For a man who has been rigidly good to be supremely
tolerant, would require an amount of insight which
seems to belong only to the greatest genius.
For we hardly sympathize with that which we have not
in some measure experienced; and the great thing,
after all, which makes us tolerant of the errors of
other men, is the feeling that under like circumstances
we should have ourselves erred in like manner; or,
at all events, the being able to see the error in such
a light as to feel that there is that within ourselves
which enables us at least to understand how men should
in such a way have erred. The sins on which we
are most severe are those concerning which our feeling
is, that we cannot conceive how any man could possibly
have done them. And probably such would be the
feeling of a rigidly good man concerning every sin.
So we part, for the present, from our Friends, not
without the hope of again meeting them. We have
been listening to the conversation of living men;
and, in parting, we feel the regret that we should
feel in quitting a kind friend’s house after
a pleasant visit, not, perhaps, to be renewed for
many a day. And this is a changing world.
We have been breathing the old atmosphere, and listening
to the old voices talking in the old way. We have
had new thought and new truth, but presented in the
fashion we have known and enjoyed for years.
Happily we can repeat our visit as often as we please,
without the fear of worrying or wearying; for we may
open the book at will. And we shall hope for
new visits likewise. Milverton will be as earnest
and more hopeful, Ellesmere will retain all that is
good, and that which is provoking will now be softened
down. No doubt by this time they are married.
Where have they gone? The continent is unsettled,
and they have often already been there. Perhaps
they have gone to Scotland? No doubt they have.
And perhaps before the leaves are sere we may find
them out among the sea lochs of the beautiful Frith
of Clyde, or under the shadow of Ben Nevis.
Concerning the pulpit in Scotland.
Nearly forty years since, Dr. Chalmers, one of the
parish ministers of Glasgow, preached several times
in London. He was then in the zenith of his popularity
as a pulpit orator. Canning and Wilberforce went
together to hear him upon one occasion; and after sitting
spell-bound under his eloquence, Canning said to Wilberforce
when the sermon was done, ’The tarlan beats
us; we have no preaching like that in England.’
In October 1855, the Rev. John Caird, incumbent of
the parish of Errol, in Perthshire, preached before
the Queen and Court at the church of Crathie.
Her Majesty was so impressed by the discourse that
she commanded its publication; and the Prince Consort,
no mean authority, expressed his admiration of the
ability of the preacher, saying that ’he had
not heard a preacher like him for ssven years, and
did not expect to enjoy a like pleasure for as long
a period to come.’ So, at all events, says
a paragraph in The Times of December 12th, 1855.
