tious youth, yet it is not known that his mind was particularly exercised on religious subjects, or that he entertained any belief that he was a new creature in Christ. Nor is it known that he had before him any definite object or profession to which he looked forward as the end of his course of studies. It is probable, however, that he had desires and purposes in this respect, of which he did not freely speak. CHAPTER II. AT THE ACADEMY-HIS DECISION-HIS DILIGENCE-HIS COLLEGE DEVOTION--HIS CONVERSION-ENTERS SCHOOL-KEEPING-EARNESTNESS IN DEFENCE OF TRUTH -LOVE OF RELIGIOUS MEETINGS-SICKNESS-DEATH OF HIS MOTHER-RETURN TO COLLEGE-SEVERE SICKNESS -REMARKABLE IMPRESSIONS-CONTINUED DEBILITY. AT the academy, where he spent about two years and a half, he maintained the reputation of a diligent and successful student. By his fellow students he was greatly respected, and by his instructors beloved. In the language of the Principal of the academy,* "he was kind, dutiful, respectful, very industrious in his studies, and made rapid improvement in them. He was sober-minded, and at all times a supporter of good order and wholesome discipline. I do not remember that I ever had occasion to reprove him for any impropriety in his conduct, or for neglecting any known duty. He was always in his place in due season, believing punctuality to be an important duty. Though he was not a professor of religion, while at the academy, his example and his whole deportment were a constant reproof to all the thoughtless and impenitent around him, and I may add, to some professors of * Mr. John Adams, now of Elbridge, N. Y. religion also. I have always considered him one that was not ungrateful for past favors, nor forgetful of the maxims, the instructions, and the counsels received, while pursuing his preparatory course. He was a good man." A testimony equally full and honorable, cannot be given to all, at their first attempts to ascend the hill of science. The period is one of experiment. The buoyancy of youth, the excitement of hope, and the exchange of daily parental supervision for the less constant and less vigilant oversight of literary instructors, combine in many cases to create a restlessness under authority, and a recklessness of consequences, equally unfortunate to the inexperienced youth, and the anxious teacher. Happy is it for those who are commencing a literary career, if they start with the resolution to be always in subjection to their appointed guardians, and not only to avoid reproof and correction themselves, but to make their example of obedience a source of reproof and direction to others. Thus they shun many a dangerous rock in the progress of their voyage through life, and shape their course safely to the haven of rest and honor. A clergyman whose acquaintance with him commenced at the academy in the summer of 1811, furnishes the following statement. "In the office of monitor, which he then held, he exhibited, as he did on all occasions, the justum et tenacem propositi virum, even under temptations which were neither small nor infrequent, to court the favor of his younger schoolmates, by not being strict to mark' their delinquencies. This is to me, on reflection, among the interesting traits of a character, which in its progressive developments furnished so beautiful an illustration of our Saviour's declaration, 'He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much.' His standard of morals was elevated; and a straight forward adherence to his principles, was his abiding characteristic. I can hardly recollect a single deviation; and I have known him to encounter the severest tests. "His diligence was incessant. His appearance at his books, is still vividly imprinted on my memory. I can even now see the intenseness and eager curiosity with which he scanned them; the glow which lighted up his countenance, on the discovery of a new idea, or a new relation; and the evidences of an augmentation of his thirst for more, produced by every new acquisition. He was totus in illis, and his progress was commensurate with his diligence and perseverance. His countenance was a marked one-benignant and expressive, and betrayed in an uncommon degree the workings of the soul within. "For the last three quarters of his preparatory course in the academy, it was kindly ordered in providence for me, that I should be his fellow boarder in a family where only two boarders could be accommodated. The same 'little chamber on the wall,' or rather in the wing of a farmer's house, served for us the double purpose of a study and dormitory. I look back on this season with as little dissatisfaction as on any equal portion of my defective life.” "I would leave the scenes of that little chamber, to the disclosures of the great day, were it not for the hope that a partial exhibition might lead some of the aspirants to the sacred office, now pursuing their classical studies, to form a more adequate estimate of the importance of devotion, as a qualification for usefulness in the ministry. This part of preparation cannot safely be left to take care of itself. Devotion is a flame which needs guarding and cherishing by a daily supply of appropriate aliment. No amount of intellectual acquisitions can compensate for its absence. Even a suspension of its exercise during this stage of a literary course must be attended and followed by disastrous effects, from which it will not be easy to recover in subsequent life. Indecision, temptation, spiritual declension, if not total apostasy, are its certain fruits; and in a majority of cases it is hardly less fatal to intellectual energy-to the executive power of the mind, than it is to the soundness and vigor of spiritual piety. When studies press hard, the temptation to omit or curtail devotional exercises is amazingly strong; and the reasons by which the student defends the omission in the court of conscience are exceedingly plausible, and too apt to prevail in procuring acquittal at that bar. But I must testify of brother G., that how deeply soever engaged in his studies —and rarely have I seen a man more entirely absorbed― he never appeared to grudge the time appropriated to devotion, although our social religious exercises were often protracted beyond an hour, including the time spent in searching the Scriptures. Of this latter duty we made a business, and in it endeavored to be mutual helpers; hence the rapidity with which these moments flew. And hence may I not say?-his stability in the new and untoward circumstances, by which he was soon to be surrounded, and amidst the very different influences which were to spend their force upon him. A Christian, I know, cannot live and grow merely upon past experiences; but it is lawful to recur to them in parrying the assaults of an enemy in some of his most dreadful forms of attack. And happy the man, who, under temporary desertion and strong temptations to make shipwreck of faith and a good conscience, can revert to past time, when his mind was fully persuaded, and on sufficient grounds, of the great doctrines of evangelical religion, and his heart felt their power and their fitness to the condition of ruined man, and who can say, 'Beneath his smiles my heart has lived, And part of heaven possessed.' |