born at Dingwall, Ross-shire, Scotland, in 1771, and was of Huguenot descent; he came to New York in 1792, was an elder in the church of the senior Dr. Mason from 1802, and died September 18, 1824. His no less honored mother, Joanna Graham, was the second daughter of Dr. John Graham, of Paisley, Scotland, and Isabella Marshall. Mrs. Graham came, a widow with four children, to New York, September, 1789, and united with the same church. She was “a mother in Israel," and of the highest repute for piety, intelligence, and philanthropy-qualities that were also strikingly exemplified in her daughter, Mrs. Bethune. 66 Blessed with such a parentage, George was trained after the model of the word of God. In his fifteenth year (1819), he entered Columbia College, where he diligently prosecuted his studies for three years. He then entered Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa., of which his father's friend, the distinguished John M. Mason, D.D., was then the President. There he graduated in 1823, and thence, having been converted the year before, proceeded to Princeton, N. J., where he studied two years in the Theological Seminary. He married, November 4, 1825, Miss Mary Williams, and spent the winter in the West Indies. He was licensed by the Second Presbytery of New York, July 11, 1826. The following November he went to Savannah, Ga., where he labored as a missionary to the sailors and the colored people. Having been ordained by the Second Presbytery of New York in 1827, he became the pastor of the Reformed Dutch church of Rhinebeck, N. Y.; in 1830, he accepted a call to the R. D. church of Utica, N. Y., and was installed November 7, 1830; in September, 1834, he became the pastor of the First R. D. church of Philadelphia. In the summer of 1836 he visited Europe, and, on his return, May, 1837, he became the pastor of the Third church of the same city. Here he remained until 1850, having visited Europe a second time, in 1841. He now made a third visit to the Old World, and, on his return, removed to Brooklyn, N. Y., and took charge of the R. D. church on the Heights. The loss of health compelled him to go abroad, in February, 1859, and to resign his pastorate in April, 1859. On his re turn he was (November 20, 1859) associated with the Rev. Dr. Abraham R. Van Nest, in the pastorate of the Twentyfirst Street R. D. church. Again, in the autumn of 1861, he sought health in Europe, but death overtook him, in the shape of congestion of the brain, April 27, 1862. He died greatly lamented, as he had been greatly honored and loved. "He stood," says Dr. Ferris, "in the front rank of ministers of the gospel. Originally endowed with a fine mind, and furnished with every possible facility for cultivating and furnishing it, he achieved a very high degree of success in the pulpit and elsewhere. A thorough master of English, of finished taste, fertile in thought, rich in illustration, skilled in dialectics, familiar with the stores of the past, yet with a quick eye to the present, a proficient in belles-lettres, he had almost every literary requisite for the composition of sermons. When to this it is added, that he was sound in the faith, and had his heart in the work; that he had a most musical voice of rare compass and modulation, it is not wonderful that his reputation stood so high. He was a close and diligent student, and never was ashamed to confess it. His platform efforts were always impromptu, but for the pulpit he felt conscientiously bound to make careful and thorough preparation." "He had a nice ear for music, and sometimes composed sacred harmonies; he had a fine taste in painting and sculpture; he was an accomplished Latinist and Grecian; he was familiar with a number of modern languages, some of which he spoke fluently; he was well read in the history of philosophy, and his general information was both extensive and accurate." His publications were numerous. The principal are: "A Word to the Afflicted"; "The Fruit of the Spirit” (1839); "Early Lost, Early Saved" (1846); "The History of a Penitent" (1847); "Sermons" (1847); "A Commentary on the 130th Psalm" (1847); "Lays of Love and Faith, and Other Poems" (1848); "Orations and Occasional Discourses" (1850); together with two posthumous works "The Memoirs of Mrs. Joanna Bethune" (1863), and "Lectures on the Heidelberg Catechism," in two vols. (1864). He edited, also, an edition of "Walton's Complete Angler" (1847), and a volume of "British Female Poets" (1848), with biographical and critical notices. He was repeatedly honored with invitations to the pastorate, to professorships, and presidencies of colleges. Many of the published "Orations" were delivered at college commencements. He received the honorary degree of D.D., in 1838, from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Bethune, with his characteristic good taste, and keen sense of the beautiful in art, successfully cultivated the poetic Muse. He versified with great ease and much grace. Some of his effusions are admirable specimens of the lyric art. On one occasion, having taken his seat in the pulpit in advance of the time for the opening of the public service, his longings for a revival of religion prompted him to write, with a pencil, on a scrap of paper, the hymn, beginning with was suggested by the beautiful hymn, written by Cæsar Malan, "Non, ce n'est pas mourir!" His Scotch origin is beautifully attested in a lyric, written after hearing Mr. Dempster sing, two stanzas of which follow: "Oh! sing to me the auld Scotch sangs, I' the braid Scottish tongue, The sangs my father loved to hear, The sangs my mither sung, When she sat beside my cradle, Or crooned me on her knee, "Sing ony o' the auld Scotch sangs, My heart gaes back to auld Scotland, The saut tears dim mine e'e, An' the Scotch bluid leaps in a' my veins, EDWARD BICKERSTETH. 1786-1850. THE name of Bickersteth is of hallowed memory, enshrined in the hearts of intelligent Christians throughout Great Britain and America. He was born March 19, 1786, at Kirkby-Lonsdale, Westmoreland, England. Henry Bickersteth, his father, was a respectable surgeon; but neither the father, nor the mother, Elizabeth Batty, had any special interest in religion. After a good grammar-school education, Edward, at the age of fourteen (January, 1801), obtained a position in the Dead Letter Office, London. Nearly six years afterward (November, 1806), he was articled to Mr. Bleasdale, solicitor, and became a student of law, first at Hatton Court, and then (May, 1808) at New Inn. In his twenty-first year, he became a true convert to Christ, but continued his law studies and pursuits until May, 1812. He then married Miss Sarah Bignold, of Norwich, to which place he removed, and entered into business there with her brother Thomas. Though prosperity attended him, he had longing desires to devote himself to the work of the ministry. For years he abounded in works of benevolence and piety, and prosecuted theological study. At length, in his thirtieth year, he gave up his worldly business, and was ordained deacon, December 10, 1815, by the Bishop of Norwich, and priest, eleven days later, by the Bishop of Gloucester. In January, 1816, he embarked for Africa, on an official visit to the stations of the Church Missionary Society in Western and Southern Africa. He returned in August following, and the next month he accepted the position of Resident Secretary of the Society, or Associate Secretary with the Rev. Josiah Pratt. In this laborious service he continued nearly fourteen years, ministering at the same time in Wheler Chapel, Spitalfields, London. Appointed, August, 1830, to the living of Watton, Hertfordshire, he resigned his Secretaryship, and entered upon a course of diligent and successful parochial labor. In the faithful discharge of his pastoral duties, in the preparation and publication of numerous evangelical treatises and books, in the advocacy, by the pen and in person, all over the kingdom, of the Cause of Missions, and in the promotion, by all available means, of the Gospel, he passed the remaining twenty years of a most busy and useful life. He died at Watton, February 28, 1850, full of faith and hope. He made a diligent use of the press, in the advancement of the kingdom of Christ. He was the author, compiler, or editor of ninety-seven different publications, of which the following are the best known: "A Help to the Study of the Scriptures" (1814); "A Treatise on Prayer" (1819); "A Treatise on the Lord's Supper" (1822); "The Christian Hearer" (1825); "The Christian Student" (1827); "The Chief Concerns of Man for Time and Eternity," a Course of Valedictory Sermons at Wheler Chapel (1831); "Preparedness for the Day of Christ" (1833); "A Practical Guide to the Prophecies" (1835); "Christian Truth" (1838); “A Treatise on Baptism" (1839); "The Restoration of the Jews" (1841); "The Divine Warning to the Church" (1843); and "Family Expositions of the Epistles of St. John and St. Jude" (1846). His "Works," in 16 vols., were published in 1853. His poetic efforts were limited to the composition of a very few hymns of but little lyrical merit, found in his "Christian Psalmody," compiled in 1833, and enlarged in 1841. In its latest form it contains 950 hymns. More than |