AUTHORSHIP
Printers' ink stained my fingers in my boyhood; for, at the age of
fifteen, I ventured into a controversy on the slavery question, in the
columns of our county newspaper; and, in the same paper, published a
series of letters from Europe, in 1842. During my course of study in the
Princeton Theological Seminary, I was a contributor to several papers,
to _Godey's Magazine_ in Philadelphia, and to the "New Englander," a
literary and theological review published at New Haven. I wrote the
first article for the first number of the "Nassau Monthly," a Princeton
College publication, which still exists under another name. Up to the
year 1847 all my contributions had been to secular periodicals, but in
that year I ventured to send from Burlington, N.J., where I was then
preaching, a short article to the "New York Observer," signed by my
initials. This was followed by several others which, falling under the
eye of my beloved friend, the Rev. Dr. Cortland Van Rensellaer, led him
to say to me: "You are on the right track now; work on that as long as
you live," and I have obeyed his injunction. Within a year or two I
began to write for the "Presbyterian" at Philadelphia. Its proprietor
urged me to accept an editorial position, but I declined his proposal,
as I have declined several other requests to assume editorial positions
since. I would always rather write when I _choose_ than write when I
_must_, and I have never felt at liberty to hold any other position
while I was a pastor of a church. My contributions to the press never
hindered my work as a minister, for writing for the press promotes
perspicuity in preparing for the pulpit.
In the summer of 1853 I was called from the Third Presbyterian Church of
Trenton to the Market Street Reformed Church of New York City. As a
loyal Dutchman, I began to write at once for the "Christian
Intelligencer," and have continued in its clean hospitable columns to
this day. At the urgent request of Mr. Henry C. Bowen I began to write
for his "Independent," and sent to its columns over six hundred
articles; but of all my associate contributors in those days, not a
solitary one survives. In May, 1860, My first article appeared in the
_New York Evangelist_, and during these forty-two years I have tested
the patience of its readers by imposing on them more than eighteen
hundred of my lubrications. As I was preparing one of my earliest
articles, I happened to spy the blossoms of the catalpa tree before my
window, and for want of a title I headed it "_Under the Catalpa_." The
tree flourishes still, and bids fair to blossom after the hand that pens
these lines has turned to dust. I need not recapitulate the names of all
the many journals to which I have sent contributions,--many of which
have been republished in Great Britain, Australia and other parts of the
civilized world. I once gave to my friend, Mr. Arthur B. Cook, the
eminent stenographer, some statistics of the number of my articles, and
the various journals in which they had appeared in this and other
countries. He made an estimate of the extent of their publication, and
then said to me: "It would be within bounds to say that your four
thousand articles have been printed in at least two hundred millions of
copies." The production of these articles involved no small labor, but
has brought its own reward. To enter a multitude of homes week after
week; to converse with the inmates about many of the most vital
questions in morals and religion; to speak words of guidance to the
perplexed; of comfort to the troubled, and of exhortation to the saints
and to the sinful--all these involved a solemn responsibility. That this
life-work with the pen has not been without fruit I gratefully
acknowledge. When a group of railway employees, at a station in England,
gathered around me to tender their thanks for spiritual help afforded
them by my articles, I felt repaid for hours of extra labor spent in
preaching through the press.
My first attempt at book-making was during my ministry at Trenton, New
Jersey, when I published a small volume entitled "Stray Arrows." This
was followed at different times by several volumes of an experimental
and devotional character. In the spring of 1867 one of our beautiful
twin boys, at the age of four and a half years, was taken from us by a
very brief and violent attack of scarlet fever. We received a large
number of tender letters of condolence, which gave us so much comfort
that my wife suggested that they should be printed with the hope that
they might be equally comforting to other people in affliction. I
accordingly selected a number of them, added the simple story of our
precious child's short career, and handed the package to my beloved
friend and publisher, the late Mr. Peter Carter, with the request that
they be printed for private distribution. He urged, after reading them,
that I should allow him to publish them, which he did under the title of
"The Empty Crib, a Book of Consolation." That simple story of a sweet
child's life has travelled widely over the world and made our little
"Georgie" known in many a home. Mrs. Gladstone told me that when she and
her husband had read it, it recalled their own loss of a child under
similar circumstances. Dean Stanley read it aloud to Lady Augusta
Stanley in the Deanery of Westminster; and when I took him to our own
unrivalled Greenwood Cemetery he asked to be driven to the spot where
the dust of our dear boy is slumbering. Many thousands have visited that
grave and gazed with tender admiration on the exquisite marble medallion
of the childface,--by the sculptor, Charles Calverley,--which adorns the
monument.
Fourteen years afterwards, in the autumn of 1881, "the four corners of
my house were smitten" again with a heart-breaking bereavement in the
death, by typhoid fever, of our second daughter, Louise Ledyard Cuyler,
at the age of twenty-two, who possessed a most inexpressible beauty of
person and character. Her playful humor, her fascinating charm of
manner, and her many noble qualities drew to her the admiration of a
large circle of friends, as well as the pride of our parental hearts.
After her departure I wrote, through many tears, a small volume entitled
"_God's Light on Dark Clouds,"_ with the hope that it might bring some
rays of comfort into those homes that were shadowed in grief. Judging
from the numberless letters that have come to me I cannot but believe
that, of all the volumes which I have written, this one has been the
most honored of God as a message-bearer to that largest of all
households--the household of the sorrowing. Let me add that I have
published a single volume of sermons, entitled "The Eagle's Nest," and a
volume of foreign travel, "From the Nile to Norway"; but all the
remainder of my score of volumes have been of a practical and devotional
character. Of the twenty-two volumes that I have written, six have been
translated into Swedish, and two into the language of my Dutch
ancestors. Thanks be to God for the precious privilege of preaching His
glorious Gospel with the types that out-reach ten thousand tongues! And
thanks also to a number of friends, whose faces I never saw, but whose
kind words have cheered me through more than a half century of happy
labors. I cannot conclude this brief chapter without expressing my deep
obligations to that noble organization, the "American Tract Society,"
which has given a wide circulation to many of my books--including
"Heart-Life," "Newly Enlisted; or, Counsels to Young Converts"--and
"Beulah-Land," a volume of good cheer to aged pilgrims on their journey
heavenward.