the cellar. A good wife is from the Lord: therefore deliver yourself in this to the guiding of his Providence. The great secret of a happy choice may be given in a single sentence: it consists in uniting the taste and the judgment equally in the selection. Let the former be the active power, going forward in the choice; and let the latter be the satisfying power, indorsing or else vetoing, as the case may be. If both are satisfied, there is not much danger of forming a connexion that will be regretted hereafter. But I must close these sentences so imitative of the Proverbs of Solomon. Adieu.

"Most affectionately,

"B. M. PALMER."

"I shall not come to Anderson in May, as you are not to be ordained. I prefer to reserve my visit until such time as that event shall take place. Perhaps I shall hit your marriage at the same time."

Mr. Palmer entertained at his home many persons whom he there bettered; and he met in a social way many more upon whom he put a helpful impress. During his residence in Columbia he was on terms of intimacy with many of the public men of the State, the governors, the judiciary, and the members of the legislatures. On the fly leaf of a volume of Calhoun's works, which may be seen yet amongst Dr. Palmer's books in his old study in the home of Prof. John W. Caldwell, the loiterer reads the inscription:

"Rev. Benjamin M. Palmer, with the respects of J. H. Means." J. H. Means was governor of the State.

During this pastorate Mr. Palmer was a member of a literary society, made up of the most cultivated and refined citizens of the town. In his later life he was often heard to speak of the lavish entertainments given in connection with their meetings. It can hardly be doubted that he was a valued member of this society. Few of his fellows could have equaled him in brilliancy, urbanity and charm of manner.

During his Columbia pastorate Mr. Palmer received numerous calls: He was called to the Second Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, in 1846. He favored accepting the call, but was withstood successfully by his church and congregation before Charleston Presbytery. He was disposed to accept the overtures of the Glebe Street Church, of Charleston, S. C., in 1852, to become its pastor. The session of that church adopted a noble course toward the session of the church in Columbia. The minutes of the latter tell us that, a "courteous letter was received from the session of the Glebe Street Church at Charles

ton, addressed to the session of this church, informing them of their intention, to apply to Presbytery in order to procure the services of our pastor, the Rev. B. M. Palmer. Said letter was duly considered, without the knowledge and in the absence of the pastor; and the clerk was directed to prepare a reply, setting forth their determined opposition to the prosecution of said call, and the hope that the session of the Glebe Street Church would, at once, arrest, or desist from any further proceedings in the matter." 2 In this same year, 1852, he received a call to Cincinnati. Of circumstances attending this call, Mr. Bazile Edward Lanneau writes to his mother, March 20, 1852:

"The Cincinnatians are very sanguine, but I think he (Mr. Palmer) is now much more staggered by the difficulties in the way and the opposition at home, than he was at first. He made a statement of the posture of affairs to the congregation on Sabbath week, which led to a meeting yesterday for the appointment of a committee to memorialize Presbytery, and the appointment of a commissioner in behalf of the congregation. I do hope that Presbytery will have no hesitation in putting their veto upon it. Dr. Thornwell is strongly opposed to his going, but may be prevented from attending Presbytery, as may also Dr. Leland."

He was called to Philadelphia in the year 1853, and was not a little moved towards accepting that call. He had been a member of the General Assembly sitting in that city in the spring of 1853, was honored by the Assembly and brethren of his faith generally in the city. Hence, perhaps, in part, his inclination to go. 3 In the same year he was elected to the chair of Hebrew in Danville (Ky.) Theological Seminary. This he refused without much difficulty. He never betrays considerable leanings toward the professorial life. In 1854, he was again called to Cincinnati. Mr. Bazile Edward Lanneau writes his mother, January 28, 1854:

"You will, by this time, have heard the news of Cousin Ben's Cincinnati call, announced, I see, in the Watchman and Observer (Rich

'Records First Presbyterian Church, Columbia, S. C., Jan. 31, 1852. 'According to Mr. Alfred Lanneau, Charleston, S. C., the calls for Mr. Palmer's services in the Northern Churches led the Southern commissioners to the Assembly in 1853, in a meeting called for the purpose, to express their unanimous opinion that he should not leave the South.

mond), with (I think) just comment. An emissary arrived last week, followed him to Barnwell and is, I suppose, now on his return. Dr. McGill is at the bottom of it. I have as yet had no opportunity of conversing with him about it, and have no idea how he will regard it. Just now he is more in a condition to be influenced by a call abroad than usual, owing to his feeling of embarrassment in reference to the Seminary. Still I think Cincinnati will scarcely have the attractions, either of inclination or duty, which Philadelphia had, viewed in the radiance of the Assembly of 1853. I do hope Providence will settle him and the Seminary (shall I not say in the Seminary?) before long."

This call, from the Central Church of Cincinnati, was presented and urged with great ability by the commissioners from that church, before the Presbytery which met at Orangeburg, S. C., in 1854. The church at Columbia resisted the proposed removal of their pastor, appearing before the Presbytery by a special delegate who fulfilled his trust in a manner highly gratifying to those whom he represented. The discussion, although protracted nearly two days, was conducted with marked courtesy and in a Christian spirit. The result may be learned from the following resolutions which were adopted without a dissenting voice:

"The Presbytery having carefully considered the call of the Central Church of the City of Cincinnati for the services of the Rev. Dr. Palmer and weighed the reasons both for his translation and for his continuance in his present location, do hereby resolve: First, that while we are impressed with the importance of the Central Church in the City of Cincinnati, whose call was so ably urged by the commissioners before us, we feel ourselves unable to place the call of that church in the hands of Dr. Palmer or release him from his present charge with a view of his translation to that church and Presbytery.

"Second, That in coming to that result, we are influenced by no considerations of sectional prejudice. We acknowledge in all its fulness that the church and all her interests are one; but in the Providence of God, our brother is so connected with the great interests of this portion of the church that we regard his continuance here as highly important to the best interests of the Redeemer's kingdom, and our interpretation of the Divine will is in accordance with this belief."

He received calls to several other churches, during his period at Columbia. He received, in 1855, a very important one to New Orleans; but of that somewhat shall be said in the next chapter.

In 1854 Mr. Palmer suffered himself to be made Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Polity in Columbia Seminary.

This made necessary, after a time, his release from his connection with his old charge in Columbia. His church and congregation could not look for help from either Presbytery or Synod for aid to prevent his making this change.

Mrs. Palmer knew her husband well enough to be able to utter a prophecy which was soon fulfilled. To the advocates of his transfer to the professorship she said: "You will soon lose both pastor and professor. Your new made professor must be a pastor; you have, in taking him out of this church, made it inevitable that he shall soon accept a call to another church."

In November, 1852, Oglethorpe University, at Milledgeville, Ga., had conferred on Mr. Palmer the degree of Doctor of Divinity.

CHAPTER IX.

PROFESSOR IN COLUMBIA SEMINARY.

(1854-1856.)

COLUMBIA SEMINARY IN 1855.-DR. PALMER'S PREVIOUS SERVICES THERE AS LECTURER AND TEACHER. HIS YEARS OF PROFESSEDLY PROFESSORIAL SERVICE. HIS SUCCESS AS A PROFESSOR.-THE CALL FROM THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN NEW ORLEANS.-HIS CONVICTION THAT HE SHOULD BE A PASTOR AND THE GROUNDS FOR THAT CONVICTION.-LEAVE FROM SEMINARY AND SYNOD TO GO TO NEW ORLEANS. SOME INCIDENTAL SERVICES DURING THIS PERIOD: THAT OF CHRISTIAN COMFORTER; AND THE PART HE TOOK IN THE INSTALLATION OF HIS FATHER AS PASTOR OF STONY CREEK AND WALTERBORO.- HIS TRANSITION TO A NEW SPHERE.

COLU

OLUMBIA SEMINARY had been doing a useful work from the day of her founding. In the year 1854, she had worthy men in her professorate, in Drs. George Howe and A. W. Leland. But she was not measuring up to the demands of her friends. At that epoch there was a general advance in theological education. Princeton, Union Seminary, in Virginia, and Alleghany Seminary, had all been strengthened by the addition to their faculties of men of power. The Danville Seminary, in Kentucky, had been created the year before, with all the intellectual force in its faculty which the West could command. If Columbia was to maintain herself as a competitor of these institutions, it behooved her to equip herself with a full corps of instructors. In the words of Dr. Thornwell, "Things had reached a crisis and something vigorous was to be done, or the seminary virtually abandoned. It was ascertained that if things remained another year as they were, the next session would, in all likelihood, open with the merest handful of students, not more than six or eight. The Board determined to propose a measure which, it was thought, would remove these grounds of complaint. They nominated me for the chair of theology, and Palmer for that of history." This well digested plan of the Board was carried through at the annual meetings of the Synods of South Carolina and Georgia, in November, 1854. During the session of 1853-4, Dr. Palmer had served the seminary as Provisional Instructor in Ecclesiastical History