I had as much quiet in my mind, as though I had neither wife nor child to care for. When I thought of that blessedness which is to be enjoyed in another world, I longed to be there. O the presence of God! The presence of God! It is sweeter than life itself. My soul knoweth it."

In the spring of the year 1670, we find Mr. Mather again in the pulpit. His first sermon was from these words: "Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest out of thy law." Still, however, he was feeble in body, and in a somewhat melancholy and hypochondriac state of mind. On one occasion, he records his feelings to this effect: "I was in much distress and anguish of spirit, lest all my faith should prove but phantasy and delusion. In this trouble, I betook myself to Christ, and wept before him, saying, 'Lord Jesus, let me be destroyed, if thou canst find it in thy heart to destroy a poor creature, who desires, above all things, to glorify thy name. Here I am before thee. Do to me and with me, as thou wilt. If thou wilt glorify thyself in my confusion, thy will be done. I have deserved that it should be But O that thou wouldest hear me, and pity me!' After I had thus fled and cried unto the Rock of my Salvation, I was revived."

So.

As soon as Mr. Mather was able to engage in such a labor, we find him preparing and publishing a Memoir of his father. He also prepared for the press and published a volume of his brother Eleazer's sermons. They were intended especially for the rising generation, and had a wide circulation among the youth of New England.

CHAPTER V.

Philip's war. Great fire in Boston. Small Pox. The reforming Synod. Mr. Mather's agency in it. Severe fits of sickness. Ordination of his Son. Is appointed President of Harvard College.

For the next four or five years after Mr. Mather's recovery from sickness, he seems to have devoted himself, with more quiet and constancy than usual, to the concerns of his flock. The year 1675 was one of great terror and distress in New England. Instigated by Philip, a chief of the Narragansetts, most of the Indians in the country (with the exception of those who had been converted to Christianity,) entered into a conspiracy to cut off the white inhabitants, or drive them from the land. To effect this object, Philip is said to have had in the field, at one time, an army of three thousand warriors. And when it is considered that these savages were athletic, cunning, treacherous, cruel, perfectly acquainted with localities, expert in the use of firearms with which they were now well supplied, and capable of enduring hunger and hardship to any requisite amount, it will be seen, at

once, that three thousand of them, under charge of such a leader as Philip, must have been a most terrible body to the New England settlers. As this was the last general war with the Indians, so it was the most bloody and desolating of them all. It continued nearly two years, in which time many flourishing towns were reduced to ashes, and not less than six hundred of the English settlers, constituting the flower and strength of several of the districts, either fell in battle, or were massacred in their dwellings, or expired under the tortures and hardships of an Indian captivity.

Mr. Mather warned his people, and the country, of the approaching day of trouble, before it came; and when it did come, he made the best use of it, by bearing solemn testimony against those prevailing iniquities which had provoked the judgments of heaven, and in calling his suffering fellow citizens to repentance. As the people were unable, during these years of terror, to cultivate their fields with safety and success, the country was threatened with the horrors of famine, as well as those of war. In this extremity, Mr. Mather, "by his letters, procured a whole ship's load of provisions from the charity of his friends in Dublin, and a considerable sum of money and much clothing, from friends in

London, to be distributed among the needy and distressed." Our country is at this time paying a debt of gratitude, so long ago contracted, by sending back ship-loads of provisions to the starving and perishing in Ireland and England.

In the year 1676, (the second year of Philip's war,) Boston was visited with a distressing fire. In some unaccountable way, Mr. Mather had a presentiment of the approach of this calamity, and warned his people of it, two Sabbaths in succession. The very night of the second Sabbath, the fire broke out in his immediate neighborhood, his meeting-house and dwelling house were both consumed, and whole streets were laid in ashes. His library, which was in part consumed, was soon made up to him by the generosity of friends; and in less than two years he was put in possession of a better house than that he had lost. His flock was scattered for a time, till a place of worship could be provided; but "God made it an opportunity for him to preach every Lord's day in the other churches, and thus to benefit the whole city with his enlightening and awakening ministry."

Only two years after, New England was visited with another distressing calamity-the small pox. As neither vaccination nor inoculation was then practiced, we can hardly conceive of