Every element of Mr. Woodbridge's moral nature repelled him from such a course. The art of flattery he never learned. IIe had no disposition to insinuate himself into favor by any sinuosities of speech or conduct. To those who knew him best he could not be painted in an attitude more unlike himself than seated in his study, with his Bible open before him, his sermon-paper spread out on his desk, and his pen in hand, soliloquizing thus: "What text shall I select, or what truth shall I present next Sabbath, and in what manner shall I present it, so as best to please Deacon A., or Deacon B., or Dr. C., or Esquire D., or Farmer E.? IIow can I enforce the divine message so as most to captivate the young, to fascinate the masses, or to call forth the admiring exclamation, 'What a splendid sermon !'" His people, in all the fancied aspects in which they may have imagined him, never conceived him as occupying such a position. He could be kind, affable, courteous, familiar, at times enter heartily into the sympathies of his people; but sycophancy found in his heart no soil in which to germinate. His thoughts were elevated, and fastened to what was worthy of his exalted capacities - Divine Truth. With his eye entranced, and his heart ravished with her form, he could say with the deepest sincerity, -

"And truth alone, where'er my life be cast,

In scenes of plenty, or the pining waste,

Shall be my chosen theme, my glory to the last."

It might be said of him, as was said of Dr. Thomas Arnold, "He could not draw a happy breath in the presence of falsehood, and the master-passion of whose spirit was the love of Law and of Truth." As a preacher, his commanding aim was rightly to divide the word of life; his anxious inquiry, not what my people want, but what they need.

Nor did he gain this controlling influence by any premeditated efforts to captivate the aesthetics of his hearers. He never stooped to cater to "itching ears" by the announce

INDEPENDENT HONESTY.

121

ment of unusual or half secular subjects or strange texts, nor by any variety of the endless round of clap-trap too often resorted to by the ambitious and time-serving. He did not believe that such manoeuvrings were any part of being "made all things to all men." True, he "sought out acceptable words;" he endeavored to plant the seeds of truth at the lowest possible depth in the hearts of his people; he labored carnestly to nurture the springing germs of grace, and to secure the fullest developments of the Christian life. He was sometimes eloquent in the truest sense, eloquent in grandeur and pathos of thought, and in outbursts of strong, hallowed emotions. His susceptible nature, under the pressure of the stupendous truths he attempted to grasp and unfold, would not allow him to be otherwise. But he never resorted to any of those devices of a meretricious or sensational mode of address, so agreeable to the unregenerate and the lukewarm professor; and which some wearing the robes of Christ's ambassadors condescend to adopt for the purpose of eliciting unprofitable interest, or of arousing storms of sympathetic feeling, as uscless as they are impassioned and ill-directed.

But there were positive causes of his commanding influence over his people.

Mr. Woodbridge had in unusual measure that ministerial independent honesty which is the outflow of profound Christian humility, reverential submission, and cordial obedience; all radically forming constituent parts of each other; all reciprocally receiving from, and imparting vitality and strength to each. It is the intellectual conviction, warm with the noblest sentiments of the heart, that one is not his own master; that with all his powers and opportunities he belongs exclusively to God; a conviction strengthened and touched with tenderness by the thought that he has been purchased by the blood of Jesus, and exalted to the office of Ambassador for him solely by his interposing grace. It is the spirit that sits reverently at the feet of the Great

Teacher with the courage and decision to say, "What thou biddest me do I will do; what thou biddest me teach I will teach." He who is possessed of it is independent of man, and loyal to God; HONEST BOTH TO GOD AND TO MAN; and he is so, because he has that abasement of pride which comes forth in childlike docility looking upward "with all lowliness," and inquiring, "Lord, what wilt THOU have me to do?"

There is a ministerial independence which is bold and reckless; which bids defiance to the preferences of both wonted hearers and of the world at large; which boastingly says, "I will utter my sentiments at whatever cost; no man shall bribe me to silence." This is not the independence of love and loyalty. It is not like that of Paul or of Luther; it is more Satanic than angelic. The independence of which we speak is of quite another sort. It is the fruit of the Holy Ghost. It wears the stamp of the Saviour's hand. It is appropriate, nay, essential to every true ambassador; an independence indissolubly bound up with fidelity to his trust, and earnestness in his self-denying work. It is removed farthest possible from a sense of official dignity. It has no prurient desires for authority; no vaporings of selfreliance; no burnings of self-applauding zeal. It is quiet, but energetic; disinterested, but firm. It says with Luther at the Diet of Worms, "I am bound by my conscience and the word of God." This loyalty to his Saviour King, and humble independence of the preferences of his flock, which lifts the minister officially far above them, while he feels himself one with them in the warmest sympathies of his heart, lies at the foundation of every largely successful pastorate.

The persuasion that he possessed this complex characteristic, a humble, independent honesty in his work, the pastor of Hadley wrote on the hearts of his people as “with a pen of iron." They never for a moment suspected him of timeserving. They never imagined that he would cater to their vitiated appetites. They never thought that he would con

MUTUAL LOVE OF PASTOR AND PEOPLE.

123

sult their preferences further than the Scriptures demand. On that rock they saw him standing; and they knew that no consideration would induce him to leave it. With one consent they felt that he was an honest man, an honest ambassador, an honest minister of the New Testament. Whenever he stood before them as the preacher of righteousness, whether in the house of God or in the conference-room, he carried to their minds the impression that his sole object was to save his hearers, and to honor his Master - opinions of a minister which will prove vital clements in any community.

Another positive ground of this commanding influence of the pastor of IIadley over his people, was the felt permanency of the relation existing between them. Ilis uniform conduct testified that he regarded IIadley as his home; the field over which God, as well as man, had installed him. Ile never awakened the suspicion that he was holding out the idea to other churches that he could be had; much less that he was soliciting calls. They felt that he was their minister by divine appointment; that, should his health be preserved to old age, he would live and die with them, and pillow his head beside theirs in the sacred repository of their dead.

The true affection of a people for their pastor is peculiar. There is none other exactly like it. It is a reflection of that love which the true Christian feels towards Christ himself; and finds, perhaps, its nearest resemblance in that cherished by his disciples and those holy women who ministered to him when on earth. It has much of the tenderness and warmth of the domestic affection, elevated with blendings of reverence, of spiritual dependence and helpfulness, of mutual confidence and varied sympathies; linked to the conviction of a common oneness in spiritual wants and supplies, and of a common destiny in the presence of God forever. There may be, indeed there often is, a pleasing substitute for this pastoral affection, originating in admiration

for talents and genius, or the pleasantries of social intercourse; but which, though sometimes dignified and graceful, lending a charm to the relation, is utterly unlike it. However pleasurable to the unregenerate, it wants the purest elements of the genuine,

a consciousness of union

to one who is felt to be their teacher and friend in sympathy both with themselves and their endeared Lord; hallowed with some foretaste of that blessedness of holiest love which will be experienced in its fulness by the redeemed when they "shall behold his face in righteousness."

Such a friendship is no transient production. Though beautiful as the rainbow, it is not, like the rainbow, evanescent. Its radication, its growth, and full unfoldings in graceful proportion, require time. Its richness and beauty are seldom reached in connection with the idea of brevity in the relation. Its counterfeit may, like Jonah's gourd, grow up in a night, and perish in a night; but the genuine plant neither matures nor withers so quickly. In Mr. Woodbridge's manifested purpose to make Hadley his permanent home, he gave opportunity for this exalted friendship, which is the basis of the highest ministerial usefulness, to take root and bear its ripened fruit.

SECTION II.

MR. W. IN HIS STUDY; THE SPIRIT WITH WHICH HE STUDIED; HIS HABIT OF, AND GIFT IN, PUBLIC PRAYER, AND HIS TYPE OF PIETY, EXERTED A POWERFUL INFLUENCE OVER HIS PEOPLE.

Mr. Woodbridge was a hard student. He loved study. He thirsted for knowledge. Following alone the bent of his inquisitive tendencies, he would have made his library his home. But nobler aspirations than personal predilections pointed in the same direction. Having clear conceptions of the design and grandeur of his vocation, the