instrument of great good in his public and private intercourse with the brethren. To yourself, my dear Sir, and to the rest of the deacons, I desire to express my love, and to urge affectionately the necessity of increased consecration in the great work to which you have been set apart. The brethren naturally look to you, and I have full confidence that they shall not look in vain. There are few churches blessed with office-bearers who are more highly esteemed, and who have so much salutary influence. Oh, let them be concerned on the present occasion, that nothing be wanting to render the season one of hallowed and enduring blessing."

I find a letter from the church to Mr. Campbell, of the same date with the above, in which they intimate the approaching services. On the 21st he wrote them a long and valuable pastoral letter, which was afterwards published in the October number of the Scottish Congregational Magazine, as "A Pastor's Address to his Church on a day of Humiliation and Prayer," with the omission, merely, of personal references. A few sentences of a letter to a friend, written on the day on which his brethren were assembling themselves together to humble themselves before God will show the fervour of his attachment to them, and of his deep concern for their spiritual good:-" My mind has been much exercised to-day regarding my charge. I do love them. I thank the Lord that I love them, and I desire earnestly their revival. I hope their present state of feeling will continue, and issue in much good. Would that all our hearts were

brought more under the influence of divine grace, and then we should enjoy a greater measure of prosperity."

It was shortly after Mr. Campbell went to Oban at this time, that an event occurred whose startling and confounding effect will not soon be forgottenthe death of Mr. Mackenzie, on the 20th of July. Mr. Campbell felt the shock severely-all the more severely because of his own enfeebled state. "He has made a happy change," he said, "but we could ill spare him. What a mysterious providence! What a blank to our churches!" But he does not seem to have anticipated, at this time, with any degree of constancy or steadiness, the fatal issue of his own affliction. In asking a friend to review Dr. Wardlaw's sermon on Mr. Mackenzie's death, for the Magazine, he wrote "Now that I have lost Mr. Mackenzie, I must lean the more upon yourself, my dear friend, and upon one or two others in whom I can put unlimited confidence." In announcing to his partner the day of his return home, he said, "I do hope that we shall have a happy winter at our own fireside. The thought delights me exceedingly." And no wonder

-a fonder husband, a fonder parent there could not be. His heart was made for domestic life with all its tender endearments and quiet pleasures. And his long and repeated privation of these endearments and pleasures, rendered them all the more precious and desirable. His anticipation of continued life, and, at the same time, the warmth of his friendship (a warmth which only those knew he was susceptible of who knew

him intimately) will be further illustrated by the style in which he urged a ministerial brother to accept of a call which would have brought him into his neighbourhood:-" I need not say that I feel deeply interested in the result, so much so, that I dare not trust my own judgment as to the decision to which you should come."-Again—“I dare not give expression to all I feel in regard to the matter. The thought of having an opportunity of frequent intercourse with you is delightful to me, and makes me, I dare say, give greater weight to the pros than to the cons. I would say much more but dare not trust myself."

During his stay in Oban he was able to preach very frequently on Sabbath evenings in his father's chapel, and occasionally elsewhere. The genuineness and catholicity of his religion were manifest to those who were favoured to have intercourse with him. "I never met and parted with him," says the Rev. D. MacRae, of the Secession church, “without a deep impression on my mind that I had been in the society of a man of God."

On the 27th of September he reached his home, seemingly much improved in health, and was able to resume most of his ministerial labours.

In the beginning of November he acceded to a request of the Committee of the Glasgow Theological Academy, to spend two hours weekly with the Gaelic students. He had rendered a similar service occasionally before, and the prospect of doing good, which this more regular appointment opened up, was very

gratifying to him.* His interest in the Highlands had never suffered any abatement. It was like an instinct which needed only a fit combination of circumstances to elicit its presence and power. When he sails along the western coast, and gazes on the thick blue mist which overhangs the valleys, he cannot help exclaiming:-" Fit emblem of the moral darkness which pervades these regions." If an infant school rears its lovely head in a Highland village, he feels "the delightful hope that already the fires are kindling which shall illume the isles of the west; and make them what they once were, pious, intelligent, free." He approached Iona, and his feelings are those of a Christian and a Highlander. It seems to him "as if the genii of its own illustrious shores are hovering around him.” Walking in its cemetery, thoughts of the days of other years crowd upon him, and he can almost weep as he treads over the "ashes of thousands who were once the noble of the earth." When he quits the venerable spot, and bids farewell to its degenerate sons, he 66 casts many a look behind him, and breathes a prayer that Iona, once the glory of the west, may yet have her ruined walls rebuilt, and become a centre whence a halo of pure and undefiled religion shall gild the now benighted regions which surround it." To a heart which beat with so warm an interest

* Mr. Campbell preached in Gaelic when he had opportunity, and according to the testimony of a good judge, Mr. Peter M'Laren, "when he addressed the Highlanders he displayed the same devoted piety and refined taste in sentiment and language as when he spoke in English."

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in every thing that pertained to the Highlands, the prospect of aiding to educate men of God for the exercise of their ministry there, was fraught with delight. But the prospect was soon blighted, and his Master said to him, "Thou didest well that it was in thine heart."

His health continued to improve till the end of November, when he seems to have caught cold. He struggled much, in the use of every practicable means, to throw it off, but in vain.

On Lord's day, the 26th of November, Mr. Campbell set apart two brethren to the office of deacon by prayer and the laying on of hands." The first account which I received of the services of this day seemed to me so glowing as to be necessarily exaggerated, but every subsequent account has confirmed its substantial accuracy. And on a comparison of all the statements I have received, I do not wonder that the impression was general that the beloved pastor was on the verge of heaven, and that coming glory was even now irradiating his soul.

"I have witnessed many scenes" says one narrator; "I have my memories of the past; some are of the darkest kind, and some awaken the holiest and happiest feelings. To this calm, solemn, yet pleasing class belong the scene and circumstance of which I now speak. The church had chosen two of her members to be set apart to the office of deacon. And Mr. Campbell, disregarding his own condition, unmindful of his own weakness, essayed to perform the task. As he entered the pulpit, there sat on his