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thing that lies on my mind; and you will perceive the propriety, indeed the necessity, of the cordial concurrence of the managers. I can only add, my dear friend, that if any thing could increase the solemn and awful obligation to spend my life in the service of the souls of my beloved people, under which, at my admission, I voluntarily brought myself, it would be the peaceable, kind, and generous disposition they have universally manifested towards myself and my family for the lengthened space of five-and-forty years. And if the Spirit of God have made my services. in any, the humblest measure, conducive to their religious progress and comfort, let the gratitude of our heart ascend to God alone!

"My love to all the brethren: accept of it yourself; and believe me to remain, my dear friend,

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Happy were it for the church of Christ, did every congregation, when placed in circumstances of similar delicacy, express themselves in equally dutiful language to their aged minister; and did every minister, when labouring under increasing years and infirmities, accede with equal readiness to the just and reasonable desires of his people.

In a letter to the compiler of these papers, written about this period, he thus adverts to this subject, so deeply interesting both to himself and his friends.

"London, May 23, 1827.

My own health is, on the whole, good; but this complaint in my ankle has disabled me from walking any length of way. I grieve for my being thus prevented from continuing the pastoral visitation. My good people have, for a long time, been blaming our elders and deacons for

allowing me to take three services in the day, and have been urging them to procure supply. I have for some months, I know not how, felt unable to make myself heard as formerly this is attributed to exhaustion. The elders and deacons came to a resolution, at last, to propose a plan of constant supply, by one of the preachers; and addressed a very kind proposal to me last week on the subject, in which my mind very gratefully acquiesced. We have applied to Dr. Peddie and Mr. John Brown for a suitable young brother, for three months at a time. I hope and pray that the Lord will bless the plan, not for my benefit only, but eventually for the good of the congregation, when I am no more."

A preacher having been sent up from Scotland, Dr. Waugh had thus an opportunity of accompanying his brother-in-law to Brighton, in August, 1827. On the Sabbath before he left town on this excursion, he preached three discourses on the relative duties of husbands and wives, masters and servants, in order to press upon his audience attention to those domestic duties which he had been latterly unable to recommend, as formerly, in his course of pastoral visitation. And when at Brighton, although he had been advised to leave for a time his own pulpit for the sake of relaxation to mind and body, so much was his heart interested in preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ, that no persuasion could prevent him from assisting some one of his Independent brethren every Sabbath. In October he returned to town, and on the 7th preached twice in Wells Street; and for the remainder of that month, and till his death, he regularly officiated once every Lord's day.

On the 2d day of December, 1827, he closed his public services among the people of his immediate charge by an evening sermon, addressed, in course, to the young, founded on Eph. iv. 18. On the 9th day of the month, the last Sabbath of his ministry, and of his life, he was employed in another congregation in close connexion with his own, not only in preaching the Gospel, but in dispensing the memorials of his dying Lord. Little was it apprehended by his fellow-communicants, though perhaps not altogether unexpected by himself, that he should partake "no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day" when he should meet his Lord in the kingdom of his Father. But we reserve the details of the closing scene of his life for a subsequent Chapter, when they will be introduced more appropriately.

In giving the following account of Dr. Waugh's pulpit ministrations, we deem it proper to express our grateful acknowledgments to some of his clerical brethren in the metropolis, and to mention that we have liberally availed ourselves of their kind and valuable strictures. While no one could fail to receive a distinct and powerful impression from his ministry, it partook, at the same time, of a character which it would be most difficult successfully to define. Those to whom his ministrations were familiar have a portrait yet glowing in their recollections far more impressive than any we can hope to delineate. He had copied no man; and, on the other hand, he was superior to the petty arts of an affected originality. His composition, his manner, and the order and

arrangement of the all-important truths he uttered, were peculiarly his own. The solemn and dignified mien which he always exhibited in the pulpit, was the appropriate index of a mind deeply hallowed and impressed with a sense of the high and sacred functions in which he was engaged. It was impossible to behold his large, athletic formhis commanding and expressive eye-his open, expanded forehead, beaming with kindness and benevolence—and to listen to his impressive tones, and still more impressive sentiments, without feeling a measure of that reverence and holy awe which become the house of God.

This sensation was generally and powerfully felt in the audience when he addressed himself to the solemn duty of intercession and thanksgiving. It has been admitted by all parties, that he possessed an extraordinary and pre-eminent gift in prayer, which has been seldom equalled in the ministry of the church. From the earliest period of his public life he was remarkable for the sublimity of his devotional conceptions, for their richness and variety, and the freedom and pathos which characterised his expressions; and as age and experience matured his intellectual and moral faculties, he became still more eminent in those high qualities which shed a mild lustre on his opening ministry. ministry. His pulpit addresses to the Deity were presented with eyes uplifted to heaven; a method which, however objectionable and irreverent as practised by some, was, in his case, connected with no other impressions than those of profound solemnity and the most hallowed

devotion. In his countenance the attentive observer might have distinctly traced the combined. feelings of lofty adoration, penitential abasement, believing confidence, and filial gratitude; and it was no uncommon thing to see the big tear trickling down his cheek while his full, expressive eye was directed to heaven. The impression conveyed to every worshipper was, that the venerable supplicant was conversing with God, and that he was deeply solicitous to draw all who listened to him into the same holy and endeared fellowship which it was his privilege to enjoy. His celebration of the Divine perfections, his recognition of an all-pervading Providence, his confessions of human guilt and apostasy, and his tender and melting references to the cross of Christ, were such as to awaken and call forth the strongest sentiments of devotion. He knew likewise how to embody the particular exigencies of the church, how to vary his petitions and thanksgivings as circumstances might dictate, how to anticipate the wants and feelings of human nature, and how to adapt himself to the successive stages and numerous fluctuations of Christian experience. It is not, therefore, wonderful that his prayers were held in peculiarly high estimation by the people of his charge, as there was perhaps no part of his ministerial service so beneficial in producing serious impressions of Divine things, and kindling feelings of ardent, elevated piety in the soul. At public meetings of special solemnity, his brethren were accustomed to solicit him to open the services by prayer. One of his friends

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