Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1841 edition. Excerpt: ... ticities prevented him from taking up his abode among the indigent. He would sometimes say, that could he, on leaving the world, choose his sphere, it would be that of a ministering spirit to the poor; and if the spirits of departed good men return to our world, his, I doubt not, might be found in the haunts of want and wo. In this, as I have already said, there was no blinding enthusiasm. He saw distinctly the vices which are often found among the poor, their craft, and sloth, and ingratitude. His ministry was carried on in the midst of their frequent filth and recklessness. The coarsest realities pressed him on every side. These were not the scenes to make an enthusiast. But amidst these he saw, now the fainter signs, now the triumphs of a divine virtue. It was his delight to relate examples of patience, disinterestedness, piety, amidst severest sufferings. These taught him, that, in the poorest hovels, he was walking among immortals, and his faith in the divinity within the soul turned his ministry into joy.' Dr. Tuckerman has sometimes been called the founder of the Ministry at Large. If by this language be meant, that he first planned and established a distinct ministry for the poor, the language is incorrect. Before his time, there had been men, who had devoted themselves exclusively and faithfully to the religious instruction of those, who cannot be gathered into the ordinary places of worship. His / merit lay in giving a new life to the work, in showing what it could do, in raising it from neglect to a high place among the means of regenerating the world, and in awakening new hopes of the improvement of what had been looked on as the hopeless portion of society. The greatest benefactors of men, are not so much those, who discover or...
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