f the
congregation to whom he ministered. He was faithful and assiduous,
both as a preacher and a pastor. But he performed the many duties of
his station with acceptance and success. And he had the satisfaction
of seeing that his efforts were crowned with the special blessing of
God. In 1805 God displayed his saving power among the students and
people of the village. As many as forty persons became Christians
during the revival. But the most extensive and powerful work of grace,
probably, which the church ever enjoyed was that of 1815. The revival
began in the hearts of God's people. Some of the pious students
resolved that they would every day talk with some unconverted person
respecting the interests of his soul. The effect of this soon appeared
in a general religious awakening. In one week forty persons expressed
hope in Christ, and in four weeks as many as one hundred and twenty
persons were supposed to be converted. There were also revivals in
1819, 1821, and 1826,--that of 1821 being the most extensive, and
embracing among the converts a greater number of citizens than of
students. Public religious meetings were less numerous during the
revivals than in most of those of a later period. It was before the
day of protracted meetings. Perhaps there was less reliance then on
means, and more on the Spirit of God. It was not thought necessary
that business should be suspended, and every day converted into a
Sabbath. But such means as the state of feeling seemed to require were
faithfully used. Professor Shurtleff was never happier than when
engaged in conversation with inquirers, or in conducting meetings for
conference and prayer. The informality and freedom of these meetings
made them attractive. They were probably quite as useful as the more
regular ministrations of the pulpit. The speaker can say that he never
visited a more solemn place than the old district school-house--which
stood where the brick school-house now stands--often was, on a Sunday
evening during the progress of a conference meeting. A distinguished
professor of a neighboring college, who was here in 1815, says that
'The evidence of an increasing seriousness among the students at
large, in that revival, was first shown, so far as I can recollect, by
the more crowded attendance at these meetings.' Not that the more
formal services of the Sabbath were not also impressive and
profitable. The same gentleman says of the preaching of Professor
Shurtleff at