HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MEDFORD, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, FROM ITS FIRST SETTLEMENT, IN 1630, TO THE PRESENT TIME, 1855.
Charles Brooks, Ed.

This gentleman was a native of Boston, born 1701, and graduated at Harvard College 1721. He studied his profession with Rev. Benjamin Colman, of Boston; and on the 17th June, 1724, the Selectmen of Medford having appointed that day for a town-fast, Mr. Colman preached a fitting sermon from these words: “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.” After this preparatory service, the town proceeded to elect, unanimously, the Rev. Ebenezer Turell to be their pastor and teacher,--a hundred pounds settlement, and ninety pounds salary, and strangers' money, to be paid semi-annually. To this invitation Mr. Turell returned the following answer, dated Aug. 31, 1724:--

Forasmuch as the God of the spirits of all flesh (upon our seeking unto him by prayer and fasting) has inclined your hearts to elect and call me, who am less than the least of all saints, and unworthy the name of a teacher of Christ, to settle with you in the work of the evangelical ministry, I thought myself in duty bound to take this weighty and important call into my most serious and religious consideration; and, in the first place, to look up to heaven unto that God who is wonderful in council as well as excellent in working, for his gracious assistance, direction, conduct, and blessing; and, in the next place, to apply myself unto the servants of God, together with my Christian friends, for counsel and advice in this important affair; which, accordingly, I have done with what of sincerity and humility the grace of God has afforded me. I do, therefore, in the first place, offer my unfeigned thanks unto Almighty God for his gracious assistances vouchsafed unto me, and for the kind acceptance he has granted me with his people, that he has so far inclined me to take up the cross, and follow a glorious Saviour in the arduous and honorable employment of the gospel ministry. I desire, likewise, thankfully to receive the respect which you, the church and congregation of Medford, have put upon me in your late elections and invitations. I hope I am not altogether insensible of the sacredness of the office, of the importance and difficulty of the employments of a minister of Christ; and therefore I would not undertake it with carnal and worldly views, as a trade to live by, or with a prospect of advancing my worldly circumstances, but, I hope and trust, with an eye to the honor of Christ and the good of immortal souls, to demolish Satan's kingdom, and to advance the kingdom of God in the hearts and lives of men, which are the great ends which are chiefly and principally to be looked at and aimed at in the whole business of a minister, and which I would count my highest honor and ambition to attain.

But then it is not altogether improper, but necessary, for a minister of Christ to see to it that he has a comfortable subsistence and