men and women availed themselves of this privilege. William Ament acknowledged that he liked sports and athletics more than study. But such a remark is often made in a mild depreciation of one's own diligent effort in the monotony of prolonged studies. One may judge that this was eminently true with him. He had a fine record of scholarship and stood well with his class and the College. There came a time when his mental awakening received a distinct impulse and he became an ardent and successful seeker after true learning. The natural vigor and enthusiasm of his personality easily led him to make much of an ideal. The writer was once greatly interested in his criticism of an author, "He has no imagination, and gives one no chance for the play of a larger interest."

The capacity of throwing into his studies an imaginative element enhanced all of his disciplinary effort. "He had an enormous appetite for books and being left in care of one of the professor's houses one summer, devoured most of the books in the library, especially the British poets and essayists. Carlyle was his favorite." He once explained his mental awakening in the direction of literature to the writer, "It was in reading the essays of Montaigne that my mind was really aroused to the value of deep thinking and skillful expression." Those who afterwards noticed the easy affluence of his later public speech, whether in English or Chinese, might have traced it to this early enthusiasm for the best of literature. During these college years he took an interest in the literary societies. He was an active member of the Phi Kappa Pi, and especially enjoyed the debates in this open literary society.

An essential part of his college life was personal engagement in Christian work for others. He joined with many others in going out to the near-by villages and

"corners," teaching in the Sunday-schools and conducting religious services. Of him Mr. Cromer says, "Ament never came into personal relations with another without commending the Christ whom he thus early loved and served. And all this was perfectly natural and never savored of religious cant or pretense. The gift and faculty for what we call in stereotype phrase, 'The doing of personal work for Christ,' was his in a marked degree." Like many another such youth in like service it was a source of joy to him to have an opportunity of influence. The title of his oration delivered at the Junior Exhibition of his class was "Joyousness," a subject which he amply illustrated.

With these few sketches of his college career we pass on to the widening life awaiting him. He had made a good record; a good scholar, esteemed by his fellow students and teachers, an earnest, warm-hearted Christian, an enthusiastic worker, a charming friend easily coöperating with others in sport, in study, in Christian effort. To such an one the values of life are wont to be rich and full.

His first opportunity in further development came, as was most natural and fitting, in the line of teaching for a year. He became principal of the school at Richfield, Summit Co., Ohio. It is a real delight to any young man to feel the responsibility of taking care of himself. It is true that this was not the first experience in that line. One of his early friends tells us that his courageous spirit made it possible for him to work his way through college. ile told this friend that he often went back to college with only money enough to pay his fare and get settled. The rest he must earn himself. At Richfield Center he encountered a sceptical atmosphere and beyond his duties as a teacher he dealt some earnest blows at the enemies of religion. He called upon President Fairchild

himself for suggestion and encouragement, which he received in a fatherly letter.

We are not let in, directly, to the secret of William Ament's decision to enter the ministry. No doubt his life at Oberlin was tending in that direction. Loyalty to the blessed Master, and pleasure in helping his fellows might point in that direction. One of his boyhood friends says of him, "He had a wonderful constructive imagination." It was easy for such friends to expect he would become an effective worker for Christ, so it may have been easy for him to decide what his life-work was to be. Undoubtedly the influence of his mother, her ideal for him not expressed in tangible form, may have been one of the underlying influences. It was at last in full consultation with her that he decided to study for the ministry. The Union Theological Seminary was his choice. The opportunity of sustaining himself there while studying was a deciding element. A crisis in the family affairs required all available funds, and his summer earnings went to leave the dear mother in a comfortable condition. He therefore arrived in New York with but a trifle in his purse. He put himself at once in touch with a Teacher's Agency in the city and secured teaching in the evenings. Ere long he was able to find more valuable work. Through the " Agency" of Miss Young he became tutor to the son of a rich family, and was able to make his way comfortably. Through Miss Young he became acquainted with Miss M. G. Shirmer, ever after his devoted friend and admirer. We shall see from his occasional letters to her how deeply he felt indebted to her for help and suggestion. Such letters will give us insights into his growing purpose, his character and work.

On Sundays, he took charge of a class in the mission school at Elizabeth and Broome Streets, following the

boys who were members of the class with loving interest for many years. He rejoiced that some of them "made good." He was ready also to extend the hand to one who came to call on him when he was once at home on furlough, though he was gloriously drunk when he came in. Once a friend, once an object of affection, always a friend whom he was ready to help in any way possible. How marked this characteristic became, his colleagues in China had abundant reason to learn.

We have a brief word from Professor Hall, regarding this period in his student life. "I met Ament, next, in the winter of 1874-1875, in New York City, when both of us were students in Union Theological Seminary. As I had followed his subsequent brilliant career in China, nothing seems to surprise me. He has always seemed to me the same character I knew as a boy of fifteen. The same enthusiasm, the same love of justice, the same courage in championing every worthy cause, the same sympathy with suffering and misfortune, the same promptness of decision and action, the same readiness to take necessary responsibility, the same generous, knightly temper, which have marked his devotion and fruitful service in China, have always seemed to me to have characterized the boy I knew in the Academy, and the man who sought to encourage and comfort me in the Seminary."

The second year of theological study was also spent at Union Theological Seminary. No doubt to him as to so many others it was an exhilarating year in the deeper studies essential to the course, and the increasing nearness to the time of wider service. Such approach enjoins progressive effort in self-culture and he used these to the best advantage. Miss M. G. Schirmer gives a brief but brilliant picture of the ardent student in a recent personal letter to Mrs. Ament: "When I go back to thirty-five

years ago and remember the happy hours he spent in my home among such lovely Christian people-how he bounded into my room saying, 'I have worked so many hours and now I am as hungry as a wolf,'-I can see my dear old Jane bringing in a tray with something nice, and I can see him, always cheerful and grateful for the smallest kindness. Those were happy days and evenings-when I went over to the Theological Seminary with a basket full of sandwiches, cakes, fruit and lemon juice sweetened, all ready to pour into a pailful of water, to enjoy with fifteen or twenty young men coming in for a share of the good things; when stories were told and jokes made as the evening was passing, when beautiful prayers were offered and dear familiar hymns were sung, and the young men would see us home-those were happy days and never to be forgotten. Your husband always had a key to the front door, and the freedom of my rooms where he could read, write, or always find a welcome to any meal he wished to stay for. I loved him as a younger brother and can never forget when he preached my mother's funeral sermon-how tenderly he spoke of my love and care for her in the days of her illness in April, 1876. May his son know what his father meant by true friendship, and how lasting ours was."

The senior year of seminary study finds Mr. Ament transferred to Andover Seminary. There were no doubt times when the teaching at Union went steadily against the grain of any free man, such as the Oberlin students were apt to be. He joined the class of 1877. There were twenty-four members in the regular course and four or five resident graduates. Of these four are widely known missionaries of the American Board in Turkey, Japan and China; three have become teachers in our theological seminaries, and others successful and beloved pastors and leaders. The class secretary is the Rev. Dr. Samuel T.