of the informing soul. Such a countenance was that of my late dear father. His deep habitual gravity might easily have been mistaken for sternness. But it told rather of one who had known and thought much of the evils and mysteries of this state of sin and sorrow, not only on his own account, but still more on account of the world in which his lot was cast to be a Minister of grace and righteousness. Ordinarily, no temper could be gentler or more placid than his. Nor is it easy to imagine a disposition more purely benevolent or kindly sympathetic. Nevertheless, his was not the indifferent placidity of the merely easy soul. Meanness, malice, or tyranny never failed to rouse into virtuous indignation the strength of his manly nature. But the diffidence and reserve of a most modest and retiring disposition, and a peculiarly sensitive organization, veiled from the common eye all the fine play of his quick feelings. Let me be forgiven for having thus, in the very first place, attempted to set something like a portrait of my father before the reader. It may be well that some who may have seen him only from a distance, and so have possibly misunderstood him, should be to this extent introduced to his more private character, before they accompany me farther. The difficulty, moreover, of adequately portraying such a character, will be some apology for the degree in which I may fail in this attempt.

The late Rev. John Rigg was born on June 12th, 1786, at LittleStrickland, in the parish of Moreland, and county of Westmoreland. He was the eldest son of Mr. John Rigg, who is described as a yeoman. He united, I believe, the business of a builder and that of a small farmer,-in those days, and in that part of the country, not an uncommon conjunction,—and during the latter part of his life lived upon his own comfortable freehold, which, however, some years after his death, passed out of the hands of my father into the possession of another branch of the family. There can be no doubt that the influences which surround the earliest years of our life have much to do with moulding our disposition and character. In the case of Mr. Rigg the truth of this principle was, in several respects, exemplified. Often, in later years, did he refer to the love of legendary lore so characteristic, in former days, of the northern borderers. His childhood had been nursed among tales of wonder. Some of his carliest recollections were of the stories of fairies, ghosts, and glamour, mixed with relations of dark and evil deeds, with which his mother's female acquaintances used to while away the time around the kitchen-hearth during the long winter evenings. To this cause, at least in part, may be attributed his remarkable retentiveness of memory as to all narratives which had in them the element of the terrible or the marvellous. Details which his cosmopolitan and less susceptible children endeavoured in vain to remember accurately, though they might have been heard many times, he could never forget, if but once related to him. Indeed his store of anecdote in general, and of interesting reminiscences of early days, was singularly rich; as his manner of telling his stories was more than ordinarily happy and dramatic. This talent was never abused to merely frivolous purposes;

but, used as he used it, with discretion and on proper occasions, it made him a most interesting companion.

Another leading feature in Mr. Rigg's natural character, which was doubtless nourished by the scenery and associations of his childhood and youth, was his passionate love of the country. No luxury was to him so great as a rural walk. Nothing refreshed his spirit in weariness and vexation like rural sights and sounds. No poetry charmed him like that which breathes the spirit of the country. Hence his fondness not only for the works of Cowper, but of Bloomfield. Their poetry came to him in his earlier years, redolent of congenial thought and feeling. Many of their lines were immovably lodged in his memory; and in his latest days I have seen him deeply affected by such exquisite pictures as Tennyson's "Gardener's Daughter." Westmoreland, indeed, is a region very fit to inspire and nourish a passion for country-life. Mr. Rigg's birthplace was within view of some of its boldest hills, and within a walk of more than one of its loveliest lakes; while the clear "becks," in which the trout delights, threaded all the valleys of his daily resort. He was born and bred within the region whose grand and lovely varieties of scenery have been celebrated in the letters of Gray, the verse of Wordsworth, and the fiery prose-poems of Wilson. No wonder that the spirit of the scenery passed into his mind and memory, gave enthusiasm to his enjoyment of country-walks, and tinged with poetic colouring and illustration not only many of his sermons, but his familiar letters and his ordinary speech. In his youth, moreover, Mr. Rigg, like many another contemplative and gentle lover of the country, was very fond of angling, at which he was expert. He fished, however, only with the fly. When nearly forty years had passed away, returning to visit his native vales, he records in one of his letters how greatly he had enjoyed a morning's angling in company with one of his nephews; and later still, when his strength was beginning to fail, he once more made a few essays to throw the line, and play the rod, in one of the clear and rapid streams of South Wales, but found that his sight was too dim, and that his hand had lost its cunning.

Among the most striking features of Mr. Rigg's moral character were his guilelessness and purity. If ever man seemed to have escaped from worldly contamination, he was such a one. This, too,

So

was doubtless due, in part, to the circumstances of his youthful training. He was brought up as one of a simple, honest, God-fearing family, who lived in a small, retired, and remote country-village. In those times, that part of Westmoreland where his father lived was remarkable for the general sobriety and virtue of the inhabitants. that, at the period when he was called into the Christian ministry, he knew nothing of the ways of the great world, and little, even by hearsay, of the vices of great cities. And the purity which he brought with him into the ministry, I need not say, was afterwards inviolate. Never was his reputation for perfect propriety of conduct touched by even a passing indiscretion. Higher influences came in to supplement

those of his education, and Divine grace kept him "from the world unspotted." The fresh purity of his character, and of all his intercourse and conversation, seemed to breathe the fragrance of the valleys where he had spent his early days.

At the time of which I am writing, it was very commonly the case that the eldest son of the Westmoreland yeoman was brought up by his father to take orders in the Church of England. A University degree was not then considered indispensable, especially in the northwestern angle of the country, consisting of Cumberland, Westmoreland, and the district of Furness. Indeed, up to the present time, the same feeling which led to the old custom has been, to a considerable extent, kept up. Hence the college of St. Bees has been founded, within this neighbourhood, to prepare for the ministry of the Episcopal Church young men who cannot command a University education. In conformity with what has now been stated, it was the ambition of Mr. Rigg, sen., that his eldest son should become "a Minister." With this view, he was at an early age placed under the care of the Rev. Mr. Matthews, Incumbent of Thrimby, in the parish of Moreland, and Master of the Thrimby Grammar-School. In reference to

this part of his early life, I may quote the words of my uncle, the Rev. William Rigg, who has for many years been the Incumbent of Flookburgh, a village situated on Morecambe-bay, between Lancaster and Ulverstone :

"Mr. Matthews," says my uncle, was considered a tolerable classical scholar, and a rigid disciplinarian. But John Rigg, being of a docile disposition and of studious habits, became a great favourite with him, and generally escaped the severe castigations so unsparingly inflicted on many of his other pupils. He continued to attend the school at Thrimby till the death of Mr. Matthews; at which time he was about fourteen years of age, and had made himself tolerably acquainted with the Latin tongue, and had also gained some slight knowledge of Greek. As his father intended him for the Church, he purposed placing him under the care of the Rev. John Bowstead, of Bampton, who was considered one of the best schoolmasters in the north of England. But, finding that his son was not inclined for the Church, he desired him to make choice of some trade. Now there were at that time a number of stone-masons, near to his home, hewing and preparing stones for the building of Lowther Castle; and he, having frequent opportunities of being among them, thought he should like to be a mason. He was accordingly allowed to go upon trial, and soon became very expert with his tools."

This account will remind some of Hugh Miller and his choice of the business of a mason, in preference to what might have been considered much "genteeler" and more intellectual occupations. But to those who knew Mr. Rigg the ideas most strongly suggested will be his modesty and conscientiousness. Never was any man more free from vanity or selfish ambition than my dear father. Never was any man more truly conscientious in his fear of undertaking more than he might be competent to perform. He had too much true

lowliness to aspire, merely for the office' sake, to be "a Minister;" and was, even then, not only too modest, but too devout, and too well aware of the responsibility implied in that great work, to suppose that it could be right for him, of his own mere will, to select it as his vocation. He was studious in his habits, he had been successful at school, and he remained at all times very fond of reading; but he did not hesitate to turn away from the school and the parsonage, that he might betake himself to the chisel and mallet, and walk in the humble but useful path in which his father had trodden before him. The consequence was, that his younger brother William was trained in his stead for the ministry of the Church.

The following quotation from Mr. William Rigg's account of these early days of my father brings us to a turning-point in his spiritual history:

"One day, when assisting his master in placing a stone on the bunker or hewing-stand, he by an over-lift broke a blood-vessel, which caused him to be confined to his bed for many months. The family surgeon entertained but slight hopes of his recovery. During his long confinement, he was assiduously attended by his dear mother, who eagerly embraced every opportunity of administering to his spiritual wants. She frequently prayed with him, and prayed for him, that God would give him to see that he was a sinner. Her prayers were heard and answered; for he became convinced of his sinfulness, and earnestly sought pardon through the merits of his Redeemer."

Mr. Rigg was, in after-life, muscular and powerful, though active and agile; and of nearly six feet in height. But his strength and activity were combined with a certain delicacy of tissue, and a high degree of nervous sensibility. When still in the prime of his physical and mental powers, his hand, in writing, became tremulous, often to a painful degree. The accident above-described may, perhaps, be taken as evidence that this delicacy was from the first a part of his bodily constitution. Or, possibly, the accident may itself be considered as the cause and foundation of this delicacy. At any rate, it is certain that he was for years after this time far from robust. It is by no means improbable that that which had so nearly proved the cause of his death at the time, contributed remotely, but not unimportantly, to determine the period and conditions of his actual decease more than half a century later. But, however that may be, we cannot fail to recognise, in that which threatened death to the "outward man," the occasion from which the beginnings of life in the "inner man took their rise. The seed of death was, it may be, lodged in the bodily frame; but the seed of life was at the same time imparted to the spirit. In how many ways does this "light affliction, which is but for a moment, work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory!"

Of the early religious connexions of my father's excellent mother, I regret that I have obtained no information. She finished her course more than thirty years ago, her husband having died in Christ as

early as 1812; robustness and long life not seeming to be the inheritance of the family on either side. It seems probable, however, that she had been indoctrinated, by some means, with those views which are generally known as "Methodistic." At this time, indeed, the Methodists had no Society either in or near the village of LittleStrickland; a rustic chapel-of-ease, singularly plain and humble, being then, and I believe still, the only place of worship for the village and its neighbourhood. But the ministry at this chapel afforded nothing to comfort the mourning, to satisfy the earnest, or to instruct the inquiring. No sooner, therefore, did it please God to raise John Rigg from the bed of affliction, than he sought out the ministry of the followers of Wesley. He has been heard to say, that he rode twenty miles to hear the sermon under which he was converted. It was preached by the Rev. Robert Harrison, at that time stationed in the Carlisle Circuit.

This was in 1803. Up to this time my father had been amiable and moral; remarkable for an upright and honourable spirit, and for a peculiarly tender and affectionate disposition, especially toward his parents, brothers, and sisters. Yet all this was felt by him to be utterly insufficient, when affliction lay upon him and death seemed near. Then he was made to feel the sin of his nature, and his guilty want of love toward God; he was constrained to "acknowledge his transgression," and deplore his inbred malady; nor could he attain to rest until he found peace through believing in Jesus.

At the time of his conversion my father was seventeen years of age. He soon joined the Methodist Society, and, before long, became a Class-Leader in his native village. It is probable that his mother met with him. It is at least certain that she also presently became a Methodist, and remained such until her death in 1823. A zealous young Class-Leader in a spiritually destitute village, where there was no one more experienced than himself, or better qualified to speak to the people about their souls, could not fail soon to become an Exhorter. It was so in all similar cases fifty or sixty years ago. Let us hope that it is so still. Not long after he had begun, according to this natural order, to exhort, his name was placed in the list of Local Preachers upon the Plan of what had been known, since the Conference of 1803, as the Brough Circuit; which included, at that time, nearly the whole of Westmoreland, and also, I believe, some part of Yorkshire.

For four years

At this time my father was eighteen years of age. he continued to act as a Local Preacher. During this period the general features of his development-bodily, mental, and moral-were becoming fixed. It will be remembered with what enthusiasm the British nation responded to the call of the Government after the renewal of the war with France in 1803. The near prospect of a French invasion stilled, for a time, even the conflicts and clamours of political factions. Within a few weeks in the early part of 1804, "three hundred thousand volunteers," we are informed by Alisou, "were enrolled, armed, and disciplined, thus superseding the necessity