By his looks he appears to be past forty. What a reproach it is to our men in power, nay to the nation itself, that so valuable a person should, at this time of life, be no more than a country curate. But he, good man, disregards the things of this world."

The description given by Calamy of the great Howe seems very applicable to Mr. Walker. "As to his person, he was very tall and exceeding graceful. He had a good presence, and a piercing but pleasant eye; and there was that in his looks and carriage, that discovered he had something within that was uncommonly great, and tended to excite veneration. His intellectual accomplishments were eminent. He was one of great abstractedness of thought, a strong reasoner, and one that had a very penetrating judgment, which carried him as deep into a subject as most men ever went that handled it. He had bright natural parts, and they were greatly improved by study and experience. He had an admirable way of thinking upon any subject that offered; and many times very surprising turns in discoursing upon it."

All persons who have mentioned the appearance and character of Mr. Walker, agree in giving an outline of him, somewhat similar to this. His countenance indicated the possession of a calm but exalted understanding, and his conversation was replete with the piety of a saint, the information of a scholar, the judgment of a sage, and the courtesy of a gentleman. In private life, he attracted the esteem and respect of all his associates, and repaid their affection by instructive lessons of truth. In his ministry, he was not content with a power of producing excitement and command

ing attention, but inquired from his converts as to the nature and extent of their impressions, that he might enable them to distinguish between transient impulses of feeling, and the deep-rooted workings of vital religion. An overwhelming solicitude for souls actuated his every movement, and caused him to make each incident of life in some measure subservient to the concerns of eternity. Possessed of the rare power of gaining an ascendancy over the minds of others, he invariably used it for their spiritual benefit, and never once employed it for secular or selfish purposes. He sought no other hire than the fruit of a diligent ministry, and he resigned his benefice, and the prospect of a rich alliance, that nothing might obstruct him in his one pursuit; nor was he ever heard to express a desire to exchange a scene of retirement, and poverty honoured by the especial blessing of God, for a more productive or more prominent situation. He was content to cultivate that portion of the vineyard assigned him by his heavenly Master, and had no anxiety but to dress it into health and fruitfulness, and to excite his fellow labourers to do the same. He owed nothing to this world, and tasted chiefly of its bitters: all his enjoyments descended from above, borne to him on the stream of that river which makes glad the city of our God, of whose waters, his soul is now drinking at their source before the throne.

His works are mostly in the shape of sermons or brief treatises on religious subjects. They are remarkable for clear and well arranged views of divine truth, accompanied with the most powerful applica

tions to the conscience. It would be unfair to criticise his style, because a great part of his writings were never prepared by himself for the press, and were only intended for his own congregation and friends. Although, as part of the remains attached to this narrative will shew, he was not incapable of sublime and original conception, yet like the apostle, he studied, for the sake of usefulness, great plainness of speech. He seemed to be utterly unsolicitous about himself; and no more desired to write for fame, than to labour for the sake ofg ain; his only object was the honour of his heavenly Master, and not the vain applause of man. The effect of many pious writings and sermons is lost, in the admiration excited by the brilliant talents and imagination of their authors, and the messenger is frequently more thought of than his message. Mr. Walker escaped this evil by preaching and writing only for the heart, and by making all his discourses as plain as the subject permitted, though never forgetting the dignity of truth, or falling below its majesty. In a sermon on Acts xxvi, 28, he says, "it is my endeavour always to speak in the most intelligible manner, and to bring what I have to say to a determinate point that may be easily seen, to the end that you may not be puzzled by a variety of matter and of distinctions;" and accordingly his addresses were so framed, that the topics he discussed were well apprehended by those who heard him, and dwelt in their memories.

His "Christian" contains a practical course of sermons, on The sinfulness and misery of man-The helplessness of man-The power and love of Christ

Faith in Christ-The believer, a new creature-which will long continue to be read with delight and profit, by those who value the grand fundamental doctrines of the gospel. The "Fifty-two sermons on the baptismal covenant, creed, ten commandments, and other important subjects of practical religion, being one for each Sunday in the year," prefaced by a brief but interesting account of his life and ministry, are such valuable illustrations of the leading truths contained in our church catechism, that no clergyman ought to be without them. These were published in the year 1763, and the editor informs us that it was Mr. Walker's intention, had his life been spared to have printed a series of expository lectures upon the whole of the church catechism; happily, however, those he lived to complete, have been long known to the world. In the year 1788, Mr. Barker, vicar of St. Mary's, Hull, printed his nine sermons on the covenant of grace, with an addition of three letters on ordination. These discourses had previously found their way into the pages of the Theological Miscellany, but were now brought out separately, in order that they might become more extensively useful. The excellent Ambrose Serle superintended the publication of his "Christ the Purifier," "containing ten discourses upon the sanctification of believers, through the love and grace of Jesus Christ,” and wrote a preface in recommendation of them. Mr. Walker he well observes, "he desired to be and was a bible divine, one who wished to draw his religious principles entirely from the book of God, and who proved the real influence of those principles upon his heart, by the careful conformity of his life. He main

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tained, after his blessed Master, that the tree must first be made good, ere the fruit could be good; for men do not gather grapes of thorns, nor figs of thistles; and that the grace of God leads men, according to an old observation, to work from life and not for life.'

6

Many papers and letters of Mr. Walker have from time to time found their way into various religious periodicals, and all bear evidence of the power of his mind and the devotedness of his heart. The same also appear in the smaller treatises which were printed during his life and after his death; and both in his published writings, and in those which yet remain unprinted, there are the strongest marks of a progressive apprehension of divine things, and of a growing humility.

The review of Mr. Walker's character would be incomplete, without a few observations on the effects of a ministry, such as that he so judiciously exercised, on the present aspect of religion in our land. He lived in an age of great interest, when the long forgotten doctrines of the reformation began to be received amongst a people, who had sunk into miserable depths of apathy and irreligion. A flame had just been enkindled by the fire and zeal of certain energetic individuals, who possessed much more of the fervour, than of the wisdom of Christianity, and whose eyes were so dazzled by a sudden burst of light, that they lost the power of looking calmly either on present circumstances or future consequences. Their efforts were made with a laudable desire to rouse from the sleep of death, those who slumbered in their sins;