your voice up-keep your voice up." Hence Mr. Hall was seldom known to lower his tone much at the end of a sentence, or even of a paragraph; but employed a pause instead, to mark the close of a period. He also observed that many of the speakers in parliament, and in other large assemblies, were accustomed to elevate their voice rather than depress it at the close of a sentence, but that the depression should be as gentle as possible, unless where the speaker's voice is powerful and commanding. It was alleged that such a mode of pronunciation tended to produce monotony. To this he assented, and remarked that a speaker with a slender voice had only a choice of evils; to speak so as not to be heard, or be liable to the charge of monotony. There was always however such a flexibleness in his voice, so much emphasis and gracefulness in his manner of reading and speaking, as effectually to secure him from the danger of monotony. Notwithstanding some disadvantages in addressing a large auditory, those who regularly attended his ministry could generally hear him distinctly; and the very tone of his voice, though feeble, gave to his addresses such a peculiar softness, that,

'Like flakes of feathered snow,
They melted as they fell.'

In the exercise of church discipline he was an eminent example of apostolic simplicity, and of true christian charity, never seeking to magnify

his office by the exercise of authority, but by the exemplification of the rarest virtues. From the purest of all sources he had learned how to behave himself in the house of God,' and was amongst his brethren as a nurse that cherishes her children. Lenient and forbearing, he was tender of character, sparing and reluctant in his censures, not the tyrant but the angel of the church.' Less studious of prescribed forms, than of the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace, he very properly considered that to be the true scriptural mode of church government which tends most to promote brotherly love, which brings the members into the closest religious contact, and is accompanied with the greatest faithfulness one towards another. Unwilling at any time to separate a member from communion, where the honour of religion did not absolutely require it, he resorted to every expedient that wisdom and piety could suggest, to restore the erring and the wandering, to heal and bind up that which was broken or driven away.

If individuals were dissatisfied with their connection, or with his ministry, as would sometimes be the case, he never adopted any hasty measures, but allowed them time for consideration. They were not excluded for nonattendance, if their character in other respects stood fair, and they preferred another place of worship; but it was a general rule that if any of the members absented themselves from communion for the space of twelve months, their union with the church was declared

to be dissolved; but to render individual liberty consistent with social order, no stigma was affixed by a vote of exclusion. One instance of this kind, a little singular, may serve instead of more, to illustrate the meekness and lowliness of this holy man. An elderly person, long a member of the church, but strongly inclined to hypercalvinism, had formerly been attached to the ministry of his excellent father, but could not well enjoy the son's preaching. "We should be glad to see you at our place, if you could attend only occasionally," said the pastor; "for you were a friend of my father's, and have long been in fellowship with us, and it would pain me very much to have the connection dissolved." Ah! I should be glad to attend, was the answer, if you could but preach like your blessed father. "Well, I preach as well as I can, but you can hardly expect me to preach so well as my father, for he you know was an eminent man." This mild and gentle reply softened the objection, and retained in communion one whom he respected for his father's sake, whose memory was endeared by every fresh recollection.

Another member of the church at Harvey Lane, a true representative of what remained of the old orthodoxy, was somewhat distinguished for his gift in prayer. Mr. Hall, though sufficiently averse to his ultra notions, knew well enough how to distinguish between piety and heresy, and how to estimate genuine religion, when found in erring and untutored minds, without suffering his reverence for its

sanctity to be diminished. Public prayer-meetings were often held on the sabbath evening, after sermons had been delivered in the morning and afternoon, and the pastor generally attended before the close of the evening service. The guardian and conservator of orthodoxy frequently took a part in the exercise, and Mr. Hall as uniformly prepared himself for what was expected to follow, falling on his knees, and paying devout attention to what referred more immediately to himself. As the admonitory prayer proceeded, with intercessions on his behalf, that he might be led into the 'mysteries of the kingdom,' and into the deep things of God,' that he might be made an able minister' of the new testament, not of the letter but of the Spirit,' and not shun to declare the whole counsel of God,' he repeatedly and audibly responded amen, and concluded the service by engrafting into his own prayer many of the petitions that had been offered up. So completely was his mind subdued by an overpowering sense of the importance of true religion, of his own unworthiness and utter insufficiency, that he seemed to cherish whatever tended to encrease his humility and self-abasement, and believed his religious and ministerial defects to be as great and as numerous as these petitions would imply. Such was certainly the opinion of those who attended these opportunities and most revered him, and who could no otherwise account for his deep prostration, on occasions which excited their tenderest sympathy, and their astonish

ment at the illiterate presumption of his affected monitors and teachers. Yet when the principal conservator, 'set for the defence of the gospel!' died, the pastor preached a funeral sermon, and pronounced a eulogium on his integrity and piety.

The ardent adorer of Him who was meek and lowly in heart, like him also he loved righteousness and hated iniquity; he could neither bear with them that are evil, nor suffer the good to be oppressed. In all matters of church censure and discipline his mind was finely balanced, doing nothing by partiality, but avoided with equal care the two extremes, of connivance and undue severity. If prejudice or suspicion exhibited an unfounded charge against any one, or if misfortune or inadvertence was confounded with criminal intent, the unhappy individual found in his candour and liberality, in his judgment and discrimination, a sure protection from the unfeeling and censorious, who generally possess less real virtue than those whom they are anxious to render the objects of aversion. In instances where his own favourable opinion was overruled by a majority, which from the respect he entertained for the principle of congregational independence he never attempted to resist, he contented himself with the expression of his regret, and found solace in the indulgence of that sympathy with which his mind was so richly fraught, making his bosom the refuge of the injured and oppressed.

One circumstance however, if it did not show in