{"page_1": " his teacher in philosophy for Mr. Williams was a thoroughly loyal man.\n\nOn December 15, 1774, Mr. Williams preached a Thanksgiving sermon on \"Love of Our Country\" Ps. 137: 5,6. The sermon was printed and widely distributed. It breathed no spirit of defiance. It counselled peace. It was uttered in tenderness and grief and under the apprehension that great evil would soon come. The sermon proved a prophecy. Three years later, Mr. Williams read from the same pulpit the Declaration of American Independence.\n\nThere is abundant testimony to the fidelity and evangelical character of the preaching of this Pastor. In his early ministry he delivered two sermons which were the key note of his preaching. The doctrine of his sermons gives a very good symbol of his pastorate. The subject was regeneration. He set forth the importance of salvation, the lost condition in sin. The utter inability of the sinner. The necessity of change by the Grace of God. Lastly the blessedness of that change as seen in love to God; love of Holiness; love to man and love of duty as crowning all.\n\nHe was dismissed June 14, 1780 to accept the professorship of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in Harvard College. He received the degree of L. L. D. from the University of Edinburgh and from Yale College. He was Honorable Member of the Meteorological Society of Manheim, Germany and of the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia and of the Academy of Arts and Sciences of Massachusetts.\n\nIn 1788 he was dismissed from Cambridge, Mass. Some records state that he had committed \"forgery\" and was discharged.\n\nHe settled in Rutland, Vermont, then new country and was the first minister in the East Parish, so called, in that town. He preached there for six years.\n\nHe also preached at Burlington, Vt. some two years and delivered a course of Lectures at the University of Vermont where he contributed largely to the cause of education there.\n\nOn Dec. 4, 1794, in his Thanksgiving sermon, he announced his intention of withdrawing from active work in the ministry. He had been the first minister of the church as before stated. Rutland itself was less than twenty years old. Vermont had been but three years one of the states of the Union; but the little frontier commonwealth was a heroic post and a patriotic hope rather than a tower of strength in the political world. There was great need after the Revolution of the preacher and the teacher. The college bred men of the state could be counted upon the fingers of two hands. Ethan Allen could capture Ticonderoga, but he could not spell it.\n\nHis decision to withdraw from active work in the ministry filled the people of the East Parish with consternation. "}