wrote an account of it without delay to his mother, and had an immediate answer. She was a lady of seventy-two, of exemplary piety. She praised God for His mercy, adding, that He had now answered the prayers which she had never ceased to offer on her son’s behalf for eleven years.’ And how finely was the Christian character exemplified in the life of Colonel Gardiner! This gentleman, when a mere youth, was engaged in active service. He signalized himself by uncommon exertions at the battle of Blenheim. At that time, destitute of religion, he sought ‘the bubble reputation, e’en in the cannon’s mouth;’ and while in the act of leading on his men to a desperate assault upon the enemy’s intrenchments, swearing most profanely, a musket-shot struck him in the mouth, and came out at the back of his neck. The infliction of the wound was so instantaneous, that in the rage of the moment, though conscious of being struck, he thought he had swallowed the bullet. In almost the next moment he was undeceived, and fell senseless. There he lay, weltering in blood, for some time; but being of a hale and vigorous constitution, he was observed, when the fury of the fight had diminished, among a heap of the dying and dead, to be yet alive. Surgical help was directly obtained, and he was mercifully given back from the very gate of death. It is well known that he afterwards became an eminent Christian. His conversion to the faith, like that of Paul, was sudden, decisive, and glorious; and late in life he fell by the blow of a Lochaber axe, nobly fighting, when nearly all others fled, at the battle of Prestonfield,—a 210capital instance of bravery, refined and exalted by the purity of religious principle. The goodly fellowship of our devout and enterprising heroes must also include another associate: this is no less a person than Frederick the Great of Prussia, a man who, when almost the whole of continental Europe had combined to dismember his kingdom, arose with gigantic prowess, and defended himself with such singular ability and courage, that, while his numerous and powerful enemies were repelled, his influence as a monarch was firmly established. That the mind of Frederick was deeply imbued with Scriptural truth, is confirmed by his celebrated confession of faith; which, for clearness of conception, and the forcibleness of the terms in which his sentiments are expressed, shows that he knew the truth. He was unhappily led away in old age by the subtleties of Voltaire, who had contrived to insinuate himself into the presence of Prussian royalty; but that apostasy on his majesty’s part may be viewed as an error of feeble senility, nor does it destroy, or even derogate from the value of the testimony yielded to religion by the master-mind of Frederick, when the suffrage of his credence was worth having, in the prime and vigour of his days and the more leisurely exercise of his masculine intellect.