quently became eminent in various professions. Among these were Rev. Dr. J. B. Romeyn, Dr. Linn of Philadelphia, the Hon. John Savage late Chief Justice of the State of New York, and others with whom he continued to be on terms of intimacy and confidence, while life remained.

From the remains of a diary which he kept during the period of his residence in Schenectady and its vicinity, it would seem that this was to him a season of deep attention to personal religion. It was his habit to spend a considerable portion of each day in retirement, which was given to secret prayer, self-examination, and meditation on divine things with the scriptures in the hand. The records which he has himself made of his own exercises, and which were never intended to see the light, exhibit great tenderness of conscience, a very pungent sense of the evil of sin, high admiration of the Mediatorial excellencies, and much enlargement of heart at the throne of grace. During this period, when folly and vice so generally employ the time and waste the sensibilities of youth, he was giving his best affections to God with characteristic energy and devotion. Although we have nowhere found the fact distinctly recorded, there is evidence to believe that Dr. M'Leod had made a public profession of religion before he left his native land. It is, however, matter of record that within the first nine months after his landing in the United States, and while he was in his nineteenth year, he entered into the cominunion of the Reformed Presbyterian church. His choice in so doing was eminently one of principle. Strong inducements were held out to him to prepare for the ministry in larger and more influential communities, but his understanding had been persuaded, and his affections attracted by the commanding system of scriptural principles which the Reformed Presbyterian church exhibits, and he joined her fellowship with due deliberation. This stand taken in early life he never regretted, and he maintained it with consistency for more than forty years, and until the day of his death. It was the habit of his life not to allow mere worldly considerations to control his movements as to religious things. In the year 1799, he was licensed to preach the gospel, along with two esteemed and intimate friends, the Rev. Drs. Wylie of Philadelphia, and Black of Pittsburgh, both of whom survive him.

In the year 1801, when Dr. M'Leod was settled in his pastoral enarge in New York, there was in the city a number of eminent men in the ministry of various religious denominations. With these he cultivated intercourse. He was firmly attached to his own department of the church of Christ, but he found much common ground on which he could meet with other Christian men and ministers, and he was always disposed to take his stand upon it, and act with them for the glory of God and the extension of the Saviour's kingdom in the world. Such men of might as Livingston, Mason, Abeel, Romeyn, Miller, and others recognised him as their compeer; by the Christian community around he was regarded as standing in the front rank with them, and his tongue and pen were often employed in unison with theirs in defending the truth of the gospel.

In the year 1802, Dr. M'Leod appeared before the world as an author in the publication of his sermon styled "Negro Slavery Unjustifiable." This was followed the next year by a discourse entitled " Messiah Governor of the Nations of the Earth." And in 1806 to 1808, by his " Ecclesiastical Catechism," and sermon on the "Gospel Ministry," which formed his contribution to the controversy which was at that period sustained so successfully by the Presbyterian divines, against the exclusive claims of Prelacy. These and other productions of his pen contributed largely to bring him into public notice, and they prepared the way for a more extended authorship. The three years between the close of 1813 and beginning of 1816, produced the "Lectures on the Prophecies," the "Sermons on the War," and the discourses on the " Life and Power of True Godliness," all elaborate productions, evincing an intimate acquaintance with their respective subjects, extensive learning, great mental power, and considering that they were written by a laborious pastor, displaying much industry and ease in the art of composition. They all attracted much attention at the time of their first appearance, and have kept their place before the public up to this period in successive editions. We are informed of ten editions of the Ecclesiastical Catechism; the third of the Lectures on the Prophecies has been recently issued from the British press, and we are now introducing the fourth of the discourses on True Godliness. An exposition of the prophecies that has not become superannuated in thirty years is a rare book. And it is deserving of notice as evincing the permanent value of Dr. M'Leod's scheme of prophecy, that one of the main reasons assigned by their very intelligent editor, the Rev. Dr. Bates, of Glasgow, for the recent reprint of the Lectures is, "that having the rare merit of improving by age, they are more undeniably and exactly in accordance with the aspects of the European Commonwealths at the present day than when they were first written." The main design of this volume is to delineate the character and expose the enormities of the Antichristian system, as the great foe of human liberty and spiritual religion. And the touches of a master's pencil are every where manifest in the picture.

The "Sermons on the War" are in many respects a remarkable production. They were written during the late war with Great Britain, and in defence of the American cause in that contest. They discuss the morals of politics, and in them the author substantiates the right of the Christian Minister, to examine by the word of God, all questions of social morality and order affecting the interests of immortal man, and to weigh in the balances of the sanctuary, the character, the policy, and the movements of nations, as well as of individuals. Their pervading principle is, that the morality of divine revelation should regulate the conduct of men in their civil and political, as well as in all their other relations. Dr. M'Leod was an ardent friend of his adopted country, and her invaluable civil institutions, and while he was no apologist for her evils, he brought the principles laid down in his sermons to bear with great force against her haughty adversary, and in favour of the rights and liberties for which she was contending.

One of the results of the publication of these discourses to the author himself, was to attract to him a great degree of popular attention, which to men of less balanced minds might have proved a snare. It brought him into the acquaintance of many distinguished civilians, and thus opened a new field of usefulness which he did not fail to cultivate. He had no favours to ask of politicians for himself, but he was prompt and sagacious in availing himself of the influence which his intercourse with them afforded, to promote the glory of God and the welfare of society. One of the modes of doing good through the medium above referred to, which he was accustomed to employ, was to engage in correspondence with influential men in the State, on the various questions affecting the public morals, and the interests of religion which came up for consideration, from time to time. Thus when the morality of privateering, of the multiplication of oaths in the transactions of business, and of lotteries, was under consideration in the Federal or State Legislatures, he corresponded with members of those bodies, offering his reasons against those criminal practices. His desire was to promote, as far as possible, respect for God and his law in public men and measures. A single example is presented in illustration of that of which we are now speaking. When the proposition was made in the year 1821, to call a convention for the purpose of forming a new constitution for the State of New York, Dr. M'Leod exerted himself to secure in that instrument a formal and specific recognition of the name, being, and providence of God. For the accomplishment of this object, he held intercourse and entered into correspondence with several of the members of the Convention, among whom were the Hon. Daniel D. Tompkins, Vice President of the United States, and President of the Convention, and Peter H. Wendover, Esq., one of the delegates from the city of New York. With the latter gentleman, when a member of Congress, he was in the habits of intercourse by letter. Mr. W. was himself a consistent professor of religion, and disposed to acknowledge God in all his ways. In conformity with Dr. M'Leod's suggestion he submitted to the Convention a preamble to the Constitution, containing a distinct recognition of the being, providence, and grace of Almighty God, the great fountain of power. With some unimportant modifications it was adopted without opposition, and now stands as a part of the fundamental law of the land. "We the people of the State of New York, acknowledging with gratitude the grace and beneficence of God, in permitting us to make choice of our form of government, do establish this Constitution," is the noble declaration. We do not say that Mr. Wendover might not have been led by the operations of his own mind to offer this dutiful proposition, nor that others might not have done the same had he omitted it; but in making the above statements, we speak what we know. It is well known that Reformed Presbyterians have always insisted that there should be a larger infusion of Christianity into the arrangements of the State, than yet exists; and Dr. M'Leod, as a consistent minister of that church, was always disposed to employ whatever influence he had with public men, in persuading them to do honour to the God of Grace, in bowing before the claims of his Son, as "the Prince of the kings of the earth." Within less than two years after the publication of the "Sermons on the War," the discourses on "True Godliness" appeared, and they show that while the public and social bearings of Christianity were receiving attention, the main concern of personal religion was not neglected. During this period of his life, and even after his health began to fail, Dr. M'Leod was actively engaged in the execution of various plans for doing good. He made large contributions to various periodicals of the day; he took an efficient share in the management of different literary and benevolent institutions of the country; he was much engaged in the prevailing religious controversies; and during the whole period his labours in his own congregation were abundant and unremitting. He was in the habits of preaching three times on the Sabbath, and of attending to all the duties of a large pastoral charge. His evening lectures on the Prophecies, and discourses on controversial subjects, were attended by large audiences composed of Christians of various denominations, and of clergymen and other literary characters, attracted by the substantial material, and commanding eloquence of his exhibitions. And thus he was endeavouring, without regard to what it cost himself, to serve God in the gospel of his Son.

Brought in this way with much prominence before the public of New York and other parts of the country, many efforts were made to withdraw him from the Reformed Presbyterian Church, and induce him to enter the fellowship of larger and more popular bodies. Within a few years he was invited to take the pastoral charge of the Reformed Dutch Church in Garden street, and the First Presbyterian Church, New York, and less formally of other large and wealthy congregations in the city and elsewhere. He was also elected to the Vice Presidency of the College of New Jersey, and had offers of a similar character from other literary institutions. All of these he promptly declined. His uniform language in regard to the former was, " I have taken my stand in that department of the divided church of God which I believe to be most agreeable to his word, and here will I abide," and to the latter, "Preaching the gospel is my beloved and appropriate business, and from it nothing shall divert me." The facts above stated, however, are evidence that he was deemed worthy by the community in which he lived, of the highest places in the church, and seats of learning.

But as our great object in this sketch is to show that the author of the following discourses was a man who himself felt the "life and power of true godliness," concerning which he assumed to instruct others, we again glance at his private religious life. It was characterized by attention to practical duty. Even while most engaged in public business, it was his habit to renew his personal covenant with God, and strengthen himself with good resolutions formally recorded. Thus on one occasion we find him resolving before God, " that he will spend less time in the society of mere worldly men, that he will give up companions who afford no religious profit, that he will seek more intimacy with God, and that he will spend more time in preparing for death." There was no ostentation about his personal religion. The ornament of humility adorned his character, but the observing about him knew that even when most employed with the labours of his public calling, he found much time to spend in communion with his Maker. Dr. M'Leod, too, had a large share of the afflictions which are the usual inheritance of the people of God. His bodily health during his whole life experienced many and severe interruptions. Relatives and friends whom he tenderly loved were removed by death. Seven out of eleven of his own children preceded him to the grave, their removal wounding most severely his exceedingly delicate sensibilities; and the untenderness and strife of professing Christians with whom he was called to act were the occasion of poignant grief. Upon the whole, his passage over the ocean of life to the haven of immortality was a stormy one. But how would the heart be able to appreciate the worth of the "Comforter," or be prepared to realize the joyous contrasts of heaven, where there is no sorrow, if it remained a stranger to the discipline of affliction! It may aid in the appreciation of the ninth sermon on "The Consolations of True Religion," and of the sixth, containing the note on the religion of infants, to know that they were composed while the heart was sore from the death of a beloved child. More than one has said of that note, as was remarked by a distinguished living civilian who is not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, when he was mourning the recent departure of a cherished daughter-"the consideration of that note has afforded me unspeakable consolation!" While, however, Dr. M'Leod was often called to suffer affliction, he was abundantly sustained by the consolations of the gospel. And one main source of his support under God, was the