Contents -Volume INDEX -AUTHOR INDEX -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889

Of the Reverend Mr. Higginson

By Captain Edward Johnson (1599?–1672)

WHEREFORE they elected and ordained one Mr. Higginson to be Teacher of this first Church of Christ, set up in those parts, a man endued with grace, apt to teach, and mighty in the Scriptures, learned in the tongues, able to convince gainsayers, aptly applying the Word to his hearers, who departed this life not long after, of whom it may be said:

WHAT golden gain made HIGGINSON remove

From fertile soil to wilderness of rocks?

’Twas Christ’s rich pearl stir’d up thee toil to love,

For him to feed in wilderness his flocks.

First Teacher he, here, Sheep and Lambs together;

First crown’d shall be he, in the Heavens, of all

Christ’s Pastors here, but yet Christ’s folk had rather

Him here retain; blest he whom Christ hath call’d.