In private life he was always happy, and capable of promoting the happiness of others. He loved to show hospitality to strangers, to his brethren, and to students; but he was no bon vivant. He abstained from dining out as much as possible. "He often said he was deter

mined that no one should say of him, that he liked to go out to a good dinner, which he knew was the common reproach of the cloth."

It is a great matter for ministers of Christ to be above suspicion, especially in conviviality and amusements. Doubtless they need their social opportunities and their recreations as well as other men; but in spheres where there is danger, they who are the spiritual guides of others need to be more upon their guard. Henry Venn, who afterwards became so great and useful a minister and evangelist, was very fond of cricket, and the best player at the University. The week before his ordination, he played at a match between Surrey and All England. After winning, he threw down his bat, and offered it to any one who liked. His friends asking the reason, he said, "Because I am to be ordained next Sunday, and I will never have it said of me, 'Well-struck, Parson!"" Mr. Cecil tells us that he learned the importance of this in his ministry. He says, "I fell into a mistake when a young man, in thinking that I could talk with men of the world on their own ground, and could thus win them over to mine." No doubt there is an adaptation of a man to his place, in which the minister is not lost in the gentleman. But a preacher who is a frequent diner-out is in great danger of lowering the standard of his pulpit addresses by the levity of the table.

In public business Mr. James was very punctual. "He was never known to enter the pulpit one minute too late, or to commence the service one moment before the appointed time." He attended regularly all philanthropic and religious committees of which he was a member, and appeared at public meetings where he was expected.

In church polity he was congregational in opinion; but his son informs us that "he wished as much presbyterianism introduced into congregationalism as is compatible with its remaining congregationalism." He thus always managed his church business without difficulty and dissension. He "was saved from mistakes in his pastorate by his habit of always taking advice;" and this he could do without losing authority.

There were united in his character those elements which fitted him to be useful to his fellow-men; and this was the result of diligent cultivation, as well as of natural endowment. He seemed early to apprehend his forte, and spared no pains to use it to the best advantage. He fully realized his own idea, and left the impression of his character upon the Church when he passed away. "In some humble degree," he wrote with his dying hand, “I have aimed at usefulness both in my preaching and writing; and God has, to an amount which utterly astonishes and overwhelms me, given me what I have sought. It seems a daring and almost presumptuous expression, but with proper qualification a true one-that usefulness is within the reach of us all the man who intensely desires to be useful, and takes the proper means, will be useful. God will not withhold his grace from such desires and such labours. Oh, my brother, how delightful

is it, notwithstanding the humbling and sorrowful consciousness of defects and sins, to look back upon a life spent for Christ! I thank a sovereign God I am not without some degree of this!"

"The chief use of biography consists in the noble models of character with which it abounds. Our great forefathers still live among us in the records of their lives, as well as in the acts they have done, and which live also; still sit by us at table, and hold us by the hand; furnishing examples for our benefit, which we may still study, admire, and imitate. Indeed, whoever has left behind him the record of a good life, has bequeathed to posterity an enduring source of good, for it lives as a model for others to form themselves by in all time to come; still breathing fresh life into us, helping us to reproduce his life anew, and to illustrate his character in other forms. Hence a book containing the life of a true man is full of precious seed; to use Milton's words, 'it is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.' Such a book never ceases to exercise an elevating influence, and a power for good. But above all these, there is the very highest model and example set before us to shape our lives by in this world—the most suitable for all the necessities of our mind and heart—an example which we can only follow afar off, and feel after,

'Like plants or vines which never saw the sun,

But dream of him, and guess where he may be,
And do their best to climb and get to him.'

"Again, no young man can rise from the perusal of such lives as those of Buxton and Arnold, without feeling his mind and heart made better, and his best resolves in

vigorated. Such biographies increase a man's self-reliance by demonstrating what men can be, and what they can do; fortifying our hopes, and elevating our aims in life. Sometimes a young man discovers himself in a biography, as Correggio felt within him the risings of genius, as contemplating the works of Michael Angelo, 'And I, too, am a painter,' he exclaimed. Sir Samuel Romilly, in his autobiography, confessed himself to have been powerfully influenced by the life of the great and nobleminded French Chancellor Daguesseau: 'The works of Thomas,' said he, 'had fallen into my hands, and I had read with admiration his Eloge of Daguesseau; and the career of honour which he represented that illustrious magistrate to have run, excited to a great degree my ardour and ambition, and opened to my imagination new paths of glory.'

"Franklin was accustomed to attribute his usefulness and eminence to his having early read Cotton Mather's 'Essays to do Good,' a book which grew out of Mather's own life. And see how good example draws other men after it, and propagates itself through future generations in all lands, for Samuel Drew avers that he framed his own life, and especially his business habits, after the model left on record by Benjamin Franklin. . . . Sometimes a book containing a noble exemplar of life, taken up at random, merely with the object of reading it as a pastime, has been known to call forth energies whose existence had not before been suspected. Alfieri was first drawn with passion to literature by reading 'Plutarch's Lives.' Loyola, when a soldier, serving at the siege of Pampeluna, and laid up by a dangerous wound in his leg, asked for a book to divert his thoughts; the 'Lives

of the Saints' was brought to him, and its perusal so inflamed his mind that he determined thenceforth to the founding of a religious order. Luther, in like manner, was inspired to undertake the great labours of his life by a perusal of the 'Life and Writings of John Huss.' Dr. Wolff was stimulated to enter upon his missionary career by reading the 'Life of Francis Xavier,' and the book fired his youthful bosom with a passion the most sincere and ardent to devote himself to the enterprise of his life. William Carey, also, got the first idea of entering upon his sublime labours as a missionary from a perusal of the 'Voyages of Captain Cook.””*

Mr. James has left on record his views of the great value to himself of the biographies of others. He felt the inspiring influence of bright examples, and was nerved by the contemplation of their devoted and useful career to labour with increasing zeal and hope. "Religious biography," he says, "has been of great service to us all, especially the biography of Christian ministers. Perhaps I may mention some which I have found greatly serviceable to myself. 'Brainerd's Life' has been a standing book, and so has that exquisite gem of biography, Fuller's 'Memoirs of Pearce;' or, going further back, that equally precious little volume, 'Philip Henry's Life,' by his son Matthew; Job Orton's 'Life of Doddridge;' that extraordinary book, 'Payson's Memoirs;' Scott, the Commentator's Life, by his son; and the 'Life of Griffin,' of Portsea, have all been of service to me."

Now that his own life of earnest piety, useful labour, and exemplary grace has been given to the world, by it, though dead, he yet speaketh, and will continue to influ

* Smiles' "Self-Help,” p. 320.