am ready even on this sick bed to preach to preachers. 1 ask myself, What is my hold and support-what will remain with me when everything else is washed away? To recollect a promise of the Bible-this is substance. Nothing will do but the Bible." After this severe attack he in some measure recovered, and several years were added to his life. He again pursued his great work, and still experienced his heavenly Father's care. He often used to say: "I set out with nothing but dependence on God, resolving to do his work, and leaving all the rest to him. I know that he will take care and provide for me." A considerable time before his death, illness again removed him from the field of active labour, and in August, 1810, he was called to his eternal rest. As he drew near to death, Jesus Christ was his only topic. His apprehensions of the work and glory of Christ, and of the unspeakable importance of a spiritual union with him, grew, if possible, more distinct. He spoke of his Saviour with the feeling and seriousness of a dying believer :— "I know myself to be a wretched and worthless sinner, having nothing in myself but poverty and sin. I know Jesus Christ to be a glorious and almighty Saviour. I see the full efficacy of his atonement and grace; and I cast myself entirely on him, and wait at his footstool. I am aware that my diseased and broken mind makes me incapable of receiving consolation; but I submit myself wholly to the merciful and wise dispensations of God." He often repeated, with the martyr Lambert, "None but Christ-none but Christ;" and a short time before his death, he requested one of his family to write down for him in a book the following sentence: "None but Christ, none but Christ, said Lambert dying at the stake; the same, in dying circumstances, with his whole heart, saith Richard Cecil." To this he affixed his signature, though, through infirmity, in a manner hardly legible. In his last hours he dictated a letter to his son, in the East, in which were the following lines: "I am only able now in a dying state to send my blessing and prayers for your welfare. I wish to say, that Christ is your all in time and eternity. I have been in a most affecting state by a paralytic stroke; but Christ is all that can profit you or me-a whole volume would not contain more or so much. O pray day and night for an interest in him! And this is all I can say-it being more than having the Indies." Thus regarding the Lord Jesus Christ he lived, and thus he died. Mrs. Cecil, after his decease, observed, that they might say of him as he once said in a letter to a friend, after burying a pious member of his congregation: "After I had put her into the grave the rest went away. I stood looking in: everybody had lamented and said, 'How sad;' I, though I cannot now write for tears, looked in again, and said, 'How well!" 14. CLAUDIUS BUCHANAN. "The soul, reposing on assured relief, Forgets her labour as she toils along, Weeps tears of joy, and bursts into a song." CLAUDIUS BUCHANAN was born at Cambuslang, near Glasgow, March the 12th, 1766. By both his parents he appears to have been carefully trained, from his earliest years, in religious principles and habits. In his fourteenth year he appeared the subject of serious religious impressions; but this hopeful prospect soon vanished, in consequence of his associating with an irreligious companion, and he turned to folly and the world. At the age of seventeen he conceived the romantic design of making the tour of Europe on foot; and near four years afterward actually entered on this wild but favourite plan. Here he acted a guilty part, by deceiving his pious parents as to his motives and expectations in leaving Scotland. The way of transgressors is commonly hard. Long before he reached London, he was tired of his favourite project; yet being too proud to return to his friends, and own his faults, he went forward to the metropolis; where he at length arrived, with his spirits nearly exhausted by distress and poverty. Here he was soon reduced to the lowest extreme of wretchedness and want; and sometimes had not even bread to eat; but even then, though he saw his folly, he saw not his sin. In 1790, he was thoroughly awakened to a sense of his guiltiness by the faithfulness of a young friend, who took occasion to press home upon his conscience and heart the truths and claims of the Gospel. Soon after, he became acquainted with Mr. Newton, and under his friendly instructions and counsel learned the way of peace, and was gradually introduced into a state of "righteousness, and peace, and joy, in the Holy Ghost." He felt the powerful influence of the love of Christ, and resolved to live no longer to himself but "unto Him that died for him and rose again." He soon after informed his mother, at that time his sole surviving parent, of his proceedings and situation. The conclusion of his letter affectingly describes the misery of a sinful course, and the extent of the change which Divine grace had made in him. "The veil," says he, "which was between us is at length rent, and I am in peace; for believe me, I have not, till now, enjoyed a day of peace since I left my father's house. I once thought I would rather suffer torture than betray my secret; but my 'sinews of iron' are become like those of a child. Nothing less than what I have suffered, could have softened so hard a heart as mine; and not even that, unless accompanied by the power of God." His mother had almost begun to lose her fond hope of his becoming at length a follower of the Lamb; and received with delight the account of his conversion. While preparing for the ministry, his feelings were thus expressed : "I dare not tell you what I am, but I can tell you what 1 pray for. "I pray that I may be content to be of no reputation among men-knowing that, if I am truly wise, I must become a fool amongst the ungodly; that I may patiently submit to indignity and reproach for Christ's sake, and that my whole life may be devoted to his service; that for this purpose I may diligently improve the talent committed to me, however little it may be, and that when I go forth into the ministry 1 may not seek self, but Christ-content to be unnoticed, dead to the censure or applause of men, alive to God and his concerns, and chiefly solicitous that my preaching may be powerful in awakening souls. "The summit of my ambition, if I know my own mind, is to be daily more conformed to Christ, to be enabled to follow that great sufferer, and to rejoice to be counted worthy to suffer shame for his sake. "I am equally ready to preach the Gospel in the next village or at the ends of the earth." Soon after leaving Cambridge Mr. Buchanan went out as a chaplain to India-which became the theatre of his most distinguished labours. During the administration of the Marquis of Wellesley, religion was favoured, and the cause which lay near the heart of Buchanan was fostered under the protection of that distinguished nobleman, whom the real friends of religion should ever respect, for his attention to that cause which is dearer than life to them. When, under his successor, religion was discouraged, and that favour granted to heathenism and Mohammedanism which was denied to Christianity, Buchanan stood firm as a rock in his opposition to the conduct of an infidel court, and boldly, but respectfully, remonstrated with the supreme government of India on the measures then pursued. In the month of August, 1805, he endured an alarming illness, and conceived that his mortal course was drawing to its conclusion. His feelings and sentiments at that time displayed the powerful effect of the Gospel he had preached. A memorial of his illness was preserved in the handwriting of his coadjutor, Mr. Brown, who watched over him with fraternal anxiety. "On the morning of the 22d, Mr. Brown, on entering the chamber of his sick friend, found him still fixed in his opinion that he should die, and opening his spiritual state to another Christian friend. At this time he took a review of the way in which the Providence of God had led him from his earliest years; and gave his friends a brief sketch of his history. The romantic project of his youth, his residence in London, his conversion to the faith and practice of a real Christian, his career at Cambridge, his voyage to India, and his comparative banishment during the first three years of his residence in that country. At this critical period, he observed, his call by Lord Wellesley to the chaplaincy of the presidency, and the subsequent establishment of the college, had given him an important work to perform; that his preaching indeed [excellent as it was] had been unsatisfactory to himself, but that his spiritual labours and opportunities in college had often afforded him much comfort. "After praying earnestly for some time, he lay quite still, and then, with great tranquillity and satisfaction, said: What a happy moment! now I am resigned; now |