examinations for his degrees, both of B.A. and M.A.; obtained a University Prize for an "Essay on Common Sense," and delivered it before the University on the same day as that on which Heber delivered his well-known poem on Palestine.

After five years of study, in 1801, Mr. Wilson was ordained and entered the ministry as curate of Chobham, under his old friend Mr. Cecil. He threw great energy into his work, preached a full gospel in the plainest and most faithful manner, visited every family committed to his charge, and sought to make full proof of his ministry. His little church was soon crowded, and the curate became not only popular, but useful in all the country round.

At the end of two years he obtained a tutorship in his old Hall at Oxford, and having secured the prospect of competence and comfort, married his cousin Anne, the daughter of the wealthy uncle to whom he had been apprenticed. The marriage was a very happy one; and the union, having lasted twenty-five years, was only broken by Mrs. Wilson's lamented death. At Oxford, Mr. Wilson remained about nine years. He was first AssistantTutor at St. Edmund's, then Tutor and Vice-Principal. He was very successful in stirring up his students to diligence in their pursuits; and above all, in drawing the hearts of many to the Cross of Christ. He read and expounded the Greek Testament with them, and aimed at improving their whole religious character, not merely at making them successful scholars. He was popular as a teacher; but they felt his want of geniality as a friend; and his great love of University "Order," in sticking out not only for gown but bands, secured for him the sobriquet of " Bands Wilson." Tutorship was not, however, Mr. Wilson's forte; he felt it cramp his soul, keep down his spirituality, and rob him of the satisfaction he deeply felt in seeking the conversion of souls. He was glad, therefore, to discharge the duties of curate to the two churches at Worton, on his uncle's property, a short distance from Oxford. Here the gospel had not been preached for many years. A series of racing and hunting curates, who filled the country round, had driven the people from Sabbath Services, and left their souls starving and athirst. Mr. Wilson's curacy, therefore, was a memorable one to the ignorant population. He had an excellent voice, an earnest manner, a simple, homely style, abundance of rich matter and illustration, and pressed home, with force and power, on his unlettered audience the simple gospel of divine love, of which they stood in so much need. The churches were soon crammed with interested hearers, who flocked to hear him Sabbath after Sabbath, from all the country round. There was little in the Church of England in those days, of preaching so acceptable, so impressive, and so pro

fitable, especially in country villages; and his days of usefulness at Worton have never been forgotten.

At length in 1809, the health of his valued friend Mr. Cecil, began to fail, and Mr. Wilson, at the ripe age of thirty-one, was invited to succeed him in London, as minister of St. John's, Bedford-row. This Episcopal Chapel, built for the pious seceders of St. Andrew's Church, when the disreputable Sacheverel was forced upon them by Queen Anne, had long been a centre of Evangelical truth amid surrounding darkness; and under the ministry of Mr. Cecil, a large "congregation of faithful men" had been gathered, who, much as they prized church ordinances, loved gospel truth still more. Mr. Wilson had been well prepared by previous training for a full discharge of the important duties of such a responsible position. He had attained considerable scholarship; was familiar with Greek and Hebrew, reading the Bible daily in these tongues; was a close student of the best fathers and commentators; was himself an earnest, watching, conscientious Christian; and had clear and large conceptions of the spiritual wants of men, and of the power of a pure gospel to supply all their need. As soon as he was settled as Pastor, the congregation rapidly increased, the chapel filled, and his usefulness was very great. His people were not drawn from the parish, but gathered from all parts of London; and his congregation formed a select band of the most zealous and spiritual Christians in the Church of England at that time. Many distinguished individuals are mentioned as constant attendants. The Thorntons, the Charles Grants, father and son, Mr. Stephen and his son, Dr. Mason Good, Zachary Macaulay and his son, with many others, occupied regular seats; and Wilberforce attended occasionally. Visitors were continually arriving from all parts of the country, and in after years in India many greeted him as an old friend, to whose instructions they had often listened in St. John's. The regular congregation soon numbered 1,800 persons, of whom between six and seven hundred were communicants. His style of preaching was now thoroughly fixed, and all its peculiar excellencies were well developed. He was always a clear thinker, and the arrangement of his topies was lucid and broad. From the commencement of his ministry he was accustomed to study commentators, and Scott was such a favourite that in the course of his life he read him through many times, and thoroughly mastered his views, When examining any special text or subject, he covered his table with books in which he found any help; he aimed at clearness of thought, at fulness of illustration rather than originality; he began his preparations early, devoted many hours to his compositions; the consequence was a richness of thought and wealth of matter in his sermons which have seldom been equalled, and

still more rarely excelled. In the course of four or five sermons he would quote fifty authors, and place as many as six annotations on a single page of his discourse. In this way he became eminently distinguished as an expounder of the Scriptures, and whether in the pulpit or in the family, he was able to render his expositions rich with the fulness of gospel truth. His sermons were not, however, mere general statements; he made the most close applications of truth to the conscience of his hearers, and his appeals were eloquent and powerful. He preached in a strong, clear voice; his tones were authoritative, if not pompous, and he was fond of big adjectives, which he rolled out rotundo ore. Such preaching, conveying the most impressive Evangelical truth in a very attractive form, was not common in the Church of England in those days; and accompanied as it was by fervent prayers for the blessing of the Spirit, who can wonder that it was fruitful in the conversion and sanctification of many souls.

Holding this conspicuous position among the Evangelical clergy, Mr. Wilson did not confine his preaching simply to the personal edification of his flock. From the first, he was a hearty friend and helper of the Church Missionary and Bible Societies, and on several occasions preached and travelled on their behalf.

In the course of these years, he published several of his sermons, especially those which were preached at missionary anniversaries or on the death of friends. He took part, also, in some warm controversies that arose, and became quite conspicuous as a champion of the Church Missionary Society against many who objected to its constitution and its proceedings. His pen was always wielded on the side of gospel truth, and of evangelical, hearty efforts for saving precious souls. Special occasions, also, he was careful to turn to account for the same great cause. Thus, when invited to preach a University Sermon at Oxford, he deliberately chose for his topic the subject of Regeneration; and, in expounding its author, nature, and results, denied, in the most distinct terms, the doctrine of Baptismal Grace so popular in that University. To make the case quite clear, he quoted Bishop Latimer's sentiment that "Simon Magus after his baptism was as great a blackamoor as before it." Sentiments and language so plain as this, of course gave considerable offence, and it was long before he was invited to preach again in the same place.

In these useful and efficient labours fifteen years passed away. They were the best years of his life: his preaching, his personal influence, his usefulness, were in their prime. A severe illness, to him most unusual, at length laid him low; and, in the calm. retirement of a sick room, in the devout meditations and prayers which rest secured him, he learned to acknowledge, with thank

fulness, that it was "good to be afflicted." When he rose from his sick bed he returned to St. John's no more: another sphere of labour was assigned him.

His uncle and father-in-law had many years before purchased the advowson of the vicariate of Islington; and, at his death, bequeathed it to Mr. Wilson. When, therefore, in 1824, Dr. Strahan, the vicar, died, the presentation fell into Mr. Wilson's hands, and he appointed himself. He now entered on a new phase of clerical life, and assumed, for the first time, a parochial charge in a great city. Islington at that time contained about 30,000 inhabitants, and in the Church of England possessed only the parish church and one chapel of ease. . There were several flourishing Dissenting Churches of various communions, of which of course neither the vicar nor his biographer, in estimating the spiritual condition of the parish, could be expected to take notice. Under the former vicar, the services of the church were cold and lifeless, and gave very little profit to the uninstructed thousands of the neighbourhood. In assuming his new charge, Mr. Wilson was anxious to benefit, in the most direct way, his own parishioners. He knew he could soon fill St. Mary's, as he had filled St. John's; but he was desirous of filling it, not with strangers, but with his own people. For some time, therefore, he was particularly careful so to preach Evangelical truth to his new audience as not to prejudice them against it, and to convince them that he had at heart, first of all, the spiritual prosperity of his cure. The church was soon filled; he became popular among his own people; he took the afternoon lectureship; secured the services of some excellent curates; and set himself to supply the spiritual destitution around him. With considerable trouble and explanation, he succeeded in securing an arrangement with the Church Building Commissioners for erecting three large churches at a cost to the parish of only £12,000. The sum was unanimously voted by the parishioners; the churches placed in admirable positions; and supplied with faithful ministers. Islington now contains 150,000 people; it is one of the most religious parishes in the kingdom; it enjoys the services of about forty ministers of Christ, of whom half are within the establishment and half out of it: but the germs of active piety within the Church of England, and the founding of the fifteen churches in which its adherents now assemble, are justly attributed to the earnest efforts of Bishop Wilson. While Vicar of Islington, his course of usefulness still continued; but he was getting to fifty years of age, and apparently growing less active as a preacher. He had to meet a few parochial squabbles; but his chief afflictions lay within the bounds of his own family. One of his

sons, by a course of reckless wildness, gave him the deepest pain; and years of exile passed away before the prodigal returned in penitence to the Saviour's cross. But the chief sorrow was the loss of his excellent wife, who had long been an invalid, and at length slept in peace. Mr. Wilson never married again; but committed the charge of his household to one of his sisters.

In 1832, the bishopric of Calcutta became vacant, for the fourth time within a few years. A strange fatality seemed to attend it, explainable probably by the comparatively advanced age at which the bishops had been appointed. The vacancy was offered to several clergy of high standing, who declined it; at length it was offered by Mr. Charles Grant to Mr. Wilson, and was accepted. His medical friends made no objection; and he was consecrated to the see just as he reached the age of fifty-four. Many of his friends feared greatly on his behalf; and none could have imagined that his Master would be pleased to spare him for yet five-and-twenty years, and confer upon him eminent usefulness in that distant diocese. With a stout heart, however, he set forth to his sphere of labour, "not knowing the things which might befal him there," and arrived at Calcutta at the close of 1832.

Bishop Wilson had done the Church good service in his native land; but it is by his Indian life and labours that his name will be hereafter distinguished. He had been faithful over a few things he was now to be ruler over many things. He had endeavoured to provide churches and ministers for a neglected parish he was now to contemplate and seek to remedy the spiritual destitution of mighty provinces. He was the first Indian bishop who thoroughly appreciated the wants of the Church in our Eastern empire; and, aided by the experience of former years, he set himself to supply them with all the means at his command. When he arrived, the transition state of English society was steadily progressing. Old Indianism, with its ignorance of home, its open irreligion, its gross vices, was fast passing away. In the great cities, where large communities had gathered, society had outwardly assumed a more decent exterior than was known in former years. But the number of devoted Christians was by no means large. There were few churches in the many stations scattered over the extensive provinces of the Empire, and fewer chaplains to occupy them. The English forces were ill supplied with means of grace, though their wants were the most pressing. The small civil stations were more destitute still; and in many retired localities, to which the voice of public opinion scarcely penetrated, the most glaring immorality amongst public officers might be witnessed still. Even the few