PREFACE.

Says a friend not long since, "There are so many religious biographies now a days, that it sometimes makes me almost sick to think of them." And it is no less true now than it was in the days of Solomon, that "of making many books there is no end." To make a book simply for the purpose of adding to their number, in this age of the world, is indeed very undesirable; and there are doubtless biographies written which in no way subserve the cause of Christ, or tend to promote the spiritual interests of men. Yet there are men whose life has been so spotless, and whose Christian character has been sa much an exemplification of the genuine spirit of Christianity, that it seems desirable that some memorial of their piety should be preserved for the benefit of survivors. As their sun shone

with such brightness while living, it is proper that its rays should be elongated after death. Such was the case with Dr. Yale. It may be truly said, that he was no ordinary man, Whoever came within his influence, felt that there was something about him to inspire awe. He might not have realized what it was. There was a cheerful piety in his whole demeanor which made one feel that he was in the presence of one who was in correspondence with heaven. His every day walk was only the outward expression of the inward feelings of his soul, His face shone because he held such intimate communion with God. He drew daily supplies of grace from the fountain head; he daily burnished his gospel armor, so that he was always ready for action as a leader of the hosts of the Lord. His spirituality of mind seems to have been habitual (however much he did at times deplore his languor of feeling), so that whenever one came where he was, he appeared like one who had just come down from the mount.

In preparing this memoir, it has been the author's purpose to draw as largely as possible from the productions of Dr. Yale's own pen. He kept a memorandum through the greater part of his ministerial life; and during portions of this time it is very voluminous. There is much in this memorandum of surpassing interest, as it serves to introduce the reader into the inner chambers of his heart, and to give him a most striking, ap

unerring likeness of himself. There we are enabled to see the man as we could see him nowhere else. He shows us his heart as we had never before seen it; and furnishes us with a measuring line by which we may fathom the depth of his piety, as we had never been able to do. A man of ordinary religious at tainments, when reading these records of his religious exercises, his conflicts with the corruptions of his heart, his strugglings after holiness, his earnest wrestlings with God, and the intensity of his religious emotions, will be likely to have a very diminutive view of himself, and feel, as we may suppose a pigmy would feel, when standing by the side of a giant. Yet he never looked upon himself as any thing else than less than the least of all

saints."

Dr. Yale occupied his pen for the last few months of his life, in preparing a work which he called a Review of a Pastorate of Forty-eight Years; and which he had just finished at the time of his decease. He had finished it, though it had not then gone to the press; and it is not known that he intended to give it to the public during his life. The readers of that work, should it ever be published, need not be informed that it is a book of great interest. It contains very many incidents connected with his pastoral labors, and very many hints suggested by his experience, which will be found of great practical utility. Yet, in such a work as that, while the writer was narrating circumstances of thrilling interest, and uttering sentiments of the deepest wisdom, it was not to have been expected that he would open the sanctuary of his own bosom for the inspection of the world. This was no part of his design, and this his delicacy of feeling and Christian modesty, would have forbid. Upon examination of that work, in manuscript, it was believed in no sense to occupy the place of a memoir; though there are some things in it, which, if they had not been there, would properly have come into such a work. In preparing the following pages, it has been the compiler's design to exclude from them everything which Dr. Yale had previously inserted in the Pastorate. This he believes to have been done, so that it is not known, that, in a single instance, the same matter is contained in the two books. Having said thus much, my purpose shall be, as far as possible, to give an outline of his character, and labors, and religious sentiments, in the language in which he has himself expressed them.

THE MODEL PASTOR.

INTRODUCTION.

There is a way in which the living may hold communion with the dead. It is not by receiving communications from the invisible world, nor by invoking responses from the spirits of the departed. We would not, if we could, disturb the slumbers, or break in upon the repose of our sainted friend. Nor would we desire him for a moment, to suspend those holy aspirations which he is breathing forth before the throne of God, for the purpose of communicating with us. We rejoiced in his company while living; and we take pleasure in calling to mind his excellencies, now he is dead.

But after a long and toilsome life, spent in the service of God and in labors to benefit his fellow-men, it is his privilege to rest without molestation or disturbance; and so may he rest until the time appointed for him to awake.

We know, too, that this was in accordance with his long-cherished desire. He was willing to labor through the day; nor did he, through the spirit of indolence, desire to have the day come to an end, so that he might be released from toil. Yet did he anticipate the termination of his conflicts and his toil with satisfaction, and felt willing to lay aside his armor, and to rest from his labors whenever God should see fit to order it. He communed with death as with a friend, and he looked into the grave as the place of his repose.

Several years before his death, and while enjoying his accustomed vigor, considering the uncertainty of human life, and impressed with the idea of his own frailty, he

solemnly penned and properly executed his last will and testament, in which he gave to this thought a prominent place. An extract from this document is here introduced, for the purpose of illustrating the piety of his character, even in those things which were not strictly religious; and also of showing the light in which he looked upon death, and his expectations of a future state. It commences as follows:

"In the name of God, amen. I, Elisha Yale, of the town of Johnstown, in the county of Fulton, and state of New York, being of sound and disposing mind, memory and understanding, and in good health, but considering the uncertainty of human life, do hereby make, publish and declare my last will and testament, in manner and form following:

1. I commit my soul into the hands of my ever-blessed Lord Jesus Christ, the only Redeemer of men, my Lord and my God, to be pardoned of sins innumerable through his blood, and clothed with his righteousness, to be accepted before God, and to be sanctified by his spirit, and made perfectly holy to be fit to dwell in his eternal kingdom-all my salvation and all my desire.

2. I commit my body to the dust from whence it came, to be kept by my glorious Lord in union with himself, in a good, sound, unbroken sleep, till the morning of the resurrection, and then to hear the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, and come forth in the glorious resurrection to be united again to my spirit, and to be forever with the Lord."

Having thus committed his soul into the hands of him on whom alone he rested his hope of salvation, and his body to the dust, he proceeds to make a distribution of his effects among some of his friends; but giving the most to his surviving widow, to whom above all other survivors it properly belongs. To the execution of this will, in all its parts, we most heartily assent. We love to think that since it has pleased God to remove him hence, his body lies by the side of his father, and in the midst of his people, in undisturbed tranquility, and that his soul is with the blest in Heaven. So be it, amen.

COMMUNION WITH THE DEAD.

5

Yet, is there a way in which we may hold communion with the dead.

Two enquiries here present themselves:

1. How is such communion to be held?

We hold communion with the pious dead by thinking of their virtues; by recounting their deeds of charity; by calling to mind their acts of beneficence; by remembering their instructions; by recollecting their pious examples; by repeating their admonitions; by practicing their counsels; and by cherishing that spirit of devotion to God, which gave type to their character while living.

2. What is the benefit to be derived from such communion?

It is not to supersede those communications which God is pleased to address to us in his word. It is not to reveal to us those secret things which God has not seen fit to reveal. It is not to impart to us a superstitious reverence for the lifeless dust of departed friends. But it is to exhibit and illustrate the nature of true piety; to furnish us with examples for imitation; to excite survivors to holy action, to diligence and fidelity in the service of God; and to magnify God's grace in the Christian walk, and holy deportment, and consistent example, and humble piety, and peaceful end of God's devoted people.

This is the end of biography. Not to praise the dead. They are deaf to our praise, and receive from it no advantage. But to benefit the living, and to commend a life of religion, a life devoted to the service of God, by a reference to the life and deeds of his departed people. If the following pages do but answer this end it is all that is desired in their behalf,