LICENSED TO PREACH.

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souls burdened with sin and trembling in view of its consequences, or rejoicing in the fresh experiences of new-born life; and with the daily intercourse of an intelligent and refined pastor's family, all combined, constituted a preparation for the Christian ministry which cannot well be surpassed.

Could all our candidates for the sacred office enjoy a similar training, they might well dispense with the more varied. literary culture of the theological seminary. Certainly, could they, in addition to the wider range of biblical and literary studies and aesthetic refinement of the seminary, enjoy the practical instruction in theology of a judicious. pastor, and work for a twelvemonth under his direction; especially could they share with him the interest and responsibility of a revival scene, it would constitute a preparatory discipline for the duties of the ministry of a far higher order than the world has hitherto seen. We cannot doubt that the church in the coming "good time" will make effort to secure it.

After remaining some fourteen months with his theologi. cal teacher, he was licensed to preach by the Litchfield Ministerial Association, in the town of Sharon, Conn., June, 1807. He had just reached the middle of his twenty-third

year.

CHAPTER III.

FROM HIS LICENSURE TO HIS SETTLEMENT IN HADLEY.

YOUNG and inexperienced, he did not care immediately to assume the responsibilities of a pastorate. He wisely felt that he needed a riper judgment and more practical acquaintance with its onerous and often delicate duties. Ile entered however at once upon his life-work—the proclamation of the gospel. For a longer or shorter period he supplied the pulpits in several towns of Connecticut. The church in Woodbridge, a town near New Haven and named for their former pastor and his great-uncle, Rev. Benjamin Woodbridge, extended to him a call to become their pastor. He respected the people, but declined their invitation. They were quite Puritanical in their notions, and reverential towards him who sustained to them the relation of ambassador for Christ. The congregation were in the habit of rising en masse when the minister entered the church on the Sabbath, and standing while he passed up the broad aisle into the pulpit, an act which, however commendable, exceedingly embarrassed our young preacher the first time he received the token of ministerial reverence.

For a few weeks in 1808 he wrought as a missionary in the service of the Missionary Society of Hampshire County, Mass. His field of labor was that portion of Jefferson and Lewis counties, N. Y., then called the "Black River Country." They were at that time in their infancy, and settled mainly by emigrants from New England. A large proportion of them, with the view of turning the hitherto unsubdued wilderness into fruitful fields, and of making homes

HOME MISSIONARY LABOR.

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for themselves and their children on the productive soil, had forsaken the educational and religious privileges of their fathers. Many of them were members of churches, not a few true Christians, who, having severed themselves. from institutions which they still held sacred, were now scattered like sheep upon the mountains without a shepherd. Their brethren who still dwelt around their New England hearth-stones and by their youthful sanctuaries, affectionately remembered them; and often sent them for a season their own pastors or such other ministers as could be obtained, to preach to them the Word of our common salvation. This was the work of love in which Mr. Woodbridge now engaged. It was a fitting school in which to train himself for the pastoral office. In coping with the difficulties of new settlements, he learned to "endure hardness as a good soldier." In personal conversation with Christians who had been long deprived of the ministry of the Word, and who joyfully opened to him their doors and their hearts, in some instances even with tears of gladness, he not only became acquainted with different shades of Christian experience and the proper methods of instruction, varying with individual wants, but learned to open his own heart in reciprocal sympathy, to rejoice with the rejoicing, and to weep with the weeping. He had reason to believe that the Lord smiled upon his efforts; and it was a pleasing incident to him in after years to meet a lady, who trusted that his preaching at that time had been the means of her conversion.

Returning from his missionary tour, he still felt unwilling to settle in the ministry without greater mental cultivation and further acquaintance with men and the world. With the view, therefore, of increasing his stores of information and of enlarging his sphere of personal observation and experience, he determined on a journey to Philadelphia. This was deemed quite an undertaking both by himself and his friends; a thought in these days of steam-travel almost creating a smile. In accordance with the custom of the

time, he performed the journey on horseback

IIe made brief stops at the larger places, and enjoyed much clerical intercourse. Several days were agreeably passed at New York. He was introduced to Dr. Samuel Miller, then a pastor in the city, afterwards professor at Princeton. Iis kind and unassuming manners and gentlemanly bearing won the esteem of the youthful traveller. He had the gratification of hearing him preach in his own pulpit. His subject was the "Divine Omniscience.' The sermon was delivered with much simplicity and unction, as became the solemnity of the theme.

He was also introduced to Dr. John Rodgers, the venerable pastor of Wall Street Presbyterian church, then in his eighty-second year, and much enfeebled by age. Mr. Woodbridge preached half a day in his pulpit, and in his presence. He afterwards dined at his house. He was much impressed with the sanctity of his manners and the good sense of his conversation. He records the following incident as indicative of character. When walking home from church, Dr. Rodgers observed several boys diverting themselves in the street; stopping, he reproved them in a very fatherly manner for breaking the holy Sabbath. One lightly exclaimed in reply, "O, we are not Christians." Dr. Rodgers made no answer, but sighed deeply, as grieved for the sin of the inconsiderate boy, and distressed in view of his eternal prospects. Two years afterwards the venerable divine was called to surrender his stewardship in the sixty-third year of his ministry.

The longest pause Mr. Woodbridge made in his journey was at Newark, N. J.; and the most interesting ministerial acquaintance he formed was with Dr. E. D. Griffin, then pastor of the Presbyterian church there. This acquaintance ripened into an enduring friendship. Dr. Griffin was in his thirty-ninth year, and the full maturity of his powers; he was also at the height of his great usefulness and unbounded popularity. Mr. Woodbridge spent several days with him.

VISIT TO PHILADELPHIA.

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His church had just been refreshed with a copious shower of grace; some two hundred or two hundred and fifty had been hopefully renewed. The successful pastor was full of the hallowed theme, and his conversation teemed with that richness of thought and force of illustration, which one knowing his comprehensive views, prolific imagination, and wide Christian experience, might have anticipated in such interesting circumstances. Highly instructive and fervent, it could not fail powerfully to influence one constituted as was Mr. Woodbridge in pursuit of practical acquaintance with the critical work of winning souls to Christ. Its effects were, indeed, as lasting as his ministry. Mr. Woodbridge was also invited to be present at a meeting of the session of the church for the examination of candidates for admission, and listened with pleasure to the narratives of their first Christian experience. Dr. Griffin was about starting on a preaching tour of a few days among the neighboring churches and waste places. Mr. Woodbridge joined him, and heard several of his most effective sermons delivered with uncommon distinctness and energy.

Ile then proceeded to Philadelphia, where he was introduced to a number of clergymen of character and notoriety, and passed several days there very pleasantly. He was entertained by a gentleman of Scotch descent and of great excellence, Mr. Sheepshanks, a name he would not be likely soon to forget. Ile preached in the city only once during this transient visit. But soon after his return to New England he received an invitation from the congregation worshipping in what was called "The Independent Tabernacle," to supply their pulpit. IIe complied with the request; and after preaching to them some three months, was invited to become their pastor. He took the invitation into prayerful consideration, but was convinced, after much deliberation and many vain endeavors to adjust preliminaries to mutual satisfaction, that it was not his duty to accept. The congregation was in a divided state; some of its members