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soil of which was a good deal impoverished. One of the farmers in passing it one day observed to him, that his corn looked rather yellow: "It was yellow corn I planted," was the reply.

Down to the end of his ministry in Orange, Mr. Chapman continued to wear the three-cornered hat, formerly a badge of the clerical profession. This was ordinarily set a little obliquely upon the head, but it was observed that in riding against the wind he was accustomed to turn it transversely, that is, with its broadest side foremost. When a friend asked him the reason of this, he said that a man in facing a north-wester should present a bold front.*

Upon leaving Orange, Mr. Chapman established his family at Geneva, where he supplied a congregation for many years, while performing a laborious missionary service in the region around. He - had the surveying and superintendence of the whole missionary field in Western New York assigned him by the General Assembly, to which he reported annually his labors and their results. The oldest

*When Archibald Alexander (afterwards Professor in the Princeton Seminary) was travelling through New England in the summer of 1801, he distinguished the country ministers by the cocked hats which they still wore when they appeared in public. And Dr. Eckley told him that "even in Boston, when he visited the older people, he was obliged to put on the cocked hat, as they considered the round hat too 'buckish' for a clergyman."-Life of Dr. Alexander, p. 257.-In Orange the round hat came with Mr. Hillyer-the innovation of a new century.

churches in that region, those of Geneva, Romulus, Ovid, Rushville, Trumansburg, were organized by him. And he lived to see accomplished an object to which all his powers were devoted-" a complete union between the Presbyterian and Congregational churches in Western New York."*

About ten months after his settlement over the Geneva church as its senior pastor, and after a fifty years' service in the ministry, he rested from his labors, May 22, 1813, in his seventy-third year. His last illness came on him in the pulpit, preaching from the words: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness," &c.

He left to the Presbyterian Church a patriarchal name, and works that do still follow him. Few men among his contemporaries did an equal service for the church. The most of his descendants are warmly attached to the Presbyterian faith and order.

* Hotchkin's Hist. Western N. Y. At the formation of the Synod of Albany, he preached the opening sermon, and presided till a moderator was chosen.

THE

CHAPTER VI.

REV. ASA HILLYER, D.D.

THE preceding portion of our narrative is rather a parish history than a history of the church. Much would have been added to its religious interest, could the writer have had access to the perished records of the Church Session. These would have let him into the temple, while he has been treading in the outer courts; permitted to "walk about Zion and go round about her," but not to enter the sanctuary of her spiritual life. Stepping across the line which divides the centuries, we now enter a period distinguished by the interest of its events and less obscured by distance. Henceforth we have a more luminous path, and one more divergent from matters of a civil and political nature.

At the time Mr. Chapman was leaving Orange, a clergyman of New Hartford, Conn., was making arrangements to pass a winter in New Jersey in the hope that his wife's health would be benefited by It was the Rev. Edward Dorr

its milder climate.

LABORS OF GRIFFIN.

155

Griffin, who had then been eight years in the exercise of those eloquent gifts which have placed his name among those of the ablest preachers of the century. Being an acquaintance and friend of Mr. Hillyer, who was settled at Madison, and being invited to pass some time at his house, he in October accepted the invitation and remained there several weeks. His proximity to Orange brought him to the notice of the congregation here, who engaged him to supply their pulpit during the winter. An extensive awakening accompanied his preaching. Having labored in the parish six months, with a large blessing upon his labors, about fifty souls being hopefully converted, he would have received from the congregation a call had he given them sufficient encouragement. He was soon after settled in Newark as the colleague of Dr. McWhorter, while his friend, Mr. Hillyer, became pastor of this church. These circumstances led to a still closer intimacy.

"In no situation," wrote Dr. Hillyer many years afterward, "was Dr. Griffin more entirely at home than in a revival of religion. It was my privilege often to be with him in such circumstances; and I knew not which to admire most, the skill and power with which he wielded the sword of the Spirit, or the childlike dependence which was evinced by his tender and fervent supplications. Though he was certainly one of the most accomplished pulpit

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HIS PREACHING DESCRIBED.

orators of his time, on these occasions especially, the power of his eloquence was lost sight of in the mighty effects which were produced. A quickening influence went forth through the church, and an awakening and converting influence spread through the surrounding world; the pressing of sinners into the kingdom was such as seemed almost to betoken the dawn of the millennial day; and yet the instrumentality by which all this was brought about was little talked of. This result, after all, I suppose to be the highest effect of pulpit eloquence. He wrought so mightily on the religious principles and affections of his audience, that they had not the time, or scarcely the ability, to marvel at the exalted gifts with which these effects were associated."*

During his brief ministry in Orange, Mr. Griffin was a boarder in the family of Captain Jotham Harrison. From a statement drawn up by the latter in June, 1801, and laid before a parish committee appointed the December previous "for the purpose of procuring suitable accommodations for Mr. Griffin," it appears that the boarding account was settled by the parish. What further compensation was given is not known. As he received no salary from his people in New Hartford during his absence, it is altogether probable that he was paid for his labors here something more than enough