panied with ardent and unostentatious piety, traits of character singularly exemplified by himself in every part of his life. He was wont to acknowledge that it was chiefly through his mother's influence that he engaged cheerfully in those literary and theological studies which are required for the christian ministry. After finishing this course of study, he was taken on trials by the Secession presbytery of Dunfermline; and, as appears from the minutes, at a meeting held at Kinross, on the 13th of August, 1822, after having completed his trials to the satisfaction of the presbytery, he was unanimously licensed to preach the gospel. He was ordained by the presbytery of Perth, at Balbiggie, on the 5th of October, 1825.

success.

The congregation over which he was ordained, was exceedingly small, and there were other circumstances connected with it of such a discouraging nature, as made it doubtful whether his ministry should be continued for any considerable time in that part of the church. He entered, however, on his work with cheerfulness and alacrity, and laboured with such faithfulness and acceptability, not only in his pulpit services, but also in the ministerial examination and visitation of his people, and in the superintendence of the Sabbath evening school, as in a very short time afforded ample proof that his labours were not without The congregation was augmented from time to time, and before his death its number was more than tripled above what it had been at his ordination. Neither was this surprising, if we consider that there was a pre-eminent benevolence and kindness in the temper of his mind, and so much of the gentleness of Christ in all that he did and spake, accompanied with an ardent desire to do good to his fellow creatures under whatever circumstance he could approach them. Amidst all this there was a social expansion of heart, and an innocent and playful cheerfulness, which made him a great favourite in every circle. By the members of his presbytery he was highly loved and esteemed, of which they afforded most satisfying evidence by the prompt and kindly manner in which they exerted themselves to supply his pulpit during his long continued illness. For this work and labour of love he again and again expressed his deep and lively gratitude. He had been taught of God from his youth, and every confidential friend soon observed, that he was influenced by religious principle in all his conduct. In every period of his ministry he paid incessant and unwearied attention to the poor and the sick, to whom his hands and his heart were always open. Those who are usually neglected by others, and whom no man careth for, frequently found him by their bedsides in their humble dwellings, soothing the afflicted and desponding heart with divine consolation, and ministering medicine to the sick under the various maladies and ailments with which they had been visited. As he was justly considered to possess very high medical skill, and his attendance and prescriptions being entirely gratuitous, applications were numerous not only from the members of his own congregation, but from the whole district of country around. He was viewed not merely as the minister of a small congregation, but as a generous benefactor to whom all of every religious denomination had equal access; and whoever made application was visited in the kindest and most courteous manner. Never, perhaps, was there a man more loved and

esteemed by all classes and all religious denominations. When the ear heard him it blessed him, and when the eye saw him it bore witness to him; because he delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him. His very frequent visitation of the members of his own congregation, widely scattered over the country, and his extensive attendance on persons visited with sickness, accompanied with preparations for the pulpit, in which he was deeply conscientious, began in the course of years to wear down his constitution, which was never at any period robust. He was led also to reflect that he had probably employed too much of his time in medical visits of the sick, which ought to have been performed by some regular practitioner, whom the people would probably in other circumstances have got settled among them; and that he might have been more profitably employed in a course of reading and study immediately connected with his sacred profession, so that in reality he had neither been acting justly with himself nor his people. Under this impression he began to restrict his medical labours, and to urge on his people, that they must henceforth employ a medical practitioner, as was done in other places; and that in such circumstances it would be highly improper on his part to do anything calculated to diminish the income of a person who ought to live by his profession. It required address and management of no ordinary kind to effect such a change as this, so that things continued for a number of years in this transition state, and the matter was never fully rectified till the day of his death.

In 1838 he was united in marriage to Mary Neill, the youngest daughter of the Rev. Dr Hay of Kinross. This union was singularly happy, not only from their strong mutual attachment, but from the perfect congeniality of their natural tempers and religious sentiments. They viewed themselves as fellow heirs of the grace of life; the anchor of their hope was stedfastly fixed within the vail, and as both of them had experienced painful bereavements of near and beloved relatives, they had in some measure learned to rejoice as though they rejoiced not, and to weep as though they wept not, in anticipation of that world where our sun shall no more go down, and all the children of God shall be ever with one another, and ever with the Lord. It pleased that God who giveth not account of his matters unto us, whose ways are not our ways, nor his thoughts our thoughts, in the exercise of his unsearchable wisdom and infinite mercy, that this most happy union betwixt two kindred spirits on earth, should be of short duration. Mr Brown saw his beloved wife, after a lingering illness, notwithstanding every possible attention and care by night and by day, on his part, carried to an early grave, five years after their marriage, leaving behind her one dear boy about three years of age. He outlived this heartrending stroke about three years, but he was never again the same person as before. His religious impressions and submission to the will of God were greatly deepened, the kindly affections and sympathies of his heart were increased; but he never recovered his natural cheerfulness and elasticity of mind. He indeed often told those about him, from what he felt, that his days were numbered, and that his connexion with this world would soon come to a close. He was now accustomed in almost every prayer which he offered up in the family

to entreat our Heavenly Father that we might be prepared for the sub.. sequent trials of life; little did his friends anticipate that the day of trial was so near at hand. He seemed now chiefly desirous to live that he might do more for Christ in the congregation, and also promote the highest interests of his dear child, for whom he now seemed to cherish a double affection, for the sake of the child himself, and as a memorial of his beloved mother, now no more.

His last illness, which continued about five months, arose out of an injury he received in his back by an accidental and dangerous fall. After the commencement of the disease, the torture to which he was almost incessantly exposed was such as he said could not be expressed in words; and yet during all this time he was so upheld by sovereign grace, that he never uttered a murmuring expression, whilst reflecting that Christ's sufferings and sorrows in his room and stead were infinitely more severe. About the middle of November he went over to Edinburgh for a medical consultation, and returned in about ten days greatly worse, forewarning us that he had come to die with us at Kinross, and never expected to revisit his beloved people at Balbiggie any more. From the eminent skill of a medical friend whom he now sent for, the pain in his back after some time was almost entirely subdued, and caused but very little uneasiness, so that his relations as well as medical attendants cherished sanguine hopes of his recovery, when all of a sudden he was seized, in consequence of his feeble and shattered consti. tution, by another disease which continued for a number of weeks. From this we expected he would also recover, till within a few days prior to his death, symptoms occurred indicating a fatal result. He was the only person who was not taken by surprise. From his own medical knowledge and continued increasing weakness, he had never cherished great hope of recovery. Instead of being alarmed, he now expressed high satisfaction that the time of his departure to be with Christ was so nigh at hand. When there seemed to be still a faint hope that the disease might be arrested, he said to a near relative that he felt greatly disappointed, as he expected that afternoon to have been engaged in more exalted exercises in the heavenly temple. He farther mentioned that he had had clouds, but that these were now entirely removed, and that he saw nothing before him but a clear and serene sky, and that though he did not feel that exalted rapture which some had been favoured with on a dying bed, he could say he knew in whom he believed, and now felt that those great doctrines of salvation which he had been enabled to preach to others, were every way sufficient to support his own mind in the conflict with death. We have seen that during every part of his ministry, he was singularly attentive to the suffering circumstances of the poor, and now God's gracious promise was fulfilled to himself. "Blessed is he that considereth the poor; the Lord will deliver him in trouble, the Lord will strengthen him on the bed of languishing, and make all his bed in his sickness." During his long-continued illness, his thoughts frequently reverted to his beloved congregation, and he intimated that it would afford him great pleasure to labour among them, if God had any more work for him, but that he left this and everything else to his sovereign pleasure, and desired to say, Here am I, let the Lord do as it seemeth good unto him. Though

while in health he had been accustomed to labour in season and out of season, now when disabled by disease, he deeply lamented that he had done so very little for Christ, and had been unprofitable and inefficient in the midst of so many precious opportunities of usefulness. Still he expressed his lively gratitude that, though most unworthy, he had reason to believe that through the grace of God he had been instrumental in bringing some precious and immortal souls to the faith and love of the Saviour, who had gone before him to the kingdom of glory, as the blessed fruits of his ministry before he himself had entered into rest. He was also wont to speak with great affection of a minister, now no more, who had been instrumental, through the blessing of God, on a sermon which he had heard in very early life, in dispelling his fears, and stedfastly establishing his confidence in the sure and everlasting covenant.

During every part of his illness, his conversation was calm, spiritual, and heavenly. The ordinary occurrences of life, which occupy such a large place in our attention, excited in his mind little or no interest; but his eye glistened, and his heart warmed, when the discourse, or the passages that were read, turned upon the love of Christ, the infinite value of the Scriptures, the concerns of eternity, and the high and exalted blessedness of those who have come out of all the tribulation of this sinful and mortal life, and now stand before the throne of God and the Lamb. His ordinary conversation was that of a man who considers himself done with this world, and is looking for and hastening to the coming of the Lord. He had many sleepless nights; but he was wont to tell us, that such times were not unfrequently seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, when he remembered him on his bed, and meditated on him in the night watches. A short time before his death, Mr Niven, the Caffrarian missionary, spent a few days with us; and for his character and enterprise he expressed high admiration, when he considered how successful he had been in dispelling the darkness of superstition and death, and opening the delightful prospect of a large accession of precious and immortal souls to the kingdom of Christ. He was sometimes overheard in earnest prayer for his dear orphan child, that when his father and mother should have both forsaken him, the Lord would graciously take him up. He was frequently in the habit of calling this child into his presence-a very interesting boy about six years of age-that he might give him counsel and instruction about his future life. He said that for some time he had been anxious about his child, whom he was about to leave behind him in a sinful and ensnaring world; but that his anxiety had entirely ceased since he had solemnly dedicated him to God, and was fully persuaded that his covenant God would be as gracious to his son as he had been to his father. The day of his death was to himself a day of triumph. He expressed an earnest desire that all the members of the family should be convened for religious conversation and prayer, and again and again declared that all was well; and told us, in the most impressive manner, that he was happy in the near prospect of the eternal world; that the night was far spent, and the day was at hand, when his sun should no more go down. His parental affection now appeared stronger and more intense. He caused his son to be frequently brought to him in the sick apart

individuals, some of whom had expressed these calculated or intended to gain any opinions favourable and others unfavour-one? Dr Marshall had set up a sort able to the respective documents which of defence for this language, certainly were remitted to them. Dr Marshall a very strange one. According to him, himself had attempted to get added to the scripture allowed great latitude the committee an individual who had in on this point, for it said, "Thou the strongest manner expressed an un- shalt in anywise rebuke thy neighbour.” favourable opinion of the professor's In anywise, according to Dr Marshall, statements. Why, then, had Dr Heugh meant in any manner-no matter how alone been made the object of calumnious calumnious or abusive. After listening abuse, when all the other members of to this specimen of exposition, they needthe committee had acted in precisely the ed to be at no loss to discover the origin same way? But he was not quite done of that perversion of scripture language with this matter. Of all the assailants by Mr Marshall, on which the presbyof the professor, the individual who, after tery had commented. If Mr Marshall Dr Marshall, had most fiercely attacked had received injury privately from Dr them both through the press and in the Heugh, it was his duty to have gone to church courts, was Mr W. Marshall; him privately, and sought satisfaction; and yet this prejudging of their case did but he (Dr T.) maintained that Mr Marnot prevent him from taking a very shall had no more right to regard this active part both in speaking and voting as offensive to him, than any other memon Dr Brown's trial by libel during last ber of the court. If Mr Marshall bemeeting of Synod. Now, if the conduct lieved that there was any foundation for of Dr Heugh, while acting in obedience such charges, he was bound to have to the orders of Synod, deserved to be brought them before the church court. stigmatised as utterly unprincipled, what Mr Marshall stated that, in the course should be said of Mr Marshall, who act- which he had followed, he had taken ed in the way described entirely of his counsel of Him who seeth in secret. He own free will? He had certainly no (Dr T.) listened to such a statement with reason to complain if, with what measure feelings which he would in vain seek to he meted, it should be measured to him express. It would appear that Mr again. Now, these were the grounds, as Marshall had thought long over this stated by Mr Marshall himself, of his matter; that he had thought for months conduct towards Dr Heugh. They had and years over the conduct of Dr Heugh the whole case before them, and if such in regard to his father; and that then vague, baseless, unauthenticated rumours he had sat down, and in the most delibewere to be made the foundation of attacks rate manner penned the letter of 31st upon character, who would be safe? No March to Dr Heugh. It would appear, man, though pure as snow, would escape further, that he had searched for terms calumny. Mr Marshall, however, affirm- calculated to wound; for, where two ed not only that he had a right to act as modes of expression could be adopted, he had done, but that he was bound to do the most offensive seemed to be chosen, so, and that Dr Heugh had deeply in- and he had even ransacked the Sacred jured him in not giving him the satisfac- scriptures to express the feelings with tion he was entitled to. He, it seems, which he was actuated; proving that no was not the injurious but the injured man was so merciless as he who mistook party, who, by some strange juggling, his antipathies for his duties. Granting, was brought as a criminal to the bar of for argument's sake, that Dr Heugh's the court, while the person who had denial did not meet all the charges, it done him the wrong was still at large. was quite evident that the denial of the And he and his father had talked much charges against his veracity had not the of their not having gained the offending slightest weight with Mr Marshall; for brother. Now, in order to show the he had the effrontery to repeat these hollowness of this plea, it was only ne- charges in the face of that denial. Dr cessary to read a few sentences from his Taylor concluded by saying that there letter. Would any man believe, that if was no ground whatever for mitigating Mr Marshall's professed object had been the sentence of the Presbytery of Edinhis real one, he would have written in a burgh; but, on the contrary, they were manner which the presbytery had justly bound in justice to Dr Heugh, in justice to characterised as uncharitable and violent the Presbytery of Edinburgh, in justice to as supercilious and abusive and as Mr Marshall himself, and in justice to the breathing a vindictive, arrogant, and interests of the church at large, to do nomalignant spirit? Were letters such as thing less than confirm that sentence.