456 MEMOIK OF JOHN WILSON. 



while no outward complaint came to tell of the agony within -, but 

 efforts more trying and perplexing than can be told were made to 

 test the amount of power yet remaining. He would read, or rather 

 cause to be read aloud, books upon the same subject, as differently 

 treated by their various authors, chapter by chapter. Philosophical 

 works were tried first, but confusion was the result of this process 

 of inquiry, as to his mental strength. The attempt was too much. 

 With a sigh of despondency the volumes were laid aside, ordered 

 to be taken away, and were not again brought out. A short 

 period of repose, that might in ordinary cases have been beneficial, 

 seemed only to fret and disturb him. There was no allaying that 

 long-fostered passion for communion with the immortals. Thus, 

 for a period almost covering the year, were such afflicting struggles 

 continued. Nothing was ever seen more touching than the gradual 

 undoing of that lofty mind ; the gradual wasting of that powerful 

 strength. One looked on, and felt as David did of old when the 

 Lord's anointed fell. " How are the mighty fallen !" were words 

 that sent a sound as a solemn dirge to our hearts. Yet was there 

 no rebellion in this desire to hold fast the gifts that were his from 

 heaven : who would part willingly with such powers ?* 



Such usefulness was about to pass away : he had parted from 

 " his children." In the silence of his more composed hours, God be 

 praised, the " storm was tempered," and a quiet sunshine shed its 

 peaceful radiance over his spirit, nor have I reason to believe that 

 other than happy thoughts visited him, mingled with the brightest 

 and most joyous of the past — of those days when " our parish" was 

 little less than Paradise in his eyes. 



Certain it was the " Mearns" came among those waking dreams, 

 and then he gathered around him, when the spring mornings brought 

 gay jets of sunshine into the little room where he lay, the relics of 



* I remember having once heard an instance of his having effected a happy cure in a case 

 of severe mental trouble. The subject was a student whom he had recognized as showing 

 great promise in his earlier career, but whose subsequent exertions had not answered his ex- 

 pectations. Inquiring of the youth the cause of this falling off, he learned that his mind had been 

 overpowered, as many are on entrance into thinking life, by doubts and difficulties leading to 

 darkness and disbelief, verging in despair. Fitful glimpses of light had crossed his dreary path, 

 but still he found no comfort or rest. The Professor listened to tho tale of grief with tender sym- 

 pathy. His steady faith and long experience, his knowledge of how doubts and fears assail the 

 hearts even of the high and pure, enabled him to enter into the very depths of that woe-stricken 

 eoul. With words of wisdom he consoled the wandering spirit, while he led him by the power 

 of persuasion, the force of truth, and the tenderness of love, to the clear upper light, there leaving 

 him to the blessing of the Father. The clouds broke away, and the day-spring from on high 

 revisited that darkened spirit. 



