while living under the paternal roof, was no doubt trained very carefully to the practice of the same principles, by which they themselves were characterized; and I feel assured that their influence and example were of signal service, in instilling into his mind from his earliest years that love of truth, and of honesty, and of kindliness, and of fair and honourable dealing, which he continued eminently, and through the whole course of his life, to exemplify for himself.

But in other respects I cannot help thinking that his religious education, while defective in itself, was not altogether founded in right principle. His parents were themselves unduly prejudiced against the peculiarities of vital and evangelical religion, and therefore could not be expected to be earnest and indefatigable in pressing upon his attention the vast importance of looking for the teaching of the Divine Spirit, that, being washed in the blood of Christ, and born from above, he might be qualified for the faithful and efficient performance of every good work. Moreover, it is not undeserving of notice, that being an only child, he was indulged in almost everything to an extent exceedingly prejudicial to his usefulness in after life.

To nothing else than the defective and injudicious training to which he was subjected in his childhood is, I believe, to be traced that feature in his character

to which his own minister, Dr. Hamilton, of Regent Square, London, so emphatically refers in the sermon which he preached on the occasion of his death. He says: With a sanguine temperament, he had strong convictions, and an eager spirit; and whilst he sometimes magnified into an affair of principle a matter of secondary moment, he was impatient of opposition, and he did not always concede to an opponent the sincerity which he so justly claimed for himself. Then, again, his openness was almost excessive; and his determination to flatter nobody sometimes led him to say things more plain than pleasant; and this, united to a fastidious optimism--to that turn of mind at once constructive and conservative, which planned its own ideal, and which could bear no alterations on it except those of his own originating,—this sensitiveness and this outspokenness, kept some persons from ever discovering his rare and remarkable worth. The keen sentence, or the warm demonstration, rankled in their memory, and created a prejudice not easily overcome. And those only could appreciate his excellence who either knew his entire manner of life, or whose casual acquaintance was confined to the walks of his habitual benevolence.'

This I believe to be truly and faithfully expressed, and I refer to it because of the lesson which it teaches to parents. The lesson is this: while warmly interested in the well-being of your children, beware

of anything like over-indulgence. Do not allow them to have everything which they ask, or to do everything which they like. Let there be control when it is needed, kindly exercised, and always regulated by religious principle; for otherwise you may inflict evils on your children which may affect the whole current of their after lives; and even when brought under the power of the Divine Spirit, and engaged in the service of the Divine Redeemer, may so betray themselves in infirmities of temper which may mar the operation of the most benevolent schemes, and excite prejudices in the minds of other men which cannot fail to be productive of the most injurious results.

'Lamb of God, I look to Thee, 、
Thou shalt my example be;
When Thou wast a little child,
Thou wast gentle, meek, and mild.

Due obedience Thou didst show,
Oh make me obedient too!
Thou wast merciful and kind:
Grant me, Lord, Thy loving mind.

Loving Jesus, holy Lamb,
In Thy hands secure I am ;
Fix Thy temple in my heart,
Never from Thy child depart.'

'My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.'-
PROV. I. IO.

FTER being instructed in the branches of education usually taught in the parish schools of Scotland, but without enjoying the higher training of any college or university, James Nisbet was apprenticed in his fifteenth year to Mr. Charles Wilson, writer in Kelso. But before he had served the three years for which he was bound, he received the offer of a situation in London; and Mr. Wilson having given up the indenture, and furnished him with a most satisfactory certificate of character, he left Kelso in January 1803, and proceeded to the great metropolis by way of Berwick. Shortly after his arrival in London, he was subjected to a great temptation; but as the circumstances are so graphically described by Dr. Hamilton, I shall take the liberty of quoting his emphatic words.

'The time of a young man's arrival in London is a time of trial; and those who have the prudence or the principle to overcome the temptations of the first few months are usually preserved to the end. It was with a heavy heart that our friend left Kelso on a wintry day in 1803; and I have heard him tell how he stood that evening on the bridge at Berwick, weeping till the tear had almost frozen on his cheek; and on his eighteenth birthday he found himself, a friendless youth, in this great labyrinthine London. One night soon after his arrival, a young acquaintance, whom he had known in his own country-side, took him out to see some sights, and at last their walk ended in a blind alley, and a strange-looking place. Some instinct told him it was the house of the destroyer; and as, at a signal made by his companion, the door opened, he started back in horror. He entreated his companion to come away; but he laughed at him, and went in, leaving him to find the best of his way through the unknown streets. have heard him tell how desolate he felt as he wandered back by himself that dreary night. It seemed to him as if the city to which he had come must be a sort of Pandemonium. Already it had transformed into a profligate the companion whom, ere leaving home, he had known as a virtuous youth; and his fancy was oppressed by a vague fear of evil— mysteries of iniquity, and shadowy apprehensions of