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    that we should not let a good man sink into the tomb without one expression of respect for his character , or regret for hi * loss , as though he had never been . It is this—the recollection of the character of a good man , that connects the living with the dead—the man sown in weakness with the spirit risen iu glory .

    It is this that inspires us , engaged in a tumult of perpetual business , to dismiss for a while the contending passions , the conflicting interests , the selfish principles , which so much prevail , and to look witli one steady and unbroken view upon the glorious prospect of eternal happiness presented to us in the gospel of Jesus Christ .

    Dr . Lister was acute in his observations , ardent in his inquiries , and cautious in his conclusions . He had ati elevation of mind which raised him above self . His disposition was cheerful . He was a man of the most acute sensibility , regulated by the souudest reason- He had a heart to feel , but he had a mind to think , and though his feelings might induce him to palliate an offence , and , as far as he

    himself was concerned , to forgive an injustice , yet his sense of right and wrong was so powerful , that he could not but express his disapprobation . He was too higFi-minded to look upon what is mean in any other light than as something beneath the dignity of man ' s moral character , and therefore impossible for an upright man to commit . His was a particularly elevated notion of morality—? difficult for himself to satisfy , and difficult to be attained by others .

    His professional character it is not our intention to dwell upon . Of that there are better and more competent judges , but we can speak with confidence of the skilful and liberal manner in which he exercised his honourable calling . To those who were acquainted with our late friend , with the extent of his literary

    attainments , the taste that he had for classical writings , the accuracy of his views , and the power that he had of expressing them in correct and beautiful language , it may appear strange that he did not write more for the public eye . But this may be explained . Besides the modesty of Dr . Lister ' s character he for a

    considerable part of his life was aware that he had a complaint which might subject him to a sudden death . This constant idea , fclxe correctness of which was proved by a post-mortem exa mination , had , and indeed should have , * corresponding influence upon his character . A man , with the image of death

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    continually before him , must be thoughtful , thoughtful not of life , but of his own destiny , and the . being and nature of God , subjects too difficult to write upon , and past finding out . Such a temper of mind must give a peculiar colouring to a man ' s life , it may make him different from the rest of mankind , but if we inow the cause it should induce us to look upon him with a sense of greater reverence and respect , and bind his memory about our hearts with a stronger bond of affection .

    Df . raster was a true friend of civil and religious liberty . The following extracts , from a letter which he wrote only last October , give such a correct notion of his own ideas upon religion , and are such an excellent

    specimen of his powers of composition that they may be interesting to your readers . He is speaking of Wollaston ' s Religion of Nature Delineated : — " Your business with religion is as with something affecting the heart and conduct , and as such this work would be of no

    use to you , and perhaps might be of some disservice by weakening the impression of the truths of revealed religion , in consequence of drawing off your attention from them . The Bible , and such writers as Leightoti , Jeremy Taylor , Doddiidge , and Channing , will brin $ home religious truths more to the heart and life , and afford better comfort and

    consolation , when you read them , than the finest exposition of natural religion . When you come home , which I hope you will soon , I shall ask you to read the Watchman in the last Monthly Repository , and we will talk together about the religion of the mind and the heart , and I have little doubt that we shall be of

    one mind . I wish you to be religious , and a Dissenter upon the principle of thinking for yourself in the matter of religion , and to maintain that principle modestly but fearlessly as the best way of becoming and continuing rationally and vitally pious . Do not be rational from the love of novelty , and afterwards indifferent from the love and fear of fashion . "

    He thus continues , in another pare of the same letter , after supposing himself in company with a relation who was in a distant ami almost uninhabited part of the globe . " Nature , in all its silent grandeur , surrounds me and possesses me . I see the works of God and nothing else , and feel his power . 1 have got the start of man , and fancy myself witnessing the play of Elements previous to his creation . The thunder and lightning , the torrents ,

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    Obituary . — IF iIlium Lt&ter , M . D . 555

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• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1830, page 555, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2587/page/51/