ing of Mr. Whitefield. For these remarks, in those days of excitement and heat, he was publicly expelled. This event had occurred early in the winter of the preceding year, when he was in his third year in college. Brainerd was now at New Haven for the purpose of seeking a reconciliation with the faculty, and requesting the privilege of graduating with the class from which he had been ejected. For this purpose he made a very explicit and humble acknowledgment of his fault, and implored forgiveness. But, though his own request was fortified by the intercession of a number of respectable friends and graduates of the college, it failed of success. Mr. Edwards deeply sympathized with him in his wishes and his failure; and, in the course of their interviews, had so many opportunities of witnessing the humility, the meekness, and the deep and tender conscientiousness of this young servant of Christ, that a foundation was now laid for a most endeared friendship between them; a friendship which brought Mr. Brainerd to spend a considerable portion of his time in the family of Mr. Edwards, and finally, four years after their acquaintance began, to die under his hospitable roof.

In 1744, a number of ministers belonging to the Church of Scotland, among whom were all the correspondents of Mr. Edwards, deeply impressed with the conviction that the state of the church and the world called loudly for united and extraordinary prayer to God, "that he would deliver the nations from their miseries, and fill the earth with his glory," communicated to Mr. Edwards a proposal for that purpose. The plan which they proposed was, that, for the ensuing two years, all Christians, universally, who chose to concur in the exercise, should set apart a portion of time, on Saturday evening and Sabbath morning, every week, to be spent in special and united prayer for the objects specified; and that they should still more solemnly observe a stated day in each quarter of the year, to be spent either in private, social, or public prayer, as the case might be, for the effusion of the Holy Spirit on the church and the world.

Mr. Edwards received this proposal with warm approbation, and immediately addressed himself to the task of communicating and earnestly recommending it to the American churches. The plan was adopted and acted upon by a number of the ministers and churches of New England. Toward the close of the two years, during which it was proposed to continue this united and extraordinary prayer, another communication came from Scotland, proposing the continuance of the sacred enterprise for an indefinite period. Mr. Edwards again heartily seconded the plan, and, in 1746, for the purpose of promoting it, first preached a series of sermons on the subject to his own people, and soon afterwards published them, in the form of a treatise, entitled, "An Humble Attempt to promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union among God's People, in Extraordinary Prayer for the Revival of Religion, and the Advancement of Christ's Kingdom on Earth, pursuant to Scripture Promises and Prophecies concerning the Last Time." This work was immediately reprinted in England and in Scotland, and had a wide circulation there, as well as in this country. The union proposed was adopted and maintained by many of the American churches, for more than half a century; until, finally, the "Monthly Concert in Prayer," for the revival of religion, and the conversion of the world, was proposed by some pious ministers of England, in 1784, to be observed on the first Monday evening of every month; which gradually gained ground in the religious community, at home and abroad, until it has come to be extensively adopted by the churches in every quarter of the globe.

It might have been expected that a treatise designed to answer the purpose contemplated by the "Humble Attempt," just alluded to, would have been constructed on the principles of an ephemeral production, short, animating, and intended to arouse, rather than to instruct. But it really seemed as if Mr. Edwards was incapable of doing

any thing superficially, or upon a small scale. Whatever he undertook to discuss at all, he was constrained to discuss profoundly and thoroughly ; presenting it in all its aspects; meeting all its difficulties; anticipating and answering all objections; prostrating all its adversaries; and not only appearing a conqueror, but “ more than a conqueror." Charles the Second, of England, is reported to have said of the celebrated Dr. Barrow, that "he was the most unfair preacher he ever heard; for that, when he undertook to treat any subject in the pulpit, he never left any thing to be said by any other man." This remark really may be applied still more strongly to Mr. Edwards. Instead of making his "Humble Attempt" pamphlet of twenty or thirty pages, as most men would have done, he made it a volume; rich, instructive, carefully reasoned, and of permanent value. He treats, with his wonted ability and care, of the nature and characteristics of the "Latter Day Glory"; of the certainty of its future occurrence; of the encouragements to pray and labor for its hastening, and of the objections which have been urged against a compliance with the duty recommended. No production of his pen was destined to "perish in the using." On all subjects, he wrote, not for his contemporaries alone, but for posterity.

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Mr. David Brainerd, soon after Mr. Edwards's acquaintance with him commenced in 1743, as before related, engaged in missionary labor among the Indians, in different settlements, in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. This labor he pursued, amidst the pressure of disease and many discouragements, for more than three years, with a zeal, diligence, self-denial, and perseverance, which have seldom had any parallel in the history of missions, and with a very gratifying measure of success, especially in regard to that portion of the Indians which was located at what is now called Crosswicks, in New Jersey.

In the month of May, 1747, that devoted young missionary, after taking leave of the Indians in the preceding March, in consequence of declining health, and visiting some of his relatives and friends in Connecticut, went to Northampton, having been invited by Mr. Edwards to take up his abode at his house. He spent a part of the ensuing summer in travelling for the benefit of his health; but, continuing to decline, he returned to Northampton, toward the close of the following July, and, gradually sinking under the power of a consumptive disease, closed his life in the bosom of Mr. Edwards's family, on the 9th of October, 1747, in the 30th year of his age. Mr. Edwards preached the sermon at his funeral, from 2 Cor. v. 8, which was speedily published, and which now appears in his collected " Works," under the