REMINISCENCES.

"I FIRST met with that eminent missionary of Christ, the late Dr. John Scudder, in the year 1813, when we came together, in company with many others, to attend medical lectures in the city of New York.

"He had finished his preparatory education in Princeton College, New Jersey, his native state, and we both found ourselves the private pupils of Dr. David Hosack, then the distinguished Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the University of the State of New York. We were therefore thrown together nearly all the time of our pupilage, instead of occasionally meeting in a crowded lecture-room during the winter months of each year.

"I know not why it was that Dr. Scudder at this period cultivated a closer intimacy with me than with our fellow-students generally under Professor Hosack's charge. Though morally correct, I made no profession of religion, and was not at all pious. But I have reason to thank Him who has all hearts in his hands that he inclined his servant to be specially friendly to me. I can trace many of my blessings to our intercourse all along from this early period to the last year of his devoted life. "To any young man, attendance upon lectures in a large city, away from home influences, is a very danger

ous trial. Multitudes of promising youth have thus been ruined. Even to a pious student it is full of peril, and always must be a painful ordeal.

"I can very distinctly call up Dr. Scudder's career as a medical student, and often reflect upon it as one of singular wisdom and firmness, and yet so softened and sweetened by Christian courtesy as to win for him the kindly regards even of the most thoughtless and worldly-minded of his fellow-students. Amid the tempting scenes and trials of patience in which he was placed at this time, I never witnessed in him the slightest departure from the purity, the rectitude, the amiability, or the calm dignity of the Christian character. This was so remarkable as to be universally felt, and to secure for him the respect of all. His presence among us had at least a powerful moral influence; and I can not but hope that, in the case of not a few, a still richer blessing flowed from it. I have continued reason to thank God for our early friendship.

"In May, 1815, Dr. Scudder was admitted to the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He decided to embark in the practice of his profession in the city of New York. I introduced him to the amiable family of the late excellent Mrs. Ruth Waterbury, into which he was at once admitted as an inmate. About a year afterward he was married to Harriet, the third daughter of Mrs. Waterbury. She was a young lady of rare personal beauty and winning manners, united with strong common sense, a soundness of judgment, a uniform cheerfulness of disposition, and a depth of piety which admirably qualified her for the wife of the future missionary. They knew not then, however, their high destiny, with its great trials

and still greater usefulness. But He who knoweth the end from the beginning had doubtless fitted them for each other, and for the honorable and arduous work to which he subsequently called them.

"Here it may be well to remark that Dr. Scudder's mind and personal habits were eminently adapted to the medical profession. He was a close, accurate observer at the bedside, overlooking nothing, however small, that might throw light upon the case, and weighing every thing so calmly and judiciously as rarely to fail of a right decision; and when decided, none more energetic in carrying out his decision. It soon, therefore, became quite a general sentiment that, if professional knowledge, unwearied industry, soundness of judgment, and a most zealous, conscientious interest in whatever case he undertook were in the physician a sure ground of trust to the patient, Dr. Scudder's success was certain, and could not be long delayed. Accordingly, he very quickly found himself in the possession of a large and growing practice. Considering that he had no old-established practitioner to take him by the hand, or to make way for him, but had, single-handed, to build up his own fortunes, Dr. Scudder's success was without a parallel. The fiftyfour years that have since elapsed have not supplied me with one other such example of rapid and sound professional advancement. His course was not that of the meteor, suddenly flashing upon us and soon extinguished, but like the steady growing light of the sun, in which all confide and rejoice.

"The particular incident which called Dr. Scudder's attention to the subject of foreign missions as a personal matter, and led him to give himself to the work, he re

lated to me just after its occurrence. It was as follows. Upon visiting a patient, he took up a tract entitled 'THE CLAIMS OF SIX HUNDRED MILLIONS,' and carefully read it at the bedside. The Spirit of God thus brought the subject to his mind and heart in all its grandeur and the solemn weight of its responsibilities. 'What am I doing? he thought; 'thousands may be found to seek wealth and reputation in the practice of medicine, but how few are willing to go and preach the Gospel! God helping me, I will, if my dear wife sympathizes with me. I will give up all, and go at once to the very ends of the earth, if need be, and preach Christ to perishing heathen.' After much communing upon the subject, and fasting, and much prayer, they both resolved, calmly, solemnly, immovably, to live and die for Christ upon missionary ground.

"It was in the year 1819 that Dr. Scudder made known the intention of himself and wife to go as missionaries to the island of Ceylon, under the auspices of the American Board. His announcement made a strong impression. The worldly stood amazed, not knowing what could induce a man who had realized so much, and whose prospects were so brilliant, to throw all these away, and embrace a life of toil, privation, and danger, among an ignorant, degraded people on the other side of the globe, there to wear out and die far off from home, and friends, and country. Some solved the difficulty at once; they pronounced him 'mad. Even Christians were startled, it had been so uncommon at that day for an eminent professional man to give up every thing and go out as a poor missionary.

"But a large circle of Christian friends soon rallied