A General Revival in the city.-United Domestic Missionary Society formed.-Yellow Fever.-Birth of a daughter.-La- bors in a Revival at Greenwich, Con.--Also at Newark, N. J. Visit to his parents, in Ohio.- Spiritual dearth in the church.-Almost discouraged.-Declines a call to Jamaica, L. I.-Project of selling the old, and building a new, house of Commences the work of building a new house of worship.- Labors in a Revival at Hartford, Con.-Visit to Boston.- New church completed.-Labors in Dr. Skinner's church, Measures to rebuild.-Fruits of the Revival.-Church rebuilt.— Another Revival.-Cholera.-Proposals for a removal.-Ori- gin of Wabash-College.-Consents to become its President.- Loss of a child.-Pastoral relation dissolved.-Retrospect, 289 Visit to Boston.-College-Agency-Journey to Crawfordsville. -Entrance on his Presidency.—Inauguration.-Agency in Indiana.-Death of a son.-Severe sickness.-Pastoral letter to his former charge.-Revival among them, and planting of a new church.-A second Revival.-Visit to New-York.-Re- turns home.-Revival in College.-Call to a church in New- CHAPTER XV. Equanimity in Distress.-Visit to the East protracted.-Returns 363 INTRODUCTION. It is not of every man, nor even of every distinguished or great or useful man, that the biography should be written and given to the public. Better for the world, better for posterity, if the lives of thousands of the noble, the envied, the illustrious even, were forgotten or unknown-if their names were buried in oblivion. The great reason is, that whatever streaks of glory or specific excellence adorned them, the evil is greater than the good, their vices predomi> nate in the picture, their examples are at once bewitching and mischievous. If it is the end and use of biography to benefit mankind, to improve the living, and to mould the manners of coming ages, in accordance with the best standards and the finest specimens of attainable virtue, then is it obvious why the lives of good men, and ordinarily of good men only, ought to be given to their contemporaries and preserved for the imitation of future generations. And this seems to be the meaning of the inspired sentiment; The memory of the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked shall rot. It is with impressions of this sort that we welcome the forthcoming memoir, of one whose biography, or the general principles and acts of whose life, ought to be published that they may become the possession of the community. The late ELIHU W. BALDWIN, D. D. the preacher, the pastor, and the president, was a person of rare attainments and accomplished excellence. The present writer knew him well from the year 1818 till his late lamented death; and is qualified in this respect to sketch the outline of his character. Would that he were equally competent to do justice to a finished portrait! There are few men that have died in the present century, whose excellencies were so exemplary, so consistent, and so heavenly; and the whole combination of whose personal qualities presented a fairer example for the imitation of youth, for the edification of age, or for the useful contemplation of all readers. Without much that would be esteemed brilliant or lauded as great, his mind was vigorous and well-disciplined, its productions were always respectable and sound, its tendencies were useful and amiable, and as its exhibitions always sustained the character of its possessor, so they warranted and conciliated the confidence of the public. In its different positions and spheres of service, in its varying aspects and relations of trial, few minds have shown such uniformity of excellence, such sameness of character in the constant and trying vicissitudes of circumstances, such equanimity of wisdom, of patience, and of faith in God. Hence he had influence wherever he went-illustrative of the sentiment of some author, that influence, especially in a minister of Christ, is mainly constituted of four qualities, with their due proportions, combinations, and manifestations, in active life; and these are-benevolence, consistency, humility, prosperity. The last refers to one's success in what he undertakes, inferring some of the attributes of a master, as contradistinguished from those who possess all good qualities in general or in the abstract, but in action, or the conduct of matters, owing to some faulty causes, generally fail, and so disappoint the hope they knew too well how to raise and expand. The second quality, in an inverse order, is necessary to prevent envy, suspicion, and that vain ambition which is ever busy and importunate in its sinuous works, where it is not superseded by a genuine evangelical humility. The third is necessary to give a definition to the whole man, showing that his virtues are not the fitful episodes of his way or the mere exceptions to the tenor of his living character. And the fourth shows, as it were, the source or the soul of all his other excellencies, that piety towards God and the philanthropy of Christ transfused into his bosom, have made it the citadel of the graces and the temple of devotion. The man who possesses these four qualities and evinces them in the duties of the ministry, public and private, must have influence. He deserves it; that influence is safe and of the best kind, as its sphere also is noble, elevated, incomparable! Such an influence had our beloved brother-and who so debauched or degraded in character as ever to grudge it to him? He was not the man to abuse it,--no one suspected his motives. All men listened to his speech, since, with no pretending affectation, there was a commanding power in it, the dignity of goodness, the eloquence of love, the persuasion and the voice of wisdom; a fellow-servant, with a fellow-feeling, persuading his fellow creatures in the way of salvation. It is common for men of regulated minds and in all professions, to have each a paragon, an individual that is made the standard of imitation, as it were the impersonation of an ideal excellence. True, in the supreme respect, a minister of Christ ought ever to make his blessed Master his only paragon, and aim at conformity to so high a model in all his conduct. And few ministers of the Son of God, perhaps, in our day, came nearer in this, to what ought to be, than Dr. Baldwin. He studied the character of Christ, took him as his example as well as his propitiation, and sighed ingenuously as he saw and felt the defects which measured the difference between all that was and all that ought to be. Still, in subordinate relations, he had a human paragon whom he imitated, as well as honored, in a degree extraordinary, perhaps unequalled. This was none other than his revered preceptor and friend, the late President of Yale College, Dr. Dwight. And truly he could not have found in our whole country, probably, a better example of varied excellence. He showed the generous and elevated aspirations of his own mind, in selecting such a standard. He vaunted not his preference. Not every one knew his secret homage to the character of that distinguished man. Without servility, idolatry, or superstition, he venerated and strove to resemble him, in every attainable excellence. In theology, in science, in principles and max |