tolerated, till they and their friends and partisans have become the majority, or if not, have become so formidable as to intimidate the church, and trample her order in the dust.

In reference to false or erroneous teachers, who may proffer you their assistance, remember that you you'watch for souls as they that must give account;' and however loud or long the cry of illiberality may be, however fierce or wrathful the charge of uncharitableness, never yield for a moment to the clamor. Night and day be at your posts, and if need so require, warn the flock against wolves in sheep's clothing.' The only safe pastures and waters are those which Christ himself hath fenced off from the wilderness; nor even those, any longer than faithful shepherds guard them.

6

And now my reverend fathers and brethren, Who is sufficient for these things?' and who is that faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord, when he cometh shall find so doing.' Ours is no common charge-no ordinary responsibility-no literary sinecure. It is a charge on which infinitely greater interests are suspended, than the temporal salvation of a kingdom or a world. And O how urgent are the claims of our sacred office! While I speak, the arrows of death are flying thick among our beloved people. The graves of some of them will open tomorrow; and soon, too, will every pastor now present lie down where there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom.' 'Whatsoever our hand findeth to do, therefore, let us do it with our might.'

O who of all the dead will rise so reluctantly at the last day, as an ungodly pastor, surrounded by his wailing flock? Who will cry like him to the rocks and mountains? On whose head will be heaped such fierce

and burning execrations?
with such horrible recollections and forebodings?

And whose soul will quake

How soon, my brethren, will the amazing realities of judgment and eternity break upon our unearthly vision, and fill us either with ecstacy or despair! I cast my thoughts forward but a little, and behold the dead are rising, the elements melting, saints rejoicing, devils trembling. The judge appears upon his great white thronein a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we are before the judgment-seat with our respective flocks. The faithful and the unfaithful shepherds of every age are also there. The trial proceeds, the books are closed, the final sentence is pronounced, and suddenly the scene is changed. The heavens are opened, and the pit yawns, and the eternal song and the eternal wail are begun. O may we then rise, with a great multitude saved through our unworthy instrumentality, to 'shine with them as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars forever and ever.'

INAUGURAL DISCOURSE.*

It is a deeply afflictive and mysterious dispensation of Providence, which has so lately bereaved this infant Seminary of its head, and by which I am now brought with inexperienced and trembling steps to its threshhold. If prayer offered to God without ceasing for Dr. Moore, could have prolonged his invaluable life; if professional assiduity could have warded off the fatal stroke; or if agonized affection could have shielded him in her embrace, he had not left this favorite child of his adoption to an early and perilous orphanage. So completely had he identified himself with its interests, that no hostile weapon could reach it without first piercing his heart. He felt all its perplexities and adversities, as if they had been his own and as some compensation for these, he enjoyed, in a high degree, its brightening prospects-its youthful and buoyant anticipations.

The question has often occurred to a thousand anxious minds, How could such a man, at such a time, be spared? And who can describe that deep and electrical throb of anguish, which smote the heart of this institution, when he breathed his last, and every student felt that he had lost a father? O what a shuddering was there within these walls, when that pall, which hung portentous for a few days in mid-heaven, was let down by hands unseen

* Delivered at Amherst, Mass. Oct. 15, 1823.

upon yonder dwelling! That pall is not yet removed. It conceals from mortal view at once the venerated form of our departed friend, and the depths of infinite wisdom in taking him away. But who, since the dying agonies are over, would call the sainted spirit back, to revive the troubled dream of life in a sleep that is now so peaceful? 'I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, write, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them.'

If we estimate the length of life, by what a man actually accomplishes for the best good of his kind, we shall see, that Dr. Moore, though taken away in the high meridian of his usefulness, was old and full of days.' To say nothing here, of the ability with which he filled other important stations, and of the good which he did in them all, the services rendered by him to this Institution, within less than the space of two years, were sufficient to entitle him to the gratitude of thousands now living, and of far greater numbers who are yet to be born. Broad and deep are the foundations, which he assisted in laying upon this consecrated hill. Strong was his arm, and powerful was the impulse which his presence and ever cheering voice gave to the waking energies of benevolence around him.

The time will not permit me to dwell longer upon a theme, which is at once so pleasant and mournful to the soul;'-nor could I, on the other hand, have said less, without doing injustice alike to the occasion and to my own feelings, called, as I am this day, to occupy the chair which has been left vacant, by the mournful, though serene departure of my highly venerated friend.

It is possible, too, that at this interesting moment, I