Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 44

1841.

Life of Dr. Morrison

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much indebted, for whose instruction and example we are so bound in gratitude to the Giver of every good.

An outline of the principal incidents of Dr. Morrison's life has been given in a former volume of the Repository, from the hand of one who is now also with the dead. What we have here proposed to ourselves is, to lay before our readers a few of the more observable - of the sketches with which these volumes furnish us. The sketches they give are no doubt of varied merit, and some perhaps are mere outlines, so imperfect or so barren of much that can serve to illus- trate the mind to which they relate, that they might with advantage have been excluded from the work. With such we have indeed nothing at present to do. Yet we may express the hope, that, in a future edition of these memoirs, they may be left out, and if others. more worthy cannot be found to supply their place, that the work may, by their omission, be reduced to a size more convenient to the general reader, and this too may be done without injury to those, who, more personally interested by kindred ties of blood, of friendship, or of similar pursuits,-would study the minuter traits of character. A republication will also afford opportunity for remodeling the arrange-. ment in some parts, where the pressure of a printer's demand for manuscript would appear to have interfered with a careful attention to method, to a bringing together we mean of all that bears on any one point, less in the order of dates, than in the order that true art would prescribe. But we must proceed to our selections.

I

Robert Morrison was born at Morpeth in Northumberland, in the year 1782. He was of poor but pious parentage. His early years, therefore, though without the advantages of learning, received a good moral and religious training. By this he was placed in a favorable position for finding,-without wasting time and energy in a long un- satisfying search, a distinct and clear view of the true aim of life,— a sojourn, whereof it is nowise the purpose to collect such things as may adorn our cabinets or fill our treasure-houses, (though these be lawful and well so long as they draw us not away from, nor render us regardless of, the true end,) but a sojourn the object of which is, that all malice, pride, and self-confidence may be destroyed in us, and that we may become loving, grateful, humble dependents and disciples of the meek and lowly Master of this world.

The advantages of such early religious training are well sketched by the youthful Morrison, shortly after he had been favored with a clear view of human life. Let us look at some fragments, selected chiefly for their brevity.