fulness of my own heart. To my great shame, I have committed the sins of lying, unbelief, carelessness about eternity; but eternal thanks to my dear Redeemer, who has recalled me from my former stupidity, and made me see the riches of His grace, His will and power to save, as well as, in some degree, my hardness of heart and rebellion against the kindest of Saviours, and the most loving Lord. O do Thou in mercy, my Father, ever keep me from falling from that joyful hope of eternal life, for without Thee I can do nothing. Lord, keep me! O Lord, guide me! I am happy in Thy communion. I have no pleasure in this world of vexation and vanity when Thou art with me. Oh, then, do Thou in mercy keep me from offending Thee, and afterwards receive me to Thyself and glory, for Jesus Christ's sake.-Amen. Aug. 2." -Repeatedly has he stated to Christian friends that in his case the sensible transition from darkness to God's marvellous light, from the spirit of bondage to the spirit of adoption, was nearly instantaneous. In less than one hour he was conscious of the change, and was seldom afterwards troubled with doubts respecting its reality.

Soon after this he applied for communion with the church meeting in the Circus. It was natural that a sense of the benefit he had there received should attach him to the ministry of Mr. Haldane, a ministry which he considered the most useful with which Edinburgh was then favoured.

In the winter of 1800 he occasionally fell into the society of pious students from England, both of the Independent and Baptist persuasion, who were completing their studies at the University of Edinburgh. With two of the latter he contracted. a friendship which exercised a considerable influence on his future course. Conversing with them on the nature of Christ's kingdom, his attention was again drawn to the subject of Christian baptism; for previous to this he had been convinced. that the ordinance ought to be administered to believers only, and would have followed the example of three of his brothers,

who had been baptized and united to the Scotch Baptist Church, had he approved of their views of church government, and the ministry of the Word. But now, sympathizing with the view he got of the English Baptist Churches, and hoping one day to enjoy fellowship with them, he was baptized by one of his new friends in March 1801, along with several females, also members of the Circus Church, who had for some time cherished the same convictions of duty.

It is painful to have to add, that those baptized were immediately excluded on that account from communion with the church of which they were members; and though two of the females made frequent application for re-admittance, their suit was rejected, except on the condition of renouncing their views of believers' baptism.

Their fellowship with a Christian Church being thus dissolved, and the yearning desire for communion still cherished, the separated few resolved to meet together for prayer and conference every Wednesday evening. For a while they felt very happy in this substitute for what they had been deprived of. But shortly after, (May,) the students from England had to leave, and they began to feel their desolate condition. They had promised to awaken the sympathy of the Churches in England on their behalf, and by sending a preacher, endeavour to raise a cause in Edinburgh. Accordingly Mr. William Gray* was prevailed on to spend the following winter there, to preach the Gospel and baptize such believers as offered themselves, but to avoid a proselytizing spirit and conduct. Mr. Gray was a student at Bristol College, and had accepted a call to the pastorate of the Church at Bratton, Wilts, but obtained its consent to spend the winter in Edinburgh. He was supported there by the few to whom he ministered, while his travelling charges were paid by a few friends in Bristol.

The letters of Christopher Anderson, during the summer pre

* Long afterwards the respected Baptist minister of Chipping-Norton and North

ampton.

vious to Mr. Gray's arrival, shew that the little band continued to meet on Wednesday evenings for prayer, and united their contributions for future necessities. He was the only one among them who could engage in prayer, and though only in his twentieth year, seems to have been very acceptable to them in his hortatory and devotional services. A few extracts from his letters may afford an idea of his feelings and prospects at this time.

"4th July, 1801.-We are like a few sheep in the wilderness, but as the friends were anxious to continue to meet once a week, I had no objections. Upon the whole, I do not think things look a bit worse. We are far from being persecuted,—rather the opposite; I do not know from what motives, I believe they are not bad ones. . . . My dear brother William, who was ill when you were here, is now made a partaker of that incorruptible inheritance which is reserved for us also, if we continue faithful unto death. He died on the 6th of June. His latter end was a most beautiful example of that full assurance of hope. He spoke with the greatest composure, and sometimes rapture, of the sufficiency of Christ's atonement, and his taking away the sting of death; how different from the death-bed of a sinner, and what a powerful evidence of the truth of Christianity !*

* William Anderson had been brought to the knowledge of the truth in early life. While yet a youth he joined the Scotch Baptist Church, of which he proved a useful member. Long was his name fragrant, and his memory blessed among the poor of that flock, to whom he seemed an angel of mercy. His visits to them indeed were short, but not far between, full of spiritual instruction and comfort. His conversation was ever with salt, and ministered grace to the hearers. Of a cheerful disposition himself, his presence seemed to inspire happiness everywhere. His sun went down while it was yet day, at the early age of twenty-seven; but its setting corresponded with its shining course. No cloud obscured it. In full assurance of hope, while others mourned and wept, he sang and triumphed. As his wife and brother watched his dying bed through the last night of his pilgrimage, "Sing me," said he, "one of the songs of Zion." They attempted his favourite hymn, "In all my troubles sharp and strong," &c., but ere they reached its close, their feelings overpowered, left him to sing the last couplet alone, and in a few hours his spirit rose from its "anchor-hold" amid the swelling billows of life to its haven of

As to myself, I feel sin to be my greatest burden. No doubt present prospects have a considerable effect upon my spirits, so that I sometimes ardently long for the new heavens and the new earth, but patience must have her 'perfect work.'"

"25th September.- . . . Brother Cox, in his last letter to me, proposes, on coming here, to preach and teach alternately. Brother Gray's coming does away with this partly, but I wrote him that it could easily be settled after he came." After alluding to some unpleasant strife in one of the churches, he adds, "These internal commotions in churches make the godly, who have no part in the fray, weep, and the world laugh. O the blessedness of a hope beyond the grave, by which we can pry into an innumerable company who are of one heart and one mind!"

Under date 17th November, he notices Mr. Gray's arrival, and expresses his ardent wish for his success. The congregations were small, especially in the morning, and seldom exceeded a hundred persons, while often there were not more than twenty in all. Nor will those wonder at this who know the locality of their place of meeting, and the strong prejudices which must then have been aroused at the very name of Baptists. The only people so called were the Scotch Baptists, then under the eldership of Mr. Archibald Maclean and Mr. Henry David Inglis, assembling in St. Cecilia's Hall, not one hundred yards from the Masons' Hall, Blackfriars Wynd, where our young friends met. And there can be no doubt they were looked on with some suspicion by these, as these were, by their Presbyterian and Independent brethren around.

Mr. Gray, though assisted by Mr. Cox, who occasionally preached for him, was very soon discouraged. As the spring of 1802 advanced, it became evident that his youth and inex

rest above. He left a young widow and infant daughter, of whom more will be said hereafter.

*The late Dr. Cox of Hackney, one of the students above mentioned, and then only nineteen years of age.

perience would never overcome the difficulties of his position. It would have been advisable, at the expiry of his engagement, for them to have fallen back on the plan at first proposed, of getting experienced and esteemed brethren from the south to supply them for six weeks, or two months at a time. This had been done at the Circus with great success, but Mr. Robert Haldane's heavy purse and powerful influence were there. Here were but a light treasury, and influence that reached not beyond the home circle of a few obscure individuals. Accordingly the design fell to the ground, and "all this died away." Mr. Gray left in the beginning, and Mr. Cox in the middle of May. The hall was given up, and the small but firmly united band were content to meet, as before, once a week at the house of one of their number. "A trial has been made," writes Mr. Anderson, on the 29th May, with a kind of melancholy resignation, "without effect, and we are in the same state as we were this day last year. Well, I hope we have been in the path of duty, and had the glory of God at heart. The Lord's time, it would appear, is not yet come. Blessed be His name, although church ordinances are the ordinary, yet they are not the only means whereby He invigorates and animates His people. The spiritual comfort of His children does not depend upon them. Yet I long exceedingly to be in a situation where I could observe those things my Redeemer hath commanded, and shew that my faith is an operative principle."

Some time before this, a similar attempt was made to establish an English Baptist Church in Glasgow, under the conduct of Mr. James Lister, so long the pastor of the Baptist Church, Lime Street, Liverpool. But though it appeared to get on for a while, it was only by a mutual compromise of some principles by its members, which was soon broken through, and the church was dissolved. All that, too, died away, and it was long before a similar attempt was made with better success in that city.

Meanwhile, having lost all hope of a church, according to his