HIS RETIREMENT FROM OFFICE. 131 



Sabbath Morning, August 7, 1853. This is the last day 

 of my seventy-fourth year, and to-morrow, if I live, will be 

 the first of my seventy-fifth. Through my whole life I 

 have experienced innumerable mercies, shaded by afflic- 

 tions, chiefly in the removal of dear friends. But many of 

 them were aged, and departed in the fulness of years and 

 of a mature piety. Now, for the first time in almost fifty- 

 four years, I begin a new year without feeling the responsi- 

 bility of Yale College resting, in a measure, upon me. I 

 have been carried through my long course of public duty 

 successfully, and retire with a general and strong expres- 

 sion of good-will and esteem. My children are glad that I 

 have resigned while my faculties are unimpaired, and when 

 regret for the loss of my services is generally expressed. It 

 remains only to await my final call to resign my life into 

 the hands of my Maker. I hope to go cheerfully, humbly 

 depending upon my Saviour. 



