Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 8.djvu/84

32 taken in addressing the supreme court of their church, the petition was received by the Svnod, and the obnoxious overture dismissed. One of the senior and leading members observed on this occasion, that he would be sorry to see any measure adopted which would tend to drive from their body the man who could write such a paper.

After having finished the four years' course of divinity prescribed by the Presbyterian Churches of Scotland, it was expected that Mr. Balmer should apply for license as a preacher. This was the more necessary in the communion to which he belonged, as the number of its licentiates scarcely equalled that of the vacant congregations. But, to the surprise of his friends, he held back for two years, although his delay was attributed to unworthy motives. Already one of the most promising students of the connection, it was thought that he demurred from mere pride of intellect, and was unwilling to identify himself with a cause which as yet had produced so few men of high mark: others, who were aware that he had already been advised to pass over to the Established Church, and share in its honours and emoluments, imagined that he had taken the advice to heart, and only waited the fit season for such a step. But these surmises were as unkind as they were untrue. His ambition went no higher than to be the humble, useful minister of some country Burgher congregation, while his humility confirmed him in the belief that he would have for his brethren men of still higher attainments than his own. His delay entirely originated in scruples of conscience. He had thought anxiously and profoundly upon the subject, and could not wholly admit the formula which he would be required to subscribe as a licentiate. "On the question," he afterwards said, "demanding an assent to the Confession and Catechisms, I stated, that to me these documents appeared so extensive and multifarious as to be disproportioned to the narrow limits of the human mind; that I at least had not studied every expression in them so carefully as to be prepared to assent to it with the solemnity of an oath; that I approved of them, however, in so far as I had studied them; and that the Presbytery might ascertain, by strict examination, the amount of my attainments, and treat me accordingly—which of course they did." His scruples were respected, his explanations in assenting to the formula admitted, and on the 4th of August, 1812, he was licensed as a preacher of the gospel by the Associate Presbytery of Edinburgh.

On commencing the great work to which all his studies had been hitherto directed, and all his life was to be henceforth devoted, Mr. Balmer began under rather inauspicious circumstances. All are aware how essential certain external advantages are in the formation of an acceptable and popular preacher, and how completely a Dissenting preacher depends upon this popularity for his call to the ministry, and the successful discharge of his duties. But in the graces of person and manner Mr. Balmer was decidedly wanting. His eyes, from their weakness, had an unpleasant cast, and his figure was ungainly; his voice was monotonous; and his gestures were, to say the least, inelegant. For a person in his position to surmount such obstacles argued a mind of no ordinary power. And he did surmount them. Such was the depth and originality of thought, the power of language, and heart-moving unction which his sermons possessed, that his growing acceptability bade fair in a short time to convert these defects into positive excellencies in the eyes of his captivated auditories. In a few months he received calls from not less than four congregations, so that he would have been in a strait to choose, had not the laws of his church provided for such