reference to the charge to St.
Peter, that "the care of the lambs is one-third part of the charge to the
Church of God." An excellent free school was founded at Roxbury, which
was held in great repute in the time of Cotton Mather, to whom we owe
most of our knowledge of this good man. The biography is put together in
the peculiar fashion of that day, not chronologically, but under heads
illustrating his various virtues, so that it is not easy to pick out the
course of his undertakings. Before passing on to that which especially
distinguished him, we must give an anecdote or two from the "article"
denominated "His exquisite charity." His wife had become exceedingly
skilful in medicine and in dealing with wounds, no small benefit in a
recent colony scant of doctors, and she gave her aid freely to all who
stood in need of help. A person who had taken offence at something in
one of his sermons, and had abused him passionately, both in speech and
in writing, chanced to wound himself severely, whereupon he at once sent
his wife to act as surgeon; and when the man, having recovered, came to
return thanks and presents, he would accept nothing, but detained him to
a friendly meal, "and," says Mather, "by this carriage he mollified and
conquered the stomach of his reviler."

"He was also a great enemy to all contention, and would ring a loud
_Courfew Bell_ wherever he saw the fires of animosity." When he heard
any ministers complain that such and such in their flocks were too
difficult for them, the strain of his answer was still: "Brother, compass
them;" and, "Brother, learn the meaning of those three little words,
'bear, forbear, forgive.'"

Once, when at an assembly of ministers a bundle of papers containing
matters of difference and contention between two parties--who, he
thought, should rather unite--was laid on the table, Eliot rose up and
put the whole upon the fire, saying, "Brethren, wonder not at that which
I have done: I did it on my knees this morning before I came among you."

But that "exquisite charity" seems a little one-sided in another anecdote
recorded of him, when "a godly gentleman of Charlestown, one Mr. Foster,
with his son, was taken captive by his Turkish enemies." {f:6} Public
prayers were offered for his release: but when tidings were received that
the "Bloody Prince" who had enslaved him had resolved that no captive
should be liberated in his own lifetime, and the distressed friends
concluded