As this volume is issued in London as well as in New York, I will mention some things in this chapter for my British readers with which many of my own fellow-countrymen may be already familiar.  There were several reasons that induced me to select Saratoga early in my ministry as the best place to spend a part of the summer vacation.  It is the most widely known the world over of any of our American watering places and is an exceedingly beautiful town.  Its spacious Broadway, lined with stately elms, is one of the most sightly avenues in our land; and some of the superb hotels that front upon it fulfill the American demand for “bigness.”  The most attractive spot to me has always been the beautiful park that surrounds the famous Congress Spring, and to which every morning I made my very early pilgrimage for my draught of its sparkling water.

The park covers but a few acres, but it is a continuous loveliness.  When its rich, soft greensward—­worthy of Yorkshire or Devonshire—­was sparkling with the dew, and the fountains were in full play, and the goodly breeze was singing through the trees, it was a place in which to chant Dr. Arnold’s favorite hymn:—­

   “Come, my soul, thou must be waking;
   Now is breaking
   O’er the earth another day;
   Come to Him who made this splendor,
   See thou render
   All thy feeble strength can pay.”

The second reason for my choice of Saratoga was the variety of the wonderful medicinal waters, and their renovating effects.  “I can winter better,” said Governor Buckingham, “for even a short summer at Saratoga,” and my experience was quite similar.  I honestly believe that those waters have prolonged my life.  In addition to the many health fountains which have been veritable Bethesdas to multitudes, the dry, bracing atmosphere is perfumed and tempered by the breezes from the pine forests of the Adirondack Mountains.  While some are attracted to Saratoga by the waters and others by the air, I found both of them equally beneficial.  As far as its social life is concerned, there are, as in all summer resorts, two very different descriptions of guests.  One class are devotees of fashion, who go there to gratify the “lust of the eye, and the pride of life.”  They drive by day and dance by night; but some devotees of pleasure have yielded too much to the ensnarements of the gaming table and the race course.  There is another and a more numerous class made up of quiet business men and their families, clergymen, college professors and persons in impaired health, who go for recreation or recuperation.  From this latter class, and in some measure indeed from the former also, the churches of the town attract very large congregations.  It has been my privilege to deliver a little more than two hundred sermons in Saratoga, and there is no place in which I have found that a faithful and practical presentation of the “word of life” is more eagerly welcomed.  It is no place to exhibit