t Gladstone was
great in nearly all directions. Born in the same year with our Lincoln,
he was a great muscular man and horseman; a great orator, a great
political strategist, a great scholar, a great writer, great statesman
and a great Christian. The crowning glory of his character was a
stalwart faith in God's Word, and in the cross of Jesus Christ. He
honored his Lord, and his Lord honored him. Wordsworth drew a truthful
picture of Gladstone when he portrayed

"The man who lifted high
Conspicuous object in a nation's eye,
Who, with a toward or untoward lot,
Prosperous or adverse, to his wish or not,
Plays in the many games of life, that one
Where what he most doth value must be won;
Whom neither shape of danger can dismay,
Nor thought of tender happiness betray;
And while the mortal mist is gathering, draws
His breath in confidence of Heaven's applause."

Who has not wept over the brilliant and beloved Dr. John Brown's
unrivalled story, "Rab and His Friends," and been charmed with his
picture of "Pet Marjorie"? What student of style will deny that his
"Monograph" of his father is the finest specimen of condensed and vivid
biography in our language? When his "Spare Hours" appeared in America I
published an article in the "Independent" entitled, "The Last of the
John Browns," several copies of which had been forwarded to him by his
friends in this country. On my arrival in Edinburgh, July, 1862, he
called on me at the Waverly Hotel and invited me to breakfast with him.
He had the fair Saxon features of Scotland, with a smile like a Summer
morning. Not tall in stature, his head was somewhat bald, and he bore a
striking resemblance to our ex-President, Van Buren. He showed me in his
house some choice literary treasures; among them a little Greek
Testament, given to his great-grandfather, the famous John Brown, of
Haddington, the eminent commentator. Its history was curious: Brown of,
Haddington, was a poor shepherd boy, and once he walked twenty miles
through the night to St. Andrews to get a copy of the Greek Testament.
The book-seller at first laughed at him and said: "Boy, if you can read
a verse in this book, you may have it." Forthwith the lad read the verse
off glibly, and was permitted to carry off the Testament in triumph. You
may well suppose that the little volume is a sacred heirloom in the
Brown family, which for four generations has been famous. Of course, the
author of "Ra