Stitchell; and continued to walk, to the time of his death, with that church, in all the ordinances of the Lord blameless.

"He worshipped God in his family regularly morning and evening; and on the Lord's day examined his children in regard to their acquaintance with divine truth. He took them, whenever they were able to go with him, to the house of God, and endeavoured to form their minds to the love of piety. I owe every thing, under God, to his piety and affection by the former he was led to devote me to God in the service of his Son; and by the latter, to lay out a considerable part of his substance for my education for that service."

In addition to these "short and simple annals," extracted from Dr Waugh's private diary, we may add, that to the habits of devotion, more particularly, which characterized his father's house, he frequently, in after-life, reverted with the most lively feelings of grateful delight. IIe was wont often to quote the striking expressions used by his father in family prayer, and in expounding the Scriptures to his household, including, on occasions of special solemnity, the hinds and cottars, with their assembled families. He mentioned, that when his father happened to be from home, the family devotions were conducted by his mother,-as, at that time, indeed, was the practice generally observed by religious mistresses of families. Of the impressions made upon his young heart by these sacred services, and by other congenial scenes of domestic piety, Dr Waugh would often talk to his own family, in after-years, with tears in his eyes; and to the purifying and soul-ennobling influence of such scenes, not a little of the simplicity, tenderness, and moral elevation of his own character, may be clearly traced. The most marked peculiarities of his habits of thought and feeling were evidently formed, at a very early age, under his father's hallowed roof, and in the pastoral seclusion of his native moorlands. The substratum of character (if we may so express ourselves),— at least where it possesses any natural depth,-is laid proba

bly at a much earlier period of life than most persons are aware of; and though the surface may be afterwards moulded and modified, as manners are superinduced, and the mind carefully cultivated, or allowed to run to waste, "like an unweeded garden," yet the intrinsic qualities of the intellectual soil, and the peculiar flavour of its fruits, are, in most cases, subsequently susceptible of but little substantial alteration.

Concerning his mother, Dr Waugh has left the following account:" Piety and meekness, and the tenderest regard for the happiness of her children, formed the outline of her character. Born of eminently pious parents, Alexander Johnstone, farmer in East Gordon, and Elizabeth Waugh, her mind at an early period was formed for the love of goodness. Through life she maintained the character of a godly, modest, and inoffensive woman. Her devotions were regular and fervent: the law of kindness to all was on her lips; but towards her children her affection was uncommonly strong, and her religious principles directed her affection into the path of tender solicitude about their eternal welfare. prayer, by exhortation, by example, and by many tears, did she study to advance our knowledge of the true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent. She had herself experienced the sweetness of unaffected godliness, and was greatly concerned that her children might also taste and see that the Lord is gracious."

By

A warm-hearted and prudent mother will exert almost unlimited influence over her children during the first six or eight years of their life,- -a period of all others when the heart is most susceptible of deep and lasting impressions. The divine Author of our frame hath thus, in his infinite goodness, furnished a pious mother with efficient means of moulding the tempers of her children, and implanting in their tender minds those principles of piety and virtue which will excite them to every thing great and excellent in conduct, and prepare them, as immortal beings, for the high destinies of a never-ending existence. She will lead her tender and interesting charge to the feet of the good Shepherd,

and fill their glowing bosoms with high admiration of his condescension and grace, by reminding them, that when parents brought their children to him whilst he sojourned on earth, he laid his hands on them and blessed them; and that now, when he is exalted to the skies, he still promises to gather the lambs with his arms, and carry them in his bosom. Solomon frequently adverts, with great tenderness, to the pious counsels of his mother. Timothy appears to have been instructed, when a child, by his mother and grandmother, in the knowledge of the Scriptures; and it would be difficult to find an instance of children brought up in the fear of God and the love of the Saviour, while their mother showed no marked solicitude to cherish a life of piety in her family.

"Delightful task! to rear the tender thought,
To teach the young idea how to shoot,
To pour the fresh instruction o'er the mind,
To breathe the enlivening spirit, and to fix
The generous purpose in the glowing breast.”

What an incalculable blessing to the church,-what a glorious prospect of the revival of religion,—to behold our young females, amidst all the amiable and useful accomplishments which adorn their sex, engraving the words of Solomon on the frame and temper of their hearts,-" Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain; but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised!" Few men have attained to high eminence, either in science or in religion, who have not expressed deepfelt gratitude for the example, and counsels, and prayers of an affectionate and pious mother; and in the case of Dr Waugh, this grateful feeling was strikingly manifested. It were injustice to her memory not to record most prominently the reverential affection with which he ever spoke of the character of his mother. It was his delight to breathe into the ears of his own children the story of her piety and kindness; to her he looked back, even at the age of threescore years and ten, with all the humility and fondness of a child; and when, nearly forty years after her death, he heard the summons is

sued that was to gather him to his fathers, his filial tenderness, as will be seen at the closing account of his life, even then prompted the wish,-that his pillow could have been softened by the hand of his mother, and his heart refreshed and strengthened by her prayers!-thus recommending on his death-bed the performance of that duty to which he was ever so anxious to direct the attention of the young,-" Honour thy father and thy mother."

The laudable exertions of this excellent parent, in the religious education of her children, were followed by a rich recompense of reward. With a mind constituted like hers, she tasted the sweetest of all pleasures, in beholding her three children give satisfactory evidence of fearing God from their youth.

Elizabeth, her only daughter, experienced in her childhood the fulfilment of God's gracious promise," They that seek me early shall find me." She was equal to her mother in tender sensibility, in ardent piety, and in the faithful discharge of every Christian and domestic duty, as a wife, as a mother, and as a friend. She had a numerous family of children, towards whom her heart yearned with all the kindly affections; but her chief and deepest solicitude was ever occupied about their eternal interests, in her estimation infinitely more important than to see them in possession of thousands of gold and silver: they were indeed children of many pious counsels and fervent prayers. Her dying chamber was like the gate of heaven. The affections of her heart seemed to be altogether overpowered whilst contemplating the unsearchable riches of sovereign grace, and telling the members of her family, and her Christian friends who came to visit her, what God had done for her soul. So long as she was able to express her feelings, the high praises of redeeming love were continually on her lips. On the evening of the 27th October, 1809, when her articulation had become so indistinct that it was with great difficulty she could make herself to be understood, the last request she made to her family was to sing the twenty-third Psalm. Her lips were perceived to move

all the time they were singing; and in about ten minutes after, she breathed her last, without a struggle or a groan, and fell peacefully asleep in the arms of her God and Saviour.

Thomas, the elder son, who succeeded his father in the farm, appears to have been also decidedly religious in early life. He was a man of acute and vigorous intellect, of simple manners, and of unbending integrity: wedded to old forms and customs, the only valuable effect of which was, his sturdy attachment to the old-fashioned and scriptural notions. of the holiness of God's law, and the strictness of its moral sanctions, the fixedness of resolution with which he adhered to what he conceived to be the path of duty in his religious concerns, as well as in his intercourse with the world, displayed in high perfection the tenacem propositi virum. His friends sometimes thought that he carried this temper of mind too far; but he was esteemed and respected by all who knew him, for his pious, upright, benevolent character. The peculiarities of his manner, though numerous, were perfectly inoffensive; and, under a rough exterior, he possessed much kindness of heart. No two brothers could have evinced, generally, dispositions, more striking and contrasted than did Thomas and Alexander Waugh. The former had no strong partiality to the barren moors of East Gordon, or to the recollections of Caldron-brae, any further than as these localities afforded support to his numerous children. Two things he loved to see,

"The fleecy flocks the hills adorn,

The valleys rich with waving corn."

Imagination formed no element in his mental structure : while to Alexander, on the other hand, the wild heaths, mosshaggs, and gray stones of Gordon, were as Arcadian meads and marble columns,-replete with beauty and poetry, and pregnant with "thoughts more deep than tears!"

His younger brother used to delight in mentioning the following pleasing instance of fraternal affection. On setting out from home, to attend his usual course of study at the