HARVARD COLLEGE Mr. 15, 1941 Society for Preservation of New England Antiquities Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. G. C. RAND, PRINTER, CORNHILL. DEDICATION. TO THE REV. LINCOLN RIPLEY, of Waterford, Maine. - MY DEAR SIR: Your name and words are fondly associated with my earliest religious recollections. You stood among the honored Fathers of my native town. With them you entered the unbroken wilderness, and took part with them in the hardships and perils of a new settlement. You brought with you, Sir, the HOLY BIBLE, and built with the Fathers, a tabernacle to the Lord, and the wilderness became a fruitful field. You stood through the strength of your years upon Zion's tower in that place; and we remember you as an affectionate and faithful watchman. And now, in the fifth score of your years,* the children's children rise to call you blessed, not only for their Fathers' sake, but for their own. Permit me, honored and reverend Sir, to dedicate this volume, devoted to the defence of a Book which you have so long studied and reverenced, to your name. I owe it to you, not because your hand baptised me in * Ninety-two. |