in great harmony, and whom he followed to the grave only about three months before his own death. During the six years in which Dr. Griffin was pastor in New Hartford, about fifty or sixty adjacent congregations were visited with revivals of religion remarkably pure and powerful. In 1795, fifty were added to Dr. Griffin's church, and in 1798 and 1799, about fifty heads of families in his parish became the subjects of renewing grace.

In the fall of 1800, Dr. G. removed to Orange, N. J., where he spent about six months, and had fifty souls as the seals of his ministry; and in Oct. 1801, he was installed as colleague with Dr. M'Whorter over the First Presbyterian church in Newark. In 1807, there was a wonderful work of grace at Newark. From 230 to 250 in his society became interested in the great salvation. At one sacrament 97 new members were added to the church.

In 1808, Dr. Griffin was solicited with great unanimity to fill at once the pulpit of Park Street church in Boston, and the chair of professor of sacred rhetoric at Andover. "It was no common trial," says Dr. Spring, "to his pupils, that he vacated the professor's chair. To his unchanging friend and patron who nominated him to that office, it was one of the severest trials of his life. The individual who addresses you, was one of a class of about 30, who first enjoyed the benefit of his instructions." After his removal from the seminary, he remained in connection with Park Street church from his installation in July, 1811, till his dismission in the spring of 1815. While in Boston, he published his Park Street Lectures, which have been widely circulated in four or five editions, and which have been the means of much good. As he was the only orthodox Congregational clergyman in the city except one, his meeting-house was much resorted to by members of the legislature and by strangers, and he thus became extensively known throughout the State, and indeed throughout the country. Many souls were here the fruits of his labors.

In 1815, he became pastor of the Second Presbyterian church in Newark. Here he was once more distinguished not only as a successful preacher of the gospel, but as an assistant founder, and active, zealous friend of our great benevolent and religious institutions. In his study at Andover, the incipient measures were taken which resulted in the formation of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. After he removed to Newark, the United Foreign Missionary Society sprung up under his care. Next to Samuel J. Mills, he seems to have done more than any other man to give form and features to several of our great national institutions.

In 1821, he was elected president of Williams college. "He had precisely the kind of reputation," says Dr. Hopkins, "which was needed for the college at this crisis; a comparatively large class entered, and the college continued to increase in numbers." In 1825, the trustees resolved to raise a fund of $25,000 to establish a new professorship, and to build a chapel. In the raising of this sum, Dr. Griffin was the principal agent. In a time of general embarrassment, he raised $12,000 in four weeks. The fund was completed; a professorship of rhetoric and moral philosophy was founded; and Sept. 2, 1828, a commodious chapel was dedicated. During his connection with the college, there were several powerful revivals of religion, especially that in 1825, which for a long time changed the whole aspect of the college. In the fall of 1836, in consequence of increasing infirmities, he resigned his presidency, and soon after removed to Newark, N. J., where, in the family of his son-in-law, Lyndon A. Smith, M. D., he lived till his death, which took place Nov. 8, 1837. His last days were tranquil and happy. On the day before his death, his family were called up to see him die. One of them inquired if he suffered any pain. To which he answered, none; and in his own emphatic manner, though scarcely able to articulate, he added, "My heavenly Father-my dear Redeemer's mercy and faithfulness-I pray you give him glory for ever!" During the evening before his death, he remarked, "The Saviour never so manifested his preciousness to me before."

We should be glad to quote the remarks which both the preachers make on the character of Dr. Griffin, but our limits ad

QUARTERLY LIST,

OF

monish us to forbear. We are happy ORDINATIONS AND INSTALLATIONS.

to add, that the Rev. Dr. Sprague of Albany is expected to prepare a memoir of Dr. Griffin.

13. A Discourse delivered at Providence, Aug. 5, 1836, in Commemoration of the First Settlement of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations; being

1838.

Hampshire, Nov. 22, 1837.

ISAAC WILLEY, Cong. inst. pastor, Goffstown, N. H.

Nov. 23.

EDWARD BUXTON, Cong. inst. pastor, West Boscawen,
N. H. Dec. 14.

Oct. 12, 1837.

CYRUS B. DRAKE, Cong. ord. pastor, Royalton, Vermont,
ASA B. SMITH, Cong. ord. F. Missionary, Williamstown,
Vt. Nov. 1.
T. W. DUNCAN, Cong. inst. pastor, Burke, Vt. Nov. 8.
SIMEON PARMELEE, Cong. inst. pastor, Williston, Vt.

Νον. 9.

S. H. HODGES, Cong. Inst. pastor, Chester, Vt. Nov. 15.
CEPHAS H. KENT, Cong. inst. pastor, Bradford, Vt. Dec. 27.
WILLIAM SCALES, JR. Cong. ord. pastor, Lyndon, Vt.

the Second Centennial Anniversary FREDERICK A. ADAMS, Cong. ord. pastor, Amherst, New of the Settlement of Providence. By John Pitman, Member of the Rhode Island Historical Society. pp. 72. Roger Williams landed in Providence in the summer of 1636. The precise date cannot be ascertained. The earliest record of his being there, is found in the journal of governor Winthrop of Massachusetts, of July 26, O. S. 1636. The deed of the land on which Providence is now built, from the chief sachems of the Narragansetts to Williams, bears date March 24, 1638, though the first purchase was made in 1636. The first male child born in Providence was Mr. Williams's eldest son, who was born in Sept. 1638, and named Provi

Dec. 27.

HIRAM CARLTON, Cong. ord. pastor, Stow, Vt. Jan. 4,

1838.

LUCIUS R. EASTMAN, Cong. ord. pastor, Sharon, Ms.
Nov. 15.

dence. The year after the settlement of NATHANIEL BEACH, Cong. ord. pastor, West Millbury,

Providence, the services of Williams were of great importance in preventing a union between the Pequots and Narragansetts, and in attaching the latter to the English. The island of Rhode Island was settled in 1638. In 1640, Portsmouth was settled, and in 1642-3, Warwick. In 1644, Roger Williams procured a liberal charter from the English government. On the 19th of May, 1647, the inhabitants met at Portsmouth, and agreed on a form of government, and chose their magistrates—a president and four assistants. In 1654, Roger Williams was chosen president. On the 8th of July, 1663, a new charter was granted by Charles II. In April, 1683, Roger Williams died, aged 83. Various and interesting memorials in relation to the progress of Providence and of Rhode Island generally, may be found in this elaborate production of judge Pitman. Our pages will not allow us to extract many interesting incidents which are recorded by his industrious pen.

Ms. Nov. 22.

SAMUEL H. EMERY, Cong. ord. pastor, Taunton, Ms.
Nov. 23.

Dec. 13.

nis, Ms. Dec. 13.

JOHN BOWERS, Cong. ord. pastor, North Wilbraham, Ms.
LYMAN B. PEET, Cong. ord. F. Missionary, South Den-
JOHN HIGBEE, Bap. ord. pastor, Granville, Ms. Dec.
JOEL S. BACON, Bap. inst. pastor, Lynn, Ms. Dec. 22.
WILLIAM H. TAYLOR, Bap. ord. evang. Sturbridge, Ms.
JOSEPH BALLARD, Bap. inst. pastor, Lowell, Ms. Dec. 25.
HENRYS. GREEN, Cong. ord. pastor, Lynnfield, Ms.
WILLIAM BUSHNELL, Cong. inst. pastor, Beverly, Ms.
Jan. 3, 1838.

"

HARVEY BLODGET, Pres. ord. pastor, Euclid, Ohio, Oct. G. B. BISHOP, æt. 27, Prez. South Hanover, Indiana, Dec. 14, 11, 1837.

JOURNAL

OF

THE AMERICAN EDUCATION SOCIETY.

FEBRUARY, 1838.

THE LAST THURSDAY OF FEBRUARY.

NARRATIVE OF REVIVALS OF RELIGION IN YALE COLLEGE,

FROM ITS COMMENCEMENT TO THE PRESENT TIME.
[Prepared by Prof. Goodrich.]

THE frequent dispensations of divine grace to the colleges of our country, afford matter of fervent thanksgiving and praise to every enlightened Christian. Here are assembled those who are soon to occupy, for good or for evil, the highest stations of influence and authority in our land. With the natural ardor and inexperience of youth, they are beset with temptations on every side. The love of study may seduce them into unholy ambition, and the love of pleasure into criminal indulgence; their principles may be sacrificed to a sense of shame, and the warm affections with which they left the family circle, may be deadened by familiarity with scenes of vice. Every year is marked with the shipwreck of parental hopes in our literary institutions; every year exhibits anew the unspeakable importance of a peculiar divine influence on the minds of students, to secure to them the attainment of those high ends for which they are placed in a seat of learning.

With a view to awaken increased interest and more fervent prayer on this subject, the Secretary of the American Education Society addressed a circular to the colleges, in the month of February, 1836, requesting an account of the revivals they had experienced since the year 1820. A brief statement, drawn up by the writer of this narrative at the request of president Day, was accordingly forwarded from Yale College; and was afterwards published in the appendix to the last report of the American Education Society. Subsequent reflection has led the Secretary of the Society to feel, that a fuller account of revivals in our colleges, than he at first contemplated, ought to be laid before the public. He has accordingly requested me to furnish such an account with respect to Yale College;-to carry back the narrative to our early revivals, and embody what has already been given to the public, in a more extended and minute statement of the various dispensations of divine grace at this institution.* It may be proper for me in entering on this narrative, to state the sources from which my information has been principally derived. Of our early revivals, during the last century, comparatively little can now be known. What is here given has been gleaned from the histories of the day, and the records of the institution. For an account of the memorable work of grace in 1802, I am indebted to the Rev. Noah Porter, D. D., of Farmington, Ct., who was then a member of college. Since 1802, all the revivals have occurred at a time when I was connected with the institution, either as a student or an officer; and of

It is intended to give full and complete histories of revivals of religion in all our colleges so far as they can be obtained. The next account will probably be either from Amherst, Williams or Middlebury college. The history of revivals in Dartmouth college was given in volume ix.-EDITOR.

these I speak from personal recollection, aided by recent inquiries of those who were then in college, and were actively engaged in the scenes described.

The first revival of religion in Yale College, of which we have any record, was in the year 1741. The town of New Haven was visited with a remarkable outpouring of the Holy Spirit about five years before, during the great revival of 1735. As the students worshipped on the Sabbath with the inhabitants of the town, it is highly probable that they shared in the work to some extent; but of this I have no decisive evidence. It appears certain, however, that a spirit of revivals was cherished, at this time, among the more serious part of the institution; since we find a number of those who were then members of college, very actively engaged at a subsequent period, in promoting a similar work of grace on a still broader scale, amidst much opposition and many reproaches.*

This was the well-known revival which commenced in 1740. Though marked by peculiarities which no one can now approve, and followed, in some instances, by separations, whose disastrous consequences were felt for half a century, it was undoubtedly, on the whole, one of the most signal dispensations of divine mercy, with which the church has been favored since the days of the apostles. Whitefield and Tennant were the honored instruments of giving a powerful impulse to the work in its early stages. Among the Connecticut clergy, Wheelock and Pomeroy, who graduated a little before the revival of 1735, and Bellamy, who was then in college, and experienced religion soon after taking his degree, were among the most active laborers in carrying forward the revival of 1740, not only by their exertions in their own immediate neighborhood, but by making extensive circuits for preaching, in this and the adjoining States. The revival at this time in Yale College, may be traced remotely to the labors of Whitefield. This extraordinary man was then on his first tour through New England, having landed at Newport, R. I., on the 14th of Sept. 1740. After visiting Boston and Northampton, and preaching in the intermediate towns, he arrived at New Haven on the 23d of October. The legislature of the colony being then in session, he was induced to remain over the Sabbath; and preached repeatedly, during his stay, to very large assemblies, many of whom "had travelled twenty miles out of the country to hear him." At this time, he appears to have met with very general approbation in New England; nor was it until after his return to the South, and the publication of the journal which he kept on this tour, that the opposition to him commenced, which, at a subsequent period, was so bitter and unrelenting. The interest in spiritual religion which he excited at New Haven, was lively and extensive; and it continued to increase during the whole of the following winter. "A number of ministers in New England," says an eye-witness, "were aroused, and preached oftener than they had done, and appeared more zealous than before; and several came to New Haven, and preached in a manner so different from what had been usual, that people in general appeared to be in some measure awakened, and more thoughtful on religious subjects, than they had been before." Dr. Samuel Hopkins, author of the System of Divinity, from whom the above words are quoted, was at this time a member of college; and has given us in the narrative of his own conversion, as contained in his memoirs, the fullest account I have ever seen of this revival. I shall extract from it the more largely, because the book is now out of print, and is rarely to be met with. "In March, 1741, Mr. Gilbert Tennent, who had been itinerating in New England, in Boston and other places in the winter, came to New Haven from Boston, in his way to the southward. He was a remarkably plain and rousing preacher, and a remarkable awakening had been produced by his preaching, and many hopeful conversions had taken place under his preaching, where he had itinerated. On his coming to New Haven, the people appeared to be almost universally roused, and flocked to hear him. He stayed about a week at New Haven, and preached seventeen sermons, most of them in the meeting-house, two or three in the college hall. His preaching appeared to be attended with a remarkable and mighty power. Thousands, I believe,

*Among these may be mentioned Mr. Burr, afterwards president of Nassau Hall, Princeton, "an ardent friend of revivals;" and the Rev. Timothy Allen of West Haven, who was driven from his people for his zeal on this subject. Others might also be referred to if it were necessary.