THE

LIFE

OF

MR. JAMES MEIKLE.

THERE are perhaps few persons who have perused

an author's writings with much pleasure and advantage, who feel not a desire to know the character and history of one who has contributed so largely to their entertainment and. instruction. The biography, therefore, of favourite authors, if not barren of incidents, or awkwardly executed, is a species of writing which will always be well received. It introduces us to familiarity with persons whom we are disposed to revere, and exhibits our instructors in the interesting light of acquaintances and friends. Besides, when we find, by authenticated records of their life, that they were good men, we sit down to the perusal of their writings with the most favorable dispositions for deriving benefit from what we read, and are edified by the pleasing persuasion that they lived as they wrote, and felt on their own hearts the inestimable value of that religion which they so clearly teach, and so warmly recommend.

The writings of few men require information respecting their author more than those of Mr. Meikle. They consist chiefly of short, detached essays, written in haste, and commonly finished at one sitting; or are a record of the impressions made on his mind at the instant by the objects with which he was surrounded, or the incidents which had occurred. They seldom assume a didactic form, or profess a regular discussion of any particular point: they rather express the author's own persuasion and feelings on the subject, the resolutions of duty which, under their influence, he formed, or the hopes by which he was animated. A knowledge of the man becomes necessary, there

B

fore, not only to enable us to appreciate his merits as a writer, but to qualify us for understanding many passages of his writings, or at least for entering fully into his sentiments and feelings.

How far the following account of Mr. Meikle will contribute either to the entertainment or the edification of those who may be pleased to peruse it, the writer of it is unable to predict. He can say, however, with confidence, that he has not been deficient in his inquiries respecting his author, and that although in several instances his diligence has been unsuccessful, in others it has been rewarded by discoveries which he hopes have not been unprofitable to himself, and which may, through the divine blessing, be useful to others. He has presumed to affirm nothing at random, or on mere conjecture; and the principal source from which his information has been drawn, is a variety of memorandums and loose papers found in the author's own repositories.

MR. JAMES MEIKLE was born at Carnwath, a village in the upper part of Clydesdale, on the 19th of May, O. S. 1730. It was his uniform custom, during at least the last forty years of his life, to observe the anniversary of his birth; and the 30th of May, N. S. appears frequently, both in his published and manuscript papers, as a season in which he sought retirement from the world, and devoted the hours which he could command from business to grateful recollections of the care of Providence, to the review of his past life, to meditation on death, and preparation for eternity. This method of commemorating the day of his entrance on life, he justly considers us more sulted to the condition of a creature who is born to die, and who expects to live after death, than the methods which are more generally in use; and he recommends it to others, from the conviction that it had not been without profit to himself.

His father, Mr. George Meikle, appears to have been a very pious, but a very poor man. He practised at Carawath as a surgeon and druggist; but his business at that period, in a poor and thinly-peopled country, cannot be supposed to have yielded such profits as to enable him. with ease to support a family of ten children, the greater part of whom were delicate, and cut off before their aged parent, Besides, the small savings of a very insufficient income were unprofitably wasted in honest, but unsuccessful attempts to obtain possession of a considerable

property in the neighbourhood of Hamilton, of which h appears to have been rightful heir; and debts were contracted which bore very heavy on him in the decline of life, when the necessitics of his family increased, and, through his frequent incapacity to visit patients at a dis tance, his means of supplying them diminished. It can not now serve any valuable purpose to be more particular on this subject. The estate is in the indisputable possession of another family, although the greater part of the titles are still in the possession of Mr. Meikle's descendants. It is only proper to remark, that various attempts were made by his son to recover it, which excited hopes, and issued in disappointments, to which the accurate reader of his writings will observe many allusions; and to add, that the loss or abstraction of an essential paper defeated all his attempts, till it became too late to disturb the pos sessor by challenging his right.

James, the subject of this Memoir, was the fifth child of the family, three sons and a daughter having been born before him. When reviewing the care of Providence over him, he remarks, that his life during infancy was of ten in jeopardy, and piously adopts the Psalmist's words, "I am as a wonder unto many; my praise shall be continually of thee." At the age of four, he narrowly escaped perishing in a deep well into which he had fallen; and besides, he suffered so severely, and was so enfeebled by the small-pox, measles, chincough, and other diseases incident to childhood, that it was not till the ninth year of his age that he could be sent to school. Of this early period of his life, he observes, in one of his papers, that he can recollect little, except that his parents had taught him to pray twice a day; that he thought even his childish games would not go right with him, if he should neglect his prayers; and that therefore, when it occurred to him at play that he had omitted them, he sometimes broke off from his companions, and after having said them, returned with more confidence to his amusements. He expresses his gratitude to his parents, for their instructions, and warmly recommends it to others to teach their children to pray; but notwithstanding this symptom, as some would style it, of early piety, produced by their means, he states it as the conviction of his maturer judgment, that he had then no right notions of divine things. "I was taught to pray," he says, "and prayed when I knew not

what prayer was; but now I would not give over prafer for the universe."

At school he made considerable proficiency in his education, till the death of his teacher. A new teacher succeeded, who does not appear to have been equally attentive to his pupil, for a reason which must always have great weight with selfish men, because his parents were poor. Other employment was found for him than the Jessons of the day: "I was much toiled by running his errands, which I was necessiated to do through poverty." When he afterwards reflected on this period of his life, he concluded with Solomon, that " childhood and youth are vanity," and deplored the waste of it in thoughtlessness and sin. "It can afford me," he says, " nothing but melancholy reflections, did not the blood of Jesus Christ cleanse from all sin. How many months were spent without one serious thought of God, or one prayer to the God of my life! In what scenes of vanity and folly did I spend my youth! God and my own heart were and are conscious of as much sin as might damn me, though I was preserved from any gross outbreakings. When I look back, this is a proper confession for me, "Lord, thou knowest my folly, and my sins are not hid from thee. Remember not the errors of my youth, but pardon mine iniquity, for it is great.

After he had arrived at the age of thirteen or fourteen, he began to relish religion more than ever he had done before. Three things in particular are remarked by him concerning himself at this period. First, That, though then young, he had conceived a warm regard for the holy scriptures, and loved the duty of secret prayer. "I retired by myself, and read, and prayed; and put on resolutions to perform this heavenly duty oftener than twice a day. So from the Psalmist's resolution I copied mine, "As for me, I will call upon God, and the Lord shall save me. Evening and morning, and at noon, will I pray and cry aloud, and he shall hear my voice." Secondly, That the Sabbath began to become sweet to him "From the instruction of my parents, the example of Christian neighbours, and, might I add, the grace of God within me, I had a profound veneration for the Sabbath, and was displeased with the least profanation of it. O that it were so still! but I must say it with shame, I have not lived up to the love of mine espousals, the kindness of my youth.”Thirdly, That he was often employed in religious medita

tion, and found inexpressible pleasure in it. "Sometimes I would have wondered to find one whistling alone by the way, thinking he had better be meditating on divine things, as I did: This sometimes was my happy exercise." In what manner, however, the gracious change which a bout this time took place on him was effected, nothing has been found among his paper distinctly to shew: but from some expressions employed by him, there is reason to conclude that he had no remarkable experience of legal terror. "Some," says he, " are overcome by the sweetness of religion into a love with it, as Zaccheus was drawn by Christ's charming voice, so that without dread or delay he received him joyfully. "Thy word was found of me, and I did eat it, and became the rejoicing of my heart."

He was now in his fifteenth year, and, as he expresses it, " grown to the age of thinking and choosing for himself," when, for the first time, he went "from choice" to hear a sermon by one of the ministers who had some years before separated from the communion of the established church. The sermon was remarkably blessed to him; he was led to inquire into the grounds of the Secession; and his inquiries issued in an attachment which continued undiminished through life. "From this time, being about fifteen or sixteen, I heard none else, and at last joined the Secession; and alas! that the increasing defections of the Church of Scotland, for which my heart trembles, should make me still approve of my procedure."

The following year, an event of a very afflictive kind took place, which appears to have been eminently useful to him. The hand of God inflicted a heavy stroke on the family, in the death of their eldest son, William, at the age of twenty-five. He had been early religious; but having been educated as a surgeon, he soon removed from under the immediate inspection of his parents, and served for some years a gentleman of that profession in Dunse, who made religion no part of his concern; and the consequence was, that his early impressions were greatly effaced by the conversation and example of those with whom he had intercourse. Having at length formed the resolution of going to sea, he went to Carnwath to take farewell of his parents. His stay having been protracted beyond his expectation or wish, they remarked with grief, the sad change which had taken place during his absence, and employed all the influence of their prayers, and of their expostulations with