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DR. BOARDMAN'S SERMON

ON THE

BURLINGTON CATASTROPHE.

GOD'S PROVIDENCE IN ACCIDENTS.

A SERMON

OCCASIONED BY THE DEATHS OF THE

REV JOHN MARTIN CONNELL, MR. JOHN FIELD
GILLESPIE, AND MRS. SUSAN GILLESPIE,

Three of the Victims of the Railroad Catastrophe at Burlington,
New Jersey! on the 29th day of August, 1855.

BY
HENRY A. BOAEDMAN, D. D.

PHILADELPHIA:
PARRY AND MCMILLAN.
1855.

PHILADELPHIA:
T. K. AND P. G. COLLINS, PRINTERS.

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Rev. H. A. Boardman, D. D.
Dear Sir : We respectfully solicit a copy of your appropriate
and instructive sermon, delivered on the 23d inst., on the recent
Burlington railroad disaster.
We believe that it will prove a useful, though mournful, medium
of improvement to many friends and relatives, to look at that
mysterious Providence in the religious aspect in which you so
feelingly presented it.
We are, dear sir,
Yours, very sincerely,
William Ferriday.
David P. Williams.
Robert Percy.
Henry L. Bennett.
John C. Ralston.
Robert S. Ralston.
Philadelphia, September 24, 1855.

Philadelphia, September 25, 1855.
Rev. Dr. Boardman.
Dear Sir: We beg leave to express to you our high apprecia
tion of the able and eloquent discourse upon the recent fearful
railroad catastrophe, pronounced by you on Sabbath afternoon.
To us, personally, it has peculiar interest in the beautiful and truth
ful sketch it contains of the life and character of our lamented

friend, the Rev. J. M. Connell ; and to the community at large, it
has great interest in its faithful improvement of those solemn
lessons which the event is calculated to teach, alike for this world
and for the world to come. It has seemed to us that its publica
tion will be useful to the community ; and, for ourselves, we shall
rejoice to possess in more durable form a memorial of our departed
friend. If it be consistent with your feelings, we beg you to favor us
with the manuscript with a view to its publication.
We are, with high respect, Yours, very truly,
Theo. Cutler.
Wm. M. Clark.
Geo. H. Hart.
Steen Bille.
Torben Bille.
Rich'd S. Smith.

Philadelphia, September 21, 1855.
Gentlemen : As the near relatives and very intimate friends of
those whom it was the design of my late discourse to commemo
rate, I am gratified to know that this humble tribute to their
memory has met with your approval. I feel that the manuscript
properly belongs to you, and herewith place it in your hands.
With sincere sympathy in your affliction, I remain,
Most respectfully and truly,
Your friend and servant,
HENRY A. BOARDMAN.
Messrs. William Ferriday,
David P. Williams, '
Theodore Cuyler,
William M. Clark,
And others.

GOD'S PROVIDENCE IN ACCIDENTS.

"HE COMETH FORTH LIKE A FLOWER, AND IS CUT DOWN: HE FLEETH ALSO AS
A SHADOW, AND CONTINUETH NOT."— Job xiv. 2.

The late railroad catastrophe at Burlington was,
for two weeks after it occurred, the predominant topic
of conversation in the two great cities immediately
interested in that thoroughfare, and the theme of
indignant and eloquent censure in the daily journals.
Beyond this, neither community has seen fit to go in
giving expression to the feelings awakened by this
melancholy occurrence. A conflagration which lays
a few squares of even a distant town or city in ashes,
very properly summons our citizens together in gene
ral council, to manifest their sympathy with the suf
ferers and devise measures for their relief. The
slaughter of more than a score of our friends and
fellow-citizens, and the mutilating of some sixty or
seventy more, in our very neighborhood, is not
deemed an object of sufficient moment to call for a
public meeting, whether to sympathize with the af
flicted, or to endeavor to prevent the recurrence of

similar disasters. "Whatever merit may attach to
our vaunted civilization in other respects, it has yet
to purge itself of one of the grossest elements of bar
barism, an insensibility to the sacredness of human
life. And yet, by some happy inconsistency, a calamity
like this is certain to elicit a great deal of sympathy.
The loss of a gallant steamer a few months since,
with its precious freight of human beings, was felt
for the moment almost as a national affliction. And
this railroad accident was followed by a general out
burst of sympathetic feeling. Tens of thousands
read the harrowing details with emotions which
would not have discredited them, had their own rela
tives been among the sufferers. And as to Burling
ton, no eulogy can do justice to the hospitality and
kindness of its inhabitants. Every door was thrown
open, and every house ready to be made a hospital.
Nothing was neglected which the best medical skill,
faithful nursing, and the most tender and assiduous
attentions, could do, to relieve the wounded, to solace
the dying, and to comfort the bereaved. But whe
ther this is to be all; whether this wholesale destruc
tion of human life is to pass without any judicial
investigation, or any legislative action which may
reach the causes of these catastrophes, remains to be
seen. The flagrant and criminal neglect with which
the case of the Arctic was treated by the proper legal
authorities, leaves little to be hoped for in the pre-

sent instance. We have attained the bad pre-emi
nence of doing less to protect the lives of travellers
against incompetent and reckless carriers, than any
other civilized nation. And it will not be surprising
if the vivid impressions produced by this tragedy,
should be as evanescent and inoperative as those
occasioned by the numerous bloody and mournful
scenes of a similar character which have preceded it.
But our concern with the subject to-day is of a dif
ferent kind. We have come up to the sanctuary to
pay an humble tribute of respect to the memories of
some of the victims of this disaster. Many are the
social circles which it has bereaved; many the house
holds it has plunged into deep and poignant sorrow.
Each of these twenty-four persons who have been
hurried into eternity, was a centre of love and ten
derness to some group of relatives. There were fa
thers upon whose care and industry large families
were dependent for their daily bread ; wives and mo
thers, happy in the wealth of conjugal and filial love
which was lavished upon them, and as lavishly reci
procated; daughters reared with gentle care, and, up
to that fatal moment, sheltered by parental fondness
from every adverse blast; young men, standing
upon the threshhold of life, just equipped for its con
flicts, and eager for its crowns; widows, who had
already drank deep of the cup of sorrow, and proved
the faithfulness of the widow's God; all these were
commingled in this fearful slaughter; and not one of

8
them was stricken down, that the blow did not fall
with a cruel severity upon a large circle of loving and
lacerated hearts. If it were possible, I would speak
to all these mourners, and bid them look to Him who
is both able and willing to comfort them. But they
have their own sympathizing pastors and Christian
friends, who will feel a sad pleasure in ministering to
them the consolations of the gospel, and invoking for
them the presence and support of the Holy Spirit,
the only effectual Comforter.
I have a personal duty to perform as a pastor.
Unused to preach funeral sermons, and deeming the
custom, as a custom, of very questionable utility,
there are occasions, nevertheless, which it would be
both unfeeling and presumptuous to treat with silent
indifference. And this is one of them. The be
reavement we have experienced as a congregation,
and the manner of it, alike demand that we should
open our ears to the voice of this providence, and try
to make some improvement of it. Nor need I speak
of a single loss. That husband and wife whose re
mains you have, with many tears, laid side by side
within the shadow of this sanctuary, though strangers
to most of you, had their ties of fellowship with us,
and claim the tribute of our remembrance.
But we are all conscious of a difficulty here. There
has been so much of man's agency in bringing about
these events, that we are prone to contemplate them
only in that relation. The mind fastens with an in-

9
stinctive tenacity upon the cupidity, the self-con
fidence, the heedlessness, which precipitated this ill-
fated train to its destruction ; and, in the strong emo
tions which this view cannot fail to excite in every
disinterested bosom, we are liable to forget that there
was another and very different Agent concerned in
it. In other words, there are two distinct and, possi
bly, opposite aspects in which this, and every instance
of violent death must be viewed; its aspect GoD-ward,
and its aspect maw-ward. The survey of it in either
relation, to the neglect of the other, must lead to
false and hurtful conclusions.
Of the two, the former aspect is much the more
important. It is one of the fundamental and most
precious truths of Scripture, that the providential
government of God comprehends all creatures and all
events. From the loftiest archangel before the throne
to the invisible animalcule in a drop of water; from
the extinction of a sphere to the fall of a sparrow ;
no creature but owns his sovereignty; no event but
happens by his command or through his permission.
Lest we might suppose that He did not concern him
self about trivial things, He has distinctly taught us
that his providence extends to the lilies of the field,
the ravens, the quails, the locusts, and to the very
hairs of our heads. Nor is His word less explicit in
teaching that he is concerned in permitting, limiting,
and overruling the reckless and the sinful actions of
men. It were blasphemous to ascribe to him any

10
efficiency in producing these actions; but to withdraw
them from his rule, would be an impeachment of his
supremacy and a denial of his moral perfection.
There are no greater crimes recorded in the history
of the race than the sin of our first parents, and the
betrayal and crucifixion of our Lord. And no one,
who acknowledges the God of the Bible at all, will
deny that the introduction of moral evil into the
world, and the providing of a remedy for it, were
comprehended in the Divine plan and controlled by
his all-wise purposes.
That death is among the objects of his providence,,
is a necessary corollary from his sovereignty. It is
one of his inalienable prerogatives to create life, and
he alone can destroy it. "I kill; and I make alive."
Such is the concatenation of events, that the death
of an obscure individual, or of an infant, at a differ
ent time or place from that which he had prescribed,
might disorganize the entire scheme of terrestrial
things, and even spread confusion through the whole
boundless domain of his administration. " Is there
not an appointed time to man upon earth ?" " See
ing his days are determined, the number of his
months are with thee: thou hast appointed his
bounds that he cannot pass." " Thou turnest man
to destruction, and sayest : ' Eeturn, ye children of

men.' "

"The term of life is limited,
Nor may a man prolong nor shorten it."

11
And this implies that the mode, and all the attend
ing circumstances of death, are appointed in every
instance. We may no more exempt one class of
deaths from God's control, than another. The sword,
the poison, the accident, are as much his instruments
as the paralysis and the fever — the battle is no less
his than the pestilence. The murder of Abel, and
the tranquil death of Jacob; Joseph dying in Egypt,
and Moses in Mount Nebo ; Jonathan slain in battle,
and David peacefully expiring in the bosom of his
family ; John the Baptist beheaded, and Stephen
stoned to death ; all have a common place in the
great scheme of Providence.
What the precise agency is which He exerts in
employing the depraved passions of men to execute
his will, we need not now stop to inquire ; the subject,
indeed, is one which we can but imperfectly compre
hend. Of this we are certain ; that, while the ultimate
results are Ms, the criminality by which they may be
brought about, attaches exclusively to the instru
ments — who, it must be remembered, act with perfect
freedom. (See Acts ii. 22, 23.) He was pleased to
permit the slaughter of the children by Herod, the
execution of the apostle James, the ten early perse
cutions, the butcheries of the Duke of Alva, and of
bloody Mary, the horrible judicial murders of the
Inquisition. Among the victims of these enormities
were some hundreds of thousands of sincere Christians.
We cannot doubt that His providence was as truly

12
concerned in the deaths of these believers, as it would
have been had they all died in the ordinary course of
nature. To let go this conviction, is to dethrone Je
hovah, and to cut ourselves off from the only adequate
source of consolation which we have under dispensa
tions of this sort. The church sends forth her mis
sionaries to the heathen, and presently she learns that
her strong men have met a cruel and bloody death at
the hands of the very tribes they went to instruct and
save — Lyman and Munson in Borneo, Williams at
Feejee, Lowrie in China. Is she to look only at second
causes here ? If she does, she cannot but murmur and
rebel. But she knows that God's hand is in these
afflictive events, as really as it was in the destruction
of Job's property and children by the hurricane, and
the Sabeans and Chaldeans ; arid she bows down in
reverential awe, and cries with the patriarch, " The
Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away : blessed be
the name of the Lord."
Nothing short of this conviction can reconcile us to
the loss of -relatives and friends who have been cut off,
whether through the deliberate malice, or the culpable
improvidence, of their fellow-creatures. There is nei
ther comfort for survivors, nor peace for the dying,
except as the sentiment can be brought home to the
heart, that death is under the implicit and exclusive
control of our Heavenly Father; and that it is just as
impossible for one to die at any other time, or in any
other manner, than those he has appointed, as it is

13
for a creature to come into existence without any
exertion of His creative energy. It is a reflection
replete with peace and hope to the child of God, that
all his interests, even to the minutest, are in his Fath
er's hands ; that nothing can possibly happen to him
except by his direction, or through his permission ;
that his life will be just as long, and will terminate
just in that way, which God may deem to be for the
best ; and that all he has to do, is to decide questions
of duty according to the light which may be afforded
him at the time, and then go forward with the humble
assurance, that his affairs will be ordered in infinite
wisdom and mercy, and brought to those results which
shall most conduce to the Divine glory, and to his own
spiritual good.
It is not given him to foresee future events. He
knows not which of the vessels that lie at the wharf
are to cross the ocean in safety; but after due exam
ination, he commits himself to one of them with the
feeling, that if it be the will of God, he will be conveyed
to his haven, and that whatever may happen, it will
be just what an all-wise Providence may appoint. He
.knows nothing of the fate which may await this or
that railroad train ; but he does know that this same
universal Providence presides over every road and
every train, and over all its implements and move
ments ; that if disaster come, even though it be through
human recklessness, it must come by his permission ;
and that He can either preserve him in the midst of

14
peril, or prepare him for whatever may await him.
I do not say that a Christian man will ordinarily be
so imbued with these sentiments as to have no anxiety
in taking his seat in a railroad carriage, or to be in
different as to the issue of his journey. Enlightened
piety is not of this romantic character, nor does it so
blunt the sensibilities of men. But I do say, that this
feeling of God's providential control over all the agents
and all the contingencies of railway travelling, is a
real sentiment in the breast of every true Christian ;
and that it is a source of unspeakable comfort, both
to those who travel, and to the friends they leave at
home. Nor is there anything else which can inspire
an intelligent composure on this subject, in a country
where this mode of travelling is attended with the
appalling hazards which attach to it here.
These views link the fearful destruction of life on
our railways, with the providence of God. He com
missions death to fulfil his work in an endless variety
of forms, and with all conceivable circumstances of
tenderness or of horror. Rarely does it come in a
form more terrible than this, with which we are
becoming so familiar, or with a severity more indis
criminate. All ages, sexes, and conditions, are over
whelmed in a common ruin. Prepared or unprepared,
the humble Christian and the obdurate unbeliever, are
handed over to the same excruciating tortures, and
the same speedy or lingering death. Happy they who
are found with oil in their lamps, when the sudden

15
and startling cry breaks upon them : " Behold the
bridegroom cometh : go ye out to meet Him /"
And such consolation have that afflicted family
whose bereavement is ours also, and whose sorrow we
would, if possible, alleviate, by sharing it with them.
Among the passengers by the train of the 29th of
August, was the Rev. John Martin Connell, for
several years past a member of this congregation, and
one of our constant fellow-worshippers. I quote the
following paragraph respecting his birth and training,
from a brief obituary notice in the Presbyterian.
" He was the only child of John Connell, Esq., of Tusculum, near
Wilmington, Delaware, and the grandson of the late Rev. Dr. Read,
so extensively and favorably known as the pastor of the First Pres
byterian Church in the last named place. Very early in life the
deceased made a profession of religion, which he ever adorned by
a life consistent with its requirements. After having graduated at
the University of Pennsylvania, he applied himself to the study of
theology, and on completing the prescribed course in the Seminary
at Princeton, was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of New
Castle. In order to qualify himself more perfectly for that depart
ment of usefulness for which he thought himself best adapted, he
continued his studies after leaving the Seminary, until he became a
very finished scholar and accomplished writer. He devoted par
ticular attention to moral science, and such were his attainments in
this important branch of learning, that his name with those of others
was laid before the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania as a
candidate for the chair of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy recently
vacated by the death of the lamented Professor Reed," and subse
quently by the resignation of Professor Mercer.
The life of a retired student is ordinarily but little
diversified by incident; and this concise paragraph
touches upon most of the points appertaining to Mr.

16
Connell's professional biography. In devoting himself
to a life of study and of teaching, he was swayed by
a conviction, that this was " the department of useful
ness to which he was best adapted." It was from no
disparagement of the pastoral office, no want of zeal
in the service of Christ, no love of ease nor secular
ambition, but from a well-considered sense of the will
of Providence, that he exchanged for the time the
stated functions of the ministry, for a cognate sphere,
separated from it rather by an imaginary than a real
boundary. His determination received, it is believed,
the unanimous approval of his friends; and all the
more so when they found that his Christian character
resisted the enervating influence so inseparable from
literary pursuits, and under all circumstances retained
its freshness and purity.
To assist you in forming some estimate of his
worth, I avail myself of a letter kindly and sponta
neously sent me a day or two since by one of his
classmates and intimate friends, now a prominent and
influential member of our Bar. September 19, 1855.
My Dear Sir: — I am informed that you intend preaching a
sermon with reference to the recent sad railroad catastrophe, and
in it purpose to notice the character of my lamented friend, the
Rev. J. Martin Connell. I rejoice greatly to hear that you are
about paying this tribute to his memory. There are not many who
could appreciate him. Quietness and gentleness, and unaffected
diffidence, so veiled his finer gifts of mind and character from the
common view, that 'few knew his worth, and fewer still his rich and
varied mental endowments. I knew him with close intimacy from the

17
commencement of our college days, to the hour of his death, and I
knew him always as a modest, faithful, earnest seeker after truth;
and to this he steadily devoted a mind possessed of more than
usual native power, excellently trained by an effective discipline,
and richly stored with varied information.
The bent of his mind was always metaphysical, and I deem it
high evidence of its healthiness and good discipline, that extensive
and earnest study of metaphysics, especially among German
writers, had left him with added strength and sincerity, and in the
fullest sense, an orthodox man.
He belonged to a class which has few representatives among us;
the class of quiet scholars, of men content to labor noiselessly, and
yet faithfully, loving truth for its own sake, and finding, their
reward in its pursuit and acquisition ; and yet not forgetting
"that no man liveth to himself" alone, praying and waiting pa
tiently for such opportunity to spread the truth, as God's provi
dence might open to him.
Such a man, of course, had rare gifts for usefulness ; and yet he
was so unobtrusive, that time, and long time, would pass before his
fitness would be known beyond that smaller circle of closer friend
ship and intimacy which gathered round him. He died just as he
was beginning to be known. A few months before his death, he
was a prominent candidate for the vacant chair of Moral Philo
sophy in our University. Had he been elected, he would have
filled the chair, I have no doubt, with more than ordinary ability.
He was laboring too with his pen, and a little time would in this
way have brought him into notice. A mysterious Providence has
cut him off suddenly, just as the life of quiet preparation seemed
about to close, and he was about to enter full armed upon a
path of wider usefulness. His death, though very sudden, found
him quite prepared. It is soothing to recollect that high and
earnest Christian hope, long ago and thoughtfully embraced,
which filled his soul with peace in the hour of sudden death —
away from home and friends, and surrounded by death in so many
painful and distressing forms. It was no weak or doubting trust
that sustained him in that solemn hour with so much of manliness
and heroism of heart ; for he was by nature more than usually
timid and shrinking, and little fitted for rude struggles or the ab
sence, in time of trial, of the gentler sympathies and kinder minis
tries of home and friendship.

18
J, cannot help thinking there is much in his life and character
which may be usefully improved, and I only regret that the pres
sure of constant duties prevents me from giving you more fully, as
I would wish to do, the impression close intimacy with him has
left upon my mind. With much respect, I am,
Sincerely yours.
This genial and discriminating sketch supersedes
the necessity for any attempt at a formal portraiture
of Mr. Connell on my part. I certainly have never
known a man of greater modesty, or of greater gen
tleness of disposition. And yet beneath this almost
feminine mildness and sweetness of character, there
was an acute and vigorous intellect, a robust scholar
ship, and stores of learning which in the hands of
most men would have been so used (and I will not
say unfitly used) as to attract to their possessor the
admiration of the multitude. He shunned the noto
riety which others would have courted. It was only
in communion with a very few chosen friends, that
he brought out his treasures; and they were content
to listen to him with the deference which men pay to
an acknowledged superior, and the warm affection
which it was impossible not to feel towards one whose
radiant gifts derived their highest charm from the
modest guise in which they were attired.
In this way it has come to pass that science and
religion have met with a bereavement, the extent of
which they can only learn now after the blow has
fallen. However unprepared we may be for the an-

19
nouncement, it is painfully evident that a shining
light has gone out in the midst of us. The grave
has closed not only on an humble Christian, but
upon an accomplished scholar and metaphysician,
one whose pen, had he been spared, might perhaps
have instructed the world, as much as his consistent
example edified the social circle in which he moved.
But while his friends dwell with a mournful plea
sure upon his gifts, it is his piety which affords them
comfort in this season of trial. This was sincere,
uniform, and consistent. He was singularly candid
and ingenuous, "an Israelite without guile." Few
persons of either sex live so long, without contracting
more of the defilement of this sin-stricken world. It
would be difficult to find a purer mind than Mr.
Connell's. He carried his religion into every scheme
and habit of his life. Questions of duty were resolved
by the only true standard. He seemed never to for
get that he " was not his own ;" and however he may
have shrunk from parading his endowments before
his fellow-men, he wrote upon them, "Holiness to
the Lord," and laid them at the Saviour's feet.
The letter just quoted alludes delicately to his
dependence upon " the gentler sympathies and kinder
ministries of home and friendship." I fear to touch
upon this subject, lest I may invade the sanctity of
the fireside. And yet, this passing tribute to his
memory would lack an essential feature, should I fail
to speak of his filial piety. There are occasional in-

20
stances in which the bond of father and daughter,
or of mother and son, clothes itself with a strength
and a tenderness which seem scarcely to belong to
a ruined world like ours. Such a bond, if I mis
take not, has been sundered in this dispensation.
How tender and how strong it was — how fond they
were of each other's society — how essential to each
other's happiness — it is not for me to say. He who
created these ties, knows the anguish of having them
severed, and He alone can soothe the lacerated hearts
of these desolate parents.
" Desolate," indeed, they must be !
A solitary light irradiated their beautiful home :
and that light has gone out — hay, not "gone out;" it
has been suddenly and harshly extinguished. This
son was, in a sense, their all. And so endowed was
he in mind, and heart, and manners, that he was son
and daughter, friend and companion, confidant and
counsellor, to them. The tenderness of their love
towards him could not have been greater, had only
five years instead of thirty-five rolled over his head ;
and yet there was blended with this intense affection,
a sentiment of reverence. The reverence of a child
for a parent meets us in every well-ordered family.
The reciprocal sentiment is of rarer growth. It re
quires peculiar wisdom or signal goodness in the cha
racter of a child, to elicit it. But where these quali
ties happen to be combined in the same person, his
parents can no more fail to reverence, than they can

21
cease to love, him. Thus it was with these parents
and their son. They reverenced him, because they
had seen his intellectual powers gradually maturing
and expanding into a vigor and an amplitude, which
commanded their homage. And they reverenced him
still more, because they could never see him without
feeling the sweet, mysterious power of his goodness,
and knowing that, of a truth, the Lord was with him.
Few parents have such a son to lose : none can have
more reason to feel, on resigning a beloved child into
the hands of God, that their loss is his eternal gain.
A simple narrative of his death will best illustrate
these points.
He left his home, at Wilmington, on Monday the
27th of August, with a view of going to the State of
New York, to confer with the principal of an acade
mical institution there. His excellent mother was
pained at the thought of his going so far away to
reside, and was deeply distressed in parting with him.
This made such an impression upon his affectionate
temper, that he spoke of it to a friend after reaching
the city, and even wrote her a letter replete with en
couragement and consolation. In this letter he begs
his "precious mother" " to pray, and strive and not be
cast down." He quotes the cheering promise, " They
that trust in the Lord, shall be as Mount Zion, which
cannot be removed, but abideth forever;" reminds
her, that " God requires that we honor Him by put
ting our trust in Him ;" and prays that " the God of

22
all comfort, may comfort her." He had intended to
take the early (7 o'clock) line of Wednesday for New
York. But changing his mind, he returned to Wil
mington, quite unexpectedly to his parents, on the
afternoon of the 28th, and spent the night at home.
This brought him back to the city on Wednesday
morning, just in time to take the ten o'clock train.
Of what ensued after the accident occurred, an ac
count is given by a respected Methodist Clergyman,
at Burlington, in a letter to his father.
"It is of the calm, peaceful, and triumphant death of your deaf
son, that I will write you. Of this, I have no doubt, you feel most
deeply interested to know, and this alone is the balm to heal your
wounded and sorrow-stricken heart.
" After the accident occurred, and immediately on the arrival of
the car containing the wounded and dead, at the station-house in
this city, your son attracted my attention. He was then able to
sit up in his chair. On approaching him instantly, and inquiring
of him with regard to the extent of his injuries and suffering, I
found him perfectly conscious, calm, and in remarkable self-posses
sion. He replied to my inquiries to the effect, that he had suffered
greatly, but his trust was in God. At that moment, I was deeply
impressed and affected with the superhuman character of his
Christian fortitude. And I can never forget the calm, placid, and
peaceful expression with which he looked around and surveyed the
terrible scene with which he was surrounded. Never did he in
health, I presume, sit in the midst of his friends, and in circum
stances of safety, with more meekness and composure than he sat
there ; the sufferer, surrounded with the suffering, the dying, and
the dead. And never, in the twenty-five years of my ministry,
though often by the side of the afflicted and dying, have I seen so
beautiful and impressive an example of the triumph of divine grace
over the pains of suffering humanity.
" From the position he then occupied, he was soon removed to a
comfortable mattress in an airy position, in the broad hall of the

23
residence of Mrs. Cary, near by the station-house. He was there
surrounded by Christian friends, one of whom was an aged minister
(Rev. T. Neal), of the M. E. Church. And the head of the gentle,
meek, and patient sufferer, reclined in the arms of a Christian lady,
an estimable member of the same church. Then it soon became
evident that he could not long survive. The skill of the surgeons,
and the kind offices of attending friends, could not retain him. God
was about to call him to himself. Of this great truth our dear
brother, though then dying, was perfectly conscious ; nor was he
in the least alarmed, but freely spoke of his approaching death,
and assured his weeping Christian friends that all was well. He
spoke tenderly and with deep affection of his dear parents ; charged
us to send his farewell to them, and assure them of his peace of
mind in the trying hour, and his hope of meeting them in Heaven.
Thus died your dear son, impressing all who witnessed his latest
hour, with the great truth in which he had trusted and preached to
others, the sufficiency of the Grace of God.
" And now, my dear sir, though deeply afflicted, allow me to
commend you to the care of that Saviour whom your son loved,
and to the consolation of that Gospel which your son preached,
both of which were so eminently dear to him when heart and flesh
were failing."
An estimable gentleman of Burlington, belonging
to the Society of Friends, states, in a letter to a friend,
that while lying in a small cabin, previous to his re
moval to the hotel where he expired, he asked a lady,
one of the wounded, whether she thought his hurt
mortal. She replied : " God is merciful." " Yes,"
said he, " and I think (or I hope) He will be merciful
to such a sinner as I am." Afterwards, he was heard
to say, " I am trying to put my trust in my Saviour."
An old gentleman sitting by him, remarked : " He is
a sure trust ;" to which he assented. About a half
hour before his release, he said : " Tell my friends to

24
put their trust in the Saviour. Tell them not to delay.
Tell them not to trifle." Then he spoke of his mother,
calling her " a precious jewel;" and saying, in broken
accents : " Oh, my Mother ! my precious Mother ! tell
her I have hope — " This, sentence was not finished.
Soon after he bade them " farewell," and breathed his
last. The letter proceeds : " His pious, cheerful, calm
confidence in his faithful Saviour, as the only name
under Heaven by which we must be saved, deeply im
pressed the spectators, contrasted, as it was, with the
ravings of some who were quite unfurnished for the
world to come, and a portion of whom were far less
badly hurt. He had a work to do for God in his dying
hours. He adorned before many witnesses the doctrine
of God, his Saviour. He illustrated the blessedness of
being found watching. I trust that his 'precious
mother,' though a sword has pierced her soul, can
magnify Him who blessed her with such a son ; who
thus put honor upon him; and, in his prime, took him
to himself."
Such was the end of Martin Connell. Rarely has
so gentle a spirit ascended to Heaven from the midst
of a scene of such confusion, carnage, and bitter an
guish. But there was no turmoil within. He "knew
in whom he had believed ;" and his hope was now an
anchor to his soul. Trusting in the merits of his
Saviour, he could look death in the face, though com
ing in this appalling form, without alarm. The ever-
lasting arms were underneath him, and he fell asleep

25
in Jesus as calmly and peacefully as he could have
done had he been lying within his own cherished
home and soothed by those fond "ministries" which
had been the solace and joy of his life.
Let the praise be given where it is due. "Thanks
be to God which giveth us the victory through our
Lord Jesus Christ." It was "through the blood of
the Lamb" he achieved this victor}r. His abounding
grace wrought in him with such triumphant efficacy,
that he was brought off" more than conqueror over the
last enemy. Having served Him in life, he now glori
fied God in his death ; for such a death, as an attes
tation to the truth and value of the Christian's faith,
is worth a thousand sermons. The throng of sympa
thizing friends and strangers who stood around him,
and watched the lamp of life go out, felt its power.
And, whether expressed or not, it was doubtless the
feeling even of the most thoughtless among them: "A
religion which produces fruit like this, must be
Divine." But there are others who claim a brief memorial at
our hands. Among the passengers in this doomed
train were John Field Gillespie, Esq., and Mrs. Susan
Gillespie, of Mississippi. Mr. Gillespie was a native
of Tennessee. He went, while a young man, to re
side in Louisiana; and, being there during the war of
1812, was engaged, as a member of a volunteer troop
of cavalry, in the battle of New Orleans. He subse
quently established himself in Adams County, Missis-

26
sippi, the place of Mrs. Gillespie's nativity. There
they had lived ever since, amidst that community of
opulent planters in the suburbs of Natchez, who are
linked by so many commercial and domestic ties with
almost every portion of the Union. Their home has
often been described to me as a spot of surpassing
beauty, where fruits and flowers, spreading vines and
majestic forest-trees, shaded walks and verdant lawns,
conspire to form a scene of Eden-like grace and luxu
riance. Their mansion was the abode of true con
jugal and parental affection. Happy in the society of
their children, and children's children, and surrounded
by their large family circle, nearly all of whom had
estates near their own; there was far more in their
lot than falls to the share of most persons, to make
life pleasant and desirable. The hospitalities of their
house were dispensed with a generous hand. Mr.
Gillespie not only enjoyed the respect of all who knew
him as a man of strict integrity and honorable feeling;
but the soundness of his judgment and the kindness
of his heart, made him the able and willing counsellor
of the perplexed and the unfortunate. Many such
have experienced the benefit of his judicious advice;
and where more substantial aid was needed, they were
not the persons to say, " Depart in peace, be ye warmed
and filled," without "giving the things which were
needful to the body."
Little could they have imagined, on taking leave of
that beautiful villa, and of all their children but one,

27
that it was to be a final adieu. And if the thought
crossed the mind of a single relative they left behind,
that some sad change might possibly intervene before
they met again, who among them could have antici
pated that neither parent was to return, that both the
heads of this prosperous and happy family were to
meet a sudden and cruel death. "Man's goings are
of the Lord; how can a man, then, understand his
own way ?" They came to the North on their own
lawful and befitting errand ; but God had His pur
poses to accomplish also. And how different His
ways from our ways, and His thoughts from our
thoughts !
To return to the disaster at Burlington, Mr. Gilles
pie, like so many others of the passengers, was alarmed
at the velocity with which the engineer was backing
his train. He said to his wife, with evident emotion :
" We are moving at a fearful rate— faster than we went
forward. What can be the matter ?"* Feeling a slight
jar, they instantly rose from their seat to make for
the door, and, in another moment, were buried be
neath the ruins of the train. Of the scene which fol-

* It. will not be deemed amiss to add, on this very important
point, that a lovely and accomplished woman, who is among the
slain, exclaimed simultaneously : " What a fearfully rapid rate we
are going at!" "Yes," said her companion, that manly youth
whose loss so many hearts deplore, " they are all the while doing
this on this road, and one of these days there will le some terrible
accident. " The words were scarcely out of his lips before the crash
came.

28
lowed, one of the New York papers gave this graphic
description : —
" The first car being driven backward, the second was thrown
diagonally across the track, and its centre literally smashed into
atoms by the concussion with the third. Both of these cars fell
down the embankment, a height of about seven or eight feet. There
were five cars torn to pieces. A more complete wreck was never
witnessed. One of the cars was reduced to splinters ; another was
cut in twain, one end being reversed, and the other end in an up
right position, frightfully shattered. The other cars were ripped
from one end to the other and beyond repair. Some of the heavy
iron axles were twisted into a bow. The heavy T rail was bent in
some places and torn from its fastenings, the inside flanges being
cut as if by a sharp axe.
" The scene which ensued baffles description. The cars piled
upon each other, in shattered fragments, from beneath which
myriads of human beings were crawling, maimed, broken, and reek
ing with blood like perspiration ; the shrieks, groans, nay, abso
lute howlings of the wretched beings thus entombed, as it were, in
destruction — mangled forms of men and women huddled together
with broken panels, bars of iron, massive wheels, and scattered
baggage — all combined to render this fearful scene even more ter
rible to the imagination. One of the passengers, Mr. George
Ridgeway, jumped from the train, and the next instant was buried
beneath it a lifeless, disfigured mass. Those persons who came to
the rescue knew not where to begin the work of assistance from the
urgent calls which arose on every side. The unhurt and the least
injured were crawling up the banks, many of them being able to
walk to the houses in the neighborhood, where they pr'ayed for a
glass of water — their sufferings being fearfully aggravated by thirst.
On every side could be heard the sobs and wailings of those who
had just recognized a dear friend or relative among the mangled
and conglomerate mass. Wives for their husbands, husbands for
their wives, parents for their children, all joined in swelling this
vast aggregate of agony and horror."
Mr. and Mrs. Gillespie, when extricated from the
wreck, were found to be in a dreadfully mangled and

29
bloody condition, with serious internal as well as ex
ternal injuries. A merciful Providence so ordered
events, that the house to which they were conveyed,
was that of a highly respectable Quaker lady,* in the
full import of the phrase, a good Samaritan. Here
they were laid in separate rooms, the two parlors
being given up to them. A large group of attached
relatives were presently gathered around them; and
nothing was omitted which the tenderest affection
and the best professional skill could suggest, to avert
a fatal result. But God had otherwise decreed. Mr.
Gillespie had a limb amputated on Thursday, the
day after the accident; and Mrs. Gillespie one on
Friday; and the fortitude with which they each bore
this painful operation, astonished even their expe
rienced surgeons. His sufferings were intense; and
he survived only till 2 o'clock in the afternoon of
Saturday. They had no opportunity of seeing each
other after reaching the house, nor was she apprised
of his decease until the morning after it occurred.
For two weeks longer, she lay stretched upon her bed
of suffering, patiently awaiting the will of her Hea
venly Father. There was no murmuring; no repining.
She had for many years avouched the Lord Jehovah
to be her God, and committed herself to Jesus Christ
as her Saviour : and she was not forsaken in this her
hour of trial. Her prevalent feeling throughout, was
* Mrs. Margaret Smith.

30
a deep and humbling sense of her own unworthiness,
blended with adoring gratitude for the Divine good
ness. On the very day after the amputation, she
seemed scarcely able, as I conversed with her, to find
words to express her views of " the mercy of God to
such a sinner," as she felt herself to be. For a while,
her vigorous constitution maintained the unequal
struggle with her complicated injuries; and her
friends were more than once cheered with the hope
of her recovery. But nature was at last exhausted,
and, on Friday, the 14th inst., she was released from
her sufferings.
Thus have this husband and wife gone down to
the grave. Long had they shared together the du
ties, the trials, and the enjoyments of conjugal life-
It was a union founded on mutual esteem, cemented
by experience, and nurtured by all those grave re
sponsibilities and tender sympathies, which cluster
around a large and attached household as the chil
dren grow up to maturity. In our wisdom, it might
seem better, if this happy connection must be termi
nated, that one or the other of the parents should have
been spared. But the moment we venture upon this
ground, we must be overwhelmed with unbelieving
doubts and misgivings. There is very much about a
disaster like this, which mocks our wisdom. Why it
should have been permitted at all; why so many pre
cious lives should be sacrificed ; why some of those
who have perished, and who occupied spheres of pe-

31
culiar importance, should not have been restrained
from going at that time; why the dying must submit
to this dreadful baptism of blood, and be hurried
away with so little time for preparation ; questions
such as these force themselves upon us and clamor
for an answer. But who are we that we should pre
sume to explore the secret purposes of the Deity, or
resolve the mystery of his Providence ? Are these
things more inexplicable than the sin of Adam, the
death of Abel, the flood, the long delay of the advent,
the violent deaths of the Apostles, the limited diffu
sion of Christianity, and, in general, the sufferings
and sorrows of the righteous? God's providential
government of the world is an unfathomable abyss to
our poor measuring-lines. To insist that everything
shall be made plain to us now, is to insult Jehovah,
and to invoke upon our souls the curse of judicial
blindness. " Man's science is the culture of his heart ;
And not to lose his plummet in the depths
Of Nature, or the more profound of God : —
Either to know, is an attempt that sets
The wisest on a level with the fool."
There is a very different point of view, already in
dicated, from which these calamities must be contem
plated, if we would be reconciled to them. The
Psalmist understood it : "I was dumb ; I opened not
my mouth; because Thou did'st it." Here there is
comfort, even for these sorrowing households. Let

32
them take hold upon His universal, all-pervading
Providence, and be at rest.
They need not, however, pause here. They have
yet better consolation. That faith in Jesus Christ
which carried these humble Christians in triumph
through this scene of horrors, will no less sustain you
under the burden of your great sorrow.
"Heaven gives us friends to bless the present scene ;
Resumes them to prepare us for the next."
Peradventure, this blow may have been sent in
mercy, to bring you nearer to the cross, and to fasten
your thoughts and hopes more firmly upon the things
which are unseen and eternal. There you will find
true peace and comfort. " In the world ye shall have
tribulation : but be of good cheer ; I have overcome
the world." This is the Saviour's language. Trust
in Him, and he will teach you that most difficult of
all lessons, entire resignation to the will of God. He
will enable you to say, as He was strengthened to say,
in circumstances of unutterable anguish, far trans
cending any, even the severest, trials he ever lays
upon his people, " Father, not as I will, but as Thou
wilt !"
A distinguished statesman* connected with Mr.
Connell, in writing to a member of the family on the
subject of his death, observes, " He is in the land of
the living ; it is you and I who are in the land of the
* The Hon. Henry A. Wise.

33
dying. Such a death is almost a ' translation' — it is
so sudden, so swift, with so little suffering, so direct
to heaven, that it is almost Elijah-like." — Certainly,
the prophet could not have watched the approach of
his chariot of fire with more serenity than this man
of God looked forward to his departure. Others there
were among that company of sufferers, who, as we are
told, met death with similar composure. Here is a
great lesson for the living. It is recorded of Addison,
that, finding himself dying, he sent for his stepson,
Lord Warwick, whose licentious habits he had long
striven to reform, and said to him, " I have sent for
you that you may see how a Christian can die !" Look
at this spectacle, and " see how a Christian can die."
" Here is the patience of the saints : here are they that
keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord."
Sooner or later we must all encounter the last
enemy. And whatever a proud philosophy or a self-
righteous morality may suggest, if we would share
in the triumph of these believers, it must be achieved
with the same weapons. Men may die calmly under
the influence of pride, of stupidity, of natural forti
tude, of their own imaginary goodness. But there
are two things which distinguish the experience of
the dying Christian from that of all such examples
as these, to wit : his views of God, and his views of
himself. The Deity, as he contemplates Him, is a
Being not only of infinite goodness, but of inflexible
3

34
justice and immaculate holiness, whose very nature
binds him to abhor and punish all sin: and as to
himself, he is deeply sensible of his own depravity and
vileness. If these impressions are according to truth —
if God be this holy and just Being, and man this
depraved and sinful creature — then two things fol
low. Every experience which lacks these convic
tions, must be illusive ; and there can be no intelli
gent and rational peace in death, except that which
flows from trust in an atonement which has expiated
sin and satisfied the requisitions of Divine justice.
This foundation the Christian has. In Jesus Christ,
he " beholds the Lamb of God which taketh away the
sin of the world ;" the Saviour, whose death " de
stroyed him that had the power of death," and
removed every obstruction to the full, free, and ever
lasting pardon of the penitent sinner. While bowed
down, therefore, under his conscious ill-desert, and
filled with contrition as he reviews his life, he cannot
despair ; for Christ has died. Trusting in His blood,
he can anticipate death with composure, possibly with
rapture, because he knows that its sting has been
taken away, and that it comes as a messenger of
mercy to conduct him to the skies.
Here is the secret of that heavenly tranquillity
which lighted up the countenances of these Christians,
even when overtaken by so sudden and so horrible a
death. We claim for it that it is a rational peace,
the only rational peace, as contrasted with the com-

35
posure which flows from any and all other sources.
And we exhort you, by all the affecting considera
tions suggested by this dreadful calamity, to seek for
giveness and salvation, as they did, through the blood
of the cross. Then, will you also be prepared to die
the death of the righteous, and your last end will be
like his.

NOTE,

In the foregoing discourse, the late catastrophe has been
contemplated only in its religious aspect. Here, if it were
compatible with my sense of duty, I would gladly leave the
subject. But something more is due, both to the dead and
to the living ; and in appending to the sermon, as it goes to
the press, a few observations on the other aspect of this oc
currence, its relations man-ward, I cannot feel that I am
violating any of the proprieties of my office as a Christian
minister — I certainly am but exercising the common right of
a citizen. To repeat a remark already made, human life is a sacred
thing. There is no event in this world so solemn as the
death of a human being ; no responsibility so fearful as that
of causing such an event. Practically, and in its connection
with accidents by travel, our countrymen do not believe this.
Eailroad and steamboat companies, and their agents, treat it
as a fantasy. Our legislatures and courts are asleep on the
subject. Even the periodical press awakes to it only by
paroxysms, when one of these terrific slaughters startles and
appals the public conscience. Let every friend of humanity,
then, however humble, exert his influence as occasion serves,
to suppress this great, demoralizing evil — the needless and
wicked destruction of life upon our thoroughfares.
When I stand by this scene of devastation, at Burlington,
and see nearly one hundred of my fellow-creatures dragged
out of the ruins of a railway train, mangled or already dead;
when I enter a neighboring house and see prostrate there
the noble form, of a friend, lately radiant with manly beauty,
3*

38
and embellished with the graces which win their way at once
to every heart, now mutilated, agonizing, dying; when I
turn from the harrowing spectacle, and enter the mansion, of
another friend, and find him bemoaning with fruitless tears,
the prop which sustained, and the light which cheered him,
in his old age ; when I pass from one dwelling to another,
and find, in different cities and villages, scores of families
bowed down with a deep and bitter sorrow ; when I do
this, and ask, " Wherefore is all this suffering, and sadness,
and death ?" If the answer be, " God has done it 1" my lips
are sealed. " Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right ?''
But when the answer comes back to me, as it may with perfect
truth, in respect to this same series of events, "Man has done
it !" then I know of no principle of religion, nor of any ob
ligation of citizenship, which binds me passively to acquiesce
in it, and to say, " It is well !"
In the case actually before us, I certainly cannot say, " It
is well." In so far as man's agency is concerned, there is
very much in it to censure. It is this consideration which
must make it so difficult for these bereaved households to
feel resigned to their affliction. In ordinary cases, when our
friends die, we have the consolation of knowing that it could
not have been prevented. If they were removed by disease,
it was after everything practicable had been done to restore
them. If by a storm at sea, how could they withstand the
elements ? If by an accident, no blame-worthiness, perhaps,
could attach either to themselves or others. But there is no
such comfort here. This disaster might, and should have
been avoided. It was a perfectly gratuitous and unnecessary
sacrifice of life, a holocaust to improvidence, recklessness,
and cupidity.
The ultimate responsibility of it rests with the State of
New Jersey, which has sold the exclusive right of carrying
passengers by railroad, between the two great cities of the
Union, without requiring of the other party to the compact,
any sufficient provision for the safety of their passengers.
The responsibility of the " Company" has been settled by the -

39
public voice, with a unanimity and a solemnity not likely to
be disturbed by any future discussions. Nearly all the seri
ous disasters on this road have been occasioned by the want
of a double track. The demand for this further accommoda
tion is as reasonable as it is urgent. It is sealed with the
blood of numerous victims. Why is it not conceded, or else
the door thrown open to other parties who will give us and
our families this indispensable protection in passing over this
great avenue of travel ? Must we wait for it until the pro
prietors have covered the State with a network of tributary
roads? Have not lives enough been immolated to this
Moloch? Are families and churches to be shrouded in
mourning every few months, because a corporation, to whose
custody we are all compelled to intrust ourselves whenever
we visit the Northern States, prefers its own gains to our
safety ?
No one pretends that the construction of a second track
would preclude all accidents. But, on the other hand, no
one has yet been imbecile enough to deny that it would very
largely abridge the liability to disaster. The mercenary
policy which refuses so needful a safeguard on this national
thoroughfare, is disreputable to the commonwealth which
tolerates it, and unjust to the 'citizens of other States, who
are obliged to traverse her territory.
The animus which pervades the entire administration of
this opulent and powerful monopoly, may be seen with noon
day clearness in the official " Eeport " of the Directors of
the Company, on the recent accident. The gentlemen whose
names are appended to this paper, are, several of them, my
personal acquaintances — I hope I may say, my personal
friends; and they are, as a body, known in society as high-
minded and honorable men — exemplary, not only as citizens,
but as husbands and fathers. And yet these gentlemen have
affixed their signatures to as heartless a document as ever
emanated even from a railroad corporation. One of their
trains has killed twenty-four persons, and wounded some
sixty or seventy others. And while hundreds, perhaps

40
thousands of hearts are still bleeding under the anguish of
this terrible slaughter, they put forth a paper, in which they
not only undertake to vindicate the every act of every one
of their officials concerned in this tragedy, but scrupulously
abstain from the use of any phrase or syllable which might
be interpreted into an expression, of sorrow for the dead, or
of sympathy for the mourners 1 , Even allowing, what few
have denied, that a culpable degree of carelessness attached
to the driver of the carriage, this is no justification of what
one of the Philadelphia papers* properly described as the
"haughty, and defiant," and unfeeling tone of this . report.
It supplies another illustration of the sinister effect produced
upon men by consolidating them in a society or corporation.
Many a corporation has done things which its members
would no more have done as individuals, than they would
have turned highwaymen. It might be well for such per
sons to consider, in some leisure moment, how the moral re
sponsibility of these transactions is to be apportioned here
after, as between the individual and the corporator.
In their anxiety to shun all concessions which' might be
used against them in a judicial process, the framers of this
report have lapsed into some very unguarded statements as
to matters of fact. A specimen- or two will suffice.
They allege that, just before the train started from Camden,
their agent examined the bell-rope, and "found it right."
Henry Sherwood, a switch-tender, in their employ, testifies
that one of the brake-men told him that, seeing some cows
on the road as they were backing, he wished to ring the bell,
but " the bell-rope was not long enough to reach over to where
he was standing, on the rear platform of the hind car." He
" started to go front, and, before he got back, the horses were
struck." Again, the report says: "It does appear to your committee,
that in all particulars, the law of the State, and the regulations
of the Company, were fully complied with by these agents
* The Pennsylvania Inquirer.

41
and employees having charge of the trains on the 29th of
August. The coroner's jury, it is true, say that the engineer
did not observe the rules and the law respecting blowing the
whistle. But they must have rejected the testimony of the
following witnesses." (Here follow the names of fourteen
persons.) The law of New Jersey, bearing on this point, is
in the following words : —
 " And such bell shall be kept ringing, or such steam-
whistle shall continue to be blown, until the engine has crossed
such turnpike or highway, or has stopped."
I have re-examined the testimony of twelve of these four
teen witnesses (that of the two others is not within my reach),
and there is not one of them, from the engineer down, who
testifies that the whistle was blown continuously until the train
reached the crossing. Several of them, on the contrary, on
being asked this question, categorically, testified that it was
not. Various other witnesses, who were on the train, or in
the adjacent fields, bear the same testimony. A single wit
ness among the " fourteen," it is true, does state that the col
lision occurred " immediately after" he heard the whistle ;
but, on being asked subsequently : " How long after you
heard the whistle did the collision take place ?" he replied :
" I cannot exactly state ; it was a very short time, however ;
it was not many minutes?
These two instances may illustrate the real value of this
report. It is as unfortunate in its history and logic as it is
revolting in its frigid, legal impassibility. By indorsing all
the acts of all their agents concerned in the disaster, the
Directors virtually assume their responsibilities, and shut out
the collateral issues, which might otherwise have been raised
as between injured parties and their subordinates. With the
judicial bearings of this wholesale justification of their ser
vants, I am not concerned. But there is one statement made
by them, of too grave an import to be passed over.
It deserves especial notice, then, that they express their
approval of the " speed" of the train, as" usual and lawful.11
That this speed was, as they assert, " about fifteen miles an

42
hour," will be credited by few persons who read the testi
mony before the coroner's jury, and note the involuntary
exclamations of Mr. Gillespie and other passengers, at the
moment of the collision ; and by still fewer who hoh at the
results. On this point, the hint thrown out by Mr. Wolcott,
the intelligent Road-Master on the " Great Western Railroad
of Illinois," who was one of the passengers, is very signi
ficant: —
" I had an impression about the speed ; but the result
will determine the speed"
What was the " result" ? Several large cars so crushed
and shivered into fragments, that a bystander declared, that
" except the roofs of the broken cars, there was no part of
them so large that he could not have carried it off on his shoulder"
Now, it is of no special moment to decide whether the speed
was, as the Directors say, fifteen, or, as the engineer of the
New York train testifies, " about twenty," or, as the public
seem to believe, thirty miles an hour. A retrograde train,
let it be remembered, with its couplings loose, no attachment
in the rear to remove obstructions, and, if thrown from the
track (which it may be, even by a pebble), the weight and
force of the engine applied, as on the late occasion, to drive
the cars upon and through one another — such a train is well-
nigh helpless — as the passengers individually are, from their
reversed position, in case of accident. Yet, the Directors of
this Company have deliberately announced to the world, what
it behooves every one proposing to travel on their roads to
understand, that "it is USUAL and lawful" for their engineers
to back trains in this defenceless condition, at a rate which, in
the event of a collision, may grind the cars into kindling wood!
This is their scale of prudence ; and this their estimate of
the responsibility which attaches to them, as the carriers of
some hundreds of thousands of valuable lives annually !
Is it not horrible that we should be obliged to confide our
selves, and our wives and children, to such a guardianship
as this ? Can nothing be done to effect a change ? Are the
people of New Jersey so powerless, so regardless of the duties

43
they owe to the citizens of the other States, or so wanting,
even in common humanity, that they will neither require the
existing Company to construct a safe road across their soil,
nor permit any one else to do it ?
But I forbear. Again and again, God has spoken by His
providence on this subject, with a solemnity and a pathos
sufficient, it might seem, to reach every heart. If this last
and most fearful utterance is not heeded, we may well despair
of seeing these great evils redressed.

JUST PUBLISHED BY
(Successors to A. HART, laie CARET & HART,)
S. E. cor. Fourth and Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia,
QUESNEL ON THE GOSPELS.
THE GOSPELS, with Moral Keflections on each verse. ByPASQUTER
Quesnel. With an introductory Essay, by the Bev. Daniel Wilson,
A. M., Vicar of Islington (now Bishop of Calcutta). Carefully revised
by the Eev. Henry A. Boardman, D. D. Printed with bold type, on
beautifully tinted and sized paper. 2 vols. 8vo. $4 00.
"We have no work of the same kind; we have nothing in practical divinity so
sweet, so spiritual, so interior as to the real life of grace — so rich, so copious, so
original. We have nothing that extols the grace of God, and abases and lowers
man so entirely. We lessen not the value of our various admirable comments on
.the New Testament; they have each their particular excellencies. But none of
them supersedes Quesnel; none can supply that thorough insight'into the world,
the evil of sin, the life of faith and prayer, which he possesses." — Bishop Wilson.
"A repository of original, striking, spiritual Meditations, the absence of which
CQuld be supplied by no other work in our language." — Dr. Boardman.
"The, author of this work was a- French Catholic Divine,' who flourished in the
latter part of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth century. He
gave offence to the Court of Rome, by an edition of the works of Pope Leo the
Great, which he published in 1674; but the production that excited the greatest
animosity against him, is that which is here reproduced (with many omissions and
corrections indeed), under the sanction of two eminent men ; the one an Episcopa
lian, the other a Presbyterian. No less than a hundred and one propositions were
extracted from the work, which were 'condemned by the Pope's Bull, as involving
a departure from Roman Catholic Orthodoxy. As the work now stands, little or
nothing will be found in it to which Evangelical Protestants will not render a cordial
assent, and it is confessedly one of the richest treasuries of practical and spiritual
thought connected with this portion of Scripture, to be found in any language." —
Puritan Recorder.
"Eminent authorities have pronounced these reflections the best practical com
mentary on the Evangelists extant. * * * We doubt not that ministers and private
Christians will find the volumes to be a storehouse of spiritual treasures." — N. Y.
Observer. "The readers of Henry and Scott's Commentaries will recollect how frequently
those eminent expositors rely on Quesnel; and those who have been able to consult
the latter author himself, will join in wondering that a writer so remarkable for
Evangelical spirit, for simplicity of style, and for weight of character, should not
have heretofore been accessible to the •American Church." — Episcopal Recorder.
"We can commend the work as spiritual, rich, copious, original, and abounding
in earnest and frequent applications of Scripture truth, to the inward experience
and practical life of the believer." — Presbyterian.
"In editing this work, Dr. Boardman' has mainly confined his labors to the re
moval of any sentiments which may have escaped the notice of former editors, and
which might be found inconsistent with a harmonious system of theological and
scriptural truth. He has executed his task with much care and faithfulness." —
Pres. Banner.
. jggjfThe book will be sent by mail (prepaid), to any part of the
country, on receipt of the price appended.