The Humphreys family in America - citizen hylbom blog

he no farther honor than this, that he secured the launching and equipment of his ship, and
piloted it out of a crooked harbor into an open sea, that were enough for one who beholds
Amherst College as it is now. But his honor is greater than this. He, more than any one else,
was instrumental in giving the College its character. Under his administration the purpose of its
founders was realized. They desired it to be a training-school for the Church, a seminary for the
education especially of ministers and missionaries of the Cross. That this desire might be realized
was the potent motive which drew him from the pastorate in Pittsfield. He was unceasingly
solicitous for the religious interests of the institution. In one of- his addresses to the Alumni of
the College he says :
' It seems to me the richest smile of Heaven upon Amherst College that
no class has ever graduated without passing, at least once, under the cloud which has so often
poured out righteousness upon it. If, in its former strait.s, every drop had been fine gold, how
meagre the blessing compared with these effusions of the Holy Spirit. Let this College be swept
from under these glorious skies sooner than any other Gospel shall be preached within these walls
than that which has been made the wisdom of God and the power of God unto salvation.'
During his connection with the College four hundred and thirty of the eight hundred graduates
became ministers of the Gospel, and thirty-nine were sent abroad as missionaries. Let any one
who is anxious to see what order of students has come from this institution study its Triennials,
see what distinguished names are on its roll, and how many of those names are printed in the
honored italics which designate ministers of the Gospel."
When Dr. Humphrey had reached the age of sixty-five, having filled the Presidential office
twenty-two years, he felt that the time had come to retire from the burdens and responsibilities
of the position. After his resignation, in April, 1845, he selected Pittsfield, Mass., as his residence
for the remainder of his life—the town where he had passed the 3-ears of his second pastorate.
Here he was welcomed with great affection, and his return was regarded as a blessing to the
community. Says one: "The children of his former parishioners seemed to have brought such
memories out of their forming years that they regarded him with a reverence as nearly saintly as
is consistent with Puritan character, and all felt that it was like a benediction simply to see him
passing through our streets." As the years went on, the position accorded him in the town was
almost phenomenal. In connection with very many families his relationship was truly patriarchal.
Their homes, their tables, their gardens with all they contained of beauty or fruitage, were as
open to him as if each one had been his own. The sick and the dying watched eagerly for his
coming, and for the comfort of his ministrations, and when some heavy sorrow fell with crushing
weight upon a household, the most natural cry seemed to be, "Send for Dr. Humphrey."
He interested himself actively in all village affairs: in the establishment of a public library;
in the introduction of water and gas; in the " Tree- Planting Association" which bears his name, for
the shading of the streets; and in the building of a Medical College. "He found the old church
whose severed parts had been so kindly knit under his ministry had become so large that division
was as much a duty as reunion had been twenty-eight vears before. A colony was soon formed
with which he identified himself, although this step involved much self-sacrifice. A new house of
worship was provided for the colony, largely in consequence of his influence and exertions." Nor
were his labors confined to the town in which he lived. He went through the State endeavoring
to arouse new interest in missions; he delivered lectures, and his pen was never idle. His con-
tributions at this time to the New York Observer, over the signature of "The Old Man of the
Mountains," were looked for with special interest. His services were in frequent demand to
supply vacant pulpits, and his discourses to his latest years often glow with the fire which distin-
guished them in his youth. In an address delivered in Pittsfield, in 1854, (in his seventy-sixth
year,) when the "Missouri Compromise," prohibiting the extension of Slavery in certain territories,
was threatened with the repeal called the "Nebraska Bill," he thus poured out his indi,gnant protest:
"What if that venerable man of God, Rev. Thomas Allen (a former pastor of the Pittsfield church.