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WAU

1302

WAY

ordained pastor. In June, 1704, he and his congregation

removed from Mark Lane to Pinner's hall, and finally in 1708 to a new chapel in Bury Street. It was a sadly interrupted ministry. At the very outset he was laid aside for many months, and afterwards for long intervals, at one time no less than four years. Nor was his at any time a forth-going nature, nor a "house-going" pastorate. His shy temperament and his fastidiousness made him averse to visit those with whom he was not already well acquainted, and kept him silent in promiscuous society. And yet, those drawbacks notwithstanding, his people were so alive to his rare gifts, and so grateful for such sermons as he preached from time to time, that they would never accept his resignation; they procured for him a copastor, Mr. Price, who supplied for nearly forty years that which was lacking in his colleague. With the exception of his "Death and Heaven," "The end of Time," and an extended course on "The World to Come," his published sermons are not especially interesting. Their chief value is the logical and exhaustive completeness with which they discuss important questions in theology and morals. This makes them, however, the discourses of a student and thinker, rather than the exhortations of a pastor. Of his prose writings, however, the best is his "Improvement of the Mind, in Knowledge, in Religion, in the Sciences." It did not appear till 1741, and may be regarded as the ripe result of his long and industrious life; whilst unintentionally an autobiography, in virtue of its experimental truth and practicalness, it has supplied to innumerable readers at once motive and guidance. But it is to the circumstance which has secured for him a place in the Lives of the Poets that he owes his immortal celebrity; for, although there were many christian poets before his day, and although the psalms of David were not the only compositions sung in churches. Dr. Watts is indisputably the father of English hymnology. The origin of his "Hymns and Spiritual Songs" was sufficiently simple. In the meetinghouse at Southampton they sang such pious rhymes as sorely wounded the ear of a musician and poet. On his complaining of the doggrel, he was naturally challenged to make better. He tried, and as his first specimen is said to have produced—

" Behold the glories of the Lamb,"

which found such favour that he was encouraged to proceed, and whilst yet a young man living in retirement, he had composed the greater portion of the well-known collection which at last appeared in 1707. Of the merits of these hymns there is now no need to say anything. That some of them were capable of improvement, no one knew better than the gifted author; and had it been revealed to him that his words were to go down the centuries, sung by all worshippers, it is likely that he would have taken still greater pains in perfecting every stanza, and would thus have superseded well-meant efforts, which seldom do more than indicate at once his own shortcoming, and the incompetency of his improvers. To these hymns we must not forget to add the "Divine Songs for Children," which have made him the psalmist of the nursery no less than the poet of the sanctuary.

During one of his lengthened illnesses. Dr. Watts was invited to spend a week for change of air at Stoke-Newington in the mansion of Alderman Sir Thomas Abney. The week's visit was gradually lengthened out into a sojourn of six and thirty years; and it was here that he died on the 25th November, 1748. The beautiful grounds of Abney park, with no other consecration than that which they derive from the christian psalmist's memory, have lately been converted into a cemetery, in the midst of which is a graceful monument to Dr. Watts. He has also a tablet in Westminster abbey, and the inhabitants of Southampton have recently erected a splendid memorial of the most distinguished native of their town.—J. H. WAUGH, Alexander, an able and eloquent divine, was born at East Gordon, Berwickshire, 16th August, 1754. After his academic and theological education had been concluded amid tokens of great promise, he was licensed to preach the gospel by the Secession presbytery of Edinburgh, June 28, 1779. Such was his acceptability as a preacher, that he was in a brief period ordained over a small congregation at Newtown, 30th August, 1780. He was called to Well's Street, London, in 1781, but he declined the first invitation, from strong attachment to the infant church to which he was so fondly ministering. He was also called about this time to Bristo congregation, Edinburgh; and a third call from London led to his removal to the metropolis in May, 1782. The young Scottish minister rose to immediate and great popularity—his rich evangelical sermons, and fervid natural eloquence, were everywhere appreciated. He took an active part in the formation of the London Missionary Society, and often made extensive tours in the advocacy of its claims. He came several times to Scotland on this errand, and his pleadings were so impressive and powerful, that collections then unprecedented in amount were in many places the result of his appeals. In 1815 the Marischal college of Aberdeen, of which he was a graduate, conferred upon him the degree of D.D. Dr. Waugh laboured with acceptance till near the end of his life, when the infirmities of age began to creep upon him, and he died 14th December, 1827, in the seventy-fourth year of his age, and forty-fifth of his ministry in London. Dr. Waugh was in many respects a remarkable man. He lived and moved in benevolent enterprises; and his ardent and disinterested nature shrank from no trouble or toil in the furtherance of them. His name was a power in the religious circles of London. He was a born orator, and his discourses were as devout as other men's prayers. His eloquence was sometimes winged imagination, occasionally impassioned argument, and often the softer appeal which thrilled as it subdued and fascinated his audience. The grand old man often melted his congregation by some allusion to the hills and vales, the songs and customs, of their native land. His manners were gentle and prepossessing, and his conversational powers were of a high order. He was cheerful and humorous—quite the charm of his friends. His house was always open to his countrymen, whom he delighted to advise and assist. The root of his excellences was his profound and living piety.—J. E. * WAUTERS, Charles, a celebrated Belgian painter, was born at Boom in 1811. He studied in the academies of Mechlin and Antwerp, and was a pupil of M. Van Brée. He obtained a considerable reputation by his "Departure of Columbus for the New World," exhibited at Antwerp in 1834. Since then he has painted a great many historical and religious pictures, of which it will be enough to mention "The Death of Mary of Brabant;" "Peter the Hermit preaching the Crusade;" and "The Passage of the Red Sea;" some genre subjects, as "The Day after the Ball," and "The Bathers," exhibited at the International Exhibition of 1862; and several portraits. M. Wauters was for some years director of the Mechlin Academy. He is a knight of the order of Leopold.—J. T—e. WAWRZECKI, Thomas, Count, a distinguished Polish general, was born about 1740. At the diet of 1788 he joined warmly in the measures directed against Russian encroachment; and he was one of the leaders in the rising of 1794. On the fall of Kosciusko (October, 1794) Wawrzecki was unanimously called to the command of the patriot army. Defeated at Warsaw by Suwarrow, he withdrew into Sandomir, but he was surrounded by the united Russian and Prussian forces, and compelled to surrender. He remained a prisoner at St. Petersburg till the accession of Paul I. (1797), when he was permitted to retire to his estates. On the invasion of Poland by Bonaparte he raised a regiment and joined the French. He fought bravely during the campaign, but at its termination, disgusted with the conduct of Bonaparte, submitted to Alexander, who in 1815 nominated him minister of justice for the new kingdom of Poland. Wawrzecki died in Lithuania, August 5, 1816.—J. T—e. WAYNE, Anthony, a distinguished American general, was born in East Town, Pennsylvania, on 1st January, 1745. A land surveyor by profession, he was, in 1773, elected a member of the Pennsylvania assembly. In 1775 he joined the army, and received the rank of colonel. He accompanied General Thomas into Canada in the spring of 1776, and his conspicuous gallantry, especially in the affair at Three Rivers, did much to lessen the discredit of that disastrous expedition. Wayne was created brigadier-general, and served with distinction at Brandywine, Monmouth, &c. For his services in Georgia the legislature voted him a valuable farm. After the peace he was elected a member of the Pennsylvania convention for considering the federal constitution. His last employment was the conduct of the war with the North-western Indians in Ohio, 1792-95. A few months after its successful termination he died at Presque Isle (now Erie), Pennsylvania, December, 1795.—J. T—e. WAYNFLETE, William of, Bishop of Winchester, and Lord-chancellor of England, was the son of Richard Patten of Waynflete in Lincolnshire. He was educated at Winchester and

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