PRACTICAL PIETY. 335 



have done so admirably ; but he fulfilled his function. 

 His light shone. It was known that he was a Christian, 

 and in his entire deportment it was seen what a gracious, 

 endearing thing practical Christianity is. It did not 

 quench his wit. It did not make him ascetic or austere. 

 It did not burn his fishing-rod, nor did it banish poetry 

 and belles lettres from his library. It did not even hinder 

 him from laughing or making others laugh. But it made 

 him temperate in all things, and scrupulously truthful. 

 His natural kindness and tenderness of feeling it syste- 

 matised into a painstaking habit of beneficence ; and whilst 

 it took from his pungent humour every trace of personal 

 acerbity, into his own pensive and once dejected spirit it 

 infused an element no less sustaining than the hope full 

 of immortality. In his blameless, peaceful walk there 

 was a visible sermon, and the cordial sunshine he diffused 

 was a contribution to the gospel more rare and precious 

 than texts scholastically explained, or tracts, however 

 excellent, mechanically distributed. 



The subject of this biography had now finished his 

 sixtieth year, and entered that seventh decade which Dr 

 Chalmers calls " the Sabbath of our earthly pilgrimage." 

 But as in the case of his illustrious friend himself, the 

 last day of the great week could scarcely be said to dawn 

 sabbaticaliy. His hands were full of occupation, and his 

 health was utterly broken. 



