striking passages from holy writ, and also from Young's Night Thoughts, a work congenial to her feeling and serious mind. Before I was sixteen she took me to the table of the Lord: the circumstances of that period, so novel and interesting to me at that time, appear to my mind but as the event of yesterday. I remember well her asking a token (a small piece of lead given in when admitted) of one of the elders, saying, 'My dear youth attends with me next Sabbath.' This dear mother! what did she not suffer on my account ere her pilgrimage was closed; she heard of battles fought, she heard of my wounds and captivity, she lived not to witness my return, to receive my embrace, to be cherished by my filial care; but her warfare has been long ended, and she has made a blessed exchange. Beloved parent! you seem now before me, beckoning me to follow in the Lord's good time."

These extracts satisfactorily shew that he was the child of many prayers, and who can doubt, on perusing the events that follow, that these prayers came up for a memorial before God, and, at length, after a severe but necessary course of discipline, brought down the blessings sought for on the head of this beloved son. Thus the importunate prayers of Monica for the conversion of her son Augustine continued for thirty years apparently without success, but for the encouragement of pious parents

in all succeeding ages, they were at length abundantly answered.*

It may not be useless to remark, in this place, on the solemn preparation of mind customary among the Scotch previous to their attendance at the Lord's table; even those, who in the general tone of their manners and conversation resemble the fashionable world, and in most respects seem careless of their spiritual concerns, abstract themselves for a time from all pleasurable pursuits, and devote the preceding week to serious reflection and private prayer. This holy ordinance, being seldom administered in the Scottish church, and only at stated times, may in part be the cause of the peculiar solemnity with which it is regarded. To be absent from the Lord's table, when these seasons recur, is thought to savour of profaneness. In country parishes, where the residents of every condition are well known to the minister, in consequence of his pastoral visits, no person of a notoriously scandalous life will venture to approach it; if he did, it is probable he would be repelled. Ministers of the church of England are, I believe, authorized by the canons to use the same salutary discipline, but they seldom venture to exert it. What unrelenting persecution the venerable Wilson, the apostolic

See St. Augustine's confessions in Milner's Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii. p. 299, a very interesting portion of that ex. cellent work.

bishop of the Isle of Man, underwent, for his conscientious firmness in enforcing this rule of discipline, is well known to the readers of his life. How lamentable is the want of a proper and effective discipline in the church of England! What must be the state of morals in a country which should seem to make the re-establishment of it impracticable!

On reviewing the period of his life here described, he further remarks" When I look back upon these years, I am painfully reminded of the ravages which time has made in the family circle. My beloved parents, two brothers, and a sister, have been torn from me, removed, I trust, to a better world. One brother, a sister and myself, are now the only surviving branches. My parents had many severe trials, one was the death of their eldest daughter, then sixteen years of age, the circumstances attending which were peculiarly distressing. Her illness had been long and severe, various remedies were tried in vain; as a last resource the warm bath was prescribed; it was prepared at night opposite to my crib in the nursery, but nature was quite exhausted, and she expired in it. The distraction of her fond parents, accusing themselves of shortening her life, by yielding to a measure which seemed to have proved fatal, cannot be described. I was hurried away from the painful scene to the house of a near relation."

Nothing further remains to be recorded of his puerile years. Being now sixteen, his father, in compliance with his strong predilection for the army, procured him a commission in the 73d regiment, commanded by Lord Macleod, on condition of raising a certain number of men. His choice of this profession, as it appears from his own account, originated in those feelings and propensities, which compose the substance of our corrupt nature, and seek their peculiar gratification in the outward shew of respect, the ambition to command, the noisy pomp and desultory habits of a military life. Let me not be thought, however, to condemn or to disparage the profession itself; the lawfulness of which may be maintained on the same grounds as that of civil magistracy. Both, in their legitimate use are directed to the same end, the defence of the innocent from outward violence and injury; both, within their proper limits, are alike warranted by the word of God. In both, In both, however ensnaring" in many re"in spects to a Christian mind, God has frequently raised up faithful witnesses, who have stood forth as examples to others, in like situations, of the practicability of uniting great eminence in the Christian life with the discharge of the duties of their profession, however difficult."* But alas! how few of those ardent spirits, who press into

* Cecil's Works, vol. iv. p. 18.

the service, are actuated by just principles even in this country, where civil and religious freedom, and the upright administration of an impartial code of laws, supply the most powerful incentives to resist the arm of a foreign or domestic foe. May these motives be felt in all their force at the present crisis, which demands both of the soldier and the citizen the strenuous exertion of every faculty, to serve, and (may heaven prosper the attempt!) to save their country.

As the subject of these memoirs was now advancing into manhood, some notice of his person and turn of mind may not be misplaced. In both these respects he was well endowed. His bodily frame, though below the middle size, was regular and well proportioned; his countenance possessed a remarkable sweetness of expression, and his manners were frank and courteous. This engaging exterior was animated by a soul lively and ardent in its pursuits, and enriched with those qualities which the world highly esteems, and pronounces to be very good. But the Spirit of Christ, who seeth not as man seeth, found them in their natural state unfit for the service of the sanctuary; and therefore formed them anew, and stamped them with the impress of "holiness unto the Lord." How painful, yet how just is the remark, that in proportion as these natural graces and endowments were purified from mean and