he will "ever be with the Lord." This language, we are fully persuaded, is equally applicable to the venerable and beloved man whose loss we now deplore.

On his occasion I should do injustice to my own feelings and his memory, and I doubt not disappoint the reasonable expectations of many present, were I not to give some occount of his hife and character, his labors in the vineyard of his Divine Master, and his views and anticipations of the solemn event which has occasioned these services.

David Porter was born in Hebron, Connecticut, May 27th, 1761. His father's name was Increase Porter. His mother's, previous to her marriage, was Mary Niles. Of her he could have known very little, as she died when he was but four years old. With the exception of ten months, which he spent in the army of the Revolution, he resided in his father's famitill he was about eighteen years of age.

In the year 1780, he entered Darmouth College, and was graduated in 1784. During his collegiate course he devoted himself with great assiduity to his studies, and attained a high reputation for scholarship. What rendered that period of his life most deeply interesting and memorable, however, was the change which took place in his views and feelings respecting the infinitely important subject of religion. From his childhood he had been occasionally the subject of deep religious impressions. The second year of his collegiate life, the college and vicinity were visited by a remarkable effusion of the Holy Spirit Devoted to his studies, and fixed in his purpose to attain eminence in them, at the commencement of this work of grace, he resolved not to have his attention diverted from the object which he had in view. But God had other purposes concerning him. He soon became the subject of agonizing convictions of sin. "I was brought," he said "to see my heart,-its total sinfulness And feel myself utterly lost and undone." In a few weeks he indulged the pleasing hope of reconciliation to God and accptance "in the Beloved," and soon after made a public profession of his faith in Christ and devotion to his service.

The two and a half years immediately succeeding the close of his collegiate life he spent in Portsmouth, N. H., in teaching and in studies preparatory to the ministry, under the direction of the Rev. Dr. Buckminiter, of that town, and the Rev. Dr. Stephens, of Kettery. Soon after he was licen sed to preach the Gospel, he labored several months in Sanford, in the State of Maine, and was invited to take the pastoral charge of the church in that place, but, for reaso is which he deemed sufficient, he declined the acceptance of the call.

In Febuary, 1787, he accepted a call from the Congregational Church of Spencertown, N. Y., and on the 24th day of September, in the same year, he was ordained and installed

pastor of that church, by an ecclesiastical council, called for that purpose.

In October, 1791, he was married to Miss Sarah Collins, daughter of the Rev. Daniel Collins, of Lanesborough, Mass. Delicacy forbids me to say more, and a sense of justice allows me to say no less, than that she was eminently fitted for the station which she was called to fill, and proved to be to Mr. Porter in all respects, "a help, meet for him-" by the kindness of a benignant Providence, they were permitted to enjoy each other's society, and by the soothing and joyous offices of conjugal affection, to minister to each other's happiness almost sixty years. During this period they enjoyed great domestic blessings, and were the subjects of repeated and severe afflictions. Of the six children born to them, only the eldest daughter, the wife of Henry Hill, Esq., of Boston, survives. A son and a daughter died young. The other three sons left families to mourn their loss.

Mr. Porter spent fourteen years in Spencertown. His salary being insufficient for the support of his family, he appropriated a portion of his time to teaching, in which employment he was eminently useful. During his ministry in Spencertown, his congregation enjoyed several seasons of divine refreshing, which resulted in cheering additions to the church. There, too, he was associated in fraternal fellowship with ministers of the Gospel in the adjacent part of Massachusetts, of gifted intellect, eminent literary and theological attainments, and devoted piety, among whom were Dr. West, of Stockbridge, Dr. Catlin, of New Marlborough, Dr. Hyde of Lee, and Dr. Shephard of Lenox. Theirs were kindred spirits to that of Mr. Porter,-" men of whom the world was not worthy," who finished their course and received their reward before,--some of them long before, he was called to his eternal rest.

In June, 1803, Mr. Porter resigned his charge in Spencertown, and in the October ensuing, was installed pastor of this church and congregation.* Both the Church and the village were then in their infancy. The congregation being destitute of a house of worship, for several years he preached to them in the old court-house. In the erection of this sanctuary (since re-modeled and brought into its present state of convenience and elegance), he was eminently instru mental, and also in the subsequent erection of the adjacent Lecture-room. Not many years after his removal to this place, he received the honorary dgree of Doctor of Divinity, from Williams' College.

During his ministry here, he had the satisfaction of witnessing the growth and prosperity of the village and of his church and congregation. Notwithstanding the first ten years of his ministry here were marked by no extensive revival of religion, I have heard him say that there was scarce* First Presbyterian Chucrch of Catskill, N. Y.

ly any period of that time when some of his people were not inquiring for the path of eternal life.

He continued to labor among you with great ability and faithfulness till June, 1831, when, having entered the seventy-first year of his age, he requested the dissolution of the pastoral relation between himself and the people of his charge. Previously, however, after a season of deep religious declension, he was permitted to reap a rich harvest from the seed which he had sown in former years. As the fruit of this work of the Holy Spirit, during a short period before and within six months after his dismission, about one hundred members were added to the church, His interest in its prosperity continued to the close of his long and useful life.

And his labors in the vineyard of his Divine Master did not cease after his retirement from pastoral duty. The great objects of Christian benevolence had long held a high place in his regards. In 1824 he was chosen a corporate member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and with most of the other National Institutions for the spread of the Gospel in our country and other lands, he was connected from their organization. Immediately after he resigned his charge, he engaged in the service of these institutions, in this county and several adjacent counties, and continued his agency in their behalf till he had completed the eightieth year of his age. In his preaching he aimed to inculcate the great principles of Christian benevolence, and his personal applications for funds were made with judgment and skill, and were eminently successful.

Dr. Porter was a firm friend of literature and science, and of everything calculated to advance the interests of society. His efforts to secure the services of competent teachers for the children and youth of this village, will long be held in grateful remembrance. He likewise took a deep interest in our Colleges; and notwithstanding he had less confidence in the utility and importance of Theological Seminaries than many, he gave them his prayers and patronage.

In the domestic and social relations, Dr. Porter was eminently qualified to receive and communicate pleasure. Ardently attached to his family and friends, and deeply imbued with the spirit of benevolence, he took great delight in imparting happiness. His conversation, though frequently characterized by abruptness of manner and expression, was both pleasing and instructive, and occasionally enlivened by exhibitions of humor and wit, so controlled by discretion and Christian principle that they detracted nothing from the dignity of the Christian and the sacred office of the ministry.

His keen sensibility and great benevolence led him promptly to enter into the joys and sorrows of others. To the afflicted, especially of his flock, he was eminently a son of consolation. With great fidelity and tenderness, he pointed them to the only source of effective consolation, and urged

:he duty of acquiescence in the will of God, and joy in his government. His manner of doing this was peculiarly his own. Sometimes a single sententious remark or inquiry, uttered in his significant manner, contained volumes of instruction. Take two examples, as specimens of his method of addressing persons in affiction. On one occasion, when visiting s deeply afflicted family, after making a few appropriate remarks, with great solemnity and tenderness he said to them, "You had better look up." At another time, to a young lady of his flock, whose heart was almost crushed with anxiety for a suffering sister, he put the significant and twicerepeated inquiry, "Can you speak well of God? can you speak well of God ?"

In strength of intellect, Dr. Porter had few equals. His discernment was quick and keen, his discrimination accurate, his judgment sound, and his reasoning powers of a very high order. These solid and useful attributes of mind greatly exceeded that of the imagination. The cultivation of this faculty was with him far less an object of attention than the more important ones just mentioned. Hence he was eminently qualified to reason with great accuracy and force.

His style and manner of speaking were characteristic of his strong, original mind, and adapted to make deep impressions. He never sought to ornament his style with flowers of rhetoric and the fascinating imagery of the imagination. He aimed to make it clear, concise, and forcible, and he succeeded. No one could listen to his public discourses, nor read them, without being convinced of his honesty and sincerity of purpose, and his strong desire to communicate to other minds the thoughts and feelings which glowed in his own. In the arrangement of the topics of his discourses, his method of discussing them, and the perspicuity and energy of his language, he furnished a model, which, it is believed, few could adopt without profit to themselves and their hearers.

In his preaching, he dwelt much upon those doctrines of the Gospel which are characteristically and appropriately denominated the doctrines of grace. He stated them with great clearness, supported them by forcible reasoning and pertinent Scripture quotations, defended them with signal ability, and applied them to the consciences and hearts of his hearers with great tenderness and power. He believed they tend to make men feel their guilt and entire dependence upon the grace of God for salvation, and to exalt and honor him as the righteous moral Ruler, and the sovereign and efficient Agent, "who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will."

His preaching, however, was not exclusively doctrinal. He exhibited the various branches of experimental and practical godliness with the same clearness and pungency of applica ton with which he did the doctrines of the Gospel. In the selection of his themes for the pulpit, he seems habitually to

have kept in view the great end of preaching-the glory of God in the conversion of men, and their subsequent growth in knowledge and holiness. He studied, preached, prayed-was "instant in season, out of season," and watched for souls as one who felt he must give account to God.

At the time he commenced his labors here, most of the churches in this region were in their infancy, and but few of them statedly supplied with preaching. To him, and the few associated with him, they looked for advice, and the administration of the sacraments. Over them and others in whose organization he had an agency, he watched with a father's solicitude, preached to them occasionally, and labored to procure for them the stated administration of divine ordinances. The soundness of his judgment, and the ample stores of his theological learning led intelligent laymen and his brethren in the ministry to censult him in cases of difficulty, and on abstruse points of doctrine to pay great respect to his opinions. Both before and since the establishment of Theological Seminaries, many candidates for the ministry, attracted by the fame of his talents and attainments in theology, placed themselves under his instructions, whose Christian and ministerial character he was eminently instrumental in forming for usefulness.

Our venerated friend was sincerely attached to the doctrines and polity of the Presbyterian Church, but was remarkably free from a sectarian spirit. He extended the hand of Christian fellowship to all who gave evidence of discipleship to the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a zealous advocate of Christian union upon the basis of agreement in the belief of fundamental doctrines and toleration in things of minor importance. The division of the Presbyterian Church in 1838, and the causes which led to it, he greatly lamented. Deep and unwavering as was his conviction of the unrighteousness of the excinding acts of 1836, which produced the division, he never exhibited an unkind spirit toward those who passed or attempted to defend them. During the last few years of his life, he often expressed a strong desire for the union of the two branches of the Presbyterian Church in this country, and, should that be found impracticable, their recognition of each other by mutual representation in their respective Assemblies. He was persuaded (and what enlightened and unprejudiced mind is not ?) that both bodies are agreed in the belief of all the essential doctrines of the Gospel, and that a practical demonrtration of the fact is unspeakably important to the interests of true religion and the glory of God.

From what has been said, it cannot but be evident that Dr. Porter's Christian character was marked by rare excellencies. Concerning the reality, and I might add the depth of his piety, I am persuaded no believer in experimental religion, who knew him, ever doubted. Often during my ministry