newspapers, show how jealous he was for the honor of his Alma Mater. He early endeavored to promote an interest in it among its Alumni, and to strengthen the tie of brotherhood that united them.

No one was ever more sincerely attached to his class-mates than Mr. Homer. Writing from Andover Theological Semi"I love Amherst more and more every day, nary, he says, and with something of the sensitive affection of a homesick child. I have not yet removed myself so far from the beautiful associations of my college life, but that I can truly say, that distance lends enchantment to the view.' The little items of difficulty, which form the dark shades of the picture, are growing dimmer and dimmer, and the outline is rising in graceful proportion. I look back upon our class as one beautiful whole, imperfect without its imperfections. I may find noble spirits here, but none nobler than theirs; warm hearts, but nowhere a kinder and more cheering sympathy."

Again he writes, "I assure you I have formed no friendships here, (Andover), which can compare with the friendships of college life. There is no sentiment about this remark. I love those old associations with a chaste and manly affection. I never expect any other scenes to come back upon my mind with such refreshing power. Have you ever begun with Freshman year, and traced down the history of your mind, your opinions, your intimacies, to the very last? It is queer, but affecting. I rather suspect that not a man who graduated with us I could meet without a peculiar grasp of the hand, and an uncommon throbbing of the heart. There were some men in our class whom I never did like, and perhaps I never can. But I never can call such men hard names. I rather think if I should meet such a one now, my eye would say brother, and my heart would beat brother, though my tongue did not utter the word.”

Amid all the rivalries and jealousies, the debates and turmoils of collegiate life, Mr. Homer preserved that sweetness

and serenity of spirit, which the religion of Jesus is so well fitted to impart. He did not lose his love of home, a love which seldom exists in a vicious mind, and ill comports with the envy and rancor of aspirants for collegiate honors. The following letter, written during his last year at college, is but one among numerous specimens of the pure out-flowings of his soul.

"December 13, 1835. My dear mother, I presume that you were at Natick on Thanksgiving day. If so, your thoughts were undoubtedly in the same place with mine. Both of us, though absent in the body, were present in spirit at home. There is no time, when my mind lingers so tenaciously upon the associations which I have left behind, and I am so ready to say, 'O that I had wings like a dove,' that I might fly away to mingle with them once more. I could not forbear the recollection, that on each of the last two anniversary seasons, there was one in our group who met with us for the last time. The scene was participated in by those who were almost disembodied spirits, just lingering a moment before finally withdrawing themselves from our view. I was speaking of our regard for home being enhanced by absence. I have sometimes thought that the principle may be applied to our experience respecting that better home, with reference to which we are 'strangers and pilgrims' here. I know not but that it may be a visionary idea, but it is one of those trains of thought which I love to pursue. It seems to me that if we ever arrive at heaven, when our toils and sufferings here are all over, our enjoyment must be higher than that of angels who have never left their Father's presence. To them he can say, as in the parable of the prodigal son, 'Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.' But we have just arrived from our long and toilsome pilgrimage. Here we were with all our cares and sorrows, without were fightings, within were fears;' and our sole comfort found in the anticipation of the rest that was in reserve for us. When the anticipation comes to be realized, and we find how infinitely the reality exceeds the expectation, and how gloriously faith is swallowed up in sight, it seems to me that our joy must be more ecstatic, as our redemption is more wonderful. But perhaps this is unprofitable speculation, and I was led into it before I was aware. It is sufficient for us if we do keep our eyes fixed steadfastly upward, and our souls longing for a release.

6

I thank you very much for the extract you sent me from the Life of

1

Parsons. You judged rightly in supposing it applicable to me. have wished again and again that I might recommence my Senior year. Every day seems to augment the proof, that it is a season when the moral impressions of college life are most deep and permanent, when the religion of the heart is assuming its shape and character for life. And how important is each day and each year becoming, as the preparation for the great work, for which I am preparing, approaches its completion. Whatever of worldly ambition may have prompted me hitherto, should here be cast aside as an unholy and unbecoming principle. This is the time for self-sacrifices, for withdrawal from the world, for a new and more binding covenant with God. I know it all, I can write it all, I can say it all, but I do not realize it. I would not venture to lay hold on the ark of God with unholy hands, and yet I may, unless I search my heart, and look upward for purifying power."

Mr. Homer was graduated at Amherst, in September, 1836. The valedictory honors of his class were assigned him, though he had repeatedly expressed his wish that they might be awarded to another person whom he esteemed more worthy of them. He was so much affected by the scenes of his graduation, that he failed to pronounce his addresses with sufficient strength of voice. Soon afterward, he writes to a college friend, "I had long anticipated the day of our graduation as a solemn and overwhelming occasion to my sensibilities, but the anticipation exceeded the reality. There was too close and too rapid a succession of exciting topics, each of which occurring alone would have been sufficient to prostrate me. My mind lost the discipline, my feelings avoided the shock which would otherwise have resulted. That was a solemn hour when we stood up together for the last time, with the silver cord just loosed, that had bound us so long. Men would not look upon us in that associate capacity henceforward,—God would so look upon us forever. But to us and the interesting audience that surrounded us, that scene, and-hurrying through the lightning-like course of time which would ensue, -the last trumpet which alone could call us all together

again,-how intimately connected! But I did not realize it at the time."

MR. HOMER IN A REVIVAL OF RELIGION.

On a Sabbath morning in the early part of his Freshman year, Mr. Homer was called upon to offer a prayer at a public religious meeting. Being youthful and diffident, he declined the service. A member of an advanced class rose soon afterward, and uttered a severe reproof of those Freshmen who refused to take their part in leading the devotions of the students. This public reproof wounded Mr. Homer so deeply, that he could not, for a long time, attend the Sabbath morning prayer-meeting without uneasiness; and so different was he, in his tastes and education, from many of his brethren, that he did not associate with them so much as his higher interests required. Hence, for a year or more, he was less active in their promiscuous assemblies, than he might have been wisely. His religious life, though a guileless, was yet a hidden one. He attended with conscientious regularity the Saturday evening prayer-meeting of his classmates, for with them he could feel at home. But in his Junior year, he began to emerge from his retirement, and to lose somewhat of the sensitiveness which had deterred him from conspicuous effort. In November, 1834, he was deeply saddened by the death of his classmate, Mr. P. C. Walker. He did not lose the religious influence of this bereavement for a long time, and it gradually prepared him to participate in a religious revival which occurred soon afterward in college. Among the documents that he preserved with especial care is found the following paper, which is marked "private," and which no one ever heard of before his death.

"Amherst College, March 27, 1835.-The Lord has in great mercy come very near to this institution. There has existed in the minds o

his children, for nearly two weeks past, a solemn sense of the presence of the influences of the Holy Spirit which has almost prostrated them in the dust. Many who were wandering like lost sheep, have been once more gathered to the fold of the blessed Redeemer, and have had restored to them the joys of their first love. The operation of these sacred influences I seem to have felt, stealing its way through the adamantine casement which the world has thrown about my heart, and waking me from the sinful lethargy which has so long paralyzed my spiritual energies. I think I have had some sense of my own weakness and vileness, and have been led to prostrate myself at the foot of the cross, to seek for pardon and for grace to renovate the man of sin within me. I pray for a more overwhelming view of my past criminality and worthlessness, and for a more fixed determination to consecrate all my powers to God's service, to be his for time, and his for eternity. Believing that it would be for my own spiritual advantage to have by me a written covenant, into which I desire solemnly to enter in the presence of God, of the blessed Redeemer and of the Holy Spirit, I pray for their guidance and their blessing, while I append my name to the following resolutions :

Resolved, that Christ and his cause shall claim the first attention of my thoughts, and that it shall be my daily prayer, 'Lord what wilt thou have me to do,' for the honor of thy name, this day?

Resolved, that I will pray more fervently to be delivered from that devotion to the world, which would cause its miserable vanities to usurp the place in my affections which Christ ought to occupy,—that I may live as a stranger and a pilgrim who seeks a city yet to come.

"The dearest idol I have known,

Whate'er that idol be,

Help me to tear it from thy throne,
And worship only THEE."

Resolved,—that it shall be my prayerful endeavor so to aspire after holiness, and a constantly increasing assimilation to the divine character, as to be able to sympathize with the Psalmist of Israel in those spiritual longings so beautifully expressed,-'As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.'

Resolved, that I will be engaged in no occupation upon which I cannot ask for God's blessing; and that I will strive to make study a christian duty, upon the performance of which I may enter with humble prayer for the divine assistance, and for the acquisition of that