Such kind attentions to aged parents are the dictates, not merely of nature, but of the spirit of Jesus. In His last sufferings, he evinced his tender interest in the welfare of his mother; and, though the charge he gave respecting her to John might have been postponed till after his resurrection, he delivered it from the cross, thinking that, in such circumstances, it must have peculiar weight, eager to give immediate relief to her anxieties, and that he might show us, that no personal affliction can be an excuse for neglect of their comfort.

His sister, who had for some time taken the charge of his house, was the object of his respect and affection. In all her difficulties, he was ready to administer counsel and assistance, and to her children he acted as a father. The exertions he made for their advantage were unwearied; and, while too many in that relation do favours to nephews and nieces in a manner in which they would not exercise benevolence to others, he required neither protracted solicitation, nor debasing acknowledgment. He delighted to see them in his house: under his roof they always felt at home; and, for some time before his death, one of them resided constantly with him. For a considerable part of his life, he had no relations regularly with him;

but he had the talent (possessed by few literary men) of domestic management, in such a superior degree, that his dwelling was the scene of neatness and order. There was in it no indication of vanity or profusion, but every thing adapted for convenience and comfort. As a master, he maintained his due authority, and checked every tendency to carelessness and sloth, to idleness and waste in his servants; and taught them that every thing must be done at the proper season, and kept in its proper place. With a mind that entered into the most abstruse speculations, and with a heart alive to the interests of all around, he, without the least parade or bustle, looked well to the ways of his household. His attention to the religious interests of his servants was watchful and judicious; and, amidst his solicitude that they should do their duty to an earthly master, he was still more solicitous that they should show themselves approved to God. His domestic discipline was strict and unbending; but he knew it to be wise, and it was felt to be salutary.

As a friend, he was steady, active, and obliging. He was given to hospitality; and nothing gratified him more than to see his brethren under his roof, and to minister to their happiness. There was such a suavity about his manner, that

every one felt at ease in his presence. His conversation was rich in instruction; and, though he never indulged in banter or sarcasm, he delighted in the pleasantry by which social intercourse is enlivened: At the same time, it was his study to introduce what would edify, as well as what would please; and he often quoted striking sentiments, especially from the writings of Baxter, happily adapted to solemnize the mind, and to stimulate to religious activity. These remarks had the more weight, as they came, not from one who was regarded as a mere ascetic, but from one whose heart was formed to kindTo young acquaintances his advices were most beneficial, as being the results of prudence and experience; and most faithfully did he caution them against the follies and the carelessness by which families are ruined, and guide them to the virtues by which domestic life is blessed. It may well be said, that his friends never met him without pleasure, nor left him without advantage. He shrunk not from admonishing when he saw it to be necessary; and, when he addressed it to any of his friends, it was not with the officiousness and harshness of Pharisaic confidence and zeal, but in a manner which showed that it was wrung from him by a

ness.

sense of duty, and that he felt the deepest interest in their credit and welfare.

He was a man given to prayer; and this was seen to be the case incidentally, and was never evinced by any studied display. His acquaintance with the Scriptures was not merely that of a critic, who could give a satisfactory explanation of their most difficult passages, but of a Christian, who could bring forward the most appropriate texts on every occasion, either for duty, for admonition, or for comfort.

He had a strong impression of the value of time, and had to each portion of the day its allotted task. Conduct so methodical may be ridiculed by the thoughtless; but its wisdom is felt in the season of sober reflection, and seen in the embarrassment of the desultory, and in the sad results of their negligence. He disliked spending too much time even in scenes of friendly intercourse; and, when the period he had allotted for it expired, no severity of the weather could restrain him from returning to prosecute his course of mental improvement or official duty. Such was his activity that time never hung heavy on him, nor was there an hour in which he knew not what to do.

He had a very cheerful temper, and always

felt disposed to look at the bright side of things. "Why do you look only at the dark side of the cloud ?" was the language in which he sometimes checked the reflections of the desponding. The croaker, who takes a malicious pleasure in representing every thing as hastening to ruin, he delighted to check; sometimes by the happiest ridicule of his dark prognostications, and at other times by the most enlightened views of the state of affairs, and of the aspect of Providence. His whole life was singularly tranquil and happy. He enjoyed almost uninterrupted health, and was not afflicted with any of those disorders which so often oppress the studious. The summer before his death, when walking with him alone, he spoke of the sweet stillness of the evening of life, and said, that many talked of the gloom of age, but he was a stranger to it. He had sources of consolation unknown to the worldly at that period; nor was it embittered by the remorse which excites such painful apprehensions. He had arranged his worldly affairs in a very judicious manner: That text assured him that he should never be left forlorn "The Lord redeemeth the souls of his servants, and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate ;" and he felt that his remain

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