ral complexion to the people they addressed. The opinions, passions, and actions of men have been swayed as a field of wheat before the northern blast. But these effects have not been produced by modern apathy, by cold sermons, read in a cold manner. Metaphysical arguments do not move the souls of men. Dry syllogisms will not break the heart, nor awaken the conscience. Florid declamations respecting the charms of virtue, or the ugliness of vice, will never allure depraved mortals into the paths of salvation; will never appal the heart with the terrors of divine wrath, nor restrain the impetuosity of human passions. Though the effects were deleterious, we may learn the amazing power of eloquence from Peter the Hermit. He had visited the holy land, the city of Jerusalem, and the tomb of his Saviour. He had witnessed the sufferings of christians in that country. With his heart penetrated and overwhelmed with the subject, he returned to Europe. Traversing the nations of christendom, he exhorted them to deliver their brethren from Mahometan oppression. Expressive of his deep concern, and readiness to endure any hardships for the relief of the suffering christians, his head was bare, his feet were naked, and his meagre body wrapped in a coarse garment. Thousands thronged around him; he described the woes of the saints in Jerusalem and Europe was roused. He mentioned the profanation of their Saviour's tomb, and they were melted into tears. He conjured them to prove themselves the soldiers of Jesus Christ, and they enlisted under the banner of the cross; he sighed, and millions marched to the holy land. The rustic enthusiast inspired the passions, which he felt. It is not half a century since Whitefield blazed through the British empire. Though

he had no remarkable charms of person or voice, yet he was an orator, and like a new star in the heavens he attracted every eye; all gazed as if a comet were sailing through the heavens. Though he gave no remarkably luminous or profound views of religious subjects, yet such was the enchantment of his eloquence, that every ear listened, as if an angel spoke. He was in earnest, his heart glowed with christian benevolence, and he persuaded men to be reconciled to God.

Dr. Wheelock possessed the genuine spirit of primitive christianity. He was fired with apostolic zeal for the glory of God and the salvation of men. A double portion of that spirit was given to him, which now appears so glorious among the friends of Christ in America, Great Britain, Denmark, and most of the nations in Europe, in extending the knowledge of salvation to every quarter of the globe. He, in the obscurity of a country village, began the work alone. Now the wealth and influence of numerous individuals and powerful societies are united. Then the christian nations were in a state of slumber, as to the perishing heathen; now the protestant countries seem animated with a kindred zeal to evangelize the pagan world.

How would the good Doctor, like aged Simon, with the infant Redeemer in his arms, have rejoiced to see our day, when the tongue of the dumb sings for joy, and the wilderness blossoms as the rose. Perhaps God designed him as the morning star, to be the harbinger of this resplendent light.

Yet with these shining talents, these splendid services, and the blaze of popularity, which followed him in every walk of life, Dr. Wheelock was one of the most humble men in the world.

Though like St. Paul, he was in journeys oft, and in labors abundant, for which he accepted no worldly reward; though in his zeal to extend the field of his usefulness, he often went beyond the monies he had received, in his expenditures, for which his own estate was always pledged; though finally in his last will, he bequeathed to the school and college those sums, which at that time, would have been considered an ample fortune in this country; yet he makes no boast; he claims no tax of admiration; he only says, "I have professed to have no view to making an estate by this affair. What the singleness and uprightness of my heart has been before God, he knows, and also how greatly I stand in need of his pardon." His zeal was not, however, the ungoverned fire of the enthusiast, nor was his boldness of enterprize tinged with the rashness of a daring adventurer. In the warmest fervor of his zeal, and the most independent and responsible actions of his life, his thoughts were collected, his arrangements exact, and he declares he never ventured in expences beyond what his own fortune would have supplied. Though in his benevolent projects, he often put to hazard his own estate, he never endangered his creditors. He never suffered his charity to interfere with the most strict integrity. The following extract from one of his yearly narratives will show how pious and disinterested was the soul of this good man. "When I think of the great weight of present expence, for supporting sixteen or seventeen Indian boys, which have been my number the last year, and as many English youth on charity, and eight in the wilderness, who depend for their support wholly from this quarter, which has been the case a considerable part of the year; also such a number of la

borers, and the necessity of building a house for myself, with the expence of three, and sometimes four tutors, I have sometimes found faintness of heart; but when I consider I have not been seeking myself in one step which I have taken; nor have I taken one step without deliberation and asking counsel, and that, if further resources from that fulness on which alone I have depended from the first, should be withheld; yet that which has been laid out will be by no means lost to this school, nor be exposed to reproach, as having been imprudently expended. I have always made it my practice not to suffer my expences to exceed what my own private interest will pay in case I should be brought to that necessity, justice will be done to my creditors. But the consideration, which above all others, has been and is my sovereign support, is that it is the cause of God. God' most certainly has and does own it as his work. In him, and in him alone, do I hope to perfect his own plan for his own glory. Whatever his plan may be, of which we see but the beginning, he will accomplish it, let the devices, counsels, and machinations of men or devils be what they will. der these apprehensions I cannot be anxious respecting the issue. God has done great things for this institution, and I may not go back; but wait upon him, and hope in him to maintain, support, and defend it, and perform what is wanting for it in his own way and time. Certainly his hand has been conspicuous in its beginning, rise, and progress, through so many dark scenes. When in its infancy, and an object of contempt, it was the hand of God, which opened and disposed the hearts of so many on both sides of the water, to such pious and charitable liberalities for its support. It was the finger of God that

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pointed out such a wise, godly, and honorable patronage for it in Europe. What but a divine influence should move my worthy patrons, with so much cheerfulness, to accept that important trust in London, and to prosecute the design with so much steadiness and disinterested zeal. It was the hand of God, which advanced our great friend and patron, the Right Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth, to the American administration, while he was in such connexion with this seminary. It was the hand of God which opened the heart of our gracious Sovereign to show his princely munificence in his royal bounty, and more especially in ratifying a charter, endowing the seminary with all the powers, immunities and privileges of any university in his kingdom, by which its interests are most effectually secured, and those who are graduated here have not an empty title, but by law a claim to all those rights and privileges, enjoyed by graduates in any university of Great Britain. Was it not the hand of a gracious God that advanced so important and beneficial a friend as his Excellency Governor Wentworth to the chair of this province, and disposed him as a nursing father to patronize this infant college in the wilderness? Certainly the gracious hand of God has been very evident to all acquainted with that regularity and good order, which have uninterruptedly subsisted here, and that without any form of government than parental.

These things have not resulted merely from the wisdom, prudence or wise politics of the age; but God has evidently designed to hide pride from man, and make the excellency of his power and grace conspicuous, by making choice of an instrument every way unequal to the arduous work. Surely this looks like his plan, to