A missionary of the Methodist Church, now laboring in China, who, when a mere child, had seemed to be converted, but afterward wandered very far from the true path, traces his recovery and present Christian hope to the Divine blessing upon frequent conversations Mr. Frelinghuysen held with him while visiting in the drug-store where the young man was act ing as clerk.

Mr. Frelinghuysen seemed never to lose an opportunity. His heart was so burdened with concern for all out of Christ, that he has been known more than once, after passing unconverted persons in the street, to be constrained by his own painful emotions to turn back and speak with them on the state of their souls. Even his students, although so faithfully dealt with in his biblical instructions, and at other times when they were addressed as a body, were not neglected in private interviews, but then entreated with even more fervor to turn to God and give Him their hearts.

He was not discouraged by the fact that any whom he could address were intemperate, or otherwise very far estranged from the right path, but, on the contrary, seized every occasion to speak to them the fitting word; and, however such persons might object to appeals and remonstrances coming from others, they always listened to Mr. Frelinghuysen at least with outward attention and respect. His purity and consistency of character were so eminent and undeniable that those who were hardened in impenitence could not close their ears to what he said.

In November, 1859, a state convention of Sabbathschool teachers was held at Trenton, New Jersey. Mr.

Frelinghuysen, as president of the body, opened the sessions with an earnest and instructive address. When he sat down, the late John P. Jackson, Esq., of Newark, followed with these remarks:

"Mr. President, I came here to listen and to learn; but I am delighted to say, before this great assembly, that all my early principles, all the great foundations of learning which I esteem valuable for time and eternity, I have derived, sir, as a pupil of yours; and were it not for the opportunity of making this acknowledgement, I should not have arisen. And it is precisely in the mode which you have employed this afternoon in your plain and simple address that I have received that instruction. X X * And, sir, I have been prompted by your noble example to engage in the delightful work of Sabbath - school instruction; and now I come here with you to engage in council on its great interests, although some thirty-five years have passed since I studied law in your office, and received my early impressions of duty from your example and instructions."

There were few public men in New Jersey, or in Washington, or in New York, with whom Mr. Frelinghuysen was in the habit of meeting, to whom he did not at some time or in some way bring the subject of personal religion. He was judicious and unobtrusive in his methods of approach, and his delicacy of feeling and vivid sense of propriety rendered those whom he addressed more willing to open their hearts upon a theme of such deep personal interest. He certainly often found access where other persons had failed, and there are many still living who could bear a decided testimony to his Christian faithfulness. Mr. Frelinghuysen rarely spoke of these interviews; nev

er, indeed, save in circumstances when a reference to them would be not only unobjectionable, but of useful tendency. He was quite content to do good in secret, and wait for recognition until the resurrection of the just. Many, therefore, who have long known his public reputation as a consistent Christian, will be surprised to learn that, perhaps, no layman in the land ever made so many private personal appeals on the matter of the soul's salvation as he habitually did during the last forty years of his life. It was not a fitful, occasional thing, pursued during some season of revival and then abandoned, but a fixed habit, followed at home and abroad with the undeviating constancy of a deep-seated principle. His catholic sympathies took in the worth of all souls as such, and there was no human being so low or degraded, so alien or hostile, that he did not feel for its spiritual welfare, and speak the proper word whenever an opportunity offered or could be made to occur. He was on the watch to seize favorable occasions, and his own walk with God was so close, and his own experience of divine things so rich and satisfying, that it was nothing unnatural or constrained for him, on any day of the week, or during any season of the year, to invite the unthinking and worldly to consider the things which belonged to their everlasting peace.

He was not always successful. Some to whom he had been faithful during a long term of years, and for whom he had prayed with very great fervor and constancy, at last went down to the grave giving small and dubious signs of being prepared for the great change. But he was not chilled, much less soured by

the disappointment. His zeal was destitute of the least tincture of fanaticism. His sorrow was not for the failure of the means, but for the loss of the end; and the only result was to set him more diligently at work to do what he could for the salvation of such as remained still within the reach of human efforts. His entire life was an exemplification of the sentiment expressed in his letter to Mr. Lincoln: "I suppose that while, for the more solemn duties of the sanctuary and its worship, and for the governance and order of Christ's Church, the ministers are to be called and set apart, yet for exhortation, and prayer, and witnessing for the truth, and warning sinners, and encouraging the trembling believer, we are all to labor for Christ, and to have a heart and a tongue for His blessed service."

CHAPTER XI.

EXTRACTS FROM HIS CORRESPONDENCE.

Its general Character.-Fifteen Letters to a young Relative pursuing his Education.-Two to another young Relative.-Four to the Rev. Dr. J. A. H. Cornell.-A Letter of Condolence to the Rev. Dr. De Witt.

IN the discourse pronounced by the Rev. Dr. Campbell on the occasion of Mr. Frelinghuysen's death, there occurs the following passage: "What a volume of letters his vast correspondence on behalf of good objects would furnish! Letters of condolence with those who were in trouble-letters sending pecuniary aid and kind words to the daughters and widows of old associates whom the reverses of life had overtaken-letters to the sons of old friends, who, prodigal-like, had wandered from the path of rectitudeletters in aid of the Bible, Tract, Missionary, Colonization, and Temperance causes, for all of which he labored, and gave, and prayed-letters to those upon whom he pressed the claims of Christ-what a volume of letters it would make! And I dare affirm that he who will read all that vast correspondence of the last forty-two years will not find one censorious remark, one bitter expression." There is no exaggeration in this statement. Mr. Frelinghuysen's correspondence was very large, and every letter bore the stamp of his own generous, manly, Christian character. In his later years writing became irksome to