head as they passed, and told them to continue good children, and to be sure to read their Bible.

"At six o'clock on the same evenings he met his Session; and at seven the monthly prayermeeting was held.

Every Tuesday evening during the winter months, he met in the vestry, for two hours, the young unmarried men of his congregation. He read and explained to them the Confession of Faith, after which he conversed on general subjects, and advised them what books to read.* In this part of my dear father's duty he always felt great delight, and expressed much satisfaction at the respectful and most affectionate conduct of the young men to him. He would often say, when returning home: Well, my dear, I should be happy to-night, for I have had a delightful evening with my good lads, who I am sure may be called the flower of London.'

His mode of addressing the young men on these occasions, and of stimulating them to virtuous conduct by stirring up their generous affections, is well illustrated in the following extract of a letter from an esteemed correspondent, who was one of his hearers from an early period, and is now one of the trustees of Wells Street congregation:

Among other means adopted for improving the minds of the rising generation, and beneficially occupying their leisure hours, was the institution of a congregational library in Wells Street, in the selection of which Dr. Waugh was always consulted.

"I may truly say, and ought gratefully to feel, that I have been the ward of Providence; and in no circumstance has this been more apparent to my mind, than in my having been, at an early period of my life, brought under the ministry of Dr. Waugh. It would, indeed, be difficult for any person, not similarly situated, duly to estimate the benefit accruing from the instructive advice and the high-toned and animating example of such a teacher, to an inexperienced youth, far from a father's house, and thrown as a stranger amidst the vast population and numberless temptations of such a place as London. I may thankfully say, that whatever may attach to my matured character, of correctness in conduct as a member of civil society, of integrity as a tradesman, of filial affection as a son, of filling with competent propriety the relative duties of husband, of father, or of friend, ought to be ascribed, in a paramount degree, to the invaluable instructions and guidance of my late beloved pastor and friend.

"The greater part of his congregation was originally composed of young men from the North, who had come to London to work for their bread, and who, for the most part, had left their parents in indigent circumstances. On meeting them, either at his weekly conference, or on more private occasions, he used first to inquire delicately and kindly as to the health and welfare of their relatives in Scotland; and would then follow up these inquiries with the strongest exhortations to industry and good conduct, and on the imperative duty of avoiding every unnecessary expense, in order to be enabled to render assistance to their aged parents or connexions. I shall never forget the beaming benevolence of his eye when touching on these points. He would urge in words to this effect: 'O my young friends, only think what joy, what gratitude will fill the bosom of your aged father! think how the tear of love and affection will run down the furrowed cheeks of your tender mother, when they receive your

dutiful communications, with a part of your earnings to assist them in the rugged down-hill of life! how ardent their prayers to God on your behalf! how grateful to Him for having blessed them with such a son! how warm, how heartfelt their supplications that the blessing of God may be on the head of their Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that is separate from his brethren!' How many aged fathers or widowed mothers have been cheered in their solitude, how many orphan children have benefited, by such admonitions to young and susceptible hearts; what incalculable good has resulted to the givers, what benefit to society by influential exhortations of this nature for nearly forty-six years, it is impossible to estimate. My heart throbs with gratitude at the remembrance of such admonitions, and the good effects produced by them on my own mind.”

On the first Monday in the year he met the unmarried young women of his church in the vestry, where they took tea with him, and spent an hour or two in conversation. This he did that he might have the pleasure of knowing something more of them, and that they might know more of their minister than simply by hearing him from the pulpit. For these attentions to the young of his charge, he was greatly rewarded by the love and respect they evinced towards him. They not only looked up to him with veneration as their pastor, but with the confidence and affection of children.

He was indefatigable in visiting the sick; and as his congregation was scattered through almost every part of London, this duty was most laborious. "His first inquiry on a Sabbath evening," says one of his daughters, "if he had not been

preaching in his own chapel, was,

Has any

body been prayed for?' Yes, such a person.' I'll see him in the morning, poor good man,' he would reply. And no distance, so long as he was able to undergo fatigue, could detain him from this labour of love, which he was wont to perform with the wisdom, tenderness of affection, and sympathy, that so eminently distinguished him."

A young clergyman of the church of England, who was brought up in early life under his ministry, thus writes to one of the family :-" The late Rev. R. Cecil, in his last illness, is known to have acknowledged that his mind was more sensibly benefited by the approaches of your father to the Throne of Grace with him and for him, than by the prayers of any of his other numerous and excellent clerical friends."

The preceding details will have enabled the reader to form a competent judgment as to the success of his ministry in Wells Street, and his habitual mode of strengthening the effect of his ordinary pulpit discourses by means of communion and other special addresses, by pastoral visitation, and by personal intercourse with all classes of his hearers. We need not, therefore, farther expatiate upon the general prosperity of that congregation whilst under his charge,-on the Christian peace and unity for which they were so long and happily distinguished,-on their liberality to their brethren and to their minister,-nor on the mutual regard which had grown up between them, and ripened into that devoted attachment which death

only could interrupt.

On all these, and other

kindred topics, the facts and documents given in the course of this chapter may, without farther comment, be left to speak for themselves.

There is, however, one feature in his conduct, to which, we think, may be fairly traced much of the good-will and affectionate sympathy that ever existed between him and his people. We refer to the fact, the statement of which is imperiously demanded by justice to his character, that never did a minister of Christ keep himself more apart from all interference in the secular concerns of a congregation than did Dr. Waugh. The high estimate he had formed of the office of the Christian ministry, and the naturally hightoned independence of his mind, these were never more prominently manifested than whenever he was tempted to connect himself in any degree with those purely secular matters of his congregation, from which the Christian minister will, of all classes of men, find it most difficult to extricate himself with his influence unimpaired and his honour untarnished. But though we see not Dr. Waugh sitting at the receipt of custom," it is due to the managers of his congregation to state, that, under their sole directions, his people ever did more for the promotion of his temporal prosperity than probably they would have been inclined to do, had the amount of their exertions in this respect been at all under his control.

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Though by education, choice, and relative connexion," says one of his Independent brethren, "he ranked as a Presbyterian, and never once in