ng saw God. He became so impressed with the perfections of
the Holy One he had so long resisted, that he lost sight of himself.
He sat down in the woods to wonder and to pray. It was not until some
time after that he realized any change in himself, and not until he
returned from Litchfield did his father perceive it. His conversion
was thorough. Not only was he turned about,--his face God-ward
instead of self-ward,--but he was impelled toward "those sitting in
darkness." In his childhood, from his mother's lips, he often heard
stories from the lives of Brainerd, Eliot, and other missionaries. He
heard her prayers for them and their great undertakings. Once he
heard her say, "I have consecrated this child to the service of God
as a missionary." Now it was his joy to follow those noble examples,
and to fulfill his part in the plans of God and his mother for him.
His parents approved of his determination, though the thought of
separation tore their hearts. His mother said to him, "I cannot bear
to part from you, my son." When he reminded her of her vow, she burst
into tears, and never after made complaint. To his father he said
that he could "not conceive of any course of life in which to pass
the rest of his days, that would prove so pleasant, as to go and
communicate the gospel of salvation to the poor heathen."

This desire to spread the Gospel grew to be a sublime purpose, and
from it he never wavered. He set about his plannings, with this
supreme end in view. Thanking God for his own salvation, he laid his
life in God's hand, imploring Him to use it for those who had as yet
no knowledge of that mercy. The Lord took him from the plough, as he
did Elisha. He left the field for the college.

CHAPTER II.

COLLEGE--THE HAYSTACK--EFFORTS TO SPREAD THE INTEREST IN FOREIGN
MISSIONS.

He entered Williams College in the spring of 1806. During his first
visit home in June, he connected himself with his father's church. A
college course means to some young men four years of frolic, or
worse. To others it is an opportunity to cram knowledge, that shall
by-and-by astound the round world and they that dwell therein. To
one, at least, it was the time for choosing "smooth stones" for his
combat with the giant adversary, whom he was brave enough to meet
alone, if need be, "in the name of the Lord of Hosts."

As a scholar he was not brilliant, but as a Christian he was "a
bright and shining light." To serve God was the hig