MEMORIAL OF NATHANIEL W. TAYLOR, D. D, 
 THREE SERMONS
 
 enwrial 0f 
 
 NATHANIEL . TAILOR, D. J).
 
 MEMORIAL 
 
 OP 
 
 NATHANIEL . TAILOR, D. D. 
 
 THREE SERMONS:, 
 
 BY 
 
 LEONARD BACON, D. D., 
 
 PASTOR OP THE CENTER CHURCH ; 
 
 SAMUEL W. S. DUTTON, D. D., 
 
 PASTOR OP THE NORTH CHURCH; 
 
 GEORGE P. FISHER, A. M., 
 
 r 
 
 PROFESSOR IN YALE COLLEOK. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 
 
 NEW HAVEN : 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THOMAS H. PEASE. 
 1858.
 
 A SERMON 
 AT THE FUNERAL OP NATHANIEL W. TAYLOR, D. D., 
 
 IN THE CENTER CHURCH, MARCH 12, 1858, 
 
 BY LEONARD BACON, D. D., PASTOR. 
 
 IF, in these obsequies, we might regard exclusively the grief 
 that darkens the circle of domestic love and the wider circle of 
 personal and private friendship, we could not but turn to some 
 of those familiar themes of Christian consolation which are 
 always fresh and bright in the hour of sorrow. But the grief 
 which brings us together in this concourse, is something more 
 than an ordinary sympathy with those who are following the 
 remains of a husband and father to the grave. A great and 
 honored institution of sacred learning is here to-day as a mourner. 
 Hundreds of the public and official ministers of God's word 
 some of them veterans in the service some of them in this 
 assembly, and some far away in the remotest regions to which 
 the intelligence of this bereavement has been conveyed on the 
 lines of magnetic communication feel in their hearts the break- 
 ing of the tie that bound them to their venerated teacher. Not 
 the aged members of one church only, but all these churches, 
 share in the bereavement. A great light has been extinguished : 
 no, not extinguished, but removed to shine on us, henceforth, 
 only from the historic past ; removed to shine in that high and 
 blessed sphere where " they that are wise shall shine as the 
 brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to right- 
 eousness, as the stars forever and ever." 
 
 The public relation, then, of these funeral services, leads me 
 to select, as the subject of brief discourse, and as opening a 
 field of thought appropriate to the occasion, the words in which 
 our Saviour spoke of John the Baptist and his ministry. 
 
 JOHN V. 35. HE WAS A BURRING ASD A SHINING LIGHT ; AND YE WERE WILL- 
 ING FOR A SEASON TO REJOICE IN HIK LIGHT. 
 
 The man of whom these words were spoken had a remarkable 
 eminence as a minister of God and a preacher of righteousness. 
 Not only was his special function one that made him eminent
 
 above ail ancient prophets, but he was eminent in the greatness 
 of his gifts, in the power of his preaching, in the impression 
 which he made upon his hearers, in the wide agitation and in- 
 quiry that were caused by his labors, and in the general move- 
 ment of expectation and of personal repentance and reformation 
 which he inaugurated, as preparatory to the coming of that 
 new kingdom of God which the Christ, long promised and 
 waited for, was then about to establish. 
 
 Christ himself is the light of the world the true light the 
 sun of righteousness, with healing in his wings. He himself 
 testifies, " I am the light of the world : he that folio we th me 
 shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life/' 
 His coming into the world is the rising of an infinite light on 
 them who were in darkness. He makes God, duty, sin, and the 
 relations of the conscious soul to God and eternity, manifest in 
 this dark world, and " that which maketh manifest is light." 
 Where he is made known in the story of his incarnation, of his 
 life on earth, of his death and resurrection, and of his ascension 
 and kingdom where he is made known in the divine beauty of 
 his character, in the simple grandeur and power of his teaching, 
 and in the ineffable condescension and ineffable glory of his re- 
 deeming work there is light ; for there God is revealed to 
 men, and especially revealed to every attentive, trembling, peni- 
 tent and believing soul. 
 
 Yet Christ says to his disciples, " Ye are the light of the 
 world." They are the light of the world because he shines in 
 them, and by means of them he makes God manifest to men. 
 Every believer in Christ becomes a witness for him, and an in- 
 stance and illustration of his power to save. Every believer in 
 whom Christ is the hope of glory, and who, being in Christ, 
 becomes a new creature, renewed in knowledge and true holiness, 
 shines as a light in the world, holding forth the word of life. 
 Christ is with them he hath given them light ; and therefore, 
 where such men are, there God is known there God's govern- 
 ment, God's holy displeasure against sin, God's mercy and for- 
 giveness, and all the soul's relations to the unseen world, are 
 felt to be realities. Where such men are, an illumination from 
 Christ strikes on the consciences of all who become acquainted 
 with their principles, aims, sympathies and hopes. It is by 
 virtue of their relation to Christ, and of the testimony which 
 they give for him, that they are the light of the worl^l. 
 
 Thus it becomes evident in what distinctive sense it is that 
 every true minister of Christ is, in the measure of his gifts and 
 of his fidelity in using them, a light in the world. His work is
 
 to make Christ known to call men to Christ to overcome, by 
 teaching and persuasion, the difficulties which hinder men from 
 seeing Christ and feeling the attraction of the cross to say, as 
 John said, when he saw Jesus coming to him, " Behold the 
 Lamb of God." His work is like that of Christ's immediate 
 fore-runner, of whom we read, "The same came for a witness, to 
 bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might be- 
 lieve. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of 
 that Light." 
 
 It is no misapplication, then, of the words in which the 
 Saviour spoke of John the Baptist, if we use them as descrip- 
 tive of that eminent preacher of Christ, whose work of almost 
 half a century is now finished. We honor Christ when we say 
 of his departed servant, " He was a burning and shining light, 
 and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in that light." 
 
 More than forty-eight years ago, the First Church in this city, 
 having rejoiced for a season in the stirring and powerful ministry 
 of Moses Stuart, was deprived of its pastor by his removal to 
 that different service in which he afterwards became so widely 
 celebrated. Two years and three months elapsed before the 
 vacancy was filled. At last, on the 8th of April, 1812, forty- 
 six years ago, another pastor was ordained. He was the only 
 candidate on whom, in all that period, the choice of the Church 
 and Society had fallen. Once he had declined their invitation, 
 and it was only in deference to a second and more harmonious 
 call that he consented to accept the weighty charge. 
 
 It was indeed a weighty charge which he accepted. The 
 brief ministry of his immediate predecessor had been attended 
 by a memorable revival of religion, the first great awakening 
 which this Church or this town had known in half a century. 
 A revolution had been effected in the character of the Church 
 and in its religious habits and sympathies, bringing it over to 
 the side of what was then called " New Divinity." But the 
 new order of things had hardly been consolidated. There were 
 elements in the Church, which might easily have fermented into 
 discord, find which required special gifts of power and wisdom 
 in the pastor. A rash man, or a man of only moderate power 
 in the pulpit, would have been wholly unfit to encounter the 
 difficulties of the crisis. But the pastor who came to the task 
 of guiding the Church, and of preaching the word of God to 
 the people here, though he was a young man, less than five 
 years a graduate, and though wholly unexperienced in pas- 
 toral responsibilities, brought with him a more than ordinary 
 preparation for his work. In his study of theology he had had
 
 the benefit of a special relation to his illustrious teacher. To 
 say that he was a favorite pupil of President Dwight, does not 
 adequately express the intimacy of the relation between them. 
 Residing for two years in the family of the President, writing 
 habitually from the dictation of those eloquent lips, he was not 
 a mere amanuensis, nor merely a favorite pupil. In the relation 
 thus established, there was the mutual attraction and mutual 
 excitement of two powerful and kindred minds, unequal indeed 
 in age and office, each differing from the other in many pecu- 
 liarities of intellectual constitution, yet both alike profoundly 
 interested in the great questions and debates which form the 
 science of theology. It was in such an intimacy, and under 
 such an influence, that the young pastor of this Church in 1812 
 had been trained to handle the great themes of God's revelation 
 to men. 
 
 His ministry here was even more honored than that of his 
 predecessor. Whatever lack of unanimity there may have 
 been in regard to his settlement, all traces of it we're soon re- 
 moved by the unquestionable power and fidelity of his public 
 ministrations and the suavity of his private intercourse with 
 families and individuals. Those solid and massive discourses, 
 full of linked and twisted logic, yet giving out at every point 
 sharp flashes of electric fire, was just what was needed to carry 
 on the work which his predecessor had begun. In the third 
 year of his ministry, he began to see a great result of his labors. 
 That year, 1815, was marked in the history of this Church, and 
 in the religious history of the city and the College, as a year 
 of awakening and of the conversion of souls to Christ. Another 
 and more signal revival of God's work began in the year 1820, 
 and continued till the close of the ensuing year. Some of those 
 whose heads are now gray, remember with the deepest sensibility, 
 that Sabbath, the last day of the year 1820, when more than 
 seventy persons, old and young and of every condition in life, 
 filled those aisles, as they came from their seats to take the 
 vows of God upon thenij and to enter into covenant with the 
 Church. That was a day for which an earnest and willing 
 pastor might well be willing to die. How many of that com- 
 pany, whom the pastor then counted with joy as the seals of 
 his ministry, and whom he then welcomed to the communion 
 of the saints on earth, have now welcomed him to the fellowship 
 of the glorified in heaven ! 
 
 His official connection with this Church was dissolved in De- 
 cember, 1822. The reorganization of the system of theological 
 education in Yale College, restoring the original design of the
 
 institution by giving to it a distinct Faculty of Theology, was 
 in part the result of his great success in preaching the G-ospel, 
 and of those theological studies of his which were identified 
 with the power of his ministry. There were those who believed 
 that one so gifted as he was for the systematic exposition of 
 Divine truth, and so successful in winning souls, ought to have 
 the opportunity of employing his gifts, and of turning his ex- 
 perience and skill to the best account, in the special work of 
 training men to preach the Gospel. I think I do not speak at 
 random when I say that the Dwight professorship was founded 
 for him, and that the Theological Department was planned with 
 the expectation of making him a teacher of theology. At the 
 age of thirty-six, he relinquished the pastoral office, and with a 
 physical constitution seriously impaired by the intense and long 
 continued mental excitement which had characterized his minis- 
 try, he entered on his new employment. His lecture room was 
 soon filled ; and his pupils, fascinated with the charm of his 
 enthusiasm in the sublime science which he taught, were them- 
 selves enthusiastic in their admiration of his teaching. This is 
 the thirty-sixth year of his service in that chair of instruction. 
 In all, he has had nearly seven hundred pupils. Of these, not 
 a few have been not a few are now widely honored for their 
 work's sake. Their usefulness in the field, which is the world, 
 is the expansion and perpetuation of his. Their grateful re- 
 membrance of him their affectionate testimony to the exciting 
 and guiding power of his great mind is his living monument. 
 His retirement from the pastoral office did not imply in his 
 thought any relinquishment of the work of the ministry. For 
 a long course of years, his weekly labor in the pulpit was almost 
 without interruption. To the congregation of his former charge 
 he continued to preach, at the invitation of their committee, 
 with great frequency, and to their great satisfaction, till he sus- 
 pected that his readiness to do so was diminishing their sense of 
 the necessity of choosing a new pastor. Only a year and a half 
 after the settlement of his successor, he began to preach (Sept. 
 1826) to the Third Congregational Church, then just instituted, 
 and till 1830 he was, in effect, though not in form, its pastor. 
 For nearly a year he preached, statedly, to the North Church 
 in Hartford. In the memorable year 1831, his labors, as a 
 preacher, were abundant in these churches and elsewhere ; for 
 in the wide religious awakening of that year, such preaching as 
 his was greatly sought after. There is no Congregational church 
 in this city, almost none in this neighborhood of churches, which 
 has not, in some vacancy of its pastorate, sought and enjoyed
 
 8 
 
 his powerful ministration of the word. Probably in every one 
 of these churches there are some who acknowledge, with grate- 
 ful sensibility, the deep impression which the Gospel, ministered 
 by him, has stamped upon their spiritual being forever. 
 
 Others may speak, elsewhere, of his theological controversies, 
 and may criticise the peculiarities of his philosophical and theo- 
 logical system. But I may be allowed to say, that those who 
 knew him best, know how painful controversy, as distinguished 
 from discussion, was to him. He loved discussion ; his mind 
 rushed to an argument like a war-horse to the battle ; he re- 
 joiced in the well-guarded statement and strenuous defense of 
 truth ; his intellectual nature exulted in the discovery of a latent 
 inaccuracy ; he had an instinctive and ineradicable confidence 
 in the power of logic to convince ; but controversy, with its 
 personal alienations, its exasperating imputations, and its too 
 frequent appeals to prejudice and passion, was what his soul 
 abhorred. In the earnestness of debate he might charge an 
 opponent with absurdity and nonsense ; but it was not his wont 
 to charge a brother with heresy, or to represent an unguarded 
 statement or an inconclusive argument as identical with heresy. 
 How well he continued to love old friends, whom the sharpness 
 of theological difference had alienated from him, they can tell 
 who remember his brotherly visit to the death-bed of the one 
 whom he loved the most, and who, in a pious but erroneous 
 zeal, had done the most to destroy his good name. There were 
 no dry eyes in that chamber of suffering when Taylor fell weep- 
 ing on the neck of Nettleton and kissed him. 
 
 I may speak the more freely in commendation of him as a 
 theologian and perhaps with the more weight inasmuch as it 
 is no secret that there are some points in his philosophy, and 
 some principles iu his method of solving certain difficulties in 
 theology, which I have never been able to accept. Let me say, 
 then, that he was the last, as the elder Edwards was the first, 
 of the great masters in the distinctive theology of New England. 
 When I speak of great masters in theology, I do not mean all 
 who have been useful or eminent as instructors of candidates for 
 the ministry, or who have powerfully maintained and defended 
 the accepted truth. I mean those who have contributed to the 
 progress of thought by more exact definitions and distinctions 
 in theology. The names in that succession, from the elder 
 Edwards, are few, Hopkins, the younger Edwards, Smalley, 
 Emmons, Taylor, and the last, not least in the illustrious dy- 
 nasty. We need not claim for any of those great names the 
 honor of infallibility. We need not accept the opinions of any
 
 of them as great discoveries, free from all mixture of error but 
 these men have been the great originators of thought in the 
 progress of the New England theology ; and their spirits rule 
 us, and will rule us " from their sceptered urns." 
 
 The chief contribution which the last of these great masters 
 has made to the progress and defence of theological science, is 
 in the clearness and fullness with which his teachings has de- 
 veloped the distinction and mutual relations between God's all- 
 comprehending providence and God's government over his rea- 
 sonable and responsible creatures. Doubtless this momentous 
 distinction was recognized in theology before he began to illus- 
 trate and apply it, just as the distinction between natural and 
 moral inability was recognized before Smalley defined and un- 
 folded it. But the effect of his teaching is felt to-day by theo- 
 logians of various schools and systems, who have never con- 
 sciously accepted any of his formulas ; and it will continue to 
 be felt when the distinctive theology of New England shall 
 have been merged in the general and united progress which the 
 universal Church is yet to make in the knowledge of God and of 
 the glories of his word. 
 
 But I may not dwell upon this particular aspect of what this 
 servant of God has done in the work of advancing the knowl- 
 edge of truth. After all, it was by his power as a preacher of 
 the word, more than by any power which he exerted as a mere 
 teacher of theology, that he was a burning and a shining light. 
 Those sermons of his, which have been heard by so many thou- 
 sands, especially jn times of religious awakening those strong 
 and terrible appeals to the conscience of the soul unreconciled 
 to God those magnificent and more than Miltonic portraitures 
 of God's government those expostulations in the name of In- 
 finite Pity those thunderings and lightnings from eternity 
 these, in the deep heavy tones of that trumpet voice, and with 
 the impressive flashes of that eye through which the soul looked 
 out from beneath the " dome of thought " these live in our 
 remembrance, and will live in tradition, after us these live iti 
 the impression they have made on our immortal nature. It \vas 
 in times of religious awakening and revival, that he loved to 
 preach. His favorite sermons were composed under such ex- 
 citements ; and to his own mind every one of them was redolent 
 with blessed memories of success. A revived, awed, anxious 
 state of religious feeling, in the community, was needed, that 
 they might have their appropriate surroundings, and might pro- 
 duce their legitimate effect. All his theology was shaped and 
 framed with reference to the doctrine and work of the conversion 
 
 2
 
 10 
 
 of sinners to God. If he could have had his choice, he would 
 have said, Let me die in a time of religious revival. He would 
 chosen that his funeral should be attended by a throng of souls 
 awake and alive to the great realities of responsibility and eter- 
 nity. He would have chosen that the silence of his coffin should 
 preach to souls oppressed with the sense of need and guilt before 
 God. In such a time as those in which he most loved to labor 
 for Christ, he would have chosen to " depart and be with Christ, 
 which is far better." 
 
 Five or six weeks ago, he ceased from all his active work ; 
 and like Aaron on the mountain, he put off his garments and 
 lay down to die. More than once, when he was reminded of a 
 former recovery from similar weakness, he replied, " No, I have 
 done, I can only wait, committing myself, like Stephen, to the 
 Lord Jesus Christ." And so, waiting in humble trustfulness, he 
 has passed away. Meanwhile, unconciously to him, a religious 
 thoughtfulness and earnestness has been spreading through this 
 community, once so highly blessed with his labors. May we not 
 say he has died in the midst of a revival of religion ? Let us bury 
 him with thoughts like those with which a conqueror is buried on 
 the field of victory. Are there not in this assembly many whose 
 souls are, even now, poised on the choice between the world and 
 God, between death and life ? " 0, that those lips had language !" 
 0, for one more utterance of the voice which death has silenced ! 
 0, might we listen to him yet again, here, in his old place of 
 power ! But no ; one by one, God's ministers must depart, to 
 utter his word no more with mortal voice. Yet God remains. 
 His mercy endureth forever. His Gospel remains with its of- 
 fers and its promises. " Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, 
 and forever." The one true light of the world, the sun of 
 righteousness, shines on, while the lesser stars, that reflect his 
 glory, fade and disappear. 
 
 " Nor sink those stars in empty night, 
 
 But lose themselves in Heaven's own light."
 
 A SERMON 
 
 PREACHED IN THE NORTH CHURCH, MARCH 14, 1858, 
 
 THE FIRST SABBATH AFTEB THE DEATH OP 
 
 BBV. NATHANIEL W. TAYLOE, D. D. 
 
 BY S. W. S. BUTTON, D. D., PASTOR. 
 
 HEBREWS XI. 3. "AND BY IT HE, BEING DEAD, YET SPEAKETH." 
 
 THE great English dramatist puts into the mouth of one of 
 his characters this sentiment, 
 
 " The evil that men do lives after them ; 
 The good is oft interred with their bones." 
 
 Very different is the testimony of God's word. While it does 
 not deny that the influence of evil deeds and of evil men lives 
 after them, it declares that the influence of good deeds and of 
 good men, instead of being buried with their bones, lives after 
 them with a special and superior vitality and power. Thus it is 
 written, " The memory of the just is blessed, but the name of 
 the wicked shall rot." God, by his providence and Spirit, 
 watches over the good deeds and character of the righteous, 
 preserving them in the minds of men, that they may speak with 
 beneficial power to succeeding generations and ages. Thus four 
 thousand years after the death of Abel, the sacred writer in 
 text said of his righteous conduct ; " By it he, being dead, yet 
 speaketh." And it is equally true to-day, six thousand years 
 after his death ; " By it, he being dead, yet speaketh." 
 
 During the last week, in this city, there has passed away 
 from among the living a Christian man, whom God richly en- 
 dowed with the gifts of nature and of grace, and abundantly 
 blessed with useful power. His eminent position as a pastor for 
 many years, and as a preacher of Christ for nearly fifty years, in 
 this community ; his great influence for a third of a century as 
 a teacher of sacred theology ; his relation to this church and 
 congregation, as one who, in the intervals of pastorates, has 
 supplied your pulpit by his ministrations ; and his relation to 
 me as my teacher and friend, whose advice commended me to
 
 12 
 
 you, and who by prayer and the laying on of his hands conse- 
 crated me here, in my youth, to your service for Christ's sake, 
 in the work of the sacred ministry these considerations strongly 
 move me to improve this occasion by a sketch of his life and 
 services, by which "he, being dead, yet speaketh." 
 
 He was born in New Milford f , Conn., June 23, 1786, the son 
 of Nathaniel Taylor, and the grandson of Rev. Nathaniel Tay- 
 lor, who was for fifty-three years pastor of the Congregational 
 Church in that town. He was named Nathaniel William 
 Nathaniel from his father and grandfather, and William from 
 his father's brother, who graduated at Yale College in 1785. He 
 fitted for college with Dr. Azel Backus, pastor of the Church 
 in Bethlehem, and afterwards President of Hamilton College, 
 who in his family prepared for college many youth, especially 
 of Litchfield county. I have often heard my father, who pre- 
 pared for college with Dr. Backus at the same time with young 
 Taylor, speak of his early promise and especially of his boyish 
 beauty and amiableness. He graduated at Yale College in 
 1807, six years from the time of his entrance, having been in- 
 terrupted two years by sickness. 
 
 It was at some time during his college life, in his senior year 
 I think, that he became decidedly a servant of Christ. Re- 
 specting that event I have heard him make a statement which 
 is very instructive and monitory. There was a classmate and 
 particular friend of his, who at the same time, by the working 
 of the divine Spirit, was concerned for his eternal interests. The 
 two friends communicated their feelings to each other. And 
 one day, while walking together, they raised the question 
 whether they should then call on President Dwight, who had 
 invited all persons thoughtful upon religion to call and converse 
 with him. At length, while still talking and doubting on that 
 question, they came to President D wight's gate. There they 
 stopped and hesitated. At length Taylor said, " Well, I shall 
 go in." if Well, (said his companion,) I think I will not, to- 
 day." Taylor went in ; and the result of his conversation with 
 that eminent Christian guide was that he gave himself to Christ 
 in a covenant never to be broken, and became " a burning and 
 a shining light " in his kingdom. His companion from that 
 time thought less and less on the subject ; and, though he lived 
 for many years afterward, a respectable man, he died without 
 giving any evidence of a saving interest in Christ. Such are 
 the crises in the history of immortal souls. Such are the turn- 
 ing points in eternal destiny. Thus it is that companions travel 
 together till they come to where they see plainly the open path
 
 13 
 
 to Christ. They consider ; they decide ; the one taking the way 
 to everlasting life, and the other pursuing the way to everlast- 
 ing death. Oh, let all see to it that in these crises of eternal 
 destiny, they act aright. Kegard the divine warning, and heed 
 the divine entreaty, " Quench not the spirit." 
 
 Mr. Taylor, after graduation, spent an unusual time for that 
 period^ five years, in the study of Theology ; being two years 
 of the time in the family of President Dwight, as his amanu- 
 ensis and private pupil. In the year 1812, when he was twenty- 
 six years old, he was ordained Pastor of the First Church in 
 this city, as the successor of Professor Stuart, who had been 
 removed to the newly established Theological Seminary at An- 
 dover. Ten years after, in 1822, when the corporation of Yale 
 College, in strict accordance with the design of its founders that 
 a chief object of the institution should be to prepare young 
 men for the sacred ministry, established a theological school in 
 connection with it, he was chosen, at the age of thirty-six, to 
 the Dwight Professorship of Didactic Theology. This profes- 
 sorship had been endowed by the liberality of the late Mr. 
 Timothy Dwight, the eldest son of Dr. Dwight, and was en- 
 dowed by him chiefly that it might be filled by his admired 
 friend, Dr. Taylor, who had already shown himself, both by his 
 sermons and by his published defences of Christian truth and 
 doctrine, to be a master in sacred theology. In this position he 
 remained until his death at the age of nearly seventy-two, a 
 period of thirty-six years. 
 
 Dr. Taylor did not, however, on entering the professorship, 
 relinquish preaching, which he greatly loved. He often preached 
 to the students in college, especially in times of unusual reli- 
 gious interest, and he was always ready in his room to receive 
 and direct inquirers in the way of life ; and hundreds and hun- 
 dreds of young men, afterward laborers in the Lord's vineyard 
 all over this land and the world, have blessed God for his suc- 
 cessful guidance of their awakened souls. When the Third 
 Church was formed in 1826, he preached for them the greater 
 part of the time till their first pastor was ordained, nearly four 
 years. For the church which is now the College street Church, 
 then the Free Church, he preached for a considerable period 
 before the installation of the Rev. Mr. Ludlow. The pulpit of 
 this Church fie supplied a large part of the time during the in- 
 terval of four and a half years between the pastorates of Rev. 
 Mr. Merwin and Rev. Mr. Sawyer. When the Chapel street 
 Church was organized, he preached for them. And then, when- 
 ever there was any unusual interest in religion, till his physical
 
 14 
 
 vigor began to be impaired, he was ready to help, and on account 
 of the great fitness and power of his preaching for such times, 
 ,he was frequently called on to help, the pastors of the city. He 
 has often been employed by the churches in neighboring towns, 
 to supply their pulpits, when they have been destitute of a 
 pastor. Veiy few are the churches in this county which he has 
 not served in this way, and in which there have not been seals 
 of his ministry. And few have been the Sabbaths during his 
 long professorship, until the few years past of his advanced age, 
 in which he was not engaged in his favorite employment of 
 preaching the gospel. 
 
 Such is a brief outline of the life of Dr. Taylor, showing 
 that not only the College, not only the Church of which he was 
 once pastor, but all this community, and the people of many 
 other communities, those to whom he preached in person, and 
 those, far more numerous, to whom he has preached through 
 the pupils whom he has taught to preach, have an interest and 
 property in his memory. 
 
 The characteristics of Dr. Taylor's labors in the two depart- 
 ments in which he has been engaged as pastor and preacher, and 
 as a teacher of theology, should receive our consideration. 
 
 Barely .has a pastor been so beloved by a people ; as is well 
 attested by their treatment of him during the ten years of his 
 ministry, and perhaps still more by the pertinacity and liberality 
 of their affection for him during the thirty-six years after he 
 left them. The reasons for this are plain. He was commended 
 to them by his qualities both as a minister and a man. They 
 kr^ew that he loved their souls, and they admired the gifts and 
 graces, the wisdom, love and power, with which he commended 
 " the truth as it is in Jesus" to their hearts. And in his in- 
 tercourse with them, as with all men, he was free, frank, affable, 
 courteous, affectionate, free from all small and mean traits, libe- 
 ral-minded, open-hearted and generous. 
 
 His physical qualities favored him much as a preacher a 
 fine expressive countenance, a beautiful and melting eye, and a 
 powerful and sonorous voice. The first time I heard him preach, 
 which was at the Commencement before I entered college, when 
 he delivered his Concio ad Clerum, though I was a mere boy of 
 fourteen years, and incapable of appreciating the intellectual 
 merits of his discourse, there were some things which I could 
 appreciate ; and the impression then made upon me that he had 
 more of manly beauty than I had ever before seen, and was the 
 prince of preachers, is vivid to this day.
 
 15 
 
 The intellectual qualities of his preaching were thorough, 
 lucid and scriptural exposition and discussion of his subjects ; 
 a full and frank meeting of difficulties ; bold and powerful 
 grappling with objections ; fearless reference, in defence of Scrip- 
 tural doctrine and precept, to reason and common sense ; close 
 and pungent applications to conscience ; and earnest and touch- 
 ing appeals to the heart. He scorned to evade the difficulties 
 of religion, and applied himself to their solution and removal. 
 He never conceded the ground of reason to the infidel, but ever 
 maintained, with triumphant confidence, the rationality of 
 Christianity and the irrationality of infidelity and irreligion. 
 
 The language in which he clothed his thoughts was always 
 elevated, yet terse and strong ; and his imagination, though 
 not exuberant, was vigorous, and sometimes, when his mind was 
 filled and fired with divine ideas, it was truly Miltonic. 
 
 The truths which constituted the staple of his preaching 
 were the excellent and glorious character and consequent au- 
 thority of God ; the nature, the righteousness and glory of the 
 divine law and government ; God's all-comprehending and 
 beneficent providence ; the guilty and lost condition of man 
 on account of his unnecessitated and inexcusable sin ; the 
 magnifying of the law, and the provision of salvation, by the 
 atoning sacrifice of the Redeemer, God manifest in the flesh ; 
 the necessity of the Holy Spirit's influence for the conversion 
 and sanctification of men, and the motives, not to passivity but 
 to action, involved in that truth ; the universality, freeness and 
 sincerity of God's offers of salvation, and his intense desire that 
 they should be accepted ; man's full power and consequent ob- 
 ligation, as a rational and accountable being, to obey all God's 
 requirements, and of course to accept the offers of the gospel by 
 repentance and faith ; God's sovereignty in the bestowment of 
 his Spirit ; the terrors of the Lord in his wrath and everlasting 
 punishment ; the glories and joys of holiness and heaven ; and 
 the infinite pity and persevering love of Jesus Christ. 
 
 His preaching was specially designed and fitted to convict 
 men of sin and lead tnem to Christ to produce in them the 
 beginning of a Christian life. This was the one point to which 
 he made a large part of his preaching tend. A just criticism 
 probably would say, that it was disproportionately devoted to 
 this purpose not enough to the edification, instruction and 
 completion of the Christian character. This was owing to the 
 fact that his ministry was in the early part of the era of modern 
 revivals of religion, when the way of repentance and faith, of 
 conversion to God, was confused and hedged up with theological
 
 16 
 
 difficulties and inveterate obstacles in the public niind. He, 
 therefore, turned all his mental powers upon the elucidation of 
 the subject of reconciling sinful men to God through Christ 
 by repentance and faith ; and upon the doctrines and on the 
 mental states and processes involved in that he shed great light. 
 
 In this special object of his preaching, the conversion of men, 
 he was eminently successful, among his own people, and where- 
 ever he preached during his long dispensation of the word. In 
 the time of " four days meetings/' and " protracted meetings/' 
 and indeed in revivals of religion at every period, his labors 
 were widely sought. There are doubtless many present who 
 recollect, as I do, the impressive power of his sermons in the 
 protracted meetings in this city in 1831 and 1832. No instru- 
 mentality at that period was more blest with success than his. 
 
 Such qualities of mind, and heart, and person, employed in 
 the use of such truths, made Dr. Taylor one of the ablest 
 preachers of his time. Indeed, for the effective presentation in 
 a discourse of a solid body of pertinent scriptural truth, for 
 continued and powerful cannonading, more and more power- 
 ful to the end, on the fortress of the reason, the conscience, the 
 will, and heart of those unreconciled to God, he had, in my 
 judgment, no equal in his day among those whom I have had 
 the privilege to hear. 
 
 We have seen that the chief part of Dr. Taylor's mature life, 
 thirty-six years, more than a third of a century, he spent as a 
 teacher of theology. In that period nearly seven hundred young 
 men received his instructions, who have gone into all parts of 
 our own country and the great missionary field of the world. 
 A chief part therefore of any just estimate of his character and 
 usefulness must consist in a right view of his character as a 
 theologian and theological teacher. 
 
 One of his prominent characteristics, as a teacher, was his 
 great confidence in the truth in its reality and in its power. 
 He regarded it as the instrument of divine wisdom, perfectly .. 
 fitted for its avowed purpose of enlightening, convincing and 
 correcting the understanding, and of moving and converting the 
 heart ; though he deeply felt, and always taught, that, owing to 
 human sinfulness, perversity and obstinacy, it never has this 
 effect unless attended by the Spirit of God. He had confidence 
 in the power of all truth, but especially of the truth of God's 
 word. He never allowed Christianity, so far as committed to 
 him, to acknowledge any weakness, or to go begging in any re- 
 spect, before the tribunal of truth and reason ; but he always
 
 -trr 
 
 17 
 
 challenged for it the fullest investigation before that tribunal, 
 confident of victory in proportion to the fullness of the investi- 
 gation. 
 
 This confidence in the truth, and in the capability of men 
 under the divine guidance and assistance to know it and to de- 
 fend it, he imparted to his pupils. He taught them to be 
 thorough and independent thinkers to call no man master, and 
 to go for the truth themselves " to the law and to the testi- 
 mony." This, doubtless, was right and wise ; though it needed 
 to be guarded against perversion a perversion which has some- 
 times been seen, especially in the earlier ministrations of some 
 of his students, in inordinate self-confidence, and a too liberal 
 disregard of seniors and betters and good authorities. His 
 method of instruction was one of the utmost freedom and 
 frankness. He never dodged difficulties, nor evaded objections, 
 but invited their free and full presentation and always met 
 them kindly and fully. His mode was, after finishing his lec- 
 ture of an hour, to invite questions, saying, " Now I'll hear 
 you." And often for two hours after lecture I have seen him 
 patiently and earnestly discussing the objections and difficulties 
 of those who did not see the way clear. 
 
 Dr. Taylor aimed to make his students able to preach so as 
 to bring men to repentance, faith and salvation. This was his 
 chief aim. His theological instructions were to an uncommon 
 extent clustered about the doctrine of regeneration its nature, 
 necessity, mode and means. This was natural. For when he 
 entered on his professorship he came, as we have seen, from 
 preaching in revivals of religion, and at a time when obstacles 
 of a doctrinal and speculative kind in the path of repentance 
 were far more prevalent than now. On the one hand was the 
 plea of inability to repent and come to Christ, thoroughly be- 
 lieved, with some a natural inability or want of natural power, 
 with others a misnamed moral inability, which differed from 
 the other only in name in either case a real and total incom- 
 petency to accept the offers of the gospel, and under the influ- 
 ence of which men felt that they had nothing to do but to wait 
 for God to make them Christians, or, as the phrase of the day 
 was, " to wait God's time." Then there was the objection that 
 God had wholly decided the case for them by an eternal and 
 irresistible decree of election or reprobation ; and the only rea- 
 sonable course for them was to wait for its execution, in the use 
 of such means of grace as reading the Bible, prayer and attend- 
 ance on the Sanctuary. We have little idea, in these days, of 
 the prevalence and strength of these obstacles as long ago as 
 
 3
 
 18 
 
 the earlier part of this century. I have often heard my father 
 say that in his childhood and youth he was educated in the full 
 conviction that he could do nothing effectually to become a 
 Christian ; and earnestly desiring to be a Christian, and having 
 received the impression that in the millenium all could become 
 Christians if they would, he used anxiously to reckon whether 
 the millenium would, come in his lifetime ; for should he live 
 till then, he could accept the offers of the gospel. On the other 
 hand was the Hopkinsian doctrine that it was sinful to use the 
 means of grace, and that all the acts of the unregenerate man 
 are sinful that all his trying to repent, by prayer or otherwise, 
 is only an abomination to God. These objections and obstacles 
 Dr. Taylor had cleared away in his own ministry ; and he felt 
 the importance of enabling his students to clear them away, 
 and to teach that the path is open to come at once to Christ by 
 repentance and faith ; that what God commands man to do, 
 man can do ; and that the Holy Spirit is graciously bestowed, 
 not to give him natural power to do it (for that he has as a ra- 
 tional and accountable being) but to overcome his unwillingness 
 or disinclination to do it. And this cherished purpose he ac- 
 complished. His students did learn how to show the open way 
 to Christ and to press men to immediate repentance ; and they 
 were very successful, especially his earlier students, in converting 
 souls to God. No doubt his influence, by his preaching, his 
 publications, and through those whom he taught, has been, in 
 large part, the cause of the changed condition of the public 
 mind respecting the practicability of coming at once to Christ 
 by repentance and faith. 
 
 Dr. Taylor greatly excelled in what may be called the ana- 
 lytic way of teaching. 
 
 He had been a close student of the human mind, especially 
 in the light of the Bible and actual life ; and he had a pro- 
 found, comprehensive and discriminating knowledge of mental 
 states and operations, particularly with reference to morals and 
 religion. Hence he was able accurately to analyze the acts and 
 conditions of the mind in religion to take a mental act or state 
 to pieces, so to speak, and show its parts and processes, and 
 whole nature, and how to do it, or to undo it. For example, 
 repentance or conversion to God he would show what it is^ and 
 would so unfold its constituent parts and processes that an in- 
 quirer would know what was to be done by him in becoming a 
 Christian, and how to do it. He did not stop with the direction, 
 " Repent and believe," which to most persons was a blind di- 
 rection ; but he would show them what it is to repent and be-
 
 19 
 
 lieve, and the way to do it how to take the first step, and the 
 second, till, by God's help, it was done. How well I remember 
 the time when I went to him, asking what I should do to be 
 saved ! I had talked with others they had moved my feel- 
 ings and increased my earnestness, and thus were of service ; 
 but they did not tell me what to do, so that I could understand 
 it. They had told me to repent and believe ; but they might 
 as well have told me to go somewhere they did not know where : 
 for I did not know what it was to repent and believe, or how to 
 do it. He saw in a moment my difficulty. In his calm, kind 
 and earnest way, he told me just what it is to become a Christian. 
 He showed me the way to Christ by repentance and faith, step 
 by step, so that it was plain ; and I felt that I could go right 
 to my room and fall on my knees, and by God's help, do it. I 
 have never seen the man who had anything like his skill in 
 dealing with inquirers for the way of life. And it consisted 
 chiefly in his knowledge of the states and operations of the 
 human mind, and in his analytic way of presenting it. By his 
 preaching, and writing, and especially through those whom he 
 has taught, he has, with others like him, been instrumental in 
 making the way to Christ and salvation far more plain and 
 practicable than it used to be. It has not been made more easy, 
 in the sense of diminishing, in the least, conviction of sin, or of 
 the strength and stubbornness of the human heart in its wick- 
 edness and aversion to God ; but more easy, in the sense of being 
 more plain in other words, by answering more fully and par- 
 ticularly and practicably the great inquiry, " What must I do 
 to be saved." 
 
 The central peculiarity of Dr. Taylor's theological system may 
 be described thus. He so represented the divine side and the 
 human side of religion as to make them harmonize as to ren- 
 der theology consistent with itself and with all known truth. 
 While he admitted that in so profound and comprehensive a 
 subject as theology, the science of God and his government, there 
 are mysteries, or things above arid beyond our understanding, 
 he abhorred and scouted the idea that there are in theology 
 contradictions and absurdities things which we see and know 
 to be contradictory or absurd. While he maintained firmly the 
 doctrines of human depravity, or sinfulness, and that by nature, 
 of God's foreknowledge and foreordination of all events, of his 
 electing grace, of the sovereignty of his Spirit, and of the perse- 
 verance of his saints, he so presented them as that they did not 
 contradict the equally true and scriptural doctrines of human 
 freedom, and just accountability. That doctrine of human
 
 20 
 
 freedom, which he justly defined, not merely and only as liberty 
 to do as we will, but also as liberty to will, power to will either 
 way, he illustrated, and fortified, and defended, and carried 
 through all parts of his system of morals and theology.* The 
 result was the removal of many difficulties in theological science, 
 and greater freedom and power in manifesting the truth to the 
 consciences and hearts of men. 
 
 This feature of his theological system at one time was re- 
 garded with alarm, very much through misunderstanding, and 
 he was called Arminian and Semi-Arminian. But time has 
 fully proved that his mode was altogether the best for the refu- 
 tation of Arminianism ; while it has done much to bring some 
 who are called Arminian, some among the Methodists for exam- 
 ple, to a substantial reception of many of the doctrines which 
 they had rejected ; and thus it has helped on the harmony, 
 which, we may hope, may at some time be complete between 
 different parts of the one flock of Christ. 
 
 One peculiarity of Dr. Taylor's system of theological teach- 
 ing, subordinate to the general one already mentioned, yet so 
 important as to deserve special notice, was his solution of the 
 difficult problem of the existence of sin, under the government 
 of a wise and benevolent God. The common solution had been 
 that God chose and ordained the existence of sin, when he 
 might have prevented it in a moral universe, because it was the 
 necessary means of the greatest good because he could do more 
 good with sin than he could without it. This solution Dr. 
 Taylor rejected with all his heart, as dishonorable to God's 
 truth and sincerity, as contrary to the divine law and to all ra- 
 tional views of government, of the nature and tendencies of sin 
 and of holiness, and of known facts. He insisted that God, so 
 far from regarding sin as that without which the highest good 
 could not be done, regards it as good for nothing anywhere, as 
 evil and only evil everywhere, in all its tendencies and relations ; 
 and therefore he does not wish it, ever, or anywhere, but forbids 
 it everywhere, and laments it whenever and wherever it occurs. 
 His solution of the difficulty was that sin comes in, as a neces- 
 sary and unavoidable result of such materials as God uses in a 
 moral universe to wit, free agents that notwithstanding all 
 that can be done, short of breaking down the freedom he has 
 given, and' thus contradicting himself, sin will come in some- 
 where in the moral realms. Whatever may be thought of the 
 
 * With reference to the statement, " They can if they will," he used to say, 
 in his terse and strong way, " They can if they wont."
 
 21 
 
 
 correctness of this solution of a difficult question, it must be 
 admitted that it gives the preachers of God's word freedom 
 consistently to represent sin as, everywhere and in all its rela- 
 tions, the abominable thing which God hates ; which freedom 
 surely they can not have under the solution which he rejected. 
 
 A large part of Dr. Taylor's power as a preacher, and as a 
 teacher of theology, consisted in his profound, comprehensive 
 and sublime views of God as lawgiver and moral governor ; 
 that is, governor by law and authority. Out of these grew his 
 impressive views of law, of moral obligation, of the excellence 
 of obedience, of the evil and guilt of sin, of the penalty of the 
 law, and of the atonement, which takes the place, as the ex- 
 pression of God's mind, of the penalty, in the case of the 
 penitent and pardoned. These views were not new with him, 
 for they have been propounded from the time of the younger 
 President Edwards ; but by him they were enlarged, confirmed 
 and elucidated, and have been the most successful of the means, 
 by which those errors which come under the name of Unitarian- 
 ism have been withstood, and in a great measure subverted. 
 
 As Dr. Taylor never published any of those profound lectures, 
 by which he taught ethics and theology, it is impossible for 
 those who have not attended his lectures adequately to appre- 
 ciate him. But the greater part of those who have had this 
 means of knowing him, and are also familiar with the New 
 England theologians, beginning with the elder Edwards, will 
 estimate him as the ablest of them all. Such certainly is my 
 judgment ; and such will be, I doubt not, the general verdict, 
 when his works are published. 
 
 Having said this, I must also say, in the spirit of fair criti- 
 cism, that there is one part of his theological system which, in 
 my view, will not bear the test of time and of light. That is 
 the self-love theory, or desire of happiness theory, as it has been 
 called ; viz. that all motives that come to the mind find their 
 ultimate ground of appeal in the desire of personal happiness ; 
 and that the idea of right in its last analysis is resolved into a 
 tendency to the highest happiness. This theory, though advo- 
 cated by him, was not peculiar to him, and never should be at- 
 tributed to him as a peculiarity. It was plainly taught be- 
 fore him, by Dwight ,and the elder Edwards ; though, with his 
 accustomed frankness and boldness, he gave it, perhaps, greater 
 prominence than they. But improvement in theology is not 
 ended : in theology not as it is in the Bible that can not be 
 improved but theology as it exists in the apprehension, inter- 
 pretation, and exposition of men. And one of the improve-
 
 22 y 
 
 ments, I confidently trust, will be the general acknowledgment 
 that the idea of right can not be wholly resolved into the idea 
 of expediency or utility ; and that the idea of right and the 
 sense of duty, are as real, and as ultimate grounds of appeal or 
 motive in the mind, as the desire of happiness. 
 
 The greatest mistake, in my judgment, which Dr. Taylor has 
 made in his theological life, was in spending so much of his 
 precious time as he did, when so often attacked, in proving him- 
 self orthodox according to human standards. Whether one is 
 orthodox according to the Bible, God's standard, is a worthy 
 question ; whether one is orthodox according to varying and 
 imperfect human standards, is a very inferior if not wholly 
 worthless question. The time thus spent by him, though he 
 was completely successful, would have been far better employed 
 in elaborating, and elucidating, and fortifying by the word of 
 God and right reason, his own views of truth, and letting his 
 reputation for orthodoxy take care of itself ; or rather in letting 
 God take care of it, whom he was endeavoring to glorify. 
 
 Still the mistake was natural and almost unavoidable : for he 
 and many others thought that the usefulness and even the ex- 
 istence of the theological institution, in which he was a teacher, 
 would be sacrificed by the numerous assaults made upon his 
 theological reputation, unless he defended himself, and main- 
 tained his orthodoxy according to the standards of New Eng- 
 land theology. 
 
 But it is time to close. It is pleasant to know that our be- 
 loved and admired friend's intellectual vigor did not fail before 
 he was withdrawn from his active sphere. Even after he was 
 confined to his house and his bed, his mind would fire up into 
 a sacred fervor and eloquence, when he dwelt, as he often did, 
 on his sublime views of God and Christ, of the law and the gos- 
 pel. Such views made him regard as trifling the financial losses 
 which have occupied so much of the public attention during 
 recent months. In one of the last walks which he took in his 
 feebleness, he met an old and familiar friend, who referred to 
 those losses. "And what are they ?" said he, with rising voice 
 and kindling eye. " Should we not, like Paul, count all these 
 things as dross that we may win Christ ? What though the 
 whole world should fail ? It will work out for those who love 
 Christ a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." And 
 thus he pursued the theme till he arrived at his house. 
 
 He felt to the last an unabated and even an increased interest 
 in those views of divine things, which he had endeavored to
 
 23 
 
 present in his teaching ; and said that he did not know how to 
 die, there was so much more which he thought he could do here. 
 When he became unable to read his lectures himself, and even 
 during the two and a half weeks of his confinement to his bed, 
 he used to request his daughter to read to him this and that 
 one which he would indicate. Of one of them, the last which 
 he wrote, written not more than two months before his death, 
 his wife said to him : " How I wish that could be put into the 
 form of a sermon and that you could preach it !" " And 0, how 
 I wish it," said he " that I could be permitted to preach 
 again, and to preach to ministers !" 
 
 His gradual decline for several weeks was attended by his 
 calm and trustful confidence in the grace of God in Christ and 
 in the ministration of the Spirit, which he had spent his life in 
 setting forth to his fellow-men. He said, " I wish to go, saying, 
 as the martyr Stephen did : ' Lord Jesus, receive my spirit/ " 
 After his mind through bodily weakness began to wander, his 
 thoughts were upon divine truths and heavenly glories, and in a 
 half unconscious way he frequently repeated the stanza, 
 
 " See Salem's golden spires 
 
 In beauteous prospect rise ! 
 And brighter crowns than angels wear, 
 
 Which sparkle through the skies !" 
 
 A few days before he died, and while he was in full possession 
 of his mind, he called to his bedside his wife, (between whom 
 and himself, as all the friends of the family know, there existed 
 the most devoted, simple and beautiful affection) and, taking 
 her hand, he said very earnestly, and in that plain Saxon style, 
 which he was so accustomed to use : " I shall not be with you 
 long ; and when I am called to go, I want you to be very calm 
 and very quiet, and to let me go ; and the widow's God will be 
 your God." He had a strong aversion to an exciting death-bed 
 scene. 
 
 Calm and quiet was the scene of his death, even beyond his 
 wish. He passed away so quietly that it was not known when 
 
 * He was married Oct. 15, 1810, to Rebecca Maria Hine, of his native town, 
 New Milford, Conn. She was of his kindred, the daughter of his cousin. Her 
 maternal grandfather and his mother were brother and sister, of the name of 
 Northrop. Passing their childhood together, they were early joined in devoted 
 affection. Referring to this early attachment, Dr. Taylor once said to a friend 
 that they never were engaged, for there was never any need of it.
 
 24 
 
 he died. His attendants, not long after midnight, had helped 
 him to an easy position, and took their seats, leaving him appa- 
 rently asleep. One of them made the remark that he was 
 sleeping more quietly than usual, and after some time had 
 elapsed, saying that he had slept longer than usual, he went to 
 him, and found that he was dead. So the poet's phrase was 
 literally true respecting him, 
 
 " They thought him sleeping when he died." 
 
 He is dead ; and the places which have known him here will 
 know him no more forever. But though dead, like righteous 
 Abel, HE YET SPEAKETH. 
 
 Oh, that we, my Christian friends, may regard his words, as 
 they sound down to us from the past, exhorting us to be earnest 
 in prayer and labor for the salvation of men. And, 0, that 
 you, who are out of Christ, would regard his words those di- 
 vine words, from which he used to speak with so much eloquence 
 and power. " God so loved the world that he gave his only 
 begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish 
 but have eternal life." " God is angry with the wicked every 
 day." " Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die ? 
 turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die !" " Make you a new 
 heart and a new spirit." " Is he not thy father that hath 
 bought thee, hath he not made thee and established thee ?" 
 " Quench not the Spirit." " Now is the accepted time, and now 
 is the day of salvation." Through his words let memory preach 
 to you, and preach not in vain.
 
 A SERMON 
 
 PREACHED IN THE CHAPEL OF YALE COLLEGE, MARCH 14, 1858, 
 
 THE FIRST SUNDAY AFTER THE DEATH OF 
 
 EEV. NATHANIEL W. TAYLOR, D. D., 
 
 D wight Professor of Didactic Theology. 
 
 BY GEORGE P. FISHER, 
 Livingston Professor of Divinity. 
 
 DANIEL XII. 3. AND THEY THAT BE WISE SHALL SHINE AS THE BRIGHTNESS 
 
 OF THE FIRMAMENT ; AND THEY THAT TURN MANY TO RIGHTEOUSNESS, AS THK 
 STARS FOREVER AND EVER. 
 
 WHAT glorious promises are held out, in the Bible, to those 
 who spend their lives in bringing sinners to God ! They are 
 pronounced blessed even in their persecutions. Having a part 
 in the sufferings of Christ, they go to reign with Him on high. 
 They are forever lifted above the troubles of this dying exis- 
 tence, as the firmament is exalted above the earth. In the 
 sphere to which they are removed, they are like the stars set in 
 the tranquil sky. No man can pluck them down out of the 
 hand of the Father. They are together there in heaven, shining 
 on one another, with a mingled radiance, reflected from " the 
 Lamb who is the light thereof." They do not die and pass 
 away like the inhabitants of the earth, but they resemble the 
 stars which have held their course undimmed, from the morning 
 of creation until now. Their life is everlasting an everlasting 
 progress in knowledge, and purity, and blessedness. Yea, when 
 the stars shall fall, and the heaven depart as a scroll, the Apos- 
 tles of God will continue, near their Redeemer forever and ever ! 
 
 We cherish the hope that the venerated father whose body 
 we have lately committed to the grave, was a true minister of 
 Christ ; and that Christ was with him, according to the promise, 
 unto the end, and that now he is with Christ in the mansions 
 prepared for His followers. We honor the Creator when we 
 recognize any real excellence to be found in his creature. We 
 honor the Saviour when we admire the fruit of his grace, and 
 
 4
 
 26 
 
 contemplate the work of those whom he has led by the hand. 
 Only let us keep in mind the words of John the Baptist, him- 
 self " a burning and shining light :" "A man can receive noth- 
 ing except it be given him from heaven." 
 
 Grant me your attention, while I attempt to delineate the 
 virtues of the deceased, and interweave the leading circum- 
 stances of his life and death. 
 
 Nathaniel William Taylor was born in the town of New Mil- 
 ford, Connecticut, on the 23d of June, 1786. His ancestors 
 were from England. His grandfather, for whom he was named, 
 was the pastor of the town upwards of fifty years, and a mem- 
 ber of the Corporation of this College about half that period 
 from 1774 until his death. He was a vigorous preacher, a wise 
 and affectionate counsellor, and an ardent friend of liberty. 
 During a part of the old French war, he was chaplain of a 
 regiment of Connecticut troops ; and his farewell sermon to the 
 soldiers, preached at Crown Point, is an evidence both of his 
 patriotic zeal, and his Christian fidelity. His family were pos- 
 sessed of wealth. Two of his sons were graduates of the Col- 
 lege ; but the father of our departed friend was a farmer, and a 
 highly respected citizen in his native town. There Dr. Taylor 
 spent his early years. As a boy he was remarkable for his 
 strength of body, and the activity of his mind. In every school 
 to which he was sent, as his contemporaries remember, he was 
 seen at the head of his class. An excellent mother made him, 
 her youngest son, the object of a love peculiarly tender and 
 watchful. Time never wore away her image from his grateful 
 heart. For out-of-door sports, like hunting and fishing, he ac- 
 quired a hearty relish, which he long retained. His especial 
 fondness for domestic animals grew up in boyhood. He always 
 took delight in his garden ; and his uncommon skill in horse- 
 manship, so well known to all his friends, gave him diversion in 
 the midst of arduous studies. These characteristics may also 
 be traced back to his early life. 
 
 He prepared for college under the tuition of Dr. Azel Backus, 
 afterwards President of Hamilton College, who had established 
 a select school for boys in his parish at Bethlehem. He was a 
 man of original and decided character, with much intellectual 
 force and depth of feeling. He became strongly attached to 
 his young pupil ; and I have heard Dr. Taylor describe a meet- 
 ing which he had, soon after he had begun to preach, with his 
 old instructor, when Dr. Backus, placing his hand on the 
 shoulder of his youthful friend, expressed in a very simple and 
 touching manner the tears flowing down his cheeks the joy
 
 2*7 
 
 he felt at the report of his success. Dr. Taylor entered college 
 in 1800, when he was only fourteen years of age ; but he was 
 soon attacked with an affection of the eyes, which compelled 
 him to leave. He came back and joined the next class, but he 
 was again obliged to lay aside study, for the same cause. Once 
 more he returned, in the autumn of 1805, so far recovered as to 
 be able to finish the course, and graduate in 1807. But his re- 
 peated disappointments, involving the loss of three years, had, 
 for the time, chilled his aspirations, and he resumed his studies 
 in the third instance rather to gratify his parents, than with any 
 hope, or intention, of becoming a scholar. He said, himself, 
 concerning this period : " Though I had previously felt an in- 
 tense interest in study, I had, by that time, entirely lost it. 
 Occasionally, however, my emulation was stirred ; but it was 
 to little purpose, as I had abandoned the thought of either 
 doing or being much in future life." But this apathy was 
 foreign to his nature, and could not long continue. It was in 
 consequence of the encouragement which he received from Dr. 
 D wight, that he was aroused and inspired with fresh zeal for 
 intellectual exertion. In his Senior year, he read in the presence 
 of the class, and before the President, an essay on " The Foun- 
 dation of Virtue." His classmates who had preceded him, had 
 failed to apprehend the point of the theme ; and the President 
 had observed as each of them finished, that they did not un- 
 derstand the question, but after Taylor had read, the President 
 remarked with great emphasis : " That is right," and added 
 warm words of commendation, which made his young heart beat 
 quick. His despondency was over ; and to this event he attri- 
 buted not only his revived enthusiasm, but also the direction 
 which his studies afterwards took. The circumstance proves 
 how much a few words of a teacher may effect, if spoken at the 
 right moment. It was during his Junior year that he became 
 interested in religion. His mind was profoundly agitated, and 
 so painful were his convictions of sin, that Dr. Dwight feared 
 that his reason would be deranged. He obtained, however, a 
 faint hope in the mercy of God, which was kindled, as he once 
 told me, by the affecting manner in which the President in one 
 of his prayers in the chapel, quoted the passage : " A bruised 
 reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not 
 quench." But not until several years afterwards, when he had 
 come to enjoy a more intimate intercourse with his revered 
 guide, did he obtain a confirmed hope of everlasting life. His 
 experimental knowledge of the guilt of sin, and oi the awful 
 condition of an unpardoned soul, gave rise to his solemnity in
 
 28 
 
 expounding the moral government of God, and to the uncom- 
 promising earnestness with which he insisted on the doctrine of 
 retribution. It was the testimony of his conscience given dur- 
 ing his own personal struggle for salvation, that gave vitality 
 to the deductions of his logic, and moved him towards them. 
 The great source of religious influence over others, the source 
 even of the best activity of a man's own intellect, is in the 
 moral trials, and victories, through which he has gone himself. 
 During the next year after his graduation, Dr. Taylor was 
 the private tutor of a son of Mr. Van Kensselaer of Albany, and 
 spent several months in the city of Montreal, where he learned 
 the French language. He then became a student of theology 
 with Dr. Dwight, entering his family, becoming his amanuensis, 
 and writing down, at the dictation of his teacher, most of the 
 sermons which compose his Theological System. For this friend 
 of his youth, his spiritual father, Dr. Taylor ever cherished a re- 
 verence such as he felt for no other man. May we not hope that 
 both are now permitted to sit together at the feet of the Great 
 Teacher ! He obtained his license to preach in 1810, and en- 
 tered on his work with the utmost ardor. Being called, soon 
 after, to preach in his native town, with many young men among 
 his hearers who had been his associates from childhood, he de- 
 livered a discourse from the text in John's Gospel : " If I say 
 the truth, why do ye not believe me ?" This passage is one on 
 which, in after life, he was accustomed to dwell ; one which 
 he frequently repeated with peculiar emphasis. It is suggestive 
 of the spirit with which he ever investigated the Gospel, and 
 strove to bring his fellow-men to the same convictions with him- 
 self. It is Coleridge, I think, who observes, that a man who 
 begins by loving Christianity more than truth, will love his sect 
 more than Christianity, and be apt to end by loving himself 
 better than either. Dr. Taylor was not of this class. He first 
 loved the truth, and was a Christian, because he was thoroughly 
 and conscientiously convinced that Christianity is true. There 
 was something adventurous, almost chivalrous, in the tone in 
 which he often avowed his readiness to go wherever the truth 
 would lead him. All of his pupils will recollect certain sayings 
 of his to this efiect, and the gesture and the flash of the eye, 
 which accompanied them. He had no faith fof which he was 
 not ready to give a reason. He addressed the understanding on 
 all occasions, though his highest desire and ultimate purpose 
 were to affect the feelings and change the will. Every ser- 
 mon that he preached was an attempt to inculcate important 
 truth, which he took care to establish by argument and evidence:
 
 He deemed nothing gained, however his hear'ers might be in* 
 terested, until their judgment was satisfied. He was unwilling 
 to have them assent to what he said, unless they saw what they 
 were agreeing to. Persons who came to him for spiritual coun- 
 sel never failed to receive an intelligible, rational answer to their 
 inquiries ; a clear solution of their difficulties ; and hundreds 
 whom he has guided in this way, into the Saviour's kingdom, 
 have thankfully testified to the lucid manner in which he ex- 
 plained to them what they had to do to be saved. He showed 
 them the obstacles in their way, and they left him, in no 
 doubt how to remove them. One of his most effective sermons 
 was on the text " What is truth ?" and none who have ever 
 listened to it can forget how impressively the simple thought is 
 presented, at the end, that the truth, the great doctrines of 
 religion, is unaltered by the opinions of men, by their belief, 
 or disbelief, but is everlasting, a savor of life unto life, or of 
 death unto death. Dr. Taylor had an enthusiastic confidence 
 in the power of the truth, when fairly and earnestly proclaimed, 
 to vanquish error. He despaired of no unbeliever who could be 
 brought to lend a patient ear to reasoning. Many times I have 
 heard him say that, were he a young man, he should be strongly 
 inclined to go to Paris, and associate himself with students and 
 educated men there, for the purpose of proving to them the 
 claims of the Gospel. When fully possessed of a truth, he 
 held it with an iron grasp, and it seemed to him a weapon 
 "mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds." It 
 was not in a vaunting spirit, but from a glowing faith in the 
 efficiency of the truth, and a knowledge that the truth must 
 win the day, that once, when he was a young man, he said in a 
 familiar conversation, in reference to preaching, ' it seemed to 
 him that he could turn the world round.' Let it not be thought 
 that his high esteem of the truth crowded out the sense of de- 
 pendence on God. On the contrary, his hope in the truth was 
 founded on his habitual feeling that the Providence of God is 
 ever working in favor of it, and that His gracious Spirit is sel- 
 dom denied when good men are faithful. He shrunk with diffi- 
 dence from any station that involved much responsibility, and 
 consented to take the pastoral charge of the first church in New 
 Haven, as the successor of Stuart, only in consequence of the 
 almost imperative advice of Dr. Dwight. 
 
 He was ordained in April, 1812. His sermons were Avritten in 
 terse, idiomatic English, and* in so plain a style as to be level to the 
 mind of the humblest auditor. His published writings are not 
 distinguished for perspicuity, but his sermons are, Many who
 
 30 
 
 have merely been acquainted with his reputation as a philoso- 
 pher, have imagined that his discourses to the people were ab- 
 truse dissertations, or bold speculations in theology. So far 
 from this, they were made up of great, simple thoughts, clothed 
 in a garb so perfect that it was not noticed, and enlivened by 
 striking illustrations from the Bible, and from common life. 
 Like some of the Epistles of Paul, and his recorded discourses, 
 the sermons of Dr. Taylor were, to use a favorite phrase of his 
 own, specimens of "fervid argumentation/' They never omitted 
 a close, searching, pressing appeal to the conscience. When he 
 had brought his truth out of the Scriptures, and set it in such 
 a light that every one saw it, he demanded, in the name of God, 
 the assent and obedience of his hearers. He insisted on an in- 
 stant compliance with every known obligation. He demon- 
 strated the fallacy, and folly, of the excuses of impenitent men 
 for living without God, and with every warning and every pa- 
 thetic entreaty, urged them to immediate repentance. Dr. 
 Taylor was pre-eminently a solemn preacher. He spoke in the 
 manner of a prophet. His person was beautiful, yet command- 
 ing, and the deep tones of his voice accorded well with the mo- 
 mentous doctrines which he was commissioned to enforce. As 
 the ambassador of God, he knew no fear of man. Since the 
 days of President Edwards, no one has preached with greater 
 plainness and directness of application, what some call the severe 
 truths of religion, like the justice of God in the eternal pun- 
 ishment of the wicked. Another side of the Gospel, however, 
 he likewise loved to present. Among his most useful sermons 
 were some of a different character, such as that on ''the good- 
 ness of God leading to repentance," and that on the text : 
 "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." The 
 pungency of his preaching excited discontent, especially at first j 
 but after a while, some who had been loudest in their complaints, 
 came to him trembling inquirers for the way of life, of whom, 
 at least one, became a noted minister of the Gospel. The labors 
 of Dr. Taylor in the pulpit were remarkably blessed. While he 
 was pastor, frequent revivals of religion occurred, and each gen- 
 eration of the young, as it came forward, was converted and 
 brought into the church. Out of the pulpit, in intercourse with 
 his people, he was proportionally zealous and successful. He 
 followed them into their houses with his prayers, and affection- 
 ate, serious admonitions. He was careful to make himself con* 
 versant with the religious condition of the members of his parish, 
 and sought out opportunities to confer with them on the great 
 subject of salvation. I may mention, for example, that he once
 
 31 
 
 persuaded the young lawyers in town to meet together, and 
 allow him to talk to them on the infinite theme. The love of 
 his people for him knew no bounds ; and as the generation to 
 which he had ministered passed away, their children and child- 
 ren's children grew up in the same reverent attachment. It 
 may remind one of of the affection of the church at Kiddermin- 
 ster for faithful Richard Baxter. 
 
 But Dr. Taylor's sympathies were not absorbed in his parish. 
 In the other Congregational church in town, his influence was 
 scarcely less marked. He frequently preached in other places, 
 his aid being often desired in revivals of religion. Of his ser- 
 vices as a counsellor in ecclesiastical affairs, both before and 
 after he resigned the pastoral office ; of his agency in founding 
 and building up the younger churches in this city, and in the 
 neighborhood ; of the zeal and effect with which he continued 
 to preach until he was disabled by bodily infirmity ; and of the 
 gratifying results by which his labors were commonly attended, 
 I have not time to speak. In the revivals of religion which 
 have occurred in college, he was exceedingly active and useful. 
 During the revival here in 1831, he preached to the students 
 twice every week, besides holding a meeting for inquirers. 
 There is a large number of ministers among our graduates, to- 
 gether with many in other professions, who date their conversion 
 from interviews with him. His quick discernment of the mental 
 condition of those who applied to him for guidance, which it is 
 often so hard for themselves to express, was only equalled by 
 the ready wisdom, and the paternal kindness, with which he 
 pointed out the path of duty, the narrow way which leadeth 
 unto life. Many years ago, a young man who is now an emi- 
 nent Professor in one of our theological seminaries, who had 
 long suffered under religious despondency, happening to hear 
 Dr. Taylor preach in Philadelphia, though a stranger to him, 
 ventured to seek his counsel, and was at once relieved by his 
 judicious and cheering advice. Within a few days, a well- 
 known pastor in Massachusetts has detailed to me how, after 
 being in darkness for months, he was aided in a similar way by 
 this departed servant of Christ. These are but two of the nu- 
 merous examples of educated men whom he was the instrument 
 of turning to righteousness. 
 
 Dr. Taylor entered upon his Professorship at the foundation 
 of the theological department, in 1822. At that time lie had 
 come prominently before the public as a preacher, and also as a 
 theologian, having taken part in the Unitarian controversy, and 
 contributed able articles to the pages of the Monthly Christian
 
 32 
 
 Spectator. For the last thirty years, he has been chiefly known, 
 beyond this vicinity, as a theological writer and instructor. 
 Contrary to what is, perhaps, the general impression, he was, in 
 the earlier period of his life, an industrious reader. He posses- 
 sed himself of the most important and useful books in theology, 
 which were then to be obtained, and he studied them thoroughly. 
 In the solid, doctrinal writers of the period that followed the 
 Reformation, I refer now to the English writers, he was well 
 read. Probably none of his contemporaries was so well ac- 
 quainted with the great divines of the New England school of 
 theology, beginning with the elder Edwards. The principal 
 works of President Edwards, Dr. Taylor knew almost by heart ; 
 and in controversy, he sometimes perplexed an opponent, by 
 unexpected citations from this New England father, whose au- 
 thority has been so high among us. Such authors as Calvin, 
 Owen, and Turretin, he had studied ; and, what is more, he had 
 mastered, and could instantly refer to the passages which he 
 might require in an argument. On the subjects of metaphysical 
 theology in which he was most interested, he read the English 
 controversial writers on both sides, and, in some instances, pro- 
 vided himself with rarfe works, which it was not easy to procure. 
 A year or two after his ordination, he seriously considered the 
 question, whether he would not give up his parish, and go to 
 Andover, for the purpose of supplying what he deemed to be 
 deficiencies in his culture. Not long before his death, he re- 
 marked to me, that ' he wished he were a young man ; then he 
 would learn the Hebrew and the German/ He did not profess 
 to be a critical interpreter of the Scriptures ; but he availed 
 himself of such helps as were within his reach, and brought to 
 the sacred text his vigorous common sense. 
 
 Dr. Taylor is supposed by many who did not know him well, 
 to have been moved to his studies by the love of recondite specu- 
 lation. This is an error. His motives, from the outset, were 
 intensely practical. His inquiries relative to human responsi- 
 bility, and the character and ways of God, were prompted by 
 difficulties in his own religious experience, which he felt obliged 
 to solve, under the alternative of giving up his faith. From a 
 necessity of his own heart, his studies took their rise. He was 
 driven, moreover, to seek for answers to current objections brought 
 against the doctrines of the Gospel, for the purpose of disarming 
 opposers. He desired a Christianity that could be preached 
 with a fearless tongue. He wanted to go before his impenitent 
 hearers, conscious of his ability to beat down every refuge which 
 gave them shelter from the arrows of conscience. In philoso-
 
 33 
 
 phy, he set no value on what could not be translated into lan- 
 guage intelligible to plain men, and would not bear the test of 
 common sense. He was constantly appealing to the common, 
 unperverted judgment of mankind, as revealing the facts of con- 
 sciousness. Severely rational, he was impatient of whatever 
 bordered on mysticism, and paid little respect to any thought 
 that could not be cast into a lucid proposition. 
 
 It is not for me, on this occasion, to criticise the principles of 
 his Theological System. This I will say, that he held with his 
 whole heart, and taught from the pulpit, and from his chair in 
 the seminary, the fundamental articles of the evangelical faith, 
 which gave life to the Protestant Reformation, and form the 
 substantial contents of the Gospel. A symmetrical system, 
 compact and complete, ascending from the first axiom of mental 
 science to the topmost doctrines of Revelation, he constructed. 
 Its main outlines were sketched by him when a young man. I 
 have seen an Essay, which will be found among his papers, writ- 
 ten not long after he began his ministry, wherein the leading 
 peculiarities of his theology, as it was developed later, are dis- 
 tinctly stated and defended. He is the author of a Theodicy 
 a justification of the ways of God to men. The agency of God 
 in the existence of sin and holiness, the relation of the Decrees 
 and Providence of God to human responsibility, the grand 
 question which the New England divines have debated for a 
 hundred years, was the theme of his discussions. Whatever 
 difference of opinion may exist in respect to his conclusions, per- 
 taining, as they do, to the most profound and mysterious prob- 
 lems which have ever engaged the human mind ; however critics 
 may dissent from his views, extending, as they do, over so vast 
 a range of topics, candid men will admire his ability, and appre- 
 ciate the integrity, and devotedness of his character. 
 
 Dr. Taylor combined two powers, seldom found together, 
 the powers of a metaphysician, and of an orator. His faculty 
 of long-continued abstraction was wonderful ; and the subtlety 
 of his analysis strained the attention of the most acute of his 
 pupils. His powerful mind found its recreation in those forms 
 of activity, which to common men, are a most irksome task. 
 In the department of intellectual science, he stands, by general 
 consent, in the first rank. Yet, mixed with the accurate, reflec- 
 tive, keenly discriminating habit of his mind, and glowing be- 
 neath it, was the fire of an orator. He loved to convince others, 
 and to carry them witli him. In the presence of an assembly, 
 even with but a few congenial listeners, his mind would kindle, 
 and his manner become eloquent. Among his most stirring, as 
 
 5
 
 34 
 
 well as instructive efforts, were the extemporaneous decisions 
 which he was formerly accustomed to pronounce in the students' 
 debating society, over which he presided. Indeed, his mind 
 seemed always to be in lively motion ; and it was his complaint 
 through his whole life, that he could get but little sleep. When 
 the night came, his brain refused to cease from its work. 
 
 If you look for the secret of the uncommon influence which 
 he exerted over his students, you may find it, in part, in the 
 personal traits which have been already named. They were 
 struck, on their first acquaintance with him, with the superiori- 
 ty of his intellect. There was a fascination in the manifest in- 
 dependence of his character. It was evident that he called no 
 man master. He taught them to throw away the authority of 
 names, and to think for themselves. He stimulated them by 
 putting his propositions in paradoxical and startling forms. He 
 gave them to understand that he was not satisfied with the ex- 
 positions of theology in the current treatises ; and that he lec- 
 tured, because he had things to say which had not been said 
 before. He challenged them to examine all his teachings in the 
 light of their own intelligence, to bring forward all the objec- 
 tions which they could think of, urging them to propose ques- 
 tions, and ending every lecture with the words : "Now I will 
 hear you." He made it clear that he was not discharging a 
 mechanical function, that he was not fettered by false notions 
 of professional dignity, but that he was intent on his great ob- 
 ject, and was ready to trample on any mere forms that might 
 stand in his way. The courage of Dr. Taylor fascinated young 
 men. For he was eminently courageous. He had never learned 
 the trick of concealing his opinions. In controversy, he would 
 know nothing of stratagem, but marched boldly up in the face 
 of his antagonist. To the inuendoes of sly opponents, he re- 
 plied with heavy blows. Conscious that his position was, in 
 some respects, peculiar, his resolution to maintain it, and his 
 confidence in his ability to do so, against all adversaries, never 
 wavered^for a moment. It was quite in keeping with the en- 
 tire spirit of the man, when, in reference to a contingency that 
 might require an armed defence of rights, he declared to a con- 
 course of his fellow-citizens, that, old man as he was, he would 
 be ready to shoulder his musket. When the Universalists came 
 into his parish, and held meetings on two different occasions, 
 with a view to a permanent organization, he went in uninvited, 
 and having obtained leave to speak, he followed the preacher 
 with such a refutation of his discourse, that they were discour- 
 aged from their purpose, although, the first time, they were so
 
 35 
 
 angry, that they extinguished the lights before he had finished 
 his remarks. In his later years, his pupils came to look upon 
 him as a veteran, who had passed, with honor, through great 
 battles in the cause of his Master, and listened, with delight, to 
 the anecdotes of what he had done and suffered. But the chief 
 charm of Dr. Taylor was his sincerity, and his affectionate de- 
 votedness to his students. They knew that he had no feeling 
 towards them which he did not freely express. His heart was 
 open : and how large and generous it was ! He gave himself 
 to his pupils, confiding to them everything in his mind, and in 
 his history ; spending hours after his lecture in discussion with 
 them, or in friendly and instructive conversation ; begrudging 
 no time, precious as he deemed it, which they took from him. 
 He loved young men. He loved their warmth, their willingness 
 to look at new truth, their frankness, their bright hopes of the 
 future. His tenderness was the more dear for the native dignity 
 of his demeanor, and his entire freedom from the least taint of 
 sentimentalism. To strangers, he did not always appear to have 
 so kind a heart, and his love was the more beautiful as it came 
 gushing through a thin crust of seeming austerity. He allowed 
 no unseemly familiarity, and, when offended, he spoke out his 
 rebuke on the instant, in blunt terms. But here the matter 
 ended. No animosity lingered in his mind. This he appeared 
 desirious to indicate by his marked kindness, afterwards, to any 
 person who had incurred his censure. Not long ago, he men- 
 tioned to me that, the day before, he had reproved one of his 
 class with more severity, perhaps, than the case required ; ex- 
 pressing, at the same time, his grief, and adding, that he had 
 been kept awake a great part of the night, by the thought that 
 Christ would not have spoken so. Who will wonder that such 
 a man drew to him the affections of his pupils ? He has mould- 
 ed the opinions of a great number of men, whom he has either 
 instructed, or conferred with, on the nature of the Gospel. 
 Through them, his influence has been widely exerted on the 
 ministry of the various denominations throughout the country, 
 modifying, everywhere, the type of theology, and the prevalent 
 tone of preaching. There are many who do not subscribe to his 
 philosophical tenets, and many more who know little of him, 
 who still preach in a way quite different from that in which they 
 would have preached, had he not lived. He has been properly 
 styled the last of our New England Schoolmen, in the special 
 themes which absorbed his attention, in his method of handling 
 them, and in the extent of his influence over the clergy, the 
 compeer of Emmons and Hopkins, of Smalley and the Edwardses.
 
 36 
 
 The animosities of theological strife die away. One generation 
 stones the prophet, and the next builds his sepulchre. The 
 memory of Dr. Taylor will be generally honored. His name 
 will soon be historic ; and the College where he was educated, 
 and where, for thirty-five years, he has taught, will be proud to 
 place it high on the list of illustrious divines who have adorned 
 its annals. 
 
 They who knew Dr. Taylor best, do not need to be further 
 reminded of the depth of his affections, and the religious ear- 
 nestness that appeared in his daily life. He held a stern mas- 
 tery over his feelings, but now and then they broke through the 
 barrier, and the floods of emotion that poured forth betrayed 
 the depth of the fountain. How he loved his family, those 
 long nights spent in prayer, when temptation or distress was 
 impending, are a touching witness. How his sympathies flowed 
 out to his parishioners, their lasting gratitude, and the tears of 
 gray-haired men who followed him to the grave, are a signifi- 
 cant proof. The cordiality of his attachment to friends and 
 pupils, is seen in the sorrow of so many, scattered over different 
 States of the Union, and in distant lands, who will mourn as 
 personally bereaved. 
 
 In the last days of Dr. Taylor, his well-known characteristics 
 were strongly disclosed. His interest in political affairs, and in 
 the passing events of the day, was undiminished. His enthu- 
 siasm for study outlived his strength. During the illness which 
 confined him to his house about a year ago, he entered upon a 
 laborious investigation of a difficult subject in Biblical Theolo- 
 gy, and wrote out his results, amounting to an elaborate treatise. 
 At the same period, I think it was, he occupied himself with 
 the composition of an ingenious essay on the cosmogony of Gen- 
 esis, as compared with the teachings of Geology. Of late, his 
 strongest tie to life has been his concern for his family, together 
 with his unquenchable love for his favorite studies. Dr. Taylor 
 never touched upon his own religious feelings, unless he was 
 naturally drawn to them by the current of conversation. He 
 never alluded to sacred topics for form's sake, or from the con- 
 viction that he ought to appear pious. From that hateful 
 species of affectation, he was utterly free. He was too sponta- 
 neous, too honest in everything, of too robust and sincere a 
 nature, to fall into this weakness. In character, as in name, he 
 was the Israelite in whom was no guile. Sometime since, when 
 compelled by his infirmities to lay down his pen for the larger 
 part of every day, he casually remarked to me that he occupied 
 himself with religious meditation ; to that kind of meditation,
 
 37 
 
 he said, his strength was adequate. More recently, -when fully 
 aware of the near approach of death, he expressed his calm 
 trust in God, and his desire to depart as Stephen did, uttering 
 the petition: "Lord Jesus receive my spirit." To his best 
 earthly friend, he said : " When the time comes for me to die, 
 I want you to he perfectly calm, and when I am called to go, I 
 want you to let me go ; and the widow's God will be your God." 
 In one of his last conversations, he indicated his unshaken faith 
 in the doctrines which he had taught, and his conviction of their 
 importance to the world. On the morning of ' Wednesday, 
 March lUth, several hours before the dawn, unobserved by his 
 attendants in the room, he fell asleep. His body has been com- 
 mitted to the earth ; his soul is with God who gave it. 
 
 It is hard for me to realize the fact that Dr. Taylor is dead. 
 I expect to hear his familiar step at my door. I expect him to 
 come forward and greet me as I enter his house. I think of him 
 as an aspiring boy, journeying to college from his father's house, 
 his future career all unseen before him. I think of him, as a 
 vigorous youth, grappling with the hard problem of Fore- 
 knowledge and Will, with the determination to solve it, or to 
 die in the endeavor. I think of the beauty of his person and 
 the majesty of his eloquence, when, in the centre of his man- 
 hood, great congregations hung on his lips in rapt attention. I 
 behold him as I first saw him, an old man, but with spirits still 
 buoyant, and all the energies of his mind in full exercise, dis- 
 coursing, in his lecture-room, on the grounds of guilt, and re- 
 sponsibility to God. I see him as he was but lately, when, 
 weary under the weight of his years, and his trials, he walked 
 through the streets with slow and painful steps, pausing, here 
 and there, to talk with some old parishioner on the things that 
 pertain to the kingdom of God ; and again, as he lay in weak- 
 ness on the bed from which he never arose ; and at last I think 
 of his noble ftatures on which death had set his seal. Yet, his 
 life seems unfinished. It is unfinished. He has not died, but 
 gone to another life, leaving the worn garment of mortality, 
 which he needs no more. Dark clouds may settle on the face 
 of the evening sky and seem to blot out the sun, while that lu- 
 minary is rising on other regions, and rejoicing as a strong man 
 to run a race. 
 
 Yet his earthly life is ended forever. Never again will he 
 enter this sanctuary where he has so long bowed in worship. In 
 these places where he has been seen for half a century, he will 
 never more appear. That deep-toned voice is hushed in death. 
 That tongue is silent forever. Soon all that was mortal in him
 
 38 
 
 whom we honored, will be mingled with the dust. To see so 
 much manhood fade away, shall it not impress on us the van- 
 ity of the earth ! Shall it not rebuke the pride of the young 
 who feel strong and safe in their strength ! " For what is your 
 life ? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and 
 then vanisheth away." Let this solemn event turn our minds 
 to the true purpose of life, and teach us how worthless, by 
 themselves, are all earthly things. Of what importance, now, 
 to our deceased friend, are the admiration and reproach which 
 he received, both in so large a measure, from his fellow mortals ? 
 In itself considered, of how little moment that he rose to an 
 intellectual pre-eminence among them ! Or even that he has 
 built up, with so much toil, a theological system that is called 
 by his name ! That system, whatever value it may have at 
 present, will be supplanted, and in time will pass away. For 
 the truth does not abide in one form of expression : it is ever 
 showing new phases, and casting off the alloy of error. 
 
 " Our little systems have their day ; 
 
 They have their day, and cease to be ; 
 They are but broken lights of Thee, 
 
 And Thou, Lord, art more than they." 
 
 " Whether there be knowledge it shall vanish away ; for we 
 know in part." " For now we see through a glass darkly." In 
 the light of eternity, our departed teacher may have learned 
 more, in these last few days, than in his life-time before. He 
 has left behind an influence ; he has borne away a character. 
 Our joy is not in his talents ; in the productions of his intellect ; 
 or in his earthly fame ; but our joy is in the belief that he 
 lived to glorify G-od, and that his controlling purpose was to do 
 good. We rejoice in the confidence that, in the great ends 
 which he set before him, he was an obedient follower of the 
 Saviour, patiently endeavoring to do His will and humbly trust- 
 ing in his His mercy for salvation. And the source of the satis- 
 faction with which we review his life, is the fact that he was 
 employed, by the Redeemer, as an instrument of turning a mul- 
 titude to righteousness. To the Redeemer be all the glory ! 
 
 In concluding this imperfect tribute to my venerated and be- 
 loved teacher, let me urge the young men of this assembly, in 
 whose welfare my heart is deeply interested, to follow him as 
 he followed Christ. Not to disparage other occupations to 
 which you may be inclined, what can you do more worthy, than 
 to devote yourself, like him, to the work of a Gospel minister ? 
 What object can you figure to yourself so high as the turning
 
 39 
 
 of immortal men from sin unto righteousness ? Whatever self- 
 sacrifice may belong to it, what work will, on the whole, yield 
 you so much peace while you live ? Contrast the life of a 
 faithful preacher, in its lofty studies, its inspiring and delightful 
 duties, with the thorny path of political ambition ! 
 
 But aside from ths consideration of temporal happiness, when 
 the hour of death shall come and it will come much sooner 
 than you can now realize what life will you wish to have lived ? 
 At the portal of the eternal world, as you look back on the past, 
 what work will you be glad to have done ? 0, how unspeakable 
 is the privilege of him who, in that parting hour, can take to 
 himself the promise of the text ? Blessed are they to whom it 
 is given to turn many to righteousness, and to shine as the stars 
 forever and ever !
 
 OBITUARY NOTICE, 
 BY CHAUNCEY A. GOODRICH, D. D. 
 
 Professor of the Pastoral Charge in Yale College. 
 
 From the New Haven Daily Palladium, March 10, 1858. 
 
 DEATH OF REV. DR. TAYLOR. 
 
 DIED, in this city, March 10th, REV. NATHANIEL WILLIAM 
 TAYLOR, D. D., Dwight Professor of Didactic Theology in Yale 
 College, in the seventy-second year of his age, 
 
 Although it has been known for some days that a great and 
 good man was passing away from the midst of us, the tidings 
 of Dr. Taylor's death will be received with no ordinary feelings 
 by a large part of this community. There are few, compara- 
 tively, who can remember the time when he came to live among 
 us. To nearly the whole of our active population he has ahvays 
 been here, known of all as a man of pre-eminent abilities, 
 justly regarded as one of the most powerful preachers of the 
 age, sought out by the churches of his denomination as a wise 
 counselor in their difficulties, revered and loved by his pupils 
 for the clearness and depth and solidity of his instructions. 
 Those who knew him in private life will naturally recur to his 
 admirable social qualities, the frankness of his disposition, the 
 generosity of his sentiments, the largeness of his views ; his ex- 
 traordinary conversational powers, his perfect independence and 
 yet courtesy in differing from others, his richness and originality 
 of thought, and his remarkable talent of giving lightness and 
 variety to a discussion by passing " from grave to gay, from 
 lively to severe." Those who enjoyed his friendship will dwell 
 with deeper emotion on the warmth and constancy of his affec- 
 tions, the ready sympathy he extended to those around him in 
 their trials and sufferings, and the strength they derived from 
 his counsels and his prayers. All will unite in saying : " A great 
 man has this day fallen among us !" 
 
 He was born at New Milford, Conn., in the year 1786, and 
 graduated at Yale College in 1807. After residing for about 
 two years in the family of Dr. Dwight, as his favorite amanuen- 
 sis, he entered on the ministry ; and was ordained pastor of the 
 
 6
 
 42 
 
 First Congregational Church in New Haven, in April, 1812. 
 How faithfully he discharged the duties of this office can be 
 testified by some who remain among us, and is witnessed by the 
 veneration and love with which he was regarded by the children 
 and the children's children of multitudes who once sat under 
 his ministry. His preaching was marked by extraordinary clear- 
 ness, force, and pungency of application. He had great confi- 
 dence, under divine grace, in the power of truth. Hence, he 
 dealt with the hearts of men chiefly through their understand- 
 ings ; he enforced the claims of the Gospel, not by mere 
 strength of assertion, but by vivid and luminous trains of rea- 
 soning ; he turned the whole at last into an appeal to con- 
 science ; and the leading characteristic of his preaching was 
 happily described by an eminent divine of Massachusetts : " He 
 makes everything appear great : God, man, time, eternity !" 
 His ministry was eminently successful. There were, in repeated 
 instances, powerful and long-continued revivals of religion 
 among his people ; and these seasons of extraordinary interest 
 were conducted with so much judgment, and care to avoid every 
 kind of excess, that the whole community around saw and 
 acknowledged that they were no mere ebullitions of excited 
 feeling, but were marked by the peculiar presence of the con- 
 verting grace of God. 
 
 When the Theological Department of Yale College was 
 founded, in the year 1822, he was appointed Dwight Professor 
 of Didactic Thology. But in accepting this office, he never 
 thought for a moment of relinquishing the duties of the minis- 
 try. On the contrary, while preparing young men for tlie sacred 
 office, he continued to preach in the churches of our city or 
 neighborhood, with his accustomed fervor and success. For 
 nearly a year, in 1825-6, he acted as the regular supply of one 
 of the societies at Hartford, which was destitute of a pastor. 
 As new Congregational churches have branched out from the 
 two original societies on the Green, his counsels and aid have 
 been called in for the furtherance of each successive enterprise. 
 On some of them he bestowed an amount of labor which, if 
 reckoned in continuous order, would make months and even 
 years of pastoral duty. Hence, in all our Congregational 
 churches, his departure will be felt as the loss of one who had 
 endeared himself to the hearts of hundreds by his unwearied 
 efforts for their spiritual good. 
 
 As a teacher in theology, it was his great object to make his 
 pupils think for themselves. It required no ordinary effort to 
 follow him tlirough one of his lectures. They abounded in pro-
 
 43 
 
 found principles and far-reaching views, which, to a reflecting 
 mind, were eminently the "seeds of thought." A gentleman 
 who exchanged the bar for the pulpit, once remarked, that never 
 in the severest contests of the forum had he felt such a tension 
 of his faculties, such a bracing and invigorating effect upon his 
 mind, as in listening to the lectures of Dr. Taylor. Nearly 
 seven hundred young men have enjoyed the benefit of his in- 
 structions. They are scattered throughout every part of the 
 United States ; and they will all testify that the great end at 
 which he aimed in his theological system, was "to exalt God, 
 to humble man, and to bring all to the cross of Christ." 
 
 Dr. Taylor died of no specific disease. He was simply worn 
 out by hard study. About two months ago, he was no longer 
 able to meet his class ; and from that time he daily committed 
 to one of their number a lecture to be read and discussed at 
 their daily meetings. He told them his course was ended ; and 
 with a quiet and child-like submission to the will of God, he 
 resigned himself to the prospect of a speedy death. To one of 
 his friends he remarked, " My only hope is in the atonement of 
 Christ ; and my wish is to die with the words of the martyr 
 Stephen on my lips, ' Lord Jesus receive my spirit.' " His closing 
 hours were without struggle or suffering ; he, rests from his la- 
 bors, and his works do follow him !
 
 PUBLISHER'S NOTICE. 
 
 MEMORIAL OF DR. TAYLOR. 
 
 This pamphlet will be forwarded by mail, pre-paid, to any part of the country, 
 on receipt of the price (25 cents) in stamps. 
 
 PROF. FISHER'S HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 A Discourse, commemorative of the History of the Church of Christ in Yale 
 College, during the First Century of its existence. Preached in the College 
 Chapel, Nov. 22, 1857. With Notes and an Appendix. By GEORGE P. FISHER, 
 Livingston Professor of Divinity. 100 pages octavo. Price 25 cts. in paper ; in 
 boards 38 cts. 
 
 The above Discourse will be sent by mail, according to direction, on receipt of 
 the price, with the addition of a three cent stamp for the paper copies, and two 
 three cent stamps for the copies in boards. 
 
 THOMAS H. PEASE, 
 
 Bookseller and Stationer, 
 
 NEW HAVEN, CONN.
 
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