January the 6th, 1810. The godly training of a Christian home produced no fruit in the child's heart. At the age of nine he was sent to Eton, where, instead of becoming, as his praying mother hoped, a power for good, he was soon a noted ringleader in all mischief. Being passionately fond of boating and athletic sports, he paid slight attention to his studies. One of his schoolfellows, when asked to supply information as to his boyhood, replied that all his recollections of him at Eton were painful. He had a very precious memory of his later life, however; for his son was brought to God after one of Brownlow North's services for young men in Exeter Hall. The Rev. Augustus North died while his son was at Eton. The lad was, then, placed at a Theological College in Corfu, where his cousin, Lord Guildford, resided, as Chancellor of the Ionian Isles.

But he had no taste for theological study, and was a constant cause of mortification to his relative, who was continually hearing of some disgrace ful outbreak of his ungoverned spirits. At last, matters were brought to a crisis by the young student jumping through the window of the class-room. He was sent home as incorrigible. At the age of eighteen he married an Irish Clergyman's daughter, having the year before proposed to, and been accepted by, nineteen young ladies whom he had met during one ball

room season.

The young spendthrift soon found his income of three hundred a year quite insufficient to meet his extravagant expenditure. He resorted to gambling, but with ill success; and, having lost more than he could hope to pay, he fled to Portugal, and enlisted as a volunteer in Don Pedro's army; his children finding a temporary refuge with his mother, and his wife returning to her home in Ireland. In a few months, the war having closed, he returned,

and settled near Aberdeen. The summer and autumn months of the next few years were spent in hunting, shooting and field sports. It was while on one of these shooting expeditions that an incident occurred which might have been the turningpoint of his life. He was visiting at Huntly Lodge, the residence of the devoted Duchess of Gordon. Some one, who took an interest in the spiritual welfare of the wild young man, wrote, asking the Duchess to try what she could do to awaken him to some concern for his soul. The lady found young North by no means averse to religious conversation. Indeed, he had many calls from God's Spirit and God's people. He was not standing idle because no man had attempted to hire him. Often his friends thought they discerned hopeful signs, but all proved to be as the morning cloud' and 'the early dew.' But one day, at dinner, he abruptly, yet very seriously, demanded of her, 'Duchess, what should a man do who has often prayed to God, and never been answered?'""Yeask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume upon your lusts,' was the quiet, decided reply. The arrow went home. He was very silent during the remainder of his visit, and on leaving thanked the Duchess very warmly for her words.

Soon after this his son became dangerously ill. A book which the Duchess had lent to the sick child deepened the father's convictions, and he resolved to lead a new life. He determined to go to Oxford and prepare for ordination. With all the ardour of his indomitable spirit, he threw his whole soul into the studies which had been so irksome to him. He had entirely forgotten whatever Classical knowledge he had acquired at school; even the Greek alphabet had to be learned afresh. Yet by dint of application, with extraordinary powers of acquisition, he managed to pass

all

his examinations creditably, taking his B.A. after the ordinary number of

terms.

But all this time the state of his heart was, as he afterwards said, like the house swept and garnished, but empty. He was going about to establish his own righteousness; not 'seeking for Jesus.' All was still dark, and Jesus had not come to him. He had the promise of a curacy at Cowper's Olney. The Bishop who was to ordain him had grave doubts about his fitness for the sacred office, and at last put the straightforward question to him, 'Mr. North, if I were in your position, and you in mine, would you ordain me?' 'My Lord, I would not,' was the reply. That settled the matter. All thought of a clerical life, all endeavour after a godly life, was abandoned. Brownlow North's religious friends, to their intense grief, saw him turn back to his old courses; and they felt as if their praying faith had been in vain. Thus many precious years were frittered away. The Holy Spirit was grieved, but did not take His everlasting flight.

The year 1854 was drawing to a close when Brownlow North was again powerfully arrested by the Spirit of God. At length he yielded. The account of the sudden change shall be given substantially in his own words:

'It pleased God, one night, when I was sitting playing at cards, to make me concerned about my soul. There was a sensation of sudden illness. I said to my son, "I am a dead man; take me upstairs." My first thought, as I threw myself on the bed, was, Now what will my fortyfour years of following the devices of my own heart profit me? In a few minutes I shall be in hell; and what good will these things do me, for which I have sold my soul?" At that moment I was constrained to pray.......And yet there was still something trying to prevent me putting myself on my knees to call for mercy: that was the presence of the maid-servant lighting my fire. Though I did not believe that I had ten minutes to live, and knew

that there was no possible hope for me but in the mercy of God, yet such was the nature of my heart......that it was a balance with me, a thing to turn this way or that, whether I should wait till that woman left the room, or whether I should fall on my knees and cry for mercy in her presence. By the grace of God I did put myself on my knees before that girl, and I believe it was the turning-point with me. I believe that if I had at that time resisted the Holy Ghost, it would have been once too often.......I believe every man has his turning-point, and that the sin against the Holy Ghost is grieving the Spirit once too often.'

At Mr. North's request, a Christian relative of the family, Miss Gordon, was immediately sent for, and the following day he confessed to her and the other friends who were staying in the house the great change he had experienced. To others he communicated by letter the same intelligence, adding significantly, as the days multiplied into weeks, 'I am kept.' But though the transformation was so sudden and so marked, a long and terrible period of seeking and struggling elapsed before Brownlow North realized peace with God. During this time, however, he diligently brought forth fruits meet for repentance.' Family prayer was at once begun in his house, and his old habits were entirely broken off.

From the age of twelve he had been an almost incessant smoker, often going to bed with a cigar in his mouth. On the night of his awakening, the cigar he was at the time smoking was laid down, and he never took up another. Most of his time was now spent in reading the Bible and agonizing prayer. Often, Miss Gordon tells us, he would rise in the night, and, retiring to his study, would cry aloud for mercy. Doubts of God's willingness to save, of His power, even of His existence, tormented the struggling soul. health completely gave way, and his friends feared for his reason, as they watched him pacing to and fro in his back garden, vehemently reiter

His

washerwoman in the town: you know you should go to her, and read and pray with

her also." But the flesh said, "Do nothing

of the sort; she will likely say that she has more religion than you." Still the Spirit would give me no rest till I read and prayed with the washerwoman also.'

Some time after this, Mr. North was asked to visit a dying girl. On going to the house he found that she was dying in the Lord, and had no fear for herself, but was much concerned for her unconverted father. Mr. North said a few words to the man, who was deeply impressed, as were several neighbours who were in the room. These people were always present on Mr. North's subsequent visits; and soon, whenever he came in, he found the room crowded with eager listeners to the Word of Life. The girl's father believed to the saving of his soul, and when the news of his conversion spread, Mr. North was asked to speak to another bad man, whose wife had profited by his visits. The man was much interested in Mr. North's words, and begged him to return, promising to bring a few of his fellow-workmen to hear him. When the time came, instead of the dozen shoemakers he expected to see, he found fifty or sixty persons. Night after night the people came together, and thus Brownlow North was drawn by Providence to the unsought work of public preaching. Nor were his labours without fruit. The man who asked him to address the shoemakers was, with his wife, soon led to Christ, and other seals' were speedily added.

In no less striking a manner was Mr. North led to preach in the open air. Being in London one Sunday, he called on a young friend who was a zealous worker among the masses, and found him just going out to preach in the streets. Mr. North went with him to stand by him. But the audience seemed in no mood for the Gospel, and interrupted the ad

K

dress with shouts of wild blasphemy. His friend began to doubt the advisability of proceeding, as the words seemed only to call forth the worst language he had ever heard; when there broke forth loud cries: 'We'll hear that stout man with the dark eyes.' Thus invited, he could not help speaking, and instantly every eye was fixed on him; the lately noisy crowd listened with rapt attention; and when he paused, unable to proceed from sheer exhaustion, they cried out, 'Go on, Sir, we want to hear more.'

A whole year passed after his conversion before Mr. North ventured to let his voice be heard in public; but when once 'the string of his tongue was loosed,' he spoke plain enough, and had no lack of hearers. Earnest Pastors, who lamented the coldness of their flocks, besought him to preach in their churches; and his words were never without fruit. Multitudes remained behind as 'enquirers,' while many came to him in the intervals of the services, seeking instruction; and were never turned away. Mr. North was endowed with rare powers of discrimination of character, and was as wise and tender in binding up the wounds of the conscience-stricken as he was faithful and skilful in inflicting them. Many who listened to the stern, almost hard denunciations of sin, and enforcements of the law, thought that the tears that accompanied the message were quite out of keeping with the man, and sneeringly called them 'a trick of oratory.' But they could not fathom the depth of tender solicitude for sinners that found vent in irrepressible emotion.

Mr. North felt keenly the solemn responsibility of his unsought position as a popular Evangelist. had, at the outset, many doubts as to the right of laymen to preach, especially in regular places of worship. But when multitudes of sinners were

saved by this means, they furnished an argument he could not resist. Still, he was very careful to clear himself from any imputation of trespassing on the office of the authorized Ministry. 'Don't think,' he would say, 'that I am intruding into the office of the holy Ministry. I am not an authorized Preacher, but I'll tell you what I am : I am a man who has been at the brink of the bottomless pit, and has looked in; and I am here to "hollo" you back, and warn you of your danger.'

One evening, just as he was preparing to address a large assembly, a note was put into his hand with the request that he would read it at once. He did so, and found it contained a detailed account of his former irregularities, and closed with the enquiry: How dare you, being conscious of the truth of all the above, speak to the people this evening, when you are such a vile sinner?' If the writer hoped to disconcert and silence the Preacher, he was disappointed. Mr. North quietly put the letter into his pocket, and standing up before the congregation, repeated to them the substance of it, adding: All that is here said is true, and it is a correct picture of the degraded sinner I once was; and, O! how wonderful must be the grace of God that could quicken and raise me up from such a death in trespasses and sins, and make me what I appear before you to-night: a vessel of mercy, one who knows that all his past sins are cleansed away through the atoning blood of the Lamb of God! It is of His redeeming love that I have now to tell you.'

The first few years of Mr. North's evangelistic labours were entirely devoted to Scotland. 'I have done all the harm I could in Scotland,' he said, and now I intend to remain there, and do all the good I can.' Many of the churches felt that the labours which had been so owned

of God ought to receive some formal recognition from His Church. The Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, at their Meeting in 1859, had the honour of publicly admitting him to the rank of a recognized Evangelist among them. After expressing themselves fully satisfied as to the soundness of his doctrinal views, they resolved-'That we do welcome him as an Evangelist who may be freely asked by the Ministers of the Church to preach to their congregations.' Mr. North was thus supposed to be placed above the level of an ordinary Lay Preacher, and to become a probationer of the Free Church of Scotland. The same year (1859) Mr. North went over to Ireland to witness and to help forward the glorious Revival which had broken out in that country. Here, too, thousands flocked to hear him, and did not hear in vain.

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In times of Revival it is wonderfully refreshing and instructive to observe the power and freshness which accompany the simplest and most familiar words. A girl in Londonderry, who happened to catch a few sentences of one of Mr. North's open-air addresses, as she swept a door-step was stricken down in penitence, and immediately restored by the words, Whosoever will, let him come.' A man was convinced of his heart-sins by hearing Mr. North utter with intense earnestness the familiar form of confession, We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have. done those things which we ought not to have done.' Another young woman was brought to God by hearing Mr. North pray that the Minister whose church she was accustomed to attend might have many seals to his ministry. She resolved, by God's grace, to be one of them.

It is deeply interesting, too, to find that however widely different people may be in outward circum