knowledge him to be; or that Buchanan should have quitted his native Scotland in so singular a manner, to prove the most efficient leader in the great cause of Indian Christianization? No more could any one have supposed that an almost outcast Lincolnshire shepherd would become the commentator on scripture, whose work should possess decidedly the greatest practical utility, and bid fair to be the most widely read, of any similar production of the age.

Reflections like these may not, I am aware, be agreeable to all readers: but, if they be founded on undeniable facts, it neither becomes us to rebel against them, nor to avert our thoughts from them. The design of divine wisdom in such an ordination of events is pointed out, in immediate connexion with the passage already quoted at the commencement of the present observations: "that no flesh should glory in his presence........but, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." (1 Cor. i, 29, 31.) And even where this train of thought may lead us not only to cases of extraordinary usefulness, but even to the subject of the attainment of that knowledge wherein 'standeth our eternal life,' it will be found to border closely upon topics, which produced the only recorded instance of joy in the breast of him who sojourned here below as "the man of sorrows:" "In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes! Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight." This is the perfect pattern of that humble, admiring adoration, with which those depths of the divine counsels are to be contemplated, which, in this world at least, we must never expect to fathom.

At the same time, instances, like those to which we have been adverting, furnish no excuse for the neglect of the ordinary means of becoming both good and useful; nor any pretence for the insinuation sometimes made, of our teaching that the way to be "brought nigh" to God is, to depart as "far off" from him as possible. No: whatever forms the "ordinary" means of conducting to goodness and usefulness possesses by virtue of its very character, as the ordinary means, an undeniable claim to be employed by us; and, where faithfully employed, it shall never be in vain. This, however, shall not hinder but that God will from time to time shew, that he can effect more without our usual means, than we can by all our means, without his special blessing:

--just as in the intellectual world, he sometimes raises up a genius which shall surpass, without rules and instruction, whatever minds of the customary standard can attain with all advantages in their favor.

In like manner to affirm that sometimes God brings nearest to himself those who had wandered farthest from him, affords not even a plausible pretext for saying, that the way to obtain abundant grace is to commit abundant sin. God does sometimes exhibit such monuments of his mercy; but these are his extraordinary, and not his ordinary works. The abuse of such instances was guarded against in an early part of these memoirs* They are what all should admire,-"to the praise of the glory of God's grace,”,"-wherever they occur, but on the occurrence of which no man can, in any given instance, calculate.

3. In the third place, my father's history strikingly illustrates the immense advantage of such a thorough study of the Holy Scriptures, accompanied by constant prayer for illumination to the great fountain of wisdom, as marked his religious course from its very commencement. In this was evidently laid the foundation of all that subsequently distinguished him; of the steadiness and consistency of his views; of the assured confidence he felt in the principles which he had embraced; of his competence as an instructor and a counsellor; of those valuable qualities which characterized his theology; and finally of his extensive, and, it may confidently be anticipated, permanent usefulness. And if the question be examined, it will, I believe, be found that a course of procedure, substantially similar, has prepared for future service almost all those divines who have obtained eminent reputation, and lasting usefulness, in the church of God. A thorough study of the scriptures themselves, with the use of proper helps, but without reliance upon them, and not of any mere human systems, should form the basis of our professional knowledge. This is a homage due to the word of God; and it is the only measure that can make us "grounded and settled," "workmen that need not to be ashamed."-Yet how greatly is it wanting even among our more serious and pious clergy! I speak with a painful sense of my own deficiencies, in this respect; though without affecting to think them greater than those of many around If the perusal of my father's history might promote

me.

* See page 23.

among the younger members of the clerical profession, a deep study of the whole sacred volume, and, through life, a constant comparison of all they read and hear with its contents, I can conceive of no result which it would have given him greater pleasure to contemplate.

4. Lastly: I have already pointed it out, as an important lesson suggested by my father's history, to those who, amid the difficulties of this world, are striving to do good, especially in the work of the ministry,—that a course, which is deeply painful and discouraging at the time, may, and, if well supported, assuredly will, prove highly useful in the event. That my father's usefulness was great, and is likely still to be so, I now assume. Yet that his course was, during the far greater part of its duration, painful and discouraging in no common degree, is well known to those who had the opportunity of taking a near view of it, and must be evident to all, who have duly estimated the neglect or opposition he encountered at Olney; the severer and more protracted conflicts at the Lock, maintained against prevailing evils, and under the pressure of most disheartening unpopularity; and the difficulties with which he had to struggle, more or less, for five and twenty years together, in giving his Commentary on the Bible to the world. Yet all has had such an issue, as may justly add confidence to the faith, and animation to the hope of every true soldier and servant of Jesus Christ. In encountering difficulties, and suffering discouragement, in our labors of zeal for God and love to mankind, we are but followers of "those, who through faith and patience, having done the will of God,-now inherit his promises." Prophets and apostles have trod this path before us; and assuredly what we have to encounter, compared with what they overcame, is such as may more justly subject us, if we be "weary and faint in our minds," to the reproof which was addressed to one of their number: "If thou hast run with the footmen and they have wearied thee, what wilt thou do if thou shalt contend with horses?"-Even the Son of God, is prophetically represented as tempted to say, while he sojourned amongst us, "I have labored in vain and spent my strength for nought:'; but he instantly subjoins, (thus setting us the perfect example of resignation and trust in his heavenly Father;) "Nevertheless my work is with the Lord, and my judgment is with my God." Let us then assuredly believe, that, in our labors for others, as well as in our care for our own personal salvation,

"He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing, precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." And in this confidence let us endeavor, after the example of the servant of God, whose unwearied exertions, continued to the end of a long life, we have been contemplating, to be "steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; forasmuch as we know that our labor is not in vain in the Lord." Amen!

BRIEF MEMOIR

OF MR. SCOTT'S ELDEST DAUGHTER, WHO DIED AT WESTON

UNDERWOOD, IN MAY 1780;

Annexed by him to his Narrative of his own Life.

"IN a former part of this narrative I just mentioned the death of my eldest daughter, aged four years and a half, and I shall here subjoin a few more particulars respecting her. At the age of three years and a half she had a most extraordinary and distressing illness, so that for several weeks she could not be induced to take either medicine or nutriment of any kind, but what was poured down her throat almost by main force. I had little expectation of her recovery: but I was under a full and deep conviction that all the human race are born in sin, and are utterly incapable of happiness hereafter, without regeneration and renovation by the Holy Spirit. This, if actually wrought in childhood, I was satisfied would begin to shew itself about the time when children become actual sinners by personal and wilful transgression: and I was fully assured that she had become an actual sinner. Seeing therefore no ground to believe that any gracious change had taken place in her, I was greatly distressed about her eternal state: and I repeatedly and most earnestly besought the Lord that he would not take her from me, without affording me some evidence of her repentance, and faith in his mercy through Jesus Christ.

"To the surprise of all she recovered, and lived just another year. Half of this year was remarkable for nothing, except the proofs which she gave of a very good understanding, and the readiness with which she learned whatever was taught her. Indeed she almost taught herself to read; and was so much the astonishment of our neighbors, that they expressed a persuasion that she would not live long-which I treated with contempt. But about the middle of the year, on my return home one evening, my wife told me that her daughter had behaved very ill, and been so re