleful gulph, wdiose most fearful misery is, that it is 
 far from God, that its tenants are banished from his 
 presence, that they will never sec His blessed counte- 
 nance in peace. 
 
 It cannot fail to interest many who felt the wreck 
 of the Albion, as a disaster which shocked all their 
 feelings of security, to read the first expression of 
 Mr Bruen's emotions on that melancholy event, and, 
 therefore, we insert what he wrote on tiie subject, a 
 little before it occurred in order of time. 
 
 New York, June 1st, 1822. 
 " Of vi^hat should I write, but this awful event, the 
 shipwreck of the Albion ! It has struck every body 
 with dismay. The murder of an hundred thousand 
 Turks and Russians, which news we were expecting, 
 would have been nothing to it ! And I, who have so 
 often heard her timbers creak under me without fear 
 and with only a fool-hardy fatalist's confidence, rode 
 with her in grandeur, over the topmost waves in a 
 
136 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 tempest — now sit quietly at home to hear that she is 
 shattered into ten thousand pieces. No ship ever left 
 this port under better auspices. One of the strongest 
 vessels that floated, a most experienced and able com- 
 mander, who has been travelling that track from his 
 infancy, a full and powerful crew — all gone like a 
 dream ! The thought affects me, how often I have 
 Iain in my state room, and heard the w^atcrs gurgling, 
 and howling, just at my ear — one plank between — and 
 when the storm was high, listened to thcii' roar, as if 
 there were ten thousand ravening sea monsters, and 
 cared little for it all. Oh, what horror was there 
 when all these timbers parted, as if drawn apart and 
 shivered by a giant's force ! And then the despera- 
 tion of the picture of that poor woman running on 
 that deck and shrieking, till the sea bore all down ! — 
 
 It is not difficult to make me weep, but I have wept 
 in the night. All the city has been thunderstruck. 
 We have been feeling it as secure to go to England 
 as to Amboy. When we were at sea in her last year 
 one of the passengers said cheerfully at supper during 
 a storm, " Fear not ladies, we are all insured in New 
 York at one per cent." Such was the risk here on 
 'change, ninety-nine chances in the hundred that she 
 should have gone safely. One of the Insurance 
 
 Offices, in which is a Director, took the risk 
 
 at half a per cent in her this voyage, for several thou- 
 sand dollars. She had, it is said, three hundred thou- 
 sand dollars in specie on board, a very small part in- 
 
MATTHIAS RRUEN. 137 
 
 surcd. Ah ! but who insures lives ! Captain Williams 
 has left a wife and seven children. He was a "real 
 favourite with every body, particularly with the 
 owners, who are building a noble ship for him. This 
 was to be and is ! his last voyage in the Albion. 
 
 Professor Fisher to whom I gave letters to Mr I>. 
 and Dr Brewster, and a parcel of books for Dr 
 Brewster, occupied the same state room in which I 
 came home. He dined in my company just before 
 he sailed, and we talked of the no danger of the voy- 
 age. I trust he was truly ready, however, to die. 
 He was though under thirty, one of the most dis- 
 tinguished mathematicians of the country. A very 
 profound article of his, stands in Silliman's Journal of 
 Science. It is upon music. * # # * 
 
 So one is taken and another left — what another ! 
 All the ships in port hung out their flags at half-mast, 
 when the news arrived. You know the first Saturday 
 night I was at sea, that terrific Saturday night you 
 wrote me about, when I slept quietly in the gale ; we 
 were within less than fifty miles of this spot, and I re- 
 member hearing Captain Williams speak of the dan- 
 gers of the sunken rocks at Old Kinsale, — the fatal, 
 fated spot ! How often have I heard the Captain say 
 that the ship ran so near the wind, that he could al- 
 ways stand off a lee shore." 
 
 August 28th, 1822. 
 
 "Dr Beecher told me that some one from New- 
 Haven was in Kinsale at the time of the shipwreck, to 
 
 T 
 
138 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 whom the only cabin passenger saved from the Albion 
 communicated these particulars. That Prof. Fisher 
 was very much hurt by the first fall of the masts, and 
 then went below and got into his birth — my birth ! 
 and sat there with a compass in his hand. Mr 
 O — being the last one who left the cabin, asked 
 Mr Fisher if he did not intend to come upon deck ; 
 he answered no. What a situation! In the cabin 
 with a compass, marking which way the wind was dri- 
 ving, for till the last they hoped the wind would come 
 offshore and save them." 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEX. 139 
 
 CIIAPTEH X. 
 
 For some months after his return at this time Mr 
 Brucn appears to have had more dejection of heart, 
 than at any former period. This probably arose, in 
 part, from his not having exerted himself with all his 
 vigour in his Master's business. There is no rest for 
 the christian, especially in this age, but in benevolent 
 action. God's demand is now so urgent for the ut- 
 most efforts of his people in converting the world, 
 that one can hardly hope to save his own soul, in 
 any other way, than by seeldng to save the souls of 
 others. We have seen how deeply he felt the require- 
 ments of the Divine law, and the claims of redeeming 
 love, and how vivid were his impressions of the holi- 
 ness of God — and we may readily suppose that so 
 enlightened and tender a spirit could not be at peace 
 under the conscience of delinquency in meeting this 
 demand. We mean, not that his faculties were idle 
 in Christ's service, but that what would have satisfied 
 a less gifted and less susceptible mind, fell for below 
 his sense of obhgation; and that it was impossible he 
 should be happy, except in a sphere in which his un- 
 
140 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 wonted and glowing energy might completely and 
 succesfully exert itself. 
 
 Having said thus much, it may be useful, without 
 other arrangement than that which is furnished by 
 dates, to give extracts from his letters at this peri- 
 od. Doubtless his soul-searchings, will strike kindred 
 chords in many hearts, and may be means of guid- 
 ance or consolation to spirits tried as his was. 
 
 Brighton House, July 4th, 1821. 
 " My character is altering fast. I hope mending. 
 Though I have little consolation in religious duties, 
 I am more attentive to them than ever. The world 
 is a blank and desolation to a degree it never was 
 before. Even general literature is losing its enticing 
 charm. Practical divinity I hope to make all my 
 study, and it is even possible that the spirit of God 
 may make me, unworthy, miserable, vile me, an able, 
 and faithful, and useful minister of the new testament ! 
 Pray for me my dear friend." 
 
 Brighton House, August 7th, 1821. 
 "J — W — dead ! I seem to have been treading 
 on the edge of the invisible world since I came 
 home, and the vanity of this brief scene of Hfe so fills 
 my heart, that it is not easy to keep out the sentiment 
 that there are few immortal mortal men, who should 
 not rue the day that they were born. All the elastici- 
 ty of life will be pressed out of me, if I get not more 
 
MATTHIAS nRUEN. HI 
 
 christian consolation. J — W — irrecoverably dead !" 
 "I never preach in the city without acute pain, 
 caused perhaps partly by pride, but greatly by self- 
 disappointment and conviction of inefficient labours. 
 I would hide myself somewhere." 
 
 Brighton House, October 20th, 1821. 
 " Since I wrote last, I have been on a i)ilgrimage 
 
 to A . The church where I was invited to 
 
 preach is very large — a great proportion rich, worldly 
 minded people. Their minister, about a year since 
 was suspended and dismissed for the sin of intemper- 
 ance. I have thought it possible if God intend me 
 as a monument of everlasting displeasure, that I 
 shall be carried there, and left to fall into atrocious 
 crimes, as those have done who have preceded me 
 in the service of the church in that place. A — , 
 has been frightfully unfortunate in its ministers. — 
 Two of different denominations, disgraced, were 
 at the same time living there. It would have been 
 better not to have crossed the ocean safe than to be 
 reserved for the sad destiny of falling like a star and 
 drawing a third part of heaven with me. God forbid. 
 But most frequently more encouraging reflections 
 present themselves. I lectured there in the evenings 
 extempore, to a large audience, and the ancient 
 christian women thanked me, and they at whose feet 
 I should have sat, for knowledge of the scriptures, 
 and for evangelical spirit, told mc how they were 
 
142 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 comforted, excited, encouraged. Oh, there is such a 
 thing as divine help, even to such a worthless wretch 
 as I. — But then, this falling away ! I preach the doc- 
 trine that God pardons sins. If any other person 
 were to tell me of the sort of repentance I feel, the 
 strivings against iniquity which I find in my heart — 
 yes, and God be thanked, the victories I sometimes 
 have, I should speak peace to him, who had been, as I 
 have been, the chief of sinners. % * * * 
 Oh God of mercy— son of God so full of compas- 
 sion stretch forth thy hand, and save me. 1 shall 
 not pretend to describe the intense feeling of joy 
 and fear with which I read your letter written im- 
 mediately after my departure. 1 could go over all 
 its particulars, and make a discourse out of each line. 
 If I am not capable of making observations in your 
 style, I feel all the force of it. When you express 
 your wish that Owen* had explained how some are 
 suffered to fall for God's glory, I suppose it should be 
 that God is glorified as securing by these liiaowTig, a 
 greater sum of happiness in his kingdom than could 
 have been otherwise attained.f For at first view 
 
 * On indwelling sin. 
 
 t Bishop Hall in his contemplation on " Nathan and David," well illustrates 
 the manner in which God glorifies himself by not interposing at once to hinder the 
 greatest sins. " It might have pleased God as easily, to have sent Nathan to 
 check David in his first purpose of sinning; so had his eyes been restrained, 
 Bathsheba honest.and Uriah alive with honour: Now the wisdom of the Almighty 
 knew how to win more glory, by the permission of so foul an evil, than by the 
 prevention. Yea, he knew how by the permission of one sin, to prevent millions. 
 IIow many thousands had sinned in a vain presumption on their own strength, if 
 
MATTHIAS nnuEN. 143 
 
 among men, certainly it is never for God's glory as 
 a benevolent being, that his professed people fall. 
 God's plan for saving sinners, the angels study with 
 amazement * * * So you have changed 
 your view of heaven. It should indeed be enough 
 for us, that Christ is there. I have been exceedingly 
 busy ever since my return home, and have at times 
 some very bright visions of wearing out my frame in 
 Christ's cause." 
 
 Brighton House, November 23d, 1821. 
 * ** The scenes I have lately gone through have given 
 me a more perfect insight into my character, than I 
 ever had before, and if it has taught me a thousand 
 latent evils, it has also shown me that some things 
 which I thought pecuHar or inherent, were onlyn^om- 
 mon or accidental. I grew up with the notion that I 
 was selfish, for when a child, I always wished to have 
 the largest piece of cake, and never sacrificed a point 
 in competition, without feeling the value of it. I find 
 now that it is quite human nature, and like the rest of 
 the world. Of late, I find myself far more ready to 
 sacrifice my convenience or enjoyment than other peo- 
 ple, taking them in the mass, and though I cannot tell 
 whether it be not in some instances, pride balancing 
 selfishness, I seldom ask what I would not give." 
 
 David had not thus olTonded, how many thousands had despaired in the con- 
 science of their own weakness, if these horrible sins had not received forgiveness. 
 It isboppy for all times, that we have so holy a sinner, so sinful a penitent." 
 
 Vol. I. p. 3.S0. Lond. 1808. 
 
144 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Brighton House, March 15th, 1822. 
 
 " In the midst of how many dangers do wc make 
 our ordinary movements ! By an accident on board 
 the steam boat in which I usually travel, several per- 
 sons lost their lives in an instant the other day. Some 
 afraid of steam boats, brave it in the stage and are 
 upset. I have come to a fearlessness of these things. 
 Oh that it were, as it is not, because always ready. 
 I have every now and then, some forebodings that I 
 shall go suddenly, just as I am ready to labour." 
 
 This foreboding, after being allowed to labor seven 
 years, was fulfilled, and this affecting circumstance 
 renders the passage worthy of notice. Such anticipa- 
 tions, the uncertainty of life, and the probability of his 
 being hastily called out of this world, seem to me to 
 have been more than usually constant on Mr Bruen's 
 mind, as they recur continually in his letters. Yet no 
 anticipation makes the king of terrors less than start- 
 ling, when he comes suddenly, no preparation of mind 
 renders the pang of separation less than bitter to those 
 who have been united in the truest bonds of love. 
 
 In the following extract there is a remarkable exhi- 
 bition of that diffidence and tenderness of spirit which 
 often were the cause of casting down his mind, when 
 a less watchful and less zealous character would 
 have been slumbering in self-satisfaction. It also 
 exhibits that observance of the minuter leadings of 
 providence which strongly indicates a docile child- 
 like temper. 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 145 
 
 New York, April 13th, 1822. 
 ^' Since the first date on this paper, I have had a 
 mental reverse, not a little afflictive, in the profound 
 consciousness of total inability. One week labouring 
 under a cold, I wrote two sermons, among the best I 
 ever penned, in four days. The next week I could 
 not hammer out one. I have long since felt my men- 
 tal exercises to be distinctly under divine control, and 
 to be had only so long as God pleases. In this case I 
 took it for a providential indication of my duty for the 
 
 following sabbath, and as the people at church 
 
 have often expressed a desire to hear what sort of 
 things my extemporaneous sermons are, I delivered a 
 1-ecture in the afternoon, without the least written pre- 
 paration. It is not important to describe the hor- 
 ror I suffered in walking to church, and in the pulpit, 
 nor how near I came to fainting during the prepara- 
 tory exercises. It is sufficient to say, that I rose and 
 delivered a discourse of fifty minutes, with the utmost 
 apparent composure. I was supported by the convic- 
 tion that I had followed the conscientious dictate of 
 my judgment, and cast myself on the mercy of God 
 that he would make me the organ of his message, 
 however he might be pleased to abase his woithless, 
 wretched, seeming servant. My manner always im- 
 proves in about the same proportion that my matter 
 depreciates, and such is the prejudice against notes, 
 that many good christians who had formerly held down 
 
146 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 their heads durmg the service and listened to doc- 
 trines which they loved, as if it were an evil to be 
 endured, now stretched up their necks in joy at the 
 change." 
 
 The Scottish prejudice against read sermons has 
 been carried by their forefathers to the western 
 shores of the Atlantic, and now it has, with many 
 more valuable and more important sentiments, taken 
 root and flourished in the new world. It is much to 
 be lamented that even as a matter of taste, any em- 
 phasis should be laid on the difference between read- 
 ing and speaking from memory, — for after all, in 
 hundreds of cases, that is the truth. It is not that a 
 man is speaking as the spirit gives him at the moment, 
 but that having a powerful memory, or good nerves 
 and strong self-possession, he is reciting, what without 
 these gifts he must have been obliged to read. Of the 
 intellectual we may ask, is the sermon likely to be 
 more correct or more tastefully delivered, that the 
 preacher is obliged to run over in his mind's eye, 
 paragraph after paragraph, as they present themselves 
 in his manuscript, lest he invert them. Of the devout 
 we may ask, whether a minister of the gospel will not 
 be more profitably engaged studying his subject more 
 profoundly, or praying that the spirit of God may send 
 it to the hearts of his hearers, than by consuming time 
 in committing his composition to memory. When 
 long practice and the ease which it confers, combined 
 with a heart filled with his subject, give a modest man 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 147 
 
 courage, as was the case with Mr B. latterly, to 
 preach with, or without notes as it suits him, then the 
 circumstance is pleasing and most welcome; but a 
 glance will suffice to convince us that to make recited 
 preaching a reason for selecting a pastor, will often 
 lead to the preference of boldness to humility ; or of a 
 good case of nerves and a facile tongue, to the truth 
 and wisdom of the gospel. 
 
 Brighton House, April 26th, 1822. 
 " There is another part of President Edwards' 
 works to which I wish to turn your attention, as it 
 gives a view of the state of religion in this country, 
 which is most marvellous. It is his narrative of the 
 revival of religion at Northampton, which was sent to 
 Dr Watts and Dr Guyse, and his reflections upon such 
 scenes as he witnessed. I know not how to ex- 
 plain the fact, but the general course of things 
 with us is quite different from that in "your most 
 flourishing evangelical churches. Periods of unusual 
 religious excitement arise every now and then, in 
 which hundreds come forward to make their profes- 
 sion. Thus, within the bounds of one Presbytery of 
 twenty congregations, almost two thousand were 
 added to the communion in one year. The spirit of 
 conviction of sin, comes with a pungency I seldom 
 heard of in England, and sometimes consolation is 
 received in three or four days, and a permanent 
 change evidenced by years of christian experience 
 
148 MEMOIRS OP 
 
 after it. Such scenes we have now in New York, 
 where in one congregation, upwards of seventy joined 
 the church at one time; in another, forty-six, &c. 
 Mr Whelpley's church is now greatly revived, and 
 many are under powerful exercises of conviction, and 
 some rejoicing in hope. You will understand the 
 whole matter, if you read what Edwards has written. 
 The occasion of this change in the Wall street church, 
 has been a day of fasting and prayer, which was ap- 
 pointed in view of the desolations of Zion. They sent 
 their Christian salutations and invitations to other 
 churches, that they might join with them in this ob- 
 servance and free will offering unto the Lord. On 
 the day appointed, the church was filled to overflow, 
 for six successive hours, without intermission. — 
 The greater part who were there, we may hope the 
 grace of conversion had taught to pray. The minis- 
 ters in succession, gave a brief view of the state of 
 religion in their respective churches, and prayed for 
 an effusion of the Holy Spirit, — Such breathless solemn 
 attention, I can scarcely hope again to see in my life, 
 among so vast a multitude. When Mr Whelpley 
 arose to address this assembly, in that unpremeditated 
 manner, to which he was not used in the pulpit, there 
 was in his whole aspect a bearing and significance, 
 like that] of a man consciously in the presence of God. 
 His look, was that of one worn out 'by early labour ,• 
 the beamings of his countenance were those of a 
 christian, who beheld the throbbings of many chris- 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEIV. 149 
 
 tian hearts. The very tones of liis voice, if he had spoken 
 in an unknown tonguc,\vould have been intcnigible. lie 
 presented to the audience, the desolations of that por- 
 tion of the field of Zion which he cultivated. He be- 
 sought them to regard the condition of that church, 
 which, as a fruitful bough, had sent its branches over 
 the wall, which were now bearing fruit all around, 
 while at the root there was decay of moistness and 
 verdure. The appeal was so instinct with energy and 
 pathos, that aged men lifted up their voice and wept. 
 This was one of the most solemn seasons I ever wit- 
 nessed. A blessing has manifestly, and immediately 
 followed. Those pastors are blessed who look well to 
 their own souls, and who forget all other subjects and 
 studies, in pursuing the one great matter, the wisdom 
 of V^inning souls. It is not of him that willeth, nor of 
 him that runneth, but this means is obviously blessed, 
 not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit saith 
 the Lord." 
 
 May 14th, 1822. 
 " There is a work of grace going on in the Wall 
 street church. I believe I told you of the interest- 
 ing exercises on a day of fasting and humihation, 
 appointed by one of the churches, and of Mr 
 Whelpley's affecting appeal there. That appeal 
 was answered with the prayers of faith, and the 
 prayers of faith answered with a revival of religion in 
 his church, which had been for years in a condition 
 of criminal apathy. They kept for themselves, a day 
 
150 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 of fasting and prayer, and many souls were the fruit 
 of this time of refreshing from the Lord. The next 
 sabbath, I had preached in Murray street, all day, 
 but I went and lectured for him in the evening, and 
 with very littb previous thought, took for the text, 
 "My spirit shall not always strive with man." I 
 showed that as no one but an atheist doubts that we 
 hold the life in our pulse, only as long as the creator 
 pleases, and our senses so long as the great source of 
 intellect gives them; so the sovereignty of God's opera- 
 tions in the economy of salvation, is equally unde- 
 niable, and the term of our trial fixed only by his good 
 pleasure. I shewed what are the strivings of the 
 Spirit, how all men have them, how at especial sea- 
 sons they are more powerful, how they are resisted, 
 and how we often run out our period of grace, before 
 our natural lives are ended. I shewed that many liv- 
 ing men were as pillars of salt under the best outward 
 influences of heaven, having before been tender of 
 conscience and evidently called by the Spirit; and 
 though they might not die for many years, the present 
 movement of conscience being resisted, perhaps it was 
 the last God might grant. I therefore implored them 
 instantly to open their hearts to the message of peace. 
 Mr W. then gave notice of the meeting each week, 
 for those under conviction, and invited them solemnly 
 and affectionately to attend. Having told them that 
 only ten had come to talk with him of their eternal 
 interest, while in other churches sixty, seventy, or a 
 
MATTHIAS nRUEN. 151 
 
 hundred, had come in similar circumstances, he turned 
 to mc to pronounce the blessing. As the people stood 
 up, it was my impulse to add that each one in the 
 assembly knew as well as if an angel were to point 
 him out by name, whether or not he was called upon 
 now to come forward, and avow that he would seek 
 salvation. That consciousness was a sense given by 
 the Spirit and a part of his striving. I defied them to 
 resist it without the infinite peril that it was the last 
 feeling they should ever have on the subject. The 
 matter was between their consciences and God. Mr 
 W. tells me of some who speak of the impressions of 
 that exhortation of mine, in which I cannot doubt that 
 I was divinely assisted. Is it not all but incredible, 
 that such a creature as I should be divinely assisted? 
 But Balaam prophecied by the Spirit of God, and 
 .Tudas spoke when the Lord sent His disciples two and 
 two to preach the gospel in Judea." 
 
 Though the tidings of the birth of souls are always 
 affecting, and the description of the actings of the 
 Spirit of God upon human spirits solemnly interesting; 
 yet in the United States, where such times of refresh- 
 ing from the Lord on whole congregations are not 
 uncommon, the above little account may seem un- 
 necessarily prolix. It will not readily be conceived 
 by american christians, with what a mingling of won- 
 der and fear and mistrust, such new things have been 
 received in Great Britain, even by persons of affec- 
 tionate piety. The dread of enthusiasm, of that mu- 
 
152 MEMOIRS or 
 
 lual excitement which is of man and not of God, the 
 dread of that passing emotion which is not true re- 
 pentance, nor true faith, but the w^ork of human sym- 
 pathy, has led many to receive with coldness and 
 mistrust, such glad news, as, if they could have be- 
 lieved it, would have made their hearts sing for joy. 
 It is only after long years of observation, and of mi- 
 nute information of the consistent christian walk of 
 hundreds who made their first profession during 
 periods of revival, that the faithful of the old country 
 have been able to comprehend that the Spirit of God 
 is not bound, but acts according to His holy pleasure, 
 in this country after this manner, and in that coun- 
 try after that manner ; and that his diversity of deal- 
 ing with different countries is not more incredible 
 than the different modes in which He first operates 
 upon different souls. Now, however, it is delightful 
 to find British christians regarding each other, and 
 saying, " Why have we no revivals, like our brethren 
 in America? Why are our souls gathered in here 
 one, and there one, not by pungent convictions, not 
 by lively faith, leading from sorrow to joy; — but by 
 slow processes of reasoning, by measured and tardy 
 closing with the Saviour, as if the soul were in no 
 jeopardy, and as if it made no difference to real hap- 
 piness, whether we became christians now or ten 
 years hence." The answer which suggests itself to 
 many minds now is, because w^e do not expect such 
 things, we do not pray for them, we should almost be 
 
MATTHIAS BRTlEy. 153 
 
 lerrifiecl if they were bestowed on us, and the Lord 
 himself hath said, " according to your faitli be it unt<j 
 you." 
 
 As it occurs in famiHes that first the cliildrcn de- 
 rive their being, their early training, their ideas from 
 their parents, and as they advance in life, exercise on 
 them a re-acting influence; so may we hope that the 
 period will come when the mother country may de- 
 rive fresh vigor from the example of her healthful 
 offspring ; and as those righteous men who first plant- 
 ed the standard of the cross in New England, derived 
 their religious sentiments from the country which 
 they forsook, so may we anticipate that old England 
 will receive a quickening power from the example of 
 her children, w^ho have already outstripped her. This 
 hope is not formed solely on vague wishes, but on the 
 knowledge that at this moment churches are stirring 
 each other up after the 'manner of their American hreth- 
 ern, to hold times of prayer for the out-pouring of the 
 Spirit, and to plead with Him with whom is the resi- 
 due of the Spirit, to revive His work in the midst of us. 
 
 How happy the mutual relations of those countries 
 which seek only to influence each other in such ob- 
 jects as these. How little need would there be of the 
 wisdom of politicians to adjust our mutual claims, or 
 of the peace-societies of philanthropists to keep us in 
 inindofthe duties of mutual forbearance, were but 
 the majority in each country thus one in spirit, thus 
 feeling that they form each a distinct, but united por- 
 
154 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 tion of that holy body, of which Christ is the Hving 
 head. 
 
 Let not the worldly wise man smile at such 
 ideas as Utopian. As the purer ages approach, of 
 which the scriptures of truth testify, we shall see 
 more and more of that blessed action and re-action, 
 until christian love shall form a universal brother- 
 hood.* 
 
 In December 1821 Mr Brucn dchvered a discourse 
 atWoodbridgc, on a day of thanksgiving and prayer 
 appointed by the governor of the state of New Jersey, 
 which was published early in 1822, at the request of 
 the congregation. The few copies of this sermon 
 which reached England, excited most pleasing views 
 of the condition of the United States in reference to 
 religion. That the governor of a state should of 
 his own judgment appoint a day of thanksgiving, and 
 the people of all religious denominations flock to their 
 own places of worship in obedience to such an ap- 
 pointment, exhibits a zeal in the governor and a duc- 
 tihty in the governed, most honorable to both.f The 
 sermon itself contains an animated and expanded 
 view of the state of the country now, of its state a 
 
 * The revivals with which our churches and colleges are blessed at this mo- 
 ment more than at any time since the country was settled, are jxjrhaps as strik- 
 ing in all the peculiar respects which occasioned these remarks, as any which 
 have occured since the days of the Apostles, And this though rcferriblc to the 
 Holy Spirit's efficiency, is not on that account, less the result of a style of preach- 
 ing prayer and [effort perhaps approaching nearer than that which has hitherto 
 prevailed to the directness and perfect simplicity of the primitive age.— Ed. 
 
 t The author did not know how much of a mere formality it is, for the governors 
 of the middle and northern states, to recommend such sacred observances.— Ed. 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEY. 155 
 
 century before, and of its moral and physical capabil- 
 ities whicli lose nothing in the concise and terse 
 manner in which they are stated. It has been rather 
 a fashion in Europe to smile at the spirit of prophesy 
 about future greatness, which has been imputed to 
 the witers of the United States. But it is certain 
 that their christian authors do not fall into an error 
 on this subject, nor prognosticate more than what an 
 uninflatcd and rational calculation must infer from 
 their past rapid advancement. This sermon is a speci- 
 men of faithful admonition ; for after showing the pros- 
 perity of the country in its constitution, in the general 
 spirit of submission to the laws, and in the energetic 
 and enterprising disposition of the people ; there is a 
 solemn warning against the perversion of energy in 
 making haste to be rich, and in abusing their privi- 
 leges to purposes of mere worldly prosperity. TJianks- 
 giving for abundance of corn and cattle, is cou- 
 pled with a stern remonstrance against the intem- 
 perance which debases and scatters poison anion"" 
 multitudes of the people. This seems to be the first 
 time that the cause of Temperance w^as publicly advo- 
 cated by Mr Brucn. He afterwards mentioned the 
 Rev. Mr Hewitt, * "as a mighty instrument raised 
 up by a benevolent providence to remove this scourge 
 from Christendom" — and he joined with cordial 
 avidity in promoting a cause, which we hope may 
 
 * Agent of the American Temperance Society, 
 
156 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 rescue thousands from that destruction which the 
 excessive use of ardent spirits is spreading over the 
 Union, the British Colonies, and Britain itself. 
 
 In 1822 he prepared for the press a httle volume 
 entitled " Essays descriptive and moral of scenes in 
 Italy and France, by an American." They were 
 brought out under the inspection of the friend with 
 whom he had sojourned in Scotland, and under whose 
 roof many of his continental recollections were 
 written. They were printed in Edinburgh, and a por- 
 tion of the impression was sent to New York for pub- 
 lication. What is presented to the reader in this 
 work leads him to regret that there is no more. Each 
 subject is too much in the character of fragment, and 
 therefore does not unite and carry on the sympa- 
 thies of the reader, with the author. The very dif- 
 fidence wdiich induced him to deem his movements 
 from place to place and his personal comforts and dis- 
 comforts, unworthy to occupy the pubUc, has injured 
 the interest of the book. He would not condescend to 
 print what he did not feel to be useful ; but if he had 
 combined his observations into a continuous narrative, 
 and let himself appear not only at the show-places, and 
 the points which excite admiration, but in his cabriolet, 
 in his slippers, in his conversations with peasants, and 
 in his introduction to grandees, the work would have 
 been more to the taste of the age, and therefore more 
 useful. Its great excellence is, that it gives a moral 
 view of Italy. Others have described palaces and 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN-. 157 
 
 pageants, churches and ceremonies. Mr B*s aim is 
 to describe the efFccts of despotism and Popish supersti- 
 tion on the national character, the private morals and 
 the spiritual interests of the people. The strain of re- 
 mark is uniform and consistent throughout, exhibiting 
 the author as regarding man always in his accoun- 
 table capacity, holding all earthly things at their real 
 price, and never bewildered by the deceptions, nor 
 overwhelmed by the magnificence of mere human in- 
 ventions. There are passages of nervous reflection, 
 of pathetic description and of judicious and eloquent 
 remark, which excite regret that the author had not 
 taxed his port folio more heavily. 
 
 But the time was now come when that port folio 
 was to be laid aside — when his travelling recollec- 
 tions, and almost the friends acquired in his journey- 
 ings, were to be numbered among the things that were. 
 He was entering on the efficient and laborious period 
 of his life, which was so important in its duties as to 
 subdue those natural regrets, with which a heart, so 
 tenacious of its friendships as Mr Bruen's, could not 
 but look back on periods of his life, which left their 
 stamp both upon his character and his affections. 
 
158 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Mr Bruen was diligently engaged in preaching 
 during the year 1822, for Mr Whclpley, and in the 
 church formerly occupied by Dr Mason, and in various 
 other places ; and in the spring of that year I find his 
 first mention of the plan which finally resulted in his 
 settlement in the place where he wore out his life. He 
 says in April, " I propose in the autumn, when I come 
 to town, to open, in the upper part of the city, a room 
 where I will preach and lecture regularly. Some of 
 my friends propose building a church there. It is a 
 neighbourhood a good deal like Newington,* having 
 recently grown up." 
 
 Brighton House, November 5th, 1822. 
 
 " Last week a friend came to see me, and beg me 
 to come to New York, and engage to preach to a 
 congregation, which he is a principal in the attempt 
 to form. The city is growing most rapidly. Five or 
 six new presbyterian congregations have been raised 
 within three or four years, and ultimate success in 
 this location with the ordinary blessings of God, 
 seems quite sure." 
 
 * A suburb of Edinburgh. 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 151) 
 
 New York, December 30th, 1822. 
 
 " I have never exercised my ministry with more 
 comfort, perhaps never with more profit to others, 
 than for the weeks since I came to H\^e here, and to 
 preach in a school-room to the sick and poor. I never 
 preached so much, often five or six times a week." 
 
 In the London EvangeHcal Magazine for March 
 1830, which contains a brief memoir of Mr Bruen, 
 taken from the New York Observer, it is stated, and 
 this is confirmed by evidence from his letters, that " he 
 w^as employed as a missionary in the city by a com- 
 mittee of missions appointed by the presbytery of New 
 York. The rcsalt of his ministrations was the collec- 
 tion of the Bleecker street church and congregation, 
 who erected the commodious and i)lcasant edifice 
 which they now occupy." It is also said in a foot- 
 note that " notwithstanding Mr B. performed this ser- 
 vice by appointment and under the direction of the 
 committee, he generously declined receiving from 
 them any compensation." 
 
 Mr Bruen had in the year 1820 first become ac- 
 quainted with Miss Mary Ann Davenport, daughter 
 of the late Hon. James Davenport,* of Stamford, Con- 
 
 * "Few persons in tliis country have been more, or more deservedly, esteemed 
 than Mr James Davenport. His mind was of a structure almost siuKUlar. An 
 infirm constitution precluded hiuito a considerable extent from laborious study 
 during his early years; and, indeed, tlirougliout most of liis life. Yet an un- 
 wearied attention to useful ol)jects, a critical observation of every thing impor- 
 tant, which fell under his eye, and a strong attachment to intelligent conversa- 
 tion, enabled him by the aid of a discernment almost intuitive, to accumulate a 
 rich fund of valuable knowledge. With respect to conversation he was peculiar. 
 The company of intelligent persons he sought with the same eagerness and con- 
 
160 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 necticuf; a descendant of that venerable, wise, and 
 holy man of the name, who forsook England more 
 than two centuries before, and preferred all the in- 
 conveniences of a settlement in pathless woods, and 
 tangled wildernesses, with freedom of conscience^ to all 
 the appHances of civilized and luxurious life without 
 it. Those who bear such blood in their veins, and 
 can count back through many generations of chris- 
 tians to such an ancestor, have the true aristocracy 
 of descent ; and the same motive, exciting to holiness, 
 which was continually presented to Jews of old, as 
 the children of Abraham, may justly and honorably 
 be cherished now by the offspring of those upright 
 men, who formed the first christian colony in New 
 England. 
 
 With this lady, entertaining the principles and hopes 
 of those from whom she sprung, Mr Bruen was 
 united in marriage on the 2i of January, 1823. 
 Delicacy to that now desolate survivor, forbids to 
 
 stancy, as the student his books. Here he always started topics of investigation, 
 fitted to improve the mind, as well as to please ; and in this way gathered knowl- 
 edge with the industi-y and success, with which the bee makes every flower in- 
 crease the treasures of its hive. I never knew the value of intelligent conversa- 
 tion, and the extent of the contributions which it is capable of furnishing to the 
 stock of knowledge, possessed by an individual, exhibited more clearly and de- 
 cisively than in his example. At the same time his own conversation was so 
 agreeable and intelligent, and his manners so engaging, that his company was 
 courted by all his numerous acquaintance. His life, also, was without a stain; 
 and, on his integrity, candour, and justice, his countrymen placed an absolute re- 
 liance. With these qualifications, it will not be a matter of wonder, that at 
 an early period of his life he was employed by the public in an almost continual 
 succession of public business. He was chosen into the American congress of 
 which he was a member till he died." He died in the 39th year of his age. 
 
 Dr Dwights travels, vol. 3. p. 500. 
 
MATTHIAS ERUEN. IGl 
 
 bids to say more, than that there was an entire sym- 
 pathy between them in taste, principles, and habits, 
 the chief beauty in that honourable relation, which 
 God, who knows the frame of iiis creatures has 
 appointed for their mutual support, and their im- 
 provement in holiness. 
 
 Some brief but very characteristic extracts from 
 his letters at the period of his marriage are interest- 
 ing, as they disclose his spiritual frame, at a time 
 when his earthly prospects were full of joy. Hitherto 
 the extracts have shown his mind chiefly in the Pense- 
 roso mood, and even disconsolate at times ; now ho 
 was glad with a chastened gladness. It is also wor- 
 thy of remark, that the diffusive character of his 
 generous nature, was never more exhibited than at 
 the time of his marriage. Instead of having his affec- 
 tions withdrawn from old friends, and centred, as they 
 might have excusably been on one object ; he seemed 
 more than usually filled with esteem and love for all 
 who had before shared his friendship, and longed that 
 they should be partakers of his happiness, and have a 
 portion in the friendship of his wife. 
 
 New York, December 30th, 1822. 
 
 " And now the day is fixed — the 2d of January is 
 
 the time appointed, in which with the privacy that 
 
 suits her wishes, and my profession, my fate is to be 
 
 united to hers. Amid all the sobriety of my thinking 
 
 sometimes there is an intense feeling of pleasure which 
 w 
 
1G3 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 I cannot put upon paper. What providence may 
 bring out of this of weal or woe, to her or me, we 
 know not. I am sure I have your prayers and your 
 hopes. My prospects of happiness open in every 
 view, of usefuhiess in my profession, and of settlement 
 in this neighborhood, in a little charge with an endless 
 field of labour ; and of domestic comfort, intellectual 
 society, and religious consolation in the wife of my 
 bosom. * * * * But who shall dare 
 to count up his riches in this world. We are all in 
 the hand of God. Pray for me, dear sister." 
 
 January 1st, 1823. 
 
 " Dear Dear Sister, 
 
 " I feel an inexpressible longing to write to you, 
 amidst a thousand other things, which I ought per- 
 haps to do first. Three preachings last sabbath, last 
 night's preaching, the duties of the coming sabbath, 
 all fill my mind with the remembrances of serious ob- 
 ligation ; when the morrow comes over me with such 
 a commingled feeling as I cannot describe — But I will 
 write a few lines in spite of all. 
 
 The griefs in which we have shared, the joys in 
 which we have participated, come before me just now 
 with a train of imagery, which you can picture to 
 yourself. The other day as I opened your hymn 
 book, which I always use, in all my services, at *' once 
 they were mourning here below," if I ever pray, one 
 aspiration arose from my heart, for you. All your 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 1G3 
 
 anxious sympathy for mc, fills mo, I should almost say 
 with grief, for I fear your forebodings. # * * 
 But believe that in all calmness of judgment, my pros- 
 pects of usefulness are mightily enlarged. * * * 
 I enter upon this matter with a self-understanding, 
 with a calmness which is almost religious, with a hope 
 which I endeavour to direct more to heaven than to 
 earth. * * * Oh, if it were not for this hope- 
 less distance, this wide sea, I do believe we three 
 might reach the highest point of human friendship. — 
 Perhaps the experiment may some day be made. But 
 alas ! that could only be by withdrawing me from the 
 scene of my labours, which is just now unfolding, with 
 a charm it never before possessed. But what a vic- 
 tory would that be, to sit near you, and hear all that 
 you would say, and see all that you would feel, and 
 know that it would all pass like electricity through 
 the veins of us all. #**-*- ^^Q ^^ 
 home a few days next week ; but I do not intend to 
 sacrifice my duties for my ease, and shall return be- 
 fore the sabbath. " Go to, ye that say, on the mor- 
 row," &LC. 
 
 New York, January 31st, 1823. 
 " My preachings have not been intermitted by my 
 marriage. On the sabbath after, I preached twice. 
 On Wednesday we went to Amboy, where I preached 
 three times. We returned on monday, and on tues- 
 day and thursday evenings, and ever since, I have 
 
164 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 had my hands full of duties. Besides this, I have be- 
 gun visiting from house to house, in the neighbourhood 
 of our place of meeting, and seem fairly embarked 
 upon the work of a gospel minister. Having disposed 
 of this great business of being married, I trust I shall 
 have a more single aim to carry on the spiritual work 
 to which I may be called. Our prospects in the main 
 are encouraging, but upon penetrating into the inte- 
 rior of houses and hearts, the deplorable deficiencies 
 of professors are evident, and I know not how far 
 some will bear the wholesome word of application and 
 conviction, when I shall privately and alone, say, \I 
 mean you.'' " 
 
 New York, February 24th, 1823. 
 " I am glad my present plan of labouring here suits 
 your feelings. I give up every thing to it. Preach- 
 ing so often gives me a facility. I am deplorably de- 
 ficient in spiritual mindedness ; I am saddened when- 
 ever I think how little I am absorbed in the simple ob- 
 ject of winning souls. Yet God has been pleased to 
 make me useful in two or three instances, to bring for- 
 ward exercises which either have or will, I trust, 
 eventuate in saving conversion. A remark in Scott's 
 Life has struck me very much in this connection. * If 
 we only are the instruments of one conversion in a 
 year, what else could we do on earth that would pro- 
 duce joy among the angels in heaven.' Have you 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 105 
 
 read this useful, instructive piece of Biography ? * I 
 hope I have profited by it." 
 
 New York, March 20th, 1823. 
 " Have I written you an account of the revival of 
 religion at Carlisle after the death of James Mason ^f 
 Upwards of sixty persons were admitted at once into 
 Dufficld's church, a few weeks ago, and what is re- 
 markable, there was just the same number of males 
 as females. Usually here, as every where, we find 
 your sex most apt to yield their hearts to the obe- 
 dience of ihe faith. The face of the audience, and the 
 proportion on the rolls of the church, shows it. Such 
 seasons of special blessing come it is true, at such 
 times, and in such way as God pleases ; but they' come 
 in answer to prayer, and in consequence of the use of 
 rational means. Before this, Duffield convened his 
 members on a week day. There were together more 
 than a hundred. After prayer, he put such questions 
 as these to them all, "Whether they believed the im- 
 mortal souls of men to be of unspeakable value? 
 Whether they believed the receiving the gospel of 
 Jesus Christ to be the means of salvation ? Whether 
 they would promise in their houses, and throughout 
 the town, to use every occasion of calling sinners to 
 instant repentance and faith ? Whether they would 
 
 * Lifeof Scott, author of the " Force of Truth," &c. 
 t SonofDr Mason. 
 
166 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 pray and watch and fast for a blessing?" They all 
 rose and solemnly promised it Some almost miracu- 
 lous answers to prayer followed. We sec what an 
 amazing influence must be exerted, if a whole church 
 be thus filled with missionary spirit, and each in his 
 place is turned into a preacher of righteousness. 
 Pray for your brother, that he may go and do like- 
 wise." 
 
 In the May of this year Mr Bruen took his station 
 among the standard bearers of the cross, and spoke 
 at most of the anniversaries of the various philanthro- 
 pic societies of the city. However he might accuse 
 himself of coldness in secret devotion, he continually 
 deprecated the idea of his soul living on "no religion 
 but what was public," and those who had opportunity 
 to look into his mental exercises, were struck with 
 the zeal, humility and watchfulness with which he 
 superintended the state of his own heait, almost as 
 though he had nothing else to observe. One brief ex- 
 tract, merely as a specimen, is here presented; delicacy 
 alone prevents the introduction of very many similar 
 to it. Those who have studied their own characters 
 in reference to the divine purity, will readily compre- 
 hend the strength of his expressions of self abasement. 
 But the less delicate in conscience, and less enlighten- 
 ed by the Holy Spirit, may be so far misled as to 
 suspect from his view of himself, that Mr B. had to 
 mourn over conspicuous out-breakings of sin, when 
 the very reverse is the case, for among the pure, 
 
MATTHIAS RRUE\. 1G7 
 
 even from early life, he had the happiness to be pre- 
 served singularly pure. 
 
 May, 1823. 
 
 "Each stage in our journey of life is a place for 
 the confession of sin, and I would gladly disburden 
 my heart, not of the sorrow for, but of the guilt of 
 my iniquities. I felt that from my infancy I had 
 brought upon myself, in spite of knowledge and a 
 sensitive conscience, the burden of transgression 
 so heavy, so provoking, that for this world and the 
 next, it was most reasonable to expect a visible judg- 
 ment * * * jvjy humility, my con- 
 fessions, my repentance, seem to me not at all to 
 deserve the name, so far are they below the deep 
 exercises of an experienced christian. But, such 
 as they are, they are comforts to me, exercises to 
 be cherished, I hope to be increased. * * 
 
 * * you will believe my thoughts often make 
 an excursion to my dear home beyond the w^aters. 
 Let me know often about your children. I lejoice 
 that your dear husband is better." 
 
 In this same month of May, there is a reference 
 which though entirely detached from the thread of the 
 narrative, and written in reply to information received 
 from Scotland, w^ill interest the reader, not only as 
 shewing Mr B's ideas of the duty of a christian in 
 a public station, to make his conduct understood 
 by the pubUc; but also as cxliibiting the lively 
 
168 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 fraternal interest which American clergy take in 
 the movements of their brethren in Britain. 
 
 "The newspaper containing the communication 
 concerning Dr Chalmers' resignation was peculiarly 
 acceptable. All the world here are wondering what 
 could induce him to leave his field of usefulness at 
 Glasgow for the cloister of a college. I think his rea- 
 sons entirely sufficient, and his manner of publishing 
 them highly honourable. I shall give the letter pub- 
 licity on this side of the Atlantic, for it is certainly 
 important. No man has a right to take such a hold 
 as Dr Chalmers has, of the hearts and minds of men, 
 and then not suppose his public movements, justly 
 subject to praise or censure ; as he cannot make him- 
 self a private man without recalling his works from 
 the four quarters of the globe. All that he can do 
 to keep his character clear, is to let us into his con- 
 science, that we may see what motives work there, and 
 then it will be seen that his character is as much 
 above cavil, as his industry and talent are above 
 praise." 
 
 July 14th, 1823. 
 " I preached in New Haven, in the chapel of Yale 
 college, to four or five hundred students and a learned 
 faculty. I have not seen any thing so Oxonian for a 
 great while. Though the building is in the most 
 absolute contrast with the chapel of new college, and 
 
MATTIllA.'i BRUEN. 169 
 
 there was neither black gown nor red visible, nor note 
 of organ, nor chaunt of psalter ; yet it was not pos- 
 sible to follow the president through the great aisle, 
 where no other ceremony was used but the students 
 rising at our entrance, and ascend the pulpit to address 
 so many young men so soon to occupy the first sta- 
 tions of influence in the country, without a quicken- 
 ing of the blood. And here a train of feelings was 
 excited such as Oxford and Cambridge have no power 
 to produce. Of these students perhaps more than a 
 third are members of the church which is in the col- 
 lege, and so far as the strictest judgment can decide, 
 living members of the spiritual body of Jesus Christ. 
 The town of New Haven, founded by John Daven- 
 port and his church, containing a population of about 
 8000, has been signally blessed with the demonstra- 
 tions of God's Spirit, and hundreds together have 
 agonized to enter into the kingdom of heaven. The 
 town is beautifully laid out with a large common 
 green in the centre, in the midst of which are 
 four churches, and behind on an ascent the college 
 buildings. It is one of the most interesting sights in 
 the world, on a pleasant sabbath morning, to see the 
 hundreds at the same time crossing the green in 
 various directions towards their different places of 
 worship. I am just now preparing a review of 
 Orme's Life of Dr Owen, into which I shall introduce 
 the best account that is to be found within the same 
 number of pages, of his life and works. I have taken 
 
170 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 a deeper interest in this from the account you sent me 
 last year of Orme and Aikman's visit to Kelso. 
 
 I have been in much doubt what to do here, wheth- 
 er to form a church before the edifice is begun, or 
 delay our fellowship in spirituals, till the temporals 
 raise their head above ground. But I have now 
 pretty much made up my mind to advance at every 
 risk, if we can get but a dozen church members. I 
 am glad to feel myself located here, and the sooner 
 we have all the visible symbols of a church of Christ 
 the better. They are needful for our quickening, 
 encouragement, and ultim.ate success. Pray for us, 
 dear sister, that the word of God may have free 
 course and be glorified. May my sinfulness not 
 impede it!" 
 
 In the autumn of this year, a little daughter was 
 added to the domestic felicities of Mr Bruen. What 
 he says in reference to her dedication to God in 
 baptism must reach the heart of every christian 
 parent. 
 
 December 15th, 182.3. 
 ** More than a fortnight since, we made such sacred 
 promises for ourselves and for our babe, as were re- 
 quired by her baptism, and formally endeavoured to 
 give her up to the Lord, for life or for death. Mr 
 Whelpley administered the ordinance in the room 
 where I preach, and you will not doubt that the oc- 
 casion was to me deeply interesting. When I receiv- 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEIV. 171 
 
 ed the child from her mother, and raised her towards 
 the minister, she spread out her little arms as if con- 
 scious of what was passing. * * # How 
 sad to think that under so fair a form, a heart is hidden 
 which may yet befilled with malignity against God and 
 holiness and heaven. How gladdening to remember 
 that this ordinance may prepare her for a sanctified 
 life here, and a glorious existence throughout eterntiy- 
 The babe has now a claim upon you ; a claim it is 
 true quite arbitrary on our part, but one which I feel 
 assured will be willingly ceded by you. What hopes, 
 what fears do we find in this name. What a union of 
 three beings that have held the most powerful influ- 
 ence in my heart." 
 
172 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 New York, February 15th, 1824. 
 My very dear friend and sister, 
 
 * * * * I have been very much interested 
 to-day in lecturing from Phillippians, ch. 2d — 5, 6, 7, 
 and in remarking how all the truths of revelation 
 are practical, even the sublime, and at first view 
 most remote. So the divinity and voluntary hu- 
 miliation of our Lord Jesus Christ teach us humility : 
 Some men say, what does it concern us to know 
 whether he is God or man, if we have his precepts 
 and example. This was the cry at Geneva when 
 Malan first arose. Others say, these doctrines are 
 all theory. So the ignorant tiller of the earth 
 would say of the studies and theory of the philoso- 
 pher, concerning the relative distance and position 
 of the stars. But, these once known, the sea is 
 covered with ships, and all nations put the know- 
 ledge into practice. — I have seldom spoken with the 
 same liberty, and I hope, force. What an ineffably 
 precious and glorious theme. We have had some 
 people in our country, more pious than wise, who 
 have run into the notions of the Quietists in 
 
MATTHIAS BRFEX 173 
 
 France, and pressed the duty of glorifying God to 
 the absurd extent of requiring us to be willing to 
 be damned to promote his glory. The folly of 
 setting up this test, so self contradictory, has done 
 less evil in itself, than from its pushing its 
 adversaries into the opposite extreme of fearing to 
 declare how much it is a christian's duty and honor 
 to set the glory of God uppermost in his heart, to 
 the abandonment of self as far as possible. I had 
 much freedom of speech in reproving kindly this 
 temper from the 11th verse, shewing that all- the 
 system of redemption is to the glory of God the 
 Father ; that even human salvation is not the prime 
 object of Christ's coming into the world, but the 
 secondary aim, and the means of the primary and 
 great one, namely the glory of God. How necessary 
 is it for us selfish, near-sighted mortals to see that 
 we are not the centre of the moral system, but 
 that God is all in all. When we see the sun rise, 
 our first thought should be of the exhibition of God's 
 glorious majesty, the second that now we can walk 
 safely through this troubled earth. And so, when 
 the sun of righteousness rises, our first thought 
 should be to bow at the name of Jesus, and second, 
 that every soul that bows to him gladly shall without 
 doubt be saved everlastingly. * * * 
 
 For personal religion and theoretical study of the 
 word of God, I feel the very essential to be, to en- 
 throne omnipotence, to prostrate ourselves under 
 
174 MEMOIRS or 
 
 God's sovereignty,* and when we meet a fact in 
 nature, or a fact or doctrine in revelation, which we 
 cannot explain, just let it stand like a rock in the 
 ocean, and let human prejudice or passion beat 
 against it as violently as it will. We may often rest 
 upon some such fact amidst our troubles, and feel it 
 to be, what Noah's dove could not find, a resting 
 place. We should never doubt the existence, wisdom, 
 goodness and truth of God, because we have little 
 wisdom, and less goodness and truth. The disposi- 
 tion grows upon me, which you remember in me at 
 Kelso — to be unmoved at any objections, if I only see 
 a thing clearly revealed in the word of God. I hold 
 with but slender confidence to any reasoning on 
 earth, in comparison with the manner in which the 
 most abstruse doctrines found there take hold of 
 m.y mind." 
 
 New York, March 24th, 1824. 
 " I have written a copious analysis and review of 
 Irving's Orations for the Spectator ; but it is one of the 
 miseries of reviewing to find yourself condensed and 
 abridged for want of room. ***** 
 My success in the enterprise of getting up a church 
 in this neighborhood is still problematical. I hope for 
 the best and have not yet lost courage. We have 
 been much disappointed in some of our calculations." 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 175 
 
 New York, April 30tli, 1821. 
 " Some weeks ago providence brought to my oflcr 
 SL situation for which I think I am fitted, and which 
 opens a sphere of usefuhiess incomparably greater 
 than any single minister's charge. We have in this 
 city a Domestic Missionary Society whose object is 
 to aid feeble congregations in supporting their minis- 
 ters. We oppose the system of itinerancy, but by 
 giving a small sum to a congregation who can give 
 food and raiment to a preacher, we locate the gos- 
 pel and church ordinances in their neighbourhood. 
 Without some such plan, all our country will be a 
 waste, even where fdled with inhabitants ; but, with it, 
 our hamlets will grow up to towns, under the care of 
 a well instructed ministry. This Society is the most 
 popular and best conducted of all our missionary in- 
 stitutions. Their business has increased so much that 
 they find it necessary to have one person whose whole 
 time and talents they can command. It has been re- 
 quested that I become their secretary. 
 
 I have been constrained to draw up the report of 
 the young men's missionary society, auxiliary to the 
 other, and must now in a week have the annual re- 
 port of the parent society ready, materials for which 
 must be hunted out from among the correspondence 
 with the sixty-seven missionaries in the employ of the 
 society." * * * % 
 
 Y 
 
176 MEMOIRS or 
 
 Philadelphia, May 29th, 1824. 
 Saturday night. 
 
 " This is one of the periods when we have promised 
 to recall each other to mind, in his presence who can 
 alone bring us ever again to see each other, either in 
 this world or the next. I pray that upon your out- 
 ward condition and your heart the divine blessing 
 may rest. You pray for me, for my wife, for my child 
 incessantly. I would most gladly owe to your sup- 
 plication, oi all living, sinning creatures, those mercies 
 which are granted abundantly, and which are obtain- 
 ed only for the sake of Christ our passover, who was 
 sacrificed for us. The energetic, fervent prayer of 
 the righteous availeth much. 
 
 I have had little time of late to record my thoughts 
 towards you. The thing which most entirely affects 
 my calculations, is this office of Secretary to the Do- 
 mestic Missionary Society, which opens to me a field 
 of labour extensive enough for the largest energies I 
 can ever command. * * * I shall doubtless 
 continually recur to this topic. I have many causes 
 for thankfulness to God. * # » * 
 ♦ * * # * 
 
 In proportion as I see the world, religious or secu- 
 lar, I retreat to you and my dear Mary, and two or 
 three more, for relief from all that my head and heart 
 find common-place and tedious, and cold or dead and 
 wicked, in the mass of the immortal creation who oc- 
 cupy the earth around us. # * * * It 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 177 
 
 has been with no Httlc inconvenience that I have been 
 kept closely confined here for the last ten days, about 
 tthe business of the General Assembly, on a commis- 
 sion from our Presbytery. I am sick of the secular 
 business, and the secular v^^ay of transacting busi- 
 ness before the Assembly ; and yet how much less 
 have we than befalls you in Edinburgh. We have 
 one member who has travelled two thousand three 
 hundred miles, to represent his Presbytery here. — 
 He might have made it one thousand six hundred, 
 had he come by the nearest, but worst route. — And 
 yet this city of Penn is about as central as any 
 place we can find ; if not geographically so, yet cen- 
 tral by the means of conveyance to it ! Our session 
 will probably be a little more than a fortnight, our 
 proceedings are closely copied after the Edinburgh 
 model; and Dr. Witherspoon was quoted only the 
 other day as having laid down the law to us, thus and 
 thus, when he ruled in the Moderator's chair. What 
 makes us very secular, is the trials we hold in appeals 
 in matters of scandal, so that we are in danger of be- 
 ing the receptacle into which every scandalous story 
 of a minister who is, or ought to be deposed, is to be 
 brought. I hope that some of us will be able to effect 
 a change in this particular ; and make the synods the 
 courts of ultimate appeal, and thus keep ourselves 
 strictly to our spiritual business. This is exceedingly 
 important if we will preserve our character and in- 
 fluence." 
 
178 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 New York, June 14th, 1824. 
 " Mr Whelpley is gone to Schooley's mountain, with 
 but a slender prospect of his living, to leave it, and 
 without the vestige of hope on my part that he can 
 recover. **-*#**« 
 Amidst these reflections, there is infinite reason for 
 me to think of what he takes with him — even the re- 
 cord of eight years of ministerial life to be given in to 
 God. Who can tell what these words mean — stew- 
 ardship — talents — God — Christ — eternity. God grant 
 that I be not hardened against his fear, and that this 
 providence may heat my cold, polluted heart, and the 
 new man grow within me day by day. * * * 
 My office is very pleasant, but the labour is abundant 
 and very apt to get the start of me, if I am not very 
 regular. The committee expect, and with reason, 
 that I should not only keep up the correspondence 
 with the Missionaries, but devise the ways and means 
 of helping our funds. I can easily plan, but the exe- 
 cution is tiresome, and though ours is the most popu- 
 lar Missionary Society in the land, begging is not de- 
 lightsome to me. I am to preach around the country 
 and get collections, and form auxiliary societies." 
 
 New York, July 31st, 1824. 
 
 " The event I anticipated came by a very speedy 
 
 advance, and Mr Whelpley expired on the 17th inst. 
 
 He was perfectly aware of his situation, and has left 
 
 to his bereaved wife the best and only consolation. — 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEV. 179 
 
 When I told him before he went from Greenwich, it 
 was very doubtful whether he could recover, and that 
 he might be taken away in four or five days, he re- 
 ceived the information with entire composure, and 
 said his own hopes of ultimate recovery had all along 
 been feeble. As death came very near, his heart 
 abounded in prayer, he seemed to wish to converse 
 but little, said that, " the Lord Jesus was near," that 
 " if his work was concluded he had no desire to re- 
 main, the Lord's will be done." There were no rap- 
 turous exercises in the solemn period, but all was 
 meekness and submission, and seemed a fulfilment of 
 our Lord's injunction, the receiving the kingdom of 
 heaven like a little child. * * * * The 
 effect of all this upon myself is little indeed. It 
 seems as if my heart were all stone, and, as if all that 
 had passed were a dream. May a merciful God grant 
 that it do not increase my condemnation. May he 
 excite in me by its means a deeper feeling of minis- 
 terial responsibility, and the momentous stewardship 
 for an eternal world, which Christ has committed to 
 me. It amazes me that I should think less of dying — 
 I mean think it a less awful and mighty thing, than I 
 did some weeks ago ; yet I fear it is so. Pray for me 
 my dearest sister, that I may yet Hve, and that I may 
 not be speedily smitten in a way which will strike 
 nearer home." * * * * 
 
 Every Christian knows that feeling hardness of 
 the heart is a token of a tenderness of conscience, and 
 
180 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 that those who sincerely lament their insensibility, are 
 often distinguished for piety. To one who knew in- 
 timately the tenderness of his spirit, and the contri- 
 tion of many of his spiritual exercises, Mr Bruen's 
 frequent mourning over the hardness of his heart 
 seems surprising. It must nevertheless be confessed 
 that his religious experience was at this period, more 
 of the character which proceeds from the conviction 
 of the understanding than of the heart. His volume 
 of " Essays" evinces in some degree this state of 
 mind, and it was the remark of one who Hstened with 
 intense interest to his ministrations at this period, that 
 " his sermons failed to indicate much love for the truth. 
 He seemed sincere, convinced, awed, but had not that 
 glow of heart which should belong to a minister of 
 the everlasting covenant of love." And of himself he 
 says, *' You know how much conviction of the truth, 
 and fear of punishment, have prevailed in the exercises 
 of my soul. Yet who could with more reason speak 
 of the love and mercy of Jesus with a full heart? 
 Who has experienced more undeserved favours? 
 Who has oftener abused precious gifts ? Who has 
 oftener tired the long suffering of God, as if wantonly 
 desirous to know its utmost bounds ? God be merci- 
 ful to me a sinner !" His soul was still aspiring after 
 greater things, and in him was accomplished the 
 blessing promised to those who hunger and thirst after 
 righteousness. His love increased with his labours, 
 and it is particularly worthy of notice here, that his 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN^ 181 
 
 prayers seemed to have been answered in such a de- 
 gree as at least to save him from the misery of con- 
 stant dissatisfaction, and mistrust of himself; for his 
 letters express more of assured and calm confidence 
 in the Saviour, in proportion as his mind was turned 
 from himself, and towards Him in faith and love. In 
 proportion as his whole soul was absorbed in caring 
 for the souls of others, he found in his own bosom 
 the peaceable fruits of righteousness ; and this was 
 evinced by enlarging charity, enlivening spiritual ex- 
 ercises, and diminishing solicitude about the events of 
 life, and the approach of death. 
 
 After the affecting mention of Mr W. in the pre- 
 ceding letters, the following description given by Mr 
 B. ought not to be suppressed, for there are many 
 christian hearts in America, who still mourn the death 
 of this excellent minister of Christ. 
 
 " Mr Whelpley possessed pulpit qualifications of the 
 highest order. He was gifted with a very interesting 
 countenance, aspect, and figure ; his voice was sonor- 
 ous, clear, and flexible in its tones, his gesture was sim- 
 ple, grave, and appropriate. Indeed it is not easy to 
 conceive of one naturally better qualified for the pulpit 
 orator. While he did not discountenance these ad- 
 vantages by neglect, his heart was too truly touched 
 by the love of souls to value them if separated from a 
 simple declaration of the glorious gospel of God our 
 Saviour: When made the vehicle of expressing this 
 gospel, and not brought into the foreground of the pic- 
 
182 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 ture, they are like the net work of silver in apples of 
 gold ; but for mere oratory in the pulpit, none could 
 feel more entire compassion than he." 
 
 It has so often been said by the misjudging world, 
 that Christianity unfits men for the common duties of 
 life, and withdraws them from its general interests, 
 that we with pleasure present a letter, which shows 
 how largely Mr B. partook of that patriotic enthusi- 
 asm which pervaded his country at the time of the visit 
 of La Fayette. Who, indeed, that is true of heart of 
 whatever country, does not respond to the generous 
 emotion? It was like the shout of victory — it was a time 
 of congratulation and joy — The struggles of infancy, 
 the difficulties of childhood, the conflicts of youth were 
 happily past ; and the noble patriot now grown grey, 
 had returned to witness the manhood, the prosperity, 
 the success of that people, in whose earliest exertions 
 he had taken so disinterested a share. This is the hour 
 for the citizen of the world, the generous patriot, 
 the true philanthropist to be glad ; for a great people 
 had risen up to make an experiment on a gigantic 
 scale, of a form of government calculated to draw 
 forth all the energies of man, and La Fayette is come, 
 to behold the wonders which they had achieved since 
 the day when his fostering care had nerved their in- 
 fant arm. No one could have returned, unless Wash- 
 ington himself had arisen from the grave, around 
 whom a grateful and prosperous multitude would 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 183 
 
 have pressed with such ardent enthusiasm. In con- 
 templating the benignant delight of the guest, and the 
 individual elation of spirit of each citizen of the United 
 States, it is difficult to determine which of them was 
 on that great jubilee the happiest. 
 
 New York, August 2d, 1824. 
 "Yours of the 21st of June, my beloved sister, 
 came to my hands on a day exceedingly memorable 
 in our brief national annals, for the universal enthu- 
 siasm it excited. Your letter and General de la Fay- 
 ette came into our harbour at the same moment. 
 Since the peace of 1814, and the peace of 1783, there 
 has never been such heart-felt gratulations, such 
 glowing enthusiasm ; all the military turned out, all 
 the forts firing, all flags hoisted, all men, women and 
 children who command four legs or two, all country 
 folks and city folks came to meet the Marquis. 
 Steam boats, steam frigates, &c. &lc. &c. escorted 
 him up the bay. A more splendid sight cannot be 
 imagined. I never fell so entirely in with popular 
 emotion. Without any of the feelings which would 
 deify the man (in whose company I dined at Paris.) 
 I could have clapt my hands for very gladsomeness, 
 to think that he had come to see us in our opening 
 prime, who had seen us in our infancy and wretched- 
 ness, who left Versailles to aid us, when our troops 
 in midwinter had neither shoe nor stocking, and the 
 country was one desolation. His name is identified 
 
184 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 with the first breathings of admiration at what my 
 grandfather used to recount of military service. * * 
 
 * * La Fayette has been received as the 
 guest of the city, and all has been a tumult of joy 
 since he arrived. He has gone to Boston, but he 
 can scarcely get along the road for the triumphal 
 arches and crowds, who gather from every quarter. 
 Sed satis est — I never felt more than on that memor- 
 able day, how entirely the best of this world's show 
 is vanity, and how even the good that touches our 
 human condition is mortal. But there seems som.e- 
 thing immortal in the communion of heart I have 
 always with you at the time of, and for a while after 
 reading one of your letters. God grant that it may 
 be so ! * * * 
 
 I went on the society's business up the North River 
 to Hudson and Catskill a fortnight since. My office 
 is pleasant. It requires my preaching for some 
 weeks just at this time but has not yet forced me 
 to give over preaching in Bleecker street, where I 
 have, as you conjecture, some dear people who love 
 me with all their hearts. I am glad it pleases you. 
 There is however a good deal of labour, and some 
 drudgery, as you suppose." 
 
 October 15th, 1824. 
 " I how attempt to write on board the steam boat. 
 I have no other means of telling you how seldom I 
 have written in this changing and deathful summer. 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEX. 185 
 
 My mother is gone ! She died last week and was 
 buried when I was two hundred and fifty miles away. 
 The bond of thirty-four years between her and my 
 father is parted. It all seems a dream to me, entirely 
 a dream. I sec her in imagination at home as usual, 
 and cannot realize that the being who gav^c me life 
 is never again to minister to my comfort. " * * 
 " I left New York the week before last, to preach 
 for the society and make collections, and attend 
 a meeting of Synod, and arrange affairs with our 
 auxiliaries. I went under an impressive sense of 
 duty, embracing my child who was very ill, with 
 many forebodings that I should not see her again, 
 but not dreaming that one so healthful and strong as 
 my mother was to go before that frail one. At Utica 
 on a Saturday morning I received a letter from my 
 father telling me of her dangerous illness. The 
 mail had gone, and no conveyance could be had 
 till midnight, before which time I received another 
 letter informing me that she died on W'ednesday 
 morning. I was to have preached three times in 
 three towns adjacent, but I set off immediately, came 
 as far as Schenectady, preached there for the so- 
 ciety — do you censure or commend ? — went to Albany 
 on monday morning, and took the steam boat which 
 brought me home on tuesday morning. Oh that 
 this dispensation may quicken me to work while it 
 is called to-day. There is no end to the work to be 
 done, no visible limit to the field of usefulness into 
 which my office introduces me." 
 
186 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 New York, December 7th, 1824. 
 "It is a striking part of the mysterious affinity 
 between us, that in the other hemisphere you should 
 hat^e been called suddenly to mourn, and also at 
 a distance, the death of one so nearly related to 
 you, when I was writing to you the history of the 
 unexpected visitation in our family. « * * 
 "Sudden death!" How blessed is the doctrine 
 which tells us that this, like all the perils we pray 
 to be delivered from, is sent of God. How miserable 
 would be our existence, if we thought that the 
 cords of our life strained to parting by accident, and 
 we fell into the eternal world as chance directed. 
 You and I, dear sister, can see in the sovereignty 
 of God, and his eternal election, anchorage for our 
 souls amid life's apparent uncertainties. It is like 
 the security the saints feel, when from the eminence 
 of heaven they dwell upon the fact, " the Lord God 
 omnipotent reigneth." — I do not conceive that the 
 conviction of the truth of this doctrine is any abso- 
 lute proof that we possess the grace which leads to 
 the inheritance of glory, though it be an omen for 
 good ; for the fact of this divine rule commends itself 
 to common sense, as a necessary element of the 
 worlds continued well-being. What may be, if we 
 live some years, God only knows. Letters with black 
 seals and red, times of fearful mourning and exquis- 
 ite happiness, have we possessed in common. Now 
 letters become less frequent, each day is pregnant 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEIf. 1S7 
 
 with elements of change, and if the time of lilc is 
 lengthened, we pass along the edge of eternity, and 
 it seems vain babbling to speak of what we hope 
 for the future. But the end cometh : You will now, 
 strange that it should be for the first time, feel that 
 mysterious nearness to eternal things, the sense of 
 which the sudden departure of your own flesh and 
 blood creates. * * * The nearness of the 
 millennium — as I believe, the alertness of the christian 
 world — the vast engines now in movement, and requir- 
 ing to be worked by wise and skilful hands — the im- 
 mense openings and immense facilities for good to the 
 souls and bodies of men, such are the thoughts that 
 elevate me, when I look at an enlarging family, w^hich 
 by the grace of God may be prepared for labour. 
 Sarah and her sisters in the faith, rejoiced in the old 
 Testament, because theirs exclusively were the pro- 
 mises, and from them was to come the Messiah. But 
 we rejoice that our children may be more than 
 one of the stars in light, that their attracting and con- 
 centrating influence may gather a constellation to 
 brighten in the reflection of the Lamb for ever, A na- 
 tion is to be born in a day, ten are soon to follow one 
 when he seeks the land of promise, and thousands of 
 gentiles are to say, how beautiful upon the mountains 
 are the feet of him who publisheth peace. I trust 
 that a blessing is to go down from you, from genera- 
 tion to generation." 
 
 The following extract will show Mr Bruen's views 
 
188 MEMOIRS or 
 
 of the nature and tendency of those differences in 
 speculative theology, which have of late years so un- 
 happily agitated the Presbyterian churches in Ame- 
 rica, 
 
 New York, December, 1824. 
 
 ****** 
 
 I perceive a repetition of those disastrous contro- 
 versies likely to ensue in southern cities ; and I do 
 verily believe, that this dissension hangs as a comet, 
 threatening evil to all our western churches. It will 
 come unless christians, — I speak emphatically, for both 
 classes, I believe, embrace the salt of the earth — who 
 conceive themselves peculiarly orthodox can consent 
 to leave their brethren in the quiet possession of their 
 opinions, and in freedom of conscience, or else learn 
 those more accurate views, which, it appears to me, 
 the bible expresses. The light will grow and roll 
 westward to the Oregon, and they will have the most 
 agency in spreading its effulgence ; who most pray 
 for and labour in revivals of religion ; who show that 
 the great criminaUty of original sin, is a choice of 
 sin — that mere natural acts can have no moral cha- 
 racter — that the total depravity we confess in our 
 creed is a depravity of disposition and heart in which 
 we are perfectly free agents — and who urge the love 
 of God, as the only holy motive to rule the will and 
 heart of man. Alas, that I should see as has been 
 seen here, some brethren in one presbytery denounce 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 189 
 
 the Others ; charge men of sound doctrine, and holy- 
 life and successful ministry with heresy, and seem- 
 ingly invite the demon of discord to preside over the 
 ark of God. I was in Europe when this controversy 
 of minute theologists reached its height. I saw 
 enough, however, before I left the country to partake 
 not a little of its spirit — and was surprised to find the 
 great men in England and Scotland — who live to en- 
 lighten mankind, and roll back the boundaries of 
 knowledge, though differing in many particulars could 
 agree to live in a league of christian love. It would 
 have been impossible by any narrative to have made 
 them enter into the agitations of this controversy. I 
 found american authors, scarcely endured by some 
 at home, prized as if their pages were effluent with 
 original truth ; and I am glad I learnt thus early in 
 life — that the dimensions of theological knowledge 
 may be vast as God's omniscience, and that the pro- 
 portion of ti'uth, as important as truth itself, may 
 when duly understood level mountains and exalt val- 
 lies in every mind, and thus prepare the way of the 
 Lord. I determined at least to read all sides, try all 
 things, and hold fast that which was good. I went 
 from the land of ancestry to other parts of protestant 
 Europe, and found there change and decay. I 
 went into France, where a man is seldom found, 
 who is not rather of the mind that his soul, like the 
 elements of a cabbage leaf is disparted into insentient 
 particles when he dies. — And I went to Rome, where 
 
190 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 it is difficult to find a man, who will not say upon due 
 occasion given, whatever may be his conviction, that 
 he will believe as the pontiff may prescribe. And 
 when 1 returned to my own beloved land, I put into 
 force a lesson, which was the foUowing^-to read a 
 book before I decide upon its quality — never to pro- 
 scribe a book because I do not believe every jot and 
 tittle in it, and to preach before all men, what I beheve, 
 and I hope I shall ever practise the things which make 
 for peace, and live under the practical influence of the 
 maxim, love edifieth, # » # 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 191 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The occurrences in 1825, which touched the spirit- 
 ual progress and the comfort of Mr Bruen most 
 nearly, are his resignation of the secretaryship of the 
 Domestic Missionary Society, and the death of his 
 only child. The first mention of the resignation of 
 his office is found in a letter dated 
 
 New York, January 31st, 1825. 
 " You would be glad to know how I like my sec- 
 retaryship, its round of duties and responsibiHties. 
 It has some draw backs, sufficient to induce me to 
 resolve not to hold it many months longer. In the 
 first place, it puts almost an entire stop to all intel- 
 lectual progress, leaving me scarcely any time to 
 study, and taking up all the choice parts of the day 
 with a round of duties little more than secular. With 
 the absence of the habit of preaching and study, / 
 should lose the power. I took the place, and gladly 
 as providence opened it, now my duty appears mani- 
 fest, either to combine it with a small pastoral charge, 
 or leave it soon. After many discouragements, we 
 
 are going on with our new church, called the Bleeck- 
 2 a 
 
192 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 er street Presbyterian Church. We have purchased 
 the ground, and shall erect the edifice, if the Lord 
 favour us, during the summer. We propose to con- 
 nect ourselves in a spiritual communion soon, and 
 then I take upon myself the care of this little company, 
 who all love me. My heart dwells much in the pros- 
 pect. God grant me a fitness for it. "Man deviseth 
 his way, but God orders our steps." So we change ! 
 last year I thought to stay in this office till death, now 
 I revert to the scene of my two year's labor." 
 
 New York, March 15th, 1825. 
 
 "I seem to dream when I commence this letter 
 which is to carry news more disastrous to me than 
 any I ever before communicated. Without preface, 
 my dear sister, I have to tell you that it has pleased 
 God to take our darling daughter, our only child. 
 There is a reality in this misery which I cannot enter 
 into. Although my arms laid her in her coffin, and 
 it is two days since I buried her, it appears. like a 
 story to me that I hear of and have to act a part in, 
 but which does not, as it does, touch my vitals. * * 
 
 * We doubtless loved her sinfully; but there 
 
 was a sense, an apparent loftiness of character even 
 in her playfulness, a grace in all her movements, that 
 promised so much soul when she could speak, that we 
 felt it only homage to God to admire. In truth I could 
 not have conceived that a parent could have such 
 feehnfjrs towards a child as I had towards her. I felt 
 
MATTHIAS DRUEX. lO'i 
 
 a reverence for her. I felt as if she were a little 
 being sent here, in no sort more mine than that she 
 was under my protection ; but then I never felt she 
 was to leave me. * * * * 
 
 The reason of this chastisement I trace up through a 
 line of sins from my infancy. God grant that my hard 
 heart may be broken. God grant forgiveness of my sins. 
 Mary seeks not only to be comforted and to rejoice in 
 this aflliction because our dear babe is now a glorious 
 spirit among the redeemed, full of life, and soul, and 
 bliss ; she seeks to rejoice in it on the simple ground 
 riiat it is the will of God. Thy will be done. She 
 says that if it have the eflcct of making me a devoted, 
 able, sanctified minister of the sanctuary, she will be 
 glad that we are so severely bruised. We both feel 
 that we are in a critical moment, that all this will do 
 us infinite good or Jiarm speedily. 
 
 This affliction will seem like a bereavement in your 
 own family. It is so. How have we set our hearts 
 on seeing Mary L. love her name because it is yours. 
 God grant you the sanctified use of this proof that he 
 will do what he will with his own. If a wish could 
 bring her back, we would not. May we go to her — 
 We shall then go also to the same Saviour of tliose 
 little cliildren, in whom the seeds of sin, ere they were 
 active, were eradicated by his grace. Oh to join and 
 know each other there ! * * * * 
 
 The dead, small and great, are to rc-appear." 
 
194 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 New York, March 30th, 1825. 
 " The death of children is a common calamity, but 
 I find all who have felt it, speak to me with an unusual 
 sympathy, as well remembering when the iron enter- 
 ed into their souls. This event will I trust, better fit 
 me for ministering from the gospel the consolations 
 which God has provided for our innumerable trials. 
 I certainly feel this loss more and more. May God 
 continue to grant me his grace, that I may continue 
 not to murmur, as I trust I have not murmured yet. 
 We have thought much of you, dear sister, and how 
 the sad news will come upon you without preparation. 
 We pray for you, as you do for us. Your dear hus- 
 band also will sympathize with us. 
 
 My labours continue in the Dom. Miss. Soc. which 
 is blessed with singular prosperity. The prospects in 
 our church brighten exceedingly from our being join- 
 ed within a few days, by some very active, intelligent, 
 praying christians. * * * # Dr Ro- 
 meyn, pastor of the Cedar street church, died a few 
 weeks ago. The sabbath week after, I preached on 
 Psalm 141 and 7: " Our bones are scattered at the 
 grave's mouth, as when one cutteth and cleaveth 
 wood upon the earth. But mine eyes are unto thee, 
 O God the Lord ; in thee is my trust, leave not my 
 soul destitute." The following sabbath, I laid my dear 
 ■daughter in the grave." * * 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEX. 195 
 
 New York, April 24th, 1825. 
 
 " Our missionary year is just closing, and the busi- 
 ness of preparing tlie annual report pressing. God 
 has granted us great prosperity, for which I am per- 
 sonally exceedingly thankful, for I should have felt it 
 personally a great rebuke had it been otherwise. We 
 arc out of debt, and the receipts and expenditures in- 
 creased one half. One hundred churches have been 
 sustained upon ten thousand dollars, which I believe 
 to be as economical work as was ever done. There 
 have been revivals of religion in most of these church- 
 es, and probably from two to three thousand souls 
 converted. Although it may seem in your land of 
 hereditary opulence no great work to raise a little 
 more than £2,000, yet the British and Foreign B. So- 
 ciety scarcely grew with more rapidity than this in- 
 stitution. We are to have the communion too, in our 
 church on sabbath week, when some will join us. — 
 Our edifice will be done about the end of the year. So 
 you see I am filled with duties ; either work is enough 
 for one man. I intend in a few months to decline this 
 office in favour of the church, which will need vigour- 
 ous efforts, and the divine blessing." 
 
 May 23d, 1825. 
 
 * * * " Our anniversaries were exceed- 
 ingly interesting at the Tract and Bible societies ; we 
 had Eustace Carey and Mr Ellis the missionary from 
 Taheite and the Sandwich Islands, at the feet of each 
 of whom, I could have laid my heart in veneration. — 
 
196 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 They are on their way to England ; I trust you will 
 sec and hear them." * * * * * 
 
 New York, June 23d, 1825- " 
 " The most solemn duties and responsibilities have 
 devolved on me since I last wrote. I have answered 
 affirmatively to a call from the Bleecker street church, 
 and been installed as its pastor by the presbytery. It 
 was a renewal of my ordination vows, a fastening 
 them down to a definite locality, where I have pro- 
 mised to do the work of my master. May he give me 
 strength. I shall only try your heart if I repeat all 
 I feel and have often said of my own condition in the 
 view of these duties, which are delights to an anointed 
 prophet. The Domestic Missionary Society, I leave 
 as soon as a suitable person can be found to be elected, 
 except so far as to continue one of its executive com- 
 mittee. The usefulness of that institution is only 
 limited by the horizon of our republic ; but I hope I 
 have done right for the interests of the church in 
 leaving it. I seemed fitted for it, but such is the secu- 
 larizing tendency of its cares, that I often felt it en- 
 dangered my soul to stay there. He that sitteth in 
 the heavens only knows where my soul may be safe. 
 This world looks to me very much of late, in the sober 
 grey of evening. If it were not for two or three con- 
 verts, who honour me with a devotion which makes 
 me ashamed, I should fear my ministry was never to 
 be of any avail before the night cometh. But I stand 
 and hope — alas ! I fear not in the armour and with 
 the spirit of a watchman in Israel." 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 197 
 
 June 29th, 1825. 
 "Last Monday evening the executive committee 
 iiad a meeting to consider my resignation and to elect 
 a successor. But we can find no one to whom the in- 
 terests of this loved and invaluable institution ought 
 to be committed. It is therefore put to my con- 
 science to jeopard its wcliare, or to endeavour so 
 to combine the duties of the secretary with my pas- 
 toral charge, as to manage its affairs until a suitable 
 person be offered to us in providence, for which we 
 earnestly pray. It is, taken separately, the most im- 
 portant and auspicious event of my life, that I should, 
 with the unanimous approbation of the churches, and 
 of a wise and faithful committee, have managed an 
 institution which has permanently evangelized proba- 
 bly eighty thousand human beings. The society has 
 just about doubled, and might increase in the same 
 ratio for two or three years, if active agents could be 
 had to pass over the thousand leagues of our populated 
 territory, in its length and breadth. I see deficiencies 
 in the year, which fill me with self-reproach, and see 
 that the society owes nothing to me ; but other people 
 think not so. I must build up Bleecker street with one 
 hand and the society with the other, for the present. 
 But they need a whole man." 
 
 New York, August 3d, 1825. 
 # * * " How can we forget our Mary — 
 The sensation of her loss creeps all over my flesh, 
 
198 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 when I write her name. I look not at a child and ask 
 its age without thinking of her who would now speak 
 Papa if she lived, and who clung to me with inexpres- 
 sible evidences of afiection, from the first moment that 
 she could choose. Alas ! how vain to go over all this 
 to any one, of which, but once or twice I have spoken 
 to my dear wife, and then only to learn what is be- 
 neath the submission in which she has faded, and seeks 
 to be cheerful and to make me happy. God sends his 
 rain upon the unjust, and so has given her to me. But 
 I was speaking of your dear name daughter. I know 
 I idolized her. I felt as if she was not even to be 
 looked at but with peculiar eyes, by a select few. In 
 remarking how I regarded her, I thought this after- 
 noon with a strange new feeling, that God made her. 
 God has made her anew and glorified her. His name 
 be praised ! — this blow will never pass from my heart 
 may it be ever sanctified to me. If I live for many ; 
 years, I shall think what she would have been. May 
 I think what she is, each year, in heaven. But I have 
 lost the visible tokens of her love ; perhaps it is sordid 
 to inquire whether it can exist where she is. But I 
 should have been too rich with her. I did not intend 
 this strain, dear M — , when I took my pen. 
 « # * * 
 
 Our last communion was a more comfortable sea- 
 son than the preceding. It seems strange that God 
 can bring good out of such poor ministrations of his 
 truth, as I offer at his altar. Just now I find an or- 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 199 
 
 phan girl of sixteen under conviction, commencing 
 from the address I made at the first communion. I 
 am rebuked and yet encouraged by this fact exceed- 
 ingly. I always fear that my life and conversation 
 are so little spiritual, that whoever sees me near at 
 hand and at home, cannot be so benefited by my 
 preaching. But God can send by whom he will send. 
 You will not, dear sister, think these things too minute 
 to notice. * * * *- 
 
 Within a few days, I have formed a friendship, I 
 hope a lasting one, with a young minister of whom 
 you may hear much if we live a few years. I 
 
 therefore name him, He is not much 
 
 older than myself But the years I have spent 
 upon Italy and England, he has passed in the most 
 prayerful devotion to preaching the gospel, in which 
 he has arrived at such eminence, as makes it ap- 
 pear doubtful to me if any one in this land exceeds 
 him. 
 
 No one scarcely ever thought less of the wisdom 
 of words, or spent less on the human part of preach- 
 ing. Manner, which the world calls eloquence, 
 goes for nothing with him ; and as a natural con- 
 sequence he rises often to the highest eloquence. 
 * * * I begin to look forward with 
 much delight to being at home once more, and to 
 study. I think our preachers, such as learn in the 
 school of President Edwards, excel in usefulness, any 
 
 I saw abroad. I trust I shall not become careless. 
 
 2b 
 
200 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 I know manner, gesture, voice, are important ; but 
 unction, thought, and power over the conscience, 
 through the truth of God, are so separable from these, 
 and superior to them, that my idea of perfect preach- 
 ing simpHfies itself daily." 
 
 New York, Nov. 19th, 1825. 
 My ever dear and faithful sister, 
 
 " The prospect at length beams upon me that I 
 shall soon be released from the trials of my present 
 service, and may wind myself up closely in my 
 ministerial and private relations. My home for the 
 last year and a half has scarcely been home to me, 
 from the necessity of attending to business at the 
 distance of two miles every morning. My prepara- 
 tions for the pulpit have been hurried, and entirely 
 inadequate to my own apprehension, although my 
 hearers have been patient, and not complained. My 
 friends at hand have been unvisited, those at a dis- 
 tance unwritten to. It will give you the best satisfac- 
 tion to know that I am about to deliver my office into 
 excellent hands. We have been unanimous in our 
 election, which is a happy omen in providence. I 
 shall retain here as much influence as I desire, and 
 carry away many lessons that are invaluable, an in- 
 fluence that money cannot buy — an influence which is 
 one of the most solemn of God's deposits of talents 
 in my hands. Although I perceive some faults, and 
 more omissions in my administration, pardon my self- 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEir 201 
 
 love, If I talk in governmental style, of my manage- 
 ment of this little province of our Saviour's kingdom, 
 yet the unequalled prosperity of the institution is mat- 
 ter of general remark, and the increase of its funds 
 the proof of general approbation. In many ways, my 
 life long, I hope to aid its interests." 
 
202 MEMOIRS OP 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 As Mr Briien's experience in business, and his in- 
 fluence in the churches increased, the correspondence 
 which at one period was an important item in his oc- 
 cupations, began to diminish. Though he says, " the 
 only Uving being who has any written record of my 
 actings and thinkings is yourself," yet the record of 
 1825, was less extended than that of 24, and that of 
 26 than 25, and so on to the end. Nay it was some- 
 times painful to see how his unchanging and exalted 
 friendship caused uneasiness to his generous heart. 
 The recollection of how much he formerly was accus- 
 tomed to narrate of himself, and the reluctance he 
 felt to sacrifice his habit of writing, which he knew 
 gave so lively an interest to his friends in Scotland, 
 rendered the rarity of his later epistles a subject of 
 lively regret. His exertions were drawn forth in the 
 most elevated cause; his time, even for relaxation, 
 was consumed, as those who long for the progress of 
 the Redeemer's kingdom would have it consumed ; 
 and if the earthly record be less in the year 1826, 
 than those who cherish his memory, or would be 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEJf. 203 
 
 aroused by his example, might wish, \vc have reason 
 to believe that the record of that year's exertions will 
 be found in heaven. 
 
 New York, January 23d, 182G. 
 " Since the beginning of the year I have not written 
 to you, nor for some weeks before. With the business 
 of delivering up the keys of ofhce to my successor in 
 the secretaryship, has come the duty of initiating him 
 in its details. So that the change has scarcely yet 
 been a relief to me. A fortnight ago, it became ne- 
 cessary for me to undertake a toilsome journey to 
 Boston, to take the preliminary steps for the formation 
 of a national domestic missionary society. Clergymen 
 and others of influence were to be convened, and as 
 the centre of operation is to be New York, it was re - 
 quired that some one should represent our interests, 
 who is acquainted with our plan. To furnish the mil- 
 lions who already live beyond the Ohio and the Mis- 
 sissippi, with the institutions of the gospel, is a mea- 
 sure of inexpressible importance, and I think not even 
 the establishment of the American Bible Society is 
 more eventful than this National Home Missionary 
 Society. I set off through weather and roads which 
 made the journey very disagreeable, and sometimes 
 perilous. The business of my mission has been hap- 
 pily accomplished. There will be a general co-opera- 
 tion among presbyterians and congregationalists, in 
 this great matter, and probably the evangelical of other 
 
204 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 denominations will largely contribute. We intend to 
 appear as liberal as we feel, but until we all think less 
 of denominations than we do, and other sects become 
 purified, we must observe certain limits, in order to be 
 sure of the character of the ministers we employ, and 
 what are the interests they would promote. If the 
 Lord prosper tliis institution, as he has ours, and give 
 it favour in the eyes of the people, it will work won- 
 ders. You see your poor brother ought to be busy 
 when those who love Christ think he may be useful. 
 I feared on entering on so great a matter that I might 
 be the Achan that would rather bring discomfiture 
 than blessing to the armies of Israel. 
 
 Our dear little church prospers, and overwhelms 
 me with astonishment that God blesses my preaching. 
 Some in our sabbath-scliool have been brought under 
 deep concern of mind, which has in some cases issued 
 in their conversion." 
 
 New York, February 16th, 1826. 
 "I have great encouragement in my preaching, 
 considering my few auditors, and hope that my sphere 
 of usefulness will be enlarged when we enter the 
 church. It is only my barrenness in secret prayer 
 that weighs me down with the impression that I can- 
 not be useful ; but this one impression is like a moun- 
 tain. My views in the doctrines of religion attain 
 great clearness chiefly, at present, by means of 
 Andrew Fuller's writings. Ask Mr to read 
 
MATTfflAS BRUEX. 205 
 
 them. The way some of us presbyterians are bred 
 to look upon the gospel, as a sort of special provision 
 for the elect, trammels the preaching of the glad 
 tidings of great joy to all people. Put election in the 
 place it ought to hold, after the rejection \vhich the 
 wilful depravity of man will make of the expression of 
 the love of God in Christ, and then we only see in it 
 God's purpose that heaven shall be filled with holy 
 worshippers, gathered and sanctified by his spirit on 
 the earth, and we understand how Bethsaida and Ca- 
 pernaum really increased their condemnation by re- 
 fusing the gospel of Christ. The fulness of the love of 
 God towards a sinful world can never be too loudly 
 expressed; it has no bounds but his own holiness. 
 Whosoever will become holy shall be saved and shall 
 not come into condemnation, but is passed from death 
 unto life. The just view of this love of God convin- 
 ces of sin and is a terror to the ungodly, as much as it 
 is consolation and life to the renewed. I hope Fuller*s 
 works may be within your reach, and if you can have 
 president Edwards, read his account of the revival in 
 New England ; his sermons seem to me the best in 
 the language. Your volume of "Shippard's Thoughts," 
 is excellent ; a little wire-drawn and London religions, 
 I think, but still excellent. In some things new, in all 
 useful." 
 
 " Will you tell your dear husband that I grow daily 
 more tolerant. My organ of benevolence will never 
 equal his I know, but I am tolerant to all sorts of 
 Christians." 
 
206 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 " A friend walking with me the other day, in the 
 energy of conversation, fell upon a choice way of de- 
 scribing. He spoke of one man whom he did not be- 
 lieve in, who filled a certain space in the public eye ; 
 and then of another, a methodist preacher, he said, " I 
 believe in him. In short, / believe in every body who be- 
 lieves in prayer.^^ I also am exceedingly tolerant to 
 every body who believes in prayer. The straitness 
 of sect finds no advocate in me, and if I were once 
 more at your dear husband's table, I should express 
 my deep regret at the almost intolerable, immeasura- 
 ble widejiess of the straitness of a Confession of Faith, 
 that fills a volume. Here is surely too much to sign 
 to. But it may be safest, and as I happen to believe 
 it all, it only does me harm by shutting me out from 
 nearer communion with those whom I ought to love. 
 We are coming to have a tempest of a controversy in 
 our church about Confessions of Faith. What it will 
 issue in, whether a better understanding of our Chris- 
 tian liberty, I know not, but I trust we may live to see 
 the day when we shall be much further advanced to- 
 wards the millennial state than at present. Douglas 
 of Cavers"finely remarks of the bible society, that it 
 has done better than to confute a thousand heresies ; 
 it has silenced the controversy. All lovers of philan- 
 thropic societies, all men valorous for Christ and full 
 of good deeds to their fellow men, in this great age, 
 are becoming visible, and must love each other, and 
 the vast stream of effort which christianizes a conti- 
 
MATTIIIAS nRUE\. 207 
 
 ncnt, may hereafter stand in tlio stead of a Confession 
 ofFailh. 
 
 The apocryphal controversy is exciting great at- 
 tention here, not merely as threatening the greatest 
 monument of living Christianity, the Bible Society, hut 
 because we have ourselves a most deep stake in the 
 question. The American B. S. circulates all its 
 Spanish biblesVith the apocrypha ; it is said they will 
 not be otherwise received. The opening in South 
 America is for millions upon millions of the word of 
 life; and the mind of an angel, if he Iiad not divine 
 knowledge, might tremble when lie decided whether 
 millions should have the bible with Bell and the Dragon, 
 and let the sword of the spirit kill the heresy ; or tens 
 have our authentic copy. Yet I incline pretty 
 strongly to the Scottish view of the subject. We 
 have received the circular of the B. and F. B. S. and 
 shall soon note our opinion. Surely in so great a 
 question God will not pei'mit his servants to unite 
 deliberately in a wrong opinion. The final issue in . 
 London we shall regard with the deepest interest." 
 
 New York, June 7th, 1828. 
 " Our church has been opened amid such middling 
 success as may just encourage and not elate. Per- 
 severance and prayer and the divine blessing may 
 fill it ; but for some time as hitherto, I must be content 
 with a little audience. We have begun to build a 
 dwelhng house next to the church, and if we do not 
 2c 
 
'^08 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 ilic, wc shall Ixjgin to live in a few years. '' Say not 
 it is thy rest." 
 
 * * Our May meetings were full of inter- 
 est. The American Home Missionary Society was 
 formed amid happy omens of success. The Jews' 
 society has undergone a radical reform, in which I 
 have been forced to be active, and run right counter 
 to some, I know not whether to call them friends or 
 acquaintances. I have got a good deal of odium in 
 a certain quarter, and the approbation of my own 
 conscience. Wo must now make it a missionary 
 society to the Jew^s- To complete the reform I have 
 been forced to accept the office of secretary of the 
 Jews' society this year.* * * We want men 
 for our great societies. We are learning to act 
 liberally upon the plan Douglas of Cavers suggests, 
 to pay agents. But it is a slow business to teach our 
 common religious people ; and then living in cities is 
 so dear as to make large salaries requisite for officers 
 in cities, which hurts collections in the country. But 
 we must come to this. We must have the best men 
 in the land in the bible and missionary societies, and 
 pay them accordingly. If my heart did not sigh 
 after the pastoral office, I would take some such 
 place as watchman upon the walls. * * * 
 Above all things these societies must be economical- 
 ly managed. 
 
 * The report this year of the Jews' Society, was written by Mr B. In the 
 same month he resigned the office of 8cere(ary, as he saw no probability of being 
 able to accomplish his object 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 2{){) 
 
 Mr 13r Lien's attention seems first to have Ixx^n at- 
 tracted to the management of the Jewish society 
 some time previous to this date, when he wrote of the 
 danger of exciting Jewish cupidity by providing too 
 comfortable an asylum for converted Jews ; and also 
 of the operosc and costly method of drawing conver- 
 ted Jews from Poland and Germany, where they 
 might have constant opportunities of preaching to 
 their brethren, to congregate them on the American 
 shores. It is likely that an asylum for converted 
 Jews may be absolutely necessary in some despotic 
 countries, where their brethren, whose faith they 
 have outraged by forsaking it, may find multiform 
 methods of afflicting and tormenting them. But it 
 is not easy to see how the plan of hiring a farm 
 in America to form a Jewish settlement, originated, 
 unless it were with some premature interpreters of 
 prophecy, who having settled it that America is 
 " the land shadowing with wings" which is to restore 
 the people to their own land, set about fulfilling 
 their own interpretation, by drawing many Jews 
 across the Atlantic, previous to emigration <?/? masse 
 in American vessels to Palestine. The work of 
 conversion is not in general promoted by forced 
 and unnatural measures. Jesus did not go out of 
 his way to the city Sichar, though he had many 
 souls there. He went because his road lay through 
 Samaria. Let the gospel be preached to Jews, 
 as to heathens at their homes, and if after their 
 
210 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 conversion, circumstances constrain their removal, 
 they will find providence opening their way. The 
 varieties of opinion, the divisions and subdivisions 
 of those who have wished to promote Christianity 
 among the Jews, partake mournfully of that con- 
 fusion of counsels which prevailed, when there w^ere 
 three High Priests in Jerusalem. Efforts to do them 
 good remind us continually of that judicial sentence 
 which is still in its course of infliction. Not only has 
 " blindness happened to Israel," so that they cannot 
 see Jesus whom they persecuted and slew, to be the 
 Messiah ; but the counsels also of those who would 
 enlighten them are confounded, so that not knowing 
 how to obtain access to the Jews, they fall into con- 
 fusion and variance among themselves, expend zeal, 
 and energy, and money in vain, and sit down disap- 
 pointed. Yet how honorable the motives, how inter- 
 esting the exertions of those who continue to hope 
 and to pray for the restoration of Israel. All who 
 contemplate, believing the wonderful history of the 
 Redeemer, must feel a brother's interest in that fami- 
 ly of the world of which Christ came. And when at 
 last the glorious hour arrives, unknown to man, but 
 surely on its w^ay, when " thousands shall be born in 
 a day," when " the ransomed of the Lord shall return 
 with songs to Zion, happy they who shall be engaged 
 in the work, and be the earthly instruments of accom- 
 plishing such heavenly mercy. In the mean time, 
 blessed are they who would promote the great restor- 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 2il 
 
 ation if they might, and who have had faith and pa- 
 tience to toil on through many disappointments, look- 
 ing to the fulfilment of God's word as their only in- 
 centive, and to the promotion of His glory as their 
 rich reward. 
 
 Those divisions which a few years ago were more 
 obvious among the friends of Israel than among other 
 christian societies, have now alas ! extended and 
 broken out with bitterness in other religious associa- 
 tions in Europe. We see all the machinery provided 
 at great expense for producing a mighty eflcct; but 
 the eflect fails to be produced. The stout ship is 
 built, she is rigged, she is manned, her ensigns wave 
 against the sky ; but her timbers want the bonds of 
 christian love, her sails are not inflated by the spirit 
 of prayer. An extract from a very recent pamphlet 
 by the same Douglas whose work on the advance- 
 ment of society, is so often and so respectfully referred 
 to by Mr Bruen, is so w^cighty and so true on this 
 subject, that it cannot seem out of place. 
 
 " But now, not only has no considerable progress 
 been made in the great work, than are apparent the 
 usual marks of decay. The enemy has been success- 
 ful in his w^onted device of stirring up strife between 
 those who were once considered as eminent fellow 
 labourers, workers together with God for the salva- 
 tion of the world. Disputes as to the measures for 
 spreading religion, have, as is usual in the course of 
 things from bad to worse, been fulluwod by disputes 
 
218 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 relating to the doctrines of religion; and in the midst 
 of strife and contention, the spirit of hoHness and 
 peace, it is to be feared, is less felt and listened to, 
 and is preparing to withdraw, in some degree, at 
 least, his reviving influence. 
 
 "Such at least has been the history of many past 
 times of refreshing from on high. The work of love 
 and mercy has been terminated by the unholy stri- 
 vings and emulations, by the partizanship and divisions 
 of former ages. And what is deserving of much con- 
 sideration, these revivals of religion have often gone 
 before the destruction of the nations in which they 
 took place. Thus the revivals in the times of Heze- 
 kiah and Josiah preceded the Babylonish captivity; and 
 the pouring out of the spirit in the days of the Apos- 
 tles, was the precursor of the long desolation of Judea. 
 Thus the angels restrain the winds till the elect are 
 gathered in, and thus nations become fitted for judg- 
 ment by the gospel being faithfully preached ; those 
 who receive it being gathered into the ark of mercy, 
 and those who reject the offer of salvation being ripe 
 for the immediate punishment. 
 
 " Every thing at the present moment depends upon 
 prayer ; if prayer is restrained, the reviving work of 
 the spirit is restrained also, religion will gradually de- 
 cay, and Britain will follow the fate of the nations that 
 have gone to ruin before it, and which from neglecting 
 their appointed day of repentance, are monuments to 
 all succeeding ages, that God, though long suffering. 
 
MATTHIAS DRUF.N. 2VA 
 
 limits the term of his Ibrbcarancc, sayiiifr, " now is the 
 accepted time, now is the day of salvation." But if 
 prayer be now abundantly poured out before God, 
 that of itself would be a sign and a pledge that this 
 country is not only to be spared, but made a chief in- 
 strument in promoting the divine purposes, and in for- 
 warding the glory of the latter day. It is true that 
 many are the societies now in operation for spreading 
 the gospel ; but small is the result of all their labour 
 and expenditure. This is partly to be ascribed to 
 their measures being ill advised, and imperfectly ar- 
 ranged, but most of all to the influence of the divine 
 spirit not accompanying their efforts. For consider- 
 able success in former times has attended much small- 
 er means ; and these too not directed by any remark- 
 able sagacity. One great reason why small means 
 arc not unfrequently honoured with signal success, 
 while large resources are often wasted away, is this, 
 that in the first case men have no temptation to trust 
 to an arm of flesh ; but in the latter case they often 
 feel confident in the sums of money they amass, and 
 the number of labourers they employ. In the first 
 case the glory is all ascribed to God ; in the second, 
 men are more disposed to share in the honour of what- 
 ever success has been obtained." Thoughts on pray- 
 er at the present time by James Douglas, Es(|. IH.SD — 
 
 p.n. 
 
2^14 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 New York, Jane 30th, 182G. 
 My ever dear Sister, 
 
 " In what crisis of your Hfe this letter may find 
 you, it is fruitless to inquire ; time must teach, if we 
 have time to learn. Our sympathy is unintermitted, 
 and our love for you not seldom presents the image 
 of your trials. This world looks to me now com- 
 posed of altogether different colours, from what it once 
 shewed; and it appears to me nothing could have 
 given it the grave aspect it now wears, but the death 
 of our Mary Lundie. I never can love any thing 
 again with the same kind and degree of affection. 
 Perhaps you too are yet to learn more by the severe 
 pressure of your continued sorrow. "He will not 
 lay upon us more than we are able to bear." I have 
 been recently reading " Howe's blessedness of the 
 Righteous," a volume of exquisite practical divinity. 
 I agree with Robert Hall and Foster, that Howe is 
 the prince of divines. I feel corrected in your last 
 letter in reference to a phrase I used, " the common 
 placos of consolation." Truly nothing is common 
 
MATTHIAS BRUE?f. 215 
 
 place if we fully believe it, and no consolation small 
 or fading which God offers, if we really take it, and 
 how much may we not take ? These wells are full 
 "whosoever will, let him take of the water of life 
 freely. The words which I speak, they are spirit and 
 they arc life." May that life fill your heart." 
 
 New York, July 31st, 1826. 
 
 " Your narrative has affected us as you knew it 
 would. It carries me to that home, to those friends, 
 to the person of that friend, towards whom certainly 
 no continuance of life, and I hope not death will ex- 
 tinguish my tenderness. The angel of Ilis mercy has 
 been with you, who is afflicted in your afflictions. 
 Your deliverance hitherto is no less unheard of 
 than your trial. But it seems impossible that the 
 consequences, of this calamity, for such it is now, 
 whatever be its everlastingly blessed issue, must not 
 be disastrous to your health of body. I trust your 
 soul will prosper. Out of this furnace I pray that you 
 may come the brighter. I look forward to the time, 
 perhaps it is near, when some catastrophe of impor- 
 tance will be sent to visit me, who have with so little 
 profit had many trials since I left your home. 
 
 * * We note with thankfulness to God your 
 
 deliverance amidst the perils of human help. That the 
 
 physicians have added so little to the sufferings of the 
 
 dear child is a singular mercy, and that you should 
 
 have had so many hair-breadth escapes. I fully be- 
 2d 
 
216 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 lieve medicine can do little in most cases. The doc- 
 tors think so, for when they are in trouble, they do 
 not much resort to their own remedies. We should 
 gratefully receive what relief medicines afford, but as 
 to making ourselves more sick that we may be well, it 
 is perhaps as often a tempting of providence, as pur- 
 suing the method God points out for health. I re- 
 member the resolution you fairly expressed about 
 
 your M in the moments of greatest danger, that if 
 
 she were to die, it should be without being tortured at 
 last with blisters, on her head. In health we feel our 
 feebleness, and that we are in the hands of God ; in 
 sickness we must acknowledge this ; and while God 
 permits men to know so little of the real nature of 
 diseases and their remedies, it is foolish to repeat the 
 sin of Asa. It is one of the mercies of God that we 
 may lean upon them for advice and alleviation, but it 
 must be in measure, else we shall find them as a broken 
 reed to pierce our hand. For the most part I think 
 physicians an article of luxury ; I would always have 
 them for myself and my friends, and generally attend 
 literally to their prescriptions ; but here it is superla- 
 tively true "unless the Lord keep the house, the 
 watchman watcheth but in vain." 
 
 The recent pamphlets from Edinburgh are of vast 
 interest to me, and whatever be the merit of Dr An- 
 drew Thomson's, Mr Grey's has much. The whole 
 spirit of it is admirable, and the talent I think very 
 considerable. Among unprejudiced men, it will 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEJf. 217 
 
 pass as of more worth than that of the St George's 
 Doctor, for whom also I have a great regard. But 
 with the author of the letter, I see in all this much of 
 Mr II. That letter writer describes Mr H. exactly 
 as Dr Mason did to me ten years ago. You, who 
 are perhaps more tired of this painful controversy, 
 cannot easily think how much Henry Grey's satisfied 
 and delighted me. The question is of vast moment 
 for our society in reference to Mexico and South 
 America. The B. and F. B. Society seem to have 
 been guided to a most just and truth-loving decision. 
 I am glad to hear of Malan, he will always do good, 
 but he is very fervid in believing in conversions upon 
 slight evidence, as I have had some examples. The 
 impression he is calculated to produce is great. I 
 correspond now regularly with no one on either 
 side of the Atlantic but yourself, so not with him, but 
 I always love and revere him." 
 
 New York, August 23d, 1826. 
 " It becomes me to give you up into the hands of 
 God, trusting that the time of your deliverance from 
 these deep waters is at hand. If you reap a joy pro- 
 portioned to the measure of tears in which you have 
 sown, it will be a joy unspeakable and full of glory. 
 Your trials seem to me altogether too heavy to be 
 borne, and I especially am required to stand still and 
 wait for the salvation of God. We know that his 
 government is the best, and I know that all things 
 
218 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 shall work together for your good. It is often said 
 that we are the creatures of circumstances, and there 
 is much truth in the observation; what need then 
 have we of the doctrine of God's all circumscribing 
 particular providence. That providence which threw 
 us together most strangely, has separated us for the 
 most part, if not for the whole of life ; but the period 
 of our friendship will last as long as my breath, and 
 the effect of our acquaintance upon my character will 
 be as long. What shall be its result upon our im- 
 mortal character, God only knows. We will look 
 to the Lamb, and may be assured that if we belong 
 to Jesus, He has decreed and will cause our perfec- 
 tion. Looking unto Jesus we may confidently hope 
 in the mercy of God unto eternal hfe. If it were 
 only revealed as mercy to us, if the blotting out 
 of our sins appeared only as a deliverance of us 
 from death, we might fear to believe the glad 
 tidings. But when we see the higher reason for 
 the thing, and that unto all principalities and powers 
 in heaven, by the Church, is made known the mani- 
 fold wisdom of God in his method of redemption, 
 our faithless hearts are encouraged — then we see 
 God hath made all things for himself. Not for 
 our sakes, but for thine own great name's sake is 
 our prayer, and we feel a confidence in the gospel 
 that grows up and seems like a pillar of heaven. 
 It combines the deepest view of the enormity of 
 our sins, with the highest contemplation of God's 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 219 
 
 increasing glory in forgiving Ihcm. Such may be 
 some glimpse at our thouglits, if we are saved, and 
 do not, being enlightened, and having a taste for 
 the heavenly gift, fall away, so as never to be renew- 
 ed to repentance. 
 
 It is easy to feel when we are at peace, that 
 God orders our circumstances. But when trials 
 increase, when we are tempted to murmur, to in- 
 dulge ourselves, to throw off our cross — then to feci 
 that God puts us into this strait to try us, to shew us 
 what is in our hearts, is difficult. But you have felt 
 so in this solemn season of suffering. You have pas- 
 sed through, or arc yet in a furnace heated seven 
 times. Oh that it may not shorten your life here as 
 it will certainly, I behove, promote the measure of 
 your life everlasting. Does it not often increase your 
 sense of the temporal responsibility of having chil- 
 dren, that the flesh is heir to so many miseries 1 It 
 is one of the thoughts that most subdues me, and 
 makes me willing that my Mary should so early have 
 been taken to paradise, that she might have lived to 
 suffer as your S — did, or to suffer as you do now\ 
 " Man deviseth his way, God orders his steps." They 
 are delivered from evil who are delivered from this 
 present evil world. 
 
 I feel remarkably w^ell since my visit to Saratoga ; 
 the waters have been of essential service to me. They 
 are probably the most powerful and useful waters in 
 the world. The average number of visitors there was 
 
220 MEMOIRS OP 
 
 said to be twelve hundred, and to show you what an 
 asylum we have here, the Ex-King of Spain sat at 
 the head of one table ; and the Ex-President of the 
 Cortes of Spain at the other. There were many 
 clergymen there ; much to see, learn, forget and de- 
 spise, as well as to improve from. Summer is a 
 time when by the scattering of our congregations for 
 three or four months, our churches usually languish. 
 It has been very much so in Bleecker street. The 
 more on account of my illness. We have increased 
 very little, and great diligence and much labour and 
 prayer will be required to build up our little church. 
 I fear that we are not popular with the poor people 
 around us, and that it is supposed to be too much a 
 church for the rich ; an idea that can only be eradica- 
 ted by visiting, and holding meetings in the houses of 
 the poor. This, as my strength and other duties will 
 permit, I must undertake. I love the duties of my call- 
 ing ; but it is easier to sit down and write a sermon, 
 than to go and talk acceptably, and usefully, to the 
 poor." 
 
 New York, September 30th, 1826. 
 My dearest sister, 
 "At length the consummation we have anticipated is 
 
 arrived — the days of 's mourning are ended, and 
 
 other and tenderer arms than yours bear all that can 
 feel in your late precious charge. Dear and oppress- 
 ed, afflicted and rejoicing sister, the days of ymr 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 221 
 
 mourning are not ended. There will ))e some back 
 currents in the flow of feehng which is now so in uni- 
 son with the truth as it is in Jesus. * * * 
 Beheve m.e that I am far from viewing this aflliction 
 as all penal ; I know, however, that pain does not come 
 without sin. It comforted me when our Mary was 
 taken away, to read in John Howe, that as God never 
 creates for our good pleasure, so he never takes away 
 life for our punishment chiefly, and that it is a very 
 mistaken inference from the fact, of the death of our 
 friends, that our punishment is the chief object. 
 
 The parallelism you speak of in time is one of those 
 coincidences of which I have observed many, wdiich 
 convince me that God ruleth on high. I am as sure 
 of his moral government, a government which has 
 reason and motives for its acts, as I am of the shape 
 of the room I write in. Oh that my deeds were as 
 my convictions. * * * I remember 
 
 a perilous illness about the same age, w^hen all the 
 blindness and obstinacy of sin possessed me; such 
 wilfulness as human nature at every age can exhibit. 
 You first turned my attention to the connection of 
 thought in the passage, " This is not your rest, be- 
 cause it is polluted." She is far away from sin, in a 
 rest that is unchangeable, where associations can 
 never cause evil, where no one can be harmed by 
 those who approach. Are wx, dear sister, to have 
 the inconceivable joy of entering that rest, and know 
 ing that we are both there ?" 
 
222 M3M0IRS OF 
 
 Brighton House, October 4th, 1826. 
 * * * * "I have ceased to hope 
 any thing from the ?iatural effect of afflictions. I 
 see that none but christians get any good from them. 
 They are sometimes the occasion when people begin 
 to think and to seek the Lord, but the great body of 
 afflicted people seem more brutish than the beasts, 
 and many mourn not so long as the beasts for a be- 
 reavement. This may sicken us of the world and of 
 human nature as it is, but christians are assured of the 
 benefit of afflictive providences." 
 
 New York, December 30th, 1826. 
 * * * * " The last Saturday night 
 of the year has come. Our Saturday night engage- 
 ment I feel has been most imperfectly fulfilled on 
 my part. In relation to nothing does my heart so 
 much condemn me as in reference to prayer. My 
 frequently inadequate and earthly attempts at this 
 duty, my abuse of this unspeakable privilege, often 
 fasten on my mind the conviction that I am not 
 in any sense that is saving, within the church of 
 Christ. But there has been, I might almost say an 
 involuntary performance of the engagement, always 
 to desire that you may find in God, your chief, your 
 perfect joy. It seems, to look back, a tract of years 
 since 1817 to 1827, when we count days and years. 
 But how all that space seems little in the acts of his 
 time. It seems but the other day, sometimes, since 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 223 
 
 you tapped at my door in your house to call me to 
 breakfast ; at other times it seems an age. But it is 
 inexplicable to me the time seems always like a cold 
 century since I saw my departed child or sister. * 
 * * * I often hope, and ardently ex- 
 pect to meet you once more in this world, but, if never 
 here, may it be where the body of death enters not, 
 where death is swallowed up of life. * * * 
 I touch upon my avocations for the last sabbath of 
 the year, which are, as usual, two sermons in the 
 church, an extemporaneous sermon in the evening, in 
 the lecture room ; and what is unusual, and what I 
 have never done, and what I refused to do for Mrs 
 
 S in Paris, a private administration of the Lord's 
 
 supper, to a man in the last stage of a consumption, 
 who, we believe, has experienced a saving change 
 within four weeks, and who wishes in these circum- 
 stances to join our church. Our customs are set 
 against such things, but I am little or nothing fettered 
 by the traditions of the Elders. Having a spiritually 
 minded Session who think as I do about the measure 
 of binding power in the usages of the Presbytery. 
 * * I have seen nothing further than what you 
 sent me about the B. and F. Bible Society. My opin- 
 ions are very strong against the Edinburgh; and if 
 forced to condemn in the lump, I think them vastly 
 the most condemnable. I made a good deal of sacri- 
 fice, and being requested gave Mr Henry Grey's 
 
 pamphlet with the others to the Library of the Ame- 
 2e 
 
224 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 rican Bible Society. It has excited here with good 
 judges, great admiration." 
 
 The American Bible Society had fallen into the 
 same error with the British and Foreign, by sending 
 the scriptures with the apocryphal books to Spanish 
 America, and other Roman Catholic countries, whence 
 they knew the word of God would be excluded with- 
 out these spurious writings. Their managers had 
 their attention turned to the subject by the proceed- 
 ings which arose upon it in England, and having 
 heard with much regret of the divisions excited by the 
 discussion, adopted the most judicious measures to 
 prevent a similar result among themselves. They 
 consulted the most judicious men in various parts of 
 the country, most of whom recommended the exclu- 
 sion of the Apocrypha from the Spanish Bible. After 
 this they held a meeting attended by all the board, 
 and many ministers of the gospel besides, of whom 
 Mr Bruen was one, when they came to the following 
 resolution : 
 
 "Almost in the commencement of their distribu- 
 tions, a question has arisen among the friends of the 
 British and F. B. S. as to the lawfulness of circulating 
 the uninspired relic referred to, in connection with 
 the sacred canon. A discussion, long and anxious, 
 has resulted in the resolution of the B. and F. B. S. to 
 distribute henceforth, in all languages, the sacred 
 canon exclusively. This decision has caused your 
 board to inquire also into the propriety, on their part 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEPT. 325 
 
 of distributing the Catholic scriptures. They have 
 discussed and deliberated with deep interest, and with 
 some diversity of views as to the lawfulness of sucli 
 distributions, yet always wdth perfect charity and 
 christian forbearance. They have sought the advice 
 of the wise and prudent, and found likewise among 
 them a diflerence of opinion. To perpetuate that 
 harmony w^hich now so happily prevails among theii 
 auxiliaries, and to prevent an evil which has shaken 
 the mighty society of England as with the heavings 
 of an earthquake, your board have with great unan- 
 imity resolved, " that no book containing the Apocry- 
 pha shall henceforth be issued from your depository." 
 This resolution has in a great measure stopped the 
 circulation of the Bible in the West Indies and >Spanish 
 America. Some wise and good men thought that 
 the Apocrypha had better remain with the express 
 declaration of the American Bible Society annexed, 
 that it was not a part of the inspired word of God. 
 But surely it was most judicious to exclude it alto- 
 gether, for it is better that Spanish America should 
 be without the scriptures for a time than that the 
 American Bible Society should be shaken, and thus 
 many of their own country be shut out from their in- 
 fluence. 
 
226 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The year 1827 is marked especially by a severe 
 visit of sickness to Mr Bruen, and by his grovring 
 animation and zeal in the extension of the christian 
 faith. A remarkable example of this zeal v/as his 
 having projected to forsake all the intellectual enjoy- 
 ments, all the polished amenities, all the christian 
 society of a large city, and to retire into the fast 
 peopling regions of the west. His object was to do 
 what he might to supply that new population with 
 the means of instruction, and save them from pass- 
 ing the important span of life in providing only for 
 the body. This plan, even had his life been pro- 
 longed, would not have been executed, as it was 
 thought more for the edification of the church, that it 
 should not spare a member who united great mental 
 refinement, with extensive and elegant scholarship, for 
 a service which might be better accomplished by less 
 pohshed instruments. But though unexecuted, his pur- 
 pose to make so great a sacrifice will not be forgotten 
 of Him who observed with complacency, that "it 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 227 
 
 was m his servant David's heart" to build Iiim an 
 home."* 
 
 New York, January 30th, 1827. 
 * * * " But I will proceed to the inside — 
 a new occupation this winter has given me much plea- 
 sure and improvement — a class for instruction in the 
 Bible, for both males and females, separately, one in 
 the afternoon, the other in the evening, of each week. 
 I study carefully a chapter or two, with all the help of 
 critics, &c. and question on each verse; and give 
 them leave to question me. I have thus gone on at 
 some length with the harmony of the life of our sa- 
 viour from the four evangelists. I preached a ser- 
 mon in which I told them it was the duty of old and 
 young, of fathers and mothers, to come ; and in pro- 
 portion to our small numbers in the congregation, we 
 have a pretty good attendance, and great interest. I 
 feel my mind daily more independent of systems and 
 commentaries in studying the word of God ; and I joy 
 in my liberty. Old Calvinism, such as Fuller opposes, 
 seems to me to cloud the scriptures sadly, and the glo- 
 ry of redemption, and the holiness of our faith, I mean 
 the real nature of sanctification. I am sure many texts 
 are wanted to support ancient interpretations, whether 
 the doctrines be true or false. So without attending 
 
 * It is regretted that Bonie very interesting letters from Mr B. to Judge 
 Tucker of Missouri, on this subject, could not be obtained. They would show 
 his anxiety to get minute information, that he might be regulated in his decision 
 as to duty in this matter, and they might have stimulated others in so noble an 
 enterprise. Ed. 
 
228 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 much to other things, my first object is to teach my 
 auditors to think what is the scope of the place, what 
 the doctrine taught in this very place. Our Lord's 
 sermon on the mount especially, has opened with much 
 grandeur in this view, considered as a true exposi- 
 tion of the moral law, of the law of Moses, as much 
 upheld in the gospel as at Sinai, offences against which 
 the Redeemer only can remit, and which no person 
 can willingly indulge and be saved. With all this, I 
 am writing a course of systematic theology, which I 
 
 wish Mr could see, for I think he w^ould Hke 
 
 my present opinions, and read them with satisfaction. 
 But my life seems all preparation, as if I truly accom- 
 plished nothing. 
 
 Your anti-slavery efforts have their counterpart in 
 this country ; but our wisest philanthropists are baf- 
 fled in their attempts as yet to benefit the blacks in 
 any considerable degree. For the most part the plan 
 of colonising is pursued. 
 
 Slavery is an evil and a curse entailed on this 
 country, from which none can tell how we are to be 
 freed. The result must soon be some tremendous 
 crisis, for the legislatures of the slave states are ren- 
 dering more severe the laws against the free blacks, 
 and preventing their slaves from becoming fit for free- 
 men, and even depriving them of religious instruction. 
 I see your West India Islands are ready for insurrec- 
 tion on this fearful subject ; but all the world looks 
 with admiration upon the consistent, firm, benevolent 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 229 
 
 progress which your government and pubHc opinion 
 are making towards complete emancipation." 
 
 New York, March 31st, 1827. 
 # * * « 'pi^Q influence of our intercourse 
 in creating just views of myself, the world, and I trust 
 of God and eternity, has been most decided; and I 
 feel it involves one of the most momentous portions 
 of my moral responsibility, and I trust will add for 
 the present to my real usefulness, if I am ever made 
 useful in the cause of the Redeemer. * * * 
 I feel myself growing terribly old, but know not 
 that I am more indolent in constitution My duties 
 take hold of me with an iron hand, and so often 
 that unless I move pretty briskly, I get no middle 
 ground to stand on. I know not which to wonder at 
 most, the happiness or criminality of the times when 
 I could spend days on trifles. 1 almost fear now to 
 plan to read a classic, or even to hunt up theological 
 antiquities; it seems as if the whole of a minister's 
 time ought to be spent in the precise cure of souls. 
 Remembering Mr 's account of Dugald Stew- 
 art's report of Principal Baird's prayer in the Uni- 
 versity Library, the consideration " that the souls of 
 the men who wrote the books that surround me are 
 with God," keeps up the moral conviction that in 
 theology itself, it is possible laboriously to trifle with 
 Grotius, and die in distress, if not an infidel, and with- 
 out the love of Christ. 
 
230 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 "You would be distressed if you knew all I feel 
 about my old sermons ; they could never have done 
 any good, they were not of the kind which God blesses 
 to conversion." 
 
 New York, May 17th, 1827. 
 " The remarks you make about natural ties are 
 beautiful; nor will you so interpret my former ex- 
 pressions as if I dissented from your views. Still the 
 gospel does in a certain sense set father against child, 
 and wife against husband. There will be an obvious 
 diminution of interest in the irreligious toward the re- 
 ligious ; I say not of the religious toward them. My 
 temper is vastly changed since you saw the cynical 
 expression of my countenance. I am sure good is 
 never done in that temper, and that people cannot 
 be driven into good. We must be kind and loving to 
 do good. If I ever had Jierte, I think it is much worn 
 away in the toils and knowledge of the years since 
 we parted. I estimate things better and myself more 
 humbly — I am sure contempt towards a drunkard, or 
 a pig, is no christian sentiment. We are to look at 
 every thing in the world, all things considered and 
 therefore at every ma7i, eternity considered. Do not 
 fear that I shall now be arrogant. * * * 
 
 In the month past God has been pleased to send a 
 special effusion of his spirit to Mr Skinner's church; 
 they are now enjoying a revival of religion. To the 
 first meeting of inquiry, for awakened persons held at 
 
MATTHIAS I3RUEN. 231 
 
 his house, sixty came. Wc truly live in the latter 
 day of miracles of grace. A brother minister preach- 
 ed for me on sabbath afternoon, whose chm'ch has 
 had an addition of three hundred and fifty within a 
 few months, and all after such an examination as you 
 could not well understand, without hearing. Minis- 
 ters who see such things believe strongly in the effi- 
 cacy of prayer, and relate signal answers from God. 
 Usually preceding such an effusion of the Spirit, the 
 church is roused to the duty of united and extraordi- 
 nary prayer. These three hundred and fifty were 
 convicted in a population of two thousand, and such 
 was the impression for a few weeks that God was 
 there, that sinners were prayed for by name as un- 
 converted, and were thankful, instead of being of- 
 fended at being particularised. The most interesting 
 proof given me of the novel state of the church at 
 such a time, is that the minister told me the people 
 seemed to feel that they had but to pray, that preach- 
 ing was important, but inferior to prayer ; and that if 
 it had been announced that Dr Chalmers was to 
 preach in the church on a week day afternoon, and 
 that there was to be a prayer meeting in the court- 
 house at the same hour, and that it was equally right 
 for the people to go to either place, they would have 
 gone to the place of prayer, in preference. Oh my 
 dear sister, that my affections kept pace with my in- 
 tellect in this subject of everlasting interest ; so fully, 
 
 so clearly do I believe that this work is of God. God 
 2 V 
 
232 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 is ready to work any where, when his people are 
 ready for the reception of His Spirit, and if truly pre- 
 pared, we need but to ask to receive. True prayer 
 is always successful. 
 
 We have some precious christians in our little 
 church. The poor minister sometimes thinks he may 
 yet be useful, but the worm at the root is the leanness 
 of my closet duties. There are times when hours of 
 meditation here, seem not to make one breath of true 
 prayer. Pray for me dear sister, that I and this por- 
 tion of God's heritage may be watered. How little 
 time does it take for God to work ! How quick, how 
 admirable the transformation. A decided change of 
 taste, of associates, of friends and studies comes in a 
 day. Your account of dear , is delightful ; ad- 
 vise her not to delay too long her pubHc profession 
 if you think she is prepared for it. Young converts 
 learn when kept too long back, to be comfortable 
 without the entire dedication God demands. She is 
 quite old enough. Though not often, we sometimes 
 admit them, when in favourable circumstances, from 
 ten upwards. 
 
 Our Maij anniversaries, have been more interesting 
 than usual, less mere speech making, more pious 
 business spirit. Have you received the first Report 
 of the American Tract Society ? That and the pres- 
 ent report are precious examples, as few reports are, 
 of what an institution of Christ ought to be. I have 
 had a painful agency here in endeavouring with oth- 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 233 
 
 ers to reform the Jews' society, which is in complete 
 confusion." 
 
 New Haven, September 1st, 1827. 
 My ever dear sister, 
 
 " The long interval of my silence has been near 
 being prolonged into eternity ; and you will bless God, 
 as I endeavour to do, that I can once more write, 
 when you know how near to all appearance I have 
 recently, been, to the gates of death. The imme- 
 diate cause of this illness, was my ascending the rail- 
 way and visiting the Lehigh coal mines, when I took 
 cold ; and in descending with the rapidity at which 
 the loaded wagons run, at the rate of twenty miles 
 an hour in some parts, all the bile in my system was 
 moved. These mines, and this rail-way arc among 
 our greatest natural and artificial curiosities, — but 
 more of them another time. Nothing could have 
 reconciled me to these circumstances, and given me 
 a tolerable answer to the question " What dost thou 
 here ? " but the fact that Mary's health required the 
 journey. 
 
 For years I have been very bilious, which has 
 much impeded my studies and labours ; and if I had 
 been at home it might have been simple bilious fever, 
 and have carried me off. An Episcopal clergyman, 
 a friend of mine, who has succeeded in gathering a 
 church very near ours, who was one mile from me, 
 apparently in perfect health, came home to die sud- 
 denly of this disorder, while I was carried through 
 
234 MEMOIRS OP F " - i 
 
 other dangers and brought hither safely. While at 
 Cherryville, seventy or eighty miles west from Phila- 
 delphia, I was seized with a very severe attack of 
 pleurisy, accompanied with bilious fever, such as 
 made my case doubtful for some days. I fell into the 
 hands of a quack doctor, eminent in his line, being 
 out of the range of my knowledge of persons, and 
 sending for the nearest physician, and was only in- 
 strumentally delivered from death by the intervention 
 of a better one. You may conceive the situation of 
 my dear Mary, at such a distance from every friend 
 save one. When my disorder was running fast to its 
 worst, a kind providence sent to the Inn where I was 
 taken ill, a gentleman and his wife from Easton, a town 
 on the Delaware, twenty miles from us ; who being 
 in the next room to me during the worst night that 
 I passed, inquired after me in the morning. When 
 Mary, overcome with their tokens of sympathy, said 
 that I was exceedingly ill, and that we had no con- 
 fidence in the physician, they proposed to send one of 
 eminence from Easton, to which we gladly acceded. 
 He arrived late in that day, changed the whole course 
 of my treatment, and unquestionably saved my life. 
 I had had a very severe attack of pleurisy in 1812, 
 which left me strongly inclined to consumption for the 
 four years I studied with Dr Mason, and from which 
 I never recovered until I went to Europe. This 
 attack had something different in its form, but I knew 
 it is a disorder, that soon finds or makes an end. — 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEY. 235 
 
 I knew myself to be very ill, but did not at any 
 moment think that I was yet to die. I felt how 
 exceedingly this chastisement was deserved, and 
 could almost rejoice in it, in the hope that it would 
 benefit my soul and my ministry. For the first time 
 in my life, I was patient and submissive, which I 
 took as an omen for good, and thanked God for. But 
 I have exceedingly failed to realize in my getting 
 well, the good I expected, so much does sin dwell 
 in me. 
 
 Concerning my medical treatment, I conceive I 
 owe my life, after bleeding, to two usually accounted 
 incongruous articles, calomel and cold water, of which 
 last, in the height of my fever, and notwithstanding 
 the calomel, Dr Swift allowed me to drink freely. 
 Some of our physicians are adopting a sensible theory, 
 that whatever a patient intensely desires in dangerous 
 sickness, is likely to be a remedy which nature instinc- 
 tively points out. There is nothing fever points to 
 more ardently than cold nater. «= * * 
 
 You see I am writing much about the carcase, so I 
 will only add, that I hope now to be bodily better than 
 for a long time, and am to preach the next sabbath, 
 once in my own pulpit in New York, and afterwards 
 hope to resume my ordinary labours, which however, 
 cannot be over abundant before I get free from all re- 
 mains of pain in the side. As to the soul, the thought 
 of how much I needed such a trial was the prevaihng 
 one. Beyond my own situation and character in God's 
 
236 MEMOIRS OP 
 
 sight, the reflection of Christ's having chosen to ren- 
 der himself capable of sickness next most affected me. 
 We suffer when we must. He chose to suffer, and 
 made himself an offering for sin. Oh for this love ! — 
 The son of God, the son of man, thus showing what 
 sin deserves, ought to control all hearts. A further 
 rather imaginative reflection often passed through my 
 mind. Here for six thousand years, God carries on a 
 world in which sickness abundantly reigns. Does he 
 not thus show to the holy angels, who only can know 
 of sin as a metaphysical idea, what is its evil, since 
 they see matter thus the means of torturing the soul 
 that has sinned, for they could not understand the af- 
 fliction of a mental character which sin produces, ha- 
 ving never experienced the gnawings of conscience. 
 
 You would be pleased could you see the testimonies 
 of deep and earnest christian love which my danger 
 has drawn forth from my little flock ; and certainly my 
 heart ought to be warmer towards all the world, since 
 so much undeserved kindness is heaped upon me. — 
 Many true prayers are offered that our vineyard may 
 be blessed of Him who giveth the increase." 
 
 New York, September 30th, 1827. 
 " This year has been unparalleled in the history of 
 our church for revivals of religion ; I mean the eccle- 
 siastical year from May to May. Our hopes are ar- 
 dent that this work may extend to the cities. It has 
 hitherto, for the most part, been confined to villages, 
 with the exception of Boston : but we trust the Lord is 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 237 
 
 preparing his way here. Many pray for it. Upon 
 this subject, I suppose it is difficult to have accurate 
 ideas, unless one were present at such a work of God. 
 For that it is a work of God seems manifest from the 
 single argument that the church is very often so visit- 
 ed when no extraordinary means are used by the 
 minister; and when every external cause apparently 
 remains as it existed for months or years, and yet tens 
 and twenties suddenly inquire what they must do to 
 be saved. In our httle community we are without 
 this token of God's mercy which we pray for ; but not 
 in such a temper of heart as makes us fit recipients 
 of the grace. These revivals furnish ministers for 
 our churches, missionaries for our Home and Foreign 
 operations, and keep alive a flame of piety, which was 
 rare fifty years ago. 
 
 I have just seen Mr King, who has returned from 
 Palestine. He is full of interesting anecdote, and will 
 add much inspiration to the general zeal for foreign 
 missions. Indeed our efforts (I speak of America) 
 have been wonderfully blest. I think you will agree 
 with me in judging Mr King better fitted than any 
 missionary for the field which he has explored. I 
 know not whether it will be right to retain at home, 
 a man thus qualified ; and yet he will here give an 
 impulse to every thing, and may be the head of an 
 important missionary college, to prepare our own 
 countrymen to go abroad, and also to receive in- 
 struction, and send back again Greeks and Jews to 
 the land of Paul and Peter." 
 
238 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 " I have omitted to say long since, how much your 
 curious bit of information about Clarkson's discover- 
 ing a slave ship in Liverpool, interested me. On the 
 last fourth of July slavery ceased in the state of New 
 York. My feelings have grown up to the size of 
 yours upon this subject, and if we were now to talk 
 about it, you would not find me so careless as .want 
 of reflection and the habit of seeing it made me when 
 we were together. It is an evil of unparalleled enor- 
 mity. Your efforts in England are doing good. But 
 you are not all good, not all unanimous. I see the 
 Glasgow Courier sometimes, which has the hardi- 
 hood to espouse and defend the cause of slavery ; and 
 in a very late paper, traces Mr Canning's death, 
 among other causes, to the thousands of useless pages 
 that have gone to the West Indies from the colonial 
 department upon that subject. * * # 
 
 You have, I believe, more than once found fault 
 with my ideas of heaven, which are too abstracted 
 and indefinite for you. You humanize a little too 
 much that whole subject for me. God grant that we 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 239 
 
 may both know which is riglit. The idea of seeing 
 God, and of being with Christ is so absorbing, and 
 with our earthly attachments so much of sin is min- 
 gled, and such recollections, that in the want of some 
 very distinct declaration in scripture, that we are fully 
 to renew an acquaintance there, I have rather yielded 
 the whole subject as one to be investigated only by ex- 
 periment. I am not sure but this is quite wrong, and 
 that more may be revealed at least by fair inference 
 than I suppose, and the condition of another world 
 less unlike the present, than most think. Our soul 
 offers a distinct image of God's being. Earth may 
 be as near an image of heaven. But how near are 
 we to the experience of the reality, or the experience 
 of the loss. Abstractedness from the world has al- 
 ways appeared to me to be one chief preparative for 
 heaven, and the disquisition about how much of our 
 friends we shall know there, to savour much of linger- 
 ing earthliness. However I do not judge that we 
 shall love our earthly friends less in proportion to our 
 spirituality of mind, but more; and so long as we have 
 identity we shall have memory, and if we know Abra- 
 ham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, 
 we may know our brothers and sisters also. I 
 can see the practical use of such distinct impressions 
 as you carry. If we held all our associations in this 
 world under the continual feeling that they were form- 
 ing our associations for the next, christians would 
 rapidly fit each other and themselves for the highest 
 seats. 2 G 
 
240 MEMOIRS OP 
 
 Since our removal into this neighbourhood, the scene 
 of the first year of our marriage, we have been deep- 
 ly reminded of our first born, wdth the thought of 
 whom the heavenly state is naturally connected. We 
 are nov\^ where we ought to prepare for heaven, for 
 we have almost all the earthly facilities for usefulness, 
 and all that make up a terrible amount of responsibili- 
 ty. * * * Now only a filled, instead of a 
 half filled church is required, and a minister eminent- 
 ly, zealously, laboriously useful. I feel as if just get- 
 ing ready to work. Alas that I should be so long in 
 putting on the harness. Ah! what will be the account 
 when it is put off. 
 
 I have been a good deal occupied here in the plan 
 of a French Protestant Church in New Orleans. The 
 Rev M. De Fernex, who brought letters from Mark 
 Wilks and young M. Monod, being disappointed of a 
 settlement here, went to New Orleans last winter, has 
 collected quite a numerous congregation, and they 
 are now about erecting an edfice for pubhc worship, 
 for which our aid is asked. Indeed we equal or ex- 
 ceed London and Edinburgh, in the frequency and 
 magnitude of these apphcations. A young man went 
 to England and Scotland a year and a half ago, beg- 
 ing for money to build a mariner's church in New Or- 
 leans. The result of which was that he saw Chalmers 
 and Robert Hall, and had his expenses paid out of his 
 collections, and returned. I wish there were a law 
 against permitting such vagrancies — But this is a most 
 
MATTHIAS I3RUE1V. 241 
 
 deserving applicant, and not certainly to you but to us. 
 The state of Louisiana contains 70,000 inhabitants, one 
 half French, and not one French protestant church. 
 Your imagination can scarcely stretch to the reality, 
 of the imporlance of our home missions of which my 
 reports have explained to you the method. That 
 society has grown wonderfully since I last wrote about 
 it, being now the American Home Missionary So- 
 ciety. My successor in the office of secretary, the 
 Rev Mr Peters was most happily selected." 
 
 Were it not that the following extract conveys 
 one of the truest })icturcs of Mr Brucn's affectionate 
 sympathy, and gives some hues to the cliaracter 
 which none other of his letters so completely re- 
 veals, many private feelings would have dictated its 
 suppression. 
 
 New York, November 7th, 1827. 
 
 " Your letter of the 11th September has come to 
 tell me of the consummation of the 26tli of August. 
 I did not believe it so near. I thought my dear ma- 
 ternal friend might linger into the w^intcr at least. — 
 Your letter has impressed the scene of her dying very 
 powerfully, upon me. I shall never more in this life 
 see her in whose countenance quietness and love 
 were so singularly united with strong sense and 
 activity. Your dear mother's admirable qualities I 
 have often reflected on, and I am sure the measure 
 of the bereavement it will take years to tell. On all 
 this subject it seems vain for me to write. You know 
 
242 MEMOIRS OP 
 
 what I would say. Death itself effects me very much 
 as you describe of yourself, and it may be a bad state 
 of feeling. It is wrong, when God's coming so 
 near us turns us into stone : when we rather stand 
 and wait to see what will be next than intelligently, 
 lovingly rejoice in his government, his ways, and his 
 
 promises. My thoughts pass rapidly from K to 
 
 M and again to K and have been full of your 
 
 self-sacrificing discreet, affectionate mother. We 
 have more reason to rejoice than to sorrow. But 
 oh, what a change is that which takes a conscious 
 being from our society to God's — Who could bear 
 the thought of any friends' going there but for the be- 
 lief that Jesus will make perfect the spirits of the 
 just. We, most dear friend, draw hard on to that 
 world. Are we prepared? — Am I? — Your dear 
 mother's late soul exercises are indeed very decided, 
 and show that He who holds the keys was preparing 
 her to enter safely. I wish I could be with you 
 now, if it were only for a Uttle season. I do indeed 
 know where she lies, — how near the wall I passed 
 over to see your father's burial place, on that day 
 of mingled sunshine and snow which I can never 
 forget. Her little keepsakes here, shall always be 
 among my rehcs. But this is vain; her most pre- 
 cious relic is such a death, and the temper she shew- 
 ed of patience, discretion, and love before it came. 
 I rejoice that you were enabled to watch her to the 
 end. * * # * 
 
MATTHIAS BRURy. 243 
 
 It is affecting that in your last letter to mc 
 in her life time, she should have said nothing of 
 remembrance. Truly she loved me w^ith a moth- 
 er's kindness. For years I have thought of her love 
 in unspeakable associations. You will my dear sister 
 find this one tie to life now broken, to have had a 
 force which only its rupture could disclose. "We 
 can have but one mother," yet, if more troubles 
 await you, you will be happier to meet them alone. 
 My heart thanks you over and over again for all that 
 you tell me, and longs for every thing more which 
 you can write." 
 
 The multitude of Mr Bruen's avocations, and the 
 mass of writing which he was obliged to accompHsh, 
 did not prevent him from writing a very long narra- 
 tive of the death-bed experience of the Rev Dr Pay- 
 son, of Portland, which was printed in one Scottish, 
 and one English Magazine. As a life of Dr P. has 
 since been published, we only extract the faithful sen- 
 tences with which he concludes the account. 
 
 " Thus you have what will convey strong emotion 
 to your heart, and edify and comfort you, I rejoice to 
 believe dear sister. As it corrects and reproves, may 
 it quicken and bless you. Oh what an example in 
 life, in death, as a minister, and as a saint ! How 
 can this world continue to look so big to us, in the 
 view of such death-scenes, and God seem distant when 
 he is so nigh?" 
 
S44 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 <*Last Sabbath was the anniversary of my ordina- 
 tion at Homerton, nine years past. Ministerial Hfe 
 most unprofitable — I seem just entering upon duty, 
 and so we are often beginning till we die. Truly I 
 deserve to be instantly removed from the vineyard 
 as barren. May I now at last become faithful, re- 
 ceiving mercy of the Lord. I leave you in his hands 
 who is I hope always near you now in your experi- 
 ence. Your loving sister and friend, my dear wife, 
 joins in deep sympathy and kindest wishes." 
 
 New York, Dec. 31st, 1827. 
 "The last day of the year happens most oppor- 
 tunely for my writing, to be on a Monday, the day 
 in which I endeavour to think myself, in a certain 
 measure, free from the close bonds of pastoral duty, 
 which so often cross the path of friendship and taste. 
 The last of the year! are we to live to the anniversary 
 in 1828 of our most intimate acquaintance. Eleven 
 eventful years! how soon past! The death of your 
 mother marks this year for you. My dangerous 
 illness is its most solemn monition for me directly, 
 although also many and near deaths tell me the time 
 is short. I think I feel this daily more, and hope J 
 am more willing than I have ever been, to spend my 
 speck of time before eternity, any where, where I can 
 be most useful. I have now in this spot all that heart 
 can wish. A domicile entirely to my mind, dear 
 neighbours and friends, a young church just sprouting, 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 245 
 
 a growing influence in the church and in the city. 
 And yet I am not sure that all these ought not soon 
 to be left by me, to go to our westernmost settlements, 
 to raise up there the Lord's standard. Some two or 
 three years may open this path to Illinois. I think 
 my wife, as well as myself, would feel the sacrifice as 
 much as any body, and could make it. If it were 
 determined on, and we make up a colony here, it will 
 be of first rate men, who will go in a band and in- 
 fluence millions, the spirit of the Lord helping towards 
 pure religion. The age is inexpressibly animating, 
 and I think our States will feel its full power. Since 
 the five and twenty thousand pounds which were sub- 
 scribed in one night here for foreign missions, the 
 whole country is inspirited, and rivals our exertions. 
 All that was done, chiefly in consequence of Jonas 
 King's statement of the wants of Palestine, and for 
 the purpose of sending missionaries thither. Our 
 hearts bled often for Greece. There was prayer 
 made for the people on the tombs of the seven 
 churches of Asia, and behold! five days after, the 
 great battle of Navarino, for which we " thank God 
 and take courage." Surely no execution of any 
 murderers was ever such a comfort to Jiumanity 
 as that exterminating battle. I felt it from the 
 crown of my head to the sole of my foot. We 
 are all exhilarated and the very rulers of Wash- 
 ington, who have kept our fleet floating in the 
 Mediterranean, which mi^^jht have done all this 
 
246 MEMOIRS OP 
 
 years ago, can't help rejoicing. No war would have 
 been so popular last year, indeed for three years 
 past. As it is we all say, well we will send mission- 
 aries there, and it may be the purpose of God to keep 
 us out of the scene of blood, andwhy should we desire to 
 be God's peace officers or executioners, if we may be 
 his preachers? It may be that this people have been 
 kept from the bloodshed of Europe, to be his minis- 
 ters for good to the ends of the earth. Still, if we 
 had your admiral Codrington here in our park, I 
 should not trust myself for not shouting huzza with 
 our thousands. However, I would rather sing hymns 
 to God. I want to shake you up, dear sister, and ask 
 you if you know it is the grandest civil event of the 
 century. We may live to see the false prophet cast into 
 the lake of fire, and^the Euphrates dried up and the way 
 of the kings of the East prepared. Mr. King tells me 
 it is about the 1242d, year of the Mahometan Hegira, 
 and that it seems pretty apparent that the beast and 
 the false prophet are to exist 1260 years, as the years 
 of the Musselmans are human. Something more than 
 twenty years more must be calculated for the dura- 
 tion of that empire ; but I hope it is to be much sooner 
 exterminated. I do not belong to Edward Irving's 
 prophet's Society, but I believe in the divine inspira- 
 tion of the Revelation, and that we touch upon its 
 last age. 
 
 How Canning would have triumphed had he lived 
 to see this day! Poor man! what is all this to him in 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEX. 347 
 
 eternity, an eternity he was probably unprepared for. 
 I have listened to Mr G — 's conversation concerning 
 him with deep interest. He says no event out of the 
 circle of his own relationship ever struck him more 
 than Mr Canning's death. Fourteen days before, Mr 
 G — spent six hours with him, two before dinner, 
 all in talking about political affairs, and much of Mr 
 Canning's own situation amid conflicting parties. 
 Mr G — told him he could never live amid so much 
 business. To be secretary for foreign affairs in fact. 
 First lord of the treasury in fact and name, and not 
 only prime minister but sole minister. Mr Canning 
 explained that lord Dudley only took the place of 
 secretary for foreign affairs to oblige him, and pro 
 tempore. But that he had been induced to come out 
 of that office, with all the details of which he was ac- 
 quainted, and to take the treasury, by having received 
 a letter from an ancient friend of Mr Fox, who told 
 him that Mr Fox always regretted he had not taken 
 that, as there lies the patronage. And, said Mr Can- 
 ning, although I might have put a friend there, it is 
 very different my asking a favour, or a favour being 
 asked of me; and I am determined, said he, moving 
 his hand with a most emphatic gesture of ambition, 
 to hold the reins while I live. He lived fourteen 
 days! — He told Mr G — he had not been free from 
 great pain since the Duke of York's funeral, when 
 they kept him in the cold damp vault two hours— nor 
 
248 MEMOIRS or 
 
 slept a whole night since Lord Liverpool's illness. 
 Such is worldly honour, and the best thing the 
 world's possession does for us !" 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN 249 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 New York, March 15th, 1828. 
 
 * * * * "You are right. It must be a'consider- 
 able element in the happiness or misery of the future 
 state, that we shall know of our good or ill use of our 
 acquaintance here. Two sinners together forgiven, 
 washed, sanctified and justified, may, more perfectly 
 than all others, understand the height and depth of 
 the mercy they experience. 
 
 I confirm your view, that ministers are the measure 
 of the church's growth in piety. We have here some 
 examples of excellence, I think unrivalled. 
 
 News of Dr Kennedy's* death had not reached me. 
 None but God can repair the loss. My interest in 
 Greece grows daily. We are endeavouring to send 
 a few ship loads of provisions and clothing, and I am 
 to preach a sermon and have a collection for this ob- 
 ject next Sabbath evening. I was told that more than 
 
 * A Scots physician, who was intelligently and actively useful in the Ionian 
 Islands. The same whose conversations on religion with Lord Byron, have been 
 published by his widow. 
 
250 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 a thousand pounds sterling worth of goods was col- 
 lected in one street of the city among the merchants 
 for this, the other day. Dr How who has returned 
 from the distribution of our cargo, by his reports, 
 creates the sympathy which an eye witness only 
 can cause. Their sufferings are indescribable, and 
 if the devil has ever been incarnate it is in a Turk, — 
 however renegade Americans, Englishmen or Aus- 
 trians may say the Greeks are as bad as the Turks. 
 Shame to the Christian tongue *hat will repeat it. 
 The Reports of our missionaries thence have great 
 weight, and since Congress will do nothing, without 
 meddling in the warfare, I think we shall help a 
 multitude of the women and children, driven out to 
 live under the olive trees, with their noses cut off. 
 Greece is to be free, in spite of " the ancient ally" of 
 her tyrant, as your king of England styled Turkey in 
 his speech to parHament received to-day. The fact is, 
 there is an esprit de corps among kings which incHnes 
 them to support each other, whether they agree or 
 differ in policy or religion. When God made a govern- 
 ment it was a republic, and it was to break his statutes 
 to ask a king. I am sure we have the system which can 
 stand up to the mellenium ; and I doubt whether another 
 will. This whole country would have gone to war with 
 acclamations, for Greece, if a few had not stood out 
 against it, and I know not whether to be sorry or glad, 
 but I hope we shall act with true charity, and that the 
 American press at Malta, and American missionaries 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 251 
 
 will add spiritual charity. Jonas King told me that 
 in towns where I had heard that he would be as- 
 sassinated by the Priests if he opened his mouth, he 
 preached fearlessly, and w^as heard kindly, because he 
 was an American. "Ah you come from a free 
 country," would they say, " yours is a republic," and 
 think the better of a man's religion who had breathed 
 
 our air. says, many of our merchants, traders, 
 
 and your consul at Smyrna, hate the Greeks, for the 
 most selfish reasons, and it is part of their special 
 business to calumniate them by the foulest slanders. 
 If the Greeks are bad, who made them so? and who 
 is better, a Turk with the Koran who lives up to it, or 
 a Greek with the New Testament which hourly re- 
 proves his lies? May a merciful God cut short their 
 miseries!" 
 
 New York, March 31st, 1828. 
 " You did right to print what I wrote about Dr 
 Payson, and in revenge, I have just copied for the 
 press, what you say about it and Dr Waugh. The 
 first time I have dared, what I have often desired to 
 do, given many hearts the benefit of what has spoken 
 to my own. Good, dear Dr Waugh is gone to see God. 
 He prayed over my head at my ordination as if in- 
 spired; and how little have I answered those prayers 
 and ardent hopes, with correspondent exertions, to 
 make it consistent in our holy gracious Lord to 
 
252 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 answer them with abundant blessings! But my life 
 is one scene of failures. 
 
 The Illinois plan does not meet the commendation 
 of those best acquainted with the wants to be supplied. 
 A correspondence with one of the first men in Mis- 
 souri, a statesman and a lawyer, as well as a Christian, 
 describes such a scheme as mine altogether in advance 
 of the country. * * * You need not, therefore, 
 fear that I shall take the first wind that blows from 
 you, to blow me further west. Some great and use- 
 ful things might be and must be done. * * My review 
 entitled Unitarianism at Geneva, is useful. I shall send 
 it to you, with one just finished of Douglas of Cavers' 
 book, on the Advancement of Society. * * * Was 
 there ever any thing better and more like the friend- 
 ship of this world, than Hunt's dissection of Byron? a 
 base, and useful office; I got some excellent hints 
 from it." 
 
 New York, April 14th, 1828. 
 My dear sister, 
 
 " The day of the month draws on, the anniversary 
 of our parting. The fleeting years when we were to- 
 gether seem sometimes like a century and sometimes 
 like a day. We only know the past and the present; may 
 we be sufficiently grateful for the privilege of commit- 
 ting the future to our Almighty Friend, and Father, and 
 Redeemer. How do earthly attachments sink in the 
 view of Him! How ought He to be all in all, and all 
 
MATTHIAS RRUEN. 253 
 
 attachments used to promote our deeper interest in 
 His glory. Oh! that the consideration of all things, 
 even of my sins also, could be swallowed up in that 
 bright view which the gospel gives of the Redeemer, 
 mighty to save. Every time we think upon it, we 
 must see the more weight in the reflection, that the 
 name the saints appropriate for God, is God all-suffi- 
 cient. God himself is all and in all. On the contrary, 
 how apt are we to look at God only in His immediate 
 tangible benefits, in the gift of some friend, in some 
 present fortune, in health or w^orldly deliverance, or 
 in forgiving our sins, but rise not to Himself with 
 adoring love. * * * Your comment on Dr Pay- 
 son's death is true. We do shut out ourselves from 
 the joys he experienced." 
 
 After a heartfelt description of a member of his 
 church, which delicacy forbids us to insert, Mr Bruen 
 continues : — 
 
 "Would that I could tell you of an hundred such. 
 I believe my letters have not enough entered into 
 such particulars. My ministry is comparatively Httle 
 blest in the conversion of sinners, but I humbly hope 
 some of our christians grow. One lesson, at least, 
 they all learn daily, that if they do not, it is their own 
 fault and sin ; that the Lord's hand is not shortened, 
 nor His ear heavy. The obligation to grow, the dan- 
 ger of relapse, the dubiousness of that piety which is 
 not progressive, I often insist upon, and think I can 
 see that those who formerly would lay it to Satan, or 
 
254 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 selfishly grieve that they were not better, now /eel sin 
 lying at their own door." 
 
 New York, September 25th, 1828. 
 " I thought when I reached my first manhood, that 
 a great change had overtaken me, that days seemed 
 not long, and that there seemed scarcely more hours 
 in a week than before in a monday, when Saturday 
 was the only holiday. But now what a change! 
 What are months and years — yes, years of which at 
 most seventy, work the die that moulds our eternity. 
 The years since we have seen each other, how long; 
 how short; how crowded with incident; how barren 
 of that immense change which our Christian as- 
 pirations have longed for! Summer and winter, 
 seed time and harvest, Tweedside and the Manse; 
 — how altered and how the same. I sometimes 
 revisit my old haunts on the banks of the Hud- 
 son — how the same are they, how changed am I. It 
 may interest you, my dear friend, to know that the 
 haunts of my childhood I have never yet revisited 
 since I saw you; at first a little from accident perhaps, 
 but since from comprehending what your memorable 
 letter about Roxburgh expresses — the pain of seeing 
 the changed place. I desired not to dissipate the 
 clear images of the past, or to lose the sense of 
 locaUty which the sight of these scenes now altered 
 might affect. Every thing changes here rapidly. 
 Wooden houses decay quickly, occupants remove, 
 
MATTHIAS DKlJEy. 255 
 
 forests arc cleared away, new roads opened, brooks 
 dried up, ponds drained. Indeed all but the butterflies 
 and the birds half domesticated, seem in the way of a 
 rapid improvement, inexpressibly annoying to the sen- 
 timent that would feed on recollections. The very peo- 
 ple are made better. The ministers cannot walk about 
 with a long idle cane and wig, and control a parish 
 as trees drive away crows by shaking their heads. 
 They must utter sense energetically, and have Sun- 
 day Schools, and scatter tracts, and be content to 
 have less influence than other people, unless they 
 procure a good deal more by being very useful. And 
 then the old meeting house is painted up, and a new 
 one built within a mile or two, which has drawn oflf 
 half the old faces whom death has spared, and each 
 is filled with new comers from some distant towns, or 
 with youths who dream not of you, while those who 
 might, are off to the new settlements, perhaps twelve 
 hundred miles away, planting corn beyond the 
 Ohio. In short — for I had no intention to drive on 
 in this style when I began, this race of everlasting 
 improvement is killing fine sentiment. We are not 
 in the case that Sir Walter Scott triumphed in, 
 the fine morning your dear husband made me so 
 h^ppy by conducting mc to Abbotsford, when he 
 crowed over the bleak hills and light streams about 
 Melrose, that there w^is not enough to invite any cot- 
 ton spinner or canal-monger, to invade the domains 
 of Thomas of Ercildounc. 
 
 2 I 
 
256 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 The moral of it all is, dear sister, that we have 
 much to do here, great facilities for doing it, and that 
 Providence has so ordered it that even letter Meriting 
 to you is an employment which must be confined 
 within such limits, as that it prove not a detriment to 
 indispensable duties. Yet if one does not intend to 
 prove recreant to the best emotions of the heart, and 
 to let the heart be altogether unfit to live, it is an in- 
 dispensable duty, as well as a pleasure, and so I only 
 censure myself for not writing enough to you. * * * 
 What a death-bed is that of the wicked! What a 
 different aspect does the very corpse assume to our 
 eyes ! How descriptive is the process of returning to 
 the dust, of the moral condition of the soul! How 
 like are the sins it has rioted in to the corruptions 
 which now seize iti "Deliver me, O Lord, from the 
 men of the world, which have their portion in this 
 world, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid trea- 
 sure. I shall be satisfied when I awake in thy like- 
 ness." 
 
 So you find time to read over again all my letters. 
 All of me. For it is legible and extant nowhere but 
 in your portfolio, and in the records of the condemning 
 book of the great Judge, 
 
 The extract you send me from 's letter is 
 
 delightful, and shows a great advance in piety; 
 these storms have rooted them in the best things. 
 How true, that it is sin, chosen bosom sin, which 
 makes a penitent! "It is our errors and our 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 257 
 
 sins which work our humiliation." When we suffer 
 for doing right, wc may be Hftcd up. God sees our 
 secret sins in the hght of his countenance, and then 
 wc cry out for mercy and pardon." 
 
 New York, November 7th, 1828. 
 " I have been at a missionary meeting at North- 
 ampton, Mass., which was a very interesting occasion. 
 I went as the representative of the Home Miss. Soc. 
 All our missionary affairs advance with a manifest 
 blessing, and already we seem destined to do much to 
 evangelize the world. At Northampton I visited 
 Brainerd's grave, with more sensible emotion than I 
 remember ever to have experienced any where, I 
 believe, among monuments;* and at the meeting, 
 could not refrain from showing the obligations of 
 Northampton, which contained such a monument, to 
 forward the missionary cause, and whence such a 
 book as Brainerd's life had gone forth, which instru- 
 mentally had sent Henry Martyn by Hindostan to 
 Persia, and been fire from the altar to every mission- 
 ary since. Mr Temple, one of our missionaries from 
 Malta, also addressed the meeting. These anniver- 
 saries seem to me to correspond with the great 
 Jewish festivals, when the people came together to 
 
 • Those who recollect what \L' Bruen printed in his volume of 
 Essays on visiting a protestant country cemetery in Ital}', and also 
 that of Pcre la Chaise at Paris, will believe that his emotion was not 
 small. 
 
•258 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 praise the Lord tor his mercies and for his wonders 
 in Zion. 
 
 The American board of commissioners for foreign 
 missions held their annual meeting in Philadelphia. 
 The sermon by Dr Rice of Virginia, and the address- 
 es at the subsequent public meeting were eloquent. 
 Dr Beecher made one of his best speeches. He 
 said, "We often hear repeated what the missionaries 
 of the last thirty years have done. Now, I shall not 
 go over the history of the last thirty years, but I shall 
 take another method. Suppose all that has been done 
 to be blotted out — suppose one messenger of calamity, 
 as in the case of Job, to follow another, entering this 
 church. The first tells us that the Serampore mis- 
 sion is destroyed, its missionaries dispersed, its trans- 
 lations burned, its converts apostatized," &c. &c. 
 Then he went to Taheite. " Suppose we were sud- 
 denly to learn that those Islands were in the situation 
 in which Cook found them, that the DufF had spread 
 her canvass filled with the breath of prayer in vain," 
 &c. &c., and in brief, so he made with splendid elo- 
 quence his survey of the world — supposing the Lon- 
 don Miss. Soc, the Church Miss. Soc, the B. and F. 
 Bible Soc, the American B. Soc, &c &c &c all 
 gone down, and that in the midst of this catastrophe 
 a white-robed seraph should descend from the skies 
 with plumage folded and dropping large tears, to say 
 that there has been a new apostacy in heaven, and 
 that all whom the spirit of missions had carried up 
 
MATTHIAS niU'EN. 259 
 
 thilhcr in the last thirty years, have joined the lost 
 army; that Africaner has returned to his Hotten- 
 tot crall, that Catharine Brown, leaving her broken 
 harp in heaven, has taken up the Cherokee war-song 
 — Would all this be nothing? — The enemies of mis- 
 sions say so. 
 
 Throughout there was tlie oddest kind of subhmity 
 and power I ever felt. Knowing that it was all a 
 phantom, yet comprehending it to be a conceivable 
 evil, it had the effect of inclining you often to smile 
 cither at the incongruity, or at the argument and 
 triumph of the statement; or else to feel the highest 
 emotions of gratitude and praise to God at the review 
 of his glorious providences fyr his churches in the 
 thirty years we have seen. If this speech is printed 
 I shall try to get it to your hands; however, its spoken 
 effect must ever inexpressibly excel what follows the 
 reading. 
 
 After this of spoken efforts, I must tell you of one 
 silent appeal, when I was at New Haven. Mr Ash- 
 mun died there, the agent for the Colonization So- 
 ciety on the coast of Africa, who had come home to 
 die. Just as the funeral sermon was beginning, his 
 mother, who had not seen him for twelve years, and 
 who had hastened from the state of Vermont to be- 
 hold his death bed, entered the church. She desired 
 earnestly to see the remains, and even after the pro- 
 cession moved to the burial ground the counsel of the 
 physicians was asked. When it was deemed improper, 
 
260 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 she stretched out her hand and touched the [coffin 
 with a natural gesture of uncontrolable modest grief, 
 never to be effaced from the memory. — I have be- 
 come as much a friend of Africa, and as much a 
 hater of slavery as yourself. 
 
 To conclude this hurried notice of my travels, I 
 hav« just returned from synod, seventy miles up the 
 Hudson river. On my way I took a pedestrian tour 
 of some twenty miles into the mountains in as poor 
 and miserable a region as I ever saw. — Slept at the 
 log house of one of our missionaries, composed of 
 one room, which served for kitchen, parlour and 
 strangers bed room, while the good man, his wife 
 and three children, slept under the rafters in a little 
 grain garret over our heads. Thus God orders dif- 
 ferently the lot of men. How happy they who stand 
 in a lot like Daniel's in the last day! Here the peo- 
 ple are employed working in iron ore and charcoal 
 for furnaces, and are wretchedly poor and ignorant. 
 
 New York, December 6th, 1828. 
 * * * * As to my own affairs, I have been entirely 
 well all the year; have the great joy of seeing a little 
 outward growth in this little church, and at last, 
 things seem here as if after the ship had been long 
 built and ready to launch, it was started. Our best 
 members begin to think our darkest days over. * * * 
 It is the mystery of folly that people who have so 
 much of the world, and who do not get to give away,. 
 
MATTHIAS nnuEPr. 2GI 
 
 can never have enough, nor have time enough to use 
 what they have. This also is vanity. After all due 
 precautions to be honest to my successors, one thin<T 
 I cannot but believe I shall always do, use what I 
 have now, and give forth Christo ct Ecclesia?. 
 
 New York, December 31st, 1828^ 
 My dear sister. 
 
 The kindly providences from the midst of which I 
 last wrote have been continued. A life has been- 
 preserved and a life given. * * * We are favoured 
 in every respect, have all and abound. The feelings 
 with which I greeted the first born can never come 
 back. But we can love this daughter enough. If / 
 she is to bear your name, you must assume part ot ' 
 the duty of praying for her in this eventful existence. 
 
 The packet of to-morrow, is the first packet of the 
 year. We are to heap years upon years in eternity, 
 but of our little span here, we rapidly fill up our mea- 
 sure. This year has been eventful to your dear 
 friends, and I wait to know the providences with 
 which it is to close at Kelso. Again and again I re- 
 flect on the circumstances you relate, and feel as if 
 they must have shortened by ten years your days. 
 
 In no small measure by my own fault certainly, I 
 begin to feel less acquainted with your state, and less 
 famihar with all your circumstances, than the omens 
 •of a year ago rendered probable. A long absence 
 from the homes of those wc love has the distressing 
 
2G2 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 cllcct of wearing down many of the remembrances 
 of place, while other objects are incessantly before 
 us. And while I will not attribute to mere infrequen- 
 cy of writing, the want of what nothing but use 
 could furnish, I should long to see you, if for no other 
 reason,^ to get a new starting place in this world of 
 change. No imagination can now show you to me, 
 so that I can be tolerably sure that I know you just 
 as you are. Your heart, and all that is immortal, I 
 can never cease to know, but I want much to know 
 a thousand things beside, that you live among, and 
 that affect you. 
 
 You will be glad to know that this church, so slow 
 in taking root and starting, has grown perceptibly 
 within a month. It is so obvious as to be subject of 
 gratulation to all engaged here. We have had some 
 additions to the church members, and I hope are 
 growing in grace. They are liberal in the least 
 thing, that is money. More than 700 dollars for 
 foreign missions this year, and as much for home 
 missions, besides all other things, in so small a church 
 as ours is great liberality. My preaching from week 
 to week seems to take more hold, and I encourage 
 myself with the hope that there will be a harvest, 
 when all at once I shall see some fruit of my labours. 
 We know not, and ought to be satisfied that the 
 Lord knows, when and how his message is to take 
 root. 
 
 We have been very busy here in the attempt to 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEX. 2G3 
 
 Stop Sunday Mails and the opening of Post Offi- 
 ces. Last summer, as you know, a large association 
 was formed, who pledged themselves not to travel in 
 stages or steamboats, which violate the Sabbath, 
 where they had a choice. As a result of this, a new 
 line of Sabbath-keeping stages, was got up from Al- 
 bany to Niagara, at an expense of $75,000, solely to 
 strike a blow through the country, and to prove that 
 the religious part of the community were determined 
 on this measure. The old proprietors had previously 
 refused all overtures when invited to do right, and 
 now the uproar and hubbub were almost unparallel- 
 ed. Through a populous region four hundred miles 
 in length, nothing else was talked of. The supporters 
 and oppositionists of this line, divided the whole land; 
 and at least this good was done that the question for 
 or against Sabbath sanctity was argued at every fire- 
 side, and in every stage and steamboat. The feel- 
 ings of the wicked amounted to rage, for it touched 
 what they know, the value of money, and it showed for 
 once, that christians were walling to spend some 
 money to forward holiness in the land. This new 
 line of coaches too, was the best. No coachman 
 who should take even one glass of spirits, or utter 
 even one oath, was engaged. In short, it was a com- 
 plete reformation line, and did not land its passen- 
 gers every six miles into a bar-room. The din of 
 this business would astonish you. In any other coun- 
 try under the sun, I believe it had been laughed 
 2k 
 
264 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 down; but here it took strong hold; how long it will 
 run well is doubtful. The proprietors have been to 
 Washington to contract for carrying the mails six 
 days, and petitions have been forwarded from all 
 parts of the country, that government will allow the 
 Lord's day to be a day of rest to all; but I doubt if 
 there be Christian principle enough in this communi- 
 ty to have have this point carried. There are some 
 men in Congress who will give the question a thorough 
 argument, and who can tell what advantage it is, 
 even to have an argument in such a cause?" 
 
 The " acceleration of the mail" has become for the 
 time one of the fevers of Great Britain, so that tran- 
 quil people, whose pursuits are neither political nor 
 mercantile, look on the endless newspaper para- 
 graphs on the subject, with a degree of breathless 
 uneasiness. Those who feel themselves to be pil- 
 grims and strangers in this world, cannot but wonder 
 what every one is driving at in such pellmell haste. 
 When we reach the end of life, it will affect us little 
 that we had such and such intelhgence an hour and 
 a half sooner, by means of the " acceleration of the 
 mail." It is obvious that were the day of rest, which 
 is observed in the government offices, extended to all 
 the cities and towns of the land, all would be on an 
 equal footing in respect of commercial affairs, and 
 political intelligence. How becoming would it be, 
 in those who reverence the Divine commands in 
 England, to take the hint from their American 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 265 
 
 brethren, and exert themselves to let the jaded men 
 and horses of the mails rest, and thus to shut out the 
 prevalent and unthought-of sin, of receiving and an- 
 swering business letters on the Lord's day, and ren- 
 dering it a day of worldly transactions, only chang- 
 ing the scene from the counting room to the parlour. 
 How wisely did Lord Bacon say with his usual force, 
 that "this incessant and Sabbathless pursuit of a 
 man's fortune leaveth not that tribute which we owe 
 to God of our time; who we see demandeth a tenth 
 of our substance, and a seventh, which is more strict, 
 of our time; and it is to small purpose to have an 
 erected face towards Heaven, and a perpetual gro- 
 velling spirit upon earth, eating dust as doth the ser- 
 pent.* 
 
266 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 New York, January 23d, 1829. 
 My ever dearly loved sister, 
 
 "Years are heaped upon the months we lived to- 
 gether. The scale of suffering and of trial has pre- 
 ponderated sadly with you; 1829 has come, to con- 
 tinue or to conclude changes which the last year 
 began or carried forward. I have just now found 
 out what St. John means by *'the pride of life," which 
 he classes with the other two things which make up 
 that world which is not of the Father. It is not 
 pride in the usual sense, for that is embraced under 
 the lust of the eye, but the pride of life, boasting of 
 to-morrow — explained by James where he says all 
 such boastings are vain. How much have we to 
 disabuse us of vain confidence in continued life. — 
 The sudden deaths hereabout have been very nu- 
 merous, and I have reached such a period that 
 each newspaper almost brings me note of the death 
 of an acquaintance. Surely to be proud of life, Oj- 
 boastful in the hope that it will continue, is vain. * * * 
 We have had two or three cases, unusual every 
 
MATTHIAS imuE\. 267 
 
 where I believe, of persons of middle age or after, 
 becoming quite serious, perhaps converted." — The 
 concluding sentence, detached as it is from w^hat 
 introduced it, may appear to some too insigni- 
 ficant for insertion, yet it contains one of the most 
 momentous and melancholy truths, with which the 
 church militant is acquainted; a truth nevertheless 
 so familiar that it does not affect us as it ought. How 
 sad is it to think that when a minister offers the 
 blessed gospel to his flock, he hardly hopes that those 
 who are nearest to death and judgment maybe those 
 who will receive his message? and when one of them 
 does receive it, the church stands amazed at theoin- 
 usual event. Such is the deceitfulness of sin, such 
 the dangerous habit of the mind, when persons feel 
 as if they had passed the age for learning, and might 
 settle down in the notions they have adopted — such 
 the hardening effect of worldly dealings, and worldly- 
 sentiments, that the heart seems to have become in- 
 accessible, and the church scarcely can behevc when 
 it hears that the word has been powerful enough to 
 reach a soul in such a case! How affecting is it to 
 observe the calculations of the Temperance Societies, 
 which calmly estimate the few years that must pass 
 before the present race of drunkards shall die out, and 
 their places be occupied by the abstinent! Is there 
 then no hope for the sinners who live? Are chris- 
 tians, those who know the solemn and dreadful re- 
 sults of impenitence, to fold their hands quietly, and 
 
S68 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 have their exertions paralysed by the idea that the 
 repentance of those advanced in life is unusual, and 
 therefore not to be striven after? Surely if the 
 churches were aroused to make the salvation of the 
 aged more their care; if they were awakened to ask 
 of Him, with whom is the residue of the Spirit, the 
 aged would become subject of hope like the young, 
 and we should have many saved even at the eleventh 
 hour. 
 
 New York, January 80, 1829. 
 
 * * * "May your heavier trials be far away! I 
 ha^e been studying the doctrine of trial in the New 
 Testament lately, and seeing how fully this world 
 ought to be a place of self-denial; and I wonder how 
 any of us are to get to heaven with so many comforts. 
 The Lord will provide. Provide us with a fit state 
 of heart, as well as a fit place, in his own time. If 
 we contemplate death aright, all our worldly affec- 
 tions will be held within the rule of our supreme love 
 to God. Mr Patton met his sorrows with composure, 
 and even comfort. * * * Did I mention to you 
 how Mr Duncan heard at his door, of the death of a 
 fine child of seven years?* 
 
 This matter of children's dying is needful for 
 parents, and I suppose is the only thing that can put 
 
 *Rev. Messrs Patton and Duncan had been travelling in Europe 
 to recover health. The first lost two dear children during his ab- 
 sence i the last, one on his return. 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEX. 269 
 
 our minds into a cerlain state. Never again since 
 the death of our first Mary can we be as we were. 
 The brightness and zest of the w^orld is fairly de- 
 parted. My peace partook of full youth and joy 
 with her, no place now, with one or both our chil- 
 dren, has any thing approaching to that zest of fife. 
 
 Our petitions against the mail travelling on Sunday 
 have roused the enemy, who bellows that there is a 
 great conspiracy abroad to league church and state. 
 This is the bugbear most popular in this country. A 
 large portion of the Baptists take part against it. 
 Many of the Episcopalians, and the Methodists also, 
 are either careless or opposed. The sin of the at- 
 tempt falls upon the poor Presbyterians, against whom 
 it lies more plausibly. We shall probably gain so 
 much that the mails will not be opened on the Lord's 
 day, though w^e may not stop their transportation. 
 With the Presbyterians here you must understand me 
 to join the Congrcgationalists, answ^ering to your In- 
 dependents, for that is the prevailing rule of Church 
 Government in New England. Presbyterianism pre- 
 vails in New York and all the States south of us. 
 
 We are having some changes just now, very aus- 
 picious for the interest of the revival of religion; 
 for you will understand a large part of our churches 
 are destitute of that peculiar spirit. Dr MacAuley, 
 one of our best men is about to go to Philadelphia, 
 an event which will have great influence on the city 
 and on the General Assembly. 
 
270 MEMOIRS OP 
 
 New York, June 16th, 1829. 
 My dearest sister, 
 
 The indescribable interest of your late writing 
 
 about has an instant transcript from your 
 
 heart to mine. What hath God wrought? How 
 have you been borne through such seas of feeling 
 and so much toil? I have studied your narrative 
 with a breathless hope of reaching the assurance of 
 his true conversion. He is still in slippery places. 
 Besides general prayer, has he a heart opened to 
 pray for the Holy Spirit? Does he comprehend that 
 his present convictions and all good desires are by 
 the gift of that Spirit, whom he may grieve and drive 
 away? A man deserted of what he loves best may 
 pray to God, and see the grace of the gospel; while 
 after all, the child of God alone, is born of the Spirit 
 I long to hear, nor have I ever seen a case more 
 critical, and few which to human eyes seem more 
 important. His true conversion might be hoped to 
 work the salvation of hundreds. Can he not be 
 made to feel, that not his children's souls only, but 
 the souls of hundreds may depend on his turning 
 heartily, wholly to the Lord. The great point to 
 press is the duty of immediate conversion, — not lin- 
 gering, not waiting; God saith "to day." There are 
 barriers like mountains against his conversion. I 
 
 should think would be indefinitely provoking 
 
 and opposing, the more because full of zeal, kindness 
 
MATTHIAS RRUE\. 271 
 
 and sympathy. He is the very personification of all 
 that in the spirit of the age opposes the gospel. He 
 is the mirror of the age in this respect, as Brougham 
 is the mirror as to Popular Education and other im- 
 portant objects. Not that they make, so much as 
 they take the image, feel the impelling tide and swim 
 their bark first in the stream; see what the w^orld 
 asks, and produce it, and are the creation of the will 
 of the people, and so they become kings. But, if the 
 world and the gospel be in opposition, the true gospel 
 
 has not a more refined, set, subtle foe than 
 
 I doubt not he w^ould honestly be astonished and dis- 
 pleased with such a charge ; and that his conscience 
 does not charge him thus ; but the King's Levee is 
 not more opposed to a prayer meeting than all the 
 influence he circulates is, to the religion of the New 
 
 Testament. I earnestly hope his letter to is 
 
 preserved ; it must be a curiosity of the strangest 
 kind, especially if, as I suppose, he fairly thought him 
 under conviction of sin, and in process of what we 
 call conversion. He knows so much that he would 
 wTite wittingly; and so little that it would be the 
 foolishness of man against the wisdom of God. 
 Here is an opportunity to scrutinize an inside sec- 
 tion of human life, dificrent altogether from what is 
 often reached, and which will be of equal interest 
 with all that Mrs Kennedy can reveal of Lord 
 Byron. 
 
 2 L 
 
272 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 What has your Erskinc (of the Evidences) got in 
 his last work on the Freeness of the Gospel? Some 
 strange theory, partial views, imperfect theology, 
 leading to dangerous lenity, in leading forward the 
 souls of men, if concerned about religion. Surely 
 to say that God has actually forgiven every body, 
 and that we only need believe so to be sure of sal- 
 vation, is not the way to break the stubbornness of 
 the natural heart, and cannot bring sinners as totally 
 lost, and actually and at present objects of God's dis- 
 pleasure, to feel that if they enter not now, they may 
 never enter hereafter. Instead of making conver- 
 sion a moral transaction between two beings, each 
 of whom has a will, a choice, unfettered except by 
 the conditions God proposes; this leaves it for the 
 selfishness of man to baiter, and the wickedness of 
 man to wait, under only the general contingency of 
 life remaining, assured of salvation so long as he has 
 opportunity to take salvation, really suspended,, it 
 would seem, upon his choice alone. This is surely a 
 very different thing from praying to God, " Create 
 in me a clean heart, renew in me a right spirit," and 
 a very different thing from being indebted to God 
 for a new heart, "I will take away the heart of 
 stone," &c. To reduce men to the state of utter 
 misery and lay them at God's mercy, they must feel 
 that such is their character, that they hate God so 
 much, that if He do not turn their hearts to His love, 
 and are so blind to His perfections, that if He who 
 
MATTHIAS BKtJEN. 273 
 
 shined with the light into darkness du not sliinc into 
 iheir minds, they will always be unconverted and 
 blind. Hence every ray of light, every thought of 
 good, every inclination to receive Christ, and to 
 walk in Him, is felt to come from the Father of lights^ 
 because the carnal mind is known to be at enmity 
 with God, and if the man comes to be in Christ, he 
 knows himself a new creature, old things pass away, 
 all things become new. His religion is not a pro- 
 cess of giving up one thing for a better, something 
 temporal for something eternal, something illusive for 
 something satisfying, (although this is always essen- 
 tially in religion) but it is hating sin, regarding our 
 previous evil state with abhorrence, whatever is the 
 consequence, whether we be saved or not. It is 
 submission to God, unreserved indeed, and yet sub- 
 nvission to a God who has proposed mercy to us, eter- 
 nal salvation, his gift which is eternal life, but all as 
 suspended on \he conditions of repentance and faith. 
 I know some theologians more bound to words and 
 theory than to facts, dislike this phrase, conditions of 
 the gospel, and plead for the gospel's unconditional 
 frceness. But what language can bear a more ex- 
 press condition than this, " Except ye repent, ye shall 
 all likewise perish," "He that believeth not shall be 
 condemned'?" When a sinner feels that his heart is 
 so carnally minded, so averse from God that it will 
 not repent, even under all the motives which the 
 cross of Christ presents, unless God break his heart 
 
274 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 by his spirit; and so blind and base that it will not 
 believe, unless God, who commanded the light to 
 shine out of darkness, shine into his soul, then he feels 
 himself the more at God's mercy as the terms of sal- 
 vation have been made more low, reasonable and 
 kind, and he views his desperate state of rebellion 
 and hatred of God with self-abhorrence, and submits 
 himself totally to the righteousness of God. God 
 gives him peace of conscience. The love of Christ 
 constrains him. He loves God, not upon this general 
 theory, that to make salvation mine I must believe it 
 mine, and I may now love God because He loves 
 me, which surely requires no change of heart, but he 
 loves things as they are essentially, all that is in God, 
 all that is in Christ, all that is in the plan of salvation 
 he loves. And no doctrine of the New Testament 
 (not the Election in the 2d verse of 1st Peter, 
 nor any thing else) will trouble him who has unre- 
 servedly submitted himself to the righteousness of God. 
 I have written thus at large because what is called 
 the Hervey and Ma'shall (on sanctification) scheme, 
 speaks differently, and runs into Erskine's views, and 
 seems to our most experienced ministers, experienced 
 in revivals, to be very injurious to the progress of 
 the gospel, to immediate conversion, and in many 
 instances to produce changes very doubtful. That 
 scheme you know is the prevalent one through Eng- 
 land and Scotland. 
 Have I been intelligible? In the haste in which I 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 275 
 
 Write, I fear not. Is there any dillerence between 
 us? Have I imparted any light which I seem to have 
 gained on this subject of deahng with persons under 
 concern of mind? It is painful to write when a little 
 talking and a few questions and answers would put 
 one to the test whether 1 have any knowledge, and 
 whether you arc in possession of what I seem to 
 know. But finally, the end of this matter is — advise 
 
 to read principally the simple Bible ; and if you 
 
 will have thorough conversion, let him read President 
 Edwards' sermons, on " Pressing into the king- 
 dom," "Ruth's Resolution," "the Excellency of 
 Christ," and " Pardon for the Chief of Sinners." They 
 have been published separately with you; but arc 
 also in the sixth volume of his works, London edition. 
 I know nowhere else such thorough dealing. 
 
 Our anniversaries have been full of interest. 1 
 must give you them in detail, or rather execute a 
 purpose 1 have had for a year, to unite at length a 
 sort of revue philosophique of our age of benevolence 
 here, that you may read it yourself, and then send it 
 to " The World"* if you will. I see the world is 
 moved now a days by letters. 
 
 Our greatest eflbrt just now grows out of a reso- 
 lution of the American Bible Society, to supply every 
 family in the United States with a Bible in two years, 
 with the blessing of God, and the expected help of 
 
 * A religious Newspaper in London. 
 
S76 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 ten auxiliaries. Over such an immense territory as 
 ours, the log cabins of our new settlements so extend- 
 ed and scattered, thousands in the new states alto- 
 gether without the leaven of the gospel, the attempt 
 to supply 700,000 families with the Bible in two 
 years, is the biggest resolution ever made by a " vo- 
 luntary association." I pray we may accomplish it. 
 We had a meeting at the Masonic Hall last week, at 
 which, in default of a better, I was forced to be 
 one of the speakers: 7,600 dollars were subscribed; 
 $400,000 must be raised for this object in the two 
 years. Besides the expense of agents will be some- 
 thing. Almost all our sects, and all our religious 
 people are bestirring themselves in this great effort. 
 I wished to give something, and I enrolled — — * 
 amonsr the life members of the American Bible So- 
 ciety. The agent has sent me his life certificate, and 
 wishes to know of what state, city and continent the 
 gentleman is, that he may send him the annual 
 reports. I will leave it blank, but I fully believe 
 the gentleman will rise out of obscurity from his 
 play ground on Tweedside, in less than twenty 
 years, to plead for the giving the Bible to all flesh, 
 and to labour himself for the cause. God grant it! 
 
 * It was the eldest son of the compiler. 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 277 
 
 New York, August 15th, 1829. 
 
 "When I think that more frequent letters from me 
 would have been a comfort to you, I cannot but cen- 
 sure myself; and yet between the labour and the 
 kssitudc of my post, it is not strange that I should 
 give way to that selfishness which can feed long on 
 a letter before a return is made- * * * * * 
 
 I shall be strangely disappointed if we do not live 
 to sec each other again in this world. If feeling 
 be prophecy, I am almost sure we shall. I neglect 
 all letter writing till I am ashamed. Several pro- 
 jects here absorb the minutes which remain of the 
 hours which my ministerial duties leave. For ex- 
 ample, we have our society for promoting the ob- 
 servance of the Sabbath, of which I am secretary, 
 and other new things besides our Home Missionary 
 business; and then we are endeavouring to do some- 
 thing for common schools in Greece, in which eflx>rt 
 I hope and believe much good will be realized. 
 
 And now it is a question, since I have succeeded 
 in putting so little into these pages, whether I ought 
 to send them. It may seem careless of your love to 
 write and send such scrawls. But I have no health 
 and spirits to-day, between seeing one person taken 
 out of life, who wished me to visit him, before I arrived, 
 and the secular and spiritual duties which awaited 
 my return. We were very successful in our Bible so- 
 ciety tour. Two towns pledged themselves to raise 
 
278 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 in a year $3,000 that is £600, for the great eflbrt to 
 supply every family in the United States with a Bible, 
 it being supposed that 800,000 families are destitute, 
 and that £80,000 will be needed. The whole country 
 is to be roused in this enterprise. 
 
 The packet sails to-morrow, which is our commu- 
 nion Sabbath. On monday I am to go to New 
 Haven, and afterwards to make a charge at an or- 
 dination of four ministers who go to Illinois to found 
 a college, and to preach the gospel. 
 
 If you could see me, you would only find me eleven 
 years older than when I left you, and stooping a little, 
 but in very good health. Remember my most af- 
 fectionate respects to your dear husband, and all 
 your dear relatives. Kiss the little ones among your 
 dear children for me. I hope my eyes may some 
 day be set upon them all, and believe me, with a love 
 that can never change, 
 
 Your faithful M. B. 
 
MATTHIAS ERUEN. 279 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 New York, August 22, 1829. 
 My Dear Sister. 
 
 "My heart settles with niuch, I might ahnost say, 
 incessant anxiety on the most important topic in your 
 last letter — your health. The surprising vigour of your 
 constitution has hitherto given me the hope that you 
 could outlive any thing, and would at least live long 
 enough for us to meet once more, and for the first 
 time, I now fairly tremble. Foreboding connects 
 itself strongly with hope that I am to see you in some 
 of those quarters of an hour, when to see you and do 
 two or three things, seems all that remains to be done 
 before dying. If I lived as some people appear to do, 
 just to please themselves, I should compass the 
 transportation of me and mine to you before mid- 
 winter. The world moulds itself so variously, that I 
 have quite a belief that with a good conscience I 
 shall be led to your continent before half the number 
 of years expire, which are passed since I left you; 
 
 but that you or I are to live half as many years, who 
 2m 
 
280 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 assures us? Tell me if you can in your next that 
 you are decidedly better. Among my faults in the 
 past year I clearly number the infrequency of my 
 letters. Without a conscience sharply self-accusa- 
 tory, I feel how much better it had been to have an- 
 swered your reasonable hopes, and instead of selfishly 
 rejoicing in your letters to me, supplied you with 
 more frequent expressions of my unabated love. 
 Pride has ceased between us, with other more youth- 
 ful feelings; we can never feel wounded pride if either 
 write, or cease Avriting, nor almost can we feel wound- 
 ed love. But that any thing from me might have 
 been an afternoon anodyne to your cares, and yet 
 be withheld, is truly a moral delinquency. My cares 
 are not more numerous, if they be of another kind, 
 than yours; my interruptions not so many; yet you 
 write steadfastly and at large. 
 
 I have purposely omitted giving you an account 
 of one affair which has employed me, having left it to 
 my dear Mary, who desired to write you a long letter 
 upon it, I mean, an attempt to do something for the 
 Greeks, furnishing schools and school books and the 
 nucleus of a college. Before this reaches you, the 
 Rev. Jonas King's journal will, I suppose, have been 
 republished in England. He has made a tour through 
 Greece at the expense of some ladies of this city* 
 having gone out in the Herald, the last ship with pro- 
 visions, which we sent. Since it was in the posses- 
 sion of the Turks I imagine Greece has never been so 
 
MATHIAS BRUEN-. 281 
 
 thoroughly investigated; never surel}^ upon the points 
 where we most desire information. Every where he 
 finds an earnest wish for schools; for good female 
 schools especially, and his journal which is publish- 
 ed in the religious newspapers, weekly almost, is full 
 of interest. I know not that I told you that wc 
 formed a Greek school committee, had a public 
 meeting at the Masonic Ilall, the week of our many 
 anniversaries, where (a brother may say it to a sister,) 
 I made the best speech I ever uttered, quite extem- 
 poraneous, and for half an hour or more, and better 
 than I can ever speak again. There is a w^arm sym- 
 pathy through the country. We then expected to 
 have done more by this time, but are now waiting 
 for information from the Mediterranean — waiting 
 especially to see how your English government, with 
 the French and the Russians, will tread down the 
 germ of a republic there, and create a monarchy on 
 that soil; — Oh! what shame upon the two or three 
 men whom the world calls England, for such is the 
 mystery of this world, that some two or three govern 
 at least for the time. This, however, will not free 
 your beloved native land from the shame of a scan- 
 dalous attachment to their ancient ally the Turk, and 
 love for the legitimacy of slavery. 
 
 Before the famous protocol, Mr G — told me that 
 lord Liverpool three years ago talked with him about 
 a king for Greece, and proposed the ex-king of 
 Sweden. If they have a king, we must enlighten 
 
282 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Greece if we can, and they will be poor enough to 
 need our money, since Ibrahim Pacha burnt up their 
 olive trees, if they arc forced to pay an everlasting 
 tribute to the Turk. Next to the origin of evil, this 
 business of having bad men govern is the greatest 
 mystery on earth. We have had some twenty young 
 Greeks or more, in a course of education here; some 
 have been, as we hope, converted, who may be the 
 future reformers of their country; I believe that 
 Greece is to be the reformer of Asia. I never saw 
 a nobler scene of good open to the mind, and I need 
 only to sec the door a little more open, to feel it 
 my duty to give myself up to forming Sunday 
 Schools, &c., even there, and passing to and fro on 
 the earth for this purpose. Any man who will now dare 
 attempt great things, may succeed, and can draw 
 out untold resources for a good cause. I see it 
 plainly. While congress is disputing whether they 
 will give $50,000 to furnish out a mission to Greece, 
 I would beg it here for a college there, if the country 
 is free for its establishment. You will be somewhat 
 interested to know that things have not improved 
 since count Oxenstiern's time. Mr — quoting that 
 saying of his, "go my son and see how little sense 
 governs the world," assures me that the three great 
 allied powers, had no plan when this war with Tur- 
 key began; that each of the ambassadors, with your 
 prime minister confessed it to him, that Capo d' Is- 
 trias declared it to be so, and that while he, Mr. — 
 
MATTHIAS CRUEy. 283 
 
 urged it upon each of them, previously to resolve 
 upon their ultimatum, as to what should be done 
 with Greece, what should be her boundaries, what 
 the boundaries of the Porte, and w^hat the state of 
 the adjoining territory, and that then Austria should 
 not be permitted to be neutral, and the Porte be 
 absolutely threatened with the war of all united, if 
 she would not yield; that no one of these things was 
 done, no plan of the future formed, that they w^ent 
 blindly forward, and as Capo d' Istria's phrase was, 
 he was forced to commit himself to the chapter of 
 accidents. But I will entertain you no longer Avith 
 your national enormities, but will turn to ours. 
 
 We have soon to bo acted here, I fear, a most hor- 
 rid tragedy — the state of Georgia taking possession of 
 the lands of the Cherokee Indians. These Indians have 
 become almost entirely civilized, live by agriculture, 
 print a newspaper^ have christian churches, and are 
 advancing with a most rapid improvement. The state 
 of Georgia, wdthin whose territorial Hmits they are, 
 has determined to permit no such imperium in imperio, 
 and calls upon the general government to remove them 
 beyond the Mississippi. The Cherokees refuse to sell 
 out, and to go. To force them to sell, Georgia ex- 
 tends her own state laws over the whole country, one 
 of which is, that no Indian can be witness in a court 
 of justice against a white man. Thus deprived of their 
 natural rights, if the general government does not 
 
284 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 protect them, they will be forced to remove, to go 
 off among savage Indians, and live by hunting. 
 Our President General Jackson, refuses them the 
 same protection they have heretofore enjoyed (for all 
 the blustering of Georgia has only rendered former 
 Presidents and Congresses, more set in the just cause 
 hitherto,) and seems determined to yield the point. — 
 We are having the nev^^spapers filled v^ith the discus- 
 sion ; thousands are moved at the injustice to the In- 
 dians, and all New England and the middle states feel 
 alike. The southern and western have a less deep- 
 seated love for justice and pity for the Indians, as in- 
 deed who can expect much from a slave-holding state. 
 The issue will probably be during the approaching 
 Congress, but I have great fears that our country is to 
 bring on itself a deep blot, inferior only to the continu- 
 ance of slavery. If we drive the Indians into the wil- 
 derness, because we have made civilized and christian 
 people of them, we must blush for our country. Gov- 
 ernor Coles of Illinois, who has more than any other 
 man prevented slavery being permitted in that state, by 
 the constitution, has just returned from the Falls of 
 St Anthony. He says it is most extraordinary, that 
 wherever there is Enghsh blood, there is cruelty to the 
 Indians, that the French sing and dance with them and 
 cheat them, but do not kill them. But there is no end 
 to our coveting the land of the Indians. One family 
 of nine persons he found out 400 miles and from the 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 285 
 
 settlements among a tribe of 1)00 Indians. These wan- 
 derers had come in among them with their cattle — 
 squatted on the Indian land, began running their 
 ploughs over the Indian squaws' patches of corn, and 
 over the graves, shooting the Indians' dogs, as valuable 
 to them as our horses, because the dogs barked at their 
 calves, which they had never seen before ; and seem- 
 ed determined to oust the 900 by fair means or foul. 
 The chiefs met in council with the governor, who did 
 all that mere advice could do to restrain their outra- 
 ges, but the probability is that the poor Indian will be 
 driven to some act of retaliation ; and then we shall 
 have another Indian war to the lauful murder of thou- 
 sands of these aborigines ! For the w^hole frontier is 
 always ready to run on an Indian w^ar. My heart, if 
 ever sickened, is truly so by all this story. Will there 
 ever be a world which the injustice of man will not 
 pollute and devastate. Surely if ever a people had 
 land enough we have. "We look up to the supreme 
 providence of God amazed that such things are per- 
 mitted. Convinced of the depravity of man in all cli« 
 mates, seeing how few have the love of their neigh- 
 bour every where, we cry out, " Oh Lord how long ?" 
 
 I intended this letter to be a quiet recipient of my 
 thoughts about you, and instead of that I have wan- 
 dered from Greece to this end of the earth. (Whenev- 
 er Mr King's letters reach you, pray get them reprint- 
 
286 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 ed.) Every letter of yours touches me always — your 
 last perhaps especially. Your environs have perpetu- 
 al verdure, and you will not beheve any thing else, 
 even from my silence. 
 
 God grant our friendship may flourish in His 
 pure presence. It will be so if we are purified and 
 owned by our Saviour. I am coming to believe as 
 much as you can desire in the mutual recognition of 
 spirits in the separate state. 
 
 My beloved friend, whom more than all except my 
 wife, I surely love, you must no longer sacrifice your- 
 self to the wishes or even the wants of every body ; 
 let other people suffer as well as you, and take some 
 rest now yourself. Believe me, you ought to rest. — 
 Pray tell me how is dear R ? Now I hope he is better 
 
 since his good pleading in the Y m cause. I have 
 
 the impression strongly, that both J — and H — have 
 improved much in spiritual religion since I was their 
 guest. Tell them I pray that the near approach of the 
 rod, and its removal now, may make them meet for 
 the inheritance. 
 
 My dear wife is not qaite so well as she was at Sa- 
 ratoga ; your namesake suffers from teething. They 
 all remain in New Haven for a month longer. I am 
 in exceeding good health. I hope your dear M — is 
 stronger, I sigh for a letter from you, however un- 
 deserving. Once more the same hand and heart ex- 
 press the same love. Adieu, my dearest sister. Do 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 287 
 
 the church yard at Dumfries, the hill this side L — d, 
 and one or two other places, retain what other things 
 may lose of all swaying reminiscences ? Oh is it not 
 almost worse than useless to review, where the pain 
 of the loss overpowers the pleasure of recollection! — 
 And yet that cannot be — again farewell ?" 
 
 2n 
 
288 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 CHAPTER XXf. 
 
 Here termlnaled a correspondence which occupied 
 alike, the minds and hearts of those who carried it on. 
 The first letter of that correspondence was written 
 September 8th, 1817, from Edinburgh, the last, Au- 
 gust 22d, 1829, from New York. It was the means 
 of stirring up many a christian emotion, and convey- 
 ing many an interesting fact of the state of the 
 churches. And now it seems as if a tie which had 
 strengthened the christian relations of the United 
 States and England were broken — a slender one, it is 
 true, but one of the multitude of slender threads, which 
 combined, weave the web of life. Let not the politi- 
 cian smile, nor the scorner mock. Who shall count 
 the worth of those sympathies which connect the hu- 
 man family in the intimacy of the domestic hearth, 
 though half the globe intervene ? Who shall compute 
 the power of christian prayers and christian exertions 
 united in one blessed cause, that of drawing the world 
 into conformity w^ith its God ? Who shall tell the in- 
 fluences of christian example, acting and re-acting, 
 arousing to mutual imitation, and mutual help ? And 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEX. 289 
 
 this tie is broken ! — broken in a moment ! — and what 
 remains of tliosc sweet communings and of those 
 hopes, is but as scattered fragments. Yet they are 
 precious fragments to be carefully gathered that 
 nothing be lost. 
 
 How strangely has the departed put w^ords into the 
 mouths of those who survive to mourn, in the last let- 
 ter which his kind hand traced, " Oh, is it not almost 
 worse than useless to review, where the pain of the 
 loss so overpowers the pleasure of recollection?" 
 " But yet that cannot be" — no, it cannot be. Inde- 
 pendent of the submission which those feel who be- 
 lieve in the wisdom and goodness of Him who ap- 
 points the hour when the soul is born into this w^orld, 
 and the hour when it is born into the world of glory, 
 that submission which bows in the midst of keenest 
 anguish, and says, " Even so, Father, for so it hath 
 seemed good in thy sight." Who w^ould not pur- 
 chase such pleasure even at the expense of such pain? 
 Who would lose the improvement of such intercourse, 
 to be sheltered from a separation which cannot out- 
 last the little remnant of life? Especially when the 
 very separation, if met and used as it ought to be, 
 may be the means of drawing the survivors to more 
 holy walking w^ith God on earth, and to more ear- 
 nest longings for a meetness for heaven. 
 
 This last letter has been copied with scarcely the 
 omission of a word ; — though of it, as of many of its 
 forerunners, it must be confessed that it is developed 
 
290 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 to the public eye, not without trembhng apprehension 
 of violating those secret treasures of the affections, 
 whose preciousness lies in their being peculiar. But 
 to represent Mr Bruen as he was, that the heart may- 
 be made better by the study of his character, he must 
 not be seen only in the pulpit or the sick room ; — not 
 only in the conduct of perplexing business for many 
 societies, or in the still more difficult employment to 
 a person of his delicacy of mind, of becoming a sup- 
 pliant on their behalf. He must be seen in his familiar 
 intercourse, when sentiment and feeling were allowed 
 to take their free and unfettered course. Considering 
 that it is to the church who loved him that these pages 
 are devoted, the owner of these letters has quelled and 
 subdued, as selfish, the emotions that revolted against 
 the exhibition of any of the shades of a character, so 
 worthy of imitation, and even in its most minute cha- 
 racteristics so eminently christian. 
 
 The occupations of the last few weeks of Mr 
 Bruen's life are interesting, not only because they 
 shut up his labours under the sun, but because they 
 give a fair sample of his industry, energy and toil 
 during his last five years, — energy and toil, which 
 according to human calculation increased, till the 
 springs of life broke under their pressure. — But it is 
 not so. — He who gave the life could have strength- 
 ened it to endure, had the soul not been prepared 
 for a removal, and had we not required such a 
 chastisement as his loss inflicts. 
 
MATTHIAS miUEN-. 291 
 
 During the anniversaries of the spring of 1829 
 he was very much excited. He was secretary for 
 the General Union for j^ronioting the observance of 
 the christian sabbath, and though it was the first 
 year of the society, and tliere were few materials 
 to form a Report, those who have read his, but 
 especially those who saw the dignity, the grace, the 
 beauty with which he was animated while reading 
 it before the society, will admit that he acquitted 
 himself admirably of his task. But the Greek School 
 Society occupied his mind, if possible, more than 
 any other. It was of his speech at the anniversary 
 of that society that he so modestly wrote — " a 
 brother may say to a sister, that I made the 
 best speech I ever uttered, and better than I can 
 ever speak again." Those who heard him, descri- 
 bed his speech as possessing great eloquence and 
 grace. This subject of the renovation of Greece 
 had taken a strong hold of his heart since the year 
 1823. 
 
 The plan for promoting Comjiion School Education 
 in Greece was peculiarly Mr Bruen's own, and the 
 mass of writing and thinking on this subject, with the 
 exercise of wisdom and caution that tempered and 
 rendered efficacious his noble enthusiasm, fills the 
 mind with surprise and admiration. The portion of 
 his exertion which the world witnessed was much, 
 but could they remove the covering from the ma- 
 chinery and see the multiplied and complicated move- 
 
292 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 ments, balanced and counter-checked by prudence 
 and experience, it might be subject of wonder that 
 during all this activity, he applied himself without 
 remission to his other duties, and that his very dreams 
 were not of Greece. 
 
 From a bulky correspondence with the Rev Leon- 
 ard Bacon of New Haven, we venture to make a few 
 very sparing extracts. They tend both to vindicate 
 the character of the Greeks, which has been too 
 willingly traduced by many interested partisans, and 
 to exhibit the writer full of occupation and christian 
 zeal, yet kind, forbearing, and even playful. 
 
 To the Rev Leonard Bacon. 
 
 New York, March 16th, 1829. 
 " Some of us here have been a little surprised and 
 sorry to sec the attempt to clear up the reputation of 
 
 the Turks from Mr 's pen in the Connecticut 
 
 Journal. I know that truth never does harm, but it 
 is all important when we publish it, to know whether 
 it will be truth in the minds we send it to. Now the 
 Turkish party in the city is pretty large, headed by 
 the , and all the infidels, &c. which such a com- 
 mon sewer as we are, collects. A document from 
 the hand of a missionary vouching for the humane 
 character of the Turks, for a fair offset of cruelty on 
 the part of the Greeks, and stating that poverty neu- 
 tralises the law permitting polygamy — that there is 
 never a miracle among the Turks but the Greeks get 
 
MATTHIAS URUEiV. 203 
 
 Up as big a lie; such things in the mimls it may be — 
 certainly in the stakmciils of the adversaries of all 
 good, will not be truth however abstractedly true. 
 They have always said that this was a war like any 
 other. We have conceived it to be a war of Mahomc- 
 danism against the feeble and abased remnants of 
 Christ, " Even the storks know the difference beliveen the 
 houses of the Turks and the Christians, and frequent ojily 
 the former^ It is not added that in Egypt, the ibis 
 and the crocodile would only have frequented the re- 
 gions where they were worshipped. Where religion 
 takes such a fantastic shape as to worship idiocy, it 
 may protect birds and kill men. We have thought 
 the Turks committed the murders of this awful and 
 not yet concluded war. Now it is the Egyptians, 
 Albanians and Cretans. If said in truth, I doubt 
 whether these things are said in time, and they are 
 liable to a misconstruction and misrepresentation so 
 powerful, as to prevent the zoorld at least, from giving 
 one dollar to help the Greeks in any thing. I particu- 
 larly asked Mr King, what other reason besides that 
 the Greeks were slaves, and the Turks the masters, 
 not forced to steal while they can murder, made a-11 
 travellers from Smyrna give the Turks a good char- 
 acter. He replied, the Franks in Smyrna have all 
 the commerce, while the Greek factors are extermi- 
 nated, and so the Franks always calumniate the 
 Greeks. I asked Dr How why Boston is so lukewarm 
 in the cause of Greece. He said, the Smyrna trade 
 
294 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 makes it so. Mr King vouched for the character 
 which the Turks have been so many centuries making 
 for themselves, and that popular opinion is true. It is 
 with nature as with books, things that last through 
 centuries must be true. 
 
 I will not pretend to express the vexation this pub- 
 lication excited in my mind in reference to this very 
 plan of schools for Greece. I should have no objec- 
 tion that Mr should know how far I think he 
 
 may have put an instrument in the hand of an adver- 
 sary. He is as much at liberty to differ from me, as 
 I to judge in a matter so public." * * * * 
 
 May 4th, 1829. 
 Dear Brother, 
 
 " Happily breathing is an involuntary exercise — so 
 1 scarcely know that I have breathed since you set me 
 running on this Greek business — for the other socie- 
 ties and preparations for the anniversaries press us on 
 every side. I cannot repeat my scrawl to professor 
 Goodrich, which please to read. But pray excuse my 
 not keeping you informed from day to day of the mat- 
 ter. We have been incessantly busy, however you 
 may have thought us idle. Now hear your sentence — 
 You must be here Deo volente, Friday of next week, to 
 fill a niche, if we find no better man to speak — in- 
 deed you must open. We have sent for Perdicari* 
 
 * Mr Gregory Pcrdecari. Greek instructor in Mount Pleasant school at Am- 
 herst . 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 295 
 
 and for Col. Napjris. The New Yorkers, like tlie 
 Athenians, seek To rfor. * * * * 
 
 But they must have some plain English and we shall 
 fully depend on you to give it. You must make one 
 business statement — fail not on your part, that the 
 republic suffer no injury. We shall have a grand 
 anniversary at the masonic hall. Write to me that 
 you will be here. I wrote a full letter to , be- 
 sides other communications. It seems to me the plan 
 cannot fail to take, over the whole land. Look well 
 to your child and come and see after it. I hoped 
 
 to have had of Louisiana, to make the closing 
 
 fipeech, but he went to Washington yesterday. 
 
 Your friend, 
 
 M. Bruen." 
 
 New York, June 8th, 1829 
 My dear brother, 
 
 " Your queries shall have a full answer. For many 
 reasons I am glad to have them propounded. The 
 anniversaries pretty zvell used me up, and I am only 
 coming to life now, so that it needs a direct question 
 to bring a letter to pass with me. 
 
 Imprimis — i\Iy confidence equals yours in the 
 project. It may be made the greatest factum of the 
 age. 
 
 2. No terms are to bo kept with * * * * 
 
 who would have our country stand like a great rich 
 
 bully, both hands in his pockets, and say, wc arc the 
 2o 
 
296 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 most learned, free, and magnanimous people on the 
 earth, and intend to be always in the superlative by- 
 showing no mercy to all the positive wretchedness on 
 the globe. I am delighted at the ground they take, 
 " American money on American soil ! " It fairly 
 shames their own adherents, as I know. This school 
 project has done good in having pushed the objection 
 to benevolence away from Christianity, and interfer- 
 ing with people's religion, into the bald question in the 
 abstract, namely, " Is benevolence more praiseworthy 
 than selfishness?" 
 
 3. 4. 5. * * * * * * 
 
 6. As to the Onward — We, my dear brother, have 
 got hold of an enormously great scheme, and if I ob- 
 tain help, I will not let go the rope till I die. But our 
 first m.ovements must acquire the confidence of the 
 calculating, prudent and less zealous than ourselves. 
 I never saw any thing so feasible and so grand. Jonas 
 King's letters, coming as they did to the pubhc meet- 
 ing, seemed a direct ray of heaven on us. 
 
 »y^ *##**#** 
 Time forbids my putting a tail to this seven-headed 
 monster. Until the next letter this will put you in 
 possession of our views — I say our, though they are 
 mine — I feel that one man who does one thing can do 
 it — but I am bound up in half a dozen things, all tend- 
 ing to the same end, any one of them enough for one. 
 But we have a choice committee, and I have every 
 wish of my heart gratified by the form in which this 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEX. 297 
 
 thing now lies before the pubHc. It shall have my 
 best efforts, though 3''ou did desert me in my utmost 
 need, but I labour not for your behoof — sed contra ini- 
 micos humani generis, pro humano genere et ecclesia. 
 Look well to this ebullition of Latin, and take heed 
 how you write To vbov interrogatively, or I shall give 
 you some modern Greek. * * * I think a 
 man likely to fight against providence who has but 
 one boat to sail in this age of enterprise. Besides 
 thinking of going to Greece, I have thought of going 
 to Illinois, and Paris, and Labrador. It is unhappy 
 for a man to determine that his whole life shall be dis- 
 astrous, because he cannot preach the gospel in the 
 Bowers-e. g. Or if he have the gift of tongues, to re- 
 fuse to talk Hottentot, because the Greeks stop their 
 ears. So you see at least professedly, I am for being 
 used up somehow. 
 
 Your friend and brother, 
 
 M. Bruen." 
 
 New York, July 2d, 1829. 
 " As to my going to Baltimore, Mr Perdicari could 
 not be had, so that was useless ; and as to other ef- 
 forts you will not see more than I can, why it is my 
 special duty to abandon my parish, more than it is 
 yours to abandon the Centre church for a week or a 
 month to go begging money over the country. Will 
 you go and do it 1 The Greek S. C. will be very glad 
 to send you a commission forthwith. I occupy a 
 
298 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 place which I wish you had, but would rather be ac- 
 cused of sloth than of error. If you think the field all 
 clear, I pray you get Mr Tappan to move, and be- 
 lieve that I am only humble scribe to the meeting. 
 Perhaps my last letter had too much elation in it, for 
 I have my ups and downs in this business — it is as dif- 
 ficult as it is important. But I intend to have the con- 
 firmation of my own judgment at least, for of how- 
 ever little worth to others, it is all I have to guide me 
 so long as I belong to this committee. I do not say 
 this, as implying that you have censured it. =* * 
 
 I have written far more than I intended, more than 
 I have fairly had time to give. 
 
 Believe me with christian affection, 
 
 Your brother, 
 
 M. Bruen." 
 
 It is not fitting to dilate further here on this affect- 
 ing subject. But O! that a voice as from his tomb 
 might summon anew the enemies of oppression, the 
 friends of liberty, the patrons of learning, to put forth 
 fresh energy to this noble work. The call is more 
 urgent on America, because the groans and tears 
 come from a republic, the ruin of what once was 
 free ; — from christians the remnant of those who once 
 were holy, and the protectors of other churches. 
 And shall not the happy and honoured daughters of 
 America also verify that cherished hope of Mr Bruen, 
 that wherever it is felt how indispensable are female 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN-. 299 
 
 intelligence and virtue to a nation's felicity, they will 
 exert themselves to restore and elevate the character 
 of the degraded and aOlicted daughters of Greece. 
 Who better know than the honoured females of a free 
 and christian country, how their influence molifies 
 the man, alleviates his griefs, smooths his asperities, 
 and leads him, by means of the small, sweet charities 
 of life, to estimate those peaceful virtues which tyran- 
 ny and injustice have driven from his home. Shall 
 not both sexes be roused to a generous emulation in 
 such a work of love ; so that Greece may not be left 
 to feel that the strength of her friends failed, though 
 their spirits drooped when Bruen expired. 
 
300 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 After the exertions of the time of the anniversaries, 
 Mr .B. felt relaxed by the warm weather, and went with 
 his beloved family, to the springs at Saratoga, for a 
 fortnight. While there, he was in high spirits and full 
 of that placid enjoyment which his nature was so pe- 
 culiarly fitted to relish, with friends whom he loved. 
 Early in August, they returned to the city, but the 
 health of his children constrained their mother to leave 
 its deleterious atmosphere and seek purer air leav- 
 ing him full of occupation at home. During this in- 
 terval he went to New London to represent the Bible 
 Society in the extra effort to supply every family in 
 the United States. Then went to New Haven, for the 
 same object. — Returned to New York for the duties of 
 the sabbath, and on the monday joined his family. It 
 was the last time. On tuesday he was travelHng to 
 Woodbury, in company with Professor Taylor, of 
 the Theological Seminary of New Haven when that 
 most instructive and satisfying conversation took place, 
 which so shortly after, on his most unlooked-for death 
 bed, he requested Mrs Bruen to obtain from Dr Tay- 
 lor. 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 301 
 
 It is peculiarly a subject of gratitude that Dr Tay- 
 lor has rescued time from his pressing avocations, to 
 embody in writing those words so precious. They are 
 precious as an example of what ought to be a chris- 
 tian's occupation " when he walks by the way." They 
 bring before us two servants of the Lord Jesus, jour- 
 neying for the purpose of ordaining missionaries for 
 a barren land, not slothfully resting in their own chris- 
 tian privileges, not placing any confidence in their oc- 
 cupations as evidences of their union to Christ, but 
 taking deep counsel with each other, and searching to 
 the very foundation what is their hope. They are 
 precious as an example of the means by which a pas- 
 tor becomes wise to win souls, and studies the hearts 
 of his hearers in the mirror of his own. It is thus, 
 that " iron sharpeneth iron," and the man of God be- 
 comes thoroughly furnished for every good work. — 
 They are precious as an example how time, which is 
 by' many who travel, lost as to any mental occupation, 
 may be improved to the quickening of the spirit, the 
 clearing of the views, and to preparation either for 
 usefulness in a prolonged pilgrimage, or peace at its 
 close. Dr Taylor must forgive what may to his first 
 impression seem a breach of delicacy, that he is thus 
 mentioned. It is one of the small penalties which he 
 must pay for having had the privilege of holding this 
 his last communing with his departed brother, and for 
 having himself uttered sentiments so fitted to be useful. 
 Without doubt he will pay the penalty with satisfac- 
 
302 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 tion, when he considers that by his reminiscences of 
 this conversation he has consoled the grief and guided 
 the minds of those who mourned with him the loss of 
 Mr Bruen, and that the sentiments here published are 
 what he doubtless often inculcates in his character of 
 a minister of the blessed gospel. But his own express- 
 ions of hesitation to comply with the request made to 
 him to recall this conversation " lest he should give 
 undue prominence to self in his part of it," proves that 
 the most disinterested motives prompted him to write 
 it at first ; and the same motives we cannot doubt will 
 induce him to forgive the publication of what he in 
 christian kindness wrote. 
 
 From Dr Taylor, New Haven. 
 
 Dear Madam, 
 
 " I have intended to give you long before this, the 
 account requested, of your beloved husband's conver- 
 sation with me, to which he alluded in the hour of his 
 departure to a better world. I have been prevented 
 from attempting it chiefly by the pressure of my oc- 
 cupations. There is another reason why I have 
 hesitated, and often thought of requesting you to 
 excuse me from complying with so reasonable a 
 request ; the difficulty of doing it without seeming at 
 least, to give an undue or unbecoming prominence to 
 myself, in regard to my part of the conversation. I 
 trust it is for your own use and gratification you have 
 asked me to do this, and I ought not to hesitate. In- 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEY. '10^ 
 
 dclled I do not know that it now possible for mc to 
 distinguish the parts which were his from those which 
 were mine, and since I can see no special importance 
 in this, as there was the most perfect coincidence of 
 views and feelings expressed throughout, I shall not 
 attempt it. It was one of those conversations, which 
 I trust may prove to me an earnest and foretaste of 
 the heavenly happiness. To him it was not so much 
 the foretaste as the commencement of the joys of that 
 world. 
 
 The conversation was dictated by the intimacy of 
 confiding friendship ; and began on his part with a de- 
 sign to his own profit, though it might, with more pro- 
 priety have proceeded from a regard to mine. lie 
 commenced by asking me to state to him the grounds 
 of my christian hope, and the degree of confidence I 
 had in my own preparation for the heavenly world. 
 
 The first topic was, that highly excited emotion, 
 though apparently holy, was not in itself the best 
 evidence of christian character. On this point it 
 was remarked as a fact in our own experience, that 
 it was not difficult in retired devotion, and abstract 
 contemplations of the great objects of religious af- 
 fections, to feel deeply and strongly in view of them, 
 — not difficult to bring in upon the soul a tide oi 
 emotion, in which the heart should apparently soften 
 in tender relcntings for sin, and sorrow for it — in 
 which its deformity should become sensibly odious, 
 and our abhorrence of it seem to associate with 
 itself a fixed purpose of its unreserved renunciation, 
 2p 
 
304 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 and of devotedness to the service of God, not dil- 
 ficult when contemplating the character of a perfect 
 God, to seem to exercise a supreme affection for 
 so much excellence, with those emotions of rever- 
 ence and awe in view of his greatness and majesty, 
 of gratitude for the riches of his goodness and 
 his grace, and of joy in his universal dominion, 
 which are so appropriate on our part. That of the 
 existence of such affections in appearance in our 
 own minds we could not doubt ; that although we 
 did not feel authorized to deny their genuineness, 
 when thus awakened in the mind, nor to refuse 
 our thanksgivings to Him, from whose grace they 
 might proceed ; that although in themselves, they 
 are among the most delightful and happy frames 
 of which man can be the subject, and of great 
 utility and indispensable necessity to give decision, 
 strength and activity to the rehgious principle of 
 the soul ; that although they are on these accounts 
 to be cultivated and cherished by the christian, 
 they do not when contemplated in the abstract form 
 and insulated character of mere emotion, furnish the 
 most solid basis of christian hope. 
 
 The defects of such a foundation of hope, were 
 then displayed in such remarks as these ; that the gen- 
 uineness of no religious affections can be confidently 
 decided on, at least in the imperfect degree in which 
 they exist in this world, merely by reflection. That it 
 is difficult by mere mental inspection to decide con- 
 fidently respecting the reality of practical principles. 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEX. 305 
 
 That afTcclions awakened by the contemplation of 
 their objects, though they may be genuine, may also 
 be simply the excitement of those constitutional sus- 
 ceptibilities, which pertain to the 7ialure of moral 
 beings whether holy or sinful ; and especially when 
 such excitement is aided by the imagination, and 
 some degree of hope, that we are already the objects 
 of divine favour. Illustrative of the remark, that men 
 simply as moral beings, are capable of this excite- 
 ment of constitutional emotion, the familiar passage 
 from Milton was cited, "Abashed the devil stood," &c 
 It was further remarked, that the object of holy aflec- 
 tion must be apprehended by the mind, not only in 
 their abstract nature and excellence, but mihe'iv practi- 
 cal relations. It was said, that we might easily contem- 
 plate the perfect character of God in that insolated 
 form, which shall exclude his relation to us as a 
 moral governor to whose will our will must be in 
 entire and cheerful subjection, and that it were not 
 less easy to contemplate an object of such excellence 
 and glory, in this manner, with sensible and even 
 delightful emotion. This fact was adverted to as the 
 basis of much self-deception, especially in those senti- 
 mental religionists who speak with rapture of the 
 goodness of the Creator, and of the love of Christ, 
 but do not, the things which he commands. The fact 
 too wcis illustrated by the power and influence which 
 contrariety of will, or collision of interest, often has 
 to render all the excellence and beauty of the most 
 
306 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 perfect moral character, an object of aversion, dis- 
 gust and enmity. Hence it was inferred, that affec- 
 tions, however much excited, which do not imply- 
 just views of the high relation of God to us as our 
 moral governor, claiming cheerful and cordial sub- 
 jection to his w^ill, — affections which do not associate 
 with themselves the purpose of holy obedience, or 
 perhaps more properly involve such purpose in their 
 very nature, are ever to be regarded as spurious ; 
 that there can be no security, that our affections are 
 such as are appropriate to the object, except they rise 
 through just views of the object, both in respect to 
 its nature, and its relations to us ; that the prominent 
 relation in which God reveals himself to man, and 
 one to which all others are subservient and in 
 which they terminate is that of a moral governor 
 whose will should be our will ; and that accordingly 
 those affections toward God are the only genuine 
 affections, which associate with themselves, a full 
 purpose of heart to consecrate the whole man to his 
 service — to the doing of his will in all holy obedience. 
 With these things in view, it was further remarked, 
 that affections awakened merely by contemplation, 
 and evincing their existence to us onhj by reflex men- 
 tal scrutiny, be they searched and held up to our 
 mental vision ever so carefully, cannot authorize the 
 highest degree of confidence in their genuineness, 
 which is attainable by the real christian ; that to evince 
 hteir genuineness, in the most desirable and satisfac- 
 
MATTHIAS imUE?f. 307 
 
 tory manner, they must show themselves in their 
 practical relations and practical results. Here how- 
 ever it was added, that the want of affections — 
 of all affections, having the appearance or aspect of 
 fitness, or appropriateness to divine things, is decisive 
 proof, that there is nothmg in the heart w^hich God 
 can approve — that he who in the retirement of the 
 closet, in his contemplations of God, of the Saviour, 
 of the heavenly world, &c. has no emotions or affec- 
 tions which the nature of these objects is fitted to 
 awaken in the mind, has not the shadow of a warrant 
 for the christian hope. 
 
 After a series of remarks, designed wdth minute 
 accuracy to distinguish "the precious from the vile " 
 in our affections, dwelling on the difficulties of such 
 discrimination; you will readily suppose that the 
 questions occurred with deep interest, how then shall 
 we decide the great question, whether we are the chil- 
 dren of God or not ? and what degree of confidence 
 that we are, is attainable in this world? Here it was 
 stated that religion in the soul of man is in its very 
 nature a practical principle, the governing practical prin- 
 ciple ; and that of course it will and must always 
 furnish legitimate evidence of its existence to its 
 subject, by its actual results in the life; that there 
 always is a degree of practical power in the principle, 
 and a degree of practical result, that constitute legit- 
 imate proof of the reality of the principle. True, it 
 was said, a man without the principle may do many 
 
308 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 things, which he would do with it ; and the subject of 
 it may erroneously estimate or overlook the legiti- 
 mate evidence in his own case, and judge erroneously 
 respecting himself. But the man who is the subject 
 of the principle, whether he judges that he has it, or 
 has it not, will do, what the man without it will not do. 
 There will in the case of the former be peculiar prac- 
 tical results, so habitual, so uniform, attended withj so 
 much conscientiousness, self-denial, &c. that the mind 
 unperverted in the estimate of the evidence furnished, 
 will see and know that these results are dictated by 
 the right principle, and can be the results of no other 
 principle. In other words, there will be such a doing 
 of the will of God, from the principle of obedience to 
 God, wherever the principle exists, as will evince 
 to the unperverted judgment, the fact that the 
 practice proceeds from the principle. Intimately 
 associated with these thoughts, a common but un- 
 fortunate mode of judging of personal religion, 
 was adverted to — that of appealing to past experi- 
 ence, in a manner, which disconnects it with the pre- 
 sent state of the affections and the practical purpose 
 of the heart;or rather with religion as a practical prin- 
 ciple, a mode in which the mind is ever searching after 
 evidence, and overlooks the necessity of creating it, at 
 each successive moment of accountable existence, and is 
 thus more anxious for the past than for the present ; 
 more desirous to believe that they are christians, than 
 actually to he christians. 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 309, 
 
 In this connection, also, a saying of John Newton's 
 was referred to — substantially this — that if he ever be- 
 came a christian, he thought he should be a far more 
 exemplary and perfect one, than any he had known, 
 but that he found after his conversion he was still a 
 sinner — that after all his resolutions, prayers, and pur- 
 poses, and experience, he was still a sinner, and must 
 go down to his grave a sinner, as dependent on Christ 
 his Saviour at last as at first. The manner of Ste- 
 phen's death was also spoken of, as excluding in an 
 absolute manner, all reliance on what he had 
 been, or had done, or then was ; and as a striking 
 exemplification of 7uikecl trust in his Saviour and 
 of its power to sustain the soul of a sinner — 
 "Lord Jesus receive my spirit." This was men- 
 tioned not only as a desirable way of dying, but 
 also as illustrating the connection between present 
 experience, present states or exercises of the heart, 
 and the supports and consolations of religion, and 
 shewing what there must be when and where it 
 is not. As a further exemplification of the sustain- 
 ing and cheering power of trust and confidence, 
 the transition from terror to serenity and joy in a 
 lost child on meeting his father, w^as specified. — 
 In connection with these remarks, there was a re- 
 currence to what had been said before, respecting 
 the nature and the power of the practical principle, 
 shewing that along with the imperfections and sins 
 of the christian there w^as a trust or confidence 
 
310 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 in the Saviour, that destroyed their influence to 
 alarm and agitate the mind, while with the reality 
 of the holy principle evinced as before described, 
 there was inseparably associated in his own con- 
 sciousness, the feeling of oneness in purpose, 
 design and action with God. This thought was 
 dwelt upon at some length, modified and expanded 
 in various forms ; as, that the christian in view of 
 the character, will and government of God, must 
 be conscious, and this by the conscious union of 
 principle and action in himself, that he wished 
 for no other mode of being, than that in which he 
 should be engaged with a perfect heart in doing 
 the will of God, promoting his designs and wit- 
 nessing the results; that in this mode of existence 
 he could not be unhappy ; that nothing could 
 be preferred to it, or compared with it, that all 
 else conceivable, were he excluded from this, 
 would be to him a dieary exile, leaving him no em- 
 ployment in which he could delight — no friend in 
 whom he could confide — no object worthy of pursuit 
 — no home for eternity where he could rest ; that to 
 be shut out from this mode of being and of life, would 
 be to render him an orphan, and an outcast in a for- 
 saken fatherless universe ; that instead of a universe 
 bright blessed and glorious with the displays of God 
 and the accompHshment of His designs, and the joys of 
 our own instrumental agency, it would become an 
 absolute desert. Inquiries were then made, which 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEX. 311 
 
 from the interest we felt in the subject, seemed to be 
 the expression of our real feehngs, than questions 
 needing an answer. What should what could we do, 
 under such an exclusion from God — from that active 
 co-operation with God, in the accomplishment of Iiis 
 great and glorious designs, which is the portion and 
 blessedness of His servants. To be placed in what 
 part of the universe we might, and to know that there 
 is such a God, with such a system of instrumental ac- 
 tion, appointed to creatures like ourselves, for the ac- 
 complishment of such resuhs as will fully exhibit God's 
 power to bless. His Kingdom would awaken those 
 longings of spirit to live and act for Him, which no- 
 thing could extinguish. 
 
 This led to the mutual expression of the wish that 
 we might live and act thus, both in this and in a future 
 world, as workers together with God — and of the as- 
 surance that with such feelings and purposes of soul, 
 evinced by their conscious connection with doing the 
 Divine will, we should not want the consolations of 
 christian hope, while in this world ; that though uncer- 
 tainty might in some degree mar our prospects, it 
 would be rather the result of the apprehension that we 
 might be mistaken in our judgment of ourselves, than 
 the belief that we were — that it would give us com- 
 paratively but little disquietude, while we found our- 
 selves living thus for God — that death itself with all 
 its terrors would not much disturb us, for the feeling 
 
 would be and could not be dislodged from the mind, 
 2q 
 
312 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 that it would not separate us from God — that our hap- 
 piness is incorporated with His glory, and the fulfil- 
 ment of His designs ; and that that life and mode of 
 being which are known to be our hearts' desire, will 
 and must be that of eternity. I remember well that 
 while we thus communed, all seemed to be safe, all to 
 be well with us for evermore. 
 
 From this course of thought, continued for some 
 time, we adverted to the system and course of effort 
 to be made for the miserable world in which we were 
 — our own respective places of residence — our coun- 
 try — the world — and more particularly Greece, were 
 the localities to which our thoughts w^ere directed. 
 Your husband here more fully perhaps than to any 
 one except yourself, disclosed to me his thoughts and 
 purposes respecting that country. I need not detail 
 this part of the conversation to you. Had he lived I 
 doubt not that Greece had been indebted to him, for 
 an agency of philanthrophy and benevolence that had 
 eclipsed all the glory of her ancient heroes or patriots. 
 
 Such is an outline of the substance of the conversa- 
 tion as I recollect it. I should doubtless have thought 
 less of this interchange of thought and feeling with a 
 beloved brother and intimate christian friend, had it 
 not been so soon followed by his death. It derives 
 from this event pecuHar interest. It may very prop- 
 erly in my estimation, be regarded as a heart-search- 
 ing scrutiny conducted with that frank and open dis- 
 closure which is peculiar, (I ought to say this of my 
 
MATTHIAS HRUE.V. 318 
 
 friend rather than of myself) to a confidential conver- 
 sation of a christian who in it was aiming at a deci- 
 sion respecting himself, the most momentous on this 
 side of the judgment seat. And I should not omit to 
 say, how distinctly I recollect the interest, the mental 
 intensity, with which he adhered to the subject of in- 
 quiry, and still more, in that part of the conversation, 
 in which the result was obtained, how obvious were 
 the mental serenity and peace, of strengthening hope 
 and confidence. I might say, it was easy to see a 
 beaming joy in his countenance evincing that with 
 him all was safe for eternity, as his thoughts thus re- 
 curred to its legitimate warrant in that state of heart, 
 which he knew to be his own. 
 
 And now, my dear Madam, I am glad that your im- 
 portunity has overcome my reluctance to give you 
 this narrative, imperfect as it is. To recall the inter- 
 view is pleasant, and I hope may be profitable to me. 
 I commit it to you with the confidence that it will give 
 you in some degree the pleasure you anticipated. It 
 is a better testimony of the kind, perhaps, than could 
 be given in any other circumstances, of the piety of 
 your beloved husband, and his preparation for death. 
 It seems to me to be saying on his part, without anti- 
 cipating the suddenness of that event, in the midst of 
 life, and with all his earthly prospects as bright as ev- 
 er, " I am ready to be ofl^ered." That his God may 
 be your God, is the prayer of your frieiid and humble 
 servant. N. W. Taylor. 
 
314 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Thus we have by means of his respected friend, Dr 
 Taylor, a minute and delightful record of the mental 
 occupation of that day of journeying. 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 315 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 In the evening of tuesday the 26th, when at Wood- 
 bury, he wrote the charge which he delivered the next 
 day, Wednesday the 27th, to several missionaries who 
 were appointed to go to the valley of the Mississip- 
 pi to preach the Gospel and to establish a college. 
 He said himself previously, to his most beloved earth- 
 ly friend, " I could do better extempore, but the clergy 
 may think there is a want of respect if I do not 
 write." This is characteristic of his deference for 
 the feelings of others. 
 
 On thursday the 28th of August, when he arose in 
 the morning, Mr Bruen remarked that " he never was 
 so well, that he was in the conscious enjoyment of health, 
 that it was a happiness to breathe." A part of that 
 peaceful day he occupied with his then happy family, 
 in reading aloud about Greece. But he felt indisposed 
 in the night and during the following day, though his 
 tenderness for those who loved him induced liim to 
 conceal it, as on Saturday the 30th, his duty to his flock 
 
316 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 called him back to the city. He reached home in the 
 evening, and read the 51st psalm at worship, with 
 with the only domestic then in his lonely dweUing ; 
 and prayed in his family for the last time. On sab- 
 bath morning, his heart being set on his master's bu- 
 siness, he resisted incipient sickness, and entered the 
 pulpit. He read the psalm, made the short prayer, 
 and began the first chapter of John, but after reading 
 a few verses he stopped and requested the rev. Mr 
 Peters to proceed with his duties. In a little time 
 he retired from the church to IiIl own house, a brief 
 Journey to be retraced by him no more, till his frame 
 had lost the principle of life, and was reconveyed to 
 that spot, the scene of so many solicitudes and pray- 
 ers, to wait for the blessed morning of the resurrec- 
 tion. 
 
 He had immediate medical assistance, and on mon- 
 day morning seemed quite lively and active. An in- 
 stance, characteristic of the general bent of his 
 thoughts may here be mentioned. The domestic who 
 was left in charge of the house during the absence of 
 the family, complained to him with some anxiety, that 
 the moths were injuring a portion of the furniture. — 
 ** Never mind," he replied in a cheerful tone, " we 
 'Shall all be ;eaten by moths soon." Though he 
 continued unwell, he deemed himself recovering, and 
 6ven on Wednesday did not send to hasten the return 
 of his beloved wife. But she, having learned that he 
 was not well, was re-united to him on the thursday 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN". 817 
 
 morning. During the agonizing pain wliich he endur- 
 ed previous to her arrival he congratulated himself 
 that her feelings were spared the witnessing of it. But 
 now the conflict with anguish was fast thickening, and 
 the solemn hours as they passed away, were bringing 
 nearer to his contemplation the last enemy whom he 
 must encounter. The hours were not many since his 
 health was so complete that he felt it " a happiness to 
 breathe." His plans for future usefulness had embrac- 
 ed years to come, and there was nothing irrational or 
 presumptuous in the calculation. What wonder then, 
 that when the conviction first reached his soul that 
 these agonies must bring life to a sudden close, he 
 should be stunned, as if his God had not accepted 
 his sacrifice. What wonder that he should exclaim, 
 " God is coming in darkness — Lord have mercy upon 
 my soul." If the actual presence of death be start- 
 hng even to the Christian who has waited his ap- 
 proach through lingering months of languor, how 
 much more to him who was in the prime of life, of 
 intellectual might, and in the zenith of usefulness. 
 But as his respected friend, Dr Skinner, narrates in 
 the sermon occasioned by his sudden removal, "qui- 
 etness, and assurance of spirit soon returned, and 
 gave utterance to the triumphant verse, 
 
 *'I'll praise my Maker with my breath; 
 And when my soul is lost in death," 
 
 and to the Psalmist's effusion of confidence. "Whom 
 
 have I in heaven but thee 1 and there is none on earth 
 
 I desire beside thee." 
 
318 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 And now, when his minutes on earth were num- 
 bered, when there might be much to feel and much to 
 arrange for his beloved ones, and when his natural 
 delicacy and reserve of temperament might have led 
 him to desire to exclude all that were not of his very 
 bosom's intimates, the new nature triumphed beauti- 
 fully in him. At an interval of rehef from surpassing 
 suffering, strength was given him to speak, and they 
 so felt the worth and danger of souls, and were so 
 desirous to use the last precious occasion of doing 
 good, that their doors were thrown open to all who 
 would enter. It is affecting in communicating with 
 with those who loved him, to observe that each has a 
 parting love token, some words of admonition as a 
 memorial of him they love ; and to those whom he 
 did not see, he sent messages. O that they may sink 
 into our hearts, that he may be honoured to build up 
 the church by his death, even more than in his life. 
 
 To one he said, "Hold on M be a consistent 
 
 christian, and then though you are poor in this world, 
 you will be as rich as any princess in heaven." Of 
 another he said, " Tell her I love her, I am sure she 
 will be saved, and we shall meet if I am saved." Of 
 
 another, " Say to brother S , I love him, I have 
 
 always loved him, for he is a faithful minister of 
 Christ." To one dear relative of whom he took 
 dehght to converse when in Scotland, he said, im- 
 printing at the same time his farewell kiss, " Had I 
 been a lively christian, you might have been a chris- 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. ,319 
 
 tian. Be a christian now, and preach the gospel. 
 There is nothing worth hving for but that." To each 
 of his kindred, he sent earnest messages of love ; and 
 to each of the members of his church — not one was 
 overlooked. lie was as a father going into a far 
 country, and must leave a word of advice to each of 
 his precious family. To one he said, " Be saved to- 
 day; before you sleep this night be saved, and tell 
 your husband to be saved. J\ow is the accepted 
 time" — and then he motioned to be left alone, and as 
 he cast his eyes upward, she who watched his every 
 movement, heard him say many words in a low tone, 
 the meaning of which appeared to be, " If / have 
 never been accepted, 7iow is the accepted time for 
 me." 
 
 Of his children he said, " Bring up my children for 
 God. Be strict with them on the sabbath. Tell 
 them it is beautiful to die, when one dies well — yes it 
 is sweet to die" — surely here he was speaking from 
 his present experience of the sweetness of death — a 
 sweetness which neither its suddenness, its agonising 
 pains, nor its separating him from those to whom his 
 most affectionate heart was knit, could diminish. 
 Surely we may take up the exulting words of the 
 apostle and say, " thanks be to God who gave him 
 the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." His 
 neighbour and fellow labourer, the Rev. W. Patton, 
 asked him if he could now rest his soul upon the 
 
 truths which he had urged upon his people. He 
 
 2r 
 
320 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 replied, *• I think I can, but Oh that I had been a 
 shining and devoted minister of Christ. If God will 
 accept the poorest and most wicked of all his crea- 
 tures, then I may be saved." It was asked " can you 
 cast yourself just as yon are on the merits and blood 
 of Jesus ? " He replied, " I can, I can." 
 
 Though his tortures were exquisite (for his frame 
 was most delicately constructed, and capable of 
 keener suffering than falls to the lot of many,) and 
 though he was not capable at many intervals, of ex- 
 pressing himself in conversation, his faculties did not 
 waver till within a few hours of the last, and even 
 then, during the wanderings of his mind, his thoughts 
 dwelt on the cause of missions. That cause lay near 
 his heart, and to his associates in the Home Mis- 
 sionary Society, he sent a brief and dying message, 
 which will not be forgotten while the United States 
 have hberty of conscience, and bosoms that swell 
 with pity for those who are ignorant and out of the 
 way. " Yours is a great work ; the work of God ; 
 hold on." At the risk of repeating what has been 
 heard by many we would present a passage from Dr 
 Cox's sermon, entitled " Consolation in death," which 
 was delivered to a crowded and mourning audience 
 while the remains of our brother lay yet uninterred 
 in his church. " The death-bed of Bruen was a pri- 
 vileged place. I bless God for permitting me to wit- 
 ness it. From no death-bed did I ever carry away 
 such impressions. When all the strong and tender 
 
MATTHIAS liRUEV. 321 
 
 ties, that bound liim to society, were mentally sun- 
 dered, by the sentence of the physicians — though ten- 
 derly and discreetly announced to him — that liis death 
 was inevitable, he felt the unexpected shock, like 
 what it was — a summons from the throne of God. On 
 my coming in on friday, his articulation was difficult ; 
 but his speaking eye, beaming with a full intelligence 
 that never left him but with life, recognized me ; when 
 he said, in somewhat broken accents, " My brother 1 " 
 with a pause ; "we shall meet," he meant to say, " in 
 heaven;" and [then added, "if we deserve it;" when 
 perceiving (for he ill could choose his language,) that 
 the phrase was improper, he thus corrected it ; " if 
 Christ has made us meet." His agonies w^ere "fear- 
 ful," as he often said ; and with their paroxysms, his 
 mind so sympathized, that for long intervals he could 
 not communicate to earthly friends, or realize the con- 
 solations of a Saviour's presence. He would then 
 ejaculate, "O my heavenly Father ; have mercy on 
 my poor soul ; my poor body ; I am an unworthy sin- 
 ner, and my God is coming in darkness." Such was 
 the spirituality of his perceptions ; such his sense of 
 the unsuffering and uncovered hoHness of God, into 
 whose presence he was about to be precipitated; such 
 his utter self-renouncement, his ingenuous self- abhor- 
 rence and self-abasement; such his humiliated estimate 
 of his services, his ministry, and his motives ; and I 
 may add, such his characteristic self-diffidence and 
 unfeigned humility, always thinking "others better 
 
322 MEMOIRS OP 
 
 than himself" — in which I need not say to you that he 
 was singular in his judgment, if not in his example — 
 that the mighty conception, that such a sinner could 
 be "saved in Christ Jesus with eternal glory," was 
 staggering to his faith, and painful to his hope, and 
 fleeting for a time to his grasp. 
 
 One prominent characteristic of his death-bed was, 
 agony for the salvation of his people and zeal 
 for the conversion of souls. Some of his faithful 
 charges to those about him, will never be forgotten. 
 O how his soul travailed in birth, my dear hearers, 
 for some of you ; that Christ might be formed in you, 
 " the hope of glory ! " Ye relatives, ye brothers, ye 
 friends, will ye forget his death-bed admonitions? I pray 
 God that ye may never, never, forget them ! If ye love 
 him, O love his Saviour too ! I am merely giving to 
 his sentiments the utterance of my lips, w^hen I add 
 "to-day, now% w^hile it is 'offered to you, w^hile it is 
 attainable in Christ, this instant, turn to God, give 
 Him your affections by faith in His w^ords, and take 
 as your owm, the Salvationof the glorious Gospel." 
 To his people, w^hose souls seemed to press on his 
 anxieties, he sent solemn messages, general and 
 particular. He seemed deeply, and even awfully 
 impressed w^ith a sense of the difference, that too 
 often exists in fact, betw^een a professor, and a pos- 
 sessor, of the grace of Christ. He wished the semi- 
 christians warned, the doubting and irresolute re- 
 solved; and every professor to have as it w^ere "in his 
 
MATTHIAS RRUEY. 323 
 
 forehead" the legible impress of crucifixion to the 
 world, and of glorying in its nicdiuni — flic cross of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ. "Tell them, "said he" to be 
 thorough christians, decided, sincere ; for death will 
 try them." He was afraid that some of his church- 
 members would be lost; and this evidently agonised 
 him on the couch of death. "O tell them," said he, 
 "that I hope they are christians; by which I would be 
 understood as expressing a doubt of it" — his solemn 
 countenance spoke the rest! His messages and 
 charges were most discriminating and appropriate. 
 I will add, they were most benevolent, faithful, 
 heavenly, excellent. But you know this! then let them 
 be appreciated. Great God ! O sanctify them to us 
 all, for Jesus' sake! that they arise not up in judgment 
 to our horrible confusion ! 
 
 It is said of the Elder President Edwards, that 
 having settled all his earthly affairs, when he was 
 about to die, he bade adieu affectionately to all his 
 friends, and then turning from all, he said, "now 
 where is Jesus of Nazareth!" Our departed brother 
 also, having despatched all other business, seemed de- 
 liberately to withdraw from his attendants, that he 
 might transact the solemnities of special preparation 
 with his God. As if retiring, and bidding us farewell, 
 he said to me, "I die in peace and love with all men." 
 His soul gradually acquired a tone of serenity and ac- 
 quiescence, of tender and collected thought, of trust- 
 ful, submissive, and devout expectancy in God. So 
 
324 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 high was his general estimate of the Christian char- 
 acter; so perfect his sense of perfect responsibility; so 
 conscious of his own unworthiness, and of the inef- 
 fable glory of heaven ; so lofty his conceptions of the 
 dignity, the sublimity, the moral grandeur, of those 
 exalted spirits that surround the throne of God 
 Almighty and the Lamb ; so unexpected, formidable, 
 sudden, the illapse of death ; so trying so irritating so 
 insuperable, his disease; that, while we nothing wonder 
 at his occasional dread of death and fear of eternity, 
 we can see in the dispensation a light in the darkness. 
 As it is, the total scene is invested with a deeper 
 awe, a more appropriate eloquence, a richer and 
 more salutary instruction to the living." 
 
 From Dr Skinner's on the same affecting occasion, 
 we present also an extract. "His thoughtful affection 
 did not confine itself to the friends who stood around 
 him. It was generously occupied also, about those 
 who were absent, to whom he sent appropriate 
 messages of his constant love. And how did this 
 watchful pastor remember in his death-season the 
 flock, of which the Great Shepherd had given him 
 the oversight? — in the well evidenced piety of some, 
 expressing his warm delight; for others, trembling 
 anxiety,|lest they come short of the promised rest ; 
 for the manifestly unconverted " travailing in birth," 
 that Christ might be formed within them ; for all, 
 leaving his affectionate charges and valedictions. — 
 And the care, not only of his own people, but of the 
 
MATTHIAS BKUEX. 325 
 
 universal church, was not now absent from the mind 
 of this hbcrahzcd and Jargc-hearted man of God. 
 You all knew how he had laboured for the further- 
 ance of the gospel throughout the length and breadth 
 of his own country ; it was his dying message to the 
 Committee of Home Missions in this city — " Yours is 
 a great work ; the work of God ; hold on." — He gave 
 directions as to his funeral service ; but herein also 
 discovered the loftiness of the ascendant feehng in 
 his death. He w^anted nothing said about himself 
 but what would be of useful tendency to others : he 
 was afraid, so low was his estimate of his own piety, 
 that to panegyrize him as a saint, would but leave 
 sinners less impressed with the necessity of those 
 agonising exertions which all men must make to be 
 saved ; and he seemed to think also, that a discourse 
 suited to excite tender and mournful emotions, when 
 such emotions were likely to be sufficiently awakened 
 by the occasion, would tend rather to prevent than 
 promote those pecuhar convictions of sin and ruin, 
 which ordinarily precede true evangehcal repentance 
 and faith. "Don't make me out a saint," he said, 
 " for that would be the way to ruin souls." " Don't 
 preach a gloomy sermon, but make heaven seem 
 brighter than the world." Nor was this noble zeal 
 for the good of souls and the glory of God, unat- 
 tended by conscious peace and confidence in respect 
 to his own eternal state. " I die," he said, " in peace 
 and love with all mankind." — He was asked, in an 
 interval of comparative rest from bodily anguish, and 
 
326 MEMOIRS or 
 
 when very near the farthest limit of the dark valley 
 he was treading, whether he could give his attention 
 during a short devotional exercise ; and having given 
 an affirmative answer, the following scriptures were 
 distinctly repeated. " I am the resurrection and the 
 life ; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, 
 yet shall he live, and he that liveth and believeth in 
 me shall never die. Believest thou this?' " There 
 is no condemnation to them which are in Christ 
 Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the 
 spirit. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ 
 Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and 
 death. For what the law could not do in that it was 
 weak through the flesh, God sendmg His own Son in 
 the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned 
 sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law 
 might be fulfilled, in us who walk not after the flesh 
 but after the spirit. "-"For I reckon that the sufferings 
 of this present time are not worthy to be compared 
 with the glory which shall be revealed in us." " Be- 
 loved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not 
 yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when 
 He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall 
 see Him as He is." "For this corruptible shall put 
 on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immor- 
 tahty: so when this corruptible shall have put on 
 incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on im- 
 mortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying 
 which is written. Death is swallowed up fn victory. 
 O death where is thy sting! O grave where is thy 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 327 
 
 victory ! The sting of death is sin, and the strenr^th 
 of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who givcth 
 us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." — He 
 had been profoundly still, and remaining so, the 
 speaker was doubtful whether he had been understood 
 and said, "did you hear me my brother ? " "I heard 
 and loved it — every word." — "Is your mind at rest?" 
 "Yes, I have a calm peace within." Then, after 
 tenderly embracing his near relatives, and addressing 
 them in a manner never to be forgotten, prayer was 
 made until he became fatigued. The process of dying 
 now proceeded rapidly on, and nothing more was said 
 or done, that could be considered as indicating the 
 thoughts and feelings of his heart. 
 
 So died our lamented friend — a death how charac- 
 teristic of the man ; how consistent with his life." 
 
 On the 6th of December 1829, in the 37th year of 
 his age, just as the dawn was ushering in the first day 
 of the week, were his labours and sufferings consum- 
 mated. And now we rejoice to believe that he dwells 
 in the presence of Him, whom not having seen he 
 loved. Now he is in the full blaze of the light which 
 proceeds from the Lamb. Can we wish him back 
 again in this dark world? The delicate sensibility 
 which made him susceptible of suffering here, now 
 only increases his capabilities of happiness. He has 
 lost none of the peculiarities of his character. He is 
 the same man, made perfect, and in that bright light 
 which shines upon him, not one of the traces we loved 
 can be hidden. 2 s 
 
328 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 In Mr Bruen's private character there seemed to 
 remain less of dross, than is almost always found even 
 in those who have much of the pure gold of Christi- 
 anity. It is common to trace, or imagine we can 
 trace, some peculiarity in the external circumstances, 
 which might have elicited good qualities, and subdued 
 evil. But in the early life of Mr Bruen, there is nothing 
 which might not have produced qualities the very 
 reverse of those by which he was distinguished. 
 For example, his sojourn with his grandfather from 
 his seventh year to his fifteenth, while it led a mind 
 like his to seek occupation in books and contempla- 
 tion, for lack of associates of his own age, might also 
 have rendered him morose and uncommunicative ; or 
 as the only and much caressed child of this aged 
 parent, he might have imbibed habits of selfishness, 
 which would have tinctured all his life. But in truth 
 he was distinguished for flexibility of feeling. His 
 heart was as a many chorded instrument, which res- 
 ponds to every touch. We have seen him dry his 
 own tears that he might smile in the happiness of oth- 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 329 
 
 ers ; and we have seen his usual expression of benev- 
 olent tranquility vanish like a meteor, under the influ- 
 ence of a look of anxiety from a friend. It has not 
 been our lot to meet with any one more truly gene- 
 rous ; and that which he, in reviewing his early life, 
 termed selfishness, would have formed the liberality of 
 the generality of youths. 
 
 Again — During his first visit in riper years to, Eu- 
 rope, when, after becoming separated from his rever- 
 ed and loved Dr Mason, no outward restraint was left, 
 and temptation was urging itself upon him, in its thou- 
 sand nameless blandishments, it might have been an- 
 ticipated that his ideas of good and evil and his moral 
 conduct might have been relaxed. The very reverse, 
 however, was the result ; and feehng himself in a land 
 of pits and snares, he learned to walk more circum- 
 spectly, and to shun every appearance of evil. A 
 friend who feared he might have suffered loss in spir- 
 itual things, inquired of him, half ironically, if he felt 
 he had any habits to change now that he was come 
 from gay France, to resume his character of American 
 minister in sober Scotland. His reply was a vocal 
 burst of indignation, which no letters can convey. But 
 observing the looks of the investigator resting on him 
 still inquiringly, tears flowed from his eyes. There 
 followed a most interesting conversation, in which, 
 after a first expression of grief at seeming to be sus- 
 pected, he unfolded the sources of his safety, and his 
 various exercises of what must have been strong self- 
 
330 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 denial to a mind inquisitive like his, in a strain of gen- 
 uine simplicity and sincerity, which excited admira- 
 tion in the friends who were then but beginning to 
 form acquaintance with his character. 
 
 The earHest portion of his years does not seemto 
 have been his happiest. There was about him an un- 
 usual thoughtfulncss, adverse to tranquility of mind, 
 till tempered by a growing experience of the govern- 
 ment of God, and the general course of life. And such 
 a heart as his, young as he was, required more to oc- 
 cupy and soothe it, than this world has to give. He 
 always had a remarkably tender conscience, which 
 kept him from those sins of youth which so often shut 
 out the Holy Spirit in His first strivings. At ten years 
 he wept bitterly, and asked what he should do to be 
 saved, and from that time till he was eighteen, he did 
 not cease to feel the pressure of the obligations of the 
 divine Law. As a proof of this there was a shade of 
 thoughtful sadness in his countenance which became 
 less and less marked every year, as it gradually yielded 
 to the beaming of that peace which the Saviour gives 
 to "his disciples. His childhood was not marked by 
 any striking incidents, except one or two hair-breadth 
 escapes, which he used to relate with expressions of 
 gratitude to the Providence that preserved him. One 
 of these, his falling in the twilight into a cistern, where, 
 had he not been instantly rescued, he must have been 
 drowned, is peculiarly worthy of notice, as it occurred 
 about his tenth year, and was in his own mind re- 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 331 
 
 motely connected with the soHcitudc about the state 
 of his soul, which originated about the same period. 
 His love of reading was very great. At six years of 
 age he would lock himself alone in a room lest he 
 should be disturbed. Through all his youth there was 
 the same marked individuality of character, the same 
 dignity, the same beauty, the same confidence, the 
 same reserve, the same boldness and sensitiveness, 
 the same honesty of heart, the same freedom from any 
 thing politic or mancEUvering. 
 
 Of filial reverence, even after his own understand- 
 ing was matured, and the time for implicit obedience 
 was past, he w^as a lovely example. Those who have 
 heard him speak of the will of his parent, when half 
 the globe divided them, and have heard his plans 
 formed in reference to what he deemed " his father " 
 would wish him to accomplish, know how he honored 
 him even in things, the omission of which could never 
 have been remarked by the parent himself. 
 
 Of his fraternal character also we must speak. 
 How has he in earlier years delighted to select and 
 set fourth the bright points of character of those of 
 his own house, and to compute what they were capa- 
 ble of becoming. One who knew the secrets of his 
 heart knows how in Scotland he set apart times to 
 make prayer for them, and how he did so with many 
 tears. — And even when advancing life, and crowding 
 occupations severed him from his family, yet in a cor- 
 respondence of years they failed not to form an affect- 
 
332 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 ing portion of his subjects. He ever rejoiced in any 
 token for their good, and mourned if his hopes were 
 quelled. 
 
 As a husband and as a father — alas, we cannot speak, 
 for the bereaved ones to whom he stood in these most 
 endearing of human ties have lost him, and are left 
 in the world alone. Let those who know any thing 
 of human character, infer what he was in these re- 
 lations, who was so lovely in those of son, brother 
 and friend ! They cannot go beyond the reality. 
 
 There were very few whom he took into his bosom- 
 intimacy ; but to them his affection was ardent and 
 abiding, and his confidence unbounded. His benev- 
 olence was alike warm and diffusive, and knew no 
 limit when it could operate to the elevation, encour- 
 agement and relief of others. His reverence for holi- 
 ness in the creature, was such that he would overlook 
 some traits from which his natural taste would have 
 otherwise revolted, when he saw, or imagined he saw, 
 the image of God stamped on their souls. There is 
 no record of the progress of his mind while at college. 
 One Uttle incident in the closing scene of his studies 
 may be named as an evidence how he acquitted him- 
 self, and as a specimen, among many, of the effect 
 produced by his pleasing aspect and demeanor. Dr 
 SilUman, Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy in 
 Yale College, happened to be at the Commencement * 
 
 * The same with our Commemoration in England. 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 333 
 
 of Columbia College, when Mr Bruen was graduated. 
 There was in his appearance and the whole perform- 
 ance so much dignity and beauty, that the Professor 
 frequently spoke of him, after his return home. He 
 knew nothing more of him than these few hours told 
 him, and when he spoke of him, he generally express- 
 ed a wish to know him more. Many years after, 
 when Mr Bruen was passing through New Haven he 
 was introduced to the Professor who on his return 
 homo exclaimed to Mrs Silliman, "I have found out 
 my young man at last ! '* 
 
 His later occupations were so various, his exer- 
 tions so intense, and his relaxation so entirely of a 
 domestic character, that it required such an event as 
 his sudden removal, to reveal how highly he was esti- 
 mated by theAmerican public. He claimed so little 
 for himself and was ever so ready to prefer others 
 in honour, that he seemed likely to be thoroughly 
 known and appreciated only by a few. It is grateful 
 to the feelings of those who love him, to find that he 
 was valued as he ought to be. Though we shrink, as 
 he would have shrunk, from publishing much on this 
 subject, and though he needs not testimonials of cha- 
 racter from man, we venture to insert a letter from 
 Professor Stuart to Mrs Bruen, honourable to the 
 Professor as to the departed, and evincing his reputa- 
 tion as a scholar, no less than as a christian and as a 
 friend. 
 
334 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 From Moses Stuart. 
 
 Andover Theol. Sem. 
 
 My dear Madam, 
 
 I cannot by any words convey to you the anguish 
 of my heart on account of the loss of your excellent 
 husband. Never, if I except the death of Dr Dv^ight 
 alone, did I experience sorrow or feel bereavement so 
 great, as when the news came of his death. In all 
 the vigour of manhood, with his judgment, memory, 
 understanding, heart, all cultivated to a high degree ; 
 beloved of all, respected of all, looking forward to an 
 influence in the church, subordinate to that of no other 
 man in our country — a dear friend to me — -O the recol- 
 lection overcomes me to tears, and I dare not proceed 
 to call up your sorrows afresh, by pouring out mine. 
 What Beza said when Calvin died, I can now truly 
 say, "Now is life less sweet and death less bitter.'* 
 Never did I feel a more melancholy hour in looking 
 over the future prospects of the church in our coun- 
 try, than that which succeeded the tidings of Mr 
 Bruen's death. And to this moment the revival of the 
 same feeling is frequent, and now and then overcomes 
 me even to weakness. But peace! I loved the dear 
 man too much, and calculated too much on his impor- 
 tance. This, I suppose, was your fault too, and God 
 in his mercy to us has removed him from us both. I 
 do not pretend to compare my loss with yours. This 
 would be only to mock your grief; but I do say that 
 however well you loved him as a husband, as a friend 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 335 
 
 and minister of the Gospel, I cannot allow that you 
 have a higher regard for his memory than myself I 
 feel that the church is as it were widowed as well as 
 you. Thy ways, O God! are unsearchable, thy judg- 
 ments past finding out. 
 
 Never did 1 feel that all the powers of my soul 
 needed to be called forth and employed in the prac- 
 tice of submission, more than in respect to this event. 
 Even with regard to Dr Dwight there was a differ- 
 ence here — his sun was declining, but that of my 
 dear brother and your husband w^as only rising to- 
 wards its meridian splendour. — "It is the Lord, let him 
 do what seemeth to him good." This is all I can say — 
 I sat down to write you a letter of consolation, and I 
 am aggravating your sorrows by pouring out my 
 own. That Mr Bruen is gone to a world of peace 
 and joy is what we both beHeve ; our loss is his gain. 
 But then as he was ripe for heaven here, so he was 
 on this very account, the more useful, and his stay 
 among us the more to be desired. I cannot think of 
 it without again whetting the paper w^ith my tears as I 
 write. Who shall fill his place ? My dear Madam, 
 he was a prominent candidate for a place in our semi- 
 nary: with all our hearts, should we have welcomed 
 him here, and had he been better known to all our 
 Trustees he would have been chosen earlier. Had 
 he lived until September was past, I believe he would 
 have been our Professor. "Help, Lord, for the godly 
 
 faileth, the faithful fail from among the children of 
 
 2t 
 
336 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 men" — How can I forbear to use this most appropri- 
 ate language of the Psalmist. 
 
 May the God and judge of the widow, the Father 
 of the fatherless, grant you that peace, that filial 
 submission, that quiet resignation, which will be more 
 and better consolation than I, or all the world can 
 give ! Such is the sincere and fervent prayer of 
 Your sincere friend, 
 
 Moses Stuart. 
 
 At one period of his life, when his natural activity 
 was too much without guide and stimulus, he accused 
 himself of constitutional indolence. But his subse- 
 quent exertions have proved that if he were indolent, 
 it was from the want of motive, and not from the ab- 
 sence of energy. When at last he found congenial 
 spirits, how did his soul expand and dilate in the 
 higher moral and intellectual delights. And when he 
 could perceive openings for useful exertion in the 
 spread of the gospel, with what ingenuity did he de- 
 vise the means, with what skill did he put them in 
 train, with what business-like accuracy did he fix his 
 mind to the details, with what exhaustless industry 
 did he attend to them all. 
 
 Those who were acquainted only with the gentle- 
 ness, refinement, and literary taste, which were his 
 predominant characteristics, a few years before, may 
 well wonder at his dexterity in business, and his 
 acuteness in selecting every point which could aid 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 337 
 
 his object. How much that seemed remote from his 
 original character, had he acquired and brought to 
 bear on the service of the church ; how firm and in- 
 flexible when he knew he was rii^ht ; how in2:enuous 
 if he felt he was mistaken ; how docile when it was 
 only matters of taste which he was required to sacri- 
 fice ; how indignant at the appearance of chicane and 
 duplicity; how placable to the infirmities of those 
 whom he deemed sincere ! His energy, his fortitude, 
 his holy indignation against aberrations from the on- 
 ward course of integrity in those from whom he had 
 a right to expect better things, did not diminish in the 
 least his tenderness, his sympathy, his always watch- 
 ful care for the feelings of others. There are men 
 who are kind, considerate, sympathizing ; yet occa- 
 sionally disappointing, forgetful, indolent, selfish ; but 
 those who knew him best, and knew him longest, 
 cannot point out the moment when Mr Bruen put his 
 ow^n ease before the convenience of his neighbour, or 
 his own estimate of himself above that of his fellow. 
 
 Possessing such qualities, with extensive influence, 
 he seemed entirely void of ambition ; that is, ambition 
 in its selfish characteristics. If he w^ere eager to do 
 well, it was that his cause might succeed, not that 
 himself might be admired. If he were desirous to 
 accomplish a plan, and exerted influence in it, it was 
 not for the pleasure of feeling his power and his influ- 
 ence ; it was that he might do good. Still he cared 
 for the love and approbation of others, and no one's 
 
338 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 happiness depends more upon these than his did. But 
 nevertheless, he would hazard all that he loved in a 
 friend, rather than make a timid compromise Vi^ith 
 conscience, and pass by his faults without admonition. 
 As Dr Skinner has beautifully said, " He was intimate 
 in the higher classes of society, to whom in some in- 
 stances, he privately evinced an intrepidity of reproof 
 which shewed them that he valued their souls more 
 than their friendship. He would sunder even the 
 bonds of private affection sooner than those of mo- 
 rality. It is easy to condemn sin in a multitude, but 
 he would condemn it in an individual, and to that in- 
 dividual by himself" * He was truly generous, and 
 this trait shone in trifles, ns well as in matters of 
 weight ; not only in the noiseless oflices of mercy to 
 the indigent, but in the nobility of his feelings in his 
 estimate of others. "He was fond to a habit of 
 acknowledging his obligations and rendering to all 
 their due." Instances of an opposite kind in others, 
 ingenuously grieved, as well as deeply disgusted 
 him. To acknowledge obligation, however, is a 
 pleasing duty, and one that is performed by many 
 who have not yet attained to the acknowledgment of 
 their faults. This last, a fruit of genuine humihty and 
 integrity of mind, existed in Mr Bruen to a most pow- 
 erful degree. So long ago as the autumn of 1818, 
 when in the west of Scotland, he was led into a hot 
 
 * Dr Skinner's sermon page 35. 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEV. 339 
 
 debate with the editor of a periodical work, in refer- 
 ence to a political character. Though at the time 
 convinced of the correctness of his judgment, he was 
 unhappy for having suffered himself to become irrita- 
 ted, and often alluded to it with regret. Ten years 
 had passed away, and this small delinquency had 
 passed from the minds of all present, when a further 
 development of the character who was the subject of 
 discussion had proved that Mr Bruen's judgment of 
 him had been incorrect, and at that distance of time, 
 he once more by letter referred to the argument, once 
 more apologized, and with double energy, being now 
 convinced that his antagonist was in the right. 
 
 His zeal, patience, vigilance, and prudence, in per- 
 forming the duties of a Christian Pastor, are fully 
 known to those among whom he laboured, and whom 
 he gathered, by the most disinterested exertions, from 
 the multitude. If there existed no other evidence of 
 it ; his tender concern, his ceaseless watchfulness, his 
 longing after their souls, is fully evinced by the partial 
 extracts from his letters in the preceding pages. Did 
 dehcacy permit, those letters could furnish proof that 
 he dwelt on individual characters with parental affec- 
 tion, and delineated christian traits in such a way as 
 shewed that he studied each member of his flock for 
 their good, and " was gentle among them, even as a 
 nurse cherisheth her children." But there is, we trust, 
 a holier record than that of his pen written in the hearts 
 of his spiritual children, and a more enduring evidence 
 
340 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 of his watching for their souls will be found in their 
 meeting him again in the blessed presence of their Re- 
 deemer and his. 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 94h 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 We gladly embrace the privilege of presenting a 
 sketch of a portion of Mr Bruen's Missionary occu- 
 pations, from the pen of his friend and successor in 
 the Secretaryship of the American Home Missionary 
 Society, the Rev. Absalom Peters. 
 
 It is addressed to Mrs Bruen, and dated 
 
 New York, March 11th, 1830. 
 Dear Madam, 
 
 Your beloved and lamented husband's connexion 
 with the American Home Missionary Society, is 
 associated in my own recollection, with the intima- 
 cies of an endeared personal friendship, which has 
 given to his death the character of a real bereave- 
 ment, such as my heart in some degree of sympathy 
 with your own, does not cease to feel; while in com- 
 mon with all his associates in labour, I derive a most 
 grateful satisfaction from reflecting on the life of one 
 
343 MEMOIRS or 
 
 whose counsels and labours, in so short a time, ac- 
 complished so much. 
 
 Mr Bruen felt that he had much to do, and often 
 expressed his deep sense of the accumulated respon- 
 sibilites of a christian and christian minister, in this 
 age of the world. By his travels and his extended 
 personal acquaintance in Europe, as well as in this 
 country, the field of his sympathies was enlarged be- 
 yond that of most of his brethren. He knew more ac- 
 curately than most of us, the condition of the family of 
 man, and had so learned Christ as to make it a senti- 
 ment of his heart, that all men are brethren, and that 
 every christian is bound to do w^hat he can for the 
 conversion of the whole world, while the warmth of his 
 piety and the versatiHty of his mind, prepared him to 
 embrace with eagerness and discrimination, every 
 well devised plan of philanthropic effort. Thus 
 constrained by the principle that governed him, tc* 
 live for noble ends, he had also an industry and a fa- 
 cility in execution which few possess. His body, like 
 his mind, was characteristically active. Of him it 
 was peculiarly true, that his piety did not waste itselt 
 in mere good wishes and intentions. His hand was 
 ready and quick to accomplish what his heart de- 
 sired, and the rapidity of his conceptions and the ea'.-e 
 with which he was accustomed to reduce his own and 
 the thoughts of others to form, rendered his services 
 invaluable in the executive business of the church and 
 of benevolent associations. He had, accordingly, 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEX. 343 
 
 much to do in the transactions of the several religiou« 
 societies with wliich he was connected in this city. 
 He regarded them all as kindred institutions, and with 
 equal cordiality, gave his services to each as he had op- 
 portunity. I shall not dwell upon the estimation in which 
 he was held bythose who acted with him in the Bible, 
 Tract, Sabbath-School, Education and Foreign Mis- 
 sionary Societies, and especially in the more recently 
 formed Committee on behalf of ill-fated Greece. In all 
 of these institutions he bore his part with an activity 
 and dcvotedness which identified their responsibilities 
 with his own, and rendered his death a bereavement, 
 as his life had been a blessing to them all. But my own 
 impressions of his worth forbid me to withhold this 
 passing tribute to the memory of one, the loss of 
 whose counsels and prayers I feel the more, because 
 he was a brother of enlarged and liberal views, the 
 goings-forth of whose benevolence could be confined 
 to no single channel. 
 
 The providence of God, however, had marked 
 him out for a field of still greater and peculiar 
 efficiency in another department of benevolent eflfort. 
 He returned from Europe with a freshness of interest in 
 whatever plans had been devised to elevate the charac- 
 ter and extend the religious influence of his native coun- 
 try; and of these, one of the first which attracted his 
 zealous attention, was the entcrprize of Home Mis- 
 sions. He was able to estimate the advantages 
 afforded to the churches of this country for such an 
 2u 
 
344 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 enterprizc, above those possessed in any other. He 
 therefore regarded with deep interest the beginnings 
 which had ah'eady been made, and having himself 
 engaged in the labours of a Missionai^ in this city, 
 his qualifications for extended usefulness, as a practical 
 man, soon began to be appreciated by the friends of 
 the cause. 
 
 And though he was compelled by the increasing 
 responsibilities of his parochial charge, to resign his 
 office, the results of his labours have evinced that 
 the high estimate which the Committee formed of his 
 service was not false. Itwas in the above office that Mr 
 B. found himself at the centreof a moral machine, which 
 he foresaw, if sufficiently extended, might be wrought 
 with incalculable advantage in promoting a cause 
 identified with the best interests of men. Being at 
 once a member and the official organ of the Execu- 
 tive Committee, in common with his intelligent asso- 
 ciates, he set himself to mature a new and improved 
 plan of Missions, which, without discarding altogether 
 the former custom of itinerancy, within defined limits, 
 should bestow its principal aid on feeble congrega- 
 tions in support of settled Pastors or stated supplies 
 chosen by the people, keeping steadily in view, as its 
 ultimate object, the permanent establishment of the 
 preached gospel in places which might otherwise re- 
 main destitute. In the language of his First Re- 
 port, "If the Millenium be within 175 years of us, as 
 many, not without reason, sanguinely hope, we, if our 
 
MATTHIAS RRUEN. 345 
 
 life be a little prolonged, are soon to sec greater 
 things than the last (juarter of a century has unfold- 
 ed, which, in themselves arc wonders." 
 
 Alas! Dear Brother! "////Ze," indeed, was his life 
 "prolonged;" yet, in that little period, he saw accom- 
 plished all that he had predicted. In three years and 
 four 7no7iths from the organization of the Society in 
 its national form, he had seen it sustaining from four 
 to five hundred different Missionaries, and aiding 
 from five to six hundred congregations in their sup- 
 port; the blessing of the Great Head of the Church 
 had come down upon their labours; more than 3,000 
 souls had been hopefully converted through their in- 
 strumentaHty ; the Bible-Class, the Sabbath-School and 
 other plants of righteousness, by hundreds, had sprung 
 up under the genial influence of their ministry, and 
 many spots in the wilderness were becoming as the 
 garden of God. These new and extraordinary re- 
 sults were animating to all who had any part in their 
 accomplishment, and the zeal and devotcdness of our 
 departed friend, in the work, achieving still greater 
 things for his country, and the cause of the church, 
 were increased to the very close of his fife, by these 
 manifest tokens of the Divine favour. 
 
 In principle a Presbyterian, Mr Bruen admired the 
 freedom which the constitution of our church, rightly 
 administered, as well as the genius of our civil govern- 
 ment, allows to the voluntary action of Christian bene- 
 volence. This he regarded as the glory of Presbyte- 
 
346 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 rianism, that while it throws every practicable guard 
 around the purity of the Christian profession and the 
 ministerial character, it leaves, unobstructed, the sym- 
 pathies of the whole body, to be moved by the woes 
 of the world and urged to activity by the claims of Him 
 who died that sinners might live. On this subject he 
 had reflected much; had watched the results of the 
 efforts of voluntary benevolent associations in this 
 and in other countries, and had come to regard it as 
 one of the brightest hopes of the church, that different 
 portions of the body of Christ were more and more 
 disposed to combine in an unrestrained effort to give 
 salvation to the world. These sentiments were at the 
 bottom of his attachment to the organization of the 
 Society which he so faithfully served. Its action was 
 voluntary. Its labour was the labour of love; and he 
 felt that whatever he did for its advancement was 
 preparing the way for the universal reign of the Sa- 
 viour. With these sentiments he held on his way; 
 and it is affecting that the last public service which 
 he ever performed was on behalf of the Home Mis- 
 sionary Society, from which he returned to his 
 home; — to die in a single week! 
 
 Though myself beyond the Alleghanies when the 
 Committee assembled, and recorded their last oflicial 
 testimony of respect and affection to his memory,* 
 
 * In the following resolution. *' Resolved, that this Committee feel, that the 
 dispensation of divine Providence in the death of the Rev. Mathias Bruen, has 
 removed one of their most active, intelligent, and devoted associates, one who 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 34T 
 
 yet be assured, my heart still responds to every sen- 
 timent it expresses. Commending you to God and 
 the word of his grace, with the little ones He has 
 spared to you, I remain in the best of bonds. 
 Dear Madam, 
 
 Your friend in aflliction, 
 
 Absalom Peters. 
 
 has been foremost in the zealous and industrious fulfilment of the important 
 duties devolving on them, ever since the formation of tlic society ; and that they 
 here record their fond remembrance of the sweet counsel so long and so diligently 
 shared witli him, and their tender sympathy with his bereaved family and church.' 
 
348 HEMOIRS OF 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIK 
 
 Mr Peters remarks that "Mr Bruen had watched 
 the result of the efforts of voluntary benevolent asso- 
 ciations, and came to regard it as one of the brightest 
 hopes of the church, that different portions of the body 
 of Christ w^ere more and more disposed to combine^ 
 in an unrestrained effort to give salvation to the 
 vsrorld." As the echo of the controversy on voluntary 
 associations has crossed the Atlantic, we have required 
 an explanation of the subject in dispute. We learn 
 then that the term voluntary association is employed 
 in an arbitrary sense on this subject, not to distinguish 
 voluntary from compulsory benevolent societies, for 
 no such societies exist, but to distinguish associations 
 which are formed by one body of Christians, and 
 which might be termed exclusive associations, from those 
 which comprehend Christians of every denomina- 
 tion who choose to join them, and which might be 
 termed mingled associations. Thus, the Board of 
 Missions, appointed annually by the General As- 
 sembly, under whose guidance it operates, and to 
 
MATTHIAS URUEV 34d 
 
 whom it reports, is an exclusive association. The 
 American Home Missionary Society, on the contrary, 
 embraces three rehgious denominations, namely, the 
 Congregational, Presbyterian, and Dutch Reformed; 
 receives contributions indiscriminately and elects its 
 officers from any of the three denominations. It em- 
 ploys Missionaries from each of these; nevertheless, 
 each missionary so appointed, generally labours for 
 the advancement of the particular church to which 
 he belongs. This society is under no ecclesiastical 
 patronage, but depends on voluntary contributions, 
 and is a complete example of what is meant by a vo- 
 luntary association. 
 
 This style of association is suited to the genius of 
 man as a social being — suited to the genius of chris- 
 tians, as uniting in mutual love, and above all, suited 
 to the habits, and tastes, and ideas of freemen. It 
 is not to be wondered at, that amid ancient hierar- 
 chies and intolerant establishments, men think and 
 plan in bonds of which they are scarcely conscious; 
 and instead of courageously striking out new schemes 
 of usefulness irrespective of their former habits, that 
 they rather timidly lay aside every plan that cannot 
 operate with an adjustment to their accustomed order 
 of things; being reconciled to the limitations for the 
 sake of the benefits which they have derived from 
 their old institutions. But that any set of people in a 
 new country, which glories in its freedom, whose 
 strength lies in its republican liberty, should be in- 
 
350 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 clined to raise partition walls among the benevolent, 
 and prevent the union of any because they are not 
 both of Paul, or not both of Apollos, seems a volun- 
 tary assumption of unwonted bonds, and an utter de- 
 reliction of the spirit of that religion which is the 
 spring and source of all benevolence. It is indeed a 
 subject of surprise, that christians in a free country, 
 should wish to refuse the co-operation of fellow chris- 
 tians, or so limit their exertions. To have, in short, 
 every other possession unembarrassed, but to have 
 the gospel in fetters, and christian energy bound. 
 
 Of the thousands who learn of Christ, there are 
 scarcely hundreds who understand much about church 
 government, and scarcely tens who occupy themselves 
 witli it. If the churches who associate to do good, 
 hold the essentials of christian doctrine, surely the 
 points on which they agree are the most important. 
 Let us not in our ignorance and pride stand aloof 
 from those who may be to us patterns of christian 
 zeal; let us not burden our conscience with the 
 thought that such and such great plans might have 
 been forwarded, had our brotherly union been lent to 
 the work. The spirit of God works on tlie various 
 classes of human beings, by all varieties of instru- 
 ments, and raises up here one engine, and there 
 another ; but none appears to partake of the catholic 
 spirit that will at last pervade the church of Christ, so 
 completely as a band of christians who unite from no 
 other motive but that of love to their glorious Master, 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEy. 351 
 
 and love to their fellow men. What more beautiful 
 example of fraternal love has this century beheld, than 
 that of the whole eastern and more ancient portion of 
 the states, stretching out its blessings of education 
 and a christian ministry to the recently peopled 
 regions of the west? What more noble than that 
 effort of the sympathy of a nation which seemed 
 to rise as one man to the relief of the crushed, the 
 oppressed, the bleeding Greeks! Are such great 
 movements of mind the fruit of a sectarian spirit? 
 Was it a sectarian spirit w^hich formed, and has now 
 well nigh accomplished the generous resolution to put 
 a Bible into the hands of every family in the United 
 States within two years? A resolution which has 
 called up to many a British eye the tear of admiration, 
 and has been seconded by many a British prayer. 
 Did a sectarian spirit unite British and American 
 missionaries in the south seas, in Palestine, in India? 
 Is this the spirit which annihilates the Atlantic waves, 
 and gathers from many a clime the sweet incense of 
 united prayer before the throne of God, as if it as- 
 cended from one heart and one soul? 
 
 O surely the christians, if christians they be, who 
 oppose themselves to voluntary associations, perceive 
 not the evil they promote, nor the good which they 
 frustrate. A society confining itself to an individual 
 denomination, assures union in church government it 
 is true; but that is but a cold and abstract point, not 
 at ail aiding by its influence the promotion of the be 
 2 V 
 
352 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 nevolent object in view. Voluntary Associations on 
 the other hand, imply union about the object to be 
 obtained; where men's hearts being warmed by a 
 generous enthusiasm, they urge each other forward, 
 and emulate each other in devising means of help. 
 It is no subject of surprise that the ungodly should ab- 
 hor such an instrument. The power of combination, 
 so well known in all political and mercantile concerns, 
 seems to have lain domant in reference to the pro- 
 gress of religon till the last quarter of a century. But 
 now that we have seen how the slender contribution 
 of a penny a w eek by a very poor population, hearty 
 in their object, is able to put in motion an engine ir- 
 resistible in power, Satan may well tremble when 
 such engines, aided by the prayers of thousands, are 
 at work to overthrow his dominion. 
 
 In great Britain what do we not ow^e to Voluntary 
 Associations! There did exist societies connected 
 with the established churches. There was in England 
 a prayer-book and homily society, and a society for 
 promoting christian knowledge; and there was in 
 Scotland also a society for propogating christian 
 knowledge, — languid in their exertions, and limited 
 in their extent. They seemed dozing in decrepit 
 security. It is only of recent date that stimulated by 
 the example of the Missionary, Bible, and Tract so- 
 cieties, &c., which cover the face of the United King- 
 dom, and which are all voluntary associations, these 
 elder societies which are part and parcel of the es- 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEN. 853 
 
 tablishments they belong to, liave awakened them- 
 selves to a renovated existence, and to new exertion. 
 The British and Foreign Bible Society, which has 
 been so often extolled by American christians, and 
 which they have taken for their model, is entirely a 
 voluntary association; and woe to the day when it 
 shall fall into the hands of any one denomination, 
 though that sliould include the majorit}' of the Chris- 
 tians of England. — On that day it will lose half its 
 vitality, half its energy, half its prayers, and oil the 
 Catholic spirit of wdiich it has formed so honourable 
 a^ example. 
 
 Those religious societies which have within these 
 few years been formed in Paris, owe their very 
 existence to the principle of voluntary association. 
 If the scanty protestant population there had stood 
 aloof from each other, and declined to unite w4th any 
 but French protestants, to the exclusion of Swiss, or 
 English protestants, or Lutherans, how could they 
 have found enough of any one denomination to make 
 an impression? It must surely be in the very reckless 
 extravagance which plenty produces, that christians 
 in America can aflbrd to quarrel with voluntary as- 
 sociations. Let them be but tried by a Parisian famine, 
 and how^ gladly would they grasp the hand of any 
 brother disposed to combine with them, without 
 pausing to weigh the minor points, on which it is well 
 understood that they do not, and on which it is not 
 essential that they should agree. 
 
 Jir 
 
354 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 The injunction of our Lord Jesus Christ to gather 
 up the fragments that nothing be lost, cannot be 
 obeyed if there are not mingled societies. For the 
 various denominations which are dispersed over the 
 face of the country, are in many instances too far re- 
 moved from their parent churches to co-operate with 
 them, and too feeble to act alone. A voluntary asso- 
 ciation gathers all in, and saves from lying unignited 
 one spark of christian zeal or benevolence. 
 
 It may be that the American Bible Society receives 
 contributions and employs agents of at least ten de- 
 nominations. Now suppose that these, withdrawing 
 the right hand of fellowship, and narrowing the ex- 
 pansive spirit of love which at first united them, were 
 to split into ten societies — would not each denomina- 
 tion thus sacrifice nine-tenths of its power ? Would 
 not the exercise of the feeble tenth be embarrassed 
 and counteracted by collision w^ith any of the other 
 nine? and to what end would this great sacrifice be 
 made? For the gratification of that sectarian spirit, 
 which looking away from the uniting Head of the 
 Church, chills and formalizes itself by fixing its atten- 
 tion on the subdivided and erring members. Can it 
 be thought that limitations which check the flow of 
 mutual charity among the churches, can be the means 
 of promoting charity in the unreclaimed world? Or 
 can those who feel the privileges of freemen expect 
 that they are to fetter the natural flow of benevolence 
 by their boundary lines, with impunity ? When Robert 
 
MATTHIAS BIIUKX. 869 
 
 Southey was made Poet Laureat, it was remarked 
 that an extinguisher was put on his genius, " and that 
 his Carmen Triumphale had no spark of his former 
 fire." This seems a most natural result of restraint 
 in things that ought to be spontaneous. Were every 
 zealous Christian withdrawn from the schemes of 
 Christian exertion in which he has voluntarily em- 
 barked, and constrained to work only in the Church 
 with which he is connected, however much the with- 
 drawn might be attached to their Churches, from 
 that hour not only would their exertion, but, it is to 
 be feared also their attachment decay, — and this not 
 arising from a rebellious spirit which refuses to be 
 guided, but from the impossibiUty of legislating for 
 the mind. Your object may be a very good one, but 
 it does not interest him, his heart was possessed by 
 that which he had selected for himself. Your plans 
 may be wise, but those in which he formerly co-oper- 
 ated seemed to him more judicious; they commanded 
 all his energy. 
 
 Well do we remember the admiration of j\lr Bruen 
 of a little circumstance which occurred in 1818 when 
 he was with his friends in Scotland. It was stated 
 that an Independent minister was going to preach in 
 the church yard on a Sabbath evening, and it was 
 asked of the minister of the established church, "how 
 he liked that?" "The preacher is a good man I be- 
 lieve," replied thepastor, and as an old brother min- 
 ister said on a similar occasion, "they are a- stifl> 
 
356 MEMOIRS or 
 
 necked people, they will take* us both." Mr B. had 
 first looked dubiously, as if he expected it to be the 
 duty of a minister of an establishment to be offended 
 with this as an encroachment. The answer led to a 
 discussion, which he often aftei'wards referred to, and 
 which was brought forcibly to remembrance by what 
 he says, as quoted in one of his letters, that "he be- 
 lieves in every body who believes in prayer." Those 
 who "believe in prayer," of whatever denomination, 
 when banded together for the good of souls, must 
 surely be the means of bringing members into the 
 church of Christ, and if into the church, then surely 
 into some one of its denominations; and thus will not 
 only the general churches but individual churches 
 also be strengthened. How blindly then do those ar- 
 gue who would withhold their members from general 
 exertion. It is the very means by which they shall 
 gather in numbers to their own community. Secta- 
 rianism has in all countries been an impediment to 
 the spread of the gospel. We are approaching the 
 time when all such barriers shall be overthrown, and 
 those who would partake of the holy peace of the 
 latter day glories, must hasten to adjust their minds 
 to that expanded spirit of liberality which will surely 
 be its harbinger. 
 
 A young woman who had been brought up in the 
 house of a pious father, under the ministry of an old 
 
 * A Scotticism meaning " require." 
 
MATTHIAS BRUEPf. 367 
 
 light congregation, belonging to one of the exclusive 
 sects in Scotland, went to London without iiaving had 
 her heart touched by the gospel. There she received 
 the blessed tidings, and returned to the parental roof 
 in dying circumstances. Her lather's minister visited 
 her, and the good man's countenance beamed with 
 joy when he heard the language of a child of God 
 from her lips. But where had she learned all this? 
 Where had the blessed change been wrought? She 
 heard it from Mr M. an Independent minister in Lon- 
 don; she had opened her troubled heart to him; he had 
 counselled her. His wife had opened her house to 
 welcome her; they had been as parents to her. — At 
 the word "Independent," the face of her pastor un- 
 derwent so painful a change, that the ardour of the 
 dying christian was checked. "O Sir, why do you 
 look so, do they not belong to Christ?" "I cannot 
 say," replied the good Anti-burgher, "I would /«m 
 hope they may, but surely there is a right way!" 
 "Well Sir — Christ is the way, and Mr M. led me to 
 him, w^hat more could I want?" This little incident 
 which is of but yesterday, is an example of thousands 
 of a similar kind, where prejudice, or it may be, even 
 a just preference on minor points pushed beyond its 
 proper limits robs the heart of its lawful subjects of 
 gratitude, and deprives it of sympathy with angels 
 who have "joy in Heaven, wdien one sinner repent- 
 eth." In such a state of limitation were the Associate 
 Reformed Presbyterians in America, when the rules 
 
S58 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 of his church obliged Dr Mason to refuse the refresh- 
 ment of the Lord's supper to one who, he could not 
 doubt belonged to the Lord. His efforts were eminent- 
 ly blessed in breaking down such barriers. Shall not 
 some other christian be the happy and honoured in- 
 strument of removing obstacles to Voluntary Associa- 
 tion, and hastening the unity of that church which 
 has surely but one head, even the Lord Jesus Christ? 
 

 i 
 
 I 
 
 ERRATA: 
 
 Page 26, Revered, for rcvprend. 
 
 Page 221, Indeed, for indesied, 
 
 Page 250, Dr Howe, for Dr How. 
 
 Page 282, If the country were free, for if the country is free. 
 

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