CHAPTER IX.

"Build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, saith the Lord."-Hag. i. 8.

“I have never seen the righteous forsaken."-Ps. xxxvii. 25.

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THERE has often been an outcry raised against the expensive decoration of churches. This may be sometimes the expression of an honest feeling, but it is as often dictated by penuriousness or selfishness. Especially is it suspicious when it proceeds from those, who are costly in their own appointments, and would seem imply that decoration is only then to be deprecated, when it is bestowed upon the temple of God. Architectural ornament is a mere accident of worship, and perhaps there may be something more really imposing in the rudest shed, in which public prayer is offered in the wilderness, than in the most splendid fanes of civilized countries; but the same sentiment, which induces the temporary settler to erect his temporary Bethel, would induce him to add decoration when that is within his reach. We should, at least, question the piety of a people, whose churches were the only hovels on the soil.

The Episcopalians of Scotland had been glad a few years before, to worship God in secret, under the humblest roof that could afford them shelter. It was only natural that, under circumstances entirely different, they should wish the character of their religious edifices to correspond with that of the times, and with the condition of their own Church. To this sentiment alone should be attributed the improved appearance of the Episcopal Chapels in Scotland, especially of those recently erected in Edinburgh. It would have been an unpardonable solecism if edifices, in which much of the rank and affluence of Scotland is assembled, had not been somewhat in keeping with the other splendid improvements in the Northern Metropolis.

For twenty years, Bishop Sandford had officiated in the Chapel erected for him soon after he settled in Edinburgh ;-in 1818 he had the happiness of consecrating for his congregation the chapel of St John's, which is an elegant specimen of florid Gothic, and forms one of the most striking features of this splendid city. It was built by voluntary contribution, and will long attest the munificent spirit which erected it, and serve as a lasting monument to him, who first officiated within its walls.

Several allusions have been already made to Bishop Sandford's delicate state of health. The illness, under which he laboured for many years,

by which he was tried and purified, and which eventually terminated his life, originated in one of those slight indiscretions, which are so often the foundation of serious complaints.

It was in 1795, that he caught cold through exposure to the rain in thin shoes, and the complaint thus induced, bade defiance to medical skill, and caused him almost continued suffering for thirty-five years.

In 1820, it appeared to have reached its crisis, and, for some weeks his life was despaired of; prayer was offered up for him in the church, and several of his family who were in the South, were sent for to receive his blessing. His sufferings in body were acute, but on such occasions his character always shone forth with peculiar lustre. A few years before, he had undergone a most excruciating operation without a murmur,—in the present instance, though his sufferings frequently amounted to agony, his affiance and composure were not, for a moment, disturbed. He was ready to depart; he could trust God with his family, and he gently expostulated with his weeping children, and bade them not desire that he should live. It appeared likely that life would be at best but a prolongation of suffering, and his other prospect was that of a land, in which there is no more pain.

His family had however cause to adore the loving kindness, which spared him to their pray

ers. His pains were indeed continued; but many were his seasons of temporary ease; he lived to see all his children happy and prospering around him, and at length fell asleep, when he had served God for nearly half a century, and when even his youngest child had been blessed with his affection for nine and twenty years.

He united his eldest surviving daughter in 1816, to the Rev. Charles Lane, and his two younger daughters were afterwards married, the elder to Montague Baker Bere, Esq. of Moorbath House, Devon, and the younger to James Edmund Leslie, Esq. junior of Leslie Hill, in the county of Antrim. In these marriages, there

was all that he could have desired for his children.

It is to the praise of Scottish liberality that, in a Presbyterian University, two of Bishop Sandford's sons should have obtained, the one, the assistance of an exhibition for the prosecution of his studies at Oxford, the other, a permanent appointment as Professor. In the distinction which both obtained at Oxford, Bishop Sandford rejoiced as a father, and as an Oxonian; and as his approbation had been the incentive, so was it the dearest reward of their labours.

In 1827, his last worldly anxiety was removed by the kindness of the present Bishop of Durham. His friendship with this distinguished

prelate, which began at Oxford, knew no interruption in after years, and his Lordship's early presentation of his youngest son to the Vicarage of Chillingham, could not but be regarded as a most flattering proof of the sincerity and warmth of his regard.

From that moment Bishop Sandford felt that he had no farther room for temporal solicitude; that he had only to praise God for his goodness, and to anticipate with holy watchfulness his own removal from the world. He had often indulged an idea of resigning his Episcopal charge, and spending his declining years in the society of his several children. But it was otherwise appointed—and he retained until the last his connection with a church with which he had been so long and so honourably associated.