CHAPTER XX.
From time to time until the autumn of 1857 Mr. Pendleton
was absent from home on the business of the Sunday-School
Union. To be so much away from his parish was very trying.
But that the blessing of God rested upon the work there, faithfully
done whenever he was in Lexington, is evident from the
result of that work. In his report to the Convention of 1856
he says,—
"The rector of this parish would thankfully, but humbly, mention
the work of grace which, in common with other servants of
the Lord in the locality of his labors, he has been permitted to
witness within the last few weeks. An afflictive Providence
eliciting the power of faith, in the case of a young Presbyterian
student of Washington College, seems to have been the occasion
of this spiritual blessing. A very unusual sensibility of mind on
the part of many was soon indicated, and services were held with
more than usual frequency in several churches. My own were
not increased much in number, but in interest. Every word
seemed to be precious. The great inquiry came from many souls;
and on Whitsunday our hearts were gladdened by the spectacle
of more than twenty young men together at the chancel, bending
the knee for the first time to receive the memorials of our blessed
Lord's dying love. One of these, from a Baptist family, I had,
in the morning, baptized by immersion in the adjacent river, he
preferring that mode as most agreeable to his parents. Three
others were that same day baptized, by sprinkling, in the church.
The solemn impression is on several minds among these educated
youths that the work of the gospel ministry is their calling, and
must be their happiness; and it is trusted that they may indeed
become faithful ambassadors of Christ."
"The Convention Sermon," that same year, "was preached by
the Rev. W. N. Pendleton, of Grace Church, Lexington, from
a portion of the 21st verse of the I7th chapter of the Gospel
according to St. Luke: 'The kingdom of God is within you.'
A touching allusion was made to the lamented Chisholm and
Jackson (both of whom fell noble martyrs at the post of duty
in the plague-stricken cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), the
latter of whom had been appointed to preach the Convention
sermon."
[1]
Mr. Pendleton was also a delegate to the General Convention
which met in Philadelphia in October, 1856.
In 1857, Kenyon College, Ohio, conferred upon him the degree
of Doctor of Divinity. In a letter informing him of the fact Dr.
Andrews wrote, "Seldom in these latter days has the title been
so justly merited."
Notwithstanding the healthy condition of his parish, where the
number of resident communicants had nearly doubled, while
many young men there first confessing Christ had gone out year
by year to other places, the habit of protracted absence from his
people and his home was felt to be unfavorable for them and too
wearing upon himself. He therefore gladly embraced an opportunity
which now presented itself to withdraw from the Sunday-School
agency and give all his time to parochial and home duties.
In June, 1857, three months before the close of his seventeenth
year, young Sandie Pendleton graduated with the highest honors
at Washington College. So well had he acquitted himself, and
so unusual was his proficiency in his studies, that in his junior
year, at the age of fifteen, he was appointed by the faculty assistant
instructor in mathematics, and to this responsibility was
added in his senior year an instructor's position in Latin also.
The "Cincinnati oration" was the highest distinction in the gift
of his Alma Mater, never before or since bestowed upon one so
young. The boy chose as his subject "Our State Character,"
and dashed off in boy fashion a flowery rhapsody on that inspiring
theme. Proud of his work, he took it to his father for
criticism and commendation. The manuscript was read and returned,
with the comment, "My son, you can do better than this.
It is neither worthy of your theme nor yourself. My advice to
you is not to attempt to patch up so inadequate an effort
Destroy all you have written, read the history of Virginia and
the men who have adorned it, consider and reflect on what you
read, and at the end of three weeks see if you cannot do better."
It was unwelcome but wholesome counsel, and following it,
young Pendleton did as much credit to his name and training on
the rostrum commencement-day as he had done in the classroom.
His father considered him too young for the University of Virginia,
where his course was to be completed. The mental strain
would be too great, and the launching him into the crowd of six
or seven hundred young men too much of a tax upon his character.
Besides, like most young Virginians, he must teach to
provide means for the prosecution of his studies. This gave the
opportunity for opening a boarding-school for boys, which would
furnish sufficient support for the family, relieve Mr. Pendleton
from the necessity of even partially neglecting his parochial work,
carry on his son's training under his own eye, and restore himself
to the congenial employment of teaching and influencing youthful
minds.
The quaint old parsonage had ere this become, under the combined
efforts of parents and children, a lovely abode, surrounded
with flowers and embowered in trees. Peaceful and attractive
within and without, it realized the idea of a Christian pastor's
home, where love and charity and cheerful happiness prevailed,
and from whence kindliness and good will, benevolence and wise
counsellings, diffused themselves among friends, neighbors, and
parishioners. These beneficent influences were now to radiate
through a wider sphere. The large attic story was finished and
turned into dormitories, and in September the premises became
bustling and merry with the presence of as many boys as they
could accommodate, and before the second year a wing had to
be added to the house to receive the number of applicants.
Among these boys several were sons of fathers who had formerly
been Dr. Pendleton's pupils. His intimate relations with Bishop
Meade had been resumed on his return to Virginia. Some days
in each year were spent at "Mountain View."[2]
A correspondence
was kept up on all subjects of interest to the Church and the
diocese. To his care and training several of the bishop's grandsons
were now sent, who passed as they grew older into Washington
College.
When the Sunday-School Union agency no longer required
his frequent absence from home, it was Dr. Pendleton's habit,
when the weather and roads permitted, to preach from time to
time in different parts of Rockbridge County, wherever two or
three Episcopalians were to be found. To do this he not infrequently
rode ten, twelve, and fourteen miles to his appointed
service, after officiating in the morning at his own church. The
summer vacations were, in like manner, devoted to missionary
work in the counties of Bath and Monroe, west of him. There
was no Episcopal minister within two hundred miles of him in
that direction. He therefore regarded the whole region as partly
under his parochial care. Of these ministrations he says (Journal
of Convention, 1857, p. 77),—
"Besides constant labors at home, the rector has sought occasion
in the summer vacations to render services at points of great
interest farther west. He has done this especially at the Warm
Springs in Bath County, where there is a congregation numbering
not less than twenty-five communicants, and at Union, Monroe
County, where there are about twelve communicants. At the
former five candidates were presented by him to Bishop Meade
and confirmed on his visitation last summer."
Sandie Pendleton entered the University of Virginia in 1859,
his place in his father's school being filled by Mr. Hugh Pendleton's
son, Dudley. That same autumn the eldest daughter of the
family was married to Edwin G. Lee, of Shepherdstown, and the
happy home circle broken in upon. Her father's first letter to
Mrs. Lee is given at length, so full is it of parental tenderness
and of wise counsel for a newly-married girl.
"Lexington, Friday night, November 18, 1859.
"My dear Daughter,—You are to be in Baltimore on Monday,
I think, and it will be pleasant to you to find there a letter
from us. That this may be it should go to-morrow morning, and
I therefore indulge myself by beginning to-night. You will be a
little surprised to see that I am at home, whereas my purpose
was to have gone to-day, on my way to Orange Court-House.
A threatening change in the weather this morning, superadded to
the fact that I was not quite as well as usual, owing, perhaps, to
the regret, dissipation, etc., all combined, connected with giving
you up, satisfied me that my duty lay here rather than away,
under the circumstances. I therefore wrote to Mr. Davis excusing
myself, and sending apologies to the kind friends who had
solicited the visit.
"We were glad to learn through the stage-driver from Staunton
last night that your party had speeded so well on their way.
It was likely, from his report, that you were comfortably housed
by a little after seven. Of course we all travelled with you mentally,
and entertained each other from time to time with sagacious
remarks about the distance of the company from Staunton.
Whether it was that this sort of imaginary journeying wearied
us, or that reaction was coming on after the bustle of some days,
or that the house had a painful sense of loss about it, or however
it was, we all with one consent sought relief from 'tired nature's
sweet restorer' at a marvellously early hour. I hardly think
there was a light down-stairs at nine o'clock.
"To-day, however, misty as has been the outer world, we have
been as bright as a May morning in our faces and feelings. Not,
my dear, that we cease to feel most deeply your separation from
us, but that committing you to the gracious care of our Almighty
Father, and fully confiding in the honorable affection of the
young Christian friend whom, with a double blessing, I have authorized
to call you 'wife,' we rejoice for you even in the sorrow.
You, too, have felt, and will feel, more or less of sadness at this
permanent parting with home and its loved ones. A home, the
Lord be praised for it, privileged in several ways beyond the
common experience of even the godly and the cultivated, and a
household closely united and most tenderly attached, though
without morbid sentiment. But though you will feel this separation,
as it is right and salutary you should, you will not, I hope
and believe, suffer from it unduly.
"The Almighty, among wise ordinances for human creatures,
has so constituted our hearts, that these special affections
which spring up and rightly mature between suitable individuals,
receiving the sacred sanction of parental approbation, and
religious life next to sacramental, take precedence of all others;
and, in fact, so occupy and satisfy the mind as to compensate
for much else that may be yielded.
"There are, indeed, few more surprising things in the economy
of human life, and few more unsparingly censured by the unwisely
censorious, than this very satisfaction of married persons
with each other. But to me it seems one of the beautiful provisions
of an endlessly kind providential plan. It does not, I
know, diminish one iota of filial or other attachment, while it
gives to energy of every kind a new and practical direction.
You will both, I trust, find it so. And while happy in each other,
love us all and cherish every friend with a sound and practical
affection, only the more earnest because of your satisfaction in
the way of God's appointment.
"I have hardly a word of suggestion for you, my love, under
your new responsibilities. Be as happy as you can and make
everybody else so, is about the best I can think of. And to this
end live as simply as you can by the lessons of the Bible in their
aim and spirit. Be as confidingly affectionate to your other
father and mother, and sisters and brothers, as you have always
been to us, and they will love you almost as well.
"Tell Mr. Lee I have hardly made up my mind how I shall
address him, whether familiarly to use his Christian name or to
adhere to the more dignified 'Mr.;' the first the most affectionate,
the last the most respectful. Your mamma insists the latter is
best. I am not so sure. But we will see. The rest I leave for
your mamma. God bless you all.
"Your fond father,
"W. N. Pendleton."
