sake of Mr. Hoisington's aid in his Tamil studies, which he had kept up through the year, and enjoyed exceedingly a return to his old haunts. Once more he took his favorite walks, went into the college exercises, and showed the attachment of a son to his old home. He had for some time been considering the project of spending a year or two years in teaching at the South, and was rather perplexed, partly from the difficulty of obtaining a desirable situation, partly from the strong aversion which he felt from postponing too long his departure for India. He visited New York after his stay in Williamstown, but found little satisfaction, and returned to Andover to reside for the short term, still undecided in his plans.

The beauty of this gentle country captivated him, and he was light-hearted as he studied by his open window, or sought for early flowers along Indian Ridge. "Dingy, dark Myrtle Street!" he writes to his sister, "what misery to be shut up there this charming day. Andover is coming out in all its gayety and loveliness; and our room—just as pleasant as it can be, looking out on the old orthodox green, so very orthodox that all the paths are at right angles, and no cuts across. I could wish for no better days for study. The rigor of winter not yet departed: just at that temperature where a fire is not needed, and where heat is not felt. I am in perfect trim for study. And I am happy God be blessed for happiness.". His perplexity regarding the coming year kept him, however, unsettled, and liable to returns of his old enemy, morbidness, not yet wholly overcome. The one strong desire in his heart was to get to India; some of his friends in the Senior class were making their preparations for depart

ure, and every sound quickened his own desire. Often in his brief diary of events and books read, he breaks out "Shall I ever be in India? Can it be?" and one could not fail to see that this was the desire of his heart, driving him willingly forward. Yet his judgment assured him that the right course was to wait. Friends wished him to intermit two years, but he would consent only to leave the seminary for one. Whilst he was thus hasting, as if he had intimation that his time was short, one can easily imagine that different feelings prevailed in the hearts of his home: they are best expressed by the following passage from a letter of his father's:

BOSTON, July 15, 1856.

MY DEAR SON-I do not wonder that you begin to feel some solicitude, as to what disposition you should make of yourself for the coming year, if you do not pursue your theological studies, for a state of uncertainty is anything but pleasant. . . . . I have thought a good deal of late about you, particularly since I received your letter which you sent to me just before you last came down. I have prayed much for you, and feel much for you, more than I have ever expressed. When you made known to us your intention to become a missionary of the cross, and to devote yourself to your Saviour in a foreign field, I felt that you had done so from a conviction of duty, and from love to our dear Redeemer, and I could not throw any obstacles in the way, however painful the thought might be that after a season we should be separated from you, perhaps for this life in respect to myself, it will only be for a short time. I have almost arrived at the common age of man, and if you remained in this country, I should be

quite as likely to be deprived of your society, as God might have employment for you in some distant portion of our own land; so that, on the whole, I could feel to rejoice that God had inclined your heart to enter upon the field of duty you have chosen. And now, my dear son, if you are convinced that God in his providence points out to you this way to glorify Him, let nothing hinder you from prosecuting your design: do what you can to qualify yourself for the work, but deliberately, and with no undue haste. I do not want you to hasten away before you are fully prepared: while this work of preparation is going on, you will undoubtedly have some trying seasons, a sense of duty and inclination may come into conflict, you will have temptations, but look away from yourself to Him who redeemed you with His blood, and who will reward you for every act of self-denial you may make for Him, by imparting to you more of His grace, and giving you sweet peace, in the consciousness that, though you leave father, mother, brothers and sister, for His sake and the Gospel's, you will receive a hundred-fold in this life, and in the world. to come life everlasting.

At the close of the year, in August, 1856, he went to Williamstown again, to be present at a Mission Jubilee, held in connection with the College Commencement, to celebrate the fiftieth year since Mills and his associates inaugurated the Mission movement beneath a haystack, in Sloan's Meadows. The ground where the haystack stood had been purchased for a Mission Park of ten acres, by the friends of the college, and it

was intended to hold the jubilee there; it was even proposed by the enthusiastic professor who was the chief mover, to have a Bungalow on the grounds, for the accommodation of the visitors. That, however, was given up, and the day proving stormy, the exercises were held in the church. Regular addresses were given, a number of missionaries spoke, and David, who had taken a lively interest in the affair, appeared with some ancient letters of Mills, together with the original constitution, in cypher, of the society formed by him. In a letter to a friend just sailing for India, he gives this brief account of his share in the proceedings:

"It rained all the time, hence the haystack was not resorted to, and we did not meet in the Bungalow as was expected. But the church was comfortable, and we enjoyed the occasion highly. It really passed off finely. Professor Hopkins's was the main address, and an able production. He brought in two of his hobbies, which limped slightly, a Mission Seminary in this country, as preparatory for a foreign field, where languages could be taught by returned missionaries, and lectures on the philosophy and character of different countries be delivered. Also his colonization plan, of sending out Christian farmers, mechanics, and so on, to work religion into the pagans. In the Alumni meeting next morning, a resolution was passed that proper measures be taken for the establishment of a Mission School as soon as thought advisable. So that may amount to something yet. In the midst of his speech, he said Let Mills speak for himself,' and sung out at the top of his voice, 'And we've a young brother from Andover come up to help us!' Whereupon, with stately step and solemn, I marched upon the stage and

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delivered the constitution into the hands of the chairman. He handed it to Dr. Cox to decipher, when we had quite an interesting colloquy. I then read a portion of the letters, and retired—a lion."

He visited New York again, when he found an opportunity to act as Bible colporteur in the neighborhood of Orange, New Jersey, whither he went, after a short visit home, in September, 1856.