recent services held among them. Hence the unusual excitement to which allusion has just been made. May the merciful Saviour have compassion on them, and bless them with a faithful minister."

10. In the Diocesan and general institutions of the Church, Mr. McGuire felt a lively interest, and took an active part. Of the Education Society, formed to assist pious but indigent youth, in their preparation for the ministry, and in the Theological Seminary of Virginia, designed to provide competent instructors for candidates for orders, he was the early and steadfast friend. His allusion to the origin and purpose of those institutions shows his interest:

"Received the constitution and address of the Society for the Education of Pious Young Men for the Ministry. Much interested for the welfare and prosperity of this Institution. Shall make considerable exertion to assist its funds. Pray God to prosper it. Made one of its directors."

July 1st, 1823.-"Left home for Georgetown, to attend a meeting of the Educa tion Society. Met on the second of the month, and located in Alexandria. Rev. Mr. Keith as a teacher of Theology, to instruct such young men, students of divinity, as the Society might be able to provide, or such as might come under any other circumstances. Dr. Wilmer is also to render his services, in the Seminary, as occasion may require. This is a foundation, I trust, of a flourishing 'School of the Prophets,' in the South. May the Lord bless it, and cause it to send forth many laborers into His vineyard, who, by their zeal and wisdom in the service of God, shall prove the favored instruments of turning many to righteousness, causing the wil derness to be glad, and the desert to rejoice and blossom as the rose."

He lived to see the answer to his prayer, and to receive largely the gratification of his pious desire, in the prosperity and usefulness of these kindred and harmonious institutions.

11. Mr. McGuire's religious sympathies and efforts were not confined to his own parish or diocese. They began there, but had expansiveness enough to recognize the entire field desig nated by the Master, "the world." As early in his ministry as April 22d, 1819, he writes:

"My mind much exercised about the forlorn and miserable state of the heathen world. Six hundred millions of the human family never have heard the name of the precious Jesus. Thousands of these are crowding every moment into eternity from amidst their crimes. The Christian world begins to awake from its apathy on this subject. Something is done for these wretched creatures, but nothing compar ed with the vast demand."

With these views no one could be more gratified than he was by the declaration of the General Convention, that the

Church is a missionary society, and all her baptized children bound to cooperate, according to their ability and opportunity, in sending the Gospel to all mankind. He promptly organized an auxiliary in his congregation, which at its first meeting took action worthy of imitation.

“Jan. 12th, 1830.—At night, a meeting in the lecture-room, after divine service, for the purpose of forming a society auxiliary to the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of our Church. The Society was organized, and one hundred and five dollars subscribed annually. May the merciful Lord prosper this good cause, to the advancement of His glory, and the salvation of immortal souls."

12. With regard to ecclesiastical polity, Mr. McGuire's views accorded with the language of the Prayer-Book, in the preface to the form and manner of making, ordaining, and consecrating Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. That, "from the apostles' times, there have been these orders of ministers in Christ's Church." Convinced of this, he held that the primitive organization ought to be maintained and none other recognized within our borders. The importance he attached to its preservation, is expressed very decidedly in a sermon delivered in St. George's Church, Fredericksburg, on Sunday morning, Oct. 4th, 1835, on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of said church:

"The importance of the outward order of the Christian Church, can not well, in our view, be too highly estimated. That this is every thing, however, we do not by any means maintain-with this divinely ordained form of government, we know that she may sadly decline, and become exceedingly corrupt, through the infirmity and depravity of human nature. Freely admitting this, we yet conceive it certain, that without a due external ecclesiastical polity, there would not only be a sad declension in religion, but Christianity would, in all probability, cease to exist in our world."

But though clear and conservative in his Church principles, he was careful to maintain and set forward quietness, peace, and love among all Christian people. Witness the following record:

"March 21st, 1819.-My soul engaged in shaking off prejudices and bigotry, and in endeavoring to promote harmony and unanimity among Christians. Oh! that the Spirit of love would descend upon the Church, and bind our hearts in a perpetual union! Lord, help Thy poor servant to please Thee in this respect."

With this spirit he was ready, when it could be effected without compromising his own principles, to confederate with the members of other denominations, in advancing the cause of the Gospel. He was from first to last a zealous patron of the American Bible and Tract Societies, and of the SundaySchool Union. With this representation of the mind and action of Mr. McGuire, in the exercise of his ministry-and for it, all we have, without any design of his, the vouching in his own hand-writing-no one need be at a loss for the secret of his success; and there are few, especially among the younger clergy, who may not profit by his excellent example.

In Bishop Meade's "Old Churches, Ministers, and Families of Virginia," the following allusion to Mr. McGuire may be found. The reference is, for the reason assigned, restrained, but therefore all the more expressive:

"As it has been a rule observed by me in these notices, to avoid all praises or censures of the living, and in the fewest possible words refer to the acts and successes of my oldest friends, therefore to Mr. Slaughter's account of the revival of the church in this parish, during the thirty-three years of Mr. McGuire's ministry, to which must now be added twelve more, I refer my readers for a full view of the subject. Suffice it to say that, from that time, a succession of revivals, or rather a continued one, under faithful evangelical preaching, has added great numbers to the church; that two new churches, each increasing in size and expense, have been called for; that several young ministers have issued from the parish. Among them the Rev. Launcelot Minor, whose remains are on the African shore, along side of those of Mrs. Susan Savage, the devoted missionary whose spiritual birthplace was St. George's Church, as Fredericksburg was her native city."

Mr. McGuire was too actively engaged in ministerial work to contribute much to the press. He did, however, publish a volume on "The Religious Opinions and Character of Washington," and occasional sermons. He had on hand, but never completed, a work on the religious opinions of the prominent men of the American Revolution. Many of the reports on the state of the Church, as they appear in the journals of his Diocese, were drafted by him. In the conventions he did not speak often or long, but his opinions were always received with deference on account of his great experience, established integrity, and careful judgement.

The honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred on him by the authorities of Kenyon College in 1839.

On the sixteenth of April, 1816, he was married to Miss Judith C. Lewis, "one of the first of those who were added to the church by the Lord," after the commencement of his ministry. She was indeed a helpmeet to him in his arduous and responsible duties, and after animating him in his services, and sustaining and solacing him in his trials, she survived to mourn, but in blessed hope, her sore bereavement. Eight children were given to them, four of them now living, two of whom are in the ministry to which their father was devoted.

Dr. McGuire's feebleness during the services in his church in June last has been mentioned. His state of health was regarded with such anxiety by his physicians, that they insisted on an immediate intermission of his duties, and a tour to the mountains, in which he reluctantly acquiesced. To relieve him both in mind and body, his congregation obtained for him the assistance of an estimable young gentleman, one of the graduates of the Theological Seminary of Virginia.

On Dr. McGuire's return from his excursion, it was supposed he would be able to resume his duties in part, and that his valuable life might be prolonged. On Sunday, October 3d, he preached, as was his custom, the anniversary sermon, and administered the communion. He and his people were much affected, and both seemed impressed with the thought that it was, in all probability, his last public service. From the church he went to the residence of an honored and beloved parishioner, who had been long confined to her house, that he might afford to her in her chamber, the sacramental privileges which her health prevented her from receiving in the sanctuary. That afternoon he passed much exhausted, lying on the sofa, silent, meditative, calm, the tears at times on his cheeknot tears of distress-no, but holy, happy tears, which none who knew and loved him could wish to wipe away.

The week passed on, with nothing in his case to attract particular notice. During the night he was occasionally sleepless, and then his speech was not of his infirmities and languor, but of the heavenly family, and their blessedness. On Friday, October 8th, after breakfasting with his family, he expressed his intention to visit some of his parishioners, and retired to a

room to arrange his dress. A noise as if something had fallen, arrested the attention of a domestic. On opening the door, he was found lying on the floor speechless. He had just shaved, adjusted his dress, and was turning to go forth on his purposed mission of mercy, when the voice he had long waited for with desire fell on his ear: "Come up hither," "Your work on earth is done, receive the crown of righteousness, and rest for ever with the Lord." And so he finished his course in the sixty-fifth year of his age, and just after he had entered the forty-sixth of his ministry.

That he had long desired this call is apparent from the following record, which is given entire, with two of the stanzas which he had annexed:

July 3, 1841.-"Have a realizing sense of the brevity of human life. Feel that it is rapidly hastening to a close with me. Very joyful am I, in the glorious prospect of that eternal weight of glory, which I believe awaits me in my Father's kingdom.

'Oh! when shall I wake, and find me there?'

"The hour draws near.

"What joy while thus I view the day,

That warns my thirsting soul away,
What transports fill my breast!
For lo, my great Redeemer's power
Unfolds the everlasting door,

And leads me to His rest.

"The festal morn, my God, is come,
That calls me to the hallowed dome,

Thy presence to adore;

My feet the summons shall attend,

With willing steps Thy courts ascend,

And tread the ethereal floor.'"

On the eleventh of October the funeral procession, formed by a vast concourse, moved from the parsonage to St. George's Church. The bier was carried by the vestrymen, and the pall was supported by the clergy. After the customary services in the church, and an address by Bishop Johns, the mortal remains of our beloved brother were committed to the ground in the adjacent yard-"earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust