even more active energy than before, in promoting their benefit and contributing to every good work. On the second Sunday after the funeral of his son, he preached an interesting discourse, replete with the feeling of Christian resignation and of trust in the gracious designs of Providence, from these words of our Saviour, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter: and the exhortations to this difficult duty, delivered under so affecting circumstances, could not but make a deep and abiding impression on the minds of the hearers. Indeed the example that he gave of every Christian virtue appropriate to the season of affliction, was a striking lesson to his flock and to all who knew him, and was a powerful recommendation of that religion which he practised so well, and which he shewed in his experience to be capable of affording consolation that would be sought for in vain from any other source. Instead of dwelling with gloom on the loss which he had suffered, he was accustomed to say, I thank God that I had such a son; and when a friend expressed to him her wonder at his being so supported, he said, I have been supported by the prayers of the people. of the people. It may, perhaps, be useful to some parents, who, like him, may have to mourn the death of their children,

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to be informed, that he derived much comfort from the beautiful parable of the fruit tree and its suckers, contained in Dr. Isaac Watts' Miscellaneous Thoughts.

It has been mentioned, that Dr. Ross's constitution was naturally delicate; and, towards the latter part of his life, he had to struggle with many bodily infirmities, which sometimes prevented him from being so active as he wished to be, and from preaching so frequently as he would have otherwise done. He found it necessary, therefore, to have recourse to occasional assistance; but he always returned to his own work with pleasure whenever he was able. The situation which he occupied subjected him to almost continual secular avocations, of which he felt the burden severely; and he was distressed to think of a field allotted to him which was quite unmanageable in point of extent. And when the oppressing and threatening nature of some of his complaints is considered, it must appear surprising that he could have gone through so much.

Among the various occupations which he had to attend to, notice has been taken of the visiting of schools. To the most useful institution of Gor

don's Hospital, which has been so long under the excellent management of the Reverend ALEXANDER THOM, he was particularly attentive; and he was present at the visitation of it on the ninth of August, 1824, little more than two months before his death. On that occasion he delivered the following affecting and appropriate address to the teachers and to the scholars. To the former he thus expressed himself: "Gentlemen, I am desired by the Magistrates and Members of the Town Council present, the Visitors and official Governors of this useful and benevolent Institution, to express to you, the Governor and the Masters of the boys, their entire approbation of the appearance which the boys have made on the present occasion. I am, I believe, the oldest visitor present, having examined the boys twice every year for almost thirty years in succession, being only, I think, twice or thrice absent during all that period. And I can confidently say, that the school was never in better order in my remembrance, nor the scholars better instructed than at present. It is, therefore, with very great pleasure that I tender to you, Gentlemen, in the name of the Visitors, their grateful acknowledgments for your very important services. But the chief thing which the perpetual Governors,

the Ministers of Aberdeen, have to advert to, is the attention which is paid to the religious instruction of the youth, that are here in a state of training, not for the life that now is only, but also for that which is to come. He who now addresses you is stooping down to meet the grave, under a load of years and infirmities. But it is not always the oldest and most infirm that is first taken away from the evils to come. My late colleague, who not long since addressed you, was then in appearance the most healthy and vigorous, and promised more than any of us for long life and activity. But he is now numbered with the dead. Upon which of us death will next lay his cold hand we cannot tell; God only knows; for we know not what a day may bring forth."-To the scholars, among other things, he said: "God, my young friends, has cast your lot in a land with which no other land can be compared in point of religious privileges, and in a family, (for all the children in this house are like children of one family,) where you enjoy every advantage for being trained up for usefulness here and happiness here after. And I put it to yourselves, for you are now capable of judging, whose pleasures are the greatest? whose life and whose death are the most enviable? His, who trifles away his time, and cares not what his teacher says, and who, provided

he can escape detection and punishment, is willing to lose all the advantages which he here enjoys both for time and eternity, for a few days of idleness, folly, and vanity? Or his who finds pleasure in the pursuit of useful knowledge, in the conscientious discharge of his duties, in the exalted delights of communion with God, in prayer, in reading, and meditating on his word, in communing with his own heart in secret, and living, in short, as one who wishes to act well his part in life, and to be admitted when he dies into those mansions which our Saviour has gone to prepare for them who truly love and serve him? I have known many young people who have lived in this manner, the comfort and delight of their friends and teachers, and who have died in early life, expressing it as their only regret that they had not devoted more of their time and attention to their moral and religious duties; but I never knew one that ever repented that he had spent his life in this manner."

About a fortnight before his death he began to experience a difficulty of breathing, a complaint which he had not previously felt; but during the last week of his life he seemed to be rather getting better. Though far from well, he preached