02. Preliminary Remarks

Preliminary Remarks,

During a period of fifty years, embracing the last quarter of the eighteenth century and the first quarter of the nineteenth, the Congregational Church of New England was distinguished by a host of eminent Divines. Dr. Sprague’s "Annals of the American Pulpit," Vols. I and II, contain a brief biography (not including those referred to in the foot-notes) of two hundred and eighteen Congregational ministers, whose labors covered more or less of the above period, and who were born in New England ; namely, one hundred and two in Massachusetts, ninety-five in Connecticut, fifteen in New Hampshire, four in Maine, one in Vermont, and one in Rhode Island. Of these, one hundred and thirty-three were honored with the titles of D.D. or LL.D., conferred, with rare exceptions, by New England colleges.

It is safe to say, that in no one period in the history of New England were there more talent and enterprise displayed in the cause of education and religion, including the missionary cause, than in the last and first quarters of the two centuries. Men of intellectual might and Christian zeal were found hard at work, not only as pastors, but also as tutors, professors, presidents of literary and theological institutions, missionaries, secretaries, authors, and editors. The most of these devoted men were contemporary with the subject of our sketch, their ministry extending into the nineteenth century, and running parallel with his, for a longer or shorter period.

While the New England hills and valleys were all ablaze with the intellectual and spiritual fires that emanated from school-house and academy, from college and theological seminary, from the pulpit and religious press, there was an evangelical fire burning in Portland, Maine; and so bright was the flame as to attract distant attention, and so intensely did it burn as to consume in a few brief years the devoted man who kindled it. That man was Edward Payson.