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THE

LADIES' REPOSITORY.

JULY, 1870.

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PROF. EBENEZER FISHER, D. D.

BY REV. MASSENA GOODRICH.

T has well been said that the life of a scholar is generally barren of incident. The assertion holds true with respect to the majority of ministers. There is little of a startling character in their career, which challenges the attention of the multitude like the successful campaign of the soldier, or the wild adventures of the traveller. But in the deeper elements of usefulness their lives are well versed. God and angels, who look below the surface, behold in the quiet, faithful discharge of duty, in the persistent, prayerful labors of the consecrated pastor for the sanctification of his people, a moral prowess which surpasses the valor of the warrior.

We may be pardoned for magnifying our office. There is profound truth in the reremarks of M. Müller. "There is nothing more interesting than religion," says he, “in the whole history of man. By its side, poerty and art, science and law, sink into comparative insignificance." Again; "To my mind the great epochs in the world's history are marked not by the foundation or the destruction of empires, by the migration of races or by French revolutions. All this is outward history, made up of events that seem gigantic or overpowering to those only who cannot see beyond and beneath. The real history of man is the history of religion -the wonderful ways by which the different families of the human race advanced towards

VOL. XLIV.-1

a truer knowledge and a deeper love of God. This is the foundation that underlies alt profane history; it is the light, the soul and life of history, and without it all history would indeed be profane."

If these statements are correct, the career of the devoted Christian minister, who makes it his aim to promote the spread of the true religion, is not devoid of interest. And doubly worthy is that man's life of commendation who adds to fidelity in the pastoral office the merit of training scores of young men for active service in the ministry. To this merit Prof. Fisher can lay claim. Let us briefly sketch the incidents of his life.

Ebenezer Fisher was born on the 6th of February, 1815, in what is now the town of Charlotte, in Washington Co., Maine. Even now that town is rough and stern in its typographical features, but was more so when the subject of our notice was born. His father was a pioneer in that region, and became the father of eight childrea. Ebenezer was the second of the number, and was trained to the hardships and toil of a pioneer life. The little settlement in which his boyhood was passed was largely composed of emigrants from Massachuset s and New Hampshire, who carried with them a love of knowledge. Their common schoo's were therefore better than might have been looked for in a region of so little wealth. To these schools the future preacher was mainly indebted for his elementary instruction. He spent, indeed, three or four months in the

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