WILLIAM AUGUSTUS STEARNS. 



295 



gone forth into the world to seek a fit field for his labors, he showed 

 iu the choice of one his characteristic wisdom and moderation. He 

 was ambitions rather of doing effective work iu his calling than of 

 winning the high prizes of his profession. He preferred to build up 

 the waste places rather than to enter into the rewards of other men's 

 labors. Instead of continuing to preach as a candidate in the expecta- 

 tion of securing one of the metropolitan parishes, which his learning, 

 his character, and his gift of pulpit eloquence would almost certainly 

 have procured for him, he cast iu his lot at once with a young and 

 struggling congregation in Cambridgeport, which had little to offer 

 him excepting an opportunity for work and friendly co-operation in it. 

 His superiors in the profession, among them at least one of the pro- 

 fessors at Andover, marvelled at his choice, and looked upon it as a 

 throwing away of himself and his gifts and graces. And, indeed, Cam- 

 bridgeport was not at that time the thriving and populous settlement 

 that it has since become. There was little that was inviting to the 

 eye or to the taste in the straggling streets and flat surroundings of 

 that uninteresting suburb. Such as it was, however, there it was that 

 Mr. Stearns set up the staff of his rest and entered upon what he had 

 accepted as the business of his life. His neighborhood to Boston and 

 Cambridge, it is very likely, was a consideration which may have had 

 some weisfht in his decision. He began his ministerial life with a sal- 

 ary of seven hundred dollars and a proportion of the pew-lettings, — a 

 provision scarcely more ample, the difference in the value of money 

 considered, than the humble stipend which was thought sufficient for 

 the modest needs of his father at Bedford, nearly forty years before. 

 Here Mr. Stearns remained for twenty-three years, beloved of his 

 people, respected by his neighbors, and useful in various directions 

 outside of his vocation. Besides being chairman of the School Com- 

 mittee of the town, he was a member of the State Board of Education 

 and an Overseer of Harvard University umler the charter as modified 

 in 1810. The twenty-three years of the pastorate of Mr. Stearns 

 were years of great success in his function. He built up his congrega- 

 tion from the feeble beginnings of the commencement of his ministry 

 to be one of the most prosperous and flourishing in the neighborhood 

 of Boston. And he had provided for himself a convenient and pleas- 

 ant home. 



While thus happily situated and usefully employed, doing well what 

 he loved best to do, Dr. Stearns — for his Alma Mater had given him 

 the degree of Doctor in Divinity the year before — was invited in the 

 year 1854 to assume the Presidency of Amherst College. The offer 



