Two years afterwards, a more painful trial awaited him in the death of a beloved wife, who, for the long period of 47 years, had been the faithful partner of his joys and sorrows.' This lady, who was the daughter of his near relation, the Rev. James Banna tync, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, was distin guished for the strength of her understanding, and the prudence of her conduct. By her lie had a son, who died in infancy ; and a daughter, who, though she did not survive her 21st year, displayed talents and dispositions worthy of such parents.. These repeat ed shocks he sustained with the feeling of a man, and the resignation of a Christian. Dr Blair had now outlived the usual period of human life, and had the satisfaction of looking back on a long career, full of honour to himself, and usefulness to mankind. He foresaw, however, that the term of his earthly labours was fast approaching, and he resolved to spend the last of, his days in a manner worthy of his former exertions, and of his well-earned reputation. The summer of the year 1800 found him employed, with all the ardour of his youthful years, in prepa ring materials for a new volume of sermons. Though now arrived at his 83d year, he, with his own hand; corrected and wrote out anew such of his unpublish ed discourses as appeared to him worthy of the pub-. lic eye, and with much self•complacency he saw this arduous work completed before the commencement of winter. The intellectual vigour which on this occasion he displayed, proves the powerful influence of a well-regulated mind in resisting the inroads of time, and surviving the wreck of the body. The pe riod however was at last arrived, when the world was. to be deprived of one of its brightest ornaments. On the morning, of Saturday the 27th December IWO, in the 59th year of his ministry, after an illness of three days, which he bore with Christian fortitude,. he expired, deplored by his native country, which his talents had so long contributed to adorn, and re gretted by tliC whole Christian world, which, by his elegant instructions, lie had delighted and edified.
The private character of Dr Blair is thus elegant ly drawn up by his friend and colleague Dr Finlay son, in the account of his life subjoined to the post humous volume of his sermons : " The which he acquired in the discharge of his public du ties,- was well sustained by the great respectability of his private character. Deriving from family associa tions a strong sense of clerical decorum ; feeling on his heart deep impressions of religious and moral obliga tion ; and guided in his intercourse with the world by the same correct and delicate taste which appear ed in his writings, he was eminently distinguished through life by the prudence, purity, and dignified propriety of his conduct. His mind, by constitution and culture, was admirably formed for enjoying hap piness. Well balanced in itself, by the nice propor tion and adjustment of its faculties, not incline him to those eccentricities; either of opinion or of ac tion, which are often the -lot of genius : Free from all tincture of envy, it delighted cordially in the prospe rity and fame of his companions : Sensible to the esti mation in which'he himself was held, it disposed him to dwell, at times, on the thought of his success with a satisfaction which he did not affect to conceal : Inaccessible alike to gloomy and to peevish impres sions, it was always master of its own movements, and ready, in an uncommon degree, to take an active and pleasing interest in every thing, whether import ant or trifling, that happened to become for the mo ment the object of his attention. This habit of mind, tempered with the most unsuspecting simplicity, and united to eminent talents and inflexible integrity, while it secured to the last his own relish of life, was wonderfully calculated to endear him to his friends, and to render him an invaluable member of any so ciety to which he belonged. Accordingly there have been few men more universally respected by those who knew him, more sincerely esteemed in the circle of his acquaintance, or more tenderly beloved by. those who enjoyed the blessing of his private and do mestic connection." That we may be able to form a more accurate idea of Dr Blair's merit as a preacher, and of the difficul ties with which he had to contend, it may be proper shortly to advert to the state in which he found the eloquence of the Scottish pulpit. The reformation, which, in the sister kingdom, had been conducted with caution and timidity, under the immediate sanc tion and by the interference of the civil power, was in Scotland occasioned by the spontaneous impulse of public sentiment, which, with ungovernable fury, burst through every barrier opposed to it by the ef forts of despotic power. It thus acquired, in its in fancy, a character of harshness and enthusiasm which subsequent events tended to confirm. The bloody persecutions under Charles II. and his unfortunate and ill-advised brother, kindled afresh the dying em bers of fanaticism, and, by a consequence extremely natural, cherished in the minds of the people an un due value for those religious dogmas and forms of ec clesiastical jurisdiction for which they suffered. These
circumstances, whilst they roused a spirit in the king dom which the revolution of a century was not able to subdue, infused, at the same time, a peculiar tone of wildness and untutored vehemence into the elo quence of the public teachers. When Blair first commenced his clerical labours, one class of preach ers still adhered to that bold, unseemly, and incohe rent mode of declamation, which had been originally introduced by the early reformers, to inflame the ima gination and rouse the passions of their rude and ig norant hearers. In their manner of delivery they were warm and violent ; but their warmth had more the appearance of passion than of sentiment, and their violence approached nearer to the boisterous fury of the zealot than to the manly indignation of a generous and enlightened mind. With respect to the matter of their discourses, the range of their ideas was exceedingly circumscribed. The peculiar doc trines of the gospel were almost the only subjects on which they ventured to address their hearers ; and these they usually treated in the same desultory man ner, and enforced with the same hackneyed argu ments. They delighted to confound by mystery, or overwhelm by terror, rather than to instruct by ac curate reasoning, or edify by practical induction. This irrational and injudicious mode of instruction, adopted by the preachers of the old revolutionary school, gave ilk, by a kind of repulsion, to an op posite class, who, despising the arts by which their brethren rose to fame, and aspiring after the appro bation of more cultivated minds, fell too frequently into another extreme. In avoiding the awkward" gestures, and untunable vociferation, which disgusted the well-educated hearer, they usually delivered their discourses with the immoveable rigidity of a statue, and the tiresome monotony of a schoolboy. In adopting a more extensive field for public discussion, they often receded too far from the beaten track, and substituted for the doctrines and the precepts of the gospel a dry metaphysical dissertation, which few of their hearers could follow, or an elegant moral harangue, the reasonings and motives of which, not be ing drawn from the Christian system, were too affect edly refined to reach a common understanding, and too feeble to influence a common mind. This account of the eloquence of the Scottish pulpit, serves strong. ly to characterise the genius of the nation at that pe riod, when a sour, uncharitable, and bigotted temper, accompanied by a contempt for human learning, be gan to give place to a chearful and enlightened piety, which introduced and fostered a predilection for po lite literature, and a spirit of sober and rational dis cussion. The extremes, however, to which the two different classes of religious instructors carried their opposite peculiarities, served equally to bring into discredit the principles of genuine Christianity. Whilst the loose and enthusiastic rhapsodies of the one was a subject of ridicule to the sceptical and profane, the suspicious and lukewarm conduct of the other, in the total rejection, and the stinted and cautious use of scriptural doctrines, was to the sincere believer a ground of serious regret and well founded alarm. Such however was, with some exceptions, the situa tion of the Church of Scotland, before Dr Blair commenced his public labours, and gave a more chaste, correct, and happy form, to the method of religious instruction in Scotland. This accomplish ed preacher seems, in many respects, to have hit that happy medium at which all pretended to aim, but which few had the good fortune to reach. Uniting the learning and elegance of the polite scholar with the tenderness, the warmth, and the energy of the Christian teacher, he has arrayed truth in her most lovely and venerable garb, and given to her form all the captivating influence of its native attractions. Jr. the composition of his sermons, we discover the re gular and well-digested plan of the logician joined to the splendid beauties of the orator ; in his senti ments, we find the ingenious reasoning of the philo sopher blended with the sublime and enlightened views of the Christian. If, however, the severe eye of criticism were disposed to examine the discourses of Dr Blair by the standard of perfection, it might perhaps be able to point out some deficiency in the execution of that part of his duty, which more pecu liarly belonged to him as a preacher of the gospel. Scriptural doctrines do not always appear to have been illustrated by him with sufficient attention, nor scriptural motives to have ,obtained a place due to their importance ; and too strong a bias may perhaps be observed, in his writings, in favour of moral dis cussions, abstracted from the consideration of the truths inculcated by revelation. See A short ac. count of Blair's Lfie and Writings, by Dr Finlay son, subjoined to the fifth volume of Blaw's Sermons ; and a separate and more extended account, by Pro fessor John Hill, LL.D. (n. D.)