exquisite ear, and was at great pains in encouraging the young to learn a variety of tunes, and to sing the different parts in sacred music; and by this means the psalms, in his place of worship, were sung with peculiar melody. There is great room in many churches for such improvements, and the countenance and direction of the minister are necessary to secure their adoption and to prevent their being carried to a degree unsuitable or fantastic.

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He was most diligent in every other part his pastoral duty. He never sought his own ease, honour or advantage, but the glory of his Master and the good of others. When he visited the sick, he was most faithful in addressing the conscience, as well as most soothing in imparting consolation; and, wherever it was necessary, gave from his pocket or sent from his dwelling the means of support and relief. To the poor his charity was judicious, liberal, and unwearied. Even while his income was very limited, he devoted much of it to charity; and when Providence put more in his power, by his succeeding to the property of his brother, he did not appropriate it to procure additional gratification to himself, but to give more amply to others. On various occasions in the year he bought quantities of provision, and when it was

made ready for use, sent it to various poor families. He was always happier himself when he thought he was making others happy, yet was he far from encouraging, in families in the lower orders, a taste for any indulgence beyond their circumstances, but inculcated upon them a strict frugality, and pointed out the value of those minutes so idly spent by many, and of those fragments so thoughtlessly cast away. To several aged females he gave regular employment, and paid them with a liberality which encouraged their efforts.

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Besides relieving the necessities of the poor, he was accustomed to lend small sums to assist the industrious, a species of beneficence which, if wisely conducted, may be very useful. neither depraves the spirit, nor relaxes the exertions of those obliged, as is too often the case with alms when given without due discrimination. This practice is liable to objections, and the strongest of these is this, that, from the humanity of a minister's character, and the reluctance he must feel to demand his own, little care will be taken of what is thus lent, and little solicitude felt about repaying it. He admitted there was force in this objection, but stated that he knew, in his own experience, how beneficial the practice had been, and that the

injunction of our Saviour," From him that would borrow from thee turn thou not away," appeared to him to require this liberality from those who had it in their power to lend money. "There is a great pleasure in giving," was a sentiment which he often repeated. His benevolence had nothing of the whine or the parade of officious sensibility; and, in various circumstances and occasions which call it into display, he felt little interest, and expressed none, but it was under the direction of strong good sense, and its bounties were not the result of any transient impulse, but of wise consideration.

He formed, in Dunblane, institutions for the support of Bible and Missionary Societies, and to these he was a liberal contributor; he directed their measures by his advice, and frequent and earnest were his prayers that the word of the Lord might have free course and be glorified. He was a great friend also to Savings Banks; institutions which he thought admirably adapted to stimulate the industry of the labouring classes, and to check all waste and profusion. He was active in establishing one in Dunblane, acted as its treasurer, and punctually attended its weekly meetings. It is an affecting circumstance, that the last public act of his life was the discharge of his duty at

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one of those meetings, and that from it he returned to family devotion, to secret prayer, and to the work of death.

But his usefulness was not confined to his own people. He possessed a very active mind, a great degree of public spirit, and a zeal in good works that never waxed cold. Few have shown themselves so superior as he did to the influence of selfish principles. He suggested and patronized various measures for the benefit of the town where he lived; but the necessitous in other places often shared also of his bounty. By letters to people of rank and influence to whom his character was known, he, with the happiest delicacy, often pleaded successfully the cause of the injured and the unfortunate. The want of success which has attended applications of this kind is to be attributed as frequently to the indiscretion which has marked the time and the mode of the application, as to the reluctance of the parties solicited to do good. It would be well if those who are most frequently employed as agents in such applications were as active in employing their own means of beneficence. It is from such quarters that solicitations for others come with the best grace, and with the most effect.

His sagacity and experience qualified him for

giving advice, and many were benefited by his counsels. His meekness of wisdom fitted him for the office of a peace-maker, and few have been so successful in preventing or allaying discord, while his kindness of disposition, and his intimate acquaintance with the various sources of religious consolation, made him a most welcome visitant to the house of mourning. He maintained a friendly intercourse with various respectable families in the town and neighbour-hood; and it ought to be mentioned, as a proof of his candour and liberality, that, with the clergyman who, for the greater part of his ministry, occupied the parochial charge in Dunblane, he lived in the most agreeable intimacy. Mr Robertson, however unpopular in his style and manner of preaching, was a man possessing considerable intelligence, and was most upright, honourable, and obliging. They walked together a short while every day, when circumstances permitted it, and, by their communication of what they had read, contributed to the improvement of each other. We have often regretted that ministers of different denominations, when situated in places where the society of men of education is rare, do not, like these two worthy men, mingle more with each other. It would tend, more than the finest eulogies on