address if he should find himself unable to deliver it himself. The promise was lightly given, with little thought that its fulfilment would be called for; but when the day of the annual meeting came in 1889, Mr. Finlayson, though not in worse health than was common with him, felt unequal to the ordeal, and the address, which is reprinted in this volume, was delivered by his substitute. It was very touching to see how wide-spread was the regret that physical weakness shut out from his proper place one to whom all would so gladly have done honour.

In 1891, to the great gratification of many friends, both in Lancashire and in Scotland, who had earnestly desired some such public acknowledgment of his varied attainments, his old Alma Mater of Glasgow conferred upon him the degree of D.D. The letters of congratulation which he received showed how well the distinction was felt to have been deserved. It was a source of hardly less pleasure when Dr. Finlayson was selected by the Church Aid Society to be one of its delegates to the International Congregational Council, which met in London in July of the same year. As the total number of English delegates, lay and ministerial together, was limited to one hundred, the compliment to one so retiring was felt to be a high one. He was further one of the first to be invited, and indeed strongly urged, to read a paper before the Council, but he could not be induced to consent. At the meetings of the Council he was a regular and a deeply interested attendant, though he took no part in the discussions. But while he was in London it suddenly appeared that he was far from well. Distressing symptoms of numbness in the feet and fingers

and of general weakness called for medical advice, and during the latter part of that year he was frequently suffering. The exact cause of his distress was obscure. The Manchester physician whom he consulted was of opinion that there was no indication of the paralysis which he dreaded; but agreed with his brother that a long rest and change would be required to remove the nervous weakness. It was decided by his church that provision should be made for his pulpit duties for as long a time as might be needed. The Rev. W. J. Wilkins placed his much-valued services at the command of the church whenever they might be needed, and neighbouring ministers--Baptist, Wesleyan, and Presbyterian, as well as Congregational-cheerfully responded to every request for assistance. Dr. Finlayson preached for the last time on Sunday, January 10th, 1892. While the arrangements for the regular supply of his pulpit were still pending, an alarming disturbance of the digestive system threw the more purely nervous symptoms for a time into the shade, and brought him to the brink of death. From this, however, he rallied, and when able to be moved, on February 29th, he was taken to his brother's house in Glasgow, where his wife and two daughters, in concert with his brother and his sister, nursed him with the most unremitting care. His condition rapidly improved, and his powers of locomotion and of writing returned to such an extent that it seemed as if he might again be fit for at least partial duty. But early in the summer a recurrence of the digestive disorder brought him very low again, and about midsummer the loss of power and the nervous prostration seemed likely to be fatal. Again, however, he was rescued

from immediate danger, but only to oscillate between recovery and relapse. About this time anxiety, which might have distressed him, was happily much relieved by the thoughtful generosity of an old member of his congregation (Mr. J. G. Silkenstädt), who bequeathed to him an annuity for his own life and that of his wife, which provided for their needs. Late in the autumn the physicians in attendance still allowed the hope that he might return to his people, and resume at least some part of his work. Unwilling to try any longer a generous patience, which he always very gratefully acknowledged, Dr. Finlayson placed himself unreservedly in the hands of his deacons, but the church, on their advice, unanimously declined to consider the possibility of a resignation, and instructed them to seek for some suitable assistant minister who might bear the whole burden of the pastorate, while leaving to Dr. Finlayson an adequate share of its emoluments, and such portion of his duties as he might be able at any time to discharge. It was a happy experience that one, who had been so repeatedly and emphatically warned at the outset of the difficulties and trials of an Independent minister, should have so slight an experience of them himself, and that the congregation which gathered around him-never more than 300 or 400 in number, and including few if any men of wealth should have held to him to the very last with loyalty, self-sacrifice, and unfailing confidence.

But the end was now very near. The weakness rapidly increased, reducing terribly his physical strength, but hardly clouding to the end his mental powers or troubling the peace of his spirit. Five days before his death he was eager to learn the

contents of the Queen's speech, and to hear what measures were to be proposed by the statesman whose return to power he had welcomed with deep satisfaction, as a triumph of the forces that make for righteousness, peace and goodwill among nations. He awaited his end with wonderful composure, surrounded by all the members of his family. Once when death was supposed to be near at hand, he asked his brother what time it was. On being told it was midnight, he quoted (with the author's name) the line of Keats

To cease upon the midnight with no painevidently hoping that this might be his lot.1 Other more sacred and personal utterances of these hours may be more fitly left among the hallowed memories of those who watched in the room of the husband, the father or the brother. He just survived to complete his 57th year, and two days after his birthday, on Feb. 7th, 1893, he entered peacefully on the life of the higher world. It was ascertained after death that the entire train of symptoms from which he had suffered was due to a lesion of the spinal cord, technically known as posterior and lateral sclerosis. By the wish of his family, in order to avoid a transference of the body, he was interred in the Glasgow Necropolis on Feb. 10th, services being conducted by his brother-inlaw, Rev. A. G. Fleming, and the Rev. Dr. John Hunter.

1His thoughts may have been carrying him back to the Glasgow University class-room, in which, more than forty years before, Sellar had given out this passage (as Dr. Mackennal informs me) to be turned into Latin verse, reading it with his own admirable expressiveness.

A memorial service was held at the same hour in the Rusholme Congregational Church, conducted by the oldest (in standing) of the neighbouring Independent ministers, the Rev. Thos. Willis; and by Rev. Dr. Goodrich, the successor of Dr. Finlayson's old friend, Dr. Macfadyen: an address was also delivered by the writer of the present sketch, some part of which is reproduced in the following pages. The attendance was a remarkable one. The church was crowded, not only by the members of his congregation, and many who had formerly belonged to it, but also by almost all the leading Nonconformist ministers of Manchester and the neighbourhood, and not a few members and clergymen of the Church of England. The sense of loss was universal. But almost transcending the sense of loss was that of thankfulness that such a man had been known, and such a life lived. After the funeral, when letters and resolutions of condolence kept coming in from friends or public bodies, what was most striking in them all was the tone of thorough genuineness. It seemed to have been felt instinctively that terms of conventional eulogy were out of place, and that he who was lost was not only a man of singularly high ideal, but also one who lived up to his ideal, as few had ever done; one whose work had been bravely and faithfully done, but whose character was more than his work.

The task of portraying a character with adequacy and truthfulness is not an easy one, especially in a case where mutual friendship, though long and unbroken, never developed into a special or confidential intimacy. Yet with Dr. Finlayson, the transparent