which have been cultivated, and the learning which has been imparted by education, have been employed in hostility to the truth; and souls have been committed to those men who were incompetent to the charge. Such ministers have often hindered that sacred cause which they ought to have promoted; and sometimes have ridiculed those men who were far better than themselves.

The friends of our young student had no reason to repent of what they had done; and he had the felicity to be appointed to that calling for which, by all the qualities of his character, he was best adapted. When we observe and reflect how many, who might otherwise have become respectable and useful members of society, have been irrecoverably thrown in their course, and reduced to insignificance or wretchedness for life, by being fixed in situations, and employed in services, which were altogether uncongenial to them,* we may

• Lord Fairfax, in the decline of life, saw that he had committed this capital error, and said to Archbishop Matthews, "I am disappointed in my sons. One I sent into the Netherlands, to train him up as a soldier, and he makes a tolerable country justice, but is a mere coward at fighting: my next I sent to Cambridge; and he proves a good lawyer, but is a mere dunce at divinity; and my youngest I sent to the inns of court, and he is good at divinity, but nobody in the law.”*

I have been told of a minister who wished his son to be a classical scholar, but eomplained to a friend that the lad was incorrigibly dull, and neglected his lessons so much that he did not know what he should do with him, or what he could make of him. As they were going out, wall, and asked "What "Oh,” replied the father, "they are Sam's doing. He

the visitor observed several sketches on the

are these ?"

• Chalmers's biographical dict. Vol. 21, p. 464.

say, Blessed is the man who gets into his right place in the world;" and "Wise is that parent who gives his sons a right destination." To heads of families, who are called to this important part of their duty, and are anxious to avoid what might lead to disappointment and disaster, it may be proper to give the counsel of inspired wisdom: "Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass."

God and man concurred to make David Bogue a minister; and he availed himself assiduously of the opportunities they gave him for acquiring the necessary qualifications for the sacred office. He was fitted for the work to which he aspired, by that grace which renewed his heart, the advantages which a celebrated university afforded, and the diligence with which he improved them. Eight or nine years spent in a place so favourable to his object, and in pursuits so gratifying to his disposition, must have furnished

is continually making these scrawls when he should be employed in something else." "My dear sir," said the other, "change your plan; and let him follow the course to which he is most inclined." The advice was taken, and the youth, who would never have been a learned man, became an eminent painter.

On this important subject the reader may see a judicious letter in a collection of papers entitled "Literary Leisure," Vol. 2, page 289. The mention of this work, which I have read repeatedly with great delight, suggests the inquiry, "How is it that essays, which are worthy to be ranked with those of Addison and Johnson, have never been owned by their author; and what is more extraordinary, have never reached a second edition ?"

his mind with precious stores of knowledge, and have laid a firm foundation for that lofty superstructure on which he was afterwards continually employed. While he was intent on amassing intellectual treasure, his exemplary conduct and worthy associates attracted the notice, and gained the respect, of all who were themselves respectable.

After having taken the degree of A.M., he left this seat of learning, and, according to the customary phrase, finished his studies, to enter upon the business of life; but the truth was he never finished his studies until he finished his course. An invitation from one of his friends drew him to London; and there his first employment was in the service of the Rev. Wm. Smith, a Scotch Presbyterian minister, who preached to a congregation in Silver street, and kept a large boarding school at Camberwell; and in the labours of the week and the sabbath Mr. Bogue was his assistant. What some would account miserable drudgery was so congenial with his taste, that he thus expresses himself in his diary, December 31, 1773. "How many mercies have I enjoyed through the past year! have been above those of former years. Removed from a situation where I was not so comfortable, to the most pleasant I could possibly have chosen; where all are kind to me, and are doing every thing to make me easy and happy. I have had an accession of most kind and agreeable friends and acquaintances. I am richly supplied with all the necessaries, and even

They

I have had as

comforts and conveniences, of life. much money as I have had occasion for. I have been kept in perfect health throughout the year; and no evil or distressing accident has befallen me. My friends and relatives have been all, in mercy, preserved. The Lord has given me strength to go through my studies and the labour of teaching; and it has pleased God to render the former acceptable."

Thus he humbled himself; and the time was not far distant when he was exalted to a station more worthy of his talents and education. In March 1776, he was invited to Holland, to become candidate for the charge of a Scotch church at Amsterdam, to which a liberal salary was paid by the Dutch government, and secured to the minister to the end of his life, with an exemption from duty after the age of sixty years. Such a situation, with all its honours and advantages, would have been the very thing for the man who wanted to make the ministry an easy, genteel, and lucrative profession; but it had no attraction to his mind, because it gave little hope of usefulness. The congregation was miserably small; and the work for two ministers was not enough to employ one who possessed ordinary diligence.

As a proof that he was not influenced by selfish and interested motives, he made up his mind at the first sight of them; and gave the preference to Gosport, to which he received an unanimous invitation on the 28th of January, 1777, and from which no

subsequent invitations or solicitations could draw him away. If, however, the situation which he declined had its evils, that which he accepted was not without them. According to the representation of Dr. Bennett, the town is not pleasant, nor the country around it; and it is infected with the ordinary vices of a sea-port. The population was about five thousand; and the people were not free from that spirit of gossip and slander which usually prevails in country towns where there is little trade, and which have neither the advantages of large cities, nor the charms of rural abodes. The congregation was much injured and reduced by the former minister, the Rev. James Watson; and the state of a congregation is so intimately connected with the interests of a minister, that an injury to it is an injury to himself. He possessed respectable talents, and had enjoyed all the advantages of education; but his heart was not in his work, and he was negligent of his duties. The people soon grew tired of him; and the most religious part of them left him, and formed themselves into another assembly. He was equally tired of them, for he was sadly out of his place in a pulpit, and among dissenters. Disgust naturally produced

alienation; that terminated in the resignation of his charge; and after his resignation, he entered into the profession of the law. His great object was to work his way upward; and he succeeded so far as to be appointed successor to Sir William Jones, as one