their successors. So often as we exhort you to search the Scriptures, to try all things, and hold by that which is right; to bear in mind your own personal responsibility to your Almighty Judge; and to beware of interposing any human influence or human authority between you and your God, we assert and defend that right of private judgment and freedom of religious opinion which are the essential characters of the Reformed Church, and are thus the instruments of preserving you from the slavery of a degrading superstition, the interference of fallible human judgment with your faith, and the perversion of your hope by empty formalities and fantastic delusions.

Scarcely less valuable have been their services to the cause of civil liberty. With the clouds of superstition, the chains of despotism were banished from our land. In introducing the glorious light of truth, the servants of God destroyed the foundations of political as well as spiritual tyranny. On every occasion when liberty of conscience or of conduct has been invaded, they have stood forth its zealous, enlightened, and fearless assertors. To those institutions by which our religious and civil privileges are guarded and secured, they have uniformly paid the homage of respectful deference, and spared no effort in their vindication and defence. When, therefore, you worship the God of your fathers without fear or molestation— when you pursue your ordinary lawful occupations uninterrupted and undisturbed; when, day by day, you rise up and lie down in safety, under the safeguard of regular government and the protection of equal laws;

and when you contrast your condition with that of the subjects of despotic authority, or the victims of turbulent violence-think what you owe to those who, under heaven, have contributed to procure and perpetuate the blessings of freedom, order, and security.

Another debt of gratitude is due by the inhabitants of this land to the ministers of their national religion, for the large share they have had in instituting, and keeping up in all its vigour, our invaluable system of national education. With them originated that institution which brings the means of instruction in the most precious and useful branches of knowledge, within the reach of the poorest and humblest of our countrymen. To their unceasing attention and superintendence is it owing, that this system subsists in all its vigour and purity, that thousands around us are daily trained up in religious impressions, furnished with the powers and materials of thought, and enabled to enter on the occupations of life with habits of method, regularity and foresight. Triumphing as you do in the acknowledged intelligence, religious principle, purity of morals, and persevering energy, which distinguish even the poorest of your national peasantry-you cannot be indifferent to the means by which these results are produced, or unmindful of the labours to which, under heaven, their existence, and continuance are in no small degree to be ascribed.

The poor you have always with you. To relieve their distresses and supply their wants is a most sacred, yet most difficult duty. To afford them the aid they require, without, at the same time, fostering indolence

and encouraging vice, is a task, the successful performance of which, has in most instances, been found beyond the utmost efforts of assiduous application, and human ingenuity. If, in our land, these objects have been more nearly attained than elsewhere, if the spirit of honest independence has been cherished, if idleness and profligacy have been discouraged, if substantial relief has been generally administered to the really necessitous, and if these ends have been accomplished in a manner the least mortifying to the feelings of the sufferer, I need not ask you by whose instrumentality this has been brought about. Every one, in the least acquainted with our parochial organization, must be aware, that the labours of the parochial clergy; their fidelity and economy in the administration of the fund, the management of which is confided chiefly to their direction; their intimate acquaintance with the character and wants of their people; and the association of the relief which they bestow with the soothing influence of their daily ministrations, have had a large share in limiting the extent of pauperism, in mitigating its evils, and in preserving our land from the degrading and demoralizing effects of a system less wisely devised and less faithfully administered.

Still more important are the benefits derived to society, from their general purity of conduct, and the useful example which their lives exhibit. It is not denied, that there have been, and may be, some melancholy exceptions to this rule; some instances of the existence of that greatest of all inconsistencies, and direst of curses to a district, an unprincipled and im

moral clergyman. Still, it must be admitted, by all who know anything of our country, that such instances are unusual, and portentous from their rarity as well as their infamy. I may appeal boldly to all who hear me, for the character of the clergy of Scotland as a body. I may ask whether, with a very few exceptions, they have not been pre-eminently distinguished for simplicity and integrity of purpose, for fervent but unostentatious piety, for an unblemished and circumspect deportment in all the relations of life, and for the habitual practice of zealous and enlightened charity to all classes of their fellow-mortals. The effect of such a character, exhibited by a numerous body of men dispersed over every part of the kingdom, in adding weight to their instructions, and affording a model which multitudes are induced to imitate, must be admitted by all who are capable of thinking, and its value must be recognized by all to whom the best interests of their fellow-mortals are dear.

Let me further remind you, that such services are not rendered without many sacrifices. For no profession is a more extensive, laborious, and costly education required. The candidate for the office of the ministry must devote to his preparatory studies a series of years, a quantity of exertion in the most diversified studies, and even an outlay of money, which in any other pursuit would, with ordinary talents and diligence, conduct to the highest honours, or the most splendid opulence. When he enters on his duties, his lot is often cast, most probably for life, in a remote, and perhaps almost unheard-of district, far from the inter

course of polished society, from all opportunities of refined and intellectual conversation. A moderate competency, placing him merely above want, but far from adequate to the warmth of his bounty, or the liberal education of his children, is all that he can reasonably expect to enjoy of this world's goods. To power, or fame, or fortune he can rarely aspire. He does not indeed grudge the sacrifices which he makes. His soul is bent on higher aims, and his labours directed to objects infinitely more important. But it is for you who witness his conduct, and reap the fruits of his self-denial, to estimate these as they deserve, and to acknowledge by your kindness the value of his labours and the depth of his devotedness.

Survey, I beseech you, the extent of his daily and hourly labours. Think of the amount of forethought, of patience, of mental discipline, of secret devotion, which are necessary to prepare him for the discharge of his duties. Think of the obstacles he has to surmount in struggling to subdue the spiritual pride, the vanity of worldly wisdom, the evil heart of unbelief, the obduracy of profligate habit in one class, and to enlighten the dulness of tardy apprehension, the obtuseness of neglected education and an uncultivated understanding, or to awaken the insensibility of a conscience seared by habitual vice in another. Think of the revolting scenes with which he must be conversant while visiting the abodes of squalid wretchedness and loathsome disease, listening to the blasphemous ravings of a hardened unbeliever, or striving to combat the harrowing despair of a dying sinner. Think how