BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE REV. FRANCIS PRINGLE. FRANCIS PRINGLE was born in 1747, at Kirkaldy, a village in Scotland. The early part of his life furnishes no incident of a remarkable kind; after passing through the preparatory studies, he was licensed to preach the gospel by the Presbytery of Kirkaldy, and sent to Ireland. He again returned to Scotland, and married Margaret Black of Pathead, a village adjoining Kirkaldy. After spending a short time among his friends, he again proceeded, with his wife, to Ireland, where about the year 1775, he was ordained by the Presbytery of Belfast, and installed in the congregation of Newton Airds, where he labored about twenty-five years. While in Ireland, his family increased to the number of thirteen children, seven of whom died young, and his only daughter was married there. Besides these domestic changes, he experienced great trials in his public work. The principles that afterwards produced the rebellion, had long been secretly working among the people, and many secret and sinful combinations were formed, to carry into effect the contemplated project. Mr. Pringle was conscientiously on the side of the Government, but the opposite faction increased so rapidly and secretly, that he soon found that a great part of his congregation were involved in the secret oaths and conspiracies that prevailed. To purge the church by discipline, was impossible. He could not know who were friends and who were enemies; it became dangerous even to remain neutral, and he was at last shut up to the necessity of resigning his charge and leaving the country. He returned once more to his native place, and the next year, (1799,) sailed with his family for America. When Mr. Pringle left Scotland, it was not his intention to settle in the United States. He was then appointed as a missionary to the island of St. Johns, Nova Scotia, by the General Associate Synod. But finding no vessel sailing directly for Nova Scotia, he shipped for New-York, from Greenock, intending to embrace the first opportunity of a vessel from New-York for St. Johns. He arrived in New-York in the summer of 1799, when great alarm existed in New-York on account of the prevalence of the yellow fever in that city, and in consequence of which all trade with other ports from New-York, was for a time interrupted-hence no vessel was found at New-York, to sail that season for Nova Scotia. This circumstance seemed a plain call of Providence to Mr. Pringle, to accept of the pressing invitation of the Associate Presbytery of Pennsylvania, to remain among them and assist them. The Associate congregation of New-York being then vacant, Mr. Pringle was appointed to supply there until the ensuing spring. It is worthy of record, as a good exemplification of Mr. Pringle's character, and as an example especially to ministers of the gospel, in similar circumstances that during a very rough passage of seven weeks, he had family-worship observed every day, on which all the passengers and crew, who could be spared from the necessary management of the vessel, attended. But owing to the roughness of the weather, he was able to preach only three Sabbaths out of the seven. Profane swearing was unknown on that vessel. He labored as a supply chiefly in New-York and the eastern part of Pennsylvania, till he was settled in Carlisle, September, 1802, where he labored thirty years. He may be considered as mainly instrumental in keeping alive the Presbytery of Philadelphia, in whose bounds he was. When Mr. Marshall and Mr. Clarkson were called to rest from their labors, he was in a manner left alone in a Presbytery of vacancies, all of which he occasionally visited, and cherished with paternal care. In this part of his life, he had no trouble from political commotions, but his afflictions from other causes, were neither few nor small. Shortly after his arrival in this country, he experienced a heavy trial in the death of his oldest son Henry; and another still heavier followed some years afterwards, in the death of another son, David. He was a young man of fine talents and education; but from some cause, had become partially deranged, and in that state was drowned in the Hudson River at New-York. It is not easy to imagine a heavier affliction to a godly parent, but he was remarkably supported under it. When the painful intelligence reached him, he was supplying in one of the vacancies, and about to enter the pulpit on a Sabbath morning; he went through the work of the day as if nothing had occurred; yet he was far from being unfeeling, his eyes were debarred from rest and sleep, and the grief of the heart found utterance in sighs and groans; even many years afterwards he could not allude to the subject without evident emotion. In two others of his sons, James and Francis, he had for a time great comfort. They devoted themselves to the ministry, and were both settled, the former in Steel Creek, North Carolina, where he labored with great activity in an extensive and destitute region; the latter in Xenia and Sugar Creek, Ohio. But Mr. Pringle's satisfaction in having his sons for fellow-helpers in the work of the gospel, was to be of short continuance; it was only preparing him for the greater trial in their removal. Francis became consumptive, and concluded to travel, if perhaps it might be a means of restoring him. He went south, as most favorable for his health, and that he might at the same time visit his brother, at whose residence he finished his course about the end of the year 1817. The following summer, James was seized with a fever, on his return from the meeting of Synod at Philadelphia; and after a short illness, he breathed his last in the same spot where he had closed his brother's eyes, only seven months before; he was laid in the same grave. Not unlike the case of holy Job, Mr. Pringle had scarcely heard the end of one sad message, till another not less sad arrived; and not unlike, also, was his exercise under the trying dispensation. Writing to a friend an account of the last event, he added, "The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, and blessed be the name of the Lord." The two brothers had been from childhood singularly attached to each other, and the providential circumstances by which they were united in their death, was in the same letter adverted to in the pathetic expression of David, "They were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided." Another cause of heaviness to Mr. Pringle, was his apparent want of success in his congregation. Though he was sound and practical in his preaching, and highly respectable in his manner, yet the number of his people did not increase. They were few when he settled among them, and during thirty years of his labors, they would not probably vary ten, more or less. As the young grew up, they were either alto. gether careless, or scattered elsewhere; and he frequently remarked to a friend, with painful emotion, concerning several such families, "I baptized all these, and not one of them has ever joined the church." This account of his ministerial success, is by no means intended to lessen him in the esteem of any, or represent him as not useful; but it may furnish us with some profitable reflections, as, that it is not always granted to ministers to see the fruits of their own labors. God is sovereign in this matter, and there are often many excellent ends answered by the hiding of that from them, exercising their patience and humility, and stirring them up to more diligence. Again, we are not to conclude that a minister is not useful, merely because we do not see much addition to the visible church by his means; that is not the only use of the ministry, and even among the apostles themselves there was a very great variety in this respect. Again, the outward success, or want of it, that may attend a man's ministry, is by no means the rule of his conduct. If it were even certain that none were converted through his instrumentality, it would not of itself prove that he had not God's call to the work, nor warrant him to desist through discouragement. Jeremiah labored for forty years among a people, whom he had the pain to see every day becoming worse. Isaiah complains, "I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nought and in vain; but though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength." The common opinion concerning talents, is a very erroneous one; with the generality, nothing passes for ability except what appears ingenious and attractive to the multitude; but the apostle teaches us, that in the body of Christ as in the natural body, there is a variety of offices, and a corresponding variety of gifts distributed to the members for their performance, and all of these worketh the same Spirit, and they are all equally necessary and honorable in their proper sphere. Because the eye does not perform the duty of the hand, we are not to conclude that it is not useful in the body, neither can the head say to the feet, I have no need of you. It is therefore a very small thing for ministers to be judged by man's judgment, approving or disapproving, they are not sufficient to judge themselves, but he that judgeth them is the Lord. In the year 1825, Mr. Pringle had again to mourn by the stroke of death; Mrs. Pringle, the companion of his pilgrimage for fifty years, the partner of all his joys and sorrows, was removed from him at short warning, and by means apparently very simple. A splinter had run under the nail of her thumb, which caused great pain and some fever: and having at the same time a slight attack of influenza, she was confined to bed; a physician extracted the splinter, and she partially recovered, so that for one day she was able to walk the room, and attend to her household concerns; the pain however was but little abated, and the fever soon returned, and she rapidly sunk into the grave within a few days from the time she first complained. She was a woman of strong judgment, great reading and exemplary piety; her loss was to Mr. Pringle in many respects, the severest affliction he ever experienced, but he was enabled to bear it with remarkable fortitude. About the usual hour of the morning in which she died, he proceeded with characteristic calmness to family-worship, with those who were present, and sung Psalm xxxix. 9, to the end, at once suitable to such an occasion, and expressive of his own exercise. "Dumb was I, opening not my mouth, because this work was thine, According to a desire of Mrs. Pringle, he still kept the house and a housekeeper, for the sake of assisting a young man then at college, who was prosecuting study, with a view to the ministry. Mr. Pringle continued to enjoy good health for some years, performing the duties of his office as formerly; but in 1832, he resigned his charge, as much from a desire that the congregation might be benefited from other supply, as from any great increase of his own infirmities. On leaving Carlisle, he retired to New-York, and lived with his only surviving son. He was still active, considering his advanced age, but a very small circumstance shortly after put an end to his activity and terminated his life. Walking in the parlor, a small opening in the carpet caught his foot, so that he fell and dislocated his thigh, which could not be replaced; and though he continued well otherwise for some time, yet his regular habits were interrupted, and his constitution rapidly sunk. He died Nov. 2d, 1833, in the 85th year of his age and in the 62d of his ministry, at the house of his son Mr. Thomas Pringle, in the city of New-York. |