the men of this world have, even when their corn and their wine aboundeth.'-'In a letter from my father to-day, he mentions the death of a venerable saint, D- L one of Mr S.'s elders, who died on Wednesday last week. He was one of those who were engaged in the struggle of 1806, was regular in his attendance at Kirriemuir, and an humble tender christian. He had many severe trials in his lot, but is now delivered from them all. On the Saturday before his death his speech failed. His daughter observing his lips moving, put her ear to them, and heard what was surely very cheering, a christian bidding adieu to all earthly objects, and rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God. "Farewell time and all its enjoyments," said he; "farewell all earthly friends; farewell ordinances, fast-days and feast-days." Then followed the welcomes, and he spake no more. We may surely say—

"The troubles that afflict the just

In number many be;

But yet at length, out of them all,
The Lord doth set him free!"'

'With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.' The first query of every true convert is, 'Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?' This was a question, to the serious solution of which James felt constrained soon to turn his attention. One important aspect of that question was the choice of a profession, in which he might more effectually glorify God. To one situated as he was in his infancy, the thought of aspiring to the ministry of the gospel was a very natural one, even before the youthful mind had yet weighed the importance of the sacred office. Now, however, he began to look upon the question in a very different aspect, as a question of duty and gratitude to Him who had loved him, and given himself for him. It was not, however, a matter to be hastily decided, and we find him approaching it with due thoughtfulness and humility. His first suggestion was thrown out in the following letter, December 25th, 1840:- My dear Aunt,-I have to bless God that I was led to open my mind to you. Since then I have often not had smooth road, but it has all been owing to my own unwatchfulness, and it has led me to see, in some measure practically, how the christian life is indeed a warfare. How true your remark, "The Spirit is easily grieved, and one unwatchful moment may cause much sighing and crying before we find him again." I am ready to think you have not the same temptations as I have here. I have every day to breathe a foul atmosphere. You would be shocked were you to witness the infidel spirit displayed by some of my fellow-students, while those that dissent from them are branded with the name of hypocrites. O that I more deserved reproach for Christ's sake! Such a situation, however, is not so unfavourable to religion as would at first appear. It leads to depend more upon Him who can give strength to combat our spiritual enemies, and vigilance to escape the snares set for our falling. This is now my last year at college; and in the prospect of deciding my course through life, I find that I stand much in need of advice and prayer. I know you don't forget me at

kind if you could

the throne of grace. I would also esteem it very find time to send me your thoughts upon the subject.'

There was one important duty, however, which he felt himself bound no longer to postpone, viz., to make a public profession of his blessed Master, by a compliance with his dying command. This he took the first opportunity of doing. At the dispensation of the Lord's Supper at Aberdeen, in April following, he offered himself as a candidate for admission to the Lord's table, and was accepted. This occasion, always attended with so much interest to a young disciple, seems to have been to him peculiarly refreshing. It was a bright spot in his wilderness journey, to which he often looked back-a well of salvation, from which he drew no small encouragement and strength for his future progress. He thus expresses his feelings at the time, to that affectionate correspondent to whom we have found him so often unbosoming himself:

'April 9th, 1841. My dear Aunt,-I have been particularly disappointed at not having your presence on this occasion, for I expected much assistance from you. I hope it will have the effect of leading me to look higher. I doubt not you remember me much at a throne of grace; and I have particular need of your prayers at this time. My time having been so much distracted of late,* I found it difficult work to fix it upon suitable things; but, "the Lord accepteth according to what a man hath, and not according to what he hath not." I publicly avowed myself on his side on the Fast-day, and I bless God for such agreeable duty. Had he dealt with us as we have sinned, we would never have been called to such exercise. I intend to seal these professions at his table on the ensuing Sabbath; and I trust in great mercy he will make it to me a time to be remembered, and that he will give me to see, more than I have ever yet done, that his ways are indeed ways of pleasantness; that in the keeping of his commandments there is great reward. Remember me much in the best quarter. "The fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much." I feel very anxious as to my course through life. I hope, in waiting on the Lord for direction, both in prayer and at his table, he will clearly teach me his way. May he give grace to live to his glory!'-'April 13th. I wrote you a few lines on Friday. I had many fears, at that time, with reference to the work that is now past; but the Lord, blessed be his name! has disappointed them, and, notwithstanding my great unworthiness and ill deserts, he has granted me sweet communion with him at this time. I have taken it as a token for good for what may be before me. I am sorry to say that I am much given to very melancholy and gloomy thoughts as to my course through life. This I feel to be wrong. It is distrusting that God who brought my grandfather quite through, has conducted my father far on, and been my guide hitherto. Why should I distrust him? "All things shall work together for good to them that love God."

Lively impressions, such as above described, are not always per

His course at college was drawing to a close, and besides a number of hours' private teaching, he was preparing for his examination as a candidate for the degree of master of

arts.

manent, even with God's own children. When their mountain seems to stand strong, and they are ready to say, I shall never be moved, God often suddenly hides his face. From James, however, he seems not to have withdrawn that gracious smile, at least for a season. Like Christian, at the house called Beautiful, he appears to have been left for a while under the charge of its blessed inmates, to refresh himself for future conflicts. Some time after this he resumed his diary, and continued it, at brief intervals, till his death. The first entry has a reference to that solemn service which he had lately discharged, and to the more important duties on which he was about to enter; and it breathes the same spirit of gratitude for the past goodness of God, and humble trust in him for the future. May 16th, 1841. By the date of the last, it will appear that more than a year has passed away since I entered anything in this book; and this year has been a very important one in my life. At our sacrament, on the* 11th of April, I publicly avowed myself on the Lord's side, by taking my seat at his holy table; and I trust, by divine grace, I will be enabled to perform my vows unto the Lord, by living, not to myself, but to Him who laid down his life for me; and may I be enabled to follow hard after him, and be kept from sinking down to the dead level of common professors! The christian life is a battle, "Fight the good fight of faith." It is a race, "Press onward towards the mark, for the prize of the high calling." He must be in earnest if he would succeed. He must take the kingdom of heaven by force. So help me, Lord, to run that I may obtain. Strengthen me with strength from on high; and whatever I may have to meet with in this world, O grant that I may be ever found keeping in the path of duty, and setting thee, the Lord, always before me! The Lord has brought me to the end of my college studies, and I have now arrived at, indeed, a very critical period of my life. "Mine eyes are unto the Lord." "What wilt thou have me to do?". In whatever way thou seest proper, O Lord, make me an instrument in advancing thy declarative glory in the world, and show me clearly the right way! O be with me on Tuesday, which day I set apart as a day of fasting and humiliation, to seek a right way! May it be a time of sweet communion with thee, and may I experience that "unto the upright there ariseth light in darkness!"'

The language of Canaan is a beautiful mark of a child of God; but it is a decisive one only when accompanied with the dress and manners of a genuine Israelite: 'By their fruits ye shall know them.' In such cases as the present the grace of God does not always appear to make its subject another man, but it always makes him a new man. Maintaining still, in all their distinctness, the general traits of his character, it infuses into them new life, and throws over them a new and heavenly colouring. This pleasing evidence of a gracious change was not awanting in our young friend. From the time that he first opened his mind to his friends, and gave them an insight into the dealings of God with his soul, a gratifying amelioration seemed to take place on his whole character, and as his exercise became more advanced, that seemed to assume a more marked and decided form.

His whole deportment became more serious, more circumspect, more exemplary. Without the slightest assumption, or affectation, he seemed to have entered a new world, and breathed a purer atmosphere. His youthful hilarity assumed the chastened aspect of christian cheerfulness. His natural modesty began to wear the deep and lovely tints of christian humility. His diligence in his studies seemed prompted no more by the ardour of mere youthful ambition, but by the desire to approve himself as a faithful servant of Jesus Christ; and his natural gentleness and kindness of heart kindled into the glow of christian love. His conscience became more tender, his aspirations more heavenly, his whole character more elevated and devout. His friends had always regarded him as a very amiable young man, now they felt mingle with that a feeling of high respect as to one 'in whom was found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel.' One of the most gratifying evidences that he had tasted that the Lord is gracious, was his earnest desire to impart to others some spiritual gift. He was now looking forward to public work in the vineyard of God; but in the true spirit of her of whom it is said, 'She hath done what she could,' he looked round for a present opportunity of doing God service. A Sabbath evening class, chiefly intended for those who had no opportunity of parental instruction, was opened in his father's meeting house; of that he became a zealous and devoted teacher. A prayer meeting was commenced among the young men on Sabbath morning; of this also he became a very regular and active member. About the same time he joined a week-day prayer meeting of more advanced persons. In both these connections, he was soon noticed by his brethren for the regularity of his attendance, and the seriousness, solemnity, and propriety of his devotional exercises. were his labours confined to those things that came more under the public eye. In the most quiet and unostentatious way, he was accustomed to visit numbers of the poor saints in his father's flock and neighbourhood, to pray with them, read to them the holy scriptures, and carry to them the notes of sermons which he had taken down; and where it was needed, his limited earnings by private teaching were always ready for their supply. By some of these friends he was affectionately recognised as their 'young Timothy;' and the unequivocal expression of sorrow which his lamented death called forth, attested how widely diffused had been these humble labours of love, and how highly they had been appreciated.

Nor

His heart longed, however, to serve his gracious Master on a wider field, and in a more public manner; and, in the course of a few months, his wishes were advanced an important step towards their gratification. On the 8th October, that year, he was examined by the Presbytery of Aberdeen, and, with much approbation, admitted to the Divinity Hall. This important crisis in his youthful studies, involving, as it did, a special dedication of his talents to the service of Christ, was calculated, of itself, deeply to impress his sensitive mind. It occurred, however, in connection with circumstances which gave to these feelings a tone of the deepest solemnity. It took place on the thanksgiving evening of the communion

at Aberdeen, the second at which he had occupied a seat at the Lord's table, and of which he expressly states, that he and many others had enjoyed a 'good time;' but it was also rendered ever memorable to him by the sudden and affecting death of one of his earliest and most intimate companions. His second-cousin, James Ferguson-a young gentleman of great promise, who had just completed his education at Glasgow as a civil engineer, and was contemplating rapid advancement in a profession to which he was ardently devoted a few days before met his death by the fall of a piece of heavy machinery. The melancholy intelligence reached Aberdeen during the communion, and made a deep impression upon the whole congregation, by whom the deceased was generally known, and highly esteemed. To James it seemed to sound like a voice from heaven, warning him to set his house in order; and in entering upon preparation for a service so important in itself, and from which he was also to be summoned in a manner almost equally sudden and unexpected, to devote himself to it as one who had bid adieu to earth, and who stood in full view of the world to come. In this strain we find him speaking of it in his diary and correspondence. The following remarks to the brother of the deceased, his own earliest and most constant correspondent, show the solemn but pleasing light in which he regarded it:- My dear William,-I need not tell you how deeply I sympathise with you under the peculiarly affecting dispensation which it has pleased a merciful God to measure out to you. But, from what I have heard regarding your dear brother, there is every reason to believe that what is your present loss is his unspeakable gain. His prospects for this world were great, but they have been all blighted in a moment. Perhaps his heavenly Father saw that the temptations he would meet with would be more and greater than would be beneficial to his spiritual and eternal interests, and, therefore, in mercy he has taken him to himself. Believe that this has been done in lovingkindness to him, and also to you. Hear a pitying Father saying to you, "What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter." You were no doubt requiring the affliction, else you would not have received it. I know that I was needing something to enforce that warning, "Boast not thyself of to-morrow." We are so prone to calculate on to-morrow that we need to be reminded even it is uncertain. How would it tend to advance religion in our souls, and excite us to seek more ardently after communion with God, if we were found more constantly realising our departure in a short time from this world, and more frequently examining the foundation of our hope for the world to come! The presbytery met on Monday, and I presented myself before them for examination, previous to my entrance to the Hall. I was examined on Latin, Greek, mathematics, moral and natural philosophy, and my motives for such a step. My dear William, I feel deeply the importance of what I have entered on. I perhaps ruminate too much on the difficulties I must meet with, and the awful responsibilities I must incur, sinfully forgetting that there is promised extraordinary grace for extraordinary duties. You will not forget me at the throne of grace.'