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Dr. Buist exercised his ministerial functions with honour to himself and with satisfaction and delight to his congregation. The impressive manner of his delivery, and the salutary advice of his discourses, powerfully interested and affected his hearers.

In the year 1805 Dr. Buist was appointed by the trustees of the Charleston college to be principal of that institution. For this situation he was eminently qualified, both on account of his excellent classical learning and his accurate and steady ideas of college discipline. Under him the college attained to a respectability it had never before acquired, and it would, doubtless, have become much more eminent and useful, if the death of the principal had not involved the institution, in common with the country at large, in mournful lamentation.

Dr. Buist departed this life on the 31st of August, 1808, after an illness of a few days, in the midst of his usefulness, and in the prime of his life, being then in the 39th year of his age.

It may be, truly, said that death has not, for many years, struck a more shining or useful character in Charleston than Dr. Buist.

Amiable and domestick in private life, he was indefatigable in all enterprises of publick utility. No man was more able to rouse the general feeling in behalf of any scheme for the general good. Industrious, warm and eloquent in his appeals, and measuring the character and the prepossessions of every individual, he touched those whom he wished to influence so forcibly and so happily that he disarmed resentment, quickened indifference, and either gained the hearts and wishes of all, or succeeded in silencing noisy and obtrusive opposition. By the happy application of such active address, united to his prudence and intelligence, Dr. Buist could not fail to render himself useful as a publick-spirited member of society. Those who knew him can well recollect, in how many instances society at large has been benefited by his exertion.

As pastor of a congregation, Dr. Buist was the friend and father of all its members. In their spiritual and temporal concerns he was a willing and able adviser; ever ready to hear the story of affliction and to dispense comfort and aid to all that were troubled and cast down. He was bold and animated in his censure of vice, not regarding the si

tuation nor rank of any who had grossly offended; to the virtuous he was open and sincere, and united them to him by the cords of affection. Liberal in his sentiments, he did not look for christian excellence only in the pale of his own church; he acknowledged and cherished it wherever it was to be found, and greeted it as being of the kingdom of Jesus. The merit of the humble he strove to make conspicuous, and the virtues of the more exalted he delighted to blazon for the sake of holding up impressive examples to the world, and of reminding those who contemn homely duties, that, the brightest ornaments of the human character are not those which dazzle with their glare, but those which shed the benign light that chastens the soul with the benevolence whose source and spring is in the bosom of God.

The esteem of his congregation was a decisive proof of the excellency of heart that characterized Dr. Buist, and his popularity as a preacher sufficiently evince the soundness of his doctrines and the eloquence of his deliveHis judgment was strong and accurate. He seized a subject with the nervous grasp of an original genius, and he embellished it with

ry.

the chastest decorations of the fancy. His manner was that of an orator; his language was bold, flowing and ardent; he addressed every faculty and appealed to every feeling in behalf of the holy gospel of Christ; and as a minister of his word, he either solicited with tenderness the contrite and humble to approach the courts of the temple, or spoke to the obdurate "of righteousness, temperance, and a "judgment to come," and pictured the calamitous state of the rejected of God with such force and such vivid imagery, that, like the great apostle of the gentiles, he was of power to make "Felix tremble."

A collection of the Rev. Doctor's Sermons, revised and corrected by himself, would have exhibited many proofs of his excellence as a preacher it is hoped, that what are now given to the publick, even with all the disadvantages that attend them, are yet adorned with specimens that will illustrate and do honour to the talents of their authour. But the fame of Dr. Buist can now live in its full blaze only in the recollection of those who were familiar with his preaching; all recorded beauties of his mind fling but a feeble light from the dread gloom of that grave where lie the mouldered

remains of him, who, while living, charmed

and enlightened.

The ways of providence are so often mysterious and inscrutable to man, that we are tempted to arraign the dispensations of God as hard and unpitying. But he maketh light to arise to the upright of darkness. He dwelleth in the cloudy temples, but truth illumines the courts of his palace. Darkness is his pavilion, but mercy and justice are his handmaids. The paths of his glory are often invisible to mortals, but faith makes manifest the secret ways, and hope extends the hand of friendly consolation to those who resign, with christian humility, the best of gifts into the keeping of him who is the great giver of alt good.*

* Dr. Buist was married after his settlement in this country, to Miss Somers, a lady of Carolina, who survives her husband. He left five children.

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