GENTLEMEN,-It is not long since I myself was a student, and were I indulging my own likings I should be a student still. It does not look so very distant, that first of May, when I last wore the scarlet robe of a Glasgow gownsman, and it came over me pathetic that I was to be young no longer. And though intervening years have brought many a striking scene and some important pursuits, they have not dulled the memory of those delightful days. Give me a silent hour, and anywhere I

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create again that academic atmosphere so fresh and hopeful, that academic light so mnemonic of an old world, so prelusive of a new one. I can see again Mylne's antient visage, full of cynic wrinkles and Socratic sense, and hear once more Sir Daniel's varied melody in which the Homeric battle clanged, and Pindar's eagle flapped his wings of thunder. I can conjure up that crowded class-room in which the wonders of chemical discovery flashed before admiring eyes in gruff profusion, and Thomson dealt forth the laws of heat and the weights of atoms; and that other lecture-room beside the Botanic Garden where Hooker's fancy and summer's prime glorified yet more the loveliest of all the sciences, and made it like a descriptive poem read in a flowery paradise. And still dearer and more hallowed rise the scenes where philosophy and faith walked hand in hand; the thrilling hours when, with all the interest of a drama No. 12.-New Series.

and the foreshadowings of a prophecy, the volume of Church History unrolled to Welsh's calm and skilful handling; and the stately time when, by a sort of electric induction, many a student was filled with majestic thoughts and philanthropic purposes from contact with the mighty Chalmers, and from witnessing the raptures of holy intellect, learned to regard the soul's immortality as something visible, and God's presence as something palpable. And so fresh are those years of discovery and hope that I can fully sympathise with you who still

"Nourish a youth sublime, With the fairy fruits of science, and the long result of time."

And as I recollect that I could then have been glad that ministers had sometimes remembered poor students, and given us a corner in an occasional sermon, as my own mind was full of doubts and difficulties and temptations, but never in College Chapel, Dissenting Meeting, or Established Church, did I hear a sentence expressly directed to us-now that I am a a minister myself I feel moved to give this evening to students, and I am sure you will receive in kindness the experimental hints of an older brother.

The grand maxim for honourable and happy living, and the best motto for a student is, "Whether therefore ye eat or drink," whether ye read or write, whether ye work or rest, and whatsoever your profession and destination be, "whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." That cause

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which God himself is carrying on in the world, the elevation of fallen beings in intelligence and morality and loyalty to their Creator, let that be the end for which you live; and whether called to enact new laws in the Senate of the realm, or to plead the cause of the oppressed and the injured before the tribunals of its justice, whether summoned to the bedside of suffering humanity or the home which sickness and sorrow have invaded, or if put in trust with the Gospel and sent to proclaim it from the pulpit or the press, or to preach it from door to door and from one heathen village to another; be law, medicine, or theology, your pursuit, led God's glory still be your aim. Take God's Word for your directory, and God's approval for your recompense; and seek such results as you believe are dear to God himself, and will survive when time is ended. In order to this result three things seem essential, a Christian faith, personal devotedness, and the consecration of study.

1. There is no way to get a clear knowledge of God, nor a permanent loving confidence in Him, except through the Christian revelation. That revelation sooner or later commends itself to most anxious spirits as the power and wisdom of God; and then through its direct and sunny avenue they are guided into the peace of God. But we rather think that with most intellectual minds the process is far from rapid. Accustomed to doubt and speculate and cavil, the saving truth itself finds slow and suspicious entrance into their belief; and though I am not aware that any case has ever occurred where a person after calm investigation rejected the Bible as lacking in evidence, the cases are numberless where anxious months or laborious years were requisite in order to secure a firm and joyful faith. Were all as guileless as Nathanael, were all as simple and unsophisticated, it would be a process equally short; it would just be "come and see.' But as most are, like Thomas, nimble in evasion and ingenious in self-perplexing, after years of study and a long series of proofs it still needs some crowning sign, some flashing token, some conclusive elenchus, to startle the exclamation, "My Lord, and my God." Were all minds in a state of limpid candour, in such receptivity as innocence or great capacity produces, it would only need a Bible opened, and presently there would be a transcript on a convinced and adoring

spirit. It would be in higher measure what the German describes as the process with himself; "Christ required from me no miracles as witnesses of his truth; he himself, his life, his thoughts, his actions towered above the mist of centuries, the one perpetual miracle of history, the holy ideal of a perfect humanity."

But few minds are so comprehensive or so candid that the Gospel enters at once and in virtue of its own authority. With most it is an arduous progress where conscience drives them on, or God's Spirit draws them, and the sharp flints of old objections, or the thorns of disputation wound them as they go. Like Halyburton, one fights his way into the Gospel stronghold through troops of atheistic phantoms, and thoughts as horrid as the abyss from which they rise. Like Mason Goode, and Thomas Scott, another has to break from the frosty prison of Socinian or Sadducean scepticism, before he reaches the bland and cheerful territory which a Divine atonement illumines. And like Kirke White and Edward Payson, many must grope and stumble through legal fogs and chasing ascetic ignes fatui, before they hail in the star of Bethlehem a light which cannot mislead and cannot be mistaken. It is of the utmost moment, brethren, that you should recognise in the religion of Jesus a rock of ages, and should secure your own standing on it. If you set about the inquiry in earnest and with prayer, and possess a mind of ordinary soundness, there can be little doubt of the eventual issue. One of the finest scholars which Edinburgh has yielded for many years, was John Brown Paterson, whose essay on the Athenian Character some of you may know. With an opulent fancy and learning of rare exactitude, he possessed a calm and deliberate judgment. He could take nothing for granted which needed to be proved; and though he knew that the Gospel has its throne in the heart, he also knew that it is through the door and vestibule of an enlightened reason that the Gospel advances to this, its interior shrine. He sat down with solemnity and assiduity to explore the Bible evidence, and he gives in successive particulars the conclusion to which he came.

"I believe that predictions uttered and miracles wrought in behalf of a holy

*Heinrich Zchokke.

doctrine are God's attestations to that doctrine.

"I believe, on the authority of the Jewish nation, that the prophecies of the Old Testament were uttered long before the appearance of Jesus Christ.

"I believe that the facts recorded in the New Testament are true, inasmuch as the apostles proved themselves honest men, and could not be mistaken regarding them.

"I believe, therefore, that prophecies were fulfilled in Christ, and miracles wrought by him, which prove his doctrine true and Divine.

"I believe, on his authority, supported by the faith and testimony of the Jewish people, that the books of the Old Testament were inspired.

"I believe on the faith of Christ's frequent promises (Matt. x. 19, 20; Luke xii. 11, 12; Mark xiii. 11; Luke xxi. 14, 15; John xiv. xv. xvi.) and of the frequent assertions of the apostles themselves (Gal. i. 11, 12; 1 Cor. ii. 10, 13; xi. 23; xiv. 37; 1 Pet. i. 12; 2 Pet. iii. 16), that they were inspired by God to unfold the Christian doctrine more fully to the world.

I therefore believe that I am bound to receive as duly attested truth whatever is asserted by Christ or his apostles.

"I believe that the books which bear the names of the apostles were written by them; from the impossibility of forgery; from the testimony of the Chritian Church downwards from the first century; and from various internal evidences of authenticity which they contain.

"I believe, therefore, on the whole, that the books commonly called the Old and New Testaments are the Word of God."*

And though some may think that this is dry work and a cold conclusion, those who know the blessing of a mind made up will not grudge the tedium or toil of the research, and those who do as Mr. Paterson did, will not halt at the cold conclusion. To his severe and scrupulous mind it was a great matter to know for certain that the Old and New Testaments are the Word of God; and now that the gates were lifted up the next thing was that the King of Glory entered. Out of a Bible believed and a Gospel accepted, there passed into his soul a living Saviour; and what he constantly repeated on his

* Memoir of Rev. J. B. Paterson, pp. 152, 153.

dying bed, "Read to me about Jesus; speak to me about Jesus; was the main business of his brief and burning career. To extol this Saviour, to show his love and majesty and the perfection of his finished work, engaged his every faculty; gave his eloquence a brighter glow, and taxed his wealth of gorgeous imagery. And the upshot was that instead of going down to posterity with the Bruncks and the Bentleys, and other critics of lettered but frigid fame, his name has gone up among the worthies who have turned many to righteousness, and who shall shine like the stars for ever and ever.

2. Should your mind already be made up that the Bible is the Word of God, lose not a moment in devoting yourself to God's immediate service. So long as you live to yourself you live in sin; and you only commence the truly happy and noble life when you begin to live to God. And for his dear Son's sake, a holy and merciful God is unspeakably willing not only to receive you into his service, but to make you something more than a servant, even his own Son. And happily for you, whatever be your tastes or talents, there are endless fields in which you may exercise them, and still be serving God. The great thing is personal devotedness. It was this which hurried Martyn and Thomason away to the missionary work, and which made Spencer and M'Cheyne such burning and shining lights at home. It was this which shed such a halo round jurists like President Forbes and Sir Matthew Hale, and which interwove its fragrant myrtle with the laurel crown of Haller and Hope and Boerhaave. It was this,— the feeling that their pen was not their own, but that they were bound to glorify God in their authorship, which actuated at once Foster's iron energy, and Cowper's enchanting elegance, and has imparted to their books more than human perpetuity and power. And though they never passed forth to active life, it was their undisguised devotedness, that relation to a beloved Redeemer, which they neither vaunted nor concealed, which gave a lustre to the College life of students like John Urquhart and James Halley, and gave to genius the momentum and majesty of pervasive piety. And, my dear friends, is there anything else for which you are content to live? College honours? Hear a senior wrangler,—“ I obtained my highest wishes, but was sur

lical Churches it is more and more tending to that state of matters, when the manse and the parsonage will vanish from the vista, and, if not like the Vaudois and other worthies, constrained to take joyfully the spoiling of goods, the ministers and missionaries of the cross must be content to be poor whilst making many rich. And we care not how soon these pastoral elysiums and sacerdotal snuggeries are broken up, if their ruin relieve the ministry of those who have sought it for a piece of bread, and furnish for the great Armageddon now mustering a Gideon's host, from which the fearful and fainthearted have passed away. And in the meanwhile there is nothing which the cause of the Gospel more wants than a band of high-hearted volunteers, men of vigorous intellect and glowing piety, and who can cast themselves on the emergencies now rising, content to take their rest when they get it with their Lord in heaven. Should any of you, my dear friends, belong to this number,-should you be prepared in fulness of purpose to take your oath at the altar, and by solemn vows devote yourselves to the glory of God and the service of Jesus Christ in the salvation of souls,-it is time that you were commencing now. It is time that you were devoting the two, three, or four years which yet intervene to strenuous equipment for the work of all others the most awful and august. And fear not to overtask your strength. Most true it is that in the tottering adjustment between our sinful minds and disordered bodies, every effort involves a danger; but far more students perish from midnight revels than from midnight toils. And without heroic efforts and daily self-denial how can you ever hope to master all the languages, to acquaint yourselves with all the sciences, and familiarize yourselves with all the ponderous treatises requisite for entering on an intelligent and accomplished ministry?

(3.) But whilst a Christian student should bend all his energies to the securing of professional eminence whilst it should be the prime effort of the jurist, physician, or divine to master his peculiar calling, though it were for nothing else, for the Gospel's sake,—we would add that for the same reason the Christian student should seek a liberal and enlightened mind. A man who knows his own profession will always be respected; but a man who knows nothing except his own profession will be a very weariful com

panion. Whoever has read the history of Lord Eldon must have felt how dry and bald is this walking Statute-book, or whoever has gone over the "Life of Sir Astley Cooper," must have sighed for something else than surgery. And besides that the theologian's field is everywhere, I would just suggest to any aspirant to the ministry, that few have done signal service in the study or the sanctuary, who besides being great in the Bible were not great in something else. Barrow and Horsley were great mathematicians, and Jeremy Taylor was great in the classics. Fenelon was fond of belles lettres, and Pascal of physics. Robert Hall was a proficient in mental philosophy, and Dr. Chalmers was no less an enthusiast for the natural sciences. To have reft them of these propensities would not have rendered them more devout, and would only have robbed them of the silver baskets in which they displayed their apples of gold.

Bear with me if I once more advert to the all-important subject of conduct and character. And here allow me to ask, how do you dispose of your Sabbaths? Except the hospital student every man at College has his Sabbath to himself. And do you give it all to God? Perhaps nothing outward draws a sharper line betwixt the conscientious and the careless than their treatment of this sacred day. The God-fearing student puts aside his College books as entirely as the God-fearing workman puts aside his tools. But the temporizer or the free-thinker who squandered his Saturday is obliged to filch the Sabbath. He expects to be examined to-morrow, so he works out that equation or construes those hexameters. Or he thinks it pity to lose so much solid time, and accordingly he articulates these bones or looks over the last number of the "Lancet." But however busy the pious student may be, he is busy to-day about very different things from those which employed him yesterday. Whatever leisure he redeems from public worship or the philanthropic engagements of the Sabbath-school teacher or the Christian visitor, he gives with zest to his Greek Testament or his Bible common-place book, or the perusal of edifying works in Christian authorship. And when he forth tomorrow to the examination and the lecture, it is with the renovated energy and the inward elasticity of one who has rested the seventh day according to the commandment. And besides all the pre

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