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in this way you will better please the doctor, I can assure

you.

Subsequently, Dr. Chalmers said to me, alone, almost the same things; assuring me that, often in appearing at breakfast, amid several entire strangers, he felt the difficulty of sustaining the conversation and furnishing due entertainment to the circle, as specially unfitted to figure in the scenes before him, in all their exaction and their diversity. This I record as evincing the simplicity and the unfeigned modesty of his character. If, said he, you will help me entertain them, I shall be much your debtor; you will have paid your way by your services.

On my next visit, I found among the distinguished of his guests a reverend rector from England, and a young candidate with him, who had just been admitted to the order of deacon-such an order, I must say, as God never authorized, and as the primitive seven, with Stephen, the protomartyr, at their head, were not. They took little notice of me, though I took quite a quantity of them.

Instead of calling their diaconate an order, I would call it a mere porch or a serviceable stepping-stone to orders. No one ever takes it, as a general thing, for its own sake, or with the view of remaining in it; or for any other purpose than to rise, in their only way of the pyramid, to some loftier eminence in office. We Presbyterians reject the whole figure; believing in the sole, supreme headship of Christ; and the true power of his ministers as merely declarative and ministerial; and, of course, in their official parity and equality in his glorious kingdom. Hence our figure is quadrangular, rather is it a proper cube; with the motto-The length, and the breadth, and the height of it are equal; like the dimensions of the celestial city, the grand metropolis of Israel, the Jerusalem of God, Rev. 21: 16. To those who object the antiquity of the office, we answer, by referring them to the higher antiquity of their institution, Acts 6:1-6, showing

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the reason of it, the design of it, and the nature of it—as a vastly different thing from modern assumptions concerning it.

At that time the clergy of the Church of England were very affectionate to Chalmers, as he and they were all in favor of the establishments of the British Cæsar in the three kingdoms; yet they were not particularly in favor of Presbyterians, especially from America. It seemed as if the conversation lagged, and Chalmers showed that it was more an effort than a pleasure to maintain it. He looked to mebut I almost instinctively forbore, as doubting that I should be acceptable, especially to the rector, whose bearing seemed rather lordly, with more of hauteur and pontiff arrogance than the guest of such a host ought to have shown. The deacon was, like good children, to "be seen, and not heard." The rector

3. I desire to get your opinion, Dr. Chalmers, on the meaning of a text of Scripture that seems obscure and difficult; and, on the whole, I can hardly understand it. It occurs in 1 Cor. 2:14.

He recited it, and Chalmers appeared actually confused, as if proved with too hard a question. He replied,

2. You must excuse me from the task. I am not good, I think, at exposition, especially at extemporaneous effort of the sort. But my friend from America is here, and to him I shall take leave to refer you for the exegesis of that passage. The rector looked at me, and I looked at him; the doctor insisted that I should reply and give the exposition.

1. I must respectfully decline, doctor.

2. But you have no good reason, I am thinking; and we shall all join suit and expect your compliance. Let us hear from America.

1. It was not to me, good sir, that the appeal was put, and I have no regular call to it. I know, indeed, what I think it means; but when the theological chair of Edinburgh is invoked as an oracle, I hold it proper to hold my tongue; I

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also want to hear what you think of it. It is a very important passage; and the response will be, I trust, worthy of our best commemoration.

The rector looked-paused-and at length acquiesced in the reference of Chalmers; especially as he altogether declined, and excused himself, as what he could not properly attempt.

In this predicament I thought it wiser also to acquiesce, especially as I remembered the original, and knew what I thought the meaning to be; and as I could forbear no longer, without seeming obstinate, or foolishly fond of the position of neutrality, I proceeded to the end; when Chalmers remarked: I entirely concur in that view; you have shown, I think, the plain, or the demonstrable sense of the passage. The rector listened, as if he thought it questionable whether or not I "belonged to the succession," even if Chalmers did; which might be doubted, as he endorsed me on the occasion.

We were soon after alone, when the following conversation, or something much like it, ensued.

2. Do you practice that good business of exposition in the pulpit-is it common in America? I have some reasons for the question.

1. You ask, Do all interpret? No, indeed! Whatever be the reason, it is done there-not half enough of it; and not that, half well enough. Still, we are in progress, improving. Our theological seminaries are inducing the hermeneutic science, and the exegetic method, and the proper sacred homiletics; with good promise of advancement in Scriptural theology, and in the increasing light and power of popular instruction. May I ask, How is it here? Exposition is not your forte in Scotland, is it? From some reports

and some specimens I should so infer.

2. No, indeed. Apart from Dr. Campbell and Dr. M'Knight, we have had very few eminent scholars and ex

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pounders in that department. In fact, to do it well is very difficult, especially to a popular audience; and if not done well, it were better left off, like contention, before it is meddled with. For one, I can not master it; it rather masters me; and yet I think well of doing it, if I could do it just as I ought. It is a great gift, which we may well covet.

1. Yes, it is an endowment and an attainment both; and so very valuable and edifying to the elect of God, that, in general, I would say to every preacher-stir up the gift of God that is in thee—rightly dividing the word of truthif any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of GodBY MANIFESTATION OF THE TRUTH commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God-preach the word.

2. I quite agree with you; but I have done too little of it, in my own ministrations, thus far, all the way.

1. You will write, I hope, some commentary yet, and give it to the public. You could do it, I am sure, though hitherto it may be less in your line of things. It would be well received every where.

Nor, in the pulpit, compared with rich and able exposition, is there any public exercise more professional or appropriate. Besides, my dear sir, as you are the Elijah of Scotland, with several of the Elisha class to assist you, as a trainer of the sons of the prophets for the tribes of Israel, may it not properly be said to you that this is the chief thing these cadets are to learn? Is the Bible his letter of instructions from the court of heaven, and yet is not the embassador of Christ, as the august official representative of that court, to be furnished and able to command the mastery of its contents, for all his high negotiations on God's behalf, in the conciliation of immortal mind and the pacification to God of the impious rebels that contemn his throne? Heresies, errors, and mistakes are ever rife in Christendom, to say nothing of the diabolical darkness of heathendom; and they are to be

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met and refuted, in all their ever-varying costumes and forms, or, better, with a heaven-illuminated atmosphere, prevented, by the incomparable and the original batteries of heaven, opened and firing on them. Nothing but THE Word of God, AS SUCH, is the sword of the Spirit, the grand authentic instrument of the world's rectification and return to God; and his favor may we expect, only as we legitimately seek it, only as we faithfully subserve his own influence to his own glory forever. But the word of God itself is to be interpreted, its true sense evolved, vindicated, maintained, and applied. And what rich and learned mastery does this imply! Men may write essays, and cap them with a text; they may take a theological thesis, and be most specious and sanctiloquent in its expansion and its management: still, it is man, rather than God, talking to the hearers; it befits less the Churches than the schools; it is redolent more of logic, rhetoric, and classic formula, after the traditions of men, than of Christ, in the way of the Spirit, and with the sanctions of the living God. This is surely the grand desideratum of the age-MASTERLY INTERPRETATION. No man on earth is inspired, or ever will be again. Inspiration is ever living, plenary, and apt for all sacred uses of duty and salvation, by the very plan of God, in the Holy Scriptures. Now we want a ministry that can master the sense of scripture and communicate it to the people. This is God's high ordinance, ever since the time of building the second Temple, Neh. 8:4-12. Oh! for its revival in all the Churches! God will do this, as surely as he will accomplish Dan. 7: 27, and bring his own reign in the millennium.

This conversation occurred on my first visit-I recur to my second, July, 1846.

After a pleasant colloquial breakfast at Morningside, we proposed returning to the city, either in pedestrian plight, or, at any rate, taking the bus, after some grateful excursion on