PAGE 218:
CHAPTER VI

toiled with alacrity, and his reputation and usefulness daily increased.

It was necessary that he should apply himself closely to study: — and he was a hard and indefatigable student: he employed every moment almost, not otherwise occupied, in the vigorous pursuit of knowledge, and in the preparation of his sermons: he read, and thought, and wrote with scarce any intermission, excepting what was requisite for attending to other important duties of his station. At the beginning of his ministry, he wrote his sermons entirely out, and committed them to memory; but finding his health to be affected by such severe labour, he afterwards accustomed himself to preach from full notes, or what he called "a copious analysis."

This mode of preaching gave a freer scope for the exercise of his powers; it was exactly suited to his peculiar gifts; and often the amplitude of his intellectual views was so striking, and the degree of feeling with which he delivered his discourses was so strong, and his manner altogether of addressing his hearers, was so singular and impressive, that he was heard with the deepest attention and with delight. Pious and judicious persons

PAGE 219:
CHAPTER VI

considered him a preacher of first-rate excellence, and he soon acquired by his public ministrations, by the habitual suavity of his manners in private intercourse, and by his unwearied exertions to do good at all times and in all places, an influence which is rarely possessed by one so young in the service of his Master.

This high standing in the Church, contributed greatly to the ultimate success of his endeavours to carry the plan that had been devised for promoting the general welfare of the Church. — Soon after his settlement in New-York, he sought with his characteristical prudence and zeal, to bring about a reconciliation between the Coetus and Conferentie parties; — an object which, as the reader has seen, lay, for years before, very near his heart, and which he had attempted, but in vain, to accomplish when he was in Holland. The circumstance of his having been educated abroad, — his present connexion with the Church of New-York, which had happily, at no time, taken a part in the great controversy, — and his distinguished reputation, gained him, in a little while, an extensive acquaintance among the ministers of both parties, and consequently many opportunities of calling their attention to the subject. These opportunities, whenever presented, he failed not to improve. As an