Blair Collection > Rhys Lewis, minister of Bethel

380 RHYS LEWIS.
regions, still, it was a discovery to know it existed. It was
something to be able to see with my own eyes the leaf upon
the water. It is worth a lad's while to go to college, if it were
only to let him know how much there is to know, to rub the
rust and shake the dust otf which he had gathered at home. I
am not saying much when I mention that there was not in the
church I was brought up in one lad, Will Bryan excepted, who
was stronger than myself in natural insight ; and it would be
sheer hypocrisy for me to say that the fact did not cause me to
form a distinctive notion concerning myself. But after going to
college I was not long in finding out that I was nothing and
nobody, and that among my fellow students many a man
might be found who could put me into his waistcoat pocket.
My hide would have been as hard as the hippopotamus's not to
have received any benefit by rubbing against those who ex-
celled me in every way. If a young man can spend three or
four years in college and come home again, without great gain
to himself, the fault is his own entirely, and he does not de-
serve to be fed. My experience of the period is that it was the
most blessed and happy of my life; and I look back upon it
with the sweetest regret. Many were the friendship's knots I
tied there which neither time nor distance can undo. With
but little effort my memory can vividly recall before my
mind's eye, at the present moment, the faces of all my
companions. Where are they now ? One or two of them
were taken home before the end of their college term;
and one or two others followed without being permitted to
"do" but little. The majority, however, remain scattered
up and down the world. Several, appointed pastors of flocks,
are already useful— famous, some of them— in the ministry,
while others shift for themselves as best they can, preach-
ing here and there on the Sabbath, and doing nothing
in particular during the week. Speaking of this matter, I re-
member that, as the time drew near when we must leave
college, the question most of us asked each other was : What
are you going to do ? It was an important question, to some
of us especially. We had given up our old occupations, which
by now we were unfitted to resume. It was not all of us who
had comfortable homes to return to, or wealthy relations on