MEMOIR.

If it be the wisdom and duty of Christians to be followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises, it is obvious that they must make themselves acquainted with the history of those who have preceded them in the profession of the gospel, and in the practice of piety. To contemplate the great principles, which, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, formed their character, and gave excellence and usefulness to their course, will powerfully assist in the imitation of their example. While there is only one model of absolute perfection from which we can copy with unqualified confidence, even Jesus, "the author and finisher of our faith," there are extant many fine specimens of Christian virtue to which we owe a sedulous though subordinate regard. Happily for this age of the church, these are continually multiplying; and by the aid of the press,

are securing a permanent and extended notoriety, insomuch, that it may be affirmed with an emphasis peculiar to our own times, that we are surrounded with "a great cloud of witnesses," whose testimony and conduct are every way fitted to incite within us a holy emulation, and to engage us to follow them as they "followed Christ." To rescue from oblivion, and to place in the records of evangelical fame, the names of those whom God has raised up to be the lights of the world and the benefactors of the church is at once a gratifying and edifying service, and forms one at least of those means by which the righteous will be had in everlasting remembrance.

The writer of the following pages is far from presuming that he can do aught to immortalize his loved and lamented friend whose "record is on high," yet he humbly hopes that he may be the instrument of introducing him to the acquaintance of some to whom he was unknown, and of perpetuating those sentiments of esteem and veneration which cannot fail to encircle his name among others to whom it has long been familiar. His aim is not to eulogize the dead but to instruct the living; and thus, to bring honour to that sovereign

grace which made the departed minister what he was, both personally and relatively considered, that all who read this brief memorial may "glorify God" in him.

The materials furnished for the task are comparatively scanty, but the compiler has not felt at liberty to decline presenting them to the public eye, as well from deference to the opinions of those who wished him to undertake the service, as from the promptings of filial reverence and affection inspired by the almost paternal care and kindness which in early youth it was his privilege to receive from the departed.*

The Rev. ARCHIBALD DOUGLAS was born in the parish of Clerkenwell, London, of parents not only really pious, but eminently so, by whom, while

* For the space of two years the writer lived under the roof of his friend while pursuing his classical studies in the establishment of the late Rev. Dr. Valpy, who may justly be considered to have been a distinguished ornament of the town of Reading, and as a teacher of youth was equalled by few, and excelled by none in this department of useful occupation. It is with indescribable satisfaction, the pupil has learned from the most authentic information, that the last days of this revered preceptor were emphatically his best, that his sun went down cheered by the bright hopes and consolations of the gospel, while in the spirit of entire self-renunciation he looked for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.

yet an infant, he was solemnly dedicated to God in the covenant of baptism. After having received an ordinary school education in the vicinity of his birth-place, he was at the usual age apprenticed to a respectable tradesman in Coleman-street in the City, and conducted himself during the period of servitude with such propriety and decorum as to ensure the esteem and approbation of his employer. At that early period of his life, there were not wanting those indications of stability of mind and fixed habits of application which distinguished him in his future course. The precise time at which he became the subject of inward and spiritual religion does not appear; the work was probably gradual in all its developments, but it is sufficiently clear that he was one who feared God from his youth. The means of his first serious awakening was a sermon delivered by the Rev. Dr. Peckwell, at the Countess of Huntingdon's chapel in Spa-fields. The text was taken from 1 John i. 8, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." While that powerful and eloquent preacher opened the Scripture, he felt the arrow of conviction pierce his inmost soul. "Sin revived" in all the forms of turpitude and