Page:Robert Carter- his life and work. 1807-1889 (IA robertcarterhis00coch).pdf/205

Rh feel bound to consider it favorably. There are some things which would incline me towards it. I should feel it an honor to be in an office filled by such Presidents, from Edwards to Maclean. I should willingly let my bones be buried in the spot where these Presidents sleep. I was greatly impressed with the abilities and character of the Professors in the College and Seminary, and feel that I could pleasantly spend my days among them.

“My past experience as a minister, first in the Church of Scotland, and then in the Free Church, and latterly as a Professor in the last established University in these kingdoms, and my rather wide studies, may, with the blessing of God, be turned into some use. I feel especially that I might have more freedom there to promote the cause of Christ than in a State college in this divided country,—that is, Ireland.

“There are considerations on the other side which I can- not look at at present, such as love to the old country and attachment to friends. I am glad you do not ask me to commit myself.

“If no call comes, I am not disappointed, as I have made no application, and cherished no hopes. If the call comes, I am bound to consider it fairly and prayerfully. I was not just offered the chair in London. But influential parties wrote me, pressing me to allow myself to be nominated. To each of them I wrote an immediate declination, my ground being the same as induced me to decline the call of the Assembly to a Free Church chair in Glasgow,—that, having devoted so many years to philosophy in its various bearings, I was not fit to teach theology. But I offered, if they did not ask me to separate myself from my chair here and from philosophy, to deliver a course of lectures to them every spring on the subjects lying between theology and science. The Synod does not meet till April. My proposal was private, and may not amount to anything.

“Thank God, I am well and have plenty of work. I began