BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

CHAPTER I.

FROM HIS BIRTH TO HIS LICENSE TO PREACH THE GOSPEL.

SAMUEL RICHARDS, a youth of eighteen years, came to this country from Wales, in the reign of Queen Anne. He served, for a time, in the British service in Canada against the French, and afterwards went to Connecticut, and settled in Middlesex parish, near Stamford in that State. In the line of his descendants, JAMES RICHARDS, the subject of the following sketch, was of the fourth generation, being the son of James, who was the son of James, who was the son of Samuel. He was born in New Canaan, Connecticut, October 29, 1767; and was the eldest of nine children, four of whom-two sons and two daughters-yet remain. His father was a farmer, a man of good sense, and esteemed for his social and Christian virtues. His mother, RUTH HANFORD, was "a mother in Israel." She was a woman of vigorous intellect, of consistent piety, and of uncompromising faithfulness in all matters of social duty. As a mother, she partook largely of the spirit of the age in which she lived. It was a day of household subjection. Children

loved their parents not less, and feared them much more than at the present time. Such a child was James Richards. He learned obedience to his parents. He was accustomed to say, that his mother governed her family with her eye and fore-finger. He cherished her memory with great affection, and regarded his own success and usefulness in the world as owing much, under God, to her pious counsels, and wise administration of domestic law.

In his early childhood and youth he was subject to much bodily weakness. Severe physical effort he was not able to endure; and even mental application, when indulged except in a very moderate measure, seemed too much for his frail body. His fondness for books, however, together with his facility of acquiring knowledge, and his native perseverance, gave him an advantage over his equals in age, in point of mental acquirement, which furnished an offset to their physical superiority. He was accustomed to accomplish what he undertook, if within the range of his ability. When about five years old, at the instance of his teacher, he committed the second chapter of the second book of Samuel, during the time from Saturday evening to Monday morning. In bringing this difficult chapter, consisting of 32 verses, under the control of his memory, he studied it by day, and repeated it in his bed during the night. His brother, now residing in the city of New York, says: "My mother often pointed those of us that were younger to the early achievements of our brother James, as an encouragement to our efforts in the early pursuit of knowledge." His fondness for study and mental activity, may also be inferred from the fact that he taught a common district school when but thirteen years of age, and with so much success as to secure him the same position during the succeeding winter. These early efforts as a teacher seem to have revived a desire previously cherished, to secure a public educa

tion. In alluding to them in after life, he says: "They gave an impulse to my faculties." They awakened anxiety for knowledge, by investing him with the responsibility of imparting it to others. His father, however, was not prepared to indulge him with any means of mental acquisition beyond those which were furnished by the common district school; and, therefore, the idea of a public education was suspended, if not abandoned.

Yet it was his purpose to do something. "At the close of his second term in teaching," says his sister, "and when about fifteen years of age, he said to his parents, 'It is time for me to turn my attention to some calling for life.' His father gave him leave to seek such useful trade as would suit his feelings. He immediately made his preparations to go. He went, not knowing where he should stop; and my mother wept as he took his leave."

In pursuance of his object, he first went to Newtown, a place twenty-five miles distant from New Canaan, and engaged as an apprentice in the business of cabinet and chair making, together with house painting. Here he was soon taken sick, and returned to his father's house to remain several months. Subsequently he went to Danbury, and lastly to Stamford, where his labors as a mechanic were brought to a close. He often spoke of spending also a short time in the city of New York, in a cabinet shop in that city, and especially of the dangers that beset his path in that great and guilty metropolis.

When eight years old, he was the subject of marked religious impressions; and at the age of eleven some of his friends, for a time, indulged the hope that he had passed from death unto life. These religious promises, however, proved but the "morning cloud and early dew," which soon disappear. But in 1786, when in the nineteenth year of his age, the Gospel came to his soul as the "power of God unto salvation." The circum

stances of his conversion, as gathered from the testimony of a surviving brother, were substantially as follows. A large number of youth in Stamford were assembled to pass the evening in youthful merriment and pleasure. To augment the glee of the occasion, young Richards, with some others, entered the assembly in disguise, and proceeded to other acts of unaccustomed levity. But what was meant for mirth became the occasion of conviction of sin. His soul was filled with arrows from the quiver of the Almighty, and his wounds could not be healed nor peace restored until application was made to the Physician in Gilead. He remained several days in great distress; until at length, in connection with reading the thirty-eighth Psalm by Watts, the "burden" which he could not "bear" was removed by a foreign. hand, and the “guilt” which he could not "atone" was cleansed by the blood of Christ. (See Psalm 38.)

In speaking of his feelings previous to his conversion, and in connection with it, he once said in substance as follows, to one of his classes in the lecture-room in the Theological Seminary at Auburn :

"I had long cherished the idea that I could be converted when I pleased, that faith preceded conversion, and that by exercising it I should lay God under obligation to give me a new heart. The time for the experiment at last came. My sins found me out, and I attempted to believe according to my cherished notions of faith, and thus induce God to give me the grace of regeneration. For several days I struggled, and struggled in vain. I began to see my own impotency, and consequently my dependence on the sovereign interposition of God; and the more I saw, the more I hated. I became alarmed in view of my enmity, and began to feel that I had passed beyond my day of grace, and was rapidly sinking to hell. But at length my soul melted, and the method of salvation I had hated became my joy and my song." In accordance with the foregoing, he was accustomed more familiarly to say, "I was born an Arminian, and lived an Arminian; but obstinate freewiller as I was, at length, by sovereign power and

mercy, I was brought to lick the dust of God's footstool, and accept of salvation by grace."

His hopeful conversion was soon followed by an open confession of Christ, not only in the act of entering into covenant with the Church, but in his daily conversation and intercourse with the world. He united with the Congregational church in Stamford on the 17th September, 1786. His conversion and subsequent zeal in the service of God created much sensation among the people. It was a day when revivals were few--and when religion, especially among the young, was suffering general neglect. Even many good men, in their remembrance of the extravagances of Davenport and others, and the evils connected with them, and dreading the return to Zion of such calamities, were themselves almost suspicious of any unwonted exhibition of zeal in the promotion of religion. Hence, when the subject of this sketch, in the days of his first love to Christ, began to speak in meetings for conference and prayer, and tell what Christ had done for him, occasion was taken for much remark. Some doubted; some were anxious as to whereunto these things would grow; others, like the mother of Jesus, "kept all these sayings in” their hearts.

He had no sooner become satisfied of his acceptance with God through Christ, than a desire for the "office of a bishop" sprung up in his soul; and this desire, under the advice of his pastor and other Christian friends, soon grew into a purpose to prepare himself for that "good

work."

His master, to whom he was indented, convinced that he would not pursue his trade beyond the period of his indenture, should he be held to its fulfillment, and knowing his desire to enter upon a course of study, kindly released him from his obligations. His return to New