Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

ship, with everlasting happiness their possession, with everlasting love and praise their employ.

If then we know any thing of this Christian friendship, and wish to express our fond recollections of a departed friend, we may well calculate on the ready indulgence of all our Christian readers. And in the present case, we feel assured, that many bosoms throb with emotions like our own, and that the short and imperfect sketch, which we now present, will be read by many with an interest which nothing but fervent and imperishable attachment could excite.

The late Dr. John N. Abeel was born in the city of NewYork. Early in life he was placed in a school at Morristown, New-Jersey and after he had made the usual preparation, he was admitted into the college at Princeton, where he graduated. Making choice of the profession of law, he commenced the study of it with Judge Patterson in New-Brunswick. In about a year, however, his heart became changed by the energy of divine grace, and his views were directed to the holy ministry as the business of his future life. In consequence, leaving his able instructer, who had formed high expectations of his eminence at the bar, he became a student of theology with the Rev. Dr. Livingston; and afterwards with President Witherspoon, on accepting the office of Tutor in the college at Princeton. Having finished his studies, he was licensed to preach the gospel by the Classis of New-York in the year 1793. He remained a candidate for the ministry but a short time, being quickly.invited to Philadelphia, and ordained and installed as a Pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Arch-Street, and a colleague of the Rev. Dr. Green. In the year 1795, he deemed it his duty to accept a call from the Reformed Dutch Church in this City, and accordingly removed from Philadelphia to New-York. In this sphere of labour and usefulness, he continued to exert himself, until his last sickness; refusing offers and invitations, which were addressed to him from Philadelphia and from Boston, and, we understand, the proffer (formal or informal) of the Presidency of Union College. In the year 1809, he became indisposed, and lingered in VOL. I....No. 1.

2

disease during the remainder of his life. He spent one winter in South Carolina; he made a voyage to Rio Janeiro; but these means, as well as the skill and attention of his medical friends, were ineffectual. The progress of his disorder was gradual, yet constant; and he departed this life in the night of the 19th of January, 1812, in the forty-third year of his age. As a man, he possessed a sound understanding, greatly improved by diligent application. His manners were very unusually mild, unassuming, amiable, and winning. In society, he was affable, and communicative. His colloquial talents were extraordinary; few men have possessed equal powers constantly to entertain, and interest, and instruct, in every circle, both of friends and of strangers. Accordingly his company was courted, and afforded high and continual pleasure to his numerous acquaintances.

As a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, he was truly eminent. He had industriously cultivated his fine natural talents, and laid up large stores of valuable information. Here indeed he especially excelled: few have possessed so nice and accurate intellectual discernment. His literary acquirements and his correct taste were manifest to all who heard his preaching, though few men have been more free from a pedantic display of science. His style was plain and simple; the strain of his discourses was didactic: and he usually preached extemporaneously. He delighted to introduce and to dwell on particulars relative to Christian experience; and thus speaking from the heart, he was always animated and interesting; he appeared always familiar with his subject, and very frequently he exhibited to his hearers uncommon elegance of diction, and captivated them with his eloquence. Particularly this was the case, when he preached on occasions of charitable collections. We also well remember, that very great and very general attention was excited to a series of discourses on education, which were received, by his people and many others who heard them, with the warmest approbation. He carefully stated, defended, and applied the doctrines of grace; and was an honest advocate of those truths taught in the scriptures, which are often characterized as the peculiarities of Calvinism. He had subscribed to

them ex animo as the confession of his faith, and he steadfastly adhered to them until his death.

He was diligent in visiting his flock. He often went from house to house, not merely as a friend or an acquaintance, but as a watchful shepherd. Especially the inquiring sinner, the feeble Christian, the tempted and perplexed soul, and the sufferer of temporal affliction, found him ever ready and active to afford them advice, and support, and consolation. He did not withhold from them the warnings and the exhortations which they needed; and, at the same time, he delighted to point them to the Mediator of the everlasting covenant, to encourage them with its promises, to apply the balm of sovereign virtue to the wounded spirit.

He cherished a charity truly catholic. It was not confined by the pale of any particular denomination; it was diffusive; and he loved as brethren all whom he had reason to regard as lovers in sincerity of his dear Redeemer. Yet, while he was no bigot, no zealot, he warmly espoused and sedulously promoted the cause of the Reformed Dutch Church, of which he was a member. With a discrimination which few of her number have possessed in a greater degree, he discerned the path of her true interests, and he employed in her behalf the energy of his talents, the charms of his eloquence, the weight of his influence, the efficacy of his prayers in faith. His efforts were blessed, and principally by his means a large fund was collected for her Theological Seminary. That Church should indeed cherish and honour his memory, on account of the obligations which she is under to him, for his indefatigable and successful exertions; and also because, when labouring for her good, and undergoing severe fatigue for her sake, that disease was induced which terminated his life on earth.

After what we have now stated, it will be admitted, without hesitancy, that he deserved to be loved: and he was loved. He was dear to his brethren in the ministry, who marked with mourning and pain the progress of his last sickness; and who, when death had removed him from them, bewailed the loss of their friend, their counsellor, and their companion, who had so

often given them delight and profit. He was dear to his people: they gave him numerous unequivocal proofs of their attachment; and it was particularly manifested, when their liberality promptly furnished him with ample means to undertake those voyages which were recommended by his physicians,

And it is no wonder that he was dear to his people. Not a few of them, when in temporal sorrow, had found him an angel of comfort; cheering their hearts and teaching them to extract sweetness from the cup of affliction. Not a few of them, when in temptation and gloom, had found in him a guide to deliverance, to peace, to gladness. Not a few of them, when locked in the more than iron grasp of spiritual death, when groping in corruption's midnight, had found him the instrument, honoured of Heaven, to convey to them light and life; by him they had been brought to the knowledge of the truth; by him they had been led to the throne of grace, to the cross of Christ, to the paths of piety and joy. They beheld in him their spiritual father; and they felt the force of their obligations to him. There were many of these several classes; for he was blessed by his Master with extensive usefulness. Under his ministry a revival of religion took place, to an extent beyond what had been known in the city, since the days of Dr. Laidlie; and Dr. Abeel is to be regarded as at least one of the honoured instruments of enkindling that religious flame in New-York, which has since burned with so much brightness. He rejoiced on account of his success; and, as should ever be done, he ascribed all the glory to the omnipotence of a faithful and a sovereign God.

As a Christian, he was consistent and exemplary. He felt deeply the impression of the truth on his own heart. He beheld in vivid light the terrors of that misery to which sin exposed him, the hideousness of that deformity which all sin presents. He heard for himself the gospel of God; and examined with eager attention the exhibition of Jesus Christ as the appointed Saviour. For himself he accepted the offer, of mercy; and in holy faith received and rested on Jesus Christ for full salvation. In this faith he lived near to a reconciled

Father, enjoying the grace and comfort of the Holy Ghost. In this faith, he passed through the changes and trials which were allotted to him. In this faith, he walked before men, fruitful in good works, adorning the doctrine of God his Saviour. In this faith, he laboured in his ministry, and his labours were owned. In this faith, he prepared for death, he beheld its approach, he felt its stroke; hence his declaration, (one of the last from his lips,) that he had a firm and unshaken confidence that his everlasting interests were secured.

We do not know that Dr. Abeel ever appeared before the public as an Author, excepting in the case of a Sermon preached in April 1801, before the New-York Missionary Society, which was published by them.* We shall present our readers with some extracts from this discourse, though it does not come within our prescribed limits, as critics and reviewers. We had contemplated the insertion of numerous quotations; but it was impracticable, unless we excluded the Religious Intelligence altogether from our present number.

In the following passage are sentiments which cannot be too widely disseminated; and we shall embrace with avidity every occasion of presenting them to the attention of our readers.

"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword." That this passage is not to be taken in the sense which at first view it suggests, is obvious from its connexion with the whole of our Saviour's discourse, and particularly from the genius of his religion, which is so benign, that in proportion as it is received and understood, it cannot fail to improve the state of society. All the evils which have been imputed to it, arise from the ignorance, the bigotry, the superstition, the enthusiasm, of which it is the most effectual, perhaps I may say, the only cure. These assertions would admit of strong proof from fact, had we time to contemplate the blessed change which Chris.

* Its title is, "A Discourse delivered April 6th, 1801, in the Middle Dutch Church, before the New-York Missionary Society, at their Annual Meeting, by John N. Abeel, A. M. one of the Ministers of the Reformed Dutch Church in the City of New-York. New-York, printed by Isaac Collins and Son, 1801.”

* Mat. x. 34.

« VorigeDoorgaan »