h, instead of
estranging the combatants, strengthened their personal relations, and
increased their mutual confidence and respect. In after years, when Mr.
Sparks required a Life of Jonathan Edwards for his American Biography,
he selected Dr. Miller to write it, and, in the truly liberal spirit
that always governed his editorial labors, and, indeed, his whole
literary life, published the memoir of the great Calvanist "without the
alteration of a single word." It was here, too, in Baltimore, in
consequence of a sermon against Unitarianism by the late Rev. Dr. Wm.
E. Wyatt, of St. Paul's, that Mr. Sparks published his volume of
Letters on the Ministry, Ritual, and Doctrines of the Protestant
Episcopal Church. It was in Baltimore, in 1822, that he arranged and
began the republication of Essays and Tracts in Theology by Wm. Penn,
Bishop Hoadley, Newton, Whitby, Evelyn, Locke, and others. It was in
Baltimore, also, during his religious ministry, that he received the
flattering tribute from Congress of being elected its Chaplain. This
was a great honor, won in ten years, by the Harvard student of 1811;
and although his election alarmed the clergy and laity of other
Christian denominations, and a member of Congress declared they had
"voted Christ out of the House," still, in time, Congress learned to
know him better, to admit the tolerance of his catholic spirit, and to
honor him with increased confidence. But, in 1823, after four years of
labor in our city, Mr. Sparks's health became so much impaired that he
resolved to retire from the Church entirely, and devote himself
exclusively to literature. Yet, he always loved Baltimore; he always
met the people with warmth, and recurred joyfully to the happy years
he spent in Maryland as teacher and minister. At the beginning of the
late rebellion he wrote to me concerning an address published by one of
our patriotic citizens: "I could not," said he, "but approve most
highly its candor and independent tone, and the enlightened and just
views it presented of our public affairs. It furnished a demonstration
that there were brave spirits and true in your city, notwithstanding
the misgivings which many, in this quarter, had, at that time, begun to
indulge. Most heartily do I wish prosperity, good fortune, and success
to Baltimore. With no place have I more deeply cherished associations.
May peace, quiet, and brotherly sympathies prevail within her borders."
And again, at a later day, he w