OF ROBERT LESLIE ELLIS. xxxv 



the case: but his sense of his own inability to discharge any 

 active duty made him more keenly sensible of the privilege of 

 being permitted to exert ourselves for God and for our brethren. 

 On reading the account of the death of Captain Gardiner in his 

 noble but not wisely-arranged effort to found a mission in Pata- 

 gonia, he expressed a wish that his own life might have had a 

 similar termination. Indeed a sense of the spiritual needs of 

 mankind appeared to grow upon him as his own bodily weak- 

 ness brought him nearer to the great realities of existence: I 

 can never forget the earnestness with which he said to me at a 

 late period of his illness, " The thing above all others which 

 strikes me, as I lie here on my bed, is the intense wickedness of 

 mankind." "I feel," he continued, "as if I should be con- 

 strained, did God ever raise me up again, to rush in amongst 

 them, as Barnabas and Paul did amongst the people of Lys- 

 tra, and rend my clothes and say, Sirs! why do ye these 

 things 1 ?" 



His speculative mind, acting under the peculiar conditions 

 to which it was subjected by his diseased body, could hardly 

 fail to look sometimes anxiously into the future, and guess what 

 might be the nature of the life prepared for him in the world to 

 which he was brought so near: as time went on however the 

 keen discipline of affliction seemed to have taught him that he 

 must "stand and wait," and simply look forward with calm 

 hope. 



1 I ventured to introduce this reminiscence into a sermon preached before the 

 University, March 2-2, 1863, and since published. 



I find a similar anecdote amongst some recollections, which have been 

 kindly put in my hands by the Rev. J. P. Norris. Speaking of children, 

 and his strong disapproval of giving them prizes for mere cleverness, he added, 

 "There is another point connected with children that I feel with an intensity 

 which I would give much to have felt years ago, the sacred duty of keeping 

 them pure. Wounded Arthur, speaking to Sir Bedivere, threatens to arise and 

 slay him with his hands if he fail in his behest ; and I feel sometimes as if I could 

 arise from this bed and tear to shreds some of the books that are left in children's 

 way." 



