prompted his charitable offices in behalf of the poor man; to him he proved himself a sincere friend, and a christian advocate. But we will not dwell longer upon his virtues, suffice it to say, that as far as human nature permitted, he was among the few faithful, and if not absolutely faultless, at least his errors were only like specks, that chequer the surface of some splendid luminary, and are lost in the brilliancy of its light.

After passing through the necessary routine of education, and serving a village curacy, Dr. Truman came into possession of a living in a very populous town; to this post he was of course competent, and particularly qualified to discharge its duties, as well from his proficiency as a scholar, as from his resolute, though mild disposition. To fill a situation of this kind requires more nerve and zeal than fall to the lot of the generality of men. Mere learning without resolution must inevitably sink under the task; and again the greatest zeal, however supported by physical strength, must fail in doing good, unless directed by a judicious and cultivated mind. In order to become

a valuable and active minister in a populous district, scholastic intelligence and zeal must be under the guidance of sound discretion, backed and supported by that undaunted spirit and address, which no object could divert and no machinations of the wicked depress or humble. Dr. Truman had to contend against heresy and schism, and the constant attacks of the thoughtless and wicked, but fortunately he possessed sufficient learning to refute the one, and resolution and courage to withstand the other so that whatever opposition he met with in performing his duty, did not produce anxiety of mind, or tend to relax his spirit. His energies enabled him to surmount every difficulty, and in most instances to overcome his most violent opponents. Dr. Truman, like other clergy in large towns, had his enemies; and though such were, for the most part, far beneath him in mental endowments, still did he make it his study to try, in the mildest manner, to convince them of their fault, or remove their prejudice. If he failed in his endeavour, he pursued that line of conduct, which would necessarily terminate in a happy

issue. By these means he had often the pleasure to convert the bitterest enemies of the church.

Besides having the trust of a large parish, Dr. Truman, as the father of a numerous family, had his domestic duties to attend to. He had thus under his care two most responsible charges; the one without, of a serious and arduous nature, and the other within, equally binding and onerous. The care of a large parish, even to the idle priest, is one that requires no ordinary powers to rightly manage, but Dr. Truman was very far from being a drone in his office. He considered his parishioners as his own children.

Sooner

would he have sacrificed for ever his individual

happiness, than have omitted one single duty

which he owed to

father to them all.

them. He was indeed a

Often by the side of the

poor man's bed, as well as the rich, was he found in genuflection, offering up prayers, and invoking blessings from the Most High, to be poured down upon the sick sufferer. Often would he pass the threshold of death and temporary despair, when indeed that house was a house of woe, and administer those heavenly

comforts, which he derived from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Often did he, like his Master before him, raise the feeble hands, and wipe away the moist tear, and cheer the desolate widow, who was left in a harsh world, solitary and forlorn. Often would he take under his pure parental wing some virgin orphan, who just entering life may have experienced the two greatest losses which can befal a female, that of a mother's tenderness, and that of a father's protection; and who treading this dismaying wilderness alone, amid the snares and scoffs of human kind, meets with no other smile of sympathy to cheer her, no human voice perhaps, save his, to bless.

Indeed Dr. Truman not only took all occasions of mercy which offered themselves, but went abroad, in search of the reprobate who, would not, and he in chains, who could not, come to him. Often would he seek the forlorn captive, amidst the dismal complicated horrors of his prison-house, (the abode of every corruption which poverty and wretchedness generate between them,) and pour the balm of consolation into an almost despairing heart,

snatching him from that abyss of crime, which, after swallowing up his temporal felicity, yawned for his immortal soul.

In the self-approving consciousness of virtue, would Dr. Truman dare at times the pestiferous atmosphere of impurity. He would pierce the central darkness of the brothel, and take the drooping cyprian by the hand, by the magic touch of sympathy melting the frozen heart of infamy itself. He would wander, like an angel of benevolence, in the unquiet haunts of wretchedness and gloom, would solace the melancholy ritual of a sick bed, would press the sinner to his bosom, (there was no contamination in the contact, no defilement of the body, no pollution of the mind,) would reveal to him the law written on his heart, the privilege and the indulgence of his nature. Would wring at last, by the mellifluous accents of charity, the tear of contrition from the sunken eye of the fallen sufferer, stimulating the reluctant sob of sensibility just quivering on his lip. Then would he discover to him the vista of hope, and in the prospect of futurity, point to "another and a better world." He would breathe com