His name is written in many a grateful memory. But when all who knew him here shall have passed to "the congregation of the dead"-when the tomb that covers his dust shall have crumbled away,-the epitaph that it bears shall be as true then as now, yea, true for ever— "His record is on high." "They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever."

SKETCH OF THE LIFE

OF

THE REV. ROBERT BOWMAN.

HE REV. ROBERT BOWMAN was born at
Langholm, a town on the banks of the Esk, Dum-

friesshire, on July 27th, 1818. There he grew up through childhood into youth, guided by the careful hand, and blessed by the helpful example of pious parents. When seventeen years old he left home to become a clerk at Huddersfield, in the Halifax and Huddersfield Union Bank. There he attended Highfield Chapel, of which the celebrated Dr. Boothroyd was then minister. Under his successor, the Rev. John Glendenning, Mr. Bowman became a member of the church. From the time of his going to Huddersfield, he had become a Sunday-school Teacher; soon he rose to the charge of a select class; one of the youths in which was Enoch Mellor, now the well-known minister of Halifax; and ultimately he became superintendent of the school. Mellor says of him,-"Never had a class a more earnest, devoted, painstaking teacher. His power of investigating the Scriptures, with interest for young minds, exceeded that of any teacher it was my lot to know; and his lessons were enforced on the conscience with a fervency, and point, and pathos, which rendered them all but irresistible."

Mr.

At

It becoming evident to his friends and himself that his vocation was the Christian ministry, Mr. Bowman, after a brief preliminary training at Edinburgh University, proceeded to Airedale College, at midsummer 1839. Edinburgh "he prosecuted his studies with much steadiness and determination, often denying the body its natural rest, and contenting himself with stretching on the hearth-rug for the short space of an hour, not liking to retire to bed lest he should sleep too long. He thus probably laid the foundation of that disease which so often distressed, and at length terminated, his life." After a curriculum of four years at Airedale, during which he endeared himself to his fellow-students and to the various congregations he addressed in town and country, by his unaffected manner, genial disposition, and pulpit power, he accepted an invitation to the pastorate of Bethel Chapel, Sunderland. About a year after his settlement, he was married to Sarah, daughter of Mr. Thomas Ackroyd, of Birkenshaw, Yorkshire-one who was truly “a helpmeet for him." His ministry at Sunderland was largely blessed, and many were added to the church. In the spring of 1846 he removed to Chelmsford, to take the charge of a large and influential church assembly in London-Road Chapel. Here, amid many encouragements, and to an increasingly-attached people, Mr. Bowman laboured for eight years. But at length, owing to his arduous duties, his strength failed him, his eye-sight became impaired, and he was compelled, though reluctantly, to seek another sphere. In September 1854, he received and accepted a most cordial invitation to the pastorate of the church meeting in FishStreet Chapel, Hull, where, for twenty-two years, the revered

Thomas Stratten had laboured before him. He entered into his predecessor's labours; many were attracted to the sanctuary by his ministry, and many, especially of the young, were gathered into the fellowship of the church.

Mr. Bowman 66 was not in the roll of common men." "His intellectual eye," says Mr. Mellor, "was remarkably keen, discerning at a glance relations of truth which became revealed to many only through long and laborious processes of reasoning. There was a breadth about his conceptions which rendered his sermons and conversation-not merely attractive-but often fascinating in an extraordinary degree; and, when once his mind was fairly roused, his ideas crowded upon him with such rapidity as to astonish those who heard him, and impressed them with a sense of the exhaustlessness of his resources. How he kindled as he spoke, and how he spoke as he kindled !" He had a brilliancy of thought, a beauty and affluence of language, and a marvellous vividness of imagination. This last was a perilous gift, and many trembled as they followed him into realms "eye hath not seen," lit by "a light that never was on sea or land.” He had the poet's eye and voice, without his vehicle of verse. But a reasoning faculty he possessed in an eminent degree balanced his brilliant imagination. A strong independence of judgment marked him. He called no man master. Old truths were brightly minted anew from his own investigation. He had made them his own, and stamped with the impress of his vivid conviction-the result of his earnest scriptural search-he gave them currency in the minds of others. Christ and Him crucified was the one theme of his ministry; from it he never wavered, and the fulness and constancy of

its proclamation, rejoiced him when the silence of death was settling upon his eloquent tongue. But the treacherous malady which had compelled his departure from Chelmsford, followed him to Hull. Often on the Sunday morning, at the last moment, a substitute had to be found, and the desired voice was missing from the house of the Lord. At length, a change of climate was advised; so after three years pastorate at Hull, Mr. Bowman sailed for Australia on Christmas Day, 1857, and arrived in Melbourne in the following April. Here he became pastor of the Victoria Parade Church. Under his attractive ministry, the congregation soon became so large that it was determined to pull down the old edifice where they met, and erect on its site a beautiful and commodious church. But when his widening prospects were at the brightest, his old malady, which accompanied him across the ocean, asserted its distressing power. He was visited, during his affliction, by the Bishop of Melbourne, who held him in high esteem. The end was that, to save life, he had to re-cross the water, and amid the sorrow of his church and congregation, who sought in vain to devise kindly means for his detention, he turned his face towards his native land, and reached Liverpool on April 8th, 1859, exactly one year from the date of his landing in Australia.

Till the autumn of 1860, Mr. Bowman was recruiting his shattered health. Then he accepted a cordial and unanimous call to the pastorate of George-Street Chapel, Heckmondwike. Here, with frequent breaks from his remaining delicacy, he laboured in the word and doctrine till September 1867. He appeared during his late years to be gradually gaining strength, and to be more equal to his duties. About