taking my advice. This, I assure you, was needless: for I gave you my advice for your sake, not my own, and should be equally glad to hear that you succeeded well in rejecting it, as in following it." And again in 1789: "I will by no means agree that you should implicitly follow any advice, which I now, or at any other time, may give. I would propose hints and assign reasons, and then leave you to think of them, and pray over them: which is the best way of inquiring of the Lord, to discover his will."

If to all this we add the observation of the wise and holy Halyburton, that "the promise of God, to direct our steps, does not extend always to teaching others what is our duty,” it may reconcile us to persevere in giving the best advice we can to those who ask it, without requiring or expecting to see it implicitly followed; which is what my father wished to inculcate.

He next observes in his narrative: "A circumstance which had considerable weight in deciding my mind was, the hope of getting one who, I trusted, would prove an able and useful laborer ordained to succeed me at Olney." This was the Rev. James Bean, who, though the prospect of his immediately succeeding to Olney was not realized, "was at length ordained, went thither, and became vicar of the place; was useful there, and very acceptable to my friends and favorers; but ere long resigned the living, by which means my sanguine expectations were painfully disappointed. Still, however, I did not give my answer to the governors of the Lock till the last day, and almost the last hour, allowed me for deliberation.

"Whatever others judged, my own people, who were most attached to me, and most grieved to part with me, were convinced that I was called by providence to remove, and that I did my duty in complying with it. I am not, however, myself to this day satisfied on the subject. I cannot doubt that my removal has, especially by means of my writings, (as far as they have been, or are likely to be, useful,) been overruled for good; but, when I consider what a situation I inadvertently rushed into, I fear I did not act properly, and I willingly accept all my unspeakable mortifications and vexations as a merciful correction of my conduct; which, though not, in one sense, inconsiderate, yet shewed strange inattention to the state of parties, and other circumstances, at the Lock; which, had I duly adverted to them,

would have made me think it madness to engage in such a service."

It may well be allowed that several circumstances at that time attending the situation at the Lock, could they previously to experience have been fully realized, might not only, with good reason, have produced great hesitation as to the acceptance of it, but even have appalled a mind firm and courageous as my father's was. To be subject to the control of a board of governors, many of them looking only to the pecuniary interests of the charity; and what must, if possible, be still more adverse to a minister's repose, many of them thinking themselves both qualified and entitled to dictate as to his doctrine: this must, of itself, be deemed sufficiently objectionable. Moreover, the board was then split into parties; such as frequently arise when a concern, once prosperous, becomes involved in difficulties. Still further, from the different character and sentiments of the two ministers, and the manner of my father's introduction, the chapel, and even the pulpit, was likely to be the scene of no less division than the board-room. The Lock also might, at that period, be considered as almost the headquarters of that loose and notional religion, on which my father had commenced his attack in the country. Laying all these things together, and taking into account his obscurity, and the humble rustic society in which, almost exclusively, he had hitherto moved, we shall cease to wonder at his last-recited remark. Still, however, contemplating the consequences of his removal to the Lock, only as far as we can now trace them;-that, without this step, we should never, humanly speaking, have had his Commentary on the scriptures, (to name no others of his writings;) and that the great and effective stand, which he was enabled to make in London, against a very meagre, defective, and even corrupt representation of Christianity, would never have been made: when all this is considered, I trust we may say, that thousands have reason to pronounce it a happy inadvertence, by which he overlooked difficulties that might have led him to decline the call made upon him; and that impartial bystanders will be disposed to consider "the unspeakable mortifications and vexations" which followed, as the necessary trials of his faith, the preparatives for the peculiar services he was to render, and the requisite counterpoise to prevent his being "exalted above measure," by the flattering celebrity and the great usefulness he was ulti

mately to attain, rather than, as he himself was ready to think them, the corrections of a great impropriety of which he had been guilty.

His narrative proceeds: "My salary at the Lock was no more than 801. a year, nearly 401. of which was necessary for rent and taxes. I had, however, golden promises; but I never greatly relied upon them: and I became more and more convinced, even before I left Olney, that they would not, in any measure, be realized. I discovered that party was much concerned in the whole business; and I said to my family, when coming to town, 'Observe, many of those who now appear to be my friends will forsake me; but God will raise me up other friends.**

“I had indeed imagined that I should, without much difficulty, procure a lectureship on the Sunday afternoon or evening, and perhaps one on the weekday; and I stood ready for any kind or degree of labor to which I might be called. But, whilst almost all my brethren readily obtained such appointments, I could never, during the seventeen years of my residence in town, procure any lectureship, except that of St. Mildred's, Bread Street, which, in a manner, came to me, because no other person thought it worth applying for. It produced me, on an average, about 30l. a year. Some presents, however, which I received, added considerably to its value during the last two or three years that I held it. For some years also, I preached at St. Margaret's, Lothbury, every alternate Sunday morning, at six o'clock, to a small company of people, and administered the sacrament. The stipend, however, for this service, was

*It is amusing to me to recollect, and it may not be altogether impertinent to mention, that the text, Prov. xxvii, 14, has been for thirty-six years distinctly impressed upon my mind, owing to my having, so long since, heard my father apply it to the then loud and ardent friendship of one of the governors of the Lock. The words are: "He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it shall be counted a curse to him." The anticipation was realized; and the friendship of this gentleman (who died many years ago) soon cooled into indifference.

One honorable exception from the number of those persons who, having brought my father to the Lock, afterwards deserted or neglected him, is entitled to be mentioned. I refer to John Pearson, Esq. of Golden-square, for many years surgeon to the hospital. My father always attributed more to the arguments of that gentleman, in deciding his acceptance of the situation at the Lock, than to those of any other person: and in Mr. P. he found a constant friend to the end of his life; to whom he was indebted for many personal favors, besides the most skilful professional assistance, promptly and gratuitously rendered to him and his family, on the numerous occasions which required it.

only 7s. 6d. a time; though I walked about seven miles in going and returning."

My father was appointed to the Sunday afternoon lectureship in Bread Street, February 16, 1790, and retained it till he was chosen sole chaplain to the Lock, in March, 1802. His congregation seldom much exceeded a hundred in number; but they were attentive hearers, and he had reason to believe that his preaching there was useful to many persons, several of whom have since become instruments of good to others. One it may be allowable to specify, whose extensive and invaluable services may God long continue and abundantly bless to his church! "I myself," observes the Rev. Daniel Wilson, in a note annexed to his funeral sermons for my father, "was, five or six and twenty years since, one of his very small congregation at his lecture in the city; and I derived, as I trust, from the sound and practical instruction which I then received, the greatest and most permanent benefit, at the very time when a good direction and bias were of the utmost importance—the first setting out as a theological student."

To the morning lecture at Lothbury, if I mistake not, he succeeded when Mr. Cecil became unable any longer to continue it. Though a source of no emolument, this too was a pleasant service to him. Few persons would attend at that early hour, who did not bear a real love to the ordinances of God's house; and among them were many pious servants and others, who found obstructions to attending public worship at other parts of the day.

In adverting to these lectureships, at this period of his narrative, my father has somewhat anticipated: it may be proper that I should so far follow him, as, in this connexion, to remark the extent of his Sunday labors at that time. And this I shall do in the words of a lady of highly respectable station and connexions in life, who repeatedly passed some little time under his roof, and was particularly struck with this and other circumstances of his habits and character. She writes thus:

"I must now, my dear sir, assure you, that, during my pretty long wanderings in the world, even in the best part of it, I can truly affirm, that the various seasons I passed under the roof of your excellent parents are marked with a peculiar force on my memory, as presenting what came nearer to the perfection of a Christian's pilgrimage than I have often met with elsewhere. And this remembrance

leads me to express the hope, that you will not fail to give the precise and accurate report of your great father's life to the careless and idle world. My opportunities have made me acquainted with such diversities of habits, that I believe the information you can furnish of his extraordinary labors will surprise, as well as edify many a weak brother. I have been called upon solemnly to attest the account of his common Sunday work, mental and bodily, as almost beyond belief."

This address led to the request, that the writer would herself put down what had struck her, as an occasional visitant, more than it might have done those, who, from being accustomed to it, would be apt to pass it over as a matter of course. The reply I give with such very slight corrections as were required.

"The account I have been accustomed to relate of Mr. Scott's Sunday labors, is as follows, and my memory does not tax me with inaccuracy. At four o'clock in the morning of every alternate Sunday, winter as well as summer, the watchman gave one heavy knock at the door, and Mr. S. and an old maid-servant arose,-for he could not go out without his breakfast. He then set forth to meet a congregation at a church in Lothbury, about three miles and a half off;-I rather think the only church in London attended so early as six o'clock in the morning. I think he had from two to three hundred auditors, and administered the sacrament each time. He used to observe that, if at any time, in his early walk through the streets in the depth of winter, he was tempted to complain, the view of the newsmen equally alert, and for a very different object, changed his repinings into thanksgivings.-From the city he returned home, and about ten o'clock assembled his family to prayers: immediately after which he proceeded to the chapel, where he performed the whole service, with the administration of the sacrament on the alternate Sundays, when he did not go to Lothbury. His sermons, you know, were most ingeniously brought into an exact hour; just about the same time, as I have heard him say, being spent in composing them. I well remember accompanying him to the afternoon church in Bread Street, (nearly as far as Lothbury,) after his taking his dinner without sitting downOn this occasion I hired a hackney-coach: but he desired me not to speak, as he took that time to prepare his sermon. I have calculated that he could not go much less than four