MEMOIR.

AMES MOIR was born on the 5th of March, 1829, in the town of Huntly, in the Strathbogie district of Aberdeenshire. At a very early age he removed, along with his parents, to Aberdeen; where, with but few interruptions, he continued until his settlement in Maybole. His early life was spent amid the stirring times of “the ten years' conflict;" and, throughout the whole period of his youth, he had the unspeakable privilege of sitting at the feet of that Gamaliel-like preacher and teacher, the late Rev. Dr. Alexander D. Davidson, of the Free West Church, Aberdeen. These with other influences, of a religious and educational kind, moulded his character, and mapped out for him his life-plan. Among the companions of his early days were youths of a kindred spirit; deeply religious, passionately studious, and earnestly ambitious to fit themselves for positions of beneficial influence in life; and several of them, like the late Rev. W. Wilson, of Musselburgh, became his chosen friends of later days. Material of that kind came fittingly to the hands of such a man as their respected teacher, Dr. James Melvin, of the Aberdeen Grammar School; and, to the end of his days, James Moir retained

towards that prince of Latinists, feelings of reverence akin to those that every educated youth has for the great sages of the past. At the competition for "bursaries" at King's College he took a good place. It had been his intention to spend another year in preparatory study before entering on his "arts" curriculum; but, emboldened by his success, and with the approval of Dr. Melvin, he at once entered upon his college course. And, while by delay he would certainly have obtained a higher place, he continued to maintain to the last the good position he had gained. His fellowstudents anticipated that at the end of the curriculum he would have gained the highest mathematical honours, but feeble health compelled him to withdraw from the final examinations.

His studies were not restricted to the prescribed “arts or undergraduate course. Science and general literature engaged much of his attention. Astronomy, Geology, and Chemistry were his favourite studies in Science; and in general literature he cultivated a wide and critical acquaintance with all our best English Classics. In his early years he was the friend and correspondent of leading men in both these fields.

During his student days, the Mechanics' Institute of Aberdeen was formed, and in this he took a very lively and active interest. He taught classes there in English literature, elocution, and mathematics, and delivered lectures which created considerable interest, and brought him into the forefront at a very early period of his life.

His divinity studies were pursued partly in Aberdeen and partly in Edinburgh; but, owing to feeble health, were interrupted by a lengthened residence in London and a visit to the Continent. In after-life, when referring to his studies in Divinity, he frequently alluded, in grateful terms, to the good he got from the "clear and massive" teaching of the

late Rev. Dr. McLagan, of the Aberdeen Free Church College. He was licensed to preach the Gospel in the summer of 1853, by the Free Presbytery of Aberdeen; and, after preaching, with great acceptance, for three months in the Free Gilcomston Church there, he was appointed assistant to the Rev. Dr. A. S. Patterson, of Hutchesontown, Glasgow. In Dr. Patterson he found a true and lifelong friend. Their scholarly tastes and sympathies were alike; and, down to the very close of his ministry (for the aged Doctor survives him), he had no higher pleasure than in occasional re-unions with one whose ripe Christian experience and rich attainments made him as valuable as he was a fast and loving friend. That feeling was reciprocated by the worthy Doctor, who, writing recently, says, "To experience the overflowing kindness of his truly hospitable home-to mark his hearty sympathy with my interest in historical remains and picturesque localities on the Carrick shore and among the Carrick hills-and to hear the Gospel so forcibly and faithfully proclaimed by my beloved friend, have been among the luxuries of my life."

Soon

In December, 1854, Mr. Moir was ordained to the pastoral charge of the Free Church of Maybole, to which he was introduced by Dr. Patterson. Here he continued to labour, notwithstanding frequent pressing applications from friends elsewhere to leave it, down to the close of his life. after his settlement he married Mary Brown, daughter of the late William Brown, of Corfin. In her he found a true helpmate; one who, by her quiet and unostentatious piety, cheered and encouraged him in all his work. She predeceased him by nearly three years; and they are both survived by two sons.

Between Mr. Brown and Mr. Moir a warm personal attachment was formed from the first, which ripened into

the most intimate friendship. Not only from his social position, but also because of his consistent Christian character and large-hearted liberality, Mr. Brown had, for years, exercised a beneficial influence in a wide district around Maybole. Doubtless this may have indirectly assisted to prepare the way for that singularly unsectarian influence which Mr. Moir, so soon after his settlement, began to exercise in the district, and continued to the end to maintain.

We have, in general outline, traced his career up to his settlement in Maybole, and the rest of his life may be best brought before us, briefly, by glancing at a few outstanding characteristics of the man and his manifold labours.

At the foundation of all Mr. Moir's worth lay the fact that he was truly a man of God. From earliest days he was a child of grace. He was never very communicative regarding his own personal experiences. But Christianity was with him. no secondary matter. It was not merely one of the things of his life, it was the one thing. It was his life, and all else was but tributary to this the main stream. Christ was his guiding-star, and to be like Christ the one desire of his heart. And if his Christianity was wanting in some of the narrownesses and prejudices that have been associated by some with the name of Christ, it was to that extent liker the Master whom he loved and served. His piety was deep, true, and enlightened, making him cautious and charitable in his judgment of others, and wise and discriminating in his dealings with different types and classes of men. He combined, in large degree, the best and strongest elements of Christian character; and was eminently fitted to mould and direct the diverse types of intellectual and spiritual life of which a congregation is composed. At various times his spiritual life received fresh impulses and enlargement. Particularly was this the case during the religious awaken

ing that stirred our whole nation in 1874-5. Writing then to the author of this memoir, when on the eve of visiting him, he said, "You will find me a new man." And so it was, and so everybody felt it to be; for, deep and true as the current of his religious life was before, it deepened and widened then.

As might be expected, in one of such experience, the main object of his ministry was to win souls to Christ; to overcome men's prejudices against the Gospel, and to awaken within them longings for something nobler and higher than a mere worldly existence. And to this end he preached the Gospel, in all its varied richness and fulness. In doctrine he was strongly, and even narrowly, evangelical. He was conservative, to the last degree, of the great fundamentals of evangelical doctrine. Yet he could not, in the common acceptation of that term, be called a doctrinal preacher. Doctrine was the foundation of his preaching, and was interwoven with all his sermons. But his main aim seems to have been to hold up a living Christ, as the embodiment of all evangelical truth, and through the loveliness of Christ to woo and win men from self and sensualism. Of deliberate purpose he preached nothing but Christ. More than most men, he could have made his pulpit a platform from which to exhibit a wide and varied culture; but that was a temptation to which he never yielded. The richness of his mind gave an interest accompanied by depth and dignity to all his ministrations, that betokened the scholar as well as the Christian. Science, literature, and art contributed to the elucidation of his theme; but all were made subservient to preaching Christ.

The evangelical pulpit has sometimes been charged with narrowness, and the round of its teaching is supposed to be a mere repetition of commonplaces. Such a charge