More than once during the last twelve months has it been our duty to chronicle the death of one or another of the clergy of our church. Rev. William Jones Singleton, Mr. Wilkinson, Mr. Brennan, Mr. Dewhurst - over all these have we been called to say the last words of sorrow and hope. Another name must now be added to the list of those who have been called 'to rest from their labours.'

It is doing no injustice to the dead or to the living to say that the church in Victoria has never lost a greater man than the Rev. Francis Thomas Cusack Russell, LL.D., who died on the 7th February on board the ship "Hampshire," on his return voyage to this country. Those who were his personal friends mourn his death as of a brother beloved, a friend esteemed and revered above the most, a pastor whose wise counsel, whose tender and earnest sympathy, they retain as among the most precious things of memory the loss of which they feel as among the saddest sorrows that life has brought to them. The news of his death has placed, as a private letter informs us, the whole district of the Wannon - his former pastoral charge - in mourning; and what is outwardly shown is nothing by comparison with what is inwardly felt. But it is not only by his personal friends and his parishioners that his death is mourned; it will be felt to be a loss to the whole church; for whether men agreed or not with his opinions, all acknowledged that he was a power in the councils of the church, and that there was a deference which his deliberate utterances always commanded. Few men exercised a greater influence in the Church Assembly than that which partisans and opponents alike recognised as coming from his conduct.

Dr. Russell was the son of the Rev. Thomas Russell, rector of Killarney, county of Kerry, Ireland, who died while he was quite young. Dr. Russell passed his childhood with Chief Baron Sir William Smith, and was with him so great a favourite that he became his constant companion; so much so that when Sir William was on the bench his little nephew was often to be seen sitting beside him, eagerly listening and curiously observing, and doubtless being unconsciously educated by what he heard and saw. In Sir William's house he was accustomed to meet the judges and leading public men of the day; and in after life he would sometimes tell how much his opening mind was influenced by what he saw of their society, and he would repeat remarkable sentiments which he had heard them express. The loss first of his parent, then of his patron, and the separation which followed from the society of the distinguished men of whom in his childhood he had seen so much, early impressed him with a deep feeling of the vanity of the world, and gave to his inner life a sorrowful tone.

When he went to Mr. Turpin's school at Middleton at the age of thirteen, he was so grave and wise beyond his years that he at once became an authority among the boys. He was wont to be consulted upon all doubtful points, and his decision was seldom questioned. After entering Trinity College, Dublin, he attended the dissecting-rooms for two sessions, and at first thought seriously of the medical profession, for which he had a remarkable turn, but was dissuaded from pursuing it by those who considered that his proper vocation was to the bar. But towards the close of his college course he felt himself constrained to seek admission to the Christian ministry. Urged by an irresistible sense of duty, as well as by deep religious feeling, in spite of the remonstrances of relatives, who held out to him the prospect of a distinguished career at the bar, he determined to devote himself to the service of the church. He had no professional ambition. More than once he was pressed by old friends of his father to accept preferment in the church in Ireland. But offers which many would have been glad to embrace did not attract him. He offered himself to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel as a missionary to one of their 'foreign stations.'

We have been informed that his attention was turned towards Australia by reading, while he was yet an undergraduate, in the report of the S.P.G. an extract from the letter of the Rev. Adam Compton Thomson, a name still remembered in honour among us, which told of the spiritual destitution of Port Phillip. Dr. Russell, the same authority informs us, not only determined to devote himself to the service of the church in foreign parts, but induced two college friends to do likewise. He was examined for orders by the chaplains of the Bishop of London, who spoke highly of his attainments as shown by the results of the examination. But he was persuaded by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel to go out to be ordained by the Bishop of Australia, who had complained that his office seemed to be slighted, in that men from the home Universities, applying for work in his diocese, received ordination from the Bishop of London. The Society assured Dr. Russell that no disability of any kind would attach to him in consequence of his colonial ordination. He sailed from London in 1847, and landed in Sydney in August of that year. Upon his arrival Bishop William Grant Broughton wished to exact as a condition of ordination that Dr. Russell should give a promise to remain in the country for ten years. But to this requirement, which was wholly unexpected, Dr. Russell was unwilling to assent, and the Bishop eventually yielded the point.

After a short period of ministerial work in the neighbourhood of Sydney, Dr. Russell gladly accepted an invitation from the Bishop of Melbourne, and he was appointed in 1849 to the charge of the Wannon district; and there he continued to labour almost without an interval of rest for nearly a quarter of a century, until within two years of his lamented death. His district was a very extensive one, and embraced a great part of the country to which Sir Thomas Mitchell gave the name of Australia Felix. When Dr. Russell first went there it was nearly all occupied by squatters, but villages and townships have sprung up since, and through his labours churches have been built at Coleraine, Casterton, Digby, Branxholme, and Merino. But when he first went there he did not confine his labours within even that wide boundary, which now limits the Wannon parochial district; but he seemed to have the marvellous power of multiplying himself, and by his personal exertions he caused the influence of the church to grow and prevail throughout the west of the colony.

Dr. Russell was one who helped to preserve among us the tradition so long the honourable characteristic of the English clergy, of a learned profession. The duties of his district involved constant travelling and few intervals of rest. Yet this diligent pastor seemed to be able to 'give attendance to much reading,' as well as to much pastoral visitation; and the facility which he possessed of acquiring and retaining and assimilating knowledge moved the admiration of all, specially of those who knew his manner of life - that it was 'in journeyings oft, in labours abundant.' To this he united very considerable gifts of humour. Perhaps sometimes his sense of the humorous may have provoked from him a banter which others failed to appreciate; but no one was of a more genuinely tender spirit, or more sensitive to giving pain to others, or more forgetful of himself.

To him also were given gifts of eloquence and powers of exhortation and persuasion which made him to attain a first rank among the 'Sons of consolation.' And, indeed, that which endeared him to his friends, which made him 'a man greatly beloved' - which caused him to be recognised as a true prophet among men, was the wonderful power of sympathy which he possessed, and the rare and delicate influence which he exercised thereby. Few men like him possessed the secret of winning, without making any intrusive effort, the confidence of his fellows. Men of business knew him to be a wise and most disinterested counsellor. Public men found, in conversation with him, how much he had read and thought and reflected upon the histories of peoples and policies of nations. The young especially of his district revered him as a father in Christ, who could feel with them and for them, and give them a helping-hand, and inspire them with a sense of duty and a love of what is of good report. Churchmen of all schools found that they could learn from his knowledge and from his many-sided spiritual sympathy. He could become 'all things to all men,' that to all he might communicate of the grace of God. And many a one distressed in mind, perplexed in faith, cast down by sadness, or penitent under a great shame, has borne testimony to the light, the hope, the confidence, which have been ministered through his earnest yet most humble communications.

A true follower of that Good Shepherd, who has said - 'I know My sheep and am known of Mine . . . . and I lay down My life for the sheep,' he allowed no personal considerations - as of needful rest or necessary food - no fear of offence, no prejudice, to hinder him from carrying the consolations of Christ to all in his wide parish who stood in need of the comfort of his presence, or his counsel, or his admonitions. And there is little doubt that this going out of sympathy - this incessant spiritual drain - weakened his physical strength. The seizure under which he died was not the first warning that he had received of the frailty of his once singularly strong physique. After some twenty-four year's work, with hardly a break since planting the church in his district on the Wannon, and having had more than one serious illness, he received leave of absence from Bishop Charles Perry, and left this country in June, 1874, with the hope of recruiting his health. It seemed at first that this step was to meet with success. Dr. Russell's health improved, and he accepted the comparatively easy work of a chaplaincy at Bormio, in Italy. But here he was struck down with a serious seizure, which brought him to the gates of the grave. Letters from our Bishop make mention of the serious apprehension, which he, who loved and valued him, entertained on his account. They also make mention of the great goodness of God manifested to the soul of His suffering servant.

Recovering from this attack, it was the great object of Dr. Russell's mind to return to 'his own people' on the Wannon - to testify to them of the great things God had done for him. Sir W. Gull, whose medical advice he sought, advised him to make the voyage by a sailing ship, and to avoid the excitement of the royal mail steamer. He sailed with Mrs. Russell on the 5th January in the "Hampshire" from Plymouth. On the 6th February, which was Sunday, Dr. Russell held, as was his wont, two services - and went forward afterwards to talk to the men about the things of the kingdom of God. On coming aft, he threw up his hands and complained of headache and weariness, and retired early to his cabin. Alas, the next morning he was seized with a fit, and never again was conscious. He died after eleven hours' illness. He died, we may say, in harness, truly rested in the midst of his labours - 'Blessed is that servant whom His Lord when He cometh shall find' so occupied. His mortal remains were committed to the deep 'to be turned into corruption,' until that day when 'the sea shall give up her dead.' Of him, as of Moses the servant of the Lord, may it be said, 'the hand of the Lord buried him, and no man knoweth of his sepulchre until this day.'

Dr. Russell was seldom absent from his own parish, but he took a very active part in the first sessions of the Church Assembly, and though not a regular, he was not an infrequent attendant at its deliberations. He seldom lost an opportunity of urging the great importance of providing parochial endowments, without which, it seemed to him, that church progress was too insecure; and that which he urged upon others, he at his own cost was forward to promote.

In all his church views, if some of them contemplated greater things than the church could at the time accomplish, he was actuated by an insight which was as wide and far-reaching as it was pure and disinterested. He shared much in the enthusiasm of those who look beyond the present, and commit the fault, if fault it be, of expecting ordinarily from human nature what it can only do when very strongly stirred. But this is the fault of all men who are true leaders, or who have aught of the prophetic gift; and it is such men that after-generations acknowledge to have been great. There are not many of the clergy, next to our Bishop, whose loss will be more deeply or more generally felt. For of him it may be said -

WARRNAMBOOL - The services on Sunday, the 2nd instant, at Christ Church, Warrnambool, were of an impressive nature, the Rev. Dr. Peter Teulon Beamish on both occasions referring to the loss of his lamented friend, the Rev. Dr. Russell, who died on board the ship "Hampshire." By the black-draperied pulpit and reading-desk the assembling congregation well knew that they were about to take part in the sad and painful office of paying a last tribute to the memory of a warm, faithful, and revered friend. After the lessons for the day had been read, the hymn opening with the words, "When our heads are bowed with woe," was sung by the choir, and never were the mournful cadence of the tune and the sad expressiveness of the words more closely linked with saddening remembrances in the minds of the congregation. Dr. Beamish selected his text from Romans viii., verse 18 and following verses, and in the course of his sermon paid an eloquent tribute to the memory of his deceased friend. The sermon has since been printed for private circulation.