of human character, which boys can never acquire in a course of private tuition.

We have no space to enlarge upon the events of Dr. Waugh's early manhood. In the zeal, with which he pursued his studies, in the careful selection of his friendships, and in the unbounded confidence with which he consecrated them so as to make them last to the end of his days; and even in the timidity and diffidence, which had nearly made him resign the ministry, as a task too high and holy for him; we perceive all those marks of a spirit strong in humility, and unfeigned goodness, which subsequently shone out into so beautiful a character.

Among so many virtues, we hardly know where to begin. Dr. Waugh's devotion to his Master's cause was abundantly testified in the extent of his daily labours. He preached three times in his own church, every Sunday, and once at another; he preached during the week at Fetter Lane and at Crown Court. A friend who has been at the pains to extract from his memorandum book the number of his public discourses, finds, that they amount to seven thousand, seven hundred and six sermons and lectures, from his ordination in September, 1780, to his death in 1827; averaging, by more than four hundred, three discourses on every Sabbath during that long period, though he had again and again, for considerable intervals, been disabled for all public labours: so fully did he exemplify his favorite aphorism, "Work on earth, rest in heaven."

"In the performance of the duty of ministerial visitation," says one of his daughters," much of my dear father's time was consumed. For many months in the year, the evenings of two or three days in each week were de voted by him to the visiting of his people from house to house, between the hours of six and ten; after which, he would return home with his bodily strength so entirely exhausted, as frequently to alarm his family; but with a mind cheerful and happy; his whole heart glowing with gratitude to God, for his great kindness in giving him strength to do his work, and in provid ing him so many comforts when it was completed.

"On the first Tuesday of every month, from four till five o'clock in the afternoon, he met in the vestry the children of his congregation, from five to about fourteen years of age. He heard them all repeat their Catechism, and the younger ones a hymn, which he had given them to learn. To the older ones he gave a question from Scripture History, to be answered in writing by the next meeting. He advised them to make their answers simple, and as much in Scripture language as they could, that he might see they had sought in the Bible for their knowledge. This plan he found particularly beneficial, and often expressed his surprise and pleasure at the answers they brought him. His manner to them was most tender and kind; so that instead of seeking to escape from their lessons, they looked forward to the day of meeting him with great delight, and felt disappointed if any thing prevented his attendance. He was always particularly anxious to keep this monthly engagement with the children; insomuch that, when in health, no state of the weather, although he resided a mile and a half from the chapel, ever detained him from it. Nor indeed from the performance of any other ministerial service in his own chapel, whether he was at home during the day, or out upon other duties, or in so

cial family parties. The last time he met them, he was unusually pleased; he himself went and opened the door, patted them, each on the head, as they passed, and told them to continue good children, and to be sure to read their Bible."

The following is the description of the manner in which he was occupied when his last illness came upon him.

"He reached home well, and on entering the parlour, remarked to his wife, I am much better, my dear; preaching is the best cure for a cold.' When it was proposed to him, after supper, that he should go into his easy chair by the fire, which was his usual custom, he refused, and said that he wished to sit and look at his dear family, and that he felt more than commonly happy.' He sat up later than usual, and talked most cheerfully of the days of his youth. God sometimes marks the closing intercourse of a good man with his family with peculiar tenderness and sweetness, and suffers it not to be marred by any sad forebodings. Thus does he reward the prayers of domestic piety, and the fidelity of domestic love; and thus the hearts of survivors are soothed even while they are pained by the thought, that the eyes, now closed in death, were lighted up with such affection, and that the face, now pale and cold, glowed with such parting kindness.

He rose early on the Monday morning, and it required great persuasion to induce him to return to his bed for an hour longer. During the day, he was quite well and cheerful; at dinner he looked very florid, and his family expressed their delight at seeing him look so fresh and so well. In the afternoon, he went out to a young friend's house, in the neighbourhood, to take tea, and returned home at half past seven. He had walked to and from his friend's, and complained of his feet being wet, but was otherwise well. He read from Dr. Morrison's Exposition of the Psalms to his family, and passed on it various merited encomiums. At half past eight, a person called to request him to visit one who was dying, and who was unhappy in her mind. Mrs. Waugh was unwilling that he should go out at so late an hour in his weak state; but it was the wish of his heart to go, even at the risk of his health. Age did not chill his sympathy with human woe; frailty kept not his steps from the chamber of sickness; and however considerate prudence might remonstrate about the inexpediency of the effort, and insist on its being postponed to another day, the wish was pious, and it was good, that it was in his heart. While they were talking about it, he suddenly exclaimed, I cannot go to see her, I am very ill!' He felt a great tendency to retch, but could not; and his mind was much affected on account of his inability to visit this dying person, and he exclaimed, 'O dear, dear, what a sad pity it is, that people will leave these things to the last!' It was the idea, that the sick person was in agony about her salvation, which made his inability to go and point her views to the hope of the Gospel so painful to him. The folly he bewailed is the most common of all others, and the most fatal. It leaves to the last moment what should be the care of life, and cherishes a security and presumption which cover the death-bed with horror."

We may well ask, whose labours among the ministers of other churches have excelled these? and it is no small praise to the Scotch Seceding communion, and to others founded on similar principles, that they are calculated to draw out the best exertions of their pastors the poverty of those churches frees their ministers from

the seductions attendant upon wealth. Luxury and the pride of life, those baits which the devil scatters along the path of poor humanity to lure down its spirit to the earth, are far removed from their humble walk and not only so, but all their credit, and all their status in society must depend upon their doing efficiently and well the work to which they are appointed.

This is well dwelt upon in one of Dr. Waugh's letters to his son"Be assured, that there is no matter, short of your own salvation, in which more deep reflection and searching of your heart is necessary than in your present object. I would rather see you, my dear son, a faithful and holy minister of the blessed Gospel, than lolling in a carriage with a ducal star on your side; but I tremble at the thought of your entering into the office lightly, and without much consideration and prayer to God for aid and direction. I do not wish to discourage you (far, far from it); but I wish you solemnly to view the measure in all its bearings. Ask your own heart what are the motives which incline you; are they love to the Lord Jesus Christ, who bore our sins in his own body on the tree, and a tender concern for souls perishing around you in guilt and pollution—a desire to employ your faculties in the way in which God will be most honoured?-or is your heart captivated with the credit which good men usually attach to the office, with the prospect of an easy life, and the hope of being soon settled in the world, or any similar object? If so, all is wrong. You had better beg your bread from door to door, than enter into the ministry in such a frame of mind. Pray that you may see yourself in the light in which God sees you. In the Secession, there is absolute need of great self-denial, patience under trials and humility. Nothing but ardent love to Christ, and compassion for souls, will reconcile the mind to the privations, the insult, and opposition to be met with in the ministry. These words seem to be inscribed on the doors of our divinity schools: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.'

Warmly attached as Dr. Waugh was to his own church and form of worship, he was ready to join heart and hand with every good and pious man in every good object. To him the London Missionary Society owed its fundamental principle-the records of the Society preserve it still in his own hand-writing.

"As the union of God's people, of various denominations, in carrying on this great work, is a most desirable object; so, to prevent, if possible, any cause of future dissension, it is declared to be a fundamental principle of the Missionary Society, that our design is not to send Presbyterianism, Independency, Episcopacy, or any other form of Church Order and Government (about which there may be a difference of opinion among serious persons), but the glorious Gospel of the blessed God, to the heathen; and it shall be left (as it ought to be left) to the minds of the persons, whom God may call into the fellowship of his Son from among them, to assume for themselves such form of Church Government as to them shall appear most agreeable to the word of God."

The authors of the Memoirs add the following testimony to his zeal in the cause:

"To a Society so constituted, Mr. Waugh gave himself not by halves, but entirely and for ever. It grew into all the height of his mental and moral nature; it enlarged, and filled, and elevated his soul to the latest hour

F

of his life. Time would fail to tell the deep interest which he took in all its concerns; in its earlier correspondence, at home and abroad, to interest and engage wise and good men in its behalf; in defending it from the misrepresentations and calumnies of its opponents; in journeying often, to replenish its funds, in England, Scotland, and Ireland; in sermons preached on public occasions; and in charges to Missionaries at their solemn designation to their office. It is indeed to be regretted, that so few specimens remain to inform those, who knew him not, how deeply its interest engaged his heart."

There is much wit, though somewhat scholastic, in a bon mot of Waugh's, made at the hospitable mansion of a friend, where ministers of various churches were assembled.

"When dinner was announced, and the guests were taking their chairs, (three of the senior ministers present, being Dr. Bogue, Mr. clergyman, and Dr. Waugh,) Mrs. Hardcastle had invited Dr. Bogue to the chair on her right. Dr. Bogue, being engaged in conversation at the other end of the room, had not heard the first summons. Dr. Waugh facetiously observed to Dr. Bogue, as he passed to his chair, that 'independency was going to be elevated above episcopacy and presbytery.' 'Restored, ra ther,' said Dr. Bogue, 'to its primitive condition; just as it was before the church degenerated.' 'Come, come, take your chair,' said Dr. Waugh ; 'you are appointed to it by the highest civil authority in the room; and, with all your independency, Sir, you will conform, and accept the appoint

ment.'

This piece of pleasantry shows, how truly he felt good men of other churches to be, as Newton said, "Soldiers of the same army wearing different uniforms."

The minister of Well's Street Chapel could not have enjoyed an income of more than £400 per annum. Most will exclaim, What a pittance! Yet see the effect of economy :-upon that sum he educated well a family of nine children-he was hospitable, he was ge

nerous.

"I never saw him so thoroughly happy as when he had succeeded in relieving the distressed: 'Blessed is he that considereth the poor;' and surely he used to appear as having a foretaste of glory. The poor man himself, though the joy of a wife and hungry children might be added to his cup, was not, I am confident, so happy as my father. I have seen him call us all to kneel around the throne, and praise God for his goodness to some poor family. But the loveliest feature in these scenes was, that he never saw himself in them. So complete was this abstraction, that we saw only the goodness of God, and the joy of the poor man. It was not till the first glow had gone by, that we recollected, with honest pride and sacred emulation, the agent employed. His modesty was genuine, and could never be misunderstood. I applied to that excellent man, to whom I never applied in vain,' was given at these times with an emphasis that left the impression of our admiration just where he meant it.

"Such was his devotedness to the poor, that no personal interest could make him swerve from their service; in illustration of which I may tell you the following circumstance:-One of my brothers was applying for a public situation, which would have been of very great importance to him, and which it was thought the interest of Mr. Wilberforce could have secured; and, of course, as my father had been long honoured with the friendship

of that excellent man, we urged exceedingly that he should apply to him. But he decidedly refused, and on this ground;-That good man is one of the props that God hath put in my way for the support of my poor widows and orphans; and I dare not, for their sakes, risk the shaking of his faith in the singleness of my appeals.' Now, my dear friend, have not the widow and children of such a man a quietus against despondency in their temporal concerns, in the blessing in store for them with that God, who blesses for thousands of generations those who love him? In order to enter fully into the merits of this case, we must know all my father's tender solicitude for his family, his personal sacrifices on their account, and the pain he felt, lest aught of indifference should be suspected as influencing his refusal. But he lived in faith, and saw no other directory but God's law, and just left his character, where he left his salvation, in the hands of his Saviour."

The exalted virtue which prompted this last act, will embalm the memory of Waugh among all men of whatever creed, who are concerned for the honour of their common nature.

Our space will not allow us to enter upon a full development of a circumstance in Dr. Waugh's history, which is calculated to excite our astonishment, and perhaps a doubt, whether some of the common feelings of humanity had not become hardened by a long course of public service. It appears, that Dr. Waugh, on the Sunday after the death of his son (a youth who had already established in the ministry an ample title to be his father's successor), performed the public service of the Sabbath in his own chapel in Well's Street, while the dead body was still unburied.

Before we can either praise or blame an act like this, we must look to the character of the person who performed it. In some it would be an act of utter callousness. In Waugh, we have only to look through these Memoirs for proofs of the ardour of his paternal affection, and the pleasure he felt in a son who was worthy of him. We can then estimate the heroic energy, which the Bible and constant communication with heaven, had infused into his spirit, and which enabled to make light of the tenderest feelings when they stood in the way of his duty to his Master.

A year afterwards, we find him using the following singularly touching words, when writing of another young clergyman: he says, "Had it been the will of God to have introduced our departed darling into such a sphere! But not one murmuring word!”

We now take leave unwillingly of these Memoirs; we recommend them to the perusal of every Christian-and we would suggest to the authors to publish a condensed and cheaper reprint of the most valuable parts. Such a book would soon find its way into the cottage of the poor, where it would be eminently useful. In this country, it ought to be peculiarly interesting. Waugh took the lead in Missionary labours, which beyond all question have done much for this country.