Our Oriental Missions (Volume 2) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1870. Excerpt: ... Biographical Sketch Rev. Edward Thomson, D. D., Ll. D. NOTE. In the preparation of this Memoir we have used nearly the whole of the sketch written by the late Herman M. Johnson, D. D., President of Dickinson College, and published in the Ladies' Repository for March, 1865. We have, however, largely supplemented it, and have added from other sources such materials as we deemed suitable to our purpose. Our friends who have so kindly given us their assistance have our sincere thanks. Editor. MEMOIR. EDWARD THOMSON, D. D., LL. D., was a native of England. He was born at Portsea, a suburb of Portsmouth, in October, 1810. His parents belonged to the wealthier middle class of society, and were remotely connected by blood with James Thomson, the poet. The circumstances of the family enabled them to give the children every reasonable advantage of culture. Edward, during his early life, was a child of affliction, and was thus much with his mother. From her lap he traced his earliest religious impressions, and during life cherished with lively recollection the tearful, prayerful anxiety with which she taught him of Jesus, and salvation, and heaven. Among his earliest recollections were those of a sickly little boy, entering, one holiday, into his father's counting-room, and finding him in conversation with a company of gentlemen from America. Climbing behind his father's chair, he first heard of the wonders of this great country. That conversation probably induced, or at least hastened, the determination of his parents to emigrate to the New World. A few weeks later, in midsummer, 1819, they were aboard the ship Alexandria, with their children and their goods, bound for America. Sea-sickness and a midnight storm are bravely encountered and bravely passed, but a more...