bear his burdens. He always met us with a smile and extended hand. His faith made his life remarkably even. The fruits of this faith were abundant during the war. He had an intelligent and intense interest therein. He willingly gave two sons to the loyal army; one being killed in the early part of the war, the other serving four years as an officer in the 6th Vermont Regiment, a brave and consistent Christian soldier. The government, he said, must be sustained. The way of the transgressor must be shown to be hard.

This faith bore him up at last most beautifully. Neighbor after neighbor came into see him and bid him farewell. All found him calmly facing the last great enemy of man, without anxiety or fear, leaning on the arm of Jesus. When asked what passage of Scripture seemed most precious, he replied, "That which gave me the first ray of hope: "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief."

Dea. Bushnell lived largely for the church. He regarded the church as God's great appointed means of good to man. He regarded governments as divine agencies for holding society together while the church might do its higher work of molding society, of saving and sanctifying man. He was always in the sanctuary, his class in the Sabbath-school, in the meeting for prayer. He held his business subordinate to that of the church, though he never seemed to neglect the former. The last service that he performed was to attend the eighth meeting of the week of prayer, when he was rejoiced to see the Holy Spirit descending in a shower upon his beloved Zion. He then said, "The meetings must go on, though I shall not be able to attend them, as my health has been failing all the week. This is the right kind of a protracted meeting."

His two youngest children consecrated themselves to Christ just before his death. All his children were enrolled among the friends of Jesus. Four of the five were at home. Two affectionate daughters aided their mother in ministering to his wants. Two sons, strong in youth and early manhood, stood by, ready to take up his labors. The elder we have since inaugurated as deacon. Thus surrounded, in his own comfortable home, with such a circle of nearest

friends, dutiful wife, and affectionate children, able, through the possession of consciousness, till near his last breath, to appreciate every kindness, and, better than all else, exercising a sweet and supporting trust in Christ, his earnest and useful life came to its close with the beauty and serenity of a summer's sunset. So dieth the righteous. A. B. D.

Rev. ANSON S. ATWOOD was born in Woodbury, Ct., Aug. 1, 1790; pursued his studies, preparatory to entering college, under Rev. Dr. Backus, of Bethlem, Ct.; was graduated at Yale College in 1814, and studied divinity, chiefly under direction of Rev. Dr. Porter, of Catskill, N. Y. After some time, spent partly in missionary labor in southern central New York and northern Vermont, and partly in teaching a select school in Ashford, Ct., he accepted a call to the South Parish of Mansfield, Ct., having previously declined two calls, one from Cairo, N. Y., the other from Richmond, Ms. He was ordained and installed pastor of the church in South Mansfield, Sept. 1, 1819. In November of the same year he was married to Sarah, only daughter of Dr. Joseph Palmer, of Ashford, Ct.

Thus inducted into what proved to be his only pastorate, and happily settled in the family relation, he discharged, for almost forty-three years, the duties of pastor to the Congregational Church and Society of South Mansfield, in an eminently faithful and successful manner. With a single exception, all the neighboring churches changed their pastors, during this period, several times. But he remained to gray hairs with the people who had called him in the prime of manhood to be their minister, surviving most of his original congregation. And this long period, taken as a whole, was, to his people, one of much spiritual prosperity. It was blessed with no less than seven of those merciful visitations of divine grace commonly called revivals of religion. In his farewell sermon, he thus sums up the results of his labors, so far as they can be given in figures: "The largest number in the church at any one time, since my ministry, is about 190; present number, 150; admitted to the church by profession and letter, during my pastorate, 421; baptized, 346. Whole number of the church since its organization, Oct. 18, 1810, 1,352.

On the twenty-second day of April, 1862, Mr. Atwood was dismissed by a council, convened at his own request, on account of the failure of his health; and in May following he took his final leave of his people, retiring with his family to East Hartford, Ct., where he greatly endeared himself to the friends of Christ who had the privilege of his acquaintance. On the 17th of May, 1866, Mrs. Atwood, the light and joy of his house, was taken from him by death, and on the 22d of July he followed her. He was 76 years old, wanting ten days, and she 74. Of their two daughters (a son died in infancy), the elder yet survives. The younger, who was married to Mr. Alfred A. Young, died in 1860, leaving one daughter.

The above brief record is very suggestive. The man who could, for the period of almost forty-three years, maintain himself in the affections and confidence of his people, with a ministry so fruitful,-fruitful, that is, when we consider the comparatively small size of his church and congregation, must have possessed some ministerial qualifications of no ordinary character. He did, indeed, enjoy some outward advantages. He was eminently blessed in the companion of his life. She possessed, in a remarkable degree, the qualities needful for a pastor's wife, - a warm and genial spirit, good sense that was never at fault, great energy and activity, and sterling piety. She left a streak of sunshine wherever she went, and her memory is embalmed in the hearts of all who knew her. Then, again, he had in his church an unusual number of staid men and women, true "children of Issachar, that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do," without whose firm support he could not have weathered all the storms of the times. But, as an offset to these advantages, there were some serious drawbacks. The chief of these were: the fact that his parish was left one side of all the thoroughfares established by the system of railroads; and intimately connected with this, that it was, so to speak, repeatedly decimated by the removal of the young people, whereby an immense amount of life and enterprise was abstracted from it, and the congregation greatly reduced in numbers, as well as in pecuniary strength. We must, then, look to Mr. Atwood's personal qualities for an explanation, God's grace helping

him, of the permanence and success of his ministry.

As a preacher, he was solid, rather than showy. His sermons abounded in evangelical truth, carefully selected with reference to the wants of his people. Yet it is freely conceded that his peculiar strength lay not in his powers of pulpit oratory. He had some rare pastoral qualifications. He was a keen observer, who had the faculty of knowing, and considered it his duty to know, what was going on in his parish. His acquaintance with the families belonging to it, and with their individual members, extended to their past history, their business and business connections, their habits and associations, and whatever else had a bearing on their spiritusl welfare. He was also a discerning judge of character, seizing with skill the clue which connected each man's particular acts into one consistent whole. Though he sometimes erred, through the influence of prejudice or the partiality of friendship, it must be admitted that his judgment of character was, in the main, accurate and discriminating. He had, moreover, great tact in approaching men. Having carefully studied their history and character, he pondered both in his mind, anxiously inquiring how he could best approach them on the momentous subject of their eternal welfare. When he thought the way prepared, he did this directly and frankly; otherwise indirectly, perhaps through the agency of some mutual friend.

Mr. Atwood was firm in his opinions and convictions of duty. He never withheld from his people any scriptural doctrine, or adopted any new line of measures, to suit the humor of the times. Hence he was a man that would be called conservative in his views in respect to both doctrine and practice. But his firmness and conservatism were not stiff and repulsive; for it should be added that he was eminently genial in his spirit. There was, in the earlier part of his ministry, a circle of half a dozen or more young preachers, natives of South Mansfield, or whose wives were natives of that parish. Of course they had, some of them at least, their crudities and errors. But he never assumed, after the fashion of some, an air of awful severity, and slapped them in the face by way of preparing them to receive his instructions. Instead of this, he always received them with frankness

and cordiality, set them at work, commended them where they could be commended, and, when the right time had come, made to them this and that suggestion. The same geniality appeared in his intercourse with his people, and as his wife's geniality equaled her husband's, a visit to the parsonage was most delightful and refreshing.

Mr. Atwood was a faithful and laborious pastor. His constitution, never robust, was taxed to its utmost during forty-three years of patient toil for the spiritual welfare of his people. His income, from his salary alone, was scanty; but being supplemented by that of a few thousand dollars on the side of his wife, he was always able to obey the divine direction that a bishop should be "given to hospitality." In manner, as well as matter, he had much originality, which sometimes manifested itself as oddness and eccentricity. He was an exceedingly interesting talker, and had a remarkable faculty of making quaint and pithy utterances, which those who heard could not fail to remember.

All the above-named qualities were pervaded and sanctified by a spirit of sincere devotion to Christ. He was a man of faith and prayer, who fully believed the divine declaration, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." Those who listened to his public prayers, so fresh and original, were deeply impressed with the conviction that he was a man who held communion with God in the closet. He lives in the memory of his former people. His influence will live in South Mansfield after all the generation who knew him are gathered to their fathers, and it will live on forever in the world to come.

E. P. B.

Died, at Sheboygan Falls, Wis., March 28, 1866, Mrs. MARY ELIZA FOWLER WADSWORTH, wife of Rev. T. A. Wadsworth, pastor of the Congregational Church in that place.

Mrs. Wadsworth was born at Fowlerville, N. Y., Oct. 27, 1829. She was a daughter of Alonzo and Eliza Ann Fowler. Her father was a native of Pittsfield, Mass., who came, in his early youth, with his father, Wells Fowler, to the place since called Fowlerville.

Her mother was a daughter of Rev. John Eastman, whose wife, Mary Hooker, was a

descendant of Rev. Thomas Hooker, the first pastor at Hartford, Conn.

Descended from a goodly New England ancestry, and consecrated to God in her infancy, she was hopefully converted in her childhood, and became a member of the Congregational Church in her native village at the age of eleven years.

With a tender conscience, and a clear perception of obligation, she was habitually selfdistrustful, and in her earlier religious course she often doubted the genuineness of her Christian experience; but as she came to a more full and clear apprehension of the doctrines of grace, she gained a steady confidence, not in herself, but in her Saviour, faith in him becoming the settled habit of her maturity.

She was married August 22, 1856. With a vigorous, cultivated mind, a refined taste, and a most sincerely Christian heart, she seemed rarely fitted to be the companion of a minister of the gospel. She was intelligently interested in theology, in literature, in the state of the country, and in the progress of Christ's cause in the world. She was in vital sympathy with her husband's work in the parish, — in her prayers, in judicious counsels, and in an elevating Christian temper, truly a helpmeet for him. Those who became acquainted with her in this relation, cherish the memory of this Christian lady with most sincere and respectful affection, remembering her modesty and self-possession, the refinement and vigor of her mind, her earnest piety and clear sense, her ready sympathy, and her cool judgment.

The great hindrance to her usefulness, in human view, was the state of her health. To one so qualified, and conscious of ability as she must have been, it was a trial that she deeply felt, that feeble and slowly failing health so long checked and hindered her in personal efforts for the good of others.

A few weeks before her death, as she gradually let go the expectation of recovery, she had a review of the foundation of her hope, was weaned from the love of life, and took hold with a cheerful and childlike trust on the life to come.

The news, at this time, of the death of a very dear friend, whom she contemplated as having entered the heavenly city, helped her anticipations of the future world, and made

the things pertaining to the Christian's ever-
lasting home seem more familiar to her mind.
From this time she gave no sign of faltering
in her trust, and the closing scene is fitly de-
scribed in the last paragraph of Bryant's
Thanatopsis:
:-

"So live, that when thy summons comes to join
Th' innumerable caravan, which moves
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave,
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams."

Rev. EBENEZER CHASE died in West Fisher, May 22d, 1866, aged 81 years. He was born in Bedford, N. H. He early became hopefully a Christian, having been led to anxiety for his own soul's salvation, by seeing the anxiety of his mother concerning her eternal welfare, whom he had supposed had long been a Christian. He united with a Free-Will Baptist Church. In August, 1807, he began to preach under the care of that denomination, and was ordained as an Evangelist in August, 1810. "The minister who gave him the charge," says the autobiography, said, among other things, "I charge you before God, when about to preach, never in any case put pen to paper, with a view to assist you in preaching, nor premeditate beforehand what you shall say; but trust entirely to God, who will teach you in the same hour what you shall speak." In 1809, he procured a printing-press, hired a journeyman, and commenced editing and publishing a monthly religious newspaper, called the Religious Informer," which was largely circulated in the Free-Will Baptist connexion. The Christian courtesy of Rev. O. C. Whiton, of Troy, N. Y., led to the removal of prejudices against Congregationalism; and, after careful examination of the system, he united with the Windsor (Vt.) Association of Congregational Ministers, Nov. 12th, 1828. The 22d of September, 1830, he was installed over the Congregational church in Gilsum, N. H.; and, after a ministry of three years, removed to Westmoreland, Vt., where his faithful labors were greatly blest. Failure of health led him to seek the benefit of sea-air, and, being invited to the service of the Congregational church in West Tisbury,

he spent seven years with that people. Subsequently, he spent four years in West Yarmouth, and several years in Eastham. Increasing infirmities compelled him to relinquish public services, and his death occurred at West Tisbury, May 22d, 1866.

Mr. Chase was more than fifty years in the active duties in the ministry. He had an eminently spiritual mind, and was most heartily devoted to his Master's service. He abounded in the work of the Lord, having preached more than eleven thousand sermons, and was blest in his labors with many precious revivals of religion. His memory is fondly cherished by those who enjoyed his labors, and he has gone to enjoy the congratulations of many who have been saved by his instrumentality, and to enjoy the everlasting favor of the Redeemer he so faithfully

For a portion of the nine years following, his youthful piety was at times somewhat clouded; but, at the age of sixteen, his parents and himself having meanwhile returned to the State of New York, he experienced a fresh baptism of the Holy Ghost, made a new and full consecration of himself to Christ, became active in his Master's cause, and united with the Methodist Episcopal Church.

From this age, he was deeply and seriously impressed with the idea that it was his duty to become a minister of the gospel; and although his early educational advantages were limited, and he did not meet with the encouragement desired toward obtaining a liberal education, yet, at the age of eighteen, he was made a licensed exhorter of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Making good use of such mental and spiritual advantages as were within his reach, from this period he grew rapidly both in grace and in usefulness.

Having again removed to Michigan, he