iRENv^us Letters SECOND SERIES WRITTEN BY REV. S. IRENiEUS PRIME, D.D. FOR THE NEW YORK OBSERVER WITH A Sketch of the Life and Death of the Author '.'.. 1 NEW YORK Published by the New York Observer 31 Park Row 73X12. Copyright, 1885, by New York Observer. Press of M. H. Green, 324-330 Pearl Street, New York. .^^:i_^:::^^*^<^ INTRODUCTORY NOTE, BY THE EDITORS OF THE NEW YORK OBSERVER. This volume has been prepared in response to a wide- spread demand for a new series of Irenaeus Letters. The selection has been made from Letters which were writ- ten since the publication of the former volume and embraces many of the choicest writings of Dr. Prime; some of them are more personal and autobiographical than any in the pre- vious compilation and were chosen on that account. A biographical sketch of Rev. S. Irenaeus Prime, D.D., an account of his death and burial, together with the review of his life and character which was written by the Rev. Talbot W. Chambers, D.D,, all of which have been published in the New York Observer, are included in the book. This has been done in order to gratify a large number of friends and subscribers to the New York Observer, who have expressed the wish to possess in a permanent form some record of one whom they had known and honored, and whose writings they had so much enjoyed. The first series of Letters has had a large circulation, and there is abundant evidence that it has been a useful and in- teresting book. It is with the hope that this Second Series may be of equal value and interest, and that it may also be a fitting memorial of its author, that it is now offered to the public. THE NEW YORK OBSERVER. The New Yofk Observer is a National and Evangelical paper, furnishing each week A Religious Sheet full of instruction, encouragement, and truth; and A Secular Sheet containing all the news. 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Foreign Post - Office Money Orders should be made paya- ble to Chas. A. Stoddard, New York Observer, New York. CONTENTS. PAGE Actor's Last Words 241 Admiral and the Turk 7 Amber Witch 215 Assemblies of the Saints 57 Babylon and Fire Island 171 Babylon, Sojourn in 167 Benefits of Mosquitoes 256 Built a Church, How Two Cents 49 Bull-fights and other Popular Amusements 195 Burial, Thoughts on 362 Burning up Old Sermons 53 Changes in Fifty Years 46 Children and the Church 294 Dangers and Duties of the Rich 324 Dannemora for Ten Years 284 Dead and Living, Thoughts concerning 362 Death of Presidents of the United States 65 Dinner in Bath, England 370 Easthampton on Long Island 180 Emerson and the Children 84 Englewood : its Pastor and its Patriarch 124 Erromanga, Five Martyrs of 141 Error of a Moment, Sorrow of a Life 302 Explaining away the Gospel 135 Fanny Kemble on Bible and Theatre 238 Gambling in the Parlor 263 Going into the Country 374 . VI CONTENTS. PAGE Good Preaching without Paying for it ^ . 230 Graves of my Ancestors 27 Great and Good Surgeon 112 Great Man ? What is a g2 Great Preaching in Small Places 223 Greatest Thief in the World 316 Griffin's (Dr.) College Boys 35 Hallowing the Fiftieth Year 42 Hatfield, Dr. Edwin F q7 Heart of the Catskills ig2 Hero of Jacob's Well igS Hill, Honorable and Honest John 104 Horse-race, The 165 How Two Cents Built a Church 49 Hunger of the Soul 274 Ill-timed Wit. 246 Influence with Rich Widows 288 Kentucky Horse-sale 161 Little Behindhand 377 Loathing Light Bread 334 Longfellow's Songs Ended 80 Long Island Ministers 175 Maiden of the Mountain ; 366 Methodist Friends, Some of my 127 Missionary Lady in Islands of the Sea 145 Model Rural Pastor loi Modern Magdalen 271 Moral Culture of Poor Women 319 More than there's Business for 327 Nantucket, In and about , 157 Nantucket, To and about , 153 Northern Delegates in Southern General Assembly 60 Not the Ancient Saint 207 Old-fashioned Thanksgivings 250 Old Gentleman Dead ? Is the 385 Old White Meeting-house 31 Overtaxing the Brain 348 Philosophers getting Knowledge 341 Poe, Edgar Allan 149 Preaching Other Men's Sermons 227 CONTENTS. vii PAGE Prime, Samuel Irenaeus, Biographical Sketch i " " " Death of g " " " Funeral of ... 12 " " " Character and Life-work of 19 Prison (In) with the Cholera 137 Procrustes the Stretcher 3S1 Recipe for Happiness 306 Rector, Minister, Parson and Domine 234 Returning after Fifty Years 38 Righteous Man's Prayer, Story of 313 Ripley, Hours with George 8S Rogers, Burial of Dr 76 Seeking Rest and Finding None 203 Shams of Society 219 Shelter Island and Whitefield 183 Shepherd of Newburg 108 Short, Sharp and Decisive 277 Sims, Dr. J. Marion 112 Social Element in Church Life 355 Society of Young Thieves 291 Spice of Wickedness 253 Stone, David M 121 Strawberries and Cream 330 Success or Failure ? Was it 260 Sunday with a Western Farmer 188 Sunshine in Artist's Studio 280 Thermometer of the Church 358 Tragedy in the Tombs 351 Training Boys to be Good Citizens ... 337 War Averted : Scene in U. S. Senate 68 Waymark in the March of Time, Another 344 Well and Wanted 267 Wetting the Ropes 309 Whitefield and Shelter Island 183 Williams, Dr. William R 116 Winter Holidays 298 Worse than Wasted Life 149 Young Man Void of Understanding 211 IREN^US LETTERS. SAMUEL IRENiEUS PRIME. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH, From the New York Observer, Aug. 6, 1885. Samuel Iren^eus Prime was born at Ballston, N ,Y., No- vember 4, 18 1 2. His great-grandfather, Rev. Ebenezer Prime, was graduated at Yale College in 1718. He was a Presbyterian clergyman of distinction, for many years pastor at Huntington, L. I. His grandfather, Benjamin Young Prime, M.D., was grad- uated at Princeton in 1751. He obtained his medical degree at Leyden, became an accomplished physician, and wrote ably in several ancient and modern languages. His patriotic songs form part of the literature of the Revolution. His father, Rev. Nathaniel Scudder Prime, D.D., was grad- uated at Princeton in 1804, and became eminent as a preacher, a scholar and an instructor. He was the author of a work on "Christian Baptism " and a " History of Long Island." In his infancy the parents of " Irenseus" removed to Cam- bridge, Washington County, N. Y., where he spent his boy- hood, his father, N. S. Prime, being pastor of the Presbyte- rian church known as " The Old White Meeting-house." When not yet fourteen years old he entered Williams Col- lege, and was graduated in 1829 before he was seventeen. He studied theology in the Seminary at Princeton, and was licensed to preach in 1833, his first sermon being preached in Bedford, Westchester County, N. Y., where, two years ago, he preached on the fiftieth anniversary of the event. In the year following he accepted an invitation to preach at Ballston I 2 IRENMUS LETTERS. Spa, N. Y., of which he writes thus in the " Irena;us Letter" of June 25, 1885 : " In the autumn of the year 1834 I came to the village of Ballston Spa, in the towns of Ballston and Milton, in Sara- toga County, State of New York. A young stranger, I sought the house of one to whom I had a letter of introduction, and the result was an engagement to preach six months on a salary at the rate of five hundred dollars a year. Before the half-year expired the people gave me a call, and I was or- dained and settled as their pastor in the month of June, 1835. The church itself was organized a few weeks only before I came, and it was therefore convenient and appropriate to hallow the fiftieth year after its formation and after my ordi- nation at the same time.