494 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. XII. 



him, as to rest in that for the time. But the greater number 

 could only try to hush their grief to submission ; and his words 

 on John Eeid came unbidden to remembrance, as if giving the 

 most fit expression to their mingled feelings : 



" Thou Avert a daily lesson 



Of courage, hope, and faith ; 

 We wondered at thee living, 

 We envy thee thy death. 



" Thou wert so meek and reverent, 



So resolute of will, 

 So bold to bear the uttermost, 

 And yet so calm and still. 



t( Well may we cease to sorrow : 



Or if we weep at all, 

 Not for thy fate, but for our own, 

 Our bitter tears should fall. 



" 'Twere better still to follow on 

 The path that thou hast trod, 

 The path thy Saviour trod before, 

 That led thee up to God." 



The direction of the wind, so often keenly watched on his 

 account, seemed unimportant now, for, as he had anticipated 

 years before, in speaking of the effects of cold spring weather, 

 " the air of heaven will put all to rights. It never blows there 

 from the east." 



Two of his fellow- professors wrote as follows on the first im- 

 pulse of sorrow : " The intelligence of the death of my beloved 

 colleague, your son, has quite unnerved me. Of the loss which 

 Scotland has sustained others will speak ; suffice it for me to 

 state, that I have lost a friend, the brightness of whose genius 

 was only equalled by the warmth of his heart. When lying far 

 away, wounded and low, his ready sympathy and aid cheered 

 me ; and it is sad to think that I shall not be able to return his 

 kindness in this world. But he did it as a Christian, as he did 

 his every act, and he shall in nowise lose his reward. Think of 

 him as entered into his rest, where his bright spirit basks in the 

 full sunshine of that presence which made it shine. May He 

 comfort you and teach you to acknowledge the words which 



