tint so beautiful to his whole character and life. To our view he seemed like the prophet of old. sanctified from his birth.* As a child he was remarkable for his seriousness of spirit, and interest in spiritual things. Some small memoranda of his thoughts and feelings, when but just able to use the pen, exist to show how soon the 'ruling passion' began to evince itself. Several anecdotes of childhood are recollected, one only of which we quote as reflecting the future man. One of his little playfellows boasting to him on one occasion of the number of noble relations he possessed, inquired of Whitmore, "If he had any lords in his family?" Whitmore replied, "As for that I don't know much; but my mamma says that we have the Lord Jesus Christ for our elder brother."

His childhood was peculiarly marked by filial piety. His attachment to us, as his parents, was deep and reverential; and no act of disobedience or of untruthfulness, tracing the history of his boyhood, can be recalled. Such was our confidence in his purity of character, integrity, and truthfulness, there was no place in which we could not trust him beyond our eye, and no circumstance in which we could not repose the most implicit reliance on his word. The subject of early re

* Jer. i. 5.

EARLY INSTRUCTION.

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ligious tuition, and trained in the "nurture and admonition of the Lord," it is not remarkable that the happiest result should soon appear; that impressions were made which were never effaced; that principles were instilled which survived the blighting exposure of early youth, and proved the indestructible germs of his future and permanent character; that truths were inculcated in their elemental form, which, with the secret, silent and gentle influence of the Holy Spirit, laid the foundation in his infant mind of his future eternity of happiness. And yet to his natural disposition and character-remarkable for the loveliest and gentlest traits which adorn our fallen humanity— some of these primary appearances may, in part, be ascribed. It was probably the season of 'first love,' rather than that of first intelligent and definite conviction. The heart was more deeply touched than the judgment impressed, or the conscience roused. Still there was, without doubt, the invisible hand of God secretly moving upon his young mind. And yet so closely did the natural resemble the supernatural-the affections and impulses of the unrenewed heart, those of the heart under the gracious and sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit-that it required no little nicety of discernment and sternness of impartiality to say

where nature terminated and grace began. It was this characteristic feature which made his actual and real conversion to God a subject of so much intense anxiety and solicitude. We wanted to see the more decidedly scriptural and unmistakeable evidence of a work of grace in the soul-the voluntary and avowed dedication of himself to Christ. Naturally of a reflective and serious mind, possessing extreme refinement of feeling, purity of taste, and gentleness of address, by many observers, thus won by a thoughtfulness and solemnity beyond his years, he would, doubtless, have been pronounced a true subject of converting grace and a proper recipient of the rites and privileges of the Christian church. But, while his conduct from earliest childhood up to the period of his own acknowledged religious conviction was most exemplary, neither himself nor those who knew and loved him the most, were fully satisfied that the great, the momentous, the all-important, all-essential change had taken place, that he had actually "followed Christ in the regeneration,”—that, in a word, he had really and decidedly "passed from death unto life." Bible conversion is essentially different from the views which many entertain of the nature of this great and essential change. They who, believing in sacramental grace, make it to consist in sub

RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS.

9

mission to the rite of baptism, are as ignorant of the nature, as it is to be feared they are destitute of the possession, of that spiritual and radical renovation of heart without which no man can see the kingdom of God.

WHITMORE had not yet given such marked evidence as would admit of a decided opinion in his case. Our anxiety was to know that, under the drawings of divine love, he had really and unreservedly surrendered his young heart to God, and that that surrender should be sealed by a public avowal of his faith in the Saviour. But while this decision was reserved for a later and more matured period of life, there were not wanting indications of seriousness and earnestness on the all-important subject of personal religion. He read his Bible diligently, would often retire from the family circle to the privacy of his room, and has been seen on his return to have been in tears. Blessed indices these to a Christian parent's inquiring eye, of the "Day Star rising in the heart!" It was clear to us, too, that principle governed the lowliest of his actions, that the fear of God ruled his whole conduct. The fruit blossoming on this beautiful stem was not such as mere nature produced. His conduct was the reflection of the inner man touched by a gracious influence. His

holy shrinking from sin―his remarkable purity of mind-his studious avoidance of those levities peculiar to his tender age, blended with a remarkable degree of conscientiousness, were among the peculiar traits of his early years. But although there was manliness in his appearance and address, his tall and elegant person martial in its form and bearing—yet so retiring was his natural disposition, it was by the gentle, silent influence of his life-noiseless yet steady as the light—rather than the utterances of the lip, that we felt convinced that the Holy Spirit was secretly yet effectually brooding over his young soul. His was hidden life. He was 66 a spring shut up, a fountain sealed." That such in reality was the case will subsequently appear.

In 1849 he was transferred from a private school to the Leamington College. It was at this period, when but just fourteen years of age, that he commenced a record of his religious and mental exercises, with occasional observations on the current public events of the day. The existence of such a journal was unknown to his family, until found among his papers after death. And now that the eye has perused the precious record -unfolding as it does a mind so reflective and intelligent, and a heart so trained to communion