the goodness and the virtue with which the acceptance of these doctrines is inseparably associated.

I can not express the earnestness I feel that you, my dear sir, may enjoy the comforts here, and be admitted to all the triumphs hereafter, of a firmer faith in the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

With kindest regards to Mrs. and Miss Brown, ever believe me, my dear sir, yours most cordially and with great esteem, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CCLXI.-To MRS. BROWN.

BURNTISLAND, 13th November, 1836. MY DEAR MRS. BROWN-I can not adequately express the deep emotion which I felt on receiving the melancholy intelligence of Dr. Brown's death-one of my most respected and earliest friends, and of whom I have often said, that, of all the professors and instructors with whom I ever had to do, he is the one who most powerfully impressed me; and to the ascendency of whose mind over me, along with that of Professor Robison's, of Edinburgh, I owe more in the formation of my tastes and habits, and in the guidance and government of my literary life, than to that of all the other academic men whose classes I ever attended. But, in addition to his public lessons, I had the privilege of being admitted to a long intimacy with your departed husband, and of enjoying the benefits as well as the charms of his most rich and eloquent conversation, besides receiving from him many written communications, which I have kept by themselves, and prize as a great literary treasure. Of these, the most interesting is the last, received from him not many weeks ago, and on the most momentous of all subjects. You may be well assured that, when such a master-mind as his thought it to disclose itself on the high themes of religion, I could not but feel alive to the manifestation of a sensibility on this greatest of all concerns, the knowledge of which I now feel to be inexpressibly precious.

It is my earnest prayer that you and your daughter may be supported on this trying occasion by Him who is the Giver of all comfort, and who alone can sanctify and bless His own visitation. May we all be led to the wise and right consideration of our latter end; and laying hold of the offered atonement of the Gospel, may we henceforth sit at the feet of Him, who alone hath the gift, and who alone hath the words of life everlasting.

I exceedingly regret that I was altogether disabled by circumstances from attending the funeral. Either to-morrow or Tuesday I hope to call upon you at Beaumont Place.

With my best regards to Miss Brown, I entreat you to believe me, my dear madam, yours with deepest sympathy and respect, THOMAS CHALMERS.

[RECTORY, HORNSEY, 16th August, 1852.-MY DEAR SIR-A discussion took place at the close of 1837, at the monthly meetings of the Society for the Promoting Christian Knowledge, in the course of which the proper designation of the Episcopal Church in Scotland came to be considered. Some members, who sympathized with the very High Church party, desired to describe the Scottish bishops as bishops of the Church in Scotland, or of Scotland, thereby ignoring the Established Church. Eventually it was determined, by the recommendation of the Bishop of London, to make use of the designation which the bishops claimed to themselves" Bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church," by which no offense could be given to any one. Thinking that some incorrect rumor might reach Dr. Chalmers of the discussion, I wrote to acquaint him with the true state of the case. The accompanying letter is his answer. With kind compliments, I am, yours truly obliged,

The Rev. Dr. Hanna.]

RICHARD HARVEY.

No. CCLXII.-LETTER TO REV. MR. HARVEY.

EDINBURGH, 6th February, 1838.

MY DEAR SIR-I owe you many apologies for my delay in replying to your letter; but I am really borne down by arrears of correspondence, and business of various sorts.

I regret that any thing should have occurred which might

mar the cordiality that ought to subsist between the two Establishments: There are several here who will feel the disownal of us far more deeply than I can at all sympathize with. I feel confident that the exclusive principle which was manifested at your meeting must wear out of credit with the ministers of the Church of England; and that a notion so utterly senseless and fantastic will at length be entertained by so very few, as that we shall at length afford to look on them with the most benignant complacency.

The epithet "Episcopalian" would have saved the credit of the meeting, and, I should imagine, have satisfied all par"The Episcopal Church either of or in Scotland.”

ties.

When you write Mr. Le Bas, offer him my kindest regards. I rejoice to hear of his preferment; and I hope that I shall meet him in my visit to London, which, if God will, I propose shall be toward the end of April. I have not forgotten my last delightful visit to Hornsey; and I look forward with the greatest pleasure to the renewal of it. With most respectful acknowledgments to Mrs. Harvey, I ever am, my dear sir, THOMAS CHALMERS. yours most gratefully,

No. CCLXIII.-To MR. JOHN SHEPPARD..

EDINBURGH, 25th April, 1833. MY DEAR SIR-I should have acknowledged long ago the kind gift of your acceptable volume, which I have been perusing with very great interest and pleasure; and which, highly as I esteemed your "Thoughts on Devotion," I regard as a far richer production, abounding as it does in the views of a deeper experience, and having in it much greater fullness, as a repository of pearls and precious things. I have taken the liberty of referring to it in my " Bridgewater Essay," now in the press; and I know that a review of it has appeared in our Scottish Presbyterian," favorable, though not equal to my own impression of its merits.

66

My habit in reading a book is to mark with approbation, * "Essays on Christian Encouragement," &c.

I find that I have given

or the contrary, as I move along. my most intense approval to the following passages: page 18; bottom of page 20; top of page 157. These I single out as being double marks. The single marks are innumerable, and yet represent but feebly the delight I have felt in the perusal of your volume.

I have not, though quite honest in the marks I affix to all my readings, jotted down a single passage as questionable or that I differ from. Ever believe me, my dear sir, yours most respectfully and with greatest regard, THOS. CHALMERS.

No. CCLXIV.-To MR. JOHN SHEPPARD.

EDINBURGH, 16th November, 1833. MY VERY DEAR SIR-Your very kind letter of the 30th of July I should have acknowledged long ago; but I have been a great wanderer this season, and for a good many months have been marvelously little at home.

I need not say how much I have been gratified by your remarks of approbation and kindness on my last work—an abundant compensation, I assure you, for the hostility which I have been doomed to experience so abundantly at the hands of the English reviewers, who, with the exception, as far as I have yet seen them, of the "British Critic," seem bent on running me down. One ought not to be sensitive about a matter of this sort, and it would argue a particularly morbid constitution not to be abundantly comforted under all their severities by the approval of the wise and the good.

I have received your Sermon on the death of Mr. Hughes, whom I had the pleasure of knowing. I am much delighted with it; and as I have only room for one remark, I was greatly struck with your felicitous illustration in page 25, on the hostility by which the British and Foreign Bible Society was assailed, and where you have so justly and forcibly characterized, in particular, the attacks that were brought to bear against it from this pugnacious quarter of the island.

I can not express the tenderness I feel in being made to

understand from your letter that you have been laboring under depression; I wish I could prevail upon you, my dear sir, to look more objectively, and less subjectively, than you appear to do—more to the outer truths, if I may so express it, of Christianity, and less to the inner lineaments which these may have impressed on the tablet of your own character. I should not feel myself justified in offering this advice, . did I not feel assured that, after all, it is by the direct exercise of faith that all these virtues of the new obedience are engendered within us which furnish the materials of a reflex self-examination. I have derived great comfort from a little tract, entitled "Brief Thoughts on the Gospel, and the Hinderances to Believe it."

With the greatest esteem and regard, I ever am, my dear sir, yours most truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CCLXV.-LETTER TO DR. SYMINGTON.

EDINBURGH, 9th October, 1838. MY DEAR SIR-I should have replied sooner to your kind letter of some weeks past, but I was unwilling to sit down till I had begun the perusal of your work on the Atonement.

I am now reading it with great interest, and, I trust, with a practical and good impression. It is, indeed, that doctrine of great price, the very name of which is as ointment poured forth.

I hope I shall be able to write you at greater length on the subject after I have completed the perusal of your substantial and masterly volume. Indeed, I believe I shall have to write you at any rate early in November. Meanwhile, I am marking all the passages as I go along, and will furnish you with a list of them either in writing or when we meet.

My preference in the treatment of a subject is for an exhibition of the direct proofs first; after which, I do not object that other arguments, after being brought forward as preliminary considerations, should be exhibited in the form of collateral or subsidiary arguments. For example, I agree with