WALTER MACON LOWRIE.

WALTER MACON LOWRIE, the third son of Walter and Amelia Lowrie, was born in Butler, Penn., on the 18th of February, 1819. His early years were principally spent under the care of an excellent and faithful mother. He was naturally cheerful, frank, kind, and obedient; and a general favourite among his playmates. At an early age, he manifested those powers of mind which shine so conspicuously in the latter part of his life. He passed with credit through all the preparatory stages of his education, and entered Jefferson College in October, 1833. Like so many other of the most eminent servants of God, he was the fruit of a college revival. During the second year of his course, Jefferson College and its vicinity were blessed with a powerful revival of religion. Many of the students were brought to Christ-some of whom have since devoted themselves to the work of the ministry. Among these was the subject of this memoir, and the lamented Lloyd, who has also gone, with his bosom-friend, to rest in the favour of God. Mr. Lowrie frequently refers to the 29th of December, 1834, as the memorable day when he was brought to Christ, and received him as his Saviour. His conversion was not marked by any violent. emotion or change. Neither his sorrow nor his joy were such as many experience, in the time of their passing from death to life. Still he could say from the first, "Though I as yet see little of Christ and his exceeding love to me, in my lost and ruined condition, yet, what little I do see, fills me with love and peace, and an earnest desire to see more and more of him, and to lay myself down and give up my soul at the foot of his cross." His early training had been religious, and as in most such cases, the light seemed to break upon him gradually, but it was increasing more and more unto the perfect day. He was sometimes tried with doubts and fears; yet in the main, his piety was trustful and cheerful, and he has left us this record, "that after applying every test in my power,

to examine the sincerity of my heart, I am enabled to say, though still with fear and trembling, that Jesus is mine and I am his."

From the first, his views of Christ and the gospel were singularly clear and scriptural. He felt deeply the hardness and sinfulness of his heart; his inability to save himself; and he came cordially to Christ for salvation. He knew that his only hope was in Christ, in his perfect righteousness and atoning blood; and accordingly Christ became at once the object of his supreme love. He recognised his will as the law of his life.

The most striking thing which characterized his religious experience as it is perhaps the most striking peculiarity of his mind— was the great maturity and soberness of his views. His earlier productions bear the mark and character of ripe years. This shows itself in his mode of settling questions of duty. As soon as the love of Christ became the ruling passion of his soul, we find him deciding upon the choice of a profession-and then upon the field of labour. He decided at once, and yet with caution and a clear view of the reasons for and against so early a decision. He thus states them to his father: "If I now decide upon my profession, I may lay my mind more ardently to being prepared for it; I may the more readily make all my pursuits subservient to this; and secondly, if I now decide to be a minister, it may conduce to personal piety and a closer walk with God. On the other hand, there may be objected, first, my youth; second, my inexperience of my ownself and others; third, the fickleness of my temper, and, fourth, circumstances may occur, which may render it obligatory for me to change my views. I regard myself in this light. I profess to be, and hope I am, a servant of Christ; the command is, “Go work.” The first question is, how shall I work? the second, where?

With this full view of the question, we find him, September, 1835, already determined upon the ministry as his calling. The question of personal consecration to the missionary work, had been before him from his first experience of a hope in Christ, and he met it with the same clearness in his views; the same deliberation and prayer, and the same decision, as the previous question of his calling. In a letter to his father, he says: "This question has, as you are aware, long been before my mind. This session I felt it to be important to know what I should do, and what time I could spare was devoted to the examination of the question. It never seemed to present any great difficulties to my mind and I don't know that I could give any

particular account of the reasons which led me to believe that it was my duty to spend my life among the heathen. The question always seemed, though a very important one, to be, Can I do more abroad than at home? There were no providential hindrances to prevent me from going. Providence seemed rather to point to the heathen as the proper place. My own inclinations and feelings pointed the same way." He made this determination with a full sense of his own weakness: but once made, he never shrank from carrying it into effect. He knew no regrets; and from henceforth all his energies were bent to the preparation for that work.

This determination was formed about the middle of January, 1837, and in September of the same year he completed his college course with the highest honours of his class.

On leaving college Mr. L. returned to his father's family, then residing in New-York. His constitution being weak it was thought best by his friends that he should not enter immediately upon his theological course. He spent the winter therefore in New-York. In May, 1838, he entered the theological seminary at Princeton, and joined the class regularly formed in September following. His course in the seminary was not marked by any peculiar circumstances. He was faithful in all his duties, "and never absent from a single recitation." He entered with zeal into the study of the original Scriptures; so necessary to a successful missionary, and in which he was emi nently useful in after life. He, however, kept his main end in view, and every thing was made subservient to this. The fire which was kindled in his soul never died out. He was rapidly maturing in principle and faith. His religion was taking on more and more the cast of his mind. In his correspondence with Lloyd and Owen he lays open to us his feelings and views. He refers to his college experience: "It seems to me that we all lived too much by excitement, not enough by simple faith. Our religious societies were precious and profitable, and I should be sorry to give them up, but perhaps we depended too much upon them, without remembering that it is God alone who can give the increase, and depending on these means (at least in my own case) was productive of a spirit of action more resembling the crackling of thorns than the steady intense flame that consumed the Jewish sacrifices. On this subject there is danger of making great mistakes, and because we do not enjoy religion, of thinking that we are not as engaged as we were then.

The truth I suppose is, that we are not to measure our piety by our enjoyment so much as by the steadiness of our purpose of self-consecration to God." "Our feelings are important, but I find it often necessary to go against them. They are like perfumes that sweeten the gales which waft us on our course; and at times they may even be compared to the gales that assist the galley-slave as he toils at the oar. But we are rowing up stream, and it will not do for us to lie on our oars every time the breeze lulls.-The flame was now that intense steady flame of deep-seated principle. His reliance upon the divinely appointed means of grace, was consistent, as it always must be, with the most ardent and genuine feeling. He warns his friend against excitement or romance, and yet in the very next sentence addresses him with questions like these: "What is the state of missionary feeling now among you? Do you yet hear the cry, 'Come over and help us,' as it rises from the death-bed of the Hindoo, and borne along across the waste of waters reaches our ears both from the east and west, swelled as it is and heightened and prolonged by the addition of innumerable others? Oh! does the cry of the nations, echoed and reëchoed from the distant mountains, still sound among you? or does it die away among the crumbling ruins of heathen temples, unheard and unheeded, save by the infidel and Deist? Oh, who is there to come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty! There is nothing in all my course for which I reproach myself so much as that I did so little to excite a missionary spirit in college."

While in the seminary his mind was occupied with the choice of a field of labour. He had long since determined to spend his life among the heathen, but where he should labour now became a question of importance. His mind was soon fixed upon Western Africa, though the prospect of living there was very uncertain. His feelings were enlisted warmly for that injured and benighted land; and his judgment went with his feelings, as to his personal duty. In a letter to Lloyd, he says: "Let me whisper in your ear, for I don't want it known, that I look to a field nearer home than China, or even Northern India-I mean Western Africa, the white man's grave." With this determination he offered himself in December, 1840, to the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, expressing a decided preference for Western Africa as a chosen field of labour, but still submitting himself cheerfully to the decision of the Committee. No objection to this preference was made by his

friends, and for several months the question was considered as fully settled. The mission was, however, at that time "just commencing, and encompassed with many difficulties." It had also been severely tried. Most of those who had been sent there had been removed by death or ill-health. "In these circumstances, and having no other suitable man to send, it seemed clear that China was the proper field of labour for Mr. Lowrie. It was believed also that from the tone of his piety, his cheerful temper, his thorough education, his natural talents, and untiring industry, he was peculiarly fitted for the China mission." He yielded cheerfully to the judgment of the Executive Committee and his friends. It was not, however, from any sense of the danger to life in Africa. He was unwilling himself to assume the responsibility of going to any other country; but he left himself at the disposal of the Board, viewing their decision as the call of God.

He was licensed to preach the gospel by the Second Presbytery of New York on the 5th of April, 1841. The larger part of the following summer was spent in the service of the Board in Michigan and among the churches in Western New-York. He was ordained on the 9th of November, and on the last Sabbath of that month received the instructions of the Board.

During his college and seminary courses Mr. Lowrie was a most zealous and successful labourer in the Sunday school. He won the affections of his scholars, and inspired the teachers with his own fixed purpose and ardent spirit. The deep interest which he took in these schools, grew out of, or at least gathered strength from their close connection with a right missionary feeling in the churches. In a letter to a friend in the ministry, he writes: "I am becoming more and more convinced that it is in vain to expect the present generation of Christians to do their duty in the work of missions; I do not say this in a spirit of censoriousness, but from a growing conviction that unless the subject of missions is early impressed on the minds of children; unless habits of self-denial and liberality for and to the heathen are encouraged in them, it is vain to expect that they will, when they grow up, perform in any tolerable measure the duties to the heathen that may be expected from them. Hence, it seems to me, if I were a pastor, I would commence at once, or as soon as I dared in my Sabbath school. If the superintendent could not, or would not, I would as often as possible give the children some ideas of the state of the heathen, their superstitions, their spiritual pros