d him to leave the pulpit, and appeal to
individuals in his audience.

We are fortunate in having the testimony of a member of his own
family, in regard to the beginning of Mr. Wheelock's more practical
interest in the unfortunate Aborigines. His grandson, Rev. William
Patten, D.D., says,[5] "One evening after a religious conference with
a number of his people at Lebanon, he walked out, as he usually did on
summer evenings, for meditation and prayer; and in his retirement his
attention was led to the neglect [from lack of means] of his people in
providing for his support. It occurred to him, with peculiar
clearness, that if they furnished him with but half a living, they
were entitled to no more than half his labors. And he concluded that
they were left to such neglect, to teach him that part of his labors
ought to be directed to other objects. He then inquired what objects
were most in want of assistance. And it occurred to him, almost
instantaneously, that the Indians were the most proper objects of the
charitable attention of Christians. He then determined to devote half
of his time to them."

[5] Memoirs of Wheelock, p. 177.

We will now allow this eminent Christian philanthropist to speak for
himself. In his "Narrative," for the period ending in 1762, after
referring to the too general lack of interest in the Indian, he says:

"It has seemed to me, he must be stupidly indifferent to the
Redeemer's cause and interest in the world, and criminally deaf and
blind to the intimations of the favor and displeasure of God in the
dispensations of His Providence, who could not perceive plain
intimations of God's displeasure against us for this neglect,
inscribed in capitals, on the very front of divine dispensations, from
year to year, in permitting the savages to be such a sore scourge to
our land, and make such depredations on our frontiers, inhumanly
butchering and captivating our people, not only in a time of war, but
when we had good reason to think (if ever we had) that we dwelt safely
by them. And there is good reason to think that if one half which has
been expended for so many years past in building forts, manning, and
supporting them, had been prudently laid out in supporting faithful
missionaries and schoolmasters among them, the instructed and
civilized party would have been a far better defence than all our
expensive fortresses, and prevented the laying waste so many towns and
villages; witne