IRENEUS LETTERS.

SAMUEL IRENÆUS PRIME.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

From the New York Observer, Aug. 6, 1885.

SAMUEL IRENEUS PRIME was born at Ballston, N .Y., November 4, 1812.

His great-grandfather, Rev. Ebenezer Prime, was graduated at Yale College in 1718. He was a Presbyterian clergyman of distinction, for many years pastor at Huntington, L. I.

His grandfather, Benjamin Young Prime, M.D., was graduated at Princeton in 1751. He obtained his medical degree at Leyden, became an accomplished physician, and wrote ably in several ancient and modern languages. His patriotic songs form part of the literature of the Revolution.

His father, Rev. Nathaniel Scudder Prime, D.D., was graduated at Princeton in 1804, and became eminent as a preacher, a scholar and an instructor. He was the author of a work on "Christian Baptism" and a "History of Long Island."

In his infancy the parents of " Irenæus" removed to Cambridge, Washington County, N. Y., where he spent his boyhood, his father, N. S. Prime, being pastor of the Presbyterian church known as "The Old White Meeting-house."

When not yet fourteen years old he entered Williams College, and was graduated in 1829 before he was seventeen. He studied theology in the Seminary at Princeton, and was licensed to preach in 1833, his first sermon being preached in Bedford, Westchester County, N. Y., where, two years ago, he preached on the fiftieth anniversary of the event. In the year following he accepted an invitation to preach at Ballston

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Spa, N. Y., of which he writes thus in the “Irenæus Letter" of June 25, 1885:

"In the autumn of the year 1834 I came to the village of Ballston Spa, in the towns of Ballston and Milton, in Saratoga County, State of New York. A young stranger, I sought the house of one to whom I had a letter of introduction, and the result was an engagement to preach six months on a salary at the rate of five hundred dollars a year. Before the half-year expired the people gave me a call, and I was ordained and settled as their pastor in the month of June, 1835. The church itself was organized a few weeks only before I came, and it was therefore convenient and appropriate to hallow the fiftieth year after its formation and after my ordination at the same time. And that has brought me away earlier than usual from the city into the delicious atmosphere of this rural region.

“Mine was a short pastorate. One brief year of labor and I was laid aside. And this suggests a caution to young ministers and their people. In the zeal of his youth, the fresh pastor rushes upon his work as though he were not, in part at least, made of flesh. Conscious of great vitality, and untaught by experience, he is ready to preach whenever he has a chance, as if there were no limit to his powers of endurance."

After describing his habits of work in the severe climate of Saratoga County, he continues:

"How long could a young man, of slender build and delicate lungs, expect to hold out, who preached three times every Sabbath, and held two or three meetings in the week, and made many pastoral visits in a congregation scattered four or five miles in every direction? It was miserable economy of life and health. And the pastor and people were equally at fault in the matter. They asked and he did not refuse. Every Sabbath evening, after two full services, the men in the village would get up a team, sometimes two or three teams, and carry me off four or five miles into the country, where notice had been given of preaching in a school-house, and there we would have an earnest meeting in which the laymen

participated while I did the speaking. Sometimes I lodged among the farmers on Sunday night, but more frequently rode home in the cold after a steam-bath in the crowded school-room."

After a period of occupation in teaching at Newburg, N. Y., Dr. Prime became pastor of the Presbyterian church at Matteawan, N. Y., in 1837, where he remained for three years. He was accustomed to speak of this as the happiest experience of his life. The Rev. Thomas A. Reeves, the present pastor of the Matteawan church, writes: "Many of the older members of the church and of the community well remember his pastorate. It covered the years from twentyfive to twenty-eight of his life, and closed the first seven years of the church's existence. It was a period of great activity, and of both temporal and spiritual prosperity. Ninety-four persons were received into the church during these three years. The parsonage was built, and Dr. Prime personally did much to beautify the vicinity of the church by planting maples, which now have grown to large size and by their regularity and comfort bear witness to his taste and forethought. The semi-centennial of the Matteawan church occurred in 1883, and Dr. Prime was only prevented attending by a severe attack of sciatica, which detained him at Saratoga. He sent me the following letter, which was read on that occasion :"

REV. DR. PRIME'S LETTER.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, August 21, 1883.

Rev. and DeaR SIR: Your very kind letter addressed to me in New York has this day reached me at this place. The invitation to meet the people of your charge and such of them who survive and remain of my former charge in Matteawan, and join in the celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the church's life, is very grateful to my feelings, while it fills me with deep regret that the state of my health forbids me to attend. I am here under treatment, and am unable to move about except with painful aggravation of my complaint, from which, however, I am steadily recovering.

How delighted would I be to join heart and voice with you and the people on this interesting occasion! Mrs. Prime and I were in the dew of our youth when we took up our abode in Matteawan, and gave our lives to the service of that infant church. When I add that last week on Friday we celebrated the forty-eighth anniversary of our marriage you will perceive that nearly the entire life of your church has passed since I entered upon its pastoral care.

Beautifully nestled

It was then an ideal pastoral charge. at the foot of the mountains, near the great river, the people largely engaged in manufactures, liberal, hospitable, intelligent, and earnestly religious. I entered upon my labors with enthusiasm, and pursued them with constantly increasing ardor and enjoyment. My first residence was in the house on the west side of the beautiful Grecian temple that was our church. Soon my generous people built for my home the spacious and commodious parsonage which still stands as a memorial of their care for me and mine. Those fine trees that make so grateful a shade around it were planted, I may say, by my own hand. In the parsonage we often had the people as our guests, as we were their shepherd. Many of our people lived three families under one roof. I often took tea in the basement or the attic, in whichever the family resided, and the children were my friends. I was said to know every child in the parish by name. Those who grew up to manhood and womanhood continue to be my friends, and it is enough for me to be reminded that I was the pastor in Matteawan, of one who speaks to me, to awaken my warmest interest. In foreign lands those young parishioners have hailed me as the friend of their childhood. One of them died in Paterson, N. J., a few days ago, whom I baptized. It is pleasant to me that Mr. Jabez Turner, who was an active member of the church when I was pastor, is and has long been an officer of the church in which I now statedly worship in New York. A few of my old friends

survive in Matteawan. Their names and faces are familiar and precious. To them especially I send my love with these words. How well do I remember the prayer-meetings, the