T describe the career of Dr. Duff with

any fulness would require a volume rather than the few pages to which we must restrict ourselves. We can barely enumerate the more prominent points in his long and noble career; we cannot afford to dwell on any one of these, when we would fain linger on each.

He was born in the parish of Moulin, in Perthshire, on April 25th, 1806. Those that are acquainted with Charles Simeon's biography will recollect the name of this parish and that of the pious pastor, Alexander Stewart. A visit from Simeon in 1796 was of great service in quickening into holy joy and active usefulness the seeds of true faith that were already sown in the young minister's heart. He began to preach with burning zeal, and the inhabitants of his mountain parish listened with rapt attention. A great revival of religion followed, the effects of which were clearly discernible many years afterwards. When I visited Dr. Duff, in 1838, while he resided in his native parish on his first return from India, he spoke with admiration of the meekness and other Christian graces that adorned the character of not a few members of Stewart's flock who still' survived. He grew up in the midst of such influences; his own father being among the fruits of that remarkable awakening. We have dwelt on this at the greater length because, through Stewart and Simeon, Alexander Duff becomes linked to Henry Martyn, who owed much to Simeon, and to whom Simeon owed much.

Alexander Duff attended the parish school of Kirk Michael, then the excellent Perth academy, and so qualified himself for entering the University of St. Andrews, which he did in 1821. He gained by competition, on beginning his academical career, one of those bursaries which have been of signal service to deserving students in Scotland.

By the time he entered college young Duff already exhibited many of those qualities which became so marked in his after-life. Characteristics that seemed almost necessarily to exclude each other were combined in him. He had in the fullest measure all the fire and imagination which we ascribe to the genuine Celt; but he had also, as much as Saxon ever had, an unconquerable energy and dogged perseverance. One is reminded of the admirable Carey's complaint of himself: "I

have no enthusiasm; I can only plod." We apprehend that Carey had no small measure of what may be called latent enthusiasm, and that this sustained and fructified his plodding. Duff, on the contrary, had enthusiasm irrepressible, a soul of fire that revealed itself in every look and gesture; yet he could plod as well as Carey, and force a way, when he could not find it, with all the iron will of Livingstone. Then, along with a glowing imagination, there co-existed a singular power of concentration, a faculty of close consecutive thought, a sagacity, a constructiveness, and what a writer who watched him closely in India has called "the highest kind of diplomacy." Added to all this there was an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. No book came wrong to him. He read rapidly, and was able to "tear the heart out of the book." He filled-as a fellowstudent of his once informed us-some dozen manuscript volumes with extracts from his favourite authors; all of which, however, went to the bottom of the sea on his voyage to India.

The reader will not be surprised to hear that a young man of this character rose to distinction, both at school and college. In almost every class Alexander Duff stood, if not actually first, yet amongst the first. Classics, mathematics, natural philosophy, and mental philosophy were all in turn successfully grappled with; and when he came to attend the College of St. Mary's, in which theology is taught, his ardour as a student remained unabated. While he relished every branch of study, yet theology and mental philosophy seem to have been those in which he delighted most. His class essays and his discourses at the Theological Hall seem to have been remarkable productions-very carefully elaborated, and marked by that breadth of view and "large utterance" which characterized him through life. At debating societies he was, as a matter of course, a leading man-ready, rapid, impassioned as a speaker, and, in demolishing an error or an adversary, altogether overwhelming.

When young Duff attended its classes, the moral and religious condition of St. Andrew's was anything but satisfactory. As Dr. Lindsay Alexander informs us, the students "had long had an unenviable reputation for lawlessness and ungodliness ;" and Duff himself has testified that, "as a whole, they were a

singularly Godless, Christless class." It is evident, however, that Alexander Duff was not injured by the contagion that was all around. The example and teachings of his pious parents had already impressed his soul with a profound conviction of the reality and power of vital religion. He was also greatly strengthened by the companionship of a very remarkable young man, John Urquhart, whom he had previously known at the Perth Academy. Urquhart was described in afteryears by Dr. Duff as having been "one of the saintliest youths that ever trod the stage of time." In physical, and some mental qualities, there was a striking contrast between the two friends. Duff in his bodily frame was firmly knit, robust, overflowing with manly energy. Urquhart was delicate in frame, and still more delicate in mind, although intellectual in a very high degree. He had consecrated himself to a missionary life; but his seraphic spirit had early done its allotted work on earth, and he was called to heaven, instead of going forth, as he had hoped, to China. He died at the age of eighteen.

Still another influence powerfully affected the mind of Duff. Soon after he entered college Dr. Thomas Chalmers was appointed Professor of Moral Philosophy at St. Andrew's, beginning his duties in November, 1823. Of the wonderful gifts of Chalmers it is wholly unnecessary to speak. His lofty enthusiasm kindled the hearts of all around him; and the change was unbounded which he introduced into the dull routine of the academic life as it then was at the venerable university. Alexander Duff was one of the many youths who came under the beneficent sway of "the mighty master." Almost immediately on the arrival of Chalmers a few of the theological students formed themselves into a Missionary Association; and early in the session of 1824-5 a general society was established, the small society of the theological students was united with it, and thus originated the "St. Andrew's University Society." The society early had the distinction of sending forth not a few of its members to the high places of the field. Including Duff and Urquhart, there were six young men who soon felt themselves called to go "far hence unto the Gentiles," Robert Nesbit leading

and Ireland do not conduct their evangelistic work through "societies." The whole Church is a missionary society, and the work is carried on by a Committee appointed at each annual meeting of the General Assembly. At the time of which we were speaking the Scottish Church had not, as a Church, embarked in missionary work; but a large body of her ministers and members were hearty supporters of evangelistic enterprise. Dr. John Love had a great share in the establishment of the London Missionary Society; and that institution received large support in Scotland. So did the Baptist Missionary Society, when men like Andrew Fuller and Marshman of Serampore pleaded its cause in the north. Then the Scottish Missionary Society, which was formed in 1796, was maintained with considerable zeal by men of evangelical belief. But the missionary spirit was rising; and in 1824, on the proposition of Dr. John Inglis, a man of deservedly great authority, it was agreed by the General Assembly that the Church should enter, as a Church, on foreign missionary work, India being named as the special sphere of the proposed operations. Some delay occurred, and Mr. Duff, on the conclusion of his theological course, was recommended by Dr. Chalmers and Dr. Haldane, Professor of Divinity at St. Andrew's, as in every way qualified for the Indian work. The Assembly, in May, 1829, appointed him its missionary, and in August he was ordained to the holy ministry, Dr. Chalmers preaching and presiding. Soon after, he married Miss Drysdale, a lady of whom we simply remark that there could not have been a more faithful and devoted wife, or a more affectionate mother. Mr. and Mrs. Duff sailed for India in October of the same year.

His passage to India was not the smooth thing it has latterly become since the opening of the Overland route. As Dr. Duff expresses it, in his "India and Indian Missions"-" Seldom has there been a voyage, from first to last, so fraught with disaster and discipline; within the floating home' on the deep, a fiery furnace of evil tongues and wicked hearts; without, unusual vicissitudes of tempest and of danger." The vessel was completely wrecked on the 13th February, near Cape Town. With difficulty the lives of crew and passengers were saved; but almost everything on board was lost. Duff lost eight hundred volumes, including all his journals, note-books, essays, &c. The only thing that was recovered in an undamaged state was a copy of Bagster's Comprehensive Bible. The ardent missionary

Mr.