Page:Biographical sketch of the life and labours of that eminent minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Rev. James Hall D. D., of the United Secession Church, Broughton-Place meeting-house, Edinburgh.pdf/4

 distinguished abilities, and the highest success. His genius was bright and well regulated, and the versatility of his talents was so strikingly conspicucus, that he appeared equally for attaining eminence in any profession; but the piety of his mind determined him to prosecute the study of Divinity. At this period, a gentleman of great infuence, to whom his merit was well known, and who admired his character and talents, gave him assurance of an excellent living, if he would pursue his theological studies in connexion with the Established Church; but immoveably attached to the principles he had imbibed from his parents, and adopted from mature judgment, he he politely and unhesitatingly declined the offer, applied to the Associate Presbytery of Glasgow for admission into the list of its theological students, immediately obtained its approbation, and entered on a course of theological studies, under the Rev. John Brown, of Haddington, then Professor of Divinity to the Associate Synod. After attending the prelections of that eminent Divine, and honourably undergoing the usual course of preliminary trials, he was licenced to preach the everlasting Gospel early in the year 1776, when he had just completed the twentieth year of his age.

Before he had been many months a probationer, he received a unanimous call to become the minister of a new congregation at Cumnock, in Ayrshire and was ordained there in the following April, being then only 21 years of age. In the spring of 1780, he married Miss Maxwell, of Bogton, with whom he had been intimate from his childhood, and in whom he enjoyed an affectionate and valuable partner till the end of his life. They had several children, who all died before reaching the years of maturity, except one daughter, who still survives, with her widowed mother, to lament the irreparable loss of a beloved and affectionate father. About the same time, he was called to be the pastor of