you send me back?

"Where human law o'errules Divine,
Beneath the sheriff's hammer fell
My wife and babes,--I call them mine,--
And where they suffer who can tell?
The hounds are baying on my track;
O Christian! will you send me back?

"I seek a home where man is man,
If such there be upon this earth,--
To draw my kindred, if I can,
Around its free though humble hearth.
The hounds are baying on my track;
O Christian! will you send me back?"

March 7.--This being the Sabbath, we went in the morning to worship at
Mr. Boynton's church. The day was very wet, and the congregation small.
His text was, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every
creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that
believeth not shall be damned." The sermon, though read, and composed
too much in the essay style, indicated considerable powers of mind and
fidelity of ministerial character. Although from incessant rain the day
was very dark, the Venetian blinds were down over all the windows! The
Americans, I have since observed, are particularly fond of the "dim
religious light." Among the announcements from the pulpit were several
funerals, which it is there customary thus to advertise.

In the afternoon I heard Dr. Beecher. Here, again, I found the blinds
down. The Doctor's text was, "Let me first go and bury my father," &c.
Without at all noticing the context,--an omission which I
regretted,--he proceeded at once to state the doctrine of the text to
be, that nothing can excuse the putting off of religion--that it is
every man's duty to follow Christ immediately. This subject,
notwithstanding the heaviness of the day, the infirmities of more than
threescore years and ten (74), and the frequent necessity of adjusting
his spectacles to consult his notes, he handled with much vigour and
zeal. Some of his pronunciations were rather antiquated; but they were
the elegant New England pronunciations of his youthful days. The sermon
was marked by that close and faithful dealing with the conscience in
which so many American ministers excel.

Professor Allen called to take me up to Lane Seminary, where I was to
address the students in the evening. The service was public, and held
in the chapel of the institution; but the evening being wet, the
congregation was small. I had, however, before me the future pastors of
about fifty churches, and two of the professors. I was domiciled at Mr.
All