he
could direct my thoughts to-day. Rather would have me speak of him as a
sinner saved by grace, as a disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ. I knew
him well in his religious life. His experience was marked by scriptural
simplicity, and his conversation was eminently spiritual. Of all the
ministers of my acquaintance, none spoke with me so freely and so
frequently on purely religious subjects as the venerable Dr. Ryerson. He
gloried in the cross of Christ. He never wearied speaking of the
precious blood of the Lamb. He was one of the most helpful and
sympathetic hearers in the Metropolitan Church congregation. Rarely, in
my almost six years' pastorate, did he leave the church without entering
the vestry and saying a kindly, encouraging word.

The doctor belonged to a class of men rapidly passing away. Most of his
companions passed on before him. But few linger behind. Grand men they
were in Church and State. Canada owes them a debt of gratitude that she
can hardly ever pay. Let us revere the memory of those gone to their
rest and reward, and let us treat with loving reverence the few pioneers
who still linger to bless the land for which they have done so much. We
may have a higher average in these times, but we lack the heroic men who
stood out so conspicuously in the early history of Canada.

Dr. Ryerson was a Methodist, but not a narrow sectarian. He knew the
struggles of our Church in this country, and shared them; he witnessed,
with gratitude to God, the extension of Methodism from feeble beginnings
to its present influential position. He desired above all things that
our Church should retain the primitive simplicity of the olden time, and
yet march abreast of the age in the elements of a Christian
civilization.

At the first General Conference which met in this church, after the
Union, and after that eminently providential event, the introduction of
laymen into the highest Court of the Church--at that time, when the
representatives of both ministry and membership desired a man to preside
over the Methodist Church of Canada, to whom did they look? To the man
whom Methodism delighted to honour--Egerton Ryerson.

Dr. Ryerson was regarded by the congregation belonging to this church
with peculiar respect and affection. While he belonged to all Canada,
we, of the Metropolitan Church, claimed him as our own especial
possession. He was a trustee of the Church, and one of its most liberal
supporters; for its prosperity he