of our memoir; but, imagining themselves straitened and cramped in their genius by small congregations and a rude field of labor, have flattered themselves that they would put forth their energies when assigned to more responsible and prominent posts. Thus self-deceived, and lured into a species of mental dissipation, before they were aware of it, their habits have become formed and their mental character fixed; and thenceforward, though the goal was often seen in the distance, and a spark of momentary ambition awakened, it soon subsided, and their lives flowed on in one sluggish and unvarying course. One of our most eminent divines and eloquent preachers once said to me, that many of his most finished and effective discourses were elaborated while traveling among the hills of upper Pennsylvania, and were first preached to congregations of ten or a dozen Germans gathered into log school-houses. Those same discourses have since been listened to with admiration by immense audiences in several of our large cities.

The spring at length came, and the session of conference was drawing near. The young itinerant found it hard to part with the people of his charge. They had greeted him in their dwellings, and stayed up his hands in their congregations. When dispirited and care-worn they had cheered and comforted him; in sickness they had watched over him and hailed with joy his returning health; and together had they shared the common sympathies and joys of the people of God. He had suffered in his long rides and fatiguing labors; he had been drenched by the falling rain; he had been chilled by the piercing cold as he had traversed the bleak hills of his circuit; by night as well as by day had he been in peril, as he threaded his path through miry and toilsome ways. But the very scenes of his

toils and his trials had become endeared to him by the honor God had placed upon him, and the favor he had given him in the eyes of the people. His last round upon his circuit was, no less to the people than to him. self, an affecting, weeping time.

On the 29th of April, he recrossed the Green Mountains; and on the 1st of May reached the city of Troy, which was to be the seat of the conference that year. His welcome by his brethren was such as to assure him that he had not lost his place in their affections. The next day, being Sunday, he preached to a crowded house, in demonstration of the Spirit and with power. The conference adjourned on the 14th, and he received his appointment as junior preacher on Pownal circuit. was but sixteen miles distant; and the evening of the same day of his appointment found him within the bounds of his charge. This was to him a delightful year, spent among a kind and loving people. He was still ardent in the prosecution of his studies and carnest in the cultivation of his piety. During this year he had deep and powerful convictions upon the subject of entire sanctification; and frequent and protracted were his struggles for the attainment of this blessing. Nor were those struggles in vain; though he failed" because of unbelief," to enter into that glorious rest, his piety became more deep, solid and ardent.

In 1820, he was ordained deacon by Bishop George, and appointed to Montgomery circuit. This year exceeded in toils and hardships either of the former years of his itinerancy. His health became so enfeebled by labor and exposure, that on his return to Troy in the spring his friends were greatly alarmed, and all regarded him as already marked for an early grave. Yet he received his appointment, determined, if he fell, to fall at his post. The appointment, Saratoga circuit, proved

highly favorable. He recovered his health, and his labors on the circuit were very acceptable and useful. While on Montgomery circuit he had been united in marriage to Miss Sarah Clark, who, after sharing with him the varied experience of an itinerant's life for nearly thirty years, is left in lonely widowhood by his demise.

Near the close of his year on Saratoga circuit, the presiding elder of that district, the Rev. D. Ostrander, communicated to him that the bishop, at the ensuing conference, purposed sending him to the northern part of Vermont. This information he had left with the presiding elder, directing him to communicate it just before the conference, so that he might have an opportunity to visit his friends and make preparations for removing; and probably, also, that his mind might be in some measure prepared for a post involving much labor and privation. The reflections of the young minister on the reception of this by no means welcome intelligence, are worthy of being preserved as illustrative of his character, and of the principles that actuated him in his work:

"It is understood that preachers in that part of the work fare rather poorly with regard to temporal things. This, with some other considerations, has rendered it rather an unwelcome lot to many. But I shall interpose no objection to going. For, 1. It is purely an episcopal appointment. 2. I am willing to take my share of the hard as well as the pleasant appointments. 3. I am young, and have no family except a wife; and we, being both young and in good health, can go as well as not; at any rate, better now than at any future period. 4. Having thrown myself upon the providence of God, as a Methodist traveling preacher, it would illy become me to forestall that providence and choose for myself. 5. I wish at all times to have the satisfaction of knowing that I am in the order of God, and then I can go to

him at all times with confidence, for relief in trouble and for help in labor."

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Accordingly, at the ensuing conference-having been ordained elder—he was sent to Middlebury, Vermont. He commenced his ministry by discoursing from the text, "We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake." And this text he placed before himself as the rule or formula after which his ministrations were to be modeled. people received him with joy, sustained his hands in the work, and his labors were crowned with good results. The next year he was stationed in Burlington. We find him, while in these two appointments, still intent upon improving his mind and heart. "I feel," he would exclaim, the want of more retirement for prayer and meditation, and for a closer application to study. Nothing but a closer application to study, accompanied with much prayer, will ever burst the bands of ignorance and darkness from my mind. Nothing but this will enable me to fathom and unfold the depths and the fullness of the divine word. Nothing but this will make me 'a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,' skillfully and successfully preaching the 'gospel of the kingdom.' How much have I yet to learn of God, of myself, of my duty, of my privileges, and of the best manner of doing good! O Lord, teach me by thy Holy Spirit; and help me to be diligent in all things." Such were the aspirations of the youthful minister! Such his longings after God! Such his zeal to qualify himself to sustain the high responsibilities of his ministry!

Among the many books he read about this time, was the Life of Napoleon. The history and character of the emperor started in his mind a problem which has, no doubt, often troubled many a devout and sincere inquirer; and which can be solved only by a sense of

the dimness of our spiritual vision and the gross sordidness of our nature, even under the most favorable circumstances. When men are ready to make such sacrifices, brave such dangers, endure such labors, and ever manifest such sleepless, untiring zeal for earthly good, the possession of which is so transitory, and its enjoyment so imperfect, why is it that Christians, professing to believe in all the solemn realities of eternitythe enduring bliss of heaven-are so feeble and languid in their efforts to secure an immortal crown? "Did we but labor with as much diligence and zeal for the incorruptible, as Napoleon did for the corruptible crown, what victories over the world, the flesh, and the devil, should we achieve? How much good we should do, and how much happiness we should enjoy?"

While at Burlington, he made frequent excursions into the neighboring towns and villages, preaching the gospel with varied success. He would often leave home with a range of appointments for each evening running through two weeks. In some of these appointments he would meet with opposition, in others a hearty welcome. Sometimes his preaching was in demonstration of the Spirit and with great power, so that the breath of the Lord came down, and in a mighty gale swept over the valley of dry bones. These evangelical labors he prosecuted with even more success during the second year of his labors in Burlington; and they resulted in the permanent establishment of Methodism in several places. So fully had he imbibed the itinerant spirit, that, on his way to the conference at Malta, in the spring of 1825, he took a circuit through Middlebury, Sandy Hill, Glen's Falls, Amsterdam, Fonda's Bush, and several other places, proclaiming a free, full, and present salvation in every place.

His next two years were spent upon the Charlotte