j. j. jeynon

Whatever is calculated to advance the cause of Christ, to serve our day and generation, especially the generations yet unborn, it ought to be our great concern to promote and preserve. Religious biography is in a high degree adapted to do this. Hence it is the Scriptures present to our view, so great a cloud of witnesses, that by the powerful attraction of their example, sinners might be drawn to choose the same "good way," and saints stimulated, to lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset them, and run with patience the race that is set before them, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of their faith. The written lives of holy and useful men, in successive ages of the church, and the varied circumstances of persecution, and peace of suffering, and enjoyment, have been instrumental in a great degree, in promoting the interest of religion in the world. The young minister needs to be instructed, stimulated, and encouraged in his work, and there is nothing more calculated to accomplish this, than scripture, and other religious biographies. Exhibit to him, and place before him in a proper light, the trials and temptations, the conflicts and the achievements, the victories and the rewards of those Christian heroes, who were once engaged on the field of action, as he now is, and this under the divine blessing will be attended with the happiest effects; it will encourage, and animate with a laudable spirit of emulation, the young warrior to press forward, and aim at the same high mark to aspire to glory too, and tread the same path to heaven.