It  was  in  connection  with  the  circumstances  I  am  alluding  to,  and  which
are  detailed  with  sufficient  fullness  in  another  page  of  this  volume,  that  i  large
portion  of  our  correspondence  was  carried  forward.  He  afterwards  continued
it.  though  it  was  at  length  abruptly  terminated,  in  consequence,  I  fear,  of
somewhat  vehement  expressions  on  my  part  of  dissent  from  his  views  on  an
enti  vly  distinct  subject.  The  closely-written  pages  in  his  firm,  clear,  hand
writing  which  now  lie  before  me  seem  to  bring  out,  even  more  strikingly  than
any  thin;-;  of  his  I  have  elsewhere  seen,  some  marked  features  in  his  character,
which  are  so  admirably  described  in  one  of  those  noble  pages  which  picture
the  ideal  minister  of  ''The  Kingdom  of  Christ, "that  I  might  almost  think
my  friend  was  in  the  view  of  its  gifted  writer  :  Spiritual  forms,  which  the  major
ity  have  need  to  see  reflected  in  sensible  mirrors,  rose  up  before  him  in  their
naked  substance  and  majesty;  good  and  evil  were  to  him  present,  not  as
means  to  some  result,  but  as  themselves  the  great  ends  and  results  to  which
all  is  tending.  *  *  *  He  had  a  certain  habit  of  measuring  acts  and  events,
not  by  their  outward  magnitude,  but  according  to  their  spiritual  proportions
-aid  effects.  *  *  *  So  he  reverenced  poverty  and  helplessness ;  he  under
stood  that  that  truth  is  not  the  highest  which  is  the  most  exclusive,  but  which
is  the  most  universal ;  and  the  immediate  vision  of  God,  and  entire  subjection
of  heart  and  spirit  to  His  loving  will,  seemed  to  him  the  great  gifts  intended
for  man,  after  which  every  one,  for  himself  and  his  fellows,  may  aspire.  Rob
ertson  embodied  this  description  ;  and  he  did  so,  I  believe,  in  virtue  of  that
purity  and  humbleness  of  spirit  to  which  this  vision  of  God  and  of  His  truth,
and  this  entire  submission  to  it,  have  been  promised.  His  judgment  was
thus  dec]),  just,  and  comprehensive,  because  he,  too,  had  learned  to  seek  his
He  iveidy  Father's  will,  and  not  his  own.  His  willingness  to  do  that  will  gave
him  his  profound  insight  into  his  Lord's  teaching,  and  the  strong  conviction,
which  has  passed  into  so  many  other  spirits  from  his  own,  that  it  is  of  God.
