Mr. Craig was born in Augusta, Maine, July 11, 1824.  He entered Bowdoin College in 1839, and was graduated with honor in the class of 1843.  He then entered the Theological Seminary at Bangor, where he graduated in 1847.  After preaching a couple of years at New Castle, Me., he accepted a call to New Bedford, and was installed there December 4, 1850.  In 1859 he received a call to the chair of Modern Languages in Bowdoin College, which he declined.  After an earnest and faithful ministry of more than seventeen years, he went abroad for his health in May, 1868.  He visited Ireland, England, Scotland, and then passing over to the Continent, travelled through Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, and so southward as far as Naples, where he arrived the last of September.  Here he was taken seriously ill, and advised to hasten back to Switzerland.  In great weakness he passed through Rome, Florence, Turin, Geneva, and reached Neuchatel on the 4th of November in a state of utter exhaustion.  There, encompassed by newly-made friends and tenderly cared for, he gently breathed his last on the 28th of November.  Two names, in particular, deserve to be gratefully mentioned in connection with Mr. Craig’s last hours, viz.:  that of his countryman, Mr. W. C. Cabot, and that of the Rev. Dr. Godet, of Neuchatel.  Of the former he said the day before his death:  “He saw me coming from Geneva a perfect stranger—­lying sick, helpless, wretched, and miserable in the ears—­and spoke to me, inquired who I was, and took care of me.  Anybody else would have gone by on the other side.  He brought me to this hotel, and remained with me, and did everything for me; and, fearing that I might be ill some time, and uneasy about money matters, he sent me a letter of credit for two hundred pounds.  Such noble and generous conduct to an entire stranger was never heard of.”  To Dr. Godet he had a letter from Prof.  Henry B. Smith, of New York.  But he needed no other introduction to that warm-hearted and eminent servant of God than his sad condition and his love to Christ.  “From the first quarter of an hour,” wrote Dr. Godet to Mrs. Craig, “we were like two brothers who had known each other from infancy.  He knew not a great deal of French, and I not more of English; but the Lord was between him and me.”  “Prof.  Godet and family are like the very angels of God,” wrote Mr. Craig to his wife.  His last days were filled with inexpressible joy in his God and Saviour.  Shortly before his departure he said to Dr. Godet and the other friends who were by his bedside, “There shall be no night there, but the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall be their light.”

Mr. Craig had a highly poetical nature, refined spiritual sensibilities, and a soul glowing with love to his Master.  He was also a vigorous and original thinker.  Some passages in his letters and journal are as racy and striking as anything in John Newton or Cecil.  Mrs. Prentiss greatly enjoyed reading them to her friends.  Some of them she copied and had published in the Association Monthly.