CHAPTER XV.

B

THE OPINION OF PASTORS.

Y request, I give a few letters from some of

the pastors with whom I have labored. Their value to any one but myself, and my apology for consenting to their publication, are, that they answer the inquiries so frequently made about the character of these meetings, and the permanency of their results, and the work of an evangelist.

From Rev. Dr. Ide:

"SPRINGFIELD, MASS., March 21, 1864.

"REV. A. B. EARLE.

My very dear Brother: At the close of your labors with my people I feel it to be both my duty and my privilege to express to you my deep sense of obligation for your assistance in the glorious work of the Spirit now in progress among us, and my entire satisfaction with your ministrations.

"Your preaching has been thorough, sound,

evangelical, tender, and winning, adapted alike to quicken believers and to arouse and melt sinners.

"During the four weeks that you have been with us, I do not recollect that you have said or done a thing that has not met my cordial approval.

"Your labors have been greatly blessed to the revival of gracious affections in the hearts of Christians; and hundreds in this city, converted through your instrumentality, will in eternity praise God that he sent you to us.

"I believe that the great Head of the Church has given you the office and the qualifications of a true evangelist that he is with you in your work.

"I know that I speak the feeling of every pious heart in the city, and of large numbers who are not pious, when I say that I most heartily thank you for your coming, and pray that the same divine blessing that attended your visit here may still follow you wherever Providence may lead you. Very affectionately yours,

GEO. B. IDE."

From Rev. Dr. Kirk :

"BOSTON, May 14, 1866.

"REV. A. B. EARLE.

"Dear Brother: It makes me happy to find a happy Christian, made so, not by temperament or indiscriminating good nature, but by the fullness of Christ's Spirit.

"I bless God, and thank you, for your labors in Boston. I have long waited for an evangelist with whom I could cordially coöperate. After more than twenty years of waiting, God has granted me this desire of my heart.

"I congratulate you, both on the revelation the Lord has made to you of himself, and on the blessing which has crowned your labors here and elsewhere. The good you have been enabled to accomplish here cannot be comprehended by any statistical statement. It embraces several classes of benefits imparted to great numbers of persons in the city and out of it.

"Ministers have learned of you to live nearer the Savior, to preach more scripturally, simply, and earnestly than was their wont. They have learned to draw their hearers to more prompt and definite decisions on the vital question, Shall I submit to Jesus? Backsliders, to an uncommon extent, have been reclaimed during this revival. Sinners have been converted to God. Besides all this, a sweet influence has been diffused through the community. Without compromising the truths of the Bible, you have awakened no opposition needlessly.

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All pastors who seek the salvation of men will find their facilities for doing, good greatly increased in consequence of your labors.

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Myself I regard as a better man and minister

for having known you, and been associated with you in this blessed work, the memory of which will enter heaven with us, and diffuse its fragrance through eternity. Let us give all the glory to whom it belongs.

Yours in the fellowship of Christ,

EDWARD N. KIRK."

From Rev. Dr. Turnbull:

"HARTFORD, CT., December 26, 1864.

"REV. A. B. EARLE.

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My dear Brother: I wish cordially to thank you for your labors of love among us in this city, in connection with the two Baptist churches.

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Incessantly, night and day, have you given yourself to the work: preaching with great simplicity and power the fundamental truths of the gospel; holding inquiry meetings, and conversing with the anxious at your room.

"I thank you, especially, for your uniform patience and kindness in all your intercourse with inquirers and others. You have won the cordial esteem and love of the members of our churches and of the pastors who have labored with you.

"May the Lord bless you in all your efforts to do god, and in all your future course of life.

Your friend and brother,

ROBERT TURNBULL."

From Rev. I. D. Clark, in the "Watchman and Reflector" ":

"I know of no man so well adapted to the work of a successful evangelist as brother Earle. Plain, direct, and forcible in his preaching; "careful and discreet, and yet sagacious in his management of a meeting beyond any man I have ever seen; this, with his almost marvellous faith, persistency, and iron power of endurance, make him, what he has been for years, a power in the church.

"Instead of weakening the pastoral tie, he strengthens it, unites the church in a deeper piety, and, like John the Baptist, prepares the way for a still more blessed work after his leaving. At least so it has been with us."

From Rev. Dr. Phelps :

"NEW HAVEN, CT., June 5, 1865.

“MY DEAR BROTHER EARLE: Before you leave us this afternoon, I must, in a word, express to you my gratitude to God and to you for the great privilege I have enjoyed the past five weeks in being permitted to witness and join in your evangelic labors among my people and in this city.

"We have been quickened, edified, refreshed, and brought nearer to Christ, in hearing the