During these early years, the subject of this brief memorial was rescued several times from imminent peril by the hand of a special Providence. He was twice in great danger of being drowned. On one occasion he was pushed into the deep by one of his school-fellows. On another, while walking on a raft of timber which was floating in the bay, one of the logs turned under his feet, and, falling down between two logs, he found himself under the raft; how he was rescued from this perilous situation is not known. At another time, some of his playthings had got behind a large block, intended for a grave-stone, which was standing at the end of a house. In order to get at them, some of his companions removed the upper part of the stone from the wall, which was no sooner done than it fell with a crash on the spot on which he was standing; as he was making his escape the stone severely bruised the side of one of his legs. Had he stood a moment longer, death would have been the consequence. It is well to mark the hand of God in these providences. "We are immortal till our work is done." Throughout his boyhood, Alexander Campbell was an obedient and dutiful son, and was distinguished as a peace-maker among his companions. His spiritual history I am happy to be able to relate in his own words, and it will be found greatly to resemble that of other youths placed in similar circumstances. The statement has been found among his papers, written by pencil:-"Few, perhaps, have been brought up from their infancy with so many religious advantages as I possessed, and certainly never did any one more despise and neglect these advantages. In my father's house I witnessed the benign influence of pure and undefiled religion in the walk and conversation of my parents, and could not but observe the harmony that uniformly subsisted between the example always set before me and the precepts constantly enforced. But religion had no charms for me. I saw no beauty in the Saviour, that I should desire him-I despised his offered grace, and trampled upon all the privileges so abundantly bestowed upon me. I knew well the solicitude of my parents about the salvation of my immortal soul, and was conscious that all was not right; but in my heart I resisted all their efforts to lead me to repentance, and contented myself by imagining that it would be time enough to think of these things when I became old. Often, however, did my conscience speak loudly, and I was brought to see, to a certain extent, the evil nature of sin, and my need of a change of heart, but I always struggled to suppress these feelings, sometimes, indeed, by resolving thenceforth to renounce the service of sin, and to walk in the ways of holiness; but these resolutions, made in my own strength, to work out a righteousness of my own, were no sooner formed than broken. I fell back into my former state of indifference, and all my impressions vanished. "In the summer of 1825, it pleased the Lord, by the influence of his spirit, to open the eyes of my mind, and to show me my real character in his sight. My father was then labouring under trouble, and with the impression that he was soon to go home, and be no more, he, as a dying parent, pressed upon my attention those things which concerned my everlasting peace. His admonitions, I trust, were not in vain; they sunk deep into my heart, and aroused me to a sense of my guilt and depravity before God. It pleased the Lord to restore him to health, and in the autumn of the same year I accompanied him to Perthshire. Here I was to remain for some months, while he was to return home. When parting with me, he renewed his appeals to my heart and conscience, and pressed upon me to search the scriptures, and pray for the enlightening influences of the spirit of God. For two months after he parted with me I continued in a state of despair, having no hope, and seeing that the wrath of a holy and just God hung over me. Indeed, such was my anguish of mind at one time, that at midnight I was about to leave my friends in Perthshire and hasten home to communicate my mind to my father, foolishly imagining that he could avert the wrath of God, which I was afraid would the next moment burst upon my head. But it pleased the Lord to calm my troubled spirit; I was enabled to fly for refuge to the hope set before me in the gospel, to look to him who saith, 'Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Here I found that salvation which no arm of flesh could have wrought for me. Here I saw mercy and truth meet together, righteousness and peace kiss each other, and experienced that peace which passeth knowledge-but, alas! it was of short duration. After I returned to Oban I did not reveal my mind to my father, but continued for a time experiencing the satisfaction arising from an approving conscience and hope towards God. By degrees the deceitfulness of sin, and the influence of bad companions, led me astray from the simplicity of the truth. The flame of love in my bosom began to languish-private devotion became irksome, and was but irregularly and formally attended to, and I fell back almost into my former state of hardness and insensibility." About Martinmas, 1826, Mr. Campbell became a clerk in a commercial house in Oban, where he continued till August, 1827. His intercouse with the world during that period seems to have effaced, in a great measure, his religious impressions, a result to which his concealment of his sentiments from his parents and other christian friends contributed not a little. In August, 1827, he left the home of his youth; but he carried with him all those feelings and impressions which are peculiar to the natives of a "hill country." There is a sympathy between the soul of man and external nature which has no mean influence in the formation of national character. The remark of an English lady, as she gazed in ecstacy on a Highland landscape of wood and water, rock and mountain, which had just opened on her view, is based on truth and sound philosophy,-"I now see (she said) how it is that Highland spirits are so brave and daring-they have only their country's genius." We are not careful to maintain that "the rocks yield founts of courage” to all who live among them, or that the free mountain breeze inspires all on whom it blows with the love of freedom, but we do believe that the eye of a Highland child affects his heart with impressions which no after acquaintance with other scenes can ever efface. It was not at the dictate of fancy, but of deep and strong feeling, that Mr. Campbell wrote, some years after he had left his father's house"Sweet Oban!-lovliest village, hail! To memory's breeze I spread my sail, In beauty clothed, that nature gave, Thou art my pride, my boast!" When a very young boy, Mr. Campbell's attention was drawn to a singular natural phenomenon, to which he refers in an essay on superstition, published many years afterwards in the "Weekly Christian Teacher," as follows: "About eighteen years ago we were residing in a Highland village, within a mile of which is the mansion of the chief of one of the most celebrated clans. One of the chief's daughters, who was esteemed a great beauty, and just about to be married to an English gentleman, an M.P., was suddenly seized with a dangerous illness. It was summer, and a most lovely evening, when a singular phenomenon attracted the notice of the villagers. From the top of an old tree within the enclosure which surrounded the mansion, there ascended a dense cloud of smoke, which continued for a considerable time, alternately rising and falling, and constantly changing in form. Some al b |