practical exhibition of the diffusive charity and beneficence of the faith which he adopted, with all his mind, and heart, and soul-from such a person with what authority must any doctrine come; with what deference must it be received! Connected, indeed, as the doctrine might be, with peculiar associations in his own mind, and acting upon his own virtuous and religious temperament, it might be different both as to its truth, and very different as to its effects, from what it would be when applied to and adopted by others. It would not, however, on this account be the less dangerous, nor would the necessity be the less that there should be a sober and respectful exposition of whatever is exaggerated in the statement of so distinguished a teacher of Christianity.

But before we proceed to the examination of the system of this eminent individual, we cannot but advert to a particular incident in his life, which may account perhaps, in some degree, for the peculiar turn and character of his own mind, and which will, at all events, serve to introduce to the reader the pious and exemplary person for whom this system was originally sketched out,

and for whose edification and spiritual comfort it was more particularly designed.

To tell the story in any other language than his own would indicate a want of feeling and taste; for who would wish to alter one single touch, in this pathetic picture of real life, of the mother's agony over her mangled and dying child, and the Christian's resignation and faith triumphant over even this severest of trials?

"Her then youngest child, a sweet little boy just two years old, was, through the carelessness of his nurse, precipitated from a bed-room window upon the pavement beneath. I was at that time six years of age, and happened to be walking on the very spot, when the distressing event occurred; I was the first, therefore, to take up and deliver into our agonized mother's arms the poor little sufferer. The head was

fractured, and he only survived the fall about thirty hours. She passed the sad interval of suspense in almost continual prayer, and found God a present help in time of trouble. Fre quently during that day did she retire with me; and, as I knelt beside her, she uttered the feelings and desires of her heart to God. I

remember her saying, 'If I cease praying for five minutes I am ready to sink under this unlooked-for distress; but when I pray, God comforts and upholds me; his will, not mine, be done.' Once she said, 'Help me to pray, my child: Christ suffers little children to come to him, and forbids them not: say something." 'What shall I say, mamma? Shall I fetch a book?' 'Not now,' she replied: 'speak from your heart, and ask God that we may be reconciled to his will, and bear this trial with patience.' The day after the infant's death, she took me to the bed on which my little brother lay; and kneeling down she wept for a few minutes in silence; and then, taking his cold hand in one of her's, and mine in the other, she

said, 'Lord, if it had not

been thy good plea

Thy will be done!

show me more of

myself, and to wean me from the world. Forgive my sins, O God, and let me not murmur!' Then, looking at the cherub countenance of her babe, she added, 'Thou art not lost, but gone before.' She then put his hand into mine, and said, 'If you live, my child, never forget

this; and may I one day meet you both in heaven!' To the end of her life, she wore a little locket attached to her watch; it contained a lock of her poor little Henry's hair; and she often looked at it, and spoke of it as a remembrance of God's goodness to her at a a most trying season."

Such was the mother of Legh Richmond! It was her pious hand that planted the first seeds of religion in her son's heart, which, under the dews of God's blessing and the sunshine of his favour, were silently to grow up in that heart, until they at last appeared in full maturity, in the fruits of active charity, and unwearied exertions in the vineyard of Christ. It had been her secret wish and prayer from his birth that he might become a minister of God's Word; but she felt so deeply the fearful importance of the office, that she had never disclosed it to him, from a fear of creating an undue bias on his choice. Her wish, however, and prayer, were granted; and she lived to see her son attain the highest of all human distinctions, that of the Poor Man's Friend. But the mother, who had led the child with her own hand to the altar of God, and had consecrated

him, by her prayers, from his very infancy, for its holy service, was herself, in her declining years, to come to that son, now a minister of the gospel in the full maturity of his knowledge and experience, for consolation and instruction under the painful misgivings, and the chilling shadows which the declining sun of life not unfrequently casts upon the soul. It was on this occasion he exhibited to her, what his biographer calls, just, solid, and correct views, and a lucid statement of Christian doctrine. Those views and that statement we will give in his own words; and we will then proceed to examine how far they deserve this praise, how far the statement is lucid, and the views just, solid, and correct.

"What must I do to be saved?' cried the gaoler: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,' was Paul's reply. Salvation is wholly of faith, from first to last. This is the grand discriminating principle between true scriptural, evangelical religion, and all mere imitations or assumptions of that title. Our paradox is, that weakness is strength.' The soul that by Faith, through Grace, is saved without works, obtains an inward principle of love, which must work, cannot but work, and