activity in the churches, such as would constitute a great era in the world's history-nor was he to be in all this chiefly a spectator, but an actor. He had already been for many years a member of the Board of Trustees at Andover, having been elected in 1791, soon after the decease of one of the founders of the Academy, and while his father and his cousin were still bestowing upon the institution their parental care, and their frequent gifts. Now the spirit of the family that had devised and fostered the school, seemed to have a new and broader development in him-correspondent with the new links that appeared in the chain of that higher purpose which had led them

on.

He not only watched, as his predecessors had done, over the still rising Academy, helping the struggling indigent youth in it largely every year by his gifts, and adding to its endowments; but he applied his rare wisdom and foresight to the great work, which was suddenly proposed, of adjusting a distinct Theological Institution to the existing classical school, so that neither should injure the other; but each be a help to its neighbor. In no political exigency was his proverbial soundness of judgment ever more needed, or more readily recognized; and once originated under his eye, the new Seminary had no friend more firm or ardent than he.

The doctrines which it was established to defend and propagate, were such as he had been taught by the fathers, and wished to transmit to the children; they were the seeds of missions, reforms. revivals, such as he loved to contemplate. He saw them in his faith pregnant with a great and vital future, for which he was waiting in prayer and hope, as prophets and kings looked for the days of Messiah's coming. And sooner even than he could foresee, the goodly seed was waving in a rich harvest before him!

Within the pale of the young seminary, and under its direct influence, the American Board of Foreign Missions was soon

planned-the Education Society - the Tract Society-the Monthly Concert of Prayer-the first religious newspaperfollowed in quick succession; while at other centers yet other enterprises and organizations of a similar character were originated, to enlarge, if not complete, the great sisterhood; to all of which he was attracted, like the steel to the magnet. We cannot attempt to tell in how many such new schemes of Christian zeal, his agency was prominent from their very origin; nor with what unostentatious benevolence of heart, he poured into all these new channels, year after year, the streams of his consecrated wealth. It is enough to say, that for many years preceding his death no man in the Commonweaith was in this respect his peer; no other man dispensed his large gifts, for religious and charitable purposes, so variously, so often, so zealously; as if this were now, above all things else, his chief and chosen work.

In his later years, he became much interested in yet another important project at Andover, to be engrafted upon the old stock-Phillips Academy. This was a Teacher's Seminary, or Normal School. He did not live to see this plan carried into effect, but it was subsequently matured, and after a few years the new offshoot was appended to the Academy as an English Department.

To show how intimately and prominently he had become connected with almost every point in the wide circle of beneficiary enterprises, at the time of his decease, Dr. Wisner states in a note to his funeral discourse, that "during the last three weeks of his life he contributed to different charitable objects above $5,000-an amount which would doubtless have been nearly doubled, had he lived a few days longer";-so his deeds had come to be estimated-the gifts were "thousands"--the intervals--" a few

days." "At the time of his death," continues Dr. Wisner, "he was President of the Massachusetts Bible Society, of the

Society for Propagating the Gospel, of the American Education Society, of the Foreign Mission Society of Boston and Vicinity, of the Congregational Charitable Society, of the General Hospital Corporation, of the Boston Dispensary, and of the Trustees of Phillips Academy, at Andover. Among the bequests in his Will, are legacies to eleven different Institutions and charitable societies-amounting to the sum of $62,000;1 and during several of the later years of his life his annual gifts, in the various channels of his beneficence, were more, it is said, than $10,000.

Much therefore as he was elevated and honored in political circles, the religious world had been most congenial to him, and here his death was most deeply felt. He who had made all the influence of his high station tributary to the cause of Christ, and had honored every office conferred on him by his Christian probity, was in his ripe old age suddenly called to his rest. He died on Saturday evening, May 25th, 1827, aged 77. "His decease at this moment," says the Courier of the ensuing week, "will cast a gloom over the celebrations of numerous religious and charitable societies of which he was a member or a patron, and whose anniversaries are held the present week;" and so indeed it was; in every meeting his revered name was gratefully repeated; every Report paid him a tribute; and every Christian heart was eager to pay him some homage of its own, like the glowing eulogy of a writer in the Recorder the ensuing week, which closes with these words :

"That his character is what we have represented will appear from the testimony of the widow and the fatherless, whom he has rescued from want and woe; of the friends whom his charity has aided and his counsel blessed; of the almost numberless societies which his gen

erosity has strengthened, I had almost said supported; of the institutions which he has befriended :-but they recount his deeds of charity. They are generally known; they are appreciated by multitudes in this world; they are remembered on high; they will be disclosod to the assembled universe at the day of judgment. His charities have smoothed the furrowed cheek of some who were descending to the grave pennyless and friendless. They have comforted and supported others who know not, and never will know, till the secrets of all hearts are disclosed, to what source they are indebted for these blessings. They have largely contributed to the spread of the gospel in heathen lands. They have aided in building churches, in circulating Bibles, in educating pious youth for the gospel ministry.

He is not, for God has taken himtranslated, as we humbly trust and firmly believe, from a world of sin and sorrow and trial, to a heaven of joy and love. God of his infinite mercy grant, that his falling mantle may rest, not on one alone, but on many; that it may encompass numbers in its folds; and that a multitude may be induced, in imitation of his example, to come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty."

How fitting that he should be buried amid these anniversary reviews and. praises, with such Christian Associations of every name, to bear his pall, and pronounce his eulogy!

EZEK. XVII: 22-4. "Thus saith the Lord God; I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon a high mountain and emineut: In the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it; and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar; and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing; in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell. And all the trees of the field shall know that I the Lord have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish: I the Lord have spoken and have done it."

We have here, under the symbolical form which prophecy often assumes, a statement of the way in which some new development of the kingdom of God begins and goes on. It refers perhaps preeminently to the coming of Christ and the rise and progress of Christianity. But the same process repeats itself in many subordinate sections of Christianity; reflects itself, with variations, in the case of each of the denominations, or constituent parts, of the one true Church of Christ. Of all these, designed by Providence for a specific mission, it may doubtless be said, that they were separated from the vital parts of a previously existing section of the Church, as young and tender twigs from the top of a cedar; were planted in a place where they might secure eminence; were made to bring forth boughs, bear fruit, and become goodly cedars; and were enlarged and blessed, until "in the shadow of the branches thereof" dwelt "all fowl of every wing," and "all the trees of the field saw and knew that it was the work of the Lord.

principle in the text, which was to run under history and come out in frequent fulfillments, if I appropriate the words of the prophet as describing the history and mission of Congregationalism in this country, as an instrumentality designed by God to participate largely in the work of its Evangelization. So interpreted, the progress of Congregationalism, from its small beginnings to its present comparative maturity, has already been a striking fulfillment of the prophecy: "I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it: I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon a high mountain and eminent: In the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it; and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar; and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing; and in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell. And all the trees of the field shall know that 1 the Lord have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish."

But the past speaks for itself, and we expect nobler things in the future. It will therefore be my object to speak of. the adaptation of Congregationalism for fulfilling more perfectly the predictions of the text; in other words, the Adaptation of Congregationalism for carrying on the Home Missionary work.

This is a theme which now possesses peculiar interest. There are indications, each year becoming, not merely prophetic, but even palpable and certain, that the time is not far distant when our churches will be left nearly alone to sustain the operations of the American Home

Missionary Society. Alas that this is so! says my heart, for I love those who have cooperated with us. They are good Christians and true. I am not slow to acknowledge their merits. They have showed great largeness of heart, fraternity of spirit, and have made great sacrifices for the common cause. But my reason will not suffer me to repine; for I know that coöperation was the necessity and sign of weakness; separation, of maturity. It is by an instinct, that brothers, when young and feeble, are prompted to work together and receive counsel and assistance from each other; but it is equally in obedience to another instinct and law of their nature, that they, grown to manhood, prefer to separate and set up each for himself.

At the commencement of the coöperation Congregationalism had not learned its expansibility, or rather, did not possess its present power of expansion. It did, indeed, travel in the hearts and preferences of its sons, as they went westward, and it was organized into churches; but as its forces are moral forces, and as these are weak when they must traverse great spaces by stage-coaches and canal boats, the secular press mainly, and infrequent correspondence, it was inadequate to the task of nurturing them and keeping them in lively sympathy with itself. Presbyterianism also was weak, but in other respects; weak in ability to do the work,— a weakness not so much from want of ecclesiastical breadth and capacity, as from immaturity and want of means.

During those periods of mutual but different weakness, it was the glory of both denominations that they could and did cooperate-honestly, heartily, successfully; each, to an extent, supplement ing the deficiencies of the other; Presbyterians furnishing, in over-measure, the ecclesiastical channels for the work, and Congregationalists, in equal over-proportion, the men and money. Neither could have done the work alone; the one for want of force, the other, of the means of

intercourse with its distant children. But they had grace enough to labor together, and thus save the whole weak and tender Home Missionary field from being overlapped and cross-raked and torn by their separate denominational efforts, and to rear a noble monument, in the self-sustaining churches they have raised up, to the glory of God.

But now Congregationalism, in relation to the wants of the whole country, is not what it was; for now moral bands are as tough across the continent, as fifty years ago they were across the State. There are now as much oneness and sympathy between the Congregationalism of Massachusetts, and that of Minnesota or California, as there were at the time referred to, between that in Pittsfield and that in Salem. Presbyterianism also feels that it has reached its majority, and begins to be uneasy, anxious to shake off the restraints and concessions of weakness, and impatient to do its work in its own way. Its thews are large and springy; and it struggles against the silken cords that bind it to cooperation; and every year it looks more and more to its own projects, and precipitates the inevitable separation. Figures are sometimes prophetic. During the Society's last year, Presbyterians contributed about 25 per cent. of the sum received, and drew out about 32 per cent. of the sum distributed. Soon, according to present appearances, the general decisive voice of the majority in the General Assembly will be: Church-Extension; no more cooperation.

Both denominations are now, therefore, relatively strong, and competent to engage, each by itself, in the work of Home Evangelization. Presbyterianism must do it. It is with it a fundamental idea that the Church has within itself the capacity and responsibility of doing the work of Christ on earth, and that all evangelization and reforms must issue from her bosom and be directed by her moulding hand. Self-completeness and separation is with it an organic instinct,—

of Young Presbytery, and spreading rapidly through the whole denomination. And in the event of the withdrawal of Presbyterians, Congregationalists also must work alone; but they will be true to the American Home Missionary Society; they will not desert that.

Under these circumstances, it cannot be untimely, in order to meet the new responsibilities which may soon devolve upon our churches, to examine calmly, not as partisans, but Christians, the adaptation of Congregationalism to the work of Home Missions. It has advantages, and it has disadvantages; and we need to examine them fairly, in order that, under the new order of things which is opening before us, we may make as much of the one and as little of the other as possible, and be prepared for the emergency.

I shall speak first of the disadvantages, and then of the advantages.

I. (a) In the first place, then, Congregationalism has no power in itself, as an ecclesiastical system, to perform the work of Home Evangelization. It is a congeries of separate churches, without ecclesiastical head or union. Ecclesiastically, or authoritatively, it can act only a Church at a time, and each Church for itself. One Church may indeed do something in the missionary work, in its own neighborhood, or may send its agents abroad. But all such efforts would be petty, one-Church efforts; they would want the system and wisdom and vigor of having been put forth under a common, intelligent, superintending eye, and issue in general disorder or general neglect. It would be but the carrying out of this principle, if each Christian should resolve himself into an independent foreign missionary society. Congregationalism, therefore, has no ecclesiastical capacity to do this work; neither to devise nor direct how it shall be done. If, in relation to missions, it is a giant, it is a giant without either a hand or an eye. Whatever is done by its sons and daughters for the salvation of

side of its ecclesiastical ranks or capacities, in connection with voluntary and independent boards. It cannot do the work; it can only let it be done. Congregationalism ecclesiastically is powerless, but this makes Congregationalism, as the aggregate of Congregationalists, mighty, as we shall see.

(b) Again, after a method of operations has been devised and instituted by its children as individuals, acting outside of its ecclesiastical jurisdiction, Congregationalism has no outward bands which it throws around its membership, drawing them into one loving family, and stimulating them to act together with one heart and will-no general organization, not ecclesiastical, but fraternal, in which the churches may meet by their representatives, become acquainted with one another, and be fused into unanimity and heartiness of cooperation. Our churches, fraternally and socially considered, do not shine as an illuminated city set on a hill, in one broad blaze of intermingling light, but as so many watch-fires, with intermediate dark spaces, of separate groups encamped as they please around the mountain of the Lord. They are scattered, as sheep sometimes are through a pasture, each by itself, following its inclinations, little heeding the rest, but unlike them having no common shade or fold in which, from time to time, they love to assemble, showing that after all they are but one flock. We are many flocks-afraid of one another, and afraid even to know one another in the face; and here is our greatest weakness, the want of harmony and concentration of action. Let our churches experience the uniting influence, which their wise union in District Conferences, State Conferences, and General Conventions, without the least particle of authority, would in time exert, and their efficiency in any such great Christian cause as that of Home Missions would be incalculably increased. This would silently cause that strength to be