NOVEMBER EXPEDITION FOR LIBERIA. The fine fast-sailing brig JOHN H. JONES has just taken her departure from New York for Africa, with ample supplies for fortytwo emigrants, and provisions and other stores to the value of nearly forty thousand dollars, sent to the Liberian Government for the support of Recaptured Africans. The M. C. Stevens has not yet returned from her charter in Europe. There has been a temporary excitement among our free people of color in favor of Haytian emigration, but the dangers of a change of climate to this Island have not been found less than to Africa, while the advantages of a home in the latter are much greater. This will sooner or later be discovered by those most interested. The New York Colonization Herald justly observes: "The extirpation of the cruel trans-Atlantic slave trade can only thus be effectually secured. The contribution to the world's wealth and peace, by setting at work the enormous idle population of that luxuriant region of the earth, and the untold benefits which will be conferred upon the millions there by the introduction of the language and institutions of republican America, should weigh much in the decision of the question. "In Africa, especially, we may feel assured the problem of their true exaltation can proceed without collision with the population of Europe or America; while in Central America, chiefly mountainous, and on the highway of the rushing tide of white population, it is very doubtful whether they will not be exposed to the same collisions and rivalries which here operate so disasterously against their aspirations." SPANISH ATTACK ON LIBERIA. The Hon. Gerard Ralston, Consul General in London for Liberia, has obtained the promise of Lord John Russell to aid in settling the difficulty between Spain and that Republic, arising from the slave trade The kindly feelings ever cherished towards Liberia by our own Government will doubtless incline her also to interpose her good offices in the case. The French Government has abandoned the policy of obtaining Africans from her shores to introduce them as apprentices into her West Indian Islands. From henceforth this slave trade in disguise is to cease, so far as it is the product of violence to the Africans. RECEIPTS OF AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY, From the 20th of September to the 20th of October, 1861. NEW HAMPSHIRE. Chester-Cong. Church and Society, remitted by J. C. A. Wingate, Treasurer N. H. Col. Society, July 8, 1861, VERMONT. By Rev. F. Butler-$61.50Bradford-J.A. Hardy, G. W. Prichard, each $5, Rev. S. M. Keen, D.D., Hon. Arad Stebbins, Mrs. Betsy S. Ayer, Mrs. G. W. Prichard, H. Strickland, Geo. Prichard, $1 each, B. C. Currier, 50 cents, Hardwick-Cong. Church and Society, by Rev. Joseph Torrey, jr., Montpelier-Hon. E. P. Walton, $5, Rev. W. H. Lord, $1, J. T. Thurs- From Vermont Col. Society, per Rev. J. K. Converse: Burlington-From members of the Unitarian Church and Society, to constitute Rev. Joshua Yung a life member of Am. Col. Society,. From individuals in 1st Calvinistic From individuals in the Episcopal and CONNECTICUT. By Rev. John Orcutt Waterbury-Aaron Benedict, $10, Mrs. Sarah A. Scovill, $5, W. Spencer, $2, Rev. Dr. Clark, $1, 700 PENNSYLVANIA. By Rev. B. O. Plimpton Girard-Philip Osborn, Espeyville-J. B. Harriott, $1, Sundry Fairview-Thomas Sturgeon, 16 50 Wesleyville-Dr. M. M. Moore, and 12 00 12 00 Henry Wadsworth, each $1, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. OHIO. Plymouth Hollow -Mrs. Seth Thomas, Richmond $5, Dr. Wm. Woodruff, G W. Gilbert, each $3, Mrs. Samuel Sanford, $1, Williamsfield 12 00 Madison Dea. Brooks, 30 00 11 00 1 00 5 00 2.00 2.40 10 00 6 50 1.00 3 00 2.00 5.00 37 90 Error corrected.-We find ourselves in error in stating General JONES to have been the last of the founders of the Am. Col. Society. The venerable Bishop MEADE, of Virginia, and Col. THOMAS CARBERY, of this city, survive him. Long may they live! JOSHUA NOBLE DANFORTH, who died Nov 14th, 1861, in New Castle, Del. aware, will not soon be forgotton in the American Churches. He belonged to the class of Christian ministers who quietly and unostentatiously impress their characters upon the generation in the midst of whom they live, their virtues being more frequently felt and enjoyed than seen and applauded. His light has gone out like the star of evening which silently sinks from our view beneath the horizon only to appear again in the same heavens, to shine on forever and ever. Dr. Danforth was the eldest son of the Hon. Joshua Danforth, of Pittsfield, Mass. Mr. Danforth was a colonel in the Revolutionary army, and held the distinguished and responsible position of Aid to General Washington. At the close of the war of Independence, he settled in Pittsfield, and was united in marriage with a daughter of Hon. David Noble, of Williamstown, a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of the State of Massachusetts. Colonel Danforth (as he was called by his fellow citizens to the day of his death) was eminent both for his private and pub'ic virtues, and left to his children the inheritance of a character unsullied by a single stin. The subject of this sketch was trained from his earliest childhood under influences of the most pure and elevating character. His mother and grandmother were not unlike Eunice and Lois, whose unfeigned faith formed the character of young Timothy, and made him a fit companion for the great Apestle to the Gentiles It is indeed a fact well known in the immediate family circle of the deceased that his mother consecrated him from his birth to the work of the ministry, and though when his mother died the son, now sixteen years old, manifested no special interest in the subject of religion, yet the instructions and example of that mother had not been lost. They were the living seed in the good ground, destined to spring up and bear much fruit to the glory of God. Soon after his mother's death he entered the Freshmen class in William's College. Here he maintained a high standing, being particularly distinguished for his love of the classics, and for brilliancy in composition. He was graduated with the full honors of the best of his class, and at the public commencement excited the highest hopes of his friends and the friends of religion. In the last year of his college life he experienced that change in his religious views and feelings which determined his whole future course in this world. According to a written statement prepared by himself mary years since, "He was sitting alone in his room on the Sabbath, having indulged himself with absence from church for the purpose of devouring a lavorite novel, when his mind was suddenly arrested by the Holy Spirit, and the whole current of his thoughts instantaneously diverted from their earthly channel toward the awful things of eternity. He thought he had received a summors to the bar of God. He expected in a few moments to die! He threw himself upon the bed, and with the fearful earnestness and energy of a dying man, pleaded in piteous accents for mercy, for pardoning mercy. When the tumult of his feelings had in a measure subsided, his reflections, though less confused, were keen and painful, not the less so from the fact that they were constrained in his own bosom. His distress was so great that he relinquished his studies in College and returned home. He prayed and wept night and day, in secret, still afraid of his impending doom, and afraid to disclose his feelings to any individual. He passed his minister without daring to speak At length, by a mighty effort he called a pious sister aside, and with a burst of tears which mingled with her own at the recital, he told his convictions. She threw her arms around his neck and continued to weep for joy at such intelligence. It was not, however, till after many struggles that " he gave up his irreligious associates, his studies, his ambition, his convivial follies, and his hopes for this life." He says "that the means of his release and his relief was a letter, a plain humble letter, from a christian minister. This kind friend having learned from his sister the state of his mind, immediately sat down and wrote him a clear, plain and faithful letter, delineating the nature of genuine conviction, describing the path through which the sinner must return to God, and urging him without a moment's delay, to commit his soul to Jesus Christ. He read it with eagerness, his heart palpitated, his eyes filled with tears; he dropped the letter on the floor, sank on his knees, and poured out his soul in believing prayer to God. That moment," he says, a flash of glory from the cross struck athwart my soul, such as while memory lasts, I can never forget. It filled me with amazement at the mercy of God. It subdued and melted me into a delicious submission to the will of God, and the merits of Jesus Christ. He seemed a precious, precious Savior, all my salvation and all my desire." 66 Such is his account of the memorable event; and it was under the sacred influence of such an experience that he remembered his early consecration by his sainted mother to the holy ministry of the Gospel; and in the course of that year made choice of the profession to which his life was devoted. He entered the Theological Seminary at Princeton, and after pursuing his studies with diligence and ardor for three years, he began with great zeal and delight to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. About this time the Rev. Asahel Nettleton was in the full tide of his wonderful success among the churches of New England. Villages, townships, counties and States seemed to be baptized with the special influences of the Holy Ghost, and many thousands of converts were hanging with rapture on the plain, fervid and spiritual teachings of that honored man of God. It was the good fortune of young Mr. Danforth to be associated intimately with him for some time, traveling from town to town, and mingling in scenes over which angels then rejoiced, and the memory of which is still so dear to the Church on earth. It was in the midst of these revivals that the preaching and character of Mr. Danforth received those peculiar characteristics which rendered the first ten years of his ministry so abundant in direct labors for the conversion of men and so replete with success. He subsequently labored in the congregation of the Rev. James Patterson, of Philadelphia, and contracted an intimacy with that holy and zealous man which terminated only with his death. The first pastoral charge of Mr. Danforth was in New Castle, Delaware. His ministry here, though most acceptable and useful, was soon terminated by an earnest call to a field considered much more extensive and important in the Capital of the Nation. A small company of earnest Christians, members of the 2d Presbyterian Church, devoted to revivals of religion and full believers in the declaration of our Lord, that "the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and that the violent take it by force," determined to organize a new church in the centre of the city. The leading spirit of the enterprise was the late David M. Wilson. The whole number of professors of religion thus associated was only twenty-three; and, though their means were exceedingly limited, they were rich in faith in God and in the promises. They had become deeply interested in the preaching and character of Mr. Danforth, and invited him, with great unanimity and earnestness, to become their pastor. In accepting their invitation, he identified himself with an enterprise which many regarded as hopeless, and which none but those engaged in it felt to be of the very highest importance to the Kingdom of God. Assembling his little band in a small room on 9th street, Mr. Danforth commenced his labors as a pastor and preacher. The spirit of God was poured out most copiously upon them from the very beginning, and in the course of a few months over fifty converts from the world were added to the little company, and a very neat and commodious church edifice was erected and dedicated to God. As one of the devoted women connected with the church said to the writer, many years ago, 66 They had only to ask the Lord for what they wanted, and He immediately gave it to them!" In relation to the character of the conversions that took place during that memorable season, the best proof is found in the fact that, with few exceptions, the converts became pillars in Zion. They in fact constituted that nucleus around which has been gathered one of the largest and most useful churches in Washington. Other revivals followed this, from year to year, so that when Mr. Danforth left them, at the end of about three years, the church, though the fourth in age was the second in the number of its communicants. The occasion of Mr Danforth's asking a dismission from his pastoral charge, was an invitation from the American Colonization Society to act as their agent in the more northern States. It was thought by the managers of that Society that Mr. Danforth's power as a public speaker might be turned to good account in explaining the principles of African Colonization, and in resisting the opposition to the Society which then began to manifest itself in a certain class of men of extreme views on great national questions. He accepted the position, and entered upon she discharge of its duties with much earnestness. In one of the northern cities he met the leaders of the opposition in a public debate, which continued for several nights in succession, and in the presence of a crowded and excited congregation. At the close of the debate he had the happiness to find his views sustained by a large majority of the assembly rising to their feet, and by a loud vote proclaiming him the victor, and his cause the cause of truth and public order. But in the midst of his successes, his soul longed for the more direct work of preaching the gospel to sinners. When, therefore, he was invited to become the pastor of a large congregational church in Lee, Mass., made vacant by the decease of that venerable servant of God, the Rev. Alvah Hyde, D.D., he could not resist the appeal. His connection with the Colonization Society was dissolved, and we find him again employed in the more congenial labor of a pastoral charge. Those were the days of "protracted meetings," of "anxious seats,” and of "new measures" for advancing the interests of the kingdom of God. While Mr. Danforth was a moderate man in his views, and naturally inclined to conservatism, yet his sympathies were strongly enlisted in favor of those who were evidently earnest and sincere, and apparently most successful in enlarging the boundaries of Zion. He found the churches of Berkshire, and the congregation of Lee, somewhat divided in sentiment on the subject of these "new measures. His venerable predecessor had been quite decided in his opposition to them, and it was thought by some that his last days were embittered, if not shortened, by his fear of the fruits they would ultimately bear in the garden of God. In such circumstances did the new pastor enter upon his work, the people generally welcoming him most cordially, and ready to co-operate with his chosen plans. He had no new Gospel to preach, but went forward proclaiming the same truths which he had found so efficacious when associated with Mr. Nettleton in former years. And if he adopted some of the new modes of guiding souls in the way to Christ, he thought that the highest spiritual wisdom demanded such a change. The effect of his preaching and his measures was very decided. A revival of religion of wonderous power soon followed. The writer cannot speak certainly as to numbers, but thinks that over one hundred were added to the list of communicants during its progress. The opposition to his measures died away as the work moved on in irresistible majesty, and all |
