of prayer-in his quenchless zeal-in his pastoral industry and fidelity-in his self-denying and self-sacrificing habits as a minister of the gospel-in his noble liberality-in the range of his expansive benevolence and in the undying hopes and earnest longings of his active mind for the world's conversion, the Rev. James Patterson has left an example whose salutary influence will not cease with this generation. With such an example, no mind in the ministry, or preparing for it, can become familiar without being greatly benefited.

But it is not to clergymen and to theological students only that we would recommend this memoir. It is one of those works in which the religious community generally have a common interest. Wherever true piety exists, this volume, it is thought, will find a welcome, and be read with profit. The religious poor will here learn how important an instrument of consolation to them is the ministry of the gos pel, when its sacred functions are performed by such a man as Mr. Patterson. The meekness and condescension which he manifested in seeking the wayward and rude, the ignorant and profligate poor, and after their conversion, the kind and constant care which he exercised over their spiritual interests-the generous sympathies which he extended to them, both in their temporal and spiritual troubles, and the eagerness and assiduity with which he brought the entire resources of his holy office to bear on their improvement and comfort, were amongst the most striking characteristics of his life and labours.

To no class of readers, it is hoped, will the work be found wanting in entertainment and instruction.

While the world appreciates the evidence of integrity and honesty in the character of man—of sincerity in his professions and consistency in his practice-while a moral courage that never blenched commands respect and admiration

while the church loves and reveres the memory of her purest, most disinterested, faithful, laborious and successful ministers, and while posterity retains a grateful recollection of rare and superior worth in the departed, the life of the lamented Patterson will be read with deep interest. Few men have adorned and blest the ministry of any evangelical denomination of Christians, through so long a period, and so strikingly as he. Yet he cannot be said to have "died in a good old age," for the energies of his noble mind, and the ardours of his benevolent heart, acted with such intensity as to wear out and sever "the silver cord" before he numbered even "three score years." His course has ended-his labours have ceased-he has entered into rest. Through the extent of this country, his death has created a more deep and pervading emotion of grief and regret than that of any other public teacher of religion since the departure of the sainted Payson. But he is not lost even to earth. "Though dead he yet speaketh.” His sun has set, as does the natural sun sometimes in the heavens, his disk appearing broader and more bright as he sinks below the horizon, and his beams caught and reflected by a calm evening's sky in more rich and gorgeous hues than during the hours of his intenser shining.

He has left to his bereaved and lovely family the precious memory of all the higher and nobler virtues of the husband and the father—the hallowed affection that lingers on them still in heaven;-to the church of God he has left a name that is as ointment poured forth ;" and to the world for whose highest interests his capacious soul laboured till it broke down the clay tenement with which it was connected, he has bequeathed a series of progressive and multiplying beneficent influences, that will, perhaps, be limited and arrested only when the great wheels of nature shall be stopped and this

whole terrestrial economy consummated. While we mourn his loss it is grateful to contemplate these blessed results of his mortal existence now terminated.

In concluding these desultory remarks, as I sit where he once sat, and look out of my window on the impressive monuments of the dead,* contrasting the returning verdure of spring with the silent and incessant decay going on beneath it, there is, to me, a melancholy pleasure in the reflection that his benevolent and lovely spirit, freed forever from the cares, the conflicts, and the sorrows of time, has gone

"To repose, to deep repose,

Far from the unquietness of life, from noise
And tumult far-beyond the flying clouds,
Beyond the stars, and all this passing scene,

Where change shall cease and time shall be no more."

Philadelphia, May 30th, 1839.

D. L. CARROLL.

* The pastor's study is in the basement story of the First Presbyterian Church, N. L., Philadelphia, and overlooks the adjoining burying ground.

MEMOIR

OF THE

REV. JAMES PATTERSON.

CHAPTER I.

To perpetuate the memory of those who have been eminently useful in the church of God, is a sacred duty. The record of their toils, sacrifices and success, is adapted to prolong their usefulness after they have been removed from earth. It rebukes and stimulates the slothful Christian; encourages and confirms the wavering; and often leads the thoughtless to serious reflection. This result, it is hoped, will be realized by the publication of the following memoir. The subject of it, the Rev. JAMES PATTERSON, was born March 17th, 1779, at Ervina, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, a beautiful tract of country on the western shore of the Delaware. His maternal ancestors, who were noted for their elevated piety, emigrated from the north of Ireland, some time before the American Revolution, and settled in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. Shortly after their arrival, they constructed for themselves an humble dwelling, in which they enjoyed a purer happiness than is often realized by those who dwell in the stately and magnificent mansion. Godliness with contentment they experienced to be great