ter a little the pastor repeated his call to the brother to lead the meeting in prayer. There was no response to this second call. After a moment the determined young pastor said: "Brother we shall just sit here till you lead us in prayer." This was too much for the timid but excellent brother appealed to. He led the meeting at once, and in an uplifting prayer; and thenceforth never failed to respond when called

upon.

His daring course was followed by good results in this instance. But it is said that when asked in his old age whether he would repeat the process in a similar case, he would smile and say: "No, I think that is a case of God's overruling the rashness of my youth for good. Had the circumstances of God's ordering been different my rashness might have been followed by much evil." The following incident will show that this daring young pastor was, in personal work, a skilful fisherman of men. During the revival to be referred to after a little, a young friend dropped in for a week's sojourn with him in his home. He appeared annoyed at the presence of the revival and would have left but for kindly solicitations to remain. Mr. Palmer did not even ask him to attend church. On the contrary he gave him to understand that he could do as he pleased. The youth, however, chose to attend, having nothing better to do. After a little he developed a restlessness and an irritation of manner.

"Thus," to let Mr. Palmer tell the story in his own words, “matters moved on from day to day, till the Sabbath came and was passed, and on Monday the conflict reached its crisis. I was writing in my study as he came in and sat beside my desk-breaking out, after a little, in the petulant remark: 'You preachers are the most contradictory men in the world; you say, and you unsay, just as it pleases you, without the least pretension to consistency.'

"Somehow I was not surprised at this outbreak; for though no sign of religious feeling had been evinced, there was a restlessness in his manner which satisfied me that he was secretly fighting against the truth. I thought it best to treat the case in an off-hand sort of way, and with seeming indifference so as to cut him off from all opportunity to coquette with the Gospel. Without arresting my pen, I simply arswered, 'Well, what now?'

"Why, yesterday you said in your sermon that sinners were perfectly helpless in themselves-utterly unable to repent or believe and then turned square round and said that they would all be damned if they did not.'

"Well, my dear E, there is no use in our quarreling over this matter; either you can or you cannot. If you can, all I have to say is that I hope you will just go and do it.'

"As I did not raise my eyes from my writing, which was continued as I spoke, I had no means of marking the effect of these words, until, after a moment's silence, with a choking utterance, the reply came back: 'I have been trying my best for three whole days, and cannot.' 'Ah,' said I, laying down the pen; 'that puts a different face upon it; we will go then and tell the difficulty straight out to God.'

"We knelt together and I prayed as though this was the first time in human history that this trouble had ever arisen; that here was a soul in the most desperate extremity, which must believe or perish, and hopelessly unable of itself, to do it; that, consequently it was just the case calling for Divine interposition; and pleading most earnestly for the fulfillment of the Divine promise. Upon rising I offered not one single word of comfort or advice. Youth is seldom disingenuous or stubborn, and the difficulty was recognized as purely practical. So I left my friend in his powerlessness in the hands of God, as the only helper. In a short time he came through the struggle, rejoicing in the hope of eternal life.

"The fact simply is, that 'the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God; neither indeed can be.' The danger is not so much that the sinner will be crushed into despair by the clear apprehension of this truth, as that he will fail to realize it at all. They wrap themselves in the fatal delusion that they are competent to repent at will, and so they sport with the whole matter as being perfectly under their control. The issue becomes fearfully momentous, as soon as they practically discover that they are, in themselves, utterly without strength, and therefore wholly dependent on the sovereign mercy of God. It is unwise to strip the truth of its apparent sternness by any attempts at metaphysical explanation, or to blunt its edge by offering premature comfort. It is better to deal honestly with it as a tremendous fact, and then leave the awakened sinner face to face with his peril, thrown back in this solemn crisis upon the pledged mercy of God, in Christ. 'Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith the Lord.'”

This incident indicates as well as a sermon of the period would do, the kind of a gospel he then held forth, in all its aspects.

He found time to lend a helping hand to the advancement of

*See Southwestern Presbyterian, Thursday, August 5, 1869, under caption, "Practical Uses of the Doctrine of Inability."

religion outside the bounds of his own congregation. During the winter of 1841-1842, a season of revival was enjoyed in the churches of Savannah, beginning in the Independent Presbyterian Church and "chiefly under the preaching of that eminent servant of God, Rev. Dr. Joseph C. Stiles." In this revival all the pastors bore their part; and the young Timothy took his turn with the others at the sacred desk. In the following summer, the pastor of the Independent Presbyterian Church was long absent, owing to sickness, and the pastoral services of Mr. Palmer were given to the people of that church so far as his duty to his own people permitted. In waiting upon their sick and in conducting their weekly prayer-meetings he found some outlet for surplus energies, built them up in their Christian life and knit them to himself, as we shall hereafter see.

During the less than fifteen months of service in the Savannah church, Mr. Palmer had won the love of the people in a remarkable degree. Under his care the church had flourished. Additions had been made to the membership. The church as a whole had been edified. Attention had been called to the church as a congregation where the people were really taught and delightfully taught. They abhorred the thought of giving him up. But that thought was like the ghost of Banquo; it would not down. Other churches were laying eyes on him; and meant to have him if he could be had. Even back in the forties people liked a young preacher that could preach and behave after Palmer's fashion; and the staid old church in the Upper Country capital city of South Carolina, under the eaves of Columbia Seminary, made a successful demand for him. It was a formidable field but a most important one. Those people had had Thornwell as their pastor. He was then frequently heard by them, for as president of South Carolina College he was often accessible to them as pulpit supply when for any cause they had no preacher of their own. He would be an auditor of Palmer's in Columbia. The Columbia congregation almost adored him. But then Palmer could preach to a large resident audience of worthy and influential people, have in his pews the Columbia theological students and teach them, by doing it, how to open God's word to the people; during term time of the college, address in addition, a considerable proportion of college students, amongst whom would be the coming influential men of South Carolina; and whilst the legislature was in session he would have as hearers many of the public men of

the entire State. It was a most important post, and the reader can imagine how this call would be pressed in letters from grave professors, legal lights, and other earnest servants of the church, pleading with this young man of just twenty-five to come and fill this great post.

In the next chapter we shall see how he acquitted himself in that place of vantage and responsibility.

CHAPTER VII.

THE PASTOR AT COLUMBIA, S. C.

(January, 1843-October, 1855.)

THE WORK TO WHICH HE WENT AT COLUMBIA, S. C.-THE ZEAL WITH WHICH HE THREW HIMSELF INTO HIS WORK.-HIS PULPIT MINISTRATIONS. HIS ZEAL IN THE APPLICATION OF DISCIPLINE.-HIS LABORS AS A PASTOR.-ILLUSTRATIVE INCIDENTS.-THE LOSS OF HIS MOTHER. THE LOSS OF LITTLE BENJAMIN BLAKELEY.-HIS ERECTION OF THE PRESENT NOBLE CHURCH EDIFICE, THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, COLUMBIA.-HIS DEDICATORY SERMON, SHOWING HIS IDEALS IN 1853.—THE RESULTS OF HIS LABORS IN THE GROWTH OF HIS CHURCH.

A

S indicated in the previous chapter, when the Rev. Mr. Palmer went to Columbia, he entered a most important field. The members of the State Legislature, and of the courts of justice, the student bodies of the State College and of the Columbia Theological Seminary, during their respective term times, presented severally great opportunities for a wide, pervasive and exceptionally potent influence. In addition to these special opportunities afforded in the Columbia field, there were in the church itself one hundred and sixteen white members and twelve colored members, embracing many families of commanding position and influence in the capital city; which, next to Charleston, was the most important city in the State of South Carolina, and outranked as an educational center even the old mother city on the Cooper and the Ashley. The church was well organized and officered, at least as concerned ruling elders. Amongst the elders when he entered upon the pastorate were such men as William Law-that man of artless simplicity, unaffected humility, unshaken firmness, wonderful guilelessness, strict veracity, spotless honesty, simple and sincere piety, and business abilities, a very great friend of Columbia Seminary; Sidney Crane, the man of unbending integrity, wise counsels, and godly influence; and G. T. Snowden, the spiritual son of Dr. Romeyn of New York, tutored in the faith by Rev. John Holt Rice, D.D., of Richmond, the man of prayer and works, another friend of Columbia Theological Seminary, a man of theological acumen, a sound Old