Page:Robert Carter- his life and work. 1807-1889 (IA robertcarterhis00coch).pdf/215

Rh roof of Dr. Strong. He was a great favorite there with everybody; and when he sat down for a talk on the piazza, the guests used to gather round and listen to his lively reminiscences and vivacious conversation, which was always ‘seasoned with salt.’ He was genial and relished pleasantries, but he was never frivolous, Into the daily exercises of family worship he entered with all his heart; and his prayers were wonderfully rich in expression and full of holy unction. The singing he enjoyed hugely, and I well remember the first time he heard that simple hymn, ‘The Sweet By and By,’ with its beautiful melody, it so delighted him that he went to the lady and asked her to sing it again for him.

“He used to drive out with his wife in the summer afternoons, and often invited me to accompany them. We scoured together all the country roads around Saratoga; and we had some rare talks about old and cherished friends, such as Dr. James Hamilton, Dr. Guthrie, and good old Dr. John Griscom, who had been almost his earliest friend and adviser upon his arrival in America. I knew Griscom well, and how dearly he was attached to Robert Carter.

“It was at Saratoga that he delivered that remarkable address before the ‘State Institute of Teachers’ at one of their annual meetings. In that address he narrated in the most racy style the story of his childhood in Earlston, and the struggle through which he passed in gaining his early education. It was very like the story which the great missionary, John G. Paton, tells of his own boyhood in his godly father’s cottage in Dumfriesshire. The address was listened to with the keenest delight by the whole assembly.

“When we got home I said to him, ‘Brother Carter, you ought to write out and print that charming bit of autobiography; it is as racy as Benjamin Franklin's story of his own boyhood and youth.’ It is from such pictures of personal experience that we get our best insight into the heart and