lous to excel in acts of Christian heroism, had not the weight of a feather, in the inducements which determined him to accept the weighty charge. He was influenced by motives of a nobler and purer order a desire to extend the benefits of Christianity to the utmost extent of his power, in a country where a savage and obscene system had for centuries reigned with undisputed sway.

From the moment of his lordship's consecration to the latest period of his life, he devoted himself to the discharge of the duties of his sacred office, with a zeal and diligence, worthy of the great object in which he was engaged. His zeal, however, was regulated by judgment, moderation, and prudence, so that though all his proceedings and plans were executed with that promptitude and energy, which to feebler minds would have appeared hazardous if not dangerous, they were never in any degree chimerical, or the result of mere conjecture: hence they seldom failed to accomplish more good than had been anticipated. He was guided by the soundest principles in all he undertook, and pursued his great object with that courage and perseverance that has seldom been equalled, and never excelled. Few persons can be found, who, under any circumstances, in the same debilitating country, have travelled so many miles, and perhaps none who have laboured so hard, and done so much good by wholesome and prudent regulations in so short a time. Fostered by his care, aided by his munificence, and guided by his counsel, the various stations in his immense diocess, which he visited, were progressively answering more and more the ends for which they were established. amiable deportment in all circumstances, and the courteous and tender manner in which he sought to heal the wounds made by the dissensions of some, whose bitter spirits had produced results the most disastrous, followed by the example he everywhere

His

set of forbearance and kindness, instead of resentment and rancour, had the happiest effect on the minds of all with whom he came in contact, and were the means of effecting incalculable good to the Indian church.

With a noble liberality of sentiment, differing as widely from latitudinarian neutrality, as from intolerance and bigotry, his lordship was ever ready to embrace in the arms of his charity, and to admit to spiritual communion with him, all who maintained the essential and fundamental doctrines of Christianity, much as they might differ from him on points of discipline, which, although by no means unimportant, were not of sufficient magnitude to endanger the foundation of religion. With the late eloquent writer of another church, but of a kindred spirit, the Rev. Robert Hall, he would have been ready to exclaim, "I hold, if there be one truth clear as the sun in heaven, it is this-there should be no terms of communion but what are terms of salvation; and he who is good enough for Christ, is good enough for me." Or as the distinguished bishop Taylor, in whose works he was so deeply read, once said: "To make the way to heaven straiter than God made it, or to deny to communicate with those to whom God will vouchsafe to be united, and to refuse our charity to those who have the same faith, because they have not all our opinions, and believe not every thing necessary which we overvalue, is impious and schismatical; it infers tyranny on our part, and tempts to uncharitableness and animosities in both; it dissolves societies, and is an enemy to peace; it busies men in impertinent wranglings, and makes them neglect those advantages which piety and a good life ensure."

As a Christian missionary, bishop Heber's qualifications were of the highest order. Animated by an ardent love to the souls of men, gifted with

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intellectual attainments seldom excelled, without the least alloy of ostentation, and endowed with a patience that no fatigue or discouragement could exhaust, he proceeded in the work to which he had been appointed as the chief missionary to the East, with an alacrity of spirit, that carried him through all his hardships and disappointments, and never forsook him to the latest period of his life. "Disappointments and annoyances," remarks sir C. E. Grey, in his speech at the town-hall, Calcutta, came to him as they come to other men, but he met and overcame them with a smile; and when he has known a different effect produced upon others, it was his usual wish that they were but as happy as himself!" So much was he attached to the work in which he was engaged, that he shrunk from no pain or labour that was likely to promote its success; and so ardently did he engage in it, that he seemed to have no time to think of his native home, although no man had left behind him a more endeared circle of friends. Adverting to this, sir C. E. Grey observes in his speech just quoted, "To this large assembly I fear I might appeal in vain, if I were to ask, that he should step forward, who had never felt his spirit sink when he thought of his native home, and felt that a portion of his heart was in a distant land; who had never been irritated by the annoyances, or embittered by the disappointments of India. The bishop was the only one whom I have ever known who was entirely master of those feelings." Who can doubt that the holy zeal of his lordship in the cause of missions, and the delight he felt in the work of conveying the Gospel to the heathen, were the chief, if not the only causes, to which this noble and elevated command over his feelings were to be ascribed ?

Heber's scholastic attainments-Character as a writerRemarks on his style-On his poetic productionsOn his theological sentiments-On his missionary spirit-Reflections on his death-Mysterious character of providential dispensation-Ends frequently to be answered by the sudden removal of eminently useful and pious men-Should lead us to consideration, and prompt us to activity-Claims of India upon the sympathy of British Christians-The great responsibility committed to us-Importance of missions-Cultivation of a missionary spirit-Motives to urge to it.

HEBER'S attainments as a scholar were of the first order, and Oxford may justly be proud to rank him among her brightest gems. As a writer he possessed great power and energy. His descriptions were often most striking and beautiful, as innumerable passages in his Journals will prove. If there be occasionally a profusion of dazzling metaphors, giving to the style an appearance of something overwrought, it should be remembered that his lordship's sketches were written when he was viewing nature in the gorgeous dress she mostly wears in India, and which, to those who have never beheld it, can hardly fail to appear otherwise, even when the most correctly delineated, than as being too highly coloured. No one, however, could describe

more admirably or with more graphic force and beauty, and very few with such felicity, vivacity, and elegance.

The style of his lordship's official correspondence was distinguished by that dignified simplicity which should characterize such productions, without any portion of that dictatorial and dogmatic arrogance with which compositions of this class are too often disgraced. Not a few of his friendly letters were masterly specimens of the epistolary style. In his lighter productions of this kind, however, there was not that ease, elegance, and vivacity which would entitle them to rank with some others, though unquestionably they are greatly superior to many. The style of his published works varies considerably: perhaps his best early prose production was his prize essay on a Sense of Honour: a most difficult subject, but handled by him with great judgment and discrimination. It was recited at Oxford in 1801, and was justly regarded as an admirable production.

The bishop's Bampton Lectures, on the Personality and Office of the Holy Spirit, are written throughout in a manly and nervous style, scarcely ever deficient in perspicuity, though some passages, owing to the great length of the sentences, might almost be charged with this fault. The work would certainly have been much improved had it been got up with less haste. In that case, the few paragraphs which now appear stiff and complicated, betraying symptoms of juvenility of authorship, would doubtless have been remodelled. As it is, however, it abundantly proves the author to have been a writer of no common order, possessing powers of illustration, a command of language, with an originality of conception, to which few ever attain.

The Life of Bishop Taylor was unquestionably the most chaste and the most elaborate of Heber's prose productions; and it contains passages of