THE Congregational Quarterly. WHOLE NO. XX. OCTOBER, 1863. VOL. V. No. IV. ABEL MCEWEN. BY REV. NOAH PORTER, D.D., FARMINGTON, ст. THE remarkable outpouring of the Holy Spirit on more than fifty contiguous churches, in Litchfield and Hartford Counties, Ct. about the same time near the close of the last century, sent out its streams of life, in all directions, over the land and the world. Many young men, under the rich grace, awoke to the life of God, by whom the same grace has since been diffused, where vital godliness had been unknown, or had long declined. Among them, not the least distinguished, was Abel McEwen, of whose death a brief notice was given in our first number for 1861; but of whose character and work, some more extended account is due. This, although late, we are now happy in being able to give. ter, Litchfield County, Ct., Feb. 13, 1780. His great-grand-father, Robert McCune, was a native of Dumfries, Scotland; was a nonjuring covenanter;-at the age of eighteen, 1683, took part in the battle of Bothwell bridge; was released with others of his faith on condition of transportation to the Colonies, leaving behind him a protest against the wrong of banishment for scruples of conscience; took ship for Perth-Amboy, N. J.; landed there Dec. 18, 1685; and the February following, removed to Stratford, Ct., where he took up his residence and remained for life. His grandson Robert, the father of Abel, was a pioneer settler of Winchester in 1766, or '67: whither his father Gershom and the whole family after a few Abel McEwen was born in Winches- years followed him. He himself went, * The Author would acknowledge his obligations to several friends of the late Dr. McEwen for communications informing him of much concerning that ex cellent man which he had not known, and assuring him of much which without their authority, he would not have ventured to assert. In some cases he has adopted sentences or parts of sentences without marking them as quotations; the limits assigned him obliging him to form a digest of the whole, rather than a compendium of different statements, and making particular references difficult or impracticable, without breaking the thread of the narrative. axe in hand, at the age of 22, into the 66 have borne the journey bravely until, at sunset, as they entered one of the deep gorges of Litchfield county, overshadowed with dense hemlocks, she falteringly cried out, "Where are we?"-"We are just there;' was the reply; and, putting the horse rapidly up the hill, he brought her out in the cheerful clearing. For three or four years of his stay there alone, he had attended public worship at Norfolk, and, on a leaf of what appears to have been part of a journal, now in the hands of one of his grand-children- a sacred memorial-there is found, in his well known hand-writing, the following entry: July ye 17, in yr 1770, heard ye famous Mr. Whitefield preach at Norfolk from John ye v: 25, which i hope was a word in season to me," which perhaps is the date, if not of his conversion, of his full establishment in the faith of Christ. He was one of the members of the Congregational church in Winchester at its organization in 1773, and was chosen one of its deacons in 1799: was one of the first representatives of the town in the State legislature, and a member of the Convention that signed the Constitution of the United States; was a prominent man in all public movements, both of the church and the town, a man of earnest piety, stern integrity, and sound judgment, intelligent, frugal, industrious, given to prayer, often overheard praying while following the plough, and withal possessed of a large fund of anecdotes gathered from reading and observation. His wife also was a very amiable and sensible woman, of humble and cheerful piety. Their children were Sarah, who married Solomon Rockwell, of Winsted; Abbie, who married James Beebee, of Winchester; and Abel, their youngest child and the only son. Abel McEwen, inherited the bodily and mental vigor of both his parents; more especially the bodily stature, features and form, and the mental stability and strength of his father, and the cheerful, elastic and resolute temperament of his mother. He was a boy of hardy con stitution and keen perceptive faculties; grew up early and tall: was buoyant in spirit and quick to master all the learning doled out in the district schools of that period, so that his standing in the classes was by the side of boys of nearly double his age and stature, or more commonly at their head. In his early youth he had the privilege of one winter in the Morris Academy at Litchfield, South Farms, where he composed and delivered several orations, which are still preserved as specimens of his youthful talent. His own mind was strongly bent on a liberal education, and the business of a lawyer; but his father decided otherwise, and on leaving the Academy in the spring, his education at school was considered as finished; and at the age of eighteen, so thoroughly was he initiated into the business of a farmer, that his father on leaving home for a few weeks, at a public call, gave over the farm, with the fall work on hand entirely to his son, whose ambition it became, besides disposing of other large concerns, to have the cider, 130 barrels, all made and stored, at his father's return. Such, according to all human calculations, was his destiny for life until in the spring of 1799, it pleased God strangely to overrule it. The father was a great horseman and a breeder of horses; and the son was already a partner in the business, and was expected every winter to break to the saddle one of the young horses and prepare him for the market. They had on the farm the famous Ranger breed of horses, and among the inducements to satisfy the youth in remaining at home, was the gift of an elegant Ranger, for his special possession and use; and in the spring of 1799 the privilege was given him of visiting Hartford on the Election day with his Ranger. While there, in conversation with the late Dr. Hyde of Lee, he was inquired of concerning the revivals of religion in Litchfield Co., tidings of which had gladdened the hearts of Christians far around, and of which he, the son of Dea. McEwen, might be sup 66 pecially respected and loved as a companion and friend, and as a scholar held the first rank, taking the first honors of the class, among the most powerful competitors, not least of whom was John C. Calhoun, afterwards the distinguished Senator from South Carolina, and the Vice President of the United States. In October of the year of his graduation, 1804, he returned to the college, and joined a theological class under Dr. Dwight, and remained there, chiefly in the study of systematic theology, until near the close of the summer term of the next year, when he, with other members of the class, joined the Theological school at Goshen, Ct., under Dr. Asahel Hooker, and continued there, employed in homiletical studies and exercises until near the end of September; when, on examination before the North Association of Litchfield Co., he was approbated and commended to the churches as a preacher of the Gospel and a candidate for the ministry. He was received by the churches where he preached with the highest favor, and well he endured the trial of popularity. One of his friends, happening to meet another--the three were as brothers posed to be well informed; but he could give no answer. This filled him with chagrin, and soon his feelings of mortification gave rise to more painful feelings of self-reproach. Turning away he went into the house, but the wound remained. He went out of doors and gazed at the pageant in the street, but found no relief, so he called for his horse and started for home. This, as he rode along the city, and saw the admiring gaze of the bystanders turned to the prancing horse and its rider, sufficed for the moment; but no sooner was he alone on the road, than his mind returned in torturing reflection on himself, and never after had he peace, until he found it in a "new heart" and a new spirit," at the feet of Christ. And now his old design of a liberal education, not however that he might shine as a lawyer, but that he might glorify God as a minister of the Gospel, was rekindled, and his father thankfully and reverently owned the heavenly call. The next fall he began his professional studies, under Dr. Robbins of Norfolk, and in Sept. 1800, was admitted a member of the Freshman class in Yale College. Few of the students at that time were pious. The revivals of the day had not reached the col--sportfully said, "Brother McEwen lege or any of the churches in New Haven; and such as had been elsewhere, had been too recent for any considerable numbers of the young men who had been converted in them, to have entered college. There had, however been a prayermeeting at private houses in the city, maintained for several years by Christians in college, and others of the city, which Mr. McEwen with a few others of his class, were in the habit of attending; until in the spring of 1802 a glorious revival, the first and one of the most fruitful in modern times, met their longing expectations. In this he, of course, took an active and useful part, rejoicing to see a large proportion of his own class, awake to the concerns of salvation, and guiding them, as he had been taught, in the way to God. Throughout the college course he was es means to be popular." He heard of it, and asked for an explanation, which was promptly given with an apology. He forgave it, but accompanied the forgiveness with remarks that showed what a meanness and what a sin he deemed worldly ambition to be in a preacher of the Gospel. It was remarkable how soon he was invited to churches where such a man as he was especially needed; New Milford, New Haven, New London. At New Milford, Rev. Stanley Griswold, a man of loose principles and loose practices, a Unitarian and man of the world, had been pastor twelve years; and had so corrupted the church, as to bring upon it from the Consociation the sentence of excision. He had been dismissed in 1802 and now, some of their leading men hearing of young Mr. McEwen, procured an invita tion to him to come and preach there, in the hope that he might bring the Church and people back to the good old way from which they had been drawn. He came late in the fall of 1805 and stayed all winter; and so satisfied were they and the body of the people with the man and the preacher, that with general consent, they called him to the pastorate, and were exceedingly anxious that he would settle with them; but, apprehending trouble from the leaven of Mr. Griswold's doctrine and spirit still remaining, he declined the call. Leaving New Milford, he went, it is supposed, to New Haven, and preached a few Sabbaths in the first Congregational Church; but with what particular reference he was invited is not known; only that an assistant as colleague for Dr. Dana, then in extreme old age, was desired, and, as is well remembered, was not long afterwards found in him who became the renowned Professor Stuart, of Andover. It must have been about this time, that is, in the spring or early in the summer of 1806, that Dr. McEwen first went to New London. And it was with feelings of more than ordinary interest that the good people there, at the recommendation of Dr. Dwight, turned their eyes to him, with the hope of his becoming their pastor. For nineteen years the church had been under the ministry of Rev. Henry Channing. He had been called and settled as a minister of the Orthodox faith; but early had become, or, from the first had covertly been, a Unitarian. His superior talents and culture, together with his amiable spirit and gentlemanly manners had commended him to public respect and esteem; and with commendable earnestness he had inculcated the principles of natural religion and morality; but he had entirely ignored the cardinal doctrines of the Gospel, the Trinity, the Deity of Christ, the atonement, regeneration, justification by faith; in conse-, quence, the spirit of faith and the life of godliness were dying out in the congrega tion, and, with these, as he himself acknowledged and lamented, the habits of religion and good morals. There were those who saw this, with anxious concern, who were men of rank and influence, and by their means Mr. McEwen was invited to come and preach to them. Happily they and the people generally were attracted by his good sense, fine talents and pleasant and gentlemanly conversation and conduct, and were also so much interested in him as a preacher, that, after a few weeks they were well united in the choice of him as their minister, and in Oct., 1806, he was ordained and installed. And now began his great work. With clear discernment he understood, and with singleness of heart devoted himself to it. He found the people as a body, ignorant of the "first principles of the doctrine of Christ." It could not be otherwise. For almost an entire generation they had not been instructed. He therefore made it his first business to instruct them; as a faithful shepherd to feed the flock; as a wise master builder to lay his foundation in a well defined and well grounded knowledge of the truth. His preaching was not only instructive, as all preaching should be, but it was eminently instructive in the distinctive doctrines of the Christian faith. He explained them, he vindicated them, he showed their reasonableness, their harmomy with each other, their authority, as the word of God. They had been accustomed to attend no religious meetings but the two public services in the church on the Sabbath. He scarcely entered on his work before he called them to a weekly prayer-meeting, on some evening between the Sabbaths; and a Wednesday evening lecture which he maintained through his whole ministry, and made no less thorough and instructive than his sermons on the Sabbath. Bible classes also he instituted and for a great part of the time, sustained, taking some compendium of Christian doctrine, prepared to his hand, or a system of questions prepared by himself, or some |