public. The Swiss Reformation was very much unknown in its details to the people of this country, and I never was more riveted in my life to any book than when engaged in the perusal of it.

But while the latter half of your volume is full of interest on the subject of the Church's spiritual independence, and the danger of mixing up the secular with the spiritual, I should hold that the former half of your volume will be still more prized by theologians. The Confession of Augsburg, and the conference between Luther and Zwingle at Marburg, are truly splendid and memorable passages. Go on and prosper, my dear sir, and be assured that your present volume, with the anticipations which it holds out as to the subject of the one that comes next, will raise very high the interest and the expectancy of the British public.

My very best regards to Madame D'Aubigné, in which, as well as in regards to yourself, one and all of my family most heartily join. I ever am, my dear sir, yours with the utmost regard, THOMAS CHALMERS.

MY DEAR MISS BREWSTER-I can not take leave of this place, which I quit in an hour or two, without conveying to you the expression of my very sincere regret in not having had the good fortune to meet with you on Saturday. The disappointment was all the more cruel that you left only a few minutes after our arrival, when we found that you had got quite beyond our reach.

I can not express in an adequate manner the interest I felt in my conversation with Sir David on Thursday. I know well how alive you are to the moral glories that irradiate a Church or a nation; and I do hope that you are not insensible to the glories even of the material heavens, which now beam upon us in larger and brighter revelation than ever; and in proportion to which I think our conceptions should rise

of that spiritual economy under which we sit, both being under the control and comprehensive government of Him who sits aloft from view, and gives birth, and movement, and countenance to all things.

It is my fondest hope and prayer that both of us shall have an interest and a part in the yet undeveloped blessedness of that high and holy administration.

With kindest regards to Sir David and Lady Brewster, ever believe me, my dear madam, yours affectionately and truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CCCXLV.-TO MISS BREWSTER.

19 YORK PLACE, 28th May, 1845. MY DEAR MISS BREWSTER-I can imagine nothing more monstrous than the stupidity into which I fear I must have fallen, if it was really you who sat near the moderator's chair this evening, and on whom I speculated in my own mind for hours as one whom I ought to have known. It is far the most mortifying instance, though very many such have occurred, of my utter want of the organ of individuality; but I never could have fancied it possible that it ever could have happened in the case of one in whom (forgive me for saying it) I feel so much interest.

It would comfort me effectually if you would have the goodness to let me know where and when it is that I may have the pleasure of waiting upon you. Ever believe me, my very dear madam, yours most affectionately and truly,

THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CCCXLVI.-To MRS. WILLIAMSON.

EDINBURGH, 21st May, 1845. MY DEAR MRS. WILLIAMSON-I must not suffer myself to plunge into other scenes and occupations without making the grateful acknowledgment of all your kindness to me during the happy days I spent under your hospitable roof. Mr. Mackenzie most cordially joins me in this feeling; and we

both agree in this, that we never spent a week where, both within doors and without, there was so much to regale and to gratify, and that without so much as one taint or particle of alloy from the beginning to the end of it. I can not adequately express the enjoyment I felt both in the revival of the images and recollections of other days, and in the unexcepted cordiality and good-will of my fellow citizens.

I have had particular satisfaction in Mr. Ferrie. I think that all his appearances, both in public and private, were in the highest degree creditable; and I no longer wonder at the general good liking felt for him by the families of Anster. We have been reading his account of our Fife excursion, and there is a great deal of good feeling in it, as well as lively description. Will you tell him how much we were all amused at the reference which he made to the palmy days of my boyhood? He has misnamed, however, my old friend Lizzy Geens. I had forgot that she was adverted to by Mr. Ten

nant.

I trust that we may see Dr. Williamson on our side of the water before he leaves Burntisland; and it is my earnest hope and prayer that he may be long spared to you. May the Giver of all grace pour the richest spiritual blessings on you and yours. I was much delighted with the manifest improvement that has taken place in the spirits of the people, and in the relish felt by so many of them for sacred things. May there be a descent of living water from above on all the households of the town and neighborhood. Ever believe me, my dear madam, yours most affectionately,

THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CCCXLVII.-To MISS MARSHALL, GLASGOW.

FAIRLEY, 17th June, 1845.

MY DEAR MISS MARSHALL-It is a precious effect of a few days' domestication in a house that it draws so much closer one's intimacy with all its inmates; and I have a very great value for the revival that has thus taken place of our old ac

quaintanceship with your household, as well as the formation of a new acquaintanceship with the younger members of the family. Every additional opportunity I have of observing Mr. Buchanan and his doings enhances all the more the esteem I have ever felt for his Christian worth and patriotism.

Should you see Miss Watson, will you have the goodness to let her know that I am quite ashamed of having had so imperfect a recollection of her so long as we were together in your house? But Mrs. Chalmers has refreshed my decaying memory; and I can now recognize her as the daughter of that kind, cordial, and most respectable old lady, who, though a Dissenter, looked most benignantly on the good Churchmen who differed from her. But what is still more interesting to me, she is the sister of George Watson, whom I visited on his death-bed, and whose case I have often quoted as one of the most delightful I had ever witnessed, of one who, on the stepping-stone of a simple faith, attained to a clear and confident sense of a reconciled God, and the assured prospect, through Christ, of a blessed immortality.

With best regards to Mr. and Miss Buchanan and your two nephews, ever believe me, my dear madam, yours very affectionately and truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.

MY DEAR SIR-Though I am not able to attend your public meeting on the 30th, you know that I feel no want of interest in its object. The truth is, that I look on the Christianization, I will not say of the poor only, but of the general population, as the highest cause of our day-the enterprise which, with the aid and countenance of Divine grace from above, will be prolific of the greatest blessings to the greatest number of our fellow-men.

I do hope that your labors will have the effect of laying more open to the public observation the fearful destitution which prevails of all adequate means and adequate methods

for the religious instruction, and so for the social, the moral, and the spiritual well-being of countless thousands, I should even say of the great mass of our city families. May the minds of men be made more alive to the urgent necessity of something being done far more effectual than has ever yet been attempted, at least on a large scale, or than has yet been scarcely thought of. And be assured that I shall rejoice in it as of one of the best results attendant on your present effort, should it have the effect of uniting in one common work of Christian charity the wise and the good of all denominations.

I have particularly to thank you for your kind expressions and good wishes in reference to my own more limited doings in the West Port. You know my partialities for the local system, and have been made aware of my belief that, for a thoroughly pervading operation, the whole territory should be broken up into districts, each small enough to be undertaken by a distinct and separate agency of its own-a system of operation this which I think should be encouraged to the uttermost. I am, therefore, glad to find that in the operations of the City Mission this principle has been so far proceeded on, and should rejoice if, by the extension of your resources, you were enabled to carry it forward, even till you have reached the desirable consummation. Meanwhile, if, by the assumption of successive districts on the part of myself and others, your present field shall be so encroached upon as to leave a continually decreasing remainder in your hands, I am sure you will find that the diminution of extent will be amply repaired by the comfort and the efficacy of a more intense concentration. It is thus that the local and the general might be made to work most beautifully into each other's hands; and there is nothing which I more desiderate than a combination of that union and authority which are secured by the latter, with the activity and busy interest, and thorough operation that can only be secured by means of the former.

While I have thankfully to express my acknowledgment