ly
taking place in Scotland, but is receiving from very few the notice
which it deserves. I refer to the changes that are being made by the
new system of national education. No one can have travelled much for
several years past through this part of the island without his
attention being attracted by the new and imposing school buildings
rising in almost every parish. These are the index of a revolution;
for inside, in their management and in the efficiency of the
education, there has also been an immense change. I venture to say
that nothing which has taken place in Scotland this century--and I am
remembering both the Reform Bill and the Disruption--will be found to
have been of more importance. There will be a far more educated
Scotland to preach to in a short time, which will demand of the
ministry a high intellectual standard. It is a just demand. Our people
should go away from the church feeling that they have received new and
interesting information, that their intellects have been illuminated
by fresh and great ideas, and that to hear their minister regularly is
a liberal education.

Nothing will meet this demand except thorough study of Scripture by
minds equipped with all the technical helps, as well as enriched by
the constant reading of the best literature, both on our own and
kindred subjects. One of our hymns says that the Bible "gives a light
to every age; it gives, but borrows none." Nothing could be more
untrue. The Bible borrows light from every age and from every
department of human knowledge. Whatever especially makes us acquainted
with the mysterious depths of human nature is deserving of our
attention. The Bible and human nature call to each other like deep
unto deep. Every addition to our knowledge of man will be a new key to
open the secrets of the Word; and the deeper you go in your preaching
into the mysteries of the Word, the more subtle and powerful will be
the springs you touch in the minds and hearts of your hearers.

But preparation of this sort for the pulpit is not easy. It requires
time, self-conquest and hard work. Perhaps the greatest ministerial
temptation is idleness in study--not in going about and doing
something, but in finding and rightly using precious hours in one's
library, avoiding reverie and light or desultory reading, and sticking
hard and fast to the Sabbath work. I, for one, must confess that I
have had, and still have, a terrible battle to fight for this. No men
have