last eight years of his life, save a few months before his death, as pastor of the Congregational Church at Clear Lake, Iowa.

At every place where he labored he assisted in building a house of worship, and organized in the course of his ministry eight churches. In all his labors he was an ardent lover and advocate of Christian union, while at the gatherings of his more immediate brethren his genial presence was hailed as that of one baptized in the spirit of his Master. It was with a kind of filial feeling that they called him Father Allen. Always of temperate habits, his frame strong and health perfect, he knew no sickness till about a a year before his death, when at times he was an extreme sufferer. It was in connection with these sufferings that he had a renewed Christian experience, being led, as he testified, "into ardent longings for entire purity of heart and life, and being brought into a peace of mind beyond expression." When these bodily sufferings were most severe then was Jesus the most precious to him, the "chief among ten thousand." So he testified, and so, when he was buried, it was more in the victory of a Christian's hope than in the thought of death's triumph.

Mr. Allen was twice married; first in 1819 to Miss Lydia Kingsbury. As the fruits of this marriage there were ten children, eight of whom are still living. Oct. 2, 1850, he married for his second wife Mrs. Martha J. (Barney) Camp. Mrs. Camp was already the mother of five children; and as the fruits of this second marriage three others were born, making in all a numerous family to be cared for, fed, clothed, and educated, which was done on a salary often as low as $400, never more than $600 per annum. His last words written were pencillings in his memorandum of some family expenses, stating also the cash on hand, in amount a dollar or two, showing his system and economy to the end. He served well his day and generation, and was gathered to his fathers "as a shock of corn cometh in in his season." He left a widow, sixteen children, and about thirty grandchildren to mourn his loss.

E. A.

REV. ABIJAH RICHARDSON BAKER, D. D., was born in Franklin, Mass., Aug. 30, 1805. He was the son of David and Jemima (Richardson) Baker. From his birth he was under religious influences. Rev. Nathaniel Emmons, D. D., was his pastor; and though in his riper years Dr. Baker did not accept all Dr. Emmons' views in theology, he always held the great and good man in the utmost tenderness and respect. He fitted for college in Medway and Bradford, Mass. For the latter place he always felt a peculiar affection, for it was here he

found his Saviour. In the very room where Harriet Newell, of precious memory, yielded her heart to Christ, this young student opened his to the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit and was at peace. He was graduated from Amherst College in 1830, and from the Theological Seminary in Andover in 1835. October 1,

of the same year, he was married to Harriet Newell, daughter of Dr. Leonard Woods, of Andover, Mass. During his theological course of study he was invited to fields of labor as a teacher, having already distinguished himself in that capacity, and these calls were far more lucrative than the profession he had chosen, but he then and ever afterwards refused even to entertain any question leading him away from the ministry. The language of inspiration was his also, "Woe is me if I preach not the gospel!" His first call was to Ware, Mass., where a delightful work of grace followed his three months' residence among that people. His next call to West Hartford, Conn., as colleague with the venerable Dr. Perkins, gave him much anxiety concerning the path of duty, partly owing to the fact that the aged man begged him with tears not to add to the sorrows of his life by declining it. While this question was under consideration he was called to labor in Albany during Dr. Edward N. Kirk's absence in Europe. On leaving Albany he received two calls simultaneously from Medford and Randolph, Mass. The invitation to Medford he answered in the affirmative, and was ordained there in the spring of 1838. Concerning his labors in that place I quote one brief extract from the church records:

"During the ministry of Mr. Baker, a little more than ten years, there have been among the people of his charge four interesting revivals of religion, one continuing nearly a year. He has admitted to the church two hundred members, followed to the grave more than one hundred of his flock, prepared about one thousand sermons, and preached himself or by a substitute every Sabbath but two during the whole period."

While pastor in Medford several new evangelical churches were formed partly or wholly out of his congregation, and the church building was enlarged, and yet when he left to visit the Sabbath schools through New England both church and congregation were larger than when he was ordained over them.

The brief space allowed for this biography gives little opportunity to speak of his work as a pastor, either in Medford or in Lynn, Wellesley or South Boston. In his preaching he was direct, pungent, pressing home upon the hearts and consciences of his hearers the truths which he found in God's Word. To quote from

one of his brethren in the ministry, "Brother Baker was especially distinguished for his soundness in the Christian faith." As a pastor he was loving, watchful, and tender. His visits to the sick were watched for and welcomed, often with tears of joy. As a friend there was a heartiness and joyousness which always distinguished him. In his general bearing there was an old-fashioned politeness and courtesy about him which those who knew him will never forget.

After he left Medford his work, as pressed upon him by his brethren, was that of laying foundations, building up. He raised funds for erecting the Central Church in Lynn, prepared a covenant and creed for the new enterprise, and afterward, in South Boston, performed a similar work.

Dr. Baker was frequently called on councils, where his kindness of manner and his sound judgment won him great respect. He received many invitations to publish the sermons he preached on public occasions, and prepared, in connection with sermons by other Boston clergymen, an essay on Divine Sovereignty which has passed through many editions

But though as a pastor Dr. Baker's labors were abundant, every leisure moment was passed in work connected with the object to which he had devoted his life. About the time he left Medford he issued an exposition of the Assembly's Shorter Catechism, or "The Catechism tested by the Bible," of which, in 1871, about 500,000 copies had been printed in the English and other languages. This work has been translated into six languages, two of another family than ours, the Arabic and Hawaiian. In the Sandwich Islands it was used as a text-book by order of government. On Mount Lebanon one of the missionaries writes that it is ". a great help" in their work as a formula of sound doctrine." The great literary work of his life, however, and one which he completed but a few weeks before his decease, is a Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, a full and exhaustive treatment of the subject, sufficient to fill four octavo volumes. This laborious work, in connection with the final revision of his wife's books, which have reached one hundred and sixty volumes, employed his later years, and upon it he spent all the ripe knowledge and experience acquired by a long life of close study.

Dr. Baker had six sons, the eldest dying in infancy. As a father he was indulgent, but firm in discipline. He made himself their companion, their friend. He lived to see all of them professing Christ. Two are settled in the ministry, two more are preparing for the sacred

work, and one is practising as a physician. As a husband, Dr. Baker was considerate, watchful of the interests of his wife, tender, loving, and as courteous during his last days as when winning her to be the bride of his youth. His death occurred April 30, 1876. It was not unexpected by himself, and was triumphant. He knew the messenger and welcomed him, expressing to the last moments of consciousness his trust in Christ, and in Him alone, "to pardon a poor sinner.” As he stood on the banks of Jordan, visions of the glories beyond burst upon his view, causing him to exclaim aloud, "Oh, the rapture! the rapture!" "Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!"

H. N. B.

MRS. NANCY DAGGETT BRIDGMAN was born Sept. 2, 1811, at Seekonk, Mass. She was the daughter of Jacob and Lydia (Slack) Daggett, and the tenth child of a family of eleven children, all of whom lived to adult age, and all but one, the youngest, to reach over sixty years of age. When an infant of three years she lost both parents, in consequence of which most of her childhood was spent at North Attleborough, Mass. She learned the millinery. trade, and was working at it at Lonsdale, R. I., when at an early period she was converted to Christ during a revival in the Episcopal Church, of which she became a member. She at once became an active working Christian. By her activity and earnestness she brought upon herself the opposition of the impenitent and of some professing Christians.

Feeling the need of a better education she sold out her business, and, against the wishes of her friends, went to Oberlin, which was then only a little school of scarcely a year's standing in the wilderness of the far West. She quickly imbibed the earnest spirit of the place and adopted its aggressive reformatory views. Her health was so poor that she took only two years of the course. For one year she taught a colored school at Columbus, the capital of the State. This she undertook as a missionary work, knowing full well that it would subject her to the contempt of most of the white people; but she remembered that she was not better than her Master for whom she was laboring.

She was always interested in the antislavery cause, and while at Columbus she helped at least one fugitive slave on to a land of freedom.

March 20, 1840, Miss Daggett was married to Rev. Lewis Bridgman, also an Oberlin student, with whom she bore for thirty-six years the sorrows and joys, the trials and rewards, of a pastor's work,

most of which was on the frontier. They spent a year and a half in Ohio, one year in Pennsylvania, fourteen years in Wisconsin, going there when it was a territory; seven years in Massachusetts, then eight years more in Wisconsin, and then five years in Dakota. Three children were given them, one son and two daughters. Always in poor health, she bore bravely and cheerfully the privations of frontier life, some of which were very severe.

She was an active worker in the Sabbath school, prayer-meeting, and other good causes, until a fit of sickness brought on a deafness which cut her off from many fields of usefulness. But she still made her life a blessing to others wherever she could, and kept herself well informed on the important questions of the day.

On Saturday, Aug. 12, she rode thirty miles across the prairie to Richland, Dakota Territory, to visit her daughter, expecting also to meet another daughter and family, who were on their way to Colorado. They reached her twelve hours before her death, but not in time to receive any token of recognition. She was taken sick Saturday, Aug. 19, and failed rapidly until the next Friday morning, Aug. 25, 1876, when, as the clock was striking five, she fell asleep in Christ.

Dying, still slowly dying,

As the hours of night rode by,
She had lain since the light of sunset
Was red on the western sky, —
Till toward the morning watches,
As we softly near her trod,
When her soul from its prison-fetters

Was loosed by the hand of God.

The earnest reformer, the devoted Christian, the faithful rebuker of sin, the ceaseless, tireless worker, the friend of the oppressed and the needy, the dutiful wife and the loving mother, is no more on earth. Her body sleeps in the prairie graveyard under the sunny skies of Dakota, but her soul has gone to be forever with the Lord, "where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary be at rest."

R. T. C.

REV. SAMUEL ORDWAY died at Marshalltown, Iowa, Nov. 2, 1876, aged 68 years 8 months. He was the son of Samuel and Sarah Morse Ordway, born at Amesbury, Mass., March 12, 1808. While a resident of Lowell, Mass., he made a profession of religion, uniting with one of the Congregational churches of that city. That church, seeing in him, as they thought, special qualifications for the ministry, urged his entrance on a course of preparation. Yielding