his spirit. He
leaves the impression, even after the lapse of more than two hundred
and fifty years, of having been a saint of a rare type. Those who were
nearest to him in fellowship called him "a good man," "a Godlike man,"
"a servant and friend of God," "a serious practicer of the Sermon on
the Mount"; and we who know him only afar off and at second hand feel
sure nevertheless that these lofty words were rightly given to him.
His scholarship was wide--he had "a vastness of learning," as Patrick
says; but his main contribution was not to philosophy nor to theology,
it consisted rather of an exhibition of religion wrought out in the
attractive form of a beautiful spiritual life: "He was an Exemplar of
true Christian Vertue of so poized and even a life that by his Wisdom
and Conscience one might live almost at a venture, walking blindfold
through the world."[3]

The details of his life are very meagre. We are in the {306} main
dependent on the literary portraits of him drawn by two of his
affectionate friends--John Worthington who edited his Discourses, and
Simon Patrick who delivered the remarkable sermon on the occasion of
his funeral.[4] From these sources we learn that John Smith was born
at Achurch near Oundle about the year 1618, "of parents who had long
been childless and were grown aged." It appears incidentally that his
parents were poor, and that Benjamin Whichcote, who was Smith's college
Tutor, made "provision for his support and maintenance" in his early
student days.[5] He entered Emmanuel College in 1636, and here he came
under the profound religious and intellectual influence of Whichcote,
for whom "he did ever express a great and singular regard." He became
a Master of Arts in 1644, and that same year was elected Fellow of
Queens' College. It was about this time that Whichcote returned to
Cambridge, "spreading and propagating a nobler, freer and more generous
sett of opinions," which "the young Masters of Arts soon cordially
embraced." Among those who formed this group of awakened and kindled
students Smith was an enthusiastic member, and he himself soon became a
powerful exponent in the Chapel of Queens' College of a similar
message, which, a contemporary writer says, "contributed to raise new
thoughts and a sublime style in the members of the University." He was
smitten, while still young, with a painful lingering illness, which he
bore "without murmuring or complaining," "resting quietly sa