session, freedom, independence and liberality of feeling which constitute true dignity.

66

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 seminary in August, 1828, at which time, in addition to his regular academic performances, he delivered an address to the Porter Rhetorical Society, which is published among his Discourses, and exhibits the reflections of an ardent and aspiring mind, on the duties of the profession into which both he and the members of the society were about to be ushered.

Having thus closed his career of preparatory study, and formed for himself, so far as he was able, his plan of life, he delighted himself with the thought that he was ready to enter any field of professional labor which divine Proviidence might open before him. And it was with feelings of grief and disappointment, such as none can fully know but those who have passed through the same sad experience, that he found his health so much reduced as to be unable to endure even the comparatively light labors consequent upon a short engagement with the church of Rev. Dr. Skinner in Philadelphia. He retired from a situation which, had he been able to retain it, would have furnished many means of improvement, and ample fields of usefulness. He retired, as a wounded soldier leaves the field of battle, fearing his days of service were over, trusting nothing to himself, and reposing all his confidence in the Master for whom he toiled. He saw every hope of immediate labor in the ministry, which he had allowed himself so fondly to indulge, now either irrecoverably blighted, or long deferred. Yet he murmured not at the appointment of Heaven. In a letter written about this period, he declares his trust in God, and says:

"Let us bow to his authority, without one murmur, and only say, with a firm, reverential voice, Let him do, for he hath a right to do. Yes, there is a providence that directs all things. I do not find, after much investigation and reflection, that it promises much, specifically, but it does promise, 'I will never leave you, nor forsake you.' And why is not this enough? We have no demands on God; but we know that he is a very kind Master, an indulgent Father; he will do whatever is best, and he will always be with us. This is enough. Let us trust him cheerfully, come what will. For my part, I may say, that, though a wanderer and a stranger in the earth, I never felt more contented in my life."

Thus defeated in his plans, at the very moment when hope would naturally be strongest and brightest, he relinquished all thought of immediate settlement, and retired to the mansion of his father, at Bedford; where, with little interruption, he spent the four or five succeeding years of his life. But here he was not idle. In the bosom of his family, and amidst the cheerful scenes of his childhood, he gave himself up to the studies and contemplations with which his mind had ever been most delighted. During this period of retirement, he planned a philosophical work on the moral nature of man, and made considerable progress in the preparation of some portions of it. He also rendered occasional assistance to his father, and preached, as often as his health would permit, to the destitute churches in the neighborhood. Thus withdrawn from the stations of usefulness he had hoped to occupy, and in the midst of all the uncertainties and infelicities to which an invalid is exposed, he saw the golden years of his early manhood glide away. But they were not spent in vain, for they left behind them the treasures of thought they had accumulated, and the lessons of piety they had taught. From the spring of 1830, his health had been gradually improving, and he again began to cherish the hope of being able to labor in the cause to which he had consecrated his days. Having, in 1833, preached for a few Sabbaths, at the Old South Church, in Boston, and at the Tabernacle Church, in Salem, he soon afterwards received an invitation from each of these churches to become their pastor. The question of settlement was now forced upon his attention, and he could not shrink from its decision. During his retirement, he had gained a fund of knowledge and experience, which had greatly contributed to his qualifications for the pastoral office. His stock of health and strength was now apparently greater than it had been for many years, and the season in which the labors of life are usually accomplished was rapidly passing away. Under the influence of these considerations, he doubted whether he was at liberty to remain longer unemployed in the permanent ministry of the gospel.

"He was much affected," says his biographer, "and at times overpowered, with the mysterious dealings of God, who, after keeping him in the school of discipline so long, had suddenly thrown open

these two large fields of labor, distinctly saying, as he thought, 'Thrust in the sickle, and reap.' The responsibilities of the pastoral and ministerial office, sufficient, if they could be appreciated, to crush an angel, had been growing in importance upon his imagination for years. They now rose up before him like a mountain, which the voice of Providence seemed to command his feeble shoulders to sustain. Sometimes,' he says, 'I am ready to sink, and feel as if I had well nigh finished my course. Sometimes, I stand amazed at the providence of God; and very commonly am overwhelmed and overborne with a sense of his goodness and forbearance. I am melted under it, and depressed with it. And then, again, I am startled, like one that looks from a giddy height down a precipice; or a dreadful awe comes over me, as over one who looks up the side of a huge or overhanging rock. Much of this week has been spent in taking a review of my past life,-running my eye all along the way in which the Lord has led me. I wish to look at all that is past, as if I had now come to the end; to see its errors, its sins, and its honest purposes, too; to see how God has overruled all, and to learn, as well as I can, from the past, what are the indications of his providence for the future.""

After much deliberation, he was induced to accept the invitation from the church in Boston. Alas! how transitory are the hopes and the relations of man. Little did that ancient church anticipate, as they heard the clear and eloquent voice of their young and promising pastor, that he was destined so soon to pass away. Mr. Stearns preached to them two Sabbaths, and part of a third, and never again raised his voice within the walls of the Old South. As the excitement which had sustained his spirit passed away, and left him to the unassisted strength of his shattered constitution, he found himself wholly unable to complete the third Sabbath of his ministry. He tried the usual means of recruiting his health; but it was all in vain, nature, exhausted, and worn out, refused to resume her wonted offices; and, after spending the summer in travel, with but little benefit, he asked and received a dismission from the pastorship of the church in which his hopes were garnered up; and around which his affections. were beginning to entwine. He spent a few months at Bedford, and in making a journey to Virginia, and having been urged to undertake a voyage to Europe, he embarked for London, in June, 1836, in company with his friend, Rev. Professor Stowe, and arrived in England on the 28th of the same month. He travelled in England and Scotland, and, passing to the continent, visited Germany, Italy, and France; his health varying with the circum

stances in which he was placed, yet, during the latter part of his journey, very rapidly declining. Of his observations in these several countries, he had taken copious notes, of which some interesting extracts are presented in this memoir, and which would have been given to the public had their author lived to return to his native land. He died at Paris, in August, 1837, surrounded by the friends whom the gentleness and goodness of his character had won for him in a land of strangers.

As a scholar, both in general and in theological science, Mr. Stearns had enjoyed unusual advantages; and, considering the infirmities which, through his whole life, pressed heavily upon him, he had made no ordinary attainments. He felt the benefit of learning and philosophy to the health and progress of his own mind, and labored in their acquisition with all the enthusiasm of his nature. His mind was largely and somewhat peculiarly endowed, combined with a clearness of perception and an independence of judgment that admirably fitted him for philosophical studies: there was a delicacy of sensibility, and a fervor of fancy, such as usually characterizes the temperament of the poet. The productions of his intellect give evidence that he had attained that repose of spirit, and confidence in an inward energy, which belongs only to highly gifted and cultivated minds. In study, his aim was not acquisition merely, but the development and perfection of his own nature. He made no narrow

and vain calculations of the results which intellectual cultivation would enable him to accomplish; for he felt, with a certainty which nothing could shake, that truth and beauty are the appropriate aliment of the soul, from which alone it derives its immortal vigor, and its perennial freshness. He carried into manhood the resolution of his youth," to be himself,"-to follow, whenever he could, the bent of his own taste and genius, and trust to Heaven for guidance.

His heart was filled with every generous and Christian sentiment. He was, perhaps, more than is usual with Christians of the present day, fond of the retirement of meditation and devotion, where he might explore the mysteries of his own being, and gather strength for the labors and conflicts of life. He shrunk, with a sensibility, perhaps too keen and delicate, from the rude and

vulgar intercourse both of the religious and the secular world.

"His piety," says the biographer, "was of the simplest character. He used no cant phrases, attempted no exhibition of peculiar goodness, was above parade and affectation,-and made it a rule, both in the pulpit and in conversation, never to express, by tone, language, or gesture, an emotion which he did not feel. Strangers, though they might observe in him a propriety of Christian demeanor, would not, probably, discover at once the depth and fervor of his piety. But no one could be long in his company, without perceiving something of that fulness and heartiness of religious sentiment, and that calm and peace-giving confidence in Christ, which marked his Christian course, and was so conspicuous in his dying hours. His feelings towards God were those of strong filial love. He seemed to make him his confidant in all things. For many years before his decease, he had scarcely a doubt that he was the child of his heavenly Father. But he considered himself an unworthy child, who needed chastisement; and who, through much tribulation, must enter into rest."

As a minister, the character of Mr. Stearns was not fully formed. But, if we may judge from the promise given in the few discourses he has left, and from his own views of the nature of the sacred office, we should place him in a very high rank among our American clergy. His careful study and diligent practice of the principles of sacred rhetoric,-the science to which he devoted his best attention during his residence at Andover, had given him no ordinary skill and power in the composition of sermons. His taste was unusually simple and correct; the style of his pulpit performances was accurate and chaste, free alike from the studied elegances of classical diction, and the uncouth familiarity of vulgar declamation. "His sermons were written after much study, and preparation of mind. Many of them were arranged, composed, and finished, in all but the language, before a word was committed to paper. His texts were not chosen as 'a peg to hang a sermon on,' but rather as a germ of truth, which he was to unfold and exhibit in maturity, with its fruit. His discourses are, for the most part, a single sentiment, presented in its relations, illustrated, enforced, and applied. Hence, it is often said of him, that he rarely preached a discourse which was not long remembered."

In every relation of life, Mr. Stearns exhibited a delicacy and reverence that could not fail to command the love of all who are capable of appreciating these qualities