ministry, and is now in no respect second to any in the denomination with which it is connected. The last twenty-five years of Dr. Heugh's life were thus spent in a large and populous city, and in the midst of a numerous and attached flock, who to relieve him from a portion of his labour, agreed, about two years ago, to give him a colleague. Accordingly, in the beginning of the present year he received one, the Rev. Dr. Taylor, whom he welcomed with unbounded confidence and affection. But he was not permitted to labour long with his fellow-helper. The Head of the church graciously permitted him only to introduce the junior minister to his people. He preached but once after Dr. Taylor's induction to the congregation, was once with him in the session, once in the prayer-meeting, once in a diet of visitation, once in a meeting of presbytery, once in waiting upon the sick, once in the dispensation of the Lord's Supper. These incidents are very striking. He was favoured to introduce his colleague into all the departments of pastoral dutiesonly waited to see him initiated-only tarried to behold the work committed to his hands, and then left the scenes of the outer court and ascended to the honours and enjoyments of the inner sanctuary. His death was peaceful; his mind never lost its calm confidence. The following extract from the sermon, preached on the occasion of Dr. Heugh's death, by Dr. Brown, will illustrate both pleasingly and fully the statement we have made : 'On the 7th, which was Sabbath, he said to me,* * I have just been telling your mother that the ground of my peace is not myself, or any thing about myself, but entirely Jesus, and his sure promise to me.' In a little, he said, 'There is no peace but in him, but in him is great peace.' He said also, I desire to suffer whatever is allotted to me; but I think it will not be more than two or three days ere I see Jesus.' On Sabbath night he said, 'Oh, I have been wondrously exempt from trials, and loaded with mercies! Every day might have brought evil, merited evil, but it never came.' When his usefulness was mentioned as a ground of comfort, he said, 'That is a temptation to be guarded against; it is not I that did it, but Christ.' He also said,There is nothing I feel more than the criminality of not trusting Christ without doubt-without doubt.'

On Monday evening he was heard saying in his sleep, 'There is not the slightest doubt that Christ will give me his own strength to do his own work.' On Tuesday morning, awaking about two o'clock from a long, sweet sleep, he said, 'Such a night as I have had; such a night of peace!' I said, 'What were you thinking of?' He said, 'Just of Christ-just trusting-just trusting.' He added, 'Oh, to think what Christ is, what he did, and whom he did it for, and then not to believe him, not to trust him! There is no wickedness like the wickedness of unbelief.' He said again, in a little while,

* A member of his own family.

Early in the course of my religious profession, I was convinced that I must implicitly trust Christ, and when I had wicked doubts and misgivings, I went constantly to himself, and, Lord help my unbelief, Lord increase my faith,' was my prayer. I prayed always to him to help mine unbelief, till he helped it away, so that I might get entire trust; and I got it, and I have it now. If I had a million souls I would entrust them all to him.'

'During the Tuesday evening, his last night on earth, he dwelt on the thought, Commit all to Christ.' On being asked if this was his last message, he said, 'Yes, my last message; but I cannot now distinguish and enlarge. If you had a thousand souls, give them all to Christ. Don't let difficulties hinder you; you must never mind difficulties. Now,' he added, after a pause, 'that is a relief,' On being asked if it was a relief to be able to say these things? Yes,' he instantly replied, and to do them.' After a short time, he repeated, speaking with the utmost difficulty, but with great solemnity, and with all the energy he could command, We must have our loins girt, and our lights burning, and be like those who wait for the coming of their Lord.' He repeated four times, 'Whosoever believeth on him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.' There are many testimonies in the gospel, but the outline of them all is just this: Whosoever believeth on him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.' This is the whole gospel.'

The term of Dr. Heugh's ministry in Glasgow was eminently prosperous. He was a diligent, faithful, and successful pastor. His time was wholly taken up with public and private duties. His people were his care, his joy, and crown of rejoicing.' His mind was ever teeming with plans for their welfare-for the eduction of their liberality in the best of causes. As a preacher he enjoyed a very large share of popularity. His demeanour in the pulpit was calm and dignified, his action solemn and graceful, his enunciation distinct and pleasing. His delivery was ever accompanied with that gravity and warmth which became one who prays men in Christ's stead.' His personal appearance aided his manly and animated elocution. He took a clear, succinct view of his subject, selected its most prominent ideas, surrounded them with apt and homely illustrations, and gradually brought them to bear on the duties, relations, circumstances, and prospects of his audience. Flights of oratory for mere embellishment, scenes of pathos created for mere impression, he never attempted. All was easy and natural; the plainest truth came from his lips with striking solemnity. The popularity of his preaching was not its deep grasp, original illustration, striking remark, laboured argument, or vehement appeal, but its plain statement and lucid reasoning, imbued with deep and unaffected earnestness, clothed in simple and forcible language, and delivered with easy, elegant, and impressive

It was not ex

dignity. He never dazzled or surprised. The light he diffused was clear and sunlike, such as refreshed and directed the spiritual vision; and the wonder his hearers felt was, that they had not before apprehended the plainness and felt the power of such truths as were brought before them,-truths that now appeared so scriptural in their basis, so reasonable in themselves, so important in their bearing, so harmonious in their aspects, so practical in their results. His was useful preaching, for it always afforded instruction and excitement. clusively of one cast or character. It always connected faith and practice, creed and experience. His expositions of scripture were prepared with conscientious fidelity, and he laboured to give them a resemblance to scripture itself to make them profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.' Dr. Heugh's style, which appeared so pleasing, when spoken in his own silvery tones, was not so attractive when read in a printed discourse, yet it was always clear; no one could mistake its meaning. No haze rested upon its paragraphs, and though it had not the beauty and polish of classic refinement, it was good, hearty, correct English. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth spake.

The amount of pastoral duty done by Dr. Heugh was incredibly great. Few have excelled him in this department. His visitation of his large flock was incessant. Amidst numerous and pressing avocations, demanding no small portion of his time, and requiring frequent absences from home-frequent appearances on the platform, and attendance upon various committees he sometimes, in the course of one year, visited nearly all the households of his people, when the membership of his church numbered about twelve hundred. The young had an especial share in his labour, and students preparing for the ministry ever found in him a friend and father. Especially was he successful in developing the resources of his people, in raising among them the standard of liberality, so that their zeal provoked very many.' Dr. Heugh's labours in this province of ministerial duty have in their benign influences been felt over the breadth of the churches. He led the way and set the example. His congregation showed themselves ready to every good work, and their pastor regularly devoted one-tenth part of his income to causes of common charity or Christian benevolence. The entire Secession Church is now working out the schemes which he was mainly instrumental in commencing and forwarding. Dr. Brown says, page 73, 'We should have a very inadequate idea of your late minister's labours since he came to this city, were we to think only of the discharge of his duties to you. In all the public business of his own denomination he

took an active part. Some of the most important improvements originated in his suggestions, and were carried into effect through his exertions; and of every one of them he was the wise, zealous, laborious promoter. It is a testimony to which, we believe, his brethren will readily respond, that to no one individual has the Secession Church been more indebted for the success which has attended its Home and Foreign Missions, and its benevolent schemes for sustaining weak congregations, and adding to the income of inadequately supported ministers. His exertions in the ecclesiastical courts and from the press were mainly instrumental in saving the denomination from shipwreck in that stormy sea of doctrinal discussion from which it has just escaped, without sacrifice of principle, and with the least possible loss of numbers. At what a cost this was done to himself will not be known till the judgment-day. But his Master will take care that he shall be no loser.'

The labours of Dr. Heugh were not confined to the interests of his own denomination. His heart was imbued with a catholic charity. Whatever advanced the interests of humanity had a share in his toils and anxieties. In the advocacy of anti-slavery principles he bore a useful and prominent part. His pleadings on behalf of the fettered negro were both frequent and powerful. His latest public appearances were on behalf of free trade and the abolition of the corn laws. Immense crowds hung upon his lips, and his fellow-citizens felt proud of his oration in the presence of those distinguished English visitors, who had come to address them. He charmed Messrs. Cobden and Bright with the ease, power, and fire, of his remarks.

Especially of late years, he stood out with peculiar prominence in his assertion and vindication of the voluntary principle. Few enterprises have ever met with more determined opposition, with more malignant hostility, than the formation of voluntary church societies. The dissenters of Scotland had gradually come to the conviction that it was their duty, not only to protest against the tyranny of an establishment, but against its very existence. What its friends palliated as its abuses, dissenters believed to be its legitimate fruits. They came to the decided belief that the civil establishment of religion was an anti-scriptural institute, unjust in its claims, inimical to the rights of conscience, and injurious to the interests of Christianity. The Establishment in their country was presented to them in its poorest, and therefore in its purest form, nevertheless, they saw enough to convince them of its antichristian nature and tendency. Their minds had been enlightened by the publications of Ballantyne and Marshall, but the cause was advanced principally, if not altogether, by the ad

dresses of such men as Heugh, Wardlaw, and Brown, with hosts of able, willing, and eloquent co-adjutors. Many and virulent were the attacks on the leaders in the controversy. The establishment discharged the vials of its wrath upon them; they were ranked with the vilest democrats, and their principles were branded as infidel and revolutionary, involving at the same time a recreant denial of Christ's headship over the nations. The keenness of the controversy was unparalleled. The pillars of society were shaken. The church by law established bestirred itself, laboured to extend its boundaries, built vast numbers of churches, in order to include the entire population within its pale and extinguish dissent. But it asked new and additional endowments for those places of worship, which it had multiplied with incredible celerity. This impolitic and impertinent demand, repeated in many forms, and urged by such fallacious and contradictory arguments, as set at nought all Christian courtesy and all statistical calculation, only increased the vigour of the contest, and ended in the defeat of its own patrons and supporters. The establishment wished also to extend its own freedom, and give its adherents a semblance of that liberty which dissenters enjoyed. It proceeded in a very bungling way to modify the law of patronage, and give the people a VETO on the decree of the patron. This resolution was violently opposed by a strong party in the church, but was ultimately adopted. It gave the people only a mere fraction of Christian privilege, but it was hoped they would be content with the boon. The courts of law, however, found that even this trivial alteration was beyond the power of the church. It had no right of itself to violate or modify any article of that contract into which it had entered with the state, as the condition of receiving the pay of the government. The liberal party in the Church of Scotland became restive under its disappointments, and at length adopted the better resolution of quitting its connection with the civil power, and of throwing itself on the liberality of its own adherents. A free church was formed, and the men who were foremost in their direful denunciation of the voluntary principle, are now luxuriating in its copious liberality, and exemplifying beyond all belief and anticipation its marvellous efficacy and scriptural warrant. 'Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee.' The existence of a Free Church in Scotland, while it is one of the wise operations of a gracious and overruling Providence, is, so far as human instrumentality is concerned, to be traced in a great measure to the excitement of the voluntary controversy.' Dr. Heugh rejoiced in such an issue; his sympathies were all with his former antagonists, when he beheld them break their bonds.

VOL. XX.

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