recorded of his steadfastness in virtue. Not long after he came to Dundee, he was invited to meet with a large supperparty at the house of an acquaintance; the invitation was given purposely to be satisfied whether or not he might be led into excesses, and so prove himself not the resolute character for which persons gave him credit. A bet was laid; one half of the party believing that their attempts would be fruitless, the other not doubting but they would be crowned with success. Mr. Millar arrived, perfectly ignorant of the plot laid against him. Every possible argument was used to make him exceed the bounds of sobriety; jibes and scoffs followed, but all in vain. He had marked out the line for himself, and dared not go beyond it; and though a stranger to most of the company present, he remained firm and immoveable. One of the party, more forward than the rest, replenished his glass, and held it to his mouth, while another attempted to secure him on his chair; Mr. Millar answered not, but calmly rising from his seat, took the glass from the hands of the tempter and threw its contents into the fire. A dead silence ensued; and the party soon separated. Sensible that he had infringed upon what might by some be esteemed the rules of good-breeding, he called next morning to apologise to the gentleman at whose house he had supped the evening before; the apology was more than accepted; he was loaded with encomiums, and both became fast and steady friends through life. Mr. Millar took an active interest in all the public institutions and charities of the town. He was for a number of years, indeed till increasing infirmities impelled him to resign, a Director of the Royal Infirmary, Dundee Bank, London Shipping Company, Orphan Institution, &c. &c. His private charities, unknown to any excepting his family and the individuals benefited, were very extensive: he was accustomed to visit the sick and the dying; he sought out the haunts of poverty and disease;—like his blessed Master, he went about continually doing good. Mr. Palmer soon followed his friend to Dundee. Unitarianism was then preached in that town by Mr. Ninian Alexander, a mason and builder-an individual who had been excluded from the Baptist Society on account of the new principles he had embraced. Mr. Palmer joined him in his labours; and at his earnest entreaties, Mr. Millar was also prevailed upon to officiate, in his occasional absence to spread the truth of Christ in other places. Mr. Palmer's history is already too well known for any lengthened statement to be necessary in this connection. Of a warm and sanguine temperament, honest and fearless in the avowal of his sen timents, and enthusiastically attached to the religious and political cause he had espoused, Mr. Millar often trembled for his safety, and the lengths to which his unrestrained ardour were likely to carry him: and his apprehensions were more than verified. Mr. Palmer had hardly been three years in Dundee, when he was pounced upon by the harpies of the law, and doomed to experience the tender-mercies of Toryism. During his confinement in Perth jail, he was visited by his friend. This meeting, Mr. Millar has described as most painfully affecting. In a cell of the most wretched description, the Christian patriot reclined upon a pallet of straw, his hand listlessly resting upon the fragment of a chair which lay by his side; but, on beholding the visitor, he rushed into his arms, and, falling upon his breast, wept like a child. He was perfectly resigned to his fate; and although strongly urged by his friends, and promised their aid in effecting his escape, he was firmly resolved to stand the decision of his trial. Mr. Millar had no sooner left him, than he called upon the Provost, for the purpose of procuring, if possible, better accommodation for the excellent sufferer; and, in consequence of his exertions, Mr. Palmer was removed to a more airy and comfortable apartment, where he was not only furnished with writing materials, but everything was done that could alleviate his mournful situation. They again met before the trial commenced. Notwithstanding the danger of the times, the perils to which he exposed himself by such a proceeding, and in spite of the many warnings he received from friends at a distance, as to the madness of the act, Mr. Millar sent him several letters during his confinement in the hulks. He possessed too humane, too noble a spirit, above all, his trust in God was too strong, to allow him to desert a friend in a time like that; and he continued to write, regardless of the hazards which he thereby incurred-hazards which now can scarcely be properly appreciated. After his arrival at Botany-Bay, Mr. Palmer wrote his friend a long and grateful letter; and after the death of the former, Mr. Millar maintained a regular correspondence with his companion in exile, Mr. James Ellice. Mr. Millar succeeded Mr. Palmer in his Christian labours at Dundee; and, regardless of the risks he was perpetually running on account of his religious opinions (for every letter he received was previously opened by the agents of Government), he remained firm and undaunted. Mr. Millar was greatly encouraged to persevere in his praiseworthy exertions, by the friendship and countenance of the Reverend Theophilus Lindsey, with whom he had become acquainted while on a visit to London. A long and faithful correspondence was kept up between them; and, after the death of the latter, it was continued by Mrs. Lindsey. Indeed, Mr. Millar was on intimate terms with most of the eminent Unitarians of the age. He was also upon a very friendly footing with many ministers in the Establishment; and numerous were the well-meant attempts of that class of the community, to induce him to renounce what they termed his unscriptural notions. Yet their discussions were ever amicably engaged in. Mr. Millar had, in our judgment, the best side of the question; and they were often obliged to acknowledge that they could not reasonably contradict the arguments he advanced in support of his views. It is an interesting fact, that one of the clergymen of Dundee, while endeavouring to convince Mr. Millar of the fallacy of his opinions, was led, by his conversation, to read for himself, when he became a convert to the Unitarianism he had impugned. But of all his friends, none mourned more unfeignedly or deeply his principles, than his cousin, the late Rev. John Millar, rector of the Grammar-school of Dundee. Mr. Millar was bred to the ministry, and was a firm and consistent Trinitarian. A Christian in heart as well as in life, and highly valuing those doctrines which he believed to be true, and on which he anchored his hopes, both for time and eternity, he used every persuasion, both verbally and in writing, to bring the friend whom he loved to his own manner of thinking; and nothing was left untried which he fancied might produce the end so much wished and desired. Grieved to pain the heart of a man for whom he entertained such a high respect and regard, Mr. Millar listened and regretted, but was not to be shaken; and the former, perceiving every argument to be unavailing, and having the utmost confidence in his sincerity, never again touched upon the subject, while their mutual friendship and attachment continued unbroken. After being several years in Dundee, Mr. Millar was deprived of his father, and shortly after, of both his sisters: the former having been unfortunate in his worldly circumstances, left his widow wholly dependent on her son for the means of support, and Mr. Millar continued to cherish and maintain that beloved parent to the close of her life. He also for a great number of years supported two nieces. Notwithstanding the variety of his engagements, and the numerous demands upon his time and attention, he ever commanded leisure to prepare for the duties of the Sabbath; and often on returning at night from the counting-house, fagged and fatigued, would he compose his discourses, or occasionally note down heads for future meditation, while sitting at his desk. No moment was left unimproved by him. By these unremitted labours, Unitarianism was gradually diffused in Dundee, and the congregation increased in numbers. But Mr. Millar powerfully felt the delicacy and peculiarity of his situation, and regretted that the pecuniary state of the society would not, as yet, admit of a settled minister amongst them; indeed, he never ascended the pulpit but he experienced the awkwardness of the position in which he was placed; yet duty to truth impelled him to persevere. He was a pure evangelical preacher. His sermons were generally of a practical nature; but he preferred lecturing on those difficult and important passages of Scripture, so hard to be comprehended, yet so necessary to be rightly understood and believed. His manner in the pulpit was composed, unaffected, and solemn; but on warming with his subject, he became exceedingly animated. In 1813, he received an able coadjutor, in Mr. George Speed, a conscientious Christian and a highly respectable man, who had been excluded from the Baptist Meeting for denying the Deity of Christ. Mr. Speed was an excellent lecturer, and his sermons also gave much satisfaction. He now took his turn with Mr. Millar,-presiding in the forenoon, and the latter in the afternoon; and up to the present period, he has steadily and consistently borne his testimony to long lost truth. In 1822, the prospects of Unitarianism were so promising, that the society, with the assistance of friends at a distance, were able to remunerate a minister; and a clergyman from Glasgow, in every respect qualified for the office, entered upon his ministerial labours at Dundee. He remained two years, when the Sunday services were again resumed by Messrs. Millar and Speed. In 1830, the assistance of a minister was once more procured. The years 1832 and 1833, again saw the congregation dependent upon its own exertions; after which, it had the advantage of a minister till 1838. But the society, from a variety of unforeseen causes, had been gradually falling off; and with sorrow, Mr. Millar saw the attendance sadly diminishing. Mr. Millar was twice married, in 1790 to Miss Scott, daughter of the Rev. Daniel Scott, minister of Auchterhouse, who died in 1801;-in 1804, to Miss Barclay, daughter of William Barclay, Esq. of Edinburgh. In 1835, he was called to mourn the loss of a most promising son, who, having just finished his medical studies in the University of Edinburgh, had commenced his professional labours as a physician in his native town. In 1837, Mrs. Millar died of a lingering illness. But although perfectly resigned, he never entirely got the better of these bereavements. He was now at that advanced age, when the bodily as well as mental faculties begin to decay; and time showed its visible effects upon him. His memory was beginning to give way, and he became the subject of many increasing infirmities. So long as he was able, he continued to officiate, however, every Lord's Day; but, at the close of the year 1838, he got so weak, that he was reluctantly compelled to give up the public services, when the duties principally devolved on Mr. Speed. In the year 1839, though himself unconscious of the circumstance, he became bankrupt. From accumulated and sweeping losses, his fortune for the last five or six years had been gradually diminishing; but anxiety for the interests and welfare of his family, still urged him to continue in business, although he stood greatly in need of rest and enjoyment. It was good for his own peace of mind, that he remained unconscious of the sad change in his affairs; had it been otherwise, his sense of justice and honour was so rigid and nice, that it is believed he would not have survived the melancholy shock. Notwithstanding that on worldly affairs his memory was lost, on subjects of a religious nature, his mind continued to the close of life, calm and clear; and whilst of the one he had no recollection, on the other he conversed with fluency and precision. One day, when his mind seemed to be opening to a consciousness of his altered worldly circumstances, the fact of the subscription by his Unitarian friends in his behalf, was communicated to him. He was overwhelmed with surprise and gratitude, and dictated a letter to Mr. Harris, expressive of his feelings of thankfulness to his brethren, and of unshaken trustfulness in his Heavenly Father. During his last illness, every want was supplied by means of that subscription, and the affectionate solicitude of his children; and after the endurance of severe bodily sufferings, during which he often expressed his happiness in the religious principles he had advocated through so long a series of years, and his abiding trust in the mercy of God our Fa ther through Christ Jesus, he closed his eyes in peace on the forenoon of Saturday, June 12. Servant of God, well done! Well hast thou fought The cause of Truth! For this was all thy care, To stand approved in sight of God, though worlds |