to reward his uniform integrity and zeal as a Christian teacher. His friends were sanguine, that from the experience he had acquired, he would, when all the knowledge and energy of his mind were directed to one object, and exercised upon one congregation, "prove himself " a workman that need not be ashamed,

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rightly dividing the word of truth.". But these pleasing speculations were destined never to be realized. The hand of death, in the mysterious arrangements of heaven, was upon him; and any reward to which mortal friendship and affection might have considered him entitled, was not on earth to be conferred. That Almighty Being, upon whose determination all depends, was pleased to arrest him on the noble course of Christian usefulness, to assign a brief period to the work which he had given him to do, and to take him to the participation of a more exalted state of existence and happiness.

On the first Sunday of November 1819, he made his last public appearance in the Church of Kinfauns, and little alteration from his usual distinct utterance and fervour of address was observable.

From that time the severity of his cough increased; and as it was at first conceived only to be an intense cold, a confinement to the house was judged necessary. Nothing of a fatal nature was, either by himself or his friends, for a considerable time, anticipated. The flattering nature of all consumptive complaints tended to cherish, in the interval of apparent improvement, or rather cessation from more. violent uneasiness, the hope of restoration to health. During these intervals, his anxiety to qualify himself more perfectly for the discharge of his ministerial functions, never for a moment abated. The state of his manuscripts sufficiently indicated his ardour in this respect, as there are amongst them many sermons, the plan of which he had sketched out, leaving their completion to a state of convalescence. That, however, he was destined never to see: his complaint gradually assumed a more determinately fatal appearance: his weakness and difficulty of respiration increased; and at last it became apparent to his friends, and not unobserved by himself, that he was speedily to experience, in his own person, the truth of the saying of the in

spired penman, that "here we have no "continuing city." Still that event was foreseen, and its approach awaited without alarm;-eminently evincing, in his own person, the influence of those doctrines which he had so zealously taught, and of that hope of salvation he had so earnestly endeavoured to awaken and impress upon others. Even when bowed down under extreme weakness, still was he in that elasticity of heart natural to youth, joyous in the hope that he yet might, in the goodness of God, be restored to the exercise of his sacred duties; but if it should be otherwise allotted, (and it was an alternative which he freely contemplated,) he was perfectly. resigned to his all-wise disposal. Faith in Christ was to him as an anchor of the soul, which spread tranquillity over all his thoughts, chearfulness over all his words and actions, and hope and joy over all his future prospects. The inte rest he took in his friends and acquaintances never ceased, and his inquiries regarding them were affectionately parti→ cular. The firmness of his mind, in the prospect of his being removed, more especially when his worldly views were now

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brightening from under those obstructions which had hitherto rendered them dark and unpromising, never altered ; and the joy of soul with which he looked forward into eternity, remained undiminished. The tenderness and kindness of his manner toward his attendants was. never for a moment intermitted. This was more particularly shewn in his behaviour toward his sister, before whom he endeavoured, by assuming more chearfulness of manner and hope of life than he in truth dared to feel, to conceal the ravages of disease, and beguile with the hope of his restoration to health. The only time in which his feelings actually overcame him, and death bore to him an appalling aspect, was when anticipating, after his dissolution, her forlorn and unprotected condition. But that humble and unshaken confidence which he plaeed on his Almighty Creator and Saviour, led him to trust, that the same power, extended to his support and comfort on his bed of sickness and death, would not fail toward her, or toward all who call in faith on him, in the day of trouble.

Though confiding, without wavering, in

the mercies and promises of his Redeemer, and experimentally acquainted with the consolations of the gospel, he was desirous, as he found himself drawing nigh to the termination of his mortal existence, for the attendance of a Christian brother and friend. This was most chearfully afforded by the Reverend W. A. Thomson, one of the ministers of Perth, who attended upon him with the kindness of a friend, and the interest of a ministering servant of the Lord Jesus. Thus, strong in faith and joyous in hope, he, with unimpaired faculties, and more exalted and purified affections, awaited the hour of death, which came, without pain, on the morning of the 2d March 1820...

The estimation in which he was held, was strikingly apparent in the general regret expressed at his death. All ranks united in their expressions of esteem and attachment, and in deploring the early departure of one whose dispositions and manners, whose talents and exertions, were so well fitted to conciliate and instruct. The peculiar circumstances in which his departure took place, in respect to the inhabitants of Perth,