Society to the Mohawks. His congregation in Albany met, for seven years, in a small Lutheran Chapel; when, by the advice and assistance of Governor Hunter, they undertook to erect a church edifice for themselves. In due time, they accomplished their object, and a fine stone building was opened for Divine service in November, 1716,-just four years from the time of the projection of the enterprise. Mr. Barclay was the first Rector of St. Peter's Church in Albany, and was succeeded, in 1728, by the Rev. John Miln. After leaving Albany, he was, for some time, Assistant to the Rev. Mr. Vesey, Rector of Trinity Church, New York.

Henry Barclay was born about the year 1714 or 1715. He was graduated at Yale College in 1734. The next year, he was appointed, on Mr. Miln's recommendation, catechist to the Mohawks, at Fort Hunter. his first arrival among them, he found them apparently docile and attentive, and thought the prospect of their being converted to Christianity altogether encouraging.

In 1737, Mr. Miln having been, at his own request, transferred to the Mission of Monmouth County, N. J., Mr. Barclay went, with high recommendations, to England, to obtain ordination as Deacon and Priest. His object having been accomplished, he returned immediately to this country, and was gratefully welcomed by those to whom he had been accustomed to minister, especially by his Indian hearers, many of whom are said to have shed tears of joy. He now succeeded Mr. Miln, as Rector of St. Peter's. In addition to his services on Sunday, he catechised the Indians in the evenings, when, from thirty to fifty adults would be present. On occasion of the gathering of the Six Nations to renew their league of friendship with the English, he preached to large numbers of them, and had the pleasure of hearing the Mohawks make their responses regularly in the Service. He was also frequently called to preach to the Dutch in their own language.

In 1741, Mr. Barclay informed the Venerable Society that his congregation at Albany consisted of an hundred and eighty English, besides two independent companies; and in the Mohawk country, of five hundred Indians, settled in two towns, at thirty miles distance from Albany ;-that he had sixty English, and fifty-eight Indian, communicants; and that the vice of intemperance among the Indians was greatly on the decrease. In 1743, his statement was that two or three only of the whole tribe remained unbaptized, and that, with the consent of the Governor, he had appointed two Mohawk schoolmasters to teach the young Mohawks, and that they were both very diligent and successful.

Mr. Barclay continued to prosecute his Mission with great zeal and success, till the latter part of the year 1745, when his work was rudely checked, first by the intrigues, and afterwards by the hostile invasion, of the French Indians. After the death of the Rev. Mr. Vesey, first Rector of Trinity Church, New York, which occurred in 1746, Mr. Barclay was elected his successor; and, as his prospects of usefulness among the Indians were now exceedingly dubious, if not absolutely hopeless, it took him but little time to arrive at the conclusion that the indications of Providence were in favour of his accepting the invitation from New York. Accord

ingly, he was duly inducted into the Rectorship, on the 22d of October following. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel highly approved of Mr. Barclay's being appointed to the office of Rector, and of his acceptance of it, and requested that he would dispose of whatever funds remained in his hands for the service of the Mohawk tribe, as his judgment might direct. They also signified their earnest desire that he would continue to render as much attention to the Indians as might consist with the duties he owed to his immediate charge, and also that he would endeavour to find some suitable person to be appointed their Missionary, as soon as it might be deemed safe to attempt a residence among them. To this proposal he gave a cordial assent; but intimated, at the same time, that he had little hope of accomplishing anything for the beneit of the Indians, at least during the continuance of the war.

In the year 1747, the Rev. Mr. Charlton, who had been a Catechist, and an Assistant to Mr. Barclay in Trinity Church, was transferred to the Church of St. Andrew, on Staten Island; and the Rev. Samuel Auchmuty succeeded in his place. At the close of 1753, Dr. Samuel Johnson, of Stratford, Conn., was called as a Lecturer in Trinity Church; and he commenced his labours there about the time that he entered upon his duties as President of King's College. He officiated in turn with the Rector and Assistant, but without having any other parochial charge.

In 1760, Mr. Barclay received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from the University of Oxford.

In 1762, Dr. Barclay was induced, at the suggestion of Sir William Johnson, to undertake the superintendence of a new edition of the Indian Prayer Book. He seems to have devoted much time to the enterprise, but his knowledge of the Indian language was not sufficiently minute to enable him to proceed in it with much facility. He was interrupted in his work, at no distant period, by declining health, and it was in an unfinished state at the time of his death.

Dr. Barclay died on the 20th of August, 1764.

In a note to a Funeral Sermon of the Rev. Mr. Inglis on Dr. Auchmuty, is the following honourable mention of Dr. Barclay :

"As in his arduous mission at Albany and among the Mohawk Indians, he had distinguished himself by his zeal and indefatigable labours, so, when chosen Rector of Trinity Church, the same assiduous attention to the duties of his office, the same ardour in promoting religion as formerly, marked every step of his conduct. His character was truly respectable, his disposition most amiable and engaging. Meek, affable, sweet tempered and devout, his life was exemplary, whilst he cherished the warmest spirit of benevolence and charity. During his incumbency, the congregation greatly increased."

GEORGE WHITEFIELD.*

1738-1770.

GEORGE WHITEFIELD was born at Gloucester, England, December 16, (O. S.,) 1714. His father, who was first a wine-merchant, and afterwards an inn-keeper, died when this (his youngest) son was only two years old; in consequence of which, his earliest education devolved entirely upon his mother. His wonderful powers of oratory began to display themselves at a very early age; though his thoughts seem never to have been directed towards the ministry till he was about seventeen. He had also, while he was quite young, been the subject of some religious impressions; but his prevailing inclinations were decidedly opposed to religion, and he was at one time in great danger of being ruined through the influence of evil companions. It pleased God, however, to recover him from the snare, to revive the impressions which he had striven to efface, and to render him an earnest and diligent inquirer in respect to the salvation of his soul. At the age of seventeen, he received the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and from that time manifested a deep interest in religious things, and great watchfulness and concern in regard to his spiritual condition.

Having enjoyed, for several years, the benefit of a public school in his native town, in which he became a proficient especially in the Latin classics, he was sent, at the age of eighteen, to the University of Oxford. The state of religion, not only in the University, but in the country at large, was now exceedingly low; insomuch that even a belief in Christianity was very commonly regarded as evidence of an unphilosophical, if not an imbecile, mind. The sect of Methodists, however, had just arisen at Oxford, with the two Wesleys at its head, and Whitefield, at the expense of no small degree of odium from his fellow students, mingled freely with this new sect, and was recognised as one of them; but he gradually became more rigid in his austerities than any with whom he was associated, and he even imagined that it was his duty to shut himself up in his study till he had so far perfected the work of self-mortification that he could rise above the influence of all unhallowed motives. To such an extreme did he carry his abstemious habit, that he became sickly and emaciated, and was apparently drawing rapidly near to the grave; but by medical aid his health was soon restored, and with it a sounder state of mind, and a more consistent and rational course of conduct. From this period, his grand aim seemed to be to do good to his fellow creatures; and he not only availed himself of every opportunity of religious conversation with those who were his daily associates, but he devoted much of his leisure to visiting among the poor, and especially to reading and praying with the prisoners in the County jail.

At the age of about twenty-one, the Bishop of Gloucester, Dr. Benson, sent for him, and told him that though he had intended to ordain none under three-and-twenty, yet he should consider it his duty to ordain him

Gillies' Life of Whitefield.-Middleton's Biographia Evangelica.—Parsons' and Pemberton's Sermons on his death.

whenever he might apply. Accordingly, by the earnest persuasion of his friends, having carefully studied the Thirty-Nine Articles, and become satisfied that he could conscientiously consent to them, and made other preparation for the service, of a more spiritual kind, he was ordained at Gloucester, June 20, 1736; and immediately after returned to Oxford, with the intention to continue his studies a while longer, in connection with the exercise of the ministerial office.

Shortly after this, he thought it his duty to accept of an invitation to officiate at the Chapel of the Tower of London; and, accordingly, he spent two months there, preaching, catechising, and visiting the soldiers. His preaching produced a great sensation, and those who were inclined at first to sneer at his youthful appearance, were soon rapt in admiration of his wonderful powers. Meanwhile, the communications which had been received from the Wesleys, in regard to the great destitution of religious privileges in Georgia, awakened in him the desire, and finally led to the purpose, of coming on a sort of missionary tour to this country. The Bishop of London and the Archbishop of Canterbury both approved of his determination; and, accordingly, after having made the necessary preparations for his voyage, he embarked for Georgia, toward the close of December, 1737. Previous to this, he had preached in many of the larger towns in England, with unprecedented popularity, though not without considerable opposition. Immediately on commencing his voyage, he found himself in circumstances most unfavourable to religious enjoyment, being surrounded by a set of dissolute soldiers and sailors, who scrupled not to utter their blasphemies in his presence, and even to hint to him their suspicion that he was an impostor. But, by his great prudence, he succeeded in overcoming their prejudices, and winning their confidence; and long before they were at the end of their voyage, he was at liberty to preach the Gospel as often as he desired, and had the pleasure of seeing a large number, among whom was the Captain of the ship, who had before been a scoffing infidel, giving evidence of having abandoned their evil habits, and become the humble followers of the Lord Jesus. The effect of his ministrations was not a little assisted by the breaking out of an alarming disease on board the ship, which not only furnished occasion for his friendly and benevolent offices, but disposed the minds of those around him to greater seriousness, and rendered more welcome the voice both of consolation and of instruction.

Shortly after he landed at Savannah, he was seized with a violent fit of fever and ague, which, for some little time, confined him; and when he had gathered strength to look about upon his new field of labour, he found every thing bore the aspect of an infant colony; and what was still more discouraging, he saw, or thought he saw, that there were some features in its constitution, which must be changed before any essential progress could be realized. He became, at an early period after his arrival, deeply impressed with the importance of establishing an Orphan House in that region, somewhat upon the principle of that founded by the celebrated Francke at Halle; and he had soon so far matured this project that he was ready to set about the accomplishment of it.

Having laboured between three and four months in Georgia, he went, about the middle of August, to Charlestown, S. C., where he spent a single

Sabbath, preaching with wonderful acceptance to an immense congregation, and then embarked for London, with a view to accomplish the double object of obtaining Priest's Orders, and laying the foundation of his Orphan House. After a most uncomfortable and perilous voyage of nine weeks, he found himself again in the great Metropolis, but he soon perceived a change in some who had been the friends and patrons of his enterprise. The Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishop of London particularly, met him with only cold civility; and he quickly ascertained that the change had been occasioned by his journals, which they regarded as not a little tinctured with enthusiasm. The Trustees of the Colony of Georgia, however, received him with great cordiality, and were pleased not only to express their satisfaction with the accounts concerning him which had reached them during his stay in the Colony, but also to present him to the living of Savannah, with five hundred acres of land upon which to erect an Orphan House. Notwithstanding many of the pulpits, in and about London, were closed against him, there were enough that were open; and he preached constantly to overflowing congregations, and with surprising effect.

In January, 1739, he went to Oxford, and received Priest's Orders from his ever faithful friend, Bishop Benson; and, immediately after, returned to London, with a view to make collections in the different churches in behalf of his Orphan House. But by this time the prejudice against him had become so strong, on the ground of his alleged fanatical irregularities, that the ministers of the Establishment, with very few exceptions, refused him their countenance. He went shortly after to Bristol, where he met with scarcely a better reception; but he had here the most wonderful success in preaching in the open air to the colliers. His congregation continued to increase till it was supposed to amount to nearly twenty thousand. "The first discovery of their being affected," he says, "was to see the white gutters made by their tears, which plentifully fell down their black cheeks, as they came out of their coal pits. Hundreds and hundreds of them were soon brought under deep conviction, which, as the event proved, happily ended in a sound and thorough conversion." After having made a short tour in Wales, and some parts of England, he returned to London about the beginning of May; and, by request of the stated clergyman, attempted to preach at Islington Church; but, in the midst of the service, the Church-warden came and demanded his license, or otherwise forbade his preaching in the pulpit. The consequence was that he left the church with his congregation, and preached in the churchyard. From this time his preaching was generally in the open air; and on the succeeding Sabbath, he ventured into Moorfields, a very public place in London, where, though he had been warned that it would be at the peril of his life that he should go, he preached to an immense multitude without any serious molestation. Here, and at some other places in the neighbourhood, he continued to preach daily, for several months, his common auditories, at a moderate computation, consisting of more than twenty thousand, while, at the same time, he was constantly receiving liberal collections for his Orphan House.

In August, 1739, he sailed the second time for America, and, after a passage of nine weeks, arrived at Philadelphia, in the early part of