organized in Middle Granville, and a new house of worship erected, he was cordially and unanimously invited to supply the pulpit. It deserves to be recorded as one of the wonders of the age, that a person should be invited to become a spiritual teacher in a respectable and enlightened congregation in New-England, where he had been known from infancy only as a servant-boy, and under all the disabilities of his humble extraction. A prophet is not without honour save in his own country and in his own house. That reverence which it was the custom of the age to accord to ministers of the gospel, was cheerfully rendered to Mr. Haynes. All classes and ages were carried away with the sweet, animated eloquence of the preacher.

"Even children followed, with endearing smile,

And plucked his gown, to share the good man's smile." You might see children by the wayside, or near the village school-house, arranging themselves in due order to welcome him as he passed, and vying with each other in their tokens of reverence. It was remarkable how singularly he attached to himself the rising generation. He seldom met a child without asking some amusing, instructive question, or making a striking remark, and all was done in a manner to make an impression which time could never efface.

The writer of this narrative, though a resident in a different parish in the town, and having opportunity to hear him in comparatively but few instances, owes more under God to Lemuel Haynes than to any other minister among the living or the dead. His sermons are the earliest which I now remember to have heard, and, though preached more than half a century ago, are at this time recollected with a distinctness entirely inappli

cable to those of any other preacher. They uniformly left the impression of the majesty of God;-the importance of immediate repentance;-the awful solemnity of the judgment day;-the attractive loveliness of Christ;—and the pleasantness of wisdom's ways.

He laboured in Granville five years, preaching publicly and from house to house. And I may add, in the language of the apostle to the elders of the church at Ephesus, he "ceased not to warn every one, day and night, with tears." "His delivery was rapid-his voice charming, like the vox argentea* of which Cicero makes such frequent and honourable mention;—his articulation uncommonly distinct-a perennial stream of transparent, sweet, animated elocution-presenting his arguments with great simplicity and striking effect.,, The perfect ease with which words and thoughts flowed was like the river, on the banks of which, as the poet beautifully relates, the traveller sat himself down till it should run by.

Labitur, et labetur omne volubilis ævum."-HOR.

It was a season of great moral darkness through New-England when Mr. Haynes commenced his ministry. The Stoddardian principle of admitting moral persons, without credible evidence of grace, to the Lord's Supper, and the half-way covenant by which parents, though not admitted to the Lord's Supper, were encouraged to offer their children in baptism, prevailed in many of the churches. Great apathy was prevalent among professing Christians, and the ruinous vices of profaneness, Sabbath-breaking, and intemperance were affectingly prevalent among all classes The spark of

* Silver voice.

evangelical piety seemed to be nearly extinct in the churches. Revivals of religion were scarcely known except in the recollections of a former age. Some of the essential doctrines of grace were not received even by many in the churches. Such was the character of the age. Such, too, was the place in which Mr Haynes commenced his labours. Against the errors and vices of the times he exerted a powerful influence. There was such directness in his appeals, and such withering pungency in his replies to the caviller, that "the word was sharper than a two-edged sword." No special revival is recollected under his ministrations in this place. Not a few, however, were savingly benefited through his honoured instrumentality.

As an instance of his success in silencing the sophistry of error, it is related that a member in the church, of great candour and of unblemished morals, was an open, calm opposer of the doctrine of personal election. He alleged the common popular objections against the doctrine, and at the same time he seemed to have great reverence for the authority of the Bible. Mr. Haynes had fully measured the man, and formed his plan for winning him to the truth. For this purpose he carefully shunned personal controversy. Whenever a plain Scripture proof occurred, he called on Mr. Atkins, and proposed the text with appropriate questions. For instance, Eph. i., 4—“ According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love."-"What is the meaning of this text? Were the persons here said to be chosen, Christians? When was this choice made? Was it grounded on foreseen holiness, or were they chosen that they should be holy?"

The interview was short, and no opportunity given to awaken a spirit of controversy. He called again and again with a “Thus saith the Lord," till at length he gained his point, and the man was won to the love of evangelical truth, and shone bright for years as a member and an officer in the church, and was a friend and correspondent of Mr. Haynes to the day of his death. And from the papers in his possession at the time of his decease, some of the most interesting materials for this volume were collected.

An event now took place which greatly affected his condition. Among the pious youth in Granville was Elizabeth Babbit, who, in her deep religious anxiety, was greatly aided in her search after salvation by the counsels and prayers of Mr. Haynes. She possessed a refined education for that day, and was employed as a teacher of youth in the centre of the town. After days and weeks of distressing darkness, she was led to embrace a cheering hope unto salvation. Now she was ready to inquire what she should render to the Lord for all his benefits. She could not but inquire what she should render to him who had thus been the humble and happy instrument of such an unspeakable blessing. Reverence for Mr. Haynes as her spiritual father seems to have laid a foundation for a connexion both honourable and sacred for life. Looking to Heaven for gui dance, she was led, with a consistent and justifiable delicacy, to make him the overture of her heart and hand as his companion for life. By such a proposal he regarded himself as highly honoured. He commended the subject to God in prayer, imploring the guidance of his spirit. He consulted a number of ministers, and it is understood that he received their unanimous advice and sanction.

September 22d, 1783, his marriage with Miss Elizabeth Babbit was solemnized at Hartland, Connecticut, by the Rev. Samuel Woodbridge.*

CHAPTER IV.

ORDINATION OF MR. HAYNES, AND HIS MINISTRY AT TORRINGTON.

In this place, where the early days of Mr. Haynes were spent, the question has been often proposed to his most familiar acquaintances, “Did you ever hear the slightest fault alleged against him?" The inquiry has been answered by various individuals-some his early schoolmates, others the connexions of the family which brought him up. The uniform answer has been "No." Not a fault on which the eye of recollection could rest as a visible stain upon his fair and lovely character. Such is the testimony of all who knew him during his residence in Granville, comprising the first thirty-two years of his life.

After preaching in that place for the term of five years with very favourable reception, it was judged ex

* Mrs. Haynes was born at Dighton, Mass., February 28, 1763. Died February 8, 1836. She possessed an amiable character as a wife, a mother, and a Christian. Nine children survive. One, a daughter, has deceas ed. All the children are hopefully pious except one, and all but two have made a public profession of religion. The eldest daughter, Mrs. C., is set. tled in Rutland, and is a member of the English church. There are three sons. One is a farmer; Samuel is settled as a physician in the State of New-York; William has been engaged in a law office in Massachusetts. Three of the children are married, it is said respectably,