RECOLLECTIONS OF GENERAL

JACKSON.

COLONEL SAMUEL M. GRANT, of Northern Missouri, first waked up my mind to the importance of recording and preserving the testimony of General Jackson on the subject of the truth and value of the Christian religion. Said he, “I was in Palmyra at the time the news was received of General Jackson's public profession of faith in Jesus Christ. A gentleman, whom I had long known as a professed rejecter of the gospel, hailed me at the door of his office, and desired me to come in. I entered, and he held up a newspaper, and said, 'I have just been reading the account of General Jackson making a profession of the religion of Jesus Christ. It is long since my eyes have known a tear; but now I have been weeping freely in view of that venerable old man standing up in the church and confessing Christ as his Savior.'" Such was Colonel Grant's account of this incident in Palmyra, which, he said, affected his heart much, as he had long known this gentleman, and had regarded him as hopelessly sunk in the vortex of infidelity; and now he was surprised and gratified to find him startled and roused to such an extent by the public religious stand taken by General Jackson. Colonel Grant then proceeded to remark, "In my early days, the palpable and notorious

infidelity of Thomas Jefferson spread a desolation that was mournful over the entire face of the western country. Jefferson was distinguished as a politician. His fame was every where as the draughtsman of the Declaration of Independence. And when it was blown abroad that Thomas Jefferson had imbibed the French infidelity, and rejected the gospel, it was like 'the destruction that wasteth at noonday.' The enemies of religion took courage, put on airs of immense consequence, boasted, plumed themselves, and threw up their blasphemy in the face of Heaven. Ah! it was reputable, it was literary, it was scientific, to scowl at the gospel, and pour forth 'great swelling words' against all that is sacred. But now," continued Colonel Grant," here is a man, raised up by the hand of God to the possession of an influence far beyond all that Jefferson ever possessed; for Jefferson never was able to wield public opinion, in this great nation, as General Jackson has done. And yet this man publicly prostrates himself before the cross, and calls on the crucified Redeemer as his Lord and his God. The American church should not suffer this important testimony of General Jackson to be overlooked or forgotten." Such were the remarks of Colonel Samuel M. Grant. I felt their appropriateness and their power. I had known General Jackson personally from early childhood. My father's house was one of his occasional resting-places, while he officiated as judge in the state of Tennessee, long before he was elected general. I remembered his conversation in the family. I remembered that when the infidelity of Voltaire, Volney, and Thomas Paine were fashionable, rampant, and considered as almost essential to the standing of a

gentleman, Judge Jackson freely and frequently averred his full and unwavering confidence in the divine authority of the Bible, and the truth of the gospel declaration that Jesus Christ is the only Savior of lost men, and that we must repent of sin, and obey the gospel of Christ, or our souls cannot be saved. I often thought of the importance of recording General Jackson's testimony in relation to the gospel; but his name was so identified with the politics of the country, that it was difficult to say any thing concerning him, without touching some political chord, which I wished not to agitate.

The political am

But now the old general is gone. bition which his name so often awakened, has almost wholly died away. The generation with which he was identified is rapidly passing into eternity. And soon the language of the poet, in its fullest extent, will be applicable to him in his earthly history:

"He suffered, but his pangs are o'er ;

Enjoyed, but his delights are fled;

Had friends his friends are now no more;

And foes his foes are dead."

Andrew Jackson was the son of an eminently pious mother, who died when he was about fourteen years of age. By this mother he was early taught the Holy Scriptures, and his young mind deeply imbued with the knowledge of the great doctrines of the gospel. With the Catechism of the Westminster Assembly he was familiar before his mother's death. The Christian counsel, the prayers, the pious example of that mother, attended him through all the meanderings of his eventful life, and had a controlling agency in mould

ing and guiding the thoughts and sentiments of his powerful mind.

He emigrated from South Carolina, his native state, to Tennessee, when infidelity flooded all the land. With that infidelity Andrew Jackson would have no communion. He was not then a church member; but he honored God in word by the frank, full, and often-repeated declaration of his absolute confidence in the truth of the Holy Scriptures, and man's need of the great salvation therein revealed. It was, indeed, a rare and affecting spectaclea young lawyer of acknowledged talents, great promise, and brilliant worldly prospects, standing up the fearless advocate of the religion of the Bible; breasting, with undaunted fortitude, a perverted and polluted public sentiment, and amidst the scoffs and sneers of popular sceptics around, unmoved as the rock that breaks the billows which in vain attempt to shake it.

The elements of true greatness were already conspicuous in the character of the youthful Jackson. Those extraordinary attributes of mind already stood forth, which in after life enabled him to sway and direct public opinion in one of the greatest nations on the earth- attributes of mind which so lifted him up, that, in fact, he will be to posterity the most notable landmark of the age in which he lived. For this reason his testimony to the divinity of the gospel had great weight. General Jackson was not at this period a professor of religion. Nor can it be said that he avoided the fashionable amusements of the day. But he honored God in word. And when the faithful minister of the gospel publicly rebuked sin, Jackson honored the messenger of God, and acknowledged the righteousness of the message.

An instance of this occurred in the ministerial labors of Rev. Robert Henderson. This venerable man was a zealous and powerful preacher, who labored abundantly among the plain, frontier population of the west. In those primitive days, the minister of the gospel considered it his duty to rebuke sin, in whatever circle of society it might lift up its deformed head. Henderson had a courageous heart, fervent piety, and descriptive powers of a very high order. Perhaps the reader would be pleased with a specimen of the style of Henderson in reproving sin. If so, he shall be gratified. Among the popular vices then in vogue, horseracing and cock-fighting were preeminent. The latter fashionable sport, as it was then called, had many admirers among western gentlemen. Of this number General Jackson was one. The consequence was, that game chickens were in high repute, and were objects of much attention. There had been a large collection of gentlemen at one of our western villages, and General Jackson was among them. The day had been spent in their favorite sport. It was Saturday; and, as the evening drew on, Rev. Robert Henderson rode into town, stopped at the principal hotel, and announced that he would preach in the court-house on the next day. The tidings went abroad on the wings of the wind, for Henderson was well known, and it was generally expected that, when he appeared, popular and fashionable vices would meet with rough handling.

The morning came. The congregation assembled. The sermon commenced. "Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions." (Eccl. vii. 29.) The preacher spoke in elevated terms of the exalted and