Page:Robert Carter- his life and work. 1807-1889 (IA robertcarterhis00coch).pdf/201

Rh in America, In particular he watched with deep interest the career of Thomas Guthrie, whose works he published, and other eminent ministers of his native land. He felt a deep interest in the Scotchmen who came over to America. Some of them had unfortunately fallen into poverty and bad habits, and he took evident pleasure in telling how he had been the means of relieving them in their difficulties and starting them upon a new and better course. This was a subject on which he always delighted to expatiate.

“Everybody was impressed with two features of his character. One was his great conscientiousness. However brilliant and salable a book might be, he would not publish it if its tendency was not good, or even if it contained a passage fitted to injure religion or morality. In this respect he was more rigidly faithful than any publisher I ever met with. He used his daily employment as a means of imparting elevated knowledge and spiritual comfort to old and young. I know of no library, juvenile mission, or tract society containing a greater number of books, all good and none evil, than Mr. Carter’s store in Broadway.

“Every one noticed another characteristic. His heart was full of pious devotion. It was ever ready to express itself in prayers. It was pleasant and refreshing to join him in his family worship. At meetings for benevolent and religious purposes he was commonly asked to lead in prayer. Every sentence was rich with spiritual unction, and you felt that it was the outpouring of the heart.”

Dr. McCosh has kindly given his consent to the publication of three of his letters, which explain themselves and which throw light on a very interesting period in the lives of both. They were written in the interval between Dr. McCosh’s visit to America, in 1866, and his assuming the Presidency of Princeton College, in 1868. The first bears the date of Belfast, September 1, 1866.