Connecticut Minister Offers Counsel to New Settlers in the Remote Western Reserve, ca. 1800
Manuscript letter, bifolium, 11.5" x 7", 3 2/3 pp, approximately 1,350 words. Old folding creases, a few short tears at folds; very good. An interesting letter from Congregationalist minister Ammi Ruhamah Robbins (1740-1813) to former members of his congregation who had emigrated to the Western Reserve of Ohio, offering a detailed expression of the anxieties felt by ministers of the established New England denominations in the early years of westward expansion, as parishioners departed for remote areas with few churches and little organized pastoral oversight. The letter is undated, but Robbins refers to the area as "New Connecticut," and Connecticut ceded control of the region in 1800, which suggests it may date from that year or earlier. A few missionaries had been sent to the wilds of the northwest territories by then, but it was feared they were too few and far between to keep frontier populations from following false prophets or devolving into vice and infidelity. In this letter, Robbins expresses his deep paternal love for his former congregants, many of whom he baptized as infants and shepherded through trials, doubts, and submission to God. "But," he continues, "you are now removed from my care and ministry far distant and with respect to many of you it is not probable we shall see each other any more in this world," and thus he offers "a short epistle expressive of my love and intermixed with counsel and advice." He urges his readers to "look diligently to the state of your own souls," but puts special emphasis on the need to look after others and establish religious communities. Among his admonitions:
"Remember my friends you are not born for yourselves and to serve yourselves only, but to do good an endeavor to promote the happiness and best good of your fellow men by all means in your power."
"Maintain family prayer and worship."
"As much as local circumstances will admit by all means meet together for social worship. It is the command of God and is often followed with most happy effects -- the neglect of tends to stupidity and sloth -- and by degrees to infidelity and all manner of vice. As iron sharpens iron, so does a man the countenance of his friend. This tends to blow up the coals or sparks which lie dormant and kindle your affections into a flame of pious devotion and is an antidote against backsliding and apostasy."
"Let the speech or practice of the ungodly world be what it may....A careful observance of the the Lord's Day is a powerful preservative against a licentious life."
"As soon as circumstances will permit and there appears a hopeful prospect...that you will form into a Church and labour for the regular instruction and enjoyment of the special ordinances of Christ's house."
"Beware of false teachers and let no man beguile you or turn you from the truth which you have learned of Christ."
An excellent primary source example of the concerns of many Easterners about social dangers represented by the uncivilized lands to the west.
Item #23758
Price: $350.00