^egcurds of tJie J^xeciitoi^s, EMILY G. WILLISTON. M. F. DICKINSON, JR.. E. H. SAWYER. A. L. WILLISTON. A DISCOURSE COMMEMORATIVE OF HON. SAMUEL WILLISTON, / DELITERED IN THE PAYSOK CHURCH AT EASTHAMPTON, September 13, 1874, AND ALSO IV THE COLLEGE CHURCH AT AMHERST, SEPTEMBER 20. By W. S. TYLER, WILLISTON PROFESSOR OF CREEK IN AMHERST COLLEGE. SPRUNGFIELD, MASS. : CLARK W. BRYAN AND COMPANY, PRINTERS. 1874. n DISCOURSE. As we gather in this sacred place and come under the shadow of this solemn occasion, the very air we breathe seems to be full of voices. And it is not the noise and tumult of the world — it is not the speech of men or of angels — it is the voice of God that speaks to us. And as we listen and strive to hear and learn what He would say unto us, I seem to hear, uttered as distinctly almost as with an audible voice, such words as these : God only is great ; God only is wise ; there is none good but one, that is God. All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass wither- eth, and the flower thereof falleth away ; but the word of the Lord endureth forever. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might ; let not the rich man glory in his riches, but let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me ; that I am the Lord which exercise 4 COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. loving-kindness, judgment and righteousness, in the earth. The righteous shall llourish like the palm tree ; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord, shall flourish in the courts of our God. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord ; that delighteth greatly in his commandments. Wealth and riches shall be in his house, and his righteousness en- dureth forever. A good man showeth favor, and lendeth ; he will guide his affairs with discretion. He hath dispersed ; he hath given to the poor ; his righteousness endureth forever ; his horn shall be exalted with honor. There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth ; and there is that withhold- eth more than is meet, but it tendeth to pov- erty. The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth, shall be watered also himself. Give, and it shall be given unto you ; good measure, pressed down and shaken together and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal, it shall be measured to you again. It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. Who then is that faithful and wise stCAvard, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household. Blessed is that servant whom his lord, when he cometh, shall find COMMEMOKATIYE DISCOURSE. SO doing. Of a truth, I say unto you, he will make him ruler over all that he hath. Blessed are ye that soav beside all waters. Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days. If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul ; then shall thy light rise in obscurity and thy darkness be as the noon- da}^ And the Lord shall guide thee continually and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones : and thou shalt be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not. And they that be of thee shall build the old waste places ; thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations ; and thou shalt be called, The Repairer of the breach. The Restorer of paths to dwell in. All these Scriptures are naturally suggested by the occasion which has called us together. They are all more or less strikingly illustrated in the life, or impressed upon us by the death of our departed friend. God who, at sundry times, and in divers -manners, wrote them in His word, noAV repeats them, as it were, in our ears by His Prov- idence. May He also, by His Spirit, write them in our hearts. Either of them might furnish a suitable and profitable theme for our special medi- 6 COMMEMOKATIVE DISCOURSE. tation at this hour. Each of them has occurred in rapid succession as a proper text for this dis- course. But none of them, perhaps, expresses in so few and fitting words the characteristic life-work of Samuel Williston — the mission which he seems to have been sent into the world to accomplish — as a part of the last passage which I have read. It is found in the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah, and the tweKth verse. " Thou sJicdt raise up the foundations of many gen- erations ; and thou shalt he called, The Repairer of the hreach, The Restorer of pcdhs to dwell in'' Isa. Iviii. 12. And the lesson which the providence and the word of God commend to our especial considera- tion at this time is, The honor which is due to the founders of institutions, especially institutions of education and religion, for the benefit of many generations. The honor which is due to such men is seen, 1. In the high estimation in which they have always been held, both by God and by mankind. The two names, most honored of God in the his- tory of the church and the world, are Moses and Christ. And these are the names of the founders and lawgivers of the Jewish and the Christian church. COMMEMOKATIYE DISCOUESE. 7 Next in honor to Moses in the Old Testament, stand David and Solomon, of whom the one planned and the other built the temple, and both instituted the worship of the Sanctuary — both organized the outward kingdom of God on earth, with its palace on the literal Mount Zion, and its capital the earthly Jerusalem. The most illustrious of all the foUow^ers of Christ was Paul, the founder of so large a part of the Apostolic churches. And while these men have been so highly honored of God, what names have been so widely known or so highly exalted as these, among men ? Who of all that have ever lived on earth, can compare w^ith them in the extent, the power or the sacredness of their influence ? In profane history, again, what names have been so honored in all ages and nations, as the found- ers of states, of schools, and of religious institu- tions. " The true marshalling of the degrees of sovereign honors," says Lord Bacon, " are these : Tn the first place are Conditores, founders of states. In the second place, are Legislatores, lawgivers, which are sometimes called second founders, or Perpetui Principes, because they govern by their ordinances after they are gone." Then follow in regular gradation downwards, in the third place, 8 COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. liberators; in the fourth, mihtary defenders; and last, civil rulers, all of Avhom the great philosopher ranks below founders and lawgivers. Orpheus, Amphion and Epimenides, among the founders of religious rites and mysteries ; Minos, Lycurgus and Solon, among the founders of states; and Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, among the founders of schools, must suffice as illustrious examples from ancient history. For the time would fail us to tell of Zo- roaster and Confucius, of Boodha and Brahma, of Romulus and Numa, and the other teachers, law- givers and institution-founders of antiquity, who lived at so early an age, that the imagination of men has almost clothed them with the attributes of gods. Still less can we enumerate the lesser lights that organized governments, inaugurated re- lio'ions and founded schools, and so extended their influence and perpetuated their memory in the later periods. In Mediaeval and Modern history, what o-reater names are there than those of Alfred the Great and Charlemagne, Washington and Jef- ferson ; and these are the names of founders at once of states and schools, of nations and colleges, of empires and universities. Such men as Clement and Origen, the founders and teachers of the far- famed school of Chi'istian learning at Alexandria, COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. 9 and of the other catechetical schools and theologi- cal seminaries of the early church, were among the chief of the early Christian Fathers. There are no names more hallowed in the Catholic church than the founders of those monasteries which, with all their sins, have the merit of keeping learning and religion alive through the darkness and confu- sion of the Middle Ages. The founders, too, of those religious orders whose influence has been felt to the remotest bounds of Christendom, what veneration is felt for them by all good Catholics, from age to age. The names of St. Benedict, St. Dominic, St. Francis, and Ignatius Loyola, have been canonized and embalmed in the religious societies which they established. And the founders of sects and of charitable and benevolent associations are scarcely less honored and revered among Protestants. The founders of the libraries, the scholarships and fel- lowships, and the separate colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, still live in those universities; their portraits and statues occupy the most consjDicuous places in the halls, colleges and libraries which they established, and their names are still spoken with pride and pleasure, as they have been for centuries, by the noble youth who enjoy the ben- efit of their liberality. The greatest and best of 10 COMMEMOKATIVE DISCOURSE. England's kings have been proud to identify their memories with these fomidations. The good Queen Phihppa founded Queen's College, and the queens of England have ever since been, ex officio, its patronesses. Christ Church College is the proud- est monument of the proud Cardinal Wolsey — it might well be said to be his only enduring monu- ment ; and the other colleges bear up the names, otherwise little remembered and seldom spoken, of some of the chief dignitaries of the church and the state. Who has not heard the names of Bodley and RadclifE ? They are the synonyms of libraries and books, wherever there are scholars. In our own age and country, there is no surer passport to immortal remembrance than to be iden- tified with the origin and progress of those insti- tutions of learning, charity and religion which are the characteristic and chief glory of our times. Here specification is needless ; for it were but to enumerate the principal academies, colleges and professional seminaries of New England— the chief charitable and religious as well as literary and scien- tific foundations of the country, so many of which hallow and perpetuate the names of their founders. Who can ever think of American inissions without being reminded of Worcester and Evarts ? It is COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. 11 honor enough for any man to have had anything to do with originating the Home Missionary, Tract, Bible, Temperance and Anti-Slavery Societies. What American scholar, aye, and what American citizen has not often repeated the names of Harvard and Yale ? What educated man, nay, what intelligent man, woman or child in the future periods of our history will not be familiar with the names of Phillips and Williston ? The honor which is due to the founders of insti- tutions, especially those of learning and religion, may be seen 2. In the nature and value of these institutions. An institution is the embodiment of a principle, the organization and thus the multiplication and ex- tension of a power, the incarnation and perpetua- tion of a life. Sparta was a perpetuated Lycurgus Athens was Solon embodied and endowed with a kind of immortality. The Christian Church is the body of Christ — is Christ living, suffering, dying, rising again from age to age, and thus at length triumphing and reigning on earth as in heaven. A hospital with its succession of physicians and nurses, a charitable society with its successive corps of officers and agents and its undying ministries to 12 COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. the poor, the sick and the suffering, is a perpetnal metempsychosis of Howard the philanthropist; only it is a larger, richer, mightier Howard better trained and better furnished for his work — the soul of How- ard animating the body of a hundred-headed and hundred-handed giant, and employing all its heads and all its hands in agencies of beneficence, and that giant perchance vested not only with ubiquity but with immortality. A school well endowed, and so sustained from generation to generation, is a school-master that never dies. Eugby is Arnold teaching and ruling in the hearts of his pupils long after Arnold is dead. Phillips has ceased from his labors, and his personal influence can no longer be traced. Phillips Academy not only prolongs but multiplies his labors, not only perpetuates but en- larges his influence, not only transmits his wealth but transmutes it into the fine gold of a classical and Christian education. For while institutions are in- carnations of ideas and principles, they may be, and frequently are, spiritualizations of material forces, transfigurations of gross earthly substances into something quite ethereal and divine. An institu- tion, like a manufacturing establishment, can put in motion many hands instead of one or two, and those of far more delicacy and dexterity than the COMMEMOEATIVE DISCOURSE. 13 fingers of the founder. An institution can perpetu- ate the name and the influence of the intellio-ent and excellent, but perhaps uneducated and person- ally uninfluential manufacturer or merchant, in a corps of elegant scholars and able teachers that will fashion the minds, the morals and the manners of scores, perhaps hundreds of youth in every genera- tion till the end of time. Institutions, like skillful enginery, employ natural agencies, subsidize aux- iliary forces, and enlist powers and resources that are more than human. Institutions educate and control individual men. They also fashion society, guide the church and govern the nation. Institutions mark and make civilization. Savages have no institutions, just as they have no machines. Just in proportion as civil- ization advances, institutions become more numer- ous and complicated, more elevated and refined. Every step of Chrisiian civilization is marked and maintained, and in no small measure made by Chris- tian schools, colleges, seminaries of learning, and institutions of charity and benevolence. Institutions mark and make progress. They link the past with the present, and the present with the future. They constitute an open channel of communication — nay, a vital union and communion between the ages. 14 COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. They enrich each generation with the wisdom and virtue of previous generations, and make the acqui- sitions and resources of individuals the weaUh and power of the state, the age and the race. All these remarks, while they are true of insti- tutions in general, apply with emphasis to institu- tions of learning, especially when sanctified by religion. These are emphatically the great conser- vative and progressive, civiHzing and educating, perpetuating and transfiguring powers of society ; the living channels of communication between the Ancient and the Modern, the Old World and the New, the individual and his age and race. They transmute the gold and silver and houses and lands of the founder into the true riches of the mind and heart, and then transmit them through the ages and nations, thus enduing them with something like ubiquity and immortality. They live on, though founders and teachers die, and even after states and nations have passed away ; as a tree lives on, though its leaves fall from year to year, — lives when planters and owners, one after another, pass away, and not unfrequently still lives when the na- tion and race that planted it and long ate its fruit, have given place to others. "Aye be planting a tree," was a precept of Scotch wisdom — if I mis- COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. 15 take not, it was addressed to Jeanie Deans hy her father in the Heart of Mid Lothian. " Aye be planting a tree, Jeanie ; it will be growing when you are asleep, it will live Avhen you are dead. Those who come after you will sit under its shade and eat of its fruit." So an institution of learning and religion wdll still be growing and working when its founder has ceased to toil or care for it — will live long after he is laid in the grave ; it will bear fruit at all seasons of the year and pro- duce all manner of fruit, while, peradventure, its very leaves will be for the healing of the nations. Thus the libraries and museums at Alexandria survived dynasties and outlived the Grecian and Roman supremacy, educating all the while Jews and Greeks, Asiatics, Africans and Europeans, mediating between philosophy and revelation, and propagating learning and religion together among the leading minds of three continents. The schools of the Byzantine grammarians formed the con- necting link between the Ancient and the Mod- ern civilizations, as Constantinople itself is the bridge between the East and the West; and by pre- serving the wisdom of the Ancients, they gave rise to the revival of learning in Modern Europe. Even the monasteries, with their libraries, kept alive the 16 COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. flickering torch of learning during the Dark Ages, and thus helped to introduce the Reformation. For while institutions of learning are the conservators of the Old, they are no less emphatically the orig- inators of the New. The revival of learning and the reformation were both born and nurtured in the Universities. The earliest and greatest of the Reformers were monks and professors. But it is, above all, the office of institutions of learnino; to educate : to educate individuals and thus to mould and fashion society ; to educate the mem- bers, and especially the officers of the church, and so to shape the character and history of the church itself; to educate the citizens, and especially the rulers of the State, and so to govern the State and the Nation. They lay the foundations of so- ciety, government and religion. They are truly, what they are often called. Seminaries, that is, they sow the seeds of ideas and principles; they shape and train the germs of private and public life and ac- tion ; they bend the twig of individual and national character. The higher seminaries educate the lead- ing minds, and thus teach and rule the masses. They improve and perfect agriculture, commerce, and all the useful arts l)y developing the sciences on which they are founded. They purify the streams COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. 17 of political, social, moral and religious life, by purify- ing the fountain. Christian colleges and seminaries formed the character of New England in the forming period of her history, and New England, through her own schools and colleges, and those which she is founding all over the land, is ruling the church and scovernino; the nation. New Eng-land, throui>:h her own colleges and seminaries, and those which she is setting up like light-houses on foreign shores, is carrying on the missionary work, and laying the foundations of society and government, education and religion for " many generations " in every part of the world. The honor which is due to the founders of in- stitutions, especially those of learning and religion, may be seen 3. In the broad views, high aims, and rare wis- dom and excellence of character by which such men must be distinguished. The founders of states and nations, the authors of constitutions, codes of law, and forms of gov- ernment, are, of course, few ; for few have either the opportunity or the capacity to inaugurate such institutions. It is not strange, therefore, that these few should have been honored in all ages as the 3 18 COMMEMOEATIVE DISCOURSE. special favorites both of ecfi'tli and heaven. The same is true also of the founders of new rites and forms, sects and creeds in religion. But there is almost unlimited opportunity to found churches, schools, and all the various institutions of educa- tion and religion, where they do not exist, or exist only in a very imperfect form. And there are more in our day than there ever were before, per- haps, who prize and improve their privilege in this respect. But they are still few in compar- ison with the many who do not attain, or even aspire to it — very few, in comparison with the many, many wants of a growing country, an ad- vancing church and a perishing world. And the reason is obvious. It requires rare disinterested- ness, and rare discernment. Few men have the self-denial and self-sacrifice, and perhaps fewer still the insight and the foresight, the far-seeing sagac- ity, and the far-reaching wisdom, which must be- long to the founders of such institutions. Most men are absorbed in themselves or their families, their relatives and friends. If they do not spend all their energies and resources in looking out for themselves and their immediate connections, their own church, their own partj^, or, at the very largest, their own country is the extreme limit of their COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. 19 vision. At all events, there must be something local, sectional, partial, exclusive, about an object that appeals to them, or it has no charms for them; and the more narrow and exclusive it is, the more attractive it will be to nine-tenths of mankind. Most men are absorbed in the present. They never think of coming genesations and future ages. They demand immediate results, quick returns, speedy harvests. Comparatively few will plant an orchard, or a single tree even, of which they can- not expect themselves to gather the fruit — still fewer a forest for the benefit of they know not what future generation. Few are capable of dis- cerning the oak in the acorn, and very few have the patience to plant the acorn and watch and wait for its slow development. Most men look only on the outward appearance, and can see only what is present and apparent to the senses. Of charitable men, the great majority would rather contribute for the supply of the wants of the body, than to the education of the immortal spirit, and prefer to meet the existing and perpet- ually recurring necessities of the poor rather than to seek ways and provide means for removing the causes of poverty. Nations built prisons long ages before they established schools ; and to this day 20 C0]S1MEM0KAT1YE DISCOURSE. nations and individuals are slower to endow col- leges, than tliey arc to found almshouses and hos- pitals. It is only a few men of rare discern- ment — Souls destined to o'crleap tlic vulgar lot, And mould the world unto the scheme of God — it is only such, who can pierce through the out- ward phenomena to the inward and spiritual causes, who can look beyond immediate and temporary issues to remote and permanent results; who are willing to plant seeds for others to gather the fruit; who, in short, and in the language of our text, have the wisdom and the power to " raise up tlie founda- tions for many generations." It is, therefore, simple even-handed justice to bestow rare honor on men of such rare wisdom and virtue ; to perpetuate their memories by making them commensurate with the duration of the institutions which they have founded ; to mete out to them a height of renown, a breadth of esteem and a depth of veneration corresponding with the breadth and length and height and depth of tlieir foundations, and the comprehensiveness of views and elevation of sentiments hy which they were distinguished : it is right and proper that those who have studied and labored and prayed and denied themselves, and sacrificed themselves to COMMEMOEATIVE DISCOURSE. 21 educate and enrich the mmds and hearts of many generations, should be enshrined in the grateful and affectionate remembrance of men from age to age. On this princijDle, few will receive higher honor than the founders of Christian colleges and semi- naries of learning. And among the founders of such institutions, few in this or in other lands, in ancient or in modern times, deserve a higher place in public estimation, than Samuel Williston. The community generally, and especially the nu- merous youth who have enjoyed the benefits of his wisdom and munificence, will desire to know something of the early life and history of a man who has been so successful in business and made such an exemplary use of his large acquisitions. Samuel Williston was born in Easthampton, June 17, 1795. Thus his birthday was the twentieth anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill. He was the son of Rev. Payson Williston, of Easthampton, who was the son of Rev. Noah AVilliston, of West Haven, Conn., who had four children, two sons, both of whom were ministers, and two daughters, both of whom were ministers' wives. On his father's side he was own cousin to Rev. Richard Salter 22 COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. Storrs, D. D., of Braintree, and so akin, not only to the Willistons and Storrses, but to the Paysons, the Strongs, the Elys and the other illustrious clergy- men whose names Professor Park has recently woven like a garland about the brow of the Braintree pastor. His mother, Mrs. Sarah Birdseye Williston, was also the daughter of a Connecticut clergyman, Rev. Nathan Birdseye, of Stratford. His parents and grandparents were all remark- able for their longevity. His father lived to the age of 93, and his father to the age of 77 ; his mother to the age of 82, and her father to his 103d year — all thus exceeding the appointed limitu of threescore years and ten, and all doubtless exem- plifying the fifth commandment, which Paul calls the first commandment with promise : " Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." Mr. Williston himself had almost reached the age o£ fourscore years ; and yet with the humble piety of the patriarch of Israel he could and would have said: "Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage." His father will be remembered by some of this COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE . 23 audience, as he is well remembered by the speaker, as one of the gentlest, kindest, loveliest men that ever walked the earth, too modest to know his own worth, too meek sometimes to assert his own rights, almost too honest, unsuspecting, unselfish and unworldly to hve in such a world as this ; not a great man but, as every body would say, a good man ; not an eloquent preacher, but his life a per- petual and most eloquent sermon on the golden rule, and his very face beaming with cheerfulness and benignity on all around him. No wonder he lived to be almost a hundred years old. I only wonder that such a man should die at all ; and when I returned from Europe and was told that the good old man w^as gone, it seemed to me that he must have been translated. Father Williston's salary never amounted to $300. He had, however, a settlement of £70, with which he bought a small farm of thirty-three acres of poor land, whereon he used to work in haying time and a few hours a day at other seasons, to eke out a scanty subsist- ence for his family. Mrs. Williston, Samuel's mother, was born to be a helpmeet to such a poor minister. This excellent couple possessed, as husband and wife always should possess, the qualities and habits that are mutually 24 COMMEMOKATIVE DISCOURSE. compensative the one to the other, so as together to make a perfect whole. She was as mdustrious and faithful in the parsonage as he was in the par-" ish ; as economical as he was liberal ; as careful and anxious as he was cheerful and happy ; a very Martha for household care and thrift, though not without Mary's part also in the one thing needful. While he united in himself many of the characteristics of both his parents, Samuel bore a striking resemblance in person, mind and manners to his mother. Bound by the customs of the age to exercise hospitality as well as to provide things honest in the sight of all men, I have heard her say that she often had some ministerial brother, with his whole family, stop for dinner, or perchance to stay over night, when there was not enough in the whole house to give them a single meal. Yet the dinner was always forthcoming, the table comfortable and the whole house in perfect order. The barrel of meal was never quite empty, and the cruse of oil never failed. Thus patient industry and strict economy were beau- tifully wedded to generous hospitality and Christian liberality in the household of the first pastor of Easthampton, as they always joined hand in hand and walked side by side in the life of his distin- guished sou. COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. 25 A family of six children were born in that par- sonage, and all but one (who died in childhood) * were brought up and educated on that salary, with the help which they were taught to render to them- selves and their parents — brought up to habits of industry and economy, and educated in the prin- ciples of virtue and piety ; and now there is wealth enough in the family to cover every inch of that poor farm over with dollars. Of his two brothers, one was Dea. J. P. Williston of North- ampton, the reformer and philanthropist, whose hu- mane and Christian charities, beginning at home, compassed the globe, dropping like the rain and distilling like the dew on the dry and thirsty land. The other, Dea. N. B. Williston, president of a bank in Brattleboro, Yt., a man of like sj^irit with his brothers, is the only surviving member of the famil}^ Of his two sisters, one was the wife of J. D. Whit- ney, Esq., of Northampton, and the mother of the distinguished professors of that name ; the other was the mother of the late Mrs. Dr. Adams of Boston. Samuel, though the third child that was born to his parents, was the oldest son that grew up to man- hood. The trials and triumphs of his education and his early business, and the story of his marriage, constitute a romance in real life of rare interest 26 COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. and pathos. He began to go to school very young, and attended the district school in his native place, summer and winter, till he was ten years old ; then in the winter only till he Avas sixteen, at which age his schooling, as it was called, that is, his instruc- tion in the common school, which then scarcely ex- tended beyond reading, writing and the rudiments of arithmetic, ceased altogether. He began to work on a farm at the early age of ten, in the absence of his father on a missionary tour of three months in the State of New York. This first work was done on the farm, and under the direction of a good deacon in his father's church, Dea. Solomon Lyman, whose memory he always held in high esteem and veneration. After this he worked on a farm every summer till he was sixteen, sometimes on his father's, sometimes for some of his parish- ioners, and the last of these summers out of town in AYesthampton, where his wages were $7 a month. These facts in his earl}^ life are not only of interest by way of contrast with his subsequent prosperity, but he was wont to attach great importance to these early lal)ors as training him to habits of industry, and still more as laying the foundations of that bodily health and strength without which he was persuaded he never could have accomplished his life-work. COMMEMORATIVE DISCOUESE. I i After he ceased going to school, he studied to some extent privately with his father, though only in the winter, for he was obliged to work in the summer. He loved study and longed for a liberal education. But he saw no way, in which he could obtain the requisite means. He there- fore went into a clothier's shop belonging to a brother-in-law in Rochester, Vt., where he la- bored the greater part of two winters, till he became master of the art to such an extent that he was entrusted with the charge of the shop. Meanwhile he lost no time, spent his even- ings in reading, and made the most of all the means of self-education within his reach. His de- sire for a better education being thus increased, on his return from Vermont, late in the winter of 1813-14, he entered Westfield Academy. But his funds were exhausted before he had com- pleted a single term, and he came home again to study with his father. Still encouraged by his teachers and his parents, that where there was a will there was a way, and that some way would be found for him yet to go through college, he now began to study Latin, which he pursued first with his father and then with Kev. Mr. Gould, of Southampton. In the summer of 1814, learning 28 COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. that there were funds at Anclover for the aid of indigent students, and attracted by the excellence of the institution, he went to Phillips Academy, then under the principal charge of Kev. John Adams, and enjoying the instructions also of Mr. Hawes, afterwards Dr. Hawes, of the Centre Church in Hartford, Conn. It took more time and more money then to go to Andover than it does now. Young Williston could not afford to go by stage, then the only public conveyance. His father therefore carried him one day's ride to Brookfield, where, according to the hospitable and ministe- rial usages of the times, they lodged at the house of the pastor. The next day he walked to Worcester. Fatigue then compelled him to ride to Boston. From Boston he set out on foot again for Andover, but caught a ride a part of the way on a farmer's wagon. He had no trunlv, no valise or carpet-bag ; all he had with him, pretty much everything he had in the world, was tied up in a bundle. At Andover, for the sake of economy, though not disliking the long walk for its own sake and for exercise, he boarded a mile and a half from the Academy. Yet he w\as never tardy. He never failed in a recitation. He went there to do his best. He always did do the best that he could. COMMEMOEATIVE DISCOURSE. 29 He obeyed all the rules of the school. He ex- celled in his studies. He went up at a step from the Epitome of Sacred History over the class in Viri Komae to the class in Selectae a Sacris et Profanis, and on examination at the close of his first term, he was placed upon the foundation as a charity scholar. Now he had reached a point from which he thought he could see the goal of his ambition, a college education. Now he was satisfied and regarded his fortune as made, or at least quite secure. But severer trials awaited him. He had not been there a year when his eye-sight failed him, and he was obliged to leave. For two years, now, from the spring of 1815 to that of 1817, he vibrated between labor on the farm and a clerkship in a store, passing the larger part of the time in the store, but with intervals of two or three months on the farm, suffering all the while from weakness, inflammation and incessant pain in the eyes, till at length he gave up all hope of being or doing anything that could sat- isfy his ambition. He made up his mind — this is the way in which he was in the habit of speaking of it — that he must be a farmer, and a poor man at that. These years, however, were by no means lost to him. In the store of Justin Ely of West 30 COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. Springfield, and still more in the large wholesale establishment of Francis Child of New York city, with whom he spent a year, he was acquiring that knowledge of men and things, and forming those ideas and habits of business which were after- wards to be of such essential service to him in the management of his own affairs. Moreover it was during this period, under the discipline of re- peated disappointments and sore trials, accompa- nied by the effectual teaching of the Holy Spirit, that he began life anew as a Christian, and after a severe inward struggle, w^hich began soon after leaving Andover and ended in submission and peace just before going to New York, he consecrated himself publicly to the service of God as a mem- ber of the Presbyterian church under the pastoral care of Kev. Dr. Spring. In the spring of 1817, at the age of 22, baffled in all his plans by the failure of his eyes, and almost disheartened by the double disappointment consequent upon it, first in regard to a college education, and then in his experiments in the mer- cantile line, he came back to his father and pro- posed to him to go into the farming business; the father to furnish the farm and the capital, and the son to manage it and do the work. The father COMMEMORATIYE DISCOURSE. 31 reluctantly consented, invested some four or five hundred dollars from his father's estate, in the purchase of land, taking the deed of it in his own name, and then borrowed money for the purchase of more land and implements of husbandry. Thus unpromising was the commencement of Mr. Willis- ton's business life, without capital, almost without anything that he could call his own, and having run his father in debt for the very tools with which he was to do his work. He continued to follow farming as his business four years, enlarging the farm and extending the business, varying it also by raising sheep and growing fine wool, till he ' became, for that place and those times, quite a large farmer and wool-grower. He worked on the farm himself, however, only in the summer. In the winter, he betook himself to that unfailing re- source of intelligent and aspiring youth of both sexes in Yankee land, teaching school. The first winter, he taught in the North district in East- hampton, for $16 a month, boarding himself and walking more than a mile to and from school, and doing all the chores at home, morning and evening. The next year, he taught the large scholars in the Center district at Southampton, taking, in the spring, the place which had been filled by a col- 32 COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. leffe student in the winter. The followino' winter, he taught five months in NorthaniiDton. He next taught, in the years 1820-21, for fourteen months consecutively, the grammar school in Springfield, at the same time managing the farm and carrying on the work with hired help, and the aid of his younger brothers. During the winter of 1821-22, he taught a select school in Easthampton. In the spring of 1822, (May 27,) he was married to Miss Emily Graves, daughter of Elnathan Graves, a respectable farmer, in moderate circumstances, in the neighljoring town of Williamsburg. They had been engaged three years previous, the marriage being delayed from economical and prudential con- siderations. Partly to illustrate the simplicity of the times, and jiartly to show his own limited means, 1 have heard him say that he was married in a coat wdiich he had worn two years for Sun- days and holidays, and that they took no bridal tour or excursion after the marriage. Or, to tell the story more exactly, their only bridal excursion was to Rum Brook, at the foot of Mount Tom, in Easthampton, where they had a bottle of wine and some plain cake for their entertainment. Ahnost half a century afterwards, happening to call upon them on the forty-eighth anniversary of their mar- COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. 33 riage, I found them preparing to celebrate it at the same place in the same beautiful and simple way. Are the brides and grooms of our day, who think they must cross the ocean, or mayhap go round the world for their bridal tour — are they wiser or happier than this worthy couple ? He brought his wife home to the house of his father, and the two families lived together under the same roof in beautiful harmony and mutual love for twenty-one years, only enlarging the old parson- age and beautifying the grounds to correspond with the growth of business and their increasing pros- perity. He still taught one year, after being married, in the Central district school in Easthampton, thus mak- ing five winters in all, besides the entire year of his teaching in Springfield. Meanwhile the farming business w^ent on, enlarging, as we have said, and on the whole prospering. But he was obliged to run in debt at the outset. This debt was still further increased for the sake of enlarging the business. He had invested in land and sheep, $1,800, most of which was borrowed capital. His first crop of wool was lost through the failure of the purchaser. Two or three hundred dollars a year was all that could be saved for repairing this 5 34 COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. loss and reducing this burden of indebtedness. Mrs. Williston has remarked, that at this time it was a daily subject of prayer at the domestic altar that God would open to him ways and means by which he might obtain a competence for himself and family. And now, at length — doubtless in an- swer to those very prayers, and as the result too of the severe discipline to which he had been sub- jected — the way was to be opened. And the re- lief was to come through the wife whom God had given him to be not only his companion and help- meet in general, but his wise counselor and his good genius in that very thing which he had so often made a subject of special prayer. Mrs. Wil- liston had never felt able to keep the help she needed in housekeeping, nor to give what she wished in aid of charitable objects. While looking about for relief and enlargement in these particu- lars, she found that her mother had been in the habit of making covered buttons for her own fam- ily, and a smalt surplus for sale to others. She took up the business at once on a somewhat larger scale. The first package of buttons which she made, she took to Mr. David Whitney, of North- ampton, (long the Treasurer of the Hampshire County Missionary Society,) as a contribution of COMMEMORATIVE DISCOUESE. 35 the first-fruits to tlie cause of missions; and Pres- ident Humphrey, happening in about that time, became the first purchaser. Little did he or she think, that there was the germ of Williston Sem- inary and Wilhston College. A button machine ought to be graven on the seal of one, if not both of these institutions ; and the founders should be represented by a double bust of Mr. and Mrs. Williston, not set back to back like some of the old Greek sculptures, but put- ting their heads and hands together in the manufac- ture of covered buttons. Then if Christian art could in some way represent the work of missions and the kingdom and glory of God in full view before their eyes, illumining their pathway, irradiating their persons, and making their upturned faces shine with the light of heaven, the picture would be quite complete. But to return to our narrative. The second pack- age was sent to Arthur Tappan, of New York, who immediately contracted for twenty-five gross at two dollars a gross. Fifty dollars ! Never in all their subsequent wealth did they feel so rich as when they received that order from the firm of Arthur Tappan. The first buttons Mrs. Williston made with her own hands. Then she employed other hands to work for 3G COMWEMORATIYE DISCOURSE. her in the house. Next she began to give out but- tons to be made in neighboring families. Mr. Wilhs- ton soon perceived that here was a field of enterprise wider and more promising than farming, and that instead of making her time and toil merely subsid- iary to his work, he might better make his minis- ter to hers. It was in 1826, when he was already more than thirty years of age, that the beginning was made of this new undertaking. In 1827, he went to New York, found customers, received orders, and went back to extend his business. Soon he went in like manner to Philadelphia, Balti- more and Boston, and established agencies in all the principal cities of the United States. The business grew rapidly, and it was only a short time, before he had more than a thousand families at work making buttons for him, through all that circle of towns, thirty or forty miles in diameter, of which East- hampton Avas the center. Auxiliary to the button business, he opened a store, and, for a number of years, carried on quite a large business for the country, in the sale of dry goods, his first clerk being Mr. Knight, and Mrs. Williston his first book- keeper. The manufacture went on in this way by hand, employing thousands of busy and skillful fingers COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. 37 in a constantly extending circle of private families, and rewarding their industry with a corresponding increase of the comforts and elegancies of life, for ten or a dozen years, when Providence opened the way for a still greater improvement and en- largement. In one of his visits to New York, Mr. Williston found there some buttons of Eno;lish manufacture, made without thread, without needle, I had almost said without fingers, in short, mani- festly made by machinery. He took these buttons to the Messrs. Joel and Josiah Hayden, who were then just beginning to be known as ingenious and enterprising mechanics in Williamsburg, and pro- posed to furnish the capital, sell the goods and divide the profits equally, if they would discover the process, get up the machinery and manufac- ture the buttons. They entered with characteris- tic zeal and energy upon the experiment, and worked on patiently with hands and brains for years before their labors were crowned with complete success. It was a full year before they could make a button. When they had succeeded to some extent, they derived great assistance from a colored man who had been an employee in an English factory and knew the machinery and the process. Whether the memory of this timely ser- 38 COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. vice was, in any measure, the cause of their life-long friendship for the colored race, or whether Provi- dence sent this man to serve them in return for what it was already in their hearts to do for the cause of humanity and to furnish them the means for more enlarged philanthropy in coming years, I do not know. But I can not but see in this incident, as well as in the connection of Arthur Tappan and President Humphrey with this enter- prise, not only interesting coincidences, but illus- trations of that almost poetical justice and fitness which the Greeks w^ere so fond of noting, and which no close observer can fail to mark, some- times at least, in the providence of God. The perfecting of this machinery and the suc- cessful carrying on of the manufacture made the fortunes of both parties. It was the making — it was, at least, the beginning of Ilaydenville. It has since done the same service to Easthampton. Mr. Williston used often to speak of the perfect harmony and happiness of his business relations with Mr. Hayden — a harmony which was ex- pressed and increased by their traveling in Europe together, and at length still farther cemented by a marriage connection between the families. This harmonious co-operation continued without interrup- COMMEMOKATIVE DISCOURSE. 39 tion, twelve years, till in 1847, by mutual consent, the partnership was dissolved, and, at once for the personal convenience of Mr. Williston and for the benefit of his native place, the button business was transferred to Easthampton. We have dwelt on these earlier years of Mr. Williston's business life with a particularity which may perhaps require some apology. He was a business man, and it is as an able and success- ful business man that we wish to know his his- tory. These earlier years of his life are unknown to the younger portion of the community, and have more or less faded from the memory of the older inhabitants. While they developed his char- acter and formed his habits, they illustrate also the providence of God. While they set before us a remarkable example of patience and perseverance, of faith and hope in God, finally triumphing and rejoicing in the manifest blessing of heaven, they forcibly teach this great lesson, that we should never despise small things — that nothing is in re- ality small, since things apparently the smallest may lead to the greatest results. It w^as when he was a little over forty that Mr. Wilhston began to lay "foundations" and build not only for himself but for his native town and 40 COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. for the larger public. In 1837 he bore a promi- nent part in the erection of the house of worship no\v occupied by the first church in Easthampton. In 1841 he established Williston Seminary. In 1843 he built his own house. Early in 1845 he founded the Williston Professorship of Rhetoric and Oratory in Amherst College. Later in the same year, he spent six months in traveling in Europe. In the winter of 1846-7 he founded the Graves Professorship, now the WiUiston Professor- ship of Greek, and one-half of the Hitchcock Pro- fessorship of Natural Theology and Geology in Amherst College, thus making in all the sum of $50,000, which he had already given for perma- nent foundations in that institution. It was in 1847 that he removed his business from Haydenville to Easthampton. From that time to the present, we need not dwell on the details of his private life, for they are fresh in the memory of us all. I need not remind you how he went on adding factory to factory and one species of business to another, house to house, block to block, and even village to village, till from one of the smallest, Easthampton has become one of the larg- est and most populous towns in Hampshire county. I need not tell you how he has built churches, COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE, 41 and enlarged the grounds and multiplied the edi- fices of Williston Seminary, and increased the funds and the faculty of the Seminary and of Amherst College, and extended and diffused his donations for public, charitable, educational and religious objects, corresponding with the increase of his wealth and the demands of the times, till his name has become identified with all the great benevolent enterprises of the age, and his influence is felt all over the world. Mr. Williston has filled not a few posts of honor and trust. He was a member of the Lower House of the Massachusetts Legislature in 1841, and a member of the Senate in 1842 and 1843. He was elected to the Legislature as an Anti-Slavery Whig, and might doubtless have continued to occupy and adorn public life, if he had not, after three years' legislative service, declined a re-election. In poli- tics, he has always been known as belonging to the school of progress and reform. He was usually in advance of his party and of the age, a full believer in the doctrine of the higlier law, and the applica- tion of Christian ethics to the legislative, executive and judiciary departments of the government, and therefore sometimes charged with political heresy and fanaticism, though he was never an impracti- 6 42 COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. cable or an oxtreiiiist. In the great struggle for the mtegrity and existence of the nation, he was ever among the firmest supporters of the govern- ment, and among the most strenuous advocates for the extinction of slavery as the chief cause of all our troubles. While a member of the Legislature, in 1841, he was chosen by that body a trustee of Amherst College. For thirty- three years, the aver- age duration of human life, and throughout one entire generation, he has not only been a member of the Corporation, but during the larger part of these years a member also of the Prudential Com- mittee and often of special committees on build- ings and business matters of the utmost import- ance, and until the recent failure of his health he was from principle an unfailing attendant of ordi- nary and extraordinary meetings of the board, and unsparing not only of his mone}^, of which he gave during his life a hundred and fifty thousand dollars from time to time as it was wanted, and would do the most good, but also of his time, which, for a man of business and wealth, it is often far more diffi- cult to give than money. For the same number of years he has been not only trustee, but president of the trustees of Williston Seminary, and with only two exceptions, the one occasioned by sickness COMMEMORATIVE DISCOUESE. 43 and the other by absence from the country, he has presided in all the meetings. He has been the act- ing treasurer also of the Seminary, and has watched over all its external and internal affairs with the same wise and careful personal supervision which he has given to his business. Appointed by the Governor and Council one of the first trustees of the State Reform School, when that office was no sinecure, he was of great service in erecting build- ings, improving the farm and inaugurating the insti- tution. He was one of the first trustees of Mount Holyoke Seminary, of which he helj)ed to lay the foundations, and in which he ever felt a lively interest. He was a corporate member of the Ameri- can Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and for many years as constant in attendance on its meetings as he was in contributions to its funds. The business corporations, manufacturing com- panies, banks, railways, gas and water power com- panies in Easthampton, Northampton, Holyoke and elsewhere, in which he was a leading corporator, and usually president, are too numerous to men- tion. Mr. Williston's domestic life was marked by great trials as well as great blessings, and had a most important bearing on his character and history. For 44 COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. four years after their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Wil- liston lived vitliout children. In 1831, they lost two children, then three and a half and one and a half years old, by scarlet fever. In 1837, they were called to experience the same deep affliction again in the loss, and by the same disease, of two children who had reached the age respectively of five and a half and three and a half. They were thus written childless twice in the space of six years, and have never since had children of their own. But they have adopted the children of missionaries and chil- dren who had been bereaved of their parents, whom they have reared and educated as their own ; and few families, probably, have enjoyed more domestic happiness than theirs. And what is more, schools and churches and charitable societies without num- ber have become their adopted children, have been nursed and cherished by them with a father's and a mother's love and made heirs to their inheritance. It was during the sickness of his last child that Mr. AVilliston, feeling that he had not done his whole duty as a steward of the Lord's property, conse- crated himself anew to his service, set apart the principal and interest of a considerable investment for benevolent purposes, and thus entered on a new epoch in his Christian life. COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. 45 The son and grandson of parents and grandpa- rents, who were not only Christians but ministers of the gospel, Mr. Williston early received the most careful Christian culture and training. He read the Bible through a great many times in his childhood and youth — he usually read it through every year. He was taught the Assembly's Cate- chism, and not only said it from memory to his par- ents at home, but according to the usage of the times, recited it in school every Saturday forenoon, and repeated it from beginning to end, over and over again in the church. He observed the Sabbath with great strictness, and carefully avoided pro- fanity and immorality of every kind. He not only prayed in secret but led the- family devotions at his boarding-place in Andover, before he cherished any hope of his personal interest in the salvation by Christ. We might have expected such a young man, so moral, upright and amiable, to enter upon a religious life, without any great conflict or deep conviction of sin. But this was far from beino- the case. He was often much exercised about per- sonal religion, l)ut on his return from Andover, disappointed in his hopes of education, and thwarted in his plans for life, he passed through a severe mental struggle, came under deep conviction of sin, 46 COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. felt liimself to be justly condemned by the law of God, and, in liimself, utterly ruined and undone ; and lie continued in this state for months. It was almost a year before he became clear in his belief that he Avas a real Christian. There was no par- ticular time to w^hich he could point as the begin- ning of his religious life. Light and peace gradually dawned upon his soul. Sudden and rapturous joy was no part of his Christian experience. This great event — for so he regarded it, though there was nothing very marked about the time or the manner of it — took place in 1816. Going to New York soon after, he heard with great satisfaction, the preaching of Dr. Romeyn, Dr. Mason and Dr. Spring, and in the winter of 1816-17, he became a member of Dr. Spring's church. When he left the city, he trans- ferred his relation to the church under his father's care in Easthampton, and in 1852 he went off with others to form the Payson Church. He was for many vears a member of the committee, and a deacon in the First Church, and in the Payson Church he held both those offices from the beginning. He never felt that he could serve God by proxy, however numerous might be the agents whom he supported in the Christian work ; and munificent as his con- tributions were to the maintenance and propagation COMMEMORATIVE DISCOUESE. 47 of the gospel, he never thought or desired by this to purchase any exemption from personal service. At home and abroad, till the age of threescore years and more, he rarely failed to attend three services on the Sabbath, and the remainder of the day he scrupulously spent in religious reading, meditation and prayer. At home or abroad, he never traveled or visited, wrote letters or trans- acted any business on the Lord's day; never spent the day, or any portion of it, in walking, talking, riding, in any mere recreation or amusement. When he was all ready to commence his voyage to Europe, the vessel on which he had engaged his passage, and expected to sail about the middle of the week, was detained two or three days by a violent storm. Sabbath morning the weather was fair, and the captain, crew and passengers were all eager and impatient to spread sails. But Mr. Williston refused to embark on the Lord's day, although, according to usage, he thereby for- feited his passage money as well as delayed his passage. The captain, however, at length yielded to his convictions and convenience ; they sailed Monday morning, and reached Liverpool in ad- vance of all the vessels that sailed from New York on the previous Sunday. On the same principle. 48 COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. lie chose to be left at a comfortless way station midway over the Alps at midnight Saturday night, rather than to contmue his journey on the Sabbath. He reverenced the Sabbath and the sanctuary. He was planted in the house of the Lord, and he flour- ished in the courts of our God. If we turn now from this outline of his private, public and religious life to a consideration of some of the chief elements of his character and useful- ness, the first question which will spontaneousl}^ arise in most minds will be, what was the secret of his success in business. The secret of what he did lay in what he was, as is always true, especially of men who do much, and the foundation of what he was, was laid, of course, in the nature which God gave him. He inherited from his parents a good physical and mental constitution. He had a healthy Ijody, an attractive person, and a well-balanced mind. In child- hood and youth his mind and manners were culti- vated in good schools, but still more in the best society; for there is no better society than that which gathers about the fireside of a New Eng- land pastor and forms the circle in which he moves. He always mourned his loss of a classical education, and was disposed to depreciate himself COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. 49 unduly in comparison with educated men. This felt want of the education of the schools was in- tensely aggravated in his own view by the early failure and perpetual weakness of his eye-sight. Never after he was of age was he able to read through a book or an article. Never during all his business and public life could he read his o's\ti correspondence, a newspaper, or even a chapter of the Bible. But he triumphed over all these ad- verse circumstances, and wrested wisdom, in spite of fate, from the very clutches of necessity. Mrs. Williston read everything to him and for him ; the ear took the place of the eye, oral of written in- struction, somewhat as in the primitive ages ; he remembered whatever he heard, and was remark- ably well informed on all subjects of general and practical interest. He educated himself by the discipline of necessity, and the rub and polish of intelligent work, and the attritions of business, and association with cultivated men and women, and observation of men and things, and travel in his own country a:^d in foreign lands, and faithful im- provement of every opportunity for learning and general culture. Thus he acquired an education that fitted him better than any mere book knowledge for the work to which he was called, and qualified 7 50 COMMEMORATIVE DISCOUESE. him, not indeed to shine in the pulpit, or on the platform, or in the popular assembly (for he was neither born nor trained to be an orator), but to adorn private, social and public life. A benignant countenance, a commanding and yet winning presence, gentle speech and courteous man- ners were no unimportant elements of his power and influence. He was a gentleman, not only in the par- lor and the social circle, but in the office, in the bank, on the street, and in all his business relations. His gentle manners and winning ways attracted strangers, won the hearts of his workmen, and pre- disposed merchants and manufacturers to transact business with him. He had an eye for beauty. He cultivated a taste for architecture and works of art. As his means enlarged, his style of dress, his manner of living, his house and furniture and grounds were attractive as became a gentleman in his station, and he adorned his native place with public edifices in which utility and beauty were most happily combined. The haljits of economy and industry, in which he was brought up from his childhood, and to which he adhered through all his subsequent life, were among the most obvious and direct means of his prosperity. He never wasted either time COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. 51 or money. At the summit of his wealth and lib- erahty, he was never above the practice of econ- omy; and with good reason, for economy was the very foundation both of his wealth and his liber- ality. Even so our Lord, after feeding thousands miraculously with a few loaves and fishes, bade his disciples " Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing may be lost." He was always a man of indefatigable industry. In his early life, he worked hard with his hands; in middle life and old age, he worked equally hard with his mind. Like the celebrated painter, he mixed all his colors with brains. Till he had passed the prime of life, he used to rise at five and breakfast at six ; then followed the devotions of the family and the closet, which he never omitted, however great the pres- sure and hurry of business. Then he would fol- low his business, or rather lead it, all day long, working as many hours as any day laborer; and in the evening, he was always busy answering letters, reading newspapers and useful books, or rather hearing them read, and devoting to the im- provement of his mind, and the acquisition of use- ful knowledge, every moment that was not due to domestic, social and religious duty. He was never too old to learn, and never too rich to be industrious. 52 COMMEMORATIVE DISCOUESE. This indefatigable industry was accompanied and made effectual by indomitable perseverance and unconquerable resolution. He always considered and reconsidered any new enterprise of importance be- fore he undertook it, weighed it carefully in his own mind and in his own room, where there was nothing to disturb his dehberations, consulted oth- ers if it was a matter that admitted and required consultation, and took counsel with God in re- peated seasons of prayer. When he had thus de- cided upon an undertaldng, he executed it with unhesitating promptness and irresistible firmness. Nothing could then stop him but absolute impos- sibilities. There was no such word as cant in his vocabulary, but / will, or I'll try, was on every page of his dictionary. If the roof of the seminary build- ing blew oft" in the night, the next morning the men and the materials were engaged, perchance on hand, for replacing it. If the church was burned to the ground, or almost demolished by the fall of the steeple, nothing was to be done but to re- build it at once in better style than ever. If a mill-dam was swept away the first time the water was let in, and the quicksands rendered it im- practicable to rebuild it on the same spot, it could and should be constructed a little higher up COMMEMORATIVE DISCOUESE. 53 the stream ; and it was done at an expense of twenty or thirty thousand dollars ; but it brought him hundreds of thousands in the end. These two things, caution and deliberation in deciding, and then promptness and firmness in executing — these two things he was accustomed to consider the main secret of his success in business. There are two other things which stand in a similar relation to each other, which I cannot but think, were scarcely less conducive to his great prosperity. The first is, that he attended to his own business. He not only oversaw and directed the whole, but he looked with his OAvn eyes into the minutest details. Perhaps he carried this to an unnecessary minuteness that was exhausting to himself and tedious to his factors and agents. I have heard this criticism. But he was fully per- suaded that it was essential to success. And Frank- lin seems to have been of the same opinion : He that by the plow would thrive, Himself must either hold oi- drive. Take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves. I have no doubt that the con- stant presence of his eye and his hand was worth thousands of dollars to his business, every year, to 54 COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. the very last year of his Ufe. The vakie of that constant presence and mflucnce not only to his business, but to the town, to the Seminary, and even to Amherst College, we can fully appreciate, like many of our richest blessings, only by its loss. I am confident we shall all estimate it far higher ten years hence than we do to-day. While he was thus watchful and careful in the supervision of his own affairs, in beautiful equipoise with this, like those centripetal and centrifugal forces which preserve the equilibrium of the ma- terial universe, he was not less remarkable for the wisdom and skill with which he selected and em- ployed the agency of others. He had a rare power of discerning character. He seldom mistook in his judgment of men. I have myself had a great deal to do with him in canvassing the merits of teachers and preachers; and I have always been struck with his wisdom and discernment. In the sphere of his own business, his judgment would, of course, be still more unerring. He always thought himself fortunate — I think he was also wise — in obtaining the very best men, at once capable and faithful, for partners, superintendents, agents and employees of every kind in his business. And this, in my opinion, was among the main secrets of COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. 55 his success. It always has been a chief element of power and greatness in the history of great men. It is only a few things, at most, that any man can see directly wdth his ow^n eyes and do with his own hands. The rest he must accomplish through the agency of other men. He therefore who know^s how to find the right men and put them in the right place — as Socrates, that profound thinker and observer of human affairs, has remarked — he it is that accomplishes almost without fail wdiatever he undertakes. He not only found superior men to co-operate with him, but wdiat was more, what was a striking proof of his own greatness, he developed them, he trained them, he made them — made them not merely his agents but his partners and coadjutors, and, like those institutions which he founded, left them to live when he was dead, to work when his work was done, to continue and extend his business, to widen and deepen his influence, to beautify and build up Easthampton, to support and strengthen Payson Church, and, in person and through those whom they in like manner shall raise up, to foster and found colleges, seminaries, missions and char- itable institutions in this vicinity, in this and in other lands, that shall not only last but live and 56 COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. do o'ood and bless the church and the world till time shall be no more. Besides the wise and good men whom he thus trained and educated, he had two silent part- ners that were worth more to him and to his business than they all. The best partners any man can have — and every good man may have them — are a prudent, pious, loving wife, and a wise, kind, guarding and guiding Heavenly Father. The man who always takes counsel with the unerring intui- tions and Christian impulses of a good wife, and with the providence, word and spirit of God, will seldom, if ever, go astray, and can hardly fail to be a wise, prosperous, useful and happy man. And such, I need not say, was the supreme felicity of Samuel Williston. lie could meet the challenge of the wise man in the last chapter of Proverbs triumphantly, and answer his question without a moment's hesitation : " Who can find a virtuous woman ? for her price is far above rabies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life. She seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands. She is like tlie merchants' ships, she bringeth her food from afar. Her husband is COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. 57 known in the' gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land. She maketh fine linen and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the mer- chants. She openeth her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue is the law of kindness. Her chil- dren rise up and call her blessed ; her husband also, and he praiseth her. Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all." That picture does not need to be labeled. With this accurate knowledge of men, w^as as- sociated a no less discriminating and correct dis- cernment of things. He kept himself well informed in matters of business, politics, morals and religion. He observed, he read, he inquired, he reflected. And when he acted, it was with such an insight into the present and such a foresight of the fu- ture, that he rarely made a mistake in his judg- ment of markets, stocks and prices : and business men who knew him w^ere not afraid to buv when Mr. Williston bought, and thought it wise to sell wdien Mr. Williston sold. The wisdom and success with which he conducted his large business amid all the conflicting currents, quicksands and breakers of peace and war, of commercial changes and po- litical revolutions, till he had reached the age of three-score years and ten, show a capacity that 68 COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. could have guided the ship of state or the finances of the nation, if the helm had been committed to his hands. With these high intellectual endowments, he united that integrity and fidelity to all his engage- ments which alone can inspire confidence, and there- fore which alone can ensure lasting prosperity. Almost at the beginning of his business in the great cities, he had gained such a character for honesty and honor, that large merchants would give him a carte hlanche for their orders, and ask no questions about prices, saying, '•' You know best — look at our stock — see what we want, and supply the deficiency." And this character he never forfeited. All who had dealings with him knew that he would be faithful to his engagements, and would expect them to be prompt in the fulfillment of theirs. Scrupulously honest and conscientious in the minutest details of business himself, he acted in strict conformity with the golden rule, ^vhen he required the same minute exactness of others in business transactions. Thus he inculcated honesty, while, at the same time, he inspired confidence, in all around him. But he was more than conscientious. He aimed to be Christian in the management of his business. From the time already mentioned when he renewed COMMEMOKATIVE DISCOURSE. 69 his consecration to the service of God, he regarded his time and talents and property and business, as no longer his own. The business was the Lord's, and he was merely the agent. The Lord was the owner of the property, and he was only a trustee, an over- seer, a steward intrusted with the care and manage- ment of it. Of course, he felt bound to conduct the business in accordance with the will of the owner, to pay over the income at his order, and to hold the principal subject to his disposal. This, therefore, he made the matter of his daily, and almost hourly study, meditation and prayer. No other subject occasioned him so much thought and anxiety. Be- sides his regular hours of prayer, morning and even- ing, he had his special seasons of prayer and self- examination every week ; he asked wisdom from on high in ejaculatory petitions many times a day, and took counsel with God and with wise and good men at every suitable opportunity, and all with reference to this more than any, and perhaps all other ques- tions: How shall I best serve God in the use of the property, and in the conduct of the business with which he has intrusted me. And when we have taken into account all the other elements that en- tered directly and obviously into the result, I cannot doubt that we must reckon in the special blessing of 60 COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. Heaven on this method of conducting his business as the grand secret of his prosperity. Such, at any rate, was the hght in which he was ahvays in the habit of looking at the subject. Mr. WilHston was not naturally more generous than other men. It was the regenerating, and sanc- tifying grace of God, that made him such a liberal giver. When, in their poverty, his parents persisted in giving for charitable objects, Samuel, who was toiling on the farm for the supj^ort of the family, and who was not then a converted man, sometimes doubted if it were not an excess of charity. More than once I have heard him sa}^ that he thought it hard when his father subscribed a few dollars to aid the college to which he has, himself, given hundreds of thousands. He had a natural love of money, and the value which he attached to it was enhanced by the want of it which he experienced in early life, and still further strengthened by the very nature and processes of the business in which tlic foundations of his fortune were laid. When he began to accumulate rapidly, ambition, of which he was by no means destitute, would most naturally have conspired with the desire of accumulation and impelled him in a Ijold career of enlarging his business, investing his gains, and thus amassing an COMMEMOEATIVE DISCOUESE. 61 immense property. From his own testimony, as well as from the nature of the case and the judg- ment of others, I am led to believe that it cost him a struggle with his natural inchnations, and his early habits — more of a struggle than it does many men — to distribute his income for charitable objects, instead of investing it for larger, and more rapid accumulation. It Avas not for his own pleas- ure or reputation — such was his testimony on the subject — it was not for his own present gratification or future fame that he gave away his thousands, and hundreds of thousands. But, if he knew his own heart, it was from Christian principle ; it was from a sense of duty to God and mankind. The love of Christ constrained him, and no other power could have impelled him to such labors, self-denials and sacrifices. Benevolence was not so much a passion as a principle with Mr. WillistoUj and he conducted his charities with just as much method and s^^stem as he did his business. '' Method is the very hinge of business," was the placard which was ever be- fore the eyes of the workmen in his button mill. The same motto governed his whole religious life. He planned his giving on the same magnificent scale, and with the same thoughtful forecast as he 62 COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. did his manufacturing; adhered to his beneficent phms, promises and engagements, with the same fixed purpose ; disbursed charities as regularly and systematically as he paid debts or wages ; met calls for extraordinary donations, as promptly and liberally, as hopefully and courageously as he did unforeseen exigencies in his business, and was as ready to borrow money, if need be, for the one purpose as for the other. Indeed, his pledges were almost always in advance of his receipts. He pledged the money for Williston Seminary, and for each of his $50,000 donations to Amherst College, before he had made it, and he often did the same to meet an emergency of the American Board and of Home Missions. He would no more have lost a great opportunity of doing good for want of money, actually in hand, than he would for that reason, have let slip a rare chance of mak- ing a pecuniary investment. In short, nothing shows more clearly the consistency and true great- ness of his character, than the fact that he was so manifestly one and the same man, acting on the same principles, and by the same methods, whether in his business or his religion. He made a re- ligion of his business, and he made a business of his religion. They were only different departments COMMEMOEATIVE DISCOURSE. 63 of the same great life-work wherein the business methodized, informed and vitalized the religion, while the religion, in turn, elevated, hallowed and transfigured the business. In this, as in many other thinojs, he showed himself a o-enuine son of the Puritans, though with better manners and in a happier age. In this he was like Paul and John ; nay, in this he was like Christ. The aggregate of Mr. Williston's charities, in his life-time, must have exceeded a million of dol- lars. His will provides for the distribution of from one-half to three-quarters of a million more. Considerably more than half of this magnificent sum he gave to two institutions. So far from regretting that he had done so, his only regret as he drew near to the time when he must give an account of his stewardship, was, that he could not do more — that he could not endow the col- lege as richly as he did the seminary, and furnish it as amply for its great and good work. This regret — I state it on the very best authority — this regret weighed on his heart, wore upon his health, and helped to shorten his life. The sor- est trial of his later years was, not the loss of property, not the mortification of com]3arative failure in his last business enterprise, but that he 64 COMMEMOEATIVE DISCOURSE. was thereby prevented from providing his beloved Amherst with the pecuniary means of realizing his exalted idea of a Christian college. Providence had obviously raised him up and marked him out to be a founder of educational institutions His own experience, both positive and negative, his high appreciation of what edu- cation he had, and his passionate desire, his long hunger and intense thirst for more, impressed him deeply with the value of the higher educa- tion given in academies and colleges. His expe- rience as a charity student at Phillips Academy showed him the necessity of funds and endow- ments to such institutions. His subsequent pros- perity gave him the means of providing such funds. His religious character and experience emphasized to him the unspeakable worth of Chris- tian seminaries of learning;. His views and feel- ings and motives in this regard were precisely such as inspired the original founders of Amherst College. He wished to found and foster institu- tions for the glory of God, and the salvation of men ; for the propagation of truth and righteous- ness in the earth. He saw that there was room for another and better Phillips Academy, in the valley of the Connecticut. He felt that there COMMEMORATIYE DISCOURSE. 66 was an imperative demand for another college as richly endowed as Harvard, but more evangelical, more Christian, in old Massachusetts. And he believed that there could be no better location for such institutions, than old Hampshire, his native county, wdiich, as statistics show^ed, already surpassed all other counties in its percentage of educated men and of church members. He be- lieved in endowing institutions of learning and re- ligion. He had good reason for this; therein as we have seen, he placed himself among the wisest, greatest, and most far-seeing of mankind. And whatever Mr. Williston did, he believed in doing it well. He always made, and provided for, the best things of their kind — the best houses, the best mills, the best machinery, the best fabrics, the best church edifices, the best colleges and sem- inaries of learning ; believing this to be at once the truest economy and the wisest policy. Like the historians and artists of ancient Greece, he wished his work to endure and be " a possession forever ;" and it is only the best structures, those which cost time and money, that endure. Besides these two great and permanent institu- tions, however, he was a constant and liberal giver to a great variety of literary, charitable and 9 66 COMMEMOIIATIVE DISCOUESE. religious objects. He contributed liberally, very lib- erally to the support of the gospel at home. He was an unfailing contributor to the regular period- ical charities of the church of which he was a member. His donations to the great national so- cieties, especially for the freedmen and home and foreign missions, were as constant as the seasons, and as generous as his resources w^ere large. He sowed beside all waters, at the same time that he planted trees, and laid foundations for many generations. Those who are skilled in such calculations can easily calculate what this million of dollars which Mr. Williston distributed in his life-time, would have amounted to at the time of his death, if it had all been invested as fast as it accrued at compound interest ; and we all know it would have been a vast sum ; it would have made one of the richest men of this age of millionaires. And how easy it would have been for him when he had made, we will say, his first fifty or hundred thousand dollars, instead of expending so much of it for charitable purposes, or even laying it out in the extension of his business, to have invested it all, as fast as it came in, in docks and bonds and rtiortgages. But where would Easthampton then have been ; where COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. 67 then would have been Williston Seminary ; what then would have become of Amherst College ; and where would our Missionary Boards and Sanitary and Christian Commissions have looked for help in their exigencies ? It would have been a luxury for a selfish miser — it would have been a natural and an intellectual pleasure for Mr. Williston to have sat still and seen his property roll up, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions, per- chance tens of millions, into a more than princely fortune. But how much purer and sweeter the pleasure of seeing his native town prosper, and the Seminary that bears his name grow, and the College that he saved extending its influence — how much greater the luxury of employing and supporting hundreds of families and thousands of hands in his business, and enlightening the eyes, gladdening the hearts, saving the souls of a multitude that no man can number, in this and in other lands, by the fruits of his beneficence ! Mr. Williston had the wisdom to make this better choice, and the satis- faction of seeing in part its happy results; and I bless God that we whom he has associated with himself in some of his counsels and trusts, have been permitted to rejoice with him in this supreme satisfaction. 68 COMMEMORATIVE DISCOUESE. Mr. Williston had an ear for music j he enjoyed highly and intelligently appreciated, as we all know, the performances of the choice bands which he was at so much jDains and expense to procure for the Anniversaries of Williston Seminary. But he once said to me that " the hum of the factory was sweeter music than the best concert he ever heard." There was a o-enuine horn hudness man. But that was not the whole sigrnificance of the remark. In order to understand all the sweetness of that music, the end which he sought in his business must be taken into consideration, as well as the means to that end. There is no happiness for man on earth like that of a great and good work prosecuted diligently, enthusiastically, for a great and good end. That was the music wdiich filled the ear and inspired the soul of Mr. Williston. I pity the man who hath none of this music in him. He is fit for treason, strata- gems and spoils. Mr. Williston was not a mere accumulator of money. He was a creator of values. He was an inventor of new fabrics, and new ways and means for their manufacture. He w^as an originator of new enterprises. He was the first and for some time the ouly manufacturer of covered buttons in the country. The manufacture of elastic suspenders COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. 69 was also a new industry. Most of the other manu- factures which he and his partners introduced into Easthampton were comparatively new enterprises. He kept in advance of the line of march in trade and manufactures, and by the time the rest of the line came up so as to share the business and divide the profits, he was ready, if necessary, to enter upon some new and more remunerative business. At the same time, so far-seeing and so conservative have been his plans, that the first button company of the country is now the largest covered-button concern in the world ; and most of the other com- panies still take the lead in their several lines of business. Williston Seminary, founded to be a clas- sical school of the hiu;hest order and to become an English college, was a new idea; or, rather, it was at once novel and conservative — it was, like the works of God and all the greatest and best works of men, a development and at the same time a crea- tion. And the way in which he provided in his will for its continued growth and progress for at least a generation or two to come, was as unique as the institution itself, and as sagacious as it was original and peculiar. An almost uninterrupted tide of prosperity bore Mr. Williston along from year to year, and from 70 COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. one new and successful enterprise to another, for more than thirty years, until in 1866, when he was already more than three-score years and ten, he entered upon by far the largest and most ad- venturous of all his undertakings; the building of the last Williston mill and the manuflicture of cotton sewing thread. This proved a failure, cost him the direct loss of half a million of money, and indirectl}^ no one can calculate how much more, oppressed his declining years with disappointment and anxiety, brought on a tortur- ing, chronic, incurable disease, and shortened his days by perhaps a decade of years that should have been the most fruitful and happy years of his life. His own judgment in review of this period of life is contained in the last letter which I ever received from him, in which he says, " My experience leads me to think that a man of seventy years should draw his business into a smaller compass rather than enlarge it." It is understood that he did not follow the advice of one of his silent partners in this move. Whether he misunderstood the counsel of the other, or whether a kind and wise Providence intended to teach him lessons in the school of adversity that he could never have learned in prosperity, and COMMEMOKATIVE DISCOURSE. 71 to bestow on him inward and spiritual blessings of far more value than money, is a question which can be answered only in the light of an- other world. It is not strange, however, that he took that unfortunate step. His prosperity was at the spring-tide. The successes and gains of the war were enormous. He was flush Avith health, strength, courage, hope, self-reliance and trust in God. Ambition and benevolence both seemed to bid him go forward. That music which so charmed and inspired him at once as a business man and a Christian, filled his ears and impelled him on- w^ard. So far as success in business was con- cerned, it was now destined to prove the song of the sirens. But it had been the song of the seraphs in all his p)i'evious life, and how was he to dis- tinguish ? But, perhaps, this sore trial was need- ful for his spiritual good. Doubtless, on the whole, it was wisely ordered, and sanctified and over- ruled to work in him the peaceable fruits of righteousness. Certainly he developed under its influence in his latter days some of the sweetest, loveliest, richest fruits of his broad, deep and man- ifold character. He has been accused, perhaps I should say sus- pected, of being ambitious and of giving, not so /Z COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. much for the sake of alleviatino; son'ow and doino; good, as of gaining a name. But what great and good man is not ambitious ? If it is a weakness, it is the last infirmity of noble minds. When wisely guided and properly controlled, it is the strongest and grandest impulse to great achieve- ments. A sanctified ambition is one of the holi- est motives to good' works. And who does not aspire to a good name ? Has not inspiration pro- nounced it to be better than precious ointment ? In due subordination to other and higher princi- ples, the desire to perpetuate one's name is a proper motive for a man and a Christian. And if ever a man fully resolved and strove earnestly to keep this motive in complete subordination to the glory of God and the good of mankind, that man — if I knew him, and if he knew himself — that man was Mr. Williston. When a great ob- ject was to be accomplished, he was as willing to give large sums of money without his name as with it. Witness his munificent donation to Walker Hall in Amherst, which was to bear the name of another donor, and his repeated efforts to obtain still larger donations both from Dr. Walker and Mr. Hitchcock, whom a selfish ambition would rather have discouraged and set aside as rivals, as COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. 73 competitors for the highest place among the friends and patrons of the institution. It was not merely to perpetuate his own memory that he gave his name to the seminary, and the foundations which he established. It was essential to the prosperity and usefulness of Williston Seminary that it should be called, not like high schools and small academies, by the name of the place, but like other larger and better endowed institutions, by the name of the founder ; and for this reason, he was urged by his wisest and best counselors, to give it his name. It was for the interest of Amherst College that his foundations and his college edifice, should be called by his name, as an advertisement to the public, that it was at least, partially endowed, and also as an example and an inducement to others to do likewise. And if the Trustees should vote to call the institution " Williston College, or the University at Amherst," as he forbade them to do w^hile he lived, but as in gratitude and honor they are bound to do, now that he is dead, and as every officer and every student who was connected with it, when he made the donation that saved it, would hold up both hands to have them do, it would not redound more to the honor of the donor, than it would conduce to the reputation and prosperity of the in.stitution. 10 74 COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. He has been charged with driving sharp bargains, getting a great deal of work out of his men, and too rigidly exacting every cent of his dues. It is a charge wliich is often made against those who have grown rich by close calculations, careful watching of the markets and nice balancing of wages and prices, especially in the manufacture and sale of small articles at an almost infinites- imally small profit on each article. Sometimes it is made honestly and candidly, but frequently, I suspect, in sheer envy and jealousy; and generally, I think, it is made ignorantly, without any real consideration of the facts or the principles in- volved. The same charge was made against Sam- uel Jiudgett, the Christian merchant and philan- thropist of Kingswood, near Bristol, England, who began his career of money-making and money- saving in his boyhood, when he j^icked up a horse- shoe, went three miles with it and got a penny for it, and continued it till he gave away f 10,000 a year for philanthropic objects. And the charge was answered at length, and I think conclusively, by Mr. Bayne in his " Christian Life." The chief points of his answer are briefly these : To buy cheaj) and sell dear is the law of trade and the only way fortunes are made. In this process he COMMEMORATIVE DISCOUESE. 75 who has the capital and the faculty will inevitably have the advantao;e over him who has not. It you see the gleam of a gold vein where I saw only clay, the reward is justly yours; if you know the ground where corn will grow better than I, your sheaves must be more numerous than mine ; if you have stronger sinews and more persever- ance, and choose to toil for hours in the wester- ing sun after I have unyoked my team, you must lay a wider field under seed than I. The pearls are for him that can and will dive, the golden apples for him that can and will climb. His men had a profound knowledge that he was not to be trifled with. The incompetent and the indolent were promptly discharged. A man must perform what he undertook, or he must go. " Why, sir," said one who had been long in his service, "■ I do believe as /le would get, ay, just twice as much work out o' a man in a week as another master." Business is one thing and charity is another. Business must be conducted in business ways and on business principles. Now, large gains by means of small profits on large sales is a prime rule, is almost a first principle of success in trade or man- ufactures. And to demand that this shall be criven up in one instance — whether it be by increase of I COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. wages, reduction of prices, relaxation of services or release of debts, is virtually to demand that it shall be given up in all cases ; and to give it up in all cases were to knock out the very corner- stone both of individual success and of public prosperity. All that can be demanded under the name of manufacturing or mercantile honor is, not charity, but justice and fairness. And this, not charity, but justice and fairness, is at once for the individual weal and for the public good. It is nature's own way of spurring on the indolent and having her work well done ; and however in- dividuals may smart or grumble, it most effectually subserves the interests of the community. He sometimes gave offence to employees by the rare truthfulness and frankness with which he told them what was for their good. He never feared to speak out what he believed to be his own rights, or their duties in the relation that existed between them. He never would conceal or dis- guise the truth when, in his opinion, justice to himself or the welfare of others required it to be spoken. Severe in judging himself, he some- times became conscious that he had been too se- vere in censuring others, and then he was just as frank in retracting the censure as he had been in COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. 77 uttering it, aiid just as ready to make honorable amends to the humblest workman as he would have been to a person of the most exalted station. He not only condescended to men of low estate, but when time permitted, and as occasion required, he conversed with them in the most intimate and winning wa3^ He sympathized with the j^oor, for he had been poor, and he proved himself to them a friend in need and so a friend indeed. For he not only gave them money, which is a comparatively easy thing for a man of wealth to do, but what is far better, he gave them thought and care and wise counsel ; he tried to put them in the way of earning a livelihood for themselves ; he helped them to form habits of industry, economy, tem- perance and piety ; he suffered with them in their sorrows and rejoiced with them in their prosperity; he was always faithful and true to them, though they did not always fulfill their promises to him ; in short, he was a father to them, and like their Father in Heaven, he was kind even to the un- thankful and the evil. I have in my possession the strongest written testimonies to this effect, accompanied by the most touching expressions of gratitude and affection from those whom he thus befriended in health and in sickness, and whom 78 COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. he thus lifted from extreme poverty to circum- stances of comparative comfort and independence. Mr. Williston's character was not perfect, any more than his judgment was infaUible. Doubtless he had much to contend with. Great men, strong natures always have. But who of us is perfect. He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone. And when we look at the pure, solid, mas- sive orold of his noble character and his useful life, the canker and rust of real faults is scarcely dis- cernible ; while some of these alleged faults are seen to be only the alloy which is essential to the value and use of the current coin. The history of Mr. Williston's private life was quite peculiar. His domestic and social affections were tender and strong. When he had already come to be a prosperous and, for those times, a wealthy man, a friend congratulated him on his suc- cess in business. His reply was, " I would gladly give up every dollar and begin life a poor man, if I could only have back my children that I have lost." If we may trust the testimony of their grandmother Williston — a partial, perhaps, and yet a competent and credible witness — they were singularly lovely and beautiful children, constitutionally, if not even morbidly, gentle, amiable and religious, such chil- COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. 79 dren, " with less of earth in them than heaven," as give us glimpses of what the children of God are in their Father's house, and so, as "fire ascend- ing seeks the sun," they Avere soon translated to their proper sphere. Ere this, we may believe, the}^ have been restored to the embrace of their loving, longing father. Perhaps they were wait- ing to welcome him at the heavenlj^ gates, the same yet how different, still childlike and dis- tinctly recognizable, yet in what loftier stature and in such forms of seraphic beauty and glory as we can scarcely imagine. He loved also his adopted children, cherished them in their childhood, cared for their education, rejoiced in their ripening virtues and graces, and felt, as well he might, all a father's complacency in their character, pleasure in their prosperity, pride and exultation in their honors and successes.' And when at the celebration of their golden wedding, their eight children (counting husbands and wives) and their sixteen grandchildren were gathered about them at the old homestead, it was as pretty a pic- ture as is often seen in this imperfect world; nothing seemed wanting to make their happiness complete. And that husband and wife, during the fifty-two years that they were spared to each other, how 80 COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. bad they shared each other's toils and cares, con- sulted each other's interests and wishes, and known each other's inmost thoughts and feelings as if they were their own; how had they planned and prayed and sorrowed and rejoiced together ; how had they always traveled together and returned together, visited or staid at home together, gone out and come in and risen up and sat down together, and lived and moved and had their being in and for each other, always not only one flesh, but palpably one mind, one heart, one spirit — almost alicays in one ijlace, till they seemed, even to their neigh- bors, how much more to themselves, inseparable the one from the other ! She was eyes and ears and feet and hands to him. He was head and heart and soul and spirit to her. Each was the other's life — each the other's higher, better, dearer self AVho can conceive the pang, the tvreiich when such a couple are separated — who imagine the blessedness of a speedy, perfect and perpetual re- union in heaven ! Mr. Williston's relation to his brothers was beauti- ful ; his affection for them was very tender. Samuel resembled his mother; Nathan is the living image of his father ; Payson was like and yet strangely unlike both. And it seemed as if the spirits of COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. 81 the parents hovered over the brothers whenever they met, and drew them towards each other with a more than fraternal love. The two brothers who have deceased were as unlike each other in their person, manners and character as they were in their ways of doing good — the one ever sowing seed for an immediate harvest, the other planting trees and founding institutions for many generations. It was beautiful to hear them rally each other on their differences and their peculiarities, and at the same time to see how manifestly they sought the same end in different ways, and, although person- ally unlike, they were one in spirit. Lovely and pleasant in their lives, in death 'they were not long divided. But, methinks, the happiness of the two brothers will not be quite perfect till the third has joined them in the better land. Mr. Williston had a healthy and hearty affection for his native place. I fear his fellow -townsmen do not realize how much he loved it, nor fully ap- preciate how much he has done for it. I suspect they do not know, as well as I do, how near they came to losing him. He believed he might become richer, he hesitated for a time w^hether he might not also be more useful, to found Williston Semin- ary somewhere else, and himself go with it. After 11 82 COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. much prayerful aud anxious deliberation, he decided to remain; and love for the place of his birth was one, and not the smallest, of the weights that turned the scale. He found Easthampton a mere hamlet, with an old meetino;-house on the common and a few poor farms scattered around. He left it one of the richest and most beautiful towns in Hamp- shire County, a great educational and manufacturing center, with beautiful farm-houses, (villas they might almost be called,) and several model villages clus- terino" about eleo-ant churches and a model sem- inary of learning. He turned its very brooks into silver and its sands to gold — not, however, the gold and silver of the miser, but that of the Latin poet, which shines only by its use. The town will be known in history as his birthplace. Strangers will visit the spot where he was born, the house in which he lived and died, and the grave in which he was buried — he who founded Williston Seminary, and saved Amherst College, and lived and acquired wealth only to glorify God and do good to men. And not only the seminary, but the town, Avill be the monument of Samuel Wihiston. Eeligion was the controlling principle of Mr. Williston's life. The editor of the daily morning newspaper of our valley speaks of the objects of COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. 83 his life as two : " The making of money and the serving of God." That is not, perhaps, wide of the mark. But he himself, I am sure, would have preferred another way of stating it. In his own consciousness his object was one, viz., the serving of God by the making of money. That which the London Times said of Mr, Peabody may with equal truth and emphasis be said of Mr. Willis- ton : " He did not become charitable because he had become rich, but he became rich that he might be charitable." But with the former charity was an end, while with the latter even charity was chiefly a means to please and honor God. Charity with him was the fruit of Christian piety. Hu- mility, reverence, worship and obedience were also marked characteristics of his religion. He feared God and kept his commandments. He was emi- nently conscientious. He was anxious — literally and emphatically anxious, to know and do his whole duty. He was inflexibly resolved on doing right. His theology was that of the Puritans and the Pil- grim fathers. Like them his religion Avas cast in the mould of the Old Testament. The faith, hope, love and joy of the gospel were not wanting, but they were less conspicuous. Yet he believed in the Lord Jesus Christ with all his heart and loved 84 COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. him supremely. He never doubted the truth of Christiauity, the inspiration of the Scriptures, the doctrines of evangelical religion, the divinity of Christ and his power to save the chief of sinners. He only doubted his own personal relations to Christ and the great salvation, or as he would have expressed it, his personal acceptance. Of this he wanted assurance. This, however, seems to have been given him, in good measure, as he drew near his end. " I think I am going through safe — indeed, I think I may say, I know I am." "If there is anything I hate it is sin ; and I know I love the Lord Jesus Christ and his cause." "I am in my heavenly Father's hands, and he will do that which is right and best for me." These were amono; his last utterances. He died Saturday, July 18th, and was buried Mon- day, July 20tli, from his own house, which was filled with the friends and distinguished strangers, while the people of the town crowded the lawn, at the doors and beneath the windows, mourners all, to express their sympathy with the family, to bemoan their own loss and to do honor to his memory. Tiie richest legacy he has left us is his charac- ter and his example. Happy will it be for his COMMEMOEATIVE DISCOURSE. 85 family and friends, his neighbors and acquaint- ances, if they tread in the footsteps of his faith and good works. It behooves the trustees of the institutions which he has founded to be faithful to their trust and keep and build them up on the foundations which he has laid. He loved them as his children and provided for them as his heirs; it is our duty and privilege to care for them as wards and to cherish them as if they were our own daughters. The teachers and pupils of these seminaries should never forget his answer — so often repeated by his lips and so w^ell illustrated in his W'hole life — to the first question in religion and the highest question in philosophy : What is the chief end of man ? He believed w^ith all his heart that his chief end and the chief end of every man is "to glorify God and enjoy him forever." He has taught the rich the right use of money and the wisdom of being their own executors. And we may all learn from him the beauty and the secret of a truly noble life. .Ci ■n THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW. Series 9482 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACIU^^ AA 000 874 585 3 a i