[By William Allen, D. D., President of Bowdoin College.]

AMONG the men, who for their worthy deeds and eminent services in the cause of science and religion, deserve to be held in honorable remembrance, the subject of this memoir is doubtless to be ranked. Indeed he has the peculiar distinction of having established and conducted the first Missionary School in this country, and of having founded the first College, which was created by the efforts of an individual. This distinction God has given him, although he sought not honor from man.

DR. ELEAZAR WHEELOCK was born in Windham, Connecticut, in May, 1711. His earliest ancestor, of whom any account has been obtained, was his great grandfather, Rev. Ralph Wheelock, who was born in Shropshire, in 1600, and educated at Clare Hall, in Cambridge. Being an eminent non-conformist preacher, and suffering persecution for dissenting from the established religion, he came to New England for liberty of conscience in 1637, and settled in Dedham, Massachusetts, where he was one of the founders of the first church in 1638. Thence he removed to Medfield, where he was one of the principal land-owners. Of this town he was a representative for several years; he also occasionally preached in Medfield and the adjoining new settlements, but declined taking the charge of any particular church. He died universally respected in November, 1683, aged 83 years.

Dr. Wheelock's grandfather, Captain Eleazar Wheelock, born in 1654, removed from Medfield to Mendon. He was a soldier, as well as a Christian. In the Indian wars he commanded successfully a company of cavalry. His house, converted into a garrison, was sometimes besieged. In peace he was familiar with the savages, often joining them in their hunting expeditions, and treated them with great kindness. He died March 24, 1731, aged 77 years.

The father of Dr. Wheelock was deacon Ralph Wheelock, born in 1683, who settled in Windham, where he lived a farmer, and died Oct. 15, 1748, aged 66 years. His mother was Ruth Huntington, the daughter of Christopher Huntington of Norwich. He was an only son. Of his five sisters one married the Rev. Dr. Pomeroy of Hebron; his half-sister Mary, whose mother was Mercy Standish of Preston, married Jabez Bing

ham of Salisbury, and was the grandmother of the Rev. Dr. Kirkland, president of Harvard University.

At the age of 16 or 17 his heart was renewed by the Spirit of God. His grandfather, whose name he bore, having left him a legacy to defray the expenses of his education, he was sent to Yale college, in which seminary he was distinguished for his good conduct and proficiency in learning. The first premium, instituted by dean Berkley, to be awarded to the best classical scholars of the senior class, was given to him and Mr. Pomeroy, afterwards his brother-in-law.* He graduated in 1733, and in March, 1735, was ordained as the minister of the Second or North society in Lebanon, called Lebanon Crank, now the town of Columbia, where he toiled as a faithful laborer in the vineyard of his Lord about 35 years.

In 1735, soon after his settlement, by his faithful and earnest labors, great effects were produced among his people at Lebanon. It pleased God to send down his Spirit to bring the gospel to the hearts of sinners; and the same work of divine mercy and love was accomplished, which, about the same time, was experienced at Northampton under the ministry of Jonathan Edwards, and in other towns of Hampshire county, Massachusetts, as well as at Coventry, Durham, Mansfield, East Windsor, Tolland, Bolton, Hebron, Norwich, Groton, and other towns in Connecticut. In some of these towns there was an impression of deep seriousness made upon the minds of almost all the people, and in some places it was supposed that as many as twenty or thirty persons were converted in one week. In 1740, and in subsequent years, in consequence of the labors of Mr. Whitefield and others, this revival of religion became more general.

Mr. Wheelock was at this period incessant in his labors to promote the salvation of his fellow-men. Of his character as a preacher, it may be interesting to read the account, given by Dr. Trumbull, who was personally acquainted with him." The most zealous and laborious in the cause, who took the most pains and spent the most property in the service of their Master, were the Rev. Messrs. Jedediah Mills, Benjamin Pomeroy, Eleazar Wheelock, and Joseph Bellamy. They were not only abundant in labors among their own people, and in neighboring towns and societies, but they preached in all parts of the colony, where their brethren would admit them, and in many places in Massachusetts, and the other colonies."

Mr., afterwards Doctor and President, Wheelock was a gentleman of a comely figure, of a mild and winning aspect; his voice smooth and harmonious, the best, by far, that I ever heard. He had the entire command of it. His gesture was natural, but not redundant. His preaching

* In the catalogue of Yale College, the name of Eleazar Wheelock is not placed alphabetically, but stands a little below the middle of the class It seems, that the names from 1702 to 1767, of the graduates are placed according to the supposed rank of their parents. Thus, in the class of 1733, the name of S. Talcott stands first, probably because he was the son of the governor Talcott. Dividing each class, thus arranged, into two equal parts, and instituting a comparison between these parts, some curious facts are deduced. In the upper half the number of ministers is 168; in the lower haif 270. In the Harvard College catalogue, arranged in the same way from 1642 to 1772, the ministers in the upper half are 321, and in the lower 586. Is this disproportion to be accounted for from the consideration, that young men, of families in moderate circumstances, are freed from many evil allurements, which assail the sons of the more rich and honorable?

In the comparison as to the attainment by laymen of worldly honors, judging by the capital letters in the catalogue, the proportion is the other way. The proportion is about 50 to the upper half, and 20 to the lower; and the same in the Cambridge catalogue. The sons of the rich and influential gain the honors of this world: the poor are more likely to take the kingdom of heaven.

In the lower half, however, besides the name of Dr. Wheelock, are the names of presidents Dickinson, Johnson, and Daggett, and of Rev. Drs. Caner, Goodrich, Trumbull, Dana, and Emmons:-and in the lower half also, in the Cambridge catalogue, the names of presidents Hoar, Wadsworth, Langdon, and Rogers, and rectors l'ierson and Williams, and Rev. Drs. Hitchcock, Shute, Forbes, Hemmenway, Howard, Deane, Cummings, Belknap, and Osgood

Of laymen, we find in the lower half of the Cambridge catalogue the names of Gov Trumbull, ChiefJustice Pratt, (the last in his class,) John Adams, president of the United States, and governors Gerry, Strong, and Eustis.

and addresses were close and pungent, and yet winning, beyond almost all comparison, so that his audience would be melted even into tears, before they were aware of it."

This is high commendation of Mr. Wheelock's eloquence, coming from one, who speaks of Whitefield, Tennent, and Bellamy, whom probably he had often heard; and who thus represents Mr. Wheelock's voice as the best, by far, he had ever heard, and his manner of preaching the most winning beyond almost all comparison.

So interesting and acceptable was the preaching of Mr. Wheelock and so fervent was his zeal, that in one year "he preached a hundred more sermons than there are days in the year." The following letter will show the estimation, in which he was held, at the age of twenty-nine, by Jonathan Edwards, who was eight or ten years older. It is dated Northampton, Oct. 9, 1740.-" Rev. and dear Sir,-I congratulate you, and would bless God for the success, which he has lately given to your labors, which you mention, and for the many joyful things, we have lately heard concerning the city of our God. I think that those, that make mention of the Lord, should now be awakened and encouraged to call upon God, and not keep silence nor give him any rest, till he establish and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth; and particularly should be earnest with God, that he would still uphold and succeed the Rev. Mr. Whitefield, the instrument that it has pleased him to improve to do such great things for the honor of his name, and at all times so to guide and direct him under his extraordinary circumstances, that Satan may not get any advantage of him.

"I thank you for your concern for my aged father under his troubles, and the pains you have occasionally taken with some of his people on his behalf, and also for your kind wishes for me and for the success of my ministry. We need the prayers of all that are favored with God's presence and the lively influences of his Spirit. It is a sorrowfully dull and dead time with us : The temporal affairs of this town are and have been for some years most unhappily situated to be a snare to us, and I know not where to look for help but to God. O, dear Sir! earnestly pray for us. And I desire, that now, while God smiles upon you, and it is a day of his special favor towards you, that you would pray earnestly for me, that I may be filled with the divine Spirit, and that God would improve me, though utterly unworthy, as an instrument of glory to his name, and of good to the souls of men, and particularly, that he would bless Mr. Whitefield's coming here for good to my soul, and the souls of my people. That God would more and more bless and succeed you, and make you more and more a burning and shining light, is the sincere desire and prayer of your unworthy brother and fellow-laborer,

"JONATHAN EDWARDS."

In another letter to Mr. Wheelock, dated June 9, 1741, Mr. Edwards requests him to go and preach at Scantic or East Windsor, to his father's society, of whom he says, "they are wholly dead in this extraordinary day of God's gracious visitation." He then adds-" Another thing that I desire of you, is, that you would come up hither and help us, both you and Mr. Pomeroy. There has been a revival of religion amongst us of late; but your labors have been much more remarkably blessed than mine; other ministers, as I have heard, have shut their pulpits against you; but here, I engage, you shall find one open. May God send you here with a like blessing, as he has sent you to other places; and may your coming be a means of humbling me for my barrenness and unprofitableness, and a

means of my instruction and enlivening. I want an opportunity to concert measures with you for the advancement of the kingdom and glory of our Redeemer."

A short extract from a letter of Mr. Edwards's father to Mr. Wheelock, dated Aug. 26, 1741, will tend still further to illustrate Mr. Wheelock's character and labors :-" Religion hath been very much revived and has greatly flourished among us, since you were here. I have propounded sixty-four persons to full communion, many of whom have been already taken in; and with them, that I expect will be propounded the next Sabbath, with others, that have been with me, and some, that have not yet been with me, there are above seventy, that very lately, viz. in about five or six weeks' time, have been savingly converted in this society, and still there is a great stir among us respecting men's eternal concerns. We have all great reason to bless God for your repeated labors of love of late as a minister of Christ here.

"Your affectionate and obliged brother and servant in Jesus Christ, "TIMOTHY EDWARDS."

These letters, addressed to a young minister, who had been but four or five years in the ministry, by Mr. Edwards, the most profound of theologians and the most pious and faithful of ministers, and by his aged and venerable father, prove, that Mr. Wheelock was regarded by those who knew him, as very eminent for piety and for power as a preacher of the gospel, and show how greatly a sovereign God was pleased to bless his labors even in unpromising fields.

In this time of religious excitement, and at a period, when in Connecticut the distinction between the church and the state was not well understood, it is not to be wondered at, that the itinerant preachers should have met with many rebuffs and much ill-treatment, especially as some fanatical preachers and lay-exhorters, called Separatists, disturbed the peace of the churches. "This glorious work of God," says Dr. Trumbull, was most violently opposed by ministers, by magistrates, by cruel and persecuting laws, by reproach and misrepresentation, and all other ways and means, which its adversaries could invent." Mr. Finley, afterwards president of New Jersey college, for preaching as an itinerant in Connecticut, was carried, according to law, as a vagrant out of the colony. Mr. Davenport and Mr. Pomeroy were arrested and brought before the assembly or the legislature. The former was ordered to be "transported" to Long Island to the place whence he came; and the latter was rudely treated, and afterwards was again brought before the assembly under an indictment for saying, that "no colony was so bad as Connecticut for persecuting laws," and other similar offences.

The following extract, from a private journal of Mr. Wheelock, will illustrate in some degree the state of religion at that period, and his popularity as a preacher; it is dated about a year after Mr. Whitefield's first visit to New England, which was in September, 1740. He set out on a journey through Rhode Island to Boston, during which he preached incessantly. "Oct. 19, 1741. O, that God would give me courage, zeal, and skill to deal faithfully with my friends.

"Oct. 20. Preached at 10, with some enlargement [at a town near Plainfield]. Present, Rev. Messrs. Coit, Kirtland, Dorrance, Barker, Avery, Marsh, &c. The assembly large and considerably affected. Preached in the afternoon at Plainfield to a full assembly. A number cried out. Held a conference at night. Young Christians don't rise, as

in some places. One converted. O, when shall I learn to live always upon God and be thankful for all the least enlargement and assistance.

"Oct. 21. Had but little sleep. Arose before day. Rode with Mr. Coit and my friends to Voluntown. Courteously received and entertained by Mr. Dorrance. Went to meeting at 10. Heard Mr. Gideon Mills preach well. Preached after him. There is a great work in this town; but more of the footsteps of Satan than in any place I have yet been in: the zeal of some too furious: they tell of many visions, revelations, and many strong impressions upon the imagination. They have had much of God in many of their meetings, and his great power has been much seen and many hopefully converted. Satan is using many artful wiles to put a stop to the work of God in this place. Good Lord, let him be confounded. Let his mischiefs fall upon his own head. At their conference at night I mentioned some of these devices of Satan, which I apprehend they are in danger of, and heard the accounts of a number of new converts.

"Oct. 22. Rose this morning refreshed. A pleasant day; found my soul stretching after God. The Lord has this day in some measure fulfilled my early desires. Preached twice with enlargement, by Mr. Smith's barn to great assemblies. Many cried out; many stood trembling; the whole assembly very solemn, and much affection; four or five converted. One woman, who came from Kingston against a great deal of opposition on purpose to hear me, came out clear, and went away rejoicing in God, longing to have her husband and others taste and see with her.

"Oct. 23. Rose at 3; somewhat indisposed. Dear Lord, I commit my body, my soul, my life, health, and all to thee. Use me as thou wilt, only let me glorify thee and seek that as my last end. Left Voluntown about 7, accompanied by a great number of wounded and comforted. Came to Mr. Cooper's of Scituate in the county of Providence. Preached to a considerable assembly. I am always thronged with company, and want time to talk with the tenth part of those, who desire to converse with me. Dined, and rode with a great number of Voluntown people to Capt. Angel's. Preached there. The old man and woman violently opposed; called me antichrist, &c. Rode to elder Fish's; found him a bigoted, ignorant Baptist; his wife soon shot her bolt and told us all what she was. She seemed to look upon baptism in their way as the only evidence to be relied upon of a safe estate. Came about 8 to Mr. Henry's, seven miles from Providence.

"Oct. 24. Rose early, prayed and sang. Discoursed with some wounded; afterwards exhorted a company, who came in. Sung a hymn, prayed, and rode with a great company of Voluntown people and others to Providence. About two miles from Providence met Mr. Knight and another man, who came out to meet us. His first salutation was, 'God bless you, my dear brother.' Went to his house. Rev. Mr. Cotton came, invited me to preach; felt freedom and sweetness in my soul. "Oct. 25. Rode with Mr. Knight into town in his calash. three sermons, 2 Cor. xiii. 5; Mark i. 2; Luke x. ult. O, the dreadful ignorance and wickedness of these parts; O what a burthen dear Mr. Cotton has daily to bear.

Preached

"Oct. 26. Rode with Mr. Cotton back seven miles to Mr. Bennet's: preached at 1 o'clock to a numerous and affected assembly. One converted. Returned with a great number to Providence. Preached to a full assembly: many scoffers present; one man hired for twenty shillings to come into the meeting-house and fall down, which he did and made great disturbance; ordered all, who had a real concern for the salvation of