place by the force and fluency of his speaking, and gained preparation, as he frequently acknowledged, for appearing afterwards with more ease in the pulpit.

After the usual course prescribed at the university, he attended the Associate Synod's Divinity Hall, then held at Selkirk, under the care of Dr Lawson, that man of mind so childlike and yet so capacious. The groves of Academus, with Plato for a teacher, could not leave more venerated recollections, than did the environs of Selkirk and the memory of that sainted man of God upon the hearts of those who walked and studied there. Into this circle, Mr Brash carried the same active and ardent habits, and he brought from it some of the most pleasant reminiscences of his life. Like all whom we have heard speak of that period, he delighted to dwell on it as a favourite theme-its friendships, and its exploratory walks, its societies, its studies, and over all, the form of the great and good man who was the presiding spirit of the circle and the place.

While a student in the Divinity Hall at Selkirk, he attended also some sessions at the divinity classes of the Edinburgh University; and as many of his college friends belonged to the Established Church, and he had attracted the attention of the professors, his worldly prospects might have been more flattering had he turned his views in that direction, than they could be expected to be in the Associate body. He had deliberately resolved, however, to cast in his lot with those who had seceded from the Established Church, and to this he was led, not only by the honoured memory of a now-deceased father, but by a conscientious adherence, from personal examination of the grounds of secession. He had early and strongly appreciated the testimony against patronage, regarding it as an unjust and unscriptural invasion of the rights of the christian people, and as a sufficient reason of dissent from the Government church. On this subject he never altered his views to the close of his life.

He was licensed to preach the Gospel by the Associate Presbytery of Edinburgh in March 1815, and was sent immediately afterwards to labour in the south of Scotland. In a very short time he was called to Ecclefechan. Liddesdale, Annandale, and other parts of Dumfries-shire were the scene of his ministrations at this time, and here he preached with great effect. Even yet, after a lapse of more than thirty years, his texts and portions of his discourses live in the memory of inhabitants of that district of the country. He was at this time very young, not more than twenty-one years of age, his manner was uncommonly animated and earnest, his language simple

and pointed, his illustrations natural, vivid, and striking, and his discourses richly imbued with gospel truth. The congregation of East Campbell Street, Glasgow, was at that time requiring a colleague to the Rev. Mr Kidston, who had for some time been laid aside by affliction from public duty, and who survives as the venerable father of the United Presbyterian Church. The congregation secured a hearing of Mr Brash, and proceeded forthwith to call him. To narrate the struggle between competing calls, would lead us into the midst of ecclesiastical conflicts, that are now as things forgotten among us. Ecclefechan and Glasgow entered the Synod, which then retained the power of ultimate decision, with their opposite claims, and, principally by the expressed wish of Mr Brash himself, Glasgow obtained the preference.

Settled in Glasgow, he addressed himself to his work with intense application; and often has he expressed his sense of the solemnity of the position in which he then found himself placed. For a time, owing to the continued affliction of his colleague, the entire charge of the congregation devolved upon him. He was young in years, new to the duties of his office, pressed on every side by the engagements connected with a large and increasing congregation, and by the innumerable demands upon time and labour that beset a city ministry. In the midst of these cares, he gave himself conscientiously to the work of the pulpit, assured that this is the very central point of ministerial influence and usefulness. He devoted himself with his entire powers to this, and his profiting appeared to all. There are many still whose hearts warm as they speak of those first fruits of his labour. His preaching was fervid and graphic, thoroughly evangelical and practical; his delineations of scripture incident and character were peculiarly attractive, with marked felicity in that distinctive form of Scottish ministration, the lecture. With these demands upon him, his other duties were not neglected. Visitation from house to house, so important a part of pastoral work, but so difficult to overtake, and requiring, more than any other, method and persevering energy, was carefully attended to. Among the young he was peculiarly happy and useful. The vivacity of his natural temperament, sanguine and ardent, gave him ready access to them, and his evident and genuine interest in their welfare, gained their affections. The first example, we believe, in Glasgow, of forming classes for this most interesting portion of a congregation, had been set by his colleague; and Mr Brash, upon entering on his ministry, undertook this duty as a labour of love. The classes were adapted to different ages, so

THE subject of this notice was born in Edinburgh on the 1st of March 1794. By birth and early training he was connected with the Burgher branch of what afterwards became the United Secession, and now is, by another happy union, the United Presbyterian Church. This connection, so early established, was afterwards confirmed by inquiry and intelligent conviction, in the face of tempting inducements to leave its communion. The character of a man's parents, it has been somewhere remarked, is the history of his childhood, and he was blessed with such as gave to his opening life a very early direction to the things of God. His father, James Brash, was an elder in the congregation of the late venerated Dr Peddie, of Bristo Street, and was well known and highly respected for the part he took in the conduct of its affairs. He lost his parent when he was sixteen years of age, but the impression left on his mind was fresh and permanent to the close of life. He spoke of him to the end with the deepest affection and respect, as one who ruled well his own house, and commanded his children after him to walk in the ways of the Lord. His mother's name was Elizabeth Inglis, a woman distinguished by a large share of kindness and piety, the first preparing the soil in the youthful heart for the reception of the seeds of the second, which, her son testified of her, she was most assiduous to sow. She survived her husband by a number of years, and had the gratification of seeing her son settled in Glasgow, useful and honoured in his sphere of labour.

At what time he received his first religious impressions cannot be certainly said. As in the case of many who have been reared in the bosom of a pious household, the kingdom of God came to him not with observation. The germ had fallen silently and secretly into the heart, and it sprung up, first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. The Spirit of God is not limited in his operation, and few things savour more of offensive dogmatism than the set rules some seek to lay down in regard to the new birth, denying the existence of a regenerate state, unless it has made its appearance according to the fixed and formal order which they prescribe. The varied operation of the kingdom of nature, has its analogy in that of grace. The sun which rises in the tropics with a sudden flush of effulgence, makes his appearance above the horizon in our temperate latitude, through a gray dawn, and with

slowly brightening tints; and God who made the light to break on Saul of Tarsus, with something of an instantaneous noontide radiance, caused it in John and many of his brethren to shine more and more ere it reached the perfect day. One period of his life he was accustomed to refer to, as having brought his mind to a more con

scious decision. It was when he was seized with a severe illness after he had reached his sixteenth year, and was led more earnestly to inquire whether he had given himself up entirely to God. This appears to have been, not indeed the season of conversion to him, but of confirmation, when the new heart looked inward to become fully aware of its own existence; and it would be interesting to observe how, in the early history of Christians, God has frequently employed such providential dispensations at this particular period, as he does the electric storms of spring to quicken the rising blade to fresher and more vigorous growth.

From the first, his attention seems to have been directed towards the ministry, and all his studies were pursued with this end in view. His education was conducted first at the High School of Edinburgh, then under the rectorship of the celebrated Dr Adam, and afterwards at the university of the same town. In both he markedly distinguished himself, and laid the foundation of an excellent classical scholarship, which he widened and raised even in the midst of the multifarious and harassing duties of a city charge. In this part of his life, too, he formed friendships which he continued, with warm tenacity, to cherish to the close. He delighted in the evening of his days to recur to this period, so fresh to most, fresh above all to the student with his high hopes and aspirations, when the sun arises, and man goes forth to his work and to his labour in the great field of the world. The time at which he entered the university was one of no little intellectual activity. Besides the ordinary sphere afforded by the classes, there were several societies formed by the students themselves, where the luxuriant growth of mind found opportunity both for manifestation and culture. One of the most popular of these was the Forum, a literary and debating society, to which the public were admitted by ticket as auditors, and which numbered among its active members, many who afterwards rose to eminence in different walks of life. Among the ardent young men who then thronged its arena, Mr Brash obtained a prominent

place by the force and fluency of his speaking, and gained preparation, as he frequently acknowledged, for appearing afterwards with more ease in the pulpit.

After the usual course prescribed at the university, he attended the Associate Synod's Divinity Hall, then held at Selkirk, under the care of Dr Lawson, that man of mind so childlike and yet so capacious. The groves of Academus, with Plato for a teacher, could not leave more venerated recollections, than did the environs of Selkirk and the memory of that sainted man of God upon the hearts of those who walked and studied there. Into this circle, Mr Brash carried the same active and ardent habits, and he brought from it some of the most pleasant reminiscences of his life. Like all whom we have heard speak of that period, he delighted to dwell on it as a favourite theme-its friendships, and its exploratory walks, its societies, its studies, and over all, the form of the great and good man who was the presiding spirit of the circle and the place.

While a student in the Divinity Hall at Selkirk, he attended also some sessions at the divinity classes of the Edinburgh University; and as many of his college friends belonged to the Established Church, and he had attracted the attention of the profes sors, his worldly prospects might have been more flattering had he turned his views in that direction, than they could be expected to be in the Associate body. He had deliberately resolved, however, to cast in his lot with those who had seceded from the Established Church, and to this he was led, not only by the honoured memory of a now-deceased father, but by a conscientious adherence, from personal examination of the grounds of secession. He had early and strongly appreciated the testimony against patronage, regarding it as an unjust and unscriptural invasion of the rights of the christian people, and as a sufficient reason of dissent from the Government church. On this subject he never altered his views to the close of his life.

He was licensed to preach the Gospel by the Associate Presbytery of Edinburgh in March 1815, and was sent immediately afterwards to labour in the south of Scotland. In a very short time he was called to Ecclefechan. Liddesdale, Annandale, and other parts of Dumfries-shire were the scene of his ministrations at this time, and here he preached with great effect. Even yet, after a lapse of more than thirty years, his texts and portions of his discourses live in the memory of inhabitants of that district of the country. He was at this time very young, not more than twenty-one years of age, his manner was uncommonly animated and earnest, his language simple

and pointed, his illustrations natural, vivid, and striking, and his discourses richly imbued with gospel truth. The congregation of East Campbell Street, Glasgow, was at that time requiring a colleague to the Rev. Mr Kidston, who had for some time been laid aside by affliction from public duty, and who survives as the venerable father of the United Presbyterian Church. The congregation secured a hearing of Mr Brash, and proceeded forthwith to call him. To narrate the struggle between competing calls, would lead us into the midst of ecclesiastical conflicts, that are now as things forgotten among us. Ecclefechan and Glasgow entered the Synod, which then retained the power of ultimate decision, with their opposite claims, and, principally by the expressed wish of Mr Brash himself, Glasgow obtained the preference.

Settled in Glasgow, he addressed himself to his work with intense application; and often has he expressed his sense of the solemnity of the position in which he then found himself placed. For a time, owing to the continued affliction of his colleague, the entire charge of the congregation devolved upon him. He was young in years, new to the duties of his office, pressed on every side by the engagements connected with a large and increasing congregation, and by the innumerable demands upon time and labour that beset a city ministry. In the midst of these cares, he gave himself conscientiously to the work of the pulpit, assured that this is the very central point of ministerial influence and usefulness. He devoted himself with his entire powers to this, and his profiting appeared to all. There are many still whose hearts warm as they speak of those first fruits of his labour. His preaching was fervid and graphic, thoroughly evangelical and practical; his delineations of scripture incident and character were peculiarly attractive, with marked felicity in that distinctive form of Scottish ministration, the lecture. With these demands upon him, his other duties were not neglected. Visitation from house to house, so important a part of pastoral work, but so difficult to overtake, and requiring, more than any other, method and persevering energy, was carefully attended to. Among the young he was peculiarly happy and useful. The vivacity of his natural temperament, sanguine and ardent, gave him ready access to them, and his evident and genuine interest in their welfare, gained their affections. The first example, we believe, in Glasgow, of forming classes for this most interesting portion of a congregation, had been set by his colleague; and Mr Brash, upon entering on his ministry, undertook this duty as a labour of love. The classes were adapted to different ages, so

as to range over the entire rising generation; and next to his pulpit preparations, he gave himself to their interests with all the bent of his mind. The result justified the course. He has been often heard to say, that some of the happiest hours of his life were spent in these classes; and now, after the lapse of thirty years, many who were then listeners look back upon that period of their history with a confession of similar experience. None more truly and tenderly cherished his memory, than those who sat around him in these little circles. Nor has the warm and close bond between them and him, been the only result. This has been severed, so far as it was of earth, and was, at the best, in itself a small and secondary thing. But numbers trace their religious impressions to the desk whence their minister taught, as much as to the pulpit from which he preached. Though the working be more silent and secret, his experience proved that juvenile and adult classes are one of the most productive spheres of ministerial labour, and when more prominent and exciting scenes of operation pass away, with no calculable consequences, this slowly but surely will yield its return. If our 66 sons are to be as plants grown up in their youth, our daughters as corner stones polished after the similitude of a palace," it is by the minister lending his part to their early care and culture. He commenced his ministry by giving a due share of his time and attention to public business. Of the missionary cause he was from the first a warm friend, and was several times employed by the Scottish Missionary Society to advocate its cause. With this object, he travelled through England and Ireland, and was very successful in soliciting influence and aid in behalf of the movement. For a number of years, also, he was mission secretary to the United Secession Church.

Latterly he withdrew to a considerable extent from the conduct of public matters, not because he had ceased to become interested in them, or to watch them with an observant eye, but because he was conscious of a growing failure of strength, the apparent premonition of that disease under which at last he sunk. At the time of his death, he was, we believe, with the exception of his co-pastor, Dr Kidston, and of Dr Wardlaw, the oldest resident minister in Glasgow, and he was willing that brethren who had more lately entered the field, should take their share of the work that belongs to the great christian community. He continued, however, with unabated energy, to bear his part in the ministerial labour of the congregation. His sphere might be voluntarily more circumscribed than it was at first, but it was not less dili

His

gently cultivated. The duties of a minister's life do not in general afford the excitement of varying incident, that might give interest to a narrative in the public eye, or if incidents there be, as can scarcely fail when a faithful teacher brings God's most marvellous truth to bear on human minds and hearts, they require such minuteness of detail, and close analysis of thoughts and feelings, that they are unsuited for such a narrative as this. We can do no more here than give the broad lineaments of his history. During the later years of his life, he pursued his work with quiet unobtrusive energy, not, however, forgetting the world, and not forgotten of it. His ministrations were not less valued by those who regularly listened to him, and all the machinery of the congregation was kept in due place and movement. health, though not robust, had been sustained by a more than usual share of liveliness of temperament and activity of spirit. At length decided symptoms of disease began to manifest themselves. The seat of it was afterwards ascertained to be in the heart, but it appeared first in the extremities, gradually making its way upward and inward to the citadel of life. For a time he continued able to preach, and valued this privilege to the last. Soon, however, this also was beyond his power, and he was laid aside entirely from public duty. To this he submitted patiently, as to God's good and acceptable will. For two years the disease continued to alternate; still, however, on the whole gaining ground. During this painful and protracted illness, there was a large opportunity for the exercise of christian resignation, and the display of christian principle, and he was enabled, through God's grace, to manifest them. It was pleasant to observe how across a troubled atmosphere of the lower powers, arising from the physical disease under which he laboured, the divine light of the Gospel came shining pure and clear, and illuminated the higher and nobler faculties of the soul-reminding us of the lines of the poet,

"Though round its base the rolling clouds are spread,

Eternal sunshine settles on its head." Over the swelling waters of trial that rose even unto his soul, the dove was hovering with the olive branch, and it gave him peace. On the great elements of religious truth, his mind was strong and calm. He expressed frequently his confidence and comfort in the truths he had been accustomed to preach, and loved to pass them in review. The divinity of Christ, his incarnation and atonement, and the glorious hopes that spring from thein; these he spoke of, as all his hope and joy. In this

he never wavered; and it was touching to witness his unfailing resignation in the present, his simple childlike reliance for the future, upon the goodness and grace of God. One could not but see in this unfolding of the spiritual power, amid the decay of physical energies, that there was an immortal inhabitant within, untouched and unharmed by the dissolving process of the clay tabernacle, and waiting only the consummation, to quit its encumbering dwelling, for a more congenial home. It came more suddenly than was expected. On the evening of Saturday, 22d November 1851, he was attacked by a sudden stroke, from which he never recovered even so far as to gain consciousness; and surrounded by the affectionate and sorrowing attentions of such members of his family as the brief warning sufficed to summon, he breathed his last on earth, to find a happy release, upon the morning of the 24th November.

It remains only to be added, in regard to his personal history, that he was married in

1820.

Mrs Brash died in 1835. He has left a family of five sons and two daughters, to whom he showed the unvarying kindness of a christian parent, and who now affectionately cherish his memory.

To testify their esteem for the life and labour that had been, under God, devoted to them, the congregation charged themselves with the care of his funeral. It was attended by the presbytery of Glasgow, and by a number of ministers of various denominations,-conspicuous among them the venerable form and gray hairs of his colleague, Dr Kidston, who took a share in the services of the day. It is but a short record we have given, of a life full of labour, but great results are often wrought out silently and unostentatiously. His life teaches that conscientious and persevering application to the work of God, will not be left by Him fruitless; and his death, that the Gospel has a power which is suited to all circumstances, a soothing and a strengthening potency of adaptation, that belongs to itself alone.

ADDITIONAL ANNOTATIONS - CRITICAL, PHILOLOGICAL, AND EXPLANATORY-ON THE NEW TESTAMENT; being a Supplemental Volume to the Greek Testament, with English Notes. In Two Volumes. By the Rev. S. T. BLOOMFIELD, D.D.

London: Longman & Co.

THE labours of Dr Samuel Bloomfield in the department of classical literature, long before he came to be known in the region of Biblical criticism or exegesis, amply attested his ripe scholarship. His masterly edition of Thucydides, and his translation of the "Peloponnesian War," established his reputation for sound learning, and proved his high competency to undertake the important work with which his name is now chiefly associated, the production of a valuable critical and annotated edition of the New Testament. His Recensio Synoptica, though cumbrous, and sometimes superficial, was a monument of his indefatigable industry and his diversified attainments as a biblical scholar, and, together with his services in editing the English reprint of Dr Robinson's Lexicon, prepared the christian public of Britain and America for receiving with confidence and approbation the work on which he has expended the labours and anxieties of about twenty years. He tells us that he aimed at producing an edition of the Greek Testament containing a pure and accurately-printed

text, formed on such principles of sober yet enlightened criticism, as should steer clear of rash innovation on the one hand, and a blind adherence to what had been received on the other; this text to be accompanied by a perpetual commentary, embracing both words and things, comprised within such moderate limits as should make it readable,-the philological notes to develop sound grammatical views, the exegetical ones to be founded on enlightened hermeneutical principles, and the decisions on controverted passages to be made apart from the bias of any human system, and under the guidance of a catholic spirit, ever ready to speak the truth in love." Such was Dr Bloomfield's high aim, and now that he has completed this laborious undertaking, every competent judge will say, that his may be the pure and lofty satisfaction of having achieved well what was so well designed, the enviable happiness of knowing that the service which he proposed to render to Bible learning, he has nobly succeeded in fulfilling.

The basis of Bloomfield's text is that of Stephens, adopted by Mill, which differs little from the textus receptus. The only

alterations are such as rest on the united authority of manuscripts, ancient versions, the fathers, and the early editions, especially the editio princeps, and have on these grounds been adopted in one or more of the valuable recensions of Bengel, Wet