wide and deep impression produced by his loss the value of a life well spent in the service of God, and in promoting the welfare of our race." To the above published memorials of the public and private worth of William George Baker, we will add a few extracts from letters received since his death. One who had known him for years says: "I might say that I regarded him as one of the most perfect characters I ever knew. But that would only be saying what almost everybody in this community already knows full well." In another letter, from one who had known and loved him from his boyhood, the writer says: “You know he visited us during the winter after the death of his dear little boy, when his heart was still keenly suffering under this sore bereavement... I never made any allusion to his dear wife and child, and he only once spoke of her to me, when he called me to his room to show me her likeness, and I felt at the time. such sympathy for his loss that I could only look on the sweet expression of her face without saying one word of consolation; for I knew that he had applied to the only source under trouble like his, and I felt words were powerless to soothe. He expressed his regret that I had never seen his boy; told me how beautiful and interesting he was, but rarely spoke of him afterward. He saw, no doubt, that I made an effort to make him cheerful, and he exerted himself to gratify me, for you well know how unselfish he was. But I could see plainly, when left to himself, how very sad he looked; but when spoken to he would brighten up, and try to encourage a cheerful spirit. While here, he made himself very much beloved by children. He would often take long walks by himself, and fill his pockets with little books that he would give to children by the way. Indeed, he made a favorable impression on every one who saw him here, and all seemed to be touched with his expression of subdued sorrow. A lady who saw him but once, said he so deeply interested her that she never could forget him." A friend, in writing to one of his brothers, says: "You have indeed met with a loss-the loss of a brother, and such a brother as but few men are so happy as to possess; but the Church, the city, and the state will share the sense of bereavement, and aid the devoted and deeply afflicted family in bearing their sorrow. Although it was not my good fortune to be intimate with your honored brother, yet I knew him sufficiently well to have formed the most exalted estimate of his character, and was most fully aware how deeply he was entrenched in the hearts of his parents, and brothers, and sisters, who could not but regard him with reverent pride and most affectionate confidence. But he is gone-the wise, the good, the generous, the public-spirited, the earnest, steady, meek, quiet Christian is gone-gone to the grave! No! gone to his rest, to his reward in heaven. "Corruption, earth, and worms Shall but refine the flesh, Till his triumphant spirit comes . . . I am sorry for your city-for the children of the public schools, with whose interests he was so long charged for the outcast, juvenile population for whose good he was laboring. I am sorry for the state, who has lost one of her ablest and noblest sons. Such an event as this can hardly be said to be dark toward the one removed; the valley of the shadow of death was light to your brother. It is toward those who are left behind that the cloud of providence seems to turn its dark side; on them fall its somber and mysterious shadows; to them it pre sents its stormy and threatening aspect; and never until we reach that blessed land, and stand with the sainted dead on the bright side of the cloud, shall we see those problems clearly solved, and know as we are known." Such was the united testimony of those who knew William George Baker, and by them the portraiture of his life and character will be recognized as a faithful living likeness. To those who knew him not, it may doubtlessly be regarded as too near perfection to be natural. But its surpassing excellence and heavenly beauty was beyond nature, for it was the work of Divine grace. He needed not the skillful touches of the artist to conceal defects or heighten attractions, that his pictured sketch might win the admiration of men; it was simply requisite to picture him as he was, the bright and beautiful representative of what man is intended to become under the refining and sanctifying influence of the Gospel of Christ. CHAPTER XIII. CONCLUSION. THE wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy.-JAMES iii, 17. ... The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way. The Lord upholdeth him with his hand. . . . He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. The God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power to his people. ... Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace.-PSALMS. WORDSWORTH has said, "The boy is father to the man." With respect to some elementary traits, there is much truth in this expression; but the future that lies before childhood cannot be confidently predicted, even by those most deeply experienced in the study of incipient character. Those who looked on William George Baker in his early years, and pondered over the traits exhibited in his boyhood, would have marked him as one peculiarly unfitted to take a commanding position in after |