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No. 37. Vol. 111.
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AGENTS FOR THIS PAPER.
AUGUSTA, J. & H. Ely.
COLUMBIA, J.Bynom,Esq.PM.ColumbiaC.H.
GREENESBOROUGH, A. H. Scott.
SPARTA, Cyprian Wilcox.
HARTFORD, Pu2ari:i,G.B.Gardiner Esq.PM.
POWELTON, 8. Duggar, Esq. P M.
CLINTON, .Tones Cos, J. YV. Carrington.
SAVANNAH, S. C. & J. Schenck.
RATONTON, C. Pendleton, Esq. P M.
ALFORD'S P.O. Greene, C. Alford, Esq. PM.
ABBEVILLE, (S. C.) Rev. H. Reid.
SANDOVER, Abbeville, S. C Maj. U. Hill.
MARION, Twiggs, S. Williams, Esq. PM.
■JEFFERSON, Jackson, Rev. E. Pharr,
LIBERTY^HALL, Morgan, C. Allen, Esq.
IVATKINSVILLE, Clark,
H. W. Scovcll, Esq. V. M.
RICEBORO',.Liberty, Wm. Baker, Esq. P M.
G RANTSVILLE, Greene., Samuel Finley.
PENDLETON, S.C. Joseph Grisham, Esq. PM.
DANI ELS VILLE, Madison, J.l.one, Esq. I’M.
JER VINSVILLE, Rutherford, N. C.
Rev. Husrh Qu>n.
ATHENS, Clarke, B. B. Peck.
LINCOLNT()N,Lincoln.Veter Lamar,Esq. PM.
SPARTANBURGH, S.C. J.Brannon,Esq. PM.
MILLEDGEVILLE, Leonard Perkins.
ELBERTON, George Inskeep, Esq. P M.
DUBLIN, Laurens, W. B. Coleman, Esq. PM.
LOUISVILLE, Jeff'n, John Bostwick,Esq.PM.
MALLORYSVILLE, Wilkes,
Asa Hearing, Esq. P M.
WAYNESBORO', Samuel Sturges, Esq. P M
LAURENS, S. C. Archibald Young, Esq.
WRIGHTSBORO', Q. L. C. Franklin, Esq.
MQNTICELLO , Greene D. Brantley, Esq P M.
CARNESVILLE, Henry Freeman, Esq. P. M.
SALEM, Clark , Raleigh Green, Esq. P. M.
MADISON, Morgan, William Bandy.
DARIEN. Allen Smith, Esq. P. M.
-4 .g’ •’ r ’
FROM THE SOUTHERN INTELLIGENCER.
REV. SYLVESTER LARNED.
When this young man died, a brilliant
light was suddenly extinguished. People
of America, while you admire and sound
your admiration of foreign genius and for
eign piety, do justice to those of your own
country. There is indeed, in my opinion,
for the most part a criminal propensity in
biographers, and in almost all who under
take to delineate a character they admire
and love, to overcharge Ihe picture.
They do not care, by a few master strokes
& a few delicate touches,to embody the ori
ginal before you as it really was,but paint &.
bedaub, and bedaub and paint, and dash
every thing on, which may happen to ad
here to the brush, so that it will increase
and heighten, no matter how clumsily or
disproportionately, the colouring they wish
to present to the eye. Instances of this
rhodoraantade biographical painting may
be seen in the lives of two distinguished
heroes of our country, (to speak of no
others) Gref.ne and Jackson.* The North
American Review has very handsomely
chastised the writer of the former.
But this aberration of pencil is not confin
<A to the biographers pf worldy characters,
ft is too frequently* found in the Christian
biographer, who generally seems to think
it a bounden duty to strain every point to
the utmost, in which the subject of his ad
mira’ion appears to advantage, to touch
upon oblique points very cautiously, if not
so conceal them, and to extract some tribute
from every thing possible-even from things
the good man himself would have despised.
Why such adulations heaped upon the ashes
of a worm ? Why such a torrent of praises
poured apon him, who never bad given oc
casion to them, but for the grace of God ?
Their is utterly a fault in this. Instead of
rendering the gloey to God, the glory is
too often rendered to man—not intentional
ly perhaps, hut such is the impression made
jVy the wh,ole of any given work, bearing
we character to which I alluded. Let us
look for a moment at the example of those
■who never err in this respect—at the ex
ample of those created intelligences who
burn before the throne of God. When
Js.iinh (G est.) saw the Lord enthroned, and
his train filling his temple, and the sera
phim above the train, what does, he inform
s was Jone by the seraphim ? Each onp
‘‘with twain covered his face, and with]
twain covered his feet and with twain did
he fly. And one cried unto another, and
said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts ;
the whole earth is full ofhis glory.” They
did not spend their breath in extolling each
other’s charms, though they were perfect,
and beautiful, and glorious’ beings, but all
admiration of.themselves, and of one anoth
er, was lost in the fulness of the praises
which they rendered to the Most High.
* See Caldwell’s life of Greene, and Waldo’s
life of Jaukson —particularly the latter.
THE MISSIONARY.
Do not understand me as proscribing in
toto all commendation of mao by his fellow
man. It may exert a powerful influence
upon others—it may strongly excite them
to tread the same palh (though this may be
a very questionable motive of action) but
when this high wrought eulogy must be
published at the expense of the grace of
God, it is time for us to object to it.
When the servant is so often forced before
our view, while the Master is in the back
ground; when we are defrauding the im
maculate and matchless Je9us of praises,
with which we labour to load sinful and er
ring man, we may justly object to it.
flow do the inspired writers speak on
this subject ? How sparing of words when
they speak of each other! How prodigal
of thought, when speaking of the eternal
God. He reigns on every page. Peter
has only room to call Paul a “beloved
brother,” and Paul scarcely speaks of Peter
except from necessity, and then it is to ex
pose his faults. Paul can only call Luke “(he
beloved physician,” and Luke, in the whole
of his simple and eloquent history of the
Acts of the Apostles, stops not a moment to
paint the character or sound the praises of
the person, whose mighty spiritual achieve
ments he is recording. Nor do we find
that the Jewish prophets, not even the
enthusiastick Isaiah, much as they thought
of the great and venerable law giver of the
nation and of other holy men o! old, could
appropriate room in their various compo
sitions for diffuse panegyrick, there was so
much temptation to panegyrize.
It may be said indeed that this argument
from Scripture is of no force, because that
volume was written expressly as a revelation
to man, and not as a biography. True it
was—but ought a biographer—a Christian
biographer, to aim at any thing beyond
revelation? • Ought his object in*e\hibiting
to us a human character, to run counter to
the object for which revelation was pen
ned ? In Scripture the Lord alone is exalt
ed. Man occupies but an humble place.
In biography oftimes man is exalted, and
God, though acknowledged indeed and
deeply reverenced, does not occupy od its
pages that vast and awful ascendency,
which in his own word is so carefully as
cribed to Him in every situation, and under
every change of circumstances.
Some long account of the character of
the Rev. Mr. Larned may’ he expected af
ter so elaborate an introduction, but it is
not intended to give any such. The op
portunity was good of making the above
remarks, and now some notice will be taken
of the departed youth. Mr. Larned was
endowed by the God of all gifts with a
•most extraordinary genius- He was born
in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Ang. 27, 1796.
His father was an officer in the Revolution
ary war, and a colonel in the last war.
The cast of his genius, if I may so speak,
seems to have been taken from his mother.
His father wa9 quite a taciturn mau—-a
man of few words and deep judgment.—
His mother is a woman of masculine mind,
not highly cultivated indeed, but abounding
with the sources of a rapid and exuberant
eloquence. In conversation with her—and
into her conversation she always pours the
ardour of her natural feelings—l have of
ten been surprised at the native energy
and copiousness of her thoughts and lan
guage. Mr. Larned was the child ofhis
mother, &i in rearing this youth,who inher
ited so much of her own genius, she was
careful to instil into his mind the principles
of that religion which she professed. Upon
his youthful and yielding mind the doctrines
of the Bible were impressed, and early
gained such a possession, as to exclude eve
ry infidel ‘entimenf, and even for a while
to restrain the impetuosity of his graceless
years. YY T hen his mother, in taking her
evening rounds among the little slumber
ers of her famiiy, in order to see that all
was warm and quiet above stairs, came to
Sylvester, she almost always found him in
the midst of profound sleep, engaged with
his lips and fingers in making some active
calculation, or enforcing some point, the
nature of which his silence prevented her
from ascertaining. As he grew in years,
he discovered and more that active
and powerful mind, which afterwards de
lighted and a s tonisbed bv its effusions those
who witnessed his publick performances.
He was above his fellows in school—recit
ed fluently, though when his lessons were
.learned, we could not tell, for scarcely
ever did we see him looking at them, or
but for a few moments at a time. What
others obtained by slow and toiling applica
tion, he seemed to grasp # by intuition.
Such a mind had God given him!—But
alas! What is youth without grace to
guard and direct ? The Circean cup spark
led. The gay voice of dissipation invited.
Pleasure scattered her smiling, but deceitful
roses in passion’s path.
“ ’Twas grace that pointless made
“ The pointedi thorn.”
He trod indeed, but was not mortally
wounded. Whether it is that dissipation
loves peculiarly to mark for her prey and
then to lay her withering hand upon the
child of genius and promise, or whether,
when such a victim falls beneath her pow
er, we take the more notice of it, and thus
form our conclusions rather upon the im-
GO YE INTO ALL THE WORLD AND PREACH THE QQSPEL TO EVERY CREATURE.— Jehub Christ.
MOUNT ZION, (HANCOCK CO. GA.) FEBRUARY 18, 1822.
portance than the frequency of the case,
certain it is that the heart of friendship and
piety is sufficiently often called to weep
over the ruins of what once was lovely,
and promising, and noble.
Young Larned was always “ the man of
the company,” and to divert his companions
would sometimes kneel down, and” in all
the overflowings of depravity, darisgly ad
dress the God of Heaven in a mock prayer!
At the age of fourteen he delivered, on
the fourth of July, an oration of his own
composition to a crowded and woadering
audience of his fellow citizens; and 1 well
remember the burst of applause that over
whelmed and abashed the youthful orator,
when he closed this surprising performance.
He was then at the academy, making pre
paration* for college. The students of the
academy, to improve themselves in the art
of extemporaneous speaking, were accus
tomed to hold mock courts, and to go
through with the forms of justice, when
the hours of leisure recurred. In these
Larned was quite conspicuous.—He was
not the attorney general, for that office was
confided to an elder and graver character.
But as counsellor, and chiefspeaker on the
side on which he was engaged,he spoke with
surprising strength and freedom, and seem
ed much to delight in hurling his merciless
and provoking sarcasms at his antagonist.
Here certainly lay his power. His maker
had bestowed upon him a most fertile imagi
nation, &l in conjunction, a tongue that could
without the least hesitation, embody her
most brilliant and daring conceptions in
words, which, while they burned with their
own energy, borrowed a still more resist
less force from the peculiar tones in which
they were enunciated. And when he chose
to let his effusion* run in the channel of in
vective or sarcasm, he, whoevef he was,
that was the object ofhis aim, was made to
feel very awkward and unhappy for the
time being. Larned’s skill in the learned
languages was very great. Whenever he
would read them in his boyish days, he read
them almost intuitively,.— In this particu
lar there is a striking analogy between him
and young Pitt, afterwards the great states
man of England.
He was not a profound mathematician,
though perhaps we cannot well judge on
this point, because when this branch of
study came under his notice, he was very
young, and his giddy and lightwinged spirit
revolted at the idea of being chained down
to sober mathematical toil. If, however,
you gave him a problem to solve, his ready
mind would seize it, and if he did not al
ways demonstrate it to your satisfaction,
he showed by his manner that he had great
confidence in his own powers, even in those
parts of science in which he had not so
much reason to be aoofideut in them.
He entered Williams College at the age
of fifteen. Here he had much difficulty—
many collisions with the Faculty of the in
stitution, and was finally rusticated on a
charge of burning the chapeLßible. But
he al ways declared he was not guilty of that
crime, though they might, be said, with
sufficient justice have punished him for
others. Hi last collegiate year was spent
at Middlebury College, Vermont. He
graduated at this institution in 1313. It
was here that he was arrested by Divine
Grace and made a trophy of redeeming
love. Ido not mean to assert in what has
been said above, that Larned was fast going
to ruin through the influence of evil habits.
Those habits had oot, that I know of, so
prevailed against him, as to warrant such a
belief. Had not grace interposed, and cut
short every apprehension, he might indeed
have been restrained and regulated by the
influence of moral principles—as the love
of fame—a regard to friends—a desire of
sustaining a good character—and perhaps
more than all, by the impressions which the
pious education of a mueb-ioved mother
had left on his mind, but still all these bar
riers might have been burst.—He was on
ground equally and angerous with that on
which every impenitent sinner stands, and
supperadded to this a thousand enemies
were breathing their secret fascinations
around him.
Such was his state, when a striking prov
idence of God, in the sudden death of a
neighbour, struck him almost instantane
ously.
Death! Eternity ! rushed upon bis mind
with tremendous force. He thought he
was upon the verge of the bottomless pit!
The law was as a fire in his sdul. He cried
for mercy. He prayed in earnest, and af
ter a short, hut severe conflict; threw him
self into the arms of Jesus! That Jesus he
has loved ever since; for Jesus he laid
down bis life, and with Jesus we fondly
trust he is now walking the golden strepts
of the New Jerusalem.
He was now to choose a course of life.
The solicitations of fame and friends urged
him to the bar. His talents were singular
ly well adapted to that sphere. They
would have filled an ample field in the fo
rum, but his Master called him. He re
solved to preach the Gospel. He entered
Ibe Theological Seminary at Andover,
studied six months, and removed to Prince
ton as a charity scholar. He left the sem
inary after studying two years; and here
I will not stay to compliment him on the ad-
miration which he excited among his in
structed, fellow students and acquaintances.
The applauses which he then and after
wards received bad not then, as applause
never has, any tendency to promote per
sonal piety—they did not add a single par
ticle to the comfort which he enjoyed in
the dying hour—they add oot a single ray
to the halo of glory with which bis Master
has now eDcircled his brow.
He preached in ail the northern cities
as well a* in the country, and attracted
great crowds. He could easily drepch bis
audience in tears —he waa very solemn in
the desk, both in voice, in action and in at
titude. His person was tall and command
ing, and had *the appearance of great
strength. I have seen, during his discourse,
the rough tear coursing its way down the
brawny cheek of some open mouthed list
ener, whose sensibilities hud not perhaps
for years been wrought to such a pitch as
this, if indeed, he were ever believed to
possess any. He wa3 entrusted with a key
to the passions of the soul—he entered
their recesses, and with a delicate finger
touched what strings he pleased, and the
responsive sympathy awoke—fce painted
highly, and with such splendid simplicity, if
I may use the term, that imagination gazed
on the picture, till tears obliterated the
sight. These are undoubtedly high quali
ties, hut it must be confessed, that in gen
eral they partake more of the agreeable
than the useful, and that moreover they are
very dangerous and tempting qualities to
the possessor. It is true there is a rood to
the conscience (which is the thing all min
isters ought to aim at impressing) which
lies through the passions, but the great
danger is that he who can work powerfully
on the passions will stop there, and exult
in the conquest which his talents have
achieved, without caring to uncover to the
sinner the guilt which lies upon his con
science. I have said that possessed
a key to the passions. Bv this I do not
mean that he had a deep knowledge of the
human heart—nor that he was skilled, as 1
have seen some ministers most wonderfully
so, in detecting and tracing out the windings
of deceit and sin in the heart, but that he
was naturally endowed with a strong sense
of the pathedek, and, unconsciously obey
ing the rule of Horace, would often himself
weep those prelusive tears, which were
pretty sure to draw after them a shower of
feeling from his sympathizing audience.
Now, here lay his danger, here he could
hardly resist the temptation of misapplying
his talents. What was the effect of such
preaching as that to which I have alluded?
The effect was this—his hearers were
throwD into a sweet delirium of feeling—
they were pleased perhaps with their own
unsanctified sensibilities, and went away ad
miring the preacher, talking of oothiDg but
the extraordinary young man, and enrap
tured with The whole scene! Thus,
in a sermon in which lie described the suff
erings of the Saviour on the Cross, & which
some said w*> his most eloquent effusion,
♦here was much high painting—much ac
tion to give it effect, and so graphick was
the description, that a lady told me, (tho’
the same effect was not produced on me
when I heard the sermon) she could al
most see the Saviour stretched on the cross
along the wall in the rear of the speaker.
But it was mere tragick painting—a dark
and solemn exhibition of a scene of passion
and cruelty, and we all know what effect a
similar exhibition of the same scene by a
French orator produced upon the worm
hearted soldier. His indignation Was rous
ed against the crucifiers—his compassion
excited for the holy and innocent sufferer,
and he drew bis sword to take revenge up
on the blood-thirsty murderers of Jesus!
when his own heart should have melted in
penitential sorrow for sin, beneath the cross
of a bleeding Saviour.*
The publick well know of Mr. Larned’s
mission to New-Orleßns. He succeede-d in
establishing a church in that place, and un
til the summer of 1820, spent the unheal
thy season in the country. The rigid de
mands of the people of his congregation
constrained him to risk this summer in the
city. He composed bis mind for whatever
event a wise Providence might see fit to
order. He made his will. The expecta
tion of death and the hope of life, struggled
against each other; but it was not long be
fore the worst apprehensions were realiz
ed. Pestilence began to stalk through the
streets of the ill-fated city, blighting the
rose of health, scattering to desolation the
fairest prospects, and breathing pain and
death wherever it had its way. His last
sermon was from the text, “ For me to live
is Christ, and lo die is gain.’' 1 The next
day the fever seized him—he lingered four
days, at times bereft of reason, and expired
* Mr. Lamed finally became sensible of the
deficiency in his preaching. Not long before his
death, he remarked to a friend, “I am disgusted
with the manner in which I have preached. I
see, to be sure, niy people all in tears, and it seems
very solemn ; but the next day I may meet them,
and they swear before niy face! I shall alter ray
method, and one of two eff cts will be produced.
Either I shall have a revival of religion, or uiv
hearers will all leave me.” He had determined
to preach more plainly,to strike at the conscience,
and to endeavour to make the hearts ofhit hear
ers, by the divine blessing, appear to theuifelvei
in their really odious coJqws.
Price. 5 J 3 ' so P“ or * l
rrtC *> \ { 3>o o in advance. \
in (he clear enjoyment of his mental facul
ties, and in the full assurance of Heaven,
on the 27lfi of Aug. rnt. 24. It was a mys
terious stroke! It deepened the gloom that
already hung over New Orleans. Verily,
the Almighty did then hide himself in
clouds. But by this stroke, our God plain
ly declared that he stands in no need of
man—not even of the brightest and most
transcendent talents to carry on his designs.
He lent this young man and his consecrated
abilities to the church for a short season,'&
then withdrew them. “Blessed be his
name!”
We might expatiate much upon the self
denial and disinterestedness of Larned in
declining so many tempting calls to settle
elsewhere; and resolving to preach the
Gospel at New-Orleans ; but be would af
ter all probably 9ay, “ I am but an unprofi
table servant,” (which is indeed true of the
best of us) and would give the glory to God
for putting into his heart to do what he was
allowed to do for his cause. The church
mourned at his death. The loss that the
sodety sustained in his death may be seen
in the now prevailing fears among Chris,,
(ians, that the church-edifice will he sold &
converted iulo a theatre! Alas! New-Or
leans, will you invoke new wrath upon
your devoted head. The temple of God,,
where Larned’s solemn tones called sinners**’
to repentance and to Ilfeaven, ‘changed to a
temple of the Devil, where the syren voice
of pleasure will allure crowds of youth
down to the gates of hell!
Mr. Larned in private conversation was
rapid—full—overpowering. His voice was
generally heard above the rest of the com
pany, and though much it could
not be said that whaPhe uttpred was emp
ty. Ideas seemed to float with so much ac
tivif in his mind, and so to require natural
ly n vent, that it was difficult for him long
to he silent. He possessed verv ardeut
feelings—a high and mercurial tempera
ment. He had great natural intrepidity of
soul. This was softened and exalted by re
ligion. Ilis extemporaneous powers were
of the first order. I have heard him deliv
er a. discourse in a most rapid and unhesi
tating style—its periods being complete &
harmonious—.anJ have afterwards been in
formed by him that it was altogether ex
temporary with the exception of some pre
vious thought. When some powerful
thought was about to burst from his mind,
his brow would gather, bis fine blue eye
would sparkle as jf the very genius of elo
quence sat enthroned in its orb, and raising
his arm, he would then retire a little, and
immediately advance, pouring upon his
delighted auditors the full and burning tide
of a resistless eloquence !
But that manly brow is now steeped in.
the damps of the grave—over that bright
and speaking eye death has drawn his long
dark eclipse—that youthful form moulders
beneath the banks of the Missisippi.—,
There rest, dear youth, till the Arch-An
gel’s voice shall sweetly awake your sleep
ing dust, and you be called to receive your
eternal crown! NOVANGLUS,
AMERICAN EDUCATION SOCIETY.
Though an infant of days, it is still the
largest in the world. It is more than four
times as large, as any other. It is now sup.
porting two hundred beneficiaries , and has
supported, during the short period of its
existence, more than two hundred and fifty.
It is neither local nor sectarian ; for it sup
ports youth of fire different denominations
in twelve different colleges; and in many
more academies; and in at least eleven dif
ferent stales.
With the greatest care and scrutiny, It
requires, indigence, piety, and talent, in
all, who receive its charity. To make
this provision of its constitution more effec
tual, it receives none, who have not been
studying the languages, at lenst three
months; nor does it receive them, without
the fullest testimonials, from their iogtruc
ter, and other respectable gentlemen, con
cerning each of the abovp, very important
particulars; nor does it receive them then
without a full and satisfactory examination,
before two of the Directors, or before three
senior officers of someone of the Col
leges.
Being thus guarded against imposition, it
has, as might he expected, such young men
to receive its sacred charities, as the Con
stitution requires. They do possess piety
and talents, so far as men can determine.
The following testimonials, extracted from
official letters, received by the Directors,
from the Officers of the Colleges, will af- ■
font satisfactory evidence on this point.
From Bowdoin Collece. —“The influ
ence of the pious students is felt by the
whole College. We'know not whßt would
be the state of things, if this influence was
suspended. But recollecting the state of
things, when a solitary individual broke the
deep silence with his prayer?, we have
reason to think, it would be very great.
Some'of ihe pious students are most distin
guished, s scholars. Thq charity students
maintain a good rank with these.”
From Hamilton Coi.lkgf..—“ The talents
and scholarship of this class of young men
are highly respectable, and their influence
is salutary, it by oe> means inconsiderable^