THE REV. DR. PAXTON'S TESTIMONY.

189 and made me feel that all his expressions, either of opinion or friendship, could be relied upon. His religion was deep, earnest, and controlling. He believed in heart religion because he had an experience of it, and out of the abundance of his heart his mouth spoke. With him religion was a pervading principle, controlling all thought and action. He walked with God.' He realized more than most Christians the personal presence of the Saviour, and had many blessed seasons of high and holy communion as on the Mount. It was upon this rich treasury of heart experience that he drew largely for his sermons. His spontaneous conversation was upon religion; it was in his heart, and he delighted to talk of it. I have many precious recollections of such conversations. He was in all his views and convictions a Methodist, and yet in his experience he was so much of a Calvinist that we had many 'good times together.'"

The subjoined characterization of Mr. Cookman and his work appeared at the time of his leaving Pittsburgh in one of the daily papers of the city :

"Rev. Alfred Cookman has been with us but two years, yet in that short time he has indelibly impressed us with his sincerity as a Christian, his worth as a gentleman, and his ability as a pulpit orator. To his value as a Christian, his life and zeal in the cause he assumes testifies. Of his worth as a gentleman, the many and warm attachments formed during his short residence with us are the assurances. Of his ability as an orator, the large and discriminating audiences which have attended him are the very best evidences.

"Viewing the tenets of his Church in a spirit of liberality, austerity has not characterized his teaching; inspired with the social value of courtesy, his etiquette has not been based upon an exclusive code. Carefully regarding the end in view, he has not perverted the gifts of oratory to the gratification of vanity. But subordinating every thing to the objects of his ministry, he has worthily maintained the dignity of the Christian teacher. Ignoring fanaticism in religion, he has not failed to discharge his duties as a citizen. Marking the nice distinction between Christian morality and political ethics, he has saved his congregation the scandal too many have suffered where the

sanctuary has been desecrated by the introduction of party issues. Yet, with an ardent patriotism that finds a fitting response within the hearts of all who love their country, and which rises too far above mere party to be subjected to its criticism, he has pointed out the breakers which threaten our noble Ship of State, and conjured us by his eloquence to cling to the Bible as the only compass by which she may be safely directed. "For all this we regret his loss. Succumbing to its necessity, we can only, with the poet, bid him

"Go, speed the stars of thought

On to their shining goals;

The sower scatters broad his seed,

The wheat thou strewest be souls."

He and his family took their final leave of Pittsburgh at the midnight hour. So intense was the feeling at parting with them, that large numbers of their friends formed a procession and accompanied them to the dépôt, where they took the train for Philadelphia.

CHAPTER XII.

MINISTRY AT GREEN STREET CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA.

REMARKABLE REVIVAL.

MR. COOKMAN's return to Philadelphia was heartily received by his brethren of the Conference and the laymen of the city. The Green Street charge was especially favored in securing his services as their pastor. His fame as a preacher and his efficiency as a worker had greatly augmented since he had left Kensington Station, and his advent to the city was adapted to awaken much delight and expectation. The Green Street Church was a new, tasteful, and commodious building, with free seats, situated among a dense population, and offered every advantage for the popular talents of the zealous pastor. He was now perfectly in his element. With loving kindred and genial friends about him, a comfortable, though not pretentious home, a large and enthusiastic society of helpers, a crowded and sympathizing congregation, he entered upon a career of popularity and usefulness which may be regarded as an epoch in his ministry.

It is doubtful if Philadelphia Methodism has known in its whole history a pastoral term of two years more signally fraught with proofs of the divine favor and the stable results of evangelical ministrations than these of our friend at Green Street. The scenes under his preaching-the perpetual blaze of revival, the marked cases of conversion and sanctification-were more like the occurrences of primitive Methodism, and showed conclusively that the ancient glory had not departed from the sons of the fathers. At the close of his second year he reported seven hundred members and one hundred and fourteen proba

tioners-a net gain of two hundred and thirty-five persons— with large advances in all the collections for benevolent objects, especially in that for the missionary cause.

As an explanation in part of the eminent success of Mr. Cookman at Green Street, it may be said that it took place during the great religious revival of 1857 and 1858. An awakening seldom paralleled pervaded all classes of society and churches of every communion, extending from the cities to the country districts, until there was not a hamlet, however remote, which did not feel its power. Waves of divine blessing, in rapid succession, rolled over the land; religion was at the flood-it was the theme on every lip; men turned aside from the busy mart at the hour of noon, and thronged the places of prayer ; the workshop, the drinking-saloon, the theatre, the highway, became consecrated places, where the voice of singing and of supplication from earnest penitents and exultant converts was heard; the sanctuaries were crowded with men and women, asking what they must do to be saved; not alone the women and children, but men-strong, wicked men, who hitherto had neither regarded man nor feared God-mourned for their sins, and rejoiced in the freedom of forgiveness; ministers whose popularity had declined were invested with new favor, and the different denominations, that had been until recently either antagonistic or indifferent, were suddenly fused into a thorough union and co-operation.

Mr. Cookman knew enough to put himself abreast this divine flood, and to move with it. Neither the general spirit of revival. nor his tact can wholly explain his success.

It is proper to call attention to an important fact of personal experience, which rendered his ministry at Green Street, in his own opinion, the most pregnant period of his history. It will be remembered that within a few months after obtaining the evidence of "perfect love," through inadvertency he lost it. Through these years his position on this great

SPIRITUAL CONFLICTS.

193

subject had not been at all satisfactory to himself. It had been hesitating. Doubts, questionings had disturbed his mind; and though he was mainly in sympathy with the doctrine of "full salvation," still there was neither a definite view nor a settled experience. His ministry was acceptable and useful; he was truly devoted to God and His cause, but yet he was ill at ease, and his soul, under a deep sense of unrealized power, was often sorrowful. The war of contending feelings marred his peace and frittered his strength; something he needed to lift him out of this conflict, and to develop all the resources of his spiritual nature into the utmost unity and force. The Spirit of God was gently but surely leading him backward and forward at the same time-backward to the simple, child-like faith in which he stood at Newtown, and forward to the same faith, re-enforced by an experience which could more fully guard it, through a knowledge of the errors that caused its forfeiture, and the memory of the bitterness which that forfeiture had entailed.

Whatever had been lost during these ten years of comparative failure, all was not lost. I do not mean that simply a saved, justified condition had been maintained; this no one can question; but I mean that there had been progress in the deeper knowledge of God's Word, in the more thorough insight to his own heart, in the increased confidence in the agencies of the Gospel, acquired by a longer and broader observation—all of which constituted preparations for that subsequent experience which in its marks and results became so signal and abiding. To one who has gained some great height by untrodden and devious paths, there may seem a much straighter course when he looks back over the broad sweep through which he has passed; but he can not say that any step, much less which step, has been useless in the successive steps that have brought him to the eminence on which he stands.

There is a certain positiveness in a knowledge which is worked out for one's self, to which the soul comes through its own prov

I