1862.] 19 [Dunglison. 



name of Dr. Bethune, the high sentiments he entertained towards 

 the Board ; his opinion of the great importance of the office, and his 

 gratitude to Divine Providence that he should have been deemed fit 

 for such a distinction ; that had the appointment been given him 

 immediately on his return to this country, he would have been 

 strongly moved to accept it with pleasure, especially as it would have 

 enabled him to resume his residence in Philadelphia, where he had 

 spent fifteen of his happiest years, and where he had many friends 

 very dear to his heart. But it could not be. His conscientious re- 

 luctance to leave the pulpit as his sphere of usefulness, had been 

 increased by a call to a church in his native city, oifering him strong- 

 inducements of every kind to accept it, and he had done so. 



The self-denying liberality which had been extended to him by 

 the excellent pastor of a church in New York, the Rev. Dr. Abra- 

 ham Van Nest, Jr., and by a number of enlightened persons of dif- 

 ferent denominations there, could not well be resisted, and he wisely 

 determined to remain in that ministry of which he was so distin- 

 guished an ornament. His nomination was consequently withdrawn. 



For ten years, from September, 1839, to October, 1849, whilst a 

 resident of Philadelphia, he had been an active member of the Board 

 of Trustees of the University; and, in 1838, had received the de- 

 gree of Doctor of Divinity — caitsd lionoris — at their hands. 



During the year 1860, Dr. Bethune pursued tranquilly his digni- 

 fied calling in association with his disinterested colleague, making no 

 allusion, in his letters to the writer, to his former attack ; observing, 

 as he ever strove to do, the golden rule of moderation in all things ; 

 and hence avoiding, so far as he was able, all undue mental and 

 physical excitement. In the November of that year he wrote : 



" I am, thank God, very well. After my summer labors, kept up 

 through August, I took one of my accustomed woodland jaunts, in 

 consequence of which I flourished and flourish exceedingly. Mrs. 

 Bethune, I feared, would not do well this coming winter, after the 

 confinement and anxieties of her summer in town, and we projected 

 a winter in the Bahamas; but she is now so much better that she 

 does not wish to go. We are, in fact, through God's blessing, very 

 prosperous, and I trust very thankful, which is the best happiness 

 in this life. My ecclesiastical affairs go well. My admirable col- 

 league is all I could wish, and more than I deserve." "We are 

 about purchasing some acres on the Hudson, about a hundred and 

 twenty miles from town, to make a nest for our old years. We are 



