what authority he is prevented from exercising the ministerial functions.

We are aware, that under the law of Moses, blindness was a disqualification for the priestly office; but as the wholeness of that order, as well as the unblemishedness of the victims sacrificed, were only typical of the coming Messiah's moral and physical perfection, that clause of the law can certainly (we think) have no bearing on the ministry under the new dispensation, from which types and shadows have disappeared. Jehovah spoke to his people by the mouth of Teresias and Phineas, blind prophets of old, and we can see no reason why the same privation should prevent holy men, at the present day, from preaching the truths of the everlasting gospel.

Rev. JOHN TRAUGHTON, of the seventeenth century, one of the most able and devoted advocates of the Puritan faith, was blind from the fourth year of his age. This eminent divine received his rudimentary instruction at the free school at Coventry, his native place, and in 1655 entered a student of St. John's College, Oxford, of which he became a fellow, and there took the degree of Bachelor of Arts. But on the restoration of Charles II. he was expelled from fellowship on account of his Puritan faith. Soon after this, he removed to Bicester, where he read academical lectures to young men, and occasionally preached in private, whereby he obtained a comfortable subsistence.

Upon the issuing of his majesty's declaration for

.

the toleration of religion, dated March 15th, 1671, Rev. Mr. Traughton was one of the four Bachelors of Divinity sent by his sect, to establish preaching in the city of Oxford. So great was his learning, piety, and moderation, that he not only drew large numbers of college students as auditors to his chapel, who were fascinated by his eloquence, but maintained an amicable correspondence with many of the best conformable clergy until his death, which occurred in 1681, in the forty-fourth year of his age. His funeral discourse was preached by Rev. Mr. James, master of the free school at Woodstock, who was also blind. Traughton wrote several books; nothing, however, but their titles are now extant: "The Protestant Doctrine of Justification by Faith only, vindicated;" "Popery the Grand Apostacy;" "An Apology for the Nonconformists;" and "A Letter to a Friend, touching God's Providence."

WILLIAM JAMIESON, D. D., and professor of history at the Glasgow University, also spent the greater part of his life in preaching the gospel, with so much success that historians have ranked him among the first of the Scotch clergy.

He was educated at the University of Glasgow, and, after taking his degree, was there for some time employed in reading lectures upon civil and ecclesiastical history. He was also earnestly and ably engaged in the Episcopal controversy, which, during the latter part of the seventeenth century, formed a distinguished feature in the church history of Scotland.

His numerous works on this subject have been highly valued, and are said to bear marks of astonishing erudition. From the numerous complimentary notices which his cotemporary writers have given him, we select the following from Crawford's history of that country:

"Near the house of Berochan, and within the barony, was born the learned Mr. William Jamieson, preacher of the gospel, and also professor of history in the University of Glasgow, who was a miracle of learning, considering he was deprived of the sense of sight from his birth, and his works afford sufficient proof of his being a very able scholar."

The chastening hand of affliction, in every form, always tends to curb our selfish natures, subdue the heart, and render us more alive to the meek and gentle spirit of the gospel. We might give numerous examples of blind preachers' melting pathos, but only insert the following on account of its somewhat extraordinary character: "Dr. GUYSE, who was suddenly deprived of sight, while in prayer before the sermon, preserved sufficient self-command to lay aside his notes, and deliver his discourse extempore. But after service, while being led through the chapel, he was heard to lament the sudden loss of sight, when a good old lady accosted him with the following congratulations: "God be praised that your sight is gone; I think I never heard you preach so powerful a sermon in my life. Now we shall have no more notes. I wish, for my own part, that the

Lord had taken away your eye-sight twenty years ago, for your ministry would have been more useful by twenty degrees."

From an English writer we copy the following interesting account of a blind clergyman, which serves forcibly to illustrate the degree of independence that one, under this misfortune, may acquire by undaunted courage and perseverance:

"In my rambles last summer," says the writer from whom this account is taken, "on the borders of Wales, I found myself one morning alone on the banks of the beautiful river Wye, without a servant or a guide. I had to ford the river at a place where, according to the instructions given me at the nearest hamlet, if I diverged ever so little from the marks which the rippling of the current made as it passed over a ledge of rocks, I should sink twice the depth of myself and horse. While I stood hesitating on the margin, viewing attentively the course of the ford, a person passed me on the canter, and the next instant I saw him plunge into the river; presuming on his acquaintance with the passage, I immediately and closely followed his steps. As soon as we had gained the opposite bank, I accosted him with thanks for the benefit of his guidance; but what was my astonishment, when, bursting into a hearty laugh, he observed, that my confidence would have been less had I known that I had been following a blind guide! The manner of the man, as well as the fact, attracted my curiosity. To my expressions of surprise at his

venturing to cross the river alone, he answered, that he and the horse he rode had done the same thing every Sunday morning for the last five years; but that, in reality, this was not the most perilous part of his weekly peregrination, rs I should be convinced, if my way led over the mountain before us. My journey had no object but pleasure; I therefore resolved to attach myself to my extraordinary companion, and soon learned, in our chat, as we wound up the steep mountain's side, that he was a clergyman; and of that class which is the disgrace of our ecclesiastical establishment; I mean the county curates, who exist upon the liberal stipend of thirty, twenty, and sometimes fifteen pounds a year! This gentleman, aged sixty, had, about thirty years before, been engaged in the curacy to which he was now traveling, and though it was at the distance of eight long Welch miles from the place of his residence, such was the respect of his flock towards him, that, at the commencement of his calamity, rather than part with him, they sent regularly, every Sunday morning, a deputation to guide their old pastor on his way. The road, besides crossing the river we had just passed, led over a craggy mountain, on whose top innumerable and uncertain bogs were constantly forming, but which, nevertheless, by the instinct of his Welch pony, this blind man has actually crossed alone for the last five years, having so long dismissed the assistance of guides.

"While our talk beguiled the way, we insensibly