Taylor, jun., D.D., St. Enoch's; John Burns, D.D., Barony; James M'Lean, D.D., Gorbals; John Dick, Rutherglen ; John Watson, Cumbernauld; Patrick Clason, Carmunnock; Thomas Lockerby, Cadder; James Lapslie, Campsie; John Pollock, D.D., Govan; Adam Foreman, Kirkintilloch; Robert Rennie, D.D., Kilsyth; David Dow, Cathcart; Hugh Davidson, Eaglesham.

Of all the Ministers of the Presbytery of Glasgow in 1819, only Dr. Muir, St. Stephen's; Dr. Clason, Free Buccleuch, Edinburgh; and Mr. Lockerby, Cadder, survive in 1848;— keeping up, in the language of Addison, in the Vision of Mirza, a hobbling march on the broken arches of the bridge of human life.

The Magistrates and Councillors of the city of Glasgow in the year 1819, who attended the admission of the Rev. Dr. Chalmers into the parish of St. John's, being the undoubted patrons of that church and parish:-Henry Monteith, Esq. of Carstairs, Lord Provost; William Smith, John Thomas Alston, Gilbert Watson, Archibald Lawson, merchant, bailies; William Mitchell, James Hunter, trades' bailie; Gilbert Watson, Stewart Smith, merchant, bailie; James Hunter, Eben Richardson, trades' bailie; James Barclay, eldest bailie of Port-Glasgow; Robert Findlay, Dean of Guild; John Graham, Robert Hood, deacon-convener; Archibald Newbigging, William Dalglish, treasurer; Eben Richardson, Alexander Garden, bailie of the River and Firth of Clyde; John Macfarlan, Laurence Craigie, junior-depute; Archibald Lawson, James Lindsay, principal bailie of Gorbals; Thomas Christie, Michael Millar, William Thomson, Andrew Coats, resident bailies; John Morrison, bailie of Provan; Andrew Templeton, Master of Works; James Cleland, Superintendent of Works; James Reddie, Richard Henderson, Robert Thomson, town-clerks. N.B. As it was not recollected when the settlement took place, the Magistrates and Council for both 1818 and 1819 are recorded.

After Dr. Stevenson M'Gill was elected Professor of Divinity in the College of Glasgow in 1815, the following gentlemen and Elders of the Tron Church signed and presented him with an address. They were present, and holding their places, when his successor was leaving them, and going to the parish of St. John's :-Andrew Cowan, John Smith, James Brash, Robert Tod, William Collins, William Orhart, M. Muirhead, William Rodger, James Craig, William Currie. What has become of Mr. Cullen, manufacturer, uncle to John Cullen, late of Gartferrie, one of the elders of Cadder? An incident

of Mr. Cullen and Dr. Chalmers, deserves to be recorded. They had been, what the Doctor called visiting, one day, chiefly in the Saltmarket of Glasgow. The Doctor's method was just to enter every house, and take down the names of the inmates; and the Doctor still standing, perhaps, to say a few words, and tell them to meet him in a certain place in the evening to hear an address. As the day was getting on, the Doctor, parading the pleasant entries, and climbing the cleanly stairs of the Saltmarket, got a little weary, and even hungry, and asked Mr. Cullen if he knew any decent house in the locality where they could rest awhile, and recruit their exhausted powers? Mr. Cullen said, there were decent houses, if the Doctor did not think them too plain. While they were seated in one, the Doctor-began to expatiate on the gratification he felt at the manner in which they had been universally received. Mr. Cullen said, if he had given some of the poor families they had visited a shilling, or even a sixpence, his visit would have been better hailed, and longer remembered than the Doctor's. This was in direct contravention of the Doctor's theory and practice,-to ply the poor with the overtures of mercy to their souls; but to allow their relatives and neighbours to care for their bodies. The Doctor left the room abruptly, without deigning a reply. Mr. Cullen waited long for his return; but, at last, called the host, and paid the reckoning, and went to the Tontine to look at the papers. When he entered the room, the gentlemen crowded around him, inquiring how the Doctor and him had been received. Mr. Cullen told them what had passed, read the papers, and went home, as he had made a competency, and retired from business. Next morning, the Doctor was at him by an early hour. Mr. Cullen, have you mentioned how we parted yesterday? Mr. Cullen said, be bad merely told some gentlemen that he left him abruptly, from ill health, or some other cause; for he could not account for his sudden departure. Say no more about it, Mr. Cullen, said the Doctor, to anybody, notwithstanding every inquiry. The Doctor's theory about the poor was so ungracious to his elders and deacons, who could not look upon even the unworthy starving, without pity, on their errands of mercy, while they were strictly charged to ply them with religion; but never mind their destitution. It was said, perhaps untruly, that the poor drove him from Glasgow. With all his foibles, and they were not few, like the good Vicar of Wakefield, even his failings leaned to Virtue's side.

SERMON IV.

"Hitherto hath the Lord helped us."-1 SAMUEL vii. 12.

He who erected this stone, and engraved on it this inscription, which has remained indelible for nearly three thousand years, was received from, and devoted to the Lord. For him his mother Hannah prayed. When she poured out her soul before the Lord, good old Eli sat, as his custom was, upon a seat by a post of the temple of the Lord; and she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore. And it came to pass, as she continued praying before the Lord, that Eli marked her mouth. Now Hannah spake in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard; therefore Eli thought she had been drunken. And Eli said unto her, How long wilt though be drunken? put away thy wine from thee. And Hannah answered and said, No, my. lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink; but I have poured out my soul before the Lord. Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial; for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto. Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace; and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of Him. And she said, Let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight. So the woman went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad. The Lord, whose heritage children are, (Psal. cxxvii. 3,) remembered Hannah; and she conceived and bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the Lord. Mindful of her vow, when she had weaned him, she took him up with her unto the house of the Lord in Shiloh, and brought the child to Eli, and said, Oh! my lord, as thy soul liveth, my lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto the Lord. For this child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of Him; therefore also I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord. And he worshipped the Lord there. Hannah, grateful for the favour received, presented her song of praise unto the the Lord, and returned with her husband to her house. Samuel, in the meantime, ministered unto the Lord before Eli; and the Lord first revealed to him the judgments He was going to inflict upon the house of Eli, because his sons had made them

selves vile, and he, through an excess of indulgence, restrained them not. After Jehovah had, at various times, revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh, all Israel knew, that he was established to be a prophet of the Lord; and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground; and his word came to all Israel.

As the enemies of the Lord and His people continually harassed them, Israel was obliged to go out to battle against the Philistines; and they were smitten before the Philistines, and left dead on the field of battle four thousand men. The elders of Israel could not account for this discomfiture; but to prevent it for the future, they proposed to bring the ark of the covenant from Shiloh, vainly imagining, that its presence would insure to them protection and victory. The ark was, accordingly, brought, accompanied by the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas. When it arrived at the camp, the Israelites shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again. The Philistines, hearing the noise, and understanding the cause, were sore afraid, when they recalled to their remembrance what the God of Israel had aforetime done to the Egyptians. They, however, encouraged and animated each other, and fought with such bravery, that thirty thousand footmen of Israel fell, the ark of God was taken, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain. Eli, now ninetyand-eight years old, sat watching upon a seat by the wayside; for his heart trembled for the ark of God. When a messenger, who fled out of the army, came into the city, and told the awful catastrophe, all the city cried out. Eli, hearing the shrieks of grief, inquired the cause, and was told hastily by the messenger, that Israel had fled before the Philistines; that there had been a great slaughter among the people; that his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were dead; and that the ark of God was taken. Eli heard the whole of these dismal tidings with Christian resignation; but when he made mention of the ark of God, he fell from off the seat backward, by the side of the gate, and his neck brake, and he died; for he was an old man, and heavy, and he had judged Israel forty years. To complete the tragedy, his daughter-in-law, Phinehas' wife, who was with child, near to be delivered, when she heard the tidings, that the ark of God was taken, and that her fatherin-law and her husband were dead, bowed her head and travailed; for her pains came upon her; and about the time of her death, the women that stood by her said, Fear not, for thou hast born a son. But she answered not, neither did she regard. And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory

F

is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father-in-law and her husband. And she said, The glory is departed from Israel; for the ark of God

is taken.

The Philistines carried off the ark, in triumph, unto Ashdod; and thinking their god, Dagon, had gained them the victory, and triumphed over the God of the Hebrews, they placed it by him in his house. The God of Israel did not desert the place he had chosen for his habitation; but overturned repeatedly, and maimed severely, the image of Dagon, and smote the people of Ashdod with a painful and mortal disease; so that, with the advice of the lords of the Philistines, the ark was removed to Gath. The same disease attacking the people there, the ark was again removed to Ekron. The Ekronites being instantaneously seized with the same disorder, they called loudly upon the lords of the Philistines to send away the ark of the God of Israel to his place. The priests and diviners were accordingly assembled, to give their counsel whether, and in what manner, they were to send away the ark; putting the matter to the test, whether they had been providentially or accidentally afflicted. Having, according to the order of the priests and diviners, prepared a trespassoffering, and a new cart, they put to it two unyoked milch kine; and having placed the ark upon the cart, the kine, as directed by God, took the road direct to Bethshemish, lowing as they went, till they came into the field of Joshua, a Bethshemite, and stood by a great stone in the field. The people of Bethshemish, who were reaping their wheat-harvest, saw, with joy, the ark approaching, and they clave the wood of the cart, and offered the kine a burnt-offering unto the Lord. The Levites having taken down the ark of the Lord, the men of Bethshemish offered burnt-offerings and sacrifices, the same day, unto the Lord. The joy of Israel upon this occasion, was soon turned into mourning; for having looked into the ark, He smote fifty thousand and threescore and ten men; so that they were made to cry out, Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God?

Dreading still farther the displeasure of Jehovah, they entreated the inhabitants of Kirjathjearim to come and fetch up the ark of the Lord. They immediately went and fetched it up to the house of Abinadab on the hill, and sanctified Eleazar, his son, to keep the ark of the Lord. There the ark continued for twenty years, while all Israel lamented after the Lord. The Israelites, while the ark was thus going from place to place, having given themselves greatly up to idolatry,