Memoirs

Front matter

1 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. & lUNITED STATES OF aMEKICA.B

MEMOIRS,

INCLUDING

Chapter II

Difficulties in determining his profession — He is sent to the University of St. Andrew's — Letter to his father, giving an account of his gaining the first bursary — Letter to his mother — His success at the end of the first session — Mr. Duff's observations on his conduct at this time — Return to St. Andrew's — Letter, giving an account of his early impressions, and change of mind — Remarks on this subject — His views of Christian fellowship — Success at the end of his

second session . , 44

4 CONTENTS.

Chapter III. Fags

Introduction to Dr. Chalmers — Attends the Moral Philosophy class — First appearance at this class — Letter to his father, on the formation of the University Missionary Society — On the same, and other topics — Mr. Duff's account of the progress of his religious views — Letter to his parents, on the death of a younger brother — Letter to Mr. Orme, partly on the same subject — Letter to his mother — Letter to his brother — Letter to his sister — Letter to an afflicted friend — Letter to the same — His diligence at Dr. Chalmers's class — Letter to a young friend — Letter to his father — Success during the third session at College — View of John's talents and character at this time, by a fellow-student 65

Chapter IV

Introductory observations — John's return home at the end of his third session — Letter respecting his going to some of the Dissenting Academies — Letter illustrative of his state of mind — Letters — His employments during the vacation — Letter to Mr. Craik — His visit to London — Mr. Adam's account of him at this time — Letters to his father — Engagements during the winter — Letters to a friend — Letter to his brother — Letter to his mother — Letter to a friend — Letter to Mr. Orme — Opposition of his friends to his Missionary devotedness — Mr. Duff's account of him — Testimonies to his literary attainments — Mr. Alexander's account of him

? — Dr. Chalmers's certificate 108

Chapter V

Letter to his Mother in reference to his becoming a Tutor in a family of high respectability — Letter to Herbert Smith, Esq.

CONTENTS. 5

PAGE

— Extracts from his Journal — Letter to Mr. Craik — Letter — Extracts from his Journal — Letter to Mr. Trail — Letter to his Sister — Letters — Extracts from various letters to Mr. Scott Moncrieff — Letter to his friend C. — Letter to Mr. Herbert Smith — Letter to the Rev. John Burnett — Letter to Mr. Adam — Letter to Mr. Orme — Letter — Letters to his Sister

— Letter to Mr. Trail — Letter to Mr^ Adam — Letter to his afflicted friend — Letter to Mr. Trail. .- - 176

CHAPTER VL

The commencement of his last illness — Extract from his Jo-urnal — Letter to Mr. Tate — Letter to Mr. Craik — Letter to his father — Letter from Mr. Ewing to his father — Letter from Mrs. Ewing to the same — Letter from Mrs. Ewing, giving an account of his illness and death — Letter from Miss Cathcart on the same subject — His death — Letter from Dr. Chalmers to his father — Lines addressed to John by a friend — Concluding observations on his character and death. 247

Appendix

A. — An Essay on the Nature and Design of the Mission of the

Saviour on Earth 279

B. — Dr. Chalmers — The St. Andrew's Missionary Society 286

C. — Essay on the Division of Philosophy 295

Essay on the Analogy which subsists between the Operations

of Nature and the Operations of Political Economy 297

That Knowledge gives its Possessor more Power than

Wealth does 302

An Essay on the Selfish System 306

1*

6 CONTENTS.

PAGB

D. — The Doctrine of a Gradation in Rewards and Punishments,

and an attempt to apply it to the subject of Missions. . . 311 E. — Essay on the Distinction between Productive and Unproductive Labour 326

F. — On Written Language. 331

On Religious Establishments 334

On the Love of Fame. . .# 336

G.— Discourse on 2 Cor. iv. 13. 340

H. — Essay on Natural Religion 356

I. — Prize Essay. — On the Mutual Influences and Affinities, which obtain between the Moral and the Economic condition of Society 363

K. — Address to the St. Andrew's University Missionary Society, on the Duty of Personal engagement in the work of

Missions 381

L. — Address to a Society of Young Men 400

Address to his Class of Young Men 408

M. — On Fiction as a Medium of Religious Instruction 413

On the Omnipresence and Omniscience of God 418

AND

RECOMMENDATION.

BY THE REV. DR. DUFF.

Haying been personally acquainted with the subject of the following memoir, I was requested, during my recent visit to the United States, by my revered friend James Lenox, Esq., of New York, to look over the last English edition, and mark what alterations might advantageously be made in a projected American edition of the work.

This revision, hitherto delayed from unavoidable causes which it is needless to recount, has now been accomplished. As the general result, it may be stated that several minor mistakes, into which the Biographer had inadvertently fallen, have been corrected ; that various passages of inferior importance, or of merely local or ephemeral interest, have been omitted ; that the essays of a purely literary or philosophical character have been extruded from the body of the work and thrown into an Appendix ; and finally, that the whole has been broken up into the more convenient division of chapters.

With many it may be a matter of doubt, whether the essays ought not to be excluded altogether. But, on mature consideration, it has been thought that the same reasons which weighed with the Biographer in originally introducing them, may well be regarded as still sufficiently valid in warranting the continued retention of them. They are not numerous ; they do not occupy any considerable or disproportionate space ; and they may serve to show the students of mere secular philosophy, how, between true science and true religion, there is not only no real discrepancy, but a beauteous and mutually enhancing harmony; and how, with the utmost ease, precision, and intelligence, a Christian young man, whose whole soul was inflamed with the spirit of missions, could, in the ordinary course of his academic career, and at the call of duty, turn aside and successfully grapple with some of the most abstruse and perplexing questions in ethics and political economy. Considered as the college exercises of a youth of little more than sixteen, they cannot but be pronounced as no ordinary productions. Their simplicity, as Mr. Orme has truly remarked, constitutes their charm ; the lucidus ordo is most delightfully exemplified in every one of them ; his thoughts constantly flow in a train peculiarly clear, always natural and unaffected ; and the easy diction in which he expressed himself was the perfect picture of his mind.

The grand object, however, of the memoir is, to exhibit the rise, progress, and formation of the religious character of the individual whose short life is illustrated. Amid the many clustering excellencies that adorned that character, by far the most prominent and striking was the evangelistic spirit and self-devotion by which it was so peculiarly distinguished. It was this which chiefly conferred on it at once its lustre and its uniqueness. The Church of Christ in all lands can happily point to not a -few young men of sincere and shining piety; but, unhappily, to very few, who, at the age of young Urquhart, have been privileged to obtain and cherish so marvellously clear and intelligent an apprehension of the duty of exemplifying that piety by a solemn act of personal dedication to the God-like enterprise of the world's evangelization.

It is under this more distinctive aspect of it, that I would earnestly crave the special attention of Christian young men in general, and more particularly of Christian students and candidates for the ministry, to the life of John Urquhart.

In his case, we find the true rationale of personal dedication to the cause of missions, unfolded with singular point and clearness. In early youth it was his inestimable privilege to enjoy the benefit of religious training, under the instruction and example of pious parents. Being naturally of a mild, gentle, amiable, guileless, Nathanael-like disposition, such example and instruction could not fail to have their due effect, in not only restraining him from the commission of gross outward sin, and saving him from the contagious influences of evil companionship, but also in superinducing a habit of internal conformity to the practices of Christian devotion and worship. Still, until he had passed his fourteenth year, there is no evidence whatever of his having undergone the great change of the new birth in the soul. On this subject, his own statement to his pastor, Mr. Orme, is perfectly explicit. Writing, in April, 1824, he says, " My first impressions of danger, as a sinner, were caused by a sermon you" preached, on a Lord's day evening, about a year and a half ago. At the time, I was very much affected ; it was then, I think, that I first really prayed. I retired to my apartment, and with many tears confessed my guilt before God."

This first partial awakening occurred towards the close of the autumn of 1822. Soon afterwards he went, for the first time, to the College of S.t. Andrew's. There his first religious impressions became somewhat blunted, though not effaced. On his return home in the summer of 1823, he tells us that he began to feel less pleasure in the exercises of prayer, and praise, and reading of the Scriptures ; yea, that these employments became a weariness to him, and were at last almost totally neglected. " My soul," he adds, " reverted to its original bent, and the follies of this world wholly engrossed my attention, and had I been left in that state, I must have inevitably perished."

But the Lord, who is rich in mercy, and who delighteth not in the death of the wicked, had better things in store for him. Through the powerful operation of the Holy Spirit, a process of illumination and conviction was commenced and carried on in his soul, until at last it issued in manifest conversion to God. Returning to St. Andrew's, for the second time, towards the close of the autumn of 1823, he was enabled, before the end of that session, thus to write: "God, in his infinite mercy, has again been pleased to call my attention to the things of eternity. For some months back, I have been led to see the utter worthlessness of earthly things ; to see that happiness is not to be found in any earthly object. And I think I have been led to seek it where alone it is to be found — in Jesus crucified for me. I have felt great pleasure in communion with God; and I have felt some love, though faint, to the Saviour and to his cause. I have had a long struggle with the world. I have counted the cost, and I have at last resolved that I will serve the Lord."

Under these re-awakened and more vital impressions, and as a scripturally ordained means of heightening and permanizing them, he at once resolved openly to profess his faith in Jesus, by formally entering the communion and fellowship of a Christian church. Relative to this decisive step, his biographer with equal truth and emphasis remarks, that his reasons for taking it, " were those by which he appeared to have been invariably influenced in his religious course. He first sought to ascertain what was the will of God ; and on arriving at a satisfactory conclusion on this point, he was then prepared to encounter all difficulties which stand in the way of full compliance with it. He delayed not, but hastened to keep the commandment."

On being received as a member of the Church of Christ, he not only felt keenly alive to the seriousness and solemnity of the step he had taken, but entertained the most humbling sense of*his own weakness and unworthiness, — coupled, however, with a wellgrounded reliance on the all-sufficiency of his covenant God: "I eee/' he remarks, " many temptations in my way, and I feel that I am not able in myself to withstand them. May God perfect his strength in my weakness, and may he enable me henceforth to live, not to myself, but to Him who died for me, and who rose again ; to offer my body a living sacrifice, and to devote all the faculties of my mind to his service"

These were no mere words of course, expressive of aspirations that were to perish with the utterance. No ; they were the spontaneous effusion of an intensely conscientious and ingenuous mind. From' the day that he united himself, as a member, to the body or visible Church of Christ, by a deliberate act of public communion, it was clear to all around, that he regarded himself, in strictest literality, as "no longer his own," but as one "bought with a price;" and therefore bound to serve his divine Lord and Eedeemer, with " soul, body, and spirit, which were his." Suddenly startled out of the dreamy indifference and illusory visions of old nature — arrested in his downward career towards the fiery lake — snatched as a brand from the burning — and overwhelmed under a vividly realizing sense of so great a deliverance, he might well have given expression to the actual inner workings and new spiritual instincts of his soul in words like these : " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? How can I most effectually testify my adoring gratitude and love? Here am I a sinful, guilty rebel, ransomed by thy blood from the power of sin, and death, and hell, and the grave ; do with me what thou wilt, for I am thy servant, under obligation the most absolute to be and to do whatsoever thou wilt."

Assuredly, in his case, there was no first consulting with mere flesh and blood ! No tacit reserve in favour of mere natural tastes or antecedent predilections ! No partial or half deference to the whims or humours, the likings or prejudices of friends ! No plausible transference, through a voluntary humility, of individual personal responsibility to the arbitrary decision of others ! No secret clinging or cleaving to any favourite or previously cherished scheme or department of labour ! No timorous respect to the ordinary routine or stereotyped conventionalities of ecclesiastical usage ! No ! " Here I am, Lord, whenever, wherever, in what way soever thou wilt have me to serve thee — only do thou show me, that I may promptly obey," — seems but the faithful and compendious embodiment of the real feelings and convictions of his heart.

It was, then, when in this Isaiah-like, Paul-like mood and frame of mind, the true spring and source of noblest self-renunciation and most heroic self-sacrifice, that the Lord was pleased powerfully to impress his mind with a desire to devote himself to the Christian ministry, in direct connection with the reat work of heathen evangelization, as the sphere in which, if rightly improved, most glory might accrue to God, and most good to the souls of men. Thus it was, that in his case, the evangelistic spirit, which ultimately led to so solemn an act of personal consecration, was coeval with the dawn and manifestation of the new birth in his soul. Planted there, as in a soil prepared by the Holy Spirit, and watered by the dews of the heavenly grace, the tender germ gradually sprung up into stature and strength, keeping pace with the growth of the new man, until, at last, it bore the ripened fruit of an unconquerable resolve.

It is true that with the subject of missions, in its general aspects, he had long been well acquainted. It was one in which his pious parents and pastor were deeply interested. It was, therefore, linked with many of his earliest and most familiar home associations. But it was not until he himself was sought out, effectually called, and quickened, as one of the lost, that he began to feel the influence of a Saviour's example and command constraining him to consider, whether it might not be his own duty, in imitation of his divine Lord and Master, to go forth in person, into " the waste howling wilderness" of sin and death, to seek and to save the lost ! The discovery of his own ruined condition by nature, opened up to his unsealed vision a new and appalling prospect of the whole world lying in wickedness, and exposed to endless miseries here and hereafter. The felt realization of the joy and blessedness of pardon and sanctifying grace to his own soul, from the Fount itself of redeeming love, inspired him with new and unwonted motions of sympathy and compassion towards the perishing, as well as new and unwonted desires to be honoured as the herald to them of the glad tidings of a great salvation. An overpowering sense of grateful loyalty to Him to whom he owed his own everlasting life, inspired him with an uncontrollable longing to do what in him lay, to advance that glorious cause of the world's evangelization, in the consummation of which alone He shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. Thus it was that, in him, the first stirring of the missionary spirit was not the impulse of a mere ordinary philanthropy — not the fitful gleam of a doating imagination — not the fond vision of chivalrous romance — not the sudden movement of excited feeling — not the wild project of adventurous enterprise — not the momentary flash and sparkle of an ebullient enthusiasm. Oh, no ! It was the welling forth of a divine sentiment of pity and compassion, gratitude and love, from the profoundest depths of a renovated spirit — it was the lighting up of a radiant and enduring principle of life and energy in a soul, now struggling in the new pathway of holy duty, to disengage itself wholly from the smoke and tarnish of a turbid earthly atmosphere.

Still, he was very young and inexperienced, not having yet completed his sixteenth year. On this account, with a judgment preeminently sound, he resolved, in the first instance, to keep his newly awakened thoughts and desires to himself, spreading them out before God only, and seeking for further light from the illumination of the Holy Spirit, in the reading of Scripture, meditation, and prayer. A better evidence of perfect calmness and sobriety, coupled with earnest determination, could scarcely be afforded, than was indicated by this course of action. " If," wrote he, even at a later period, " if my wish to preach the gospel of Christ among the heathen, have in it aught of the romance of a boyish imagination, a few years' thought and experience will extinguish its ardour ; but if the Lord has appointed me to declare his name among the Gentiles, and that wish has been implanted in my breast by the Spirit of God, delays and disappointments will but foster its growth, and make it yet more vigorous." How sagaciously he had thus judged, the result abundantly proved.

After the lapse of a considerable period, devoted to private readings, meditation, and prayer, he resolved in his intense anxiety to learn his Lord's will in the matter, to seek for light from every available extraneous source, steadfastly watching the leadings of Provi-, dence with a filial eye. Conscious of his own liability to err, and with a diffidence and modesty peculiar to the sincere inquirer after truth and the path of duty, he was led, among other means of enlightenment, to ask counsel from friends to whose candour and practical wisdom he might look with some degree of confidence; not that such counsel might form a decisive or determining element in the case; but simply furnish materials for the confirmation or correction of his own immatured judgment. It was to his pastor, Mr. Orme, that in his letter of February 18th, 1825, he very naturally and properly first unbosomed his mind on the subject, stating that he had long considered the object of the missionary enterprise, as "one of the most important, perhaps, the most important, which can engage the mind of a Christian ;" that, " for some time he had even seriously thought of devoting his own life to the cause of missions ;" that he was " aware of the difficulties to be encountered, and of the danger of rashly forming a resolution of such importance ;" that " even the desire he had thus expressed was the fruit of much meditation and prayer;" and that he had "communicated it to Mr. Orme in order to have the benefit of his advice."

But while he thus sought the counsel of experienced friends, it was from the Bible that he drew his chief inspiration and guidance ;

praying at the same time, for the illumining influences of the Holy Spirit. The substance of his cogitations and conclusions in this direction he himself supplies. In a letter to a friend, July 8th, 1825, he remarks as follows : —

" In connection with this matter, I have been led to consider more attentively those passages of Scripture which refer to missionary exertions, and the result has been a deeper impression than ever of the duty of engaging in this work. It is very true that much has to be done at home ; that there are many here, as my friend Craik writes, who ' can only be considered in the light of more criminal heathens/ But this is a wilful ignorance ; they are not ' perishing from lack of knowledge/ And this argument, if carried to its full extent, would stifle missionary exertions to the very end of the world. What would have been the consequence had the apostles resolved not to leave Jerusalem till every one of their brethren according to the flesh was truly converted? The Gentiles would not have received the glad tidings of salvation to the present hour. This was not the commandment the apostles received^ however; and accordingly they acted in a very different manner. They were to preach the gospel to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. The nation of the Jews had a claim upon the first preachers of Christianity which our countrymen have not upon us. They were not only their * brethren according to the flesh/ but they were also God's chosen nation ; and as such it was right that they should enjoy a pre-eminence over all others, in first receiving the proclamation of pardon. But how did their brethren, the apostles, act even to this favoured nation ? They made a full declaration of salvation through Christ ; they made a free tender of the mercy of Jehovah ; but by almost all this mercy was slighted and rejected.

By thus sinning against greater light, these individuals became more criminal even than the heathen. Did the apostles, therefore, think that they should not go forth to the heathen till all these rejecters of the truth were convinced of the error of their ways ? No ; that very rejection of the gospel by their countrymen was a signal for their departure. * Seeing ye reject? &c, * behold, we turn to the Gentiles/ Had the gospel been proclaimed in like manner to all other nations, the apostles would have felt it their duty to have laboured assiduously among their brethren at home. But, while there remained a single nation on the face of the earth that had not received the knowledge of salvation, they felt that the parting commandment of their Master was not yet fully obeyed ; and while they lived, they made it their business more and more fully to execute that command. But their missionary spirit died with them ; and at the present hour that commandment remains still unobeyed. Is it difficult, in this case, to see the path of duty ? Besides, I cannot see that by preaching at home we hasten the coming glory of the Church. God has promised that all shall know him. He has not promised that all shall serve him. On the contrary, he has said that he will gather his people out of every nation, kindred, and tongue, and people ; which evidently implies that all shall not be his people. Far be it from me to depreciate the work of the ministry at home. It is a most important work. But still, while there are any sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, it must yield in importance to the missionary field. Besides, who can tell what an effect our neglect of God's commandment to preach to all nations may have in causing him to withhold his Spirit from the exertions of Christians at home V

In a subsequent letter he supplements this clear, simple, resistless scriptural statement, by the following very impressive view: —

"I still am inclined to think that the publication of the gospel as a message of mercy to sinners is the grand object for which the Christian ministry was instituted ; at least it is one of the greatest objects. I do think that even the edification of the body of Christ yields to it in point of importance. We believe that if a sinner once embraces the gospel he cannot finally fall away; and even if his progress in the divine life should be slow, we know that in a very few years at the farthest, a full display of the glories of the divine character must burst upon him. Now, whether is it a more important work to rescue a sinner from hell and place him in this condition of safety, or to antedate, in a very slight degree, the happiness of a future state in one who has believed ? For, all our advances in the knowledge of divine truth here must be held insignificant, when compared with the immense addition to our knowledge and our happiness, which we shall receive at that time when the dim conceptions of faith shall be exchanged for the bright realities of actual vision. I beg that you would not understand me as estimating lightly the work of grace in the hearts of believers. It is only when contrasted with the work of regeneration that I would ever think of it as of secondary importance. But I am not sure that the work of grace would go on more slowly in the hearts of believers, from the attention of the pastors being more called to the work of evangelizing the heathen. I do think in the present day we are apt to trust too much to public ordinances, and I would almost like to see Christians more thrown upon the resources of private devotion, and more direct communion with God. Our knowledge of divine things, to be sure, is small ; but, 0 that our piety were but equal to our knowledge I"

As a further means of furnishing himself with sufficient data to ensure an intelligent and solidly based resolution, he sought and obtained, in the autumn of 1825, a personal interview with Mr. Townley, formerly a missionary in Bengal, and Dr. Morrison, the celebrated Chinese missionary, then resident in London. To them he openly expressed the wish he had for some time fostered, to devote himself, if the Lord willed, to missionary labours. As China, on 2* account of its magnitude and their comparative neglect by the Christian world, presented the strongest claims to his mind, he looked forward to it as his probable future mission-field. He, accordingly, attended Dr. Morrison's instructions in Chinese, that he might gain as much insight into " the mode of studying the language as might enable him, should he wish to pursue it, to do so alone." And his biographer testifies that the papers he left behind sufficiently evinced how ardently and successfully he entered into the study of that difficult language.

Returning with his friend Mr. Adam, who had devoted himself to the missionary cause, about the end of October, to St. Andrew's, they both resolved to apply themselves afresh to their general studies, and to a thorough examination of everything relating to missions. For this purpose, they searched the sacred Scriptures, and summed up their inquiries under the heads of precepts, prophecies, examples, and promises. In order to render the investigation the more complete, they also resolved, at the same time, to collect from other sources, all the accessible information on the interesting subject. In this way they carefully perused Brown's History of Missions, Home's, Ward's, Milne's, and Judson's Letters; the lives of Martyn, Brainard, and Chamberlain; "Ward's History of the Hindus, &c, praying more earnestly than ever for wisdom and direction from above.

It is surely not possible to imagine anything more enlightened or judicious than the preparatory course of inquiry thus systematically pursued. No rashness, flightiness, impulsiveness, flashy enthusiasm, or ephemeral excitement here ! On the contrary, all is characterized by a singular calmness and sobriety of spirit, comprehensiveness of aim, and persevering steadfastness of purpose, the clear indications of a simple, earnest, honest, conscientious desire to ascertain the divinely prescribed path of duty.