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God saying 'Son of man, follow me.' It would have led me into a speculative, mystical sort of a way. I should have seen in it the flood that is sweeping over the earth-the utter bankruptcy of all human affairs. Most men, if they had stood by and compared our conduct, would have commended yours as rational, but condemned mine as enthusiastic- -as connecting things together which had no proper connection; but this is my way of viewing every alterative in my dispensation."

"The heart," said he, "must be divorced from its idols. Age does a great deal in curing the man of his frenzy; but, if God has a special work for a man, he takes a shorter and sharper course with him. Stand ready for it. I have been in both schools. Bleeding and cauterizing have done much for me, and age has done much also-Can I any longer taste what I eat or what I drink ?"

Though the Memoir of Mr. Cecil's life, and the Letters which are subjoined, bear ample testimony to the TENDERNESS OF HIS RELATIVE AFFECTIONS, yet I cannot but add here what a friend wrote on visiting him, many years before his decease, at a time when he was expecting the death of Mrs. Cecil:-“ Mrs. Cecil was ill. I called on Mr. Cecil. I found him in his study, sitting over his Bible, in great sorrow. His tears fell so fast, that he could utter only broken sentences. He said, 'Christians do well to speak of the grace, love, and goodness of God; but we must remember that he is a holy and jealous God. Judgment must begin at the house of God. This severe stroke is but a farther call to me to arise and shake myself. My hope is still firm in God. He, who sends the stroke, will bear me up under it: and 1 have no doubt but, if I saw the whole of his design, I should say, "Let her be taken!" Yet, while there is life, I cannot help saying, "Spare her another year, that I may be a little prepared for her loss!" I know

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I have higher ground of comfort: but I shall deeply feel the taking away of the dying lamp. Her excellence, as a wife and a mother, I am obliged to keep out of sight, or I should be overwhelmed. All I can do is, to go from text to text, as a bird from spray to spray. Our Lord said to his disciples, Where is your faith? God has given her to be my comfort these many years, and shall I not trust him for the future? This is only a farther and more expensive education for the work of the ministry: it is but saying more closely, "Will you pay the price?" If she should die, I shall request all my friends never once to mention her name to me. I can gather no help from what is called friendly condolence. Job's friends understood grief better, when they sat down and spake not a word.""

RETIRED

Our departed friend was, at once, a public and a man. While his sacred office, exercised for many years in a conspicuous sphere, brought him much before the world, his turn of mind was retiredhe courted solitude-he held converse there with God, and his own great spirit mingled with the mighty dead he had such a practical knowledge and deep impression of the nothingness of the whole world, compared with spiritual and eternal realities, and he had so deeply felt, and so thoroughly despised, its lying pretensions to meet the wants and to satisfy the longings of the immortal soul, that it was no sacrifice to him to turn away from the shows and the pursuits of life, and to shut out all the splendour and seductions of the world.

Yet this retired spirit was not unsocial, morose, or repulsive. No one called him from his retirement to ask spiritual counsel, but he was met with tenderness and urbanity. No congenial mind encountered his without eliciting sparks both of benevolence and wisdom. Not a child in his family could carry its little complaints to him, but he would stop the career of his mind to listen and relieve.

His study was his favourite retreat. His station exposed him to constant interruptions, some necessary, and others arising from the injudiciousness of those who applied to him. It was not unusual with

him to make use of his power of abstraction on these occasions. Time was too valuable to be lavished away on the inconsideration of some of those who thought it necessary to call on him. It was generally his practice, not immediately to obey a summons from his study; but, when he knew he had to do with a person, who would occupy much of his time, by a long conversation, before the business was brought forward, rather than hurt their feelings, he would carry down in his mind the train of thought which he was pursuing in his study, and, while that which was beside the purpose played on his ear, his mind was following the subject on which it had entered before.

Some men are at home in society: the wide world is their dwelling-place: they are known and read of all men.: they have a peculiar talent for improving mixed society. But this was not the character of Mr. Cecil. He unfolded himself indeed, to his friends; but those friends could not but feel, that, when they broke in on his retirement for any other objects than what were connected with his high calling, they were intruders on inestimable time. I had, indeed, the privilege and happiness of free access to him at all times, for a considerable course of years, while I was his assistant in the ministry; but, for the reasons just assigned, though I was a diligent observer of his mind and habits, I feel myself not prepared to speak fully of his more domestic and retired character.

"Retirement," he said, "is my grand ordinance. Considerations govern me. Death is a mighty consideration with me. The utter vanity of every thing under the sun is another. If a man wishes to influence my mind, he must assign considerations: and,

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if he assigns one or two which will weigh well, I seem impatient to stop him if he is proceeding to assign more. He has given me a consideration, and THAT suffices. The Night Thoughts' is a great book with me, notwithstanding its glaring imperfections; it realizes death and vanity. And, because this is the frame and habit of my own mind, my ministry partakes of it; and must partake of it, if I would preach naturally and from my heart."

In surveying the personal character of Mr. Cecil, it remains to speak somewhat more fully of his intellectual powers.

His IMAGINATION was not so much of the playful and elegant, as bold, inventive, striking, and instinctively judicious and discriminating.

His TASTE in the sister arts of painting, poetry, and music, was refined, and his judgment learned. In his younger days he had studied and excelled in painting and music; and, though he laid them aside, that he might devote all his powers to his work, yet the savour of them so far remained, that I have been witness, innumerable times, both in public and private, to the felicity of his illustrations drawn from these subjects, and to the superiority that his intimate knowledge of them gave him over most persons with whom they happened to be brought forward. His taste, when young, was for Italian music; but, in his latter years, he was fond of the German style, or rather the softer Moravian. Anthems, or any pieces wherein the words were reiterated, he disliked, for all public worship especially, as they sacrificed the real spirit of devotion too much to the music. feelings on this subject were exquisite. "Pure, spiritual, sublime devotion," he would say, "should be the soul of public music." He often lamented the introduction of any other style of architecture in places of worship, beside that which was so peculiarly appropriate, and which, because it was so,

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called up associations best suited to the purposes of meeting. He said most strikingly-"I never enter a Gothic church, without feeling myself impressed with something of this idea-Within these walls has been resounded, for centuries, by successive generations, "Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ!" The very damp that trickles down the walls, and the unsightly green that moulders upon the pillars, are far more pleasing to me from their associations, than the trim, finished, classic, heathen piles of the present fashion."

His powers of comparison, analogy, and JUDGMENT have been rarely equalled. These had been exercised so long and with so much energy on all the conditions and relations around him—on the word of God-on his own mind-on the history, opinions, passions, prejudices, and motives of men in every age, and of every character and station-on moral causes and effects-on every subject that can come within the grasp of a philosophic mind-that the result was a WISDOM SO prominent and commanding, that every man felt himself with a mind of the very first order both in capability and acquirement. In some cases, wherein my wishes, perhaps, formed my opinions and, trying to hide the truth from myself, I have asked his opinion as a confirmation of my own -he has unmasked my heart to itself, by his wise and searching replies. His decisions were more according to circumstances than in most men: and, when he gave them, it would generally be with a declaration that other circumstances might wholly change the aspect of the thing; and he did this in such a manner-if I may judge by my own case-as often to make a man look about him, and bethink himself what a treacherous and blind party he had to transact with in his bosom.

To those who did not know him intimately, he might sometimes appear to want a quickness of perception. The appearance of this faculty is often as12*

VOL. I.

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