MEMOIR. CHAPTER I. Introductory; Nativity; Parentage; Education; Apprenticeship; Majority; Sojourn in Canada; Return; Marriage; Disaster in Oswegatchie; Housekeeping; Profession of religion; Preaching; Ordination; Journal; Letter; Description of country; Shaftsbury Association; Extracts from their Minutes; Circular; Removal to Pittstown; Church in Troy; Circular. To behold the present broad expanse of Missionary operations-to see the holy flame spreading from land to land, from sea to sea, enkindling beacons of mercy on islands and continents, kingdoms and colonies, States and dependencies-to read the communications from men converted by these lights shining in dark places, from the error of their ways, to the worship of "the true and living God"-to behold idols and temples becoming prostrate before the effulgent blaze of truth, and the moral wilderness beginning to bud and blossom as the rose-it seems scarcely possible that it is still something less than forty years, since the first systematic effort was made to supply the destitute of our own mission field; and still less since that field has been extended to embrace the world. "It is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes." He said "let there be light, and there was light." He "saith, to this servant go, and he goeth; to another come, and he cometh; to another do this, and he doeth it." "Many have run to and fro, and knowledge is increased;" and our hearts are now frequently gladdened, by report from various and distant stations, that the great Head of the Church, the one grand Missionary from on high, He who hath shown us the way, and bidden us to walk therein, is verifying to his humble followers the all-sufficient promise, "and lo I am with you alway." But "by whom did Jacob arise? for he was small." How many of the present generation are acquainted with the beginning of this department of gospel operations? "this day of, numerically, small things?" Few, few indeed. And the design of this memoir is, to show, in connection with the history of an individual, the rise, and the progress, of missionary effort in the Baptist denomination, in this portion of our country. Until 1802, nothing of the kind had been attempted among us in systematic form. A Baptist missionary, the Rev. Elkanah Holmes, had been previously established among the Seneca and Tuscarora Indians; but I am informed he was sent out by the New-York Missionary Society, composed of different denominations, but mostly of the Presbyterian. Baptists had not then become sufficiently numerous, or sufficiently endowed, to do more than supply their own immediate territory. But at the date of which we speak, a simultaneous effort was made by the distinguished Baptists at Boston and vicinity, and the Shaftsbury Baptist Association. Probably neither body was aware, at the precise time, of the doings of the other. But as the two Associations corresponded, their respective views and doings became reciprocally known and mutually understood. The projected limits of this work will confine us strictly to the doings of the Shaftsbury Association.In the bright constellation of ministers composing that reverend body, no one shone more conspicuously than the subject of the present memoir. Little is known of the minutia of Mr. Covell's early history. The more prominent events are as follow:Born at Nine-Partners, Dutchess Co., New-York, on the 28th of June, A. D. 1764. Left an orphan in his fourth year, he went to live with his mother's parents. His grand-father's name was Payne. He was a relative of the Thomas Payne, so celebrated for his patriotism and notorious as an infidel. Fortunately for Mr. Covell, this Mr. Payne and his wife were both pious. Schools were then scarce in our country, and his grand-mother learned him the rudiments of language herself, that he might be able to read in the Psalter. He remained with his grand-parents, until he was fourteen, and in the course of that time, was sent to school six weeks. He was now apprenticed to a blacksmith, and while an apprentice, was indulged with eleven evenings' attendance at a school "to learn to cipher." This completed his scholastic course. But the God of nature had given him investigating powers of mind, and an aptitude to avail himself of all possible opportunities for improvement. It has been said by some writer, Mrs. Phelps, I believe, that no one can be a good reader without genius. If so, Mr. Covell was a genius of the first order. He possessed a vividness of perception, that enabled him to transfer the spirit of the writer to his own bosom; and whatever author or subject he read, he appeared like one pronouncing his own sentiments. He wrote with great rapidity, yet perfectly intelligible, and became unusually ready and accurate, in the science of Arithmetic. He studied no grammar, yet his language was ever correct. An innate sense of propriety enabled him to detect inaccuracy and avoid it. Ón attaining his majority, he commenced business as a blacksmith in company with a Mr. Denio, in Shaftsury, Bennington Co. Vermont. Here we begin to learn something of his moral character. It had one, one only shade, but that was a shade, one too that he bitterly |