March 1805, he was seized with a rose fever, by which, for three weeks, he was confined to the house. Neither his friends, nor those who attended him were apprehensive of serious consequences, and God seemed pleased to restore him. April 1st, he rode out a little; and next day, fecling himself nearly quite well, he attended the presbytery of Dumfries, and was elected a member of the ensuing General Assembly. To the meeting of that court the public looked forward with expectation unusually earnest; and he anticipated an opportunity of co-operating with his friends to promote the triumph of liberality and justice. But before that meeting took place, he was to join the General Assembly and Church of the first born, which are written in heaven. Till the 20th day of the month, he was able to devote his time as usual to study, to business, and to intercourse with his friends. When he went to the pulpit, for the last time, he was so extremely feeble, that he purposed to give only one short discourse: But when he reached

the church, he felt himself strengthened to extend the service to the ordinary length.

Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ' were the words from which his people were then addressed by him, whose voice they were no more to hear in the sanctuary below. That grace and truth had come to himself was to be proven by his dying testimony to the faithfulness of him who hath brought in these glad tidings of great joy. Rapid was the decay of his animal powers. His physicians could not assign any marked disease as the immediate cause; but said it was nature giving way at once. Their opi

nion coincided with his own; for he said,

My great exertions in my divine Master's

work have broken down one of the strong• est constitutions in the country; but I do

not grudge it I am willing to spend and to be spent for his sake.' for his sake.' Though his

bodily frame had thus lost its vigour, the faculties of his mind and the serenity of his temper remained entire. To his relatives who were present, and to all about him, he

he administered consolation and seasonable

counsel. With fervour he joined in acts of devotion, and expressed the strength of his faith, the rejoicing which flowed from the testimony of his conscience, and his firm confidence in the hope, set before him, as an anchor to his soul both sure and stedfast. Towards the close of the scene, when it was observed that his hands hung down, yes,” said he faintly, ' up.' At last, about eleven o'clock of the morning of Saturday April 27. 1805, fift; six days after he had completed the fiftyeighth year of his age, he resigned his spirit, without a struggle, or groan, or change of countenance, into the arins of him who has been spared to remember and to record his virtues.

but I shall soon lift them

In point of bodily constitution he was highly indebted to the Author of nature. His stature was six feet. In early life his form was slender; but after he had recovered from a fever in the year 1772, he became Lather corpulent, though not unwieldy, Ha

trode the earth with a manly firmness, and had a dignity in his aspect that commanded respect. His countenance was open, and his eye beamed with kindness; though, by his abhorrence of vice or meanness, it could be made to flash indignation. By a regimen equally remote from abstemiousness and excess, by regular exercise, and by placid equanimity, he did ample justice to his natural advantages. He never sat for his portrait, though he would have furnished an excellent subject to the pencil of an artist.

He was never married, yet his benevolence wanted not objects towards whom it was directed. Great was his filial piety to his venerable mother, who died in faith only ten months before himself, in the ninetyseventh year of her age. To his other relatives he was ever kind and attentive. He administered counsel and aid in the time of need. He spared neither labour nor money to promote the execution of plans for the good of his country and the advancement of the gospel. His establishment was suited to the

circumstances in which providence had placed him. But he knew too well what is required of a steward to waste in extravagance, or empty shew, what is capable of being applied to far nobler purposes. He was eminently given to hospitality; and his guests found under his roof an intellectual feast prepared for them. The chearfulness of his temper; his great flow of spirits, and his uncommon powers of conversation were decisive proofs that real religion has no tendency to inspire gloom and melancholy. He possessed the friendship and esteem of many of the most respectable characters of the age. His intercourse with them was calculated at once to edify and to please. Anxious that none should be neglected, for whom duty and affection disposed him to provide, he executed accurate and judicious settlements of his worldly affairs ten years before the period of his death.

Of his intellectual and moral faculties and attainments, a better estimate may be formed from the preceding details than from an at