sabbath sermons: Emerson's journal, 8/31/1823

From the Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson:

In the morning [of August 31, a Sunday] I called at Mr. Ripley's, and was sorely disappointed to learn that his son was at Cambridge. The family were exceedingly hospitable, and I listened with as great pleasure to a sermon from Rev. Mr. Perkins of Amherst in the morning, and in the afternoon rode over to the other parish with Mr. R. to hear Rev. Lincoln Ripley. After service Mr. L. R. returned with us, and in the evening we heard another sermon from Mr. Perkins which pleased me abundantly better than his matins. He is a loud-voiced, scripture-read divine, and his compositions have the element of a potent eloquence, but he lacks taste. By the light of the evening star I walked with my reverend uncle [see note at bottom], a man who well sustained the character of an aged missionary. It is a new thing to him, he said, to correspond with his wife, and he attends the mail regularly every Monday morning to send or receive a letter.

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Note: The photo shows George Ripley (source: PAL).

Rev. Lincoln Ripley was Mr. Emerson's step-great-uncle, as being brother of Dr. Ezra Ripley, minister of Concord, who had married the widow of Rev. William Emerson of Concord, the builder of the "Old Manse," and chaplain in the army at Ticonderoga. Rev. Lincoln Ripley was minister of Waterford, Maine. [Editors' note.]