BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

My father's life is quickly told. There is very little to record. It was one of those lives which find their truest record, not in the pages of a biography, but in the hearts and lives of others whose lot they have helped to brighten, whose burden they have helped to bear. Much of the record of my father's life is thus "on high." For very many of those to whom he ministered have gone home; and to those who remain very little need be said regarding him. As his friends need no photograph to call up the image of his face, which is graven on their memory as no painter could reproduce it, so neither do they need a written story of his life to tell them what he did, and how he went out and in among them. In both his spheres of labour as a minister of the gospel, he was the very model of a Scottish Pastor; for each laborious day was spent among his people, and scarcely ever did one day pass without some sick-bed being brightened, some lone heart cheered, some family gathering made happier, or some bereaved home made less drear and empty by his sympathetic presence. If our eye were clear and our vision pure enough, we could trace the life of my father in the shining track of kindly words and loving deeds which he made and left behind him wherever he went. How then can

any one attempt to tell the story of such a life? From the biographer's view-point there is really nothing to relate, and how especially can one of his own family, to whom he was all that he was to everyone else, and so very much more, retire to the distance necessary for analysing a life which is really part of his very being? Therefore, I shall not attempt in the strict sense to write my father's life, but I shall, only by way of introducing this little volume to those into whose hands it may fall, throw a garland round his memory, such as it is at least fitting I should try to

weave.

As most of those who will peruse this book are already aware, my father was born in the village of Stenton, in East-Lothian, in the year 1808. He came of a sturdy race, from whom he inherited a constitution that enabled him, up till the very close of life, to go through more daily ministerial labour than most men would even attempt to face. He received his early education partly at the parish school of Stenton, and partly at the village of East Linton, in a private school there; and on his own showing, for he could tell many a tale of school-day life at his own fireside, he worked well, and he knew also how to play well; and, doubtless, the long walk of several miles which I have often heard him say he had to trudge morning and evening from his home to the East Linton school, did much to develope that physical hardihood and moral courage which were so characteristic of his whole after life. From the first he relished life, felt a pure pleasure in breathing the air and looking on the beauties of God's fair world, and his endless tales of boyish feats and games, of his love of riding and fishing-pastimes he was always ready in a holiday season to resume-show what pure pleasure life

was to him from the first. So far as I know, up till the time he entered College, he received no other education than what these native schools, with his own clear, intelligent, observant nature, enabled him to obtain; but he made such a good use of these opportunities, that his career at college was not only a creditable, but a successful one. Like many, I had almost said like most, of our Scottish ministers, he had to fight, and did fight manfully, his own way into the Church. His parents did not much relish his clerical ambition, and as with many a Scotch student it was perhaps really well for his higher nature that he had to keep himself throughout his college days. The foundations of the sturdy character of our Scotch ministers have been very much laid just by our students having thus to scorn delight, and live laborious days." In my father's day, however, the expense of living and studying in Edinburgh was a very different affair from what it is now. In those days, when one could get a decent lodging for a few shillings weekly, the stores of butter and eggs and meal, made up and sent in with the carrier by kindly hands at home, enabled one to make ends meet in a way which makes many an aspirant to the ministry now heave sighs of regret for a return of the good old days, when life was simpler and more frugal. By dint of careful living, persevering industry in teaching, and uniformly virtuous and steady conduct, my father worked his way through the University classes, taking a good position in all, but especially distinguishing himself in Moral Philosophy and Mathematics. His college note-books, all of which he carefully preserved, his book prizes, and the gold medal in Moral Philosophy, which he won when the presiding genius of that class was Professor Wilson, or as literary

Edinburgh knew him better-" Christopher North "-tell the story of his hard, but industrious, and much relished University career. During the long summer vacations he taught, and otherwise busily employed his leisure hours at Stenton. On the 22d of March, 1826, after having been two years at College, he was appointed to the vacant office of schoolmaster in his native parish. He was a most enthusiastic teacher, and as all who knew him in his later days can very well fancy, he combined firmness and gentleness, discipline and good humour, in a way which made him the fast friend and genial companion of every pupil whom he taught. There are now, of course, but few alive who were pupils of the Stenton teacher of those days; but one or two still remain, with whom he delighted to keep up intercourse in later years on his visits to his native village; and I do not think I could more fitly conclude these notes of his early life than by quoting a tribute that was paid to his memory in the most spontaneous and touching way in the Haddington paper the week he died. It is a letter to the editor entitled "In Memoriam," from one of my father's few surviving Stenton pupils, and it speaks for itself :—

He

"SIR, I noticed with regret in your last issue the death of Mr Purves, Free Church minister of Maxwelltown. was a native of Stenton. I was a pupil of his when he acted as parochial teacher in Stenton. Well do I recollect the sound instruction he used to impart into our minds at the Bible class on Saturdays and other days. He was a man beloved by all persons in the parish. When leaving Stenton he was presented with a gold watch by his many friends and admirers. He always had an inclination for the ministry, and he was licensed not long after the Disruption and went with the Non-Intrusion party. He

received a call to Aberdour in Fife, and was there for a number of years, leaving Aberdour for Maxwelltown. In former years when visiting his native village, he at times preached a sermon in Ruchlaw barn, which was fitted up by Mr Sydserff for the meetings. Mr Purves always had a crowded house. He was not forgetful to visit the old people in the village, giving gifts of tea and sugar, and supplying their wants, but few if any of them are living at the present time. When, however, I meet with any of my schoolmates, Mr Purves' name is always mentioned with respect."-I am, &c., ALEXANDER DODDS.

Morham, June 5, 1883.

He retained the office of parish teacher at Stenton till the year 1838, when he was promoted to the parish school of Abbotshall, Kirkcaldy. He remained there for five years, during which he completed at intervals his university curriculum, both in arts and theology. He used to speak with much pleasure of his college days, for, as may well be imagined, my father made many college friends. His genial presence was felt in the university quadrangle, as it also was in the Assembly corridor in after years. His chief friends at college, so far as I know, were Principal Cairns of the United Presbyterian Church, for whom he had the greatest regard, Dr John Nelson of Greenock, who has also gone to his rest and reward, Mr Welsh of Broughton, who has often spoken to me of my father's mathematical tastes a feature of his college work to which, so far as I can remember, he never himself alluded—and many more, though most of them are now like himself resting from their labours. His residence at Abbotshall was to him a very happy one. It was the