THREE DISCOURSES UPON THE RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF BOWDOIN COLLEGE, DURING THE ADMINISTRATIONS OF PRESIDENTS M'KEEN, APPLETON, & ALLEN. BY EGBERT C. SMYTH, COLLINS PROFESSOR OF NATURAL AND REVEALED RELIGION. BRUNSWICK: PUBLISHED BY J. GRIFFIN. 1858. BOWDOIN COLLEGE, JULY 26, 1858. TO PROF. E. C. SMYTH. SIR-In behalf of the students we respectfully solicit, for publication, a copy of your very interesting and valuable Lectures upon the Religious History of the College. Deeming them a treasure well worth our possession, and being desirous that the benefits arising from them may not be confined to ourselves, but extended to all the friends of the College, we earnestly hope you will comply with our desire. The Discourses which you request for publication are cheerfully placed at your disposal. Any labor they may have cost has been abundantly rewarded by the generous interest with which they were listened to, and by the kind appreciation so pleasingly expressed in your note. Allow me to add a word of explanation,--not necessary for you, perhaps, but for others into whose hands they may come. My original design simply was to prepare a brief account of some past seasons of religious interest in the history of the College, to be read at the Concert of Prayer for Colleges in February last. The materials gathered with this end in view, demanded, it was thought, ampler treatment; hence the method adopted. The principal object, however, has still been an immediate and practical one; and the course of thought pursued has been determined, in some measure, by the existing religious condition of the College. In the statement of facts I have studiously endeavored to be accurate. In the sketches of religious character which have been introduced, my aim has been to draw attention to the sources of Christian usefulness, and to indicate personal traits at once real and worthy of emulation. I have accordingly dwelt upon excellences, and have only hinted at defects. The circumstances, moreover, in which the discourses were delivered, rendered this the most seemly course; as they have also limited my allusions to those who were active in some of the scenes described. Some of those here referred to are still officers of the College. For obvious reasons their connection with the past has been scarcely noticed. Yet I may not refrain here from assuring them, upon the evidence contained in many letters from their earlier pupils to the author, that the memory of their religious activity and fidelity is warmly cherished by many grateful hearts. Hoping, Gentlemen, that these discourses may prove a not unworthy contribution to the history of our beloved College, and especially that they may be blessed to the highest good of those forming their characters under its fostering care, for whom they were prepared, I remain, very truly yours, MESSRS. C. H. HOWARD, and others, Committee. EGBERT C. SMYTH. |