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ed like a master. Men of the world felt that they were in the presence of their superior-of one who unmasked their real misery to themselves, and pursued them through all the false refuges of vain and carnal minds.

While this was the principal character of Mr. Cecil's ministry for years, at that place for which he seems to have been specially prepared; yet he was elsewhere, with equal wisdom, leading experienced Christians forward in their way to heaven: and, latterly, the habit of his own mind and the whole system of his ministry were manifestly ripening in those views which are peculiar to the Gospel.

No man had a more just view of his own ministry than he had; nor could any one more highly value the excellence which he saw in others, though it was of a different class from his own. "I have been lately selecting," he said to me, "some of C's letters for publication. With the utmost difficulty, I have given some little variety. He begins with Jesus Christ, carries him through, and closes with him. If a broken leg or arm turns him aside, he seems impatient to dismiss it as an intrusive subject, and to get back again to his topic. I feel, as I read his letters-Why, you said this in the last sentence! What over and over again! What nothing else! No variety of view! No illustration!' And yet, I confess, that, when I have walked out and my mind has been a good deal exercised on his letters, I have caught a sympathy'It is one thing, without variety or relief; but this one thing is a TALISMAN!'-I have raised my head -I have trod firmly-my heart has expanded-I have felt wings! Men must not be viewed indiscriminately. To a certain degree I produce effect in my way, and with my views. The utter ruin and bankruptcy of man is so wrought into my experience, that I handle this subject naturally.

Other men may use God's more direct means as naturally as I can use his more indirect and collateral ones. Every man, however, must rather follow than lead his experience; though, to a certain degree, if he finds his habits diverting him from Jesus Christ as the grand, prominent, only feature, he must force himself to choose such topics as shall lead his mind to him. I am obliged to subject myself to this discipline. I frequently choose subjects and enter into my plan, before I discover that the SAVIOR Ooccupies a part too subordinate: I throw them away, and take up others which point more directly and naturally to Him."

In his last illness, he spoke, with great feeling, on the same subject: "That Christianity may be very sincere, which is not sublime. Let a man read Maclaurin's sermon on the Cross of Christ, and enter into the subject with taste and relish,' what beggary is the world to him! The subject is so high and so glorious, that a man must go out of himself, as it were, to apprehend it. The apostle had such a view when he said I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. I remember the time, even after I became really serious in religion, when I could not understand what St. Paul meant-not by setting forth the glory of Christ, but by talking of it in such hyperbolical terms, and always dwelling on the subject: whatever topic he began on, I saw that he could not but glide into the same subject. But I Now understand why he did so, and wonder no more; for there is no other subject, comparatively, worthy our thoughts, and therefore it is that advanced Christians dwell on little else. I am fully persuaded, that the whole world becomes vain and empty to a man, in proportion as he enters into living views of Jesus Christ."

His FEELINGS on religion, as they respected his submission to the divine will, were admirably ex

pressed by himself:-"We are servants, and we must not choose our station. I am now called to go down very low, but I must not resist. God is saying to me, 'You have not been doing my work in my way: you have been too hasty. Now sit down, and be content to be a quiet idler: and wait till I give you leave again to go on in your labors.""

In respect to his PERSONAL COMFORT, he had said "I have attained satisfaction as to my state, by a consciousness of change in my own breast, mixed with a consciousness of integrity.

Two evidences are satisfactory to me:

1. A consciousness of approving God's plan of government in the Gospel.

2. A consciousness, that, in trouble, I run to God as a child."

These evidences Mr. C. illustrated even in his diseased moments before his death. On that afflicting dispensation I shall make no remarks of my own, as I think nothing can be added to what my friend, his successor, has so well, said in the second of his funeral sermons, and which is here subjoined:

“During the whole period of his last illness, a space of nearly three years, the state of his mind fluctuated with his malady. Every one, who has had opportunities of observing the operation of palsy, knows, that, without destroying, or, properly speaking, perverting, the reasoning powers, it agitates and enervates them. Every object is presented through a discolored medium. False premises are assumed; and the mind is sometimes more than usually expert in drawing inferences accordingly. In a word, the whole system is deranged and shattered. An excessive care and irritation and despondency are produced under the impression of which the sufferer acts every moment, without being at all aware of the cause. His morbid anxiety is, besides, fixed on some inconsid erable or ideal matter, which he magnifies and dis

torts; whilst he remains incapable of attending to concerns of superior moment; and any attempts to rectify his misapprehensions quicken the irritation, and increase the effects of the disorder.

"Under this peculiar visitation it pleased God that our late venerable father should labor. The energy, and decision, and grandeur of his natural powers, therefore, gradually gave way, and a morbid feebleness succeeded. Yet even in this afflicting state, with his body on one side almost lifeless, his organs of speech impaired, and his judgment weakened, the spiritual dispositions of his heart displayed themselves in a very remarkable manner. He appeared great in the ruins of nature; and his eminently religious character manifested itself, to the honor of divine grace, in a manner which surprised all who were acquainted with the ordinary effects of paralytic complaints. The actings of hope were, of course, impeded; but the habit of grace which had been forming in his mind for thirty or forty years shone through the cloud. At such a period there was no room for fresh acquisitions. The real character of the man could only appear, when disease allowed it to appear at all, according to the grand leading habits of his life. If his habits had been ambitious, or sensual, or covet→ ous, or worldly, these tendencies, if any, would have displayed themselves: but as his soul had been long established in grace, and spiritual religion had been incorporated with all his trains of sentiment and affection, and had become like a second nature, the holy dispositions of his heart acted with remarkable constancy under all the variations of his illness: so that one of his oldest friends observed to me, that if he had to choose the portion of his life, since he first knew him, in which the evidences of a state of salvation were most decisive, he should, without a moment's hesitation, select the period of his last distressing malady.

"Throughout his illness, his whole mind, instead of being fixed on some mean and insignificant concern, was riveted on spiritual objects. Every other topic was so uninteresting to him, and even burdensome, that he could with reluctance allow it to be introduced. The value of his soul, the emptiness of the world, the nearness and solemnity of death, were ever on his lips. He spent his whole time in reading the Scripture, and one or two old divines, particularly Achbishop Leighton. All he said and did was as a man on the brink of an eternal state.

"His humility, also, evidently ripened as he approached his end. He was willing to receive advice from every quarter. He listened with anxiety to any hint that was offered him. His view of his own misery and helplessness as a sinner, and of the necessity of being entirely indebted to divine grace, and being saved as the greatest monument of its efficacy, was continually on the increase.

"His simplicity and fervor in speaking of the Savior, were also very remarkable. As he drew mearer to death, his one topic was-Jesus Christ. All his anxiety and care were centred in this grand point. His apprehensions of the work and glory of Christ, of the extent and suitableness of his salvation, and of the unspeakable importance of being spiritually united to him, were more distinct and simple, if possible, than at any period of his life. He spake of him to his family, with the feeling, and interest, and seriousness of the aged and dying believer.

"His faith, also, never failed. I have heard him, with faltering and feeble lips, speak of the great foundations of Christianity with the fullest confidence. He said, he never saw so clearly the truth of the doctrines which he had been preaching, as since his illness. His view of the certainty and excellency of God's promises in Christ was un

shaken.

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