e believing acceptance on the other, of the Gospel
salvation; while Christ, through whose blood the sinner, who by nature
stands afar off, is brought near to the heavenly Lawgiver, whom he has
offended, was scarcely ever spoken of, or spoken of in such a way as
stripped Him of all the importance of His character and His offices;
even at this time I certainly did press the reformations of honour and
truth and integrity among my people; but I never once heard of any
such reformations having been effected amongst them. If there was
anything at all brought about in this way, it was more than ever I got
any account of. I am not sensible that all the vehemence with which I
urged the virtues and the proprieties of social life had the weight of
a feather on the moral habits of my parishioners. And it was not till
I got impressed by the utter alienation of the heart in all its
desires and affections from God; it was not till reconciliation to Him
became the distinct and the prominent object of my ministerial
exertions; it was not till I took the Scriptural way of laying the
method of reconciliation before them; it was not till the free offer
of forgiveness through the blood of Christ was urged upon their
acceptance, and the Holy Spirit, given through the channel of Christ's
mediatorship to all who ask Him, was set before them as the unceasing
object of their dependence and their prayers; in one word, it was not
till the contemplations of my people were turned to these great and
essential elements in the business of a soul providing for its
interest with God and the concerns of its eternity, that I ever heard
of any of those subordinate reformations which I aforetime made the
earnest and the zealous, but, I am afraid, at the same time the
ultimate object of my earlier ministrations. Ye servants, whose
scrupulous fidelity has now attracted the notice, and drawn forth in
my hearing a delightful testimony from your masters, what mischief you
would have done, had your zeal for doctrines and sacraments been
accompanied by the sloth and the remissness, and what, in the
prevailing tone of moral relaxation, is counted the allowable
purloining of your earlier days. But a sense of your Heavenly Master's
eye has brought another influence to bear upon you; and, while you
are thus striving to adorn the doctrine of God your Saviour in all
things, you may, poor as you are, reclaim the great ones of the land
to the acknowledgment of the faith. Yo