literary treasures accessible to him in the libraries of the college and the hall with which he was connected.

In the autumn of 1852 he went to the South with his brother James, and took charge of an academy for boys in Starkville, Miss., where he taught with much interest and success for eighteen months. During this period he endeared himself greatly to both his patrons and pupils. They parted with him very reluctantly when his engagement expired. Besides taking a general interest in the welfare of the community, he instructed the young in the rudiments of sacred music, and led the praises of the sanctuary. He here formed acquaintances and friendships which were afterward renewed in Brazil, South America. Among those who became interested in him were several ministers and other pious persons, upon whose minds he made the impression that he ought to abandon the idea of studying the Law, which was then his purpose, and prepare for the ministry.

He returned to Harrisburg, Pa., where the family resided, early in July, 1854, and entered upon the study of Blackstone.

The winter of 1854-5 being a time of special religious awakening among the churches of Harrisburg, he became deeply interested in the subject of his personal salvation. After referring, under date of March 10, 1855, to the transcendent importance of the matter, to the transient character of the impressions made upon his mind during the great revival in the College of New Jersey in 1849-50, and to the motives inducing him to attend the inquiry-meetings, he writes: "I am now resolved in God's promised strength to go forward and endeavor to serve him, whether a bright light shines around my path or not; to confess before men my desire and resolution to forsake the world and seek an interest in the atoning blood of Christ. . . . March 13. "I believe that for the past three years it has been the uniform desire of my heart to become a Christian. I have seen the reasonableness of serving God, and that in serving him there is great gain, both in this life and in that which is to come. I have read much and reflected often and seriously on these things; and frequently in my lonely walks as I sat overlooking some lovely landscape smiling under a cloudless sky, I have felt that to be able to say that the Creator of so much beauty is my Friend and cares for me would be far higher joy than earth can give; or at night, when only the quiet stars looked down upon me, thoughts of the loved dead and of the bliss of meeting them in heaven, and spending an eternity in loving and learning to comprehend truths here dimly shadowed forth, there clear as noonday, have crowded into my mind and raised it so high that the world and its concerns shrank into insignificance by very contrast. But, alas! such impressions, though frequent, produced only a few weak efforts after this good, and then I relapsed into my former passive state.'

The "breaking in of the light" upon his soul was a gradual process. He continued to attend the inquiry-meetings for several weeks, and about the first of May was admitted to the privileges of the Church.

Among the questions asked him at his examination by the session was one with reference to his willingness to preach the gospel if it should appear that he was called to this work. The question is thus answered in his journal: "My feelings in this respect have been remarkable. I was in baptism consecrated to this work, and through life the conviction has rested upon me that I was answerable for the vows assumed for me by my parents, and I have looked forward to the day when I should fulfill those vows. And what is stranger still, it has been one of the strongest wishes of the past three or four years that I might be fitted and called to preach the gospel.

Another thing that has deepened this desire is the interest everywhere expressed in me, and the confident hope entertained that finally I would study for the ministry-at home, among friends, and even among comparative strangers. And now, if it seems to be my duty and privilege to fulfill these expectations, I will joyfully consent, and bless God that he has put such honor upon me.

On the evening of May 6, 1855-the day on which he first partook of the Lord's Supper-he made a solemn record in writing of the covenant into which he had entered with God in this sacrament, making particular mention of the obligations and responsibilities henceforth to devolve upon him.

His decision to study theology was quickly made. In two weeks after his first communion season he began to take a daily lesson in Hebrew, and entered the Theological Seminary in Princeton at the opening of the scholastic year, early in September. Just before leaving home he prepared a series of rules for his personal guidance and government while a member of the seminary. These have reference to his attendance on the devotional exercises of the institution, the avoidance of besetting sins, devotional reading of the Bible and other works on experimental religion, constant communion with God, cultivation of the gift of prayer, care of health and proper external behavior.

He was led to consider his duty in relation to the foreign missionary work at an early stage of his theological course. A sermon preached by Dr. Charles Hodge on the duty of the Church as a teacher made a deep impression upon his mind. Alluding to this discourse, he writes: "It has had the effect of leading me to think seriously of the foreign missionary field. The little success apparently attending missionary operations had operated to dissuade me from all thought of the work. But I see I have been wrong. That the heathen are to be converted to God is clearly revealed in Scripture, and I am convinced that day is coming rapidly. Those who are now in the field are preparing the way, and God will not suffer their labor to be in vain. I have heretofore taken it for granted that my sphere of labor would be somewhere in our great and rapidly-growing country. It is, however, a matter to be taken into serious consideration whether, since most prefer to remain, it is not my duty to go.'

He regularly atttended the weekly missionary prayer-meeting held by the students most interested in this cause. The monthly concert was also an occasion of deep interest to him. At a service held Feb. 4, 1856, a sketch of the work in New Zealand was given, in which it appeared that the history of missions shows that there is a preparatory process employed. In New Zealand ten years; in the Sandwich Islands nearly twenty; and in Siam our missionaries are still after nine years without fruit; but in every case God has crowned the events. They who do this work will share the reward of those who enter into the results of their labor.

With reference to the selection of a field, he writes thus: "At present the missionary work presents, it seems to me, the most urgent demands, not only because of the greater comparative destitution of the means of grace, but because so few are willing to go thither. If the field is the world, all lands and countries must be occupied, and the refusal of some to go to discouraging stations only renders the duty more imperative on others. To leave one's home, friends and country may seem hard, and will be without doubt; but who knows that by consulting his own comfort even for this life, he can secure it? 'He that will save his life shall lose it.' The only safety is in implicit submission to the purposes of God. Under his guidance,

the place of danger is the place of safety, and without his presence we can be safe nowhere."*

He returned by way of the Lakes, and resumed his studies in the seminary.

In October, he attended the annual meeting of the American B. C. F. Missions at Newark, New Jersey, with great enjoyment and profit. The discussions, the hearty songs of praise, but especially the missionary prayermeetings held every morning for one hour, interested him profoundly and greatly intensified his missionary ardor. To these meetings," he writes, all returned missionaries with their families, those under appointments to go, and those having in view the missionary work, were invited. These constituted nearly two hundred, I should think, though perhaps, many like myself, were there by questionable right. Whatever were my views, however, in going in, I certainly felt like being a missionary on coming out. The testimony there given to the happy reward returned into the bosom of the faithful missionary was enough to engage even selfish feelings to that work. From all quarters of the globe there was a unanimous voice in favor of God's goodness to missionaries. Winslow, Schneider, Gleason, Bingham, some of them having served in this work thirty years, all declared their gratitude to God that they had been sent to a foreign field. Goodell of Constantinople said he never knew a missionary who had anything of the spirit of Christ repent of his choice of a field of labor, but had heard many rejoice in the privilege of preaching Christ to the heathen. . . . It is, I am persuaded, a good thing to be a missionary; and I believe that if I had the fitness, and saw my way open providentially to go abroad, I would be willing to go. Faith, patience and self-denial are the cardinal virtues with the missionary.

The entries made in his journal during his second year in the seminary indicate a growing interest in the missionary work, and at times clearly foreshadow his ultimate decision, though this was purposely reserved until near the end of his theological course.

Early in his last session at the seminary he accidentally injured his knee while taking exercise in the gymnasium. After several weeks' confinement to his room, he gave up study and repaired to Harrisburg for surgical advice and treatment. Here he remained for two months, when he returned to Princeton, still suffering great inconvenience from his disabled limb. The effort to reduce the swelling and inflammation by counter-irritants had failed, and fears began to be entertained that he might wholly lose the use of the knee. To prevent so serious a privation, he sought the advice of Dr. Pancoast of Philadelphia, who startled him by saying his "knee must be bent by force, or the joint would become permanently stiff." He promptly decided to submit to the operation. Meanwhile he attended the spring meeting of the Carlisle Presbytery, at Greencastle, Pa., where he was licensed, April 14, 1858.

The week following his licensure, Dr. Pancoast performed the operation of bending his knee-joint and breaking up the adhesions formed in it with entire success. Ten days afterward he returned home, full of gratitude to God that he had found so skillful a surgeon and had obtained so complete a

cure.

His missionary interest suffered no abatement during this temporary in

After the seminary term closed, he accompanied his brother Thomas to Iowa, where he spent three months as a colporteur of the Presbyterian Board of Publication. He returned, etc.,

terruption of study. As the result of an interview with J, Leighton Wilson, one of the secretaries of the Board of Foreign Missions, his attention was seriously turned to Bogota, in New Granada, as a promising field of labor. With a view to become acquainted with the condition and wants of that country, he corresponded with the Rev. Horace B. Pratt, of the mission already undertaken in Bogota, and who was anxious to have him become his colleague with the least practicable delay.

About this time he was earnestly solicited to engage in the pastoral work at home. Several churches in which he had preached were anxious for his services. A theological professor endeavored to dissuade him from going abroad, on the ground that he could secure eminence as a preacher in this country. But having obtained the cheerful consent of his friends, and especially of his mother, he determined to devote his life to the foreign missionary work. This decision reached, the perplexity of mind previously suffered was at once relieved. "It seemed to me," he writes, "that whenever my face was set to go abroad, I enjoyed peace of mind, and whenever I turned to the home field with desire to remain, I was made uneasy under the fear that I was seeking not the will of God, but my own ease.

His formal application_to the Board for appointment as a foreign missionary was sent to New York on the 25th of October, 1858. In it he made mention of Brazil as the field in which he was most deeply interested, but committed the final decision of the question to the judgments of the Board. On the 6th of December the Executive Committee of the Board decided to send him to Brazil, reserving, however, the right to designate him to another field in case he found the way was not prepared for systematic missionary efforts in that country. Their expectation was, however, that he should be the pioneer of a numerous company of laborers who should long Continue to be a blessing to Brazil.

His appreciation of the difficulties of the work before him, and of his dependence upon Divine assistance, is shown by the following remarks: "What can one or two feeble missionaries accomplish in an empire as large as the United States, and in a city nearly as large as Philadelphia? It will be a great trial of faith and patience. The work is so perfectly hopeless by mere human agency that they who undertake it must either find support by resting upon the power of God, or else despair. If I am indeed called to make headway against all the forces of infidelity, superstition and stupid indifferentism, may God grant me Paul's experience that when I am weak, then am I strong, and may I glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Notwithstanding all the difficulties and responsibilties of the proposed mission, I cannot refuse to go.... If the Reformation triumphed so gloriously in the sixteenth century when the same state of things existed, may we not hope that the saving power of divine truth will again be displayed in the nineteenth century in South America?"

After the definite settlement of this question, he spent a few weeks with the Rev. W. H. Foote, D.D., of Romney, Va., for the purpose of recruiting his health and extending his acquaintance with the churches. Under Dr. Foote's direction he preached in several neighboring congregations, and made such a favorable impression that he was earnestly solicited to reconsider his resolution to go abroad, and remain in that part of the country. The time fixed upon for his departure to Brazil was May, 1859. while he went to New York, where he spent two months taking lessons in the Portuguese language, and lecturing, as opportunity was afforded, upon Brazil.

Mean

He was ordained by the Presbytery of Carlisle, April 14, 1859, at Harrisburg. His sermon on this occasion was upon the words, Come over into Macedonia and help us.' It was an able presentation of the claims of the unevangelized upon the Church, and was published the following summer in Dr. Van Renssalaer's Presbyterian Magazine. The ordination discourse was preached by his uncle, the Rev. Wm. D. Snodgrass, D. D., from Rev. xiv. 6. The charge was delivered by the Rev. Thomas Creigh, D. D., and was fraught with instruction, stimulus and encouragement to the newly-ordained evangelist, about to enter a distant and difficult field of labor. The deeply solemn exercises were closed by singing the missionary chant commencing, 'My soul is not at rest," which was a favorite with him.

By the advice of Dr. J. Leighton Wilson, he visited the Western Seminary, at Alleghany, Pa., to make the acquaintance of Mr. Alexander L. Blackford, who had also just been ordained as a missionary to Brazil. A few days' conference of the two young missionaries, afterward brothers-inlaw and colleagues, sufficed to establish relations of friendship which were uninterrupted until Mr. Simonton's death.

June 18, 1859, he sailed from Baltimore, Md., in the merchant ship “Banshee," Captain Kane, for Rio de Janeiro. His mother and his brother John saw him on board, and united with him in a parting prayer in his stateroom. "I shall often," he writes in his journal, as I kneel there, feel that I am still in communion with those who lately knelt beside me. It is a bitter thing to part. It would be more bitter still were there not an assured hope of meeting above, where there are no more separations.' As Captain Kane denied him the privilege of holding public services on board, he formed the sailors into a Bible class, and gave them familiar instructions on each Sabbath afternoon of the voyage. Some of them received their first impressions of divine truth from his lips. He prepared two sermons for these weatherbeaten sons of the sea, in which he unfolded the marrow of the gospel in terms suited to awaken interest in their untutored minds. One was from the words, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved;" the other, "Come, for all things are now ready.

The voyage was greatly enjoyed. Under date of July 12, long. 43° 37', lat. 19° 48', he writes: "I know of nothing possessing for me such interest-even fascination-as a night-watch on deck at sea. The influences of the scene so accord with high and holy thoughts and musings that the soul feels as if refined of much of its grossness. Perhaps it is because the sea in its vastness and incessant movement is to the mind and imagination a symbol of the infinite-of the infinite of active being-of the soul of manof God himself."

He arrived at Rio de Janeiro on the 12th of August. His first act after landing was to review the mercies of the Lord in vouchsafing him a prosperous voyage, and to consecrate himself anew to his service. "I do feel that he is my only trust and refuge. I have nothing to bear me up, to nerve me with hope and give me patience and comfort, but the conviction and testimony of my conscience that I have come here in obedience to the command of my Lord and Saviour, who is possessed of all power both in heaven and on earth--that I do his work and he is pledged to be with me. Without this I am paralyzed and will labor in vain. Christ within me by his Spirit— Christ the end and inspirer of all I do is my deep want.'

He was very kindly received by American merchants and others resident in Rio, to whom he had letters of introduction, and found also warm friends among the English families of the place. A few Christian hearts gave him a peculiarly cordial welcome to their society. The encouragement received