3 Monthly Chronicle of the Churches. CONDUCTED BY MEMBERS OF THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE. WHERETO WE HAVE ALFEADY ATTAINED, LET US WALK BY THE SAME RULE, LET US MIND THE SAME THING.—PHIL. III. 16 VOL. VIII.-NEW SERIES. BIBI LONDON: PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM JOHN JOHNSON, 121, FLEET-STREET. EDINBURGH: JOHN MENZIES. DUBLIN: GEORGE HERBERT; AND ALL BOOKSELLERS. MDCCCLXVII. Evangelical Christendom. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE REV. WILLIAM MACLARDIE BUNTING. BY THE REV. EDWARD STEANE, D.D. THE writer of the following sketch would have deemed it a happy circumstance had its preparation been sought from other hands. Much as he loved his departed friend, high as is the estimate he had formed of his character and accomplishments, and sincerely as he deplores, and will long deplore, his loss, he feels scarcely, if, indeed, in any measure, competent to the task he has undertaken. And yet he can hardly say that he undertook it unwillingly, or even reluctantly. In truth, there seemed a propriety, in his own view, as well as in that of others, that the tribute to the memory of his late colleague, as one of the Honorary Secretaries of the Evangelical Alliance, which should appear in these pages, should be written by his pen. He has mourned at the graves of many brethren in the Christian ministry, with whom he was associated in that institution, but at the grave of none with a warmer affection or a truer sorrow. He esteems it an honour and a great privilege to have enjoyed his friendship, and thus publicly and gratefully acknowledges the benefit, both intellectual and spiritual, which he has often consciously derived from intercourse with him. Many more, he is persuaded, could make a similar acknowledgment; for it would have been difficult indeed to have come into communication, especially with some degree of friendly intimacy, with a mind endowed with so many precious gifts, furnished with such varied information, and cultivated to the most exquisite polish of taste and re finement, without being at once fascinated and improved. He occupied a distinguished place among the ministers of the Gospel; while his private friendships were very numerous, and formed with persons of congenial habits and modes of thought, in whatever walk of religious life he found them; and now that he is gone he will long continue to hold a cherished place in the hallowed memories of the Church of Christ. Jf, with Cowper, we regard it as a more honourable distinction to have descended from "parents passed into the skies," than From loins enthroned and rulers of the earth, this honour was Mr. Bunting's. Sarah Maclardie and Mary Redfern, his mother and grandmother, are names to be coupled in the records of his godly parentage, like those of Lois and Eunice in that of Timothy. The sketch given of his grandfather, a tall, thin, pale-faced man-the type of his own personal physique exhibits him also as "quiet and godly," one of the early converts to Methodism, and "firmly attached to the new sect." His death was the triumph of faith. His last utterances were as characteristic, perhaps, as they were rapturous. Lifting up his arms out of bed, he exclaimed, with all the strength he had, "Glory to God! Glory to God! This is thirty years' Methodism! Escaped hell and won heaven! What a wonder!" "His children," adds the biographer of Dr. Bunting, "even to the third generation, bless his memory.” * * When will Mr. Percival Bunting give the public the remaining volume or volumes of this charming biography? Let him be admonished by his brother's removal to hasten the accomplishment of his task, lest its completion fall into other and less competent hands. We shall venture to assure him, from the specimens he has already given of his skill in portraying character, and weaving into beauteous narrative the salient events, and touching incidents, and sparkling eccentricities, of human life, that few pens, in our judgment, excel his own. VOL. XXI.-VIII. NEW SERIES.-JANUARY. B |