416 JAMES CLEKK MAXWELL. [CHAP. XIII. 



a true under shepherd to me : read me, before you go, the 

 beautiful prayer out of the Burial Service, ' Suffer me not 

 at my last hour ' " and his grasp of my hand, as we parted, 

 told me all he felt. 



I had known but little of his inner self before his 

 illness ; he was singularly reticent ; and though we occasion- 

 ally discussed a text critically, we rarely got upon doctrine, 

 or anything that touched upon the spiritual life. He was a 

 constant regular attendant at church, and seldom, if ever, failed 

 to join in our monthly late celebration of Holy Communion, 

 and he was a generous contributor to all our parish chari- 

 table institutions. But his illness drew out the whole heart 

 and soul and spirit of the man : his firm and undoubting 

 faith in the Incarnation and all its results ; in the full 

 sufficing of the Atonement ; in the work of the Holy Spirit. 

 He had gauged and fathomed all the schemes and systems 

 of philosophy, and had found them utterly empty and un- 

 satisfying " unworkable " was his own word about them 

 and he turned with simple faith to the Gospel of the Saviour. 



(3.) Mr. Colin Mackenzie, who is by this time well 

 known to the reader, was present at the last. He 



says : 



A few minutes before his death, Professor Clerk Max- 

 well was being held up in bed, struggling for breath, when 

 he said slowly and distinctly, " God help me ! God help my 

 wife ! " he then turned to me (Mr. Mackenzie) and said, 

 " Colin, you are strong, lift me up ;" He next said, " Lay 

 me down lower, for I am very low myself, and it suits me to 

 lie low." After this he . breathed deeply and slowly, and, 

 with a long look at his wife, passed away. 



(4.) Another friend who saw him in his last illness, 

 the Eev. Professor Hort, has summed up his recollec- 

 tions of Maxwell, especially of the graver side of his 

 character, in the following letter : 



