cipal importance, in preparation for the ministry. The mode of unfolding and exhibiting God's truth was, consequently, a favorite and prominent subject of his studies.

Being now well furnished, in the opinion of others, if not in his own, for his great work, an inquiry of anxious interest was presented to his mind. This is an age of Christian benevolence; the children of God are expected to withhold no sacrifice of personal feeling from the cause of their Master. Educated for the sacred profession, they must choose their field of labor, with no reference to worldly advantage. The question is not, where can I secure to myself indulgence from labor, literary leisure, cultivated society, and a prospect of personal distinction; but where can I best subserve the interests of the Redeemer's kingdom? In North America or in Japan? Among the graves of my fathers, or in the distant islands of the Pacific seas? This question comes distinctly before the mind of every young clergyman whose heart is, in any respect, worthy of the sacred profession, and demands a decided, a disinterested answer.

This subject, Mr. Stearns was now urged, by the impulses of his own soul, to investigate. One would suppose that, in a case like the present, there could be little difficulty, in determining the path of duty. On the one hand, his physical disabilities were an insuperable objection to his becoming a missionary; on the other, his habits, his tastes, his education, his very nature, fitted him to be chiefly useful among the cultivated of his own countrymen. But the question, in his mind, could not be so easily settled.

"There is this year," he writes to his parents, "an unusual call for missionaries, domestic and foreign. The American

Board wish to employ as many as twenty, in addition to those now in their service. The unexampled liberality of laymen, during this year, calls for corresponding efforts on the part of clergymen. The Board say, we must enlarge our operations and send out more missionaries. They intend to establish at least two or three new stations, and to reinforce the old ones. I believe their statements and plans are given, in general, in the Missionary Herald. But the Home Missionary Society are still louder in their calls. They would be glad to employ a hundred additional laborers, and say they should find no difficulty in obtaining the means, if they could get the men. They would send some to the South, but most to the West:to Ohio, and to important stations in other States,-to St. Louis, in Missouri,-to Natchez, and to New Orleans. They are about to establish a printing office in St. Louis, and a religious newspaper. Mr. B, one of my class-mates, will probably take the editorial charge of it. Rev. Mr. New York, was here last week, as an agent for the Society, and plead hard for missionaries. Western missions, in a political point of view, as well as moral and religious, are most important. If that western country is not christianized soon, where will be the boasted liberty which Puritans purchased with their prayers, their tears, and their blood! Now, we have but nineteen or twenty men in our class to supply this great demand. We talk now, as if about one third of these would go on foreign missions, and one third or more on domestic, i. e., western missions. But the most important question for me is, what is my duty? I have talked with Dr. Porter about it, and he gave me no explicit advice, but said, that he thought, I could not and ought not to make up my

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mind, just yet, either way, and referred me to you. Will you and mother have the goodness to think on this subject, and be ready to give me your opinions, when I come home, with your reasons? Where can I do most good, on the whole? Meanwhile, let the promise, 'If any man lack wisdom,' &c., sustain us."

The following resolutions, written just before he left the seminary, have been found among his loose papers, since his decease:

"I wholly renounce ambition and self-indulgence, as motives of action.

"I must be absolutely and entirely devoted to God, in heart and life; and live not unto myself, but unto him who loved me and died for me.

"I must glorify God, in the improvement of my own character, and in doing good to mankind.

"I will follow my own taste and genius, so far as circumstances allow; and trust in God that his providence will guide me. 'Trust in the Lord,' &c. Be careful for nothing.'

"I will never intrude myself upon the public, or take a conspicuous part, without good and important reasons; nor will I shrink from the exposure when duty calls, but generously go forward, and endeavor to acquit myself with Christian propriety.

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My intercourse with the world, as far as it extends, shall be perfectly honorable, Christian, frank, kind and magnanimous; any good attained or done at the expense of this, costs too much.

"It shall be my pleasure to exert a happy influence on all within the little circle in which I move.

"I will never be disturbed or diverted from my purpose by the remarks, conduct and opinions of those who do not know my character or understand my motives; but will ever maintain that self-possession, freedom, independence and liberality of feeling which constitute true dignity.

Why should we be for ever undoing the work of life? Why should we wish to be just like every body else? I will be myself, and make the best of it. God grant that I may grow better!"

Mr. Stearns left the theological seminary, with his class, in the autumn of 1828. On the occasion of anniversary, he read a sketch of the character of Ulric Zuingle, which afterwards appeared in the Spirit of the Pilgrims, Vol. II, pages 305-308. He also delivered a parting address to the Porter Rhetorical Society, of which he was at that time the presiding officer. This address, as it exhibits his ideal of the style and demeanor which becomes the pulpit, and may be considered the outlines of that model according to which he prepared himself for his public ministrations, will be presented in the sequel.

CHAPTER IV.

HIS PREACHING IN PHILADELPHIA-RELAXATION AND STUDIES AT BEDFORD-PREACHING IN VARIOUS PLACES-INTEREST IN HIS NATIVE TOWN-DEATH OF A SISTER.

ON leaving the seminary, being convinced that his health, again much reduced, would not allow of his settling in the ministry, for the present, he accepted an invitation to pass the winter in Philadelphia, and assist the Rev. Dr. Skinner, by preaching in his pulpit a part of the time. It was a source of much mortification and pain to him, that even this service was too great for his broken constitution to sustain. His labors were comparatively light, but he crippled under them. "For one month out of three," he says, "I was unable to do any thing." He made up his mind, from this experiment, that he must leave the ministry as a profession, or content himself "to live as a wanderer," for a long while to come. About this time, also, he lost a friend by death, "who was to him almost as a brother." Grief and disappointment seemed now to blight his prospects and bow his soul to the dust. Yet his confidence in God was unshaken. He writes, "God is sovereign. I have been made more and more to feel that his judgments are unsearchable and his ways are past finding out. We cannot understand them. We cannot tell, by any particular reasonings, what will be his particular providences; nor why they take place as they do; verily the Judge of all the earth will do right, but not often give us the reasons of