He wrote out a report of it, and handed his report to me for criticism and correction.

He intended to send it for publication to a paper in Pennsylvania.

I said to him that his report left out the most essential and vital part of the sermon, and proposed myself to write out an abstract of it for his use.

This I did, but my friend Mr.Snyder concluded: "This is a hard saying, who can hear it ?" He was not willing to be counted unsound in the faith by his brethren in Pennsylvania, and forwarded the original manuscript.
There were also in the audience two young gentlemen, recently come from the New England States to seek their fortune.

They were just of that age to think that what they did not know, or at least what the people of New England did not know, was not worth knowing.