I venerated and loved Dr. Woodbridge for his many excellences and high attainments. My hesitation, therefore, about complying with your request, arises wholly from my inability to do anything like full justice to his character and worth. Besides, it is now forty-five years since I was under his tuition. You can readily imagine, then, it will be extremely difficult for me, at this late day, to convey to others an adequate impression of what he was in my estimation at that time. Understand, then, I cannot do justice to my own views of the character, attainments, and usefulness of Dr. Woodbridge. In a word, a worthy idea of him I cannot give.

"The first time I ever saw Dr. Woodbridge was on the third day of September, 1823, when he pronounced in Williamstown the first oration ever delivered before our Society of Alumni. It was a great occasion. The congregation was large; the spacious church was densely filled. There was something so attractive in his personal appearance; his voice was so full, clear, and sonorous; his style was so lucid and finished; his whole manner was so eloquent and earnest; that the deep impression made on my mind on that occasion has never been effaced from my recollection. With the single exception of Dr. Griffin, I then considered him the most eloquent pulpit orator I had ever heard.

"Some of his closing remarks were so tender, touching, and appropriate, that I can almost recall them without referring to the discourse. 'Beloved friends,' said he, 'we gather around our Alma Mater to-day with affectionate gratitude, and invoke the richest blessings on her head. Long may she live and flourish; and when we shall be no more, may other generations behold her, venerable in all the lustre of learning and of sanctity, and happy in the virtues, the honors, and the respectful kindnesses of her sons. May the union of science and religion here ever remain inviolable; may the Muses invited to these retreats be those that dwelt with the sage of Horeb, and the inspiration of genius be enkindled by the breath of Him

'Who touched Isaiah's hallowed lips with fire!'

"In general, it may be said he was lucid and forcible in his expositions of gospel truth; and with uncommon power were his discourses inade to bear on the conscience and heart of his hearers. He was both logical and rhetorical, and at times truly eloquent; perhaps some would say, vehement. His preaching was instructive, discriminating, and searching; but perhaps not always popular with the multitude. His voice was strong and clear. His enunciation was distinct. His bodily presence in the pulpit was dignified and solemn; and he always showed himself to be in carnest. As he arose to address his audience, he seemed to say, 'I have a message from God to thee.'

"In his religious sentiments, Dr. Woodbridge was truly evangelical.

HE ENCOURAGED SOCIAL PRAYER.

221

His sentiments were those which were embraced and maintained by our Puritan ancestors; and have been recognized in the confessions of faith of most Protestant churches. He belonged to the old school of New England theology. He was a great admirer of Edwards, and was familiar with his writings. He always spoke approvingly of the writings of Dr. Samuel Hopkins, and probably did not differ from him on many points. Without calling any man 'master,' he was willing to be known as a Calvinist. He heartily adopted the Westminster Catechism. The doctrines of grace,' as the phrase has been generally understood, were in his view essential to Christianity; and he considered a denial of these doctrines a sufficient ground for withholding Christian fellowship, even when the external conduct was fair.

"It is hardly possible but that the preaching of such a man should prove an unspeakable blessing to those who enjoyed his stated ministrations. And so it was. Dr. Woodbridge was wise to win souls to Christ. His first pastorate at Hadley was from 1810 to 1830. During these twenty years his preaching was with power; not unfrequently amid the wonderful effusions of the Holy Ghost. He was favored with repeated revivals. CALVIN DURFee."

Says another:

Yours truly,

"Dr. Woodbridge was a clear, bold, effective preacher, dwelling much on evangelical doctrines, and always stating his views of truth with great simplicity and directness. His address, in earlier years, was remarkably impressive, and left a vivid remembrance upon his auditors. Argumentative and forcible, his sermons breathed the Spirit of Christ. Powerful revivals of religion accompanied his ministry, and his influence was widely diffused throughout the Church."

SECTION IV.

HIS GENERAL PAROCHIAL LABORS, COMBINED WITH CERTAIN PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND HIS REFORMATORY SPIRIT AND LABORS, STRENGTHENED HIS INFLUENCE OVER HIS PEOPLE.

Dr. Woodbridge early inculcated on his people not merely the duty and habit of prayer, but the duty and habit of social prayer. He would have his church as a body open, and keep open, a channel of communication with the exhaustless Source of all good. As moved by one mighty impulse

heavenward, he would have them associate to pour out their common desires for common blessings; reach forth their hands together; lift up their voices in unison, to him who "heareth the prayer of the righteous."

The churches and ministry of an earlier date, who had fallen into the practice of entering half-way into covenant with God, instead of wholly consecrating themselves to him; or who had embraced the still more fatal notion that the eucharist is a means of grace, appropriately used by the unregenerate, had, by relying disproportionately on external means, degenerated into a species of formalism, which rather congealed the churches into harmony, than warmed them into unity of spiritual life. Undue reliance on human efficiency never promotes a spirit of humble prayer, nor fans the pure flame of Christian zeal. Its tendency is rather the reverse. In the words of Dr. J. S. Clark, referring to the same period of our ecclesiastical history, "Do and live, do and live, had long been sounding in the ears of congregations, that were all the while doing less and becoming more dead." In this state of things the social prayer-meeting, especially as connected with religious conference, the free interchange of views and feelings, and earnest exhortations of the brethren, was to a great extent neglected. services of the Sabbath were, for the most part, considered sufficient. If occasional meetings during the week were thought desirable, the pastor must conduct them; or, in case of his absence, one of the deacons, and sermons must be read. The power of the laity was not evoked; their cooperation as a body in personal effort little sought.

The two

Those who welcomed the views of President Edwards and his theological successors in connection with the revival spirit of the times, exalting the sovereignty of God and the spontaneity of divine grace; and entertaining profound views of the depravity and moral helplessness of unrenewed men, experienced a revived interest in social prayer. Convinced of their entire dependence, they looked up for all

CONFERENCE MEETINGS.

223

their supplies. They felt that prayer was the vital breath of the church; that the social prayer-meeting was an indispensable constituent of church life and progress. They remembered that the Christian church sprang into being and assumed visible form at the close of a ten days' prayermeeting; that it was social prayer which brought down "the promise of the Father," the baptism of the Holy Ghost; that it was social prayer which gave point and power to Peter's pentecostal sermon, which shook the ground on which both Judaism and heathenism rested, and at the same time laid strong and deep the foundations of the Christian church; nay, carried high its superstructure in a single day.

Hence prayer-meetings were looked upon by this class of divines as essential to the full efficacy of the pulpit. True, they had been opposed from the first by the Arminian clergy of the day, and by the churches where Stoddardism prevailed, or had left its bitter weeds. After the extravagances, which grew out of the revivals under Edwards and his coadjutors, appeared, they were still more opposed. For half a century those tinctured with the spirit of their primary opposers, and other cool-headed divines, had a morbid fear of lay-work. But near the close of the eighteenth century, when the writings of Edwards,, Bellamy, Hopkins, and others. in the same line of theological thought, had diffused their life-giving influences, widening the division between the formalistic and the more evangelical; and the Holy Spirit began to descend, awaking the churches from the deep slumbers into which they had fallen, while the wars and political controversies, extending from 1744 to the close of the Revolutionary struggle, had been too exclusively occupying public attention, the prayer and conference-meeting was again revived. The power of the laity, which had been kept in abeyance, was drawn out and appropriated. Live men, such as Hooker, Mills, Hallock, Griffin, Porter, and those agreeing with them in theological views and revival labors, felt that they could not do without the prayer and

conference meeting. They saw that, judiciously managed and vitalized by the right spirit, it not only gave additional force to the sermon, but awoke a new element of power in the churches.

Dr. Woodbridge warmly sympathized with these views. Prayer-meetings were the objects of his special nurture. He held one weekly in the main street, near the church; and encouraged the brethren to establish similar gatherings to be conducted by themselves in the several neighborhoods, too remote from that central point to allow of convenient attendance there. By this arrangement clouds of incense arose, not only from the closets of God's people, but from these several social altars dispersed through the town. Would not a covenant God smell a sweet savor from these many smoking sacrifices weekly ascending to his mercyseat? Could a scriptural ministry, attended by such auxiliaries, fail of success? True, these neighborhood meetings were not largely attended at first. But a faithful few, gladly escaping for an hour from the world's cares, weekly repaired to them. They gradually increased, and when they had become vitalized into working order, they grew into mighty engines of power. Small they might have been in view of men, but great were they in view of Him who loves a working, praying church.

"In the kingdom of his grace granteth he omnipotence to prayer."

Sensible that he was appointed by the Master the minister of the whole town, he would leave no part uncultivated. He would by no means bestow his chief care on the few better educated and more accomplished families, like the farmer who should richly cultivate his garden, rendering it as beautiful as the bloom of flowers and the exuberance of every edible plant could make it, while leaving scores of out-lying acres choked with weeds and disfigured with slimy fens, calling forth the reproach of every passer-by. He would bestow equal care on those who had enjoyed scantier