A jurist.

Sympathies.

"He rarely excused himself from duties assigned him by Presbytery because overtasked. If he excused himself, it was not so much for saving self as to preserve the parity of the ministry, or to draw out and honor others.

"When he had been a few years in Synod he was elected moderator; and in 1849, the twentieth year of his ministry, he was chosen moderator of the General Assembly.

"As an ecclesiastical jurist, others may have equaled or surpassed Dr. Murray. His feelings were too generous, and his views too comprehensive, to allow him to be a stickler for the mere letter of the law, or to be an adept in knotty points. He studied more the spirit than the letter of the law; and he weighed points more by the question of right than to make a thing right by skillful construction or collocation of chapters and sections. He belonged to the court of equity rather than of technicalities.

“With his natural warm-heartedness there must be strong sympathies; yet personal sympathy would not prevail over a sense of right. Two important cases fell under my notice, where I know intimate friendships and personal endearments were on the side he felt constrained as a presbyter to oppose.

"Young ministers, licentiates, and candidates have lost a friend. The heart and position of Dr. Murray made him important to such. Our young men turned to him for advice as to location and in the straits of their novitiate. His personal intercourse and correspondence with such were cheerful and prompt, al

Habits of speaking.

Kindliness.

though so extensive as to draw heavily upon his time. He was truly a friend to the young ministry. He sought out and encouraged candidates; and many sought an introduction to Presbytery through him.

"His early self-reliance, his brevity, and sometimes curtness of speech, his ready repartee, and the humor of his nativity, may have led some to undervalue his comity as a presbyter. Whatever, at times, may have been the abruptness, or even severity of his remarks, all who knew him well will testify that it was only in the form, and not in the spirit. To what he thought littleness or wrong he might utter a telling rebuke, followed as quickly by his cordial sympathies to the hurt, or confessing one. Those who knew him only in the ecclesiastical forum might not do justice to his heart. His succinct phrases, his humor, his quick reply, with illustration by anecdotes, might fall as wounding arrows, but they never came from a poisoned quiver. In no place did his curtness of speech and uncomfortable anecdotes so prevail as in debate. This was but an element showing his nativity-one strongly inherent, and which he used chiefly in playfulness, and which in later years was greatly subdued.

"None more kindly felt for his brethren than he. As a young man he revered the aged, and as a father he was kind to the young men. Yet it was so natural in him, that it was an effort to withhold the repartee. An example may show this, and the independent thinking of his younger days. He brought some measure before Presbytery which, a father of patriarchal name opposed, with a reflection upon youth;

Humors.

A Presbyterian.

at once young Murray replied: 'No more of that; I am young, but not willing to be taken to the bosom of Father Abraham !'

"Such quick and apt responses were indigenous; not of the corrupt heart, but of the mental structure. They were Murrayisms; but, so far as they were severe, they were not the issues of the heart. I refer to these things to correct misapprehensions that may exist with some who only knew him in the forensic phase of character. This playful severity of debate was no more the heart of our dear brother than a ripple made by the breeze is the deep, pure water beneath.

"Dr. Murray was a Presbyterian, but no bigot. He was an earnest lover of the order and doctrine of our Church; tenacious of the weightier matters, but not a stickler on minor points. Nine years of intimate acquaintance authorize the remark that he was tolerant to those who honestly and fraternally differed, but intolerant to the exclusive. He loved his own denomi national home, and held large fellowship with those of different name; but he had no patience with that spirit that ignored all Church existence but its own. For such he had no gentle phrases, and this some tortured into bigotry. And it had its influence until corrected by closer acquaintance.

"He heartily bid God-speed to every man who preached Christ, and cheerfully hailed such as co-laborers. That largely fraternal spirit became more marked with his years, and was perfectly consistent with the remark he made in substance to me in his study: 'With growing years, experience, and observ

His loss.

His work done.

ation, I admire and love, more and more, our system of doctrine and form of government.'

"The Presbytery has lost a most efficient and genial member. For nearly thirty years in the Elizabethtown Presbytery; his seat rarely vacant; honored and loved by his brethren; none more quick to mingle his sympathies with a tried brother; none more quick to enter into the personal and pastoral joys of another.

"Our ecclesiastical records are his witnesses that he was a faithful and working presbyter; and those pages confirm the living record upon our hearts how acceptable he was as a leader in our devotions. Sad thought we shall see him and hear him no more!

"For some time past we marked in Presbytery his growing spirituality, and felt that he gave us an increased stimulus in our devotional exercises and pastoral duties. He was ripening then, but our eyes were holden that we did not see it. He knew it not, but he worked as one whose time was short, and with his increased diligence there was a corresponding gentleness of spirit and heart-desire to do good.

"His closing presbyterial life leaves endearing recollections as we mourn, that in our body and in his wide sphere his work is done.

"No one can wear his mantle; we must divide his duties. In that his race is run we mourn our loss, but rejoice that he has received his crown of life.

"His life and influence will be with us as hallowed and stimulating memories, and his death will remind us, Work 'while it is day,' so that when 'the night cometh,' we may each say, 'My work is done.'"

First essay.

College papers.

CHAPTER XV.

Dr. Murray as an Author.-Early Efforts.-At Wilkesbarre.-Origin of the Kirwan Letters.-Sketch of Bishop Hughes.-Systematic Preparation for the Discussion.-Effect of it.-Popularity of the Letters. Calls for more.-Other Series.-Oral Discussion.

THE first essay of Dr. Murray to write for the press, of which we have any knowledge, was made while he was a student in college. That his early employment in a printing-office had directed his attention to the field of authorship, and stimulated him to efforts in that line of distinction and usefulness, there can be little doubt. In that business he also acquired those habits of precision and method that marked his labors in future years.

Among his manuscripts we find copies of papers prepared while in college for the press, some of which we know were published, and others were, perhaps, never sent away for that purpose. It is certainly remarkable that a youth who had devoted less than a year to studies in preparation for college, having had but common education in boyhood, should so soon enter the lists as a writer for the press, and especially as a controversial writer. The first essay that we find as coming from his pen, and all the early pieces that he has left among his old manuscripts, are tinged with the caustic wit and satire, as well as the genial humor and sparkling vivacity, that grew with his growth, till they became the features of his composition which