and prayerful in spirit. Our only glory was in Christ, our strength, our wisdom, our righteousness; but now that we have become prosperous and popular among men, we have become proud, and prone to glorify our own power and extension. If this disposition be not checked ere it be too late, God will turn away from us, and raise up another people more meek and lowly in heart to serve and honor him."

Richard Jones was an humble Christian, never counting himself to have attained, but ever pressing forward toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ. His clear perception of Scripture truth enabled him to distinguish the Bible doctrine of holiness from its abuse when misunderstood and misrepresented by ignorance or presumption. His strong faith in Gospel holiness, and his deep reverence for its truth, made him feel that it is a death unto self, and a life hidden with Christ in God, whose outward manifestation is that of the indwelling Spirit, and not of a self-glorified humanity.

To hold communion with God in prayer and contemplation was ever to him a delightful privilege. In a letter written from the Warm Bath Springs, Berkeley County, Virginia, this enjoyment is thus described in his own words:

"Above all considerations under heaven, I bless God I have had and still have sweet fellowship and converse with heaven. The shady trees on the banks of the river Opequan, where I walk morning and evening, have afforded me a transcript of Paradise. I have not had such times for these six years past. And if consistent with the will of God, there I could sweetly spend the few remaining days I have to live, with just as much as would keep soul and body together, in preference to the most dainty table in the universe. Then I could truly say:

'I envy not the rich and great,
Nor kings in their exalted state,
While here alone I stay;

I look with pity on the proud,
With all the vain, unthinking crowd,
That tread the downward way.'

And must I return to Egypt again-to the world? Must I be banished as an exile to the cares, fears, and distracting concerns of life merely for bread and water? If I could with any degree of propriety, I would say, Lord God, forbid !"

Richard Jones was pre-eminently a man of prayer. It was with him a frequent practice to leave his bed after retiring to rest, and spend the remainder of the

night in earnest supplication for spiritual blessings upon his family. It was his paramount desire that his posterity should ever be found among the faithful followers of Christ. All other distinctions were to him lighter than vanity.

This course of holy living, giving glory to God and showing good-will to man, was brought to a calm and heavenly close at the eventide of life, leaving his example and his prayers a source of grateful remembrance to his descendants.

Though hereditary influence cannot confer gifts, or fix the standard of character for the family or the individual, yet there are elementary traits that appear and reappear in lineal descent, serving to mark consanguinity. Though devotional piety cannot be transmitted from parents to children, yet there are spiritual blessings following even to the third and fourth generation in answer to the prayers of righteous progenitors. This is in accordance with the law. of God in nature and in grace. In William George Baker the most favorable traits of each grandfather united in one harmonious whole. In him were found the thoughtful deliberation that takes a calm survey of the whole bearing of a subject before making up an opinion, the prudential conservatism that

induces a careful examination into the foundation of new measures before entering upon them, and the firm adherance to every cause conscientiously believed to be right, that characterized one; while from the other were transmitted to him that tender-hearted kindness and keen sympathy, that self-sacrificing spirit of benevolence and expansive liberality which made his name, like that of Richard Jones, a gladdening household word in the desolate homes of the widow and the orphan, the suffering and the destitute.

CHAPTER II.

BOYHOOD-SCHOOL AND STUDENT LIFE.

Mystery! mystery!

Holy and strange;

What a life history,

Fruitful of change,

And endless of range,

Is folded here, sweet within sweet like a blossom.

MERRYGATE.

THERE was nothing marked in the childhood of William George Baker, if we may except certain traits which continued throughout his life: a temperament exceedingly nervous, a shrinking from distressing sights, a keen sympathy with suffering, a great love of books, and fondness for solitary occupation. He says in one place of himself: "Nothing remarkable took place in my childhood. Until my eighth year I was almost continually confined with a breast complaint. This sickness was varied by an accident or two, by one of which my life was nearly cut short at an early period by falling on a scraper." His health was delicate from infancy, and the weak