is no wanton exposure. Nor shall I be thought to have been very profuse with this portion of the materials, when it is seen that only a small part of the memoir has been drawn from the six manuscript volumes of his diary. It has been my first care to give a faithful history, and not to delineate a perfect character. I am not aware that any deductions or abatements from the following account, need to be made on the ground of personal friendship or partiality. I have rather feared that my anxiety to copy scriptural models which describe the faults of good men with the same unshrinking fidelity that they embalm their virtues, may have led me to throw too much of shade into the picture, to dwell at disproportionate length on those points which cannot be contemplated without sadness. This book is what the reviewers would call a 'monumental memoir, the object of which is to preserve as much as possible, the very lineaments and appearance of the individual; to embalm, not to dissect his remains.' It is a book of this class that our Christian community have been expecting; nor are they at present prepared to appreciate one on a different model. I have endeavoured so to arrange and dispose of the materials, as to give something of system to the work. If the reader should find a recurrence of the same topics, he will readily excuse it, on learning that either this infelicity or important omissions were unavoidable. The truth is, materials, which were furnished at first with a most disheartening parsimony, continued to flow in till the last sheet of the book went to press. Those friends who may not meet with their contributions in these pages, will generally find an equivalent in some other form. The appearance of the volume has been delayed beyond the public expectation. This is to be attributed not so much to dilatoriness in its actual preparation, as to the unaccountable delay of some, and the total neglect of others, to communicate facts which were essential to any tolerable completeness of the narrative. Disappointments of this kind have been very discouraging, and in some instances have arisen from sources whence they were least of all expected. There have been gratifying exceptions; and all whose contributions have enriched these pages, will accept the thanks of THE COMPILER. TO THE SECOND CHURCH AND CONGREGATION IN PORTLAND, THIS MEMORIAL OF THEIR DECEASED PASTOR IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED,-WITH THE FERVENT PRAYER, THAT BY IT, WHOSE UNCEASING SOLICITUDE FOR THEIR SPIRITUAL WELFARE MANIFESTED ITSELF BY HIS IMPORTUNATE INTERCESSIONS, EARNEST EXPOSTULATIONS, AND HOLY EXAMPLE; IN HEALTH, IN SICKNESS, AND ON THE BED OF DEATH, MAY YET SPEAK EFFECTUALLY, AND, THROUGH THE DIVINE BLESSING, EXCITE THEM TO BE FOLLOWERS OF THOSE, WHO, THROUGH FAITH AND PATIENCE, INHERIT THE PROMISES, BY THEIR GREATLY OBLIGED, A. L. PAYSON. CONTENTS. |