BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

OF THE REV, ROBERT ARMSTRONG.

Mr. ARMSTRONG was a native of Scotland. Little more is known of his parentage, than that his mother was a widow, at the time of his coming to America; he was also an only child.

He received a classical education at the University of Edinburgh; and studied Theology at Whitburn with the Rev. Archibald Bruce, Professor at that time under the General Associate Synod. The certificate of his ordination to the ministry, is dated June 15th, 1797. He had been licensed to preach some time in the winter preceding, by the Presbytery of Kelso.

He was one of those students who make their way to professional life, by dint of their own resources; and the ardor and enterprize which it implies, were prominent parts of his character. His parents not possessing much worldly affluence, were unable to assist him. He taught a country school, or acted as private tutor in the families of gentlemen; and by this means he was enabled to make very extensive acquirements, both as a scholar and a divine.

He was licensed, and ordained with a view to his coming to America. An application having been made to the General Associate Synod of Scotland, in the year 1796, by some members who lived near Lexington, Kentucky, for a minister to be sent to them; the Synod in complying with the petition, (in which they asked for but one,) appointed two ministers to go to that country-Mr. Armstrong and Mr. Andrew Fulton. "You might be startled," says a member of Synod, in a letter to a friend in this country, "at the idea of two ministers coming at once; but we thought, as the Synod defrayed all expenses, if any disappointment as to success should follow, we,

not you, should bear the blame. It was a venture in a noble cause; and kind Providence has crowned it with success."

At the time of Synod's receiving the petition, and making a choice of persons for the mission, Mr. Armstrong had not yet left the ranks of the students, which would imply that they thought him particularly qualified to undertake the appointment.

In an address to the brethren of Kentucky, accompanying the mission, they say, "Had you witnessed, dear brethren, our anxious solicitude to have provided you with able and faithful laborers; had you beheld our entire unanimity; and had you heard the expressions of our unfeigned joy, when the two brethren appointed to go to you, modestly signified their acquiescence in our choice, you would have assuredly gathered, that you are very dear to the church here; and that these two servants of Christ are called by their Master to preach the gospel to you."

The subsequent character and conduct of these two ministers showed, that the discrimination of the Synod had been happily exercised, and their confidence well placed.

At their appointment, they were commissioned by Synod to constitute themselves, on their arrival, into a Court, by the name of the AssOCIATE PRESBYTERY OF KENTUCKY. They arrived in the summer of 1798; and after casting the net for a short time in the new waters, in which they were not unsuccessful, on the 28th day of November following they constituted the Court. At this Presbytery Mr. Armstrong received a unanimous call to act as Pastor to the united congrega. tions of Davis's Fork, Miller's Run, and Cane Run; he was installed in the charge, April 23d, 1799, and continued his la⚫ bors in it, with acceptance and success, until the fall of 1804.

In the year 1804, the members of Mr. Armstrong's three congregations, with very few exceptions, emigrated to the State of Ohio. With respect to this movement, made on account of the prevalence of slavery in Kentucky, if he was not the projector of it, he took an early interest in it. A few years' observance of the horrors of slavery, gave experimen tal force to an opinion he before admitted in theory, that its influence is entirely unfavorable to religion. The people of his congregation settled together, in Greene County, Ohio, in the confident expectation of his being resettled among them, as soon as it could be done in an orderly manner; they were organized under the name of the United Congregation of Massie's Creek and Sugar Creek; and on the 2d day of September, of the same year, he was ordered by Presbytery

to rejoin his charge. "The Secession Church in Kentucky," says Col. Morrow, in his Letters to his children, "was in small branches and widely scattered, with but little prospect of increase, while wealthy slaveholders possessed large portions of land, and were still adding field to field. Under these circumstances, Seceders, being grieved from day to day with the unrighteous deeds of oppression, resolved to look out for a more favorable situation, casting their eyes towards Ohio. A few individuals spied out the land and reported favorably. In 1803 about sixteen or eighteen of us from Mr. Armstrong's congregations with his knowledge and approbation, started for Ohio, and in August arrived at Old Town, on the Little Miami, where we made a station camp in a grove near a fine spring at the edge of a beautiful prairie. Here every thing appeared in its native beauty. Here we spent a Sabbath. From this we explored in small detachments; and on a day appointed met for consultation. The result was, an almost. unanimous voice to prosecute the design of moving with their minister, and settling a congregation on Sugar and Massie's Creeks. Each prosecuted the design with remarkable success, so that the next spring (1804,) my father-in-law and myself, (with many others) moved over and pitched our tent near a spring, on land recently purchased. In the mean time, preparation was made for laying before Presbytery a statement of our circumstances, with a view to calling pastor. This was done, a call moderated, sustained and accepted. And in the fall, the Rev. Robert Armstrong was settled as pastor of the united congregations of Massie's Creek and Sugar Creek. Sometimes sermon was in the dwelling-houses (cabins) and sometimes under the shade of a tree, until we got up a round log meeting-house-after a while we got a better house with stoves, and all was comfortable."

Here Mr. Armstrong labored seventeen years, and the handful of corn in the earth appeared with prosperous fruits. His charge shortly afterwards was divided, and another minister called to preside over one half of it; from which time his labors were confined to Massie's Creek congregation, until the 9th of January, 1821, when, from causes, not affecting the integrity of himself or congregation, he demitted it, about ten months before his decease.

Shortly before his decease, he went to Black-Rock, in the State of Indiana, with a view to the removal of his family to that place. When he returned, which was on the 27th of September, there seemed to be nothing remarkable in his appearance, but he took sick that night. He looked upon him

self as dying, but looked forward without fear. To Mr. Adams, a young minister, he said, that on a death-bed review of the doctrines he had taught. he found nothing to fault in them, they were the grounds of his hopes for eternity. For years, he had had no doubt of his interest in the atoning blood of Christ, and his faith did not then fail him. He departed this life on Sabbath morning, the 14th of October, 1821.

Mr. Armstrong was a man of very low stature, but had naturally a strong constitution. During the early part of his ministry, his labors were severe. He had often to dispense the sacrament of the supper three and four times a year without assistance. He had upwards of a hundred miles to go to Presbytery, and between six and seven hundred to Synod; both of which he attended punctually with few exceptions. In compliance with calls to supply vacancies, and organize churches, he had often to go journies of from fifty to two hundred miles; and through a wilderness frequently, which afforded no other comforts of hospitality, than those which his saddlebags, and the root of a tree afforded.

In the pulpit he had an air of authority, which impressed his audience with feelings of respect; and a look of benevolence and candor, which commanded esteem, and confidence in his judgment. His delivery was slow and deliberate; and his voice was soft, but full, and agreeable to the ear. His talents, though not of the brilliant kind, were above what usually fall to the lot of men. The Rev. Mr. Pringle, of Perth, Scotland, speaking of the two missionaries, in a letter to a friend in this country, says, "Some are perhaps endowed with more splendid talents; but their qualifications are of the solid, permanent and useful kind. Though they do not flash so much at first view, they improve and grow upon acquaintance; and will stand a winter's blast."

He was a firm friend to the principles of the Reformation; and fully approved of the principles of the society to which he belonged, on the subject of separation from corrupt church

es.

In private life he was a social, cheerful and instructive companion. In conversation he was particularly fond of anecdotes which contained some useful moral, and of these he had a large fund. In every thing he acted as a father to his people, and frequently reminded them of the example of the primitive christians, in their love for one another. Whatever concerned them, e participated in. It was known to a few, that he was rather partial to the civil institutions of his native land, yet he never intermeddled with politics. When the