resigned; and became at length able to say, "Father, not my will, but thine be done."

But he seemed to derive peculiar comfort from a sense of the sympathy of the Saviour with the members of his church. Often did he say to Mr. S. "I cannot indeed describe to you what a consolation the sympathy of Christ is to me in my sufferings: it soothes me, and endears him to me more than I can express. We have not, I feel, an high Priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are; yet without sin. He was man as well as God, and knows what our sufferings and temptations are: he knows what I feel, and he sympathises with me in my trials and distress. In all our afflictions he is afflicted; and they are all under his appointment and superintendence." He was

particularly fond of having read to him, as has been already observed, the hymn beginning, "O Zion, afflicted with wave upon wave," which frequently was of much comfort to him.

When greatly distressed by his bodily infirmities and diseases, and ready even against the wish of his heart to complain, his friend once

said to him, "Perhaps you know not what your present situation requires: it fulfils God's purposes respecting you: it may be, and probably is instrumental in advancing his glory: now you cannot perceive the wise and gracious design of God, but at last you will acknowledge, when in heaven you review the way he has led you, that you have not suffered one pain too much, and that all was needful which he called upon you to endure." To this he answered, "It is indeed all-wise! I know that I ought not to complain; rather let me bear the appointed rod."

This period was one in which he was evidently advancing in the divine life: his views were clearer, his faith stronger, and his resignation more entire. At times he felt his afflictions to be light in comparison with his blessings, while he looked forward to an "inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away."

True, he was not even now without seasons of doubt and depression, in which he felt his soul cleaving to the dust; but he never henceforth entirely lost the savour of divine things,

nor felt his hope withdrawn at the throne of grace. In his happier moments, when his soul was revived by the Spirit of God, there was ardour, but not to excess; it was accompanied by great soberness and stedfastness. Indeed naturally, he did not possess much enthusiasm of feeling, but what he felt he felt deeply; and his sincerity was unquestioned. Owing to the reserve of his character, he was really known but by few; and the writer of this memoir was unacquainted with many excellent qualities in him till some time after his last illness, when religion had begun to affect his heart. Among the books read to him at this time, the following seemed the most useful: "Scott's Essays," "Jay's Discourses and Sermons," which he much admired; and, above all, "Newton's Letters." It is impossible to say how beneficial they were to his anxious, inquiring, and scrupulous mind. At his request they were read to him again and again; and they did more to build him up in the truth, and to regulate his feelings, than any other volume, except the Bible.

CHAPTER VIII.

HIS RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES.

As the reader has been made acquainted with Mr. Buchanan's state of mind, and the unhappy sentiments he had imbibed in early youth, it may not perhaps be altogether uninteresting in this chapter to give a summary of the religious principles he now entertained. The contrast will be striking, and will explain the grounds of the triumph he was about to obtain over death and the grave.

I.—He fully admitted the great doctrine of the Trinity this Divine mystery no longer harassed his mind, but was the source of much comfort. He knew by experience the importance and force of that passage in Eph. ii. 18;

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Through him (Christ) we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father." Hence, in the exercise of prayer, all his plea in approaching

God, all his hope of acceptance, and all his expectations of an answer to his petitions, were through Jesus Christ, as his righteousness and Advocate; and in obtaining access to the throne of grace, he felt his dependence on the influence of the Holy Spirit, who helpeth our infirmities, and teaches us what to pray for, enabling us to cry, "Abba, Father."

In the whole plan of human redemption, he saw the same doctrine shining forth, and essentially supporting it. The following passage in St. Peter's 1st Epistle, was expressive of his view on a point connected with this: believers in Christ Jesus being "elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." Hence he derived his hope in God the Father, his faith in God the Son, and his sanctification, light, and knowledge from God the Holy Ghost; and by the exercise of these principles, he had "fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ;" and at length that "peace which passeth all understanding."

II. He also fully received the doctrine, that