1889.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 5 



lavish of her gifts. She endowed him with a commanding 

 intellect, an inflexible will, and the frame of a giant. Fame, 

 honor, fortune, were within his grasp. Our manufacturing 

 interests were established and developed, and made remarka- 

 bly successful, by his strong feith and rare business ability. 

 He was a great man. He could hardly help achieving suc- 

 cess. He amassed a large fortune.. What did he do with 

 it? Not a dollar was wasted in vain display, or in gratifying 

 depraved appetite or base passion. First of all, he cared for 

 his native town, doing all he could to make it attractive and 

 prosperous. Hence he built fine churches, provided liberally 

 for public worship, advocated and practised temperance, 

 obeyed and enforced law. But he did not stop here. He 

 had the whole world in his heart. He gave freely to home 

 and foreign missions, and proved his interest in all benevolent 

 enterprises by generous contributions. Yet he preferred to 

 aid permanent institutions. His largest benefiictions were 

 to colleges and schools. It was his highest joy to be per- 

 mitted to orio-inate influences which would last throusfh all 

 time, developing man's noblest powers, and making each 

 generation wiser and better than the one before it. In this 

 spirit he founded Williston Seminary, and endowed it with 

 a million of dollars. And it will live and keep the town 

 alive, and go on blessing the world till time shall be no 

 longer. Thus Mr. Williston is still a real, living, mighty 

 power in the midst of us to-day. May it not be that he is 

 now doing even more for our good and the good of the 

 world, than in the prime of his manhood? The good he did 

 lives after him, his works follow him, and every day the 

 good seed which he scattered is bringing forth a more abun- 

 dant harvest. A life devoted to the service of Him who was 

 the light of the world, — how good in itself, and how glorious 

 for what it achieves ! 



Edmund H. Sawyer, though cast in a very different mould, 

 was animated by the same purpose. As a business man he 

 had few equals. He looked through any proposition and saw 

 all its details at a single glance. This led to great promptness 

 in deciding, and a full assurance that his decision was cor- 

 rect. Confident that his plans were well chosen, he never 

 feared the issue, and, amid all diflSculties, pressed on with 



