CHAPTER XVIII.
MY HOME LIFE.
One of the richest of the many blessings that has crowned my long life has been a happy home.

It has always seemed to me as a wonderful triumph of divine grace in the Apostle Paul that he should have been so "content in whatsoever state he was" when he was a homeless, and, I fear, also a wifeless man.

During my own early ministry in Burlington, N.J., my widowed mother and myself lodged with worthy Quakers, and realized Charles Lamb's truthful description of that quiet, "naught-caballing community." On our removal to Trenton, when I took charge of the newly organized Third Presbyterian Church, we commenced housekeeping in what had once been the residence of a Governor, a chief-justice, and a mayor of the city; but was a very plain and modest domicile after all.

My new church building was completed in November, 1850, and opened with a full congregation, and I was soon in the full swing of my pastoral duties.

As I have already stated in the opening chapter of this volume, my father and mother first saw each other on a Sabbath day, and in a church.