OR some years after the death of WALTER SCOTT, the writer felt that it was sad that one to whom we, as a religious people, are so much indebted, should have no memorial from which the generations to come might learn how great and good a man God gave us in him. Still later, in looking at his work, and the great changes which he, under God, was the instrument of effecting, this neglect began to look like ingratitude on the part of those whom his labors had blessed.

      A short tribute to him from my pen, without my name, a few years since, wakened dear memories of him in many hearts; the sketch was deemed faithful, and more in the same vein was asked, and when the writer became known, he was, by many, deemed fit for the work of preparing his biography, and urged to undertake it. Upon consenting to do so, I learned why it was that the work had been neglected so long. This was an almost entire lack of material for such a work--not in his life; and the labors in which he was so abundant--but he had left little material for a biography save what could be found in periodicals scarce and widely scattered, and in the memories of those who knew him who yet remain. He had lived so much for others that he had little thought or care for himself. Perhaps, too, death came suddenly; and although it did not find him unprepared, yet there had been so little decay of his powers that the end did not seem so near; hence, no preparation of what a biographer needs was made.

      Providentially, the writer was thrown into the very community in which SCOTT'S first successful attempt to restore the primitive [3] gospel was made, some were still living who heard that gospel from his lips at a time when it seemed strange and new, and who also received baptism at his hands; and much that was needed for a work like this, and that soon would have been lost, was gathered.

      In every instance in which it has been possible the dead has been permitted to speak--his views are given in his own words, and the effort constantly made to make him his own biographer. When this has failed, the best recollections of those who knew him best have been used; to those, without whose aid this book could not have been written, our thanks are due, and to one and all are warmly given.

      Much that would have been worthy of record has gone beyond recall, but something, we trust, has been saved that is worth the saving; and though the writer feels, as none other can, how imperfect his book is, yet he feels that what has been done has not been done in vain.

      Imperfect as these details are, he who reads them will feel that he is in communion with a great and gifted man, and what is better still, with a pious, God-fearing one. He will think better of his race, and, we trust, be led to see the beauty of a life of trust in God, and a devotion to his truth, such as has seldom been surpassed.

      An introductory chapter has been deemed needful, that the reader may see by the contrast between what has been, and what now is, the great change that has been wrought in a great measure by the labors of him of whom we write. May God's blessing attend both book and reader is the prayer of the

AUTHOR. [4]

[LEWS iii-iv]