Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 19.djvu/173

CORRESPONDENCE 161 employed yearly or during life. No man laboring for the honour of the cause of Christ would wish to become burden- some to his friends and the public mind would always judge of the usefulness of a man's labors. In the end Br. Chandler became convinced that he could not live happily as the pastor of the church and president of the school ... he also learned that he could not receive such an appropriation from your Board as would sustain his family in town, and I think he became too precipitate in selecting him a home. I have done what I could, without too much interference, to induce him to go to Marysville and visit that church, if he must leave Oregon City for a claim. But he saw differ- ently. The public mind is in a great measure ignorant of the causes that operated on Br. Chandler's mind to induce him to the removal. I have no doubt from all I hear that the public mind regards Br. Chandler as erring in judgment in leaving the school and Oregon City. In confidence, I think Br. Chandler never intended to take upon himself all the labor of teaching the small scholars, and he found the school would not sustain two teachers. Br. Chandler's present position is about fourteen miles south of Oregon City in a settlement where most of the community cannot thrive in business as the farming community will generally in a prairie country. He cannot leave his claim now for more than three years, without sacrificing almost all he has in this world, and he feels strongly disposed to labor near home and raise up a religious community around him. He means to be a faithful minister of Christ, labors hard with his hands through the week, preaches every Sabbath, and, what is better, I think he is growing in some of the essential Christian graces. But I deeply regret that his influence must be shut up in a corner for the present. I have two or three times asked him if he would not receive an appointment at Salem, or at this place, spend three or four days each week in town as pastor and do his studying at home, but he seems at present not inclined to receive any appointment from the Board, unless he can receive