in a spendthrift, an inveterate gambler, a hard drinker, and a falsifier. How did the grandson of Edwards and the all but successful rival of Jefferson throw away all his hopes and himself, but by his political unscrupulousness and his grossly immoral life? But for Burns' bottle and Coleridge's opium, what might not those men have done that they left all undone! But it is a sad and weary task to enumerate such instances of which the world is full, emphasizing the truth that no weakness of intellect is half so fatal as moral weakness.

For see how solid worth makes its way worth even when founded on the ordinary virtues of patience, perseverance, truth, integrity. The clerk becomes partner and the agent principal. The trustiness of the broker and the fair dealing of the trader make their fortunes. The just, candid, and honest man gains weight in the community with every year he lives. Many an enterprise of great pith and moment is carried by the sheer character of its advocates. "I can take his word, I can follow his lead," tell the story.

And when the higher elements enter, the result is higher too. See it in such a statesman as Hampden, by his candor, self-sacrifice, self-command, and transparent rectitude of judgment and intention, controlling "a fierce and turbulent parliament as easily as he controlled his family." See it in the great governorgeneral, Lord Lawrence, who by his vigilance, coolness, energy, and reliance on God became "the savior of India" and of hundreds of thousands of periled lives.

See it in the great preacher F. W. Robertson, with his manly simplicity, broad sympathies, and intense directness, throwing his whole life into his sermons and giving to many other lives an impulse that will endure throughout all the future. See it in the great Arctic explorer, Elisha Kane, who by his undaunted courage, prompt decision, and firm discipline, nourished by the regular morning prayers, pushed on to the sight of an open Polar Sea, and through hardships horrible and an Arctic night in which his very dogs died of brain disease brought fifteen of his men safely home. See it in the last great African explorer, his exhaustless selfcontrol and self-reliance in the darkest hour in the awful, interminable forest, worn, sick, and wan with anxiety, calling on God for his lost companions, as one "helpless without God's help," and again, when awaiting an attack of intended extermination, reading the words of Moses to Joshua, till not only was his own heart fired, but of the men who had basely fled, though four to one, not a coward was left in the camp - then pressing on undaunted to his goal to rouse Europe to the wrongs of Africa. See it in the great teacher Arnold and his moral transparency, his intense and fearless love of the truth and the right, and behold its effect on a generation of noble thinkers and doers, like Stanley, Kingsley, and Maurice. Read it in the career of the great missionary Schwartz in his forty-seven years of labor, indifferent to money, regardless of power and renown, frank, devout, indefatigable, undaunted, and cheerful when overwhelmed with cares

and toils, revered by British soldiers, beloved by their officers, resorted to by the government, listened to by Hyder Ali, procuring supplies from the natives for Tanjore by his simple word, and leaving some thousand converts behind him. How touching the tribute placed on his tomb in the old church where he had so often preached, by the heathen Rajah of Tanjore - poor in style, but rich in love:

"Firm wast thou, humble and wise,
Honest, pure, free from disguise;
Father of orphans, the widows' support,
Comfort in sorrow of every sort.

To the benighted, dispenser of light,
Doing and pointing to that which is right;
Blessing to princes, to people, and me.
May I, my father, be worthy of thee,
Wisheth and prayeth thy Sarabojee."

But it is the misfortune of such illustrations that they are of necessity drawn from lives before the public. For though it is not quite true that "the greater part of the good work of the world is anonymous," it certainly is done in less conspicuous stations. For, alas! the high station too often proves dangerously high. But the world is blessed with a great company of those who in humbler spheres do a work that will not soon be forgotten on earth and will surely be remembered in heaven. The sacred Word shows us not only such as Moses and Joshua, Elijah and Elisha, Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, Paul and John, but the widow with her two mites, the good Samaritan with his two pence,

Mary with her alabaster box, Aquila and Priscilla the trainers of Apollos, Paul's sister's son that saved his precious life, the centurion and the Syrophoenician woman, come down embalmed in precious memories. Each was a splendid success.

So I have seen the modest owner of a country farm whose life was so identified with the welfare of the community and the cause of beneficence that every interest felt his quiet power. I remember an obscure faithful teacher whose molding influence will never fade out from his pupils and theirs. I have seen the village physician whose known medical skill was but the lesser part of his usefulness. I have known the small trader whose sturdy honesty, candor, and sympathy made him the trusted agent of the widow and the fatherless, and the sought adviser of a wide region round. I have read of an invalid confined for thirty years to her room and mostly to her bed who was thought to have done more good in and from her sick room than any well person in the place.

I knew a legal gentleman who has just passed away at the age of nearly fourscore years and ten. He was not brilliant, but he was clear-headed by his candor and unruffled temper. He had his cheery word for every one and his good story for and of every one. He was patient, he was kind, he was true and trusty, he was a friend indeed and a friend in need. In a profession that tends to litigation he was a noted "peacemaker." With no political aspirations or high office he powerfully molded political affairs. He busied himself in

the public improvements of his town and his state, and in all good enterprises, agricultural, financial, educational, philanthropic, and religious. With innumerable engagements he was always at his post. He held on till the last and died in the harness, a thirty years' trustee of this Institution, the honored president of the Agricultural College, superintendent of the Orphans' Home, the valued member of a village church. One of his latest acts, nine days before his death, was a donation to the Christian Association building of Dartmouth College. There have been many more showy and more famous men in this commonwealth, but during its whole history it would be difficult to find a more truly and thoroughly successful career than that of George Washington Nesmith"an Israelite indeed, in whom was no guile."

Three months before his death there passed away from the other side of the globe, beyond the Pacific Ocean, a man of half his years. Born and reared a pagan, escaping from his country at the peril of his life, arriving penniless in America, educated by charity, the young man who had left all to find the Bible and its blessings returned to give them to his countrymen. With little of the rhetorician, by his simplicity and his fervor he had power with great audiences. In the school that he founded, by his known unselfishness he had power with the trustees, teachers, and pupils. With rich men because of the simpleness of his purpose and his self-sacrificing energy he had power to draw money. He had power with the statesmen and