PREFATORY NOTE.

THE extraordinary interest occasioned by the visit of Mr Gough to this country has excited a general desire to know something of his history. In his Autobiography and public addresses he has supplied, to a great extent, the means of its gratification; but as many things are known and said of him which a commendable delicacy forbids him to be the channel of communicating to others, and as the interest he has excited extends far beyond those whom his voice may reach, we have been induced to attempt, not only a sketch of his life, but a description of his oratory. For the former, we must be mainly indebted to his own published account of himself; and for the latter, to what we have seen and heard.

SKETCH.

PART FIRST.

BOYHOOD, DOMESTIC PRIVATIONS, AND DISSIPATION.

ABOUT forty years ago, a soldier, on passing along the street, picked up a shilling-a glance was sufficient to excite suspicions as to its genuineness; but the temptation to make something of it prevented any farther examination. Entering a beer-shop, it was speedily exchanged for what did not certainly, intrinsically, exceed it in value; but it had no sooner changed hands than conscience told the finder he had done wrong. Days passed, and the day of rest came, but it brought no peace to a mind ill at ease. In desperation, the soldier sought refuge in the house of God. As the minister prayed, he might have been seen bowing his head; he felt and feared as if the preacher knew the workings of his troubled breast. The text which was announced only added to his agitation: 'Ye have sold yourselves for nought, and ye shall be redeemed without money;' but, as the sermon proceeded, fear gave place to tranquillity, and that day impressions were made on one heart, at least, which all the

vicissitudes and turmoil of a life spent in barracks, camps, and on the field of battle, could not efface. Next Sabbath found the soldier back again, and along with him several of his companions. Each new Sabbath gave the congregation more of a military aspect, till not fewer than forty or fifty soldiers were in regular attendance. The distance from the barracks being several miles, a place of meeting was opened in a village close by, and in that humble chapel not a few hearts yielded to the influence of the cross of Christ; and testimony was borne by more than one, when expiring amid the carnage of war, that this man, and that man were born there.' An intimacy sprung up between the soldier who had found the coin and the woman who took charge of the place of meeting, which in due course resulted in their marriage. Such is the history of the union of John Gough's parents.

On the 22d of August, 1817, John first saw the light of day, in the town of Sandgate, county of Kent, a romantic little wateringplace, much resorted to during the summer months. Of his father he says: His military habits had become as a second nature with him. Stern discipline had been taught him in a severe school; and it being impossible for him to cast off old associations, he was not calculated to win the deep affections of a child, although, in every respect, he deserved and possessed my love. He received his discharge from the army in the year 1823.'

It is doubtless to his mother he is mainly indebted for that deep religious feeling which forms so prominent a feature in the changed character of his manhood. She it was who poured into his receptive mind the elements of religious knowledge,

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lifted his little hands, and taught his little tongue to lisp in prayer, guarded him with something like an angel's vigilance, through all his helpless years, and transferred to him the complexion of her own mind and spirit. How well Mrs Gough performed a mother's duty is gratefully acknowledged; and thousands bless her as they read the thrilling story of her son's history. 'Her heart,' says he, was a fountain, whence the pure waters of affection never ceased to flow. Her very being seemed twined with mine, and ardently did I return her love. For the long space of twenty years she had occupied the then prominent position of school-mistress in the village, and frequently planted the first principles of knowledge in the minds of children, whose parents had, years before, been benefited by her early instructions. And well qualified by nature and acquirements was she for the interesting but humble office she filled, if a kindly heart and a well-stored mind be the requisites.'

When lecturing, lately, upon the subject of 'Habit,' before a crowded meeting, in Exeter Hall, London, he bore the following testimony to her influence upon his mind :

'I remember the teachings of a praying, pious mother. That mother was very poor, but she was one of the Lord Jesus Christ's nobility, and she had a patent signed and sealed with his blood. She died a pauper, and was buried without a shroud and without a prayer; but she left her children the legacy of a mother's prayer, and the Lord God Almighty was the executor of her last will and testament. That mother taught me to pray, and in early life I had acquired the habit of praying. She, with the assistance of teachers in the Sabbath

school, had helped to store my mind with passages of scripture. And, young men, we do not forget that which we learn. It may be buried-it may be hid away in some obscure corner of the heart; but, by and by, circumstances will reveal to us the fact, that we know much more than we dreamed we knew. After that mother's death I went out into the world; exposed to temptation, I fell,-I acquired bad habits; for seven years of my life I wandered over God's beautiful earth like an unblessed spirit-wandering, whipped, over a burning desert, digging deep wells to quench my thirst, and bringing up the dry, hot sand. The livery of my master had become to me a garment of burning poison, bound with the fetters of evil habit -evil habit like an iron net encircling me in its folds-fascinated with my bondage, and yet with a desire-oh, how fervent !-to stand where I had once hoped to stand. Seven years of darkness, seven years of dissipation, seven years of sin! There I stood. Ah! says one, what is the effect now of a mother's teaching, and of a mother's prayers—of Sabbath school instruction, and of your good habits that you formed in early life? Oh! I stood there-I remember it well-feeling my own weakness, feeling that "the way of transgressors is hard," and that "the wages of sin is death"-feeling in my heart of hearts all the bitterness that arises from the consciousness of powers that God had given to me, wasted, conscious that I had been chasing the bubble pleasure and finding nothing, gaining nothing by it, there I stood; that mother had passed to heaven. I remember one night sitting with her in the garret, and we had no candle. She said to me, "John, I am growing