intellectual discipline which will better prepare me to answer the great end of my being.

Resolved, that I will strive to have my intercourse with my fellow students a christian intercourse; that my conversation shall evince that the great subject of religion is uppermost in my thoughts, and I may be enabled consistently to recommend a serious consideration of its claims to all who know not God, and obey not the gospel.

The task is a great one, and the responsibility of such solemn vows is too awful for a weak and vile worm like myself. But my hope is not in an arm of flesh. I look to heaven for help.

And now, Lord God, draw nigh and witness the consecration. Blessed Saviour, seal it with thy blood. Holy Ghost, sanctify it to my heart.

Signed,

WILLIAM BRADFORD HOMER."

Mr. Homer's activity in this revival was prudent and cheerful. He not only forebore to make unseemly aggressions upon the tastes of his comrades, but he dissuaded others from making them. He was sagacious in his plans for obtaining access to those who had previously been impervious to right influences. Those who were unused to the stimulus of a revival, and, from their temperament, were in danger of being neglected by some and irritated by others, found in him a friend, liberal, generous, affectionate, faithful, unsparing. The following letters show how far he was from spiritual indifference on the one hand, and fanaticism on the other. To his mother he writes:

"April 9, 1835.-I presume from the reports that have been circulated, that you have been anxiously looking for information of what the Lord is doing for us; and I am happy in the confidence that you are among the mothers who never forget to pray for the spiritual prosperity of this institution. Although the information I am able to communicate is not so cheering as I could wish, and the work has not yet assumed that marked and prominent character which would render publicity expedient, I have felt unable to suffer you to remain any longer in uncertainty as to our situation; but I must request, for reasons which will be very manifest, that you do not permit this letter to go from the family, and that no further use be made of its contents,

than to stimulate Christians to pray that we may have a more powerful manifestation of grace than we have yet experienced. That there has been here for some weeks past, a very special influence operating upon the heart, almost every member of college can testify from his own experience. And that we have enjoyed, and are still enjoying, a revival of religion, in the strictest sense of the term, no one who has witnessed the revival of the languishing graces of God's children, and the deep humiliation and contrite repentance of those who had wandered far, and forgotten their first love, can deny. Such a solemn sense of responsibility, and such a spirit of prayer as seems to have pervaded the church, I have never before seen exhibited. Nor are we entirely destitute of encouragement to labor and pray for the conversion of our impenitent fellow students, for we trust there are a few who have been recently brought from nature's darkness to the marvelous light of the gospel. The subjects of the work are sufficiently numerous to make us all grateful, and few enough to impress upon us the importance of continuing to wrestle in prayer, until many are brought to yield to the influences of the Holy Spirit in his present gracious visitation. I believe there is a general determination on the part of Christians, to persevere in their prayers and their efforts for the salvation of souls. We are in an extremely critical situation, but there can be no doubt, from the manifestations we have already had of God's willingness to bless us, that if we will but continue to be prayerful and faithful, the work will go on with still greater power. That we may be prepared for duty, we need the prayers of all who have an interest at the throne of grace. I presume you are ready to inquire what has been the influence of all this upon my own religious feelings, and whether my heart is in the work. I humbly trust that it has been blest to me, in tearing me, in some measure, from my attachment to the world, and aiding me in an entire consecration of myself to the service of Christ. It seems to me now, that I can occasionally have a glimpse of the unspeakable glory of living for Christ, and then the vanities which have so long engrossed my attention, appear in their real insignificance, and I can feel a desire to be entirely devoted to his service. But I am weak, and the deceitfulness of my heart makes me fear that the impressions I have received may be transient, and the idols I have cherished so long, may again resume their place, and leanness once more be sent upon my soul. I am disheartened and discouraged except when I look to the promises of the gospel, and find that if I will but be faithful there is no danger of fainting, for they that wait on the Lord shall run and not be weary, and walk and not faint. And I de

rive encouragement from the thought, that you will not forget to pray, that I may not suffer this season to pass without becoming permanently holier and better."

April 28, 1835, he thus writes to his father: "The solemnity still continues in college. There have been, as we hope, about twenty conversions, of which six are in our class. Perhaps, however, it would not be best to say anything of this publicly. We hope to see still more of our classmates and friends becoming the subjects of renewing grace before the close of the term; but there must be much prayer, or the numerous anxieties and anticipations incident upon the close of the term, will oblige many to suffer this precious havest-time to close without securing the salvation of their souls. With regard to myself, I feel unworthy to say anything, but I cannot refrain from expressing an humble hope, that this may constitute an era in my religious course. It has been to me, in all probability, the most important and interesting season of my life. But I feel miserably weak, and when I look forward to the temptations that await me, I tremble at the possibility of my so treating the influences of the Spirit, as to lose their permanent and lasting advantage. Such contemplations will serve, as I trust, to give me an entire sense of my dependence on Him in whom alone is my hope."

Four years afterward, he writes, April 26, 1839, "I look back upon the college revival, as one of the most critical periods of my whole religious history. I feel deeply guilty that I did not avail myself more fully of the unusual opportunity afforded for benefiting myself and others; but I bless God for what he permitted me to gain. For worlds I would not have lived through that scene in coldness and stupidity, or lost the rich gifts it renewed to my soul."

Mr. Homer was not insensible to the objections which are frequently urged against revivals of religion, and especially in our colleges. During one period of his residence at Andover, he was unduly influenced by these objections, but he at length recovered from their power. God," he wrote, "has come so close to my own fire-side, that I cannot question the reality of his interposition." In an animated controversy, an opposer of such excitements remarked to him, that these re

vivals generally occurred in the second term of the college year, and it was unreasonable to suppose that the influences of the Divine Spirit were limited to the months of March, April and May. But to this he replied, that during the first term the students were unacquainted with each other, a new class having recently entered; that during the third term, there was a great tendency to dissipation of mind, in consequence of the warmth of the season, the frequent allurements to places of festivity, the approach of commencement, and the preparation of one class for departure from college; that the second term was the only one remaining unbroken, and presenting those still scenes which ever invite the Spirit of peace. The physical condition of the students also, during this term, fits them peculiarly for religious contemplations. To the objection, that these revivals interrupted the scholar's progress in study, he replied, that the evil, though often an attendant, was an unnecessary one; that the religious excitement would be more protracted and more healthful if the students continued a moderate application to their classics; that he himself endeavored to preserve as much regularity in his scientific pursuits during a revival, as during a period of religious apathy, and that, in some respects, his mind was better fitted for study by the extraordinary efforts of the conference and inquiry room. To the objection that there was too great an accumulation of incentive applied to the mind of an impenitent student at such a time, too many and too earnest exhortations addressed to him, he replied, that this also need not be; that prudence was needful on the part of Christians, and was easy to be exercised; that they need not and should not converse at hap-hazard with their fellows tudents, but should know what had been previously said, and what was now important to be added; that the christian scholar should be peculiarly delicate in his approaches to his companions, and should insinuate his exhortations, rather than cast them abruptly upon

the mind, and that he should practise all those winning graces of manner which will allure to a pleasant consideration of a theme naturally distasteful.

HABITS OF SELF-CONTEMPLATION.

There is so little of outward adventure in the life of a student, that he forms the habit of turning his eye inward. He is not carried along with the whirl of business, so as to preclude his frequent questionings with himself, Who am I? Where, whence am I? Whither, how am I going? And when his prospects for mental improvement are darkened, when disease threatens to cripple his intellect, or misfortune closes the volume of wisdom to his eyes, he has misgivings of heart which he will tell of to no one but his God. The most touching words ever penned by Buckminster, are those which he wrote in his twenty-first year, when he began to feel the premonitions of a wasting intellect. "I pray God," he writes, "that I may be prepared, not so much for death, as for the loss of health, and, perhaps, of mental faculties. The repetition of these fits must, at length, reduce me to idiocy. Can I resign myself to the loss of memory, and of that knowledge I may have vainly prided myself upon? O God! enable me to bear this thought, and make it familiar to my mind, that by thy grace I may be willing to endure life, as long as thou pleasest to lengthen it. It is not enough to be willing to leave the world, when God pleases; we should be willing, even to live useless in it, if he, in his holy providence, should send such a calamity upon us. I think I perceive my memory fails me. O God save me from that hour!"

The subject of this memoir was fond of looking within himself, of measuring his capacities, of scanning his faults and scrutinizing the probable grounds of his future failures or successes. Nor were his self-contemplations always healthful. He had too many forebodings that his youthful promise