portion supplied successively by a change of ministers, of every degree of standing in the work, and every order and variety of talent, both natural and acquired; it must almost necessarily be the case that the hemisphere of each portion of such a body must be illuminated at different times by stars of very different magnitudes; or that their churches must possess an eloquent Apollos, or consolatory Barnabas, a Boanerges, the thunderer, or a youthful Timothy, in tardy or rapid succession. Amid such changes, Lady Maxwell could not fail to discern some whose minds possessed a greater elevation and richness than others : some whose modes of thinking, and whose powers of giving body to conception, and adorning to thought, were more in unison with her own correct taste than those of others. This she saw and felt; and while she acknowledged, she prized the privilege. For, with the exception of the saving grace of God, and the inward satisfaction arising from doing good to others, she had no delight superior to the intellectual luxury enjoyed under the ministry of the workman that needeth not to be ashamed, who rightly divides the word of truth; yet she never made such men her idols; nor, in her attendance on gospel ordinances, gave them a marked preference. The ministry of the young, as well as the old, the inferior as well as the superior, was attended and listened to by her. It was no subject of inquiry, who is the preacher, but when is the time? And as the expectations of her mind were raised far above all human instruments, so she seldom failed of receiving the end of the ordinance for although she could not on every occasion calculate on meeting with an intellectual repast, she could always contemplate a spiritual feast.

"This lesson, of respecting the person of no teacher, appears to have been learned by her own experience. For we find her, at an early period of her Christian life, sometimes soliciting Mr. Wesley for the appointment or reappointment of certain preachers of name to Edinburgh; but she afterward learned, as she followed on to know the Lord, that he is the proper judge of the fitness of those instruments by which he shall carry on his own work, and promote his own glory. She was ever ready to bestow commendation on whomsoever in the least deserved it, but the most delicate censure was scarcely known to fall from her lips. And if on some occasions she gave to one teacher greater marks of regard than those shown to another, it was on account of the spirit of the person, or some congeniality of mind with her own, on the subject of Christian experience, rather than on account of superior public talents.

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During the space of about forty years, Lady Maxwell was her own chaplain. For some time after she became acquainted with divine things, she employed a pious minister of the Scottish establishment to officiate in that capacity, but with which she soon became dissatisfied. For being placed by providence at

the head of her own household, she considered that that relation imposed upon her the performance of certain duties which could not be discharged by proxy; and of which duties, that of conducting family worship she esteemed as not the least. It was not, however, without much reasoning and considerable conflict that duty and conscience triumphed over spurious shame and false delicacy. But having once overcome reluctance, and begun the practice, she found an ample reward; duty became privilege, and the work was wages. When she was in health she read the Scriptures, and prayed extempore with her whole family morning and evening; and in these exercises, not only evinced the fervour of her devotion, but displayed the resources of a mind richly furnished out of the divine treasury. For to some of those persons who had been in the habit of joining with her in family worship for many years, and who were very adequate to detect any thing like a form or sameness in her manner, it was astonishing what an almost endless variety, both in petition and expression, she always had at command. Nor was there any appearance of a falling off in the latter part of her life, when it might have been expected that infirmities and age would have considerably impaired the energies of her mind.

"To talk of a good man or woman who does no good, is to talk about a monster of imagination which has no positive existence. 'Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and the widow in their affliction.' 'For whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?' It will not be unto such as say, ‘Lord, Lord, bless thy holy name,' that the Judge will award that plaudit, 'Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you; but to those who have fed, and clothed, and visited his necessitous and suffering members. This is not merely a proof of the existence and reality of inward religion, the ripe fruit of piety; but it is religion itself, a resemblance of the divine goodness: and all the apparatus of redemption is constructed, and all the regenerating influences of the Spirit are employed on the mind, to infuse the disposition, to fix the principle, and impart the moral power, to continue patient in well doing. There was no trait in Lady Maxwell's character more prominent and fair, than her benevolence. Her ardent desire for getting good by constant recourse to the Saviour's fulness was not more intense than her wish to be useful to her fellow creatures; and perhaps very few examples have occurred of means so comparatively limited being husbanded so well as to produce such a quantum of benefit to mankind.

"Her pecuniary resources, especially during the latter part of her life, were not the most abundant, considering the rank and station which she had to uphold in society. For although she

might be left a widow in affluent circumstances, yet being a dowager lady, confined to a fixed income, the depreciation of the value of money in more than half a century must considerably have curtailed her means of doing good. But she saved all that she could for the sole purpose of giving, and by the latter her funds were constantly kept low. She was, as has been noticed, singularly plain in her dress, genteelly frugal in her household, and thus, by avoiding every useless expense, she acquired the power of conferring more in charity than many possess with ten times her income. And all that was in her power to do, she did to the very utmost. There was scarcely a humane institution, or a private or public charity, whether for the repose of age or the instruction of youth, the relief of indigence or the help of sickness; for the reformation of morals or the spread and support of religion, from which she did not receive applications, and to which she did not contribute. She erected and supported a school, in which, at the time of her death, about eight hundred children received a good education; and each a copy of the Scriptures on leaving the school. And such were the encouraging effects produced by this school as induced her ladyship, by will, to provide for its continuance to the end of time. As she was prepared for every good work, the subject of her charities is an almost endless one. Could the dead arise, and would the living speak,-the poor she has helped, the sick she has relieved, the orphans protected, and the friendless assisted,embarrassed honest tradesmen that she raised above difficulty,modest merit which she brought into notice, the youth whom she instructed, and set out in the world :-could these, or would they speak, an army would rise to bless her memory. But she not only employed her money, but her tongue, which was persuasive-her pen, which was urgent-and her influence, which was mild, but powerful among her friends, to obtain their assistAnd it has been said that there was no sum which she gave, however small, no institution which she patronized, nor an individual, who became the object of her charity, but what she followed with particular, earnest prayer to God, that what she had done might receive his blessing."

ance.

THE END.