THE REVEREND ALEXANDER WAUGH, D. D. BORN AT EAST GORDON, BERWICKSHIRE, AUGUST 16TH, 1754, ORDAINED TO THE OFFICE OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY AT NEWTOWN IN THE PARISH OF MELROSE, N. B., AUGUST 30TH, 1780; GIFTED WITH A HIGHLY CULTIVATED MIND, EXEMPLARY FOR CHEERFUL PIETY, UNIFORM CHARITY, AND DIFFUSIVE BENEVOLENCE, TO THE SCOTS SECESSION CHURCH HE WAS CONSCIENTIOUSLY ATTACHED, AND WARMLY AFFECTED TO HIS NATIVE COUNTRY, WHOSE SONS, ON THEIR ARRIVAL IN THIS METROPOLIS, AS ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY IN 1795, HE GAVE UNCEASINGLY TO ITS IMPORTANT CONCERNS A DEVOTEDNESS OF MIND, AND A DEGREE OF UNWEARIED EXERTION WHICH WERE EMINENTLY INSTRUMENTAL TO ITS PROSPERITY. HE WAS DISTINGUISHED FOR GENTLENESS, AFFECTION, AND EVERY VIRTUE WHICH ADORNS THE CHRISTIAN. AND THE WARMTH OF HIS SOLICITUDE FOR THEIR BEST INTERESTS, WILL LONG BE HAD IN REMEMBRANCE. WHO FOR NEARLY FORTY-SIX YEARS ENJOYED THE SINGULAR PRIVILEGE OF HIS INSTRUCTIONS, TO PERPETUATE THEIR DEEP SENSE OF THE INESTIMABLE WORTH AND FAITHFUL SERVICES AND IN GRATITUDE TO THE GIVER OF ALL GOOD, HAVE RAISED THIS TABLET. CONCLUSION. In closing this memoir, the writers do not deem it at all requisite to subjoin any more particular delineation of Dr. Waugh's character. Its features have appeared so vividly in what he did, and said, and wrote, as to render any formal eulogy neither necessary nor desirable. On the heart of the reader a strong impression must have been made of his worth, and they trust also of the power of that religion under whose impulse he acted. With the greatest truth they can assert that, much as they loved and venerated their lamented friend, their ideas of his excellence have risen higher, the more they studied his character, and the more they became acquainted with the incidents of his life. They will only call the reader to mark the rare combination of excellencies in Dr Waugh ; how the zeal and the ardour of public activity were blended with all the kindness that blesses in friendship, and all the suavity which charms in domestic life; how the solemnity and awe of devotion were enhanced, not degraded, by the delightful pleasantry with which he could enliven conversation; and how his supreme love to God showed itself in a pure and generous love to man. The reader must also be struck with the wisdom of Providence, in bringing, to a sphere of such utility, a man so admirably fitted to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour. When the period for the formation of those institutions which are the glory of our times had arrived, he was found ready to spread the flame and to stimulate and guide the course of holy charity. In looking at those labours in which he was so abundant, some may suppose that by them his strength and spirits must have been exhausted; but so far was this from being the case, that he used to say the missionary cause gave a most happy excitement to his mind, and such activity to his life as contributed not only to prolong but to bless it. It may be thought by some that it has been our wish to exhibit before the reader a faultless character, and to represent him as free from the imperfections which cleave to the best in this scene of mortality. But he was far from thinking highly or favourably of himself; and, as the apostle Paul did, in closing a life devoted above that of all others to the glory of God, he felt, the older he grew, the more deeply his need of the Saviour. While such were his humble impressions of himself, it will, however, be admitted by all who knew him, that there have been few in whom his fellow-creatures could see so little to be regretted. It has been said that he was soft when firmness, nay severity, were imperiously required, and that he was more liberal in praise on some occasions than was due; but where this may have been the case, it arose from the uncommon kindliness of his spirit: and what good man is there who would not rather err in this way with him, than in the harshness of the cynic, or the detraction of the censorious? We are aware, too, that men devoted to elaborate study may feel little complacency in a life so engrossed with public avocations; and we admit that, to men of inferior talents, and to persons placed in other circumstances, more retirement for mental culture, and more preparation for official duty, would have been indispensable; but he had facilities for the pulpit, possessed by few, and of the stores of a wellimproved youth he could readily avail himself. Closer study might have rendered his discourses more rich and regular, but it may be doubted if they would have been as striking as they often were, by the kindling of his mind, and his happy use of occurrences for illustrating and enforcing the counsels of wisdom. If the value of a life is to be estimated by its utility, few lives have been of as much importance as his; and if it has left few memorials for the li brary, it has left many for the heart. It would be improper to close this work without leading the reader to that grace from which all that is truly estimable in character proceeds, and by which such varied excellence was produced and cherished. We claim it for the honour of Christianity, that in its principles was the life of his spirit, in its examples the model of his temper and manners, in its motives the impulse of his charity, and in its hopes the solace of his life and of his death. A more appropriate finish to this memoir there cannot be than in these words of the apostle, descriptive of that devotedness to God which the Gospel alone can form, in which he and his brethren lived and died, in which they were followed in so eminent a degree by Dr Waugh, and in which all who aspire after what is noble and generous in character will copy them :-"None of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord and whether we die, we die unto the Lord; whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's," : APPENDIX. No. I. PULPIT RECOLLECTIONS. [It is proper to mention, that the following" Recollections" are not derived from Dr Waugh's written sermons or notes, but from memoranda, hastily taken at the time by different individuals, of such passages as particularly struck them in his oral discourses, which, during the latter part of his life, were almost entirely extemporaneous. This circumstance will sufficiently account for, and, it is hoped, excuse, to the candid reader, the abrupt and unfinished style, and other imperfections, of these disjointed fragments.] WHAT a contrast doth the life of Christ, as dėtailed to us by the Evangelists, present, compared with that of Mohammed! A relation sanctioned by no learned name; the product of no visionary enthusiast. No; the recital is the artless tale of those who copied from nature; the original stood before them. Imagination the most fertile, in her most exalted excursions, had never contemplated so much goodness, so much of all those virtues which are the glory of our nature, bursting forth amid the gloom that surrounded them. Never! And do we not furnish ample proof in ourselves that this is no overcharged picture? Do we not feel-do we not say, that had we lived in Jewry when he was on the earth, we would have rallied around him? that we would have appeared on the side of so much goodness, so much virtue? Vain man! thou wouldst, perhaps, have lavished thy praise upon his goodness as seen in his miracles; but wouldst thou have subjected thyself to his authority, and followed in secret as in public the example which he set? Wouldst thou not have continued to practise all works of darkness in secret, as in time past, even if thy conduct outwardly had been regulated by some regard to the duties which he enjoined? Ye resentful! would ye have followed after Christ, that divine Teacher who |