but then it was free from the crimes with which the annals of most countries are stained; and anxiously did he use his best endeavours, by active personal exertions, by stimulating his clergy, by fervent prayer, and by precautionary measures, to preserve it from contamination. But as we have seen, notwithstanding all these exertions, wickedness and impiety established themselves in the soil, and gained continual strength; this he lamented in private and public, and he urged those in authority, as well as the spiritual guides of the people, to stem the torrent of evil which threatened to overwhelm the island. By this disappointment of the hopes he once entertained of building up Zion there as an honour and a praise in the earth, he was reminded that his reward as well as his rest were not to be looked for in this world.

During his absence in London, three unhappy persons had been tried for the crimes of burglary and robbery ; and on his return he found them lying under sentence of death. How must he have mourned over the change since the time when the door of Bishop's-court needed no other fastening, by day or night, than a latch, and that merely to keep out the wind, and not from fear of any ruder aggressor.

On this occasion he addressed a circular letter to the clergy of the island, desiring them to pray for the criminals, and to warn their congregations of the wages of sin in this world and the next. And from the pulpit he himself addressed an impressive exhortation to the people, in which, in his own plain and touching manner, he spoke to them as to children, of the danger and the wickedness of such crimes as those which were then about to pay the penalty of death.

At a later period, in the year 1746, he pursued the same course, on the mournful occasion of the condem

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nation of a murderer. He wrote a circular letter to his "very dear brethren," in which he expressed a hope that none of them would omit that seasonable occasion of "speaking from the pulpit, and other ways," in such a manner as to awaken most lively impressions of the heinousness of that crime, and the great danger of advancing in wickedness from the smallest beginnings to the greatest enormities. "If people,” he said, “will take themselves from under God's protection by leaving off to pray daily to God; if they fall into a careless and idle way of living, run into loose and wicked company, hear profane people make a mock at sin;— if they fall into a habit of profaning the Lord's day by idleness, sinful diversions, or neglecting the public worship of God; these things will certainly grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by which alone we can be kept from the ways of sin and damnation.

"We have here, therefore, a good occasion of admonishing young people, whether men or women, to take care of the beginnings of sin. Nobody is exceeding wicked all at once; the devil is too cunning to startle men with temptations to great and frightful crimes at first; but if he can tempt them to leave off their prayers, to take God's name in vain, to drink, to swear, to hear filthy discourse, and to speak of the vices of others with pleasure, he will soon tempt them to crimes of a damning nature."

In 1739 he was engaged in extricating his poor clergy from some difficulties in which they were involved by the death of the earl of Derby. The lordship of the Isle of Man then passed into the hands of the duke of Athol, and certain papers relating to the ecclesiastical revenues were missing, by which a considerable portion of the small incomes of the clergy was endangered. And on

this occasion, as before, they were ultimately relieved from their uncomfortable situation by the successful exertions of bishop Wilson.

He still, in his old age, continued the practice of riding off on Sunday to take a share of the duties in some distant parish, without regarding the fatigue of travelling on roads which are described as having been perilous even for horsemen in winter, and for carriages at all times. In April 1739, being then in his seventy-sixth year, he writes thus to his son "I have been as well as ever I can expect to be at this age; I was obliged last Sunday to preach at Peel [eight miles distant from Bishop's-court,] ride there and back again on a most stormy day: and yet I thank God, I am not the worse for it."

In his seventy-ninth and eightieth years he continued to preach occasionally, as appears from his letters to his son; and in the year 1743, we have an account of his state of health from his own pen, in a letter to his son's wife.

"MY DEAR DAUGHTER,-I have the pleasure of yours of the 8th of the last month. You put too great a value upon the little favours I can show you. My great aim my son and you may make one another so easy, as that it may be a means, through the blessing of God, of lengthening your days to a good old age; and that at last we may all meet in the Paradise of God.

and desire is that

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My eyes, I thank God, are much better, though my sight is a little duller than formerly; but that is what I ought to expect at eighty years.

"You have a share in my prayers every day of my life; and if I am so happy as to find favour with God, I have some reason to hope that my prayers afterwards may be

accepted at the Throne of Grace, for our happy meeting,

through the merits of the Lord Jesus.

"Oct. 11, 1743.

THO. SODOR And Man.”

Even so late as the year 1749, when he was in his 86th year, he had not discontinued taking horse exercise. "I have at last got a horse,” he says, “and now and then ride into the fields." Letter, October 11, 1749.

In his 90th year he held an ordination; as he had also done the year before; in his 91st year, he consecrated a chapel at Ramsea; and was still able to meet his clergy at the annual convocation, and to address to them a charge as usual.

The infirmities of old age, however, were taking fast hold upon him. His eyes were growing dim, and his natural force was abated. In June 1751, he wrote thus to the newly-appointed governor of the island :

"HONOURED GOVERNOR,-I hope my great age, and the infirmities that attend it, will be some excuse for my forgetting so long to inquire after your health, and settling in your government. I promise to make some amends for that fault, by my daily prayers that God may bless you, and make you a happy instrument of good to this people, and comfort and satisfaction to yourself; this being the duty of, honoured sir, your affectionate friend and humble servant,

THO. SODOR AND MAN."

He was old and full of days, and this, combined with the occasional attacks of severe bodily ailment, left him no room to doubt that he would soon be gathered to his people. Nor was it an unwelcome thought. He had long been accustomed to contemplate the future world, so far as revelation lifts the veil which rests between it and us; and he rejoiced to have found the

new and living way, which would conduct him safely from the grave to immortal glory. While he felt weak in himself, a firm reliance on his Saviour's merits preserved him from any fear of evil in the valley of the shadow of death, and feeling assured that the mercy and goodness of God would follow him for ever, the prospect of the change which awaited him was far from being unpleasing. He could understand St. Paul's willingness rather to be absent from the body, and felt that it was better to depart and be with Christ. A reference to the Sacra Privata will show that these were the settled and familiar thoughts of his mind. Hence he was careful for nothing, and in a very remarkable degree the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, kept his heart and mind. But he always rightly considered that this life was the appointed season in which to prepare for the enjoyment of the society of heaven, and therefore in his prayers he fervently implored the grace of the Spirit of God to make him meet for that rest which remaineth for his people.

His humility was deeply rooted in a conviction of the depravity of human nature, and of its evidences in his own heart. And although the chief aim of his sermons and other writings was to induce all whom his instructions should reach, to give all diligence to add to their faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity, yet he never forgot that the glory to be revealed is not of debt but of grace. We might show this by repeated quotations from his writings; but nothing can evince it more clearly than some words which were casually heard as they fell from his lips a short time before his death. He was just coming forth from the retirement of his chamber, expressing the thoughts